Yellow Brick Road finished!

 This post is full of photos...of this quilt I just finished!

The first photo is being held and the second one is laying on the concrete.

This pattern is by Terry Atkinson of Atkinson Designs

I started it Januarry 21, 2014 and have blogged about it.  I had bought a 6 fat quarter bundle several years before I started this quilt.  I blogged about it 1/25/14 and then again 2/01/14, 2/08/14 and 6/27/14.  At that time it was a quilt top and it hung on my quilt rack for years as I did other quilts.

Then this year I decided I needed to finish it.  I used Diagonal Dots for the backing.  There are photos in 2/25/20 post of the start of FMQ.  I used designs by Lori Kennedy mostly.  The designs I used are flower power, Claire's peony, Faye's flower, Easy Peasy.  I also used wiggles, loops, heart leaves and spirals and meanders.  The first border I used lazy 8 Christina Cameli.  The outer border is #4 serpentine stitch on my machine 2.5 x 2.5.

The other blog posts with photos from this year 6/30, 7/14, 7/19 and 7/21.

Here are photos I took all over the quilt...starting at the top left and down and all around.  Since these photos are on my phone and then in my computer....they do go away....but this blog is where I can come to see them if they are gone other places!!

And the last photo is with a corner turned over to see the back.

It feels good to have this done....I had thought about giving it as a gift....but it has practice FMQ...but then that is what I usually call all my FMQ as it is hard to get it to look perfect.  OH that's right....I forgot I gave up being perfect and I am now striving to be perfectly imperfect!!!

Rebecca Grace has started a linky party and this is the second week.  She has invited me to join.

http://cheekycognoscenti.blogspot.com/2020/08/lal2-one-where-thoroughly-modern-millie.html

Be sure to check out the other posts......so many very interesting blogs to check!

AND I am also linking with Free Motion Mavericks

http://lizzielenard-vintagesewing.blogspot.com/2020/08/free-motion-mavericks-week-293-another.html

Be sure to check their posts also.....it is so fun to see what everyone else is doing!

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

FMQ on improv quilt

I am doing practice FMQ on the improv browns tabletopper!!

This is 14 x 57 and I started on the right end in about 10" and started with crazy matrix.  I have done this design before and blogged about it.  A design by Leah Day.

I had used the walking foot for the other tabletoppers I have made...but after one stitchng line on this one I decided I would switch to the BSR and that worked better.  I didn't want to turn the quilt each time.  It was easy to turn the smaller quilts I had done before and easier to control moving the quilt.

On this quilt.....I ended up going past the line on some areas and just filled in some random things....I will go back and fill in more and it won't stand out so much!!

The next photo is a design I am doing for the first time!  AND I am doing it without trying it on paper first!!  If this were any other quilt I would always practice on paper and another fabric practice piece.  BUT this quilt will be 5' above the floor and actually not very visible. 
click on the link by Leah Day
Open heart tutorial
It is a fun design without closing the heart and doing echoing.  I know I can do better with practice and this design will be one I use in the future.  Some of my hearts I ended up closing and not leaving open...

Linking to Free Motion Mavericks   week 266

Now I have to hurry up and do some more quilting before the BB game later this afternoon.  Our SD Aztecs are 23 and 0 and they are so fun to watch.  There will be no quilting during their games!! 

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

Kiwiberry batik rails finish and some zen stitching

 I finished a UFO that I started in November 2010.  I have blogged about it before and lately quite a lot!  It was a goal to finish this quilt this month.........and that is what I did!

 Here is the back.......I did a lot of different FMQ designs.......mostly as practice for the first time on each design.  This will go on our patio table.

 I took photos of all of the areas and decided to add them to this blog post.  There are words and short sentences added in different areas. AND I did some very big hand stitching in some areas!

next I will talk about what I call zen stitching.................

 This week I read a blog post about Stitch Meditations..........I became very fascinated and interested in checking out the video and learning more about it.
So here is the info I read and you can check it out on this blog post by Andrèe here 

The video she refers to is on YouTube by Liz Kettle   Stitch Meditations

Rules....No plan..take few minutes to pick materials...no taking out stitches. AND OK not to be perfect!! Here are my little pieces of creative bliss!!! I have used flannel 4 x 4 and 3 1/2 x 4 and my tiny saved scraps!!!  I like the idea with no plan and just decide as you go what you will do.  So I have spent about 30 minutes on each of these the past 3 afternoons....sitting on our patio with temps in the upper 70s............so relaxing......

And the reason I call it zen stitching.......meaning of zen is.....a state of calm attentiveness in which one's actions are guided by intuition rather than by conscious effort.

I am linking to Free Motion Mavericks  week 265

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

FMQ fun

• I am having a lot of fun doing FMQ every day.  
• In this photo I wrote the words..... create every day.
• I started doing the designs from online Bluprint class....28 Days to Better Free-Motion Quilting.
• The designs are zig zag, circuit board and simple V from this class in the photo.

I am linking up to Free Motion Mavericks

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

Christmas in July...a finish + liberated log cabin and other projects

 I just had to start and finish a Christmas project in July.  I had some of this fabric left from when I made tabletoppers in 2011 and 2013 and I made one similar to the ones I made back then.  I used machine quilting and hand quilting.

 The back of the mat is Debbie Mumm fabric.

 Here is a photo of half of the batting cut off close to the stitching.  I used the backing as a binding.  I cut it 1" from the outside of the mat and folded over halfway and pressed.  Then I clipped and pinned and did a machine stitch around the outside edge.  I used #332 on my Bernina.  That is the same stitch I used to quilt down the center and across the middle.

