Project #2: Finishing a Pillow

I was super lucky and was able to take Elizabeth Hartman's Free Motion Quilting class at Modern Domestic. If you have never taken a class there, and you are a local, you should!  Our class was a nice small size, and I felt like I had lots of time to ask lots of questions and get help when I needed it. Elizabeth is a wonderful instructor and I wholeheartedly recommend her class!

My pillow!

We spent the first day cutting our fabric and learning how to practice quilting with a walking foot. On our second day we practiced quilting on a second quilt sandwich with our free motion, or darning foot.  

This was supposed to be wonkier lines.
I learned I have to start really wonky for them to stay wonky as I go.

I had ordered a free motion foot and a walking foot years ago, knowing that someday I would want to use them to quilt something I had finished. I was pretty nervous to put them on my machine, but after the first class I came home and hooked up the walking foot. It was awesome! And after the second class, I came home and hooked up my free motion foot, and it was awesome too!

Pebble quilting!!!  Oh I was super excited to learn this one.

I finished up my pillow at home, and took it to our quilt guild meeting for show and tell. Yay! I had something to show! Not a quilt yet, but I'll get there.

Stippling.  The hardest for me!  I held my breath the whole time I did this square.
It turned out much better than I thought it would.

The fun part of this is I did most of it with little ones (literally) tugging on my sleeves...and pants. So if I can quilt like that, imagine what will happen if I have a little time to myself.

Leafy vines! I wanted to try stars on vines, but the ones I did looked like sad wierd triangles.

I am super happy I was able to take this class. I know I will be able to keep practicing the techniques and improve with time. What is your favorite quilting (or other!) class you have ever taken?  


Today I am Grateful for:
1. Sewing!  Quilting!  It makes me happy.
2. PMQG.
3. Learning new things.
4. Living so near PDX.  So many amazing ladies belong to my quilt guild!  I am lucky!

Project #1: Ironing Board Cover

I finally got my first project done.  I wanted to do one a week, ha ha.  Oh well, it is a start!

I love that iron holder thingy- it is from IKEA.  So are the wall hanging containers.  But they are super old.  Now they have these...

I recovered my ironing board.  It was an old cover, one we had had since we got married (10+ years old).  At Christmas I had ironed some fusible interfacing the wrong way - down - and it had become sticky.  So as a temporary fix, I put a piece of waxed paper on the sticky spot.  And then it wasn't fun to iron anymore.  Not that it ever was fun, but it was even less so when I was dealing with the wax paper and sticky spot.  


So!  A new cover became one of my project goals for the year.  I wanted a bright spot of yellow in the room and I had these in my stash.  Perfect.  Except the polka dot was too short.  I remembered seeing a picture of a pattern from Cotton Way of patchwork ironing board covers, and I thought oh!  I can do something simple to make my fabric stretch. I added the gingham to make it a bit longer, and it worked!


I followed pretty much the same pattern for making the cover as I did here when I made the mini one.

It sure is bright and pretty- and I am enjoying being able to iron things again!


Today I am Grateful for:
1. A sunny spring like day!  We went for a long walk and the flowers and trees were awesome.  Yay spring!
2. Jack's teeth.  He is getting some new molars, and so nursing is off and on, but I am grateful he will be able to chew things up better with his new teeth.
3.  My little girl is four.  Oh my.  This deserves it's own post, but oh.  Four.  So big!