Whimsical Cats

Hi there,

I need to say up front that I only quilted this quilt, I didn't piece it. My friend did that very cleverly putting her centre shape onto a thin piece of poplin or similar as a foundation piece. She then added strips of various widths around the shape (a great stash buster), trimmed them back to 12", sashed the blocks and voila, a great piece of whimsy for her sister's birthday. But she didn't think she had quite enough time or perhaps bravery to quilt it. So I put my hand up.

We agreed on the yellow border and then away I went. It did grow a little heavy on my domestic, but it was also great fun

The cats come in as several of the blocks have cats as their centre piece.

You can see the two in the bottom right square and also the one with the arched back in the top left square. 

The challenge with quilting on a domestic machine as opposed to a long arm, is that it's best to start in the centre to ensure that you don't create wrinkles on the back. So I don't have the luxury of beginning on one side and going across. I simply roll it up, put some in the throat space and some over my shoulder and away we go. 

An all over stipple is the main quilting, but I included some hearts, spirals and feathers occasionally. 

It's both challenging and very rewarding to have something like this done - hoping the recipient likes it and having the pleasure of doing it too. 

Since my friend is away on holiday at present, she's only seen these photos too, not the quilt in the fabric - so to speak, so we'll see how that goes soon. 

It's a really interesting and effective technique putting the blocks together, so I may have to try this myself in the future. For now though, its on to quilting one of my own. 

Quilt Stats

Block size: 12"

Quilt Size: 62" x 75" (binding still to be added)

Wadding: Poly/cotton blend

Thread: Top - Embroidery silk; bobbin - Superior. 

Until next time,

Lynn

Rainbow Squares

I'm sure I've said before that I can't bear to throw away the smallest pieces of fabric. As long as there's something left after a quarter inch seam on either side I think it's worth keeping and using. But they do tend to gather and take up room so it was time to put some of them together and make some blocks.
I tend to do about three at a time, so they take a while, but once I've got around 20 there seems to be some momentum that happens and I can't resist keeping going. So I put these together - 48 blocks in total. It should make a good single bed sized quilt:

 

I didn't have anyone around to hold it up for me, so had to make do with laying it down - it's a bit large to fit in it seems. It's fun seeing all those little pieces join together to make something larger, functional and full of memories of other quilts too. 

A little closer of just a few blocks. Those cornerstones are fun to select and see come together too. Just one more of blocks:

Now my dilemma is - what border to put on? I don't think it should be one of the colours in the quilt itself as that might make the particular colour pop out more than the rest. So I guess it's audition time. That could be a while though, as I'm quilting something for a friend first - photos of that next week I hope. 

Until next time,

Lynn

Scraps and coins

We all have scraps lurking somewhere - some in neatly organized piles, or bags, or baskets or boxes, others in strings or slyly skulking in corners wondering whether they will see the light or not.

I can't resist them so when I came across a pattern that looked like it would use up quite a few (see  Vicki's here) I knew I wanted to give it a go.

So 5" strips and some four patches later, joined by some 5" half square triangles and it began to take shape:

And once you get going its a little hard to stop. I thought I'd keep this going until it was close to a bed size. And today I managed to add the borders on so its a finished flimsy. 

The joy comes from also seeing fabric that has been used in many projects before, that have now found homes. Just keeping a small piece that gets to be included in something like this brings a smile to my face. 

And it seems that with coin strips, it doesn't really matter what goes next to what, with a neutral background to give the eye a place to rest, all is well. 

With all that colour going on though, I think a simple stipple may be what is required quilting wise. So we'll see how soon I can get some backing chosen and this quilt sandwiched together. 

Have a happy weekend, this one is a nice way to begin mine. 

Until next time,

Lynn 

Nearly there

I am heartened to see that others have many 'to do' or in progress quilts. It makes me feel a whole lot better about mine, since I'm pretty sure the number is still a single figure (though I haven't actually listed them for a while so I can stay in ignorance about them).
This is one I've been working on for a few months in between others. I could hardly believe when I looked at the photo, how my Jack Russel cross dog, Abby, had snuck herself in posing and all! What is it with quilts and animals? In the photo her eye looks a little odd, so I checked it out, but it must have just been the light or something as she's fine.

Also visible in the top left corner of the quilt is the typical empty spool of thread - yes, ran out with just 3 lines of the sashing to go. 

Here's the back which is a very calming cream, with all that riot of colour going on at the front I thought perhaps a quiet calm spot on the back might be the best idea. 

