Free Motion Quilting experiments

There are a few free-motion-quilting designs I've been wanting to try ... especially this one. 

I'd pinned the idea on Pinterest (see this pin), and read the how-tos here.

As it turns out, it really is that easy. AWESOME. 

I stitched it in variegated thread, for fun.

(Notice my white gloves with grippy fingers? Super. Just got them from Leah Day's web store, along with some other neat tools. Very handy.)

I also tried this "spiral chain" design, from Leah Day's collection of awesome designs. The link for her how-to is here.

I've been toying with the idea of personalizing quilts with quilted-in letters ... And I also like the idea of quilting little alternating squares, like a checkerboard. But since I've never done either, I thought I'd just give both a try on one of my little blocks. Success, I think!

I'll probably add some or all of these to my stack of free-motion-shirt-quilt-as-you-go blocks (or whatever I called them in that post!)

Oh, and I discovered something nifty. I may (or may not) have mentioned the $25 machine that I bought at the thrift store last year. The one that included a walking foot AND a darning foot? That one. Old, but so nearly new that they hadn't removed most of the film-that-keeps-the-shiny-parts-shiny? So simple it doesn't even have a standard stitch-length dial, but it stitches great and free-motions beautifully? Great little machine.

It's got this button thing on top. (What do they call it?) Anyhoo, this button thing regulates something to do with the presser-foot pressure, or something to do with the feed dogs. (Can anyone explain?) All the way up, it's great for free motioning, because there's very little drag/pressure. All the way down, notsomuch. It can even go partway down to customize the pressure.

Genius, and it makes all the difference. My Kenmore has a dial (0-3) that regulates the presser-foot pressure. These two are my favorite machines to free-motion quilt on, because of this. 

To me, it seems like this is more of an important issue even than whether the feed dogs are up or down. (Side note: with feed dogs down, I have to really adjust the tension. Anybody else have this issue?)

Anyway, I've been having fun quilting!

Update: I'm linking this post to this week's FMQ Friday at Leah Day's blog, The Free Motion Quilting Project. It's a great place to see what other quilters are working on, and to get inspiration for more great quilting techniques.

More bits and pieces ...

Lately, I have a long list of friends-and-relations-expecting-babies, which is lots of fun.

So, one weekend when I had some time, I started putting together some bits and pieces of a few baby quilts.

It's been fun. I'll show better pictures later, after some of the quilts have been given, and/or babies have arrived. But for now, a few sneak peeks:

Putting little squares into some white fabric ...

Doing a little custom free-motioning ...

And some regular free-motioning ... (Pardon the wrinkliness ... that's the coziness trying to show, after putting the finished quilt thru the washer & dryer!)

I'll post some more "finished pics" later ...

More Serged Kitchen Towels & Washcloths

I've decided that I really like the weight & feel of cotton tablecloths made into kitchen linens.

So, I've been at it again. (I've done this before ...)

The beige ones above are small washcloths. Twenty-something, from a tablecloth.

And then, there were blue ones ... which gave me the perfect opportunity for using my newest variegated thread ...

Awesome. I love it.

So, now I've got a great stack of pretty blue kitchen towels with serged edges.

The variegated effect is fun - did I mention that I love this thread? (And, no, nobody is paying me mention it.) I never really gave much thought to variegated thread, until a friend quilted some little hearts on a baby quilt for my daughter - in variegated thread. That was several years ago. Then, recently, quilting with variegated thread was discussed in this post at Jo's Country Junction. 

Anyway, I'm liking the variegated threads I've used, here and on this project.

What I really want to try this blue variegated thread on is quilting The Shirt Quilt Top that I finished a year ago. Remember this one? I had fun finding an interesting way of putting it together.

Anyway, the plan is free-motion quilting in blue, all over this blue quilt, with navy blue backing, and the same variegated thread on the back ... I'm liking it already!

Little bits of Batik Patchwork

I've been sewing bits of the Batik Double Wedding Ring quilt I mentioned cutting the pieces for ...

Lots and lots of pieces got sewn together ... squares and arches and melon-shaped navy blue pieces.

... with lots more still to come.

It seems I need eighty-something of these little melon-shaped units. 

I've got twenty-something made.

Pretty good for a start. 

I love the colorfulness, with the navy background.

Double Wedding Ring block trial-run

The other day, I mentioned starting my Batik Double Wedding Ring quilt. 

Here's the test-run for that one:

Got this cutesie fabric cheap. While I'm not really a Tinkerbell fan, the price was right to make a trial-run of a few blocks, using my new DWR templates I'd just bought from Amazon.com.

Found out a few details that proved helpful. Found out I can do it, and the curves aren't really that bad. 

Finishing this one up soon, into a 16-block quilt top that'll measure around 40 inches square. I'll probably sell it as a quilt top, so somebody else can quilt it for a real Tinkerbell fan. :-)

Friendship Bracelets

The other day I came across a bunch of extra embroidery floss I've got.

(Extra, as in, I already had a ton, and then I found oodles of NEW skeins of DMC embroidery floss for 10¢ each at a thrift store, and couldn't pass it up. So, yeah. I've got extra.)

So I suddenly remembered that it's been a while since my girls have thought of making friendship bracelets, and they might like reminding.

And I also suddenly remembered coming across this "20 kinds of friendship bracelets" blog post (thank you Pinterest), so I thought I might get the girls started on some of the easiest ones.

I had fun remembering how much fun I had as a kid making these. I had fun starting these off. And, I just might try some of those fancy-looking ones I've never tried. Hearts in a friendship bracelet? Cool idea. 

Fun way to keep hands busy while watching football with the family. Fun thing for the girls to do with friends and cousins.

Floral Kaleidoscopes - Love them!

I've discovered that I LOVE floral kaleidoscopes in quilts. 

The green one I made a couple years ago has become a family favorite.

And some of the time, I find fabric that just LOOKS like it would make an awesome kaleidoscope.

This fabric was a sheet from the thrift store. (My kids are amused when I see "normal stuff" as "fabric", instead of as the garment or household linen that it actually is.) 

It's not exactly vintage, and not exactly all-cotton. But I loved it, and thought it would make a great kaleidoscope. 

Turns out, I was right: It makes a great kaleidoscope. Love the colors, the roses, the uniqueness of each of the (70+) kaleidoscopes I sewed up the other day.

I'm planning to set these blocks with some solid light-blue-grey in between, to give these blocks a layout like the green one I mentioned above, minus the piano-key border, plus a plain border made of the-rest-of-the-sheet.