A Final Finish for 2015

I finally have a finished pillow for my bed!

 Two years ago, before I moved to MO,  my friend from quilt retreat, Mary Lou, gave me a wonky log cabin block.  She said the cat reminded her of me.  I decided to make a throw pillow out of it since it matched my scrappy trip along quilt I was working on.

I had an extra block from my quilt.  I took the block apart and used the strips to put around the block to make it the right size for my pillow form.  I did all of this before spring when I finished my quilt.  I have been meaning to join the FMQ quilt along over at quiltshopgal .   With my surgery this summer and school, I never got around to FMQing it.

I finally finished it today!

 I put on my toesie socks and penguin pj's and worked on my treadle.

 I had a lot of help!

Unfortunately, after sitting, neglected, for months, my tension was all wonky.  I used up small bobbins, rather then wasting thread.  I figure no one was going to see the back anyways.  It took longer to rip out seams then it did to quilt!

I used some yellow fleece for the back, I love soft pillows!  I made the back envelope style.  I used my featherweight and serger for this part.

 I liked practicing a new technique on a pillow rather then a quilt.  It is a jester hat motif, option 1 in the challenge.

I am so happy with my pillow, it makes me smile!

You can check out the linky for this party here:  http://quiltshopgal.com/2015-free-motion-quilting-challenge-december-challenge-with-wendy-sheppard-and-grand-prize-info/

Tomorrow I need to put elastic in some skirts and make a coin purse, not to mention working on my husband's quilt.  It took all day yesterday to get my sewing room back in order so that I could sew!  Since I worked out my tension issues today, it should be a breeze to finish up his quilt!
I enjoyed making my first pillow, I need to make more!
Missy

Quilt on the bed!

As soon as I put the quilt on the bed, the cats bombarded it!  I was not able to get one picture without a cat!  LOL  If you missed my last post about the quilt, you can find it here:

My helpers!

It's very big!

 I love scrappy quilts!

This bird material was used in a prayer quilt for a friend.

The penguin material is from some culottes I made as a teenager

Several of those blues were used in dresses I made for a friend

I'm enjoying my quilt even though it is really too hot for this time of year!  LOL

Missy

Binding the monster!

This is how I started out my week.  I spent one evening cutting my 2 1/2 inch strips for my binding and sewing the pieces together.  I changed my needle when I finished my quilting because I could not remember the last time I changed it and I had just quilted a 108" quilt.  I also cleaned out the lint real quick, nothing intensive.

 I pinned my binding on (I would love some wonder clips!) and Pippi decided that would be a great time to take a bath.  She got moved.

 My stitching was all messed up!  I changed the thread, re-threaded the top and bobbin threads, unscrewed things and did an extensive cleaning and oiling, and it was still messing up!  I asked on treadleon.com if anyone had any suggestions.  It was suggested to try a different needle since it was working just fine before.  That was it!  I learn so much from people who have been doing this a lot longer then me!  I don't know if it was a wrong needle or if maybe there was just a burr on it, I'm just glad my 137 year old was giving me perfect stitches again!

Oreo helping me thread my machine

Oreo taking a cat nap while I found out what was wrong with my stitches

 I got to the end of sewing my binding on and I needed to fold the ends under.  I did not want to take the time to pull out my iron, ironing board, move the quilt etc., so I grabbed my straightening iron and it worked perfect!  Easy Peasy!

 I am finished!  It just took me two years and five months!  Everything was done on either a hand crank sewing machine or a treadle.  The quilting and binding was done on m Industrial Singer 16 treadle sewing machine.

This thing is HUGE!

In fact, it is so big it would not fit in my home machine and I had to take it to the laundromat!

 For the backing I took my favorite flannel sheets, which is queen size and never get used since I have a king size bed, and used it.  It is yellow with penguins on it.  I also used some blue plaid flannel for a side and some very soft white for a strip.  As you can tell I was not worried about straight lines!

 Here is the front!  I just quilted circles in each square.  The squares finish at two inches.

This pattern is one of Bonnie Hunter's patterns, you can find it here:

I'm sorry I don't have better pictures, it has been raining all week.  I did get some pictures of it on my bed, which I will share in another post since this one has so many pictures!

Missy

Acts 20:24  But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

Quilting Gloves

 Everybody has their own way of doing free motion quilting.  I like using my quilting gloves.  I won a set of these pads to also quilt with.

 I found it is easier to use the gloves and one of the pads,  I use the pad on the hand that is moving the quilt, so the hand using it depends on the direction I'm moving the quilt, whether it is to the right or to the left.

 If you notice in the pictures sometimes the pad is closer to the needle and sometimes farther away.

 My husband likes to take a lot of pictures and there were a whole lot more then I shared!

 I saw on someone else's blog that she cut the tips off of the gloves, so I tried it.  I really like having the flexibility of being able to grab thread, etc. without pulling off the gloves each time.

 Here is the pad I use.  They are called grip and stitch, you can find out more about them here:  

 I use the smaller one.

 For those of you who are not familier with quilting gloves, they have little nubs on the bottom to grip the quilt.

 I am just doing simple circles, they are not very consistent.

 Oreo says "please don't take my picture again!"

What is your preferred method of Free motion quilting?

Missy