Flying through February

February is pretty cold here in Minnesota, but my sewing machine has been smokin' hot!  I've had lots of time in the quilting room, and am so happy to have some finishes to share with you.

While cleaning out a corner of the quilting room I came across a redwork cardinal that I did several years ago when I was experimenting with my new embroidery machine.  Time to do something with that!

Turning this into a little one-block 17-inch table topper was a delightful winter afternoon project.  It's all quilted and the binding is ready to hand-sew down tomorrow during my volunteer time sitting at the Welcome Desk at church.

Next, I finished up my version of the Summer Sampler from Temecula Quilt Co. from last summer.  The sampler blocks were supposed to be little 3-inch blocks, but I just wasn't in the mood to make teeny-tinys last summer.  So, I went with full size 6-inch blocks.  That gave me large spaces in the alternate blue blocks to play around with some free-motion quilting.

I went to the Inbox Jaunt and checked out Lori's tutorials for free motion quilting designs.  Lots of very cute ideas there!  It was fun to try some of them out.  I wasn't being very careful.  The quality of my free-motion quilting is, quite frankly, horrible.  But, I learned a lot and became much more comfortable with FMQ than I was before.

One big lesson is that my small sewing machine table is not good for free-motion quilting.  (Yes, I knew that already, but was too lazy to take everything into the dining room table.) The quilt wasn't supported enough and suddenly, right in the middle, it's a tug of war.  It took three days, but I got through it and am really pleased with the finished quilt.  It has a very humble and folk art kind of style.   I hurried outside to take a quick snapshot in the driveway for you before it started snowing again.  (in below-zero temps I might add)  You might be able to see some of the designs in these close-ups.  Every one is different.  Isn't it fun when a quilt that you don't expect to really like, turns out to be one you love?

Iris, apple, house, pie, dandelion, bird, kite, cherries, owl, tomato pincushion,
race car, oak leaf & acorn, bee, turtle, pencil, football, hyacinth, sewing machine, cat, mittens

Candy, dragonfly, windowsill garden, puzzle, baseball, pumpkin, spider & web, house
birdhouse, umbrella, shamrock, thread, bunny, sailboat, heart, fence, apple core, flower, truck, pine tree

Wait, there's more!  Two toddler whole-cloth quilts were finished up too.  I had two pieces of 'cheater cloth' about 1-1/2 yards each.  I loved the fabrics and decided to quilt each of them to a warm and cozy piece of polar fleece.  The Disney Mickey Mouse & Pluto was quilted to blue fleece, and the delicate pink and tan Simple Nature by Cynthia Coultier for Willmington Prints was quilted to a light pink fleece.  Both are copyright prints, so I decided not to post photos of them. But they're cute, and soft, and will be all ready when I need a gift for a new big brother or big sister.

More quilts in the works.  February is always a very productive quilting month around here!