Archive of ‘Bernina 440QE’ category
Welcome to I Quilt at Pretty Bobbins! The last week has been a flurry of activity in the studio as I finished off a heap of quilts and have been getting ready to submit them to a quilt show 
Entry is due by tomorrow, but if you’re interested you can check it out here.
First up I finished binding “Dream in Colour”. You may remember it from way back last year… On second thought I may not have shared it before… It is pieced using scraps from a beautiful plus quilt (still haven’t finished that one…) and is meant to hang in my studio to remind me to take my vivid, colourful dreams and make them real and tangible.
Made with scraps and quilted with dense, wonky, SLQ
Then I bound my improv, self-reflective, arty-farty piece. I wrote about this quilt a few weeks back, it breaks all of the “rules” and I will be interested to hear feedback from the judges and people who visit the show.
Not the best photo I’m afraid..
I’m also entering the quilt that doesn’t have a name that I recently had in a local show. It mixes hand quilting, longarm quilting, improv piecing, needle-turn applique and goodness knows what else! 
I’ve filled out entry forms for a couple of minis but then I remembered the Blessings Quilt and my lovely friend agreed that she was happy for me to enter it.
All in all I’ve entered seven quilts and I’ll be stitching on a heap of hanging sleeves if they’re all accepted! Which is a nice segway to my topic of this week; hanging sleeves. Do you have a favorite hanging sleeve method or tutorial? I used the directions from the Canberra Quilter’s recently, but I know many shows provide specific dimensions. If I am making a small wall quilt for my house, I generally just do a pocket in each corner and hang it with a piece of dowel. This method has the added bonus of avoiding handstitching
Next time I attach a hanging sleeve I am going to go with a D shape, similar to this tutorial by Tallgrass Prairie Studio.
I haven’t featured a quilter this week as I haven’t had the time to seek permission and my Dad arrived today and I really need to get out of the studio and spend some time with him Please add your link below and don’t forget to add the linky button or a link to my blog in your post or side bar. To those of you celebrating, have a lovely Easter and to those of you who aren’t, have a great weekend xx
An InLinkz Link-up
Welcome to I Quilt linky party at Pretty Bobbins, it’s Thursday (in Nouméa) and time to link up your quilting process. Please link up, visit a few other linkers and grab my button (code at top right or down the bottom if you’re on a mobile device) and link back in your post. Let’s spread the quilty love <3 We had some seriously impressive linkers last week and as I was visiting all of the blogs I started thinking about quilting with confidence as quite a few people mentioned this. Last week a Facebook friend shared a quote that said something like, “don’t compare your middle to someone else’s high point”. It really struck a cord with me (as did the response that we should never compare our middles ).
The online quilting community is great, blogs are great, craftsy and flickr and instagram are great. But every now and then I catch myself comparing my work rather than being inspired. Don’t get me wrong, 95% of the time I am surfing the web I am being inspired but there is a small part of me that every now and then thinks, “I’m not that good.” rather than “I look forward to being that good” or “I’m going to try that”. Of course there are better quilters than me, there always will be! And that’s great, it gives me something to aspire to. But my point is, compare yourself to yourself. To how far you’ve come, to what you achieved during your quilting time today, to the skills that come easily now compared to that first lesson when EVERYTHING was a challenge. (I remember being totally perplexed by how to use a rotary cutter and ruler and cutting all my blocks .5″ wrong!). I used to sometimes feel like blogland was too happy and no one ever said anything real or negative. But I have come to understand that the encouragement that we give each other is far more important than saying, “it would have looked better if you….” or “those really aren’t my colours…” I read every comment I get and whilst I can’t always respond, those comments all build my confidence and that makes me a braver and better quilter. Share the love people!
Photo used with permission from Marelize @ Stitch by Stitch
This week I am featuring the lovely Marelize from Stitch by Stitch. I think I originally “met” Marelize on Instagram and I just LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing her work. She also quilts on a Bernina and is super amazing at free motion quilting. Seriously, check her out if you love quilting candy! Last week she linked up the most BEAUTIFUL quilt in progress and was talking about how it just wasn’t how she imagined. Marelize, the rest of us can see how stunning that quilt is, your work is divine! The back really shows the detail. AMAZING!
Photo used with permission by Marelize @ Stitch by Stitch
I’m actually in the same head space as Marelize at the moment. I love the quilting I did on my “Dream” mini (below) but it isn’t quite there, it’s not how I imagined it would be. I need to add a bit and I think by attaching the binding next I will be inspired to stitch on those words like I envisaged and decide whether or not to outline the word “dream” or leave it subtle.
As often is the case, the back is the show stealer here…
My other current quandry is the table runner I am making as a thank you/farewell gift for Mr 7′s teacher. (Thank you for all the useful suggestions and kind thoughts yesterday. Apparently he was improved this morning but lost focus this afternoon. That in itself is a HUGE improvement. Funny that my son is stubborn… ) After so much dense SLQ on the Dream mini I just couldn’t do it again even though it was my first thought for the table runner (this girl needs curves!).
Triangle table runner in progress
I LOVED this baby during the piecing and felt oh so clever how I’d used all teal and placed it from dark to light with the bold pink thrown in. I actually really thought this one needed some harsh geometric quilting but I didn’t want to quilt over the triangles. I pondered it for a day and then decided to just jump in.
Stuck in a rut!
