Sampaguita Quilts

On a roll

2012-01-26T02:54:00.000+10:30

While I had my flannels out, I cut the pieces for a second baby quilt. This one will be almost identical in design, but with a more limited and structured colour palette. And because of the narrow strip I had remaining of one print I wanted to use, the block borders are 1/4in narrower. Since the first quilt was about as small as I like to go for baby quilts, I'll add a narrow border to this one, too. The squares in both are 6.5in, to finish at 6in. Why? Well it works quite well for the quilt size and the size of the print - but mostly because it's really easy, because I have a 6.5in square ruler!

I've decided to try a new quilting pattern on this quilt as well, possibly some sort of swirl. I love piecing and quilting flannels; they run through the machine so softly. And because there are minimal seams (I press the seams on flannel quilts open by the way, to spread the bulk) the quilting is even easier.

I'll get a bit done tomorrow; it's Australia Day and so a public holiday. We plan to do a few things around the house, having been spurred into action by our parents - Simon's father was here today, ostensibly to look after James and Eleanor, since its still school holidays and I'm back at work. He asked me to organise a skip, so I happily obliged - knowing that when he's here, he tears through jobs like a hurricane! James and Eleanor might not get overly close supervision, but he gets an incredible amount done. My father offered to come and help out, and when Simon and I got home, we found that both my parents had spent the day here, and together they'd done all sorts of things (pruning, fence fixing, odd-jobs, sorting the shed, clearing wood, sweeping, wiring, preparing for further activities...). I only wish I'd orderd the next size skip! I'm immensely grateful to have such wonderful parents and parents-in-law!

Quick!

2012-01-23T03:29:00.006+10:30

This afternoon and evening, I cut, pieced sandwiched and quilted this baby's play quilt! It just needs binding and it's ready for a label when the baby arrives, which is a really good feeling. This quick quilt is fulfilling one of my intentions to make simpler baby quilts at least some of the time. It's just that more often than not the designing bug takes over! Using flannels encourages me to keep it simple, because much of my flannel stash is large-scale prints, and I find flannels don't work the best in intricate piecing anyway - I'll save that for the regular quilters' cottons for now.

Even though it's quick and simple, I still put time into fabric selection and placement. A baby doesn't care how many pieces of fabric there are in her quilt, or how many hours went into its construction; she'll just enjoy the colours and patterns. And since there's quite an influx of babies requiring quilts in the first half of the year all ready, this is helping me catch up instead of leaving me further behind!

The quilting is my allover feather meander, but I've varied it by changing the shape of the feathers. I've seen these described as 'tooth' feathers, and now I can't get the name out of my head.

White Sands

2012-01-20T23:47:00.000+10:30

My beach quilt White Sands is in the current issue of Australian Patchwork & Quilting (Vol 21 No 2) - but I had no idea it was going to be on the cover, so I was thrilled to see this!

I've been looking at it all day!

Here's the whole quilt:

I tried something a little different with the sand section on this one; it was pieced separately, then appliqued in place.

The one thing I'd change is to ensure the sandcastle was properly vertical - oops! It's only a small detail, but because I'm aware of it, it's the first thing I see every time!

I'm really pleased with the sun and they way I incorporated the pinker shades of the sunrise/sunset - I'll definitely do that again! I was also happy to be able to incorporate the fabric with the sun's rays below it

This section of the sky is a bit of fun - it's the perfect colour, but a closer look reveals palm trees, a moon and a sailboat in the batik print. Is the sand section an island, with more sea behind???

Above is a photo of my sewing area while I'm selecting fabrics. This is how it always looks at this stage of a beach quilt. I leave out and unfolded all the options until I've finished on that section, then I'll fold up the water prints and pull out all the sands.

Fabric selection is a major part of my beach quilts - below are a few photos which show what careful selection can achieve:

Even though they're not necessarily the same type of fish/coral, the red bits at the bottom of the fabric with the turtle help tie it to the pieces below.

The matching sections of green seaweed in these two fabrics make the join practically seamless.

The orange fishtail on the bottom fabric gives the similarly-coloured fish in the upper print a comically long nose - but helps blend them together anyway!

The pink and red coral on either side of this fish link the three fabrics together.

I quilt closely around the larger creatures for a few reasons - partly to maintain even quilting across the quilt, and partly to emphasise them. Thread matching the water blends well and has the added advantage that it can be done without a thread-break if you let the water quilting go close enough to just take a 'detour' around the creature!

Dimension

2012-01-20T09:12:00.000+10:30

All those little pieces of batting resulted in this amazing texture and dimension on the finished quilt top:

The silver thread I used above (and below - the little circles around the circle) is Superior's Glitter. It's actually holographic, and is smooth and ribbon-like. It quilts up beautifully, and has a gorgeous sparkle! The only thing I shoudl mention is that if you have the thread coming off over the end of the reel (rather than straight off it sideways) it twists, so don't keep quilting with it too long before you let it untwist. I bought quite a bit of this thread for a planned large wholecloth, and am thrilled with how it looks and sews.

Little Possum

2012-01-18T23:38:00.000+10:30

I received word today that my latest commission had arrived, and been gifted, so now I can share it in full. I kept part of it hidden before, because the baby's name is on the quilt top, and I would hate to have given anything away.

I do love this quilt, so there are quite a few photos...

I blogged a series of photos of the possum as I was making it; here she is sitting with her strawberry on the finished quilt top:

I've included a few detail shots, to show how I did the quiting and applique.

This one of the tail shows quite distinctly the two colours of applique. I ended up quilting around the possum using a regular free-motion stitch to create a zigzag sitch which blended with the applique stitches - a 'straight' line would have ruined the softening effect of the applique stitches.

On request, I quilted 'love is everything' into the top, underneath the tree.

This quiltling was done in a pale pinky-purple thread to help it stand out from the background a lttle. It shows better in real life, but could probably have done with being a little darker. However, this colour of thread was almost impossisble to find, so this was probably the ebst option.

I appliqued the little girl's name with the aid of a super-enlarged font print-out:

Either side of Poet's name I quilted a little bird, again in a contrasting light pinky-purple thread. You may recognise this image; it came from an album cover. I originally intended to seek permission to use it, but on finding the recipient was the artist herself, decided that it would ruin the surprise, and that this was probably one occasion it would be ok to use it! Being a line-drawing to start with, it converted perfectly to a quilting design.

Pluming from the birds' tails I quilted a trio of feather plumes. They are intentionally slightly different form each other, but similar enough to appear balanced. I drew the spines freehand, then quilted the actual feathers without any markings.

Because the quilt is wider than the standard 44in fabric, I use two fabrics for the top; one very subtle cream tone-on-tone for the centre, and a slightly draker one with a little more pattern for a wide 'border'. I probably should have chosen a border fabric with just a little more contrast, since it's almost indistinguishable once quilted, but it still looks perfectly fine.

To help anchor the base of the quilt and tie in the border, I appliqued a pair of blossoms, matching those in the tree, with a few leaves.

I filled the background with my current favourite - the combination triple-paisley, swirl and double-feather pattern. It's not ideal for filing small gaps, though it worked quite well between the branches, but it's wonderful fun to quilt in the larger open areas.

I'll be back tomorrow night with another peek at the top of the white and aqua quilt - it's quilted and trimmed and ready for me to add the binding, but I'm having an early night tonight - hopefully before midnight.

(ps - remember to click on any image for a closer look!)

The next layer

2012-01-18T04:05:00.003+10:30

I've been busy on this quilt:

The areas of dense quilting left lots of waves in the quilt top, which can be seen above. This meant that sandwiching (the next step) was quite a challenge. But with plenty of smoothing and tugging and encouragement, I got it flat without much fuss.

From the front

2012-01-16T03:31:00.002+10:30

Just a quick peek of part of the front tonight:

The area shown is under 2in square; the turquoise quilting lines are about 1mm apart. Threads are Superior Rainbows 831 - Mediterranean (40wt trilobal polyester) and Wonderfil metallic 881. The Superior stitched up perfectly. The Wonderfil was ok, but I prefer the Superior metallic which I usually use; it glides better, can be quilted a bit faster and barely shreds. I also tried a Wonderfil metallic silver mixed with white Rayon, but it shredded shockingly, and I ended up ripping it out.

From the back

2012-01-15T04:29:00.000+10:30

This is the back of the whoelcloth quilt which has been keeping me up all night (last 'night' I went to ebd at 5.15am, and it's currently 4.30, and I'm hoping for an 'early' night).

I roughly cut out loads of pieces of batting and pinned them in place to the back of the quilt.

This piece has been sewn and trimmed. It's 1 1/4in wide and 2 3/8in long.

Strawberries

2012-01-13T01:59:00.002+10:30

This morning I took James and Eleanor strawberry-picking at the Beerenberg farm near Hahndorf. It's under 25km from home, and a quick trip because about half of that is on the freeway. While we were driving through the hills, we passed several teams training in the lead-up to the Tour Down Under starting shortly in and around Adelaide. It's been relatively cool and overcast this week (ideal both for strawberry-picking and the cyclists!) but you get warm very quickly in the sunny berry patch!

Strawberry picking is fun for a while, but ultimately not easy on the back for adults!

I spent a lot of the time fielding questions about which strawberries were suitable, but they both did a good job, and filled their punnets with lovely, fresh strawberries.

After I filled my punnet, I had time for some photos, but oddly didn't get any of the berries themselves!

Each of these large punnets (the short end is showing) holds over a kilogram:

You simply pick as much as you want, then return to the shop to weigh and pay for them. We brought home 3.8kg; some to share with my parents, and plenty for several days of fresh berries plus a couple of batches of delicious frozen strawberry mousse, which I'll make tomorrow.

Hmm, I sense a strawberry quilt design on the cards, too!

Designer collection

2012-01-13T01:40:00.001+10:30

I gathered this selection to help me this evening.

I'm working on a new wholecloth quilt for the Machine Quilting special issue of Australian Patchwork and Quilting later this year and the shapes have a myriad of different curves. Throughout the evening and into the early morning I think I used all the glasses, most of the crockery (plus a pile of larger plates), all the coins, and several other items, including reels of cotton. The rough sketch has been turned into a fully-marked quilt top, but there's more work to do tomorrow before I can start the quilting.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star...

2012-01-09T17:56:00.003+10:30

After much deliberation, I called this quilt Like a Diamond. I'd thought of naming it 'In the Sky' but then realised I'd printed out the label with the first name, so that settled it!

Anyway, it feels good to have my first finish of the year, and one that's come together so nicely - and quickly! I took it outside to photograph it today, and was lucky to get all 3 quilts completed before the rain started again. It's most unseasonal weather, for which I am very grateful; I hate hot summers.

There are 18 curvy background pieces, all in different blues - mostly navy, but with a few deep purples (hopefully not too girly!) and slightly lighter blues to give it added depth.

I fused the star in place, but cut the centre out of the fusible web star, so there's only about 1cm of web around the edge. This made the star easier to quilt, but it also meant that there was no fusible web where the hole in the centre was. I left the hole on purpose, so there wouldn't be a big build-up of seams, but I didn't then want to accidentally fuse the centre of the star to the ironing board!

I quilted a variety of swirly, loopy lines radiating from the star in a bright yellow embroidery thread, and used the same on the star itself, then filled the rest of the background quickly with a small loopy meander in navy BottomLine. This worked well to disguise a few small areas where the curved background pieces didn't want to lie completely flat.

Redesign

2012-01-08T03:28:00.000+10:30

This evening I finished the star quilt - I'll photograph it properly tomorrow morning, along with two others. Then I spent ages redesigning a quilt. It's rather overdue; mostly as I've had other quilts take priority, but also partly because I've been putting it off for a couple of reasons - one of which is that the design was really detailed and would have taken far longer than I have available to commit. I still feel as though I'm constantly playing catch-up with my quilt to-do list (although some recent decisions have helped) and how could I justify working on a quilt which would take as long as 3 or 4 others put together?

This is what I think I'll actually make (some of the fabric, notably the dots, are not to scale). It still meets my design requirements, but is also far more achieveable that the original. I think it's probably also more suited to its purpose. The final advantage of the redesign is that it leaves more open space for interesting quilting, which will be far more enjoyable - and therefore faster! I designed the original quite a while ago (and in a previous version of my design software) and my quilting style and abilities have evolved significantly since then. So, I suspect, have my overall design preferences!

