Spring Recap

 Now that summer is officially here, I thought I should show you what happened around here in May and June.  Here's a recap of the highlights.

Julia graduated from college, so I made her this little gift. The title of the hymn and smiling earth are perfect for my sweet girl who majored in Environmental Studies and minored in Religious Studies. (Pattern by Mollie Johanson of Wild Olive).

The best pictures of any event are the ones with my mom! Julia is happily interning at Disney's Animal Kingdom as a Wilderness Explorer troop leader (environmental educator). If you're headed to Disney before the end of January 2017, look for her and say hi!

 My cousin celebrated his 25th anniversary of priesthood, so I made him a new stole. I decided to use scrappy greens, knowing he'd get a lot of use from the color for "ordinary" time. I didn't know green is also his favorite color.

My husband turned 50 in June, so we went on an epic musical road trip from Nashville, to Memphis, through the Mississippi delta, and finishing up in New Orleans. I only stopped at a few quilt shops along the way: Craft South, Sew Memphis and Ella Rose. We were on a tight schedule, so grabbing fat quarters was a great option. He bought a guitar in Clarksdale, so I came in way under budget!

We picked out the bendy bag pattern at Sew Memphis for Bill's electronics and new reading glasses. He travels a lot for work, and this is a vast improvement on his ziplock baggie. I forgot to include the pull tab, but he doesn't mind.

 

And now for the WIPs. This spinning hexie EPP has become my traveling project. I kitted up some blocks to take on our vacation. Now I'm working on them during work breaks and in front of the TV at night. I've got 2 or 3 more block kits, but I might keep going to use up more scraps. Each hexie finishes at 3" on a side. I have no idea what this will be. I'll just keep going until I get tired of it or a shiny new idea comes along.

In other EPP news, my Lucy Boston-inspired Patchwork of the Crosses top is finished! It measures about 35" square, so I'm trying to decide if I'll add borders or not. It would be a sweet wall hanging as is. I have no clue how I'll quilt it.

I designed and started piecing this ombre mini back in early April. I had intended to participate in the ombre mini swap, but I didn't finish in time. I finally competed the piecing this week. I think the quilting will wait until after a class with Angela Walters in a few weeks. That will be fun!

Since the ombres were out, I wanted to play some more. I pulled an old Simply Color (V and Company) jelly roll off the shelf and went to town.  I found this pattern online that got me started. The jelly roll only had 21 strips, so I cut 3 more from my stash. Each strip set makes 7 equilateral triangles plus 2 ends (1/2 triangles). I cut the first triangle in the center of the strip set, which in this case was the lightest area. The top is about 36 X 45", which is a nice baby quilt size. It would be a striking wall hanging, too. I love how it looks on my front porch!

 Last but not least, Julia and Fred are engaged! Yes, there is a wedding quilt in the works. She really likes the wedding ring quilts I've been making for my nieces and nephews, but mama needs a change! She picked the Geese at My Wedding pattern from Quiltworx. We haven't decided on colors yet, but she likes modern solids. That works for me!

It's time for me to head back to the basement for more sorting and purging and cleaning.

Free Motion Embroidery on a Featherweight

Happy May Day!

I want to share with you my process for embroidering the eyes on my Elephant Parade baby quilt. In the quilt along pattern by Sew Fresh Quilts, Lorna suggests embroidering the eyes on the elephants and other animals. I had pieced the blocks on my Featherweight, so I decided to try some free motion embroidery. (I was too lazy to set up the Bernina for a zigzag!) It worked out pretty well. Here's how I did it...

1. Cut a small square of interfacing or stabilizer and press to the back of the block. (Not pictured here, but you'll see it later.)

2. Draw a circle with a Frixion pen or marking tool of your choice. You will be hitting it with an iron later, so keep that in mind when choosing your marking tool.

 

3. Set the stitch length to a high number so it makes tiny stitches. Pull up the bobbin thread to the top so it doesn't make a knotted mess on the back. You can't drop the feed dogs, so just start stitching. Push the block around under the needle, making the circle first, then filling in. I used a black quilting thread that I had in my stash. A thicker thread fills in quicker.

After reading some posts about machine quilting on a FW, I would suggest covering the feed dogs with a piece of template plastic or teflon. Cut a small hole for the needle and tape it to the bed of the machine. If you have a darning foot, use it. I don't, so it was hard to see where I was going.

4. All filled in.

5. Thread a needle with the thread tails and bring them to the back.

6. Tie the ends in a knot. Trim ends to about 1/2". (See the interfacing?)

7. To prevent the black tails from shadowing through, I added another bit of interfacing on top to sandwich the threads. This bit of ironing also erased the markings from the Frixion pen.

So there you have it. Let me know if it works for you.