Free Motion Quilting Posies Tutorial and Some Beautiful Quilts At Quilt Club

I've been asked to share how I did my free motion posies.

Below is a step by step picture of how I do my flowers.

The very first thing I do is to practice drawing on my drawing pad.  Then I move onto my sewing machine and practice on my practice piece.

 

Everyone needs a practice piece of quilting by their machine.  I always do a quilting warm-up before I quilt directly on my quilt.  Please don't do what I did today.  I did practice on my practice piece and failed to look at the underneath.  If I would have looked, I would of noticed that I needed a tension adjustment.  So I ended up ripping out a row of free motion quilting on my good quilt, which is not my idea of fun!

I first start off sewing a straight line with a curl on the end.  I then back track on that curl to the straight line as in the picture below.

Then I form the pedals one by one.

All my posies are always a little different.  I do try to keep the pedals about the same size and shape.  If I don't concentrate when I'm doing them, they can get out of control.  

When I finish my last pedal, I track through the flower to quilt my next straight line.

Hope my pictures and descriptions are helpful in advancing your quilting.  

A dear friend of mine invited me to an informal quilt club.  I haven't joined a quilt club for many years because I had just too many things going on in my life, but I think now is a really great time to share with others.

Therese showed us her beautiful sampler quilt.  It is called Southern Star.

Check out these border fabrics.  I just love how all the colors go together.  I'm looking forward to see how Therese finishes her border.

Below is a memory quilt that Joan shared with us.

When my grandparents pasted on, I wish I would have thought of preserving their memory through a lap quilt like this.  I am looking forward to seeing you ladies next month and thank you for sharing your quilts with us.  I will be doing another post soon on how I'm doing on the Free Motion Quilt Along.

Happy Quilting

Kay Lynne

September Friday Night Sew-In and Fall is Officially Here!

I had a Friday afternoon and night sew-in!  Since last month, I have quilted my Courthouse Steps lap quilt.  Yesterday afternoon I started sewing the binding down and I have it just about half way finished.

Friday evening I started quilting my free motion quilt along quilt.  I wanted to get caught-up with the group so much that I got carried away.  I was only to quilt two of the white stripes and I quilted four.  Oh well, I did put a border on this quilt so I have enough room to do everything that Christina has in store for us.  When I was quilting the two white strips, I used a wavy line and then went back in the same direction making a wavy ribbon.  It was so fun that I kept on going!!!  With all the different colors in this fabric I couldn't make up my mind what color to use so I'm using five different colors that are variegated.  It's going to be something different.

I'm glad that I joined the Free Motion Quilt Along.  It's really helping me to think outside the box in quilting.  I quilted a flower design and what looks like a tale of a kite.  I think that design suggestions are just great and are something different!!! 

When my husband is combining beans and making a lot of dust, fall is official.

I'm hoping for a safe harvest this season!

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne

Quilt Shops and Vacation Time With Family

Dean and I finally gotten vacation time to see family in St. Louis.  What a wonderful trip! 

Let's talk about quilts shops that I visited first.  While we were passing through the great state of Illinois, we stopped in Effingham where I found a great quilt shop that had the largest selection of quilt books that I've seen in a long time.  I bought a book called Beautiful Bargello by House of White Birches.  My mom has made several of bargello quilts and I want to try my hand at it.

Another quilt store that we ran across was in St. Charles, Missouri.

Quilt shops aren't only about the fabric; it's about the people there to.  Jeanna and I met a beautiful lady, Hollis Heyn.  Here is her yo-yo quilt that we think was made in the 1920's or 1930's by her grandmother (if my memory serves me correctly).

Be sure to click on the picture to see a close up of the wonderful textiles. I'm so happy that we walked in just at the right time to see this family heirloom.  Thank you so much Hollis for sharing a part of your family history with us.
If you are ever in St. Charles, Missouri, please take time to stop at 337 South Main to visit Patches, etc.  It's a great little quilt shop with a lot of pretty fabric and friendly people.

My daughter-in-law and I did have a wonderful afternoon in St. Charles.

We had a great day at the St. Louis Arch.  It is absolutely amazing!

We also rode a ferry across the Mississippi.

We ate the richest chocolate cake I've ever had for Nathan and Jeanna's Anniversary.  Thank you Steve for making the special chocolate icing!

We just had a great time being together and just being silly!

Don't forget the Friday Night Sew-in is coming up at the end of the week.  I will be catching up with the Free Motion Quilt Along.  If you want to join in the quilt along, just click on the picture on the left and join us!

Happy Quilting

Kay Lynne

Free Motion Quilt Along

Even though I'm an experienced Free Motion Quilter, I still have a lot to learn.  I have even taught it in the past, but one thing I have learned over the years is that there's always room for improvement and we all can learn new things from each other.  When I taught quilting, I learned just as much from my students!  So I'm going to do a Free Motion Quilt Along.

http://afewscraps.blogspot.com/

I have my top all sewn together and I will keep you posted on how I'm doing.  I did add borders to my top so it doesn't look like Christina's sample on her blog.  She has many great tips and explains everything in great detail.

Don't skip cleaning and oiling your machine.  I have worked for two different sewing machine companies and you wouldn't believe the type of repairs that we have received.  I agree with Christina--keep your sewing machine oiled and lint free.  You have to take time to clean out all the lint build-up or it will eventually give you sewing machine repair bills and down time.  If you only oil your machine and not clean the lint out, it will eventually become a nice layer of packed felt inside your machine.  Also through the years some manufacturers of sewing machines have told customers that they don't have to oil their machines.  As a farm wife and quilter, I highly disagree with that statement.  Any machine whether it's a sewing machine or tractor, it needs to be oiled, greased, and serviced.  Give your machine a drop of sewing machine oil when she sounds a little dry!   Your sewing machine will thank you :)

Happy Quilting

Kay Lynne

Memories, Painting, and Tomato harvest

My Aunt Linda bought a white Singer Featherweight off of Ebay a few months ago.  I promised her that I would clean and do a few adjustments to the tension.

It brought back many memories of Grandma Dolores.  She had little machine just like this one and I remember watching her sew.  My mom now owns Grandma's machine and she encouraged Linda to get one just like it.  So a several months ago there were furies of emails back and forth about this little gem of a machine and Linda was the blessed person that won the machine!  We had the opportunity to get together this weekend and share memories.

Pictured above are my Grandparents and they were such an inspiration to me.  They are why I'm not afraid to sew,  to decorate a cake, or to hold a hammer in my hand.  I was also taught by them how to hold a marriage together--they were married 64 years :)  I just hope that I can set a great example like they did.

Now that our house is resided, it's time to paint the gingerbread on the house.

So I spent some time everyday painting on the porch trying to work in the shade.  It was extremely hot so I even had a small fan on top of the ladder aimed at me to keep the air moving.  A fan on top of a tall latter probably looked funny from the road, but it sure helped.  Dean helped me when he could, which speeds up a dreaded job.

Our house is 111 years old and I think that it's amazing that this gingerbread is in such good condition.  We have one post that Dean will have to fix because the wood is rotting at the bottom.  I hate painting, but it's worth keeping the historical features on our house intact.

The tomatoes are all harvested on our farm.  The pictures tell the story.

As summer draws to a close and a fall is upon us.  Don't forget to look around and see the beauty all around us--actually that is a reminder to me.

I need to think about doing a landscaping quilt.  Isn't this a beautiful sunrise :)

Happy Quilting  and Happy Labor Day!

Kay Lynne