Free Motion Challenge - Day 3, 4 and 5

Day 3 - I completed my longer Feather practice piece. It took an hour and just about the time I got to the end, I thought to myself. I GOT IT! Not that it's perfect, but I feel self confident to do a real table runner. Thicker thread is good and no more thin thread for me... for now.



Day 4 & 5

I had a large scrappy table runner that needed to be quilted, so I took the opportunity to do meandering free motion feathers on it. I used dark thread, but it's very hard to see the quilting. I don't have very much left to do on this runner, so I'll finish it Saturday as I loosen up to do my good show and tell project.

Next week, I'm anxious to learn and practice the technique of McTavishing. I'm following behind some of the other gals who are on the Free Motion challenge. You can check out the others on the sidebar of Wendy's and Joanne's blogs.

I Spy Charm Swap

I made baby Aurora an I Spy Quilt before Christmas. It was the first one I ever made. I know now that I would make it differently and I want to make another with more blocks to spy. I also want to make one for Baby Lanaya.

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One of my quilt buddies, Kathy F. and I are hosting an "I Spy Charm" fabric swap. We are looking for 40 swappers in the New Brunswick area. Won't you join us!

Here's what you will have to do.

1. Contact Gail or Kathy to register yourself as part of the swap.

2. Then cut 40 five inch squares each of 3 fabrics (total 120 squares). Fabrics must be good quality quilting cotton, washed, dried, and ironed before cutting into the 5 inch charm squares. Please put these 120 charms into a zip-lock type bag and include your name and phone number (in big print please) on a recipe card size paper in your package.

3. Deliver to one of your hostesses, Gail or Kathy at the addresses listed below by August 15th.

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We will have the charm packs sorted out and re-packaged ready to distribute back to you by the first guild meetings in September. Extra charms that you donate will be used for community quilts.

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If you would like to be part of the swap, you can contact me or leave a comment on this blogpost. A participant list and I spy ideas will be sent out to all those who register.

Grace and the Dress

Grace is just delighted with her new dress. She is pleased with the pink accents and her design decisions.

To add interest, she wanted pink details such as the pleated sash. She chose to have dark skinny straps on the dress rather than wider straps. The pink scarf is a complementary accessory because there was some of the pink fabric left over.

Here her sister Caitlin is helping her with different ways to wear the optional scarf.

Her party dress has a nice fullness so that she can twirl.

Here is the dress with the scarf which is loose around the neck and the ends fall to the back.

The pink sash is a cumber bun style with pleats. Just what Grace wanted. She loved that extra little detail and got the idea from a dress she saw on a mannequin in Fabricville.

For a less formal look, here is the dress without the scarf.

Grace thinks this dress is perfect because her friend loves purple and she designed this dress to go to this friends party. The party invitation requested that the girls bring a favorite outfit because there will be a fashion show. Grace is quite proud of her dress.

Don't you think she is so cute!

Free Motion Challenge - Day 2

I was reviewing my Dianne Gaudynski book last evening and there was a lovely spray of not-so wonky, but not perfectly symmetrical feathers in the book. So for today's practice piece I'm using that as my inspiration.
This morning I made a long practice sandwich (10" x 24") out of some scrappy fabric. I want to feel comfortable being able to do a continuous set of feathers. Don't mind the spiders...I hate to use good fabric for these pieces.

This piece is quite long and I only spent a half an hour on it, but I'm pleased with it. I'm sure it'll take 3 days of practice time to finish it. And probably a fourth or 5th day to do some all over fillers after the feathers are done. Today I learned about broken threads and that I can actually recover from them quite well. Also part of this lesson is - Don't use cheap thread!

There is a special little technique to have the feathers split directions. That was a light bulb moment for me. And I find the spine of my feathers quite thick and light, but I can live with it for now.

I'll be FMQing every day, but I think I'll just post about my day 3, 4 on Thursday or Friday since we have an exciting post tomorrow. Hint: Grace models her new party dress.

Sew, did you do any FMQ today?

Free Motion Challenge - Day 1

The very first thing I'd like to really feel comfortable with is do make larger wonky feathers. I have a spiral table runner that I would like to have ready for a show and tell at our final guild night of the year. That is Tuesday, May 18th.

As you can see, I've started on my practicing. I got lost on the right had side of the feather. I do like the idea of echoing, but I have to learn how to travel from one feather to the other.

Tomorrow I will work on a larger piece of fabric and practice the travelling. I also like to practice my quilt writing daily as well.

I would say by Thursday, I'll be comfortable to practice the wonky feathers on a larger full size scrappy table runner. If that comes out good, I'll do it on my spiral table runner over the weekend.

