Hexagonal Christmas Tree Skirt

Tomorrow our Modern Quilt Group in Des Moines is having a meeting and the theme is "Christmas Ideas".  We are all suppose to bring something holiday/gift themed to share with the group so we can get in gear and have all of our sewn stuff ready for the holiday season.  (Yeah....we can dream.)

I decided that I would finish the Christmas Tree Skirt that I cut pieces for two years ago so I could have something to share - and use.  I used my Diamond Quilt tutorial (the first tutorial I ever wrote!)

(Funny side note about the tutorial.  My husband was talking to a co-worker a few months ago and quilting came up.  It turns out that the co-worker and his wife had commissioned a quilt for their niece.  The quilter gave them some quilt ideas and they ended choosing my Diamond Quilt!  It is a small world.  Anyway....)

It came together quickly (about 2 hours of sewing).  I had already laid out and pinned the fabric into "row bundles" so the sewing was pretty straight forward.  For the quilting I decided to do a scallop starting in the center and circling out.  I'm not sure that was the best design choice, but it doesn't matter because I have to pick it all out anyway.  (grrr)  I kept on having trouble with "eyelashing" on the back of the quilt.  I tried everything I could think of to fix the problem, but it only cleared up when I changed the machine needle.  At least it unpicks quickly because the tension is so loose.

Once it is re-quilted, I will cut out a hole in the center and a slit down the side and bind it.  It probably won't be done for tomorrow, but I'll have a bit of something to show.

It measures about 24" on a side and about 50" across the middle.  You can find the tutorial here.

Linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Christmas in January

So it turns out that I forgot to share these pillow covers I made for Christmas.  

The first pillow is an orphan block (made from this tutorial) turned beautiful pillow.  I think this was the second block I had ever paper pieced.  It is a great block for those new to paper piecing.

I love, love, love this one.  To make it I simply drew a triangle on the fabric and sewed on a bunch of buttons.  I was able to sew on the buttons with my sewing machine by turning the stitch length to 0 and adjusting the width until it was the width between the holes in the button.  Then I just put the pedal to the medal and stitched back and forth about 20 times.

 It's hard to see, but I tried out quilting swirls for the first time.  I spiraled in and then paused and spiraled back out again.  I have wanted to try this design for awhile, but was scared it wouldn't turn out.  Yet again, my fears were unfounded.  Isn't that usually the case.  It seems the more I worry about something the less of an issue it turns out to be.  Some of the spirals weren't total perfect but overall it was a success.

 Leah Day has a great tutorial on quilting swirls here on YouTube.  In fact, she has a ton of quilting tutorials there.  I think I am going to have to work my way through them.  Do you think my husband would watch them with me instead of Almost Human in the evenings?  ;)

This Week...

This week my Aunt Janie came to visit.  She insisted that she wanted to see my quilts, so I happily obliged.  Little did she know there would be so many.  Little did I know - and I didn't even end up showing her all of them!  I think they have been multiplying.  :)

Today I rented time on a long arm machine and quilted Julie's Skill Builder Sampler quilt.   Don't you love the colors she used?   It was fun to quilt it up for her!

Tomorrow I need to focus on the garden.  It is time to do some planting, weeding and mowing!  My reward for working hard in the garden?  A full day of sewing on Saturday with the DMS Modern Quilt Guild!!!  It doesn't get much better than that.  :)

Good News, Bad News, Best News

Good News!  Yesterday I rented time on a long arm quilting machine and worked on my Skill Builder Sampler Quilt!  I had a lot of fun trying new things in each of the blocks.  None of them are perfect, but it is a Skill Builder, right?

 There were swirls.

 Squares.  I had a lot of fun doing this one but my husband thinks it is ugly, whatever...It is awesome!

 Pebbles and flowers.

 Stars.  Not my best design choice to fill in the negative space, but live and learn.  Husband thinks they look like witches' stars...They are just regular stars!  Men...

 Big swirl.

I borrowed a stencil to do something special in the middle of the feathered star.

 I even tried my hand at feathers.  Can you see them in the white?

 But my favorite block is this one.  I loved the block to begin with and I love the flowers and leaves around the edges.  I may be bad at feathers, but I can free motion quilt me flowers like no one else!  :)

Bad News...my backing wasn't long enough!  @#$%#  It stopped about six inches before the end of the quilt!   So I am cleaning the house, posting this and basically procrastinating so I won't have to deal with adding on an extra strip of backing, basting and quilting the bottom.  Ick.  I hate messing up!  I'm trying to tell myself that it won't be so bad, just take a deep breath and do it, right?  :)

Best News.  I have the best baby in the whole world.  No, don't bother to argue, it is true.  :)  I took her to the quilt shop with me and she played happily on the floor the whole time.  Some fussing when she had a messy diaper or was hungry or ready for a nap, but she was Amazing!  I brought an exersaucer for her to play in and a backpack carrier for her to ride in, but didn't have to use them at all.  She just played on the floor with her toys - thankfully she can't crawl yet!  I figured taking care of her added an extra hour onto the quilting process, but it was well worth the extra rental time to finally have the quilt done...well, almost done...
Wish me luck!

Updated:  I did it!  And it wasn't even that bad.  ;)  Off to bind!

Tying A Quilt By Machine

Tying a quilt - I know sooo 1980's, but I wanted the quilts I am making for my girls this winter to be super warm and comfy. A quilt is nice, but snuggling under a poofy comforter at night is The Best. I used 4, yes 4, layers of polyester batting in their quilts and with that amount of thickness machine quilting is not really an option so I decided to "tie" it.

To tie a quilt by machine baste the quilt as usual and mark where you want your ties. I was going to "tie" at the corners so I didn't mark. Set the sewing machine on zig-zag with the maximum width and an almost 0 length -

Zig-zag back and forth 15 to 20 times moving forward and back just a bit.

Then lift your presser foot and move to your next tie.

When you are done machine tying, clip your threads on the front and back.

Simple, fast and comfy. I have done this on other quilts and they hold up great. That is the secret for how I got the second quilt quilted so fast. :)