Fall quilt

I just finished working on a fall quilt.  As I showed it in some of the quilting groups online a lot of questions were ask. I thought I would give a brief explanation of how I came up with this quilt.

First of all I love to go to http://www.digiwebstudio.com/store/   
  I get most of my clipart from here   I take the clipart and resize using photoshop to the size I want.  I usually print it off using black and white.. I  flip the image so I can trace the parts I want and I trace them right on to heat and bond light.  I do use a light box for this. I was lucky that my grand son bought me one for Christmas and I love it.    I put all the pieces on the fabric that I want mostly scraps. and cut them out .. I then print off the image again the right way still in black and white not flipped and use it to place  the pieces on the fabric.  I use the blanket stitch on my Janome  for most of the applique. I am not very good at hand embroidery so I try to do all  that I can with my machine.  I made a stitch library of all my stitches at different sizes so that I know which one to use.  I use a light tearaway stablizer under the applique and I cut my squares just a little bigger than I want them so I can cut them to the perfect size when I am ready.   I used graph paper to fiqure out my quilt layout first but had to readjust when I added sashing. I do have EQ7 but still have not learned  how to use it.   I really hope this helps.  I have thought about writing  patterns for these quilts but am not really sure how to go about that yet.  I may try it though.   Have a nice day.  . 

Learning needle turn

I have been busy learning FMQ and Needle turn applique.  This pattern is from http://www.p3designs.com/gallery/  It was a free pattern on her Yahoo Group. I thought this would be a great one to tackle.  I learned that using glue was the best way for me to turn the edges. I did use some starch on some of the pieces.  The one thing that I found was when I used the invisible stitch to applique them down I missed some parts and they were raised. I used fmq  to go totally around  2 of them  and then I tried Invisible thread on the next one to go around and it was much better. Since I am new to FMQ  I did a lot of practicing  on each square.  This one goes on my bed as I know how many mistakes are really in this one.  Since there are no quilt police at my house  no one will know how I made so many mistakes. Lessons learned now I plan on doing another needle turn and I will make sure that my pieces will be all the way done. May have to put on magnifying glasses but I will conquer this technique. I love applique  both ways but my favorite is fusible  and blanket stitching.  

Owl quilt

I know it has been a long time since I posted.  I just didn't have it in me.  I  have been  quilting and learning new things this past year.  My latest project has been an owl quilt that I designed the  appliques for using clipart from http://www.digiwebstudio.com/store/ I showed it on a few groups that I have been following and have been asked for the pattern.  I have never written a pattern but I am going to try and see what happens.  I am getting ready to design another one but here is the owl quilt.

This was a quilt as you go. The layout is from the class I took with Leah Days Butterfly quilt along. I used a lot of her designs to quilt it and other designs that I found on the internet. I have taken Craftsy classes with Angela Walters, Leah Day, Ann Peterson and others to learn to free motion quilt.  I still have lots to learn about this and I practice everyday. Here is the back of the back of the quilt.

I hope to show you some other quilts in the next day or two that I have been working on,.

Heavy Heart

As you know my husband has been battling cancer for the last 5 years. He lost the battle on Dec 10th. My heart is heavy  with sorrow. I know his pain is now gone and he will be watching over me. My son posted this on facebook for me.

I have not been able to sew anything since he passed away. I am trying to pull myself together as I know he would  want me to try to get on with my life. It is just so hard to concentrate without tears of sorrow streaming down my cheeks. Rest in Peace My dear Ron.

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Border suggestions needed

I have been working on my embroidery blocks.  I digitized each month and added color  around them. I set them in a maze type setting with flying geese in matching colors. Now I am trying to figure out what other border to add to the quilt before I quilt it. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks

Flea market quilt and FMQ

I finished up the quilt that I found at the flea market for $5. Since I am trying to learn to fmq I decided this would be a project to practice on. So I turned on Craftsy and listen to Leah Day, Angela Walters and Ann Pederson to see if I could do this on my home machine. It is only a small twin size and it was already pinned and ready to quilt. I found I made a lot of mistakes by looking at the back of it. I had what they called eyelashes every where. I slowed down and that didn't help. I finally changed the upper tension and they disappeared.

After quilting it I found that the back of the quilt should have been a little larger. O well what do I expect from the flea market. Also the quilt was very bumpy in the seams and especially where the pinwheels came together. I am happy with it as my first big project on my home machine.  I have another one just like that that was not pinned to a back. I guess I will make a back for it , add some borders and do some more practicing. The other one is identical to this one and when I get it done I can see if I am improving in my attempts at FMQ. I am going to practice on paper tonight some more designs. Having fun with this. Have a nice day.