WIP: Beginning Quilting of Picasso Tic Tac Toe

WIP: Piecing and Planning started October 2016.

I basted my Picasso Tic Tac Toe quilt at my last Monday quilting group, and today started the initial  quilting work.

Took 48 minutes to do the initial stitch in the ditching of the X blocks.  This was done using a walking foot and with only one thread break!  It's good to plan ahead.

Here is the back:

Another 45 minutes later and I had marked and added two doughnut circles, and marked a third more-like-an doughnut oval shape too!

       

I haven't decided if the ovals will be quilted so they are on top or under the X's so I put off the stitching of this for now.

So far have just been using a walking foot.  The batting is Quilters Dream Cotton, natural. (Won April 2016 as part of Quilt Qwazy Queens Blog Hop.) The thread so far is Leah's 40 wt. Isacord Polyester Embroidery Thread Silver.  I'm using an Ultimate Marking Pencil (White - iron off) and really liking how easy it is be press draft versions of the design away!

So I yet another Work in Progress.  I'm pleased that things are in progress at least!  : )

Charity FMQ Unmarked Baptist Fans, Orange Peel, Feathers

I finished another Quilts for Kids!

This one I had planned on sewing together so the squares would be on point, but I goofed so just have strange corners instead.  The leader of our local Quilts for Kids said it would be okay so I went ahead and basted and free motion quilted.  I started with some feathers in each of the corners, but the pick thread makes it very difficult to see that detail.

I decided to try some unmarked Baptist fans, was afraid I would run out of thread so switched to orange peel design that would use less thread.

It's my first time for both of these.  It would have been easier if my working space were consistent instead of having the strange corners.

So this quilt has several firsts for me:
1.  The first huge mistake with piecing made it so I didn't get to try the on point setting as I wanted to.
2.  First feathers on something more than a practice piece (and those were done in 2012!)

Example Feather - each corner has a different interpretation of a feather.

3.  The first Baptist fans

Unmarked Baptist Fans - they do look nice from a distance!

4.  The first orange peel

Unmarked Orange Peel - Very easy to stitch in the squares.

I didn't break any needles even though I'm just getting back into sewing and quilting again.  Had planned on using some gold thread but that didn't work out so grabbed the one spool of pink that I had just to get going on the project.  My hand was unsteady so guess it's okay that the thread blends into the background in most cases.

I have another quilt with these materials that is made of all squares waiting to be finished.  I wonder how that will end up being quilted?  It will have binding made from bring the fabric from the back to the front.

This one was made with the top and back facing each other, then it was turned inside out.  I've only done this one time before. I think I should have basted this one even though my 'teacher' said I didn't need to.  There is one spot where things bubble with extra fabric.  Perhaps that could have been avoided with some basting.

Still it will be a nice quilt for someone.

It was pretty easy to move my tables so I had extra table behind the sewing machine and to my left - think I will be liking the new sewing space!

I just realized I hadn't posted a full photo of this project.

Made from charms cut from fabric with Studio GO.  Was supposed to be on point, realized after sewn that I had to add corners to make the quilt a rectangle!

Back was one piece, sewn as an envelope then pulled inside out, so there is no binding.

I think this is my fourth finish for QFK.

: )



Here are I think better photos of the project.  Including a few toes!

SewCalGal - FMQ Challenge - May

Directions: To make double stipple and train variation.

May

Leah Day

Before:  The lesson is very clearly written including a very nice refresher or orientation to FMQing.  Leah is really the best with including information for beginners, and I'm sure she challenges more advanced quilters too.  The designs are both very nice, I anticipate the double stipple will be easier than the train tracks as points are sometimes hard to do.

First Try May 2 - First I drew the double stipple design on paper.  Since I had finally finished my Big Star quilt, it was easy for me to set up to test out the patterns on my test sandwich. The white thread doesn't show up in the photo very well...  Here are my first interpretations:

Back First Try May SCG

First try at both May designs for SewCalGal

My practices did not fill the space as evenly as Leah did in her video demos, but I think they look really nice anyway.

