Sewing------For Fun!

In the last few years I haven't had much time to sew, just for fun.... Everything that I've sewn has had a purpose, or a deadline or some type of pressure that goes along with it. Don't get me wrong, I'm super grateful for the opportunities that I've been given with my job. :)

Earlier this week I was thinking how I just wanted to sew something, something for fun, that was just relaxing and I could enjoy the process.

A month or so ago I shared my idea for our EKG pattern, and ever since I've really been wanting to make the baby version.

So, I finally made time, time for myself, and this is what I made, it's just a small 45"x45" quilt, with no real purpose, just for fun, just because I thought those fabrics were cute and it would be fun to make this quilt. I think I had forgotten how FUN sewing could be, it was so much fun and actually relaxing, I think I had forgotten that!

It's also been a long time since I've custom machine quilted something for myself, but, this will be the next quilt that I custom quilt for myself! I'm really excited to quilt it, but it might be a few weeks!

Pattern for this quilt is in our book, Modern One-Block Quilts, signed copies are available here

Fabric shown is Best Day Ever by April Rosenthal for Moda Fabrics.

All of my sewing is done on a Bernina Aurora 450QE

Custom Machine Quilting - Feathers & Cables

Last week I spent a couple of days machine quilting this beautiful quilt for Jean. It's a gorgeous quilt and she's giving it to her grand-daughter as a wedding gift! What an awesome grandma she is!

When Jean brought me this quilt she told me that she loves feathers and cables. Cables aren't something I generally think of quilting, I really don't know why I don't quilt them more because they are awesome.

After she told me that's what she wanted on her quilt I just went to town machine quilting it as I liked. I think it turned out pretty awesome.

The backing is a solid, I love the way the back turned out, I think this could totally be a reversible quilt.

As I was machine quilting this quilt I shared a couple of photos on Instagram and Facebook, thank you all so much for your kind words over there! You all make my day! There were a few questions, so I thought I'd answer most of those here:

I free-motion quilted the border feathers, as I quilted those I did not mark anything, I do stitch my stem first and then go back and fill in the feathers, when I free-motion quilt feathers the only time I ever do any marking is when I'm quilting a medallion and I want a perfect circle stem or medallion, then I will mark. I shared my thoughts about machine quilting feathers here. I also teach how-to quilt my feathers in my book; Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting.

Several also asked about the cables, no this are not free-motion quilted, there are several rulers out there that make machine quilting cables easier, for these cables I used my statler stitcher to quilt perfect cables.

I did stitch-in-the-ditch around all of the blocks and borders, I like the look that the stitch-in-the-ditch added.

Happy Monday! I hope you all have a great week!

Salute to Plaid - now available as a PDF

Salute to Plaid. I really do love this quilt. Kathleen and I originally designed this quilt in 2011, I can't believe it's already been three years! The pattern was originally published in Quiltmaker Magazine, July/August 2011 issue, you can read about that here.

I've always been drawn to plaid type quilts, even though we haven't made many of them in recent years. This fun quilt is a combination of plaid blocks and star blocks. Super duper fun patriotic quilt or like I've sketched it above cute in more modern fabrics as well.

The version above is shown using Elementary by Sweetwater for Moda Fabrics.

The finished quilt measures 60"x72".

I always think it's fun to see quilts in multiple colors, it's cool to see how different quilts can look in different color-ways. Above I sketched it out in traditional red, white & blues.

This version is shown using Lexington by Minick & Simpson for Moda Fabrics. 

This pattern is available for instant download over on our website.

Free-Motion Quilted Feathers

After owning my long-arm machine for about a year Kathleen started telling me that I really needed to start quilting feathers. At that time I was quilting a little bit for customers, but mostly still learning. Kathleen kept hinting and hinting that I really needed to try them. I was so afraid of them. I had watched a few different videos of others quilting feathers and that scared me even more, but she kept insisting.....

So, being the rebel that I am, I decided that I would try them out, but I would machine quilt them how I thought they should be quilted. Totally opposite of the way that most free-motion quilt feathers. I fell in love! When I realized that my feathers were going to be quilted my way and they didn't need to be perfect I fell in love! Feathers are now one of my best friends. I swear that I ask every single client if they'd like feathers. I personally think that feathers can be machine quilted on a traditional quilt, an heirloom quilt or even a modern quilt. I just love them! 

This fun quilt, in the picture above is the quilt that's on my machine right now. I hope to finish machine quilting this quilt today. When Jean brought me this quilt she told me that she would like feathers and cables, and whatever else I'd like to quilt. That large solid colored border just screamed feathers. So, today I'll be doing what I love, machine quilting lots and lots of feathers.