I kind of got stuck on the same pattern. Does that ever happen to you? Completely not loving it I gave up the idea of something I would love and decided to throw in some half swirls spewing out into pebbles. I like it a lot more now, but it looks really beachy to me and that wasn’t at all what I was going for…. Ah! I need to think less and have more confidence in giving hand made gifts!! Do you give handmade gifts confidently? It’s that real conundrum, do you give handmade and put in lots of effort and then maybe it ends up at goodwill or in the rubbish… Or is it only me that is lacking in confidence on the handmade gift front? Spill the beans people!
Adding swirls and pebbles for interest
Now it’s your turn. I’d love you to link up below. Please remember that this is a quilting process linky. We all want to hear about your process, we want to learn and be inspired and share your quilty journey <3 Please remember to visit a few other linkers and add my button to your post or sidebar. Happy quilting!!
Once again I am participating in the Blogger’s Quilt Festival which is very generously organised and hosted by Amy’s Creative Side. This time I am entering two quilts. South Pacific Dreaming in the Wall Hanging category and “Celebrate” quilt #1 in the bee category. If you’re new to Pretty Bobbins, welcome! I am all about free motion quilting, it’s my passion and I host a weekly linky party on quilting process I’m soon to become a longarm quilter, but for now I work on a Bernina 440QE. I’m currently based in Nouméa, a French territory in the South Pacific but am about to return to live in Australia.
Back in June some very good friends of ours left Nouméa. They had lived here on their catamaran for many years and are one of the happiest, nicest family’s that I know (can you tell that I miss them?). They commissioned me to make a set of three wall quilts (above) for their family as a souvenir of their time in Nouméa. Honestly, the pressure was on. I don’t know if you know many “boaties” but they tend not to have a huge amount of belongings (because they need to fit them all onto a boat). These three quilts were to be a key souvenir of their time not only living in Nouméa, but sailing around the world and the South Pacific. (I’m tearing up writing this LOL). I spent a lot of time talking to them and they gave me some special photos for inspiration.
They are kite surfers – go girl!!
I made three quilts for them but the one I’d like to enter into the festival is South Pacific Dreaming (also the title of the set).
I used a lot of techniques in this quilt that I have learnt in the last year or so. The improv curve piecing was based on the class I did with Rachel of Stitched in Color.
The family portrait outline style thingy (very technical!) was self taught and involved merging two photos, tracing, some freezer paper and some free motion quilting. I’m planning a tutorial at some point but I’m sure you can figure it out yourself I merged two photos, in the original photo the Father and son were sitting in a hammock and I tried to keep the texture of the hammock to give the idea of my friend sitting with his baby on his knee (seriously cute baby!). The second photo was taken years later and my friend was leaning in perfectly toward her now four year old. Pairing the two photos to create a family portrait was a lot of fun and I love the outcome.
You can see the family silhouette better from the back.
The detail in the quilting is momentarily lost when you glance at this quilt. I didn’t want the family portrait to be overly obvious and it took me a few days to work out how to quilt it. Whilst I’m usually up for all sorts of fancy free motion quilting, this quilt called for lots of straight lines to really give the picture that I was after. You can see that I went with the beach scene quilting a palm frond in the top corner.
A photo taken on a joint family vacation. See those palm fronds everywhere? :)
The white section is quilted to show the iconic shape of the Catana Catamaran windows.
My friend’s catamaran moored at The Isle of Pines. Can you believe this? Stunning!
To me this quilt really felt like a night scene in the South Pacific but I took the colour palate for all three quilts from the Mahi Mahi fish. My friends gave me a great photo of a freshly caught (by them) Mahi Mahi and it took my breath away.
Photo courtesy of my friends
Whilst I am only entering the South Pacific Dreaming quilt in the Blogger’s Quilt Festival, it is a set of three and I’d like to briefly share the other two with you because they are deep with meaning. ”She Travels” was for my girlfriend (the wife/mom of the family) and the pink symbolizes her sailing around the world. I included some prints with French text to represent the French culture in which we live (and remind them of me – one has a sewing machine!).
For the quilting I followed the path that my friends took from Florida, to the Caribbean onto the Galapagos, Tahiti, The Cook Islands, New Zealand, New Caledonia and Australia (with many stops in between!). I then echoed this route in ever expanding lines to give the idea of a map of the sea bed or currents. The three circles come from details of the catamaran and I added the phrase, ”Know your dream, find a route” just above these circles.
The third quilt is called “Elements” as to me it represents the elements of the wind, water and land as well as kiting, a clear passion of my friends. This quilt excites me. I really pushed myself by pairing a busy pieced section with an expanse of white which I then quilted in bold colours. Absolutely no room for error!
I took the shape of the island from the photo below, the lighter blue of the wake behind the board shifting into the darker blue. The colours represent the turtles that laze about in the seagrass bed and the unsuspecting kiters that have to dodge them. The flaming C represents the kites that my friends have used during recent years.
I have no idea of winds and waters but I absolutely love these photos of my friends kiting. I can see how much they love it and I can feel the excitement. These things zoom and on a good day there are dozens of them weaving around each other. Pouring over these photos I could almost imagine the wind and I did my best to capture this in my quilting.
My friends now live in Floriada and are sorely missed. You know the kind of friends that you can pick up with at a moment’s notice? The ones that you randomly think about and imagine what they might be doing? We will leave Nouméa in two months and I hope to make something similar as a souvenir for my family.
