Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Focus on Free Motion Quilting, Heart Table Runner

Links to all of the blog posts in this series are located in the "Focus on Free Motion Quilting" tab below my blog header image. 

I finished quilting 8 of the big blocks on my king size quilt and decided to take a little break from it. My quilting gloves are over 11 years old; they have plastic dots on the palms and fingers for gripping the quilt, but the dots (especially the ones on the fingertips) are losing their grip/slight tackiness and that makes it difficult to move that big quilt while I'm quilting it. So I ordered new quilting gloves and am also continuing to practice drawing my feathers.

I have been reading up on how Victoria quilted her king size Christmas Crosses quilt in 2010 (she also used a home table-top machine) and I also put Diane Gaudynski's book, Guide to Machine Quilting on hold at the library. I'm pretty sure I will quilt long feathers in the sashing spaces and then do echo stitching around them to fill up the rest of the space. As far as the wide borders go, I'm stil not sure how I will quilt them. I think it's worth taking it slow so I can figure out what I really want to do on this quilt.

The other night I was looking through my big bin of quilt fabric and found this table runner that I started last year. At the time I had thought I would hand quilt it but I am a big procrastinator when it comes to hand stitching and I never got around to it. So I decided this is the perfect time to finish it. I got the background quilted in tiny free motion loops. (The gloves are not as big of a deal on a small project like this.)
I am going to finish up the quilting in the hearts but there is only so much light on a January day here so I wanted to get a photo before it's too dark. I will use red and hot pink thread in the hearts, maybe echo quilting in spirals into the centers of the hearts.

Have you been practicing your free motion quilting? What are you working on? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks to the FFMQ sponsors!
 





Here's the prize drawing information FYI:

*Be thinking about what you want to do for your free motion quilted project for the prize drawing at the end of the month. It needs to be finished this month but can already be started if needed. The project could be a small mini-quilt or a large quilt, or something in between, it’s up to you.
*About the prizes--there will be a link-up at the end of the month where participants can link to a blog post or flickr photo sharing their completed free motion quilted project. The link-up will be open for 24 hours and then winners will be chosen randomly from those who enter.
 

3 comments:

Sonia B said...

Hey Vicki,
Your table runner reminds me of one I made last year that I did some fun free-motion quilting on. Here's a link http://hobblecreekquilts.blogspot.com/2011/01/valentine-crafting-spree.html
The quilting picture is about half-way down. I need to pull that out and start decorating!!!
Thanks for all the free-motion inspiration this month.

Jess said...

Super cute table runner, and perfect timing for Valentine's Day!!

I went through my fabric stash and sorted it over the weekend. I have several quilt blocks that were donated to me by a friend who was clearing out HER stash when I started learning to sew, so I'm thinking I will practice quilting on those and then use them as hot pads or wall hangings or something. I just need to get some batting. :)

Jess

~Babychaser~ said...

I've been loving your focus on FMQ! And I'm totally participating in the big prize drawing. I would love that Fat Quarter Shop prize!!!!!!

I'm working on a baby quilt that will either be a gift for a friend (who doesn't know boy or girl) or for my little one, due in March. :) I'm hoping my friend has a boy so I can keep this quilt because I'm really happy with how it's turning out. I've got the FMQ done and just need to bind it now.

In the mean time I'm working on a handful of other things too. Don't know if any of them will be FMQed before the end of the month, but I'll surely share if they are. :)

Thanks for the deadlines on a few projects I've had laying around!!