I’m just like you… I have to work at figuring out what sort of quilting design I want to use. I generally doodle to figure it out.

I begin by putting a piece of the clear upholstery vinyl (or other heavy-ish clear plastic) over the quilt I am working on. I doodle quilt designs with my ultra-fine point Sharpie on the plastic, which is laid over the quilt. (In this photo the doodled-on plastic is pinned to my design wall so that the picture is clearer.)

You can see how close I came to the edges of the plastic with my Sharpie. I’m not always as careful as I should be. If you are smarter than me, you’ll cut your plastic bigger so that you do not run the risk of drawing on your quilt with a permanent marker.

In this example, the center flower was easy to come up with. Harder to decide on was the fill outside of the flower, mostly in the corners. I like the way this quilting design turned out.

FYI – If you hire someone to quilt your tops, this is an excellent way to share ideas with your quilter. Even if you don’t draw well, you can doodle something that will help get your intentions across.

On Saturday it was practically hot here in north Texas. The high was in the low 80s – very unusual for us. Today, Monday, we’re having a bit of freezing rain. Luckily the ground is too warm for the roads to get icy.

There are icicles growing on my bird feeder. The birds flew away when I was outside taking this photo, but they are back now.

BTW – I bought this squirrel-proof bird feeder from Duncraft recently and it is wonderful! The squirrels gave up after they slid off of it once or twice. All kinds of birds eat at Chez Goldsmith. And I am pleasantly surprised that there is not much uneaten seed falling to the ground.

So, I’m going to get back to work machine quilting. There are so many deadlines that I ignored during the holidays. Surely I’m not the only one who did that :-).

Happy stitching,

Becky

PS – Christy is out of the hospital and home. She’s certainly better than she was and that’s a good thing.

We’ll be sending an eNewsletter tomorrow announcing what’s new on our site. We want to share it with you on the blog first!

I hope you all have had – and are having – happy holidays! Both Linda and I have had good visits with our families. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent with those we love and that is the best part of this time of year. 

I’ve been sewing some small leaves whose ends lie underneath a very narrow stem. The ends of the leaves have to be trimmed to fit under the stem. Place the overlay over the block so that you can see exactly how much excess fabric to trim away. 

My granddaughter, Elanor, and I have a tradition of getting together to make Christmas presents for her to give. Her other grandmother, Judy, will help Elanor wrap and label the presents. This year (and last year) Elanor drew pictures that we turned into calendars. (I’ll show you this year’s calendar after Christmas so as not to ruin the surprise for family members who read this blog.)