Pages

Tuesday, 20 October 2015

Mocha swirls

I may have been out of action for a month or so, but with good reason. Here's the reason:
Yes, that's an amazing view of Interlaken in Switzerland and I (and man about the house) got to go and visit our eldest son and his wife who live there. We had a wonderful time, apart from my man becoming very unwell for a week while we were in France. Can you imagine anything worse than being in that land of beautiful food (and wine) and not being well enough to enjoy any of it? Well, that was him. It may be a good excuse to go again in a few years though. 
For a month I did no sewing - and I survived! I guess it helped that we had lots to see and do. 

Now that we're back and well and truly settled - the usual routines kick in including weeding the garden, washing the car and the normal housework (occasionally) I've been making my list - not the Christmas one yet, but my WIPs and trying to tick them off. 

Back in May I had 12 that I wrote down (and that wasn't including a couple I managed to do in August) and now it is down to six, thanks to a finish on this one this week: 

It's a basic rail fence that I began earlier this year I think, but having got it together I enjoyed free-motion quilting some swirls and wiggly lines on it, each in opposite diagonal directions.  Here's another shot (sun going down) showing that great border that really helped to finish it well. 

I think quilting really does help to bring a quilt alive, as this one looked quite flat before the sandwiching and quilting process. It still seems quite masculine to me, with the browns and beige and despite the lemon. So I'm sure it will head off to a good home soon. 

I already have the next quilt sandwiched and so hope to have another finish before long too. There's such satisfaction in crossing them off the list. And of course that enables me to add others, maybe even a Christmas runner as well before the end of the year - well, I may be a bit optimistic but we'll see. 

Until next time,
Lynn
Linking up with: Quilt Story; Freshly Pieced Modern Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict. 

Thursday, 20 August 2015

Heart for Burundi

A friend of mine has a Ball coming up at the end of this month. But it's not just a ball with a meal and dancing and fun to be had, it's to raise funds for a cause called: Villages of Life. Her brother is involved with an orphanage in Burundi and since I can't attend the ball, I went with making a quilt for the silent auction. That will be a challenge - seeing how much people think the quilt is worth, I'll let you know once I find out.

When I saw Sandra's quilt [musingsofamenopausalmelon.blogspot.com] I knew I had found the quilt to do - (thanks Sandra for the encouragement) especially when my friend had given me some 10" squares of shades of pink through to red that weren't really my choice of colour. This seemed to be a great use for them.

So I cut out some of her squares down to 5" by 51/2" and then added some other choices of blue/green/teal types. I liked the overall layout, then had a thought about using the leftovers for a pieced backing. The first shot here is just the pieces prior to them being sewn together.

I have worked pretty hard the last few days to get this finished!
I learned quite a lot from quilting this little piece (it finished at 58" square):
  • First of all a pieced backing is fine if you're using a reasonably thick wadding. Lately I've been using bamboo, but I went with cotton because its lighter and I thought manoeuvring through my Janome would be easier. It was easier, but I knew when I came across a seam in the backing. 


  • Secondly, quilting straight lines which create a 'frame' and then doing figure 8s, or capital S or maybe a musical clef type type shapes within that frame, works really well to highlight the centre of the quilt - and it's good fun. 

This is a shot of the body or centre of the heart with a paisley (?) type pattern that I experimented with as well, mostly sticking to one direction but occasionally going off on a tangent - maybe I should have done that more often, not sure. 


  • Thirdly, the scrolls - they take a lot of practise!! I think I improved and I'm grateful that those at the Ball and auction hopefully won't be quilting experts, so they'll think it looks OK. I used Superior Thread, Bottom Line which was very smooth, apart from the times when the machine just chose randomly to snap the thread. I did all the right things: new needle, full bobbin, quality thread and much patience, to get to the end. 



And finally one shot outside, that I managed to grab inbetween the showers here - it is Winter in the Southern Hemisphere after all! This shows much more clearly that the borders really are white and not cream as they appear indoors. 
Feel pretty satisfied with this quilt and I learned a lot which is always a good thing. I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced; Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Free-Motion by the River. 
Until next time,
Lynn


Thursday, 6 August 2015

Square Garden

A friend of mine has a 60th birthday coming up at the end of this month and I am so pleased with myself that I have her gift all but finished (the all but is the binding which will be sewn on tonight and the all important label, which going on past record, will be attached the day I give it to her!).



It began with some left over fabric in small triangles that I just couldn't bear to throw away. So I joined them to make a square and added borders around that. Then I came across some alternate squares that I know she will really appreciate and that helped to make the central panel.

That made it quite busy, so when it came to quilting it needed something quite simple.
Orange peel seemed to fit the bill. You can see it quite clearly here on the back which was pieced in a simple print with the same cream as on the front as well.

The border though, in particular the cream, was crying out for some feathers.  So I obliged and had fun doing them too. They may not be as beautiful as others who may also have a long arm, but my Janome QC 1600P does a good job. I'm pretty sure the recipient will be happy with it and that's the main thing really.

I'm also making another quilt for the same deadline, so it's on to that one now. 
Until next time, 
I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.


Tuesday, 4 August 2015

Teaching Sampler

A friend and I recently talked about beginning a new patchwork group for Mums at our local school who may be in need of a creative outlet and some new friendships. So to start the group off, we thought we'd begin with a sampler - not an original idea, but a great way to teach new skills for people.
Of course we needed to choose the blocks and write some instructions - that fell to me.

