One Big Accomplishment

     I enjoyed several days with family and granddaughters but came home with a mild stomach bug.  I don’t feel 100% yet so I’ve not tackled much.  I did manage to finish the binding on my Celtic Solstice quilt from Bonnie Hunter’s Mystery last fall,

… just in time for her new one to start Friday, Nov. 28^th.  I added a row to her small size to make this queen size quilt and made a different border. 

   This Saturday, Nov. 15^th from 2 to 3.  I’ll be teaching a JoAnn Fabrics Try Me class on machine applique.  This Christmas stocking is the sample. 

Today I made a quick mug rug sample for a JoAnn Fabrics Try Me class which is offered in January and February.   

     Wednesday is the SQG meeting.  Thursday I will be teaching a Free-Motion Quilting (FMQ) class at Creative Sewing, West Columbia, so most of the week I will be busy.

       Thank You, Veterans !

Pines UFO Finished

   The Pines quilt is finished.  It is twin size.

I pieced the top as part of a mystery quilt project at least 6 years ago.  It waited for quilting because I wanted a special quilting motif for the neutrals and my  FMQ skill was developing.  I am pleased with the pine cone and pine bough motif.  Here is a look at part of the motif from the back of the quilt. 

  This quilt is the 10^th UFO I have finished during my guild challenge.  I listed 18 UFOs at the beginning so I still have several that are still waiting for inspiration.  

     Tomorrow at guild meeting I have 3 quilts to show.  I hope members don't get tired of me showing my quilts.  I love their show and tell.

Happy Sewing and Quilting!

FMQ – Free Motion Quilting

   I spent many hours of my Labor Day holiday with FMQ.  The tumbling block quilt is almost finished.  All it lacks is the binding. 

I use a lot of charity/comfort quilts to practice new FMQ motifs or to practice FMQ control.  In the background of this quilt, I tried out a new design of circles.  It seemed to fit the fabric.   First I practice with pen and paper. 

Sorry it does not show up better in the photo. 

I simply meandered in the top plaid portion of the tumbling blocks because the quilting would not show up.  I devoted more time to quilting a feather in each of the other sections.  I just mark a spine and then FMQ the rest. 

  Here is another comfort quilt finish.  It has been a while since I meandered an entire quilt but that is what I did for this one. 

Two Finishes

    Last night I started hand sewing the binding on to the Christian wall-hanging.  This morning I finished the binding and added a label.  I am pleased with it and hope the receiver will. 

     This afternoon I sandwiched another small comfort quilt but instead of quilting it, I made a quick casserole carrier.  I saw a great tutorial by Crafty Gemini.  She also has a great video tutorial on YouTube.  You can find the directions and the link from her blog..

 Instead of using 2 plain pieces of fabric I decided to piece one for the outside.  I used 25 -5” squares.  I trimmed ¼” all around after piecing to get the 22” square needed.  I quilted the top to  Insul~Bright heat resistant batting  and the inside fabric to cotton batting (23” square).  I quilted with the serpentine stitch and the walking foot. 

After quilting, I trimmed and sewed the 2 quilted pieced right side together leaving an opening for turning. I also top stitched all around the edge. Here the strips are stitched and ready to sew on.  1 long 5” by 22” and 2 short 4 ½” by 7”  

I ironed interfacing to the inside of the straps to give extra strength.

I hope this will make a good item for the GCQ guild silent auction in September.  I may make some for Christmas gifts.

I will be home for Labor Day and quilting on 2 comfort quilts.   Enjoy your holiday.  

Finishing Up Projects

    I put aside the made-fabric project and hexagons to finish up some other projects.  This morning I finished the quilting and binding on a child's comfort quilt for GCQ.  

    I also sandwiched a twin size UFO that was a mystery quilt more than 6 years ago with Devine Quilters. 

 I am practicing a pine cone and pine needle motif that I would like to use if I feel comfortable with the design.  I found them on Lori's blog where she has tutorials.  I don't want them for a holiday theme so I need to adapt them a little.  I still need to figure out how I want to be continuous and move to the next motif.

   I have at least 2 more small projects that might take precedence and get quilted before the pine cones but that will only give me more time to practice. 

Chopped Flower UFO Finished

      Finally the Chopped Flower quilt is finished.  I spent a quiet Sunday afternoon watching TV while I hand stitched the binding on the backside. 

I really like my version of Leah Day’s “Flowing Leaves” that I quilted in the background.  The quilting was tedious and time consuming but the perfect choice.  You can see a close up of some of the quilting at this link.

In the outer border I meandered and simply to add more interest I stitched the cursive words “flowers” and “leaves” which hardly show on the busy print. 

This is a very bright fun quilt and I am glad it is off my UFO list so it can be really enjoyed.

FMQ on Comfort Quilt

        The appliqued heart comfort quilt is finished.

It was made mostly from donated fabric.  The fabric appears to be rather old fashioned.  The construction was not following any pattern but using fabric that SQG had that went together.   I am most pleased with the Free Motion Quilting on it.  Here is a close up of several of the feathers around the quilt. They don't show up great because I used cream quilting thread on the pink background.

 These were stitched with only marking the spine.  I did practice on plastic to build muscle memory first.  Here are a couple as I planned and practiced.

