Here is a close up photo of the background quilting on my faux leather quilt “Putting Down Roots.” I wanted something swirly and this fit the bill although it made me nervous as I knew I could not pick out any boo boos as the faux leather would show the holes. There are places I might have stitched over again if this was regular woven fabric but now that it is all done I really don’t notice them as much.
I, like millions of other people use Pinterest to keep track of things that interest me and that I might want to refer to later. When thinking about what quilting designs I want to use I scan my Pinterest board for ideas. I had pinned this quilting design by Wendy Sheppard that she calls “Jester’s Hat” and thought that it might work in the sky area of this quilt. The design moves you around the area without back stitching which is what I needed for this project. You can find a tutorial on stitching this design on SewCalGal’s blog
here. Or on Wendy’s blog “Ivory Spring”
here. As you will see I approach the design a little differently but it has the same sort of look. No matter what design we choose to machine quilt every quilter will have their own look and way of approaching it but it is a good to see how someone else tackles the design too.
I am a left handed person so may stitch this differently than you right handers but this is how I start. Follow the pictures below to see how I progress.
As you can see from my drawings I come from under the initial bumps most of the time to move onto the next motif but not always. If I get into a corner or need to change direction I come out on top of the motif hump like the illustration above.
You can use your finger to follow the direction I would stitch this motif. Start at the x and keep going. Of course this is a rather sloppy version done with marker but you get the idea I am sure. Just because I stitched the motif this way on this quilt I might change how I stitch it the next time I use it.
Until later,
Lynn
I don’t think there is anything much cuter on our farm than when the cows start having their calves. Our herd is nearly half done calving now so there are lots of little calves running around. I went out the other day late afternoon with my camera and got these photos. Enjoy!
Notice the calf in the background on the photo below. It is jumping and going to take off running with it’s mama close behind mooing. I can just hear her yelling “stop, stop, you have to stay by me.” After the calves are only a day or two old they love to run and chase each other but the cows don’t like that so much so follow them around the lot. I seems like late afternoon is when they do more running around for some reason.
As you probably noticed on the photos so far the cows and calves are all pretty much looking right at the camera. No fancy tricks used to accomplish this either. They are really curious animals and watched me the entire time I was photographing. I was standing outside the fence and they would gather close to figure out what I was doing I guess. Some of the cows in the photos have had their calves and some have not and their bellies are huge. I am sure they feel like a 9 month pregnant woman in that their legs and back ache and will be glad to get rid of that extra weight and greet their new baby!
A big thank you goes out to Kay Mackenzie of the All About Applique blog for the drawing she held on her blog a week or so ago. I was so surprised to find out I won and look at the fabulous books I won. She sent me a copy of two of her applique books and they have great patterns in them. Please check out her other patterns and books at this address and her blog that can be found here.
I am a left handed person so may stitch this differently than you right handers but this is how I start. Follow the pictures below to see how I progress.
As you can see from my drawings I come from under the initial bumps most of the time to move onto the next motif but not always. If I get into a corner or need to change direction I come out on top of the motif hump like the illustration above.
You can use your finger to follow the direction I would stitch this motif. Start at the x and keep going. Of course this is a rather sloppy version done with marker but you get the idea I am sure. Just because I stitched the motif this way on this quilt I might change how I stitch it the next time I use it.
