Friday, 13 July 2012

Tour de Fibre - Quilting the reef

I'm slowly working my way across the bottom of the quilt, quilting the reef. I'm just over the half-way mark. I use a Rainbows (40wt variegated trilobal polyester) thread from Superior. The mix of leaf green, butter yellow, lilac and hot pink seems to work really well; both blending and highlighting effectively.


It's a bit hard to see in photos; these photos aren't too accurate in colour, but they do show some of the quilting detail.


In some places I closely follow lines on the fabrics, others I quilt something similar to the prints (e.g. the red seaweed above), and other places I make up new things on top of the fabric to help them blend together even better.


The photo above is from the back, and I've edited it so that the thread stands out (the fabric is actually greenish blue, and the thread is a soft green!).

Eleanor is 5!

Our little girl turned 5 on Sunday!


James has been working on a quilt for her for months. He tried to tell her that it was fro someone else, but I think she had her suspicions! Anyway, her face lit up when she opened his present and saw what it was!


Although - I think James was even more excited to give it to her!


Sorry about the photos; there was bad backlighting.



Eleanor went to get her teddies to wrap them in their quilt, and took ages - apparently she had to dress them first!


We gave her a fancy geared bike so she'll better be able to keep up with Simon and James on their long rides around this hilly area.


After a practice (it's on the large side for her just yet), they went for a ride to the adventure playground at the nearby National Park.


Next term James is participating in a bike riding program at school with the other R-2 classes, and we found out today that Eleanor's new Reception class are able to do it as well, which is excellent. It teaches them improved bike handling and safety skills.


I'm not sure I'm ready to have two school-aged children, but I get no say in the matter!

Happy 5th Birthday Eleanor!

Thursday, 12 July 2012

Tour de Fibre - Cutting and sorting

I took a break from quilting the beach quilt this evening, and spent the time cutting the fabrics for James' next quilt, and Eleanor's first quilt. Eleanor will be using the fabrics she painted, and today we chose a background fabric to go with them and a coordinating batik. James is going to make a teddy quilt with the Spot fabrics for his cousin Edward, whose 2nd birthday is in about 8 weeks.


I also pulled out my star prints while I was at it, for a new celestial commission which I should be able to whip up fairly quickly. I remember buying a few other night sky/space prints a few months back, and proceded to spend the rest fo the evening sorting the study hunting for them. It's much tidier in here, but I haven't been able to find them - and I can't think where else to look.

Wednesday, 11 July 2012

Tour de Fibre - Fabric painting

We had some partially sunny days last week, so James got a turn at trying fabric painting one afternoon. After his first piece (which was remarkable similar in colour to Eleanor's a few weeks ago) he mentioned he could have painted the Australian flag. So I put more colours into his ice-cube-tray-palette, very lightly marked rough star outlines in position, and dots to connect for the red part of the Union Jack.


He started by painting the red cross, then the star outlines, then filled the background. Unfortunately the paint seeped far more than I'd expected, ond only two of the stars remained with any white left, so We'll see about stencilling them later!


While he was doing that. I painted a few smaller pieces in outback desert/sky scenes for a planned project. They looked brilliant when wet (above) but dried significantly softer colours (below). I"m considering overpainting to see if that leaves more vivid results.


Above, clockwise from top left: Wattle colours by Eleanor to cut up and go with the outback scenes, James' first piece, My 3 outback scenes, Piece I did to use up remaining paints (my favourite!), Semi-successful Australian flag (which, when amended, will feature on the back of the quilt using the outback scenes). Larger pieces are roughly metric fat quarters.

Monday, 9 July 2012

Tour de Fibre - Quilting the beach

Last night I started quilting the beach quilt. I started by quilting in the ditch where the sky and the beach join the beach section - the only part  that's not free-motion. Then I quilted wavy lines along the sand, following the texture of the prints when I could, and echoing the appliques and feature prints (the big birds, the flippers and the deck chairs) as I got to them. These were all quilted in sand-coloured BottomLine.


Next up I quilted in the ditch around the sun (yes, free-motion), then quilted the flame-like pattern around the sun, also in the sand-coloured BottomLine. then I swapped to pale blue BottomLine and quilted he cloudy pattern through the blur part of the sky. Still with the pale blue, I quilted wavy back and forth lines in the top part of the water. Then I swapped to a light aqua and slowly transitioned to a more swirly pattern as I moved down the quilt. There's a bit more of that to do, then I'll move to a dark aqua and the quilting will get swirlier, but before that I'll use a multicoloured Rainbows thread to quilt the reef and add seaweed etc. - then I'll know what to quilt around in the lower section of water.

