Neon Brights

Neon! What else is there to say? Just looking at it makes me want to find some jelly shoes (ouch) and big dangly earrings. I love this quilt so much, and I am so pleased that it will soon be on its way to brighten the nursery of a fresh new baby girl!

Details

• Pattern: Oklahoma, by Villa Rosa Designs
• Finished size: 45 x 57"
• Quilting: freehand free-motion posies in Superior Threads Rainbows, variegated Neons colorway, used on top and in the bobbin
• Eye-popping Factor: 11

Neon delight!

Stitching detail of neon quilt

Back of the neon quilt. I couldn't believe I found a fabric with neon polka dots on soft brown

Wrapping up my holiday Stitchapalooza

The spring semester starts tomorrow, so my non-stop four-week stitchapalooza has come to a close. Not a bad run, really -- I made three quilt tops since Christmas, and I can't even remember how many little projects. Today I used the playoff games to finish all of the quilting on the Tangerine Tango sampler blocks that I made for the Craftsy 2012 block of the month. I quilted them one at a time, so I still have some assembly to do, but the strips for that process are already cut and waiting patiently in a tiny bin.

I didn't take time to try for really nice photos, but a few of the snapshots came out pretty well. I am really pleased with those curved feathers in the grey backgrounds.

Tangerine Tango sampler

Tangerine Tango sampler

This photo came out pretty well - bubble quilting in the flower center on the Tangerine Tango quilt

The bubble quilting looked pretty cool on the back of the block too.

I finished the last block with literally inches of orange thread remaining on the spool. The bobbin alarm sounded just as I turned the last corner on the last border of the last block. Let us all remember that sometimes serendipity favors us.

Oh no!!

Tomorrow I return to my regular multi-tasking schedule of homeschooling, housekeeping, teaching geography, and learning Spanish. This means limited time for stitchery, but the time I do have will be used for designing and making my friend Aimee's t-shirt quilt (which has been on my shelf since Thanksgiving), and for quilting the Chopsticks and Cheddar, No Crackers quilts that I basted this morning. The machine is all cleaned out and ready to go!

Chopsticks quilt, pin basted and ready for quilting

Cheddar, No Crackers quilt, pin basted and ready for quilting. The Tula Pink charms look so pretty in the vibrant pink field.

Ravens, Quilting Begun

Jen's raven table topper is all basted up and has been a great wall decoration for this halloween season. I used the football day (go Pats!) to quilt it. I put some feathers in the center, up to the part where the ravens begin, then I skipped the ravens and did some curls in the outermost regions of the Nevermore fabric. The batik got a nice straight-line treatment, but the big wreath of feathers in the outer grey border segment came out really fantastic, which I DO say so myself! It's a little dark to get a photo of the full project, but here's a detail shot that shows just a segment of each section.

My nine-year-old is increasingly jealous that this one will get a new home. I am trying to think of something to make him for yule using the raven fabric.

RAVENS!

The Pittsburgh Steelers fans in my household couldn't believe I made a table runner using ravens in black and purple. I swear it was not an NFL statement.

Spiderweb quilting!

I want more of this fabric...what else could I use it for?

Tangerine Quilting: Blocks 1 & 2

I got a nice start on quilting the Tangerine Tango blocks this weekend. These 18" segments are just the right size for really detailed custom quilting...I'm thrilled with how they're coming out! I'm especially pleased with how the feathers look curving around the grey corners; I'm going to do the same motif in every block. After I sew the blocks together, I'll put some feathers in the smaller grey segments too.

A little pseudo-McTavishing in this wonky log cabin. The smaller strip of grey will be in the corner,  so I quilted it before attaching this block to the others.

Teensy stippling and infinity spirals in the tic-tac-toe block. I haven't decided yet whether to add quilting in the black strips.

Thin Mints: Quilted

Finished the quilting on Thin Mints last night! I used the spirals that I practiced last year in the Free-Motion Challenge -- because I wanted it to evoke round stacks of chocolate cookies -- surrounded by a wavy line, which I did with the walking foot. As usual, all my quilting is with Sulky Blendables threads, this time using two different colors. Nothing is jumping off the shelf as a binding choice, but the right thing will turn up soon.

The chocolate Pearl Bracelets that I used on the back is peeking out at bit at the top of the photo...I liked how this motif supported the "Thin Mints" name that this quilt gave itself.

spiral quilting close-up

I couldn't pick which photo I liked best, so what the heck. This is just the best darn pattern.

