Thank you for coming to my Featherweight Quilting Skill Series! There are thousands of us who love our little 221s but need or want a little more "know-how" on using them to their fullest potential. I hope my posts and videos will help you get more know-how and confidence in using your beautiful Featherweight. Enjoy the classes!
Class #1 - Seam Guide
Class supply list:
Your fully threaded sewing machine, the seam guide, several practice pieces of fabric or a current piecing project.
Welcome back to another wrap up! I'm linked with Leah Day's Free Motion Friday - hi everyone who is visiting me from there!
ThistleFire is one of my favorite rooms to be in. I managed to overhaul the space and really get things organized. It looks so much better and I can actually FIND THINGS when I need them! It must be in the air! We're all getting things put in their places.
One addition I launched on my blog is the tab for the Sewer's Spotlight. There is one person featured in there right now with several more in the wings. Check it out!
Here's the progress from this past week.
SSQC - Our club's first meeting is on the 14th! Can't wait to see everyone! An optional project that we will be working on in the club requires a completed "center panel, any size as long as it is square" to be brought to class. This panel will be worked on by other club members throughout the year. Here's what I have started for this project.
Yes, I know it's round but it will be square by the time it's done! You can learn how to make this pattern too, if you are in Craftsy. Look for the Precision Piecing class.
Winding Ways Throw / FMQ - I managed to get the long arm quilting done. The rippling circles are a nice feature and show up just great on the back on the red. I plan to do more quilting in the larger outer border and in the small pieces outlining the center circles. I think simple outlining the small pieces would be enough. The outer border will get funky curved line stars.
Apple Core Sunset - Nothing was done on my sunset panel this week. It just sat in its box waiting for me. My puppy thought it would be big fun to steal my spool of purple thread but I got it back before she did anything tragic to it!
Blue Kaliedescope Flowers - Oh, I just love the way this looks a little more each time it gets worked on. Two of the four edges were attached. I'll get to the next two this weekend. They need to be match point pinned before the sewing is done.
Can you say "wow" with me? Carol Doak came up with a winner with this pattern!
Part of the seam was really thick and I thought it was because I was at an 8-point corner. As I
unfolded the panels, I realized that it was NOT an 8-point corner, it was a 12-point corner! Yikes! Thanks to paper piecing, it lined up nicely each time.
You Tube Video - "Basic Sewing Class #1: Preparations" Several people have mentioned that they were interested in learning how to sew. If I had the time, I'd love to go around and hold classes but what I can do is offer video classes. This is some direction on getting prepared, along with some homework!
Isn't it funny how the thumbnail usually chooses a ridiculous looking photo?
I love to hear your comments. I get so few of them! I hope you are inspired to sew with me!
Another week has gone by. What have you done in your sewing room? This week, ThistleFire has many projects in the works. Here's all of my updates!
SSQC - this is the Club I go to - Second Saturday Quilting Club is beginning year 8 in a couple weeks. We have prep work to do for class 1.
This is for the mystery project we will work on at class. My main color is purple. Yay!
I am also signed up for the Round Robin project and the Sampler Quilt Project. Here is what I made for the Sampler. I LOVE samplers! I had to choose my favorite colors and I picked turquoise and peach. I'll show my block, the Crossed Ohio Star, to the other quilters and they will make a block to go with it but I can't look at any of them until June. Can't wait to see what my sampler will look like!
Winding Ways Throw - This has been an interesting progression. I'm trying out some techniques I learned in Craftsy classes.
The quilt is on the long arm and I came up with these ideas for the narrow border design. Wanting to keep curves in the motifs, I chose the top one.
Here it is quilted on the red border.
I wanted to make the circles predominate the top's design. I decided to put three stitched circles in each of them. You can see them: one in the center, one around the edge, and one in-between them. There is crossover with the lines on the half where the light and dark overlap. I'm likin' it!
Apple Core Sunset - All the sky strips are together and they need to be connected. Then the green grassy field will be added to the bottom of it.
I wish I took this in the correct "landscape" layout. If you tip your head over your right shoulder, you can make out the view. LOL Next week's image will be better!
FMQ Practice Panel - Hi fellow FMQ-ers seeing my post from the link with FMQ Friday at Leah Day's site! I did a couple of my own ideas from sketches this week.
This was supposed to look organic and fern-like but I think it looks more like a scorpion. What do you think of it? Not sure I like it.
I do like these though. Little yellow flowers attached in a string. It's fun and pretty and reminds me of summer. I found that sewing them while moving side to side gave better results than when sewing up and down.
My practice panel is full! I could squeeze more stuff in it if I really want to but I think I'll leave it just the way it is. I like the fact I can see my progress in my FMQ ability over the time I took to make this. Some of my early stitches are just terrible but you can also see better stitches in the piece.
Here's the back. It looks good too!
BKF - All of the corner blocks were made and the edging strips are sewn together. They are pinned along on the sides where they need to be stitched.
Crazy Strip Blocks - Since BFK was worked on, I made more crazy blocks. The one on the bottom needs to be pressed and cut to size, obviously! These are such a riot to make! I did a short video about them.
YouTube Video - Yes, it's about how I go about making the crazy blocks.
