Three Tips for Free-Motion Quilting Success

I am teaching myself to free-motion quilt. This weekend I was playing with interlaced triangles as my motif atop hand-dyed, Paintstick embellished fabric.

I am working on a Husquavarna MegaQuilter. This machine goes forward and backward only, but it can go REALLY fast. I found this machine on eBay (yes I bought it sight-unseen) and watched the how-to video several times before I felt comfortable turning it on. (The back story on that is this is my newest machine---even though it was discontinued several years ago---so I was a bit shy about running it. It didn't help that the thread kept balling up on the back (operator error) and had to stop and untangle and rethread.

Now I am reasonably adept at threading and stitching and detangling. And there are 3 things I have learned that I want share with you.

3 Tips for Free-Motion Quilting Success

1. Secure the top and back to the batting. I use cotton/polyester batting and 505 Spray & Fix. I spray the fabric outside whenever possible and never use it in a closed space. If you don't want to use adhesive spray you could hand baste or pin layers with safety pins.

2.  Practice your motif on a scrap 'sandwich' first. This step can save you a lot of headache and prevent the rip-it, rip-it motion.

3. Wear quilting gloves. I never thought these little darlings would be SO helpful, but indeed they are. They increase the friction between you and your fabric sandwich and permit easy movement of the fabric around the needle. They are lightweight and inexpensive and worth every penny.

You're Doing What?

This is a small artwork I just completed for the SAQA meeting later this month. I dyed the base fabric then embellished it using fabric paint and stencils (thank you Carol R. Eaton for suggestions and supplies) and then added more stitching.

See it up close in Simsbury!

Farmington River - In Progress

My section of the map (#2)

River fabrics need to end within a certain area of the sides

What should the river edge look like?

Experimenting with 'thunderstorm' in upper left

Steeped in Stitches - Tea and Hats from the Phelps-Hatheway Exhibit in Suffield

r

Carol and Rosalind being silly

Nancy in the morning

The garden party tea prepared for us by Lynn at the Phelps-Hatheway House

Linda and her amazing hat

Some of the SAQA group gathered on Saturday morning

Wanda contemplating tea selections

Carol thinking about tea cakes!

"Steeped in Stitches" Fiber Arts at the Phelps-Hatheway House in Suffield this Weekend

My art group and I have been busy preparing for our latest exhibit at the Phelps-Hatheway House in Suffield, Connecticut this weekend.  

I think it is odd that I grew up in Suffield, Ohio and have lived in Connecticut for 25+ years and yet only recently met folks from the Connecticut namesake. That's right, back in the 1800's there was a man named Royal Pease who left this state to head to Connecticut-owned-land in the midwest, the so-called "Connecticut Western Reserve". He settled about 60 miles south of Cleveland in Portage County and named his settlement Peasetown.  Later this town would be renamed Suffield. 

On this map the Connecticut Reserve is shown. It was also known as the Western Reserve. 

Suffield, Ohio is just south of Brimfield, Ohio and yes, you guessed it---folks from Brimfield, Massachusetts settled that region. And, of course, as you might guess, that region of northeast Ohio has many other towns with names of the New England counterparts like Amherst and Hudson.

Phelps-Hatheway House and Garden
55 South Main Street
Suffield, CT
"Steeped in Stitches" 
Saturday September 12th 10 am - 5 pm
Sunday, September 13th 10 am - 4 pm

Schedule includes:

• Quilt Raffle
• Lectures
• Book signing Saturday @ 2:00 p.m.
• Gift Baskets
• Unique items for sale in the gift shop

Expanding Surface Design Skills with Carol R. Eaton

There is nothing better than spending time with a good friend and if you can play with fabric at the same time it is a huge bonus.  

Yesterday was one of those days.  I spent the morning playing with fabric paint, stencils and leaves in the studio of Carol R. Eaton. Here are few before and after photos.

BEFORE - Castoff linen waiting to be UPCYCLED!

AFTER
I used a stencils for the map directions  and spots. The water-based fabric paint that dries to permanant color. The grids were created using wire ribbon and carpet padding.

BEFORE: Tie-dyed cotton from my stash that needed some umpf!

AFTER: You wouldn't guess it was the same fabric! The giant grape vine leaves (more than 8 inches) were used as stamps applying acrylic fabric paint to the reverse, more deeply veined side of the leaf, placed on the fabric and then pressed using a brayer. Additional colors were added using carpet padding and sponges as stamps.

Work in Progress - Wednesday- "Mitosis" by Mary Lachman

Today I am machine quilting a new textile artwork, "Mitosis".

This is a small corner of the larger piece.

The blue fabric was hand-dyed with indigo using wood rounds and old CDs as resists.

The small panels were machine pieced and randomly sashed with a hand-dyed yellow cotton.