Free Motion Mavericks - Week 299 - Lots of Pockets

Really struggling here to make this project look interesting.  At this point its best feature is its comedy value.  I never thought all these jolly brushed cottons, mainly florals, but with a couple of nursery prints, would end up as a weighted blanket destined for a big burly dad.

This week I have made 35 buttonholes, sewn all the strips of fabric to the backing, placing them so every strip overlaps the next one, and then machine stitched at right angles to the strips to make a lot of pockets.  Each pocket will have a sandwich of wadding slipped inside, and each sandwich will have plastic beads inside to give extra weight.

I have finally turned the corner with this project.  The first stage, making the backing and the strips for the top, was a bit of a headache because I was working with left over pieces.  In the end I have used nine different fabrics, all brushed cottons.  Some were heavier than others, and the lighter ones in particular had a tendency to shift around during cutting, so I have been rather slapdash about right angles and straight lines.

Once all the strips were made, then I got to work making the buttonholes.  This meant getting out the buttonholer and using the Singer 201K treadle.   After finishing the buttonholes, I decided to investigate a slight creak I could hear while sewing.  I didn't think it could be lack of oil, because I keep the machine well lubricated, so I thought it might just be a noise coming from the buttonholer.  I did a quick sample of ordinary straight stitching to test the machine, and all was well - in fact, it sewed so beautifully and smoothly that I decided to use it to do the next stage of sewing, attaching the strips to the backing, and then the stitching in the other direction to make the pockets.  After all the initial frustrations, suddenly making this blanket became an absolute joy.

Next stage - 35 weighted wadding sandwiches!

Talking of sandwiches, next week is party week!  Free Motion Mavericks Week 300 will be at Andrée's blog, where you can link up your three favourite FMQ projects, so you can go delving into your archives.  Meanwhile, you can link up here next week with any three favourite posts you like, so if you have a special project, a photo, a special occasion to remember - anything you would like to share, just link here with up to three posts from your archives.  I shall be showing a favourite cake recipe, and have yet to decide on two more posts.

Here goes for Week 299:-

Many thanks to Pam for linking up last time with her beautiful moth appliqué.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.