Friday, June 22, 2012

Peppermint Candy Christmas Quilt


Quilting Mamas are all around me!  
I could not escape it if I tried.  
Linda, my sister  is biggest into it and she is the one responsible for twisting my arm into doing fabric design on Spoonflower.
So when I finally caught the bug most of them said, 
"Finally!"

Oh, boy, did I feel dumb when I had questions on every step I took.   I was determined to complete it all myself including the free motion stippling.

I made it through the construction fairly simply because I was using a cheater panel I had created and had printed on fabric.  How hard is that?

But then I wanted to start the real quilting part....the sandwiching of the layers with stitches....
The Magic.....Free Motion!


I twisted and turned all the dials on my old machine that I possibly could trying to make the magic that you would know to be free motion stitching.
I twisted it to the left and found the knots of thread waiting for me under the quilt.
Then I twisted to the right and thread hovered on top
... and still no magic happened.
I twisted my fabric from the right to the left,
 from the left to the right.
Still no magic!
Well, it just couldn't be me because after all.....I CAN DRAW!!!!
How hard can this be?

 It MUST be my old machine!
 
SO...I tried my mother's machine.

Still no magic!

Linda sat down and in about five seconds....magic!

I went back home and practiced!

Well, it may not be magic yet....but I am learning the tricks! 
I have a renewed respect for you quilters out there.  It really is an art. 

And as a side note...I almost completed the quilt on my old machine but...not quite!  As I was putting on the binding around the edges, my old machine ground to a stop and then it would sew only in reverse.  So time for a new machine.  I'm shopping around.

 This quilt is all
Mine!
Mine!!
Mine!!!

All the fabric designs in this quilt are my personal designs available through my shop on Spoonflower .  
This quilt was made from Peppermint Candy Christmas Cheater Panel, Mints for All and Peppermint Candy Christmas.  Other coordinating fabrics are available.  
Find them here.

My friend Mary Ann from Rocknquilts has a Giveaway you may be interested in checking out. The winner will be announced on the Fourth of July (2012).

Check in here to see what she has available.

Thanks, Mary Ann for a great opportunity. 


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6 comments:

  1. AWESOME!!!!! My friend does quilts and long story short, her magazine Quilting Arts is what got me back into art, the start of my blog in 2008 and how so much more. I have never done a quilt but am currently considering trying to make one for my husband out of his racing t-shirts. He has been in racing for 30 yrs and we have boxes of team shirts. My friend, Joy has just entered her first competition - I have posted about it this week! You and your family should check it out, they may want to try something like this!
    cheers, dana

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  2. Thanks, for your comments. As I said there IS certainly an art to quilting. When I went to the Houston Quilt show a year or two ago with my quilting sister I was amazed at the beautiful pieces of artwork done with fibers. I checked out Joy's competition and gave her a vote! Good luck, Joy!

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  3. Hey! Yay! You are quilting! I finally this week decided it was time for a new machine with more throat space, and I chose a janome. I ran across a deal at my favorite quilt shop and will pick my floor model up on Monday! So excited and most of all the floor model dropped the price a BUNCH! It does everything!

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  4. You should all see Darla's quilt "in person"! She did a great job and the magic DID happen!

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  5. Thank you, Linda. You kept saying I just needed practice and I am still practicing. I have several new pot holders now! I just want to be as good as you are, big sister!

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  6. I love your spoonflower fabrics and am so happy you started quilting! You have such a great teacher, too :-) I just awarded you with the Liebster Blog Award!

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