BQF - Original Design

Pretty much all of my quilts could go in this category, but I've chosen to enter Nature's Gift:

Like my other entry, this quilt was a commissioned piece. It's close to 84in square; plenty big enough for a queen bed.

The silhouette trees took forever to  mark and cut, but they make the quilt.

I was given plenty of inspiration to work from, and from that narrowed the brief to Australian outback - but nothing too cliche. Hidden in the sky and on the ground are a selection of lesser known Australian native creatures; mostly birds plus a frog, platypus and eastern water dragon.

So we have the gorgeous outback ochres, with some green for contrast, and a small billabong, all beneath the massive blue sky.  The sky is pieced shoo-fly blocks, and the bottom is free-pieced curves.

I deliberately positioned some of the stars in the southern cross on lighter blue fabrics, so as not to make it too overt.

I put the platypus (above) by the water, and nearby there's a nod to bushfires (below).

I chose these echoed Cs for the ground quilting, filling horizontal segments separated by triple rows of wavy lines - it looks just as good from the back:

This water dragon was great fun to quilt, as a special request:

Thank you for visiting. The rest of the quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival original design category can be found here; please take the time to have a look, and nominate and vote for your favourites in all the categories.

BQF - Applique quilt

I've chosen to enter Hiding in the Sycamore in the applique category of the Blogger's Quilt Festival. I originally posted about it back here.

This is a quilt I made on commission, inspired by an earlier one I made which also featured a possum in a tree. Every time I post about one of these, I get all sorts of comments from North Americans about the cute possum. The opossum you have there is not a true possum, and is totally unrelated to the our Australian natives. Despite the fact that in many outer suburban areas (such as where we are, near a forested national park) the possums make a noise running on the roof at night and like to eat the flowers and fruits growing in the gardens, they're popular.

I build the possum applique buy doing the tail, then the branch, then the 2 legs, followed by the tummy, then the arms and shoulders, and the head. This series of photographs of my original possum shows how it comes together.

To achieve the furriness, they're stitched on using free-motion, moving in a random zigzag pattern. I use variegated threads, and go around each piece twice, using two different variegated threads, one slightly outside, slightly overlapping the other.  Different parts get different thread choices.

The eyes and nose are done with a pattern satin stitch, but the pink ears and paws are completely free-motion painted. Only the whiskers are hand sewn. The strawberry (like the remainder of the applique on the quilt) is done in a small buttonhole stitch, with matching threads. The applique is done prior to sandwiching, or the back would be very messy with the zigzags, but to maintain the soft edges, I free-motion quilt around the possum in a fine thread matching the background in a random zigzag.

The bluebirds were a special request from my customer. I was fortunate to find an odd floral in my stash, which included some red roses on the bright blue background, which worked perfectly to give the birds their red breasts. I 'hid' a third quilted bird above the appliqued pair, too.

Another personalised request was the quote which you can partially see in the photo above. It reads, "I see the moon and the moon sees me". Hence the appliqued moon! The words are quilted in a darker thread to help them stand out a little from the background quilting without being too dominant.

Finishing off the personal details are the sycamore leaves which are scattered around. I  roughly traced a few in position with an erasable fabric marker, and free-motion quilted them as I was doing the background. They just might be my favourite part of the quilt.

The rest of the background is filled with a simple swirl, which fits conveniently into the gaps between the branches.


Thanks to Amy for running the Blogger's Quilt Festival again. I encourage you to check out all the beautiful quilts in each category, and to nominate then vote for your favourites.

James published

Yesterday we received a long-awaited parcel; James' Hidden Diamonds quilt back from Australian Patchwork & Quilting, along with a copy of Vol 23 No 10.

I'm so proud of him and all the work he put into this quilt.

He was involved in everything, from designing it in EQ7, painting all the fabric, most of the pinning, all the piecing, some of the pressing and helping with basting and quilting. But don't worry, if you want to make this quilt - I wrote up the instructions!

He's been very understanding that the quilt would be posted off as soon as it was finished and wouldn't be back for a few months, but was thrilled to have it back, especially now the days are getting cooler. His favourite part is the soft minky backing. The aqua wouldn't have been my instinctive choice, but it actually contrasts really nicely, and I'm glad I let him choose!

