Crafty Sewing & Quilting: March 2012

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Getting Up Close with My Quilting - Triple-Double Bubble Quilting

I used one thread color to quilt this quilt - a soft yellow. I circled every bubble at least twice and most of them three times.

The size of the bubbles range from about 1 1/2 inches to 3 1/2 inches in diameter.

I used an 80/20 cotton/poly batting for this baby quilt. I personally like the 80/20 batting the best. If I had used a poly batting the bubbles would be puffier. You could even add two layers of poly batting and then the bubbles would really puff! It depends on the look you want.

The Triple-Double Bubble Quilting is a whimsical way to quilt a baby quilt.

I rolled it up and mailed it to my customer.

The blue quilt that I used for the back drop for the photos is the back side of my Blue Patchwork Shorts Quilt. I quilted that will two blue threads - medium and light blues. The quilting is a Large Two Color Ribbon Quilting.
Click here to see the Double Bubble Quilting Post. For the Double Bubble Quilting I used two thread colors.
Enjoy your day!
Marcia

Wordless Wednesday - Red Kalanchoe for my Kitchen Table - Flowers that Inspire My Quilting

Linked with:
www.WordlessWednesday.com
Outdoor Wednesday - A Southern Daydreamer
Tootsie Time: Fertilizer Friday

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Thoughts --- New Posting Schedule for Sharing!

2014 Update:
This is a good post to read, as it shows you the variety of things I post about. I post by subject area or by topic and anywhere from 2 to 6 times a week, but not on specific days any more. See the links in my sidebar. Enjoy!

Thoughts --- New Posting Schedule for Sharing!

I am starting a new posting schedule. For a year, I posted regularly at least 4 to 5 days a week. I still will be posting 4 to 5 days a week, but I will be posting on certain topics, but not on set days. That works better for me!

Getting Up Close to My Quilting will be at least once a week and occasionally 2 to 3 times a week. I take photos of quilting designs everyday. Then I think I can't post it til the next week Monday, but then there is a cooler one... Well, not any more. When I quilt the quilts and take the photos, I am going to share them!

Hodgepodge Patchwork Tuesday will probably be around Tuesday. I call it: "Anything Quilting Post" - a tutorial, a share about a quilted item, and even some quilting challenges.

I love posting Hodgepodge Patchwork Tuesday!

Wordless Wednesday will be around Wednesday and will of course be wordless.

Gabby and Toby

Since August, it has featured primarily my dog, Gabby and my Mom's dog, Toby as it was a way for me to share photos of them with my Mom, friends, and family. That way they could all see sweet little Toby. Toby was attacked by two large dogs this summer and was in the hospital for five weeks. My husband and I are caring for him now and he has blended very well into our home.

When I first started Wordless Wednesday posts it was a way of sharing a few more photos of quilting designs, a cool flower, or something that was visually pleasing to me.

Wordless Wednesday will be more quilting designs, flowers, and a few photos of my dogs, mixed in.

Thoughts Posts used to be called Thursday's Thoughts and the last time I posted an actual "Thoughts Post" was in October. It is not that I don't have thoughts, I just seem to be sharing them in the other posts and didn't find a need to share an individual post just for thoughts. So this will be an occasional post.

An example was the "I See Quilts Everywhere..." Look at all those colors. Wouldn't they make a pretty quilt?
That is what started Lunch Looks Like a Quilt to Me Blog.

FAQ's Posts used to be on Friday's from April thru' August last year. Again, I seem to be sharing the questions and answers in my other posts -- so no real need for an individual post for questions. If you click here or on FAQ's Posts you can read some of the things I wrote about. It is a mixture of quilting business questions and personal questions. Like do I cook? It was one of the questions answered in that post from May 2011.

And these questions were answered in June: What do I do in my evenings? and Why do I write a blog?

Last fall, when I was at a quilting retreat, I posted several posts called: My Minutes for Me Adventures. It was about all the quilting projects I was going to complete during the 4 day retreat. I posted about the progress on each one. Here are a few of them.

I have been to two retreats, since then and just posted about the items under different titles. I am going to another 4 day quilting retreat in the middle of April and I will again share my Adventures.

A Quilter with a Green Thumb are the posts I share about the plants and flowers in my home and my container garden.

I love when you share your posts on the Minutes for Me Linky Party!

First, I tried a weekly party and then a monthly party. I may go back to the weekly party. How about just a weekly link up, but with no weekly features? I link up to many sewing and quilting linky parties, but they don't do any weekly features and that is perfectly fine. Any thoughts? I love your input.

