Quilting Update

Well maybe I should just call it blocking sewing up date because I only sewed blocks. I drew a block #6 in EQ6 for Caribbean Sea sewed it and I started a Feathered Star block for another block of the month I'm doing called Washington Medallion by Susan Garman. My Quilting Friends & I are doing this together. We all had lunch together in December. Next Saturday we will all meet up at the quilt show and stop by my house afterwards.

I think most everyone has block 6 done, but I'm the only one who has started the Feathered Star from the medallion quilt. I have been the tester and they was a real struggle to get that star laid out with all the pieces going in the right direction. But I have it now it is almost done. I just set them all a link to my webshots and one emailed me back there two of the feathers are going in the wrong direction. Arg!! Lucky I can fix that and only have to rip two seams.

I also finished all my Math for Quilter's reading from the on line class at Quilt University. Lots of reading I have done most of the assignments. The costing out a quilt table is worth the class alone.

I read on one of the quilting lists that I'm on, that the longer you are away from your quilting the more you like it. Well I hated my quilting on the Mystery Quilt. The other day it was draped across the sofa and I walked by a day or two after that and said to myself my those look like feathers. The light was hitting it just right and it looked good. The pciture I took doesn't show what I saw so I won't include it.

Sunday Quilting Upate a Little Late

OK so it is Monday again, where does that weekend go?? It just speeds by.
Last night as I started put the second borders on my one block wonder, you'll never guess what I found under my border fabric on the back of my sewing chair? Did you guess? Well it was a piece of the black binding I needed for the Mystery Quilt. I could have sworn I had a piece left and I was right. I didn't think to look under the other fabric. All the left over pieces of fabric for the Mystery Quilt were in their appropriate colored fabric bins. So when I didn't find the black with my other blacks I thought it must be all gone. OH Well it was just have to be as it is. ;-)
Border Audition.

I made some progress on the One Block Wonder but stopped when it came to the borders. I originally want to use the climbing rose section, but it was going to be too wide, so I cut the strip section, but it looks so washed out next to the center. So I previewed them both, and I will be sticking with my first choice. It will be a little larger than I originally wanted but it will be all good. The larger size might work better.
Well I'm off to the sewing room for an hour before bed.

Mystery Quilt is Completed!

Completions of this project desires it's own post! This was a mystery quilt, my first ever, and my first ever on line machine quilting class. I'm very glad it is done! I will do this again. Was I ready to quilt feathers not on your life. Was it hard you bet! Did I learn you bet. Right now I'm just glad it is over and I can do a quilt for a friend. I'm ready for some free motion meandering.

Before this class I would have liked to done some quilting with a little more precision than the free motion I had been doing. I really felt like I didn't have enough control to draw feathers in a set size. I couldn't get my machine back to the spine of my feather. I did improve but believe me there is a lot of room for improvement. That is OK. I still can draw good feathers on a white broad, they all look like fat thumbs. I can get one side really good but the one in the opposite direction is hard.

I'm grateful that you can not see the quilting real well. I'm happy with the look of the free motion around the stars. This quilt was a comedy of something. I wanted to finish this yesterday, I didn't make. I went to wind another bobbin and ran out of thread, Mad dash to the store to buy more. Last night when putting on the binding I ran out, small mistake in the directions. I was going to wait and made a mad dash to the quilt store after work this week but when I told my husband he said you must have something you can use in a room full of fabric. Well he was right and I found another black for the binding. Up close I can tell but you can otherwise. Thanks honey for saying the right thing.

While sewing on the binding I noticed a spot I didn't quilt in the little border, so what was the easiest way to fix that? Well a picture is worth a thousand words.
Don't laugh for the 3 inch square I had to do it worked.

So now it is done. I'll keep it for awhile. If it matches my daughter's red in her house she can have it. If not off to charity it goes.

My Lost Quilt

While checking the blogs I follow for new posting, I saw a very helpful one on Caron Mosey's Blog, her site is also on my side bar. She was writing about copyrighting quilts, than she added a link to the Lost Quilts website. I remembered I have a picture of my lost quilt on that site.
I do miss my quilt, especially when I see the one I still have that is similar. That's a funny thing, I don't miss quilts I give as gifts, I guess because I gave them a home, but this one I miss.
So since one great idea encourage another great idea. I decided to post a picture and a link to my lost quilt, see my side bar. Maybe it will find it's way home again. If not I hope it is happy where she is now living. Thanks Caron for giving me the idea.
I made the quilt as a class sample for Stain Glass paper piecing. The last time I remember having it was one of two times. That's bad isn't it. I can't remember the last time I really had it. Anyway I had it down at the shop where I teach and never got it back or I took it to a trunk show I did at Cactus Patchers meeting and lost it at the Tempe Adult center.

Can you see the mistake?

Was sitting in my sewing room talking on the phone to my friend Jane. I had just finished sewing the last pair of my One Block Wonder together. I was feeling good and thinking I might sew a two pairs together. Than I noticed a mistake. Jane told me not to worry about, no one will see it. I'm thinking I'll see it. So I took some pictures to see if any one else can see the mistake. After I took the pictures and I'm looking at it, I see another mistake. I'm not doing any thing about it tonight.



Here is a full view of the One Block Wonder and how far it has progressed.

A Funny Thing Happened...

...on the way to finishing my Valentine Mini Wall hanging. I was doing free motion on my table top machine. It felt like the quilt was dragging a little and I felt like I had to work too hard. I was thinking something isn't right but for the life of me I couldn't figure it out. The stitches looked fine, but it was just hard to move the fabric. I quilted all the white background in the wall hanging. I jumped from area to area lifting the foot and lowering the foot, looking right at for my needle position. I looked at the foot several times and nothing registered. I'm changing the thread to brown for the borders and what do I notice. I had a straight stitch foot on and not my bouncing darning foot. I changed that foot right out and things went much easier. It's amazing what using the right tools will do!!

Here is the finished Valentine Mini, or Falling Hearts.

I tried to get a close up of the quilting to show you it came out OK but all my pictures are blurry, so maybe tomorrow I'll try to get another picture.