A Finished Quilt

I did it! I finished this quilt the night before my deadline, and I couldn't be more happy with it.

Babco Unlimited - Painting the Roses Red Finished Quilt

This little lady bug makes me smile.  I found it in my stash and had to piece him in somehow. 

Babco Unlimited - Painting the Roses Red Finished Quilt

This is only the second quilt I have free motion quilted myself. I admit, I was very nervous about ruining my wonderful quilt top with my beginner quilting skills.

When it came time to quilt my borders, I was at a loss. I searched out inspiration on pintrest and found a few quilting motifs I thought I could manage.

Babco Unlimited - Painting the Roses Red Finished Quilt

I had to improvise with my thread choices. I had planned on using the same green variegated thread all over the backing. But when it came to quilting the white churn-dash border, I couldn't get my tension right and the green kept pulling up to the top. It was so distracting. (And frustrating!) 

I finally threw my hands in the air and quilted both sides with white thread. I was under a deadline and didn't have time for this nonsense. Now, when I look at the backing, I love how it turned out. 

Babco Unlimited - Painting the Roses Red Finished Quilt

This is a horrible picture taken by my mom, but here you go. I brought my completed project to my guild meeting last week. 

Painting the Roses Red

And guess what? It was selected to be part of our guild's entry to the AQS show in Grand Rapids, MI. The Quilt Show has a category called "The Ulitimate Guild Challenge" you can read about here.
I was beyond shocked my quilt was selected to be 1 of 8 our guild entered into this National Quilt Show.

Linked up with Anything Goes here.
Linked up with Let's Bee Social here.
Linked up with Needle and Thread Thursday here.
Linked up with TGIFF here.

FMQ Friday #6 - Quilting Wheel of Fortune Quilt

I'm on a deadline.

Earlier this year, I signed up to participate in a UFO challenge with two separate guilds. I completely botched it with one guild because of all the time and energy I spent preping for my upcoming move. I still have a chance with the second guild....but I have to have it done--as in quilted, bound, and labeled--by Wednesday. Holy Moly--that is in 5 days! I don't know if I'll get it all done.

I found, what I thought, was the PERFECT thread for my project from Superior Threads. I mean, isn't it beautiful? 

Superior Thread

I love the brightness of this variegated thread. I was beyond excited when I got it.

Wheel of Fortune Quilt

It matches so perfectly, it was as if it was designed JUST for my quilt. But then I tried it out on a tester sample.  Even though it takes time to create a tester block, I am always ALWAYS so glad that I did.

Wheel of Fortune Quilt Block

I didn't love the thread anymore. Oh, it was perfect for the back of the quilt, but it detracted from the block. It was TOO noticeable on the front, especially in all the negative space. I also decided to stop the spiral before I got to the pink ring.

After much deliberation and thought, I decided to go with a MonoPoly thread on top and this beautiful variegated pink on the bottom. 

Wheel of Fortune Quilt

I am so happy with this! The spiral is still there, but now the thread doesn't become the star of the show. 

Now I must try to wrestle with my quilt in my little Bernina 200. Quilting a small 9" square block is SO completely different than a 55"x 60" quilt. 

Wheel of Fortune Quilt

Wish me luck. I'm gonna need it.

Linked up with Needle and Thread Thursday here.

FMQ Friday #5 - Hidden Mickeys

Inspiration really is all around us.

While at Disneyland last week, the kids and I searched for hidden Mickeys. We found quite a lot, and we were always so proud of ourselves. It added an element of surprise and fun to the normal and mundane. 

For example: This was the carpet in our hotel room.

It is a pretty swirly design. Then, suddenly, you are seeing a hidden Mickey.

While waiting in line for Gadget Go ride in Toon Town, my boys spotted this hidden Mickey.

This one I found online here.

Hidden Mickey

These little hidden treasures are easily found when you look for them, but are also easily overlooked. 

What does this have to do with quilting? So glad you asked. 

Why can't we do something similar in our quilting? Add hidden designs or messages?

Who says we can't? I still haven't met with this supposed "Quilt Police" anywhere.

I pulled out a quilting practice block and started quilting. I thought a loopy stippling would be perfect for this type of thing. So, as I looped and swirled I stitched in the word "Love." Can you see it?

Hidden Words

I like how it is hidden. It's easy to see when you know to look for it, but easily overlooked because it blends in with the overall design.  The possibilities are endless. I could have even done an actual hidden Mickey in the quilting.

Have you ever done a hidden message or design?

Linked up to Free Motion Quilting here.

FMQ Friday #3 - Learning Spirals

I've been wanting to learn how to FMQ Spirals. Ultimately, I want to quilt part of my baby boy boat quilt with spirals around the sails to look like wind. But I have to learn how to do it before I can attempt to quilt it on my finished top. 

So, first step was to doodle it. I then tried quilting it, but wasn't happy with the results. I consulted the instructional video here. 

This is what I got:

1st Attempt at Spirals

It's hard to reconcile the results with the image I have in my head. I just have to keep reminding myself that I'm just beginning. 

 

With that in mind, I found a great tutorial that really has made a difference for me. 

SewCalGal has a Free Motion Quilting Challenge I stumbled upon thanks to Pinterest. She has one specifically for learning how to do spirals with printouts to practice on. I love this!

She advocates learning to do swirls in a row to learn the motion and general concept. It helped me a lot.

I printed out her practice sheets where I can trace the shape and then try on my own.

Learning Spirals

 I'd take it with me to doodle on while I waited for the kids at school pick-up or to doodle on while chatting with my sister on the phone, etc. 