You can see I had begun those lines either side of the sashing and only got round once then one side the second line. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to go and visit my local quilt shop and try to avoid the temptations of fabric. 

It's fun to use up scraps and squares can go together quite quickly. One of the fabrics in here I realised was left over from backing a quilt I made in 2001. Never throw any fabric away is my motto - it always comes in useful some time. 

Here's a close up of one of the blocks. 

Well it's nearly there - just finish that sashing, put on some binding and its done. I think this may end up with my friend who passes quilts on to an organization placing foster children. Its nice and bright, so should suit the purpose well. 

Now, on to that reducing list, the never ending conundrum, which one to tackle next?

Quilt Stats:

Size: 63" x 53"

Wadding: Legacy 60/40 Cotton/Polyester blend

Thread: Bobbin Superior; Top a variegated embroidery cotton.

Until next time,

Lynn

Gift table runner

A friend of mine is having a 50th birthday this coming weekend. Unfortunately I can't make the celebration as I'll be around 500kms away, but I thought I could make her a small gift. So I worked out this table runner.

The strips were pretty easy, if just a little time consuming, but worth it. They varied in width from 1 and half to 2 and half inches. The lengths I also varied, the total width of the runner 14". Then since the wavy free-motion quilting seemed to work quite well on this table runner I'd made before 

I thought I'd give it a go on this one too. Pretty happy with the result. And fortunately I had just enough of the olive green to make the binding. I'll be finishing up that hand sewing around the binding tonight so that I can pass it on tomorrow. 

Here's a shot of the backing which is featured on the front as well. 

I think my friend will like it. What's your 'go to' gift for a friend at short notice?

Runner stats:

Width: 14"

Length: 50"

Wadding: 60/40 Cotton/Polyester

Thread: Gutterman's and Rasant

Until next time,

Lynn

Baby squares

I've been making a baby quilt in anticipation of a couple of babies I know are due either soon or in a few months - no harm in being ready. I've made this pattern before, back in March, called Baby blue. And I quilted it quite simply cross hatching the squares and doing a swirl in the white sashing.

But when I saw what Louise did with her similar Butterfly garden I knew I wanted to try that. So here is my version:

Mine doesn't have that lovely double type sashing that Louise's has, but these were the squares I had, so I went with it. While the quilting is pretty straightforward, the fact that it goes around in a curve means that on my domestic machine I still need to support the remainder of the quilt on my left as I go, which took just a little more organising (chair on the side etc). 

The quilting shows up a little better on the back:

And here's a closer up of those squares:

I needed to include those and the piece of white sashing like the front as I didn't quite have sufficient fabric for the backing but I'm pleased I got to use up that pretty pae green and yellow/orange dots. The colours are a little more accurate on the closer up shot but I'm going to have to get working on taking better camera shots. 

This is a reasonably quick baby quilt and I like the idea of the various ways of quilting. Might even try another and just do a basic stipple. 

Well back to the next project - I'm having fun creating a library shelf quilt, but will show photos of that a little later. As usual there are also projects to complete!

Until next time,

Lynn

Bows & Swirls

Do you make the same pattern more than once? I decided that since I had quite a good time making a bow tie quilt here but quilted it with a Baptist fan pattern, I thought I'd give bow ties another go, but try a different layout and quilting. Well I've had fun quilting this bow tie quilt.

Since it was more free-motion swirls than the Baptist fan it felt easier. It was also a little smaller - mostly dictated by the fact that I'd only bought one metre of the background fabric and it ran out. If I had thought a bit smarter, I could probably have used a plain background at least for the centre, but of course when you're making the blocks you don't necessarily know what's going to go in the centre. 

Anyway, here's a closer up of the swirls:

I did some large and some smaller to fit in one half of the bow tie. I also did some orange peel on the wider border. I'm still thinking I may add some ribbon candy to that final cream border. Again, since I was using scraps from my stash, I didn't have enough of that border to complete the whole biding, so I used some on two of the shorter sides and a close complement on the longer sides. Since we have two single beds at our holiday place, I think these two bow ties will sit on those. That is, unless I decide to make yet a third, a little larger and then give this one away. Time will tell. 

Here's the back and all that swirly goodness. The photo seems to show as though the needle has made strong indentations, but in reality its quite smooth. 

They may have turned out a little more square than round, but it fits on the front at least. And there's always room for improvement. 

Until next time,

Lynn