South Pacific Dreaming (set of three wall quilts)
Usually when I share a quilt I talk about the materials used, these quilts used more than just materials, there were memories and emotions and dreams involved. It was a privilege and a pleasure to work on these pieces and I miss my friends dearly. They sent me a photo last week showing me the quilts on the walls of their new home and I want to share their words with you, “…we hung your quilts today and I am feeling so much better. I wanted to get a photo for you with/before the sunset… Anyway, they have very much lifted our spirits – thank you so much again. They have just so much meaning in every stitch and really look amazing in their spots.”
Details:
Pieced and Quilted: by me on my Bernina 440Qe
Size: approximately 30″ x 20″ (from memory!)
Thread: Aurifil threads (2000, 1135, 5005, 5006,1128, 2810 in 50 wt and 2024 in 40 wt)
Fabric: Bella solids (the white is snow) and lots of favourite prints from my stash. If you would like the details of a specific print, please let me know and I’ll try and help you, but I suspect I used around 40 different prints so I’ll skip trying to list them all
Wadding: 100% cotton
South Pacific Dreaming – my entry into the Wall Quilt Category
Thanks for stopping by and I encourage you to participate in the Blogger’s Quilt Festival by either visiting and/or entering the festival. This is my third time entering and it’s a great quilty and bloggy event. Thanks for all your work Amy!
Once again I am participating in the Blogger’s Quilt Festival which is very generously organised and hosted by Amy’s Creative Side. This time I am entering two quilts. My Celebrate quilt in the bee category and a second quilt, South Pacific Dreaming, #3 in the Wall Hanging category. If you’re new to Pretty Bobbins, welcome! I am all about free motion quilting, it’s my passion and I host a weekly linky party on quilting process I’m soon to become a longarm quilter, but for now I work on a Bernina 440QE. I’m currently based in Nouméa, a French territory in the South Pacific but am about to return to live in Australia.
Back in April I was Queen Bee for Wombat Stew, a paper piecing bee who at that stage comprised of the lovely Alyce, Marieka, Kristy, Fiona, Midge, Jane and Lara. I’m a bit of an improv girl so I asked my bees to make ‘celebrate’ or ‘party’ themed blocks of any size in fun, gender neutral colours and put together an inspiration board.
The girls produced some amazing blocks and boy did I have fun putting them together! You can read more about the piecing process here. I quilted each block differently with lots of micro quilting. You can see the quilting best from the back…
I LOVE this quilt! My kids love this quilt and since I completed it in August we have had it hanging in our loungeroom (it was originally intended to only be hung for celebrations).
I had my own little party quilting with a rainbow of Aurifil 50 wt threads. I used 2000 on the cream/off white areas and I love how they sparkle. Can you see the word PARTY popping out in Kristy’s party hat blocks (Kristy of Quiet Play designed most of these blocks, isn’t she AMAZING???)?
- Marieka baked me a delicious cake. I was really unsure of how to quilt this block but really happy with how it turned out. My icing is never that neat LOL There is enough cake here for everyone, LOVE!
- I had a lot of fun playing with Alyce’s pom poms (and I’m sorry, I had to make that joke LOL). She very cleverly used a flying geese pattern, you can see her tutorial here. I’m still considering adding a few beads to the pom poms but for now I’m sticking to the star in the middle (and yes, more micro-stippling there). Aren’t they fun?!
- Jane’s block is immediately apparent to Australian’s but some of my readers may be wondering what it is. This is an absolute classic and staple of children’s birthday parties. Known as “fairy bread” it is sliced white bread, spread with butter and then covered in sprinkles. Jane obviously took a bite out whilst piecing and left her party blower behind as evidence
Fiona’s cups (pattern by Ayumi of Pink Penguin fame) had a real retro feel so I quilted the wall paper to enhance this vibe. Possibly better seen from the back, but aren’t they the cutest drinks ever? (There is a fourth block, you can see it in the larger photos)
What party would be complete without bunting? The Lara made me rainbow bunting. I went a little nuts and quilted pebbles with each dot being inside a pebble.
Whilst my lovely friend Ms Midge wasn’t in round one of Wombat Stew she decided to join the party early and brought the candles. Can you believe she tried to tell us she was a novice paper piece-er when we asked her to join our bee?
And whilst we’re on the topic of Ms Midge, she sent me the cutest scrap EVER! I LOVE this fairy and I quilted her in a micro version of the the FMQ design that I used on my daughter’s quilt. I’ve saved the last skerrik of this scrap and plan to make my daughter a cushion with it. Thank you Midge xx
I totally got my FMQ on and micro-stippled this fantastic cupcake print. The cupcakes measure about 1.5′ from base to cherry and the stippling is seriously tiny.
I think every block/print features a different FMQ design. I must admit I went a little crazy quilting around each candle (print in the bottom right of the above photo) this scrap is only 1.5″ x 4.25″. I was so impressed with the affect that I then quilted around the jellybeans and balloons too LOL
I added in some three dimensional bunting down the side (left over from another project) and at the suggestion from a friend quilted words underneath (sing, dance, encore, cake, secret, surprise, kiss). The idea being that the birthday person must choose an activity to complete
Well done if you’ve read this far! Possibly my favourite part of quilting this beast is the words in the border. I used 12wt Aurifil (2250) for top thread and the same colour in 50wt on my bobbin. The stitches are perfect and saved so much time than if doing it by hand! (I suggest going slow and smoothly and dropping your top tension a few notches). Can you believe that I didn’t mark the words first? It was all done free hand and I’m so pleased that it filled the borders perfectly and looks rather neat The dots on the i are little red beads that I added after binding.
