Quilting on the Horizon

This year I would like to improve my free motion quilting skills. Practice is probaly the best way to achieve this goal, so here is the first piece I want to share with you. I will also pass on tips I have picked up from other quilters who are happy to share.
This piece was only for testing technics from the The Painted Quilt book by Linda and Laura Kemshall. The cherries where stenciled using freezer paper and bleach and then couloured with paint sticks. I also tried out different methods of applying letters. As you can see I forgot about the word and added two ee 's instead of two R's. I used a varigated thread and  two different quilting designs. Please click the link below to watch Leah Day on You Tube. Giving advise on free motion quilting tools. I have bought these from her and find them very useful. You can also check out her web site for lots of advise and free motion quilting designs.  http:// www.daystyledesigns.com

My Janome

Here is my new baby. I bought the Janome Horizion last year at The Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. It was an early Big birthday present. I have not had, as much time with it, as I would like, but I have managed to experiment with it on the free motion setting. You will find lots of advise and tips on this blog http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/ by Leah Day. I will post some of her tips that I found helpful later.

Borders

I've added some borders to my stack and whack quilt, but oh look there she is again. I just don't seem to be able to shake off this cat. I found some dark blue sheeting in my stash so I am going to layer it and finish it with a plain blue edging.

 I seem to have a new bug its called blogging, because as you can see  its very hard to get any work done  round here. I wonder what a fur quilt would feel like.

I have added a border to my six stack and whack blocks. I chose four different complimenting fabrics from my stash. I added them using log cabin method. I added the borders at random and only had to turn one block to separate two of the same fabrics, . 

Branching Out

The Irish Patchwork Society have asked their members to make post cards this year to be displayed at their national exhibition and then on to be auctioned in aid of Breast Cancer. For the back ground of mine I have cut a piece from a sample I made some time ago. I trapped some scraps of material and angelina fibers between a piece of vilene and netting on top. I then added some free motion stitching to hold it all together. To the post card I have add some flower beads to highlight the botanical theme. Click on my flicker link to see more Post Cards.

Workshop with Mogs

I cut some more blocks and put 4 together to make 6 13" blocks. They look really good on the wooden floor but I was going to add some navy sashing.

See how it looks with a dark navy background, I think this is too dark and it may look better with a lighter shade of navy. I was hoping to make this a bigger quilt but as I only used fat quarters and I have no more of these I will have to add more borders to make it larger.

Snowy White

Ok so I intended to catch up with by blogging while on Christmas holiday's, unfortunately the Flu bug caught up with me instead. I have spent all of today in bed with Pluerisy, as the pain has subsided slightly I am just about able to post some of my winter weather pictures. You can just about see the swans waddling across the ice.