Machine Quilting Away

As you can see this is taking me a long time to finish.  I have quilted the bubbles up to the chalked vine and leaves and now have completed one side of the vine and leaves.  Since the fused leaves were cut with the deckle rotary cutter I decided to quilt the chalked leaves kind of squiggly too.  I used the variegated green Sulky rayon thread I used on the leaves and stems in the center of the quilt.  I sure hope they show up with all those bubbles around them.  Bubbles may have not been a good choice after all.

Happy Quilting,
Lynn

Marking the Vine

I want to quilt a vine/leaf shape on the two sides just like the fused ones on the opposite sides. Remember what the wall hanging looks like...fused vine and leaves on only two sides.

 After thinking over my options I came up with the following solution. I placed a large piece of thin paper over the fused vine and traced the shape. I darkened it with a softer lead pencil then pinned it in the position I wanted the quilted vines and leaves. I used a Hera marker to crease the lines...a Hera marker is just a piece of sharpened plastic. I you don't have one a dull table knife might do the same thing.

The Hera marker left creases were the design was. I then took a chalk marker and darkened the lines.  One thing I didn't mention above is that I had problems keeping a perfectly parallel second line with the Hera marker. I marked 1/2" dots with the chalk pencil using my ruler then connected them to mark the second line of the vine.

Here it is all ready to stitch. Notice I have the bubbles stitched up to the fused vine already.

Happy Quilting,
Lynn

Tiny Bubbles

This "Little Autumn Mums" quilt I am making from the Frieda Anderson class I took at QuiltNebraska last summer is already pretty stiff due to the fact that every fabric has fusible behind it.  With all the close quilting I am doing it is even more stiff but I do like the results so far.  I may look a little mish-mashy with all the close quilting though.

The outside border area is where I am working now.  Decided to quilt small irregularly sized circles with the YLI Varriations thread.  If you look close you can see my circles are not perfect but when you get so many of them it disguises the imperfect ones.  This quilting design is taking a while but I do like the way it looks right now anyway.

Have a good Day!
Lynn

I Won!

I won a prize, I won a prize, I won! Last Saturday at Threads Across Nebraska they were drawing for door prizes. I forgot to sign up until after lunch so was really surprised to win one of the prizes.
It was this ruler holder made by Grandpa's Woodshop (Ken Reed from Wymore, NE). THANK YOU KEN! I have looked at them before but never purchased one. This one is so nicely made and the wood is so smooth and it even has hangers so it can be hung on the wall.

When I first saw this kind of ruler holder a few years ago they were made to just sit on the table and I didn't have room for that...didn't want to knock it off as I was sewing. This one will hang on the wall just above my pressing area, close to my cutting area so the rulers will be handy but out of the way.

A few years ago when I was one of the winners of the Miniatures from the Heart contest I received a full set of the Omnigrid rulers as a prize. A great prize but so many rulers to find a place to store and keep available. Now I can put my most used rulers in this holder and the others won't be buried so deep in the drawer where I have been keeping them. There are 9 slots to put the rulers but don't think I will fill them all up, at least not right now. I want to be able to have room to grab a ruler without knocking any others out.

 As you can see I left space between the rulers and the 4"x8" ruler is slipped in vertically at the top - easier to grab that way.  I put my largest ruler at the bottom - 6"x 24", then the following going up...3 1/2"x24, 3"x 18", 4"x14, 6"x12", and the top row has the 4"x8" and the 6 1/2"x6 1/2".  I have triangle rulers, some large square ones and some others but these are probably the ones I use the most.

Some of you may wonder what the white thing is on the left side of the photo just above the last photo.  It is a "cord minder" for my iron that clips onto the end of my pressing board.  It has a weighted clip I attach down closer to the plug so when I set my iron back down near that end of the pressing board the cord slides down the "cord minder" and doesn't hook itself over the drawer pulls on the front of the cabinet.  This pressing board is sitting on the top of the old kitchen island and it has two top drawers that are really handy but my iron cord was always getting wrapped around the handles and causing frustration at times.  This solved that problem slick as a whistle!

Happy Quilting,
Lynn
PS - the white thing I am talking about is on the table.  The other white thing is stuck to a ruler and has suction cups on the ends and makes moving the ruler easier.