Free Motion Machine Quilting Practice

To keep those free motion quilting skills fresh, I took three of the pieced blocks from the Craftsy Block of the Month class from several years ago and quilted them up. My go to place for motifs these days is Lori Kennedy's web site, The Inbox Jaunt.

The design on this block is the Squiggly Sun. This is the only block where I knew before I started what I wanted to do. The semi-circles of gray were perfect for this design. There isn't any quilting on the printed fabric at all but I'm thinking that some should be added later. My preference is for the quilting to be balanced over the entire block or quilt.

Here is a close up of the center motif. It was a fun design to quilt.

It took some time to figure out what to quilt on this block. I had drawn some ideas but none of them were quite right. While browsing the motifs over at The Inbox Jaunt, this sewing scissor motif fit the space perfectly. It is a design I had been wanting to try anyway, so that made it an easy decision.

There was some space left in the center of the block after the scissors were quilted. I attempted to quilt a needle and thread to go with each pair of scissors to fill the space. The printed fabric is stitched in the ditch along some of the seam lines.

This block ended up being my favorite, probably because I was able to use so many different motifs in one block. The Welsh Leaf is across the top, Clam Shells on the left side, Lines with Spirals across the bottom, and alternating vertical and horizontal lines on the right side. The inner square is quilted with The Twist.

Here is a closer look at the Welsh Leaf. This was the most difficult of the designs.

Here's the straight line with a spiral. I need to practice this one more. It was hard to figure out where to start the spiral so that it was centered on the line. I think it would look better if the spirals happened more frequently, too.

The alternating vertical and horizontal lines were fun. The rhythm and flow of this design made it easy to do.

This design is called Clam Shell but they look more like rainbows here. You can see the twist design in the inner square here, too. It was another design with easy flow.

I'm not sure what is going to happen with all these quilted squares. There are quite a few to go. For now, they are a good size for quilting practice and that makes them one step closer to becoming a finished project.

Everything gets better with practice.

Linking up to Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Sampler Block Shuffle With Cardinals

Finally, I cut into my Charley Harper cardinal fabric. 

Why oh why did I only buy one yard? I love these little birds and want to keep them around for a long, long time. I'm glad I found a project that highlights these pretty birds while not eating up all of my yard in just a few cuts. 

The Moda Sampler Block Shuffle is a series of free blocks offered by shops that carry Moda products. The series has been going on for a couple of months now and runs through the end of January. Participating shops offer two or three new blocks each week. Each block is designed or sponsored by a different designer. There are two copies of the pattern on each printed page. The idea is to keep one for yourself and share the other with a friend. The blocks are only available for a limited time. I am getting mine from the Intown Quilters.

This is Block 2 by Me & My Sister Designs. Because the cardinals are fussy cut, I went through and sorted the blocks that have been published so far so that the easier ones to cut are first.

This is Block 4 by V and Co. I have collected 24 blocks so far and stitched up 5. It took a while for me to commit to using my cardinals for this project. 

This is Block 5 by Kathy Schmitz Studios.

Block 6 by American Jane. I altered this block slightly. The center is supposed to be a four-patch but I liked using a bigger piece of the cardinals for the center.

Block 8 by little miss shabby. Again, I turned the center from a four-patch to a single larger square.

I like they way they look together so far. This is a good project to fit in between others or when I want something that won't take a long time to do. I'm not sure what the final count of blocks will be for the Moda Sampler Block Shuffle series but I intend to make them all. There may be a few alterations along the way so they fit with my cardinal themed sampler. Hoping to share more progress with you in a few weeks. I'd love to see your blocks if you decide to play along.

Linking up with Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts and Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. Also linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation and Scraptastic Tuesday over at She Can Quilt.

New Series: Quilts Inspired By Art (And Craft)

Welcome to a new blog series all about making quilts inspired by other mediums of art and craft. Each month we will start with a new inspiration piece and walk through the process of moving from inspiration to finished quilt. The plan is to post a new segment each Monday morning. You can make your own version along side me each week, or simply enjoy reading along.

This month's inspiration is from the scrap booking world. I am often inspired by unique layout and color choices for scrapbook pages and card design.

INSPIRATION

Linda Aarhus from Polka Dots And Paper provides our January inspiration. I could make a whole mini-quilt series from her Christmas card designs alone.This is the card that will be our inspiration this month. The basket weave layout, the ability to personalize, and the mix of print and solid are the primary factors that drew me to this card design. Kept to a relatively small scale, I thought it would be the perfect baby or child's quilt.

The first step is to calculate the fabric requirements and choose fabric. In my day job, I sit at a computer all the time and I am sure there is an easier way to do this. Sometimes, I think I was born a generation too late. I enjoy the process of ruler, paper, and pencil to figure out the measurements.

