Archive of ‘piecing’ category
It’s Thursday and it’s time to linky up your quilty process here at Pretty Bobbins! Sometimes I think too much, I always have. In fact one of my favourite things to do is quilt and think (I’m not one to watch TV and piece, I prefer the company of my own thoughts). This week I’ve been thinking a lot about being a professional quilter and blogger and what that means. But first up I want to feature the incredibly talented Jess of The Elven Garden.
Image used with permission from The Elven Garden
I remember first coming across Jess and being so incredibly impressed with her quilting. Seriously amazing stuff! She is now teaching and has been published in magazines and is generally a bit of a quilting superstar in my books 
I’m looking forward to meeting Jess in real life and sharing a room at QuiltCon next year!!
Image used with permission from The Elven Garden – saw this in person, it’s AMAZING!!
Yesterday Jess wrote a post about thinking and quilting. Now I’ll admit that I quilt and think, the two go hand in hand for me. Jess talked about how some of us are mindful quilters and some aren’t and how she’s realised that she is totally happy “just” making pretty things and being happy <3 Jess, I’ll be happy if you keep making pretty things! The world needs more quilt candy, be it mindfully made or thrown together with purpose rather than deep thought involved 
Image used with permission from The Elven Garden
Seriously, this kind of talent kills me! ABSOLUTELY stunning! If you haven’t already, please head over to The Elven Garden and say hi to Jess. Her work is all things wonderful <3
Quilting with my Miss
The only quilting I’ve been up to lately is a super simple quilt for Francois, my daughter’s class mascot. The children in her class laid out the charm squares and we made the quilt together at home. We added photographs to the Francois’ scrapbook and I have hung a few copies in my sewing room <3
Triangle quilt in progress
As usual I have been thinking a lot about my business and I’ve decided to aim to have a market stall. We all know that pricing is arguably the hardest part of quilting and I very much believe that we should charge what we’re worth. I have a super hard time following through with this and generally tend to sell myself short. I have decided that everything I make for market will be properly priced. I’ve been timing myself as I’m working and you may be interested to hear my progress.
Cutting: 50 minutes
Layout: 40 minutes
Piecing: 205 minutes
That’s almost 5 hours of work before basting, quilting and binding and this is only a cot sized quilt. Of course I will probably chicken out and charge far less than the finished quilt is actually worth, but at least by figuring out an accurate cost based on time, materials and skill I can educate myself. In this same vein I urge you to visit this post by Mandalei Quilts on working for free. It is definitely food for thought and fits with my own experience of realising that as much as I love to accept free fabric, the work that I put into my work is worth far more than the say $50 worth of free fabric. As a business I just don’t think I can afford to work for free anymore. I’d LOVE to hear your thoughts on this one
So that’s my thinky quilty Thursday Please link up your quilty process below <3
An InLinkz Link-up
In a few weeks I will be teaching the first of a few quilt classes featuring my pattern, Starry Skies, at HobbySew Beclonnen. It’s a fun quilt that is originally lap sized but can easily be enlarged. Read on for details and quilt candy <3
April was such a whirlwind of activity that I haven’t had a chance to blog about all the quilts I finished! Today I’d like to share Starry Skies (#2) with you (and subtly mention an upcoming class that I’m teaching ). I also want to apologise that I didn’t post I Quilt last week, I spent Thursday night in ER with my son (he is OK, just a little glue holding his scalp together!)
I first made this quilt a year or so ago in a very different palette for a Kate Spain blog hop. I love the pink with the grey, but this time I wanted higher contrast.
Starry Skies #1
This quilt is great for imaginative quilting! You can really go anywhere. FIrst time around I mixed in some hand quilting and kind of did a shooting stars theme. This time I went for movement again, but more swirls and bubbles. It’s also a great one for using up scraps and gaining confidence with improv techniques. I’m going to talk a lot about colour play in the class as I feel this is an area where we can all always learn more
The texture is really quite fabulous (if I do say so myself…)
As pretty as this quilt looks in our house it is on display at HobbySew Belconnen tempting quilters to sign up to a one day workshop with me on the 24th of May. I’d love you to come along and spend the day piecing with me! You can call the lovely ladies at HobbySew on and book in It’s $60 for the day and you get cutting instructions to take home and get busy in advance of the class so we get the most out of the day.
If you’d like to find out about other upcoming classes you can see them here.
