Good Fortune 1

Now this is the second year in a row that I attempt to make (and keep up) with Bonnie Hunters’ annual mystery. I know my memory is not all that good anymore and part 1 was not that tedious BUT I think the same could be said about part 1 from last year.

With hubby playing golf one Sunday and the household chores done I started cutting.  I decided to use only one red fabric in this quilt opposed to scraps.  I was gifted a 3 meter red fabric piece and had very little red of my own, so why not use what I have?  Here my cutting was done and all neatly stacked on a tray to move to the sewing machine.

So I stole a little time here and there during the week to sew the units together and press these out.  Clue 1 is up to date and ready to tackle the second clue.

Dream Big Panel 2

Not the most beautiful of these panels I’ve seen but it served its’ purpose and I am happy with the result.  I think if I purchased Chenille strips I could have achieved a neater fluff on these but mine didn’t turn out half that bad.

I got the idea of using Chenille strips to outline the leaves after watching THIS video

And this is my final attempt.

Now I think, unless I find another quick fix, I should get off blogging and focus on this years’ Bonnie Hunter mystery, plan my holiday snacks and Christmas menu as life is about way more than quilting.

Dream Big Panel 1

Well obviously with this craze going on, I too wanted to try my hand at this but for months I’ve just followed post and read what others said, think and had trouble with.  So the first thing I noticed from many a post was that with this quilt you needed to start from the centre and work your way out.  Not a big issue on a domestic machine but on a frame somewhat trickier.  So I tried another ‘new to me’ thing.  I basted the whole panel before having to move it back and forth on the frame.

The second thing I did was to mark the centre on clear plastic as this seems to disappear when on a frame and you don’t know which line to follow. The clear plastic was to stay near the frame for me to check regularly.

Even before that though, I made my own Chenille strips in all the colours contained in my panel, ready for use.

These strips were then cut apart. I used 2 fabrics per strip, one colour and one white.

I used my square foot for the first time stitching the strips to the quilt top.  I wouldn’t say it is a necessity but seeing that I have it, I thought I might as well try it.

Then the tedious job of laying out the strips, glue basting and stitching these onto the quilt started. I kept forgetting to unpick my basting stitches but it wasn’t too much of an ordeal.

With all the strips done I decided to zip the quilt off the frame and take a photo of it as it might just not go any further than this.  Then at least I have something to show that I tried.  A good thing this photo taking turned out as I saw a spot that I forgot to put a strip on.

I had to change feet and make use of That Purple Thang once I started the free-motion quilting just to see where I’m going and to move the chenille strips to the side.

I am still not sure if all of this will result in anything.  What I do know however is that I want to use this as a practice piece for different quilting motifs and definitely does not only want feathers in every petal.

Making Connections a book by Dorie Hruska

I admire so many Free Motion quilters but here and there one stands out above the rest.  I think not because they are necessarily better than any other but at the time when I got to learn about them, it was just what I needed then and that made an impact.  One other I can think of is Patricia Heinrich Hechler from The Threadworks factory, another inspiring, very talented lady.

The same goes for Dorie Hruska I needed to ‘make connections’ when moving from one block to another and I struggled with it when I saw one of her videos and one thing lead to another and I ordered her book.

So with a little rain starting to fall and me hoping for plenty more I took my ‘homework’, got my new book, printed practice sheets in plastic folders and white board markers outside and started to practice on paper.  This is such a valuable step overlooked by so many quilters which is terribly sad for this ‘paper-practice’ does improve muscle memory.

It took a while to get rhythm talking to myself, saying “over, down, up” and repeat but pretty soon I got the hang of it.  White board markers however do erase easier than unpicking.

Page 1 done and even just with pen and paper I can see something coming from this.  Rather excited.

Merry Go Round panel

I talked about my attempt to use EQ8 to design around a panel in THIS post when I made this little quilt.

Now this is another of my own quilts that have been up the design wall for months while I quilted for other people and now it too finally got done.  I used raw-edge applique so the appliqued pieces had to be stitched down on the frame.  Fortunately using rulers makes it easy.

Having no pressure to get everything as perfect as possible was so much fun.  I just went with the flow and enjoyed myself.  Some of the black background fillers… doodle style

And then I changed thread colour to accommodate the picture blocks

Finished the binding today and although my picture quality is not good I think it came out rather well.