Sunday, 8 July 2012

Tour de Fibre - Altering stitches

Firstly, thank you for all of your lovely comments on my wholecloth quilt; you made my day! In response to the comments about the difficulty - you'll notice if you look closely that my quilting stitches aren't perfect - and that simply doesn't matter. In fact, it's a great way to practise them - it's the overall effect that makes this quilt work, not the individual stitches!

I didn't blog before bed last night; given it was 4.15am when I finished playing with label designs, I decided otherwise! Before I moved onto labels, I got the beach quilt top joined into one piece. First I fused the umbrellas with Lite Steam-a-Seam2 (this is my first choice of fusible, it fuses extremely well, is lightweight, the edges stay sharp and smooth, and I love the temporary hold you get by pressing it in place with your hand) and then appliqued them using clear monofilament (from Superior) using a small blanket stitch.


I effectively appliqued the sections together, too. I trimmed the top of the beach to a 1/4in allowance, then pressed the seam allowance to the back - as long as the curves are smooth, it doesn't matter whether it's exactly on the original line. Then I place the sky face-down and use a Hera marker (with a fair bit of pressure) to mark the seamline, so it can be faintly seen from the front. Then I lay the two out flat and smooth, and position the beach over the sky, so the pressed edge of the beach roughly aligns with the line I made at the bottom of the sky. Then it's just a matter of pinning. Lots of pinning. About one every 1- 1 1/4 inches.


To join these together I used a sand-coloured BottomLine thread, and the blindstitch. Unfortunately the blind stitch does too many straight stitches between the little zigzag onto the top fabric, but the 820 has a clever little feature which allows the machine to only sew every second stitch. This has varying effects on different stitches, but on the blindstitch, it means I get a perfect one straight stitch between each zigzag. The top picture shows the 'normal' blindstitch; the dark green dot indicates what part of the stitch is being sewn; I added the bright green dots to show the rest of the stitches which will remain, and the red crosses to show those which will remain unsewn. The second picture shows the 'new' blindstitch, with each green dot indicating a stitch, and I circled the button on the touch-screen which makes the change:



I did the same to join the water to the beach - but of course changed to a very pale blue thread. I then decided to applique an extra fish in one spot where I wasn't completely happy with the transition between two pieces of water fabric - and once that's done, I can sandwich it and start quilting.

Friday, 6 July 2012

Winter Baubles in AP&Q

My wholecloth Winter Baubles quilt is in the new issue of Australian Patchwork & Quilting (Vol 21 No 8).


All the colour comes from the quilting threads and the very dense quilting.



I used mostly Superior threads; the silver is Glitter, and one of the variegated threads is Rainbows. They're all high-sheen, and 40wt.





This is my favourite bauble; it makes me think of a minaret:


Each bauble is dimensional, due to the double trapunto method I used.




I tried to use as many different quilting filler patterns as I could, although some worked so well that I couldn't resist using them several times!





I also quilted around a couple of the baubles in silver thread:


I also added a few small clear and aqua swarovski hotfix crystals:


This link takes you to my January 2012 archive, which includes several posts showing some of the progress on this quilt.

There are full instructions in the magazine; you could make your own in whatever colour you choose; how about red and green for Christmas, hot pink, or even the whole rainbow! Hmm, how about a rainbow-shaped bauble, quilted in colours ot match? Maybe with clouds and raindrops....

At the back of the magazine is also a sneak peek at the quilt I have in the next issue, called Sheets & Spinnakers. I made it for Simon, and I think he'll be glad when it returns, so he can actually use it!

Tour de Fibre - beach & sky

It'sgoing to  be short and sweet tonight; I promised myself I'd have an early night and be in bed by 3am - and it's just past that now! First up tonight I chose the sky fabrics:


I had plenty to choose from:


After I'd pieced the sun and sky, I went back to the beach to add some more umbrellas. Luckily I remembered another print in my stash with decent beach umbrellas, and added a few of those - as well as shuffling some of the others:


They're not sewn on yet, but tomorrow I'll come back to it with fresh eyes, and if I'm still happy with the layout, I'll applique them in place, then see about joining the three sections of the quilt.

Thursday, 5 July 2012

Tour de Fibre - beach

I completed piecing the beach section of the quilt tonight. I really like the addition of the water birds and the second footprints fabric, which has child's footsteps alongside an adult's.

(double-click on the photos the see them larger)

The lefthand side is shown above, and the righthand side is below. The red chair with the green umbrella is in the middle, but appears in both photos.

