Transferring Your Quilting Design to Your Quilt

I took pictures when I set up to transfer my quilting design to my niece's baby quilt. There are several ways you can do this. (Sometimes I use a fine mesh (tulle) and trace the design onto the tulle with a Sharpie marker. I place the tulle with the marked quilting design on my quilt and draw over the Sharpie lines with a "pencil.") This time I traced the quilting design onto a piece of deli-wrap paper. I had room to trace this design twice.

Next, I pin several layers (I used 7 this time.) of deli-wrap underneath the tracing. I place pins in several places so the papers won't shift.

I sew on the traced lines with a large unthreaded needle in my machine. This makes small needle holes in the deli-wrap through all the layers in the shape of the quilting design. After I have sewn the entire quilting design, I cut the excess deli-wrap away from it and place it in position on my quilt.

Once the design is positioned on the quilt, I pin it in place. I use my darning foot to free motion quilt through the deli-wrap in the shape of the quilting design (which has been transferred via needle holes). If you click on this picture, I think you can actually see the needle holes. Once the quilting is finished, carefully remove the paper from around your stitches. Voila...your quilting is done and there are no marks on your quilt!

Thanks/Upcoming Blogs

Thanks to all who viewed my blog the last couple of days. I really appreciate your comments and suggestions. Please keep checking back.

I'll be incorporating some new things in the blog in the future. Along with updates on my quilting progress (or lack thereof) I'll be posting some product/book reviews and tips/tricks. I'd appreciate comments and suggestion of things you would like to see (or not see) in future blog entries. My first product review will be for the SewEzi Sewing Table. I'll be doing that this week. Also this week I'll be taking pictures and explaining how I transfer the quilting design to my quilt for machine quilting.

This weekend I got the word that my niece's due date has been moved up. That gives me less time than I thought to get the baby quilt finished. I kicked it into high gear and finished the embroidery for the top (some words from the Goodnight Moon book). Yesterday I got the back made, pin basted the quilt, and picked out the quilting design for the alternate plain blocks. While I was at it, I also made the backs and pin basted some of my UFO projects for our UFO Challenge--Lori Smith Blue and Yellow Basket Quilt, Amish Shadow Quilt, and the Christmas Friendship Star table runner. Now they are ready to quilt once I pick out those quilting designs.

I've been cutting out blocks for the new Country Threads Goat Gazette quilt since I got up. I need to cut out some projects to take along to the Spring Mill guild retreat, so that doesn't sneak up on me. I have at least seven quilt kits that are calling my name. I have to finish my niece's baby quilt, because they have upped her due date! I have several UFOs I need to get finished for the UFO club. There are new traditonal things and new art quilt things I want to do. Where do I start? Now remember, I get really bored working on one thing at a time! Does anyone else have this problem? There are just too many things swirling around in my head that I want to do.

In addition to all this, I'd love to spend some time watching The Quilt Show tapings. I also have three new quilting/textile art DVDs I haven't even watched yet. With my husband not being home much of the time, I know I have more time than most to do all this, and I still don't seem to get as much done as I'd like!

Oh, I did get the 2008 The Quilt Show Block of the Month Quilt finished! I'll post pictures as soon as I can get two people over here to hold it up so I can photograph it. I LOVE the way it turned out. Now, I'm looking for a really good machine quilter. Anybody have suggestions?

Will It Ever Be Finished?

I spent my time yesterday making borders (160 half-square triangles) and cutting borders for my The Quilt Show 2008 Block of the Month quilt. I did get the off-white 1" border and the half-square triangle border sewn on. Today, I cut one border piece for the outside border. Then I realized that I had yet another 1" border (a red one) to put on BEFORE the outside border. I thought I had already cut that border but didn't find it, so I cut it. When I sat down to sew it on, I saw the red border that I thought I had cut. Now I have an extra 250" of 1" red border cut! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Hopefully, I can use it in another project.