FABRIC REQUIREMENTS

Using the colors from the inspiration card:

• Light Gray Background - 1 yard
• Dark Gray Vertical - 1/2 yard
• Print Horizontal - 1/2 yard
• Inner Border - 1/3 yard
• Outer Border - 1/2 yard
• Lettering - 1/3 yard (This will depend on number of letters and size of letters, but 1/3 yard should cover most scenarios. We will learn about this in greater detail later in the month.)
• Backing - 1 3/4 yards
• Binding - 1/2 yard

This project does not work well with fat quarters. If you don't mind having extra seams in some of your pieces, it is possible, but it is not preferred. The instructions provided assume you are working with 40+ inch wide cotton fabric yardage.

FABRIC SELECTION

The next step is to choose fabric. My intention is to create these quilts primarily from my existing fabric stash. We will see how that goes. I also wanted to make a boy version and a girl version of this quilt. This was the first choice for boy fabric.

For this design, it is easy to layout the fabric in the general arrangement to get a better idea of how it will look.

I also tried a layout with the dots as the background, then realized that there wasn't enough yardage for that option. The red background is the one I liked best, but I knew not to move forward with that choice right away. It always helps me to take a fresh look after a few hours. When I took a fresh look, that distinct red and white graph paper fabric looked pink. There are some people who would be just fine with pink in a boy quilt, but most would not. Time to try again.

I had already selected a fabric for the back of this quilt. It was the perfect blue/gray/green match for the spot fabric.

This layout is the one I decided to use. The solids will offer lots of quilting options when we get to that step. The color is more accurate in the first layout with the red background. It is really a more blue/green than gray. The weather has not been cooperative lately for daylight pictures. Now for the girl option, which came together much more easily.

Can't get much more girly than this.

This layout seemed too busy to me.

This is better, although I may switch which fabric is horizontal and which is vertical. There is still time to ponder that. The boy quilt will be made first.

NEXT WEEK

Next week, we will talk about how to dissect an inspiration piece for quilt making. We will also cut our fabric and piece the top. I'd love to hear from you. This is my first time attempting a series and your feedback will only make it better. Questions and comments are always welcomed. I will do my best to respond to each and every one.

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times and Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt. Also linking up with Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts.

Thoughtful Sunday #14

Hello 2016: A Recap And A Word

Happy New Year everyone! Being the party girl that I am, I was asleep by 10:30 on New Year's Eve. It's okay though. I'm up bright and early this new year's morning, ready to take on whatever this year may bring.

But before rushing forward, there were some pretty good things about 2015 that are worth remembering. My word for the year was "PAUSE" and I did a lot of that. I had wondered if my immersion in all things quilting caused me to miss out on other adventures in life so I spent some time dabbling in other areas. 

I committed to drawing every day (which lasted through the first quarter of the year) and I started playing the flute again by participating in our community band. What I learned is that I do love trying new things. I love adventure. I love to learn. Most of all though, I love sewing and making quilts. 

After "pausing" for a good portion of the year, I decided to make a bigger commitment to this blog. That started last September and I am thankful that many of you have joined in on this quilting and blogging adventure. There will be lots of fun things happening here in the coming year. 

Overall, I finished 24 projects in 2015. Eleven were quilts, three of which were collaborative quilts with the Believe Circle bee that is part of  do. Good Stitches. Six were mini quilts. I really embraced the mini quilt for the first time this year. Seven were other smaller projects like coasters and pot holders, pillow covers and pillow cases, mug rugs, a cross stitched tree, and a few scarves. 

My favorite finish for this year is this quilt made from the fabric swatches off an old Moda Marbles color card. This is the only quilt for the year where there was no preconceived vision of the outcome. I enjoyed how it evolved as it went along.

On to the new year. My word for 2016 is "GIVE". This year, I want to focus on giving in every aspect of my life, especially in my relationships. From my family to my coworkers to everyone near and dear to me, to my blog readers, to those whose blogs I read, and even to those people I haven't met yet that cross my path in day to day life. This is a year to be immersed in all those small special moments, to embrace all the opportunities to give my best self each and every day. It's gonna be a good year.

Thoughtful Sunday #13

Merry Christmas

My mother-in-law collects nativity scenes. We usually visit her on Christmas afternoon with as much of the family as can be there. There is always a sign on the refrigerator: There are 26 (I think that is how many there were last year) nativity scenes around the house. Can you find them all?

At which point all the kids and some of the adults start to scramble to see who can find them all first. It is lots of fun and a good distraction while we wait for Christmas dinner to be served.

These are the nativities on display at my house this year.

My favorite version of the Christmas story is the one told by Linus on the Charlie Brown Christmas show. Linus’ King James version scripture reading from Luke 2: 8-14, read:

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this [shall be] a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

Merry Christmas.