I really love this quit for so many reasons but possibly my proudest moment was when my seven year old son brought a friend home recently and the first thing he showed him was this quilt. Yep, that is a win in my book
Details:
Paper pieced by: my Wombat Stew Bees (Alyce, Marieka, Kristy, Fiona, Midge, Jane and Lara)
Top pieced and quilting by: me on my Bernina 440QE
Size: 37″ x 37″
Threads: Aurifil 50wt and 12wt
Wadding: 100% cotton
Thanks for stopping by and I encourage you to participate in the Blogger’s Quilt Festival by either visiting and/or entering the festival. This is my third time entering and it’s a great quilty and bloggy event. Thanks for all your work Amy!
Yay for Thursday! That means it’s almost Friday And it’s time to link up your quilting process, woohoo! Last week I opened up a conversation about threads and invited you to join me this week to talk about thread issues. If you have any tips, tricks or “WARNING! Don’t go there” advice I’d love to hear it! I’m going to talk all about my quilting threads and related tips and tricks. Of course you are welcome to join the party even if you aren’t discussing thread issues, just make sure you post contains some discussion of your quilting process <3
Last week you blew my mind when 30 quilters linked up!!!! I’m feeling the love here I’ve also been receiving lots of emails asking for advice on quilting issues or how to get started. I certainly don’t feel like an expert, I’m just head over heals in love with quilting <3 But thank you and please keep those questions coming, I try to answer people directly but I will also use some of these as themes for my I Quilt posts If I don’t get back to you please don’t hesitate to ask me again. We are in the midst of packing up for an international move and I have many competing priorities at the moment and some things fall through the cracks…
Last week Jo linked up a fantastic post on using stencils. Seriously, that girl has quilting T.A.L.E.N.T! If you haven’t had a chance to pop by her blog please do. I may be a little biased as we discovered that we own the same machine (Bernina 440QE) but I am in awe of her work! Her post last week was all about using quilting stencils which is something that I have absolutely no experience with and found really fascinating. Pop by and check it out when you have some time I hope to feature a quilter each week and I’d love it if you could pop by and say hi to support them and learn from their posts <3
So last week I shared my dirty secret of thread tension issues in my son’s Rainbow I Spy Quilt. I can live with it but that quilt would come under some scrutiny at a Quilty show and tell I’m sure This week I’m going to give you some of my tips on how to avoid thread issues. Sure, the obvious tip is practice and get better LOL But no one wants to have the first dozen quilts they make sporting thread issues
For perspective the sashing is 1″ wide here
The first large amount of free motion quilting I did was on my middle child’s quilt (you can read about it here). I don’t remember really thinking about the quilting too much but I went with stippling and I remember finding Elizabeth Hartman’s blog very useful. I followed her tips for quilting direction and I kept my stippling at about the size she recommends. I don’t think I’ve stippled since, but when I have a good hard look at that quilt there are no thread issues. So I vote one for stippling as a good introductory design for newby quilters to avoid thread issues. I find anything with sharp turns, points or corners can create little knots of thread and stippling pretty much avoids that
If you squint you can see the micro-stippling around the cupcakes. To give perspective the cupcakes are about 1.25″ tall
Micro quilting is something that I am a bit enamored of at the moment and as much as I love it I would advise that you get a little practice under your belt before you set your heart on it. It isn’t tricky (it does require a LOT of concentration) and it does give a fantastic look, but I find that changing directions so frequently can cause thread issues. The key is to keep your movements smooth, that can be tricky when your neck is spasming and your eyes are crossed because you changed directions every 1/4″! It’s totally possible, don’t be scared off, just keep you’re fabric moving smoothly
I’ve mentioned before that I really believe in using the best equipment that you can. My first quilting gloves (above) were bought from a quilt shop. They wouldn’t let me try them on or touch them (for hygiene reasons) and I must say I wondered for about six months why everyone loves quilting gloves. Ah, my gloves were not so awesome… So I purchased some machingers (I read some quilting guru saying they are the bees knees so I did what I was told and bought some online) and they ROCK!
Why do machingers gloves rock? They are really elasticy so they fit nicely on your hands and they breath well. The grip is on both sides of the fingertips – kind of like they were dipped in grippy stuff) which is better than it sounds. Be honest, how often do you pick up your gloves and put them on the wrong hand? With machingers it doesn’t matter because they’re double sided, which is great for someone as absent minded as me. (And just so you know I’m not affiliated with machingers in anyway and I paid for my own gloves, but if they wanted to come to the party….)
There’s lots of talk about needles and I know some people SWEAR by applique needles or embroidery needles. I exclusively use Schmetz brand quilting needles. They’re good for piecing too (I know because I’m absent minded and forget to change needles other than when I change weights of fabric) and for some reason I really like the little green spot of paint on them (I don’t think it actually does anything). Clever marketing Schmetz (And again, no affiliation, I pay my way but I’ll always tell you what I love and what works for me.)
You’re probably sick of me telling you how much I love Aurifil, but I really do. I do think quality thread makes a HUGE difference. I actually prefer to use my spools on a spool stand (I originally bought it for the large cones that I use but it’s fine for any sized spool). I think it improves tension and I rarely use my machine spool stands anymore. I just raise the small spools so that the metal pin is inside the spool and there is no chance of the thread catching on it.
