Free Motion Monday: August, Week 2

This post could also be called Free Motion Monday Mish-Mash. But enough alliteration......

This month I am taking a break from featuring a specific design, but I encourage you to link up a post from your own free motion quilting adventures.

I have quilted nothing all week! But I have gotten my kids ready to start school. They've been homeschooled so far and now they are off to the local elementary school for 3rd and 4th grades. Today is their first day, so I nervously await their return in less than 3 hours. I haven't shed a tear so far today, but it's been hard to let them go.

 But my goal is to get more quilting done along with some other side jobs. (Not to mention keep the 4yo out of trouble and do some preschool activities with him.) Today I prioritized several projects and gave myself some deadlines. One of which is some quilting for one of my blog readers! More on that in another post.

I had to do some hemming of the new school clothes for my rather short and stocky kids. Have you hemmed jeans with this technique? Works great and preserves the original hem. Once the pants are on a wiggly child, no one notices the seam. I didn't trim the excess since I imagine these kids of mine will need the hem lowered in a few months. I used the blind stitch to sew the folded fabric up inside the pants leg so they don't snag their toes on it or end up with the fold peeking out from under the hem.

My Janome 6600P doesn't have a free arm so I got out my smaller machine, a Janome 3160.

So dirty! We won't tell John at Sew Simple (where I work part-time) who does the service and cleaning about this! Cleaned it all up with a scrap of batting. (Batting scraps are great dusters. You can even use a big piece on a Swiffer mop.)

I set up a folding table in my sewing room for it and plan to keep it out for my daughter to use. Unfortunately, that means there's not enough room for my recliner now. It's just as well, as the chair had become a dumping ground for assorted projects, material, and such. (What the Fly Lady would call a clutter hot spot!)

So there's my less-than-exciting news for today. If you've been doing some free motion quilting, link it up and share. Let's go a-visitin'!

Here are the link up guidelines:

• Keep your post relevant to this quilt along please. Spammy posts will be deleted.
• Make sure you link up to the individual post, not your home page as nobody wants to have to search around for the post if they're a little late to the party.
• Reciprocate! Link back to this post somewhere in your post or use the clickable blog button in your sidebar. You've got to dance with the one who took you to the party, so make sure you link back.
• Don't be a wall-flower. (Talking to myself here too. In person I am so stinking shy!) Visit the other links, be sociable, and leave comments.
• Please make sure you leave me a way to contact you if you are a no-reply blogger, especially if you ask a question. 

Now I'm off to have some homemade cookies ready when the kids get off the bus.

Bobbin Quilting Fun!

I was so happy to take Michele Scott's Bobbin Quilting Fun class at the Charlotte AQS show. I had been wanting to do bobbin work for a long time. Leslie's posts and projects at Marveles Art Studios had inspired me to try it maybe 2 years ago.

Here are two of my samples from the class. I laid a single strand of Isacord (a 40wt thread) on top of the sample for scale. Theses threads would never work on the needle side of the machine!

I had even bought a fairly large stash of thick threads to use for bobbin work too! I am a thread addict after all. But I just hadn't done any.

Above is a sample where I needed to tighten the needle thread (top tension). This is also a great time to use invisible thread, which Michele encouraged us to use.

Michele took me from thinking, to actually doing. It was so easy, I don't know why I had waited so long.

Here's the 'top' of my piece, which is really the backside. Flip it over and viola! (There's that piece of Isacord for scale.

In case you're not familiar with the technique, bobbin work takes a lovely decorative thread and puts it in the bobbin. You quilt (or stitch, it doesn't have to be a quilting project) with your project upside down. This keeps extra thick or delicate fibers in the bobbin where they are subject to less tensioning and friction, not to mention, they don't have to go through the eye of the needle.

In the class, the Janome 8900 machines we used already had the bobbin case loosened to accommodate the thicker threads in the bobbin. Using my extra bobbin case at home, I reduced the bobbin tension screw a quarter turn and all was ready.

If you get a chance to take a class with Michele, do it! She's a riot. Bobbin work: another tool in my quilting tool box. Can't wait to use this in another project!