Starry night

2012-01-07T03:23:00.000+10:30

This afternoon I appliqued the star to my quick quilt, then cut into my bolt of navy blue for the backing. I bought the bolt close to 10 years ago, for a project I've long-since rejected, and figure it's about time I made use of it!

This is how the quilt looked from the back once I'd done the yellow quilting. I used a machine embroidery thread on the front and matching Aurifil in the bobbin, and it has a lovely sheen.

I've since also filled over half of the background with a loopy fill using navy BottomLine top and bottom. Another half-hour should see it ready to trim, bind and label.

How I wonder...

2012-01-04T22:23:00.000+10:30

Before we left Port Hughes, I finished piecing the background to this baby's quilt. I'm actually a bit surprised just how well the free-pieced curves came together, given the lack of precision in their cutting. It lies almost perfectly flat. I'll definitely be doing this again!

Due to the heat (thankfully currently abated) and activities with my extended family, I've not done any sewing since we got home, but will add the applique star (which will cover the hole) tomorrow.

This quilt's predecessors were called 'Twinkle, Twinkle' and 'Little Star' - what should I call this one?

New Year's Day

2012-01-02T02:46:00.005+10:30

With Adelaide's outside shade temperature nearing 42C, and something similar here, there was nothing for it but to stay in the airconditioning and start a new quilt. While James was having his swimming lesson a few weeks ago, I had inspiration for this quilt for a friend's new baby boy and sketched out the basic plan, with my thoughts of fabrics and quilting. Today I drew it out full-size on some large sheets of paper. It involves free-piecing lots of curves. Once drawn to my satisfaction, I numbered the pieces (there aren't that many - 18 pieces of background, and one applique piece) selected the fabrics for each piece, marked matching lines/points at strategic places on each seamline and cut the pattern up.

I added the (rather rough) 1/4in seam allowance as I cut. I tried various methods, including rotary-cutting straight around the pttern pieces, and marking with a white pen and then cutting with either sewing shears or the rotary cutter. They all worked ok, but none were perfect. I snipped tiny triangles at the matching points.

To join them, I pinned them at the matching points only, and guided the edges to meet by hand as I sewed. I had no clear indication of where the ends should meet, so started sewing at a pin in the middle somewhere and worked to one end, then restarted behind the oriningal point and worked out to the other end. I won't be able to tell just how evenly I cut and pieced until I press them in the morning, but they're coming together quite nicely from what I can see - and I'm confident I'll be able to 'quilt-out' any small areas of puffiness.

2011 at Sampaguita Quilts

2012-01-01T03:26:00.000+10:30

Just a few hours into 2012, and I thought I'd post my annual summary of quilts.

My first finish for 2011 was In the Pink - a flannel baby's play quilt:

Next up was Jazza - a surprising baby's quilt in eye-catching black and white skull prints:

My third quilt of 2011 was Cuggle; made for the director of James and Eleanor's child care centre, and with far more pieces than I'd realised at the design stage:

Fourth was Growing, made from a Verna (by Kate Spain) honeybun for another member of staff at child care.

The fifth quilt was Transitions; a simply-pieced quilt using Vicki Welsh's gradient hand dyes with silver snowflake quilting, and featured in Austraian patchwork & Quilting Vol 20 No 6:

My sixth finish was quick; Night Snow is a snowflake wholecloth I'd already started, and which I gave to my mother for her birthday:

Seventh was Building Blocks, using lots of bright scraps, and which we recently gave to one of the Kindergarten staff:

My eighth quilt for the year was my contribution the DQS10; Crowing. It's one of my favourites, and one of the most popular, as well. It features a large range of techniques, including piecing, hand applique, trapunto and free-motion quilting:

Good Morning, Hoot was the ninth quilt; another flannel baby quilt, which I gave to some good friends.

Rounding out the first ten was another favourite; Pink Feathers, due to the dramatic piecing and the hot pink feather quilting. This was given to one of James and Eleanor's favourite (former) carers, but had an interstate holiday first, to be featured in Australian Patchwork & Quilting Vol 20 No 8:

The eleventh quilt was a quickie for a friend's baby. Colour Play again features Vicki Welsh's gradient hand-dyes:

Mother of Pearl made it a dozen. I'm still very proud of the centre block with 165 pieces, but managed to recently part with it for one of the Kindergarten teachers. It was featured in Australian Patchwork & Quilting Vol 20 No 12:

My thirteenth quilt for the year was Whispers; a play quilt for my gorgeous new cousin Allegra, who I've just met this week:

This was followed by number fourteen - Stars of the Sea is an enormous king-size quilt which was featured in Australian Patchwork & Quilting Vol 20 No 11 and which I'm saving for our bed one day:

I made the fifteenth quilt, Elephant Feathers, in lovely blue flannels for my sister:

Maple Syrup was number sixteen, and we recently gave it to the Kindergarten director:

You only get a peek at number seventeen; I made Reflections using Terrain scraps from Kate Spain, and it will be featured in Australian Patchwork & Quilting Vol 21 No 3 next month:

Quilt number eighteen for 2011 was the overdue completion of Springtime, which I custom-made for the big craft blog fundraiser for victims of the Queensland floods:

Number nineteen was White Sands - another peek-only quilt, as this one will be featured in Australian Patchwork & Quilting Vol 21 No 2 in a few weeks:

Taking the total to twenty was Portholes, made for my new nephew, who is currently here at the holiday house with us:

The twenty-first quilt was probably my favourite for the year; Feathered Friends was a commissioned piece for friends:

My twenty-second quilt was The Gardens Meet, which features some of my favourite Sandi Henderson fabrics and is heading shortly to Australian Patchwork & Quilting to be included in Vol 21 No 5, so there's only a peek:

Twenty-three was the recently-blogged From New Beginnings, made for James' prep teacher:

My final quilt for 2011; number twenty-four, is Little Bird in the Tree. This commissioned tree quilt is the one with this cute possum, and I will blog it once it has been received by its new owner:

I'm quite happy with this selection, which has taken the total number of quilts I've made over 150, and am looking forward to 2012. My aim is actually for a few less, with time to spend on a major piece, but with the number already competing for priority, anything is possible!

In and around the tree

2011-12-31T03:31:00.000+10:30

I've been working on a commissioned tree quilt (the one with the possum) for a couple of weeks. It's now all quilted and ready to be bound, and here are a couple of peeks. I'm hoping to get it bound tomorrow (well, today really!) as my last finish of 2011.

I used the same background quilting as on my last few quilts - the paisley/swirl/feather combination. But for added interest, in contrast thread there's a small quote ('love is everything' - I've no idea of the source, or of the particular significance, it was just a request) and a couple of birds. Later I'll show the plumes of freehand feathers coming from the birds' tails - a very subtle effect, but one I really like.

From New Beginnings

2011-12-31T02:56:00.000+10:30

I've showed a few progress photos of this quilt, but not the finished product - finished in a real rush fro James' teacher before school ended for the year. We've been really lucky for James to have had such a terrific teacher for his first year of school, and are hoping next year's teacher is as good.

It's about 60in square, and the palette was based around some Fleur Nouveau prints I had, which I thought his teacher would like. There are close to 800 1in x 4in (finished size) pieces in the background.

The applique took way longer than I'd anticipated, mostly due to the swirly shape I designed. I still love the look of the shape, but it was a curse to applique neatly - and I got tired of them well before all 16 were done!

To stop the dark background fabrics showing through the white applique shapes (whch I'd actually decided partway through to do in a soft green, then forgot when it came time!) I doubled them - i fused a second layer (of slightly heavier plain white) to the back of the fabric, then fused the shapes and cut them out. It worked well.

Positioning the applique pieces was done mostly by eye, although I did use a ruler to keep the distances from the centre even, and used some of the background piecing as a bit of a guideline.

Positioning of the background fabrics wasn't overly planned. I knew the effect I wanted (darkest in the centre, fading to white at the edges) and bore that in mind as I paired and pieced the strips. This method is much faster than working out an exact layout, but less precise, and I can see places where I'd rearrange a few pieces. But without a design wall, it's not really a practical option, and the overall effect is still good.

I quilted around the applique shapes, then filled the background with a variation on my current favourite - the combination of triple-paisleys, swirls and trios of double-feathers - with the addition of a heart-like shape to match the applique. You can see a heart shape in the photo below if you look carefully.

I bound the quilt in a spot print, which was a pain. I had to trim (waste!) a bit between each strip to get the spots even on each length of the binding, and then realised afterwards that although they all matched, the spots were poorly positioned. I ended up machining the binding to the back and hand stitching it to the front (the opposite of my usual and preferred method) to get some of the spots to show, and even then, they're not centred on the visible part. I'll think twice before using spots on a binding again! At least they're even - I hate seeing a spotty binding where the spots aren't straight; they make the whole quilt look wonky.

The quilt was well received, but classrooms are very busy in the morning in the last days of the year, and I didn't have a chance to take a photo of James with his teacher and her quilt.

Summer

2011-12-30T18:53:00.000+10:30

We're enjoying a relaxing few days up at the holiday house, and I'm having fun with my new toy - Simon got me a laptop and mobile internet for Christmas, so I can keep in contact while we're here. The downside is that I've wasted rather too much time playing with my new toy, and done less quilting so far than planned!

Here are James and Eleanor at lunch this afternoon - being indulged in blowing bubbles in their drinks.

I'm not looking forward to the next four days; it's meant to be over 36C, and I plan to sit right in front of the airconditioner on New Years' Day when it's meant to be 41C - unbearable!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T00:44:00.002+10:30

The stockings have been hung, and Father Christmas has stuffed those two stockings within an inch of their lives (every trick in the book was used to get the contents in - removing packaging, stabbing holes in packaging to squeeze all the air out, repacking, clipping items to the stocking, hanging things over the edge, filling the pencil cases with things to poke out the top...)

He has also constructed a set of monkey bars in the garden, drunk a glass of water, eaten two home-made mince pies (and left behind a thank-you note and a trail of fine red glitter-dust) and placed the parcels beneath the tree. And now he's too tired to quilt, and is heading off to bed before either child (most likely Eleanor) appears for a midnight glass of water or a cuddle and wonder...

Merry Christmas to all

and to all a good night!

Font and quilting

2011-12-24T00:44:00.001+10:30

I've been busy quilting the last few evenings, but until tonight it's been quilting in the ditch around all the applique. With a tree, 7 blossoms, 21 leaves, a bird and 10 letters to go around, that took a while. It's not much to show on a blog though - despite the enormous but subtle benefit to the overall look of the finished quilt!

(appliqued bird prior to quilting)

But this evening I've quilted a quote and a couple of birds in a contrast thread (pinky-lavender machine-embroidery thread), fun free-hand feather plumes coming from the birds' tails in a lightly-contrasting thread (pale pink BottomLine), and a chunk of the background (cream BottomLine), using the swirls/triple-paiselys/double-feather-trios pattern I used recently.

And for the curious, the font I used for the applique is:

The Magic Cave

2011-12-23T01:32:00.003+10:30

On Wednesday, I took James and Eleanor to see Father Christmas at the Magic Cave:

Thanks goodness for the drawing and reading books I took, a friendly mother next to me in the queue, and Simon for leaving work to come and take them out (to the free state museum across the road) for an hour, given ti was a 2-hour wait! Next year I'll take them out of school one day in early December and beat the crowds! Luckily it was worth the wait - they thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank goodness also for the revised Christmas Day forecast - instead of a stifling 37C, we're expecting a much more manageable 30C.

Preparations

2011-12-21T02:59:00.000+10:30

I've been busy again on my current tree quilt - although I'm having an 'early' night. It's been after 4am the last three mornings, but after this I'm heading to bed .I'm planning to be in bed by 3am so I can get up relatively early and take James and Eleanor to see Father Christmas at the Magic Cave - early or the queues will be completely horrendous! While we're out I have to choose the Christmas chocolates (loose ones from the David Jones Gallery), get one last gift (Simon's! - I have 3 good ideas, so it should be reasonably quick/easy) and pick up a few items at the supermarket.

