Free motion quilting |

This past Quilt Market in St. Louis looked like a fun one. I wasn’t able to attend in person but I did have a plethora of quiltings hanging throughout.
Today I want to show you my latest for Timeless Treasures and Dear Stella. Each quilt has a free pattern attached to it.

First up, and probably my favorite, is the Space Station Quilt for Supernova by Rae Ritchie. I love Rae’s design style and it is always a pleasure to work with her prints.

My older son helped me pick the fabric placement for this one. He loves space and one days he wants to be an astronaut/karate kid/hockey player. This quilt gets to live at home with us. HE was absolutely thrilled when “his” design was picked for the collection, and doubly so when he saw the finished quilt. The pattern is available HERE from Dear Stella.

Next is the pattern CHOMP! for the Dark and Stormy Collection I just LOVED the sea theme and immediately thought of sharks popping out of the water. During the process I am pretty sure my family managed to come up with more than a dozen unique shark puns as name suggestions for the pattern.

The shark teeth can be made 3D or pieced. I thought it was clever to use the pirate head print for the teeth. Tee hee! You can find the pattern HERE.

For Timeless Treasures I got to play with a more traditional collection, Zephyr by Alice Kennedy. There are 22 neutral and greyscale hues in 15 unique prints. I loved how they all played together, and the varying levels of contrast meant I could create a lot of depth and texture without adding color.

The first quilt, Halo, is my favorite. I grew up in northern Alberta and at night, with the moon shining brightly, you could often see (what we called) “moon dogs” haloing the moon. The shimmering ice crystals were my inspiration for this quilt. You can find the pattern HERE.

I probably overquilted it, but I don’t care! The black spaces were calling to me. I used a deep navy thread for a subtle glow against the black fabric, and to prevent eye strain while I was quilting. I quilted a series of loops, swirls, straight lines, and circles. This quilt gets to live at Timeless headquarters in New York. (Does that mean I get to say I have art hanging in New York? I’m going to say YES!)

The second quilt, Marbled, I wanted to play with simple shapes that make a complex texture. I wanted a tile wall-inspired flow and form to the quilt. Pretty sure I succeeded with that. You can find the pattern HERE.

Next week I will showcase more Market pieces.

Until next time,

Happy Stitching!

Phew!

I finally finished my Madrona Road Challenge quilt. That is to say, the sandwich was finished 1 month ago, it just took me thins long to work up the guts to quilt is as I wanted to. I have had a quilting motif in mind since the start of this quilt. Like most of my quilts, I know what would look perfect, but I was agonizing over the actual execution of the design. What if I can’t draw it, what if the thread is too dark/light/colorful, what if my machine messes up, what about stitch length consistency, and on and on until things deteriorate into stitch in the ditch so I don’t ‘ruin’ my quilt.

That almost happened this time. I was terrified. I spent so much time hand sewing that I thought there was no way I could possibly do this.

What is it you ask that I love, yet it terrifies me so?

FEATHERS.

I LOVE FEATHERS. Love them! I can’t really explain why, its part symmetry, part motion, part music. Its like someone is stitching a symphony that I can hear with my eyes. I have always wanted to quilt in feathers. I have classes and DVDs and patterns for feathers, but for some reason I was never able to make them come out the way I wanted. Even my doodles were strange, so feathers ended up on the “I can’t do that list”.

Lets face it, we all have one of those lists when it comes to quilting. For some people it’s paper-piecing, for some people it’s working in a certain fabric, like a batik or solid, for others its a style of quilting. Feathers was on mine. I could admire them from afar, but never attempt them.

That changed a couple months ago. Janet from my guild does AMAZING work. Her quilting is spectacular and I have always admired it. I (half)jokingly told her I would pay her to do all my quilting for me, and she said that she started on small charity and challenge type quilts and just practice practices practiced. As I was sitting in my sewing room with the terrifying thought of quilting this staring me in the face, I remembered what Janet told me. It was like a switch flipped in my head, and suddenly the idea of quilting it how in had envisioned didn’t seem so scary anymore. If it didn’t look exactly how I wanted, no one would know except me. The fear was gone and I just went for it!

I divided the sections first, then I used a silver marking pencil to sketch my feathers in one of the sections. I FMQ it, then took a sheet of clear template plastic (unexposed but developed x-ray film that I got from work) and traced my quilting lines onto it. Then I would place it over the next section and use it as a guide for my feather placement. It worked really well, and I am so happy with how the finished quilt turned out. I may have conquered my fear of the Free Motion Feather!

Have a great quilting day!

Stacey

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Madrona Road Challenge Quilt