FMQ: Getting Into the Groove

So I "finished" my Groove quilt back in the fall.  But it wasn't really finished.  The binding was machined to the front but not sewn down to the back.  And it was just so... plain.  All solid colors (don't get me wrong, it was fun to play with all solids) but the stitch-in-the-ditch quilting just wasn't doing it for me.

It was like 70 degrees on Sunday - that's the only time a hammock is appropriate in January!

My biggest quilting "resolution" for this year is to work on my FMQ skills!  That's just what the Groove quilt needs - some texture!  Much like many of the other Groove quilts you'll see floating around, I decided to use a different free motion quilting pattern in each color area of the quilt.

Echo paisley in the yellow portions of my Groove quilt

So far the yellow is full of echo paisley (it's almost echo shell, it doesn't quite come back to the origin enough... but whatever, I like it anyway!) and the orange has the start of some pebbles (yeah, I once said I was done with pebbles, but these ones will be bigger and in a smaller area).

Pebble quilting in the orange areas - it looks like a Band Aid in this picture

 The only issue I'm still really having is getting the tension right on the back.  I slowed my hands down so I'm not getting insane loopies on the back, but the tension is still a little wacky.  I've just been cranking the dial up to like 6 and it seems to be helping.  Does anyone else find that that's okay?  I had to do that before and thought it was the crappy thread I had at the time - now I am doing that with Aurifil.

You can see that the tension is a little wonky, especially in the orange-on-cream area

I'll have to master three more patterns to be able to finish this quilt!  I'm thinking swirls, wood grain, and something else.  I don't really want to do anything angular, it seems like curves fit this curvy quilt!  Any suggestions for the final FMQ pattern on this one?

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

Melissa

Getting Back on Track

I woke up today thinking it was Monday and dreading going back to work.  After two long weekends and a 3-day week of only half-assing it, I don't think I could handle a full week of work.  Oh wait, it's WEDNESDAY!  Everything is instantly a little shinier.  Oh and did I mention I saw a brief glimpse of the sun as I got to my parking space?  Score.

That means I need to write up a WIP Wednesday post since I've been neglecting the blog for so long.  

So for the past couple of months, I was just working on cranking out Christmas gifts and working on my Swoon quilt.  Now Christmas has passed and I've got my Swoon blocks all finished.  They still need to be sashed.  I'm debating whether I want to just put them into storage and finish up some older, more spring-like WIPs or just get the top done and wait to baste/quilt it when I'm feeling more Chirstmassy.  On top of that, I used my Flurry scraps to make a zig-zag baby quilt (with those bonus HSTs you cut off while making the Swoon blocks) and started an EPP project with diamonds and hexagons and jewels. Although staring at Flurry prints is getting old (it's been a few months now and Christmas is over...but I do LOVE the prints, it's just time for a change!)

EPP Flowers/Stars... however you want to look at it :)

The EPP project is great because I can work on it whenever.  Tomorrow I am in the field for work - I have a feeling I will be spending a lot of time "watching" from my heated car (it's only going to be 15 degrees!) and it's nice to feel like you're accomplishing something while avoiding being cold!  It occupied most of my down time when I went home for Christmas.  

Sophie Fangs is less than thrilled that I'm sewing and not petting her.

The only thing I'm regretting is using white thread - it shows through a little bit, especially on the darker colors.  But whatever, it's hand made and that makes it obvious :)  Perhaps when this is finished some day, I will try hand-quilting it.  We'll see.  I'm also playing with layout ideas in my head.  The fabric scraps are only going to go so far.  I might try floating the flowers in more white rather than connecting the points.

The white stitches show through on the seams... oh well, too late now!

 My biggest project for the past week has been the Madrona Road Challenge.  A few of us from the Pittsburgh MQG are participating.  Our theme is "roads and bridges" based on reading the cute little story that accompanies the Madrona Road collection.  A friend of mine (who just happens to design bridges for a living) helped me come up with an awesome sketch which I turned into a pattern.  Then it was off to AutoCAD to draw it all up neatly and dimension everything out.  And then I figured out how to tile patterns in Photoshop (what a proud moment for me!) - that way if you just scan the fabric, you can tile it and see what it's going to look like.  The scale wasn't quilt right though.

FMQing some echo paisley on my City of Bridges Quilt!

So on Saturday, I got together with a fellow challenge participant and we brainstormed and planned out our quilts (it's always nice to have feedback from someone to help smooth out the sections that are bothering you!).  The top was finished basically in an evening and then I got ambitious and sewed batting scraps together, cut and ironed some backing fabric, and found an almost-empty spray basting can at like 10 pm and got it all basted.  Then I couldn't stop and quilted about 1/4 of it before finally deciding it was time to go to bed.  New Years Eve day I got about 3/4 of the way through the quilting.  Anyhow, I will give you a little sneak peak but I'm going to wait until later to reveal the full quilt!  Plus it still needs to be finished up! 