So here is the flimsy of the sampler. I decided to do it in quite strongly contrasting colours so that things would stand out obviously for people. I thought I'd also use it as an excuse to plan for a baby quilt - we have a number of those expected in our community.
I enjoyed the process, found it a challenge to make sure that I had all the measurements correct so that we would create raw 12 1/2" blocks, then add sashing. Anyway quite happy with the use of the fat quarter of owls as my feature print - that worked well.

We had our first class, beginning with a rail fence block, on Friday just gone. It was wonderful to see people grasping the joy of putting fabrics together. I didn't realise how much skills that I use almost daily, including using a cutter and ruler, can take a little while to grasp. The newcomers gradually got the hang of it though and so begins the wonderful adventure and journey!

This isn't one of my current working list (eight works in progress) but I have made some progress on one I hope to share later this week so I am making some gradual progress and I'm happy with that.

Until next time,
Linking up with Val's Quilting studio and other Linky parties.

Wednesday, 15 July 2015

Stippled Stars

I've been working for a little while now on these scrappy centred star blocks. They are fun to create, make a bit of a dent in the scrap stash, but I think I'll have to make several more before my box of scraps (plus the other small containers, zip lock bags etc) decrease substantially.

They are 10inch finished blocks so adding the sashings and borders it's a 55inch square - a lap quilt size.
I like the fact that some of my novelty fabrics have a chance to appear there, so a sheep and some spiders!

When it came to quilting I thought I'd give the star pattern a try - a simple corner to corner in the centre of the block first of all, then heading to a dot I marked with fading pen, just one inch from the centre which creates that slightly diagonal line around the centre star. It's a bit clearer on the blue star so you get the idea. 

The backing is a great pattern that picks up the quilting really well, so the recipient can always just turn the quilt over when they get tired of the stars. 

This makes one less on the original list of a dozen I created in May this year, so I'm down to 8 to go now. Two are flimsies, one I've begun quilting and 4 are 'in progress' and the eighth one is still 2 charm packs and additional fabric with the idea brewing in my mind. I know I'll get to it eventually and that's incentive to keep going on these UFOs. 

I'm linking up with Quilt Story; Freshly Pieced and Confessions of a Fabric Addict. 


Sunday, 21 June 2015

Happy Houses

I began making some of these cute little houses a couple of months ago. I said at the time how addictive they are. Well I have paused for the moment, and done the quilting on them too. I was keen to do the Baptist fan pattern I had seen on Bonnie Hunter's quilt so I explored how others had done the pattern free-motion quilting.
I saw one where a very specific ruler had been used, but not having one of those, thought I'd improvise. They say 'necessity is the mother of invention', well I figured a dinner plate, slightly smaller dinner plate, bread and butter plate and dessert bowl were probably the right sizes for the fans I wanted to create. So I just drew around them with a dissolvable pen and set to quilting. I don't have a long arm, just my Janome 1600P QC - it only does straight sewing, not even zig zag. 

The result may not be perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it. And the people to whom I gave it today were also quite thrilled to receive it - so win, win!


Our weather has been quite wild 'down under' so I was fortunate to grab a couple of shots before the rain came down very heavily and the wind really picked up. This is the reverse which may not be wonderfully clear, but you get the idea. 
So as I continue to make progress on my list, I'm down to 9 now, 2 of which are sandwiched, one even begun quilting, 2 tops are completed so I guess that makes it 5 still needing some piecing to complete. Variety is good and certainly keeps me busy. 
Until next time, 
Lynn

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict. 

Saturday, 13 June 2015

A Dozen is Enough

I finally decided to write a list of what quilts I currently have on the go - before I start yet another one. It was a little scary to realize I had twelve, yes twelve works in progress. One had been a flimsy for quite a while (maybe a year?) another was a small wall hanging that was all ready to be quilted. Yet 2 others were almost completed flimsies and so it went. So what was preventing me from completing these pieces and freeing myself to begin new exciting ones? Probably just the routines of life and the focus and will to begin and tick one off.
So I did, here it is:
It's a very simple quilt, just squares and sashings, but I really like how the lemon makes it pop. And the quilting was fun - why had I put it off for so long? I did some free-motion quilting, a plain 'wiggle' in the coloured strips and some leaves in the white sashings. I don't have a long arm, just a Janome 1600QP but it does a good job!

This is the backing, a simple print for this baby quilt. And below, a closer up of some of the quilting. 

So, feel all conquering having begun the list I moved on to number 2! The wall hanging below: 
 This one is 'in situ' in the bedroom where it matches a kit I bought and made up a while ago, 'Summer in the Hamptons'. This fabric was left over and I didn't want it to go to waste just in bits in other quilts, so the wall hanging was created.
 The photos above and below highlight the swirling quilting I did al over, which matches the bed quilt as well - that was a bit too large (Queen size) for me and is the last quilt I had professionally done by someone else.
So now, having ticked 2 off my list, I'm also part way through quilting 2 more! Hope to have photos of them in the next few weeks. My goal now is to not have more than 10 on the go, hopefully less, but then some piecing is just calling to me. 

Until next time, 
Lynn
Linking up to: Confessions of a Fabric Addict