This quilt is called "Space Dudes" in P.S. I Love You Three! by Lynda Milligan & Nancy Smith. I'm making it for my grandson, Cade. I've called it Cade's Monster Quilt. I think he'll like it, but it won't really go with his newly decorated John Deere Tractor room! Now, if I can get it quilted before he is too old to enjoy it....

January 2009 Mini Quilting Retreat

The quilting retreat was a success. We all had a really good time and got a lot done (as you can see). I didn't get pictures of everybody or everything that was worked on, but I did get some good pictures. Mary Lou is shown machine quilting. She finished this quilt (thanks to the "quilt fairy" that finished her binding during the night). She is also pictured with her wall hanging with the deer on it.
Robin and Dana had their machines set up on the tables in the middle of the room. You can see Libby's tail; she supervised the work over the weekend.
Robin is showing one of her wall hangings. She finished two wall hangings (or table toppers) and a table runner.

The "cutting/ironing" room was located in the kitchen/dining area.

Jane is showing one of her projects. This is one of her UFOs she has to finish. She belongs to the UFO Club.

Dana came up from Lynnville. She actually starts projects and gets them finished before she starts something else. She is working on a variation of a trip around the world quilt.
Libby loved the social aspect of the retreat. She spent time inspecting all the work that was being done. She alerted us to any scraps we had dropped on the floor and tried to clean up all the loose threads by eating them. She is catching up on her sleep today. Libby likes to help with the sewing. She sat on my sewing table (or in my chair) every time I got up to do some cutting or ironing!

Today, I'm catching up on all the housework and such. I'm thinking my "regular" dust bunnies mated with the new dust bunnies from the quilting retreat to form "super mega-bunnies." You should have seen them; they were HUGE! I think I have finally corralled them all. I had such a good time at the retreat. It was nice to get to spend time with good friends. I hate that I didn't get pictures of Mary Alice, Jeannie, and Julie. I guess I was just so wrapped up in talking, eating, and sewing that I didn't realize I hadn't gotten all the pics I needed. Hopefully, there will be a repeat retreat sometime in the near future. I'll do better, then, about getting pics of everyone.

The mini-retreat is over...it was great...good friends, good food (and lots of it), beautiful projects. Everybody got a lot done. I'll be posting pictures tomorrow when I have a bit more time. I have pictures of several of the projects people were working on. We stayed warm and cozy with a wood fire; the weather here was really cold (below zero on Thursday night). We sewed in my sunroom (which has lots of windows), so we enjoyed watching a little snow fall today; it was beautiful--just enough to be pretty.

Getting Ready

I'm getting ready for a mini quilting retreat at my house this weekend! I'm really excited about it. I'm busy cooking, cleaning, and getting things set up right now. I want to have pretty much everything done so I can actually get some sewing done at the retreat. I'll take some pictures and post them, so you can see how much fun (and what a mess) we have. Be looking for those pics.

Great Exhibit

A friend and I went to a really nice exhibit today at the Carnegie Center in New Albany. The exhibit is called "Form, Not Function: Quilt Art at the Carnegie." It is an annual, juried exhibition of contemporary art quilts. It includes 39 quilts (selected from 276 submitted) from artists throughout the United States. I really enjoyed it.

The Carnegie also has a program called "Senior Class" Brown Bag Lunch. Participants bring a brown bag lunch and the Carnegie provides drinks. Today's discussion was called "Textiles in Contemporary Art." Louisville textile artist Betty Leve discussed how artists use textiles in contemporary art. She gave examples of various textile techniques and showed her own work and surface design work of other artists. She is a hand embroiderer and uses colored silk thread on black silk noil fabric. Her subject matter is often based on her own photographic studies and is small scale and abstract. She showed us photographs she has taken, the drawings from those photographs, and the final finished piece of art. It was very interesting.

Art Project/Feathered Star

It took me two days, but I finally finished the first block for the 2009 The Quilt Show Block of the Month Quilt. I'm making my quilt out of fabrics in my stash. I'm hoping it will prove to be a "stash buster!" This block is paper pieced and will finish 15".