I finally decided I needed to try with needle and thread. I was anxious to give it a go.

I drew grid lines onto fabric to mimic the paper I practiced on.

Learning Spirals

Here is my first test with this method.

Learning Spirals

I have to say, I like this second organized attempt better than my first willy-nilly attempt. It was easy to see what I need to work on and focus on. 

I'm going to practice a lot more before I make any attempts on my finished pieced quilt top. 

FMQ Friday #2 - The Difficulties of Straight Line Quilting

I thought I'd try to keep the quilting on this mini quilt simple since the block is just so busy. Also, it seemed like it would be easier than actual Free Motion Quilting (FMQ).  I wanted to do simple straight lines...but not all the way across. I used my ruler to mark lines 3/4" apart.

Here it is ready to quilt.

The finished quilting. 

I had a few false starts. I was having tension difficulties because I was using a finer thread on top and a heavier thread on the bottom...it couldn't be helped.  The colored threads I had on hand were differing weights and quality. Then, the first line I quilted was a bit wobbly, and I ripped it out. I finally got the first line in the ditch, but when I stitched the second line the back puckered...so I ripped that one out. To make sure things stayed flat, I started the first few lines in the middle and worked my way out.

The back still puckered some. I was a little bummed about it. In fact, that night I dreamt about. It wasn't a good dream. I dreamt the back was WAY loose and puckered--you could fit a small child in there. I took my fabric scissors to it and cut the whole back off.  After I woke up, I went to look at it and realized it really isn't THAT bad. 

Here is a close up of the middle back. 

It is a bit hard to see since the fabric is so dark, but you can see how in the middle intersecting lines it isn't exactly flat. 

I thought doing straight line quilting with my walking foot would be easier than Free Motion Quilting, but I seemed to make more mistakes, it seemed to take more time, and the backing moved around a whole lot more. The presser foot kept pushing things around in my quilting sandwich compounding all the above. I felt like I had basted it and pin basted it well, but it didn't seem to help. 

Do you like quilting with your walking foot better than FMQ or vice versa? 

What tips have you discovered that have made quilting with either method that have helped you the most?

How do you keep your back nice and smooth?

And be sure to check out the Leah at the FMQ project. 

FMQ Friday #1 -- Quilting My Little Pink Dress Mini Quilt

Holy Moly! I quilted it. I don't think I ruined it. I'm still in shock I actually did it.

Little Pink Dress Quilt

I've been so nervous to quilt anything I've painstakingly pieced together afraid I would ruin it with my quilting. I have several projects just waiting for quilting, but I'm so scared to take that step. Monday, I finally took the plunge. I'm so happy I did. I can't stop smiling over the fact I have it quilted.

Because I'm a bit anal retentive, I had to practice several more times before I actually did it.

Little Pink Dress Quilt Practice

And one practice block wasn't enough for me. I did a second practice. The second piece I took the time to copy out the dress and purse on the practice block and quilted around it.

Little Pink Dress Quilt Practice

One thing I didn't count on was the fact I could SEE my stitching when I practiced (grey thread on yellow fabric.) However, when I quilted the block I had to really concentrate because I could barely see the stitching--Apparently, I did an excellent job of picking out thread color. 

I kept freaking out and tensing up. I had to keep reminding myself to BREATHE!

I kept remembering what my first FMQ (Free Motion Quilting) teacher told me about staying relaxed. I had such a hard time relaxing. I follow Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Blog, where she just keeps encouraging quilters to just start. And I did. I finally started. Phew! Check out her Friday FMQ Link-up.

Overall, I'm happy with it. And, I'm excited to try again with another project.

Now, I need to do the binding. Call me crazy, but I'm actually thinking of doing some type of scalloped or decorative binding. 

Free Motion Quilting

A couple years ago, I took a class about Free Motion Quilting.  I'm glad I took it, even if I really wasn't ready skill-wise to understand most of it and haven't used it since. I kept thinking about over the years, and it has made me aware of all the possibilities out there.

With me working on the mini quilt, I don't want to pay someone to quilt it. That would be rather dumb. I also don't want to just quilt it with straight lines. That would be rather dull. So, I pulled out my notes and samples from the class. I also pulled up freemotionquilting.blogspot.com for where to start. I've been following Leah Day for a while now. 

But before I could get started, I had to fix my tension problem.  

The stitches on the top would look just fine, but the back would look like this:

 

The stitches weren't meeting in the middle like they should. 

What to do? How to fix this? I did what anyone would do. I called my mom.

My mom suggested I make sure everything is clean and oiled. Then she said I'd just have to play around with the tension settings. So, I did just that. I had to get the manual out to figure out how to change the tension and not make it worse. After about and hour, I finally had success. 

Now that I had removed that hurdle, I had to actually practice quilting. I hadn't done for 2 years. And I had only tried it that one time. And I wasn't even good at it then.

But here is my first attempt a learning to stipple. I did as suggested by starting off with big loopy letter U's. I then tried to move it around. Sometimes I did better than other times. But I still think it's not so bad for a first attempt. 

 

Then I tried to make the stippling smaller, and failed. couldn't really do it on a small scale and not have a million stitches all together. I tried a loopy stippling--I like that one. I tried a paisley design--I like it, but would need a finer thread if I were ever to use it. I then tried to do a design called McTavishing. I was failing miserably when I ran out of bobbin thread, so I just called it a day.

 

Now that I have the tension all sorted out, there are so many possibilities. 

I'm getting really excited to quilt my own mini quilt, even if it does make me panic slightly as I don't want to ruin all my piecing.