If you’re like me, you’re in need of a little Vitamin D…It’s too cold to go outside these days…So we will have to drink a glass of milk and make our own sunshine-Sweet Sunshine!
THE SWEET SUNSHINE TUTORIAL
Begin with happy confidence that you can FMQ (i.e. a sunny disposition)–If you need help getting started, see Seven Steps to Free Motion Quilting). Then draw a square–any size. If your quilt block is large–draw a large square, if your quilt block is small–go with that. For the purposes of this tutorial, I drew a 4-1/2 inch square.
Stitch a spiral in the center of the square–I just “eyeball” the center. Next begin stitching “rays” out toward the edge of the square. Do not stitch TO the lines of the square--we need a little space later.
Continue stitching rays around the center spiral. It does not matter how many rays–or if they are even. After the last ray, begin stitching curved lines back and forth, working up and away from the center of the sun.
Near the top of the ray, stop and echo stitch around the point of the ray and into the center of the sun.
Begin stitching the curved lines again, back and forth until you are near the point of the second ray. Again, echo stitch the point and into the center and begin again…
Continue rotating around the sun like a planet until you come to the first ray. Echo back into the center of the sun, meet up with your first set of curved lines and tie off. Voila! Instant sunshine!
NOTE–This tutorial was stitched on Kona fabric with Aurifil 50wt cotton thread in the bobbin (because that’s what my Bernina 820-domestic sewing machine prefers) and Robison Anton Rayon on top with a Schmetz 90 Topstitch needle–without a BSR.
That’s my version of a “Sundance”–doing all I can to nudge Mother Nature into Spring!
Perhaps a little vase quilt and a few tulips from the market would help as well!
What about you? What are you doing to add a little sunshine to your day and get through the final days of this very long winter? I’d love to hear…
Signed,
Little Miss Sunshine,
Lori
(I can just hear my family HOWLING!)
PS…All tutorials, photos and information are the property of Lori Kennedy @ The Inbox Jaunt and are intended for personal use only. People with sunny dispositions are asked to re-blog and Pin with attribution to The Inbox Jaunt. For all other uses, please contact me at lckennedy@hotmail.com. Thanks a million–93,000,000 in fact!
