1 Year of Quilting!

February marks one whole year since I began quilting!  I have learned so much more about fabric, thread, and sewing machines than I ever thought I would!

Table Runner - First completed quilt project!

Sailboats - Second Project

Some free motion quilting - Wicked Blog Hop

Quilted Mug Rug

Twin Sized Quilt - Quilted on a Long arm

Baby quilt from the book "Quilt Modern"

Love Swap - free motion quilted the three "loves" at the bottom

Quilt top made, not yet quilted

Huge thanks to my Momma, Helen of Til We Quilt Again, and my MomMom for teaching me the basics and helping me with any questions that arise.

Can't wait to see what lies ahead!

Here's to many more quilting years!

Wishing you big waves and an artful day,

~C

Free Motion Quilting on a Short Arm

I bought a quilt frame and a domestic machine for free motion quilting a few years ago, set it up and let it sit there for a while, maybe a little longer than most normal people would let it sit...I would throw some practice fabric on it once in a while and not be happy with the results.

Practice fabric, the blue tape is as far as the machine reaches, it's under 8 inches, it makes quilting beautiful designs hard.

I couldn't get a good flow making feathers, I was up down over around and back up again...it was so aggravating.

I just couldn't get a feel for moving the machine, where to look and how to keep my stitches even.

I would talk about my difficulties with long arm quilters and decided that the machine was too small, I made a bad purchase that I was stuck with, so it sat some more.  In the mean time my Mom bought a lovely 18" long arm and took off quilting lovely projects the day it was put together! She is a very talented artist and can do just about anything, I have a lot to live up to!! I am so lucky to have a long arm at my disposal, to use whenever my Mom isn't using it, but I had invested a bit of money on the sad lonely machine in my own craft room, and really needed to give my machine a real effort. 

So I kept putting quilts on it and finally I started to improve, I bought the Craftsy class Machine Quilting Negative Spaces with Angela Walters, and something clicked...she made sense and broke down each step and quilt design, her quilting isn't perfect, but she just keeps on going, no excuses or negativity, and I thought I can do this! So I put more practice fabric on the frame and I was actually happy with what I saw! Yahoooooo....I was so happy!! Thank you Angela!!

Look at that feather...I feel less erratic and out of control.

Now don't get me wrong...it still ain't perfect, but it's improvement and maybe even a little bit good! I would love to be able to do a beautiful feather, I'm still working on that, but I can see progress and improvement and that is all I can ask for. 

My latest project, I actually am proud of this quilting!

I attempted leaves and swirls/waves with satisfaction. Now I just need to learn not to get stuck in a corner!

The biggest change I noticed was in my attitude, the equipment is still the same, but my willingness to embrace the imperfections, laugh at the mistakes, and my determination to keep trying have yielded the improvement! Practice makes perfect, or in my case presentable, yes, practice make presentable!! My new mantra! After all, if you want perfect, Kmart has a blanket waiting just for you, if you want a quilt made by hand with love, find a quilter!

Go make something!

Nini~

The Learning Curve and Piecing Curves

I got this little machine and huge frame last spring and set it all up. And that was it.  It sits there leering at me...sometimes snickering...just daring me to give it a whirl. Well, I have to admit, I knew there was a learning curve, but I think I thought I was above the learning curve...that I was special some how. Well, as  it turns out, I am NOT special, just the common quilter. So I got to thinking, "You spent money on this thing.  You should probably use it".  I thought that for about 7 months, and after the holidays were over I decided to ignore the threats, leers and growls and pull the monster out of the corner and use it. I have to admit it isn't quite as scary as I thought.  It also isn't as pretty as I thought!! It definitely is a skill I'll have to practice for quite a while, but that's okay, I have lots of fabric and batting to throw on the frame. I'm not doing anything anyway right? Here's my first project, I know it looks acceptable from here, but trust me there are plenty of boo boos.

The Helios block is from the book "Sliver Quilts" by Lisa O'Neill.

I'm embracing the mistakes and considering them a permanent record of my progress. I have learned so many things I should have done differently...common sense things that just didn't come to me until I was done. It was really difficult to quilt, the throat of the machine is really short, so there was lots of rolling and unrolling of the quilt on the frame, but I'd rather roll and unroll then try to push it through the throat of my domestic machine. Bottom line, it's done. I learned a ton and I'm not discouraged, but really looking forward to throwing something else on it!! I'm embracing the learning curve! Here's some detail...remember that it's my first time...there's plenty of room for improvement and lots more for me to learn.

The back

I made this block for a demo I will be presenting at our  CAMACO Quilt Guild quilt retreat this weekend at The Grand Hotel in Cape May, NJ.  I have the separate elements of the block made for an easy explanation on how I put this block together. I was hesitant to sew a curve, but it went together rather easily. Again, there's room for improvement in curves too, but for a first try I think it's just great!

Did you master anything with a big learning curve? Tell me about it.

Nini~