Newbie's Free Motion Quilting Series: Practicing Motifs

After an email exchange with a reader (Hi Anne!), I decided to tackle a series of posts on what I have learned about free motion quilting.  I'm no expert, but I know there are a lot of people out there afraid to tackle their own quilting and I'm here to say: Don't be!  I started free motion quilting on a little mechanical brother I bought at wal-mart for $75 when I first got married.  The feed dogs wouldn't drop, so I had to tape a credit card (with a hole cut out for the needle) to hide my feed dogs.  But it worked!  I fell in love with free motion quilting and my husband upgraded my machine for my birthday to a Juki TL98Q.  I'm willing to bet with a little practice and fearlessness, anyone can FMQ on MOST machines.

Before I quilt, I always doodle.  I love using a magna doodle that belongs to my kids.  You can also use paper and pens, but then you have a mess to throw away- boo!  You kind of ingrain the steps in your mind so that when machine starts whirring, you can quilt without getting confused, flustered, or overwhelmed.  It's like practicing dance moves in the car when there is no way you can really dance.  Don't act like you don't! I begin with doodling with my entire hand just like I would write or draw. 

Beyond the "seaweed" look of a basic meander, other easy motifs I use are loops.  They are easier than meandering to me.  I like to think of making the cursive letter E, the cursive  C, the cursive G, cursive Ls, and telephone coils when I am doing loops.  This quilting is very good for hiding secret messages as it looks a lot like cursive handwriting.  LOVE and HOPE look very pretty quilted into quilts.

Once you master loops, you have a serious foundation for fun designs.  Above is a single loop.  What happens if...

you turn that into a figure 8 and

then keep vining out?

You have a budding vine.  Add a cloverleaf instead of a figure 8...you have a flowery vine.

Make your figure 8's pointy and you have a beautiful leafy vine.

Add a little vein to take it a step further.

Once you are confident in your motifs, switch to your thumb and forefinger and draw with only those 2 digits.  It's a little more challenging, but it prepares you a little better for the control you lose going to a machine from doodling on paper.

The next post will be getting your machine ready for free motion quilting success.

If you have any questions or things you'd like to be covered, let me know through email or the comments section. 

From Kinicka, with love.

 Recently, my family (of origin) went with their church on a Mission Trip to Uganda to spread the love of Christ.   The twins got in their head that Africa should be renamed Kinicka.  We went with it.  You pick your battles, right?

My sister came to visit me shortly afterwards and give us some loot.  This fabric is called Angel wax, I think.  I hope you guys can suggest a clothing piece for me to make with it.  I have about a yard.  I'm thinking "scarf"  It feels in between quilting and home dec weight and it is the same front and back.  It might just be stiff from starches...I haven't washed it yet.

 I also got a handcrafted bowl made from banana fibers.  Super resourceful.

 My husband got 1000 Shilingi and 2 packs of belgian dark chocolate from the airline (they made a stop in Brussels to refuel).  My husband was feeling pretty rich until he found out the airline chocolate cost more than 1000 shilingi. 

And here is a bookmark my oldest son got with Uganda appliqued on it.  I am praying that is some kind of plant fiber!

We also wooden toys and a mask, but those have been whisked away for play!

Awesome suggestions for the African fabric welcome!

Ruby Tuesday

I received this lovely stack from moda last week.  You know what that means...tutorial on the way.   I should probably include a bonus tutorial for grownup size drool bib, because these fabrics are so so lovely a girl might just lose control.  It's the cutest thing that's been in my sewing nook in a while...

PS, for those who liked Road To Tennessee and requested a tute, I will be creating a tutorial for that quilt as well.  Look for it in the next two to three months.

Drought

_______

We're in a drought over 80 days with 1 anemic rainfall. We're under water conservation guidelines. The earth is cracking and my plants are dying. Like I said in my last post, I've given up watering. At some point when the earth gets so dry, no amount of watering I can do with a hose will cut it. The ground becomes so dry it can't even hold water. Only honest-to-goodness rain from above keeps the plants looking their best and producing the sweetest fruit and prettiest flowers.

I sat in my sewing area with one of my sons today and I gave him a big fat hug for "helping me" by cutting up some scraps with the safety scissors. He just hugged me so tight and started cooing and smiling. We just sat there for a long time. I'm not a hugger so I probably don't do things like this enough. I felt very convicted about being a more nurturing person even though it isn't my nature. I started seeing that my son was like a plant getting rain...soaking it all in. Just like plants, if I don't make enough time to do things like this, he's going to be like a plant rooted in our cracked earth...not able to receive any of the love I give because it's too far gone. Only a shower from above can heal the earth...or people...when the real droughts in life come come, but if we let our relationships go without tending and care, we lose our ability to reach those people even if we decide we want to.

Yesterday was my birthday.  So in my 33rd year of life I am going to be more affectionate with my husband and children.  I want to laugh.. a lot. I want to sew for FUN. I want to create.  I want to weed out extra possessions that clutter my life and weigh me down and cling tight to the people who make my life full.  I want to do some Bible studies with the amazing women in my church...if you gals are reading this, you are such a big part of my life and I am so happy to know women like you!

Thanks to y'all for reading and especially to those who comment and let me know what they think.  I love getting those little notes in my inbox and connecting with you. Hope your next year is a great one, too!

