FMQ Challenge

I have been busy FMQ the fruit table runner.

Did the end of the table runner yesterday.

And started on the border today.

This is the pattern for the border.
I was originally going to do a leaf design, but Wendy told me about Melody Johnson's great blog - Fibermania . I was inspired by her Free Motion Machine Quilting Design book.

You still have a few more days to join in the Free Motion Quilting Challenge.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!! ♥

More Hexies!

I finally finished cutting all the hexagons!

This started out as 8 fat quarters. I will start sewing hexagons tomorrow. I thought I would add plain triangles but decided to just use the Glace fabric. I am looking forward to seeing what this pile is going to become.


My FMQ challenge for today. I finished the last of the triangles and did one end. Just the other end and the border to quilt. The silk thread is so fine - hard to see, but great to work with.

Have a great day and thanks for dropping in!! ♥

Hexagons

I worked on more hexagons today.

The fabric is "Glace" by 3 Sisters for Moda. Hard to see it on my floor (that's why I chose those tiles - nothing shows! Great for dirt, not for my design floor!) I will use off white for the fill in triangles. Only about less than half of the hexagons are there. I still don't know what I am going to make, I just wanted to use this fabric.


Todays FMQ. Another feather.
My new (only two weeks old) free motion foot broke on the week end. The piece that sits over the needle screw broke off. When I turn on my sewing machine it does a little dance (re-calibrates itself) and the metal piece would get caught in the needle screw. This is the foot that goes with my machine. I am just waiting to see what the Husqvarna dealer has to say. Now the foot just sits on the fabric, fine until I get to a seam.

I also transplanted lots of seedlings today. Ran out of potting mix, so I didn't get them all finished.
Summer is coming!!!

Beautiful sunset through the baseball diamond behind our house.

Have a great day and thanks for dropping in!! ♥

Romanian Point Lace

Filled in another triangle on the fruit table runner for today's FMQC.

I have also been working on a piece of Romanian Point Lace that I have on the go. It is a type of lace made with a crotchet braid.


These are some of the flowers I have been working on.


I need 16 more of these.


They then get tacked on to a piece of fabric that is covered in plastic that has the pattern traced on it. It is 27" in diameter.


More braid and filler stitches are added. All the work is done on the wrong side of the piece of lace. Once all the work is completed the lace is removed from the pattern.


Hopefully one day it will look like this!!

This is the first piece I made last year. It was pretty easy so I wanted to try another one. The one I am working on will take me a while!!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!! ♥

More FMQ

I am trying to quilt a bit of this table runner every day as part of the Free Motion Quilting Challenge.


It is hard to see, but the two triangles are quilted (yesterday and today) with half a feathered wreath. I used #100 silk thread and a #60 needle. The silk thread is very fine, but very strong. I broke a needle when I pulled the thread (to move to a new spot without cutting the thread) and tried sewing - the needle snapped, but the thread didn't!! I will quilt the other triangles with different designs.
We are having lots of fun in the FMQ Challenge (not to mention really improving!) and I hope you will consider joining us! (Just need to leave a comment.)

The appliqued fruit basket quilt has been in my laundry room since I washed it. I thought it looked so pretty with the sun shinning on it today, really showed off the quilting. Still waiting for a piece of wood to hang it.

Have a great day and thanks for dropping in!! ♥

More Blocks

I finished quilting the last two blocks on the fruit table runner (the one from my tutorial). The blocks are 6". I used 100WT thread.


Now I have to decide what to quilt in the triangles and the border. Probably some sort of feather design in the triangles and maybe a leaf border? I am tempted to experiment with different designs in the triangles. I know the block designs changed slightly for each one, especially after I watched some YouTube videos on McTavishing! This piece is part of my free motion quilting challenge, so I am trying to do a bit everyday.

I hope you are thinking of joining the Free Motion Quilting Challenge! Just leave me a comment saying you want to join.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!! ♥

FMQ and Contests

For today's Free Motion Quilting Challenge I worked on another star of the fruit table runner. I changed to Invisafil in the bobbin and a #60 needle and it worked much better. The white is Invisafil and the star is done in green YLI silk - both are 100 Wt thread.


I discovered that there are great quilting videos on Youtube. They all use longarm quilting machines, but the ideas can be translated to home sewing machines.
Karen McTavish show her McTavishing.
Dawn Cavenaugh (?) shows a nice background stitch.
JoAnn Hoffman show a different background filler - flowers.
There are lots more ideas for the FMQ challenge out there.

There are many great contest going on in Blogland.
Sheila is having a sweet Mother's Day contest. She has a great blog too, always something different.
Carmen from Honey Run Quilters is having a great give away of a jelly roll and a charm pack of Tweet Tweet by Keiki (for Moda)
Gudrun over a Gudrun's World is giving away a copy of her fabulous new book "Fast and Furious Holiday Quilting as You Go".

Lots of ways to waste time when I should be sewing - Oh well, my eyes need a break! Or at least that is what I tell myself!

Have a great day and thanks for dropping in!! ♥

Finished?

I think I have finished piecing the Pinwheel Sampler Quilt Along Quilt!? I was going to add a couple of borders, but now that I see it I think it is done.


What do you think? Do I need borders. Right now it is a pretty large lap quilt (63" x 78"), if I added borders it would be a bed quilt, which I don't need, another reason why I think this is fine.

I ordered some Invisafil thread, and it came yesterday. (My oldest child named my blog and I come by the name honestly - you can never have too much thread!!)



It is a very fine polyester thread said to be an alternative to invisible thread. Where I ordered it they said it was great for machine applique. It has a matt finish, which I thought would be good, since I sometimes find invisible thread catches the light too much (even smoke coloured).



