Serpentine experiment

 

I pieced this batting on the Kenmore 158.1814. It looked great coming off the machine and when I placed it on the fleece backing on the frame. By the time I landed here in the quilting it was a wrinkled mess. Shit. I cut out the stitching and trimmed up both edges. Then I overlapped the edges and drew a serpentine line along the edge and cut it out. 

It's not the neatest cutout. I hope that the batting stays put. I quilted over it but my design is quite large, so...... 

I finished this baby quilt in just over an hour with just over one bobbin. Some of the flowers are wonky but, hey, I had fun doing it. As my son says, "Don't let perfect be the enemy of good." 

I chose a hot pink thread to stand out on the yellow. It blended well with the blocks and I had some trouble seeing as I worked. Had I turned off the lights and worked in the shadows, I think it would have been easier. We learn by doing. 

I enjoy working with fleece backing. This will be a cozy blanket for the baby when she is old enough for blankets. Right now she is still in utero, as they say in OB. 

Foul Mouthed Quilter

 I now have a  dot com called FMQStudios.  M. named me that after she spent enough time in the studio on the longarm listening to me swear with increasing ferocity as I pieced a quilt. I don't even remember which one it was. Almost all my quilts start out as "the quilt." As I grow weary of the tedious piecing, "the quilt" becomes "the g__ Da__ quilt." Finally, as I stitch on the borders, it has morphed into "the g-- Da-- F------ quilt."  I created a FB page called FMQStudios for some odd reason. Did I think I wanted to create a business? Dunno. https://www.facebook.com/LizzyKateBetz

Today it was the perfect August day. Sunny, breezy, and agreeable temperatures. That meant that the She Shed was habitable.  I spent several hours up there stitching a practice french braid strip. I have so so so so so many scraps. I also managed to put together a 6 by 6 leaders and enders block. I wish I had the tidy gene.

Last week I cleared off the 31-15 so that I could use it to bind my most recent quilt, a Round About (pattern by Donna Jordan). I love this machine. It is almost 120 years old and is in it's original treadle stand with extension table. I managed to coordinate my feet and right knee so that the balance wheel stays put when I use the knee lift mechanism. There is no back tack. I start to stitch and then simply lift the presser foot with my knee and hitch it back a couple of stitches. Works like a charm. 

 

In this photo I am piecing some 3 1/2 inch vintage pre-cut squares. I found out that the 1/4 inch mark on the 31-15 is actually more like 3/16.  No problem unless you want a true 1/4 inch seam. Which I did when I sewed the binding on to the Round About quilt. Sigh.