Just What I Needed!

A new toy!



I've made a few blocks.



Jacobean flowers



Birthday blocks



These are for a table runner that I'll keep for birthday celebrations. As you can see there is some puckering. I didn't realize that some heavily stitched designs might need more than one layer of stabilizer. Since they will be quilted I'm not going to worry.



You can also do cross stitch designs. I wouldn't have stitched this but it was included in the machine's memory and I wanted to see what it looked like. While I never say never ... I don't see this in my future!

It's so much fun, but like any new craft there's a bit of a learning curve. I'm taking an embroidered applique class at Quilt University. Here's a little demo:

So, As I Was Saying ....

"He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else."

~Benjamin Franklin


So we'll just leave it at that! The last couple posts were about Disappearing Nine Patches and my new machine. Here's the Tranquility quilt:



I quilted this using my new Elna with its IAF (Integrated Adjustable Feeding, the same as Janome's Accufeed). Diagonal lines through the blocks and a soft winding figure-eight in each of the borders.

I also finished Piper's Hushabye quilt,



but never took a picture after the binding was sewn on. I'll have to ask my nephew to shoot a picture. I guess we'll see how it held up to a year's use!

Over the winter, while completing yet another certificate (this time for online instruction), I researched the hell out of free motion quilting. Watched Patsy Thompson's series on The Quilt Show, bought two of Dawn's Pajama Quilter videos, and watched Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting tutorials. Now it's time to put all my video watching and reading to the test.