June was challenging for many reasons beyond class. I am happy to have been able to create the assignments. I will need to continue cleaning up and moving my connectors for a more continuous design. I am a longarm quilter and want to be able to create continuous motifs. I have one I created that includes freehand connector lines/swirls. I am hoping to adjust so I end up with one continuous design.
Month 5 of our Digitizing Master Class was all about color. I am not a big ’stash’ collector, so my scraps are prepared for specific projects. A lover of batiks, I had slowly been collecting batik scraps that I cut into 2.5″ squares, saving them in small snap containers. After I finished my Month 05 lessons, I had about a week’s worth of time before the next class. Inspired by our color lessons, I decided it was time to make my batik quilt.
This was also a great project for using my vintage Featherweight. To make quick work of piecing, I used quilter’s 2.5” fusible grid interfacing. I created 20 blocks in total with about 7 different combinations. Each of the large blocks contain 7 x 7 blocks of the 2.5” squares for a total of 980 squares.
For my sashing and first border, I chose a golden yellow batik because it feels like being surrounded by sunshine. To join the blocks in each row I cut 15 14.5” x 1.5” sashing strips. To join each of the rows, the top border strip, and the bottom border strip, I prepared 6 59” x 1.5” pieces. For the right and left side borders, I prepared 2 pieces 76” x 1.5” long.
Next I added the outer border strip. I chose to use ‘teal’ because I love water and it grounds me. I prepared 2 side borders, 76” x 6.5”, and 2 top/bottom borders each 88.5” x 6.5”.
After the top was pieced, I mounted it onto my longarm for quilting. I chose a teal and purple batik for the backing and a purple ombre batik for the binding. I chose purple because it feels like passion. For the quilting I chose a butterfly swirl panto motif designed by Anne Bright.
Here is my finished quilt!
Have month 09 of ”Simply Dreaming”, by Sarah Vedeler, laid out to begin embroidering. This is the last month of blocks. The last 3 months will be quilting and assembling.
This week I finished up Month 08 border blocks. It is getting exciting because I am getting very close to finishing this quilt. Month 09 will have one more set of border blocks. Then months 10-11-12 are quilting months 7-8-9, then onto connecting all the top together.
This week was a very productive week! There was a ton of learning, quilt piecing, quilting on the longarm, embroidering, and even a new paint job on the house.
I finished up month 4 of my digitizing master class. Our project required using our Corel Design skills, Hatch embroidery digitizing skills, to creation of our cut files and embroidery design files. We then stitched out what we created. This month we are learning all about color.
My sweetie has been busy piecing his own quilts. When he finishes his quilt tops, he passes them on to me for the longarm. This week I quilted another ’fish’ themed quilt, a ”Christmas Doxie, and also a ’Touchdown Football’ quilt. (I will post pictures later today)
I was able to longarm my ”Little Red Wagon” quilt and finish up with binding. This was also a learning opportunity. For the first time ever, my machine threw the thread off the upper tension spring (of course when I wasn’t here watching) When I discovered it happened, it had completed two rows and sewn a pleat in the back. Yes, I really did pick out all the stitching. Since there was essentially no top tension, the bobbin thread was just laying on the back. This made for quick picking. Fortunately, I was able to place my zones again and am quite happy with the result. Thank goodness it was on my own quilt, I would have been panicked if it was someone else’s project.
My other project is my “Simply Dreaming Quilt” designed by Sarah Vedeler. I started this quilt right after my Mom passed away last year. I was able to work on Month 07, one of the outer borders. It was the perfect month because it is filled with lots of beautiful flowers. Mom and I used to spend a day in May visiting our favorite nursery together. With the one year anniversary of Mom’s passing, along with Mother’s Day, these beautiful bouquets remind me of our time together.
We also had our house painted this week – by a company and not us! This was a definite first – paying someone to paint our house. The last time we rented scaffolding, replaced siding, added cedar shingles, and painted. The crew that did the house pressure washed one day and spent two really long days painting. Love our new colors – navy, cream, and light gray!
This month I was able to return to my ”Simply Dreaming” quilt designed by Sarah Vedeler. I love the colors and designs, they remind me that spring time is coming!
My sweetie has been busily piecing quilt tops to add to his ’inventory’. When he finishes, I mount them on the longarm and quilt them. Here are a few of the most recent additions.
Found time to piece together my ”Red Wagon Quilt”. The top, backing, and binding are all ready to go. Now just need to mount and quilt on the longarm.
We managed to finish selling all of our vintage machines and cabinets we have been restoring. Now that we are down to one machine at a time, I have been able to return to my sewing studio! Yesterday I pulled out my longarm, gave it a good cleaning and oiling, and updated my software. I then loaded a quilt sandwich to test stitching. While the sandwich quilted, I also began piecing one of my Red Wagon Quilts. This was the scene in my studio yesterday!
Month’s 1 through 4 were creating the embroidered applique blocks. Month 5 is quilting all the negative spaces (cream fabrics) for each of the 4 month’s blocks. I have done month 3, 4, and one half of month 2.
This is my first time using my embroidery machine to quilt within the hoop. Learning a lot about how to align, trace, size the designs. Also found my magnetic hoop works really well for ease of hooping. The only issue is when needing to replace a bobbin during stitch out. Because the quilt isn’t in a traditional hoop that is screwed tightly, it is tricky removing the hoop to replace the bobbin. Rather than playing ‘chicken’ with the bobbin, I make sure there is enough before I stitch out.
Hung it up on the design wall so I could actually see the whole quilt so far. It isn’t perfect but I am still very happy with my results so far.
meditativesewing.com 