Janome Memory Craft 6700P Faux hand stitch

 This is a really cool stitch that looks almost like hand stitching. I created this on my Janome Memory Craft 6700P machine. In order to get this look you have to put clear monofilament thread in the top of the machine and colored thread in the bobbin. 

I have the HP plate on the machine and the 1/4 foot on.

The stitch I selected is 006. The stitch length was set at 4.

Scrappy Tumbler block quilt

 

This quilt came together quickly. I made it as a charity quilt. It is lap size. Width is 39" and length is 40" I used a "Double Tumble Template by it's sew emma. Find product here.

To make this quilt I cut 5" strips from my fabric. I placed the template on the strip, cut a piece, then flipped the template around to cut the next piece. This is a method that has almost no waste of fabric.

I cut 126 pieces in total. There are 9 rows and 14 columns

Quilting it was a breeze. I used the preset wave setting on my sewing machine to make the horizontal wavy lines. Using my walking foot, I sewed straight vertical lines 1/2" away from the edges of each block. No ruler was used, The walking foot I used was 1/2' wide so I just put the edge of the foot on the seam.

The sides are naturally wavy. I liked the wavy edge so I just left it. I made bias binding so that it would lay nicely on the waves. I used this tutorial to learn how to make bias binding.

When to pick out free motion quilting

Have you ever done some free motion quilting that you felt ruined the whole quilt? I did, and because of it I tucked my nearly finished quilt away into a closet for about a year. I didn't know how to deal with it. I was happy with most of the quilt but I thought the free motion quilting I did on one block was ugly. My eyes kept going there and nowhere else on the quilt. I had already picked out a portion of it once before and improved it somewhat, but I still didn't like it.

Picking out free motion quilting

Today I decided it was now or never. I had to pick out all of my free motion quilting on this block or I would never finish this quilt. It actually went quite well. I am almost done. It took me a few hours, but I think it was worth it. I was very careful not to make any holes in the fabric. That was my worst fear. Tomorrow I will finish picking the last little bit, and then I can get back to free motion quilting this quilt and finally get it finished.

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See the lovely pile of thread I picked out?

Christmas present block

I am having a "Christmas in July" kind of a day. I am making blocks for a Christmas quilt.

I love to experiment and try new things with every quilt I make. This time I am experimenting with gold fabric. It is quite thin and seems like it would fray very easily. I bought one meter of it. I also bought one meter of lightweight fusible interfacing. I placed the gold fabric down on the floor (carpet), then placed the interfacing on top of it. I put my iron on the "synthetic" setting which is low heat then slowly ironed over the entire surface. The two were nicely fused together and ready for cutting. Now I am finding the fabric easy to work with. No fraying whatsoever. No distortion when I am sewing the pieces together.

The bow at the top of the present is made of a flying goose. This quilt block can be made pretty much any size.  I learned a method of making flying geese by watching this video

make four flying geese at once 

If you would like to make your flying geese four at a time, you may find this chart helpful for figuring out the sizes to cut your fabric.

 flying goose chart and assembly instructions

Happy quilting everyone!

Finished mystery quilt

I quilted this on my home sewing machine. Used plaid fabric for the binding. Quite happy with how it turned out. Couldn't resist taking it outside for a couple of photos.

Three Scrappy Mystery Quilts

I just finished putting these three quilts together. I have been participating in a mystery quilt along with the Cresent Quilters' group since September. I have had so much fun making these quilts. The directions were not for scrappy quilts but I really wanted to use up some scraps. In the end I was very happy with the results.

I can't decide which one is my favourite. I like each one of them for different reasons. Now I just have to work on quilting them!

Fine detailing in my free motion quilting

I have been doing some of the smallest scale free motion quilting that I have ever done. I really like how it is turning out. I was so inspired by the intricate work of Cindy Needham at her workshop I just had to give it a try.

I wanted to add some color to this realatively neutral piece of work. I think the yellow brings out the star shape in the middle. I am using a 60 weight thread with some shine to it.

Learned so much at the Cindy Needham workshop!

I had a fabulous learning experience today. Here is my unfinished work from the workshop.

Pictured above is the front.

Below is the back.

This was my first time quilting with wool batting. I felt like I was sewing on butter. It was so easy to slide around in my machine.

This type of cloth is called cherrywood fabric. I had never heard of it before but I really love it. 

For the bobbin I used 60 wt. Bottom line thread. I have never tried using a thinner thread in the bobbin but it works really well. Cindy brought so many types of great thread along. I am going to have to go thread shopping now. I didn't realize how important thread choice is before.

 

New mystery quilt

Well, fall is here. We just had our first Crescent Quilters meeting of the year. We have "school year" beginning and endings to our year. I came home with instructions for choosing fabric for this year's mystery quilt. This is very exciting for me. Here are the fabrics I have chosen for this year's quilt.

I hope they work out!

Dense quilting makes unquilted areas pop

I am so excited about how this quilting is turning out. I wanted this block to have little houses with a heart. This is to symbolize that the heart is in one's home. I densly quilted the area around the heart but left the heart unquilted. See how the heart just pops? It almost looks like I stuffed it with extra batting but I didn't.

FMQ disaster recovery

I had some free motion quilting that I really didn't like. It took only a few minutes to stictch it but nearly two hours to pick it out. I knew almost right from the beginning that I didn't like it. At first I thought that if I just keep throwing more thread at it that somehow it would improve. Well it didn't. It was just going from bad to worse. I had to take my seam ripper and tweezers to it. I had to be very careful because I didn't want to damage the fabric. Once all the thread was out I was left with a bunch of small holes from the needle. I had to get rid of them. See them on the blue square?