This year I decided that I would make at least 12 textile art projects. (I seem to do better if I set some type of goal/deadline for myself.) I had intended to work on some "art" projects but just couldn't get myself started. I thumbed through my "Cloth, Paper, Scissors" and "Quilting Arts" magazines for inspiration. There were many things there that I wanted to try. I started off with a list of projects for which I had all the supplies on hand. (Not having the supplies was yet another "excuse" for me to put off working on art projects.) I found a project on "fused plastic" that I thought I could do. I used information gleaned from the article "Paper & Plastic" by Alisa Burke in the January/February issue of "Cloth, Paper, Scissors" magazine. Check out the picture of the beginning of the project. First I made the base material. On top of that, I wrote words and phrases with a black Sharpie marker, stamped over that with gold and copper ink, and painted over that with some acrylic paints. Next, I'll be adding some paper pieces and possibly some fabric and doing some decorative stitching. I'll continue to post pics as I add to the base material. I like it so far. I think I'll make a clutch out of it (as suggested in the article).

I finished all the blocks for my 2008 The Quilt Show Block of the Month Quilt. Yeah!!!!! Check out the pics. There are a lot of half-square triangles that have to be pieced before I can set them together, though. I guess I'll be busy with that for quite some time.

I find that I am drawn in all directions when I set out to work on my quilt projects. I REALLY want to do some "art quilt"/textile art stuff, but I'm really having trouble getting started. Maybe it is that I have trouble justifying starting something else (new) when I have SO many "traditional" things started that need to be finished. Anyone else feel like that?

Anyway, today I was going to finish my last 2008 The Quilt Show BOM, but I found that I hadn't finished the next to the last block (like I thought I had). That means I have to finish that one first (sew around all the fused pieces), then start the last block (from scratch). I would love to get both of those finished today. I'll be taking pictures of all of the blocks and posting those when I get them all finished. Check back!

Paper Pieced Heart Quilt/UFO Challenge/Rag Quilts

I finished another one of my UFO Challenge quilts. This is my Lori Smith Half-Triangle wall hanging measuring 16" X 20". It is machine pieced and machine quilted.

This is my 4-Heart Valentine's Day Quilt (made as a sample for a paper-piecing class I may teach for my quilt guild). I made the pattern using EQ. It is machine pieced and quilted.

I finished my great-niece's little rag quilt today. I had flannel scraps left over from two other projects I had done and used those to make this quilt. I thought little Chloe needed a small "drag around" quilt; I think she'll like this one. I added a chenille flower (close up) and chenille letters, "A," "B," and "C" to the basic rag quilt. I thought it needed a little something. I made the chenille for the flower stem and leaves. That was my first attempt at chenille--not hard.

One More....

This is my completed December table runner. I machine quilted down each strip of fabric and outline quilted the reindeer. I quilted straight lines (about a sewing machine foot apart) in the border. I didn't finish it in time to use it this year, but it will either be a gift or I'll use it myself next year.

New UFO Pics

This is a picture of my completed Lori Smith Bright Star Quilt (wall hanging). It is machine pieced and machine quilted. The second picture is a closeup of the quilt. I outline quilted the star in each pieced block. You can see that I chose a curved quilting design for the setting squares. I like to use a curved quilting design when the pieced blocks are very geometric. I think it provides a nice contrast. The wall hanging measures 16" X 20".









Closeup of Bright Star Quilt.
























This is my completed Curtis Boehringer December Snowman Quilt (wall hanging). It is machine pieced. I used fusible web (Heat and Bond Lite) for the applique work. It is machine quilted. I outline quilted the snowman then did a "loop-d-loop" design around him and quilted "snow swirls" in his body. I outline quilted the Christmas trees and ornaments. You can see the quilting on the snowman a little better in the closeup picture.

Getting Back to Work

I'll be posting pictures of my latest finished projects as soon as I can. Check back to see them. I have three done! I'm getting ready to print out the first installment of The Quilt Show's new Block of the Month quilt--can't wait--like I really need a new UFO!