FMQ - Concentric Circles

http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2009/11/day-85-concentric-circles.html

Before:  The directions in the video seemed clear.

After:  I didn't time how long it took me to do the block.  My circles look more like teardrops - but I think it's okay.  I had to travel to fill in all the spaces.  This is a pattern I need to practice more so my circles are really round.

LibRR Round 3 Inspiration

I finally got to the coffee shop in Hillcrest with the fabric art that I wanted to try to replicate or interpret for the third row of the Liberated Round Robin.  The man doing the orders said he thought they came from Latin America....

Tomorrow afternoon and evening and night I can sew! I will continue to use the pre-sewn material I received in the Lib-Quilter World Wide Swap...

: )

WSF - FMQ Sampler - Alien Fingers (Beg)

http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2009/10/day-75-alien-fingers.html

Before:


I watched the video and traced several blocks with pencil.  Well, really two.  It will be difficult to do the center hands, but I like the idea of thinking alien hands while I do the design.

I had recently broken all my needles and found out that I was pulling the fabric faster than the needle was going down.  So I took a little side step and worked on just doing the stitch in the ditch for a few blocks in another section of this quilt.  So I've lost track of bobbins - I know I broke the needle one time, but I don't remember where I was when I did it....

After:


Again I can't remember where the needle broke - I think the thread broke a few times too.  And the bobbin was catching so the thread broke at least two times.  I have no idea how long it took to do this design...

I don't really love it - but it did get me feeling pretty good about doing this free motion project again, so that's good.

I know I was thinking fingers more than hands... oh well.  When I did the stitching I went around the block then went back and filled it in - the final claw I left so it was all in the middle.

Original Before Note on 7/31/11:

Okay, Leah says she goofed when originally filming Little Hands and Fingers and liked the mistake so is calling it Alien Fingers.

It just goes to show that sometimes your mistakes turn out too good to call them mistakes. Just keep quilting and see what you get.
It may not be what you expected, but it's better than giving up before you've had a chance to see what the design can do.

She says it's for beginners - but based on what happened yesterday (all those broken needles!) I think it should be at least advanced beginner or intermediate.

I only have one needle in the house so I may jump ahead to another design - not sure yet.  I'm still working on my non-quilting stuff - but I took a break to watch the next video....

I've watched the video four times and I've tried to trace the block on the computer screen - man, I can't see how you get to the section once you are at the end of the first row - it looks like it goes like an L.  This is going to be hard. But I will not give up - I'll see what the design can do!

Back on the Saddle

I set up the machine with my new 1/4" pressure foot and went around the blocks in the pinned Wonky Shoo Fly - it all seems okay now.

I had put on the walking foot and the foot seemed to be pressing down too much - there were a few puckers in the fabric.  I'm going to find the other machine my mom left me and get it tuned up and set up for the walking foot - then I will not have to mess with figuring out the set up on this machine.  But it might be while before I can go thru the boxes in the garage...

Anyway, I have the five block by two block section all with the blocks outlined.  Next step I'll put the quilting foot on and do the stitch in the ditch for the blocks with the Shoo Flies...

So I'm back on the saddle! and will get the other WSF section done too!  Or maybe I'll do more piecing on the Liberated Round Robin...

BlockLotto - August 2011 - Violet

August 2011 BlockLotto

Directions here:
http://http://blocklotto.blogspot.com/2011/08/african-violets-in-dark-in-august.html

Examples here:
http://blocklotto.blogspot.com/search/label/August%202011%20photos

Expenses

Postage for BlockLotto

.64 to Missouri City TX - to send July Block
.64 to Savannah GA - to send June bonus blocks and kits for 2 blocks
.64 to Newberry FL - to send July Block
====
$1.92 Total Postage

Expenses

Supplies from Day Style Designs

FMQ foot - low                                  $7.95

1/4" patchwork foot - low                      $14.95

Clover Cheater Needles                          $4.00

Universal 80/12 Needles @$3.99 each  (x4)      $15.96

                                               ======

Total                                          $42.86

Purchased during a no-shipping sale!

I'll be glad to get back to sewing- wonderful to have the supplies!

When Your Needle is Breaking (While FMQing)

Today I got a call from Leah Day!  It was about something being out of stock that I ordered yesterday - but still it was fun to chat with her a bit.  I told her how I was doing her beginning designs and how the needle was breaking.  She asked me a few questions, then diagnosed it as operator error.  When FMQing, of course I have control of the rate of the machine and the rate the fabric goes under the needle.  When I am holding the fabric back then it's bending and breaking the needle.  I said the last two breaks I was going straight - she said probably the timing was off and I should just take it in to be fixed. That one really bent needle can throw the timing off quickly.

