Slow Stitching

I have two different design walls today. First up is the Baltimore Christmas quilt.

I've been neglecting this BOM and thought I should try to catch up. This, I believe is probably the block with the most pieces. I'll apologize for such a terrible photo. The color is so off. See those candy canes? I painted the fabric before I cut out the canes and stitched them down. The gingerbread man and the holly leaves are the shrink film I mentioned in a previous post.

The other design wall item is actually on the computer. I've been hand stitching the pieces together for the Faithful Circle quilt and realized that I needed a schematic so I would know how many of what to make. I tried and tried to do this layout in EQ7, but failed so I resorted to my old standby CorelDraw. After doing this layout in CorelDraw I realized that I only had one!! full block to put together. I broke down the blocks by color:
     • blue = 6 sides to stitch on -- 1 block
     • green = 5 sides to stitch on -- 20 blocks
     • yellow = 4 sides to stitch on --16 blocks
     • pink = 3 sides to stitch on -- 76 blocks

This quilt will be totally hand pieced using the English Paper Piecing method and 1930's reproduction fabrics. I'm making headway but it's slow.

For more design wall inspiration, head over to Patchwork Times. 

Memorial Day

Please take the time on this Memorial Day
to remember those who have served or are currently serving in the military.

American Glory

Back in April I posted a Design Wall Monday and it featured a Quilt of Valor quilt. Here's the link. Are you back? Good. I directed you to that post because this post contains the fraternal twin of that other post.

I took fabric to the guild's yearly retreat to make ONE of these quilts. When I started to work on it I realized I had taken nothing to help in the making of the half square triangles. No EZ Angle Ruler, no Thangles, nothin'!

So I pulled out a my rotary ruler and pencil and commenced to marking. Needless to say, that was a major fail! Some HST ended up smaller than the others so I packed it away to work on at home.

At home, I realized that not only were the HST different sizes but that I had enough units to make 2 quilts.

To refresh your memory, here is the other quilt. Love this pattern. It can be found at the Moda Bake Shop as American Glory. 

Wordless Wednesday - Keyhole

Quilting Results

So I finally got around to trying the free motion quilting on the Singer 66 treadle sewing machine. I had a this little piece that was already drawn (with black pen!) and sandwiched and I thought it would be perfect for this test.

I put the plate and foot on the machine and started quilting. First off I realized that it was a bit 'sticky' and I should have put down my Supreme Slider before starting. And I should have worn quilter's gloves too, just to make it a bit easier.

It looks okay on the front (white side) but on the back side (black) you can see that there is a major tension problem on the flower. The batting bearded also. Once I removed the plate and foot I did a couple of rows of straight stitching. Beautiful. Free motion quilting on the treadle will take practice, practice, practice.

I think I'll stick to the Bernina for FMQ and use the treadle for straight line quilting.

* Just a reminder that all photos are clickable.

Praying for a Miracle

Please help Michele's sister-in-law.

Redbud

Another quilt from the Denver National Quilt Festival VII is a lovely little quilt from Denise Killingsworth of CA called "Redbud".

It is nice and serene, isn't it? What caught my eye is the way she constructed the "buds". My guess is bias tubes tied with overhand knots and then cut. Two tubes crossed over each other and stitched on with a bead. Very creative!