Carpet Quilting Pattern Inspiration

I was at a conference at the Minneapolis Convention Center a while ago and I couldn't resist taking a picture of this carpet.

I love the geometric pattern. It's only squares and circles and would make a great quilting filler pattern.  However, it would be a pain to sew as it's not continuous.  I'd have to figure out a way to modify it and make it easier.

Such fun!
Suzy

Quilting Snowflake Table Runner

I love to quilt, but I must admit that quilting large quilts is physically challenging.  I am really enjoying quilting the small pieces for my blog.

I decided that what I wanted to go outside my comfort zone (symmetrical) and quilt my Snowflake Table Runner in a "windy" pattern.  Here's my drawing idea:

I liked it so I sat down to quilt.  After stitching around the snowflakes I realized that trying to put those curls in wasn't going to work because my snowflakes were a lot thicker than the original stars I drew.  I guess I need to actually work with the pattern when I'm designing...duh.

So I decided to just go for it.  I did a second outline and then a third and then filled the space with bubbles to match what I'd done in the center of the snowflakes.

I then decided that to contrast all the curves in the quilt I wanted to use straight lines to finish the borders.  If you look at the right corner of the picture above you can see some white lines I drew.  I thought I was going to angle off my lines at the corners.  But as I got there, I wasn't paying attention and stitched too far without thinking about what came next.  oops.  So I stitched one straight line all the way across and that was no fun.  So I decided that I'd do something else,

I started with some clam shells and then outlined them and then decided that the lines should come in towards the middle.  I hated it.  Still do.  And then my bobbin ran out.  It was a sign that I should be done!

So I folded over the ends to see what the table runner would look like if I stopped at that point:

It looks great just as it is!  Done quilting.  Now to bind...

Suzy

A New Tool for Tearing Away Stabilizer

I usually use an awl for tearing away tight valleys of stabilizer on the back of my quilts.  However, I have no idea where I put my awl so I needed a new one.  Off to my local quilt shop I went.  I didn't find an awl, but I found this:

It's meant to be used to pick out threads that are under the surface of the quilt top and can be seen and need to be removed.  The tip of it is actually the tiniest crochet hook I have ever seen.  HOWEVER, I thought it would work great for reaching into those tiny valley to get the stabilizer out since the tip is so skinny.

I was so right.  It's my new favorite tool for this and it works even better than my awl did.

First, I put the awl through the stabilizer to the point of the valley as shown above.

Then I pulled the tool up ripping the stabilizer.   Sometimes it rips right along the stitching line and sometimes it doesn't.  However, now I can easily pull off those small bits of stabilizer.

Now that I have this wonderful new tool, there's only one thing left to do: find a safe place for it so I won't lose it and have to go buy another one!

Suzy

Button Inspiration

I was at Jo-Ann's the other day to buy needles and I turned around and there were the beautiful buttons.  I love anything in rainbow colors .  And do you see the dot buttons?  Love them!  And hombre sets of buttons!  Too fun!  

I managed to get out of there only buying two buttons:

This button is totally a quilting pattern!  I love the idea of making flowers like this.  It could even be a filler pattern if you added some leaf design to connect the flowers.

I had to buy this button because I loved the flower design.  

Suzy

Word 16 Challenge at Elm Street Quilt's Blog

I was clicking through blogs the other day and I ran into Elm Street Quilt's Word 16 Challenge.  Since I had already blogged about my word, Future, I decided to go for it and make a mini quilt for their challenge.  You can find all the information in the link above.

Here is my little quilt:

The reasons I chose this word are as follows:
1.  The random generator picked it for me :)
2.  With a quilting book coming out these year I am excited about the future.
3.  I am excited about blogging and will continue to do it into the future.

So....if you are inclined check out Elm Street Quilt's challenge and pick a word for yourself.

Suzy

Appliqueing Snowflake Table Runner

When making this table runner I realized an important lesson.  When you're working with a large snowflake and you pull all the paper backing off your snowflake it's extraordinarily good at sticking to itself and distorting.  It was quite the challenge to get it back into symmetry and stick it to my fabric.  I should've put the original pattern on the light box to help line it up but I was being stubborn.  You can see from the picture below that the center of the snowflake isn't quite symmetrical.  It looks a little squished.  The blanket stitch helped with this, but after messing with it for about 10 minutes I decided that it was either cut a new one and put it on a different way or deal with it.  I opted to deal with it.

To combat this problem I decided to pull off only 2 points of the outer snowflake, stick them down, and then pull and stick as I went to finish putting the snowflake down on the fabric.  This method worked much, much better.

I decided that since the fabric I used for the snowflakes ranged from turquoise to sky blue to lavender I needed to pick a color that wouldn't clash.  Since sky blue was the most predominant I decided to stick with that color.  I used a Glide 40 weight polyester by Fil-Tec to do my double blanket stitch.

In the two pictures above you can see the snowflake with and without the stitching.  I love how the double blanket stitch really adds an extra design element to the applique.  It also makes it look finished to me.

Here is the finished top.  As I was working on the last snowflake I had a funny thing happen.  I was stitching around it and I ran out of bobbin.  I now know that one bobbin of Glide thread can stitch all the way around these snowflakes except for this much:

I hate it when that happens....

Suzy

The Future

One of my friends had a random word generator posted on Facebook that would "tell" you your word for next year.  Always curious, I typed in my name (that's all it needed) and it told me my word was "Future."  I wasn't sure I liked that word, so I tried it again with my full legal name.  I got "future" again.  I guess it was trying to tell me something?!

There are a few things I know the future will bring.  My boys will get bigger.  We will all get older.  My fifth grade students will learn more (hopefully!).  I will make more quilts and blog more.  Blogging is something I never knew I would enjoy so much when I started.  I usually quilt for show and doing little projects instead of big projects is giving me the freedom to create.

But the one I know will happen this year and am most excited about is that I will have a quilting book published by the American Quilter's Society.  It's a big task, but something I have always wanted to do and I am enjoying it.

That's why my future will bring and I am excited to see what happens.

Time to go quilt some more!
Suzy