He hasn't had much time for quilting recently (and he needed a break after this effort) but he's already eyeing-off new fabrics!

Well done, James!

No bandwagons here

I whipped up this quilt top last night. It's about a metre square and uses about a dozen creamy-beige fabrics, with an emphasis on script and maps. But I'm not jumping on the low-volume bandwagon. In most cases they seem to me like a lot of effort for little impact. This is just the background. Those gorgeous autumnal batiks from yesterday will make a big difference.

Because it's the background for a lot of applique, I decided to press all my seams open, to keep it as smooth as possible. I usually press my seams to one side, and though it's not uncommon for me to press some seams open to spread the bulk, doing it for all of them did feel odd. The best part is, in the whole top, not a single seam allowance flipped the wrong way and needed unpicking!

Stored in drawers

Somewhere in the last couple of weeks I had a birthday, and I treated myself to a set of drawers I've been wanting for ages. They're Alex from IKEA and are wide and shallow - perfect for threads and my pattern sheets.

You can see the top four are filled with threads, although I will likely end up rearranging once I see how it works. I'm already thinking I might put some dividers in eventually. The bottom two drawers have patterns and so on; it's wonderful to have them stored neatly at last. I'm also thinking of getting a second unit and placing it directly on this one (minus the castors!).

Delicious

Quilting (and, in fact, productivity of any kind) has slowed to a crawl here recently. Six migraines (so far) within a fortnight tends to have that effect! Fortunately I have some pretty good medication which means migraines aren't the dreadful nightmare they could be - unless I don't get to them in time. But I am left wiped out, headachy and with swimmy vision for a few days, none of which are conducive to quilting, family life, work - or anything but getting sick of resting.

Anyway, it's been two full days and then some since the last one hit, and with fingers crossed, today I've been tinkering with applique preparation and this delicious pile of batiks - nothing which requires too much concentration just yet.

Fine filigree

This quilt has ended up with a variety of quilting. First there was all the ditching around the appliques, then the background swirls (which, in hindsight, probably should have been a small feather filler instead, but never mind), then the feathers, and finally the filigree in the heart.

This space was far too large to leave unquilted; it was terribly puffy. But I really didn't want to detract from the lovely symmetrical print, so I ended up following the pattern of the fabric. My little tip for spaces like this is to pin well, hold it as evenly as you can, and start by quilting through the centre. This, if you've done it properly, instantly divides the puffiness evenly into the two halves, and reduces the risk of pushing all the puff to one edge, causing distortion and puckers.

The white lines are little more than 1/16 of an inch wide, so it does end up making the quilting relatively dense just here, but that took care of the puffiness very effectively, and provides lovely texture. Being so fine a print, my quilting is not perfectly on the lines all the time, but the effect is still there, and sometimes completion trumps perfection.

I felt like it

All the rest of the background on this quilt is filled with the swirly pattern I showed the other day. But a few nights ago, I felt like feathering this space. So I did.

Design-wise, it wasn't the most sensible choice; consistency would have been smart. But I quilt because I enjoy it, and what I decided I'd enjoy most was feathering, so that's what I did. And it works, well enough. This quilt is headed for a magazine to showcase the new fabrics, and will ultimately be a baby quilt. It's not destined to be shown - not by a long shot! So I'm convinced my choice was the right one, one way or another.

Elephants Might Fly

...and one day I might be blogging regularly, but let's not hold our breath just yet!

This is my gorgeous new niece Emily under her quilt.

It matches the ones I made for my elephant-mad sister and my nephew (although I'm in the early design stages of a big train one for him now!).

The piecing of this quilt is fairly straightforward, but I love the richness of the blues and the geometric design - and of course it had to feature the Valori Wells elephants.

I had to quilt this one from the back, because the combination of the thicker batting (not that it's that thick) and flannel front and back mean that even with minimal seams meeting at corners, and even those pressed open, meant that the foot, even on a high setting (low pressure) really pulled over the seams. Fortunately I was quilting an allover pattern, with the same thread both sides, so I just flipped it over. It does mean the seams aren't quite as straight as I'd like, but Emily won't mind!

