YAY! Finished the Strip Quilt

It seems that the closer I get to the finish line with a quilt, the more I just want to power through it and finish it up. I'm not sure if that's normal or not, but that is certainly the way it was with this one.





I think that it looks really cool on my friend's antique bed.

But already, i'm thinking about what I want to do next.

till next time!

Trying something fun today

Well, today I decided to take a break from that strip quilt. I really am enjoying doing it, but I thought that I would try something new. As I have said before, I am so inspired by Leah Day and her blog, I thought that I would try my hand at trapunto.

I had a couple of fat quarters that I wasn't doing anything with, and of course, LOTS of batting scraps. I found a couple of patters in the back of a quilting book that I had, and traced the pattern onto the fabric. Stitched the batting scraps to the pattern, cut out precisely around the pattern. Then I made a quilt sandwich from that top piece and another whole flat piece of batting. I basted, then quilted the whole thing.







I know the lighting isn't the best, and the stitches are kind of "lost" in the fabric, but truthfully, I was really proud of what I did. The whole process took just an afternoon, so it works up really pretty quickly.

I would have taken pics of the process, but honestly, I had no idea it would turn out as good as it did. I just thought that it would be something else to fill up the trash bin at the end of the day. I'm not sure what I will do with it just yet...make into a pillow top? just frame it? (this really is an accomplishment for me after all), or maybe bind it and call it a day? Not sure, right now, I'm still surprised that it actually worked out.

I have read, (OK on Leah's blog again) about how you are to use water soluble thread in the top of the machine as the top layer of batting is stitched to the quilt top. I just could not wrap my head around this step. OK...I get it now! There is really such thread build up by the time you are finished that having a thread that would just wash away makes PERFECT sense! So.....guess what I am ordering next from Leah!!!

Anyway, just wanted to share my "day off" from the strip quilt. I really can't wait to show some pics of that finished quilt. I think its going to look awesome on my friends antique bed!

Till next time!

OK...so this is the deal.....

Well, I made a deal with myself. I have wanted a new machine for sometime now. I finally made the decision on the Janome 1600P-DBX. I have to say, so far, I am totally loving this machine. I got an awesome deal on it from Sew-Vac-City. Their storefront in College Station TX is only about 1.5 hours from where I live, so I just drove up there to “test drive” a few of the models. All things considered, this is the one that I chose.

Now….the deal that I made with myself was that if I did get this machine, I would not spend any $ on fabric this month. My roommate cleaned out his closet and found basically a wheelbarrow sized load of really nice button down shirts that he was going to toss. Toss??? NO WAY! I snatched those shirts up like candy under a massacred piñata!!

I did not really know what I was going to do with them, but I knew that there was no way I was letting this really good fabric go to waste. I remembered seeing a site that had TONS of “scrappy” quilts…(Quiltville) and used one of their paper foundation pieced patterns. Considering that I am so new to this, and also, this technique reminded me of my great grandmother’s way of quilting, I jumped in.

I started slashing those shirts like it was nobody’s business, taking out the collars, yokes, and seams. I then cut them into 1.5” strips and separated them into lights and darks.

Then, I decided to piece them on 8” square paper. After reading some of the suggestions about this type of piecing, I shortened the stitch length considerably so that the paper would tear off relatively easy.

So far so good…all seems to be going along as planned. I couldn’t however figure out how I would quilt these little squares. I really don’t have the experience to do much as far as FMQ. Stippling for some reason didn’t seem to be the way to go in my opinion. I really wanted a scrappy, almost “crazy” effect. I decided to go ahead and use the quilt as you go method and quilt each block separately using a feather stitch.

This is really as far as I have gotten. 30 blocks finished, about another 60 more to go. BUT…the most important thing here is, I am not spending any $$ this month on fabric, and I am really giving this new machine a workout.

Till next time….!!