YARN, HOOKS & FMQ CHALLENGE

Happy Saturday! It's a good day to finish up some more small projects. First up: another small afghan to line Missy's bed. I love these. Way easier to wash a few small afghans and quilts than to clean her beds! This one has a center of afghan stitch in variagated cotton, and the borders in various washable wool blends using hdc, dc, and final round of dc shells. The big deal with this project is what I used to create it. An antique hook that was hand-made by my Mother's Father. It was made about 1910. I came across this hook early last week while cleaning out some more boxes of my Mother's things. It called to me, so I grabbed a ball of cotton and proceeded to begin crocheting. You know how these things go, right? I've just been missing Mom a lot lately and using her hook was comforting.

 

Missy seems to like her new bed.

Note the awful interior corners of this afghan. I inadvertanly picked up an extra stitch for the corner when I began the borders. I didn't discover this error until I was finishing off the shell edging. Nope! Wasn't going to take it out... so it remains a little wonky looking. Missy doesn't seem to notice or care so it will stay this way.

Another afghan covered bed atop Missy's 'tree house' perch where she loves to lay in the morning because the sun streams in right on her bed... so warm.

I drew my first scribble this morning in preparation for the new FMQ Challenge 2013. Libby Lehman and the TQS has graciously offered Libby's Thread Play tute on their website and it is FREE to view for all of February! Big thanks to SewCalGal who is organizing this once again. Click over to her site... she has all the info listed including links. I learned so much last year. This year I plan to put more effort into the tutes that are offered every month. If you haven't checked this out yet, go have a look. It's super! Oh... and it's fun!

Until next time. . . I have a doodle-cloth to batt up so I can practice some FMQ. I still have those placemats to finish, but I need to "warm up" first. What are YOU up to?

Quilty Hugs,

UFO SUNDAY! More FMQ... I'm loving this!

Check out the nifty new button on my Left Side Bar... UFO Sunday! Leah Day, of the Free Motion Quilting Project fame, made a new button and is encouraging people to finish stuff. Yep, I think this might help me get some more projects actually finished. How about you?

I spent about 30 minutes earlier today FMQ on the last border for my Crazy9Patch quilt. TaDah! All four borders are quilted. I ran out of thread so just used something 'similar'. Once quilted it looked ok. I was surprised. lol. Lesson learned.

Back:  Closeup of my DRIZZLING. I like the texture.

Is the quilting perfect? Absolutely NOT! But, hey, I think it is reasonably acceptable. I figure I can only improve from here... if I keep practicing that is!

Back: Tension is off a tad and a few stitches are "their own size".

Thread tension... I simply must remember to check this before I "drizzle" all over the piece I'm quilting. "Drizzle", that's what I call the FMQ I am doing right now. Can't call it meandering [not random enough]. Certainly can't call it Stippling... too big! So DRIZZLE... and that's good enough for me for right now.

How about you? How are you coming along this beautiful Sunday? Do you have a UFO to work on?

Oh... don't forget to enter the BLOG-HOP GIVEAWAY on this blog, if you haven't yet... click HERE to get to that post and enter the drawing.

Until next time. . .
Quilty Hugs,

FMQ the QAYG Crazy 9 Patch. . .& BlogHop Party starting soon!

Today has been productive. Yippee... love that! Was able to get the last three borders basted for my UFO-Crazy9P. Here's an easy trick: open two brown paper bags to protect ironing board cover; baste using 505 Spray. Worked great... no glue mess. Yeah!  Even got one more border quilted. That makes two down; two to go.

 QAYG Crazy9Patch - Basting the borders

I can't tell you how much FUN I am having FMQing these borders. First I warm up on a potholder, then just go at it! I'm having the time of my life and the whole time I'm telling myself, "self... you are actually doing this!". Unbelievable. I am Happy Dancing. Golly, why in the world did I procrastinate so long??

More fun news: very very soon the Celebrate Back To School Blog Hop Party will open!! Blog hops are always fun and this time there will be loads of FREE goodies given away. Love that! The button is on my upper left sidebar... check it out! I will be offering some nice gifties on this blog... so do come back on August 25th!

Until next time. . .

Quilty Hugs,

THANK YOU... Placemats DONE!

Thank you for the many great suggestions on how to quilt these placemats. They are not perfect, but they are DONE! lol. By the time I really got in the groove and my stitches were looking good... I was done! Too funny.

Today I added a little bit of meandering in a couple of places. It took several thread-color changes, but all I was trying for was function [hold batting together] and texture.

Thanks again. I really appreciate all the wonderful advice. Until next time. . .



Quilty Hugs,

TA DAH! I FMQ this little sucker...

TA DAH! I did it - FMQ'd this little Dish Mat. Is it perfect? NO, but it's a beginning. Just need some practice. I usally 'cop' out and use my walking foot to machine on a grid, or just do simple wavy lines. Not this time. I bit the bullet and did some meandering! I can't wait to finish another top so I can try my hand at FMQ again... you know, while the thrill is still with me. LOL. Sorry for the bad picture. Note to self: must practice photo skills, too.

D9P Dish Mat, FMQ and Machine Sewn Binding

Today - for the second time - I put the binding on totally by machine. Again, it is not perfect, but it is acceptable and I don't think the pots n pans will mind as they sit on it to drip dry!  I missed the "ditch" in a couple of places, but with practice and patience that should improve also. I am happy with the corners. I'm a corner nut! *g*

Hmmmm, I'm wondering if . . .

Free Motion Quilting = FMQ

then Quilting with a

Walking Foot = FMQWF.

What do you think?

The backing is just a recycled towel. It was a little needle resistant, but I took it slow and - yippee! - there are no eyelashes on the back.



Big THANK YOU to Elaine, for the push to do this. Elaine said something wonderful to me the other day: "Give yourself the right [or permission] to play". Excellent advice!

Thank you for stopping by today for a visit. Until next time. . .

Quilty Hugs,

HEXIE PROJECT - All finished

The hexie I shared with you on Tuesday has been finished, mailed, and received so it is safe to post the whole picture. A little Mug Rug for the Inklingo Mug Rug 2012 Swap, hosted by Jillian. Thank you, Jillian for all your time and hard work. This was a fun swap and another opportunity to use Inklingo.

What I used to make it:  Inklingo 1/2 inch hexie collection; Sulky Fabric Solvy [to transfer the words to the background without marks - love this stuff!]; scraps of store-bought bias piping w/cord removed [works well for a small quick amount of bias stems, etc.]. Hexie flower is hand pieced and hand appliqued to b/g. Verse is hand embroidered with floss. No binding, just layer, stitch and turn. Quilting: FMQ [not perfect, but I tried it and just need to commit to practicing more.]

From the scraps I made the little matching coaster shown in pic above. The bright green stripe fabric in the coaster is the backing fabric for the mug rug.

That's all for today... until next time I hope you have loads of time to stitch!

Quilty Hugs,