Welcome to Pretty Bobbins! I’m stop number two on the Cushion for Christmas bloghop and today I’m sharing a QAYG cushion tutorial. The lovely Ms Midge came up with the great idea to feature cushions that can be made in a day – the ideal Christmas gift! Speaking of Ms Midge, I’m pretty sure she is freaking out right about now as my modem died over night and I have been offline for over 24 hours leading up to my stop on the hop… Amazing how long the battery lasts on my iPad when there is no wifi in the house
I am sharing a cushion that I made yesterday morning. I didn’t time myself but I started after breakfast and finished before lunch, so it is definitely do-able in a day I am familiar with the techniques though, so it might take a beginner a bit longer I find the key to the Quilt As You Go (QAYG) method is to be organised. I set up my machine, ironing station, cutting mat and fabrics (in order) within reaching distance. I used a 16″ cushion insert. I pieced together cotton wadding and cut backing both at 18″ square.
Now my QAYG cushion is technically not QAYG as I didn’t quilt the sections other than to sew them in place. Usually with QAYG you will sew your strip down as I describe below, flip it right side up, then quilt it in place. I have done this and it does look rather lovely but I find it to be an unreasonably time consuming and thread hungry method. So I cheat a little Below you can see a lovely QAYG iPad pouch I made last year. I keep meaning to FMQ over a cushion that I’ve made using my cheats QAYG method but I always love the end result too much to add any extra quilting The choice is yours
I started with a reasonable sized scrap off center and then added a piece that covered the width and over hang 1/4″ each side. I cut all my pieces 1.5″ wide and worked out the length as I went along. The key being to ensure that each piece overhangs by 1/4″ at both ends.
I used my walking foot which has 1/4″ marked on it and I secured my stitches by going back and forth a few times at each end. I didn’t use any pins, I just lay my wadding on my backing and they stayed in place while I was working. After sewing each strip in place I trimmed back any overhang from the previous piece to the 1/4″ seam allowance. After trimming I ironed the most recent piece flat. Ironing after adding each strip will give you the best outcome.
I was trying to be clever with colour and laid all of my prints out in order and then checked as I went along. I didn’t quite get the affect that I was aiming for but I’m still really happy with the cushion.
After finishing the teals I laid out the purples. So pretty
I found it easiest to use my ruler to measure the required size of the next strip. You need to ensure that you strip has 1/4″ seam allowance from any raw edges.
In the above example the strip would need to be 7.25″ x 1.5″
I started to fall in love with this cushion when I was about half way through adding the purples
There’s something about pink that I love. In hindsight I should have gone teal, pink then purple but in the end I added the pinks starting from light to dark (both purple and teal were added lightest to darkest).
I realised after adding a few pinks that I didn’t have enough to continue with only 1.5″ strips so I laid out my remaining pieces to finalised the placement. I started with an 18″ square piece with the intention of a finished 15″ cushion cover.
After adding all of my pins I trimmed back my mini to 16″ (width) x 17″ (height) and cut a backing piece the same size.
I decided on a zipper closure in the bottom seam and I always like to add an extra inch for this purpose. I don’t have access to my overlocker/serger at the moment so I used a flatlock stitch on my sewing machine along the bottom edge (17″ edge – important if your prints are directional).
Lay both your backing fabric and mini right sides together and stitch 1/2″ in from the edge. This will be where you insert your zipper. You want approximately 1.5″ at both ends in your normal stitch length and the area in between in the longest stitch length possible. You can sew these three areas separately, but I’m lazy and just secure my stitches and adjust my stitch length without trimming
After timming your threads press the seam open. Because we’re making a cushion cover that involves quilting I always fuss with the pressing. You want a nice straight and flat seam
Select a zipper longer that the width of your cushion (I think I used a 21″ zipper) and pin in place so that the teeth are ligned up to where the front and backing meet. I use pins to remind me where my basting stitches begin/end. Grab your zipper foot and sew your zipper in place. Don’t forget to make sure that the tab is within the sewn area. I cross over the zipper just outside of the basting stitches and sew back and forth a few times.
Trim your zipper ends and secure with a few stitches. Next you want to grab your seam ripper and carefully rip out those basting stitches. I usually use tweezer to grab the tiny threads left afterwards.
Then you want to sew your cushion cover together. Make sure you leave the zipper open so that you can turn it right side out. I like to use a 1/4″ seam allowance, first with a straight stitch and then with the serger or a zigzag stitch to prevent fraying.
