Happy New Year 2019!

We just got home from my mother's house where we had our annual Chinese food dinner. I'm settled down on the couch to sew down binding and watch The Twilight Zone or maybe The Three Stooges. It's just another annual ritual for us!

Have a wonderful New Year's Eve! See you next year!!

Ornaments and Binding

We got these 2 ornaments for Christmas from my daughter. Aren't they cute!? She had them made for us from pictures she had taken. Lily and Molly will always be on our Christmas tree from now on! I hope you had all had a nice holiday. It was a lot of work and we had such a great time. My mother spent the day with us. We ate way too much but had a lot of fun too.

In between wrapping gifts, I did manage to sew the binding on this quilt. I would try and sew down the binding when I got to sit down during the holiday but I didn't get very far! I'll get it done soon now that the holidays are winding down.

This is just a closeup of the binding. Almost done!!

Thread Catcher

I should be wrapping gifts, baking or cleaning but I ended up making a thread catcher instead! I found the pattern online awhile ago and found it in my sewing room. I thought it would be a fun quick project. I didn't have time for anything too involved!

I sewed each half of the body to the bottom.

I added batting and made a grid as my quilting pattern.  I just used my regular sewing machine. I was keeping things nice and easy!

I sewed up the sides and boxed the corners. I added a narrow contrasting fabric strip to the top.

I prepared my lining. These are all leftover Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I love them!

I sewed everything right sides together. I left an opening in the lining and this is what I pulled out! Voila! My new thread catcher!

Back to preparing for the holiday. I think I have a love/hate relationship with the holidays.

Vintage Double Wedding Ring

Since I'm still knitting Christmas mittens, there hasn't been much sewing going on. However, I did find time to wash the Vintage Double Wedding Ring Quilt.  I love to wash my quilts and see that crinkly texture come to life! This quilt is no exception! You can really see my quilting now!

Here's a peek at the back.

Here's a nice picture of the whole quilt. I really love the look of this quilt. I also learned a lot about quilting feathers. This is one of my favorites!

Step Down Quilt Finish!

Even though I'm busy making Christmas gifts, I'm so happy to have finished Step Down! I finished it yesterday morning. 

I rushed out to my local quilt shop and bought the binding fabric. It was warm yesterday so I washed the fabric and put it out on my deck to dry.

Here's a video of the quilt coming off the longarm. It's always fun to watch!

Here's a video showing you how I use the ruler on my longarm.

Hope you like them!

More Christmas Gifts

This week seemed to just fly by! I worked during the week more than I usually do. I did find time to get some shopping and sewing done for Christmas. I finally finished this stocking. I even have gifts in it!

I found some nice gold ribbon for hanging the stocking. I looked through my sewing room and found this cute little Christmas button. It's probably left over from an older project but it was perfect for the stocking.  I'll be mailing this out next week.

I have another 2 pairs of mittens almost ready! I still have 2 more pairs left to knit. I hope I can get them done in time. How's your Christmas shopping and gift making coming along??  Just 11 days left!

Step Down Quilt Sashing

I have finished quilting all the blocks in the Step Down Quilt. I had originally thought I would free motion quilt some loops in the remaining "step" sashing left in the quilt. But I changed my mind and  decided to just quilt straight lines every inch or so. I thought a diagonal in the corner would be fine.

I wish I had decided this earlier. I could have been quilting this all along as I made my way down the quilt. Oh, well! It's not that big a deal. I should be finished with this quilt very soon! I'm still trying to finish my Christmas shopping. This time of year is so busy!!

Ruler Work/FMQ

I've been working more than usual lately. We had to update our software. Whenever this happens, our hours are increased as well as staffing. I worked all day Friday, Saturday and Monday. Monday, I had to start work at 3AM! It was strange to get up in the middle of the night to start work. I was so tired last night. I went to bed early and slept 10 hours!

I was able to quilt a little today. I finished this block last week. As you can see, I combined a little ruler work with some free motion quilting.

This was also ruler work. I drew a 2 inch grid. Using a circle ruler, I quilted arcs on either side of each line. I've never made these arcs on a printed line. I've always had a sewn line to make arcs. I found it a bit harder since the line wasn't always easy to see. Thankfully, the busy fabric masks some of that. 

This is ruler work combined with feathers. The fabric makes my quilting impossible to see! I had to place lights in certain areas so it would show up in the picture. I'll definitely do this motif again. I like how it looks.