Simplify – A Cluck Cluck Sew Pattern

I found this PDF downloadable pattern after reading Allison’s blog over HERE

She has many fun and easy to construct patterns on her site.

I’ve finished the top some time ago but it had to wait until I got some ‘me-time’ on the frame which eventually happened and now I have a brand new quilt for one of our beds.

I am already planning my next adventure, just not too confident that I’ll ever post on it but then…. Maybe here goes something?

What crap is this?

After I, for one, truly believed summer has finally arrived to our part of the world, we got hit by a cold front last Tuesday and by Wednesday I had to go digging in the guestroom cupboard for my stashed winters’ clothes.  Then literally less than a week later, we had a heat wave. Really awful!

Hubby went on a business trip and slept out one evening and I had one of my own quilts loaded on the frame but had brain freeze with this one and simply couldn’t decide how to quilt it.  I then remembered a quilter once said that occasionally when she struggles with making a choice, she takes her inspiration from the fabric and looking at my darker fabric this is what I did.  Heaps and heaps of pebbles with a little straight lines in other areas.

A while back I invested in an Isacord thread cabinet, filled to the brim and I love to have all these choices however sadly I haven’t had the opportunity to use many of the pretty colours available but I am sure I’ll get there.

My big kids treated me to a scalp, neck and décolletage massage along with a facial and gosh was I lazy to get going after this treatment?  However one section at a time and another quilt gets done.

The younger kids took us out for supper one night, so having had kids finally pays off!  Love the spoils that come with the territory.

I bought HQ circle templates for my frame but the hole left to slide over the ruler foot on my machine was just too small.  Grateful for a handy husband who was able to fix these for me.

My quilt vacation has started

Taking a break from quilting for others is like having a vacation, no pressure, no keeping doors closed to keep pets out, all about me, for me and because of me.

We had the grand kids over for the weekend, so very tired old people by Sunday afternoon, taking way too long an afternoon nap, leading to no sleep during the night and we basically only starts functioning normally by Tuesday.

I went shopping for the new Bonnie Hunter mystery named Good Fortune and surprisingly enough I had to purchase very little extra.  Did however purchase a bolt of black Moda as one can never have enough black or white, I think??

I finished the binding and label on granddaughters’ little heart quilt and she is as proud as can be. So within a week from being on vacation, I’ve made auditioning sheets, oiled and cleaned the long arm and domestic machine for piecing and finished up a quilt! I might just be able to move mountains until next year.

One way to audition motifs for quilting

Having done my last customer quilt for the year I’ve decided to look for ways I can make my long arm quilting more streamlined, find and practice more motifs and also experiment with ways to successfully roll a quilt back and forth without distorting the backing or blocks.

I contemplated doing another online course but when I checked these out I found that apart from stitching on another background or panel, the motifs all stay similar to those I’ve already done and that defeats the purpose.  I did however have many other areas I’d like to improve on and one was finding the perfect way to audition motifs, not only in a block but also overall the whole quilt.

In the past I would take a photo of the quilt, print this out and do my overall planning on a plastic sheet covering my picture.

This worked okay and I even did more detailed sketches in the different blocks

However these were not up to scale and what may look extremely busy with the thick felt tip pen on plastic becomes a scarce pattern on a quilt or in a large block and I wanted get a better idea of the real scale before starting.

So off to trusty old You Tube and Google and I found a site called Forever Quilting by Dorie Hruska with heaps of videos too….. just what I needed at the right time.  After watching some of her videos leaving comments (questions) which she promptly answered I even ordered her book Making Connections as finding a smooth quilt path moving from one block/area to another is also one of the things I still struggle with.

So making more auditioning sheets was step one.  I used lamination pouches without any paper in between and edged these with painters tape to prevent my pen markings to go onto the fabric.

This allows me to lay the plastic on top of the block on the frame and mark my pattern on scale.

Furthermore I can also mark a quilt path on these to successfully transition from one area to another without having to go over a previous line too many times.

Now there are other ways, I am sure, but for now this is what I will experiment with to see how it works for me.

Batik Beauty

I just finished the most beautiful Batik quilt and for a first time quilter, pieced to perfection.  I almost got depressed as I was about to finish it as I didn’t want the process to end.  However I’ve made a deliberate decision that this was my last customer quilt for the year as I needed to spend some “ME TIME” doing stuff for myself….. and boy I do have enough to do.

This is the back of the batik quilt and the front can be seen on my “Long arm quilting for others” page.