Free Motion Practice

Last week I decided to organize my scraps and in doing so I found this UFO that I don't remember making or even why I made it. It is the perfect size for a table topper. I decided to make mug rugs to match and finish these off to use on the patio table this summer. I also decided that this would be a good way to practice my free motion machine quilting.

When I layered the top with the batting and backing I found that the sides were not straight so I ripped out all the borders and did a quilt and flip quilt as you go method to reattach them. This way it was basted and my seams were corrected at the same time.

On to the machine quilting! I have not done much free motion quilting so this turned out pretty bad. I am not to bothered because it is only a practice piece and I will be using it outside.

I noticed that the bobbin thread was showing through the top. I loosened the top thread tension but it didn't seem to make any difference. Does anyone have any advice how to prevent this?

I also progress on the four mug rugs to go with the table topper. I didn't have any of the original check fabric left from the topper but I did find this smaller check that looks good. I haven't used my scraps very much but I hate to throw anything away so it felt good to use all scraps for these.

Friday Nite Sew-In

Tonight is the night! February's Friday Nite Sew-In is happening tonight. I am looking forward to practicing my free motion quilting or should I work on some hand quilting? Not sure yet but this is the type of fibre fix I am looking for. What will you be working on?

Have you ever gotten sidetracked?

Time to start on my next project, but what should it be? Well I made a quilt top in June 2009 with the intention of finishing it to give to my husband this April for our silver wedding anniversary, so I thought that should be my next finish. I would like to try some free motion quilting on it so I thought I would practice on a small project first. I found a perfect project of a table topper and matching mug rugs at Bejewled Quilts by Barb. I thought "A perfect solution, use some of my scraps and practice my free motion quilting too".

Now my scraps are not organized in any way. When I am working on a project I put my scraps in bags.

I decided it was time to sort them at least by colour so I could get an idea what I could use for the table topper and mug rug project. This picture is only a portion of my scrap stash.

There are so many oddly shaped pieces of fabric that I thought it would be a good idea to cut them into more usable sizes and organize them at the same time. I started with red in honor of Valentine's Day. I cut them into strips and squares 1", 1.5", 2", 2.5", 3" and over. I left some of the bigger scraps to use as backing for smaller projects.

While I was sorting through my scraps and yardage I found this UFO that I made but don't remember when or why. It is a perfect size for a table topper. I also found some checkered scraps that although not the same as in the UFO it is similar to use for some mug rugs to go with it.

First Finish of 2011

I started piecing this I Spy quilt in December when we had a couple of snow days here in our city. I finished stitching the binding down yesterday. It turn out pretty cute. It has 40 different fabrics for finding lots of objects. I didn't notice until I was quilting it but some of the fabrics have similar pictures even though they are different prints. For example there are two different fabrics that have cats, so you could also play a sort of matching game with it.

I backed this quilt with this "roads fabric" so that it could double as a play mat for cars.