Chain Piecing

    Chain Piecing! 

If you already chain piece, you already know,
Piecing in chains is the way to go.
Just line up those pieces that need to be seamed,
Stitch them and watch them amass in a stream.

In no time at all, your units are flowing
   in colorful rope banners, worthy of showing. 
And even at that, the newly seamed stash
      can run through the line in another chain dash.
I'm telling you now, if you do not chain yet,
      try it. You'll like it. I nearly would bet! 

As pieces come flying all strung in a row, their colors parading ... Oh! What a show!

And even chain pressing , before units you sever,
makes pressing easy and speedy as ever!

What's more, getting done with a project on task!
Your deadline is met; what more could you ask?

I would write an ode, but how silly a thing? So, instead: of chain piecing, I joyfully sing!

"Piping Hot", or is that "Red Hot Piping"?

Another adventure in techniques on this miniature of the "Focused on the Lover of  Red" quilt. Seems the small projects are the ones most easily side-lined, for me. Maybe because I think I will be able to knock them out in "no time". This one's delay, though, was because the piped binding seemed daunting. It really was not hard at all when I followed the tutorial found here; frequent breaks to view and review were needed. Remembering what I've seen all the way from the computer to the machine can be a bit of a challenge some days. (!)  Everything, including having the corners meet, worked just like when doing a regular binding.

Sewing binding to back of quilt.

Resorted to gluing and ironing the fold-over before stitching in place.

The quilt measures 15 & 7/8's x 14 & 1/2 inches.

 So,  is that hot, or what?

Dogs-gone Zigzagging

This is my first foray into FMZ (Free Motion Zigzagging). I transferred a pattern of the Japanese character for "love" 愛　to onionskin paper to stabilize the piece. The stabilizing paper has not yet been torn away from the portions inside the stitching; I thought it might show up better in the picture with the paper still there. 

        

          As with normal FMQ (Free Motion Quilting), the feed dogs are lowered/disengaged and a darning foot or free motion foot is used. The stitch width, however, is what makes this differ. Check with your foot on how wide you may safely set the width. When stitching, moving the zigzag up and down gives the widest stitches, and side to side makes a narrow line. If you move the fabric slowly, you can obtain a satin stitch. Faster movement makes for "sketchier" strokes of the thread.With practice this could be used like a chisel tipped marking pen.
          This technique could be used for quick freehand appliqué. Our local instructor, Sandy, shared a link with us that gives a short tutorial video on this, illustrating both the technique and applications of it.

The "wrong side" has the reverse of the character, but I like how the quilting looks like pen and ink; reminds me of the Japanese manga (graphic drawings).

  The back of the block turned out to be my favorite, but since the letter is not the same in reverse, I'll need to do another some day using a solid background. I think the white fabric with black quilting gives it a real pen and ink feel. Look closely and you'll see my tension was not set correctly, as there were so very many "eyelashes" on the curves. Still, it gives it that cartoon look.

Finished and waiting for a frame.