Off The Wall Friday - Kangaroos

I am doing a quilt for a project so I am not going to show the whole thing, lest it be seen by those who will receive it.

But I did want to show you the amazing and most efficient thing I am doing to quilt it.  Amazing.  And efficient, albeit paper heavy.

First I went to pinterest and searched for coloring book pages/animals.  They came up with a most interesting assortment.  I chose the kangaroo because of its clean lines that would be easy to navigate.

Practice a few times with a pen or stylus or your fingers even, and make sure you know where you will want to needle to go and how you are going to get there.

Pin the page to your quilt where you want the quilting to go.  Mine are scattered so I am not marking anything.

Once you have an idea and have practiced a bit (I HIGHLY recommend you practice a number of times before you begin to sew) then drop your feed dogs and free motion on the lines of the roo.  Go all the way around until you get to your starting point.  If you have planned well, you will not have to lift your needle and jump to another spot!


Here is the sewing line and the kangaroo line.  If you are not perfect, no one will know.  Just relax and go with the flow!

You can begin to tear the paper off.  Frank said, oh, you can use the design more than once!  Nope, you cannot!

Oh, by the way, we are starting the 365 Creative Journal by Noah Scalin on Saturday, only one more day!  Join us and change your life!
 I use a tweezers to get all the tiny pieces of paper that stick in the double lines.  But if you can't get it all off, don't sweat it.  When you wash the piece it will come off in the washer.

You can see the roo's head here. The fabric is busy and I tested all my threads, just about, and found that NONE of them showed up well.  Sigh.  I hope all my roos are not for naught.

 I had a big problem keeping track of my quilting gloves.  They blended in with the colors of the quilt and I kept losing them.  McGee sat under my chair and when I would drop one, he would head out to the other side of the house.  I got tired of chasing him down.




 The other tip I have for you is to bury the tip of the pin into the quilt.  After I cut myself pretty badly on one of the pins that were sticking out, I invented the burying method.

You will have to wait to see this piece, but I will claim it in the Quilt Your Quilts In June Challenge.  After I finish all the kangaroos, I will go back and do a meander to connect them, maybe with some loops in it.

Kangaroos are loopy anyway.

And I am calling this 500 Miles.  Ever hear that song I'm Gonna Be by the Proclaimers?  It is one of my favorites!