keeping it straight... with a curve

I am a few lessons in and practice when I can with some fat quarter batting sandwiches for my workshop:

QUILTING WITH RULERS ON A HOME MACHINE with AMY JOHNSON
from Craftsy

I really like her teaching style!

I have a LONG ways to go... 
but my free motion stitches are beginning to look a bit less irregular and I really like it.
I look forward to seeing how far I can take it!

Gloves & supreme Glider quilters mat to help glide the fabric both seem to be a must

Sewing with Amy

Have you ever taken a class on line from Craftsy? 
I have done several. They have wonderfully talented crafters eager to share their skills!

After reluctantly sending the queen sized quilt I was making for my son off to be quilted... I decided to learn a new quilting skill for myself.

I have spent a good part of my sewing time this week hanging out with Amy Johnson.
Well, OK... so she is in her studio & I am in mine. But I talk to her each time my stitches slip and I mess up, so she might as well be here!

She has created a workshop to teach machine quilting with rulers on a standard machine using free motion. I really like her technique.

First I had to accumulate the supplies...
I needed to order a low shank ruler foot & splurged for the "bonus" rulers package. 

Then I had to clean up my quilting space enough to find my gloves, slider mat, & red hoop. (Somehow the red hoop had been flung across the room during a previous moment of frustration & buried & needed to thus be found)...

I have done all my quilting lately with my walking foot.
It is a long time since I have tried any free motion.

Anyways... Amy & I are off to a pretty good start. 

I think it took me an hour to learn to make a square :(

And even longer to figure out how to use the curved ruler!

so I decided to just keep practicing & practicing...

some rows look pretty good,

most... NOT

But, by the end of day 2,
I was a bit more comfortable sewing a straight line...

I was really pleased with the diagonal quilting in this square

Today I figured out... you cannot do this technique on a small sandwich. The ruler & ring stick to the mat and it all drags & causes very messy quilting that SHOULD have met my seam ripper! But, since it was only practice... I just kept going.

This was my attempt at diagonal stitching around an applique...

my batting was shifting & stitches skipping...

I SHOULD have stopped & started over... 

but didn't, so I am less than pleased with it :(

Anyhow's, that's it for this week.

Happy October:

My favorite colors!

The ZEN CHIC SEDUCTION... and the BATting OUT OF HELL

On Saturday, I spent a few hours sharing a fun sewing day at our local shop, A NIMBLE THIMBLE (In Tyler, Texas) with some fellow modern quilters. 
I precut all the pieces for another row... (from the 2015 Row-by-Rows that I have been collecting all summer). With my machine & supplies in tow, I was ready to set up my own little station. I would sit in the corner and chat some... determined to mostly sew and stay focused...

BUT... 

I was seduced by fabrics... yet again.
It wasn't my fault- really. 
MODA is to blame!

I had already fallen in love with the Modern Background PAPER fabrics that I used in my table runner.

Charm Squares 

Modern Background- PAPER 

 ZEN CHIC for MODA

(The Blues are from my stash)

Anyhow, On my way to the workroom, I spotted the layer cake on the table and it demanded my attention!!!

Modern Background- INK

 ZEN CHIC for MODA

I thought it paired really great with:

GRUNGE 

BasicGrey by MODA

So, I decided to make a quilt for my son for his first apartment.

By mid days end, I had pieced together several of the squares with an ink and a grunge from the layer cakes.

On Sunday, I finished piecing the rest...

Sunday

Later in the day I started creating 4 squares. (I'd have this quilt finished in no time at all, in spite of all my other "to do" lists)...

Well, I didn't get too far... 

but I finished up by Monday. 

I had 40 precut squares in each layer cake. 

Certainly big enough for a queen size quilt! 

They were just precut 10" squares.

Easy Peasy, right... How long could such an easy quilt take to create???

The best laid plans... 

NOT

So, On Monday- I finished up joining 4 squares.

Monday

And By Tuesday I had actually done so...

Tuesday

Next I laid them all out on my bed and started to arrange them into a quilt!

Tuesday

Once I found an arrangement I liked-

I started pinning it all together and piecing the rows...

Tuesday

Tuesday

I was really quite pleased with it all... 

Things were moving along,

not as fast as I'd hoped... but still, I was only a few days in- all was well...

UNTIL WEDNESDAY THAT IS!

That is when things started to go downhill...

Even after over an hour of pressing my backing still had creases from folds...

Even worse,

No matter how much I worked at it, 

the batting refused to lay flat!

I had chosen 

Warm & Natural: 

Needle Cotton Batting 

because I had had good experiences with Warm & Natural batting in the past. 

This bag said stitches could be up to 10 inches apart. At the time of purchase, I had planned to just sew on my seams and then hand stitch a knot in my pieced corners to give it a warm homey but simple feel... (Remember, I was making a "NO FUSS": really simple quickie quilt from precuts!)

Wednesday: Mid Morning

Wednesday... Later in Day

I thought I was going to go crazy... my frustration kept mounting, so I called it a day. 

