Minky Elephant Finish

Another busy week here, but I did manage to add a final finish to my Minky Elephant Baby Quilt.

This quilt was my first time with improve curves, as well as quilting on minky & I posted a bit about this quilt back in April. It just seemed a bit boring to me, so this week I appliqued the elephant with some velour from my stash.

I am likin' it much better! I did not use a batting, and the fleece gives it a great drape. I think this was the first time I did the machine binding.

AND,
Lucky me, I received a giveaway surprise package from Julie at 627handworks !!

YUM!!

I wish I had photographed it before I ripped it all open - Such a cute wrapping, and Julie stitches Pez fabric on her business card. Quite creative, and too cute! The fabric FQ bundle is from Caitlin, who runs 'I don't do dishes' , a great shop on Etsy. She has beautiful fabrics at reasonable prices.

And I am loving the Aurifil sampler pack. Has anyone ever used the wool thread? It is the red one. I might have to try a wool project just so I can use it:-)

Yep, lucky me:-)

Linking up this week with Julie at Thursday Threads, Cherry Valley Designs for TGIFF, and Sarah for Can I get a Whoop Whoop?  Sarah made the cutest Dresden plate Apron - check it out!

Free Motion Quilting / Finish It Friday

Lately I have been doing a lot of experimenting with techniques new to me.

This week I tried a FMQ tip that has been in the back of my mind for some time now, so I thought I would link up with Leah Day's FMQ Friday Party ..

I tried this sticker tip and stitched all around them.  It worked best stitching close to the sticker edges, and I wish I had done more than I did on my practice sandwich. The stickers did not catch the foot much, and I got pretty good at it by the time I completed the quilt, but I did wish I had placed the stickers closer together, and it probably took longer than it would have had I just marked it.

In the future, I may use the stickers for general layout, by placing them randomly to mark size and placement references for FMQ. Perhaps to mark a quilt, or to practice repetition.
And this may have worked better with smaller dots.

 

And to celebrate another finish, I linked with TGIFF, hosted this week at Quilt Matters, and with Crazy Mom Quilts, to share my curvy-pieced, minky dot-backed, and machine-binded baby quilt, three more new techniques for me:-)

 Many times I think I will do a binding by machine and end up doing my traditional, hand-stitched binding, but it seems suitable for this type quilt and the minky kinda hides the topstitch.

 I did not use a batting, and I quilted with large loops , and wavy lines. I used pins every 2", which actually made it hard to keep smooth stitching loopsies since the pins were always in the way.

 

Last week I was the lucky Quilt Along winner over at Christa's Quilts. When she mentioned I could opt for store credit rather than the titanium needles and batting tape (both of which I do want to try), I shamefully turned my winnings toward fabric from her awesome clearance section,

AND I qualified for Christa's Candy/mystery scraps as well...  I LOVE her store!

And I LOVE to find fabric in my mailbox!