Speaking of spools, don’t forget your bobbins! One of the best sewing and quilting tips I can give you is to wind your bobbins on the SLOWEST SPEED possible (I made that big in case you’re skim reading – DON’T MISS THIS TIP). When you wind your bobbin on the slowest speed possible it winds looser so your bobbin will feel a tad springy or spongey or squishey. Try it and I promise you it will change your life (OK, don’t hold me to that, it will not change your life but it will enhance your sewing and quilting experience). Loose bobbins reduce tension issues (let’s see how much dirty spam I get from that sentence LOL). If you are getting lots of birds nests at the back of your fabric this may help (it helped me)
Another helpful tip is to support your quilt and make your quilting setup as ergonomic as possible. I was lucky enough to find a sewing cabinet second hand and I quilt with my machine dropped down into the cabinet and an ironing board behind for support. The weight of your quilt can play all sorts of havoc by causing you to accidentally move your quilt or giving your fabric a kind of pulled look because of the pressure that was on the fabric as you were quilting.
Do you remember that last week I talked about using different colours for top and bottom threads? Since my crazy go at using a stark white top thread and dark grey in the bobbin I have avoided huge contrast and it’s helped. I’ve added the numbers of the thread to the photo above for reference, but really this is just to give you an idea of different coloured threads that I have used together successfully in the top and bottom threads (they are lined up in pairs as I have used them). All are 50wt Aurifil threads.
quilted 241 tote
Another option is to use really busy fabric to hide your quilting booboos (did you know that we use the word booboo in French for when we hurt ourselves a little? I think that’s a funny linguistic crossover!). The above photo is of my 241 tote where I’ve used Architextures and it really hides the details of my quilting. I was actually just going for textures and colours that I liked, but it can be useful to use a busy print on the back of a quilt so you aren’t so worried about your booboos showing
Single Aunt mini
I love to let my stitching show, even if it is just a slightly different hue but it does mean you need to not worry about your booboos or be confident that you won’t make any biggies I suggest you try some quilting designs that have nice smooth curves to them like the design above, it’s repetitive but the lines are intentionally wobbly so if you go off them it isn’t really noticeable.
My current wip, I’ve used threads that both blend in and contrast for a fun effect.
So now it’s your turn! Link up your post, please remember that this linky is about quilting process Visit two or three other linkers and add my linky button to your post or sidebar (you can find the html code in the top left side bar or right at the bottom of the page if you’re on a mobile device). Yay for quilting and yay for Thursday! I’m ready to end the week!!
Hello! Welcome to I Quilt, a weekly linky party all about the process of quilting. 23 awesome crafty peeps linked up last week, yay! I’m going to give a shoutout each week to someone from the previous week Lindsey from Inspiring Creations linked up last week and shared her GORGEOUS sunnyside pinwheel quilt. Her first quilt! It’s beautiful, pop by and check it out if you haven’t yet <3 Lindsey made the great point that she considered diagonal lines but really wanted her piecing to shine so stitched in the ditch. As much as I love quilting the heck out of everything in reach, Lindsey is spot on, the piecing is really important in determining the quilting design and ditch stitching is a great way of letting the piecing tell the story I haven’t stitched in the ditch since my first quilt as I find I’m too impatient to be super accurate Well done Lindsey, your quilt is beautiful! Thanks for sharing
Speaking of letting the piecing speak to you this is my current work in progress. I have an idea for quilting but I’m not sure. This was entirely pieced using scraps most of which came from my Primary Plus Quilt but a few from my scrap stash. I’m thinking I might stick with the colours of each area or using a thread which blends in with all the scraps such as Aurifil 2000 (a golden colour). I’m trying to decide between some stark SLQ and really intense FMQ. So rather undecided really
I shared a progress pic of this mini on Instagram and a few friends commented on how tidy the back is. First up I will admit that I am pedantic when it comes to my own work. In all honesty though, I really think that a tidy back helps with quilting. I trim all loose threads, press my seams open (to reduce bulk and improve accuracy) and press the heck out of my top. I’ve never used starch and I’ve heard that spray basting is not great for free motion quilting. Do you have any things that you do to improve your quilting?
Speaking of tips and tricks, I wanted to introduce a theme for the next Thursday I would LOVE it if you could talk about thread issues. It’s very easy in blogland to select which photos you share and hide any little mistakes. This week I’m going to share some photos of my work that you may not have seen before
You may remember the Rainbow I Spy quilt I made a while ago for my eldest son. I really wanted the quilt to be truly double sided so in addition to the top you see above I pieced a rainbow back with scraps and a grey solid (Bella Steel from memory). I then decided to quilt pebbles in white thread in the white sashing and use grey thread in the bobbin. Alarm bells are ringing right about now.
Rainbow I Spy quilt back
For some reason lots (all? most? or maybe just me…) of quilters have issues when using significantly different coloured top and bottom thread. Seriously, the quilting was a right pain. I persisted but I was messing with the tension constantly (I normally rarely have to adjust tension on my Bernina 440). In the end I found some solace by dropping the top tension to zero, using a spool stand and (strangely) missing the last loop when threading my machine (so not running the thread through the little metal loop just above the needle). Pebbles probably made it worse with all of the tight turns as I didn’t have as many issues with the straight line quilting (SLQ) in the borders.
