More machine Quilting! - Kate Colleran Designs

Hi friends!

I hope you all had a lovely Labor Day weekend. Hubby and I did a little painting in the house, a little relaxing and a little walking. And a little eating out. What is your favorite meal to eat out? To be honest, mine is breakfast. I love breakfast food and I am even happy with breakfast for dinner.

I have been working a few different projects recently and I find that I pop between them as my fancy dictates. It is nice having things to work on with no immediate deadline. Reminds me why I do this; I started this business because I love to sew, I love to design, and I love to play with fabric and fiber.

I put the fiber in there as I also love to knit. There is something so relaxing about knitting. I am a slow knitter and since I never have a deadline with my knitting, that helps with the relaxing part.

And because I had some time the other day, I grabbed a bunch of fat quarters and started playing with a design idea. So far, it has been quite fun. I cut some tumbler shapes and made a runner and two placemats. And I have a cool quilt in mind as well; I just need more fabric. (I can see hubby’s eyes roll now. How could I possibly need MORE fabric?!)

I decided to quilt the placemats and the runner myself and not just quilt straight lines. I really like straight lines in quilting. Kind of a modern look and something I am comfortable doing. I don’t usually worry if I wobble a little and one of the lines is a bit off. Close enough.

But this time I decided to try one of the many decorative stitches on my machine. First, I did “stitch in the ditch” around the outside each of the tumbler shapes to make them stand out. Then I used the edge of my walking foot as my guide and quilted this fun design. I love how it looks!

Here is the stitch close up.

In case you are wondering, my background fabric is an off white, as that is what I had on hand, and I quilted it with a light grey thread to complement the black and grey prints.

For the runner I even added a straight line of the decorative stitch down the center of the background section. Love it. The runner needs a bit of a press (and some binding) and then it will look great.

Do you have a fancy stitch on your machine that you like to use for quilting? I am in need of suggestions on what to try next! Also this new quilt pattern will need a name- any suggestions for my tumbler quilt and runner pattern?

Now it is time for me to get back to writing a pattern for that fun mini braid bag I was working on.