I'm actually pretty organised (well, apart form one quilt which just won't happen for Christmas), and am keen to get wrapping, but as we missed the Carols by Candlelight due to rain on Sunday, I'm planning a fun evening for James and Eleanor on Christmas Eve. We'll watch the Melbourne Carols by Candlelight on television and make a bit of an event out of it; light our own candles, eat chocolates etc. and wrap the presents together.

Tomorrow afternoon James and Eleanor will have a nap and then write the cards they made this morning and I plan to get this quilt top done and sandwiched, and hopefully spend some time refining a few new designs. There are only a few small appliques to add to this quilt now, and I've already marked a couple of quilitng designs. Today I finished adding a name (love the font!), added the border and did lots of prep work.

(please ignore the ironing-board cover print showing through!)

Becoming visible

2011-12-20T12:20:00.000+10:30

Just like Hush, my possum slowly became visible, from the tail up...

I'm delighted with how she turned out! The twice-stitched applique is hugely effective - I used about 8 threads all-up, with many, many thread changes as I went.

All done by machine - except the whiskers, which I hand stitched with a single strand of charcoal BottomLine.

Applique threads and stitches

2011-12-17T21:41:00.000+10:30

Thread selection...

It's getting easier as my thread-stash grows, but of course I don't always have the perfect choice, and it took a while working through the options to decide on the closest colours. Luckily I can manage with what I already have, given I want to get this quilt done as soon as possible. I'll be using a variety of threads - colour si the most important factor here. The BottomLine on the left will be for the bobbin this time, but threads I've chosen for the top include Guterman 50wt cotton, King Tut 40wt cotton, an unknown machine embroidery thread (probably rayon) and Rainbows and Living Colours (both 40wt poly).

As this is a commissioned piece, I decided to do things properly, and test out the applique stitches and threads on a sample. I fused the off-cuts from the possum to a scrap piece of background, and played around with my chosen stitch - I want the possum to look cute and furry, so an using a variable zig-zag stitch which changes on both sides. It has quite a long repeat, so leaves a nice random effect.

I workd out the best stitch length and width, plus the colours and combinations to use on each part of the possum (the tree and the strawberry with be in my usual small machine blanket-stitch). For most of the possum I'll be going over the blanket-stitch twice, using a different colour the second time. I even wrote down my selections, and for future reference, I'm using stitch 150, with a base length of 50 and width from 4 - 6.

Applique fabric selection

2011-12-17T15:40:00.002+10:30

Selecting the fabric for the tree was pretty straightforward, but choosing the possum fabrics took a while longer. I really wanted to get the right part of each fabric for each piece, to help make the possum more realistic.

So, out came Possum Magic (my initial design reference) for colour and shading assistance, as well as my drawing. I traced the shapes onto Lite Steam-a-seam2 and trimmed them neatly, then traced second copies onto tracing paper, and cut these out quite roughly. I should add here that I am using the Mont Marte tracing paper I mentioned a while ago, which is very strong and rather like vellum - but still cheap.

I used the tracing paper pieces to selet which part of the fabric would work best for each piece - I'd already done the body (the hole you can see above), and this is the shoulders/arms section. I wanted darker arms, but lighter in the centre, where it should blend with the light body. I pinned the heavily-traced piece in place, then turned it over on the lightbox, using the tracing paper piece to help position the steam-a-seam correctly on the reverse of the fabric. I pressed it on with the palm of my hand to hold it until I could steam it on permanently. Then I just removed and discarded the tracing paper.

Then I went to find a nice red for the strawberry, and remembered this print! The original strawberry on the steam-a-seam is a btu uner 1/2in tall, and the small ones on the fabric will be close enough in size to work - perfect!

The next step is to carefully position and layer all the pieces correctly, then remove the upper layers while I fuse and applique the first ones, and accurately reposition the subsequent layers when I'm ready to add them.

Fudging applique - mini tutorial

2011-12-16T01:22:00.000+10:30

I'm working on a new Tree quilt - another commission. The fabric I selected for the tree is a lovely wood print, but it has a few knots in it, which look a bit odd when they appear on a relatively small branch (most of the branches are a bit under 1/4in wide.

So once the tree, traced on Lite Steam-a-seam 2 and trimmed, is placed on the chosen fabric, I move it to the best position in terms of print patterning and economic fabric use, then 'bend' the branches away from the knots where necessary. The photo above shows a narrow branch falling partially across a knot, which I wanted to move.

This photo (above) shows how I cut the fusible web - a simple slit through the branch almost to the cutting line on one side (from the left in this case), and opposite, a teeny-tiny wedge (about 1/8in wide) on the side towards which I'm going to bend the branch. The tip of the wedge is about 1mm (yes, I know I'm mixing my measurements!) from the end of the slit - handle it carefully.

Then it's just a case of bending the branch gently away from the knot and repositioning it. I don't need to bend it far to get it clear. Steam-a-seam is great for this, because a quick press with your hand will hold it temporarily in place (it's still easily re-positionable though) until it's pressed permanently in place with the iron. The tiny gap in the fusing (remember I'll cut it out along the drawn line after ironing the tree in place) isn't big enough to be a problem one I've appliqued it with a small machine buttonhole stitch.

The same technique can be used on wider pieces, too (this section above is about an inch wide at the slit.

When cutting it out, you just need to carefully smooth-out the adjusted curve on either side so there's no kink - only a small adjustment is necessary.

Kindy Christmas concert

2011-12-16T00:04:00.001+10:30

Yesterday evening was the Kindergarten Christmas concert. It's held in the native garden at the kindy, and was a lovely evening for it; still comfortably warm when we left at 7.30. I didn't get any good photos of Eleanor in the concert, although I did get some nice (and at times amusing) footage of her singing. Unfortunately she wasn't too well and had just woken from a nap bafore we went, and she yawned spectacularly through the entire thing!

I spent the hour or so prior to the concert madly sewing the labels onto the teachers' quilts. I decided some time ago that they'd get one quilt each to cover both James and Eleanor, and have been working on them through the year. The director is doing a teacher exchange through 2012 with a Canadian teacher, so I needed to have hers ready as a Christmas gift rather than a last-child-leaving-kindy gift, and figured I'd gift them all at the same time - if nothing else, it's cleared 3 decent sized quilts from my sewing room!

They were all really well-received. I tried to pick appropriate colours based on their clothing and accessory choices - a bit fo a risk, but I think I got it right. Top is the director receiving hers, which I called Maple Syrup in a nod to her coming year in Canada. Next is the teacher (and next year's director) with Mother of Pearl, which luckily arrived back from Australian Patchwork and Quilting just 3 days ago, and which I finally photographed properly only yesterday morning! (blog post to come). And below is the other staff member, with Building Blocks, which I chose because of her fondness for bright colours. The name seemed to suit a kindy teacher's quilt!

Christmas Tree

2011-12-12T01:38:00.001+10:30

Spending the day putting up the Christmas tree and lights with 4- and 6-year-old assistance doesn't get a lot of quilting done, but it's definitely more fun - especially when the quilting doesn't go as smoothly as planned when you do eventually sit down at it. I can't delay too much though - this quilt is for James' teacher, and this is the last week of term!

We went to a bigger Christmas tree farm this year, and picked out this beauty. It's about 9ft tall - a perfect fit, as the tree-topper is only about 10cm/4in from the ceiling! If I ever want a bigger tree, I'll need a new house.

I've discovered an improved way to photograph the tree. First put a Christmas quilt beneath it. Then, focus with the tree lights off, then get a helper to turn them on for the photo (2nd photo)! It took 600 fairy lights to get the tree glowing to my satisfaction.

We don't put the presents under the tree until Christmas Eve. Although Father Christmas only fills the stockings in this house, with Shadow and Cocoa inside much of the time, it's not a risk I'm willing to take.

Procrastination bonus

2011-12-09T01:18:00.001+10:30

I've been so busy procrastinating (yep, that applique again!) that my sewing room is all tidy again! It took a big effort, but it's so much better, and I found a few things I'd been looking for. One small thing which made a big difference was deciding to let go of many of the boxes which fabric has arrived in. I've kept a couple, but piles of empty boxes take up a lot of unnecessary space!

Now I just have 3 more pieces to applique, and having got through a few yesterday, I'm confident they won't take long this evening, and then the decks are clear to start on my next project - the starting palette is below (minus the top pinks):

More applique

2011-12-07T22:01:00.001+10:30

I'd like to file a complaint with the part of my body which thought it was ok to fall victim to a cold - I really don't have time for it! So I'm dosed up on cold and flu medication and doing a bit more applique.

These black shapes are at least faster than the white ones, simply becasue the individual applique stitches aren't visible, so they don't have to be so perfect. For once, I'm willing to live with that! I've sewn on four, and have another eight to go - I really would like them all done this evening, but I'm making no promises! I can't say I'm enjoying the applique on this one, but I am really looking forward to quilting it; apart from outlining the appliques to smooth the edges, it will be an allover that I've been wanting to quilt for a while, and keep finding myself doodling.

Colour Play

2011-12-05T22:23:00.001+10:30

I made this quilt back in April for a friend's baby, but somehow neglected to blog the finished item.

I should be appliqueing again tonight, but have even less motivation than usual, since I'm getting a killer sore throat. I'd go to bed, but there's a program I want to watch at 11.30, so I'm getting a few things done in the meantime.

Colour Play is made from Vicki Welsh's hand-dyed gradients, which I just love using.

I quilted each column with a figure-of-eight loop, using matching threads. Some columns have only one colour thread, others up to three.

It's an incredibly simple quilt, to show off the fabrics. It's also fulfilling my intention to make some simpler baby quilts to ease my load somewhat.

Now here's hoping my sore throat isn't the start of a cold!

Feathered Friends

2011-12-04T21:36:00.001+10:30

This tree quilt that I've been working on for ages was one of the quilts I photographed this morning. I'm thrilled with it. It's a commissioned piece, and the recipients have been pleased with what I've shown them, so I think they'll be happy, too.

I'm so glad I took that daunting step of cutting the initial tree out and replacing it with one that would stand out nicely - it was definitely worth the worry, and the effort!

The birds were a request, and definitely a good addition. I adapted them from various clip-art style silhouettes I found online. I'd thought I'd managed to get two of them facing in the other direction, but I do kind of like the sole 'pair' of birds.

As regular readers would know, I ditered over the leaves, and in the end added a lot more than planned, in 4 different greens, giving the tree a much more natural feel. The leaves are between 1.5 and 2 inches long.

As with any finished quilt, I can see a few things I'd change, but nothing major on this one. I'd tilt the lower left-hand leaf in the other direction, I'd turn another bird to the right, and I'd not have the outer ribbons cross at the sides - just meet at a point like the inner ribbon.

Quilting-wise, I'd redesign the feather motifs at the bottom to reach the outer ribbon at the bottom.

But I'm really pleased with the feathers on this. I marked the feathers up to the point where they go up the sides, then just marked the spine, and I marked the top motif; the rest is freehand, and it's all free-motion. The feathers are all quilted in a mauve embroidery thread to help them stand otu a little, and that worked very effectively - and my care (and reduced speed - my default is pretty much full-speed, and I have to work hard to keep slower!) while quilting them means there are no obvious wavers.

I used a ruler to free-motion the piano key border, which was a bit of a drag to do, but again, definitely worth the effort. I repeatedly cursed my decision to echo the feathers to fill the space around them the whole time I was doing it, but in hindsight it was the right decision. Even though they're not perfect individually, the overall effect is certainly what I wanted, and I'm happy with that. Certainly, neither little miss Tilley, nor her parents, will be judging it!

I threw in a little curved cross-hatching. I drew it freehand, but did mark it - however I'd only designed it with half the lines, and went back and added the extras without markings.

The quilting that I'm totally in love with though, is the fill around the tree. Inspired by this background quilting by Judi of Green Fairy Quilts, I doodled for weeks and came up with my own version, which I couldn't wait to quilt.

