Machine Quilting Monday - Free-Motion Meandering Blog Hop Week 4

It's the last week of the Free-Motion Meandering Blog Hop. Today, in addition to practicing the remaining designs, there's also a giveaway to win your own copy of Angela Walters's newest book. Be sure to visit Kristin and Vicki to enter their giveaways as well and improve your chances of winning.

The first design is the feather meander. I thought I had taken better pictures of this one, but I guess I didn't since it's the one that definitely needs more practice! I attempted this design in the upper left and lower right blocks in the photo above, and you can see that I didn't quite get the hang of it. Time to go back and review the troubleshooting section of this chapter.

The final chapter of this book is all about improv quilting. I had a lot of fun with this concept in the blocks where the other designs didn't feel right.

I love using the blocks to help guide my quilting. 

Sometimes I combined designs to focus on certain features of the blocks. Angela does a great job of inspiring and guiding the development of your personal style, while helping you improve your technique. 

I hope you've enjoyed this preview of Free-Motion Meandering, and wish you luck in the giveaway!

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Machine Quilting Monday - Free-Motion Meandering Blog Hop Week 3

Welcome to Week 3 of the Free-Motion Meandering Blog Hop! Kristin, Vicki and I are spending February with Angela Walters's newest book. The blocks I'm showing are all from the Michael Miller quilt that will be on display at QuiltCon with six other Quilts for Cure.

This week we're practicing the paisley meander and the leafy meander. I love the loopy design of the paisley meander. It's easy to get into a groove and quickly fill a space. 

You can make them all different sizes and add an extra echo to travel to where you need to be. Angela has some great troubleshooting tips for those times when your paisleys seem to line up instead of making a true meandering pattern.

There are times when the leafy meander seems to suit the fabric better. I like how it gives the quilting such an organic texture. 

Angela explains why sometimes your leaves aren't symetrical and how to avoid tension problems that can sometimes arise with this design.

Regardless of which one you choose, these are quick filler designs that will add interest to your quilt. 

Check back next week for our final two chapters and a chance to win your own copy of Free-Motion Meandering.

Even better, be sure to visit the Michael Miller Fabrics blog to find out how to win fabulous prizes while fighting childhood cancer. WIN WIN!!

Machine Quilting Monday - Free-Motion Meandering Blog Hop Week 2

Welcome to Week 2 of the Free-Motion Meandering Blog Hop! Kristin, Vicki and I are spending February with Angela Walters's newest book. The blocks I'm showing are all from the Michael Miller quilt that will be on display at QuiltCon with six other Quilts for Cure.

This week we're practicing the swirl meander and the swirl hook meander. They aren't that different, but I love the way that little hook helps fill the square spaces. 

This design is a challenge for me, but Angela includes much more detailed diagrams and troubleshooting tips in this book, so it's gotten a lot better since I tried the similar one in the last hop. Practice, practice, practice! 

I put a lot of swirls on this quilt, and they didn't all meander. The border is all swirls. I love them! Sometimes I feel like they are a little rounder and smoother if I have a little wine, but that might be justification.

Quilt along with us and be sure to share pictures of your progress using the hashtag #freemotionmeandering! 

Machine Quilting Monday - Free-Motion Meandering Blog Hop Week 1

Welcome to Week 1 of the Free-Motion Meandering Blog Hop! Kristin, Vicki and I are spending February with Angela Walters's newest book.

Let me start off by saying that, if you have always wanted to try free motion quilting (FMQ), or if you are just beginning, this is the book to get first. Angela's other books are wonderful, but this one really starts from scratch with details like how to set up your machine and which thread to use.

This week we're practicing the meander and the loopy meander. I love how Angela's illustrations show you every step of the stitch. She also walks you through some troubleshooting, explaining common problems and how to avoid or fix them. 

I practiced all the designs in this book on the Michael Miller quilt that's flying to QuiltCon right now. In this block, I did a basic meander. Meandering is great for getting the hang of FMQ, for letting yourself relax and play with the fabric and thread. Angela has helpful diagrams, photos, and instructions for when you catch yourself traveling in only one direction or repeating the same design over and over again.

I have no idea why the color is so off in this picture.
The pink sashing is the same on all the blocks.

Once you get the hang of meandering, you can add loops. You can see from these two blocks that changing the size gives it a different feel. You can also see from the block above that smaller loops are harder to keep smooth than larger loops. But that's why we practice!

Angela shows some fun ways to adapt this meander to the space you're filling, including borders.

Quilt along with us and be sure to share pictures of your progress using the hashtag #freemotionmeandering!

