Me and My Janome on a Windy Day

 

Yesterday was one of those days when you just want to stay inside and so I did!  I have been finishing up a lot of quilting projects lately, but today I just wanted to start something fresh and simple.  I was inspired by a little mug rug picture I saw at Shape Moth (a new to me blog that you must check out).  There was no tutorial just a picture and for me that is where the fun begins.  I love figuring things out and doing the math, but the one thing I didn’t quite get was how she did those tiny bees on her mug rug so I just have one big bee on mine.

I also had to spend some time playing with stitches on my machine.  I haven’t had my Janome 6600 very long so I haven’t figured out all the stitches.  On my old Janome I found that I like to use a blind hem stitch with the bite made as small as possible and it makes the appliqué look like I had done it by hand, but I couldn’t quite get the same stitch on the new Janome so I used a button hole stitch and I rather like the result.  I dialed the width down to a 1, but I think it will go even smaller.

I finished my Charming Butterflies quilt.  Lots of free motion quilting practice here.  Some of it looks like a kindergartener did it, but somehow it is so fitting on this quilt.  I have a Fig Tree Jelly Roll Stars quilt top that has been finished for almost 2 years just waiting for me to feel confident enough to quilt it, hopefully I will hit the 5th grade level of quilting soon and tackle it.  I have been following Wendy’s blog at Ivory Spring and she is sharing her wonderful quilting tips there weekly.  Today she shared a tip on how she uses freezer paper to get perfect circles…great idea!

Well, it looks like the wind is giving us a break today so I will probably be heading outside and doing a little yard work.  We are hoping to get a quote today on some deer fencing for our new orchard.  Once that is up Hummingbird Farmz will be on its’ way!  We already have some of our fruit trees ready for planting, lots of fertilizers to add and hundreds of fun ideas to try out in our little orchard.  I am hoping that in the future we can use this little corner of our property as a place for neighbors to gather to share ideas, talents great food and create friendships.  I haven’t met many of my neighbors in the year and half we have lived here, but the ones I have met have many talents and I think it would be nice to be able to broaden our horizons and branch out by meeting and sharing and our location is so central to everyone and it is flat and bare at the moment…so we are going to see what we can do to bring people together here.  I foresee a quilt show, BBQ and pie eating going on here in the future.

Share the good times!

Ferne