Finished Thomas quilt

I showed pictures of Thomas quilt in action, but not the finished product.

D. loves it!! Loves it! I'm thrilled. Worth the price of the kit (never done a kit quilt before), and the effort to have it shipped here and all the work put into it.

Okay so I saw the finished quilt in The Quiltmaker's Shoppe in Arlington, WA. At the time, Deb, the kind owner, advised they had no more kits and was not sure she would be getting more. I emailed her, and she was able to get it for me.

The fabric and pattern were originally from VIP Exclusives, at Quilting Treasures. Thomas is copyright Gullane.

People ask me how long it takes to make a quilt. I have no idea. Some quilts I work on on and off over years. An hour here, 30 min there, so I really can't tell. This one I would put in the estimate of 20-25 hours.

Pictures!!

Happy boy in his quilt

Duncan wanted to make a funny face

Cordelia wanted pictures of her quilt

Wrapped up.

Ta da

SewCalGal FMQ January Challenge

I have a lot of quilting goals this year in terms of learning more. Of course I want to make more quilts, but I thinking taking some time to improve on techniques I only have a loose hold on would be a better focus.

I want to learn how to applique better.
I want to learn how to paper piece better - build comfort
and despite having taking a class in machine quilting, I want to learn how to machine quilt better. A lot better.

Although I have done machine quilting, I always default to "stitch in the ditch" because I am afraid I am going to ruin my quilt if I try to free motion quilt it.

So, it's time to get over myself wouldn't you say?

Enter SewCalGal and her free motion quilting challenge. A year of tutorials and challenges to improve technique and comfort.

I finally got around today to making my practice blocks so I could get to practicing! Having done it before meant I was not as scared as someone else might be. Although that doesn't mean I got it down right away!!

1st attempt:

I had the bobbin thread pulling through something awful. I'm also following Leah Day's tips, and tried the quilting with my feed dogs up and stitch length set to zero. Ha, it worked. I did need to play with the top thread tension some - and it ended up at 0 I believe, but my next attempt went much better.

The only time it got out of control was when I let it. I didn't have my machine at super high speeds, and this kind of helped me remain calm. Biggest challenge is changing the direction of the leaves. But I think if I was quilting over an actual pieced quilt I'd have a better feel of where the quilting would need to end.

And here is the back side. I love how this looks, and would definitely consider using this while quilting a quilt. And not be scared!!

I'm comfortable with this tutorial, although I will continue my practicing through the month and not just say "well got that one mastered". Thanks for a great start Sew Cal Gal.

Pat Sloan's New Years Eve UFO Luau

I didn't quite get Duncan's Thomas the Tank Engine quilt done for Christmas, but seeing as he has known about it for months, I was not too concerned.

When I saw that Pat Sloan was hosting a UFO weekend, I thought it would be a good chance to get this baby finished. The top has been done for some time, but I wanted to get another quilt done as a gift, and so it took priority. More on that on in a different post.

Check out Pat Sloan's blog here: http://blog.patsloan.com/2011/12/pat-sloan-new-years-eve-ufo-luau.html

I sandwiched the quilt yesterday. I think I need a bigger working space b/c I could have done with making it tighter, but I had to work with what I was given.

Today Bill, bless him, had no problem keeping the kids happy upstairs while I spent probably a good 4 hours quilting. I was listening to the unabridged audiobook of Outlander by Diana Gabaldon and narrated by Davina Porter - what a wonderful way to pass the time. I love that book and it's like visiting old friends when I hear the story again.

So I got the quilt quilted! I need to bind it now, and the binding is done, but it will need to wait until tomorrow because I'm getting some quality kid time.

I'll post a picture of it when it is finished.