Dreaming of Quilting...

Howdy do!

Amongst my many hobbies and due to my BIG weakness of being easily distracted, I find myself daydreaming about…….Quilting.

As you may know from my first post, my first big project I ever completed was a double quilt as a gift to my mum.  I was (and still am) so proud of this accomplishment but I know now looking back that I broke SO many rules making it as I was new to the art and as a result the wadding/batting has moved inside the quilt over the years and the squares aren't quite lined up.  But my main regret is not knowing about stippling at the time.

I have read up on quilting a lot since that quilt and have designed many projects over the years to make but never got round to working on any, mainly due to the expense of buying some good quality fabrics and needing some tools for the job.

In the last few months I have bought a Fiskar rotary cutting tool which I really want to try out but haven't invested in a cutting mat yet as have been told glass mats have taken over the self-healing in popularity and I'm confused as to which I should buy.   What are your thoughts?

I have also wanted to get an embroidery foot for my sewing machine after watching YouTube videos on how to free-motion quilt and stipple in particular - this video searching led me to a few great blogs and websites, mainly  Leah Day's site: http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.co.uk/ which is so inspirational and makes me want to get going with quilting again.

My mum bought me the aforementioned embroidery foot for Christmas! Since then I've been impatiently waiting to set up my sewing machine and have a go but realise now that when I got my machine as a child, MANY years ago, I really should have kept all those little parts that came in the drawer which I just discarded in frustration from not knowing what they were, as I found in my manual that I got a darning plate with my machine to cover the feed dogs and I can no longer find one online to replace it as my machine is so old!!

Does anyone have any tips on where I can find one or anything I can do instead? I didn't really want to tape over my feed dogs as they'll get sticky from the tape.

I then got to thinking I've never actually 'cared' for my machine as I got it so young and haven't used it much as an adult.  I bought a little bottle of sewing machine oil from a local shop and sat myself down the other week and serviced my machine - it felt so good to look after it and clean out all the lint and it was also very interesting taking bits apart and finding out how it works.  It really helps you appreciate your machine and get to know it.  It also runs so smoothly now!! I never knew it wasn't supposed to grate when you manually turned the machine...

I've been helping mum with a project she started, a patchwork cot quilt for my niece, so hopefully will  get to have a go at some quiltling soon! :)

TTFN

Mrs K

xxx