Free Motion Fun

I decided it was time to have a proper go at free motion quilting.  At Christmas I organised a present of quilting designs, gloves and a teflon slider to go on the machine bed.  I chose everything from Leah Day's Day Style Designs website.  You are probably familiar with Leah's blog  The Free Motion Quilting Project.  I really enjoy her posts and she is very generous with her helpful information and patterns.

This is the top I chose to practice on.  It's not too big, and it divides easily into four sections

 so I could try some different quilting patterns.  The squares are the I Spy #18 pack at Two Bits Patches.

First of all I stippled with easy curving 'U' shapes.  I worked from the centre to each side and back again, leaving four quarters to fill in with different patterns.

The first quarter got a squiggly line across the middle, then echo quilting each side.

Next was a squiggly shape followed by echo quilting.

Then, a paisley pivoting design.  This was the best ever, I had so much fun doing it.

Finally, an edge to edge bubble wand.  Hmmm, needs some more practice.



Here's the final result.  It does look like a practice piece rather than a finished work.  I had been avoiding free motion quilting because everyone said it was so difficult to do.  But I was pleasantly surprised with the result and I wished there was more space to fill. 

 The back of the quilt is a panel that I scored somewhere.

So, how do you quilt your I Spy quilts?  Do you use free motion quilting?  Will I be brave enough to try it out on a special quilt for a granddaughter?  (Yes, I was!)

Don't forget the blog give away for free I Spy charms.  You have until the 20th May to add your comment to the blog.

Baby I Spy with Setting Squares

I came across this tutorial for an I Spy baby quilt just the other day.

http://www.cloverandviolet.com/2011/12/i-spy-baby-quilt-tutorial.html

The instructions are clear, fabric quanities included, and there are lots of photos for each step of the quilt.   I only have one fabric in my stash that is the same as one of the charms pictured.  There must be a lot of different fabrics in the world....

I Spy a Triple Treat

I finished making this I Spy quilt in time for Jack's 3rd birthday.  It ended up very bright and busy - just like Jack!  The blocks are made from 3 different sized squares - 2.5 inch, 3.5 inch and 6.5 inch.  The large squares, 15 in all, I chose carefully to reflect the things that Jack likes.  The smallest squares are a mix of I Spy and tone on tone fabrics in red, yellow, orange, blue and green.  I avoided purple and pink, this is definitely a quilt for a boy.

I made Triple Treat on my Singer 1950s Featherweight.  In fact, everything I've sewn in the last twelve months has been on this Singer. It runs like a charm.  Because this Singer is so small I used a Quilt As You Go (QAYG) method to quilt the single bed size quilt.  I enjoyed QAYG; it's so nice to finish the top and find the whole quilt is done.

And did Jack like his birthday present?  See for yourself!