Felt Christmas Wreath

Each year I start at least one new Christmas project. About 2 weeks ago I started making a felt Christmas wreath using a Bucilla kit I bought last year. I've made Bucilla kits for ornaments and stockings in the past and very much enjoyed the projects of felt with all the sequins and beads. When this is finished it will have a small battery operated string of miniature lights on it. I will hang this inside the house when it is finished. I took a picture of the wreath from the kit photo to show how it will look when finished. I've just about finished attaching all the holly and berries then the next step will be the bow and last the ornaments. Will post a picture when the bow has been completed.

"Merry Little Christmas" Quilt

Last Christmas I started another quilt top. I ordered this pattern
from http://www.crabapplehillstudio.com/ titled "Merry Little Christmas".
The picture is traced onto fabric, colored with crayons and then embroidered. I had been stitching on this during my breaks and lunch hours at work. I just finished with the embroidery and beads this past week. I plan to start piecing the quilt top soon.
I ordered the perfect fabrics for the top, backing and binding from
http://www.fatquartershop.com

Progress of "2008 CQ Quilt Project"

I finished stitching all the seams after I pieced the quilt top.
Now I've decided I want add beads to the quilt top. Not heavy beading.
Just enough to add some interest. I might add some embroidery motifs as well but will decide on that after the bead work is finished.
I have another project I may starting working on soon for Christmas so I may put this one away until next year.

2009 Halloween Wallhanging Finished

I finished the wallhanging on Wednesday night in time for Halloween. If making this type project again I would punch the holes thru the wallhanging smaller than what the pattern directions said. This was made from a kit I ordered from my Keepsake Quilting catalog. They also have two other kits like this one that are Christmas trees. The tiny rice light wires are white so I used a black Sharpie and colored the ends near the bulbs with black so the light ends don't show up on the front of the wallhanging. I did a free motion stipple stitch on my sewing machine. As in my earlier blog posts I am teaching myself free motion machine quilting. I finally got brave enough to do stippling on this project. The borders and the ground sections I quilted with no problem but when I did the background of the sky my stitches would start skipping and thread breaking. The background has a layer of a fusible product to stablize the backgound for all the embellishings and lights so the glue was gunking up the thread. I started putting some "Sewers Aid" on my machine needle after about every 2-3 inches of stitching and had no problem after that. I am anxious to quilt something else now that is just a normal quilt project with only batting. I am happy with how this wallhanging turned out. It was alot of fun to do.

Halloween Wallhanging

This past weekend I got the borders, batting and backing on my wallhanging. Its all pinned and ready to quilt now.

2009 Halloween Wallhanging

A couple of weeks ago I started a Halloween wallhanging project. Right now I am about to start working on the cats eyes. I think I will use some rhinestones! I have layed a yardstick along one side to show the size of the project. The tree, stars, moon, jack-o-lanterns and cat are all fabric as well as the pieced background. I fused them all onto the background and then hand stitched all the way around the edges. I was sure glad to finish the tree which took a week of evenings while watching TV. I will share more pictures to show my progress.

Free Motion Quilting News

I ordered two new attachements for my Janome that have helped the look of my free motion machine quilting. One is a new bobbin case and the other a set of quilting feet. It hink I have gotten the stippling design down pretty good now. Next to get brave enough to do this on a real quilt project and not the quilt sandwiches!!