The pebbled area here is about 2″ wide to give you some perspective :)
If you look closely at the above photo you will see the threads popping through. After a wash and some wear the thread issue isn’t an issue. The quilt is loved and NO ONE is ever going to look at it as closely or as critically as I will look at my own quilts (tell me I’m not the only one who does that LOL). I did learn a good lesson from this though, now when I use different coloured threads in the bobbin and spool I make sure they are not as dramatically different as dark grey and stark white. I also quilt more smoothly now than I did at that point which I also think helps reduce thread issues.
When I made my daughter’s Princess Quilt I used a range of different threads colours from white to soft mauve and with each thread change I used a different colour in the bobbin. For example, White on top, soft pink in the bobbin. Soft pink on top, soft mauve in the bobbin. Pink on top, dark pink in the bobbin. Et voila! No thread peaking through, no tension issues, no constant stressing and fiddling. Lesson learnt
I would love to hear if you have any tips on thread. I exclusively use Aurifil thread as I believe it’s the best (and I pay for it out of my own pocket – no sponsorship or paid reviews here). It is super fine so the bobbin goes further (win!), the colours are beautiful (win!) and my machine feels smoother when I FMQ. Win, win and win
Some stash favourites including Aurifil thread and kona solids <3
Do you have a favourite thread? How do you prevent thread issues? I’d love to hear your thoughts and experience, I’ve aired my dirty laundry, maybe you can share yours too There’s no requirement to link up a post on thread issues but if you feel like it, that’s the theme for the next week. I’ll be talking about quilting designs that I find particularly easy and troublesome when it comes to thread showing through.
Blessings Quilt in progress – an all time favourite <3
Please remember to visit at least two other blogs and to please write about your quilting process. As much as we all love finished projects, this linky is about process. Your linked up post will be most helpful to everyone else if you talk about your quilting in some way, even if you’re discussing an old finished project, a current work in progress, quilting sketches, that kind of thing Please feel free to link finished projects, or any type of quilting project, just include some of your process so we can learn I also ask that you add a button to your post or sidebar. You can find the html in my left hand side bar or right down the bottom of the page if you’re on a mobile device.
Now it’s your turn to link up and talk about your quilting process I’ve been having so much fun visiting new blogs, I hope you’re enjoying the quilty party too <3
***August is a month of celebrations for Pretty Bobbins. It is my two year blogiversary and two of my children have birthdays this month. There will be a giveaway for each of these events, you will find the first giveaway at the bottom of this post.***
Back in April I was Queen Bee for Wombat Stew, a paper piecing bee. I struggled with a theme from the beginning, I really wasn’t sure that ‘celebrate’ would work. I put together an inspiration board and by the time my month rolled around I hadn’t thought of anything better so I decided to go for it. I asked the girls to make blocks of any size to fit the theme ‘celebrate’. I planned to make a wall quilt to hang every time we have a family celebration. I also like the challenge of making a quilt from different sized blocks. I asked the girls to stick to fun, bright and relatively gender neutral colours (so pink is OK but not all pink). You can see some progress shots here. Today it’s all about the big reveal! (And if you really like the patterns you should keep reading right to the end *HINT HINT*)
Celebrate – a paper pieced quilt
I LOVE this quilt! My kids love this quilt and August is a month of celebrations so as soon as I buy some dowel it is going on the wall I quilted the heck out of the quilt and had soooo much fun doing so! You can see the quilting better on the back. It measures 37″ x 37″ and was put together and quilted with Aurifil threads by me on my Bernina 440. Full credit to each of the bee members below <3
Celebrate – quilting details on back
I had my own little party quilting with a rainbow of Aurifil 50 wt threads (really, what’s a party without Aurifil? Alex seems to be everywhere if you follow him on Facebook LOL). I used 2000 on the cream/off white areas and I love how they sparkle. Can you see the word PARTY popping out in Kristy’s party hat blocks (Kristy of Quiet Play designed most of these blocks, isn’t she AMAZING???)?
Party hats by Kristy
Marieka baked me a delicious cake. I was really unsure of how to quilt this block but really happy with how it turned out. My icing is never that neat LOL There is enough cake here for everyone, LOVE!
Tiered cake by Marieka
I had a lot of fun playing with Alyce’s pom poms (and I’m sorry, I had to make that joke LOL). She very cleverly used a flying geese pattern, you can see her tutorial here. I’m still considering adding a few beads to the pom poms but for now I’m sticking to the star in the middle (and yes, more micro-stippling there). Aren’t they fun?!
Pom Poms by Alyce
Jane’s block is immediately apparent to Australian’s but some of my readers may be wondering what it is. This is an absolute classic and staple of children’s birthday parties. Known as “fairy bread” it is sliced white bread, spread with butter and then covered in sprinkles. Jane obviously took a bite out whilst piecing and left her party blower behind as evidence
Fairybread by Jane
Fiona’s cups (pattern by Ayumi of Pink Penguin fame) had a real retro feel so I quilted the wall paper to enhance this vibe. Possibly better seen from the back, but aren’t they the cutest drinks ever? (There is a fourth block, you can see it in the larger photos)
Paper Pieced cups by Fiona (pattern by Ayumi Mills)
What party would be complete without bunting? The adorable Lara (she is completely adorable, you should check out her instagram – luellabella) made me rainbow bunting. LOVE! I went a little nuts and quilted pebbles with each dot being inside a pebble.
