It's All About The Fabric

This is another example of a quilt made because the fabric made my heart sing. When I saw this floral flannel I had to have it and bought enough to use it a lot in a quilt. I added a few large pinwheels and appliqued a few flowers and leaves and quilt was done. This is mine.

My Heart Sings

One of the pinwheels 12 inch finished.

The Fabric

Alaska Quilt

My husband asked me 2 or 3 years ago if I would make him an Alaska themed quilt. I have been collecting fabrics and patterns and finally decided to get started. I am doing mostly needle turn applique so far. Here are the blocks I have done.

brown bear

Polar Bear

Moose

Gray Wolf (not Alaskan but is in this quilt)

Salmon

Additional fabric to fussy cut for blocks.

Flannel backing fabric

One Dollar Patterns

Just had to share Annie's sale on Christmas and winter themed patterns for $1 today only. I am getting 6 of them.



Annie's Patterns

Putting Christmas Sewing Away

Sometimes I feel I could sew Christmas fabrics all year but this year I am ready to put these away and move onto other things.

Trying to keep my stash to a minimum. Only one tub of Christmas fabrics.

Flannel for pillow cases I didn't get done. First on my to do list for next Christmas.

4 more lap size tops ready for quilting for next winter and Christmas. Added to my pile of tops needing quilting.

The stack keeps getting bigger to get quilting done. I will be shopping for a long arm in Paducah in April. Fun, fun.

And what do I find as I am putting things away???? Dresden and Double Wedding Ring paper piecing templates!!! I want to do these!!!!!

Free Motion Quilting with Walking Foot

Problem: Quilt must be quilted. (Husband is planning on giving it as Christmas gift.) No long arm (on my must have list). Excess fabric in 4 areas where in-the-ditch quilting is creating bunching up of fabric and that is NOT good.

Solution: The Wavy Line Walking Foot Stitch

Using my walking foot I created large wavy lines across the largest blocks throughout my quilt and the outside border. This was enough to "quilt out" some fullness in some of the fabric. I set my stitch length between 3 and 3 1/2...not too small and not too big. The rest of the quilt was done in-the-ditch.

Pattern from Atkinson Designs Slide Show

Until I purchase a long arm quilting machine I will be experimenting with free motion quilting using my walking foot although it isn't really free motion. I like using the walking foot because it keeps the stitch length regular. Other than the obvious straight line cross hatching and in the ditch quilting ( which are excellent ways to quilt, by the way) I have come up with what I call the Wavy Line Walking Foot Stitch.

I will be doing more sharing as I pursue the limits of my walking foot. So far I have used the Wavy Line for large blocks and a border in the same quilt. All my waves were irregular which helped to ease in some excess fabric which I really needed. I knew in the ditch was not going to work because I had too much fabric in certain areas and it would just bunch up.

For the border I like the visual of 3 wavy lines randomly done. I choose thread to match the fabric to because I don't want the quilting to stand out.

I will be doing more with my walking foot and sharing the results so stay tuned.

Quilting Spirals with Walking Foot

Christmas Tree Skirts

In the school's front entryway there is a large Christmas tree with 3 little table top size trees. Last weekend I made 3 little tree skirts using my 60 degree ruler and making hexagons. The ornaments were bright pink, lime green, bright blue and gold so I chose fabrics to match. These are reversible with a snowflake fabric on the other side so they can be used through January with snowflake put on the trees.

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More Holiday Quilts

Sewing with snowman fabric has just been my thing lately. Here are a couple more top finishes. 

A nice quilt using a focal fabric (the snowmen) and a coordinating border fabric. 

Used panel for the Christmas character strips. Needle turn applique to make the ornaments. This was an easy quilt to put together. Love the fabric. The pattern shows another border but I liked it better this way.

Hexagon Placemats

Using a batik jelly roll, sewing strips together, then cutting using the 60 degree ruler these placemats were easily put together and will add some color to my white and brown kitchen. I quilted in the ditch and folded the backing to the front for the binding. I made a larger hexagon for a table topper as well.