Design Wall Weekend Link Up!

I have been out of town and then sick with a mean NYC bug, so have not been quilting.  If you have, you can link up to a "Design Wall Weekend" at my friend Christina's blog Fiber Artist Journey.  She has lovely pieces as well as links to quilts from a group that I belong to.  Her badge to the event is on the right, and or you can just go over to her blog.

 Here's a peek at Fiber Artist Journey's newest piece, since I don't have anything of my own to show:



Christina thread painted each of these as part of her 5" x 7" weekly challenge.  They are so life-like and yummy.  She has put them together with some lovely sashing.  Take a look!  Then link up with the Design Wall Weekend!

How to maintain piecing order for your rows

I wanted to start piecing the charms baby quilt for my daughter-in-law's sister's baby.  I had spent a looooong time arranging the little charms and half-charms in a sequence and didn't want to lose that sequence.  So I saw a new roll of masking tape sitting on the table and decided to try something new.

on my design wall

on my sewing table

Lined up ready to sew.  Note the scrap of fabric pinned to the block that will go at the left of the line (so I don't get confused!)

 

I used a "thread bunny" (a scrap of folded fabric as a leader and ender) so I wouldn't have to cut threads each time I needed the recently sewn block for the next seam.

The finished rows:

Now I just have to add borders top and bottom and the strips between these colorful rows and I am ready to sandwich and FMQ.  I bought matching Moda Ticklish fabric and plan to FMQ from the back using the pattern of the fabric as a guide.  That will be the next blog posting, and soon, I hope!

You have to stop practicing sometime and just quilt it!

I have been staring at, doodling about, and practice FMQing for the blocks for the Skill Builter BOM at Pile O'Fabrics for weeks.  Other people have posted their blocks on the Flickr group, but I was undecided how to quilt it.  Alyssa gave us a very nice example, but the background fabric was supposed to be stippling and I don't like the look of stippling in small spaces, usually.  At least MY stippling in small places!  So I practiced.  But tonight I decided to just do it.  I made some adjustments to my machine by changing out the bobbin holder to the "free motion bobbin holder" or "blue dot bobbin holder" for the lovely Janome 6600 that I own.  I changed from Isacord to Superior Magnifico thread, and I added a "Bobbin Genie" to the bobbin holder.  All of these made a huge difference in how my stitches looked.  Plus using more blending thread!

 Here is some of my practicing:

And here is the block:



Since it is called "Magnum", I wanted to FMQ a champagne bottle and glass, but it wouldn't show up on the fabric, so I went with something easier.

 

 

I have four blocks finished for the BOM (she gives us two each month and then the FMQ directions a week later), but this is the first one that I have completed. We are going to "quilt as you go" at the end. We were supposed to quilt out to the blue lines, but I want to do the QAYG method that doesn't involve hand sewing, so I am leaving the borders free at the moment.

 

WHAT I LEARNED: 

1.  When pressing, make SURE your seams are all opened before piecing.  The yellow strip had extra fabric at the edge and was difficult to quilt.

2.  No matter how un-round or not-on-the-line your pebbles are, when it is all finished, it looks great--as long as you use thin, matching thread.  It just looks like texture.

3.  Don't change your mind at the last second on the pattern you are going to quilt.  I did that with the dark black to follow the lines in the fabric and it turned out less than successful because it wasn't planned, or even thought out ahead of time.  It doesn't matter much because it doesn't show, but it might on the next one.

4.  Practicing may be fun, but it is very rewarding to free motion on an actual quilt. 

PROGRESS ON FINISH GOALS:
1.  design wall--I spent an hour in Home Depot today being sent from place to place looking for suitable nails for haning foam to the wall.  Finally a helpful person knew his nails and found the right size for me.  I hope to get it nailed to the wall tomorrow.

2.  I mailed off the baby quilt to my grandniece Lauren.  WooHoo!

3.  I bought backing and binding fabric for the baby quilt with the charm squares. 

4.  See above for progress on the Pile O'Fabrics BOM.

Finishing all four projects by April 1 doesn't seem so daunting now!  Having a blog sure helps motivate me to finish waht I said I wanted to finish.

 

The path from charms to quilt--a start

Since I was stymied in my design wall finish attempts, I started on the baby quilt for my daughter-in-law's sister.  I picked up a charm pack at the new wonderful quilt store in Issaquah, WA called Gossipium.  It is Ticklish by Moda.

Charm squares are full of possibilities!  This is Ticklish by Moda
 

I have a pattern by Elizabeth Hartman at www.ohfransson.com that asks for 25 charms and 13 more cut in half.  I arranged and rearranged them on my partially finished design wall and this is what I came up with.

The colorful stripes are separated by white with white borders on top and bottom.

 

In other news, I went to a quilt show in Monroe, WA today put on by the Quilters' Annonymous guild in Seattle.  It was very fun to see the lovely quilts.  I went with two friends from the quilting forum at About.com which is a great community of quilters.  If you are looking for advice or comraderie, stop on by!

