Dr. Who and the Tardis

I gave up on the free motion quilting- it was too stressing for me. It will get better the more I practice, but sometimes I just want to get into a rhythm when I quilt so I can relax.

I promised my sister a Dr. Who quilt at Christmas time.  I made her a quick fleece blanket to tide her over. 

There are 3 primary colors in this quilt: Orange, Blue, and black- can you tell my 10 year old son picked the fabric? 

 I was going to do the same pattern that I used for his Star Wars quilt, but I did not like the blocks when they were finished.  So this quilt is going to be a simple 9 patch.  I have never done just a 9 patch, so this is going to be fun doing a basic pattern after doing all the more complex patterns over the years.

all the stacks lined up next to the sewing machine on the dinning room table.  

I was able to do about 90 minutes of quilting before my back started spasming.  I had issues all week with my back, so this was not unexpected.  The quilting has sat on the dinning room table for the last week now.  My back is feeling better and I think I can knock out all the blocks this weekend.  My goal is to get the quilt top done by Easter and then work on the sandwiching and quilting over the rest of April.   If I can get it all done by Mother's Day I will feel good.  The only wrinkle is that I want to paint the dinning room/living room in the next month too. 

Well, off to get things done

first stab at free motion quilting

I started free motion quilting this weekend on the Craftsy BOM from 2012.  Since this will be my lap quilt for when I am sitting on the couch, I am fine with lots of mistakes in the quilting.  I will be happy with it- I am usually happy with any of my mistakes- it is all learning.

 

I did watch some videos on YouTube to see the process first.  I followed the steps of drawing the pattern and then practicing it over and over. 

 

 

This one was simple- just rays coming out from the sun.

this one was more loops- and I really got off kilter at the bottom.  The issue was keeping the fabric moving while I was trying to move the rest of the quilt out of the way- not good.  I also thought it would be a good idea to not have a back on this quilt yet, so the fabric is not sliding as the batting is thicker.  The reason I thought of no backing (something I had seen someone else do) was that I want only stitch in the ditch on the back.  I am thinking I was very wrong to try this option.

This is one I did last year using a template. 

This one outlines the Dresden plate and then goes down the center of the black blades.

 

I was practicing more loops here- no pattern, just going for the squiggly lines.  I had good control at parts and then lost it again.  I see why folks like long arm quilting machines.  But it is all practice, so it is all good.  You cannot get better if you don't practice.

This is the quilt top.  I love the colors- so bright.  I will talk about colors in another post, but suffice to say- I don't work in Thimbleberries fabrics, civil war fabrics, etc.  They are too dark.  I was cleaning up in my sewing stash and found some log cabin blogs from a mystery quilt that my quilting group worked on years ago and I know why I will not pick it up again- too dark.  I would have never choosen those colors for a quilt in a million years.  I will have take some pictures of it for you.

 

That's all for today.  In the words of my friend, Gretchen "quilt on"

 

 

Deb

Works in progress- what I need to work on this year.

I have a stash of UFOs and other quilt projects that I want to get through this year. 

 

First up should be the quilting on the Chinese zodiac quilts I made for my friend's 2 girls.  The tops have been done since 2011 as this picture shows.  I have both sandwiched (top, batting, and backing all basted together), but I have not gotten around to quilting them.  Both the quilts are a result of a fabric swap that I participated in from 2008-2009 in the Red Thread Quilting group.  it is a group of moms with children who were adopted internationally.  Most of the moms have children born in China, but there are some of us with kids born in other countries.  The quilting for these quilts is going to be simple- stitch in the ditch around the blocks and then free motion quilting of the kids hands from back in 2009.  I traced the kids hands back then in the hopes I was going to get the quilts finished faster.

 

I am working on free motion skills using the 2012 Craftsy BOM quilt (2 of the squares below).  I have started and stopped this one over the last year, but I think I am ready to finish it now.

I need to make another friend's daughter a quilted map of Guatemala, like this one below.  I did this one for my son over the summer and he loves it.  The departments (states) in the map are all traditional fabric brought back from Guatemala.  it goes together pretty quickly, I think I could do it in 2 -3 weeks if I would just stay focused.

 

I have to make 2 baby quilts/kid quilts for charity- that is the cost of being in the quilting group at church.  I have not been able to attend the group meetings for the last 8 years due to raising my son.  But he is at the point that time with friends is nice, so I think I will be able to go a few times a year depending on his sports schedule.

 

For my sister, I promised her a quilt.  We picked Dr. Who fabric for her and I have the design, although I might change it.

 

And, I have promised quilts to my niece for her daughters (born 26Dec2016).  We agreed that she and her partner get to pick the fabric, so once they are ready to shop, I have to get those started. I guess I should update my to do list on the side bar.

 

I want to make a new quilt for my bedroom- I repainted last summer and the current quilt does not go in the room at all.  I finally found the pattern I want to use, but the amount of cutting is going to be insane.  I have to cut 2 jelly rolls (40 2.5 inch strips of fabric each) into 2.5 inch squares.  The fabric length is 40-42 inches.  I might need a new cutting board after this.  This will be the quilt that I send off to the long arm quilter- my first one.  I quilted my current quilt on my home machine- queen size quilt, and I will never do that again.  OMG it was a drama getting the fabric moved around for the quilting.  I think that quilt took me a year to quilt.

 

Finally, while working on the quilts above, I will be working on my binding skills.  I finally found a tutorial that shows me very simply how to machine bind my quilts.  I need to start practicing. 

 

I have a few more UFOs to complete too, but they are far down the list. 

starting at the beginning

I started quilting about 10 years ago.  I was never going to quilt, I was just the photographer and scrapbooker for the group at church, but then SURPRISE, I got sucked in.  I have made a few quilts, I have a bunch that are still UFOs and I definitely consider myself an intermediate beginner.

The goal of this blog is show my quilts, help friends who are just starting and to look at books related to quilt (fiction and non fiction).  As I get things sorted, I will link to quilting blogs that I like or ones that have quilts/templates/tricks that I am interested in.

I hope to post once a week or more.


Happy quilting

Deb