FMQ Friday

Where did the week go?

Last week if you remember, I was hoping to have my baby quilt done.  Well, that didn't happen.  Life happened and between gym workouts, baby and general clean up of my house the week got away from me.  I was pretty happy with how far I got considering that I didn't work two nights.  

                 

Finally completed the main panel section now onto the boarders.  Flowing leaves idea from Leah Day.

Close up of the two textures. 

I love how the leaves are showing up with the thread that I have chosen but I am afraid the thread is not loving me.  I have so far broken two needles and have countless thread breaks.  I'm hoping this next week I have more success.  

As far as my State Fair piece which I need to start on.  I have been referencing back to the Leah Day videos where where she teaches trapplique.  I was so off track with my idea of how I was going to do it, which was more complex.  I am so grateful for technology when these types of things occur! I look forward to finishing this quilt up and sharing the final result (hopefully) next week! 

Until then,

Holly

I'm linking up http://www.freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/

Baby summer

Baby Summer

This summer has been the time for babies, and in my case baby quilt making.  I am currently working on my last baby quilt of the season! This is an exciting time since I am waiting in anticipation to begin my state fair piece.  Along with quilting and raising my baby girl Hazel, I have an obsession with Zumba! If you haven't tried Zumba, I highly recommend it. 

Quilt on the Janome 6600.  Can you tell I'm a little paranoid about a shifting quilt?

Stipling done on this quilt since it is mostly flannel.  Wanted a light texture feel. 

Right now I am doing Zumba pretty much every day except for my active rest days.  Why am I talking about Zumba you may ask? When I was in high school I was a soccer and softball player.  Since then I've always been pretty active until I became pregnant   When I was pregnant I gained 60 pounds! Crazy right! I currently have lost around 50 pounds since I had my baby girl and at the last visit to the doc she said she would like to see me lose around 40 more before I could even think of having another baby. 

This may seem like a huge number, even to me but I know I can do it and probably more.  So Zumba has been my go to exercise for the mere fact that I love dancing.  It has also brought routine into my workout schedule.  To get more Zumba and weights we now have joined the local gym.  Which is good for Hazel since she gets to meet other kiddos and it gets me out of the house and closer to my goal.

Since I say it is a time for babies, perhaps next year I can look forward to making my own quilt, or making one for Hazel since I've had the material for one since before she was born.  

Next week I look forward to hopefully sharing the finished quilt. Also, showing the progress that is being made on my state fair piece!  

Some of the pieces of my State Fair piece.

Until then,

Holly

I'm linking up http://www.freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/

Done!

Done!

The baby quilt that I have been working on for the last several weeks is finally done! There are so many parts that turned out better then expected.  However, I am a little disappointed with how the binding attachment looks.  I have to remind myself that I am still learning and that the back of the quilt is never perfect.  With every quilt that I finish I learn so much to pass on to the next.  

Finished quilt.  I love how the binding colors turned out!

Border done in stipling design.

Back of quilt

Another shot of quilt back. 

 Looking ahead to the coming month of July I have a lot of projects to accomplish by September.  This week I plan on  prepping my trapplique quilt and quilt panel for the State Fair which is in September.  I also plan to begin quilting the baby quilt I have to have done by the end of the month.  

Add all this to my goal of losing 10 pounds and it is going to be a crazy month. 

Until next time. 

Holly

FMQ Friday

FMQ Friday

I cannot believe that it is already the end of June! How fast the time flies.  This week has been a week of coming down off the excitement and exhaustion of the wedding.  With that being said I finished the binding and the quilt label for my SIL's quilt and it turned out better then I had hoped.  

This week as far as free motion quilting, I have been working on the baby quilt panel that I had previously shared.  I figure I will be done by Tuesday of next week.  I have enjoyed doing this quilt panel so much and I will be sad to see it go but I already have another one lined up.  Can't wait to share the finished product next week! Hope you all have a great weekend!

Close up of sky. Concentric circles and echoes mad to resemble the wind.

Lighter area of sky.

Using echo lines to make sun stand out.  

Echoed star 

Close up of elephant

Close up of hippo and ark

Love how this guy turned out.  The texture of his fur is awesome!

Until next time,

Holly

I am linking up to: 

http://www.freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/

The big day has come!

Well today is the day when my SIL gets married! For the past few weeks its been event after event, planning and more planning.  In the nights I've been working to finish the quilt that will be their wedding present.  Finally its binded and waiting for me to sit for a few hours and finish.  I can't wait.  

Quilt before I trimmed off the excess

I have learned so much from this quilt! I learned that I can free motion quilt on my sewing machine and it is actually a lot of fun.  I think I have perfected my use of putting on my binding, which is usually the part of the quilt that I struggle with the most.  Most importantly I learned that I have the creativity to create a quilt with just my ideas.  

Shot of flowing hearts in the sashing.  FMQ idea from Leah Day http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/. 

Border FMQ stippling with random hearts. 

Up next is finishing my other baby quilt that has a deadline of a few weeks.  I am also excited because I am going to be entering a few items into our local state fair.  

Until next time,

Holly

FMQ Friday

How fast these days go by! Hard to believe that it is already Friday again.  

So last week I had every intention of finishing my other baby quilt but the deadline got pushed back. This is a good and bad thing.  Good that I have more time to work on it, bad that the deadline is the same weekend as my SIL's  wedding.  So after some thinking and a bobbin running out, I decided to pull it off the machine and focus on the wedding quilt, since that deadline is here to stay! 

What a difference going from a baby quilt to a queen sized quilt made, especially on my arms! 

Queen quilt on the machine yet again!

Just a little background that I feel is necessary to share to help you understand this quilt.  When deciding to make it I knew that I wanted to incorporate the colors of the wedding.  I didn't use a pattern and piecing took a long time! Each block is different.  In the sashing I am using the FMQ pattern "Heart flow" which I learned from Leah Day and the free motion quilting project.  Although it appears that there is only quilting in the sashing, I stitched in the ditch through all the blocks.   

Below are some close up shots of the sashing.

 

 Look forward to see where this quilt is at by next week!

Have a great weekend!

Holly

Sunday FUN DAY!

This morning I had a goal in mind.  I wanted to go for a walk.  I knew who was going, where we were going and what our path was.  We were going to be walking to our local farmers market.  

Granted the location of this event is about 3 miles from our house.  So there and back a little over six miles! I guess it could be considered a hike.  

Having this time with my husband and my 17 month old daughter was so peaceful! No technology (except for my camera), toys, books, just the outdoors, a jogging stroller and our walking shoes .  My daughter slept most of the way but my husband and I talked and observed.  

Result of our current drought

   

So cool when you see something like this!

Some animals that we met

We are finally here!

It is amazing to see how much of the world is out there, especially when you turn off the technology! (As I spend an undisclosed amount of time working on this post. :) )

Until another day!

Holly