Quilting without my machine

One of the FMQ blocks

While free motion quilting (FMQ) my king size quilt, I realised that my sewing machine (my Jag) needed some TLC. I clean it on the first of each month but otherwise I haven’t done any maintenance on it since I got it two years ago. It was past due. I brought it in this morning and I will hopefully get it back next week. I’m sure that many of you understand my anxiety of being without it for long.

I do have 2 Kenmore machines that are old but fine, although they will require some maintenance also. As my pile of projects to FMQ is getting higher, I really need my Jenome to be in great working order.

What should I do in the meantime?

• I could bring one of my Kenmores upstairs and work on piecing projects. I have many to choose from.

Grandmother's Choice Blocks

These are a few of the blocks from Grandmother's Choice Block of the Week, It was created to recall the fight for women's rights. Since this year is the 100th anniversary of women obtaining the vote in many of Canada's provinces, it would be really nice to finish the quilt this year.

Street Art Quilt

This quilt is my interpretation of Street Art Quilt which appeared in the International Quilt Festival Quilt Scene magazine (2013\2014), My version is totally different that the original and I would like to make it bigger. I don't think it would take much work.

No Rules Scrappy Piecing

I have 22 very scrappy triangles that need to be set into a quilt. All I need to do is cut triangles of the same size and make the quilt!




All of the embroidery is done for my Frog Work quilt below. I just need to piece a few more blocks.

Frog embroidery

Frog Work blocks

• I can also forget the sewing machine for a week and work on hand projects. I have a couple of these and there’s a project that I’d love to start. Since I am going away on the weekend, it would be great to have some hand work to do.

• I also have some miscellaneous tasks like sandwiching quilts to get them ready for FMQ; frame my felting project or even clean my sewing space!

Needle Felted Feather

I've bought a frame - maybe it's time to see if it fits and would look good!

 What I learned:

• I started this post by going through my blog to see what projects I could work on. I do have a list of projects that I've completed and that I'm working on but going through the blog was much more visual and fun.
• As I was deciding on which projects to include, I had some pretty strong negative reactions to a couple of them. I guess it's not the time to go back to those yet!
• I've got three options but these's no reason that it has to be either/or. A combination of all three would be just fine (and more likely).
• As I look at these projects, it feels like when I'm getting ready to go on retreat and want to bring everything and will end up bringing too much! Whatever gets worked on is a bonus. There are no deadlines for any of these. 
• I wish I hadn't mentioned the "D" word (deadline) since I realize that I have a few of them coming up at the end of the summer. But this week, I am doing like an ostrich - my head is in the sand and I refuse to think about them! I am very, very good at that :-)

So, do you have projects to finish this summer, and are you diligent about getting your machine maintained? I'd love to hear from you.

Check out the other quilting bloggers out there! I'll be linking to the following Linky Parties: 

Midweek Makers, Let's Bee Social, Fabric Tuesday, Linky Tuesday, Main Crush Monday, To-do Tuesday,

Quilting in the Bush

The view from our sewing room

I've spent the last four days quilting in the bush, at a retreat with friends. It's been fabulous. It's only about an hour from home. I took 3 vacation days and am spending 5 days quilting. In that time, I prepared one meal. We each make one of the meals for Thursday to Saturday. On Sunday we eat leftovers and then leave in the early afternoon.

Some of the ladies are energetic and take daily walks - not easy since the area is full of hills. It's also black fly season - and I'm considered a delicacy, so I've mostly stayed indoors except for a few photo shoots and to put my feet into the river:-)

Wednesday
My first day was productive. I finished a batik lap quilt top that I had started a year ago, and I put the sashing and borders on my Applique Inside the Lines UFO.

Batik Lap Quilt Top

I was so impressed with the first batik lap quilt I made that I bought more Charm Packs to make some quick gifts. I couldn't understand why I didn't have enough charm squares (5") to make this quilt until I read my original blog post - it takes 3 packages and I only bought 2! I was able to add more squares from my stash. Hopefully they will behave when the quilt gets washed since you can't pre-wash pre-cuts.

For this quilt, I used 2 packages of North Country Trail Batiks Charm Pack by Holly Taylor for Moda.

