Mrs. Claus update

  The last of 2014 doll quilts have been delivered to the toymakers at the woodshop.  Just over 100 doll quilts....that's a lot of toys to make!  And doll quilts are still arriving.....they will be used next year.  Want to see what has arrived?
 
   Karen, aka Karribean Quilter, is Mrs. in Nevada.  She sent 2.....the pink and yellow represent the colors of the beautiful sunsets.  And the scrappy one has wave quilting to represent the Virgin Islands.  I love that she takes such great inspiration from the places she loves.
    Karibbean Quilter is a member of Circle of Friends, the new group formed from the HGTV message board.  The message boards were shut down the first of November.  If you are looking for a very active and lively group to join, you might want to check them out through the link.

  Another member of Circle of Friends is Kelly, Mrs. Claus in Oregon, aka KBlue.    She sent this bright and cheerful doll quilt made from a fun print with horses.  Love that purple!

  Mrs. Claus of California-- now --is Terri, a faithful follower and friend. Oops....update....She is now Mrs. Claus in Washington!   She loves hand work and began working with hexagons this year.  Her note said she did not know what to do with them.....well, I think she figured it out!  The pink hexie flowers are just adorable.  I love the scattered arrangement, like walking thru a garden.
   This Mrs. Claus just made a move and is waiting on furniture to arrive so she can return to  her regular sewing projects.

    Mrs. Claus of Maryland is Sunny and she has been busy!  Just check out that center quilt of hearts!  I love the unusual layout with the string piecing.

    She also made these three---a total of six, including a hexie one too!  I really love the traditional patterns.....the Quarter Trip in blue is so pretty.   Thank you, Mrs. Claus.

  Thanks to all the Mrs. Clauses around the  world.  You touch many hearts with your gift.  

Remembrance

In honor and memory of our Veterans, our heroes. 

Thank yous and a good class!

   Thank you to  Roger and to Sir Old Man  for  handling and holding all  the quilts for me.  Thank you to Shelia for sharing her husband, Roger, and for taking photos.
   Thank you to the Foothills guild for inviting me and  the great response to my quilts.



 Thank you to my wonderful followers who offered support and encouragement, especially those 2 angels that kept sending messages.   What a lift you gave me.  Big sigh of relief.......and on to the Feathers Class.




   I have talked and talked about the Endless Feathers in lots of posts, and even offered a tutorial on how I build the feathers.  Click here for the Tutorial Page.   the tutorial is near the bottom of the page.  But I had not attempted to actually teach anyone my method.   So this class was a trial run and I was excited to see how it went.  Little did I expect to see such amazing results!

      Class began with about 45 minutes of drawing---hearts, plumes, and basic set of 3 plumes.  And talked about the importance of muscle memory.   Then to the machines.  Before I got sidetracked with questions, I managed to take photos of 4 of the samples.

   This is Lynette's first attempt doing the Endless Feathers.  She just took off and kept going and going.   Then she went back in and added the center band of feathers.

 
   Suzanne started small and gained confidence. Her plumes began to grow and she developed a nice curve to the feather.  









 




   I believe this was Deb's....she wanted to fill every inch of space.   She got around that curve on the bottom and created a very nice flow.

   But every class has that one person you want to rave about a little.  This is Cheryl's first feather sample.  She sat in the back and I heard this machine just roaring along.  When I went to look, I almost fell over.  She had filled half the sample with beautiful feathers.  She was full of questions and just soaked things up like a sponge.

   We broke for lunch and had a wonderful "round table" discussion on everything from batting to styles of design.  And then they wanted to know about swirls!  If you have followed for long, you know that is my favorite "go to" design for Free Motion Quilting.  So we threw in a quick drawing lesson on swirls and how to develop them.   A little more machine time, and I told the class I was on empty.....they had all the info, now they just needed practice.

  I learned a few things too......
    I need to try using the wool blend batting.
    I need to have sticky name tags for everyone in class.
   Take extra pencils for drawing.

And now, back to our regular programming.....Thanks again, and happy stitching.    

A little turn helps

  Cactus blooms!  This is one of two that I have and it is full of blooms....I expect a few broken branches with the weight.  It sits snuggled in a corner of the dining room and is so easy to overlook.....so it was a wonderful discovery a couple of days ago.

  But before I go on, I need to thank a couple of special blogger angels who responded with great advice, and words of encouragement to me.  The trunk show is Thursday night and the anxiety has been rising.   I know I share and run on here at the blog.  It is my safe place.  I record my progress, design ideas and style.  I can show my goofs and successes.   You drop by, read if you want, comment, and go on.   But now, I agreed to "parade" about 4 dozens of my quilts.....bits and pieces of myself.....to a whole group of people.   Words can't convey how scary that is for me.   So, thank you, angels for being there.

   I have been hibernating in the sewing room for a few hours  today to get this latest project to the flimsy stage.   Here is how it was going over the weekend.  I added that narrow blue around the center and then decided I wanted more!  So I began working on bands for the outer border that would be added---like the left side seen here.

    And now with the outer border attached.  Notice anything else?    Sir Old Man did his normal inspection, and kept tilting his head at an angle.  Well, actually he was almost on his head to look at it!  I took his suggestion and  rotated this photo 1/4 turn......and it looks so much better.   Now the light source is at the top, moves behind the center and ripples along the other side.   Having an "in-house" critic is helpful after all.  All from a little turn.

 Insight:  A little turn can give a new perspective.   It may change the whole look of things.