Down by the Bay

No, there are no watermelons in this quilt, but I came across the song which I remember singing as a child on YouTube a while back, and it was stuck in my head while making this quilt, so it seemed like a good name!

This commissioned quilt should by now have arrived, so I can finally share it; it was finished over a month ago.

My beach scene quilts start with several large sheets of paper taped together (above) and I draw out the perimeter, adding an extra inch or two to the desired finish size to allow for trimming, alterations and shrinkage. Then I divide it into the areas of the scene, then divide those into sections to be pieced. Those sections (below) are traced onto medium-weight interfacing, and I work on them from the bottom up, gradually adding fabrics one at a time.

I got a fun kite fabric a while back and have enjoyed adding a kite to the sky in a few recent beach scenes. I also got some colourful aeroplanes, and am looking forward to adding one of those to an upcoming quilt.

The small flock of tiny birds in the sky is a nice touch in this one, too; it links in with the sand pipers.

The shark fabric is also a new addition to my fabric collection; it took a while to find a suitable one - many shark prints are on unsuitable backgrounds, or too unrealistic.

This time I varied from the usual rainbow strip binding, and used a Michael Miller Paradise Cove stripe in blues, greens and aquas.

If you look closely in the image below, I added in a little detail in the quilting, completely unrelated to the quilt. The lady who commissioned it as a gift for her first grandchild is an entomologist...

Did you spot it? Here it is from the back...

More swirls

Just when I think I've got back into the swing of quilting and blogging frequently, it all goes haywire again!  I didn't have a particularly productive Easter in terms of quilting, and have been a bit lax since, but have been busy again the last few evenings, as I have a lot to catch up on. And I keep adding extra quilts and deadlines, so I really must continue. Somehow, the longer I stop, the harder it is to start!

So to start off slowly, here's a peek at the background quilting I've done tonight. This is from the back, and the scale is about 1/4in.

Fiddly curves

As usual, we're with my parents-in-law at their holiday house near the beach for Easter. We're having a lovely, relaxed time. Of course, I brought plenty of quilting with me, and at the moment I'm appliqueing a new magazine project, so just a small peek here:

These long strips are cut on the bias so I can curve them into shape. To avoid the iron erasing the marker, the first few I pinned on the ironing board, following the marked lines, then pressed them, which was insanely fiddly around the tight curves. It was really hard to get the curves smooth, and to avoid puckers on the inside edge. So then I tried just guiding it into place with one hand and encouraging a smooth curve with the iron as I went, which was much more successful - way faster and better results! Of course, the trouble could have been avoided if I'd brought my mini-iron, but at least now I  know it can be done without!

It's all set aside ready for stitching tomorrow. I'm about to string up the children's egg hunt in the living room, then head to bed.

Via Airmail

I went to a baby shower yesterday, and just managed to get this quilt finished in time. Less than an hour before it started, I was still hand-stitching the binding, and after a speedy photo-shoot I had Simon removing the pins holding it to the board while I got changed.

The mother-to-be is my cousin Julie, and both she and her husband are pilots. So my inspiration was planes, and the paper plane image was taken directly from their very aeronautically-inspired wedding (they even had miniature paper planes as confetti!).

My initial design thoughts were for an ombre background, but then I remembered my selection of Vicki Welsh hand-dyed gradients, and spent a lovely few hours with may of them strewn across my table, selecting the best colours. The only way I can bring myself to cut into these fabrics is by making them a feature of the quilt, which partially explains the simple piecing.

However, I did add some detail in the quilting. Five smaller, quilted planes are hidden among the swirls:

If you look really closely in the photo above, there's a join in the binding. Not only does it add the appropriate feel of an airmail letter, but the diagonal stripe is perfectly-angled for joining the binding strips, as well as the mitred corners.

The heart contrail detail was also inspired by the decorative lighting at their engagement party. It's all quilted using glossy Glide thread; in a selection of colours to blend with the background (except the contrasting hot-pink heart). This thread just purrs through my sewing machine, and I used matching BottomLine thread in the bobbin.

It's always lovely when a quilt is so well received. Here (with permission) is Julie's surprise at  discovering the details in the quilt, and I've been promised a quilt of the baby doing the same when she arrives.


The post "Via Airmail" was posted on www.sampaguitaquilts.blogspot.com on 14/4/04.