These will be nice designs to use to surround some busy piecing or to have in the background.  Check out Marie's blog to see the pattern done in a larger block - very nice.  (Need to scroll down a bit to see the photos.)

May 25 - in FMQAYGQAL block.  I finally had time to sew the pattern in my quilt blocks!

Front - Leah's Double Stipple

Back - Leah's Double Stipple

I'm having a little problem with the thread getting too loose at the top of the machine, but by going slow (and traveling to be sure some skips were secure) I have a second example of the first design by Leah Day.

This is such a forgiving design, it still looks good with uneven loops!  I think it would be wonderful as an all over design!

May 26 - in FMQAYGQAL block.  I did the second Leah Day design for the SewCalGal challenge.  This time I just did one simple curve so there is plenty of unquilted area.  I really like it!

Front- Leah's Tracks

Back - Leah's Tracks

These designs were really fun to do - I know I'll be using them in my future projects.  Now they are part of the FMQAYGQAL project I'm working on too!



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I'm linking to SewCalGal for my May entry!
http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/2012/05/may-2012-fmq-challenge-tutorial-by-leah.html
I'm #94!


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You too can join up with the 2012 SewCalGal's Free-Motion Quilt Challenge now to become a better free motion quilter and have the chance to win fabulous prizes!!  

 To enter the May drawing:
1. Write blog entry or post a photo on Flicker. Copy and save the URL.
2. Then go to http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/p/free-motion-quilt-challenge.html
3. Click on the May link - you'll go to the screen with information about the challenge for May. The direct link is: http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/2012/05/may-2012-fmq-challenge-tutorial-by-leah.html
4. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and add the link to your site.

I'm #94 on this list! I'm coding all my entries about this project with SewCalGalFMQ2012 so clicking on that will show the most recent post on top.

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http://www.with-heart-and-hands.com/2012/05/praying-for-miracle.html

Finish #4: Big Star Quilt! Updated

This is what I've been working on during this first week of 'vacation'.

I'm linking up to: http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2012/05/vacation-link-up.html

I finished the binding on the big star quilt!

Front of the finished Big Star

Back of the Big Star

 I put the binding on the front by mistake, realized it after I turned the second corner so decided to just keep going.

For the finish of the binding, I decided to use clear thread in the machine and beige in the bobbin.  For most of the the stitching the thread stayed on the star background so that was fine.  It took about an hour to do the final round of the binding.  I forgot to keep track of how long it took to cut the strips, join them together, and sew on the first round....

I had purchased a special pen to write on fabric, so after it was done I wrote the label on the binding.

Label written on binding - "A long road for this quilt! Began piecing with the help of my MOM in the late 1960's.  Finished May 2012 for my husband, Bernie.  XXOO     4th Quilt by June Dodge"

I wrapped it up, put a bow on it and placed it at the table at Bernie's spot.  He was very happy to see the gift.  He wondered if he had forgotten an anniversary of something!  He took it down by the chair he sits in in the den - after a little while he put it on his lap while he was watching TV.

As I wrote on the label, this is my fourth finish.  My first was tied and given to my son, the 2nd and 3rd were FMQed (after finding Leah site) made for Quilts for Kids, and this one for my husband!  (I'm not counting the practice quilt or the little mug rugs I've made.)

Thank you, Leah! Without your help and encouragement I would not have been able to do this.  I have such a sense of accomplishment, and excitement to continue finishing quilt projects.

More on the Big Star Quilt


Binding Steps

These are notes to help me remember how I did this!

Binding Step 0 - Apply binding to the back of the quilt,  At the corners move the fabric so it's a little less then 1/4 inch - then it will be easier to do the corners (I did for the last two corners, worked well).  I like narrow binding so strips are 2 inches wide.

Binding Step 1 - Sew the folded fabric with about 5 inches of tail on both sides.

Binding Step 2 - Smooth the fabric and fold at the intersection of the two ends of the binding.

