Spring!

The weather here has been unseasonably warm

and Spring is bursting forth.

Thought you might enjoy a few photos 

from my walk last evening.

Notice the bumblebee?

Mr. Bumblebee seems to have a lot of friends lurking about

so please "bee" careful!

In other news...I've take the pledge!

SewCalGal is hosting a Free-Motion Quilting Challenge 

to help participants improve their machine quilting skills.

A free tutorial is posted each month by different guest teachers 

and it isn't too late to join...so check it out!

The guest teacher for March is Ann Fahl.

Ann has some great tips posted in her tutorial and has

inspired me to move away from using cotton thread for machine quilting.

The current brand of cotton thread I am using has been such a 

disappointment due to the high lint content that is left behind on 

my sewing machine. 

Ann's tutorial includes two quilting motifs that she encourages 

participants to try. The first one is the "Loop and Twist" which you see 

in the above photo on the left. Basically, it looks like a bunch of doodling! lol

Other variations of this pattern are the 

"Loop and Star" and "Loop and Heart" 

which you see on the right side of the sample. 

It took a while to get the hang of it, but 

 I  honestly like this pattern better than I thought I would.

The second pattern was the "Spiral" which begins at the outer edge of the circle

and spins into the center. She also included a "Spiral Flower" that 

incorporates the same type of spiral for the center. Ann encourages 

quilters to begin a notebook which includes samples of their

work and different machine quilting patterns that inspire them.

Thanks to Ann for the great tips this month!

I intend to begin my notebook with the above samples:)

May you always Sew in Peace!