Et voila! You have a brand new cushion ready for Christmas!
I used a lovely Kate Spain fat quarter (from her line Good Fortune) for the back. LOVE.
I hope you have found my tutorial helpful. For me, as always, this was an exercise in colour play as much as it was in quilting and whilst I didn’t end up with exactly the affect I was after, I do love it In case you’re wondering, yes, it will be a Christmas present for a very special friend
Don’t forget to head over to Ms Midge on the 14th of December to link up your cushions. You can find all of the details here and links to the other fabulous bloggers below. I can’t wait to see what everyone has been up to!
Sunday 1st December – Ms Midge
Tuesday 3rd December – Kristy at Quiet Play
& Ms Midge
Wednesday 4th December – Joshua at Molli Sparkles
Thursday 5th December -Rachel at Little White Dove
Friday 6th December – Fiona at Finding Fifth
Saturday 7th December – Abby at Things For Boys
Sunday 8th December – Lauren at Molly & Mama Makes
Monday 9th December – Jodi at Tickle & Hide
Tuesday 10th December – Adrianne at On The Windy Side
& Ms Midge
Wednesday 11th December – Alyce at Blossom Heart Quilts
Thursday 12th December – Gina at Party of Eight
Friday 13th December – Jane at Quilt Jane
Saturday 14th December – Round up of Blog Hop and link up YOUR projects at Ms Midge!
Wednesday 18th December – Winners Announced at Ms Midge!
 |
| Patterns Only - $20 Voucher |
 |
| The Oz Material Girls - $20 Voucher |
 |
| Fat Quarter Shop - $50 Voucher! |
 |
| Polka Dot Tea - Fabric Bundle! |
 |
| Intrepid Thread - $25 Voucher! |
 |
| Blossom Heart Quilts - Ornamental Quilt Pattern! |
 |
| Quiet Play - Winner’s choice of 3 Paper Piecing Patterns! |
Let the cushion madness begin!
As the title suggests, I’m just hanging in there. I’ll spare you the grim details of post-packing fallout, suffice to say that Mr 7′s teacher pulled me aside today and told me that he is going to fail his final evaluations because he has mentally shutdown following the packing up of our house. If anyone has any suggestions on motivating, building confidence and managing change when it comes to children… I’m all ears! In the absence of good parenting I have promised Mr 7 the Nintendo DS (game thingy) that he desperately wants if he works hard like he did before last Monday. I have been saying all year that it is too expensive and not possible but I hope the lure of the DS is enough to get him working again. I have informed his teacher of this incentive and asked that she remind him if possible when he is head down refusing to work. Terrible parenting but I’m desperate. It is heartbreaking to watch your child shutdown and risk repeating a year of school because they are not coping with the thought of leaving their friends and the only home they remember. Sorry, I meant to spare you the details…
‘Dream’ mini in progress – made with scraps from Rainbow Plus quilt top. Aprox 15″ x 30″
Usually I keep my works in progress to a minimum. At the moment I’m suffering a lack of clarity when it comes to quilting designs but I’m pushing on and then procrastinating when I feel that the design I’ve gone with is not right. I was thinking the word “dream” in the above mini was too obvious but when I shared it on IG the clever peeps there suggested outlining it in black. I’m still procrastinating…
I use my ‘tri recs’ ruler when piecing triangles :)
I’ve started a table runner for Mr 7′s teacher as a thank you/farewell gift. I loved it during the piecing stage. I’m worried I messed it up whilst quilting. I’ve probably quilted a 1/4 of it but didn’t grab a photo before the light went (and can’t find the charger for my DSLR, sorry for the ipad pics!) so here it is pieced.
Aprox 15″ by 60″
The other main piece I am working on is a custom order, a Butterfly quilt based on a cot sized one I made a few weeks back. My wadding arrived today so I hope to baste it tonight (although crying into my wine is more tempting!).
Butterfly quilt in progress aprox 2m x 1.9m
I’m using fusible adhesive and raw edged appliqué and I love all the pink on the grey. Quilts like this make having a large stash a lot of fun. My customer had a great time going through all of the pinks and putting together her picks
I’m linking up to Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. I’d love you to pop back tomorrow and link up to my Quilting Process linky <3
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!
