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

Log Cabin Obsessed!

That's right, I have become obsessed with

making these little Log Cabin Blocks.

This is the picture of the Log Cabin Star with borders,

layered and quilting started.

This was the demo piece for a class I was teaching.

You can't really see the quilting but the process,

as part of the class, was to quilt it with 

machine embroidery.

It will stay as is until class #2 at the end of March

so I can demo the quilting again.

But, this ruler and book from Marti Michell have

hooked me in!  I am so obsessed with making these

little log cabin blocks I cannot stop!

You can purchase the ruler and book at

Pieceful Quilting. Just give us a call!

Watch the video here!

In preparing for the first class I cut so many 

1.5" strips from my Civil War Repro and Thimbleberries stash

the box was overflowing.

All this led to my new obsession...

I made 4 blocks for the second class Saturday

and then came home and made a couple (19) more.

Going totally scrappy with this staying the in CW and Thimbleberries "like" fabrics.

My rules are simple:

Lights - anything with a light background

Darks - anything without a light background

These are 3 potential layouts.

And, the box still overflows!

Eventually this will be large enough for a throw.

Last weekend it was snowy so I stepped outside my

comfort zone of favorite fabrics and made this little table topper.

The pattern is Rock Candy from Jaybird Quilts.

This pattern is also available at Pieceful Quilting

and will be a class at the shop later on in the spring.

Happy Sewing,

Colleen

Log Cabin Star

I have been sewing away on a class sample for the shop.

The logs finish at 1" and we are 

using Marti Michell's log cabin ruler which makes cutting the log strips

quick and easy.

I have 16 blocks...

And my layout will be a star...

I have to sew these together and then pick a nice

border and get the backing ready for Part 2 of the class

next Thursday.

Happy Sewing,

Colleen

Painted Mountains...

Well, it's been a little while since I posted.

My intent was to post every other week...maybe I will get there.

I have been working on some machine embroidery projects

that I will show at a later date.

Right now I wanted to stop in and show you 

my Painted Mountains Quilt top with the

borders added.

Sorry the pic is not the greatest, I had to lay it on the bed 

due to the size of the quilt top.

On another note, I have decided to 

continue my daily sewing of 4 little hour glass blocks.

If I work on these for the entire year it 

will make one awesome, scrappy queen size quilt!
So far I am keeping up with this, let's hope I don't get

bored of these cuties...

pics to follow.

If you are in the path of freezing temps like we are

here in the Northeast, stay warm and stay safe.

Happy Sewing,

Colleen