04-20-2014

Flower Power Quilt an Oblongagonalong Finish!

flowerpower1

So excited to have finished up my Flower Power quilt!

This one was part of a quilt along over at Sew Fresh Quilts, called the Oblongagonalong. This unique take on a hexagon…a slightly different shape created by accident was fun to play with! It is made with all Y-seams so that was the challenging part…but, I finally got those down pat I think:) Lorna@SewFreshQuilts did a great tutorial for learning how to do those tricky seams HERE.

flowerpower3

It finishes at 35″ x 44″ and was made using fabrics from the Cuzco line by Kate Spain for Moda. I added a few yellow and bright blues to fill in where I needed extra. I think they add just the right amount of pop!

flowerpowercloseup

I used a meandering or stippling free motion quilting design and can I say it has been awhile! I had a little rust on these skills:) After a bit I started to feel like I was getting back in the groove of things. You can see some of the curves are a little angular and almooooost criss-crossing, that is a supposed no-no with stippling:)

flowerpowereyelashing

Here are a few areas that started to have some “eyelashes” and you can see my stitches were a little too long. I was moving too fast for my needle speed. This causes the tension to get off…especially noticeable in curves and the bobbin thread comes up too far=eyelashes. I just had to get my hands and the needle speed in sync and go a little slower to get smaller stitches.

flowerpowerbacking

It was hard to decide what color thread I wanted to use since there are so many different colors. I went with a magenta color thread for this one, it was a predominant color in the quilt and I had a similar color for the backing fabric…..when in doubt, match the back! This will hide the work a bit if you are worried about your stitching abilities:) I knew I was rusty and it wouldn’t be perfect.

flowerpowerbinding

I finished it up with a matching binding using THIS machine binding tutorial….purple would have looked great, but sadly no there was no purple left:( so I used more pink…matching the binding with the backing is helpful for hiding mistakes too!

Keep it Sassy♥

You can find and follow TheSassyQuilter on Facebook, Pinterest, Bloglovin’, Instagram, Twitter or by email updates(form on right sidebar)!

22 Add a comment

Filed Under: Finished Quilts Tagged With: Cuzco, eyelashes, flower power quilt, FMQ, free motion quiltng, Kate Spain, Oblongagonalong, quilt, quilting

08-21-2013

Sassy Sampler

Bound and done! Finished up my Sassy Sampler quilt and an experiment in free motion quilting. Not even close to perfect, but I am happy with what I am learning. This was a good chance to practice lots of stitches and I tried to force my self to do just that! This quilt is not for anyone in particular and was lingering in my UFO pile, so it was perfect to let loose and stitch like I meant it:)

No marking allowed on this quilt, just free and easy…all the way.

My thread was a beige colored polyester that blended in most areas. *Bonus: Don’t see all the fumbles. *Down Side: It blended so well in some areas it actually made it difficult to see what I was doing, but definitely showed up in the dark brown areas!

Made a skinnier binding this go ’round…2″ strips to start. I usually use 2.5″ strips.

Machine bound, tutorial here.

Had fun with these swirls in the star petals.

Really liked the up and down bars, too. Easier than I thought.(eww…photo bombed by a bug)

Clamshell, wood grain, pebbles and wierd flame-swirl?…

Most difficult stitch: concentric swirls in two of my corner blocks. I found it very hard to keep the swirls circular. They are a little blobby(?) The other two corners were a paisley design. Much easier and when it gets a little off it doesn’t glare at you. The thread matched so well you can only see any of it in just the right light.

When done I had used 6 Bobbins and a spool and a half of thread(med-size spool). It is pretty stiff with all these stitches, but I haven’t washed it yet. Hoping it will soften up a bit and you probably will not be able to see many of the stitches in the wrinkles anyway.

One more UFO has bit the dust! On to the next.

Keep it Sassy♥

Links:

22 Add a comment

Filed Under: FMQ Tagged With: FMQ, Sampler

08-17-2013

Sample Please!

Hola Sassaritas! Hope you had a fabulous week. My internet has been el crasho, so let me catch you up on what I have been up to.

My progress on the Star Surround QAL with Melissa@Happy Quilting! All my lovely little stars. Liking the yellows, the polka dots and stripes are my favorite. I was doubting some of the fabrics, but I think they will add to the scrappines. It’s hard not to over think it, right?

Had a Friday off this week, which is awesome, because I got to pull out my Sampler quilt which I started almost 3 Years ago!!! I made this top with my Sassy Quilters Guild as we learned lots of new techniques and all about some popular traditional quilting blocks. It was a fun project and I only used scraps from my stash to make it. The colors were not my typical palette, but I took what I had and threw them in the pot, and here is what came out. I actually really like the combo. This year I am pulling out a lot of old tops I made (and then abandoned) and trying to get them done!

I am also trying to make myself continue to practice my FMQ on these tops. I am okay with all my machine quilting when it comes to straight lines or following markings, but I want to learn the “free” part of Free-Motion-Quilting:) So I went for it. No marking…just quilting what came to me. Sorry to say this felt like a flop, but since I used (mostly)matching thread, it doesn’t really show that much, except for on the dark brown, yikes! As I was contemplating why I don’t feel like I am progressing that much with this technique…I realized that if I added up my hours, it may be less than I think. I have concluded that I need some practice samples and actually go over each technique/design…A LOT! Get my muscle memory going and all. My usual M.O. is to have a quilt top sandwiched and sit down and power out a whole quilt in a day and then not do it again for a month or longer. More daily work and not making it a marathon may help….am I rambling now? Oh, well…I just want to be awesome without practicing…is that too much to ask??? Here are some pics:

Note: I am only showing the least scary pics:) This last one I knew would be rough with the dark fabric and light thread. I could have drawn it all out, but where is the fun in that…

On a super fun note :) here are some awesome fabrics I won from Lisa@InTheBoonDocks. Thanks Lisa!