North Country Trail
Batiks Charm Pack 

The Leaves project is from the book, Applique Inside the Lines by Carol Armstrong. I've actually written about this project in a couple of posts. In the March 2014 post, I wrote about embroidering the first red leaf at work during my lunch break. I finished the last of the three leaves in June 2014 while embroidering in the car on a road trip...and the finished leaves sat in a pretty project bag until this week.

When I looked in my stash for sashing and border fabric, I quickly decided on a beautiful batik of green, blue, gold and red in a cathedral windows print. Unfortunately this image doesn't do it justice. I hope that the final picture when it's done (not 4 years from now!) will be better.

The Leaves with sashing and a border

Thursday
It spent part of the morning making lunch and then tried to start on a Sew Together Bag. I was obviously not in the right head-space because every piece of fabric I cut was wrong! You may know that I really don't like measuring and following a pattern, so I can't say that I was surprised but I am better at it some days that others.

Background of the landscape art quilt

Finally I broke down and started a new landscape art quilt. I was really hoping to only work on WIPs this week, but everything I brought require measuring and following instructions. Fortunately I had brought a dozen solid Kona fat quarters with me. I decided to cut strips, between 1 and 2 inches and see what I could do. While looking at the results one of my retreat buddies suggested that the dark brown could be a dock. That's when the project fell into place.

Here's what it looks like after a couple of days of playing with it. I've only pieced the bottom section, but this will be the background to the landscape art quilt, very loosely based on the view from our quilting room.

I will piece all of the strips together and then add fabric details to the background. There's not much of a sky in the picture but since it's one of my favourite parts of a landscape art quilt, I decided to add one. I have a lot of time to change my mind about all of this, but this is the first rough sketch.

Inspiration for my next Landscape Art Quilt

Fox in a Box

Friday
It took me 2 days to finally start relaxing. I worked on another WIP (Work in Progress). This is for my good friend Sonya's third child. I've posted about Alexandre's quilt but I can't find any mention of Charlotte's quilt. I'll show all three once I finish this one. I've almost finished piecing the flying geese blocks. I still have a way to go but I'm now encouraged to finish it - so there's hope that William will get it before his first birthday, maybe!

What I've learned

• I know that I can measure, cut and follow instructions - but my ability to do so is much better when I'm well rested.
• It would seem that I can't stay away from creating new landscape art quilts. Next time I go to a retreat, I'll make sure to pack for one!
• Thursday night I couldn't sleep, so I came down and sewed a bunch of scraps together. It was very relaxing and I slept well after that (and a peanut butter, honey and banana sandwich).
• It's been great to be able to spend time writing this post. Now it's time to get back to my projects.

Do you get a chance to get away to quilt with buddies? Tell us about it in the comments section.

Check out the many quilty projects: Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, Main Crush Monday, Freemotion by the River, Let's Bee Social and Fabric Frenzy Friday.

Making Progress

Three Leaves

The last few weeks haven't been ideal for quilting, but on a road trip last weekend I was able to work on my embroidery/ appliqué leaves project. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to appliqué so much in the car. By the time we got to North Bay, I had finished the green leaf.  It wasn't my best work, but when I was extra careful, I was impressed with the results. The trick now is to try to be careful more of the time!

The green leaf was the third leaf of a project from the book Applique Inside the Lines by Carol Armstrong. During the 30/30 Challenge in March I had completed the orange leaf. I now have to sew the pieces together with sashing in between to make it look like a picture frame. I'll then sandwich and quilt it. Since this is such a lovely small piece, I'll probably hand quilt it. It'll be a nice summer project.

Before the weekend, I had a chance to start quilting a lap quilt. This is one of the projects that I made several years ago but didn't finish it since I couldn't free motion quilt (FMQ). What a joy to be working on these UFOs (unfinished objects).

Jewel Tone Quilt

I wanted to try something new for this quilt (of course). Since I've invested so much in Craftsy, I had to try out some of those new techniques. This one comes from Design It, Quilt It with Cindy Needham.

I started quilting it as she advised - "stitch every stinking seam"! I stitched most of the seams but didn't quilt the 9 patch blocks since that's where I'll be quilting the motifs. Not sure which ones yet. I'm waiting for my muse...

I've started working on my Grandmother's Choice blocks again. I've even been trying different techniques, but that'll be the subject of the next blog.

