Free Patterns

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Machine Quilting and Flower Garden Fun

So many fun things to talk about. I have been busy and not because I have been doing laundry ;)

Machine quilting is so much fun, especially when your tension is good, your bobbin doesn't run out AND your thread doesn't break. I have several smaller projects completed, a baby quilt for my niece and and few other recipient unknowns. So far they are all panel tops, no pieced projects but I do have an applique quilt to finish before my first nephew comes for a visit. I am still learning to know when and where and how to make the quilting the best I can. I am going to put a few more pantograph patterns together and really figure out the scale of the quilting design. I have had a little thread battle but I think I have that figured out, all in all, all is good.

This week I have been taken completely over by my Grandmother's Flower Garden project. I am hooked, those little flowers can keep me up way past my bedtime. Things are progressing and I love the lay out design, thanks to the internet, I have found. I also found a great tutorial on-line for basting the fabric to the cardboard template. The only thing I do different then in the photos is that I don't pin my template and fabric together, oh and I knot my thread to start and finish. I don't want the basting to come out if I leave it for a while before assembling a block. Okay so I will try to be kind but I just don't understand why you sew your fabric to the cardboard - now you can't use the template again and you have to take out the stitches. So to anyone who has sewn their templates to their fabric, I am sorry and to anyone considering a Grandma's Flower Garden Quilt using an English Paper Piecing method baste your fabric to your templates. Please send me an email if you have any questions :)

My family is great, my little ones are getting bigger. Dad is away this week, so we should get lots of sewing done... we hope.