Merry Mayhem 2016

This quilt was a New Year's Day mystery quilt, back in (I think) 2016.  It waited a long time to be finished. I finally finished the blocks in one of my finishing sprees earlier this year.  And now, it is quilted and ready to bind.

I played with my new Millie longarm for this. I designed a quilting design for the blocks and quilted all of them the same way. Then I created designs for the sashing and borders to finish it off.  I'm still figuring out the program. So far, I haven't managed to create a corner design that lets me finish borders nicely, but I'm having fun playing with the program, and am getting a handle on a lot of it.

This quilt will get bound soon, and then sent off to Victoria's Quilts in September.

Plugging Along

As expected, peacock is not going to be a short project. I spent time cutting out all the fabric for the main feathers (20 of them), in preparation for assembly line sewing these critters.  An evening's worth of work and this is what I have so far. 6 pieces, out of 48, sewn on each of the feathers. I just hope I can keep all my little piles of fabric pieces in order until I finish this step.

Peacock Fun

I have a new project underway today. Violet Craft came out with a new pattern - a peacock, and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to have it. Arrived in the store this week, and it immediately came home.

I hunted through my stash for just the right fabric, and remembered that I had bought some a couple of years ago that I loved - because it was peacock coloured. The line was even called Peacock Paradise (by Northcott). Dug it out of the "fabric that needs a project" pile, and discovered that not only are the colours perfect, but I bought exactly the right amount of background fsbric for this project. It's like it was meant to be.

I started the pattern today - and one single peacock feather took me all afternoon to finish. This is not going to be a quick project :) But here it is, in all of its lonely glory.

Playing with Pantographs

Autumn Wind

 Here are a few of the designs I've been playing with on my new longarm. Some purchased, pantographs, like Autumn Wind and Fan Palm.

Wood Grain is my own design, which was created initially for quilting Fancy Forest by Elizabeth Hartman.  I converted it from a freehand to a computerized program because it's been so popular.

Fan Palm

Pipeline at the bottom is a modified pantograph design that came with my new longarm.

Much as I love the relaxing motion of driving the longarm myself, the computer has already given me so much more freedom to experiment with designs that require a more accurate line or a steadier hand than is possible to do with freemotion.  Next up - CIRCLES!

Wood Grain

Pipeline

New Toy!

I have a new baby! I hope my old machine doesn't get jealous, but this little beauty has 26" and a computer. I have been having a blast learning to use it (which is in part to blame for my absence here on the blog).  Hopefully I'll get back to posting more frequently now.

I've been playing mostly with the computer, and have done a file of pantograph designs on various quilts so far.  I've even managed to create my own designs, and have almost made friends with the computer program.