This was the first time I'd quilted it, and I started out a little on the large side on the left of the tree, but the right is about perfect. It's a combination of extended swirls, sets of up to 3 small double feathers, and triple-paisleys, with a few echo-lines where needed. I learned a bit while quilting it about how to fit it into spaces and against applique, and that no matter how small, the feathers should always be double to keep the look consistent. I'll definitely be quilting this one over and over again!

It's not perfect for fitting into small gaps, such as between the roots, but it's workable, and in open areas it's gorgeous. This design is also a nice change from the McTavishing I've always done around the trees before. It's fun to quilt, and reasonably fast, given its density.

Now I've finally decided on a name, I can do the label, and this quilt is finished. My next commission si a similarly-sized tree, but will have quite a different look (although I definitely plan to use the same background quilting!).

Slow applique

2011-12-04T16:15:00.001+10:30

I've started appliqueing these terrific shapes to my quilt top, but the swirls make them really tedious (hence the listing of quilts on Etsy last night; I was procrastinating!). I'm rethinking the terrific-ness of my applique design now!

There are only the four white pieces, but a dozen black ones await, so I've had a productive day of photographing quilts and not appliqueing! I've used nearly a whole roll of wide doube-sided tape photographing 3 decent size quilts, and if I'm organised enough, I will have another few to photograph on Tuesday, so had better get some more tape. I use a combination of carpet tape (expensive and super-sticky to cut and handle, but wonderfully strong to support the weight across the top of heavy quilts) and 1in-wide Sellotape brand to keep the rest fo the quilt squared and flat against my photographing wall.

Christmas Quilt

2011-12-04T03:07:00.001+10:30

I just wanted to quickly share that I've listed my Christmas quilt, Andrea's Dream, for sale in my Etsy Store. It's ready to post right now, just in time for Christmas.

Apple Falls

2011-12-04T01:51:00.001+10:30

Somehow I never got around to blogging Apple Falls when I completed it. But this evening I was updating its listing on Etsy, and had the photos to hand, so here it is!

Apple Falls is a version of my Winter Harvest tree quilt. I originally made it so I would have my own, because I was finding it so hard to give away the original, which I designed and made for an early round of the Flickr Doll Quilt Swap. But as I make more and more quilts, my emotional attachment to the earlier ones weakens enough for me to see the sense in letting them to go make way for newer quilts. That has especially been the case with my tree series, since I've made a few of them now, in various guises. I'd never have guessed that this design would be quite so popular!

From now until Christmas, if any of my blog readers would like to buy Apple Falls, I'm offering you a $10 discount, to be sent as a PayPal refund - just mention you read my blog in the comments section when you check out.

Tomorrow I'll share some pictures on what I've been working on.

Here's a hint - swirls are tedious to applique!

Perfect isn't always perfect

2011-12-02T02:14:00.001+10:30

or Why I always audition fabrics

I recently snapped-up 5y of a long-sought Amy Butler stripe from Ginger Bliss. When it arrived this week, I knew it was the perfect binding for the quilt I'm woring on. This evening I finished the quilting, trimmed the quilt, and laid it out with the perfect binding. But it wasn't perfect. So I laid the quilt out with the dark blue I'd always planned to use for the binding, knowing that would be spot-on. But it was dull.

So I pulled out the two pinks from the quilt top and tried them. And they were right. The lighter one was nice, but the darker one just sang. But was I willing to use so much of my remaining piece of it - since I'm actually meant to be saving my Farmer's Market for a quilt for us one day? Yes. Because it's perfect.

And if I can find a little extra motivation this evening, I'll get it machined on and ready to hand-sew while Eleanor has her swimming lesson tomorrow morning. Activity (both quilting and blogging) has been low this week. The late nigths have caught up with me and I've had a few early nights and a few lazy ones. As tends to be the case for me, when deadlines are getting impossible, something snaps, and productivity temporarily halts - so that the ultimate panic can be twice as intense! This quilt is overdue to the magazine editor. Then I need to finish one quilt and make another from scratch (the plans in my head are gradually getting simpler and simpler for that one!) within 2 weeks, plus I have a new commission to work on which should get done ASAP, and I suspect a single bed quilt is being expected for Christmas. HELP!

Mother of Pearl in AP&Q

2011-11-26T17:53:00.001+10:30

My Mother of Pearl quilt is in the new issue of Australian Patchwork & Quilting magazine (Vol 20 No 12) which I got this week.

I blogged about it in depth back here, but will share a couple of photos now, although I'm still waiting to get it back to photograph properly.

It uses my favourite foundation-piecing technique, and the centre block has 165 pieces! It shrinks in the making because it has so many seams, so it starts 1/4in bigger (plus the usual seam allowances) than the finished size.

It measures about 150cm (58in) square, and I'm thinking of listing it for sale, so contact me if you're intrerested.

I can't draw!

2011-11-23T02:26:00.001+10:30

I thought in the interests of honesty, I'd share a sketch I'm working on for a possum applique to add to my next quilt. It's always been a source of frustration to me in my designing that I can't draw. So in actual fact, I'm rather pleased with myself for achieving this much! I started with the basic pose used quite a bit in Possum Magic, but drew from scratch. It still needs work, but it has come a long way (if you think this is bad; you should have seen my original!!!) and I'm hoping that with careful fabric selection and the addition of quilted details, it will pass muster!

I also want to mention my LQS today. I've been going to Riverlea Quilts (on Unley Rd, in Adelaide) for many years, and the owners and staff know James and Eleeanor as well as they do me! They have a system where for every $X you spend, you get a small bundle of FQs, but the owners seemed to figure out that I don't really need more FQs, so they suggested that when I have some quilts that need backing, I come and choose some free backings. It's been a while since I redeemed any, so this afternoon I popped in with James and Eleanor and got 2 free backings for a couple of large square quilt tops (both of which need quilting very soon) - perfect! While I was making my selections, Eleanor was making us cups of tea with their toy tea-set, and James had the fire engine and was frustrating her by pretending the tea-set was on fire! And naturally, while I was there I found more fabric I had to have - this time a fabulous stripe of colourful string on a black background.

I've had a productive day. As well as spending time playing with Eleanor, I've also finished quilting the tree quilt and machined the binding to the front ready to hand stitch down tomorrow, completed and emailed one set of quilt instructions and made a good start on another, and got one of the square quilts ready to sandwich.

Applique-in-waiting

2011-11-20T11:38:00.001+10:30

Intermittently bewteen other quilts, I've been cutting out these shapes. There are 12 black and 4 white, and they would all be done - except just now while cutting out the last one, I snipped off the tail swirl of one when I meant to just trim away some of the excess. Ooops!

Filling around the feathers

2011-11-20T02:06:00.001+10:30

Ooops! I realise now that I should have designed the feathers to fill the whole space between the feathered borders. Initially I only intended them to be two corder units, but they grew more than I'm anticipated, and now fill the two sides. I am NOT going to unpick them, so the question is - what do I do in the spaces around them? Whatever I do, it'll be in matching cream BottomLine thread, so it's nto too obvious, and I'll start by echoing the feathers to help emphasise them. So... McTavishing, a small stipple, more of what I did around the tree, repeated echoing???

As an aside, I did the piano key border today, using a ruler. I don't know if there's a trick I'm missing to using rulers to quilt on a domestic sewing machine - certainly a thicker ruler would have helped, but I only had my rotary cutting rulers to hand. I put a strip of double-sided tape on the back of mine, to help keep it in position. I only had to replace it about 5 times as I worked my way around the quilt, and it was definitely worth it. I was tickled-pink that when I got back to my starting point, the line spacing was perfect - no fudging required!

Here's a closer look at the quilting around the tree. I didn't want to McTavish it, as I've done previously on my tree quilts, and have been doodling with combining echoed feathers, paisleys and swirls, and just love this pattern; I'll definitely be using it again. This was the first bit I did; the later parts are neater, and I'll show them properly later. It has the same lovely movement as McTavishing, but is a bit more fun - and I find it easier to quilt, because it's easier to decide where to go next.

Water balloons

2011-11-15T23:11:00.001+10:30

On Friday I popped into one of those cheap stores that sell a random assortment of items (chiefly, it would seem at this time of the year, tacky Christmas decorations!) to get some water balloons for James' birthday party. As we were walking out, some large notepads caught my eye; the A3 newsprint I like for printing foundations - so now I have an even cheaper supply! I also found some huge (A2) pads of tracing paper, which I thought might be handy. They are! I used some last night, and it's perfect for laying over a quilt top and working out quilting designs - clear enough to see the quilt top clearly though it, but strong enough to withstand several iterations of drawing and erasing. I used it to design the feathers for my current Tree quilt - here's one section quilted:

(Designed free-hand, traced prior to sandwiching with a clover blue pen (removability pre-tested on identical fabric, given my recent troubles!) and free-motion quilted using a rayon embroidery thread in pale purple and silver BottomLine in the bobbin.)
Incidentally, it took Simon about 2 hours to fill 150 water balloons, and less than 2 minutes for a group of overexcited 5-and-6-year-olds to throw and burst them all!

Butterfly rose cake

2011-11-15T23:00:00.001+10:30

I don't know how, but a while back I stumbled across i am baker's Rose Cake, and knew I wanted to make it. James requested a butterfly cake again this year, so I bought a few clip-on butterfly Christmas decorations to clip onto long skewers, and decided the rose cake would be the perfect base for them. My nozzle wasn't quite big enough, and the star tip wasn't quite as spiky as it should have been, but I was very pleased with the effect - especially given how quickly and easily it came together. I left it uncovered in the fridge overnight to let the frosting harden a little, and managed to keep it cool enough through the party in a park on a hot day that it still looked perfect when it was needed. I definitely have plans to do it again - but will search out a better nozzle first.

And don't worry - this will never become a baking blog. The family's tried-and-true, one-bowl chocolate cake is as far as I ever go! There would have been other party photos too, but I was too busy most of the time.

Fused applique

2011-11-11T01:18:00.001+10:30

I've made good progress appliqueing the leaves in place this evening, but it's not much different to look at, so I thought I'd show these instead.

While I was preparing the leaves to applique, I also traced and fused these. I really enjoyed designing this shape and went through several variations, tracing, cutting and swivelling (I cut through all but a tiny 'neck' of the shape, then alter the angle) and repositioning. It takes a little while looking at it to realise that it has a positive and a negative swirl. These will be going onto the quilt with the spa palette that I started a couple of weeks ago. It was a fun challenge fitting them in as closely as possible to minimise waste - the solid fabric is cheap enough, but I hate to waste the Steam-a-seam2, even though I imported a whole 24in x 25yd roll!

More leaves

2011-11-10T01:52:00.000+10:30

Thanks to some insightful suggestions, I've cut some extra leaves in a few different greens. Of course, I couldn't remove too many of the pre-existing leaves, so this is potentially creating extra applique work in my future, but I think it's an improvement. Top, with four different green fabrics:

Below, with the preferred single green from last time, for comparison:

Leaf colour

2011-11-08T02:10:00.002+10:30

I wasn't sure which green would work best for the leaves, so I cut them out in 2 colours, and laid them both out for comparison. I'll save the unused leaves for another quilt.

The flasjk photos don't show the colours as well as I'd hoped, but I'm now confident that the top option is the way to go - it wasn't my original plan, but I think it looks much better with this colour tree. Any thoughts?

South Australian Festival of Quilts

2011-11-07T02:08:00.001+10:30

I spoent a lovely day tiday with Gran at the South Australian Festival of Quilts. Tjhre were some amazing quilts this year, but I don't have many photos - my camera bettery went flat early, and anyway, I wouldn't be able to share them.

But here's the stash I brought home - there's a definite theme! I was really pleased to find some unfamiliar reef and water prints. The only things I bought other thn fabric were some exciting new rotary cutter blades, and something I'll share tomorrow, once I've taken photos.

Stash enhancement

2011-11-05T18:10:00.000+10:30

I don't share most of the incoming stash any more - I haven't for a long time. But this pile was last week's arrivals!

It's due to 2 things. First, I saw some of Paula Nadelstern's Nuance fabrics used beautifully, and realised I barely had any - and because it's about to be superseeded by Patternista, I needed to 'go' to several online shops to tet all the prints I wanted - and of course I just had to fill the envelopes! The top half of this pile is all Nuance. And second, I had a regular trawl for more reef and water fabrics, and found some at a few shops, which resulted in the same need to top-up the envelopes!

