Sunday, January 11, 2015

Longarm Stitchin

This past Monday one of my students left this little beauty for me to quilt for her, to be given to her granddaughter as a birthday gift later this month.
It has been fun to stitch.   I find working around embroidery motifs a little puzzling.  Always try to not over power the embroidery with quilting.  

I chose to put flowers in the corner stones and leaves and swirls in the sashing.  Today all was going well and I was finishing up the little inside border.

It was being a little stubborn as I wanted it to be as straight as possible and it was a little puffy so I was trying to hold it down with my hand as I stitched.  My longarm apparently though it would lay better if it sewed my finger to the quilt.  I on the other hand did not share that idea.  I quickly removed my hand and said to my hubby that I might need a little assistance in the bathroom.  He followed to see blood and immediately started reaching for the band-aids.  Dear hubby is generally the one to need band-aids for his various cuts and scraps so he knew right where to find them.  
Being a quilter I naturally needed a quilted band-aid so he chose from this box for me.  "QuiltVent" technology has to be good doesn't it?
I know you are wondering about the quilt instead of  my finger.  But here is my finger anyway.  It sewed along the outside edge but you can't see the blood line in the photo.

 I am happy to report not one drop of blood got on the quilt and as you can see my border stitching didn't suffer either.  Frankly, I am a little surprised by that.
I can see right where it happened and perhaps you can also but I don't think it looks bad.
I finished the quilt holding my pinkie up as if I was drinking tea from a china cup, just in case.
My plan was to do some piecing on a quilt after this finish, but now I think I will curl up in my recliner and do a little hand embroidery on a project I have been wanting to start.  No more machines for me today.
Hope your journey today was without mishap.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

2014 Reflections

As I look for my quilting accomplishments for the year I am a little perplexed at what I find.  I know I have done quite a bit of quilting through the year, but apparently not a lot to show for it.  I know my monthly goal setting plan has not been set to execution this past year so perhaps that is where my problem lies.

I did accomplish one piece that I feel is worthy of mention and that was my Challenge from my local quilt guild.  The coordinator placed a package of candy in a brown paper bag and we were to draw a bag and interpret our candy in a wall quilt approximately 24 inches in diameter.

The candy I drew was Snow Caps. To be quite honest I had not heard of Snow Caps before but fortunately it was not a difficult candy for me to execute into my Challenge.

Here is "On Top of Snow Cap Candy Mountain"...............
It is machine applique and the leaves on the trees are "Confetti Quilting" .  Confetti Quilting is a technique that I had been wanting to practice and this was the perfect opportunity for me to to do just that.

So as the new year begins I plan to be more structured to accomplish more for "me".
My wonderful hubby got me off on a great start with a wonderful kit as one of my Christmas gift.
But more about that in a future post.  I am off to get myself organized and decide what I intend to accomplish in the new year.

Happy New Year everyone.  May your journey is this fresh new year be a happy and productive one.