So that's my first WIP Wednesday post for 2013!  I'm linking up to Freshly Pieced as usual - take a look and get some inspiration for your 2013 WIPs!!

-Melissa

Flurrying!

First of all, I'd like to welcome all the new followers who found this blog through the SMS Giveaway Day!  There's still time to enter - see my Giveaway Day post to win some of my leftover Flurry fat quarters and two pirate-themed fat quarters!

I apologize for not responding to any of the comments - it's just been too overwhelming!  There are so many of you!  So many comments have made me smile or chuckle - thanks for brightening my day! 

Since my last post about my Swoon quilt, I've completed Blocks 4 through 7!  Things have been slow going lately - other priorities... but I'm getting back on track since we're only 3 weeks from Christmas.  I don't see this one being finished for this year.  But the fabric sure helps make it feel like Christmas is coming (since the weather hasn't yet - it was probably 65 degrees here today).  Of course, tomorrow morning I have to go out on a field job and it's supposed to be cold again.  Sigh.  Why isn't it sunny and warm when I spend my days outside?  Oh wait, it's December...

Anyhow, here are the latest 4 blocks!  Again, I need to work on my photography.  These are crappy iPhone pictures taken under fluorescent light in my kitchen.  Hopefully we get some sunlight this weekend while I'm home and maybe I can snap a few better pictures outside!

Swoon Block 7

I love the blocks with bright red on them.  So cheery!  Block 7 is one of my favorites - the birds match the accent fabric so nicely!

Swoon Block 6

I will be using the red fabric in Block 6 for the quilt binding and probably some accents on the quilt back.  I'm not crazy about it paired with the light green, but it's too late now.  And it's really not bad.  Good enough :)

Swoon Block 5

Block 5 got pretty complicated - there are TWO directional prints!  It turned out pretty well, but I had to rip out a lot of stitches.  Late night sewing with directional fabrics is never a good idea.  And I'm also not too crazy about how the pattern looks wonky at the seamlines.  At least with the more mono-chromatic directional prints, it blends in.  This one looks odd if you stand and look at it from an angle across the room!

Swoon Block 4

 I really like the lattice-y 8-pointed star print in Block 4! 

Tonight I cut the fabric for Block 8 - unfortunately, on what should have been my VERY LAST CUT, I accidentally cut 1/8 too short! So instead of a 3-1/2" square, I have a 3-1/2" x 3-3/8" square :/  I think instead of adding fabric and cutting back down, I might cheat my seams on either side instead.  Close enough?

Overall, I think this is going to look awesome when I finish it!  What do you think I should do for the back?  Obviously, I should have a pieced back of some kind (as always!), but should I just go with solid white to match the background of the front?  Or solid light gray (think Kona Ash... but something in a Bella Solid or Cotton Couture - something softer)?

Since Christmas is fast approaching, I think my new goal is to finish the quilt top next week sometime (Block 8 should be done tomorrow with Block 9 to finish hopefully on Saturday morning) and then just let things sit.  There's a batik quilt I basted last week (I put it together in late winter/early spring) and I'd like to finish it up to give as a Christmas gift!  Hopefully Swoon will feature some bad ass FMQ if I let it sit for next Christmas!

In other news, I signed up for the MQG's Madrona Road Challenge!  Our fabric has arrived and we're trying to decide what we want our challenge to be.  Super exciting! 

This is my WIP Wednesday post for the week - check out all the other pretty WIPs at Freshly Pieced!

-Melissa

WIP Wednesday: Swooning and a Little FMQ

The Flurry of Swoon blocks has begun: two down... seven to go!  So far, I love it!  There have been a few headaches.  Especially with the directional prints.  The seam ripper has been my go-to tool for a few nights.  But I think I finally have the hang of it - and most of the mistakes are due to working too late at night.  Stop quilting BEFORE you get tired.  If you don't, you'll just end up tired and frustrated.

I shared my first block the other day.  It took me two evenings to finish my second block.  One night was cutting, the second night was piecing.  And ripping out stitches.  And piecing.

Swoon Block 2

 You can see that all the diamonds are aligned the same way - but the way the cutting instructions for the pattern are written, you can't get everything to line up properly (not an issue if you're using more flowing, floral type fabrics).  I found that out the hard way... but I managed to use the scraps to fix my problem!  Rather than use one big rectangle (with the diamonds going the wrong way), I sewed two smaller rectangles together to get the directional pattern to line up.  It's not the prettiest, but it's way prettier than having ONE rectangle going the wrong way.  It was so distracting to look at!