Rainbow bunting by Lara
Whilst the wonderful Ms Midge wasn’t in round one of Wombat Stew she decided to join the party early and brought the candles. Can you believe she tried to tell us she was a novice paper piece-er when we asked her to join us????
Candles by Ms Midge
And whilst we’re on the topic of Ms Midge, she sent me the cutest scrap EVER! I LOVE this fairy and I quilted her in a micro version of the the FMQ design that I used on my daughter’s quilt. I’ve saved the last skerrik of this scrap and plan to make my daughter a cushion with it. Thank you Midge xx
Cutest fairy scrap EVER complete with micro quilting
I totally got my FMQ on and micro-stippled this fantastic cupcake print (did I mention the girls sent the most amazing scraps with their blocks?!).
scrap love from the Wombats
I think every block/print features a different FMQ design. I must admit I went a little crazy quilting around each candle (print in the bottom right of the above photo) this scrap is only 1.5″ x 4.25″. I was so impressed with the affect that I then quilted around the jellybeans and balloons too LOL
Celebrate paper pieced quilt
I added in some three dimensional bunting down the side (left over from another project) and at the suggestion from a friend quilted words underneath (sing, dance, encore, cake, secret, surprise, kiss). The idea being that the birthday person must choose an activity to complete
You gotta dance! (then shout hooray)
Well done if you’ve read this far! Possibly my favourite part of quilting this beast is the words in the border. I used 12wt Aurifil (2250) for top thread and the same colour in 50wt on my bobbin. The stitches are perfect (I suggest going slow and smoothly and dropping your top tension a few notches). Can you believe that I didn’t mark the words first? It was all done free hand and I’m so pleased that it filled the borders perfectly and looks rather neat YAY for machine quilting with Aurifil 12wt. I will be doing this again and again and again <3
FMQ writing in 12wt Aurifil in the border, woohoo!
Did I mention that it was worth reading to the end? Well, the fabulous Kristy of Quiet Play who designed most of these patterns has come to the party with a giveaway of most of the patterns seen in this quilt! Thank you Kristy xx I highly recommend that you give her patterns a go if you’re thinking of trying out paper piecing. I’ve made quite a few of them and they’re always easy to follow and very well designed. You can find her shop here on Craftsy.
Pattern giveaway thanks to Quiet Play
All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment letting me know that you follow both Pretty Bobbins and Quiet Play blogs. (Head over to Quiet Play and follow Kristy here.) You can have an additional entry if you follow me on Instagram, Facebook or Flickr, just leave me a comment letting me know You have a chance to win a bundle of paper pieced patterns by Kristy of Quiet Play as seen in the collage above (bunting, candles, hat and cupcake). The giveaway will close at midnight 18th August Australian Eastern Standard time (google Sydney time).
***This giveaway is closed***
Bravo if you made it to the end. What a mammoth post! I’m taking my celebration to the Paper Piecing Party at Quiet Play and TGIFF at Bedtime Quilting.
I’ve had a little break from linking up with Sunday Stash due to crazy pre-Christmas (self imposed) schedules, holiday and then illness. I’m happy to say that I’m back to regular posting (although with a cyclone heading our way you never can tell what’s going to happen) and linking up with one of my favourite online friends, Fiona at Finding Fifth.
Fiona was the brains behind our Wombat Stew Secret Santa. I haven’t revealed mine yet (and it’s killing me because it’s AWESOME!) as it is still on it’s way, but I did receive mine Marieka stalked me well, she even knew that I call my fourth baby Bernina 440, Delilah LOL A few of the Wombat Stew girls, myself included, have a bit of a thing for Kate Spain prints and Marieka made Delilah a cover using Kate Spain’s line Serenade.
I LOVE it! Even the back is sexy
Fortuitously, the night before Marieka posted my gift I asked the girls where to buy new rotary blades online. Marieka said that she could pick some up (along with some new quilting needles which I desperately needed) as she had a voucher and was going to the post office anyway. I’m totally goofy, I hassled her for her paypal details not cluing in to the fact that she was sending me a secret santa package Thank you Marieka! I love the cover and I really, really, really appreciate the needles and blades!!
Moving on to other recent stash additions, I recently purchased some yardage to make myself some summer dresses. I’m not sure when I’ll get around to it, but now I have some GORGEOUS voile (Notting Hill at that!!) with which to play! In fact I would be happy just to roll around in it LOL
I am fantasizing about buying a FQ bundles of Notting Hill but then I think maybe a half yard bundle and then I die at the price. So for now I will be content with the voile and continue to fill my cart and not check out
At the same time I ordered a couple of solids. I really have to check the invoice before these are absorbed into the stash as I have no idea what they are. Black, grey, blue and lighter grey. I’m sure they all have fancy names like campfire ash and stormy tempest
Because it was a sale and I had to fill a flat rate envelope… I also splashed out and purchased two charm packs. Cuzco (DIVINE!!)
and Cherry Christmas.
Cherry Christmas will be set aside for next Christmas (it arrived a few days before Christmas when I was winding down on sewing and winding up on packing) but Cuzco is sitting nearby waiting for inspiration to strike. I really want to make some cushions for our new house (let’s not think about the fact that it’s 14 months until we’ll be moving in!) so I might use it for that. It is making me think lap quilt for the sofa, but that is what Colour Therapy is for. Maybe lap quilt for Little Miss? Once we’re back in Australia with cold winters they will need more than one quilt on their beds, so it might even become a quilt for Little Miss… Hm, lots to think about there
I’m linking up Sunday Stash hosted by the Fabulous Fiona.