Binding Step 3 - draw the creases for both ends.

Binding Step 4 - pin the quilt away from the area.

Binding Step 5 - Fold to find out which way the fabric should be
facing, then put pin thru the intersection of the lines, Move so
it's at 90 degrees and pin so the fabric won't move.  Added:  The right sides will be facing each other!  Leah Day has a good video to help with this too: https://leahday.com/pages/how-to-bind-a-quilt-by-machine

Binding Step 6 - Sew, test to be sure it's correct, trim and finger press flat.  Sew on the quilt.

FMQAYGQAL - Blocks 21 & 22

Directions: Blocks 21 & 22: Row 6 Blocks 1 & 2

Block 22: Quilt Jane's Flower and Echo 

Back - Quilt Jane's flower and echo

Front- Quilt Jane's flower and echo

This design was easy to do - I did draw first on paper though so that probably helped.  I was able to continue the echoing more than in the example so there are few odd pieces in the block.  I do not know what happened with the back of the block - there were unexpected extra poofs of thread.  I was successful with hiding a lot of them....

Block 21: Quilt Jane's Shark Filler

This design was very easy to sew.  I oriented the fabric so I was sewing up for the fins and then down for the waves.  Very clean looking.

Quilt Jane's Shark Filler Front

Quilt Jane's Shark Filler Back

Quilt Along #15: Sharp Stippling

Directions:
http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2012/04/quilt-along-15-sharp-stippling.html
http://www.freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2012/04/quilt-along-16-zippling.html




First Practice:  Saturday

To remember how to do binding I made this little mug rug for my husband.  I practiced the sharp stipple (or the way I misremembered it).....

Leah had mentioned to be careful about having thread buildup at the points so I really was conscious and kept the piece moving during the entire process.  Looks good on the top where I was sewing - but I can see thread build up on the back.  Since the thread and back fabric are the same color it doesn't show up that much.....  Now that I am home and next to computer I see I misremembered this design - it's sort of a preliminary sharp stipple....

Sharp Stipple and Binding Practice - Front

Sharp Stipple and Binding Practice -Back

 For the binding the other people recommended 2.25 inch strips so that is what I did.

The first time I joined the strips I goofed and ended up with a strip that was part front and part back of the fabric - so I cut that off and did it again - I think it's front facing each other to be right.....

I had to do two joinings to this little quilt - and wouldn't you know it, one of the joinings ended up being in a corner....  So I had to trim that back a bunch to get the material to flip and pretend to be correct.

After I sewed the binding on I folded the corners and pressed the fabric to help it know where to go - then I folded the corners on the back side and sewed it down .25 inch all around.  I don't like having the extra fabric - and when I really do it on a quilt I will try to borrow a machine with a decorative stitch so it looks more finished too.

When I do this on a real quilt I will do with 2 inch strips and will be really careful on the corners to be sure there is no extra bulk.

I think for my big star quilt I will bind in brown but use the beige thread so it matches the front of the quilt - I'll sew the binding on the front first as the seams are so uneven.  I think I will sew around the outside of the quilt to be sure I see where the binding should be put - but maybe not - I'll decide later....

At the quilt workshop they suggested instead of pinning the flaps and pressing to fold the fabric and pressing - we also drew the cross of the four folds so it was easy to pin and be sure I was in the right place.  And she suggested 2.25 inch strips as she cuts the quilt so the back and batting are about .25 inch larger than the top - that way her binding is filled with this and looks full.

I'll do some more sharp stippling practice on another piece later....!  AND will make some more mug rugs to practiced binding too!

Practice Tuesday PM:  When I finished some other work that I was doing on a sandwich I decided to do another practice at sharp stippling.

Sharp stippling - done with out relooking at directions.

Just to be clear I'm going to paste some images from Leah's site to show what I'm supposed to be doing.  Next time I'm going to have this images in front of me so I have a real model of what to do (as my memory isn't working on this one!) My practice tonight just looks like something a toddle would scribble!

