Quilting In Progress....

I'll show more about this quilt in the next day or two but for now..... Check out those feathers!  I am loving them!

Cutting Binding Tutorial using AccuQuilt Go! Fabric Cutter

Just wanted to share one of the reasons that I love my AccuQuilt Go! Fabric Cutter.  I can quickly and easily cut the binding for an entire quilt in one pass through the cutter.  Check it out!

If you are interested in AccuQuilt or have any questions, please let me know.  I am happy to help!

Let's GO! Quilting

Quilting In Progress...

Well, vacation time is over and I am back to customer quilts.  This one was dropped off right before Christmas and the sweet customer said "no hurry".  I usually don't pull the quilts out until I'm ready to quilt them unless the customer wants to discuss designs.  I had no idea it was a Christmas quilt until today.  :(

Had I known I would have made sure she had it before.  

Since the colors are green, red and white, I didn't want to quilt heavy and have lots of red thread on white fabric and such.  

I think it's looking great.  Sometimes less and more!

Let's GO! quilting!

2015 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge – January

I am participating in another quilting challenge and this one stretches my creativity.  Instead of them saying do this step 1, 2 and 3, she tells us a motif to use and we have to take it from there.  We are also making pillows from this so there isn't a lot of piecing to do since it is solid pieces of fabric. :)

January's Challenge is to use a heart motif.

My steps:

Choice which of the three options offered that I want to use as a starting point.

I chose option 3.

I draw out a design in my sketch book.  Wish I would have used my tracing paper for layers but didn't.

Next step is to pick out my fabric.  I decided to use a solid on one side and a swirl on the other.  Living on the side of safety, if it looks great I can use the solid for the top.  If it looks terrible, I can use the swirl for the top.  :)

Next I sketch some guidelines (using Crayola Washable Markers since this is a personal project).  These lines are strictly for guiding me.  I will not be trying to quilt right on top of them.

See the big X?  That's were I drew my original line but decided the tail needed to be longer.

Then it is just quilting away, only referringn to my drawing as needed to  remind me where I'm trying to end up.

Now all finished!

And look at the solid side.

Oh my goodness... I am so proud of this accomplishment.  It is not perfect and is not award winning but I am still proud.  :)

With that being said, solid side up it is.

No matter what we do in life, if we want to grow we have to spend time on it and with it.

Here are two other sketches that I didn't stitch.

It amazes me that a simple shape can be stitched so many different ways and have such a different appearance in the end.

If you want to join in on the challenge, you can find more information here and see the projects of other quilters.

Now let's GO! quilting!

DWR Journey

A potential customer ask for pictures of previous Double Wedding Ring Quilts that I had quilted.  the easiest way to get them to her was through a blog post.  So for that, hope you all find some enjoyment and encouragement from them.

This below is the very first one I ever did and it was my personal quilt.  I was determined to quilt feathers on it, even though I had never even practiced feathers before.  :)  56 Blocks

 After I finished mine, a customer/friend ask me to quilt feathers on hers also.  56 more Blocks.

 Now this is a truly amazing picture for me.  On the left is block #1 and on the right is block #112.  Huge difference in my feathers.  Came a long way in just these two quilts.

This is a very old quilt that a customer found of her grandmothers.  We did an all over design on this one.

This one we did a stencil design in each of the centers and the background of the melons, with stitch in the ditch around the melons themselves.

This one is a crosshatch design...

This is the most recent one for a customer.  It has swirls in all the background areas.

 Jill, I hope this gives you so information and helps you out.  Please look through the other blog post to see the true quality of my work.  And if you like feathers, I feel I can do you proud.  I've came a long way since these pictures were taken.  :)

Happy quilting.

Label Crazy....

It is so important to label our quilts with something.  This gives the information on when the quilt was made, who it was made by and maybe even who it was made for.  You can even look at them as mini greeting cards when you are making a quilt for a gift.  The important part is to just leave a history trail.

I have experimented with different methods and have adopted my favorite and wanted to share.  The basic concept is from Bonnie Hunter and you can read her blog here for her thoughts.

Just a take a piece of PREWASHED fabric and either use "sticky" fusible or lightly iron to fusible, cut to 8-1/2" x 11" and print the label on my INKJET printer. You will need to set the ink with a HOT iron without steam before washing.  I have been doing this as I fold the label over.

I have a standard template that I use so that my label is in the correct spot every time (unless it get stuck as in picture to).  

You can see this was cut in a square and folded over.  The raw edges is sew in with the binding and the folded edge is hand stitched down. (I didn't realize that my black ink was almost out so this label is grey but still shows up good).

Same concept, just got "stuck" in the printer for a little bit and didn't place right on the page.  No need to waste, folded in half for top edge, folded right edge inside and will stitch the two rough edges down by hand when doing the binding.

Now this is a hexagon shaped quilt so I used the same concept as the triangle but had to special cut to match the quilt top.  I folded in half to get the top edge and turned in the two small side edges.  The raw edges will be finished with the binding and the other three will be hand stitched.

Thought I share the front of the hexagon quilt.  It is paper pieces using the AccuQuilt GO! die (55422).  I am a very hyper person and hand work is not easy for me since it requires sitting still.  When I got the piece filled in, I decided done is better than big.  I would have never attempted this without the die.  The die cuts both fabric and card stock and made this for easy to go together.

This method gives you a professional la el and will allow future generations to know exactly where the quilt came from.

Now, Let's GO! Quilting!