Long Overdue

My goodness it has been a very long time since I last posted in the blog. Things have really changed since then. I have added two grand children since then. I haven't done much, but I have had a few other things pop up as well.

I finally made covers for my machines. Well, the far left is a printer. It will not hook up to the internet for some reason, but it makes great copies, so I use it as a copier.  Will be great for making paper piece pattern copies.  The ink is cheap, so it makes sense.

I finally got my Little Buddy attachment installed on my frame.  I can't wait to try it out.  I still have to install the velcro strips for the leaders. Since I make smaller quilts for charity, mostly throw or large crib size, this is supposed to really help.

I bit off a bit more than I wanted with a quilt I made using printed squares of various chicken images.  

1. The vendor's employees have no idea how to cut printed squares.  Ended up that out of 8 images, was only able to use 5 of them because the panel was cut going by yardage instead of cutting along the lines. I ended up cutting the squares down so that I was able to use them as the center of a quilt block.  However...the printed images were not the same size so it made for some really wonky blocks.  

2.I used an old pattern that I found at a yard sale called Stepping Stones. The directions are very lacking and not very clear. Some of the measurements I had to change since I was using the printed fabric images, but I made it work.

The red and black are too close to the same tone that the steps are not really standing out.  I added a row of fabric to each end, the fabric has text printed "When this you see, think of me". It was not my best work due to all the problems I had with it, but the friend I made it for LOVED it, hung it up immediately on her quilt rack.  So, it was a success.

I was so frustrated with the pattern, I decided to make another quilt using the same pattern, according to the pattern directions exactly this time. This time I chose fabric for the square center that was non directional so that I could turn the squares as needed to make the steps.  Also chose black and cream to make a contrast that would pop and show the steps. 

 I made this one for #7 grand child, a girl, made from butterfly fabric.  And I had so much fun...and aggravation quilting this on my Coronet quilter. I have learned to stitch free motion flowers. They are quite simple, and I LOVE making them, so I tend to go to that design as a standard. They aren't perfect, but for the kind of quilting I do, it makes sense and I am always happy with how they turn out.

Aggravating because I am still learning how to pin baste and how to advance the quilt on the frame. The quilt kept slipping off before I could clamp it down.  Good thing this design doesn't need to be continued exactly. I am still learning how to position the needle during the movement of the stitching sections. I even tried out my embroidery unit for my Brother SE 1900 and stitched out a label I attached to the back of the quilt. This is the fabric for the back of the quilt, it was a little busy to use white thread on for the design.  I stitched it out, stitched a heart shape frame, then cut it out around the shape. Used fray check to seal the edges then hand stitched it down because I didn't want the stitching to show through to the front of the quilt.

My little grand daughter loves the quilt, sleeps with it and carries it around so she can cover up and watch TV or when she is read her books.

The next quilt was for my #9 grand child, a boy, and the youngest. I was really wanting to use my AccuQuilt train die, it is so cute.  Also, AccuQuilt offers a free embroidery file for the embroidery machine that contains 3 different stitches for the engine, coal car, tanker and caboose. 

I loved working on my quilter with this one.  I pin pasted better and easier.  I left a wider edge of excess fabric and batting along the sides and by accident learned that I could stitch in to the access, advance the quilt and then start up stitching again with out messing with the design.  With this quilt, I just did a wide large meander around. I felt that doing the flowers were not for a boy.  

AccuQuilt has a free embroidery file for the train. I didn't use it, because I didn't want to try it out for the first time on this special quilt. As it turns out, even though it says it is for a 5x7 hoop, for each train car, they added stitching for smoke circles coming out the engine stack. The bubbles go just enough out of the hoop measurement to prevent my machine from stitching it out, or even recognizing the larger hoop. I let AccuQuilt know the problem, they didn't really care. So after using heat bond to attach the train to the quilt, I used the decorative stitch on my sewing machine to go around each car, changing out the thread to match. I quilted around the cars and even quilted his name.  I don't have the best handwriting to begin with, free motion stitching it wasn't much better, but it is readable.

I stitched out the wording for a label, then used the die to cut a tanker car.  I thought about using black buttons to be the wheels, but since my grand son is an infant I was afraid they would become a choking hazard so I used the die to cut several of the circles to be the wheels, used heat bond for them as well, and hand embroidered around them using the same blanket stitch, the wheels were so small I didn't think I could machine stitch around them. I machine stitched around the tanker, then cut it out and used heat bond to attach to the back corner of the quilt, then hand stitched the edges careful to catch only the backing fabric.

The parents loved it, and it went to the hospital with him during his surgery. That made me feel good.

Check back to see what else I have done.