Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Table Runner Experiment

I have wanting to learn how to free motion quilt for quite a while.  According to all the books and articles I have read, practice, practice, practice is the key to learning how to do the task.  Since I am in limbo between projects, I decided to put together a simple table runner and see what I can do.  And  so I made the table runner.

I will say that getting to play with the walking foot tool is fun.  Good thing, there is a small instruction sheet on how to hook up the free loop tool.. haha.

So I went for it and I was more impressed by the skill needed to accomplish something that looks good.  So there are going to be lots of pot holders in my future as I learn this skill..haha..

I also got to practice the other skills of making the binding perfect and gluing the edges down to reduce having to use pins on the binding, which are always the death of me.  I usually spend more time cussing because I have snagged my finger on another pin..

And naturally, Gracie had to bless the material first.



Anyway, here is the table runner.



This is the free motion quilting.  I see the long stitches, the short stitches, the side step direction ending in a point cause I didn't know where the heck the piece was headed.  I can also see I will have to move my machine from its small table to my big cutting table, so I have room to maneuver fabric.




The bright orange fabric is the backing and enough left over for the binding.  The binding is glued in place,  so just need to sew on the decorative stitch I like.


The finished piece.



Friday, January 17, 2014

Scarves Are Done

I didn't take enough pics, but saw the cutest pattern on line from Sew 4 Home. It was a basic neck scarf for a man. What I liked about it was that they have you make a small zippered bag and then see it on one end of the scarf. The bag is made from ribbed sport nylon .. I think that is the right verbage for it. Anyway it was clever. The length was 60 inches. For me, that's not long enough, but the person I made it for is small framed, so it should work. I changed my copy of the length of the pattern to 72 inches, because I think most people would find that length more suitable. 

Anyway, here is the one pic I took of it. Note the zippered pocket. You can wear the scarf with bag showing or reverse scarf and have bag next to your body. My friends has a large dog she walks daily, so bag could hold keys, bags for poop scoops, or whatever.