Quilting Fever

For the last couple of weeks I've really had quilting fever. It all started when I watched Sewing With Nancy and they were talking about Bargello Quilts With a Twist. It looked really complicated and it was challenging for me, but I actually managed to make a couple of wall hangings and I will share pictures soon.

So then, after that I was in the grocery store and bought a Quilt Almanac for 2011.

It was around $9.99, but I hadn't bought one in awhile and I thumbed through and saw several things I was interested in. And I ran across this.

And I thought, oh boy, that doesn't look hard at all. And it wasn't hard. Not at all. It was fun.  The least fun was cutting the pieces out, but the hardest part for me was being able to find batik fabrics in my area. Most of the very few quilt stores that we had have all closed up, so I've been getting most of my stuff from Joann's, Hancock's and Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby doesn't have batik fabrics at all, but Joann's and Hancock's have a little bit. Enough for me to make this:

I didn't want to tackle the big quilt, so I decided to make a small wall hanging. I'm really happy with it.  I haven't quilted it yet, but tomorrow I'll be marking it and quilting it by hand.  I've tried my hand at free motion stitching and that didn't go very well.  I guess it takes practice, but I was really discouraged and I don't know if I'll try that again.

Then I found this pretty thing:

It's called Flip Flop Flakes. I may have seen it advertised in another quilting magazine. I can't remember now where I saw it, but there was information for how to order it. It doesn't look too hard and I'm looking forward to making that one. I went ahead and ordered the kit for it from Quiltmaker. I must have seen that in Quiltmaker magazine. I started to just try and buy the batiks, but I wasn't sure I could find everything in the colors and I really liked the colors of the one in the picture, so I broke down and bought the kit. I can't wait to get it and try that pattern.

I had to go today to the Singer Sewing Center to get a 1/4" presser foot for my sewing machine because I'm tired of trying to guess what 1/4" is. I love my new presser foot. I also needed a new foot pedal for my machine since my old one had started sticking and it was very frustrating, especially when I was trying to free motion quilt and it was hard to keep a steady pace going.

I'm trying to decide if I'm going to the American Quilter's Society quilt show in Knoxville in July. I haven't been in 2 or 3 years and I would love to go again seeing as how I seem to be having a quilting fever right now. I'm used to going to Nashville, though, to the Opryland Hotel, but for some reason they stopped having it there. It could have been the big flood that had awhile back. Anyway, I'm sure it's just as good in Knoxville.