A Year of Christmas – June

For my June quilt, I used the pattern, Row of Bricks, in Skip the Borders: Easy Patterns for Modern Quilts by Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts. I found this gem at my favorite local quilt shop, Cut Up and Quilt, and knew immediately I would be making several of the patterns.

Row of Bricks is the first pattern I used where I actuallypressed the seams open as instructed. I’m very much a stitch-in-the-ditch kinda gal so this was a leap of faith for me. I must say, I do love how flat the seam areas are and this was a great pattern for http://arubatourism.com/assets/blog/index.php?=viagra-online/ experimenting with the open-seam concept since there are no seams to match throughout the pattern. But honestly, I will continue to iron seams to the side to nest the joints and to allow me to stitch-in-the-ditch before I free motion my quilts. I’m all for stability and durability. I want my quilts to be used and washed without worrying they will start splitting at the seams.

Since I have no particular individual in mind for these Christmas projects, I find myself free to experiment with the free motion doodling on my quilt. Here I’ve worked on trying to get my holly leaves looking like well holly leaves! I’m getting better at it but some of them are rather mutant in shape…ah well. Yep, practice, practice, practice. So far I much prefer feathers to the herky jerky motion of these leaves….brain dysfunctional on learning this muscle memory…ha.

One of my favorite sites, which I subscribe to via email, is The Inbox Jaunt. Lori Kennedy has an excellent tutorial for the holly leaf. And yes, hers are prettier.

Voila! Here is my finished Row of Bricks quilt. It’s a bit wrinkly as I pulled it out of the dryer just before taking the pics. Gallery below illustrates more of the free motion doodling used.