QUILTING

Hello and a good morning to all I wish all of you and nice Sunday ,I have not posted in a while ,first I would like to show you my new hand made leather thumb thimble ,there is a leather shop near me ,they make leather goods and they through out there scraps,I happen to be walking past the trash bin one day years ago and noticed a big bag of leather scraps and of coursed I took them thinking I could used them for something one day .

So I cut out the pieces into a shape that I thought it would work used a thick black polyester thread and stiched it up and it works wonderfully it really helps me push the needle through the fabric and then it is much easier to grasp the needle and pull it on the other side now I will make another for my finger that helps quide the needle underneath  ,I am really pleased that I thought of it .

I am quilting this quilt that I have been commissioned to make ,it is large 80 x 99 in. I hope I finish it by Christmas .

Here is the whole quilt on my sofa I chose a light blue border for it I think it goes well on it.

I even found some letters with her initials on it that makes it a bit personalized for her ,

After deciding that I wasn't up to fmq the large quilt I thought I better work  at fmq . I tried various methods in controlling the quilt better practicing on a panel I found that wearing my white fleece gloves that my dear friend Michelle sent me, they not only  keep my hands warm when it is cold out , they really help me grasp the panel and I am able to make smoother stiches I also use some hand cream  ,I even thought of putting glue stick on my fingers ,but I haven't tried that yet ,for now I am doing ok.

I really didn't have a specific pattern in mind you really don't have time to think when the needle is moving .

I plan on making some templates for fmq and I will be posting them of  course ,but I think I am progressing.

I tried different designs as you can see, I really am trying to get the motion of meandering, I am more of a structured person so it is a bit difficult for me.

I will be working to become better at it ,I got a helpful tip from a blog friend whom is great at it her name is Kheli  she advised me that it really helps to starch the top first  I will do that and believe it will help thank you Kheli.http://khelikarma.blogspot.com/ . Another thing I have been having some issues with is  thread tension and am working on that .  I thank you all for stopping by and leaving suggestions and comments ,wish you all many hours of quilting a crafting and try to make a leather thimble for yourself.

SPIDER WEB QUILT

Hello to all my quilt friends out there I hope all of you are doing  well ,I have been dragging my feet to make a post , my mouse wasn't working ,so I just got a new one and it makes it easier to click on the view of my photos so I know which ones to post  that was the main problem  makes it difficult if it isn't working.

 As you can see I am making a spider web quilt which I had seen on Marit's blog ,she has a wonderful tutorial,I got  excited about it and started it many months ago .Recently I pulled it out and said YOUR NEXT   I used all my little strips by organizing them from short to long and longer and sat down watching TV and pinning them on ,so when I had them pinned I just sat down at the sewing machine and sewed them up.

 My husband Tony has become interested in quilting ,he likes the design of this quilt  when put together ,he got up from the couch and walked over to count how many triangles I had made ,for him to do that says something.

I trimmed and trimmed, and as I trimmed the underneath end of the triangle I was thinking they can be used to make a quilt ,there were so many of them let's see 32 triangles and each one has 2 that's 64 WOW!!

Viewing an this angle you can see how many ,I think they were not all there when taking the photo,but I was not really counting while working  in the end there were 32 half square triangles .

Here I have put a dark blue border ,hubby Tony helped me choose, he even knows what jelly rolls are LOL

So here are the ends  I cut 2 inch strips of solids and just randomly sewed them on the sides sort of a log cabin , I can't wait to sew them all up .

I have brought the quilt to my Shop and I spend my free time quilting, while rocking in my chair ,people can see me through the window and wonder what I am stitching.

I am quilting by echoing which is easy enough. 

Last ,but not least as some of you know I have an art and frame business and I just wanted to share with you some vintage stitchery that a lady brought in to be framed , here I am choosing what color matting to use ,but unfortunately I forgot to take a photo before the customer picked them up ,they looked real nice she was very pleased .  I also  have been busy in my shop trying to make enough room to  make a little studio in which I can work on quilts in my free time,that will take a little while longer. And something that I would like to mention to International quilters is that my spell check hasn't been working I can't figure it out ,it used to work ,but lately it hasn't if anyone knows what I need to do please let me know.  I hope all of you are doing well and make something creative!!