Panel Quilting

 I just finished taking an awesome class on Craftsy - Machine Quilting Negative Space.  As part of the class, I quilted my first "official" quilt.  I love how it turned out.  It's not a very large quilt - but it showcases some of the designs I learned in the class and that are quickly becoming by favorites!  I think I will bind this little quilt and hang it somewhere in my sewing room - or the house.  It's one of those quilts that you just want to touch when you see it because the texture is so yummy and inviting.

 There is different quilting in each of the panels.  I think my favorites are the pebbles, large circles and the flower design.

{My swirls are getting better!}

Something I wasn't prepared for was how good I felt after I took the quilt off the frame and saw it in it's entirety.   When you're quilting on the frame, you only see patches of the quilt at a time and you don't get to take it all in.  After taking it off, I thought "Wow - how beautiful!  I created this and it's lovely!"  I'm SO digging this new adventure!  I seriously can't wait for the next quilt!  :) 

 {Yup - that's a Red Bull on the table}

I love quilting!  :)

Super Hero Tension

I think I learned a big lesson this week about long-arm quilting.  How long does it take to check your thread tension??  Not nearly as long as it takes to pick out a whole bunch of messed up stitches because the tension was WRONG.  Ugggh.  The above is a picture of the back of Casey's Super Hero quilt.  Luckily I climbed under the machine and checked the stitch after only quilting about the equivalent of 2 12 inch blocks.  Not so fun picking out those stitches.

After that little fiasco, thing went much smoother.  I did some fun stitching inside the 9 patches and mostly stipple and pebble everywhere else.  It's great to have this quilt done.  I picked out the fabric with Casey almost a year ago.  Lucky me, he still likes super man, bat man, and spider man.

I guess it was a success, because Casey wanted to wrap up in it even before I did the binding.  Love that kid.  Overall, I'm super happy with how it turned out.

I love quilting :)

New Adventure

My newest adventure is learning to free motion quilt.  Dan bought me a Gracie Quilting Frame for my birthday this year and I used it with my Bernina a few times to see if I liked the idea of doing free motion.  It was really fun and I was horrible at it.  I knew I needed tons of practice.  So I spent some time every few days working on the free motion quilting with just my Bernina, lowering the feed dogs.  I started to see some improvement and I felt better about my designs.

After talking with Dan about how enjoyable the quilting was for me and how much passion I felt about creating, he suggested we get a really good machine for me to work on - since it makes creating even more enjoyable when you have good tools to work with.  Wow! How lucky am I to have such a supportive husband! :)

{Annie - not loving the lighting in this picture!}

I've had my HQ Avante for about a week now.  I named her Annie.   She's set up on an 8 ft. frame that can extend to 12 ft. if I want to quilt a king size.   So far, I've finished 2 practice quilts and I took an online class about Free Motion Quilting on Craftsy this last week.  WOW!  I am in heaven!  Annie is so fun!  There is nothing I can't quilt on her (if I practice) and my designs are getting better - huge confidence builder for me!

I struggle the most with swirls - at first they were looking kind of square, but now they are rounding out more.  Once you get the rhythm it is so fun to do.  I can't wait to get a real quilt on there and map out the space with different designs.  Right now I'm working on a superhero quilt for Casey and I have a few baby quilts in the works too - I'm still practicing the designs on a "practice quilt" for now.

Speaking of babies.....look at this little guy :)  Isn't he the sweetest?  I have the cutest quilt planned for him :)

{Liam looking unimpressed}

Getting back to the stitch

I learned to sew in 7th grade home-economics at Red Hills Middle School....that was over 25 years ago.  I LOVED it!  I spent the entire summer following that school year sewing pillowcases, skirts, stuffed animals from kits and doll clothes.  The next summer was full of more of the same - sewing, sewing, sewing.  Then something happened - I have no idea what - and I just stopped.  My parents gave me a sewing machine for graduation and I had that little Kenmore machine in every closet of every place I've lived since - completely unused.  If there was a market for vintage Kenmore machines in pristine condition, then I would have made some money on it!  Instead, I was bit by the sewing bug again about a year and a half ago and determined to break out my old (new) machine -- seeing what I could do with it
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Sewing on that thing was super unenjoyable.  Super uninspiring.  And super frustrating.

Sewing on my Bernina is like a dream come true.

Since getting back into sewing I have really taken to piecing quilts and in particular to the quilting of quilts. This blog is about the projects I'm working on and how they are working on me.  I feel like getting back into sewing happened at just the right time in my life and satisfied the desire I've been having for awhile to CREATE - I'm finding a part of my childhood again and the joy it has brought is AWESOME!

{My sewing spot}