Lone Star Finish

   With a lot of football on TV, I watched multiple episodes on Netflix while I hand sewed binding and tonight my lone star if finished.  That makes 2 UFOs checked off my list.

Free Formed Feathers Plus

      Recently I have been practicing free-motion feathers marking only the spine. Leah Day has a feather filler that looks really interesting, but I have not tried to fill a large area with multiple feathers, only triangles in my Pina Colada quilt.   

A couple of days ago I luckily found Angela Walters’ photo tutorial for sketching feathers

I loved the look of her feathers which appear similar to Leah’s, only larger.  I wanted to try some on my lonestar quilt.  First I practiced on paper and plexiglass placed over the area of my quilt where I wanted the quilting.

This morning when I checked my email, I read about viewing free videos by Sharon Schamber at “The Quilt Show”.  They are free this holiday weekend.   Her work is much more detailed but I decided to try some on this same quilt. 

Episode 1 - Longarm and Domestic Eastern Henna Stipples (Heart and Butterfly)  http://www.thequiltshow.com/os/sharon_schamber2.php/episode/1

Episode 2 - Longarm and Domestic Eastern Henna Feather (Layering Your Design)

http://www.thequiltshow.com/os/sharon_schamber2.php/episode/2

I am mostly pleased with the quilting and will quilt more of the free-motion feathers on other quilts when appropriate. 

Hope you check out these resources and add these designs to your quilting repertoire.

Maybe tomorrow I will quilt the border and have this quilt ready to bind. 

Started Quilting Lonestar

     I have been tasked with bringing the pecan pies for Thanksgiving dinner and they are ready so I spent the afternoon working on my lonestar quilt.  The star is all quilted but the most challenging part is left.  What to do in the large areas around the star?  I have practiced large plumes of feathers but I may not quilt them until after Thanksgiving.

  

    My church group has chosen a little girl from the angel tree.  We have a doll and bed which will be covered with one of the doll quilts.  Sunday evening I made a pair of pajamas and a dress for the doll.

         

We still have several doll quilts which we hope to put with teddy bears for more gifts.

This is a special time of year.  We have SO MUCH to be thankful for.
Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

FMQuilting

     All the quilting is DONE on my 16 Patch & Trapunto quilt; still no binding. This is most heavily I have ever quilted before and I’m still undecided about whether I like this heavy quilting.  With many long-arm quilters and particularly for show quilts that is what is done and expected.  The quilt definitely has a different feel. 

  I tried out several new FMQ designs and got a lot of practice.  That means my stitching does not have perfect control but it was great practice.

Quilting Students

    Last night was the second class for “In the Pines” placemats at JoAnn Fabrics.  This was a family affair for learning across generations.  Here they are sewing. 

 

Here is the first finished scrappy pines placemat ready for holiday use.

The selection of Christmas fabrics was a great choice for this pattern.

Holiday Potholder with Pocket

     I have a stack of wedges cut in Christmas fabric so I sewed some into fan shapes.  I found an interesting tutorial online at http://www.ohfransson.com/oh_fransson/2010/06/quilted-potholder-tutorial.html  for a Quilted Potholder with Pocket  so I decided to use some wedges to try one.  Thanks to Elizabeth Hartman the tutorial.  Here is the front of mine  . . . 

and the back.  Instead of cutting a curve, I just cut straight across the corner for a hand to slip in. I like the feel of this and look forward to using it in the kitchen. 

 

Pineapple Placemats

     Yesterday morning was taken up with business and this morning was guild day so no progress has been made on the quilting of my UFO.  I am trying to get in the holiday spirit so even with my long list of UFOs, I decided to make a set of 4 placemats that will probably be a gift for someone.  I used the directions in Pineapple Passion by Nancy Smith and Lynda Milligan. I have made a set using these directions before.  It is a stitch and flip quilt-as-you-go.

Quilting 101 and Some FMQ

     This morning I taught a beginner quilting class at JoAnn Fabrics.  The 4 students with varied experience did a wonderful job on their block.  Although not perfect (and what first block is) they look great.  Check out the photos.

  

   

They sounded excited and I hope they will keep learning more about quilting.    

     Last night I finished the free-motion quilting in the border triangles of the 16 Patch Trapunto quilt.  This is a new design for me and I like it.  It was fairly easy.  Spacing was the key.

I am still thinking about what design I want to use in the outer border.  I had hopes of having this quilt finished to show next Tuesday at guild but it probably will not be finished.   Almost.

Back to Work on Quilt Projects

    Wednesday at SQG I added a border to the Green/Yellow/Purple Orphan blocks so the quilt top is finished.  Later in the afternoon I stopped by JoAnn Fabrics and bought a bright green tone on tone print on clearance to use for the backing. I plan to quilt this next.

      Today I got back to work quilting on the 16 Patch + Trapunto quilt. The next parts to be quilted are the triangles along the border.  I practiced a couple of designs on plastic.  I have quilted the bottom free-motion curved feather so I would like to try something different; however, the top plumes need more practice or refining.

Trying New FMQ Design

       I am quilting on the scrappy 16 patch blocks today.  First I used the walking foot to quilt a grid on-point.

Then I changed to Free-motion and quilted the Cathedral Window design.   It is fairly simple and I like it.  The toughest part was planning where to start and move so that I could finish without backtracking or  breaking thread.  Only a few blocks to quilt like this.

More Quilting

     All the micro-stippling in the 12 trapunto blocks is finished.  It was great practice doing it over and over again and did get easier.  I can’t say I am good at it though.  I am still using this quilt to practice my FMQuilting. In the 16 patch blocks I have quilted a grid on-point.  Next I plan to try quilting the cathedral window pattern and I will get to practice 12 times. 

     GC Quilters is having another UFO challenge for the year beginning in November.  I have turned in my list of 16 but could have listed more.  Six are finished tops that have been waiting for several years to be quilted.  I hope I will do better than I did with my list for this year.  I frequently started and finished a new project before I finished one on my list. Quilting seems to take more dedicated time.  

Micro Stippling Work

       The rain finally got here so the afternoon was great for sewing.  I have begun quilting again on the 16 patch trapunto quilt.  To echo the trapunto designs I am using Superior threads Bottom Line (which is ultra fine – recommended by Cindy Needham quilting for creating shadow) .   Since there was not much space outside of the echoes, I started micro stippling the outer part of the trapunto blocks.  I wish I had not but now I have to finish all the same ( 7 done - 5 to go)  It takes a tremendous amount of time and my hands hurt after quilting one block.

     Since I needed to take breaks and stretch, I pulled out orphan blocks and scraps and pieced a charity/comfort quilt top.   I'm glad the orphans have been used and I enjoyed creating with scraps. 
      I find Mary Lou Weidman's quilts inspiring and recently bought the ebook of Out of the Box.   I tried  her technique for "hoochy mama blocks" and had a problem.  All the outer edges are bias.  I ended up using a light weight fusible interfacing on the outer edge of the block (bottom right corner of the quilt).