A bit of free motion quilting!

Well, I tried free motion quilting on my old machine. I used my new darning foot. I love it. I had a lot of fun using it.

First, I made a 12.5 inch block using the tutorial for the Sun Rays Quilt Block tutorial by Twin Fibres. Once I had the border done on the block I drew up a little scene and made some appliques for the centre of the block.

My feed dogs were up (because they can't go down anyway), and I did some applique. Then a bit of stippling and then tried my hand at a feathered border. The border turned out okay. I do need practice with that.

Then I trimmed it all up, and put the binding on using my machine. And VOILA......I have a little art quilt that is 12.5 inches square. Isn't it cute? Well, the free motion quilting went really well, even with the feed dogs up. I actually didn't even really notice them being up. It didn't make it more difficult or pull on the fabric. The tension was great....didn't have any problems with that. Now, I just need to keep practicing. So there will be a lot of little quilts in the near future appearing on my blog.

Hugs

Ariane

What machine do you use to make your quilts?

Hi everyone!

I thought I would share with you the sewing machine I use to make my quilts, bags and clothing projects. It's an old one. It's about 25 years old. It's a White, Blue Jean machine. It used to be my Mom's sewing machine. She used it for mending clothes and for making everyday quilts. After I got married, she gave it to me so that I could hem pants and do small mending. I didn't use it very much in the beginning, because I could never figure out the tension. I just didn't know enough about sewing, and had very little experience using a sewing machine. When I decided to start making quilts two years ago, I did some research online about sewing machines, and how to fix tension problems. It was like a light bulb moment. Everything made sense. I figured out how the tension worked on my machine and was able to troubleshoot problems when I was sewing. The internet had so much information to help me.

Well, last night I visited Michelle. She needed some advice about one of her quilting projects. She mentionned that some people do free motion quilting with the feed dogs up. I thought to myself....hey, if I had the right darning foot for my machine......maybe I could do some free motion quilting on it. So today, I went to my LQS and they just happened to have a darning foot for "White" machines. It only cost $4.98+tax. I was so excited.

 I had promised my daughter I would make her a pencil case for school. So, I decided to do a bit of creative sewing with my new darning foot. This is the pencil case I made. I really love it. I did some reverse applique, inspired by Amy. I had the denim on hand and used scraps of fabric for the appliques. It was a fun quick project.

Now that I have this darning foot, I will try some free motion quilting on small projects. I hope to show you my progress in the next few weeks. I'm trying to watch my money, with school starting and the kids needing so much new clothes and paying for extra curricular activities. It's eating up a lot of my budget. So, I will be using what I have in my stash for the next few weeks....months. Hopefully not too long. I already didn't buy any new fabric the entire month of August.There are so many new fabric lines that I want to buy. But we do what we can.

I did have one set back the other day when my Mom was visiting. She wanted to go to a quilt shop and I purchased 3 fat quarters of Christmas fabric. But I love these, because they could also be used in regular projects too. They are not your traditional Christmas fabric. I just love them.

I don't even know what collection they are from. Oh well! I hope you all have a great Labor Day weekend.

Hugs

Ariane

Sew Modern Bee quilt top in the works!

Hi everyone!

On Tuesday I did some sewing on my quilt top for the Sew Modern Bee. My month was June. I asked for a 12.5 inch block. I wanted the girls to make a small 6 to 8 inch traditional block for the center, then border it with a small white border that finished at 0.5 inches, then a Kona Coal border to bring the block to 12.5 inches.

I love all the blocks I received. I then used one of the Hunky Dory Aqua prints to sash each block and put a star in between the center blocks. I'm not sure if I will put another border around the quilt, or just quilt it the way it is. But I do have a lot of left over small pieces.

I hope you like it. I had fun working on this top. Thanks to all the girls from the Sew Modern Bee for making me such wonderful blocks.

Hugs

Ariane

Charming Girls Club finishes for July & August.

I joined the Charming Girls Club and tried to get lots of stuff done this July and August. I made most of my goals. Some didn't get done, but what can I do. It was so busy with going to Northern Ontario, and spending the month of August at the cottage, and working........You girls know how it is. Here is the list I posted for things I wanted to get done.

1 - Spend more time with the kids having fun!!! I should be able to do this easily since we are going away next week on a holiday, then going to the cottage in August. Can't wait!!! I definitely got this done. We had so much fun visiting with our relatives in Northern Ontario. We had such a great time. Then we went fishing and roasted marshmallows, weiners over the campfire. Played so many card games and sang songs as my husband played guitars.

2 - Find a least 2 nights for just me and the hubby to go out on a date. My husband and I did get some time alone together in August. We went out for dinner and just relaxed and watched a movie. We had a few nights, no kids, no dogs at home. Those were really the best nights. Sometimes the best date is one where you can just relax and spend time together with no interuptions.

3 - Finish organizing my new sewing room. It is so disorganized right now. Well, it was organized.....LOL!!! But you know how long that lasted.

4 - Finish my Jack-in-the-Pulpit quilt. Yes, I got this one done. Whohoooo!!!! My girlfriend loved it.

5 - Finish my Between Charming Friends quilt and help my daughter finish her quilt too! Well, I got my quilt top done, but not quilted. My daughter was gone to camp all of August so she didn't get to work on hers. Hopefully soon!!

6 - Quilt my Picnic quilt. Nope! Didn't do this!! Oh well....maybe this month.

7 - Take a walk at least 3 days a week. I'm so out of shape. I've got to get off my butt. I did do my walks. But I need to do more. I have to keep working on this one.

8 - Spend less time on the computer and more time with the family or working on a project. Well, I did spend A LOT LESS time on the computer this summer. I was away at the cottage or working and only got to sneak in a few minutes here and there to check my emails, and do a short blog post in between my work shifts. I spend a lot of time with the family this summer. I didn't get to work on too many projects, but that's okay. Once school starts next week, I will have more time.

So all in all, I think I did pretty well.

Hugs

Ariane