Feather Plumes …. finishing the February FMQ sampler

I couldn’t stop myself from quilting once I began free motion quilting the feather plumes from last month’s challenge.  The fabric is solid silver, silk/cotton sateen.  Using different colors of silk thread (all #100, both YLI and Superior depending on the color)  made it look like the fabric was hand dyed (although this photograph may [...]

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February Free-Motion Quilting Challenge – Feather Plumes

Confession #1: Wow! I can’t believe I’m posting this again just under the wire.  The 2012 FMQ Challenge is really providing me with a deadline and motivation to keep up with at least monthly blog posts (even though they may be written late at night). Confession #2: I took my first workshop with Diane Gaudynski [...]

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2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge

Happy New Year! To encourage myself to re-start blogging this year, and to challenge myself to practice new free motion quilting techniques, I ‘took the pledge’ to participate in the 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge. Check out this challenge at SewCalGal’s blog — especially the list of talented machine quilters (all home sewing machine quilters!) who [...]

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Surfacing at A Quilters Gathering in Nashua, NH

One of my favorite quilt shows is A Quilters Gathering, held in early November every year in Nashua, NH.  I entered one quilt in the show, and my friend Karen entered a small quilt that Karen and I collaborated on – she made the top and I quilted it.  The show was this past week [...]

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Small machine quilting project finished! – Julia’s bag

I always get so excited when I finish a project.  (That’s why small projects are so fun!)  I finished the small bag for my niece – I am really pleased with the way it turned out. The bag is made of solid cotton sateen, layered with wool batting, and quilted with silk thread.  I used [...]

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Another small machine quilting project

My brother and his daughter visited from Singapore last month.  I hadn’t seen my 7 year old niece in over 5 years, and we had a great time during their stay with us.  My niece’s birthday is at the end of August, so I thought I would make her a small bag.  I adapted a [...]

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Getting the thread tension right

Is the thread tension too tight?  Too loose?  How do I fix it?  One of the secrets to beautiful machine quilting is getting the best stitch you can with your sewing machine.  But what does a good stitch look like?  It is when the thread from the needle and the thread from the bobbin meet [...]

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