From Leah's Site:  Just like with Stippling, start Sharp Stippling by quilting a row of very simple wiggly V shapes:

Gradually add bends and extra wiggles to add more complexity with the next row:

Now work on blending several rows together to create a random, sharp stippling texture:

I had thought I would have time this week to put together or find a quilt top that was ready for quilting, but was unsuccessful with that so just did samples for this week for Leah's Wednesday Quilt a Long.  I just have to keep practicing so I can make the jump from being a beginner.

My question - my thread keeps jumping up and then I have to stop and pull it out and put it back on the machine.  That seems to solve having extra loops or shredding or breaking.  I'm wondering if there is something I could buy that would hold the thread spool and weight down the top of the spool but some how let the thread feed evenly too?  Or is this a user-error on my part for the way I'm sewing?

Leah announced today that there will be no new posts during May - she timed this so it saves me a bunch of time.  We are having two sets of house guests and I was thinking I'd have to move my sewing area to my room as they will be staying in the sewing/guest room.  So instead of moving I will just straighten up!

I'm linking to Leah Day's at http://www.freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2012/04/quilt-along-16-zippling.html  I'm number 7!

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I'm doing this as part of Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays on the Free Motion Quilting Project.  It's a wonderful set of online lessons - Leah does a terrific job of guiding us through the various steps.

At the bottom of each of the Week pages there are links to the other folks who are participating - please take a peek to see what the others are doing!  Then you will see really nice examples of people who are doing the lessons.

Click on the Leah12 link to see my progress on this project.

The Free Motion Quilting Project: Week #8b & 14

Directions for Week 14: Stippling Review
Directions for Week 8: Quilting a Real Quilt





Post has several entries showing progress....


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Saturday:  I went to quilting workshop and set up my sewing machine on a table and had about an hour and half of sewing time.  I was afraid I was going to break needle or thread since the machine was so high so didn't follow the original plan - modified so I started in center to the side.  Then went back to center to the other side.  Then to center in the third direction, then started up the in the opposite direction when I had to clean up and leave.

After about 1.5 hours - front

After about 1.5 hours back

It would have been better to use thread that matched the back of the quilt - but this will be a good practice piece....

The big star was sewn by me when I was in I think junior or high school - but it could have been first years of college.  My mother made a pattern for me to cut by pinning to fabric and cutting with scissors.  I have the pattern, but it is not dated.  There were other things in the box - perhaps I will be able to date this by looking more closely at those items.

It was sewn with 5/8 1/2 inch seams.....  I know the seams do not match - but this was my very first attempt at a quilt...!  I sort of remember really working to get the stripes to line up.  It's fun to finally know enough to try to quilt it!

(I'm not sure why they photo is oriented differently when I post it to blogger - both photos were taken with the phone oriented the same way.  By double clicking the T shape of the quilting can be seen.)

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Sunday:  I just looked and the link to Leah's is only good for one more day, so I'm going to post to the site just to be in the group working on her project.  I think I must be one of the real beginner quilters in this group. Certainly, I am one of the slower quilters.  I'm glad this week was a review week so I had time to work on quilting a real quilt.  I didn't have a quilt ready to work during week 8, but found this one, got it basted about a month ago and am making time to work on it now.

Additional ~ 2.5 hours back

I have been doing a lot (for me) of sewing blocks and starting QAYG projects, but this is the actually the first useable quilt that I'm doing with FMQing that I will get to keep!

Additional ~ 2.5 hours back

There is a great leap that I am trying to make - to actually finish a project!  The link by the other ladies show beautiful work - both in piecing and quilting - they have terrific finished projects.

I am not feeling confident enough to do real quilting on one of my real quilts, so it's nice that I found this one!

I lost count of how many times I had to cut the thread and restart.  With this thread I'm not getting the shredding, instead I'm needing to stop as the needle sort of picks up another loop of thread - I can't tell what I'm doing to cause this yet.  I ran out of bobbin as I was starting the final row of the design.  It's incredible how the actual stippling pattern is getting easier and easier for me to do.

