Free Motion Quilt Along progress

We continue to fill in sections on our FMQ quilt. I’m catching up with some loops and pebbles. There’s more at the Flickr group and the Quilt Along is at A Few Scraps.

Lots of loops

Pebbles

More pebbles

I’ve found that I have to look slightly ahead of where I’m stitching to keep the pattern consistent. When I look directly at the needle, I tend to forget where I’m going and the pattern falls apart.

I didn’t feel like I was getting the full benefit from the Supreme Slider as it didn’t cover the entire bed of the machine.

Cutting a new hole and turning it 90 degrees made a noticeable difference. The little extra hole is not an issue.

Another birthday score for me!

And since it’s Saturday …GO BIG RED!!

Blogger’s Quilt Festival – Fall 2010

Amy at Amy’s Creative Side is sponsoring her fourth Blogger’s Quilt Festival! It’s an online event for quilters of all ability levels to share their quilts. Thanks, Amy, for all your hard work to put this together and thanks to the sponsors who are offering prizes. I haven’t made a lot of quilts in my short quilting career, but this is my current favorite. I call it Wonky Boxes. I started with a charm pack of Jennifer Paganelli’s Pretty Please and it evolved from there with no real plan. You can read about it here and here if you’d like.

I decided to go bold on the back with Kona Tangerine pieced with a lone block floating in white.

I really enjoyed the process of making this quilt. I did have a glitch when I quilted it and then hated the quilting and ripped it all out for a do over, but I love the way it turned out!

Please stop by Amy’s and enjoy all the wonderful quilts!

AccuQuilt GO! Giveaway

Micki, at Irish Muses, is having a giveaway! Her blog promises to be a great place to visit, too:)

While you’re out and about, you could say “Happy Birthday” to Sarah!

I like birthdays:)

Mr. Dotty and I haven’t purchased gifts for each other for years. We’re entirely happy to buy what we want, when we want or when we can afford it. For my birthday (Oct. 15) I did a little shopping!

Supreme Slider

Quilts glide over it! I’m not sure whether it’s improved my free motion quilting, but I’ll keep working on it.

Kwik Klip for use with basting pins. Curve Master presser foot. I found some video tutorials for it and it wasn’t nearly as easy for me as it looked! I did get better with some practice. 

Youngest daughter Ashley sent a Joann’s gift card! They had 40% off all rotary cutting tools, so I picked up this rotating cutting mat. I think it will be very handy.

I’ve had a flex ruler on my list for a while so I grabbed one of those, too!

This has nothing to do with birthdays, but I’ll throw it on the heap. I joined a Brown Bag challenge, or Ugly Fabric Challenge as some are called. This is what I received and I don’t think it qualifies as ugly. But, I do understand how a girl gets tired of looking at the same fabric in her stash all the time and wants it out of there. Now to figure out what it will become!

It’s odd that I’d been looking at purple fabrics recently. Maybe it was a premonition.

I get so tired of having bobbins everywhere that I can’t identify. I always have 3 or 4 spools that are close in color, but slightly different. With the Coats and Clark, I can put 2 bobbins under the spool on this rack, but the Gutterman’s is bigger. Q-tip to the rescue!

Back to the birthday topic. My baby is 25 today! Happy birthday Ashley:)

Free Motion Quilt Along and a life lesson

Apparently I had a little setback on attitude yesterday. I wasn’t in the right mindset to work on this, but I was falling behind on my FMQ project, so I tried to play catch up. I don’t sketch well and even my simplest doodling is pretty sad, so I skipped that step and jumped right in. Bad idea.

Lines and angles. Not too bad so far.

I discovered that I can’t treat this like stippling. I need a plan before I dive in!

  I should have quit while I still had a glimmer of hope to make something decent of this.

The pebbles weren’t quite as bad. Curved lines are easier than straight lines for me.

 

It’s pretty much a big mess, but there it is. Every time I look at it, I will be reminded to get my attitude straight before I start something. Life lesson! Feel free to borrow it if you need it:)

I just realized that I skipped the loops part completely. Next time!

You would never know from this example that I’m thoroughly enjoying this process! It’s certainly a challenge and so fun to see everyone’s progress in the Flickr group.

Fabric in and bursitis out…maybe.

Remember when I said I was on a fabric diet?

No?

Good. Because I found some Poodle (Sis Boom) on sale and got some lovely stripes to go with it.

My only regret is that I didn’t buy more of that groovy mustard color. I’m sure I can find more if I look hard enough. *big smile*

I won this beautiful bundle of Bliss at Pink Chalk! Oh my! I have to admit this fabric really wasn’t on my radar as a must have, but when I saw it up close and personal, I was in love! Look at that delicious brown! Thanks Kathy and crew:)

Since I was poking around at Pink Chalk anyway, I decided to splurge on a few prints I did have my eye on. Metro Cafe mixers by Monaluna! I’ve been in love with this for a while and I know exactly what I’m going to do with it.

 

I won this little pack of pretties from the FabShopHop. It’s nice to have some more neutrals in the stash.

I teased you with this photo a couple of posts ago.

This puts it in context and I can only hope you recognize what it is. Those are the spools I was working on earlier.

The top is pieced and I’m working on the quilting, but I’m going to wait for the post officer* to put my early birthday present in my mailbox.  Supreme Slider! I hope it helps.

*(Ashley called the postmaster the post officer when she was itty bitty and it stuck!)

Now for the yucky stuff. I’ve been having pain in my right hip for months and thought it was probably arthritis. It mostly hurts when I lay on it, so sleeping is difficult as I’m a side sleeper. The doctor diagnosed it as bursitis and we tried upping my anti-inflammatory and a cortisone injection. Both failed to help, so he sent me to physical therapy. We’re working on stretching and strengthening the muscles in the general hip area. So far, there is no improvement, but I’ve only been there for 4 visits, so I’m hoping it will eventually help. I do feel better after I leave each time. Those little electrodes and an ice pack really feel good! The employees there are so nice and I’ve encountered some interesting patients as well. People are such a hoot!

I hope to update on my Free Motion Quilt-along progress tomorrow.

My blogging friend Sarah…

is having a sweet giveaway on her blog, Confession of a Fabric Addict! She’s participating in the Fall into Fall Bloggers Giveaway and has five books up for grabs for five different winners.

Here’s the one I’d pick:)

Sarah is a go-getter and is a part of great quilt ministry in her community. Check out her blog…you’re in for a treat!