It's been a few weeks since my last post...

Yup, it's been a while since I have been on here.
No excuses, just life!
But, I have done a lot more home organizing in between a few project sewing sessions.

There's been practice on that new Sashiko machine leading up to the reason we purchased it in the first place.

Here is a photo of the Karate Gi top for the Black Belts at our dojo.  Plain, boring, black.

Now, here's a photo of one that I have "embellished".

Some embroidery, a little patch and some Sashiko cross hatch stitching.  

It looks so much better and the guys really like the look.

There are still about 11 more I need to finish so that project is taking up a lot of my sewing time.

When I need a break from that (and I do need breaks) this is the project for a new baby girl quilt.

A Kokeshi Doll Quilt from a pattern by Sandy Rodenmayer.

So cute, every one of them!  They still need to be machine appliqued before putting the quilt top together.

I also put together this quick little (20") table topper for the summer the other night as a demo display for the shop.  The technique uses the Quick Curve Ruler and the pattern is free on the Sew Kind of Wonderful website.  Sorry it's a little (or a lot) blurry.  Late night picture taking?

Well, that's what's been sewin' on in my world.  Missing my Lady Tiara, I need a FMQ fix!

Happy Sewing,

Colleen

Quilting Stars

I worked on a sample this week at the shop and had to quilt it the other day.
Inspiration dictated loops and stars.  Problem ~ never quilted stars.
I was very nervous but it really was the best design to use.
My co-worker said 'just do it'!  So, I did.

The picture isn't the best but there are the stars.
I will post a picture of the entire project (a Christmas Tree Skirt) when I actually
take a picture of it!
It is all done and bound and hanging in the shop already.

I have to say I was so brave the backing is a deep red/burgundy and I quilted it in
the same thread as the top thread, a gold.

Have you stepped outside your comfort zone this week in quilting?

Happy Stitching!
Colleen

Some more fun on Lady Tiara...

Last night was a good night to play on Lady Tiara.
A facebook friend posted a video using a straight line ruler quilting inside a triangle so I decided to give it a try.
Here are the pics from that little practice session.

First I traced three triangles onto the practice square.

Then stitched at it!

This was fun and fairly easy.  The friend who posted the video stated that this was a very good design to practice ruler work and she was right.  This session really made me focus on holding the ruler, finding your stopping point and speed.

The first triangle was a little too large.  When doing the first couple of 'rounds' (calling them that for lack of a better term for it) the bottom of the fabric that needed to align with the ruler was off the table so I had to fiddle with that.  So the solution was to divide the next triangle into four smaller ones.

I like the look of both.

Now there is a Pyramid Quilt or a quilt with triangles in my future.

Hey, I wonder if there is one in my large pile of quilt tops waiting to be quilted?

Better check that out before starting another one!  LOL!

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful quilting Moms out there!

Happy Stitching,

Colleen

More FMQ...

Yesterday I worked on the center of the Chic Kisses Topper.

#sewkindofwonderful

#chickisses

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Sorry this picture isn't the greatest.  I still need to figure out the best way to take pics of the quilting and I am sure my home lighting isn't helping in this area.

Today I figured out the design and quilted one of the corners.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

You can't really see the quilting in the fans but it's a simple arc and then I did a curved cross hatch in the outermost corner.
If I have time I will finish the other 3 corners tonight and think about what I want to do in the squares.  Maybe just some straight line channel quilting.

Having a great time with Lady Tiara!  Learning lots along the way.

Happy Sewing,
Colleen

Project ALMOST complete

It has been a busy few days with work and other events and I have not managed to get to the sewing machine since Wednesday.  This morning I decided that quilting detox is not for me and pulled out an old project (2011 or 2012) that has been pinned to the wall in my sewing room and quilted it on Lady Tiara.

This was the sample for a class at the shop.  The quilting plan was a little free motion in the center with a star like motif and then some more ruler practice.  I didn't use the ruler for the small outer triangles, for that I just gave myself some registration marks along the edge every half inch from center.  There isn't any quilting in the blue areas because I felt the print would hide the work.