I teach my feather technique in my book, Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting.

Have you tried machine quilting feathers yet?

Pow-Wow Quilt

I've shared several of Paula's quilts here, and today I'm sharing another. Paula has been busy the past few years making quilts for each of her grandchildren. I love that together they pick out a pattern that fits each grand-child's personality. 

This adorable quilt was made from Allison from Cluck Cluck Sew's Pow-Wow Pattern. I love that pattern and the way that Paula put this quilt together is so cute!

Since this one is for one of her grand-daughters she asked me to machine quilt it with some flowers in the borders, just to add something girly to it.

So, I machine quilted a fun feather flower in the borders and then swirls in the body of the quilt. 

I do teach, step-by-step how-to quilt my swirls in my book, Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting.

Paula backs all of her quilts with minky, the machine quilting on the minky always pops and is so cute!

Thanks for letting me machine quilt another one of your adorable quilts Paula!

Embroidered Quilt

This fabulous hand-embroidered quilt belongs to Linda! The hand-stitching on this quilt is awesome!

Linda sent me this quilt and asked me to custom machine quilt it for her. She wanted to the quilt to stay soft. We talked about it and decided that echo quilting would be perfect.

So, I outlined all of the embroidery and then echo quilted in the background. I love how it made each flower pop, and the background added just a tiny bit of soft detail.

Thanks for letting me machine quilt this fabulous quilt Linda!

In my book, Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting I teach how-to echo quilt.

Baby Girl Quilt

Helen pieced and appliqued this adorable little quilt for her granddaughter. Such a fun little quilt and her applique is fantastic.

Helen sent me this quilt and told me that she'd like custom machine quilting. So I machine quilted flowers in the borders and then randomly in some of the blocks, swirls in the the white applique blocks backgrounds and some arcs in the rest of the blocks.

Such a fun little quilt, I know her granddaughter will love it! :)

The quilt is backed with minky, which gives the quilt such a fun soft feel.

Thanks for letting me machine quilt this adorable quilt Helen!

Mesmerize Quilt

There are so many things about my job that I love! I love that I have the ability to be creative and share the ideas that Kathleen and I come up with, with so many others. It's a cool thing to machine quilt quilts for others, but when I get to machine quilt the quilts that others have made from our patterns. Now that, for me, is the icing on the cake! Seriously, each time I pull customer quilt out of the box and realize it's a quilt made from our patterns, well, it's just about as exciting as Christmas!

This fantastic quilt was pieced by Deb, Kathleen and I originally designed this Mesmerize pattern for Basic Grey! I love this quilt, it's one of my very favorite patterns that we've designed, and Kathleen loves it too! She actually has the original displayed in her home!

Deb liked the way that I had machine quilted the original version of Mesmerize, so she asked me to quilt her quilt the same, with an edge-to-edge baptist fan pattern. 

Thanks for making my day and letting me quilt this quilt Deb!

More details about the Mesmerize pattern are available here.

Zig-Zag Quilt - Custom Machine Quilting

Okay, so I'm sure you all know, or have realized by now just how much Kathleen and I love using solid colored fabrics. We do love prints, don't get me wrong, but there is just something about the crispness, and the ability to "show off" machine quilting when quilts are made with solid colors.

This awesome zig-zag quilt was made by Deb. When Deb sent me her quilt she told me I could custom machine quilt it however I wanted, she just wanted some feathers on it.

So, I machine quilted some feathers, I love feathers, in the gray, then some straight line quilting, with a little bit of point to point quilting mixed in. I LOVE how this quilt turned out, I'll be sad to ship it back to Deb. :)

I used Quilters Dream Poly Deluxe batting and So Fine! thread. I love the texture that the Quilters Dream batting gives, and So Fine! it's a dream come true! :)

I teach how-to quilt my feathers in my book; Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting.

Hope you're all having a great day!

An Adorable Row Quilt

With the Small Town Quilt Show last week it's been almost one full week without using my long-arm machine. I am pretty sure the last time I went that long without using it was about 4 years ago! Man, I need a vacation! No, really I love my job, and I can't believe I went one full week!

So, to get back in the groove of machine quilting I quilted this adorable row quilt! I love machine quilting row quilts, those and sampler quilts are my very favorite, at least right now. :) I just love quilting different things in each row or block, to really make the quilts sing.

Those little butterfly's were so much fun to quilt, I love making them come to life.

I'm pretty sure this flying geese row is my very favorite on this quilt. I machine quilted some pretty heavy straight lines in the background and the flying geese just popped! I love it!

Hope you're all having a great week! I cannot believe it's already July 1st! This year is already half way over! Time is going way too fast!