How to work with directional fabrics and the Swoon pattern:
two pieces oriented the correct way, sewn together.

So that's my Swoon Block 2.  It looks so pretty with Swoon Block 1!

Swoon Blocks 1 and 2 - so pretty!

I've got my other 14 fat quarters all paired up and ready to go - two of them aren't really in this photo...  But I'm really excited to see them all come together.  Especially now that I've got a grip on the whole directional fabric pattern thing!

Lovely Flurry fabrics all ready to Swoon!

I've been a little slow at work lately, so I wasted spent some time watching Leah Day FMQ pattern videos on YouTube.  I really liked one of her paisley patterns - I forget what exactly she called it.  But it looked fairly simple, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  First on paper, then with the sewing machine!

Paisley design - pen and paper

Paisley FMQ design

As you can see, it can use some work!  But I'm pretty happy with it for a first attempt.  I was planning to use it on the Swoon quilt, but I'm considering incorporating it into Christmas Ribbons.  More to come on that as things come together - I have been doing some more straight-line quilting on it, but it's going to require a little something else - too many straight lines!

I'm linking this post up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced - be sure to stop by and see some beautiful projects!

-Melissa

Christmas Quilting!

It's hard to believe that Christmas is almost here (yeah, I know we still have another major holiday between now and then, but I don't have time to hold my Christmas sewing off until after Thanksgiving).  There's less than 50 days to go.  And unless you're lucky, you won't be sewing on all 50 of those days!

I told you about my Christmas Ribbons quilt a while back.  It's now all pieced and basted.  I even got a little bit of quilting in last night!

Christmas Ribbons on my floor at about midnight on Friday - completed top!

I used the same white/poinsettia print on the back as I did for the border.  There's a strip of the other black poinsettia print down the back and that will be used for the binding, too.  Right now I'm quilting all of the big "diamonds" that I made with the colors - just stitch in the ditch around them.  And then I thin I'll go in and do the inside diamonds and then maybe do some kind of design in the center?  I'm not sure, and I'm still open to suggestions!

Have you ever had the needle come out while you are sewing? It doesn't break, the needle holder-inner thing isn't loose, the needle just rips right out of the machine and the thread stays intact and you have to loosen the needle thingy and put it back in?  That keeps happening while I'm quilting this thing!  Anyone have any ideas?  I think I read once that there's a front and back to batting and that can cause problems.  Could that be my problem?  Help is appreciated :)

I've also been doing a little retail therapy (we haven't seen the sun in Pittsburgh since before the hurricane - the hurricane was just annoying for us, no major damage, but it's been rainy or at least cloudy ever since... spending money on fabric is my way of adding sunshine to my life? maybe?) and I just ordered a FQ bundle of Bella and also 50 fat eighths from Lizzy House.  The fat eights won't ship until December 1...  it's going to be tough to wait it out!  The Bella FQs are in the mail today!  Now to figure out how to use them...

UPDATE: Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced! Be sure to take a look at all the other great WIPs this week!  Oh and I started cutting into my stash of Flurry last night for a Swoon quilt!

-Melissa

Prairie Points

Just completed my first ever prairie points!!! I love them and need to find a way to use them in more quilts. Ok well maybe they're more suited to small quilts. But still.

A friend of mine is having her first baby next month and this is baby's quilt! As they are keeping gender a surprise, I didn't want to go with a masculine or feminine fabric. Cosmo Cricket's Salt Air collection was the perfect selection! I loosely followed Moda Bake Shop's baby pinwheel quilt tutorial and used one charm pack of Salt Air and some Bella Solids yardage in porcelain. The back will feature the multi-colored plume print and the binding will be a striped pattern.  Basting tomorrow perhaps.

The pinwheels are made by placing two charms (one pattern, one solid) right sides together, sewing a 1/4" seam allowance around the entire square, then cutting corner-to-corner (both directions), pressing open, and arranging into a pinwheel! 

Oh and all the Charming Stars blocks are finished! That is on hold until Baby G's quilt is finished!

Melissa

Charming Stars

So I have been anxious to use up the four charm packs of Good Fortune that I've had lying around. This weekend was it! I decided to try out the Charming Stars pattern from Moda Bake Shop.

Here's what it looked like when I laid all the charms all over my kitchen floor!

I have 12/20 blocks finished up. Hopefully the other 8 will come together tonight and then I can get crackin on the sashing. I'm thinking of omitting the cornerstone blocks shown in the tutorial. More photos as work progresses!

And yes, that's an apple pie on the counter! Mmmmmm!!

Melissa