Luckily I'd bought a few wood prints, because I'm actually using one of them for the tee I'm currently appliqueing - and now I've been and searched for some more wood fabrics to add to my stash - can you see where this is going?....

I'm rather relieved there don't seem to be as many new ranges release at Quilt Market this time - I've barely finished buying what I wanted from the Spring Quilt Market reveals! In fact, there are still a couple of prints I need to collect! From what I've seen so far, there are some must-haves from Paula Nadelstern's Patternista and Patty Young's Lush, and the elephants form Valori Wells' Karavan if it's available in quilter's cotton.

Daunting

2011-11-05T02:10:00.002+10:30

Although I made the decision some time ago, when it comes down to it, picking up the rotary cutter and slicing out a chunk of a half-finished quilt top is a daunting prospect!

Using several large rulers (I absolutely love the 18in square I bought a while back, it's invaluable!) I carefully marked the section to be removed first, to make sure it was totally squared. Then I bit the bullet and cutI Then I carefully measured the gaping hole left behind and cut a new centre, 1in larger in either direction.

I'm not going to put the green 1/2in border again; I think it'll work better without. The new centre isn't attached yet, but I have traced, fused and cut-out the new tree; it's much bigger and in some darker, wood-print fabric.

It feels good to have made the cut and be making progress again.

Book of Inspiration

2011-10-31T02:18:00.002+10:30

A while back I kept noticing and being inspired by Charley Harper images, and was pleased to be able to find this wonderful compilation of his illustrations at The Book Depository. Thank goodness for their free worldwide shipping - it's no lightweight!

I've not yet had time to use the ideas in a quilt, but I do enjoy browsing through the pages, and no doubt a fully-formed idea will hit me when I least expect it, and demand to be made!

Its the lines in his bird illustrations which I find most inspiring:

The simplicity of the shapes should translate well to piecing.

Hmm the idea behind this one seems somewhat familiar...!

Stars of the Sea in AP&Q

2011-10-29T21:30:00.002+10:30

A few days ago I gto my copy of Australian Patchwork & Quilting Vol 20 No11, which includes Stars of the Sea as a project.

I don't have brilliant photos of it - I only had about half an hour in which to take them before taking it to the post office, the sun was in the wrong spot to use my usual wall, my good camera had a flat battery (so I used the old one, which for some reason was also set on a very low resolution), I couldn't find a wall big enough for it to hang completely flat, and the best option didn't have room for me to stand far enough back to take a good straight-on image! However, I do have some nice detail images, and some progress photos, and will photograph it properly when I get it back in a week's time.

(image from AP&Q)

I absolutely love this quilt; I love the colours, and the effect of the blocks, and am thrilled with the border quilting - the centre quilting is just average, but it doesn't detract from the rest, so that's ok.

I used nine different colourings of the same star block, using a palette of seven aqua fabrics in varying tones and shades, plus a few extra aquas for the borders and binding. Ideally the border and binding fabrics would ahve been selected from those used in the centre, but I dind't have enough - and I decided to add the aqua borders after piecing the top (in fact, I'd actually sandwiched it without them, then changed my mind!).

These blocks are all shown prior to quilting

I did photograph one block in detail after quilting; I quilted the stars with silver metallic thread; each star in a different pattern:

A section of the border (looking at the photos again, I can't wait to do more quilting like this!):

I showed more photos of the whimsical feather quilting when I was doing it back in June, and love it as much now as I did then.

I used a bowl and Hera marker to mark the scallops and the feather spines - it was quick and easy (practically no pre-planning required) and left no marks to remove later! The feathers radiate form the corners, and 'meet' in the centres of the sides - I just kept adding 'another bowl' on either side until the gap between them was smaller than 2 bowls

I made my own template for the snowflakes (used in the corner scallops, and scattered among the loops in the background of the star blocks), but had difficulty removing the blue pounce. The blue water-soluble clover marker wasn't that keen on coming out, either.

This shows the quilting over the whole quilt - the only way I could get the whole thing in:

And the (rather sad) best I could do straight-on (admittedly it is a whopping 100 x 92in, king-size quilt!):

Stars of the Sea will be hanging in the Express Publications stand at the Festival of Quilts in Adelaide next weekend.

Spa palette

2011-10-29T12:18:00.001+10:30

This is the palette for the new quilt I've started. It makes me think of a refreshing spa. It's to be a gift, and although it does need to be done in the next month or so, it has temporarily queue-jumped, because I felt the need to do some straightforward piecing for a while.

The palette is based on fabrics from the Fleur Nouveau range by Clothworks. I first picked up a few pieces of it at the Festival of Quilts nearly a year ago, and loved it. The design I came up with needed a more comprehensive gradation though, so I added to it from my stash. I've been wanting to use it for ages, and they seem the prefect colour for the intended recipient.

I started with close to 800, 1.5 x 4.5in strips, and at this stage they had been joined into almost 200, 4.5in quarter-blocks. Pressing all those seams did get a little tedious! While I had an eye to value balance, and tried to keep each quarter-block slightly different, I didn't actually plan where each piece would go, I just paired them up as I went. This is a slightly risky approach, because the final layout may not work quite as intended, but it's much faster! One day I'll get a big design wall, so I can lay them all out and still have space to sew - the thought of positioning 800 individual pieces of fabric on the floor wasn't pleasant; not only would it be uncomfortable placing them all, but, especially with polished floorboards and small visitors (canine and human) they'd slide around easily and get muddled anyway.

There's a little more work to do to get the quilt top into one piece, btu then I'll set it aside and get back to the higher priority quilts. Later, I'm going to add some fused applique to the top, before quilting. I'm planning to use a light solid over some of the darkest fabrics - does anyone have any tips on how to stop the colours showing through? The only thing I've thought of is first fusing the applique fabric onto a solid white.

Portholes - my Blogger's Quilt Festival entry

2011-10-28T22:52:00.000+10:30

Welcome to my October 2011 Blogger's Quilt Festival entry. If you're not familiar with me or my blog, my name is Emma, Simon and I have 2 young children, I've been quilting for about 18 years, and have been blogging about it for the last 4 years. I've made over 150 quilts now, and design all my own work. I don't like anyone else having a hand in my quilts and do everything myself - from the designing through to the quilting (probably my two favourite stages of making a quilt).

(click on any image for a closer look)

I usually like to show a new quilt for BQF, and fortunately I finished Portholes only a few days ago, so it's fresh and ready to blog. Portholes is the seventh in my series of foundation-pieced beach-scene quilts, each with a different design. Three of the six have been for the nieces on my husband's side of the family, and this one is for a newly arrived (5-day-old) nephew.

We live in Adelaide, and Simon's sister lives near Perth - a 3-hour flight followed by a 3-hour drive away. By chance, Simon had a few days' work in Perth this week, and has extended his stay to visit the newest member of the family, and delivered the quilt to Kynan today.

To make these quilts, I sketch a rough design layout, then draw it out properly full-size. Then I divide the areas of reef, water (and for many quilts also beach and sky etc.) into sections, and build them up with fabric, one piece at a time. Each piece is fussy-cut. Above shows each foundation section pinned to the full-size pattern sheet. I've completed selecting the fabrics for the bottom pieces at this point, and they're all roughly pinned in place to the foundations, ready to sew.

My work area (in this case, it was my in-laws' lovely holiday house, where we stayed with them a few weekends ago) becomes a real mess while I'm selecting and cutting the fabrics, even though I only work with one 'set' of fabrics at a time (e.g. reef, plain water or sky...). It's actually pretty tidy in this photo, because I was only just starting to work with the next set of fabrics (The reef was done, and I was moving onto the plain water). As I cut a piece from each fabric, I don't waste time folding it neatly until the whole area is done, since I use most fabrics multiple times in the process, so instead of neat rows of folded fabrics, imagine a tossed-pile of loosely gathered fabrics strewn over every surface! (Simon's parents are wonderfully understanding of my obsession!)

Once the fabric selection and cutting is done, the acutal piecing is quick. The challenge in this quilt was joining all the sections together so they'd lie flat, while leaving gaps to add the portholes later, but despite (or perhaps because of!) the time I spent thinking about it, it really came together easily.

For the portholes, I used two suitably-sized plates to draw the cream outer circle and the feature-print circle at the centre, and cut the circle with enough seam allowance that I could use a sewline glue pen to hold the cream circle in place over it. The blue and red circles were made from bias-cut strips 1/4in and 3/8in wide respectively, which cover both the inner and outer raw-edges of the cream circles. Then I used the glue pen again on the bias strips and eased them into place and held them down with glue until I could machine applique them, using matching rayon thread and a small blanket stitch. I did the same to join the completed circles to the holey quilt top.

Unusually, I don't have many photos showing detail of the quilting on this quilt - although it's quite detailed, it's really designed to blend in and make the pieced top look more cohesive. I used a large freehand swirl in matching threads over the open areas of water, quilted closely around many of the sea creatures with thread to match the water behind them, and in the ditch around the blue and red circles on the portholes. Then I swapped to a variegated thread for the reef. I love Rainbows by Superior for this, and have used several rainbow-y colourways, such as Pinata (842) and Carnival (821). I follow the fabrics, stitching around coral formations, adding extra seaweed and generally blending the fabrics together better as I work my way along the reef.

Some of the posts about my other quilts in this series show the reef quilting better: Seaside, Breakfast on the Beach, Footsteps, Through the Arched Window and Morning Swim. Beach (a slightly different, queen-size quilt, was made before I started blogging, and though there's a photo in my gallery, I've never done a full post about it. But it's the quilt which started this whole series - partly because I couldn't stop collecting water, reef, sand and sky fabrics!) It was a wedding gift for Simon's brother and his wife who, like most of Simon's family, love sailing. Then when they had their first daughter a few years later, I wanted to make something that matched theirs.

I actually turned Through the Arched Window into a pattern, available in both paper and PDF formats. the pattern also includes a lot more information about the design process, so you can design your own!

While I love these quilts, it's rather ironic that I don't like going to the beach myself! I hate the heat, the stickiness and the sand - even the beautiful fine sand we have in Australia. I much prefer the snow and the cold, and have always collected snowflake fabrics - but have recently started collecting snowy scene prints, with the aim of making some snow-scene quilts along the same lines as the beach ones.

Thank you for coming by and reading through the whole saga. I'd love for you to browse around or say hello before you go and check out all the other wonderful BQF entries - just as I'm about to do!

If wishes were fishes...

2011-10-27T03:05:00.001+10:30

...we'd all cast nets in the sea (but would they look like these two?!).

Another of my quilts was published in Asutralian Patchwork and Quilting recently, and I got my copy yesterday, but I'm experiencing some difficulties with my external hard-drive (I'm hoping it's only temporary; it has all our digital photos, and not all are backed-up elsewhere yet - you can eb sure this will serve as a good reminder to get to that over-due job ASAP!). So I don't have most of the photos I want to share of it, and I'm going to wait (hopefully just a few days) and share it properly later.

In the meantime, here's another photo of the beach quilt I've just finished. I got it bound and photographed on Tuesday morning, attached the label in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and at 5am (only a few hours later) Simon took it with him to Perth. He's working there for a few days this week, then spending the weekend visiting his sister nearby, who on Sunday had a baby boy, Kynan. I'll reveal the whole quilt in my Blogger's Quilt festival post on Friday.

(And for the curious, the words at the beginning are an old cliche, used in a song wirtten by Eric Bogle. Eric is a Scottish folk-singer, who's lived in Adelaide for about 30 years, and is most famous for his anti-war song, 'And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda'. My father is probably his biggest fan, and I grew up listening to and loving his music - and am sharing it with my own children; Eric Bogle is James' number one request when we're in the car!)

Tooth fairy

2011-10-21T21:09:00.004+10:30

Last Sunday was the start of the sailing season, and James sailed with Simon and Pop, but as the result of a fluke accident, he returned home with his mouth a bit of a mess, unfortunately including two very wobbly top teeth (at least they were his baby teeth), which previously hadn't been moving. Several dentist visits later, and yesterday he had his four front teeth out under a general anaesthetic (they also took out the bottom two, as they were showing no signs of moving, despite both adult teeth being right through behind them).