Here's another busy fabric! I fooled around with my boomerang ruler. The hardest part of this ruler is keeping the foot snugly up against while moving. I did veer off a few times!

Here's a close up. The curves are very forgiving and makes the whole thing work.

I only have one row left and then Step Down Quilt is finished! This time of year is so busy. I'm happy to sneak in my quilting time any chance I can!

Christmas Stocking FMQ

I made this stocking for a very close friend who doesn't sew. The pattern is in the November 2018 issue of American Quilter. She likes to see my free motion quilting so I thought this stocking would be the perfect gift for her. I plan on filling it with gifts for her. It measures about 10" by 18". 

I traced the pattern onto the right side of my fabric.

The pattern recommended to get prequilted fabric for the back of the stocking. I decided to make my own. I just used a quick meander.

I filled each space with a different quilting motif. I took out my books and tried to find various motifs to fill each space. This part was fun!

I cut out the stocking and added binding. Here's a closeup of the top of the stocking.

This is a closeup of the bottom of the stocking. The binding at the top of the stocking has already been sewn down. I'm making my way around the outside of the stocking. I clipped the rounded edges so the binding will lay down smoothly. It's so nice to start Christmas gifts early for a change!

Knit Mittens

I've been working on a few Christmas gifts. The only ones I can really show are these mittens! I like knitting mittens on 3 needles. There's no seam to sew when you're done. The mittens are already finished. These mittens are for Olivia, the daughter of a friend. I hope she likes them!

I've already started another pair. I used smaller needles since these are for a toddler. I'm using a free pattern I found online at thesprucecrafts.com. I did change the directions a little. It's still a great pattern especially for a freebie.

Happy Thanksgiving 2018

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I'm grateful for so many things including all of you that read my blog! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. 

More Carolina Chains

I made 2 more blocks for my Carolina Chain quilt. Each block finishes up at 9.5 inches square. 

I had these pieces cut for weeks but I just couldn't seem to find the time to sit down and sew. 

I finally found an afternoon to sew my blocks together. 

I have 24 blocks so far. I need a total of 72 blocks so I'm 1/3 of the way there! This is definitely a long term project. I like cutting pieces for this quilt while working on other projects. The other projects "feed" the scraps for this quilt. It's my own little scrap system!

Quilt Guild BOM

These are my latest 2 blocks for my quilt guild's Block of the Month. All the blocks in this quilt use half square triangles. I use the traditional method where you mark a diagonal line and sew 1/4 inch on either side of that line. Easy peasy! These 2 blocks were so fast!

My half square triangles were all made in this picture. I just had to sew them together! I'm really enjoying this project. 

These are all my blocks so far. I'm going to end up with 16 blocks. I'm almost halfway there! 

FMQ and Grid Quilting

I finished quilting the first row of Step Down Quilt. It's a little frustrating that these squares finished at 9 1/2 inches. It's not that easy to divide it up evenly. I'm trying the best I can. The inner square was quilted using a grid. I made wavy curve lines that remind me of sashiko. The pattern is called Plover. I used ribbon candy to quilt the sashing. I haven't decided how to quilt the dark blue sashing. I'll do that at the end. 

I also used a grid for this square. It's just a clamshell that off sets each row. This fabric is so busy that I wasn't sure what to do with it. This pattern seemed like it would work. 

Here we have very busy fabric! I quilted swirls with petals around them. 

This fabric was the hardest for me to quilt. I divided it into quarters, corner to corner. I quilted feathers using the edge of the square as the stem. I could barely see what I was doing! I set up my light so I could see but it was still difficult. 

I feel this quilt is great practice for me. I have a bunch of books that I leaf through and get ideas to try. I'll be starting the next row soon!!

Stepping Up to Step Down Quilt

Step Down Quilt is all loaded and ready to be quilted. It's made of 20 blocks that measure 9.5 inches square. The fabrics are all different. I'm going to try some grid design. These blocks are the perfect size to experiment with some new motifs.

This is the seam I had to make so the backing would be large enough. I tried to follow the little blocks to keep my seam straight. I also hoped the seam wouldn't be too visible.

I think it worked out pretty good! You can hardly see the seam! I think the print hides it too. I trimmed the left side so the edge would be even. It's so much easier to load when everything is even.

These two were very interested when I started to load the quilt. After a little while, I think they got bored and decided to nap instead! I can't blame them!!