Sunday, August 18, 2013

Free Motion Potholder & Storing Used Sewing Machine Needles




This week I am going to teach a class on making a potholder.

We are going to do a little free motion quilting.
Zentangle doodling and free motion quilting seems to go hand in hand!
What better way to experiment with doodling with my sewing machine needle than on a back of a potholder.
I used one layer Insul-Bright  for the front of my potholder and 2 layers of 100% cotton batting for the back.
They were quilted separately without a backing fabric like you would a quilt and bound with homemade bias tape with the wrong sides (batting sides) together.
This way there are three layers of batting, the top, and the back.
If I run out of Insul-Bright, I have used two layers of 100% cotton batting for the top of the potholder.
Insul-Bright cannot be doubled because there is a problem with needle breakage.
I have not had any problems FMQ without a backing fabric.
The best things about potholders are they wear out quickly and they do not have to be perfect :)
Thank you Pat for the pattern!
Pat is from Connected Threadz an online quilt club and if you are a long arm quilter,
Pat has a wonderful online shop at http://www.urbanelementz.com/



I am also teaching a mini class on sewing room organization.
Here my tip of the week:
When I change needles and the needle is still good, I put it in my old tomato pincushion.
If you click on the picture, you will see that I have all the sizes and different kinds in their designated area.  I wrote the areas with a fine tip pigma pen.
For many years I put them back into the original box, but I like this method better because the tomato reminds me that "this needle has been used".
Stay tuned for more tips as time goes on.
I am always looking for more organizational tips--please share :)


Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Where Did All the Time Go?



Life has been so busy since wheat harvest.  As soon as wheat harvest was finished I taught two classes at the Quilt Foundry.  My students were wonderful!  
I hope they had as much fun as I did!
We did a class on thread painting and FMQ quilting feathers.

The following week I went with a quilting friend to the west side of Chicago for six days.
We brought our sewing machines and had lots of fun!
 

Zeke came to visit!
 

We had seen the Cleveland Indians lose to the Detroit Tigers.


 We went camping, hiking, canoeing, and 
horseback riding.
Honey was my horse.  Isn't she a sweetie!
This was my first ride!


We camped in a tent and enjoyed family time together.
Toasting marshmallows and using a pie iron to make pizza pies brought back lots of memories.
This was the first time I ever melted a pie iron!  I guess the fire was too hot!
 

It was a great vacation!
Maybe I will have some time to sew!

Happy Quilting!

Kay Lynne