Pink Quilt

 I fell in love with this pattern, you can read about it here. I decided to blow it up 100% and this is how the court house step quilt pattern looks like on a larger scale. Nice, huh?

I bought a kona cotton jelly roll, and used 4 of their pinks, I was looking for an ombré look. I think I did achieve it. For the backing I used a beautiful multicolor print from Timless treasures fabrics.

I am also very excited to share that I am getting so much better at this free motion quilting stuff! I had a lot of fun quilting it with minimal frustration, and an acceptable outcome.

I have been holding back on posting it because I was waiting to get good pictures. I just like it so much. It will be hard to see it go. I know some cute little girl will be loving this pretty soon! and that helps. 

Photos by: Lady Di (Diana Curiel)

Eva Bebe

Well, I had one more baby girl to quilt for. I was so fascinated with the easy simple quilt tutorial I mentioned before here, that I decided on this quilt to be just that, it ended up being 42" by 42". I also added a name using the applique technique, since I was such an expert by then (sorry no picture, this was before the blog).

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I went all crazy on the Free Motion Quilting. Took a deep breath and started sewing spirals everywhere without a care. They idea is I have to just free motion quilt, go for it and hope to get better. We all know I am a beginner, so no surprises on the outcome. Overall I found it fun, and noticed some improvement towards the end. Four needles and three spools of thread later, here is a close-up of the FMQ design.

Vania's quilt

Vania is the daughter of a  friend from my teen years. Look at that smile and those curls, how can I not be inspired to create something amazing for this little angel.

I made Vania's quilt last fall, using a free pattern given to me at my local quilt shop's monthly meeting.

The pattern is called mirror mirror designed by Georgette Dell'Orco. The pattern can be purchased at Cozy Quilt Shop. 

I used a fat quarter bundle of spring floral print and 1.5 yards of a white kona cotton solids for the backing.

The quilt top turned out beautiful! but there is much to be said about my attempts of free motion quilting.

Front

Back

FMQ

At the time I was experimenting not only with free motion quilting, but also learning about appliqué. I learned about Pellon Wonder-Under, a fusible interfacing that makes fabric fusible. Note to self, letters must be cut out in a mirror image, so when they are transferred they are correct. I did not notice this until my mother, the teacher at heart, called me out on my dyslexic mistake. oops!

How to appliqué letters

I first printed out the letters I needed in a 100 size font straight from word. Then, I traced them on the fusible interfacing sheet and cut them out. Once the letters where cut out I fused them to pieces of fabric on the wrong side using an iron. Finally I cut out the fabric to the shape of the fused letter and then fused it to the backing of my quilt. Once all letters where attached I gave it a finished look using the zig-zag stitch.

sewing machine needles

A few days ago, on my drive back home; I was thinking of my latest project and how to quilt it. I am in the process of sewing a table runner, but have set the project aside until I make a decision. I anxiously want to practice free motion quilting, but my sewing machine is not suited for it. I kept tossing the idea back and forth, a simple stitch in the ditch quilting pattern or should I just go for it and try the free motion quilting and risk having a badly quilted table runner? I did end up deciding on a simple straight line stitch in the ditch pattern (which is sewing in the gap between fabrics).

My version of free motion quilting
See! Not good.

What came to mind while reviewing all these thoughts in that long drive was that I may be using the wrong needle. Maybe that's why I am not able to explore free motion quilting as much as I would like to. It was an aha! moment. When researching it I found out I was right; it is most likely my sewing machine, but also I could use a more appropriate needle. This gave me the idea to post what I have learned about needles on the length of this sewing journey. Which is not a lot, but is plenty of knowledge I wish I had a few months ago.

• You must change the needle around every 8 hours of sewing. Even if you think it's still good, and it hasn't broken or bent.
• Needles sizes vary. The larger the size the stronger the needle, but the thicker the holes will be if used on the wrong kind of fabric.
• Universal (to sew everything) needles are 90/14 (European #  / American #). The order in which the numbers are presented is not important
• Quilting needles are 75/11 (round point and thinner needle).
• The universal needle 90/14 could be used for quilting, it will just leave a bit of a bigger hole than the quilting needle. It is not wrong to use either.
• I use 110 /18 for top stitching or when sewing through way beyond too many layers of fabric.

**There is  a lot more to needles, but this is all I ever use. I am sharing what I know and what I use for my projects.