A New Baby Quilt and A Truck Load of Woodchips

I'm making a baby quilt for a dear friend who just had her first grandson.  I pulled some fabric out, you can see them here.  I started to make a few blocks of curved piecing and put them on a design wall as shown here. 

I haven’t decided yet what this quilt would look like.  We’ll wait and see.  I'll let them hang out on the design wall for awhile and make some more to join them.

While I was working on the quilt, I got a truck load of wood chips delivered on to my drive way. It’s a gigantic amount of wood chips as seen here. 

I do gardening for fun and to relax.  Recently, I learned of using wood chips in the garden as mulch from Back to Eden Gardening Documentary film by Paul Gautschi who introduced me to an organization called Chipdrop. I don't have any affiliation with any of these two organizations.  I only recently used their service and love the idea and now tell people around me about them.  Now I have enough wood chips for my own garden and to share.  Some of my  neighbors came and took some wood chips for their garden too.

 

That's what's going on around here.  I hope you all have a great week and thanks for visiting.

Margo

Learning A New Skill and WIP in February

I'm done with the second charity quilt top for Q4C. You can read about the first quilt top here and see the finished top here.

For this one, I decided to use 3 fabrics. There is only one Intersection block repeated over and over without rotation.  This is the layout for this quilt. 

I'm amazed at how different the two quilt tops looks.  With a minor change of fabric and the way the blocks are put together, we get a new look!   There will not be any borders, just a dark red for binding.  It was delivered yesterday.

 

I've got a new project and it's a baby quilt for a dear friend's first grandson.  I haven't decided on the pattern but I pulled out some fabric.  I'm sure I'll add some more fabric into this pile later.

Last week, I took my first longarm quilting class.  After many years of wanting to learn a longarm FMQ, I didn't really know what to expect.  We started at 1 pm.; the class is a 3-hour class.  The instructor started by showing me how to turn on the machine which is a Nolting longarm quilting machine.  She let me play by moving the machine around with the stitch regulator and also without the stitch regulator to feel the difference between the two modes.  My first time having my hands on a longarm!!  It felt so powerful and fast!  I love the stitch regulator mode; I can use all the help I can get.  The stitches come out so nice and even.  I moved the machine around in swirly motion, but later came back to straight lines.  I guess I was trying to imitate the straight line quilting style I do on my domestic machine. 

She then showed me how to mount a quilt on to the machine, how to wind a bobbin and where to put it in.  We mounted a real baby quilt top on.  She showed me how to baste it using a single stitch around the area about 20" which is the area I'll be quilting.   She then said ok, let's quilt.  I was freaking out a bit because I was afraid to ruin a good quilt top.  This baby quilt is supposed to be a donation and I didn't want to mess it up.  She said it's fine go for it, and said many encouraging things to me.  After seeing me still stressed, she left me alone to calm down.  I sat there quietly for 5-10 minutes, then gathered myself up and started to move the machine around in a swirling motion.  I had no idea what I was doing, but my hands kept the machine moving.  When I was done with the first area, I moved the quilt upward to the next area and on and on.  By 3:45 pm., I was done with the whole piece.  What a rush and I liked it!!

 

My very first Free motion quilting on a longarm

I probably don't remember all the things she taught me.   This is not the first time that I force myself to do things that's new to me.   I was intimidated at first, but it turned out to be a really fun thing to learn.  I need more practice time to familiarize myself with the machine.  Look forward to play some more with the longarm machine. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you all have a great week ahead!!

Margo

I am linking today to Carol at Quilt Schmilt!

WIP in February

I took a needed break during the last 2 weeks of January and the beginning of February.  I get tired easily because I had brain surgery seven years ago due to a ruptured aneurysm.  The outcome of the surgery was great.  I am able to resume my day to day activities and live a "normal" life.  But sometimes, when I use up all my energy, I have to stop and recharge.  That can take a week or, sometimes, two.  I'm accepting the fact that I'll never be 100% my former self, but I'm grateful for everyday that I have. 

 

Now I'm back and as good as new!!   I finished a quilt top for the Quilting For Community (Q4C) and dropped it off last week.  Here is the picture.

It's 54" x 66" before quilting.  Now I'm working on the second one with the same fabric but a little different layout.  I'll show a picture in a few days.

 

I decided to take a Free Motion Quilting on a long arm machine class at the Q4C.  The class will be on Thursday of this week.  I'm excited but a little nervous.  I think it will be really fun to finally dive in.  It's been on my list of things to do for a few years now.  I can't wait!! 

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you all have a great day!

Margo

Sometimes we don't know why or how things happened.  I trust in the Lord that these things are for my benefit and that I will learn from them.  From 2Nephi 22:2 we read: Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation.