free motion quilting

Quilting Flux

2 Comments / free motion quilting, Sew BitterSweet Designs Patterns / By

I bet you don’t know what quilt design I’m talking about when I say Flux. Well Flux is actually a Zentangle design. In the quilting world, it is better known as Feathers.  I am working on Flux/Feathers because it is a common Zentangle design and I am planning to do a whole cloth Zentangle inspired quilt. Using a white fabric and black thread. I am intimidated by the idea of black on white but also intrigued because I think it will look special if I get it right.

In the mean time, lots of Free Motion Quilting practice is going on in my studio. Today I quilted a baby quilt that measure 53″ x 63″. I was pretty excited because I did the whole thing in 3 hours, which is pretty darn fast for me!

Posy Quilt - http://blog.sewibttersweetdesigns.com

I used a layer cake of Posy by Aneela Hoey to put together this cheerful little baby quilt. Then I completely covered it in feathers. I practiced going around curves, doing them straight and using them to fill awkward spaces. I am really pleased with how they turned out.

Feather Practice - https://test.sewbittersweetdesigns.comSorry for the lighting, but I didn’t want to use a flash because it washed out the quilting and the lighting yesterday afternoon in my studio wasn’t the greatest for pictures.

Feather Close - up - https://test.sewbittersweetdesigns.comI’m very happy with how the quilting turned out. Now I need to get this bound and sent off to my wonderful friend as her baby girl is already over 2 weeks old!

I hope everyone is having a great week!

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Zentangle Inspired Quilting

12 Comments / free motion quilting, Sew BitterSweet Designs Patterns, SSMQG, The Modern Quilt Guild / By

The entire reason I decided to start doing Zentangle drawing is because I was hoping it would help me with my quilting.  I wanted to be able to see a space and fill it with designs.  Now, I haven’t figured out how to do the shading or filling in, but the line drawings of Zentangle translate quite nicely to quilting.

I’ve been working on my March goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes and have finished all the quilting. All that’s left is binding but before I can do that I need to make my Do Good Stitches blocks.  In the mean time here are some pictures of the back of my quilt.

Paradox Quilting - https://test.sewbittersweetdesigns.com

This design was inspired by the Zentangle design called Paradox.  I started with a triangle of blue tape on my quilt. I used my walking foot to outline the triangle and then removed the tape. Every subsequent line I eyeballed.  I continued adding triangles until the bottom half of the quilt was filled. Here is an in progress shot:

Paradox progress - https://test.sewbittersweetdesigns.com
I added some boxy spirals in my background fabrics and some wishbones in my main fabrics to finish the quilt. The wish bones were the only part that I did with my free motion foot, the rest of the quilting was all done with my walking foot.

Divergent Quilt Back - https://test.sewbittersweetdesigns.com

I have to say that this is the quilt that I am the most proud of the quilting. I worked really hard on it and I love how it turned out. Once I get the binding on maybe then I will be ready to reveal the front…we shall see!

Happy Tuesday!

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Working on my Free Motion Quilting

8 Comments / free motion quilting, Mini Quilt / By

This past week I have been working on a mini quilt for a birthday club I am in.  This one is special because the person I am sewing for is a long arm quilter. Ahhhh! I hope my FMQ is up to snuff! Here is the back of my quilt. It is a rainbow octagon of my own design.  I’m pebbling and doing some straight-ish lines.

Rainbow Octagon Quilting - https://test.sewbittersweetdesigns.comSince I am planning to bind this by turning the backing to the front I stitched the label onto the backing.  Hoping that decision doesn’t turn out to be a bad one!

Happy Friday and don’t forget that Sunday the Finishes Party opens for February A Lovely Year of Finishes!!

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Work-In-Progress Wednesday

7 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, baby quilt, free motion quilting, Sew BitterSweet Designs Patterns, work in progress / By

This week I have been busily working on my A Lovely Year of Finishes goal. Normally I don’t attempt to bust my goal out in the first week of the month but I volunteered to make 4 quilts to be raffled off at Anne’s preschool so my sewing time is about to shift back to charity mode pretty quickly.

Spinner Quilt - FMQ Progress - https://test.sewbittersweetdesigns.comI’m really happy with the quilting design that I came up with. In fact the only quilting I have left to do is in the gray sections and the borders.  I’m hoping to bust it out today during preschool!

Have a Happy Wednesday and if you haven’t already, go link up your November goal!

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Sewing Stars

11 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, Do.Good Stitches, free motion quilting / By

Well, really I’ve been quilting them! For about 4 hours yesterday. Mr. SBD entertained Anne in the yard and garage and I got to quilt. For 4 GLORIOUS hours straight! I can’t remember the last time that happened!

(sorry for the crappy cell phone pic, it is late now and this is all I have to show)

I was going to follow a tutorial at first, but the star ones I found were a bit too complicated for the simple, fun design I had in my mind’s eye, so these are my take on FMQ Twinkle Stars. What do you think?

I will hopefully finish the quilting on this before Wednesday because I want to show this baby off at the next meeting of the South Sound Modern Quilt Guild on Wednesday night. Details for the meeting can be found in our Facebook Group.

Did you get any quilting done this weekend?

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