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| Hardwood (Beg) Front |
Before Sewing (but after viewing the video):
I tried this pattern in my first quilt - I hope that now I will have more control and will be able to do the straight lines for the dividers at the end of the pieces of 'wood'.
I've got my red thread in the sewing machine and the darning foot and I've reviewed Leah's videos and website. Other than the few mug rugs that I made last month, it's been a long time since I have done any free motion quilting - but now I will need the pins for my Liberated Round Robin and it's just time to get things going again....!
I've gotten side tracked again with piecing for BlockLotto and Friday's Block Party - I understand now how at least one of the ladies in Liberated Quilters Yahoo Group announced she was doing no sewing - only quilting for a few months last year...!
I already missed two wedding opportunities to make a quilt, and in August there are two weddings that it would have been nice to give a quilt as a gift.... So I need to get going on getting more comfortable doing the entire quilting process!
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| Hardwood (Beg) Back |
After Sewing:
I think it took me longer to find the four necessary things needed to do FMQ than it took to quilt the block!
Slider
Tape (to secure the slider)
Clover Needle **
Gloves (I couldn't find my machiner ones so used the Fons and Porter pair I got at JoAnn's)
** I'm not sure why Leah doesn't include this in her getting started package - the clover needle makes it so easy to hide the threads - I can't imagine doing FMQ without it! I always put the bobbin sliders in but that is an important supply too.
Even though it's been some time since I did a block like this, it went easier than I remember from before. My lines are not perfectly straight - and in a few places the joints are curved - but this is much better than when I tried with my first quilt. For the last journey going up the side of the board, I did the joints for both sides of the board - so I saved having to come back down again. I don't think it's visible though - so this was a good thing to do!
Including looking for supplies this took around 30 minutes - so obviously I need to practice to get my speed up. Just like the treadmill though, I will be able to do it.
It was curious that this time I had thoughts about stopping and finishing it tomorrow - but I'm glad I stuck to it and finished the block!
I store the slider in the plastic envelope it came in - but this time when I did the practice piece to check the tension the slide got caught up in the needle and I had to rip it a little when I removed it - so even though the first time I did used this I did not tape it down - now I feel it's necessary. I bet some waxed paper would help get the fabric to slide too - I might try that. The next larger size of this slider stuff is $50 - I think I would have purchased that size to begin with - but now I don't want to just toss this smaller size away....
To make room for the guests who were sleeping in the sewing room, I took away the table that was set up behind the sewing machine. Once I do more than these small sections I'll need to move that table back in..... already the fabric was crowded with the way things are now....
