February Begins

February is here and a lot of work is happening in my sewing room/studio.  My DH bought me a Tailor made cabinet which holds my machine and has a fold out extension table.  I love it.  It will help me quilt larger pieces using my home machine.  

I've been working on the National Quilt Museum Block of the Month blocks.  The final block will come out in March. Then, it will be a race to finish it.  I want to clear everything out of the way and just concentrate on this until it is completed.  There will be a label available to all the finishers, however, I am considering making my own.  Here are my blocks so far including this month's on the bottom row center.  Last month's block is to the left and is Hawaiian applique in a sea turtle design.

There is a lot more to prep for this top.  The borders and binding need to be cut and pressed and wrapped onto my binding spool.  Roll out the batting so it can breathe and lay flat before sandwiching.  I also need to apply the embroidery stitching and beading to some of the blocks before sandwiching.  Last night, was a rough and tumble night because I can't decide on the quilting designs.  Maybe each block should be a different design?  My DH loves the pod design I've done, which is an all-over design.  The other thing I need to consider is the thread type and color(s)?
I will be so glad when this one is finished, but I am considering joining in on the next one.  I may wait it out a couple months and just catch up during the summer months.

I finished the Moroccan tile pillow covers but not the Rose petal tile quilt.

I love tiles and take pictures of them whenever I see them.  Well, I love Moroccan tiles and decided to draw out a simple shape onto graph paper.  I used pencil first, then drew over it with sharpie so I can see it for the fusible.

There is something satisfying and relaxing about making your own patterns or templates.  I guess it makes you feel free to create and be in charge of your design.  I drew out #1 piece first, then moved to the right and drew another #1 and so on until I had 4 square.  That left the center blank, so I drew about 1/4" away from the #1's all the way around.  Now you have the #2 piece.  And that's all there is to the pattern.  I drew this onto the paper side of Heat n Bond lite, chose my fabrics which are mostly Kaffe Fassett fabrics. Fuse onto the wrong side of the fabrics chosen, cut around each shape and remove paper.  Be sure to position as accurately as you want them and do your final fuse.  I used Totally Stable tear away for the reverse to stabilize while I stitched around each shape.  In March I will be teaching this technique at my local MQG group.  It is simple and just about everyone has used fusible before.   You could make an entire quilt like this and will need lots more pieces, so I would suggest measuring your design on the graph paper to see how large it is and multiply by how big you are going.  So treat this design as 1 square or block.  When I made the pillow covers, I knew I needed them to measure 25" square, so I cut my background squares and added the fused pieces as I needed them to cover.  You could also work all the way out to the edges and trim off the excess from the edges.

This picture just shows the Rose petal tiles top before sandwiching.  I've just started the quilting on it but will put it away until the BOM is done and out of the way.
Time to get busy.  I will post a picture of my sewing room on a future date.  Have a creative day.  :o)