The umbrellas are temporarily positioned; I'm not sure they're quite right yet and will play with positioning tomorrow. I also need to check with the person who's commissioned the quilt whether they are ok before I continue. I'll applique them before joining the water to the beach - but in the meantime I need to piece the sun and the rest of the sky.

Wednesday, 4 July 2012

Tour de Fibre - water completed

This afternoon whileJames and Eleanor had a much-needed nap, I finished selecting the fabrics for the remaining water foundations, and after they went to bed I pieced them and joined them together. The water section is all done now; below is half of it; a section about 24in wide (the photo of the other side wasn't sharp, so I'll take another and show it another time).


I then spent about an hour neatly folding and sorting all the reef and water prints, and putting them away, so there was space to spread out the sand fabrics. These are harder to find, so there aren't so many, but I've managed to add a few new ones since my last beach quilt, and the extra selection is making my job easier. Several aren't actually sand prints, but have the right colour and texture to work well.


I started by positioning the footprints walking along the shoreline on one of the wider foundations. The photo above shows the first piece cut and pinned in position, and the next piece carefully positioned (visible through the foundation) and ready to cut.


Here you can see the first foundation filled (on the left), with the pieces pinned in position, and the fabrics roughly positioned and selected for the next foundation (almost completely hidden on the right). As I cut them out, I made a small variation to my plan, and swapped the centre piece for one with a few deck chairs.

I always choose all the fabrics before I start sewing, so I can look at them all together and assess whether the colours and designs flow across the foundations.

Tuesday, 3 July 2012

Tour de Fibre - Early night

I had an early night last night, so this post is a bit late.


I ran out of pins again and needed to piece the next sections of reef and water, and then started joining some of them together (above). The face-down part is two reef sections which are pinned but not yet sewn to the larger area of water. The black and white snowflake print at the back is the backing of the quilt James is making - we finished quilting it together and is now ready to bind.

Monday, 2 July 2012

Tour de Fibre - Fabric selection, cutting & backache

I managed the sleep-in I needed this morning, then while James and Eleanor had a nap after their ride, I pieced the 12 foundations I'd prepared last night.


Because I pin each piece in place as I cut it, when it comes to sewing, I need to fold and pin back the surrounding pieces. I'd never remember where they went without keeping them pinned in place!


The reef is fully pieced, and now I'm working on the open water, moving up towards the beach.


Progress is slow tonight though, as my back is objecting to the amount of time bent over the cutting table. It's not so much the cutting itself, but sifting through the fabrics to find just the right one for each spot which takes the time. So far the water is about two-thirds prepared - the photos were taken earlier in the evening when I'd just spread out the water prints, before they got in a big mess.

Sunday, 1 July 2012

Tour de Fibre - day 1

After my shocking blogging record in June, I've decided to embrace the idea of blogging every day during the Tour de France. Though I don't like riding myself, Simon, James and Eleanor are right into it. Simon has 3 bikes (apparently they're for different things, but really???), James had a far fancier bike than any 6-year-old ought (though admittedly, it gets an awful lot of use) and as of her birthday next week, Eleanor will have one the same. Simon will get up super-early at the weekend and go for a 100km+ ride, and James goes on 40km rides with him - or like today, up and down mountain-bike tracks. Eleanor likes to go too, but hasn't the stamina quite yet - and her normal child's bike doesn't quite cut it (even I admit they need extra gears riding around the hills where we live!).

I do quite enjoy watching the Tour de France though, and of course, I quilt while I do so. My aim is to bog before I go to bed each night of the tour (it's shown live here, between about 10pm and 2am.. It's likely that it will often, like today, be in the early hours (it's 4.30am!)

(some of the fabrics out for possible selection;
lots have already been refolded and put away once finished with)

I spent last night drawing out the full-size plan for a large commissioned beach scene quilt. Because of the size, once I'd joined the huge sheets to paper, I stuck them on the largest clear section of wall to draw out the design and mark out the foundation sections. It turned out that was in our hallway, so that's where I spent half the evening! The rest was spent transferring the shapes to the interfacing I use as a foundation. Today I started fabric selection - working, as usual, form the reef, up. I stopped because I ran out of pins! - each piece is pinned in position to its foundation once cut (and because it's 4.30!) This quilt is quite a bit wider than others I've done, so I ran out earlier in the process. Tomorrow I'll piece the first few foundations to free up some pins!

Now, I'm off to bed. I'm hoping for a sleep-in while Simon takes James and Eleanor for their planned ride in the morning. If Simon's a bit tired after staying up late (for him!) watching the Tour, I'm sure James and Eleanor will quietly and happily watch the prologue which Simon recorded for them on request! PS - Go Cadel! Link to more Tour de Fibre participants here.