I totally have that TGIFF feeling this Friday! I’m soooo tired after staying up late working on a Secret Santa gift for one of the Wombat Stew Girls. Here is a sneak peek Just a glimpse because I don’t want to give it away!
My big finish for this week was my Tree Skirt. I don’t know if anyone had time to visit the original post with all of the giveaways happening this week for Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day. It’s almost over, but worth a look if you have a hundred hours or so (and a time machine) to enter in all the fantastic giveaways!
I won’t talk too much about my tree skirt as I did already post about it, but I do love it. It was my annual last minute Christmas project Last year it was my Advent Calendar which I love enough that I’m going to bore you with more photos of it
The idea behind the tree skirt was to practice my FMQ in preparation for Mr 6′s I Spy Quilt. It has been basted and waiting for over a week but I want it to be just right so I figured some practice was in order.
I am so pleased with how the tree skirt finished up. The only thing I would do differently is use a pale blue thread for the FMQ next time. The quilting just doesn’t show up enough being white on white. The positive side being that I am now confident and happy enough with my FMQ that I can bravely select thread that stands out Yay!
The back is completely different and is a nice alternative.
The other finish that I slipped in this week was the second thank you gift for our teachers. I made this gorgeous one for Mr 6′s teacher (yes, it was hard to part with, but she is pretty special!).
I didn’t really have the option to invest so much time into the gift for Mr 4′s teacher, so I made her the same iPad pouch using this pattern but I didn’t piece the panels.
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Apologies for the next three photos which were taken by Mr Husband
who hasn’t discovered any settings beyond Auto on the SLR… Really, I do love him
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I’m really happy with it! I used snaps for the closure (just to try something different) and put two snaps on the pocket so that she can squeeze a few more items in there if need be
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| Again, apologies for the pic! |
I used some Amy Butler scraps and then found a few coordinating pieces.
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| I love the perspective, Mr Husband, PLEASE look at the settings next time! ;P |
I SLQed the outside using my favourite Aurifil 50wt 2000 and used scrap bamboo wadding along with some medium weight interfacing on the lining. Next time I will probably give the interfacing a miss. I’ve kind of gone off iron-on interfacing…
The last finish I wanted to mention is another one that wasn’t this week.
You may remember that I participated in the Travellin’ Pic Stitch Blog Hop. I popped over this morning to vote for my favourite and was blown away to see that my very non traditional EPP “block” has 9 votes! Wow! I’m very grateful to those who have voted, it makes me rather proud to think that among such awesome company my item has attracted some votes. I think the party is open for a few more days, so make sure you pop over and check out the projects. You don’t have to vote (and I’m not asking for votes, please vote for your favourite:) ), feel free to just enjoy the gorgeous items on display! We all used a palette generator to develop a template based on a favourite travel/location photo.
It was so much fun! My original post (with about 600 of my favourite photos LOL) is here.
Oh! I have to squeeze in one last finish for the week (it happened way back last Saturday so I almost forgot LOL). I designed and finished this PP block for Kristy as part of our Wombat Stew Paper Piecing bee. Kristy was Queen Bee Wombat for November and selected a sewing theme. This is Delilah, my Bernina 440. Isn’t she lovely?
Now I have to get back to my mad Christmas sewing list. Anyone else feeling a bit frantic? I’m not sure I’m going to get everything posted in time, eek! Less computer, more sewing!
I’m linking up with TGIFF over at Quokka Quilts this week.
And here’s one last pic(I can’t stop typing today!) , this one is our Christmas tree. Isn’t it pretty? This is the first year I’ve let the kids decorate it with me (they have their own tree which is somewhat psychedelic . I’d like to say that I’ve matured as a person and their taste and placement skills have improved We all had a ball putting it up!
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| Details and links below |
The main thing that jumps out when I think of November is our lovely family holiday back to Australia. We all had a fabulous time but it did kind of steal sewing time
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| Hanging out in the garden |
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| Making pizzas! I LOVE this pizza oven that our friends built! |
I took part in two blog hops in November; Sew Seasonal and The Travellin’ Pic Stitch. Both currently have linky parties so make sure you pop over to Quiet Play or Blossom Heart Quilts and Quokka Quilts.
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Wall hanging for Sew Seasonal Blog Hop
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Travellin’ Pic Stitch Blog Hop
Whilst it’s not a finish, I did complete the top and back of my Mr 6′s Rainbow I Spy quilt. It is all basted and ready to go
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Rainbow I Spy Quilt in progress.
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I also squeezed in some sewing for the TOTALLY ROCKIN’ school Spectacle (concert).
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I made wrap around shorts and skirts for Mr 6′s class to wear to the concert.
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Being close to the end of the year I also completed some end of year gifts for both the teachers and auxiliary staff at school.
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iPad pouch for Mr 6′s Maitresse
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Dumpling Pouches for the auxiallary staff
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I crossed the line a few hours late for my November Bee Block for Wombat Stew, but I’m going to put it in November What’s a few hours between friends?
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Delilah (my Bernina 440QE) as a Paper Pieced block!
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Oh, and of course there were a couple of orders
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| Custom order |
Gosh, I think I was kind of productive considering I didn’t sew for two weeks of November!
I’m linking up with Fresh Sewing Day at Lily’s Quilts