  Don't forget the Blogger's Quilt Festival is going on......voting this week until Friday.  Here is the link to visit.
The rest of the week here is busy/booked solid/no more sewing time......until I finish the class on Saturday.   Till then, happy stitching. 

October's Hodgepodge

  October has been a big hodgepodge of things finished, started, and prepared.   The quilts are washed, stacked and ready for the trunk show next week.  Workshop materials are prepared for the Feathers Class.  Thanks for bearing with me as that consumed my focus.
   My re-cap of October projects....

  Finished:  Let's Book It project from May.  Thanks to Dana's suggestion, of Stormy Days, I went with no borders and let the blended trip blocks speak for themselves.   This is entered in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

  This is the ongoing Let's Book It project.....time to pull it out again.  Find the details on Let's Book It at Vroomans Quilts.
 






  And a NewFO for this month........details at Cat Patches.  This was one of those quick projects that called to me, and became a finished NewFO.   Frosted Pumpkin wall hanging could be turned into a cute table runner too.  The original pattern is from Jill at Quilt Rat.  


  And there's a started/partial watercolor wall hanging on the design wall.....but more on that next month.  Next month will be simple.....work on the Book It project and the watercolor, since we will be gone the last week.  I also have a Habitat for Humanity quilt to quilt....maybe.
   But the scariest news on this last day of October......Forget the frost.......snow flurries/dusting  are forecast for our area tonight!   That has never happened here.....not this early in the year....not here!   I need to hunt the socks and pull out a sweatshirt.  Wishing you sweet treats and happy stitching.  

From the Archives: Free Motion Quilting the swirls

    I had to dig through the older--much older posts---to find this one to answer questions this week.   This is still my "go to design" for free motion quilting.   It takes practice to get a pleasing shape, but it is worth the effort.   So, from December 2011, here is FMQ Swirls.

  More comments and questions on the swirls.  From an email this week....... Nicki wrote.... "I just wanted to show you a pic of my first attempt at free motion swirls. WOW, it looked a lot better on paper than it does on the fabric... :)  I still have stippling in my head when I'm doing this so this is going to take practice, practice, practice. The back side had TONS of those little "eyelashes" all over it. I'm not sure what to do to correct those......."

   She prompted me to really give some details on this FMQ of swirls.  First, eye-lashing is usually from moving the fabric too fast.  The bobbin thread is pulled too tight and thus pulls the top thread to the back and  the curves have "eyelashes".   How to correct this:  Slow down.  Slow down your machine speed and slow down the movement of the hands and the fabric.  You don't have to creep or crawl along, but just going wide open, pedal to the metal is not working here.  An explanation from Leah Day at 365 Days of Quilting ---she controls her speed of the machine by using a light touch and "feathering" her pedal.  At some points she speeds up and at others she goes slower. 

   A slower and steady movement of the fabric equals better control.  Practice is the only way to achieve this....no pain, no gain....practice.  I use music when I FMQ to keep a steady rhythm.

   Start on paper.  Try to copy this design to practice. This is a design from Wendy at Ivory Spring.....she's a amazing fmq expert!  Pay attention to your hand movements, and note where you naturally pause and when you move faster.  That's the hint for how to stitch the pattern.  Like driving----slow in the curves, and more speed on the straight way!
   I'm not the total guru, but I think I've figured this pattern out.   You will still find that my stitches are not always perfect, but I try to be consistent.  Sometimes I don't get a perfect curl, just keep going because it's a big quilt.  And the quilt police or detectives are shot  poked with a long needle   escorted out the door  on sight!



  Here's my Step by step guide:
  1. Begin with a curl that is at least a 3/4 circle  that almost closes.
  2.  Pause to create a good point before you circle back.
  3.  Gradually increase your width and spacing as you curl back around to create the first swirl.  Note that your return curve should bring you back in line or close to the tip or point of the curl---like the large swirl at the bottom of the page.   
  4.  Then create a curl in the opposite direction.
 The deeper  tighter center in the curls really look the best.

That will give you a  fleur-di-lis effect that is the basis of this open FMQ  design.  I enlarged my photo to really show this part of the pattern. (And you can see the curls are not perfect!)  The spacing on here looks huge, but really the area between stitching is 3/4" to an inch at the widest section of the swirl. 
    Add swirls--single and in pairs--in different directions.  Throw in an "s-curl"  for interest and to change direction.  I use  the curved line that looks like a scallop  to move to a new area.  I had worked myself into a corner and needed a way out----so a curved line moved me out into the open.   

     

     

    

Frosted Pumpkin

   A little thread painting on the pumpkin----aka "frosting" from a comment made by fellow blogger, The Rogue Quilter.    I liked that description, so I blatantly stole it.  I began this wall hanging a couple of weeks ago...click here for that post. ...and the link to the pattern at The Quilt Rat blog.

 

   I really did not do as much thread painting as I planned.  I got tired of battling the batik fabric versus the thread shredding.  I switched to a large needle just to finish up what I did do.  
   I wasn't quite sure how to finish this one off, and finally went with a simple inset frame.  Using the same fabric on the outer border gives the effect of a floating design.

 
    On to the quilting part....that was a lot more fun!  I went for a McTavishing style pattern around the appliques.  I am doing better at this style, but I still find I get in a rut and keep making the same curves.  I should have changed direction more often.....more practice needed.  The outer border got a quick flame style free motion quilting that mimics the inner style.
   My overall size ended up about 18" by 25".  The pieces are quite small....if I do another one, I will try to enlarge it a bit.
   Don't forget the Blogger's Quilt Festival  .  Nominate your favorite this week.  Voting begins at the end of the week!  Happy stitching.