Book Review: Piece and Quilt with Precuts by Christa Watson

Piece and Quilt with Precuts by Christa Watson shown here
with fabric from Christa's new line, Modern Marks.
Photo credit: Vicki Holloway

The fabulous Christa Watson has done it again! That is, she's written a book that feels incredibly welcoming and approachable for newbies, but thought-provoking and creative enough for the more experienced quilter. She also answers that burning question that every true stash lover wants answered: What do I do with all these precuts?

Spools quilt by HollyAnne Knight of String and Story

Admit it, you've bought precuts with absolutely no clue what to do with them. They're pretty and fun to pet, but every once in awhile you need to open one up and use it.

Squiggles quilt by Kristin Esser

The eleven quilt patterns in this book are simple enough - and with well written directions - for a beginner who is comfortable with a sewing machine OR for a more advanced quilter to whip up a quick quilt and have fun playing with color and quilting designs. The fabric and the quilting do the heavy lifting in these modern designs. 

Gridwork quilt by Vicki Holloway of My Creative Corner 3

We know Christa is a great teacher and encourager when it comes to quilting on a domestic machine, but now she's added fabric designer to her resume. Her new line, Modern Marks, is the perfect companion to the quilts in her third book.

Special thanks to Martingale for generously sharing a copy of the book with me so I could have a sneak peek, and to Vicki, Kristin, and HollyAnne of String and Story  for letting me borrow their pictures. For lots more about the patterns and fabrics, be sure to visit their blogs. They are in the middle of doing another blog hop through this book, and the quilts they are showing are fantastic! Even better, they are each giving away a copy, so be sure to visit all three of them.

Question for you: how many precut bundles are in your stash right now? 

Machine Quilting Monday - What I Learned from Entering My Quilt in a Show

No, I haven't been machine quilting much lately, but I realized I had never wrapped up my experience of entering my quilt into the East Cobb Quilters Guild show back in June.

For the backstory, visit these posts first:

1. Bonnie Hunter - the class that started it all
1. too many posts to list over the years detailing the incremental progress being made (or not)
2. Bobbin Chicken - entering my quilt 
3. I'm In! - my quilt was accepted into the show
4. Bordering on Insanity - quilting String Spider Web
5. Hip to Be Square - blocking a quilt for the first time
6. Georgia Celebrates Quilts - seeing my quilt hanging in the show

We were in Boston when it was time to pick up the quilts, so Ben generously collected mine for me. I didn't see him until our July guild meeting, and then completely forgot about it.




The Stitch did an episode where they shared their judges comments, so I thought you might like to see mine.

The comments were very kind, and none of the critique was a surprise. For instance, I got a "Good" on Complexity of Design (it was a pattern, and not particularly challenging) and Piecing Techniques (I cut off most of my star points by making my original template wrong).

I also got a "Good" for Finishing Techniques, with a note that says "pieced binding frames quilt well but could be smoother and straighter." That's fair.

The only other "Good" I received was for Quilting Techniques, which has the words "even stitches/tension" underlined. Tell me something I didn't know! I was happy to be rated "Good" in this category since even stitches are still my biggest challenge, especially when quilting teeny, tiny pebbles and other motifs.

But I was thrilled to also have "Very Good" in every other category, as well as these positive comments:

• "Clever idea, great assortment of fabrics" (that's what you get when you take this many years to finish a quilt!)
• "Quilting motif well chosen specific to quilt" (shoutout to Christa Watson, Angela Walters, and my #machinequiltingbloghop partners in crime, Kristin, HollyAnne, and Vicki!)
• "Held up well under stiff competition" (squeeee! Lynn says this means it was held for consideration for a ribbon!)

I am so pleased with this experience and only regret that it took me so long to try entering a show outside my own guild. It was a great learning experience, and pushed me to do my best work. I know that this quilt truly has been practice for the ones that come next, and I look forward to stepping up my game in the future.

Have you ever entered a judged show? How was your experience?

#MachineQuiltingBlogHop - We Have a Winner! And a New Feature!

Our #MachineQuiltingBlogHop has ended and we have a winner!

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Please join me in congratulating Carolyn, aka CaroChristi on Instagram. She will receive a copy of The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting by Angela Walters and Christa Watson. 

I'm so thankful to Vicki, Kristin, and HollyAnne. We had so much fun hopping along and encouraging one another, that I think you may see a brand new hashtag and weekly(ish) feature on some of our blogs called #MachineQuiltingMonday.

I also really appreciate the support from Angela, Christa, and Martingale. They shared our posts and, of course, donated the books for our raffles.

This has been a great experience, giving me more confidence in my quilting and my ability to improve with regular practice.

I hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have, and keep practicing!

WiP Wednesday - Where Was I?

It's WiP Wednesday, and I'm back to The Pit Boss's Turning Fifty quilt. I've been distracted for awhile. First I had to finish the String Spider Web quilt for the East Cobb Show.  Then I've been quilting a lot for the #machinequiltingbloghop. Plus the monthly blocks for the Twilters bee swap.