Free Motion Monday: August, Week 1

It's Free Motion Monday! For the month of August, we're going to have a "breather". I've got vacation bible school this week (Guess who gets to be on the stage for the singing and dancing? Have I mentioned I'm an introvert with a severe dislike of crowds? But I love to sing, so....), my kids start going to public school next Monday (We've homeschooled them up to this point.), and I'm in need of extra time as we get used to school and I focus on some other projects.

So let's use this month to share any quilty projects you want to link up here, especially if it's something from the previous months' designs. Same linky guidelines apply, but if you haven't shared because you don't have a blog, email me 1-2 pics and a blurb about them, and I'll post them on the blog next week. Send them by Friday.

My purse held up well on the trip, but when I decided to bind the edges instead of use a lining, I forgot to adjust my pattern. That made the strap wider than it should have been so it didn't sit well on my shoulder. The thing I loved most about this bag design (my own too) is that the strap stays put on my shoulder.

I should have trimmed the bag down by 3/8 of an inch along the top and the inside of the handles. I'll make a note on my pattern for next time.

Here are the link up guidelines:

• Keep your post relevant to this quilt along please. Spammy posts will be deleted.
• Make sure you link up to the individual post, not your home page as nobody wants to have to search around for the post if they're a little late to the party.
• Reciprocate! Link back to this post somewhere in your post or use the clickable blog button in your sidebar. You've got to dance with the one who took you to the party, so make sure you link back.
• Don't be a wall-flower. (Talking to myself here too. In person I am so stinking shy!) Visit the other links, be sociable, and leave comments.
• Please make sure you leave me a way to contact you if you are a no-reply blogger, especially if you ask a question. 

AQS Charlotte Show

I had such a great time at the AQS show in Charlotte NC this past week! First of all many thanks to my wonderful friend Robin who put me up in her home and fed me. I forgot to get a picture of her.

The show was held in part of the Charlotte Convention Center. Parking was expensive, and Friday I had to go back and forth to the car since I had a bad case of forgetfulness. My feet hurt badly at the end of the day. I did not make the best choice in footwear, choosing my "confidence shoes" which have a bit of a heel.

So many beautiful quilts, innovative ideas, and vendors galore. It was a bit overwhelming. I have a bunch of photos of individual quilts, but I need to go through them before posting and make sure I have the names with them to give them credit.

I met Bonnie Browning and she agreed to a photo op with me. I also met AQS editors, Elaine Brelsford and Michele Duffy. I attended three lectures which I really enjoyed. I also took a class by Michele Scott, below.

Author of "Bobbin' Quiltin' and Fusin' Fun", she led a class of intermediate and better free motion quilters to explore using thicker threads either through the needle, in the bobbin (working with the quilt upside down), or using couching. She was a ton of fun and very funny and frank. She also took some time to give me some encouraging words on my quilting adventures.

I've had far too many thick threads that I had been meaning to do bobbin work with, but never actually did. Michelle's class was just the thing to get me going! (My sample above.) We used brand new Janome 8900's in the class and it was nice to use a machine I was already familiar with from working at Sew Simple.

Look at all the thread yumminess that she provided! Below is a close up of some of the fibers with which we played. Couching yarns at the top left and hand dyed threads for the bobbin. I also got to see some of the beautiful hand dyes threads that Laura Wasilowski makes.

I also met up for lunch with Susan from the Bored Zombie. Again, forgetting to take a picture. Robin took a lecture with the talented Sharon Schamber and had Leah Day as a classmate. I never did see either one of them.

I stopped at the APQS booth to chat with Angela Huffman, a talented and friendly long arm quilter from MQResource.com, a forum that I'm on occasionally. I also fondled George, the sit-down machine from APQS. I love George. He's like a good looking country boy. Works hard, gets the job done, but not too flashy.

I tried a few other sit-down quilting machines. Found one that was extremely affordable, but it didn't include a needle up/down function, which is a deal-killer for me. It, and at least one other machine like it were so, um....what's the word, I want to be kind.....functional. Huge and ugly, zombie-like, but functional. It made the Artistic 18 look so much better to me. (Review on it later this week.)

As a quilter who moves the quilt, not the machine, it's very appealing to see these big sit-down machines, but they're really not in my budget (other priorities come first) and I also don't want folks to think you need to spend a lot of money in order to do great quilting.

More on my shopping at the show later this week also. I wasn't too wild with the spending though.