I’ll concede that you’re probably going to get tired of my countdown until our move, but it’s what is taking up all of my brain space right now and the shipping container arrives in less than two weeks! Of course top priority is to get sewing projects finished… I may be a master at the art of procrastination… It seemed very important to tackle some dense quilting today… But let’s ignore that and look at some progress photos
I finally put together a top using my bee blocks from QCA Bee1. To be honest it was a challenge. The quilt is for my friend who is very special to me but has a difficult life. She lives in a shack without electricity or running water and I will be very sad to say goodbye when we leave Nouméa. I really want to give her something special and I had the idea that bee blocks would be great as they were from a group of Australian women and I thought she would love that idea I had to fix quite a few of the blocks and some of the prints were really not so awesome, it really took the wind out of my sails. The whole experience was a lesson for me. I’m not sure I’m suited to traditional bees. I should have said I wanted modern prints (I just assumed which is silly). If I think about it I generally don’t sew traditional blocks so being part of a traditional bee, whilst fun, isn’t really me. Anyway, I’m super happy with how it all came together in the end. I spent hours auditioning fabrics and thinking it over and then I remember there dark grey print with the bright birds on it. I actually pieced it to get the length that I needed but I liked the look so much that I pieced both sides. I can’t wait to see how the quilting pulls this baby together. I’m thinking I might use a fun teal thread And just so you know, I am glad that I have been in the bee and I have learnt a lot from it I don’t mean to sound whingy, it was just disappointing to find a block with holes in it and other blocks with seam allowances so small that I had to resew them or there would have been holes after the first wash. But enough from me, I love it and I know my friend will too
It would appear that it is birthday season and I’m therefore on a cushion/pillow making crusade. First up is a superhero quilted cover for Isaia.
My eldest son turned seven today and whilst his Mummy made gift is a day late I’m sure he is going to love it
You could say that I like free motion quilting ;)
The above panel is only 13″ x 16″ so the dense quilting was kinda insane, especially black on black where I had to sort of feel the thread as I couldn’t see it very well.
Super tricky to see and I probably should have changed to the open toe…
Next up will be a princess cushion cover, but I’ve only cut the front panel so far, must get cracking!!
I’m linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced Tomorrow I will be talking about thread issues and free motion quilting. I’d love you to pop back and link up your quilting process <3 If you have any questions you’d like me to (try and) answer please let me know
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
It’s about three weeks until I pack up my house and I currently have about five in progress WIPs (let’s not count the ones that are being ignored). So what’s the best thing to do? Start another!
I finished sewing together my Primary Plus quilt top (above) and I LOVE it (I haven’t had a chance to properly photograph the finished top yet)! I’ve just paid for my long arm and this baby will be packed away ready to quilt on the long arm early next year. I ended up with a pretty pile of scraps and seeing as I require a reward for cleaning I decided to play with them this afternoon.
I was originally thinking a cushion cover to match the plus quilt but I just had a light bulb moment and have an idea for a mini One can never have too many minis, right?
I have two piles of fabric sitting here patiently awaiting my attention. First up is a twin sized butterfly quilt for my son’s love (they are both five and I have finally convinced him that they can be in love without having to kiss! This Momma isn’t ready for that!!). This pile of pink will become a flutter of butterflies on grey <3
Second up is a gender neutral baby quilt and I have all sorts of fun modern ideas floating around in my head. This one is for my son’s (same son) teacher as a farewell/baby gift at the end of the year. We’re moving away, she’s pregnant, I quilt. You get the idea
And with that I must get back to the roast chicken. We have a dinner guest tonight and it would appear that I need to vacate the sewing/dining room so that we can entertain
I’m linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced! I’d love you to pop back tomorrow for my I Quilt linky party <3
Ages ago I pulled two stacks of fabric both based on the primary colors, one for each of my sons for a winter quilt. My younger son is getting the cascade quilt. I knew all along that I wanted to make a plus quilt for my older son but I I felt the prints I’d pulled were a bit stark. Then I had the brilliant idea to pull in some solids and the whole thing went from hohum to passionate chopping and excitedly filling the design wall.