I started back up on Thursday.

Overly optimistically, I hoped that if I quilted & ironed out each section as I went- it would lay flat.

I WAS WRONG!

The walking foot was jumping all over the place.

The thread was slipping & knotting & skipping stitches

The quilt kept bunching and getting stuck when it hit the wall...

The stitching was just plain awful.

I tore it out...

& started over.

But to no success...

It is awful & I must accept that I cannot quilt a queen size quilt in my current space

or

with my low shank machine  :(

Thursday

Reluctantly, 

I have decided to reach out to a member of my modern quilt group with a long arm and ask her to quilt it. 

Nothing fancy, straight lines on seams & perhaps some curved between...

I will have to tare out the 3 rows currently in place... and replace the backing and batting

(Although, I am considering giving the batting a wash to see what that does... I have prewashed batting for baby blankets in the past)

To Be Continued...

Bindings, Boxes, & Piecing

It's been a fairly productive week! I continue to spend a few hours each day unpacking boxes... Will it ever end? I can't wait to finish so I can start packing up other rooms!

On the creative end of things:
I made a table runner... but needed to come up with a fabric idea for the binding.
I auditioned what felt like every blue in the store & finally settled on a batik one. 

It felt great to get it finished and on the table with a vase of flowers before dinner time!

I started on another row by row challenge pattern...
I haven't gotten as far as I would have liked on it... 
but I am off to a good start!

A Table Runner of Modern Background- PAPER

Somehow, 
In spite of feeling overwhelmed by all of the medias shared images & memories of nightmares past that will never be forgotten... today has been a productive quilting day.

For 14 years now, September 11 has become a day of remembrance... 
and between televised memorials & phone calls shared with loved ones... I have quilted. 

As a New Yorker... we all lost someone we knew.
It was devastating, terrifying, angering... 
I could go on and on. 

But I would rather share some quilting.

My local quilt shop: A NIMBLE THIMBLE

had a charm pack of

Modern Background- PAPER 

by Brigitte Heiland for ZEN CHIC

for moda

I just love it!

I am making a table runner...
Nothing too complicated.
Honestly... I haven't the attention span today.
I am just sort of making it up as I go...

I decided to create rows 

to include the precuts scattered "haphazardly"

I ended up creating 4 rows

I kept trying to decide on row placement 

and shifting them about on my design wall

(Some of the squares were too close to others-since I had not bothered to preplan or measure...)

Eventually, I decided to add in a strip between each row...

I pieced the back... put it all back up on the design wall, 

and realized I didn't like it... too wide :(

So... I removed one row...

yes... 

3 was right I decided...

I used an adhesive basting spray to attach the piecing 

to a scrap of batting I had laying around. 

I have no idea what type it is... or when it is from...

Using my walking foot, I started out quilting in straight lines

Table runners back

As I neared the sides I decided to use slight waves

 to add some motion

Ironically... I ran out of fabric before I could make a binding. 
(If I had not made cuts for the fourth row... I would have had enough...)
Hopefully my local fabric shop will have some more...

September 2015: Lovely Year of Finishes ~ Goal

I have fallen in love with the new mode fabrics:

Modern Background- PAPER 

by Brigitte Heiland for ZEN CHIC

for moda

My local quilt shop sold out so fast! 

I was lucky to snag a charm pack! So today I started a table runner. I hope to have it finished sooner than later... but it will be my September goal!

Modern Background- PAPER charm squares

layout?

first column

A renovation week for Cabinetry

Week 4 of dining room renovations came to a productive close! 

I successfully unpacked all of our remaining glasswares and crystal... 
cleaned... 
organized... 
put away some... 
and displayed others.

Why do we have so many wine glasses?

I love the way the blue wall reflects 

through the crystal returned to its cabinets

I created new displays in the welsh cabinet in the kitchen using all the pieces I had forgotten about and rediscovered as I unpacked!
And also, in the new glass doored builtin cabinets. 

I was excited to be reunited 

with so many pretty pieces I had forgotten we had!

antique welsh cabinet

My cookie jars and a few special dishes were awarded 

the coveted double wedding ring cabinet display!

Meanwhile, In the garage... our old kitchen cabinets are being updated to sportswear sheik!

Primed

first coat red

second coat

garage storage and 

new steel counter ready for use!

AUGUST: A lovely Year of finishes!

I actually completed 2 block rows this month... 

Don't ask me how... I have barely stepped foot in my sewing room.  :(

But I did it!!! 

I've traveled graduation to graduation... 
family visit to family visit... 
and tried to pick up a block from each state along the way!

I got the idea at our first stop in Littleton, New Hampshire at 

One Stitch, Two Stitch

Great Ladies, cute town, lovely shop!

Her is My "BOBBIN ALONG" ROW

My daughter earned her Masters in Education from Notre Dame! 

This is the block from

Stone Soup Batiks in South Bend, Indiana

Batiks to explore everywhere!!!

Here is my JUST BATIKIN' ROW

2 down... 

and a souvenir of further travel rows await