Free-Motion Summary

I cannot overstate how much I have learned by participating in this project. Practice, practice, practice...that is the key! Here are the twelve projects that I completed for the monthly tutorials:

January -- "Leaves" tutorial by Frances Moore

February -- "Feathers" tutorial by Diane Gaudynski

March -- "Fillers" tutorial by Ann Fahl

April -- Don Linn's tutorial on marking designs through tulle

May -- "Railroad Tracks" tutorial by Leah Day

June -- "Divide and Conquer" tutorial by Cindy Needham

July -- "Tiles" tutorial by Angela Walters

August -- "Jester's Hat" tutorial by Wendy Sheppard

September -- "Fancy Feather" tutorial by Paula Reid

October -- Teri Lucas tutorial on echo quilting/creative filling. This was my favorite one, and...I won a prize! (OK, so it was randomly selected, but it's still exciting!)

November -- "Spirals" tutorial by Sarah Vedeler

December -- progressive borders tutorial by Patsy Thompson

Throughout the year, I have used my newfound free-motion confidence on uncountable projects...here are a few photos:

Once again, I would like to offer a HUGE thank you to SewCalGal for organizing this excellent project; her ability to keep something so large so well organized is truly remarkable! Also, big thanks to each of the twelve teachers for providing such valuable information to help everybody who participated (there were HUNDREDS of us!) to grow and improve our skills. Thank you, thank you, thank you ALL!!!

In the twelfth month of quilting...

December's free-motion quilting challenge was to work on border designs, based on the tutorial graciously provided by Patsy Thompson. I printed about a dozen of the practice sheets that she provided and doodled all over them trying out different designs. Even my eight-year-old enjoyed this exercise, because he can use this technique to incorporate frames onto some of his drawings.

I spent the cold, grey morning working with a very heavy heart on what turned out to be quite a lovely piece, which I will turn into a pillow for our family room. I used a length of Moda Marbles that was hiding in the stash, a pale dove grey washed with pink, and a faint metallic shimmer. I don't really know why I bought this, because it's not really "me," but it was perfect for this project, because it was plain enough for the thread to show. Lots of pictures to share in this post.

I started by tracing and stitching the square lines, using my walking foot and Aurifil 50:

Then, a different motif in each border area. I started as Patsy Thompson suggested, with the basic design that she called "worms" in the first half-inch border region:

In border #2 (also a half-inch), I stitched a basic swirl, again as she suggested in her tutorial:

Detail of first two half-inch borders

 The next border was a full inch. I decided to try my "whale tail" motif that I used in the October challenge. I did a little paperwork to figure out how to turn the corners gracefully, and decided to add simple feathers:

Corner detail of third border

In the next half-inch border, I went with Angela Walters' little square spirals that I practiced in November. I still really like this particular motif, and it was easy to turn the corners:

Fourth border

The next two were both two inches wide, and I wanted to try the feather wave border that was shown in the tutorial. I started by marking evenly distributed dots along the edges of the border region. I used those dots to eyeball the curves, which I did free-motion rather than switching to the walking foot:

A little uneven, but not enough to rip 'em out.

 With the curves in place, I went back in to add the feathers:

Fifth (two-inch) border of curved feathers.

It took me a while to get the shapes right on these and some looked much better than others (which is the point of a learning experience, right?). The final border was to be a mirror image of the fifth. Again, I started with the basic curve:

...and then braced myself for the final pass, adding the last set of feathers:

I especially love the corner treatments on this design.

 Now that I am looking at this photo, I can't believe that I made this! These borders look absolutely amazing (which, as it happens, I do say so myself)!!! I know, because I made it, that they are far from technically perfect, but this wasn't done with an embroidery machine, or a pantograph, or even a stencil -- just completely eyeballed free-motion work -- so I'm quite pleased with the results! In fact, I deserve some more exclamation points: !!!!!

After the borders were done, I had to put something in the center. I love the spiraling square, so I switched over to my walking foot and started at one of the corners working my way in:

This is a snap to do on a small piece that is easy to pivot.

And, behold, the finished piece:

After I finished this, I took my bobbin case apart to vacuum the lint out (I always do after a few hours of quilting) and found that the metallic sheen on the fabric was coating the guts of my machine. Yikes! It wasn't sticky, though, so it came right off. The next and final task for this wonderful challenge is to compile all twelve of my projects into a single collage. Tune in next time!

Peace,
AK