This week has been the usual Independence Day celebration with the cousins and more food than should be legal, but I've been sneaking some time in the mornings before everyone else is awake to do a little bit of sewing. I've managed to make two more blocks, so I'm halfway done. 

I have to go back to work tomorrow. One of the team service projects is to pack lunches for kids in need. The team decided that we should decorate the lunch bags to make it a little more fun, and they handed out plain white bags so we could all pitch in. I decided that this was as good a chance as any to practice free motion quilting designs! 

What are you working on? 

#MachineQuiltingBlogHop Week 10 - Swirling Butterflies

Welcome to our grand finale, Week 10 of the Machine Quilting Blog Hop!

Today we are finishing up the hop and working on Chapter 3 of The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting by Angela Walters and Christa Watson, Swirling Butterflies. 

I'm going to apologize right now for the quality of the pictures. It has been raining here for days and days, and the whole cloth is already tricky to capture. I did my best.

We saved this chapter for last thinking that it was the most challenging, and that making a whole cloth quilt would be the magnum opus of our machine quilting hop. In some ways this is true, but there are definitely other designs that were much more difficult for me. I find the free motion "doodling" to be very relaxing and freeing, versus the specific lines required when doing a pattern. 

I broke from the book in that I didn't trace a design like Christa and Angela did. I started out by cutting a 13" square of this pale gray fabric that I picked up at City Square Quilts. I pressed guidelines into it so I would have something to aim for.

Then I used a Crayola washable marker to draw some circles. In retrospect, I wish I had done two things differently: first, I should have used a compass to be a little more precise. You can see that I just eyeballed it and traced around some plastic bowls. Second, I wish I had drawn more circles because they really were helpful.

Then I just started playing with thread. I used this gorgeous pale blue Aurifil thread called Mint Ice (2800) in the 50 weight that I originally used in Royal Squares. I stitched the center flower design first, using my pressed guidelines to help make the petals all about the same size and evenly spaced. 

I then stitched some scalloped edges. I did microstippling inside the first scallop, and went around the outside scallop a second time to give it a little more depth. I think these are so pretty, and gives the finished product a lacy look.

Here's where I wish I'd had at least one more circle drawn. These spirals got a little out of control, but I do love the pebbling that fills in the gaps between the spirals and the scallops.

I added a leaf design between the spirals. I regret these because they are not on the guidelines but also not evenly spaced between the guidelines. They're also not all the same size. Again, this is where more circles would have helped. 

I finished up with some of the cursive L designs to fill the area around the spirals and leaves. Last I went around the edges with switchbacks to finish it off. 

These small quilt sandwiches are so great for this purpose. I was able to practice and see what works. I learn which things are worth taking the extra time that it takes for precision and which things can be left imperfect. 

Don't forget to enter the Rafflecopter drawing for your own copy of the book, and be sure to visit Vicki, Kristin, and HollyAnne to enter their drawings. That's right - Martingale gave us 4 books to raffle! 

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Have you been quilting along with us? What have you learned? Do you think a weekly or monthly link up would be motivating and inspiring? How should we keep this good momentum going? Let us know what you think, either in the comments or on your favorite social media channel using the hashtag #machinequiltingbloghop. 

This has been so much fun for me, and my stitching has improved already. It's true what they say - practice makes progress! This hop has kept me sewing and pushing some boundaries. I really do hope to keep it up and continue to improve my skills.

Thanks for playing along. Check back later this week to see who won the raffles!

WiP Wednesday - String Blocks for the Queen

It's WiP Wednesday and this week I'm recovering from vacation by catching up with my Twilters bee blocks for June. Nothing like the last minute, right?

This month is Carmit's turn to be queen, and she requested these cute string blocks and even wrote up a tutorial for how to make them. These are perfect for using up strings and strips leftover from binding or when you square up a quilt. 

I started pulling all of the different colors together to see what I had. This is when Bonnie Hunter's Scrap User's System really comes in handy. It felt great to get this 1 1/2" strip bin cleaned out.

I had fun making these, but it's got me thinking. My turn to be queen is in October, and I have no idea what block to request. Any suggestions for a good scrappy swap block? So many of my favorite ideas have been taken. There's no rule that I can't pick an "encore," but I'd like to do something different.

My design wall is a little stagnant. Once the Machine Quilting Blog Hop is done next week I can get back to The Pit Boss's Turning Fifty quilt. Speaking of the hop, have you entered the drawing to win a copy of The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting? The Rafflecopter widget is in the post right before this one. Be sure to visit Kristin, Vicki, and HollyAnne for more chances to win.

What are you working on this week?