In the links for last week I think a few of the ladies mentioned something about a 40 or 70 inch quilt project coming up - I can't find where they see that.  I do remember reading somewhere that Leah asked if we liked doing actual projects together or would rather do practice pieces, then this week she asked if we'd like to do a full size bed quilt.  That's when I thought I'd better work on finishing this quilt - it's about 48 inches square.  I'm able to manage this quilt so think I could do a twin or perhaps a full quilt.  I just need to know what to get ready - or better yet to be given time in the project to get materials ready or I will continue to always be in catch up mode.  But this isn't like diet, if I can devote enough time I can get caught up rather easily!

45 min to start second quarter.

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Monday:  I worked 45 minutes in the late afternoon to get this part started.... I guess I have about 1/2 of the second quarter done.  Leah's method of having us put the center lines in then to work each quarter is genius of course.  It's more doable to work on the project as four-mini quilts!  I had about three thread breaks while doing this - was able to hide the evidence though!

45 minutes to start second quarter. front

I neglected to time myself, but did more work on this after dinner - just have about one and a half 4" row left to finish on this second quarter - I was getting tired so decided to stop.  Had to change the bobbin  right before I stopped...





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Tuesday:  No sewing

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Wednesday:  Tonight I had a good bit of progress.  In less than an hour and a half I finished the last row on the second quarter (with no thread breaks I'll add with pride) - and I got a good start - say a third of the way on the third quarter of the piece.

 I looked at the original pattern and see Mom had intended for me to add another row of beige blocks all around the piece.  I think I'm going to just put the binding one when I've finished all the stippling....

Original diagram and pattern pieces for the quilt - prepared by mom for me to do!

Additional 1.5 hours to finish second quarter and start third

Additional 1.5 hours to finish
second quarter and start third

Ran out of bobbin about six inches back in the row of stitching before I stopped for the day.  The thread broke two to three times while I worked on the third quarter, so I was able to make very good progress during this session.

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Thursday:  Tonight finished the third section.  Took around two hours - there were between 7 and 9 thread breaks I think.  Maybe fewer.  Probably fewer as I don't feel stressed - just tired!

Two more hours to finish the
third section - front

Two more hours to finish the third section - front

Between 1.5 and 2 hours to finish
the top quilting!   Back

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Friday: In evening I started and finished the last quarter of the quilt - between 1.5 and 2 hours!  I broke thread more than ten times I'm sure - and had to fill another bobbin as I ran out.  The actual breaking of thread this time was caused I think because the quilt (yes, I feel I can call it a quilt even though it does not have binding) was really fighting me when I was trying to scrunch it in the machine or so it was on the table instead of my lap.  It even seemed to get caught at the sides and back!  So I think this is my limit for now for a quilt when using warm and natural - 48 inches square.  I know if I used polyester it would be more flexible, but this is what I have now.  Actually I'm not sure what the batting it as Becky gave this to me - it was a scrap from her long arming friend - I zig zagged to get the strip so it would fit for the quilt.

Perhaps a little more detail of the stitching....

Tomorrow I go to the quilting workshop and will trim this to size and prepare the binding strips - maybe I'll even be able to apply the binding or at least get started doing that too!  I picked plain brown to use for the binding.

Between 1.5 and 2 hours to finish
the top quilting!   Front

I have finished the quilting of the top.  Probably took about 12 hours and 4 bobbins!

Saturday: I practiced how to do binding by making a mug rug...  I was at quilting workshop so there were people there to help me.

5/2/12 - The quilt is finished!


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I'm doing this as part of Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays on the Free Motion Quilting Project.  It's a wonderful set of online lessons - Leah does a terrific job of guiding us through the various steps.  At the bottom of each of the Week pages there are links to the other folks who are participating - please take a peek to see what the others are doing!

Click on the Leah12 link to see my progress on this project!