A blog about my life, knitting, and other stuff.

July 1, 2007

It's Not Me, It's You or This Foot Was Made for Walking

My quilting has been at a standstill because of my walking foot problem. I finally got a chance to take the machine and the foot to the shop. After a bit of fiddling they concluded that they had sold me the wrong foot. It was such a relief to know that it wasn't my mistake. It's amazing what a blow to your self-confidence something like this can be. They did have another foot that works that was the same price. So I came home all fired up to quilt.

First I quilted my little disappearing nine patch practice quilt. I also sewed on a binding using the instructions at Heather Bailey's site and this video. I'm still in the process of hand-stitching the binding down. It's slow going and a total pain.

So I took a break and machine quilted the first top I made. It went from simple zen to 70s guest bedroom. I used synthetic batting and it's so puffy. I machine-stitched the binding on using the same method for the first quilt so it's also waiting to have the binding hand-stitched down.

I worked some more on the first binding. Then I got bored.

So I decided to do something with the Lotus "Jolly pack" I bought a few weeks ago. (I went to The Quilting Loft in the morning for their first "Strip Club." It's a monthly free "club" where they debut a quilt made from pre-cut strips. The patterns are free. While I shudder at the name the quilt pattern they gave out looks really fun and easy. I wasn't in love with the color scheme they were offering (aquas, browns, rust) so I'm saving it for another time. But I did learn the following technique for charm squares while there--even though it isn't used in the quilt they were showing.)



I marked the diagonal line then stitched 1/4 inch away from it on both sides.



I chain-pieced them so it went really quickly.



Then I sliced them down the middle.

And, like magic, I had a bunch of squares made up of triangles.





This is just a sample layout with half the squares.

Next up, putting the borders on the hexagon quilt.