(before)

While it can't have been fun for him, I was impressed with how smooth the procedure was. I walked him into theatre, and was able to hold him on my lap while he had the gas anaesthetic, then the anaesthetist helped me lift him directly onto the operating table, and I walked out and left them to it. Half an hour later it was all done, and I was provided with the teeth in a nice little pouch for tooth-fairy duties, and shortly after I was back with him while he woke and had ice cream and then jelly. He's been remarkably good about it all, and is recovering well, but will have a big gap at the top for the best part of a year.

(after)

I knew he had suspicions about the tooth fairy, and waited until late to make the visit, leaving a sprinkle of fairy dust behind. However, my inability to find the really fine glitter was nearly the tooth fairy's downfall, as he determined it to be glitter, not fairy dust - he also let slip that he'd tried to use it to make magic, and it hadn't worked! Luckily my explaination that, "Of course it didn't work, you're not a fairy!" seemed to satisfy, and he was very pleased with the tooth fairy's generosity - I figured that four at once, plus the method of removal, warranted it. Next time, it'll be back to gold coins - although I expect the magic might have gone by then.

Maple Syrup

2011-10-18T03:08:00.001+10:30

I finished this quilt quite a while ago, and just hadn't got around to sharing it. But it's more interesting than a picture of me writing quilt instructions, so I'm sharing it tonight. It'll be a gift for another one of James and Eleanor's kindergarten teachers (that's 2 quilts down, one to go, before the end of term), and as she's heading to Canada for a teacher exchange next year, I brainstormed a suitable name.

I used strips from a batik jellyroll and/or Bali-pop for the Palm blocks, and used narrow sashing between the blocks using the same fabric as the block backgrounds.

I showed some of the quilting months ago when I started doing it; I used a tessellating feathery pattern which utilised the open spaces, rather than sticking to the square blocks.

This quilt has a lovely, cosy feel to it, and I hope it gets plenty of use - I picture it wrapped around someone on a sofa, reading a book in front of a fire while it's snowing outside (you know, just to match the snowflake background fabric!).

Now I need to focus on the third quilt; I'd been planning something in deep reds, but Eleanor informs me that purple and orange are the colours of choice. If I decide to trust a 4-year-old, I'll probably go with purples!

Now, back to writing instructions and hand-stitching labels onto quilts - I'm hoping to post five quilts to various destinations tomorrow.

A porthole

2011-10-16T15:17:00.001+10:30

I'm having a quilting break for the benefit of my back and shoulders, and thought I'd share a picture of one of the completed portholes from the other beach scene quilt - the one I was starting to quilt before this one took priority.

They were rather fiddly to put together and add (accurately) into the quilt top, but I'm delighted with they way they're turning out.

While I'm quilting sand and boats and oceans, it's the Centenary Opening Day at Henley Sailing Club, and Simon is down there with James and Eleanor and one of the boats. I prefer the fabric variety!

100,000

2011-10-16T04:12:00.000+10:30

Sometime this afternoon, my blog clicked over the exciting 100,000 visits mark since I added the counter!

I was busy quilting at the time. There have been a few thread breakages, since my machine isn't too keen on quilting through the extra layer of interfacing - especially with the extra-fine 100wt thread I used at one point - it was the only thread I had in the right colour that wasn't too heavy - I've added a better option to my wishlist now - I should have done that before, since I had the same problem the last time I was quilting the sky on a beach scene quilt!

I've gone with a different approach this time; insteasd of wavy lines, I've quilted a pattern in the sky which is supposed to resemble clouds in some abstract way, and a spirally swirl pattern in the open areas of water. I'm not completely sure about the clouds, but I am pleased with the swirls in the water.

The pot calling the kettle messy

2011-10-14T03:31:00.000+10:30

When I'm selecting the fabrics for my beach scene quilts, I do create quite a mess. I need to be able to see every fabric, and because I use them multiple times, it would be a complete waste of time to refold each one every time, so I end up with masses of loosely-gatehred fabrics covering every available surface around my work area. But I thought it was a bit rich for James to come in and comment on the mess this morning! He clearly has forgotten just how bad his room was a while ago, and how long it took us (mostly me) to tidy it all properly! I, on the other hand, have not!

For the record, I finished the fabric selection before lunch, and the fabrics are now all neatly refolded and sorted back into their piles. The water prints (including the reef ones) fill an entire shelf in my cupboards - although I'm still on the lookout for more. The more I have, the easier it is to find the right piece for each spot, and finding a new range of water/ocean prints makes my day!

This evening I have pieced all the water sections, and joined them together; next up are the sun and the section of sand.

At it again

2011-10-12T01:41:00.000+10:30

On confirmation this afternoon, I jumped into fabric selection for another beach scene quilt while James and Eleanor were having a nap this afternoon. Umm.... no.... the last one insn't quilted yet!

I find it works really well to have my pattern taped to the wall - not only does it make it easy for me to see which sections meet where, but it allows me to pin the sections up as they're done (fabrics all selected, cut and pinned in place - no sewing yet) and view them critically from a little distance. I've already swapped one piece, and can see another which I'll think about and probably change tomorrow. This one is coming together nicely.

Someone asked after one of my recent posts about the interfacing I use for the foundations. It's not to prevent distortion (in fact, the stuff distorts far worse than any quilt fabric - even those cut on the diagonal!). It just provides the shape for me to cover with foundation piecing

Tomorrow we're off to the zoo, and in the evening I hope to finish the fabric selection and maybe even start on the piecing.

Springtime

2011-10-09T17:25:00.001+10:30

This little art quilt is all finished and ready to post tomorrow.

It's a spring verison of my tree design, but I did a few things differently with this one.

I used a darker fairy frost for the leaves, which I'm really pleased with, and used the same one for the binding, instead of the stripe print I used last time. There are also a few more leaves and blossoms.

If I waited a few more days, I've be able to take photos of it in the tree that's just starting to blossom in our front garden; it blossoms later than most - after the leaves have appeared, just like the quilt! I've no idea what sort of tree it is though - there's never any sign of fruiting.

I love spring, and I rather miss the abundance of blossoming trees around Canberra; Adelaide's climate is more Mediterranean and we don't get such distinct seasons.

Our beautiful children

2011-10-08T23:31:00.000+10:30

Just a little self-indulgence today...

Filling the gaps

2011-10-07T15:00:00.000+10:30

To fill the gaps in the quilt, I hunted through my cupboards until I found a plate and a bowl just the right size to trace around. I used a sewline glue pen around the inside edge of the cream circle to hold it in place around the centre print while I worked, then the same glue again to position the 1/4in bias-cut blue strips, which are appliqued over the seam between the centre of the circle and the cream border. I appliqued with a small machine blanket-stitch, using a matching glossy (rayon?) thread.

I left a large (but variable - couldn't you tell?!) seam allowance on the inside of the holes in the quilt, and pinned the circles into place to this over (under?) lap. Then I used teeny-tiny smears of pva glue around the edges to keep both the circle, and the 3/8in red bias-cut strips which cover the seam, accurately in place while sewing.

A quilt with holes

2011-10-07T03:39:00.005+10:30

As usual, I designed this beach quilt a little different from all my others. It was odd putting together a quilt with great holes left in it! Here's a peek from the back, showing the sections built on medium-weight non-woven interfacing:

I've nearly finished filling the holes in now.

Horse proof

2011-10-06T03:00:00.001+10:30

Here's a look at the quilting I was doing last weekend at Port Hughes. This is one of the beach scene quilts I've recently designed, and I was busy selecting fabrics. I didn't get as much done as I'd planned, as I was plagued with migraines - three in a long weekend is entirely unreasonable!

I bought this horse print with Adds early last year, and she teased me mercilessly over it, but I was convinced it would be useful for my beach quilts. See?!

Simon's cousin and his family came up as well, and Donna sat up and chatted with me while I selected fabrics late one night, which was much more pleasant than being up on my own. And she even helped with some of the fabric selections! I'm hoping they come up again with us sometime.

By the end of the weekend, I'd pieced all the foundation sections, and have been working on the next pieces since. I'm very lucky I have such understanding in-laws who are happy to let me commandeer their dining table and living areas - though it may have helped on this occasion that the quilt will be for their sixth grandchild, due in a few weeks!

Hamptons fabric wanted

2011-09-30T15:36:00.005+09:30

I'm looking for some of this out-of-print fabric. It's from 'The Hamptons' range by Minick and Simpson for Moda, and would be 3-6 years old.

Im looking for anything from half a metre (yard) up to 2 metres (yards), and am willing to pay a decent price for it. It's print #14564 and is a rich, deep navy. I also have some in a denim blue colour, but that's not the one I'm looking for. The boats are between 6 and 8 inches long.

We're about to head away for the long weekend, and I'm taking several beach designs to work on.

Party Girl

2011-09-21T23:20:00.002+09:30

Eleanor all ready for a birthday party last weekend:

What do you think?

2011-09-21T02:00:00.002+09:30

I'm after some opinions; I've got this special quilt to this stage, but am not sure where to go next with it. I'd rather hoped that it would speak to me once I'd added the borders, but it's been silent so far. The main problem is that the tree doesn't stand out enough with everything else (so I don't want to further overpower it) although I will be adding a few small mauve birds to it.

So, what should I do in the big open areas? I was thinking of some sort of feather design - symmetrical in the large area at the bottom, then freeform in the rest. Or does in need applique? What sort of shapes/colours?

And how can I make the tree stand out more? I wiull outline quilt it in a slightly darker thread, but I doubt that'll make a huge difference. HELP!

Springtime

2011-09-19T03:05:00.001+09:30

This is what was on my sewing table in the lovely spring afternoon sun today. Perfect weather for this quilt, and I had the doors and widows open, enjoying the fresh air while I quilted.

Interlinked blocks

2011-09-16T04:05:00.000+09:30

The quilt top is complete and ready to sandwich, here's another peek:

It's too late and I'm too tired to write more!

Secret Garden meets Henna Garden

2011-09-15T03:12:00.001+09:30

My first delivery of Sandi Henderson's new range Secret Garden arrived yesterday, and I couldn't wait to get stuck into it, so started designing. As it turned out, the design I loved uses several Henna Garden prints, and only two from Secret Garden (one not shown in this block). There's also another print from Farmer's Market. The only fabric that isn't by Sandi is the ash snowflake background.

The blocks are all made and ready to be joined tomorrow evening. It's come together very quickly (though admittedly I've done nothing else!) and because the design is self-bordered, once the 25 blocks are joined, it will be ready to sandwich.

In reflection

2011-09-12T02:19:00.001+09:30

I've thought and thought about this post. I've spent the evening sewing the binding onto a quilt, watching television.

Ten years ago, Simon and I were watching the late news, when some breaking news came through. We spent the rest of the evening glued to our television, trying to absorb the news ourselves, as the newsreader had to come to grips with it publicly.

Tonight, as I heard the many names read out, and the moving tributes, the thing which hit me most was one name. I didn't catch the man's last name; I was too busy mulling over his given names; James Edward.

It occurred to me as I was sewing the last few stitches of my quilt, that I was using fabric sent to me by the designer, Kate Spain, who's from New York. As I spread it out in front of me to run my hands over it, it also occured to me that the design reflected some aspects of the site. I had been planning to name the quilt Stepping Stones, but perhaps Reflection might be more appropriate. I'll think about it.

Published again!

2011-09-06T01:01:00.000+09:30

A while back I proposed an article about labelling quilts, and sent it off to Australian patchwork & Quilting. I knew it was to be published, but had no idea when, so it was a lovely surprise to receive my copy of Vol 20 No 9 today and find my name and article mentioned on the cover. Even better, James was the one who got it out of the letterbox, and he was able to read it (the title, not the whole article) for himself!

My article explains why you should label quilts, lists some of the information that can be included, and discusses ways to design a printed label, with plenty of my own examples (both James and Eleanor were rather pleased to see their own faces in the examples!)

And in a nice tie-in, the staff challenge in this issue is about designing labels!

Pinning technique

2011-09-04T22:47:00.002+09:30

I was asked about the unusual pinning technique shown in my last post, so here's an explanation.