(mostly) kona on the left, original pull on the right
Big love to Pink Chalk for their awesome Kona Color Box stack. I bought it almost a year ago and it is PERFECT for this project!!! The only reason I had waited so long to use it is that it is so pretty that I couldn’t chop it up LOL
reds first followed by orange
I cut three (where possible) pluses of each print (each plus is made up of 1 x 3.5″x9.5″ and 2 x 3.5″x3.5). I knew exactly the layout I wanted so I just started throwing things on the design wall as fast as I could
I filled in all the colours first, spilling over each other, getting a nice blend of colour. Without the text print it was lacking but I have a thing about needlessly cutting up fabric so I filled the design wall and then worked out what sized strips I needed of the text print.
My lovely friend Jane sent me some of her clever row markers ages ago so I decided to give them a whirl. You press the seams in the direction of the arrows (although I press open) and I found them super helpful for getting track of everything. I was seriously worried about messing with my original layout and having to redo it – not a window was allowed to be opened until I had the pieces off the design wall and safely pinned!
I find quilting quite exciting, but I have to say that this one was extra special to watch as it came together.
Serious love right there folks.
I haven’t sewn the rows together yet. I love the movement of them hanging there and moving every so slightly in the breeze.
I think I love this quilt in progress so much because I used a select few of my favourite prints, stuck to a defined palette, broke into my pretty solids and did the whole thing on instinct. I didn’t change a thing from my original layout and I think this quilt reflects how much I love colour but also how fun the primary colours can be all by themselves.
as
I’m linking up with Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. I hope you’ll join me tomorrow for my iquilt linky party. Tomorrow we’re talking quilting process and I have a few fun ideas gurgling around in my brain to share with you
I’ve finished my son’s Cascading Color (Colour) quilt top and can I say, I LOVE it! This is destined to be a winter quilt with a flannel back and I really think it is going to bring such lovely colours into the house in winter. But for now I have folded it up and put it away to quilt once I have my long arm next year.
The quilt is supposed to have a cascading tetris look to it, hence the lighter columns.
My husband kindly gave me five minutes to photograph this beauty before he headed to work this morning. We have bright mornings in Nouméaa! I love the affect of the colour cascading down the quilt. I used so many favourite prints and it really was an exercise in admiring my stash
Colour comes tumbling down
I actually remarked to my husband last night that I’ve been really good and haven’t bought any fabric lately (he pointed to a large box of wadding that I claimed doesn’t count because it’s boring and essential). He poo-pooed me and claimed to have seen fabric arrive of late. Of course he is right, but again it doesn’t count because what he is referring to is my stash subscription from Pink Castle Fabrics and I don’t choose those, it’s more like a nice surprise each month Yup, total fabric ban happening here folks Seriously though, most of the low value prints in this quilt are from my subscription and I really find it so very useful.
The light spills from top left with the bottom right of the quilt being the darkest area.
In complete contrast, possibly my favourite area of this quilt top is the dark areas down the bottom. I really think that this quilt will have longevity as it offers a variety of hues and only a few novelty prints.
Lots of fun prints including a French text print referencing our time here.
I actually pulled the prints for this quilt months ago and had been planning a Plus style quilt but I really love what I have here. Essentially a heap of 5″ (cut 5.5″) squares and some rectangles that make up a 65″ x 90″ flimsy. A great size for a twin bed and there is fun to be had in the quilting! After having ten days of sewing I really enjoyed getting back to my Bernina and piecing this beast. I used my Sewline gluepen rather than pins and the points are perfect. I highly recommend it, although I’d be interested to hear if anyone has had trouble with it gumming up their machine (no problems here so far). As always I used Aurifil thread, 2000 in 50wt which is one of my two favourites for piecing (it’s a golden cream and disappears quite well. My other favourite for piecing is 2605 in 50wt which is a grey and good for darker colours). With the mix of organic cottons, art gallery fabrics, linen blends, quilting cottons and Aurifil thread this baby feels like silk. Some seriously good texture in there!
Unfortunately my iron (I only bought it a month ago!!!) died just as I finished sewing the rows so you may notice some wrinkles. And when I say died I mean I walked away and came back to find it sitting in a puddle and then felt the current in my arm when I touched it. So yeah, that’s it for my Philips 2860 (I had the same model previously and it last about 18 months, even surviving multiple drops onto the tiles). Tomorrow I will send the husband out to try and get a refund or swap without the receipt (I’m quite certain I didn’t keep it). That will be an interesting exercise I’m sure!
It’s even bright in the shade at 8am in Nouméa!
I’m calling this a finish as I only planned to get the top pieced at this stage It feels like a finish! I’m linking up to TGIFF over at Missy Mac Creations this week.