Tutorial: Stuffed Animal Shorts

Recently we let the twins experience Build-A-Bear workshop. $57 later, we had 2 puppies going commando& 2 t-shirts. I was not feeling the $6 tiny shorts. I knew I could make that, and I did. I am NOT a garment sewist. I do quilts. I have made my boys a few PJ shorts from the bandana shorts tutorial so I used the same principles to make shorts for our new puppy friends, changing a couple of things to accomodate a tail and the smaller size.  This can be used for any stuffed animal, but the measurements might need to change.  We also did blue jeans for my oldest son's favorite Ty Pluffie, L.E.Funt and it worked great.

Supplies:
Basic Sewing Supplies (needle, thread, scissors, machine)
Elastic
Fabric
Indecently dressed stuffed animal.

NOTE: To minimize fraying, you can serge or zigzag all raw edges.  I didn't because frankly I was too lazy to bust out my other machine and I don't see my boys playing with these for too long anyway.

 Our animals had an 18" waist and we wanted shorts that finished at 6.5" long or so.  To do this we used 2 pieces of fabric that were 12.5" wide (would become the waist) and 9.5" long (would become the length.  I guess what I'm trying to say is:

Desired length + 3"  = legnth of each fabric piece
Animal's waist size divided by 2 plus 3"= width of each fabric piece.

 Place the fabrics right side together.  Choose one of the 9.5" side.  Turn over each raw edge 1/2" and press. 

 Now turn each raw edge into the fold and press again.  This conceals the raw edge where the tail will stick out.

 Sew a seam the entire lengty on each piece to keep this raw edge enclosed.

 Line up your pieces RSF (right side facing) once again with the finished edges touching.

 Now fold in half lengthwise so your raw edge will be on top of your finished edge.

 Cut out a small J shape through all four layers.  I went in 1/2" and up about 2.5".

 Unfold your piece.  You will still have RSF, but now each side will have a little "J" shape cut out of it.
 

 Sew a seam the entire length of your raw edge (do not sew the J at this time, only the straight portion.

 On the finished side, sew down 3" from the top and stop.  Backstitch to secure.  Skip 2" down and backstitch then continue the seam to the end of the straight portion.

 Now spread your shorts out so that the seams you just sewed are now in the middle.  It's starting to look like shorts!

 Sew up your J seam...now it looks like a U.

 Turn the hems on the waist and legs, pressing first then stitching to secure.   I enclosed the raw edges here like I did on the tail.

 Turn over the top edge then fold it over 1.25" or so...just give yourself enough room to slide your elastic through.  Press here to keep things neat.   Sew at the bottom of your folded edge (I stitched on top of my top hem) BUT leave 2" unsewn so you have a space to pull your elastic through.

 Backstitch at the beginning and ending of that seam.

 Pull your elastic around your animal without stretching.  Cut your elastic 1" from where the ends touch.  This will give you a snug fit that will still be easy for small hands to manipulate.

 Pull your elastic through.  If you don't have an elastic guide you can use a safety pin  to guide the elastic through the casing.

 Sew a square (ok, mine's a rhombus or something crazy) where the ends meet.  I backstitched a good bit on this, too.  It's ugly but it's strong.

 Sew those remaining 2" or so in the casing.  Make sure you can't catch the elastic or gather your fabric.

Voilà!  Puppy Pants.  Or Bear.  Or Kittie.  Or Bunnie.  You get the picture.
 

Here's Sloppy (Train Kid's name choice, not ours) sporting his $6 tee (shudder) and his FREE pants!  He's also wearing a prototype cape (which meant that he was standing over me hollering "CAPE CAAAAAPE" so I threw this together so I could finish up).

Hey Sloppy...Cute Bootie!

Now I do quilts and not garments but if you shoot me a request for another article of clothing I'll be glad to try to do other stuffed animal clothing tutorials.  I can't do fancy stuff, but I can at least do something easy enough that most people  who aren't great at sewing could do as well.

Linking up to fabric tuesday at Quilt Story  
and Skip to My Lou

The bloggin' blahs + a thrift store find

Thinking about writing a book proposal...well, it's a great idea.  Unfortunately it kind of crushed my mojo after a week or two.  Quilting started feeling like a JOB and stopped feeling fun.  I know that being a grown up is not all about fun, but as I've said many times before, quilting is one of the few things I can control.  The laundry keeps getting dirty, the dishes still pile in the sink, and kids still get hungry.  They even need regular baths no matter what they will tell you to the contrary.

For some reason, it's easy to get sucked into the idea that making quilts for people you love is just not enough.  I started quilting to have something I could hand down to my children and I started blogging to share what I was doing, pay it back with a few tutorials, and hopefully inspire (as in "hey, if she's doing this, it can't be that hard!).  When I lose sight of that things get un-fun really quickly.  I genuinely love quilting and I don't want to ruin that by turning it into a contest. 

So that's on my BACK burner for now.  Maybe one day.  I am happy to report the creative juices started flowing again.

Here are my 70s blocks.  I think I will just do a plain checkboard but I'm thinking now I could probably do an irish chain.  Oh, and that 24"x36" olfa mat?  That's new.  I found it standing up at my favorite thrift store and carried it to the front.  I was prepared to plunk down whatever they asked.  They went to get the manager who said "oh...gee...this is a really nice one.  We're going to have to charge you $2."  I snapped it up with a quickness.  Now you know why it's my favorite thrift store.