So I loaded up the car and took the machine to the La Mesa Sew and Vac.  The lady there (I think it was Monika) was very nice.  She agreed with the diagnoses and started to write the ticket for repair up.  Then she noticed I had the quilting foot on the machine - she asked if I had tested it with a regular pressure foot and I said no.  I had broken all my needles so had just packed up and brought it to her.  She said the test for timing was to sew a straight line and a zig zag line - so she found a pressure foot and put it on.  (I had put on the dull needle that I was using to scoop the thread thru when bringing up the bobbin and had grabbed a spool of old thread and put it on the top of the machine.)  She threaded the machine and did the test - both sides of the fabric looked perfect. She wound up the cords and told me I needed to practice coordinating the speed - she saved me either $45 or $75 (I can't remember how much a tune up is.  They had a label on the machine so could tell I had last brought it in December 2010.)

Anyway, that's a pretty good test to know about.  Hopefully I'll remember it the next time needles start to break - but also now maybe it's pounded in my head to be more careful about letting the fabric go when I'm Free Motion Quilting.

BTW Leah was so nice on the phone.  Very generous with her time.  She was so surprised that I was doing all her beginning designs...!  To me it was just the natural thing to do once I found her wonderful blog.

WSF - FMQ Sampler - Little Hands and Fingers (Beg)

http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2009/10/day-72-little-hands-and-fingers.html


Before:

Front

Well, I only have one needle left so I hope I don't break the needle while I'm doing this design!  The video is easy to follow and to see - but again she doesn't show how to get to the second and beyond rows.  Some of the pairs of rows have the fingers touching - some have the fingers facing away.  Ugh!  The photo of the block is oriented so it's upside down from how the first row was sewn in the video too - took me a while to figure that out....


I thought this was a rather ugly/awkwrd design - until I read her idea:


Suggestions for Use - Here's my way cool idea: take the hand print of a whole bunch of kids (or one single kid with a long attention span) and applique or paint their hand shapes onto fabric squares.

Put these together with a thin sashing and stitch Little Hands and Fingers all around the edge of the sashing as though the hands are gripping the block.

Sounds cool to me!


And it does sound cool to me too.  I have the handprints of all the Friday Group kids on fabric just waiting for me to do something with them!  Well, once I get more comfortable with FMQ I can start finishing up those older WIPs...


Okay, I'm going to do this block - then need to switch to non-sewing activities for a little bit.


After:


The needle ended at the starting point for the next block so I'm not going to take photo now.  Hmm.  In the first hand I broke a needle - restarted - then broke the thread like 2 stitches later. I got out the docs for the machine and redid the threading completely.  This time instead of having the cone in a cup I put it on the top of the machine. I put a plastic straw and the little round cone holder I found in mom's things - and I made sure the thread was being fed the way they had in the diagram in the docs.


My hands do not look like hands - I can do the fingers okay but the hand part is hard for me even though I practiced on paper.  My center two rows look like a very odd tree or something that is x-rated perhaps.  I think the pattern looks best when it's coming from the side rather than being in the center of the block.

I continued on though.  In the last row the thread skipped - I could hear a noise but kept going.  I ended up removing those stitches and started the hand over.  I can see on the back two places where the thread is sort of crazy so I will change the bobbin magic thing and hope that will nip this in the bud.  But since the needle is in the right place for the next block I hope I can finish that before needing to do the change.


Maybe it's time to take the machine in to have it serviced too - I will start looking for coupons.  But now I need to do some non-sewing things....  Only two more blocks to fill in on this section of the quilt though.  Last night when I put things away I put the sections on the bed so I could see the back side - so pretty.  I hope the two places that got gummed up in this design don't require taking stitches out.  I will try to make it look like rings or something and see how that goes...

Back

(Added later) I was able to pull the extra thread thru so the two clumps do not show.  I've ordered an open toe quilting foot from Leah Day.  Today was free shipping day so the price will be pretty near what I'd pay down the street. I'm tired of having to fight those threads following me around 
at the beginning of each start with FMQ.


I started the Alien Fingers design in the next square and promptly broke the needle after just a few stitches - so since I have no needles now will be working on cutting fabric to get ready for a bunch of piecing on the LibRR!

WSF - FMQ Sampler - Bamboo Forest (Beg)

http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2009/10/day-71-bamboo-forest.html

Bamboo Forest - front

Before:

The video clearly shows how to deal with the end of the block - it's clearly explained I think, and what fun that it was inspired by a comment a blogger, Wendy, made about the Hardwood Floors pattern!  I looked at Wendy's blog and found it to be very interesting.  She is ten years younger than I am and recently returned from a trip to NYC with her daughter and sister - they went to trapeze school! I've never thought about doing that, but I was ready to do indoor rock climbing five years ago when I was really getting in shape...

I'm going to go ahead and do this block tonight....  1:05am

Bamboo Forest - back

After:

1:50am  Three needles and one bobbin later.....  The pattern went well.  At the beginning I was adding open curves to the bamboo, after I changed the bobbin and had a chance to really look at it, I changed and made it so the curves were more on top of or near each other and that the end closed up.  I think that looks better.  I like this type of pattern, but think since I can control the sewing more now, that I prefer the hardwood floor look and sewing experience!

The first needle went when I was probably sewing too quickly into the curve, but the other needles went when I was about to stop so I can't figure them out.  I looked at the docs for the machine and confirmed that I was putting the needle in correctly too....