Quilt Student and Time for My Quilting

   Saturday afternoon I had one beginner quilt student for a class at JoAnn Fabrics.  Sharon did an excellent job on her first block.

She planned to go home and make another block.  I look forward to seeing more of her blocks.

This weekend I found time to quilt more on the Seminole quilt.  I first echoed the applique and then meandered around that.  Next I planned a feather for the border triangles.  I practiced on plastic first to feel the flow for what I wanted to stitch.  

Next I used a flexible ruler to mark a curve for spine. 

Then I free-motion quilted the feathers. 

I am more pleased with the feathers than the quilting around the applique.

I used soap to subdivide the border into equal parts and quilted a swirl in each section.

The quilting is now finished. 

I looked for binding but did not find anything in my stash that I liked so I will have to buy something.

Student's Quilting

     I enjoy free-motion quilting ( aka FMQ ) and teach an occasional class in FMQ.  I will be teaching a one day class at Creative Sewing in March.   I want to share the work of 2 former students.  After they took my class, they went home and practiced and practiced so they could improve. 

     Martha took my class a year ago and now she is really good.  She recently quilted this pink quilt and tried many different quilting motifs in the squares.  

 I hope you can see some of the motifs she quilted.

 

     Peggy took my class in the fall.  She has been practicing at home on small sandwiches and this is the first quilt she has done.  

She tried out a variety of motifs in various blocks and borders. 

 

This is a great way to learn and improve quilting skills. 

Some Quilting and A Little Play

     You may remember seeing the Seminole top coming together.  It was a group effort by SQG.  Saturday I started quilting by stitching-in-the-ditch across each row diagonally.  I also stitched-in-the-ditch between the strips and Seminole bands of those blocks.  Just as I finished using my walking foot something on my Bernina broke.  I’m glad all the quilting with the walking foot is done.

      On Sunday afternoon instead of starting on free-motion quilting on the Seminole quilt, I pulled out my box of 2 ½” squares to play.  I ran out of purple and orange and got tired of that so I changed.  The last round is from 3 ½” strips.  So far it measures 32” by 40”.  I want it larger but stopped for today.  I’m not sure what I will add next.

    

     I hope to get more quilting done during the upcoming week. 

My Young Sewer

       I had a great visit with family recently and had time to give my soon-to-be 7 year old granddaughter another sewing lesson.  This time it was on her new sewing machine brought by Santa.  She made herself a pillowcase and is very proud.

Her little sister wants to know when Mattie will make her one.
   
      Before my trip I also finished up a couple more winter mug rugs.  These snowmen are sew cute.
I used them to practice a meandering swirl for the background.

Making Mug Rugs – aka Snack Mats

    Maybe it’s the current cold weather and my need for a hot mug, but the past couple of days I have been in the mood to make mug rugs.  I like to send one to someone who needs cheering up.  If you are not familiar with them, they are small quilted mats - larger than a coaster but smaller than a placemat.

   I pulled out one of my quilting practice sandwiches on which I tried out snowflake embroidery designs along with a variety of FM quilting designs. It was large enough to cut into 4 mug rugs of 8” by 10”.

Here are 2 of those finished mug rugs.

  Today I pulled out a pattern named “Textured Tweety’s Snowflake”.  I found it online free last year and you can still get it from the magazine website.  It  appeared in the “Quilters’ Newsletter Magazine” Dec/Jan 2004. 

Stay warm and safe. 

Productive Four Quilt Top Day

     I added a wide large print fabric border to my Grand Illusion top so it now finishes at 58” square. 

It is very bright and will make a bright spring lap quilt.  I pieced a backing of leftover fabric and am ready to sandwich it for quilting.   However, before tackling that I chose to try a simple quick project.

     While piecing, I have been watching old videos of “Simply Quilts”.  One was of Anita Grossman Solomon showing a supersized nine-patch baby quilt.  I searched and found her blog with a link to the same video online  and a free downloadable pdf with directions.

  This evening I cut one yard each of 3 fabrics and about 1 hour and 45 minutes later, I had 3 complete baby quilt tops.

For the process you quarter fold each yard.  The next photo shows one folded and cut into sections.

Next I shuffled the fabric sections and sewed together like a nine-patch.  

One thing I do not like is the direction of the prints, but the width of the fabric and how the fabric was printed determined the direction of the center motif in the quilt top.  If I had cut pieces larger than a yard, I would have been able to control the direction of the center motif but there would be a little waste. This way about the only waste were the selvedges.

I decided this one needed something extra so I copied the seal in the large print, enlarged it more and cut out a fusible applique motif.  It is cuter.

Grand Illusion Progress

      This morning I am adding borders for my Grand Illusion top. When I started Bonnie’s Grand Illusion mystery I decided to make only a fraction of the pieces for each step because I did not want it to become another of my UFOs. I am pleased to say and show that I have 4 blocks complete and sashed.

They are the complete center for my Grand Illusion quilt. I plan to add Bonnie’s borders and also a simple additional border to finish mine at about 50” square. I have enjoyed participating in the mystery and link-ups. This small size will help me to finish it in a reasonable time. My word for 2015 is “FINISH”.
   
Update:  I have been sewing most of the day and have the inner borders on.  Since my top only 2 blocks wide and long, I had to make adjustments by adding another inner border so that Bonnie's border would fit.

I found this butterfly fabric at JoAnn Fabrics and the colors are perfect.  I am planning to use it for another outer border which will make my top finish larger.