Autumn sun

I started quilting this afternoon, and was bathed in gorgeous autumn sunlight - enough to cast a rare shadow from the needle:

The sunlight has now long-gone, but I need this  quilt tomorrow, so had better keep going!

After a small amount of ditch and detail quilting, I chose to quilt swirls, my only challenge was working out the thread colours to match the different and changing gradient fabrics. I ended up choosing five glossy Glide threads in dusky burgundy, rich blue, pink, aqua and pale blue.

I decided to quilt in the ditch between the gradient strips, to keep the seams nice and straight. While the end result isn't ideal (some of the stitching can be seen), it has certainly achieved the desired result - well worth the effort (especially as there weren't too many!).

The post "Autumn sun" was posted on www.sampaguitaquilts.blogspot.com on 13/4/14.

Slow progress

Things didn't go quite as planned with the quilting I mentioned last post. Quite aside from disappearing to bed with a cold for a few days, the thickness of 2 layers of flannel and the thicker batting posed some problems, mostly some breakage of the top thread. I solved that with the settings below (more for my reference than anything else!).

However, my greater problem was the small bumps where the seam allowances were folded back. when working with flannel, I always press them open to minimise this, and my design didn't have all that many seams meeting in one place, but it was enough with the extra thickness in general. My solution was a little unorthodox, but worked. I turned the quilt upside down and quilted from the back! Of course, this will only work for an allover pattern, but I used the meandering open feathers, so that was ok. I don't have any puckers or bunched-up areas, and I'll see how flat it lies, and how straight the seams are later, but at first glance, I'm happy.

I've set it aside for a few days while I work on another quilt. I started by tracing the pattern on a disc. Yes, the lightbox did make a difference, even through a disc! Now I'm working with this selection of Vicki Welsh's beautiful hand dyed gradients, and a white-on-white snowflake print:

One last thing. If you read my blog in a reader, rather than on the blog, you'll have noticed I've reduced what goes into the reader to just the beginning of the post. I'm sorry to have to do this, but unfortunately I had experience this week, along with many other quilting bloggers, of having my content (complete posts, including my photos) stolen (most likely through a feeder) and posted elsewhere, with neither permission nor links to the original. While a joint effort has closed this particular site down, I'm now taking precautionary measures - which also explains the text below, which will now appear (hopefully fairly unobtrusively) below all future posts.

The post "Slow progress" was posted on www.sampaguitaquilts.blogspot.com on 11/4/14.

Imminent

I'm working on a couple of quilts at the moment. The first is this flannel quilt for an imminent and much-anticipated arrival.

I plan to quilt and bind it tomorrow, as I want it ready for when it's needed. I'm enjoying working on this quilt for a few reasons. The first is the cause for making it. The second is the softness of the flannel fabrics. The third is the colours; the blues are so rich and wintry. And the fourth is the speedy way the simply-pieced flannel quilts come together!

Quilting evolution

The applique quilt I was working on before I started the beach quilt is now finished, and is already with the magazine editor. Here's a little peek:

I just love the texture of the McTavishing, and the more of it I do, the happier I become with my version of it. I've loved it since I first discovered Karen's work about five years ago, but the way I quilt it has changed a lot over that period. Below is one of my first efforts:

Looking back, I'm amazed how happy I was with it! This was quilted just by looking at some of Karen's photos. Then I bought some of her books, and watched videos of her quilting it. And practiced - a lot! I've learned not to repeat each line so many times, and to make my lines curlier. For a while my version included lots of spirally-looking bits, but they've worked their way out, too.

Back to the new quilt; I love the small feathers in the outer border; thy finish it off really nicely. No more photos of it until the magazine comes out in a few months, but it's a larger version of Snowdance (below) for which I've been asked to write a pattern a number of times.

Incidentally, Snowdance was McTavished, too, and you can see evidence of the spirally-bits! One of the reasons I use it so often is that it fits easily into the smallest and oddest-shaped spaces, such as between all these appliqued shapes.

And while I'm at it, I thought I'd link up with Amy's McTavishing Monday (even though it's now Tuesday here!). Amy has been posting about McTavishing for a few weeks now, and has some lovely photos, videos, links and tips.