the finale...

This is the final chapter on these placemats - they are finished and shipped off...a complete set of 5 times 2. I had fun making them and especially trying my hand at new quilting styles that I had been wanting to try. I think hands down my favorite is still straight line and the square within a square quilting method - both to do and look at.

Flower pattern

Square pattern (see the chalk lines?!)

More squares, or rather funky rectangles...

Simple, straight lines

I'm forcing myself to get down on the hard, tile floor and baste together the Rocketboy quilt after I finish this post. I want to quilt it, just dread the basting! I'm also working on starting a Christmas table runner that I hope to get done before the holiday!

Finishes...

I finished the fall table runner I was quilting for my mom last week, binding and all. I realized about 1/3 of the way through that I picked a rather 'over-zealous' quilting pattern as usual and it seemed to take forever to finish in my short spurts of free - time.
Up close you can see that I quilted a maple & oak leaf and then a tree pattern to match the shapes in the fabric.

I used a burnt orange color thread and a chocolate corduroy for the binding - Love Love Love the binding - I am going to do this more often - I really like the added texture it adds!

The backing may be my favorite part - I really like the pattern and I had to cut it to get it to fit the length so i added a little personal patchwork touch to it! I hope she likes it!

the entire back

I think you could easily reverse it and do both sides - i used a flannel remnant as the 'batting' so it is nice and then for the table - which i think gives it a more modern look and feel!

quilting flowers

i decided to really step outside the box on this one and do flower quilting. I had seen the idea on this blog - which also just happened to be posted on my birthday of quilting big, loopy flowers!

I know the pictures aren't the best but the sunlight helps show the flower with the dark thread. I absolutely loved doing these and I seem to be a lot better at flowers than stippling...

I think I may try this on a bigger quilt if i take the chance and do some bright, fun fabrics even though i have a house full of boys! It went fairly fast too. It does definitely use more thread and by the 3rd or 4th loop the center of the flowers become stiff with all of the stitches. I would like to try this in a variegated thread on a child's shirt without any extra fabric, but just the stitches as the pattern - hmmm....

not for the faint at heart

Do you drive in the left lane, when deep down you know you should be in the right lane? Do you tap the brakes often? Do you run out of patience easily?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then stippling might not be for you! I finally dove in head first with a set of the place-mats I'm making and tried my hand at stippling. It isn't my favorite quilting pattern, but some people do it and make it look really nice and easy. i read several people say it goes much faster than straight line quilting, so i wanted to try it.

I thought I'd put my pride aside and show you my first attempts - and they are rather ugly i tell you! The entire time i was doing this i kept thinking of sea anemone or bad maple leaves. The hardest part was getting my foot to work with my hands and get my stitch length adjusted.

I found this explanation of stippling: Stippling is a common form of "filler" quilting. Either done by hand or by machine, it creates a pattern of closely-sewn, roaming lines that fill background spaces on a quilt.

I dove in without a real plan as to which way to go or how to fill in the space other than the few online tutorials i had watched. Looking at it now....i think i can do better and practice will make 'better'! I had some 'harsh' edges when i wasn't sure where to go, but the faster i worked the better off i was.

My stitches started really long so i needed to get comfortable with the pedal more depressed and working quicker. It did go quickly and I did remove some of the really bad stitches that were too long.

I think i'll try it again, maybe on some pot-holders or another small project - i think it would be a great skill to have and develop as well as an addition to my quilting options! Tell me your story about learning to stipple!

1+1 = 2

I finished another set of placemats to add to my mom and grandma's collection I'm making them. They already have 1 apiece and now they have 2!

They each have the same theme of fabric, but I thought it'd be fun to try different quilting on each of the 4 mats. The brown theme is my mom's and the first one had quilted square on it.

This one is my grandma's where i tried organic quilting this time....must say that i *loved* it - no boundaries and so fast! Her first mat had random circles intersecting each other (I just traced a bowl with chalk and went for it with the circles!)

4 more to go!