Are you doing May for Me Celebration with us?

In conclusion... I love sharing, but from now on I am going to share about all of these quilting topics, but not on specific days. I enjoy blogging. Sometimes stuff in my life gets in the way of sharing a post at a certain time or day. Now with my new posting schedule, I will share whenever I want to share with no time restraints.

That makes me smile.
Remember to take time to play - at least 5 minutes everyday!

Marcia
Linked with:
The Shady Porch: Rock'N Share
Quilting by the River: Linky Party Tuesdays
AND I am linking this up with Work In Progress Linky party as --- this post is a work in progress and shares links to several of my quilting posts.
Freshly Pieced: WIP - Work In Progress

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Zig Zagging, Kissing, Quilting, and Cooking?

Remember, I made too many blocks, so I made three little quilts.

Quilt Number One: The Kissing Quilt

Quilt Number Two: Ziggin' Outside the Block

Quilt Number Three: Straight Line Zigging

No binding on this quilt, because I will take it with me to a Quilt Retreat in April and make it into a zipper bag.

Quilt Number One: The Kissing Quilt
I used a green fine point sharpie marker to write the words that I wanted to thread paint.

First I overall quilted the center of the quilt and wiggle line and zig zag quilted the border.

Next, I started the thread painting on the lettering.

Stitched my name and year in the bottom right hand corner of the quilt.

All done quilting - trimmed and ready to bind.

I chose black fabric for the binding. Wrapped it around to see how it looked.

Stitched on the binding.

Flipped it over so you can see the back of the quilt and hanging sleeve.

I hung it up on the wall to get a vertical photo.

Maybe it should have said: I quilt better than I cook!

Quilt Number Two: Ziggin' Outside the Block
I used two thread colors for this quilt too. A lite tan and olive green. I started with the tan thread - zigging and zagging in the open area. I triple wiggle line quilted around the green strips.

Then I zig zagged with the green thread shadowing the tan stitching lines. I also zig zag on the green strips.

A couple up close photos of my crazee zig zag quilting and the triple wiggle line quilting around the strips.

I really had fun with the quilting on this project.

Flipped it over to the back side for a photo.

Ready for the binding.

Up close of the corners.

The back side of the quilt.

A full view at an angle!

Quilt Number Three: Straight Line Zigging
Before Quilting it looked like this.

The quilting on this one was all little zig zags going in and out of the zig zags.

An up close photo of the stitching.

Keep in mind these are little zig zags, as the blocks are only 2 3/4" in size.

Up close of the back side of the quilt.

Full view of the back of the Straight Line Zigging Quilt.

I like the backs almost as much as the fronts!
I folded this one in half, so you can imagine how it will look as a zipper bag.

Quilt Number One and Quilt Number Two are my entries for Project Quilting.
Ziggin' Outside the Block and the Kissing Quilt
I think of my Kissing Quilt as my Bonus Quilt. I used the leftover scraps to make it. I guess, I would have to say the Straight Line Zigging is a Bonus Quilt too.
If you missed the post about the construction of the quilts - Click here.
I will be proposing a May for Me Quilt Challenge in mid April. I am seriously thinking of using the construction method for the zig zag block as the challenge. I am still looking for input about that. You could use up all those little strips and scraps. It would make a great baby quilt or a lap quilt.
I tried another arrangement and came up with a little maze quilt. Just think of all the ways you can arrange the blocks to make an even more complicated maze! I did not quilt it yet -- maybe next week.

I will be adding my entry and bonus quilt to the Project Quilting Flicker Photo Stream group at: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1401824@N21/pool/

All the Zig Zag Quilt entries are due at Noon on Sunday March 25th.

Hope you are having a relaxing weekend!
Marcia

The Zig Zag Quilt Block is available in a PDF Downloadable Pattern at Craftsy.com Click Here.

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Linked to:

Project Quilting - Challenge Number Six

This week I will be Linking with:

Pieceful Life: Little Quilts Monday

Sew Happy Geek: Manic Monday
Lisa's Chaos: Macro Monday

Sew Chatty: Made with Love Link up

Quilting by the River: Linky Party Tuesdays

Quilt Story: Fabric Tuesday

The Shady Porch: Rock'N Share

Happy Quilting: TNT Thursday

Faith, Grace, and Crafts: Pearls and Lace Thursday

The Thrifty Groove: Thrifty Thing Friday