Second Place

Well, my challenge quilt won 2nd place :) now to make three more and stitch them together for a king sized quilt for my bed.

I entered another contest on line for some fabric and WON!

Proper Cutting

Okay...I touched on this already, but want to keep going. If you have the right tools and take the time...surprisingly, squares and triangles can actually match up! 

Quilting is a process, it's not just sewing. It is finding the right materials, cutting to proper sized and making the squares or shapes you want. THEN,  you have to recheck the size or of the blocks turned out wobbly, change the size. I started a puzzle quilt for my nephew for Christmas. It is a fun block to make but the size changed from 9.5 to 9 inches just so I could make sure all blocks are the same size. It is so nice to have everything line up and match! The sewing was the easy part after getting all the blocks correct.

I have several rulers and tools to help me achieve the right cut. I use:

Half-Square & Quarter-Square Triangles Ruler

Shape Cut™ Ruler

These rulers are probably my favorite! Try them and see what you think. There are videos on youtube that shows you how to use them.

Have fun and remember...it's all about quilting!

Military Quilt Finished

Wow! Life has sure been busy. I got several quilts sewed, but the more important one is I got Michael's marine quilt finished and sent.

This was quite a project but well worth it.

One of the things I learned doing this quilt was to make sure everything was cut and re-cut to size. Proper measurement and the right tools made piecing this quilt a breeze. I don't know why I never really did much trimming. I just sewed the ragged edges and made it fit and then be disappointed.

Practice makes perfect, but really none is perfect but Jesus, right? LOL...so all we can do is learn and do our very best.

To FMQ or Not is the Question

I have been pretty steady working on my Marine quilt. Seems like I can't do much for ministry without a whole bunch of distractions. But all of those aside, it is pinned and ready to quilt. Now i have to decide how I want to do it. Do I...just do fancy stitches or FMQ? I'm thinking doesn't every quilt need to be FMQ'd? I don't know...I'm still such a rookie.

I really want it done by church Sunday but we'll see.

this is a weird picture and I'll post a finished picture when it is complete.

Duty Calls

Well...it's time to put play away and focus on why I quilt. I got an email from an online friend requesting a quilt for her brother. He was wounded this Memorial Day Weekend in Iraq/Afganistan and lost both if his legs. Thank you Micheal for taking care of us here in the great USA! Yes I will make you a healing quilt and NO I will not charge for it. It is the least I can do for you. I am honored to make this for you.

Micheal is in the Marines and will be stateside hopefully in the next week. Please pray for him and his family as they adjust to having him home and for healing in his body and mind.

Challenge Quilt Started

Okay, so, I started the challenge quilt and boy was it simple thanks to Leah at Day Style Design. I followed her instructions by practicing and then, had the pattern on paper blew up in gray scale so I could practice on paper. That was genius and I didn't get lost cuz I had a map of where I was going. It worked perfect! When I was stippling and thought I was lost, I just stopped and looked at my paper and knew exactly where I was going next and knew where I needed to end up to get to my next star. Perfect! Perfect!

Now...my quilting to start with was not perfect. My points were off all over the place so that made stitching a little difficult and I used a raspberry thread and it didn't show up very well but I'm not sure it is supposed to? Looks good from the back but it feels good and you can see a bit of shine from the thread and I will be putting a flower of some kind (still need more practice) in the solid places so that will show nicely.

Anyway...I'd call this project so far very successful. I'm very satisfied in this learning process. :)

sometimes pictures don't really show what I want you to see. lol

Gotta Have a Game Plan

Okay...Maybe I'm over thinking this challenge quilt just a bit but I really do want to win. But not only do I want to win, I want to produce a beautiful quilt. And I want it to be right. As I said, I have to use Free Motion Quilting to finish it. If I put the quilt sandwich in my machine and start to quilt...what direction do I go? I had no idea.

I was very thankful for Leah Day with Day Star Quilting. I've been following her teaching and very glad. She says to practice. Funny...the Bible says to "study to show yourself approved".

Today, I did two more stars and then I thought my quilt's stars are a bit different. How am I gonna do MY quilt? Soo...I copied the pattern, blew it up and printed it gray scale and stared stippling with pencil. Right away I ran into a snag and didn't know my next move! Thank you Leah!!

Spent the day messing around with the pattern and figuring out what I wanted to put where and now I'm ready to quilt. :)

here are the pictures of the stars and my plan...

