When I'm on the phone at work, I sometimes doodle free-motion quilting designs in an old spiral notebook. Not while I'm having a conversation, but when I'm on hold for a representative, which can be a few seconds or minutes. I flip past the work notes to a back page and start scribbling.
Lately I've been doodling ideas for quilting the Four-Lily block, which I wanted to finish as a table mat or wall hanging. I came up with various ideas for the different sections. Unfortunately, the notebook I doodled in stays at work, so last night I recreated it on a piece of freezer paper, with an eye toward getting the scale right. I traced my block templates onto the paper.
There was no way I was going to try to freehand quilt that elongated tri-lobed shape in the lily parts, so I grabbed a red Pilot FriXion marking pen and drew it right onto the fabric. Then I made a few more reference lines (and screwed up others). It was kind of a mess around the center.
But it worked to keep me (mostly) on track when I went to quilt it. I think I've mentioned this before, but I sort of suck at following the lines, even the ones I draw to be followed. Here is the "after." The marks disappeared completely with the heat of the iron.
The quilting shows up better on the back.
And here's the full view of the front.
I had never used this pen to mark a quilt design before, so this was a first, and I'm happy with the results. I know the marks can come back again with very cold temps, so I'll be sure not to set any ice buckets on it.
Now I am looking forward to starting something new, or at least working on something different for a while. Maybe a string quilt? Quilt one of my UFOs? We'll see.
If you'd like to try making this block, the tutorial for it starts HERE (or see the Tutorials tab above). Have fun!
Music to ease you toward the weekend!
It's the last day of February and I am sliding in with the second UFO finish of the year.
My goal for this quarter for the 2013 Finish-A-Long is to quilt one unfinished top per month. I got this basted on Monday afternoon, but then work ramped up and all of a sudden it was the evening of the 27th. Yikes! I needed to carve out some time to quilt and bind this baby. I finished quilting it at about midnight, and then this morning I bound it (by machine, of course, are you kidding me).
I'm not a last-minute person. I don't like waiting until the eleventh hour to do something, although sometimes it happens that way and I can deal. Some people thrive on the adrenaline rush of an imminent deadline (and those people amaze me). Mostly it just makes me cranky.
But I'm feeling good that I can check this one off the list. It's throw quilt size, but I imagine it'd make a nice picnic quilt. Like, three months from now.
I had some hesitation when I opened the sliding door to take pictures on the deck today. The snow was drifted up against the screen door. You can probably guess by now that I am so ready to flip the calendar page and say goodbye to yet another month of winter.
So these are "throw-snap-go" pictures. I donned my snow boots and other paraphernalia, but it was still too cold for dilly-dallying. It was sure a lot more fun to take pictures of the top last September!
Here's the pieced back. The quilting won't win any prizes, but after it's washed and crinkly, it won't matter anyway.
The pattern is called Breathe. I really like snail's trail quilts and know there are more in store for me in the future. I challenged myself to use a funky vintage apple print I found at the (wait for it...) thrift store.
It reminds me of the place we used to pick apples, on the outskirts of town, called the "Apple Pick-Nic Nut Farm." Not only were the apples amazing—some varieties the size of softballs—but the name was a lot fun to say. The farm has been since sold and all the apple trees chopped (I know, sad).
Hey, you know what? I think I'll name this quilt after that place, in memory of those fun apple-picking times—the Apple Picnic Nut Farm quilt!
Linking to:
I'm happy to have finished the first UFO of the year, and managed to get it photographed just as a few flakes were starting to fall. Now it looks like a swirling snow globe out there, whew!
Fun colors and fabrics in this one, I think.
I did my usual meandering in a variegated Sulky thread. I am curious to see how this thread holds up in the wash and wear-and-tear real world. Methinks it may not be quite up to the task, but perhaps I'll be surprised. Live and learn, at any rate.
The back is a Moda Marbles with a batik strip in the center.
I need a good name for this quilt, whose working title has been "Number Three," based on which choice I went with for bordering it. I was thinking along the lines of "Bright Pathways," but that sounds a lot like a counseling center. Other than that, I gots nuthin'. Brainstorm away in the comments!
This is one of my first quarter 2013 Finish-A-Long projects, A Stitch in Time January 2013 finish, and I'm linking to Can I Get a Whoop-Whoop? too!
I don't know if there's a statute of limitations on "what I plan to do in 2013" posts, but it feels like I'm late to the party. Not that I haven't been thinking of it, or that it took me 10 days to put this post together; I've just been finishing up some other things first. Anyway...
There is carryover into the new year in the form of several UFOs, which I aim to finish in 2013. To keep on track, I'm going to hitch up with the 2013 Finish-A-Long with Leanne at She Can Quilt.
Here are my projects to finish in the first quarter of 2013, one per month:
(music video on the layout process here)
All are quilt tops in need of quilting. I procrastinated on them in 2012, thinking that after working through the 2012 Free Motion Quilt Challenge, I'd have all sorts of new skills and confidence. I did a couple months' worth of tutes right on track in the beginning of the year, and then life got in the way and I got behind and really just dropped the ball.
Fortunately, most of the tutorials are still available, so that's something else I plan to do in 2013, revisit the FMQ Challenge.
But that won't hold up the show to finish my UFOs, even if I have to meander stipple every last one of them, or (better idea?) send them off on a fabulous vacation to the longarmer!
I think it's a very manageable, short list for this quarter, and still gives me plenty of leeway to see what other trouble I can get into, too!
