mojo magic

Bargello Beauty

March 19, 2017 By admin Leave a Comment

I started working on my Bargello quilt on 2/2/17 and was sewing on the quilt label on 3/19/17, a little over 5 weeks.

Here are a bunch of pictures of the fabric selection, work in progress and the finished product posing on a fence in my backyard.

Fabrics used were 2 jelly rolls from Moda Fuji Batiks; they make up the body of the Bargello. And on the backing I used a grey batik Flourish Batik Mager.

All of the strips are pieced and cut from the tube and on my design wall.

Bargello quilts look complicated, but they’re really not. There are many videos on YouTube that are helpful and can show you different ways of constructing; using the 2 1/5″ precut strips definitely helps speed the process up. You start by sewing all of the strips together and then connect the ends to make a big massive tube of fabric. Once this is done, lay the tube on your cutting board and start cutting into strips. I alternated the sizes of my strips like so: 1″, 1 1/2″, 2″, 2 1/2″, 3″, 3 1/2″, and then repeat or alternate at will. Now you will have a big pile of tubed strips, and this when it starts to get fun.

You decide where to open your tubes, I don’t think it matters but I started with a purple square. I separated my first tube between the purple and a green square and pinned to my design wall. The next tube I opened on the next color which was the green and copper, and hung this next to the first strip on my design wall; keep alternating and opening on the next color. You continue this opening up of the strips and hanging, or laying out so you can check your design. You will see the pattern emerging right before your eyes. It’s Mojo Magic baby!

Here all of the strips are sew together.

I picked a pretty toned down grey batik for the binding and the backing.

I realized the quilt wasn’t big enough for what I wanted and consulted Jenny on what to do. Jenny suggested adding a border and this made sense, so I added a 4″ border of this pretty purple from Flourish Batik Mager.

Close up of the borders and the bargello on the long arm ready to quilted.

Holding up my completed long arm quilted Bargello. Everyone at Quilted Joy was very helpful getting me set up and on the right path. I used a large meander stitch as I want to learn and get better at quilting on the long arm.

The long process of cleaning up the extra batting and fabric begins.

Almost there, sewing my binding on. The hand finishing seemed to take forever.

I’m so happy and proud of myself on this Bargello Beauty, she is so pretty. But I’m onto the next project which is finishing up the Gravity Quilt.

Keep making magic beauties, there is so much creativity out there in the world, and it brings everyone together. Until next time, Mojo Magic is creating more quilting magic.

Free Motion On The Long Arm

January 29, 2017 By admin Leave a Comment

Now that I’ve completed the certification training at Quilted Joy on the APQS long arm machines, I could rent time on the machines to finish projects. One of the first quilts tops I ever made was on the cover of Quilts & Crafts Simpy Moderne Magazine Issue No. 5 called For Lori’s Beautiful Eyes by Stephanie Prescott.

Quilts & Crafts Simply Moderne Issue No. 5.

This quilt starts with large 18″ quilt blocks that are cut into 5 different shapes, it’s very graphic and colorful and was quite fun to make. I made the quilt top last summer and have been waiting to learn how to finish it properly; I’ve even toyed with the idea of paying someone to finish it for me, but I really wanted to learn the long arm myself.

Here are a few close up pics of the blocks. I used this fabric I found at my local quilt shop from MODA that had cool fonts and graphics on them, the colors were very bright and cheery and I liked to look at them. I’ve noticed that I’m drawn to fabrics that have printed words on them or some type of font, maybe it’s the creative writer in me.

Here is the finished quilt top from last summer.

So, this quilt top sat on my shelf for months, until I finally figured out how to get my hands on a long arm so I could finish it. I’ve tried to do free motion on my sewing machine, but the frustration of dealing with the missed stitches, uneven length stitches, and broken thread was enough to make me take it out on my husband. Poor husband, it’s not his fault I couldn’t get my machine to work correctly.

I found out about the certification course from my first meeting with the local Modern Quilt Guild; it was a eureka moment for sure. Once I completed my certification, they recommended that you schedule time on the machines as soon as possible, so you can retain what you learned. This is sage advice, as I was all thumbs putting my backing on the zipper system that the APQS machines use. Liz, the instructor was very helpful on my second go around, but once I got everything set up, it was smooth sailing.

Loaded up on the long arm and ready to start stitching.

Keeping my hands relaxed on the bars of the machine.

Close up detailing of some fan work in the corners.

I was trying anything and every kind of shape I could think of. On the circle pattern, I was circling the colored circles, on the mugs, I was outlining the mugs, I was doing swirls, loops, and squares, pretty much anything goes. I wanted to get comfortable with the machine and what I could do with it.

I used a white backing on this quilt, but in hindsight, I think a dark grey would’ve been better. Picking the batting, backing and thread colors is something I hope to get better at doing. From everything I’ve read in quilting books and magazines, practice really does make better.

Once I remove the quilt from the machine and bought it back home, now the process of cutting the excess fabric off and sewing the binding on, begins. The binding I chose to finish the quilt with is the same green fabric with the fonts in the print.

Once the quilt is removed from the frame, now the excess fabric needs to be trimmed off, and binding attached

Here is the finished quilt with the binding. This will be me and my honey bunny’s cuddle quilt for when we are watching movies in his man cave.

Close up of finished stitching. I see loops, swirls and circles.

Finished quilt hanging in my sewing room. I’m very pleased with my first large quilt.

Binding edged in green MODA print fabric.

I need to get busy piecing more quilt tops. I think my next project will be a bargello quilt.

Long Arm Adventures

January 21, 2017 By admin Leave a Comment

Today was my big day at Quilted Joy http://www.quiltedjoy.com/. I signed up for a class to get certified so that I can rent the machine to finish my quilt tops and future projects.

Kathy was my instructor. She was so nervous to be teaching me, because I was her first student! Yay me, she was very patient and a great teacher. We both learned a ton of good tips from the owner of the shop Angela Huffman. All of the machines were by APQS and they were all on 10′ or 12′ sized frames.

Here I am ready to rock and roll. All of the layers are rolled, basted, and ready to go. These machines are very intimidating and expensive; I highly recommend taking a class somewhere to try them out and practice before investing large sums of money.

This is the paper pattern that sits on the back side of the machine that I decided to use as a guide. I was following this design by using a laser light that is attached to the handlebars of the machine.

You can see from my first try, the stitches are all over the place. It was very difficult to follow the pattern with the laser light, it definitely takes practice, practice, practice.

It took me approximately 2 hours to finish stitching this quilt on the machine, so it’s much faster than using a traditional sewing machine. I will be going back and renting time. I want to continue to hone my craft and learn so I can make my mojo magic.