Quilting 101

I am really excited about the 505 Spray Baste I ordered, and I am basting everything in sight.  But before I got too carried away I decided I'd better try quilting one of these basted quilts.  I'm still hand sewing the binding down.  Here is the result:

I quilt on my trusty Bernina sewing machine, and the past few days I've been watching machine quilting videos by Leah Day, Patsy Thompson, and You Tube videos by Karen McTavish.  These ladies all make it look so easy.  They all recommend that you baste a practice quilt sandwich and start there, but I have at least a dozen of these table toppers like the one in the photo above, and I only have 2 tables so I figured why not just practice on one of those.  Most times when I sit down with a quilt like the one above I draw a blank and don't know what to try and quilt in which space.  So I just kept watching videos and jumped right in.  I tried some paisleys in the yellow, and just a little meandering in the white, and I don't know what that is in the square but it looks like it went very wrong.....but it does fill the space!

I know there are a lot of mistakes, but the only way to know if the spray baste did its job was to give it a try, and I like the results so much that I've ordered a second can.  I love watching the videos on McTavishing.  This is supposed to be Leah's version of McTavishing.  Instead of hitting the point on each swirl she only hits the point at one end and then echoes a quarter of an inch on the other end.  This was really a lot of fun.  It's kind of like a puzzle in a way because when you work yourself into a corner you have to figure a way out. 

I would really love to learn to do feathers.  When I go to quilt shows I love to look at the stencils, and I buy a few.  I mostly look for the ones that could be quilted with a continuous design.  But, I don't trace my stencil designs onto a quilt.  Instead I do this......

I trace the stencil onto a sketch pad, and then I use a marker and trace over and over those lines until hopefully my hands and my brain have that movement before I work on a quilt.  Then I prop this drawing up against the wall in front of my sewing machine just like I'm taking an open book test. 

And this is how it ended up on my quilt.  These look more like droopy balloons than feathers, but it's a start.

In between crochet projects, I've been doing a little hand quilting, too. 

I thread basted this redwork Santa top (wall hanging), and I marked the lines with the red Frixion pen.  These are the pens from Staples that disappear from fabric when heated with an iron. 

Earlier this week Marta at Polka Dot Classic Blog awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award.  Thank you so much Marta. 

As part of receiving this award I'm supposed to tell seven things about myself.  I received the Stylish Blogger Award back on January 20 of this year and in that post I told 8 things about myself.  You can read those here.
I'm also supposed to tag 15 of my favorite bloggers, but I have a list of you a mile long that I love to visit and couldn't possibly pick just 15.  I love visiting your blogs and reading each and every one of you. 

I hope all of you are doing a little stitching today.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!