Tag Archives: handi quilter sweet sixteen

Redwork Ornaments

My last day of #Needlevember was a free-motion quilted ornament. As I did with many of the November stitched pieces, I sketched or drew a little picture of what I was going to attempt to stitch, then instead of drawing on the fabric I just look at the drawing as I free-motion quilted. It does make the process a bit slower because there is a certain amount of creating on the fly and sometimes I have to just be okay with wonky!

These November stitching pieces ended up being a great way to use painted, gel printed, stamped, and stenciled fabric pieces I had been saving.

Here is the finished ornament on hand painted fabric…

and a video showing the free-motion quilting (I built up more thread off camera).

And here are a couple links to printable pages for you or anyone you know who like to color in ornaments. Have fun and stay safe.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BM22ZRGEDBXEjJmnWtx8JlfqdvJW8TiU/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qLtd8rYm-eUnWwmQL_Vioa-hqXm4mful/view?usp=sharing

Sewing Space Tip

I’m videoing more in the studio and so I needed to rearrange the space, again. This turned out to be great. Besides cleaning up those sneaky dust bunnies I ended up moving existing (Ikea) cabinets to the sides of my HQ Sweet Sixteen.

sewing set up

image 1

They are the perfect height and extend the surface about two feet, eliminating much of the drag on larger quilt projects. But it also meant I no longer had the small drawer unit at my right. No problem, just stick the three items most used on the outside of the wooden cabinet that is now on my right – The little screw driver for the bobbin tension, clipping scissors and a bag for thread bits. I’m back in business!

quilting sew up

image 2

I’m quilting an art quilt now that has over fifteen different thread colors (four different brands) and I have gotten really fast at changing the thread; top and bobbin, and adjusting the tension. Did you notice the little drawing by the gloves in the photo (in image 2)? Even though I have adjusted the top thread tension assembly many times, I still seem to have a brain burp when it comes to which way to turn the dial. When I bought my machine the wonderful sales person draw this little picture in my manual for quick reference. Most people would probably have it memorized but a quick glance at this little drawing works for me.

How have you made your sewing or quilting space work for you?