A Fun Night of Quilting!

We had our first Quilt Ministry meeting Friday night.  Our first quilt top was completed and they did a great job! Here's some pictures from our meeting and then of the quilt we worked on.  Each person sewed a 9 patch and then we cut them to make a disappearing 9 patch pattern. 

 Before we got started.

 Hard at work!

 Here's the quilt on the Big Lady being quilted.

 And the finsihed quilt!

Great job guys and thanks for coming!  Looking forward to our next meeting!

Quilting Practice

I have been wanting to improve my free motion skills ever since I got my quilting machine.  It would be really nice to be able to quilt something besides pantographs, meandering, and straight lines!  I spent most of an afternoon watching videos from The Free Motions Quilting Project.  I chose 6 patterns I liked and followed the directions.  First you practice on paper, then on your machine.  BTW - you can do this on a sewing machine too.  That is how she does it in the videos.  I just used some cheap fabric and left over batting to practice.

Here is the whole quilting sample

  Lollipop Chain

Checkerboard

This started as Shadow Waves, but I didn't like it so I added some pebbles.

Echo Shell

 

Desert Sand

The directions for all these squares can be found here.  I tried the Bright Star too, but it was hard to hit the center.  Marking the quilt would make that easier.

Since I was just practicing, I thought I'd try a feather or two. A class on setting up and using our Gammill was included with our purchase.  In this class the teacher showed us how to make a feather. She made it look so easy.  I thought it was intimidating so I was afraid to try one!  Goes to show that we shouldn't be afraid to try new things!  I am no artist and I can't draw at all, but the feather is like drawing hearts.  

  

I did one with an echo and one without.  Swirls were new for me too.  They need some practice!  My hand is a bit shaky still.

I am comfortable with mid size meandering, but tried the smaller version.  Not as bad as I thought it would be!  I would encourage everyone to give free motion quilting a try.  It was fun to see what I could do!  Now it's your turn.  I'd love to see which pattern you choose.  Leave me a comment if you try it!

Zig Zag Quilt

Here's my version of the Zig Zag quilt that doesn't use half square triangles!  This went together so fast, I loved the process.  I got the pattern from Crazy Mom Quilts after seeing Sarah from Confessions of a Fabric Addict make one.  I changed the size to make it rectangle.  Mine is about 60x70.  I wanted the quilting to be simple so I just did 1/4 in lines to outline all the zig zags.  Thanks girls for the lovely inspiration!

Valentine's Quilt

Made this cute quilt and matching pillows for the couch.  Love the pattern, a darker color (instead of the white with pink hearts) would have made it nicer.  Learning is a constant thing around here!  Sometimes I just can't picture what it will look like till we cut it up and then it's too late!!!  I think I can handle it just for a month!  My goal is to get one for each season and holiday, but probably not gonna be done this year!

Sam's Quilt

This is the quilt I made for our bed. (Never took a picture of it!)Sam picked the colors and helped adapt the pattern from a quilt-a-long that I wanted to do. It's a king size, but I made it a tad too small. Next one will be the right size! It's not to girly for our room and blue is my favorite color! I took it to the quilt shop last december to have it quilted with dragonflies to match the fabric! Love it! Didn't have the "Big Lady" then. But if I did, I wouldn't have got the dragonflies!

Quilt Ministry

Our church's Quilt Ministry starts this month! Our first meeting will be on January 27!!! I'm so excited to get started. We will be sewing quilts for people that are sick either in the hospital or with chronic illness, people in nursing homes, people who have lost their homes, etc. And we will be giving special quilts to all babies dedicated by our pastor. Our ministry is based on donations, so if you have some fabric or quilts you'd like to donate please feel free to email me! I will be posting pictures of our finished quilts once we get started. I'd also like to give a special thanks to Sarah from Confessions of a Fabric Addict who answered so many of my questions! Thank you!!