I'm fusing 3/8in bias-cut strips to form wavy borders on my quilt top. The first one (above) is pale mauve and is in the middle of a very wide light cream border, which I designed then marked using a template and a blue clover pen. The second (below) is darker mauve, and divides the pale cream inner border from the darker cream outer border. I mentioned this before; I pieced the outer border, separate from the quilt centre, fused 2in of Steam-a-seam2 all round the inside of the new border, then marked my pattern on the paper on the back of the fused Steam-a-seam2, cut along the line, then carefully positioned it over the centre and fused it in place. The dark mauve covers the raw edge.

To get a nice smooth curve, I need lot of pins - most places the pins are about 3/4in apart, but get as close as 1/4in apart on the tightest curves. Pinning vertically (I do this straight on the ironing board) has a few advantages. First, it's much easier to just poke it straight down! Second there's no distortion or movement caused by tipping it and pushing the pins back up. Third, I can get lots of pins nice and close, to get a smooth curve. And fourth, it's much easier to pull out the pins as the tip of the iron touches them (no burned finger-tips or melted pin heads!).

I pin a section of about 12in at a time, then slowly work the iron along, only removing the pins as the tip of the iron actually touches them. Pinning ahead gives me a chance to see it's a nice even curve (or fix it if not) before fusing. The tighter the curve, the fiddlier it is - even though I've bias-cut the strips - and the strips need to be pressed into submission to avoid any puckers on the inside edges. Although I'm using Lite Steam-a-seam2, which can be temporarily finger-pressed into position until fusing, on these curves it doesn't hold well enough.

The two applique borders are now fused in place, and as soon as I finsh quilting the Terrain scraps quilt, I'll start appliqueing them.

4.15am

2011-09-02T04:33:00.000+09:30

No-one chould be puttign chocolate cupcakes in the oven at 4.15 am. But that's what I've done, and this is what I've been doing while I'm waiting for them to finish cooking - positioning, pinning, fusing... Then I'm going to bed. I will definitely be having a nap when Eleanor does this afternoon!

Quilting motif from fabric

2011-08-31T01:11:00.001+09:30

Here's a quilted block - can you tell where the motif came from?

I've done 9 and have 4 to go, but I'm still undecided about how I'll quilt the rest of it once those are done. The good news is that some of my fabric arrived today, so I can get on with one of the quilts I had to set aside, once this is done.

Testing quilt markers

2011-08-30T02:44:00.000+09:30

I've had a bit of trouble recently with removable quilt markers not coming out easily, so this time I did a test on a scrap of fabric first. It's most peculiar, because I have at different times used all of my markers and removed them easily, but they seem temperamental at best. Has anyone else found this?

This was a piece of the actual background fabric from the quilt, which had a mark and couldn't be used. I wrote my name in 3 different markers (clover blue pen and sewline pink and green ceramic pencils), drew a few lines of verying weight, then sprayed it with water - they're supposedly all water-soluble. The blue almost completely disappeared straight away, and with a litte more water was gone, even after ironing, but the other two weren't going anywhere. So the blue it was!

Here's a peek at the quilting motif for the white squares:

Terrain block 1

2011-08-28T13:57:00.000+09:30

Here's one of the blocks I made with my Terrain strata (piece of fabirc made from joining lots of strips). I've designed a great quilting motif for the centre of the block, based on one of the prints.

I marked and sandwiched the quilt last night, and have started the stabilising quilting this morning; I'm looking forward to the fun part - quilting the motif.

Selling

2011-08-26T00:46:00.004+09:30

I've been thinking for a while now about trying to sell my Beach and Tree quilt patterns through quilt shops (either online or bricks-and-mortar), but have no idea of how to go about this. Has anyone with some experience in this got any advice for me? Do I just start emailing shops, or sending them copies? How are costs/charges worked out? What sort of volume is required? Should I be looking at printing my patterns differently? (currently I print the instructions myself and get the pattern sheets done at a copy place, then put them together myself) Is it even cost-effective? What else should I know?

Speaking of selling, I'm also listing a few more of my quilts on Etsy - the quilts below will be going up in the coming days. I don't really need to keep them all, and if I want to upgrade my sewing machine, then some sacrifices have to be made! Three of these quilts have been featured in Australian Patchwork and Quilting:

Nurture: 140cm (55.5in) sq, featured in AP&Q Vol 20 No 2

Starburst 115cm (45.5in) sq, featured in AP&Q Vol 19 No 11

Transitions 100 x 105cm (40 x 42in), featured in AP&Q Vol 20 No 6:

Hush & Brush: size 53 x 79cm (21 x 31in):

Terrain scraps

2011-08-25T02:39:00.000+09:30

I've been mulling over designs to use the pieces of Terrain I won a while back, and started cutting and trimming them a few weeks ago. The strips were of varying and uneven width, so I decided to trim the strips shorter to get best use from them. I ended up trimming them to 14in - partly because that would nicley get 3 strips from each piece (across the width of the fabric) , and partly because I have a 14in ruler, which made it easy! So I trimmed a selection of strips to 14in long, and trimmed the edges parallel in a variety of widths, then started sewing them all together:

I changed my design idea a few times, and eventually came up with something I was really happy with. The best thing is, my design called for strips and squares which fit perfectly in the slightly-shrunk-from-piecing 13 3/4in strips: five 12.5 x 2.5in strips or two 8.5 x 2.5in strips and a 8.5in square just fit across the 13 3/4in! All up I cut about 150 strips, between 1in and 3 1/2in wide - there's a bit left over, but I'll probably just cut more and make another similar quilt later; there are still plenty of pieces left.

WIPs

2011-08-24T02:27:00.000+09:30

It's rare that I'm working on multiple quilts at once, but just now I have at least 4 current projects. They've needed to be set aside temporarily for various reasons - mostly awaiting the delivery of more fabric! Last night I cut out and pieced what I could of another quilt, and prepared the foundations for the rest of it - until I got to the stage I needed the missing fabric.

Note the name on the fabric?! The fabric print is an imaginary map, and I didn't notice my name as one of the place names on there until I was cutting!

Tonight, I've been working on something else - photos of that tomorrow...

Putting the border before the quilt

2011-08-23T02:31:00.001+09:30

The quilt I started on is going to have some applique borders, and I decided I wanted the narrow applique to be the point where the background fabric changes as well. This took a bit of thinking about how I was going to manage it simply. Although I'm not ready to attach the final borders yet, because the centre still needs work, I pieced the outer border. I pinned it out on the centre and pieced the border so that it will overlap the inner piece by 2 inches all around.

Then I cut 2in strips of Lite Steam-a-seam 2, and fused them all around the inner edge border where it will overlap the centre.

After I took the photos, I designed and then marked the applique pattern on the Steam-a-seam. When I'm ready to add this border (very carefully!), I'll cut along the marked line, remove the paper backing and fuse the border to the centre. The applique will be narrow and cut on the bias so it will follow the curves I've marked, right over the top of the cut edge, and saving the need to actually piece the seam - the applique will hold it all in place.

Applique and quilting machines

2011-08-22T02:42:00.000+09:30

I got stuck into a new project tonight. I've wasted the last few evenings mucking around with dozens of designs (most of which I'll never get around to making) instead of getting on with what I need to do. It felt so much better to be sitting at the sewing machine!

This applique is done using a buttonhole stitch - it always comes out so neatly. I want to keep going with it, but am waiting for a few fabrics to arrive to finish the centre applique. I did do some inital preparation for the borders, but don't want to add any more until the centre is done - it will just get in the way.

I'm currently investigating a sewing machine upgrade, too. I think it'll be a while before I have the space for a longarm, so am considering the Bernina 820. I've got a good quote, and I'm making a list of things I want to test throughly (and make sure the machine has) before I go and check it out. My research so far has found almost totally positive reviews; I'd love to hear anyone's experiences with this machine?

I'll also have to sell my Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.0 - let me know if you're interested.

More meandering feathers

2011-08-17T02:28:00.000+09:30

I'm not quite sure how a week went past between blog posts, but never mind! Here's a quilt I quilted last week for Kayscha.

It's a lovely strip quilt with some bold turquoise prints. It was needed rather quickly, which gave me a great excuse to use my favourite open meandering feather. It quilts up fairly quickly freehand. It gives an interesting texture too, without taking away from the piecing and fabrics - or at least that's what I'm telling myself! I know I have a tendency to find something I really like and use it as much as possoble - until something new comes along.

In a surprise move from Australia Post, it managed the journey over 1000km from Adelaide to Sydney in record time - I posted it on Friday by regular parcel post, and Kayscha received it on Monday!

Pink Feathers in AP&Q

2011-08-10T18:56:00.001+09:30

Yesterday my copy of Australian Patchwork and Quilting (Vol. 20 No. 8) arrived, containing my quilt Pink Feathers.

I've only shown peeks of this before, but here are a whole heap of photos, because I really love this quilt. There's not a lot of piecing (really it's just the 12 Palm blocks) but the quilting really transforms it. I definitely designed this quilt with the quilting (especially the circular feathers in the border) at the front of my mind.

The parallel lines in the border are done in matching threads - white on the white and black on the black, to highlight the hot-pink feathered circles.

I got the idea for this border from the excellent Kim Brunner class I took at AMQF late last year, and was desperate to try it out.

The photo below is of the back of the quilt:

The parallel lines were all marked, but quilted free motion - I've not worked out a way of using rulers with my machine they way it's done on longarms, and I really didn't feel like turning the quilt 180degrees after every line! They're far from perfect, but the effect is exactly what I wanted.

The centre motif is an adapted Patsy Thompson stencil.

The original stencil was just a little too big for the centre square on the alternating points, so I took out a small section.

I echoed the motif using clear monofilament, hoping it wouldn't show on either the black or the white, and that worked well. I used the same monofilament to stipple the remaining area around the central motif and echo the curved cross-hatched segments on the palm blocks.

I couldn't leave them unquilted - they looked too puffy, because of the relatively dense quilting over the rest of the quilt.

Given there were 12 palm blocks requiring the curved cross-hatching, I made my own stencil for it. teh stencil actually only had half the lines - all nesting curves. For each one I marked the lines, then turned the stencil around to mark the other half.

I'm please with the effect, although I suspect I could have quilted something else which would have been just as effective and taken rather less time - the stencil took a while to make and use. Again, the quilting was free-motion quilted.

Why not have a go at making your own version of this quilt? All the instructions are in the magazine, and I'd love to see what you can do!

Pink Feathers has been doing a little travel to a few quilt shows with AP&Q/Express Publications, but it'll be home soon, so I can give it to its new owner.

Happy Census Day!

2011-08-10T02:06:00.000+09:30

It's a little bit late, being after midnight, but today is (or yesterday was) Census Night. Along with millions of other Aussies, we hopped online tonight and completed our eCensus forms. In 2006 eCensus was first available, and we were among the 10% of households who took up the option. This year the ABS is hoping for around 30% take-up of eCensus.

I explained to James about the Census and why it's so important, and he's been really excited about it. He spoke about it at school today in his news-tellling (show and tell) and proudly displayed the I <3 Census badge and drink bottle I brought home for him.

I let James help out filling in our Census form; he entered our form number and eCensus number, typed in some answers, and clicked the right boxes. He entered all his own answers (under close supervision, and accompanied by explanations of all the questions and why they're asked!).

He declared once we'd started that we needed to go out for dinner to 'celebrate' - so we did!

Eleanor wanted in on the action, so she entered in her name and clicked a few answers, too - but needed a lot more help. I'd hazard a guess that she's in a very small minority who did the Census in such attire! (Remember it's winter in Australia!)

I always feel proud to be able to say I work for the Australian Bureau of Statistics and enter 'statistician' under occupation on my Census form, but a small part of me would love to be able to enter 'quilter' as my main occupation by the next Census, in 2016!

If you haven't yet completed your Census form, it's not too late, so hop to it!

Happy Census Day!

Census Countdown

2011-08-07T14:21:00.001+09:30

The 2011 Australian Census is in 2 days, on the 9th of August. Everyone in Australia, wherever they are, must fill in their form on Census night.

