Cold Weather Kids Activities: Surfing Competition

It was snowing - too cold to play outside.

We found some cardboard and cut them into surf boards. The kids painted them (which was a surprisingly lengthy project.)

January Lesson: Beginners Guide to Free Motion Quilting & Giveaway results

First for the results. Julie's comment from Better than I deserve! was selected by the ever faithful random number selector. 

Julie said: I like doing free motion but need more ideas and practice!!. 

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Congratulations Julie - I hope that this book helps you with ideas and pushes you to practice, practice, practice!!!!

I loved all your comments from the January Lesson & Giveaway post - I wanted to answer some of the comments/questions.

OVERWHELMED WITH SIZE OF QUILT?

nelliw said... Great suggestions, Rachael! I am petrified to FMQ. I tried when I first purchased my Bernina and didn't feel I was ready. My biggest problem is overcoming the fear of the "big expanse" that needs to be filled and the fear of making a mistake and not being able to fix it! I will definitely give it a go again this year as I am tired of straight line quilting! 

I quilted this quilt with an all over stipple on my domestic machine. I filled each block before moving to the next block. Starting in the middle and working out will ensure you get the most cumbersome bits done first.

Rachael suggests - If you get overwhelmed with the size of your quilt. Break down the quilting into blocks or sections. Quilt a block at a time and remember to step away when you have had enough. Don't feel like you have to quilt the whole quilt in one sitting. Start in the middle and work methodically out - try not to jump around as this can create folds & catches in your backing material.

C- in Social Media (continued)

I seem to be working on a lot of things I can not yet share with you so here are some recent pictures I have taken with my phone & probably failed to post them anywhere ....

Cloud 9 Cirrus Solids

I'm sure you have seen this advert for Cloud 9's range of Cirrus Solids. They are GORGEOUS colors and fabrics to touch. I was really taken with them when quilting this top - soft and vibrant.

Cloud 9 has a Block of the Month challenge going at the moment. Our guild (NYC Metro Modern Quilters) took on the challenge and made a beautiful quilt. I got to quilt it! Maria pieced the quilt and suggested the feather running up the middle. This is essentially a little bit of an quilters eye candy post ;-)

January Lesson (& Giveaway): Beginners Guide to Free-Motion Quilting

During 2015 I hope to push myself further along the free motion quilting path and also perhaps teach a few people some little things (I keep being asked - eeek!) Teaching sort of terrifies me - because I'm pretty shy and I often worry I'm not qualified enough to impart useful pieces of information. So to warm myself up to the idea I'll be putting a little lesson out once a month accompanied by a little giveaway.

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Years ago I took a lesson on free motion quilting way before I could do anything (even try anything) that resembled free motion quilting on a quilt. The lesson terrified me and I never did a drop of free motion quilting again for over a year. I then completed a very very small project (a small zippered pouch) that somehow gave me the confidence to do more quilting. It has been a long journey with many doubts and dips but over all there is only one thing that has helped me improve and that is the really boring word of 'practice'. I know I have said this over and over again.

And so to encourage someone to take the same leap as I did and push through those doubts I want to start a series of lessons and little giveaways in 2015 - that will be focused on giving you that extra little push to drop those feed dogs on your machine and get quilting.

My tips for beginning free motion quilting are: