Thankyou for so many supportive comments for my new Candy Cane Love pattern and for the sales too! I thought I would show you a bit more of the pot holder which uses the square Candy cane block.
The finished block in the pattern is 6" square, the perfect size for the pot holder pattern on Oh Fransson quilted pot holder Tutorial. This is an excellent pattern and has a great pocket feature on the reverse.
I used Florence, my new machine, to practice a bit of free motion quilting. Lynne has been trying FMQ and asked for advice here and the comments include a lot of useful tips. I have done a little free motion before- it makes my arms ache so I only do small areas. I keep the feed dogs up, use a darning foot, machinger gloves, adjust the tension wheel to 7 and have a thinner bobbin thread e.g. YLI soft touch or Aurifil 50. I think it varies hugely according to sewer and machine. The most useful thing for me was practicing drawing out the patterns over and over again on scrap paper. Getting the doodling loose and free prepares my brain for the same patterns with the needle.
I can get a reasonable front and back tension balance and fairly even stitches.
My patterns always end up a bit smaller than I anticipated. I think if I did more free motion quilting it would loosen up a bit.
Or maybe if I drank more...and then quilted.
I hope to put another post up soon showing how I use the pattern alignment marks to match up the different sections. Can you just about make up the free motion writing around the edge? t'is the season to be jolly
Would you like a little music? Last weekend I watched a great documentary looking at 20 years of Pearl Jam on BBC4. I was a massive fan in the early 90s, it made me feel a little old as it captured a time that I didn't realise was so far behind me. Saying that I am much happier person now than I was then, so I leave you with a bit of Eddie Vedder
Happy weekend x