What I learned:

• Applique is difficult! It can be done well, but it demands a lot of attention. I'm still very sporadic in my attention but generally speaking, it is getting a little better. I'm not sure that I'm going to practice till I do it perfectly!
• I really appreciated Cindy Needham's suggestion of quilting every seam before doing the design FMQ. It stabilized the quilt, helped me get the feel of the quilt and gave me time to think about how I'm going to quilt it. Unfortunately I still have no idea what to do....that means that I'll have to wait till inspiration hits - or watch her video a couple more times!

Hope your first day of summer was good. Mine was awesome since my son came home from his summer job and we were able to celebrate his 23rd birthday.

Friendship is sewn with love and measured by kindness.

Finishing up - Final Update

What a month! It was a great idea to join the 30/30 Challenge hosted by Berry Barn Designs. It encouraged me to quilt as often as possible and I got to read some great blogs, comments etc. Thank you everyone, especially Sarah of Berry Barn Designs!

Here was my list of projects and what I hoped to accomplish:

• I'll be finishing my Quilt-Along project using Dot-to-dot FMQ (free motion quilting);
• I will also be working on my frog quilt. My objective is to get the quilt top finished.
• I will be working on my Grandmother's Choice quilt.  My objective is to get 10 more blocks finished and blog about them (that takes the longest time since I usually research the Canadian facts about each issue.)

What was I thinking? I think I thought I was going to take the month off work and quilt!

Quilt-Along almost finished

Here are my accomplishments:

• The Quilt-Along project is almost finished. I used only Dot-to-Dot FMQ on it. All of the blocks and the sashing have been quilted. I just need to quilt the border with the Cathedral curves.
• I completed two blocks of the frog quilt in the first week of the challenge. That's as far as it went.
• The Grandmother's Choice quilt is coming along. Before the challenge, I had chosen and cut the fabric for 5 more blocks. This weekend, I completed them, plus one more; and then chose the fabric for another 6 blocks. I haven't blogged about them yet but I will in the near future.

Grandmother's Choice blocks

Accomplishments that were not included in the Challenge:

• I completed a DIY kimono for my daughter;
• I completed the batik quilt top that I started during week 2, when I was too tired to piece my complicated blocks (frog quilt and Grandmother's Choice);
• I have embroidered about half of the leaf for one of the projects from Carol Armstrong's Applique Inside the Lines;
• I have almost finished the Happy Villages project. It's 95% completed. I just have to add boats on the water and FMQ some waves on the water; and



Completed Batik Quilt Top

• I attended one quilt guild meeting and three classes in Canadian art appreciation.

One of the reasons I got so much done was that I went on a quilting retreat from Thursday to Sunday this week. That's essentially where I did everything that I hadn't done in the previous 3 weeks.

It was a great weekend of quilting, sleeping, reading, and eating with friends....not necessarily in that order. It was almost as good as going down south for a holiday (almost but not quite!)

What I learned

Happy Villages - Amalfi Coast

• Why am I always so ambitious in setting goals? At the time, I actually thought they were pretty realistic. Not sure on which planet or alternate universe!
• I really did get a lot done - frankly an incredible amount. It just wasn't on the projects that I had anticipated doing.
• In hindsight my objectives were made up of projects that demanded a fair amount of concentration and focus. What I did accomplish included easier projects that I could do without too much thought.   

Challenge Results - Week 2

The week has been a very busy one. I did have a chance to spend some quality "me" time but it wasn't necessarily spent quilting or sewing.

On Sunday, I finally got around to sewing my daughter a DIY Kimono from a lovely scarf. It came out ok, if you don't examine it too closely :-) When I finished it, I told myself that I wouldn't make another one, but since then I've been thinking that if I were to sew the front and collar by hand, it might be less trouble and look better. Here's the post.

Batik 5 inch squares

On Monday, I was so tired after work that there was no way I was going to be able to do any type of difficult blocks or FMQ. So, I found some lovely 5 inch Tonga batik mini squares in my stash. Since they were a great price, I had bought 3 packages. That was a great idea. Now I have enough to make at least a throw. The colours are beautiful - from dark blue, to pale blue, yellows and oranges. It's very rich looking.

I've worked on it for a couple of days. Here is the result to date. Once again, it's taken a photo of my project to see that I've made an error - it looks like I've messed up the pattern of the yellow squares in the top left corner. I guess I'll have to fix that up. It's amazing how you "see" so much better when looking at a photo instead of the real thing!