Grace - The Fashion Designer

When Grace and her sister and brother were here on Friday, Grace came to me quietly and asked if I had a busy week ahead. I said it was going to be so so, and so I asked, "What's up Grace?" She told me she was invited to a birthday party on May 15th and was asked to wear her favorite outfit. There will be a fashion show at the party. She's been thinking about it all week and decided she wanted to make a party dress and needed my help.


After we finished our teacher appreciation gifts, Grace dug out my great crayola twistie markers and paper and started to draw a number of dress styles. She wanted my opinion. She said she has a design in her head but none of these dresses was it. She was having trouble.

So, we went up in my sewing room, and reviewed the dress patterns that I had. She found a nice sundress that she liked. This afternoon, we went shopping for the perfect fabric at Fabricville. After looking through many racks of floral fabrics, we found this one. And Grace knew it was speaking to her. A beautiful pink and purple on black fabric with whimsical flowers. The pink fabric will be a sash/belt that goes around the middle and ties into a bow in the back.

I'll cut this out this sundress and make it by Wednesday afternoon when she'll come over for a fitting. Stay tuned on Wednesday for Part II = The fashion shoot.

I'm taking the Challenge

The Free Motion Challenge that is. Joanne at Threadhead and her buddy Wendy have invited you and I to do a free-motion challenge. There are things that I'd like to learn and practice with my free motion, so I'm taking the plunge and signing up for the challenge.

I plan to start on Monday. I'm digging out my Dianne Gaudynski book, reviewing it during commercials on TV. I'm making a list of free motion styles I'd like to do. Top of the list is McTavishing, and bigger wonky feathers with echos. I'd also like to practice with different threads.

I'm lining up practice pieces to do. In addition to making some plain fabric layered blocks, I started a free motion piece in January that has various sections for using different techniques and I didn't finish it. So, that will be one of the first things I practice on.

The challenge is to do free motion a little every day for 14 days by the end of the month.

So, are you up for the challenge?

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Next Tuesday is Teacher Appreciation Day.

The triplets came for a visit today and they (we) made each of their teachers a gift. (a quilty gift). Caitlin made a dog, and Mitchell and Grace made Kitty's. They stuffed the paws, the tails, the head and then sewed the parts together themselves. They are so cute and the kids absolutely loved making them.

They each hand wrote out a card of appreciation to their teacher and we'll include a picture in the card.

The kids can't wait to give them to their teachers. I hope they like them!!

Rug Hooking Show

A few of the Friday Girls and I went to see the Rug Hooking exhibition last Friday. It's lovely work and the display make it so inviting to take up the art. Here is a great picture of the Friday Girls standing by a hooked rug that took the maker over 10 years to complete. It's stunning and represents the Provincial flowers.

Cat Quilts - Purrrrfectly finished

A set of Jim Shore cats inspired me to use up some 2.5" strips. I love it that by sewing a light and dark strip together, and sub cutting 2.5" again, you can make 8 4-patch blocks out of a pair of strips. To make a 12" block simply cut a 4.5" focus fabric for the middle, then assemble like a 9 patch.

I made a total of 12 blocks. This would make a nice baby size quilt or in my case it's perrrfect for a couple of cat quilts.

I used a poly batting that I picked up with a coupon at Michaels. It's perrrrfect for what I wanted for the cats. After machine quilting these, I could tell that they will poof up pretty good after a wash.

There are 6 different cats in this panel, so each quilt got one of each cat. Here is the same cat, side by side in each of the quilts.

All folded up and ready to be delivered.

I'm ready for a cat nap.

Happy Birthday Patience

Everyone loves a party. The triplets helped Patience blow out her birthday candles this past weekend. Aurora wasn't quite sure about all the fire and wasn't getting near it.

Patience has been working hard to loose the last of her baby weight. So her Birthday supper was low fat and healthy. She requested a carrot cake with full fat cream cheese. I know she was having a weak moment when she requested that, so I went on the search for a healthy carrot cake recipe.

I came up with this Carrot Cake with cream cheese frosting from Gina's Weight Watcher recipes. It was amazingly moist and rich. Patience never did know, that I used light cream cheese and this cake has almost no oil. She showed great will power and only had one piece of cake. I on the other hand had two pieces.

Happy Birthday P.

Cat Quilts

I love it when I have help to do my quilting.

Grace, Mitchell and Caitlin are carefully placing the blocks so that the cat blocks are in the center and the 4-patch blocks make a checkerboard around the kitty in the middle. There is a total of 12 blocks and this will make 2 Cat Quilts.


These two quilts will lay on a bed or couch so cats can snuggle up on them. They will be big enough to fold in half so they are extra fluffy. The cat quilts can be washed and fluffed up in the dryer. Cats love fluffy quilts.


Do you think the cats will like the Jim Shore fabric?

Thanks for all your help kids. I'll machine quilt these next week along with all my other small projects. One will be for Aurora and Aunt Pear's cat, and the other will be for Michelle and Scott's cats.