Here is my finished quilt:

Stippling in Blocks

This block I hand drew and then I was to follow the lines, then use "micro-stippling". I was supposed to use 1/4 inch scale but I think I used smaller than that. LOL I also wasn't supposed to cross the lines or touch lines (not the side lines, the wiggle lines) but I got confused a lot. HA! I have much more practice to do as my challange quilt has stars on it and I want to WIN!

Free Motion Quilting

I'm learning how to quilt my quilts using a technique called "free motion quilting". This technique I kinda knew I would learn, but didn't think I would tackle it for a while. I've been having fun just using decrative stitches and that was working for me...until.

Until I started making quilts that grew out of the box. You know, that wouldn't let me sew a box around it. Stars and X's and O's and odd shapes, they need something special to bind it to the backing and FMQ is the answer. Plus, I was now motivated to learn it quicker because I entered a quilt into a contest. My pattern is an exploding star and there is no other way to quilt this BUT Free Motion Quilting.

In Order to do a good job, I need practice...and LOTS of it! So I'll be posting some of my practice pieces and you can watch my progress LOL!

Tools of the Trade

I am a gadget girl, plain and simple. When I did all the cooking in the kitchen I had to have every kitchen gadget whether I used it or not. If it was a special pan for a special dish or a special bowl or an electric item...I had to have it. Once I decided on the colors I wanted in my kitchen...it was on! I wanted everything orange, or lime green LOL!

Once I started sewing, it was the same only different. These tools I did some trials and errors but mostly everything I have bought I have used faithfully. Lots of rulers for different things, but really you need them. You need a 6x24 to cut length of fabric, but you need a 6x12 and even a 3x6 for the smaller cuts. I have an 8x8 and a 16 1/2 x 16 1/2 for panels and to square up pieces more easily. Triangle and Hexagon rulers are special for special cuts. I found on you tube a ruler that easily cuts half square triangles buy first marking the fabric, then after you sew it, you cut it, using this same ruler, then using this same ruler, you square it up. I get most of my rulers right at JoAnn Fabrics and I always use my 40-50% off coupons!

Other gadgets, well...I think must haves are a walking foot. You can get a generic one to fit your machine. You also need a 1/4 inch quilting foot. There are lots of you tube videos you should get used to watching...just type in how to use blank...fill in and they will explain how to use the walking foot or 1/4 inch or just type in quilting or why is my quilt puckering lol i used that one a lot.

Random Quilting Thoughts

My initial intent for starting this blog was so I could post photos I'm working on and upload to a blog I belong to. Then...I thought maybe it would be a useful place for me to do some basic teaching as I have a ton in my head (to the beginner). Kind of learn from my mistakes and this is what we learned kinda thing. Then I thought maybe I'd do everything in order...but I can't remember that way and it was bringing me stress (over thinking as my husband calls it) so, I think I will write what I want as the mood strikes. LOL

I LOVE COLORS! I made this quilt using a pattern out of a quilt magazine, using all of my favorite colors with mini 9-patch and mini-rail fence blocks. The only thing I wish I would have done different is known about binding. Also, doing the mini 9-patch you really need to have a 1/4 inch foot or know your seam allowance cuz mine were all over the place. My seams were difficult to match up but I made them work and it's on my bed and I love it!

Pins...Pins...Pins...

My first few quilts turned out very pretty. They were all the same pattern and I pinned them using straight pins. (ouch!) This part of the process wasn't fun for me and I almost gave up quilting. However. I do a lot of research online. I believe if you are going to be good at something you should study and learn the thing and know what you are doing. And you must practice...a lot.

I discovered online that folks were using safety pins. I was so happy to find this out, that I went straight to the fabric store and bought some. They were the three inch ones and left big holes but I didn't care...they weren't straight pins and I wasn't getting stuck anymore! LOL

After more research I learned about curved two inch pins and so far that is what I'm using. I did buy a can of the spray but I don't have much of an opinion either way yet.

Here are a couple of quilts in the basic pattern I first learned. Simple easy and as colorful as you wanted to get. :)

You can see on the one the border is horrible! Yep...beginner. We were bringing the backside up and around to make the border on the front. Now that we know how to actually make the boarder, I see how bad this looks. LOL

The Begining of Quilting

A couple of years ago my mom taught me the basics of quilting. We cut squares using cut sheets of plexiglass and scissors. It didn't take too long to figure out something was wrong with this picture. LOL I found a video online on how to use my already onhand tools...rotary cutter and mat. Wow!! What a difference that made. Lots of practice later I taught mom how to do it. Now we only use the squares for fussy cutting.