On Tuesday I went to the Common Thread Quilt Guild meeting. The presenter did a trunk show - she had some amazing pieces. When I went to look at her work up close during the break, I realised that I was able to recognize the FMQ that she had done. That's the first time it's happened to me. That's a sign that I'm learning my patterns. I was quite happy.

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

On Thursday, I went to my second class - I'm taking a Canadian art appreciation course. It's held at the National Gallery of Canada. What an amazing adventure. I get to look at great Canadian paintings in an amazing building while listening to our extremely knowledgeable and interesting professor - and the bonus... no homework. What a joy!

In last week's post, I realised that if I wanted to sew every day, I should probably bring a small embroidery project to work so that I could do my half hour during my lunch break. I brought my project to the office and I worked on it for the first time today.
This is a project that I started a couple of years ago. It's from the book Applique Inside the Lines by Carol Armstrong. I've done a couple of projects previously (here they are). This one is a set of three leaves. I've finished the red leaf and started working on the yellow and orange leaf. You start by embroidering the outline and then appliqueing the fabric within the lines. These are great projects for learning to hand applique.

Applique Inside the Lines

Happy Villages by Karen Eckmeier

Tomorrow I'm going to take a quilting class offered by our Guild. We are making our own Happy Village, based on the book Happy Villages by Karen Eckmeier. This should be a lot of fun. I'm bringing a postcard of the Almafi Coast in Italy. It looks a lot like some of the villages. Hopefully it won't be too difficult to make it look a little like it. It was such a wonderful area and we had a great time. It would be fun to remember our trip through a quilt.

What I learned:

• Sometimes I feel bad that I have so many projects on the go but then I'm very grateful when I can choose to work on the project I want, based on my energy level. I guess it's not such a bad thing. At least I do get back to most of them....eventually.
• I didn't think I had accomplished much this week, but as I was writing my post, I realise that I've been productive. I may not have worked on my challenge projects, but I did have a good week!

Learning Needle Turn Appliqué from an Expert

I had the pleasure last week of taking a hand appliqué course with international award winning quilter, Kathy Wylie. Wow, this lady knows appliqué! She was the speaker at our guild meeting last Tuesday. She’s funny, smart, knowledgeable and really down to earth. Her work is meticulous and has won many prizes. Those are actually the kind of quilts that I see at quilt shows and in magazines and automatically think that I’ll never be able to do that. Both the appliqué and the quilting are really unbelievable. She has sure earned those prizes.

I registered for the course this summer, before even knowing what we would be appliquéing. It’s just as well, or I probably wouldn't have had the confidence to take the course. We learned to appliquéd a small section of her pattern, Flourish on the Vine. Our pattern is one of the horizontal stem pieces coming out of the centre. It’s placed at both ends of the runner.

Flourish on the Vine by Kathy Wylie

Applique project

I thought I was exhausted coming home after the workshop, but once I got some supper in me, I kept going and finished the section we were working on. I even transferred the rest of the pattern onto freezer paper. It’s now all ready to cut out and be appliquéd.

Butterfly

Applique Inside the Lines

I've only done needle-turn appliqué a couple of times before. Based on the book, Appliqué Inside the Lines: 12 Quilt Projects to Embroider and Appliqué by Carol Armstrong, I embroidered and appliquéd two projects that are in my cubicle.

I put aside the Flourish on the Vine project to practice a little more. I’m working on the feather project from the book that I had started but never finished. I’m doing the project as fall coloured leaves. I know that quilters will recognize them as feathers but anyone else will see leaves!

Dresden Plate

What did I learn?

• Like anything else, the more you practice the better you get.
• Appliqué is addictive.
• It’s best to appliqué in really good light. It makes all the difference!
• It’s important to have a ¼ inch to do the needle-turn. Less is NOT a good thing!
• Kathy taught us to mark the pattern onto the fabric before doing the appliqué. It really helps! 
• It’s also important to mark the appliqué piece on the fabric before cutting it a ¼ inch larger. This helps you guide where you should be turning and appliquéing. 
• We learned many other things, but I’m not going to reveal all of Kathy’s secrets here. Instead, I’ll encourage you to take one of her classes!