Quilting: Christmas Table Runner

My sister-in-law received her table runner in the mail yesterday and immediately put it on--love that and love when what I make has utility.

Quilting: Christmas Presents

I'm done with my grandniece Dani's nursery quilt, and I'm quite satisfied with the colors and the quilt stitches.

I actually posted this sampler quilt I had entered into the county fair on an earlier post, but I'm posting pics again as I'm saying good bye to it and giving it to my niece for Christmas.

In an Indigo State of Mind

This heart is a preview of my creative obsession with the hue between blue and violet.  This Bmix with grog Cone 6 heart was underglazed in marine blue in its bisque state for that smeary effect and then overglazed with white gloss because Bmix at a higher firing tends to go creamy beige rather than white.  I am planning to purchase a layer cake of shibori fabric and looking to sew more fabric projects to convey that Japanese aesthetic I adore.

Works in Progress: Free Motion Quilted Pillow & Binding for a Nursery Quilt

I took a free motion quilting class from Jill Schumacher, for which I sewed this Ohio Star pillow on which to practice and never did.  However, my Babylock Maria had only one speed (fast!)and didn't seem conducive to free motion quilting on a home machine.  Well now I've got the Babylock Katherine and an extension table for it (and quilted twice now on the Avante long arm), and so there's no excuse for not embarking on that free motion quilting outside of a sewing shop.  I've been watching Angela Walters's Craftsy class on dot-to-dot quilting before I use a Saturday to practice on this pillow.

I've also a nursery quilt to finish binding to give in time for Christmas, and so I spent last night sewing this 2.5" scrappy binding and then pressing and folding and pressing and folding.

Work in Progress: Hexagon Pillow and Zip Pouch

I'm wracked with cough and congestion, and so I stayed home the past couple days and sewed.  A charm pack of Cowboy stackers has been turned into hexagon patchwork for denim pillows and zip pouch as my holiday gift to a friend, originally from Wyoming.

Sewing: Quilt in Progress

Here's a close-up of one of my holiday projects:  a nursery quilt for my grandniece.  I had hoped to get this done before her first birthday in November 2016, but I'm glad I took my time and reserved to use this machine the day after Thanksgiving.  I decided not to have it quilted by an outsource, but to instead free motion quilt it on an Avante--it's the only way really to improve my free motion skills.  So glad I did because it was rather fun!  I practiced beforehand by taking a pen in my fist kindergarten style to paper.  At $58, it was cheaper than the $100 for a computer program to stipple it, and I'm very forgiving of the mistakes or the personalized loops here and there in my stippling.  What matters is not that it's perfect but that it's done.  I'm already ready for another run at the Avante;)

Sewing Work in Progress: Binding

I've sewn tops for holiday table runners and quilted them, and it's now time to bind them.  I watched three different tutorials--Jenny Doan from Missouri Star Quilt Company, Ashley Nickles on Creative Bug, and Bill Kerr from Modern Quilt Studio.  I did not want to hand sew this time, and the most straightforward and easiest instruction for me to understand was Bill Kerr's You Tube video. 

Then it was a matter of figuring out how to adjust the needle on my machine for the right seam width.  I've had to take my seam ripper to my binding twice now, but that's how I learn what not to do! I love my Babylock Katherine in that I no longer have to use my 1/4" foot--it's much more accurate and easier to just move that needle left or right and then line up the outer edge of the foot with the outside edge of the fabric.  My machine's automatic setting of a 1/2" seam seems to be the perfect needle position because it sews an 1/8" seam away from the left edge of the binding.  I just noticed 
in my photos that I used my regular foot instead of my walking foot, but the fabric is moving and so I'm going to go with it!

I'm at a corner!  As you can see from the picture, I wonder clipped the miter, but I have to leave for work and pause this project for now.  I've been gripping the binding to the edge of the quilt to make sure the stitches catch the binding on the opposite side of the quilt as well as lifting the presser foot every time I see the seam about to pucker and ruin a fairly straight line.