Sunday, February 8, 2015

Learning to machine quilt #2

Since machine quilting the potholders went smoothly, I started on the Christmas table runners that I wrote about earlier.
I put the fabric backing down on some newspaper so I could use the basting spray and not get it all over the floor.
I had done a lot of reading about basting quilts and decided to use basting spray instead of pinning the layers together. I lightly sprayed the backing fabric and then put down the batting, making sure it was smooth.
Next was the top.
And I ended up with a quilt sandwich.
Another quilting tip that I found in my research was to use masking tape instead of using a marking pencil for the lines.

I used that for a while and then switched to painter's tape which is less tacky. I used my walking foot to sew and just followed along the edge of the tape, and I ended up with a perfectly straight line.

And just one time I sewed on the wrong side of the tape and the spacing was off. :-)

I quilted each table runner with a different degree of angles.

One of the finished projects.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

First Snow of 2015

We haven't had much snow so far this season, but that all changed yesterday.
10 p.m. on Jan. 31
And I woke up to this today. What a beautiful sight! 
10 a.m. on Feb. 1


This was out in the middle of the backyard this morning, and it's still snowing.  There could be another couple inches before it's done.
 

The wind picked up today so it's really blowing around. I haven't lost any tree branches so that's good.


Even the birds are staying away today.