Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Turtle power!

I did straight line quilting 1/4" apart in all of the turtle blocks, and in the 4 patches I quilted words from the movie - Channel 6; Casey; April; Leonardo; Donatello; Raphael;  Michaelangelo;  Splinter;  Shredder; Cowabunga; Ooze; Pizza; Turtle Power

Overall it took about 10 hours to quilt with a bunch of stops and starts. Burying all the threads was a royal pain in the butt. Overall, I had a ton of fun quilting it and would probably do a similar quilting style again.

Show Quilt Sneak Peek part 2

So I know I said I wouldn't post the final quilt, and I won't, but I will post a small sneak peek of the quilting in the fan blades. :)

Retirement Quilt DONE

The Retirement Quilt is DONE.  And it's been delivered. And he likes it. 

See, and a lot of you were thinking that I wouldn't actually finish something.  Hahaha.  I got it done. (Before Friday too I might add!!)

Sorry about the horrible picture - it was taken without binding on it, but it has been bound in the dark blue which I think frames it nicely. 

For the backing I used grey flannel and Legacy 100% cotton batting.  It's so soft and cuddly.  It'll be amazing to cuddle up with and I hope that the recipient enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it for him.

Moving beyond Stippling (part 1)

Part 1

Disclaimer: By no means am I an expert at free motion quilting. This is ONE method of doing free motion quilting and there are hundreds of different ways. No way is more "right" or "wrong" than others.  You have to find the way or ways that work for you.  Depending on the size of the throat of your machine, you might have to blend a few ways into something that you can work with.

What you need:

A Quilt Top

Here's the top I'll be using.

 

Tracing Paper; a Pen; Stencil; Quilting Pattern

 

What you do:

Do a rough layout on your quilt as to where you want the quilting pattern to go.  Test it out - see if it fits.  Play around, you may need to use a photocopier to shrink a quilting pattern. 

 

Play with the stencil/s. See if it fits your quilt.  It's a process of trial and error. Sometimes they fit, sometimes they don't.  If you're very new to free motion quilting, stick with stencils that are "continuous line" to quilt.  That just means you're not going to start and stop. The whole design will be quilted with ONE huge line. 

 

Once you've settled on a design, trace the design on tissue paper.

I'd suggest cutting a square, but I forgot to take a picture. Sorry!  So, cut a piece of tissue paper, and trace the stencil onto the tissue paper. If your fabric is dark, pick an ink color that you can see (doesn't matter what color, you'll be quilting over it. Yes, you're actually going to be quilting ON the tissue paper.

 

Here's a (kinda bad) picture of the traced stencil.

  

Once you've settled on a design for the border, trace the design on tissue paper. Make as many as you need. Since my quilt is square, I need 4 corner pieces.

 

If it's a pattern that I'll need more than once (as in the case with the corners) I'll trace one and then check to make sure it fits. It does, so I'll trace 3 more.

Then, continue to trace the rest of the pattern.  The one that I chose to use for this quilt had the corner pieces as well as the border pieces. I got the free pattern at Forest Quilting. 

  

When you're done tracing the borders, lay out the tissue paper on the quilt top and see what you think of it.

 

If you notice, I didn't do the zig zag part yet, or the outer border. I ran out of time tonight, and to be honest, I'm still thinking on how I want to quilt those parts. For right now, I'm thinking that the inner tan part will have small feathers, and maybe pebbling in the zig zag - I'm not quite sure. :)

Real life is going to be kinda crazy the next few days, but I promise that I'll get back to the tutorial next week after I have some time to think on how I want to quilt this one! :)


As another side note:
There are some amazing quilting motifs out there, and a lot are free.  If you like one, don't hesitate to download it/print it/buy it. It is important to note the name of the designer of the motif, especially if you want to put the quilt in a show.


The site that I got the free pattern for the border from is Forest Quilting. Stop by her site, she has a ton of free Quilting Motifs and a bunch of free paper piecing patterns.

Roberts Quilt - Another UFO done!

Another UFO bites the dust. It's *done.*  Happy dance time.

Look out Robert - it's all yours. a great couch quilt.

Quilting Practice - Reversible Candle Mat

Practicing my quilting.  The quilting pattern is a free one from Forest Quilting. Doesn't it quilt up beautifully?

It measures about 14"x14"

Currently in use as a candle mat.

A Donating I Will Go

Made these gorgeous quilts for a raffle. All proceeds go to a scholarship for needy students.Hope they get well received.
 
It's about 50"x50".  I had such fun quilting it and making it.

 

And a close up of the quilting.  In the center points there's a ships wheel, and the stars each have an anchor. I quilted a couple other motifs in the cream squares.

 

This other quilt was so quick and easy to make. Plus, I think it shows off the fabrics pretty well.  I didn't do any fancy stitching in it, just some stippling.

**Edited - one of my students won this one!! :) ** She loves it!

A huge thank you to Mary Quilts for the free pattern for the strippie quilt. Very fun, very easy.

More Boom Blocks

And I'm still making them - running on a roll here. :) I finished up bookworms Mardi Gras block - she said that some embellishments are OK. And since I was in the Mardi Gras theme, I picked another fabric that reminded me of Mardi Gras too, so I ran with that.

For bookworm - the finished version:





This one is for quiltin'gran - group North. The red is really more of a fuchsia hand-dye that I got in Lancaster, PA. I'm not a huge fan of batik, but I thought the hand-dye would work really well in pulling out the fuchsia in her focus fabric. Hope I succeeded in making something she'd like.


And this one is for AngieS. She's in group North. She sent the fish scale fabric. I know it's an oriental theme fabric, but I kept thinking fish scales. So I picked the nautical theme, and my DH picked the civil war reproduction fabric that I've had since the Rag Shop was around.

My hubby is awesome

Look what he got me for my birthday! All these quilting books. Now I only hope he knows how much fabric I'm gonna need. :D Fabric is an addiction. Honestly. BUT it's way cheaper than therapy.