Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Back In Action

Bernie is back home and I've been busy sewing.  I had no idea I was so addicted to my craft.  Alas, I am so just go with it, right?

I did some more practice with free motion quilting for the FMQ Challenge.  
 I'm getting closer to applying it to the FMQ Challenge sampler and posting.  Diane Gaudynski is an awesome free motion quilter and her books really gave me confidence.  I got both of them, Guide to Machine Quilting and Quilt Savy from the library.  I ended up buying Quilt Savy for my personal library.  Whenever I need a boost in confidence, Diane will be in my sewing room to help me out.

I finished the New Beginnings Mini Quilt Swap and it's ready to send off.  I gave you a little tease of the fabrics a while back when I was cutting for this project.
 Here is the finished project.
 You can't see it on this picture but I machine quilted circles inside the dark squares and smaller circles inside the four-patch lighter squares.  Instead of marking the circles with a marker, I used freezer paper.  I have a love/hate relationship with markers of all kinds except the air erasable kind.  But with dark fabrics, that type of marker won't do the job.  The freezer paper approach works really well.
 I used a turquoise metallic thread in the top and the bobbin.  The trick with using metallics is to sew slowly so you don't saw through the thread.  I put a greenish-blue batik on the back and the thread gave it a nice bling.
 The photo doesn't do it justice.  Sorry for that.  But, I'm very pleased with the end result.  
The pattern is called "Batik Fun" and is in Fat-Quarter Quilting by Lori Smith.  Lots of neat projects in this book.  I've done two of them and they turn out beautiful.

My valentine took me away from the stove yesterday but it's "hello, stove" today.  Time to start dinner.   Let's see..meat loaf or burgers?  

3 comments:

Caryl @ cinnamon holiday workshop said...

Diane...your FMQ is great!! AND the quilt is gorgeous...nice circle quilting!

Connie Kresin Campbell said...

Beautiful quilt and I love your feather quilting!!
Quilting by the River

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

Very pretty!