Next is the center feather motif quilted. 

I hope you will try some FMQ. I will be teaching a class in the fall at Midlands Tech- Harbison campus.

Comfort Quilt Finished

     I have been spending many hours working in my yard.  Most often I work in the yard in the morning until it gets too hot and I’m worn out.  Then I shower and start sewing.   Today I finished quilting a child’s comfort quilt for GCQ. 

It started with an unusual panel.   I added several borders.  Yesterday I sandwiched and started quilting.  I used a dark gray thread and first quilted in the ditch with the walking foot.  Today I started the FMQ outlining the animals and quilting the borders.  I used several designs with a different one in each border.

     Last summer guild member Lari taught an After-after workshop on the Twist block technique.  I finished one.  I decided not to make more because I did not like dealing with the bias edges.  I gave the block and extra fabric to my sister Irene and she made it into a table topper.  She did a great job!  

Another Finish

   Today was the sew day for SQG.   We are each at a different stage of a variety of projects.  Joan finished piecing string blocks for a lap quilt.  I love her choice of colors.   Strings blocks are lots of fun. 

        I finished another lap quilt which makes 4 for this month.   This is my Crossroads Daylily quilt.  

I used a varigated blue thread and In the background I free-motion quilted a variety of leaves to include a fern which I really like. To move from one to another I stitched loops. This was my first time trying something like this.  One difficulty I had was trying to make sure that the quilting was balanced and that I did not leave big gaps. 

Two Finishes

    Even though Easter day was cloudy and cool, I enjoyed the day.  After church I sewed the binding on my second jelly roll quilt.  This one is for SQG.   The center jelly roll panel was quilted with the Echo Shortcut design from Leah Day.  I have used it on a couple of quilts before.  The outer border was meandered.

 Friday I finished the jelly roll quilt for GCQ.   As I showed in the last post the center jelly roll panel was quilted with the scroll flower design.   The outer border was meandered. 

       Now I am ready to move on to another project.  I have several UFOs waiting but I enjoy improvisational piecing and may spend a day or two piecing together small scraps or crumbs.   I am scheduled to teach a crumb piecing class for Midlands Tech in August.   I am inspired by  Victoria Findlay Wolfe's work and may just need to spend "15 minutes of play" with my scraps. Click the links to see some of her work. 

Guild Meeting and a UFO Finish

    Tuesday I enjoyed a great show of music and quilts from Cathy Miller, the Singing Quilter, and John Bunge.  Check out her website for more of her lovely quilts and patterns.  Here is one of her unbelievable hexie quilts.  The side of each hexie is 1/4 inch.

I fiinished the blue and white sampler quilt.

Now I am quilting on the jelly roll quilts. This first one is for GCQ.  I am using a new overall design.  There are a few awkward areas to fill but I like the look.

 Amy ( .freemotionquiltingadventures.blogspot.com ) calls this design a scroll flower.

Rag Quilting and Another Finish

     At GCQ general meeting Tuesday we had Sharon Cooper-Murray, “The Gullah Lady”, for our program.  She is a great storyteller.  She is on a mission to preserve rag quilting and started the Community Rag Quilters Preservation Initiative on Wadmalaw and Johns Island, SC.  

After her presentation we were each encouraged to participate in the making of a rag quilt by using a large nail to insert a strip of fabric through burlap and tie a double knot. 

Following are a few of her art pieces made using the rag quilting technique on burlap. 

      For show and tell I showed my stacks quilt without the binding.  I followed Tula Pink’s directions for the 18” blocks.  Today it has binding and is completely finished. 

To try something different that I had seen from Jacquie Gering, I quilted it using my walking foot and the serpentine stitch on my sewing machine.

Another Finished

   Today I finished another child's comfort quilt for GCQ.  It started with 3 orphan blocks and the leftover fabric from a couple of projects.  I decided they would work together.

I quilted with varigated purple thread.  In the main part of the quilt I practiced quilting Leah Day's Echo Shortcut design in a large format trying to have about a 1 1/2" space at the widest part of the echo. In the border I used a Dove soap sliver to make sections and used my chalk pencil to sketch out hearts which I stitched in free-motion.  

Now onto a UFO but which one? 

Sew Day for SQG and a Finish

       We had a good sew day for my church quilt group although we missed a couple of members. Gail finished sewing her borders onto her Lone Star. 

  

After I helped her sandwich it, we worked on jellyroll quilts.  Here Gail is choosing 40 - 2 ½” strips. 

Beverley is sewing her strips all together in one long-----string. 

Bonney is working on the next phase of sewing.

Here all her strips are sewn into a top about 48 by 62”.  She plans to add a border to make it larger. 

It was time to pack up and I had not finished sewing the first 800 inch seam.   After returning home, I went back to work on sewing mine ( with a few distractions ) and a couple of hours later it is finished.   I may also add a border but that will wait until our next sew day.

Greater Columbia Quilters plan to sew jellyroll quilt tops next Tuesday after the general meeting.  For that event my 40 strips are all ready sewn together in one long strip so I will see how long it takes but I don’t plan to race.  Missouri Star Quilts has a couple of jellyroll quilt Youtube videos and there are also others on the web. 

 

Yesterday I finished quilting and binding the scrappy lizard comfort quilt for GCQ.