Recent Shopping

I made a couple of purchases recently I thought I'd share with you. First I bought one of the ultimate machine quilting packages from Leah Day at Day Style Designs.

I have the original slider, but this is the Supreme slider. It has a self sticking bottom so that it will stay put without having to tape it down. My original slider works well but having to remove the tape every time I change a bobbin is getting old. And it has gotten a bit bent up over the years from regular use. I also already have a pair of Machingers gloves, but I thought having two would be nice. I have never tried the magic bobbin washers but others say they are great. I've been wanting to try them to see what all the fuss is about. I'll let you know.

My second recent purchase was thread.

After my recent machine quilting nightmare with the YLI variegated thread, I decided to try Signature variegated thread based on recommendations from friends. Again, I'll let you know. I also bought two spools of Aurifil in fun colors. I'm in LOVE with the turquoise. The photo above does not do it justice. Have you ever gotten thread you loved so much you designed a project just so you could use it? I've got to come up with some project to use this turquoise thread on! The green is also wonderful, but it is a replacement spool. I already have some of the green but used most of it. It is such a good color for me that I just bought another spool to have on hand.

Finally, it is snowing here today. Goldie is sitting in the window trying to catch snow flakes!

Silly girl! One photo can't capture the frequent head turning and little meowy growls she is making.

Happy New Year!

Since my boys are gone for the weekend, I am participating Pat Sloan's New Year's Eve UFO Luau. Click here to read about today's happenings. The UFO I am working on is my Funky Santa quilt. Here it is December 2009 hanging in the dining room just basted together, pins and all.

I began quilting it yesterday but didn't make that much progress on it. I really liked the Ocean Current pattern I did on the border of Hawaiian Hug, so I am using it again on Funky Santa.

Yesterday I cleaned a few areas in my sewing room, although it is hard to tell that today. My cutting table already has more piles of stuff on it. It was clean for about 2 hours! LOL! I also finished the binding, sleeve and label on the Nine Patch Strata.

So I did finish something yesterday which feels good.

Plodding Along on Hawaiian Hug

I finally got back to quilting Hawaiian Hug today. I just have the outer border left to do. I decided to use the Ocean Current pattern by Leah Day. If you haven't checked out her site, click on the link in the previous sentence! She has done a lot of work recently organizing her designs to make it easier to find the right kind of design for your project. You can search by design type, texture, difficulty level and design number. It is awesome! Great work Leah!! Thank you!!

So here is what it looks like after I have done all of the foundational swirls on my first side and a little bit of echoing.

And this is what the finished side looks like.

Not a great picture but it got dark before I remembered to take a picture for you. I'll take more tomorrow. I hope to finish this up tomorrow. I have one of the long side borders already done and most of one of the short sides finished. The husband is taking the boy skiing for the weekend!!! (doing the happy dance vigorously!) So I should have plenty of time to finish the quilting on this and be able to send it off to the recipient next week.

I learned while doing the first side that it helps to sew off the edge of the quilt every foot or so when doing your foundational swirls. This gives you a good "stopping" place for echo quilting so you don't have to echo the entire length of the quilt. It just made it much easier for me to manage this almost twin size quilt in my domestic machine. I am also getting quite a bit of practice at stopping and starting smoothly on this project. I can't say that I am an expert yet, but I am getting much better.

Rectangles Quilting motifs 3

Today I'll show you the last four rectangles of my Rectangles Sampler Quilt. All of these quilting designs came directly from Leah Day's website/blog.

Bubble Chain

Flowing Glass

Lollipop Chains

Trailing Spirals

Rectangles Quilting motifs 2

This is the next installment of detail shots of the quilting motifs I used in my rectangles quilt.

Echo Path

H2O

Modern Art

Mosaic Tiles

The second and third designs are directly from Leah Day's website/blog. The last one was inspired by the applique fabric on the rectangle and the first one is just an echo of a line of stitching. I just stitched one curving line and then echoed it on either side to fill the rectangle. Leah has a couple of designs that use this echo technique. So I guess the idea is hers but the design is mine. 

Cub Scout Quilt Finished!

I finished sewing on the binding on the Cub Scout Disappearing Nine Patch Quilt last night! Here is a photo of the back.

The large camping print on the back is the original planned size of the quilt! As you can see, it grew quite a bit once I got started making it.

Here are detail images of the quilting both from the back and front.

I used my variation of the Cucumber Vine pattern from Leah Day for the center. I think my tendrils are not as curvy as Leah's. I just did a row of circles in the small green border. For the half-square triangle border I quilted stars down the zig-zag and echoed the triangle shape created along the outside of the zig-zag.

Here it is on the bed.

New Sewing Table for Quilting

I purchased this sewing table at my local thrift store. It needed a leg reattached which my husband fixed for me. This is the first time I have had a large flat surface to quilt on and it is as wonderful as I have heard it would be. I put this table perpendicular to my regular table (which is just a cheap-o dining room table left over from college) and my old ironing board behind the table. It is a bit of a tight squeeze to get in and out of my chair, but should be a great set-up if we can get the bats out of the attic so I can move my sewing room upstairs.

I'm currently quilting Parker's Cub Scout quilt.

Originally I was going to quilt in the ditch around all the blocks in the center then do some free motion quilting. I didn't baste it together well enough and I was getting puckers on the front and back. So I stopped, ripped out the little bit of stitching I had done and rebasted it. I decided not to quilt in the ditch and just get right to the free motion but couldn't decide what pattern to use. So I checked out Leah Day's site and picked her cucumber vine pattern to try out. It has the effect of stippling, but with a different look.

You can see the pattern better from the back.

I have not decided yet how to quilt the borders. I plan to get the center quilted then check out Leah's patterns again for border quilting ideas.