Here is a close up.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Speed 25%

Free Motion and Ruler Work

Thread - Glide

Lesson learned - quilt some more old projects!

It's fun and it's okay to make mistakes!

Tonight I will prepare a binding and sew it on and then hand stitch it down at the Karate School tomorrow.

Have a beautiful Sunday, the weather here is fantastic!
Happy Sewing,

Colleen

More FMQ practice

Here are the pics from yesterday's playtime with Lady Tiara.

This first shot is of some quick meandering, just to relax and really playing around.

The lesson learned here is to practice a consistent distance when

doing echoing and keeping the sizes of the spirals consistent.

Note to self; you need to practice consistency.

This one was the practice for Day 3.

I am not fond of this at all.

Thread, speed, tension, etc was good.

Lesson learned here is that my stitching is very heavy in some areas, 

perhaps I used those areas to travel too many times.  

That was all I really had time for yesterday.  I didn't even get to any piecing on other projects.

Happy Stitching,

Colleen

Free Motion Practice - Day 2

FREE MOTION QUILTING MY WAY...ONE DAY AT A TIME

I have decided to journal my free motion quilting practice sessions so I can see my progress and share what I am learning with anyone who wants to follow along.

Day 2: Feathers (sort of) and some straight line ruler work

Monday, April 13, 2015

Speed 27%

Thread - Glide (top and bobbin)

I think the puckers around the outside is because the sample sandwich is a little small.  The Glide thread works much better with the same thread in the bobbin.

• Marked an 8" square and diagonal and square lines and stitched in the ditch
• Used a small (6") arc ruler to stitch the melon shapes
• Free motion the feather in each of those shapes
• used a straight ruler to stitch the straight lines 1/4" apart

MQX Quilt Festival - East

Last week I hopped in the car with a couple of my quilting besties and we traveled to Manchester, New Hampshire for the MQX Quilt Festival - East!
All I can say is...once again we had a fantastic time; great friends, great classes, great quilts, great vendors, great new quilters to meet!
BTW - it's also great to be home again; missed my husband, missed our kind of water, missed my bed, and so on!

I took a total of 4 hands on classes and one lecture. Two of the classes were for free motion quilting and the other two were piecing classes.

To be honest, I have taken a number of free motion classes and think it is a good idea to learn from a variety of teachers.  Everyone has their own technique and style, you can glean from each hands on or lecture what works for you.  Then you practice, practice, practice.  That IS the one thing every teacher has in common, PRACTICE.  This year I took a class with Andrea Brokenshire and a class with Leah Day.  Both ladies were a delight to spend 4 hours with and they both had a lot to share in the way of free motion quilting.

Yesterday I practiced a design called Paisley.  My personal goal is to practice for 15-30 minutes per day on my new Baby Lock Tiara.  Yup, I am now the proud owner of a Tiara and I am loving it.  I haven't quilted any quilt tops yet on the one at home but I have quilted a number of sample quilts already for the shop on the Tiara floor model.
So happy and thankful to now have one at home.  I am adding a page at the top of this blog to journal my free motion quilting practice and invite you to follow along as I find out what works for me.

The class with the ladies from Sew Kind of Wonderful (http://sewkindofwonderful.com/) was a lot of fun.
We used their Quick Curve Ruler with the Chic Kisses Pattern.  My original plan was to do this with the fabrics in my Civil War Repro stash but since the class was to only make one block I used a few fabrics from my 30's Repro stash.

Cute block!  This is one that I will be doing again and again I think.  The block is fairly large (@23x23) so it will pull together into a large quilt.  This sample will be a table topper for summer after I quilt it.

That brings me to the lecture I went to at the show.  The same ladies gave a lecture on using their QCR Sidekick Longarm Ruler.  This ruler has curves that follow the curves made in your blocks using the QCR.  Lots to learn.  Picked up the ruler set and will need to practice A LOT before quilting this. I will add some of the ruler work photos to my free motion page when I get around to this practice.

Happy Stitching (and practicing),
Colleen