Tuesday, February 5, 2013

wip wednesday

Thank you, Lee @ freshly pieced, for pushing me along.  It's great to have little goals that help us get to the big goals.  


I put this fabric in my "give away" pile the other day, and at the last minute, pulled it out to back the quilt "teakwood" I've been working on.  The colors are perfect.  It's a bit wonky, but I like it.







Here's a peek at the back.   A little unconventional, but after cleaning out and organizing my sewing room and my drawers of fabric, I was determined to use what I had at home.



I had a long flight earlier in the week, and took the opportunity to read Angela Walter's new book cover to cover.  I am freshly determined to try new designs in my free motion quilting.  I highly recommend her book if you like modern quilts and like to free motion quilt them yourself.   I have a list of new things that I am dying to try.


I started quilting "teakwood".  This is my new favorite quilting design.  Angela calls it "back and forth".  It shrinks up nice and puts lots of texture into your quilt.  The tricks to making it look good, are spacing the rows evenly, and turning just before the seam line.


Angela likes to quilt using the same color thread as the fabric.  I have some questions about this, like where does she get her patience to change the thread every few minutes, and she uses a long-arm!!  I had to make a madd dash to Joanne's today to stock up on thread.  I found one of my first quilts that still has a lot of empty spaces for quilting. 



Also on my list this week . . . pincushions.


to end up like this one:

Those are my grandma's spools.  


AND . . . it's a big birthday month in our family, so I have a purse full of cards and pens trying to catch everyone to sign cards.  They see me coming and they SCATTER LIKE ANTS!  Until it's time to get their card with all the funny original remarks from their siblings, then they thank me for making the effort.  I'm VERY excited about the generic gift they're all getting this year.  All the same. . . easy peasy . . . DONE!




Linked:







12 comments:

  1. What a great idea to get those Birthday cards all filled up!! You are awesome Mom!

    Don't you love trying to find something in your stash with determination like no other SO you don't have to go shopping on or offline!! lol

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sara, sometimes I think it's more laziness than determination :0

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love your pincushion. Too cute.

    ReplyDelete
  4. looks like you have a lot on the go :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thats a good idea to go back to previous quilts and add some more stitching! I think I might find a few to do myself!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love that funny fabric on the back of your quilt.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I like Angela Walter's book too. I especially liked how she taught the more difficult to see patterns.

    ReplyDelete
  8. That back-and-forth quilting design looks very versatile and your stitches look great! Good luck with your practice and thanks for linking up to WIP Wednesday. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Those little piggies are cute. I just got the MQing book and look forward to going through it!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Greetings from New Braunfels!! Firstly, I'd like to comment on your name. I LOVE Maidenhair Ferns, esp. out in the wild!! I'd next like to invite you to visit my blog, KaHolly to learn how, as a TX quilter, you can help Operation Homefront-TX with their baby showers. Thanks in advance for at least taking a look-see! ~karen

    ReplyDelete
  11. I love your pincushion Very cute.

    ReplyDelete
  12. You do some great quilting! That pincushion is on my must-do list, I just hope I can find the pattern again.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comments.