Trip Around The World

I recently quilted a Trip Around the World quilt for Stacy at Pins & Needles Quilt store in Hixson ,Tn.  She did a beautiful job on the quilt and she used the pattern out of Eleanor Burns Quilt in a Day Quick Trip Quilts book.  The beauty of the quilt inspired me to pick a copy of the book up at Stacy's shop.  You also can get the book from her at www.pinsandneedlesquiltshop.com or visit her store at 6425 Hixson Pike, Suite 1, Chattanooga, TN. 37343 423-668-8734

Stacy has a real eye for color and I fell in love with the fabric in shades of tan, brown, & turqoise.  Since the piecing needed to be the focus of the quilt I choose to stitch in the ditch with YLI smoke monofiliment thread.  The quilt is a King size one so it gave me plenty of time and practice doing free motion stitch in the ditch.  I had a huge difference from my beginning blocks to the ones that were near the end.  I feel confident now in my dirch stitching.

One of the things I found most challenging after keeping my stitching straight was going over the seams. Sometimes if the seams were bulky and I went over them too quickly my thread would break.  What helped was to slow down at the intersections and push down a little more tightly to keep the fabric and needle from jumping up over those seams.

Once at her shop we laid it down on the floor in hopes of being able to take a full size photo.  After the photo was taken the quilt got hung up on the wall.

Mastering the Art of McTavishing

I'm working on a charity quilts that will go to Ronald McDonald House.  One of the great things about charity quilts is it gives you a chance and opportunity to practice new quilting techniques as well as help someone out. 

Last month I sewed up three different charity cuddle quilts. I did not get a chance to quilt them yet I had been trying to decide which technique I wanted to learn.  I am slowly buying the books by Karen McTavish one at a time.  I really enjoy her work.  One of the great things about her books is that they also come with a DVD to show you the technique as well as reading about it.  The book that I'm reading right now is called Mastering the art of MacTavishing.

I tried a couple of times to practice drawing out the design and now I'm ready to try quilting it.

Now please keep in mind this is a first try and I'm using a very highly contrasting thread.  This means all of my mistakes definitely show up for the whole world to see.  But honestly I just like the color and it matched the quilt.

Once finished I'll make sure to post a picture of my completed quilt.