UFO Sunday #14

It's UFO Sunday on Leah Day's Freemotion Quilting Project today.
I am nowhere near as productive as some people have been, however I have been steadily working away on my projects. I am back onto my Japanese Table Runner and decided to use the Echo Shell design that I saw on Leah Day's Craftsy class. Initially I was going to quilt that design into the second border ...however, then I decided that this, while nice, would hardly be seen given the busy pattern. Decided to KISS (Keep it Simple) and placed the Echo Shell design in the inner border instead, so it can be seen.

Echo Shell Design

Do you like this? Certainly adds a whole other dimension to this table runner. 

 I placed the shells facing inwards after trialling it the other way (see below)

Shells facing outwards

 Not sure whether you can see it properly but having them face outwards created a bit of a ridge across the top edge due to the seam allowance being literally encased in the last echo...did not like this and hence had all my shells facing the other way. Stitching the shells in one direction rather than at random was certainly a challenge, but once I had started, I was determined to get it done. Consistency wise it is not too bad and I like the pattern.

I used Aurifil thread (Mako 50/2) and must say, I absolutely love this thread...I used needle size 70/10 Sharp and it went like a dream. Also noticed (as I had before) that when I quilt at a slower speed where more accuracy is needed, I have to take my Machingers gloves off because I seem to need my finger tips to gently guide the material around. I have noticed this before when I am quilting motifs. As I am usually concentrating really hard (and it is summer here) my grip on the fabric is usually enough, i.e. sticky hands. However, for added grip, Diane Gaudynsky in her post about moving the quilt in a home machine, recommends Neutrogena handcream...it just leaves that little bit of sticky residue that will help with the grip.

Well, almost there with this table runner...

UFO Sunday has certainly helped me to get going on those projects that have been hanging around forever, i.e.
- the English Paper Piecing Project
- the Cat Wall hanging

In fact, I remember packing them up when we were moving house in the beginning of the year and with some guilt was reminded that they had been lying around for a very long time before that. I have almost reclaimed all of my basting pins again.

Karin

UFO Sunday #13

It's UFO Sunday again on the Freemotion Quilting Project with Leah Day. I have been working on my 'practice quilt'. You might be thinking that I am swapping and changing projects, never staying on one thing at the time...and you are right. However, there is a very logical explanation for this.

I do not have two sewing machines, so when my machine is set up for FMQ I will keep on going with that set up for a while until I need it again for piecing or if I need to sew something with the walking foot. I did my 'homework' for the Wednesday Quilt Along yesterday and just kept on going with the FMQ on that quilt. I had started to watch the videos from Leah Day's Craftsy class that I recently purchased and the design 'Echo Shell' caught my attention. So, what better way then to have a go at it on the practice quilt. I know I have raved about the benefits of my practice quilt, but I cannot emphasize how useful this quilt has been. No, this will never be a show quilt, nor is it particularly pretty to look at, but it has been invaluable in just trying out things...none of the usual hesitations/fears/barriers are attached to this, as it is truly only a practice piece and I have been much more adventurous on this quilt than on any other piece I have worked on before.

Well, back to the Echo Shell design. In the video Leah stitched this both in a row and in a more random fashion. I chose the random fashion and trialled it in the sashing:

Yep, lots of stitching-in-the ditch again! I like this and will continue to put this in the remaining vertical sashings. This little exercise also served another purpose...I was thinking of putting that in the border of my Japanese Table Runner on a slightly bigger scale. I think that that would look great...

Anyway, then I continued on the border of the practice quilt...until I ran out of thread ( managed to get 3/4 of the border done). Decided after all to continue with the Flowing Lines design even though I did not incorporate going around the corners with this design. A bit more planning on my part would have been good.

I think this design suits the quilt and stitched it using my Sensormatic Echo Freemotion Quilting foot. This is so relaxing! The foot is interesting to use, as on slow speed it makes this clickety-clack noise going up and down, but when you gather speed it just starts gliding across the surface (with more of a humming noise) and you can cover a lot of ground very quickly while maintaining pretty consistent spacing.

Well, that's it for me today. Linking up to UFO Sunday a bit later on.

Karin