Friday, March 23, 2012

Colorbrick Quilt


The Simplicity quilt started last month is now a finish!
The tutorial for this quilt is posted at Stitched in Color.
The pattern calls for "bricks" cut to 10"x 5.5" so
the quilt sews together pretty quick.


I began the process by laying out all the bricks on my
design wall in random order.


Stitched in Color posted a tip on her site about using
painter's tape to mark the rows of the quilt as you sew them 
together. I took it a step further and used painter's tape to mark
the bricks as I sewed them together. It worked great and eliminated 
a lot of confusion as the rows were sewn together.


The painter's tape was also useful as the seams were pressed
at the completion of each row.


The biggest "opportunity" I had in piecing this
quilt is that I should have chosen a heavier fabric to use
for the sashing. The sashing is the glue that holds this 
project together so be sure to choose a fabric with a
tight weave if you make one for yourself.


One of my personal goals for this year is to expand
my machine quilting skills. I purchased a wonderful DVD
by Patsy Thompson called "Fast and Free" which is full
of machine quilting design ideas. The above pattern is from
the Loop-D-Loop family. The awesome thing is that Patsy
offers a series of free patterns and videos that can be downloaded
off her website if you would like to check it out:)



This was the first time I've used this particular machine quilting design on a quilt
and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I actually found it quite
relaxing to stitch out and a nice change of pace from the basic
stippling pattern that I normally use.



Here is a close-up of the quilting on the back. The thread is difficult
 to see since the shades of color are so similar, 
but it does add a nice texture to the back of the  quilt.


In conclusion, this was a fun quilt to make 
and it was liberating to try several new techniques.

Check out the other finishes this week at

May you always Sew in Peace!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

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!