Well, I wanted to try it out so I used it on the fruit table runner. I used the dark thread for stitching in the ditch in the green, even though it wasn't the same colour it blended beautifully. I used the white to "McTavish" in the white section. I also tried some silk thread in the orange star. The invisafil was about the same size as the silk thread, and I thought they both worked wonderfully. I usually have trouble with polyester in my machine, but it was fine.

This was the first time I tried the YLI #100 silk thread. I used a #70 Microtex needle. I am using wool batting in the table runner.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!! ♥

Last Blocks

I made the last of the blocks for the Pinwheel Sampler Quilt Along.



These were made up of very easy hourglass blocks.



Now I am sewing all the blocks together. The fabric came for the border/binding today too, so I am all set to finish it up!



I also did my daily free motion quilting. I tried out the foot that came with my machine. It is a floating foot, and I have to lower the feed dogs with it (something I don't do with a spring foot). I like a spring foot better, but this one worked well and is worth trying out more.
I hope you are considering joining Wendy and I in FMQ this month.

Have a great day and thanks for dropping in!! ♥

So Much Goin On!

Wow! What a busy day, where to begin?!

I will start with the most important for me.

May 4, 1991

My oldest child turned 19 today!! Where did the time go? He is such a wonderful young man and we are so proud of him!! ♥

Next!

Free Motion Quilting Challenge

My friend Wendy thought it would be a great idea to challenge each other to free motion quilt for the month of May, and we thought that maybe you would like to join us!

It is pretty simple.
If you would like to join us leave a comment here or on Wendy's blog.
You don't need to FMQ for the whole month, just two weeks in a row during the month of May. It can be FMQ on anything, even practice samples.
You're on the honor system. We'd love for you to blog about it as you go (although you don't need to), we're not going to check every blog every day. If you cheat, we won't know, but you will!
At the end of the month leave another comment letting us know you successfully completed the challenge and your contact info. You will then be entered to win one of two prizes, either the book "Mastering the Art of McTavishing" by Karen McTavish or a white Clover marking pen and a couple of spools of my favorite Aurifil thread.


We hope that you will join us. We were amazed with how much we improved last month, when we tried it for a week!

Next! I finished two more Pinwheel Sample Quilt Along blocks today.

I will do two more tomorrow and then have the 20 blocks that I need.

I also washed my applique quilt - always a bit nerve racking when the fabric hits the water - but it looked so beautiful, the colours became more vibrant when it was wet.


It came out beautifully! The quilting is more pronounced now.

Have a great day and thanks for making it through this post!! ♥

Second May Finish

Another OPAM finish for May!!

My applique fruit basket mini quilt is all finished! I just have to wash it to see if all the free motion quilting becomes more visible. It is 28" square, and I used cotton batting on this one, with Aurifil thread.

Hard to see all the quilting in the black border.

The plants are growing nicely. I liked the way the raindrops looked on this plant. The days are cold again - high of 5°C.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!! ♥

First May Finish

I sewed some binding around one of last months free motion quilting samples.

It is 10" x 13", and was my favorite sample from last months week of practicing. I thought it would make a nice little table runner.

I am almost finished hand stitching the binding to the back on this fruit basket applique quilt.

EQ7 is coming out this summer, and I can hardly wait! I love my EQ6 and it has been so helpful is designing the quilts I have worked on. There is a wonderful EQ7 giveaway going on over here, be sure to check it out.


The baby rabbit that is hanging out in our yard (and eating the flowers) found a friend. You can see the little mouse eating on the other side of the green bin. The rabbit was chasing the mouse earlier. Sorry about the picture quality, it is taken through a basement window with a screen. My children have tried to rig a trap, but the rabbit is too smart to go under, although he did hide out on this side of the bin to get out of the rain.

Have a great day and thanks for dropping by!! ♥

New Book

I ordered a new book from Amazon and it finally came! "Hop To It - Appliqued Blocks and Projects" by Edyta Sitar (for Laundry Basket Quilts) is everything I thought it would be.

There is twelve applique blocks in the book. Three different applique techniques are well described and illustrated (fusible, machine and hand applique). How to choose fabrics and colours are very well described, with Edyta Sitar's "Rule of 5" technique.

The projects (8) are beautiful.

The close up of the blocks show beautiful ideas for machine quilting.

Applique is definitely a style of quilting that I want to do more of. I am looking forward to trying out this book.

Today I finished machine quilting the applique mini quilt that I am working on. This picture is of the back - to show the quilting on the black border.

I used Aurifil thread and a Microtex needle (#80). I used my new Clover Fine White Marking Pen to mark the centers of the feathers. The pen worked great and just need to iron the fabric to take the markings off - very easy.
I will sew the binding on tomorrow.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!! ♥

Another Quilt Show

My sister and I headed out to another great quilt show today. This time it was in Morden, MB.
There were so many beautiful quilts and such talented artists! Here are a few pictures.


The next one is designed by Blue Meadow Designs, Manitoba quilt designers. We saw quite a few of their designs today, and they also had a booth at the sale. Such talented women!




This next one was a signature quilt, believed to be from around WW2.





The next one had beautiful hand embroidered details.





Of course I managed to do some shopping! I was able to find some extra fabric for my Pinwheel Sampler quilt! Also bought some silk thread at Quilters' Jewel, before we headed to the show. Managed to find a good deal on pressing bars there too. And a bunch of other necessities!!

I met some wonderful people, and had such a good time with my sister! We had a great day!

Have a great day too!! Thanks for stopping in! ♥