Australians who haven't yet received their Census form (or eCensus envelope) can click here - it will take you to the Census website where you can request your form.

Below is a little information about the Census, taken directly from the Australian Bureau of Statistics website:

• This is the 16th Census and marks 100 years of national Census taking in Australia.
• The Census is held once every five years. The last one was held in August 2006.
• Australia has a population of 22,493,120 people.
• Census forms will be distributed to every one of Australia’s 9.8 million households.
• Approximately 14.2 million Census forms have been produced.
• The main Census forms are the Household form and the Personal form. The Household form has 61 questions and the Personal form has 55.
• It takes about 20-25 minutes to complete a Census form, depending on the individual.
• The 2011 Census will cost about $440 million, or about $19 per person.
• Population estimates based on Census data are used to determine the allocation of around $45 billion worth of GST funding to the states and territories.

And there's more information from the ABS here.

For a little fun, if you're on facebook, you can find the Census game, and see how much you know about the Census and Australia, or you can follow the twitter feed.

Kaleidoscopic

2011-08-06T18:54:00.000+09:30

Once all the butterflies were cut, I piled them in order of size, then started placing them on the quilt, largest first.

I'm using Lite Steam-a-Seam2, which has the great advantage that once the second backing paper is removed, you can position the butterflies on the background and, with a gentle press of the hand, they'll hold their place properly until pressed permanently with an iron (unless you choose to reposition them) even while shifting it back and forth across the ironing board, and all the moving that involves with a large quilt.

Having a flutter

2011-08-05T23:46:00.001+09:30

Here's the second evening's worth of butterflies.

I had to spread it out over a few days to save my hand from RSI. I ended up preparing about 130 butterflies, but then substituted about 35 with extras in different colours which gave better balance on the background fabric I'm using. So tonight I've been playing around with ideas on how to use the remaining 35 butterflies instead of making any real progress!

Flock of colour

2011-08-01T02:08:00.000+09:30

Last night I traced over 80 butterflies. Today I fused them to some hand-dyed fabrics and started cutting them out - I'm about 1/3 done, as long as I decide I have enough once I get to positioning them on the actual quilt.

The butterflies will be machine appliqued/quilted, and I'll add extra detail and colour (and the antennae) in the quilting. I'll also add a stack of wholecloth butterflies to the flock.

Elephant Feathers

2011-07-31T18:17:00.002+09:30

Here is the finished Elephant quilt for my sister.

It's to replace her old quilt; the first I finished (in about 1993) - a blue and green version of this one below (large single bed quilt sideways on our king bed), which I made for myself straight after hers was done. Hers is showing even more signs of love and wear than mine, after 18 years of good use!

The feature fabric is form Valori Wells' Bliss flannels (And in a recent peek Valori shared, her next range has more elephants in it!).

I mixed in a selection of tone-on-tones, including a lovely snowflake, and a wonderfully rich deep blue floral.

I'm really pleased with the effect of the central octagon - adjusting the 'corner' octagon blocks to more evenly balance the length of all 8 sides was really effective.

It's quilted in my current favourite pettern - the meandering open feather. It's left it nice and snuggly, which is exactly what this quilt is for!

I've printed out the label, along with five others (2 A4 sheets) and need to continue my label-attaching marathon (I sewed on 3 the other day!) to get this and a few other quilts out to their new owners.

More 'It's a Hoot' quilts

2011-07-29T02:10:00.000+09:30

Here are the other two quilts I quilted for Nell, both using Moda's 'It's a Hoot' fabrics:

This large lap quilt which added red and white polkadodts and a white solid to the mix had a few technical issues, partly becuse the Kona white which Nell had even cut to size went on an unplanned 'holiday', and she needed to use a lighter weight fabric instead. I decided it needed something simple and organic which would disguise the difficulties, and went with my current favourite - a freehand meandering open feather.

The second quilt is going to Quilts for Queensland, and was nice and evenly pieced.

I decided to try a variation of the meandering open feather and came up with this rather heart-shaped version with a pointed dip in the top of each plume.

This worked out really well; it actually quilts up faster than the original version, and the dip in the middle adds a lot of flexibility into the shape of the plume (for fitting into/filling odd gaps) and I was thrilled with how it worked out - I'll definitely be using this again sometime!

I decided to quilt the centre and the border separately; the centre uses beige Bottomline thread, top adn bottom.

The border is the original open feather in a straight line, with an irregular wavy 'spine' for interest, using an aqua thread to match the border fabric - Aurifil on top and Bottomline in the bobbin. These two differences help define the areas more clearly on the back. I really like the overall effect of the different border treatment, but I actually like the centre quilting much better than the border.

The backing was a lightweight twill-type fabric, which distorted easily, so took a little longer to sandwich, but it ran through the mahcine smoothly and without problem. Because of it's tendency to distort, it did create a tiny pucker on the back, but not enough to worry about in a utilitarian quilt - it still looks lovely.

Colourque Quilting

2011-07-28T17:09:00.002+09:30

Yesterday I had a big pile of quilts to photograph, so I took everything out to the back verandah and set up properly - I even used a spirit level to apply the carpet tape to the wall to attach the top and sides, so they'd be hung straight and square for a change!

A few weeks ago, Nell delivered three quilt tops for me to quilt for her; she collected two this morning. This first one is for her elder daughter (who has been anxiously awaiting it, and is likely to sleep under it tonight, unbound though it remains as yet!). It has a beautiful colourque centre which I believe Nell started at a workshop with local quilter Helen Stubbings, a technique where the design appears to be appliqued, but is actually just coloured inside the hand-stitched lines using special pencils - the exception is the hearts, which are true applique.

Most of the quilt has an allover freehand feathered spiral pattern, but for the centre block I quilted closely around the colourque, including the tiny circles, then filled the background with a tiny meandering feather (most of the plumes are well under an inch long).

Dusk at Falls Creek

2011-07-27T12:59:00.000+09:30

We spent last week at the snow; I took this photo on our first evening. We stayed in the building at the front right, but our windows are around the other side; we look out in the same direction as the photo and to the right, over one of the main access lifts. This is at the base of the resort; the entry is below the bottom right fo the image, and the bulk of the village is over and up the hill in the background.

I don't have a huge amount of photos, as the weather often wasn't condicive to having cameras out, and I used the video more than my SLR- but there are some more coming.

Henna Garden news

2011-07-24T19:38:00.000+09:30

It's no secret that Sandi Henderson is one of my favourite designers (I'm champing at the bit for the release of Secret Garden), and her Farmer's Market is my favourite range. Well, the Henna Garden print which debuted in Farmer's Market is making a reappearance!

Towards the end of the year, Sandi is going to re-release the most popular colourways of Henna Garden, along with some new colours!

I have all the past and current colours in my stash already, but hate to run out of any - now I can use them with abandon! Consider this post to be me staking my place at the head of the queue for the re-release...

Swirling feathers

2011-07-12T01:30:00.000+09:30

Nell brought me a few quilt tops to quilt the other week, with the request that I start with this one for her daughter. I'm hoping to get it done in the next few days. It's sashed Robyn Pandolph squares set around a beautiful larger Colourque centre block, which I'll custom quilt. For the allover quilting I'm using baby pink BottomLine thread in the top, and a slightly darker peachy-pink in the bobbin - it matches the bakcing better, but is similar enough to the top thread that it doesn't show through.

It wanted something soft and feminine, but I thought I should do something different from the meandering open feathers I used on Nell's last quilt, and which I currently love! This design was inspired by one I saw on Jenny's blog and seemed like a good balance between free-form and feathers.

It took a while to get ready to quilt; partly because the seams were all over the place and needed careful pressing. The other reason was this:

There were loose threads all over the back, and a lot of them coming through the seams to the front (this is just a small sampling). I think both of these were partly the nature of the fabric; while lovely to touch, it appears to fray snd distort more easily than most quilting cottons - possibly a trade-off for the softness, which I have to say is certainly lovely to quilt. Even though a quilt can get all folded up when being delivered, it's still well worth pressing your top thoroughly before it goes to your quilter. And have a check over your top for stray threads - they're much harder to remove later if they get caught in the quilting.

Eleanor is 4!

2011-07-11T16:08:00.000+09:30

Eleanor turned four on Friday! She's had a few celebrations, starting the previous Saturday when my family came (they left very early on her actual birthday for the snow, so it had to be early) and we had cake number one.

Then on her birthday Simon's parents came up and brought another cake with them!

It's always a relief when your children open their presents and are thrilled; we got it right this year!

We bought Eleanor an easel and a selection of paints and other art supplies, a stack of puzzles, and a few jewellery trinkets.

Then on Sunday we had a party for her, which entailed a dozen fairies/butterflies flitting around our living room for several hours. They were the noisiest butterflies I've ever come across! Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of them all in their wings; it was a very busy afternoon!

I took inspiration from Corrie's blog, and gave them pre-iced cupcakes with a big selection of sweets and decorations, and they decorated their own.

Then we put them all on the tiered stand, for an instant cake without the fuss of decorating it myself - perfect. Of course, the unrehearsed effect of the sparklers triggering the smoke alarm was a bit unnecessary...

After the guets went we did a little tidying up and had a quick early dinner, popped James and Eleanor into the bath and then (unbeknownst to them) into bed over an hour early!

Happy 4th Birthday our darling girl! We hope the coming year is as much fun as the last.

Whispers

2011-07-06T02:09:00.000+09:30

This is Whispers, a play quilt I've made for my new cousin. I took it outside for some photos last week, and now it just needs a label, then I can send it off to England.

I chose again to use colouring to create a medallion-style effect from a standard block layout.

Can you pick what blocks I used?

It takes a while looking at it to spot the layout, which I like.

Quilts should encourage you to look deeper. One of the first things I do when looking at pieced quilts is to try and work out the blocks and how it was pieced; partly it's curiosity, partly I like the challenge!

One of my favourite parts is these modified log-cabin quarters I used as the setting triangles:

The fabrics, apart from the cream background, are from Michele D'Amore's 'Habitat' line for Benartex.

It was a lovely day, though since I took these photos it's been cold and wet again (this is good news; the weather patterns move from here across to the alpine areas and Falls Creek had over 20cm of snow today and is expecting up to 50cm tomorrow and more throughout the week - just what we want in the lead up to skiing!).

I mentioned when I was quilting this that on Simon's recommendation i used a gumleaf motif to reflect the ciolours fo the quilt, so I took a few photos with eucalyptus and the pale blue sky of a really hot (or somewhat cool in this case!) day:

Simon was right; the colours are spot-on!

Quilting outside the block

2011-07-05T01:03:00.000+09:30

Here are some images of the quiting I've been doing, from the back so the quilting shows better.

The quilting itself is far from perfect, but it creates a good pattern, and I'm really pleased with the way I designed the quilting around the spaces rather than the square blocks. The image below shows a 'unit' of quilting, which is equal in space to one block, but does not fill a square block space.

I've quilted most of the units in pairs, and am now going around the edge, quilting the individual units.

For comparison, below is the same photo, with the blocks (and narrow sashing) roughly marked in purple:

From the front, it would be ideal to ditch quilt around each palm, but I really didn't feel like it, and the quilt doesn't need it; it will be a lap quilt not a show quilt!

Building Blocks

2011-07-01T01:29:00.000+09:30

This evening I've been reading instead of sewing, but thought I'd finally share with you a quilt I finished months ago, but just haven't got around to blogging! There seem to be a few of these piling up.

Building blocks is about 55in square and has been sitting finished on a shelf with about 20 other quilts, and come Christmas will be for one of the kindergarten staff (the batik palms I've been - and am meant to be - quiting right now is another).

Early in the year I made a stack of crazy-pieced blocks form my bright scraps.

Building Blocks is the first of two quilts from these 50 blocks - the other is not made yet, but I have come up with several designs to choose from to use them.

The quiting took ages (with lots of stops and starts) and isn't quite right (as it was pointed out to me, the design is really too formal for a very informal quilt)- if I were doing it now, I'd just do a fun allover pattern in a light thread, but I was afraid at the time that whatever colour thread I chose for an allover would detract from the white/dark contrast. Instead the quilting, while pretty from the back, is mostly wasted on the front! Oh well, I'm always learning!