 Here is the little quilt I got so excited to start back in June when I watched an old show on TQS.  I blogged about it in this blog post   I was going to make it larger but changed my mind.  It is really difficult to piece something not straight and then try to get the outside fairly straight!  I thought improv making up whatever I wanted would be easier....but there has to be some kind of plan!  I am hand quilting it....fun....fun!  I am calling it Not All Solids.

I decided to do some big stitch quilting on this rail quilt that I had machine quilted about half so far....many many years ago!   I needed some hand work to do.  The tutorial I watched is
https://crafty.house/big-stitch-quilting/     I will go back to machine quilting when I practice some more....I have gotten very rusty with not doing it!!!

This photo is from my 2019 Artfully Inspired Life journal with the class I am taking with Joanne Sharpe.  It is the January page (she says we are NEVER behind)....and under the window shutters are my goals I wrote out for this year.  I had written them in January and just copied into my book this week!  The little shutters were made using my sticker machine and the acrylic papers I had painted and cut into tiny strips!.

I am so excited that I am NOW able to see The Quilt Show and my ruzuku classes on our big TV screen in the living room using Amazon Fire Box.  Really a great way to watch and get my steps at the same time.  Healthy eating and getting my walking exercise every day is a very important part of each day!

Linking to http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com/2019/08/oh-scrap-new-color.html

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

mug rug finishes and another Gypsy Wife block

 I finished this mug rug a week ago on Valentine's Day.  It is the one I discussed in my previous blog post.  I called it hugs and kisses mug rug.  I used several stamps for the images and colored with Inktense pencils and fabric medium.  The center heart was stamped with Fabrico garnet fabric ink pad.  The left two were stamped with Versa Craft black ink pad.  The bottom right was stamped with Versa color violet.
Such fun....I want to do more projects with images on fabric and coloring!

Photo is the back of the mug rug...Susan Winget old fabric....I still love it!!

 I had some scraps left from previous projects and made a patchwork mug rug.  I quilted the top and batting together and then added 1¼" strips first to the sides and then the top and bottom.

 I like this easy kind of finish by putting the back and front together and stitch, turn and then topstitch around the edge.  I used a 4.0 stitch around the top edge.

 A plate of yummy chocolate Kodiak donuts on a clear glass plate on top of an older placemat I made several years ago.  The recipe for these is in my other blog
https://recipesbycaryl.blogspot.com/2018/12/kodiak-chocolate-donuts.html

Here is another block for the Gypsy Wife quilt.  I got in a hurry and didn't trim one of the HST's properly and I thought I could make it work when I sewed the pieces together...I may do it over.

And here is a photo of what I received in the Sew Sampler box today.  Fun stuff!!

Linking to
https://conniekresin.com/2019/02/linky-tuesday-feb-19-2019.html

https://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com/2019/02/oh-scrap-my-garden-growns.html

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

Strip Maze finished

 I finished this quilt this week.....first UFO of this year.  I started this quilt in November 2009.

 Strip Maze pattern by Gudrun of GEDesigns and I used Mementos fabrics.

I have been researching my notes and photos about working on this quilt over the years.
I got stopped on this the first time when the Cross Country Christmas blog hop started online in November 2009.  I stopped to make a lot of the projects of this wonderful blog hop.  One of them was Gudrun's Sweet Trimmings wallhanging.  In case you didn't know....I get sidetracked really easy!!!

 I restarted working on it again in the summer of 2017 when Gudrun started the Strip Maze sew along with the FB Gudrun's Quilt Crew.  I did do some blog posts about this in September 2017.  The photo shows me chain sewing the blocks by starting on the top of the left column and keeping the thread between each block.  The right block goes over the left in each row to be able to hold everything together.  The blog post September 15, 2017 shows the top together.

 This got put away again until this last November when I started quilting it.  It was the UFO I chose to work on for the month.  I did put a similar photo on IG of doing this machine quilting.  This is using the walking foot with the #4 stitch and I used 2.5 x 2.5 stitch width and length.  I got the binding on the end of November and started hand stitching the binding to the back at our quilt retreat in December.

I have worked on this at our Tuesday bee quilt meetings and finished it this last Tuesday...I am holding it for the photo.  I posted this photo on IG, WW Connect (#quiltersofww), on FB Quilt Mashup and FB Gudrun's Quilt Crew.  It was a very fun quilt to make.

Linking to
https://conniekresin.com/2019/01/linky-tuesday-january-22.html

http://www.myquiltinfatuation.com/2019/01/rain-rain-go-away.html

http://thecraftyquilter.com/2019/01/january-ufo-wip-link-up/

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

Jelly Roll Jam II finish

I finished this quilt this week that I started on Jelly Roll Day and blogged about it here

The fabric is Attitude Girls by Mary Engelbreit.  I took a photo before I opened up the jelly roll!  Now ....doesn't everyone do that??  

 The pattern is a shortcut free pattern from fatquartershop.com.  A very fun quilt to make!!

 I did the serpentine stitch with light green thread.  My "go to" quilting lately!

 And the backing is also a fabric piece from the same line.  And the binding is the same fabric as the back.  I finished this binding at a quilt retreat this past week.

I brought my Hello Kitty machine to the retreat and finished another little mat.  I also finished two others in different sizes this past month.  I used the blocks from improvisational piecing...crazy piecing like I have blogged about before.  I will be doing another post with more about the retreat.

I am linking to:
   crazy mom quilts finish it up Friday
   Freemotion by the River Linky Tuesday

Smiles and hugs....Caryl