 

Lastly I would like to link up to Leah Day's Free Motion Friday from her outstanding website The Free Motion Quilting Project.  My picture is of practice for the Pile O'Fabrics Skill Building BOM which is really fun.  Check them both out!

 

In order to link we need a picture of free motion quilting.  The purple ones are practice from Leah's website which has 365 free motion fillers plus a lot more (plus a link to her new FMQ class at Craftsy.com which I have signed up for).  The yellow part is practice from another Craftsy class by Angela Walters called Quilting Negative Space which is excellent.



A finish and a roadblock

PART I:  The Finish:

I finished the baby quilt that I am making for my grandniece Lauren!  This quilt caused all sorts of problems because I wanted the butterflies in the center (a Laurel Burch design) but nothing that I bought or had would cooperate and make the borders, even more Laurel Burch fabric!  Finally I found this Stonehenge fabric that did the job, but I felt that it needed a bit of pizazz in the corner blocks, so I fused some butterflies from the center fabric and FMQed around them with gold thread.

 I did the binding with a new tool called The Quilter's Boot (I bought it at Sew Expo but it is available online and at Pacific Fabrics in Seattle area.) After struggling with it for a while, it did work wonderfully for the fourth corner, so I am calling it a good thing. I like mitered bindings front and back, and this tool does it nicely (once you figure it out--go to youtube and search for the Quilter's Boot--the video is very helpful.)

The back is the Pacific Fabrics brand of Minkee with one layer of flannel in the middle.  I followed the recommendations found in Machine Quilting Unlimited magazine for working with the minkee-type fabrics and starched it heavily.  It was the first time I worked with this type of fabric and I didn't love how it felt going through my machine.  It has a nap, so it fought me sometimes.  One thing to note, you don't have to quilt it very much and so I only did  a zigzag in the purple borders.  But then it looked sort of wrinkly so I stitched in the ditch all around the borders and the pink border as well.  Not as fun as FMQ!

PART II:  The Roadblock

I started gathering things to install my design wall.



Footstool, level, t-square, hammer, box cutter and stud finder
 

Then found out that the stud finder needed a 9 volt battery to work.  I tried to find one in all of the battery operated things around here, but no luck.  Since I already have to go to Home Depot to get some nails, I will get the battery as well.  Oh, well, one finish is a good thing!

Project finishing for first quarter of FAL

I am listing my projects for the first quarter for the She Can Quilt Finish-A-Long  Although I can't register for the prizes, I am still going to state my finish goals. 

1.  First off is to finish putting up my design wall.  I have the foam insulation and the 108" wide white flannel.  Now to put it up on the wall.

Right now the darn foam is in the hallway!

2.  Second is to finish the quilt I am making for my Grandniece Lauren.  All I have left to do is to attach the binding and label and mail it off.  Should be doable.

3.  Next I will finish the Challenge quilt for March for my art quilt group, Fiber Funsters.  The theme is "waiting" and I have a cool landscape idea that has been an obsession.  Unfortunately I won't be able to go to the meeting this month, so the motivation to get moving on this project is low.  But I don't want to get behind, so am determined to finish.  No picture in case any FFers check in here!

4.  My daughter-in-law's sister is having a baby so I have a cute charm pack and a simple pattern that I want to do for her.
It won't upload, but the charm pack is Moda Ticklish and the pattern is just stripes of the joined charms separated by white.  Opportunity to practice some of the negative space ideas in Angela Walters's Craftsy class that I completed recently.

5.  Last to list but probably not to do is the Pile O'Fabrics Skill Builder Bom

I started FMQing the one in the top right when my machine suddenly developed a need to go to the shop (I hit the foot with the needle, oops!).  It is called "Sound Wave" and the one to its left is "Magnum"; bottom left to right is "Mood" and "Em Dash".  I have been working with Leah Day's books and website to come up with my own FMQ designs, but Alyssa at the Pile O'Fabrics has some pretty nice ideas for each block so I might just stick with the suggestions and actually get them done.

Do you think I can finish these before the sign up at She Can Quilt Finish-A-Long on April 9???  I am betting YES.

Getting started, part 2

I am trying to get started blogging.  The reason is that I am a quilter and I want to keep a record of my quilts and to have a platform for posting my finishes on the Finish-A-Long that I signed up for at http://shecanquilt.blogspot.com/p/2013-finish-long.html.  I have a lot to learn (first off--how to put a link in a name so I won't have the long URL like above.)  I love learning new things, so this blog is an adventure.  I will put a picture of my only sea turtle quilt below (it is also my profile picture at the moment because I couldn't find the picture of myself.)  One of my goals for this blog is to be more organized with pictures of my quilts so I can use them when I want to.  Also to feature links to great quilts and quilting for inspiration.