"Hooked On Feathers"

I finally got far enough on my quilting to put up some pictures of it. It's a technique where you use a single hooked feather and FMQ around the spine using it. No marking necessary. I think it's one of my favorite techniques.

From Quilted with Love

From Quilted with Love

I'm using Marathon polyester thread on the back and invisible thread on the top. I'm showing the back so the quilting is more visible. I just did the feathers around the butterflies in all directions.

I also walked 1.5 miles today and burned 240 calories. I made my January goal to walk 10 miles. I'm at 3 something within the past couple of days. I know it's not a big goal, but it's doable.

I Could Put My Car In This!!!

I got the peacock design done today! Those center parts took over a hour each to stitch out. Here it is:


Wow..I love it! I had no idea that this was a GIANT size tote bag..like I know what a tote bag is..LOL. I don't even carry a purse. That's what pockets are for. So the size right now is 12x16 inches. The directions have you add another 4 blocks making it a 16x16 size block. People have THAT much stuff?

Then you are to stitch out the blocks above for the back panel. Wait..it gets bigger! The smaller sides are 8 inches wide x 16 inches tall. Heck, I could my car in that. Or my sewing machine...Hey..that's an idea! Make it a cover for my 6600!

Dunno..make it a tote bag or a sewing machine cover?

Bag: If I did a purse thingy, I wouldn't add the extra 4 blocks on the top or the 8 inch sides. I'd keep the size I have and made the side pieces a width like 4 inches. I'd also use a dark color for the other sides. I figured I'd make the other sides quilted. It's constructing all the sides that will be the death of me. I have it planned out in my head but it's still an overkill sized purse/bag. Hmmm ...anyone want to make this into a bag for me?

Machine Cover: I have the cover to my 350e that I could use as a template. I'd have to do some adjusting but could get it to work. I'd have the best looking 6600 cover for miles. Then I could find a pattern for a smaller bag and get the "best of both worlds" according to Hannah Montana. LOL! I have little girls..can you tell? Hubby picked up the dvd for them.

Using The Giga Hoop

I tried out the giga hoop today. The giga hoop lets you do larger areas without having to rehoop. It's basically 2 5x7 fields. You do one side, flip the hoop and do the other side. What it doesn't do is one large section starting from the middle. There isn't enough space to the right of the needle. The biggest catch to this hoop is being able to line up both sides perfectly. It means careful marking and careful editing.

Here's my first attempt:


Using Customizer I imported the design and opened the "Easy Gigahoop". I played with a couple of different layouts and decided on this one. I zoomed in to see if everything matched and got them as close as I could using the guides. I saved the design to my USB stick and stitched it out one side at a time. I'm off some..but in this case you wouldn't notice. My center marks are off just a tad and maybe the design as well. I'm pleased that it came out so good.

This is perfect for quilting! I can do large blocks this way. It took two hours to stitch this out though. I thought I'd picked a quicker design but for a test run, it worked.

I've also been working on my purse squares. Here's what I have so far:

Somehow you are supposed to zig zag the blocks together to make this purse. Each block is quilted so it will be relatively stable. Still not sure this is going to work.

Actually; this is really easy as well, but tricky. The design stitches out the outline on water soluble stabilizer. You add the batting and the top over the stitching. The machine stitches another line over the two layers. The first couple of blocks have pleats as I was out of basting spray. The spray is a must so the layers don't shift. I thought I could away with it. After the design is stitched out, you add the backing behind the stabilizer. It does another outline stitch and then you trim the fabric as close to that outline as you can. You take the hoop off the machine, but you don't unhoop the project. That's still a skill I need practice on as it's really hard.

This pattern seems to be off on the edging as it doesn't quite line up with the basting stitches. I don't know how to fix it. When you trim the batting and fabric, it doesn't line up when you do the last satin stitching. I have the top row done and was working on the one of the 2nd row blocks when the inner hoop popped out while trimming the layers. 30 minutes down the drain..LOL.