I took a soaking wet facecloth and dabbed it onto the area. I was really happy that once it dried the holes were no longer visible.

Now the block is redone. I choose a completly different design. I am happy that I took the time to pick it all out. I like the way it turned out now. I can't see where I picked it out at all.

FMQ— mixing curves with straight lines

Something I learned recently is that curves look great with some straight lines mixed in close to them. I had this concept in mind when planning how to FMQ this block.

Although my straight lines aren't as straight as I would have liked them to be they do break up the curves look quite nicely.

Dots & dashes in a circular design

I decided to make a bold choice for a modern looking background filler on this block. I put a twist on what I learned in the latest Craftsy course I have enrolled in called "Divide and conquer." In the course I learned how to quilt dots and dashes in a straight line. I made this bold filler pop even more by using a contrasting thread. I found out it is not easy sewing perfectly round circles! Overall I achieved the look I was going for even if the circles didn't all turn out perfect.

Dividing and conquering my quilt

Sometimes it feels like I don't know what area of my quilt to work on. The quilt is big and sometimes I feel like it will never be finished. I have to push myself to concentrate on one area at a time. I am learning to divide and conquer this quilt bit by bit in my latest Crafty course called " "Divide and conquer " by Lori Kennedy. The sqaurish shaped flower in the center of this block and the corner red on navy flowers in the four corners are from this course.

So far I am really enjoying this course. I would recommend it to anyone who is feeling stuck or overwhelmed with their free motion quilting project.

Using varigated thread for interest

I was looking for a thread to quilt Rosie's arm. I started picking up all different threads. The one that looked kind of like a skin tone to me was this one.

The surprising part about this is that it is a varigated thread made up of mauve and yellow.

I almost didn't buy it. Then I decided it may add interest to the quilt. From far her arm will just look like skin tone. Only upon close inspection will you be able to see that is a varigated thread made of mauve and yellow.

Here is my work so far. Now take a look up close. See if you can pick out the mauve and yellow.

FMQ hearts can be a little tricky

I had an area where I wanted to quilt three equal hearts stacked on top of each other. At first I just took a white pencil and drew a line down the middle. I put yellow thread in the machine so that they would really stand out. Boy was that a disaster. I wound up picking it all out. I was not able to sew them evenly. The next thing I decided to do was create freezer paper templates and iron them on.

I decided to use matching thread because I still wasn't sure if I could pull off nice even hearts. This time the result was much better. There are a few small wobbles where I went off a litle bit but it doesn't really show because of the matching thread.

Thoughtful use of quilting lines to create appearance of depth

I am still in the process of quilting this block. Here is my work so far. Just wanted to talk a little about the orange diamond shapes around the blue star.

I wanted to somehow give it some depth. Notice the two on the bottom. They are done in a diamond shaped spiral. Now see the two on the top. They are done in a wide V shape echo. Since I am no expert in creating depth, I drew it out on paper many times first to see what directions the lines would look best. 

Once I decided on how I wanted to quilt it I did not bother with pre marking. These are relatively small areas that I was quilting quite densly therefore I didn't feel the need to mark it first. I was quite pleased with the outcome.

Using A French Curve Template To Make Quilting Design

I bought a set of French Curve Templates at a local art store recently. Today was the first time I used one of them. Actually I just used a small portion of one. I had a square I wanted to fill with a circular design. I tried it on paper first. Then I cut the design out and auditioned it on the fabric. I was happy with how it filled the space so I pulled out my water soluble marking pen and drew it on the fabric. I drew a small dot right in the center of the square. I placed the tip of the French Curve on the dot then traced a curve. Then I moved it over a bit keeping the tip on the center dot. No measuring or math, I just tried to make them as even as possible every time I moved the curve over. Next I free motion quilted it. I was pretty happy with the result.

How do I decide when to pick out some FMQ work?

I try not to pick out my free motion quilting--- but occasionally I feel like I just have to. I am by no means an expert at free motion quilting. I still feel like I am learning with every project I do. When I see an area that I am not happy with I leave it for a few days. After this amount of time I often decide that it doesn't really bother me enough to pick it out. If after that amount of time my eyes keep going back to that spot and resting there it just has to go. Below I have circled an area that I just couldn't live with. I picked it out and did it over. My eyes no longer rest on that spot.

Was the trouble worth it? I think so. I had to carefully pick out enough thread so it was long enough to tie knots any bairey them. It took about 15 minutes of my time.

Finally I have started quilting my Rosie quilt!

I spent last week basting and stitching in the ditch ESS (every stinking seam) Whew I'm glad that part is done! now for the fun part-- I just started free motion quilting it today. I was inspired to make a variation of a poppy flower that I read about on "The Inbox Jaunt" blog. (I love that blog, great tutorials) Here is my work so far.

Home sewn receiving baby blankets

One of my favorite things to sew are receiving blankets. I use one meter of fabric for each blanket. I round the corners off. Then I use my serger to go all the way around. I made these three blankets tonight for a baby gift for my friend. I' m so excited for her!

Here she is all wrapped up in one of the blankets. So sweet don't you think?

Spring petals quilt along

I have just completed a little project called "Spring petals quilt along". It is pictured below on my coffee table.

I have enjoyed experimenting with applique. I free motion quilted it on my sewing machine.