Thank you so much for stopping by! I'd love to hear your thoughts on my updates! If you like what you see, please follow my blog and subscribe to my YouTube channel. If you want to post something for me to see, you can do that at my Facebook page, Pamelyn's Postings. Have a fantastic holiday weekend! See you next week................
This week has been so fun in ThistleFire! I had a few major peaks in some projects and others were on hold. C'est la vie! Here's the latest-
Winding Ways Throw - we have a sandwich! Yes! This one has a front...
And an interesting, creative looking back. This was developed according to the methods given on Creative Quilt Backs on Craftsy. I like it!
I have WW on the long arm but have to finalize the quilting direction for it. But I have ideas! And can you envision this about four times this size for a queen sized bed? Wow! Maybe someday...
Apple Core Sunset - five rows done and one to go before the sky is half-way pieced.
You can start to see the look of a sunset in there. Next, the long sides of the cores need to be sewn together. Sparkie thinks it will be nice to lay on. Haha!
FMQ Practice Panel - I do believe the items I received in Leah Day's ultimate quilting kit has made a noticeable difference in my FMQ work. My stitches seem much more even and consistent. What do you think? Is it looking better? Speaking of Leah, I'm linking up with her FMQ Friday post! Hi everyone who is checking out my post from there!!!
If you have a Supreme Slider, you will recognize these practice patterns!
This cabling pattern was from a template. The travel stitching is barely noticeable. That alone makes me happy with my new FMQ "tools" that I am now using.
I made some happy faces by the date, August 18, which is a date that is important to me. =)
BKF - my blue kaleidoscope flowers waited patiently to be sewn on, but there was no time this week. I recently learned to paper piece with freezer paper and I am thinking about continuing with that method and how it is that I could pull that off. Mwah-ha-ha!
Crazy Strip Blocks - I have 30 blocks made so far. None were made this week. They are bonus blocks that are made from scraps cut off of BKF so if I don't work on that, then these pretty much aren't made either. It will be interesting to see how many I wind up with when BKF is done being pieced. I do have more of those blocks to complete so I'll make some more of these.
YouTube Video - my thoughts were all about cutting tools this week. Hope you get some ideas from it!
So that's it for this week! I am enjoying making these wrap ups. If there's anything you'd like to see in a video or have comments for me, please let me know! I'd love to hear from you. Thanks for stopping by ThistleFire! Sew with me!
That's right, folks. I have opened my own You Tube Channel to place my videos in one place. It was the best way to catch quick recordings and put them online and link them here. I hope you find them helpful in your sewing adventures!
So far, there are two videos posted. You can find my channel if you search for Pamelyn B and you can subscribe to it so you can get to them quickly from your channel feeds. As of today, I have 2 subscribers already! How exciting! You can also find them in my blog under the label YouTube.
I hope you enjoy the mini tutorials and lesson plans I have in mind for the future. Sew with me!
This week has been handled a bit different in ThistleFire, since my DH and I were on vacation. We were out and about, going places, doing things, and enjoying the beautiful weather. I managed to get a few things done on the rainy day and later in the evenings after all other activities wound down.
FMQ Experiment Sandwich - There was a nice looking FMQ on Leah Day's project, of which I link up with, at freemotionquilting.blogspot.com that caught my eye. It was found in the hair of a woman on a quilt and I really liked the way it flowed. When I was making it, I thought it would look great as waves or air currents in a quilt. I already have it in mind where I'll be using this one!
Blue Kaleidoscope Flowers - The four sides are sewn together. It was done in two sessions since I was distracted by making up some more crazy strip blocks!
Crazy Strip Blocks - Four more are done. The count is up to thirty!
Apple Core Sunset - I hand sewed another row of the sunset. I have four more rows to go, not three as implied in the picture.
This is nice to have around to pick up and work on while in the chair or out on the porch. It also goes together fast. Nice for a little something to do during down time after dinner. I came to quickly realize that I cannot sew in the car; it makes me woozy. One product that was recommended by a friend was Thread Heaven thread conditioner. That stuff really does keep hand sewing thread from knotting up on you. Glad I got some to use on this!
Winding Ways Retro Throw - Getting to this point was a bit of a challenge for me. I didn't have templates to make the border pieces go from curved to straight. There was one template I had for another curved project that worked just right for the corners so that was a happy accident! I managed to figure out how to make an original template for the center sections and cut them out in their prospective colors.
I am very pleased with how this is coming out so far! I plan to add red and turquoise borders in order to make it larger. So far it is only about 30" X 40" and I'd like to see it larger as a "throw" size, such as 50" X 60", as my project name suggests.
YouTube Videos - Yes, I started a YouTube channel! I hope you enjoy watching them as I share thoughts, reviews, lessons, and more. Here is my first video as I encourage you to Sew with me!
If you would like to see any specific topics, let me know! This is pretty exciting for me. I have plenty of things to say about sewing. Subscribe to my channel so you don't miss anything!
Some fabulous things came in the mail this week. See this post for all the details and video!
That's my week's wrap up. Pretty intense, isn't it?! What are you working on these days? I'd love to get your links to pictures here or on posted onto my Facebook page!
