Anne is pretty much fearless and I have always tried to instill in her (and will continue to try) the idea that she can do anything she wants so long as she works hard. She wanted to be a long arm quilter so here she is…being a long arm quilter!
What can I say, she’s a natural!
I feel so blessed! Last Wednesday a very special visitor came to Washington, my mom! On Thursday we went to the Sew Expo in Puyallup, WA and had a lot of fun shopping and playing with long arm quilt machines. On Friday and Saturday we sewed! It was fantastic!
We are working on our first quilt together. We have sewn in the past and she taught me how to quilt and sew, but this is the first project that is a 50/50 creative effort together. The nice thing about owning as many sewing machines as I do, is that I had an extra one I could set up and we could sew at the same time. We only had to share the iron. And speaking of ironing, she pressed all the fabrics – a task that I can’t stand, and I did all the cutting – a task that she can’t stand. It really was a great partnership.
By the time she had to leave, we finished 12 whales for our quilt. She took some of the fabric home to finish more and I kept the rest. She will eventually mail me her whales and I will piece the top and quilt it. Then I will ship it back to her and she will do the binding, because I can’t stand hand work.
The pattern is Preppy the Whale by Elizabeth Hartman.
I hope you all had a great weekend and are having a very happy Leap Day! Enjoy today, it only comes around once every four years!
Today I start working on a new fun secret project. Not sure when I will be able to share it with you but know that I am sewing my heart out this weekend trying to hit a deadline. Next week I will show you all the Hazel mini quilts I finished this week. I am really quite tickled with how they turned out!
In the meantime, happy sewing!
We quilt of course!
I spent yesterday afternoon pin basting a quilt top that my mom made and starting today I will be working on quilting it.
I had originally planned to just use cream thread all over it but then once I got it laid out and pinned, I fell in love with her colors and we went out and bought some green and red thread. I haven’t 100% figured out my quilting plan yet. I’m torn between feathers and a large stipple…time will tell!
Oh, and I brought down my own machine to quilt on! No sense fussing trying to learn the ins and outs of mom’s machine when I already know all the kinks to my own machine. It is a well traveled machine!
Oh! And I forgot to mention that quilters also buy fabric while on vacation…but don’t tell my husband that little secret!
Happy Thursday!
Last month before I quilted Hypnotic Eye I spent two nights lost in Zentangle. I printed out four copies of the block I designed, which makes up the entire quilt, taped them together and started filling them in with my pencil.
I wanted to focus on designs that could be accomplished with my free motion foot or my walking foot. I was really quite delighted because once I started quilting I was able to use my free motion foot for the entire quilt. This was only possible because my foot has some very nice markings that I was able to use for reference and guidance on the sections that I wanted to look straight.
While this process may seem a bit excessive, I have to say it gave me lots of confidence knowing the overall visual impact the quilting would have before I started. I doubt I will do this with every quilt, but at least I will have this technique in my back pocket for the future.
Do you ever pre-draw your quilting designs before you start quilting?
