Woodland Animals – the quilting

With my patched batting created for this quilt, I could load it and decided to mark a grid on my background sky.  I drew a 1½” grid, outline the applique eyeballing a ¼” from the edge and then applied Dorie Hruska’s ‘making connections’ technique.  I am also trying to use manual mode (no stitch regulation) as I see Julia Quiltoff does so comfortably in her videos.  However, I think this will be a learning curve on its own.

Blue sky background is done and maybe a little overkill for crib quilts but I got to practise the technique and I get a feeling of accomplishment whenever I try a new technique.

Next up was the sand/ground and although my motif looks more suited for water I simply couldn’t think about anything ‘sandy’.

I did a Baptist fan pattern on the lighter grassy patch.  I know the more clever quilters use either computers, stencils or rulers but I like to do this freehand and eyeball the spacing.  It is after all ‘free motion quilting’.

The lowest part of the grass was another grid design and this went fairly quickly

Then the tree trunk needed some detail.

I also meandered in some of the larger parts of the critters just to avoid having large un-quilted areas. I think I can square this one up and add the binding.

Am I the only one?

I have several spiral note pads and other notebooks near my computer and I constantly take notes of things I see or hear on Facebook, You Tube or blogs I follow.  So this month was a tight one financially for me…., simply because I spent way too much.  So as punishment for my bad behaviour I did not allow myself to order anything before payday.

This, however, did not deter me from making notes on where and what I wanted to order and then finally payday arrived and I could shop some more.  Big obstacle…., which notebook, what page and in which divider?  I found notes that made no sense at all, why were they important?  What did I want to do with or make with this?

Nope, this old age crap is not working for me.  Anyone wanting to guess what I planned here?

Granddaughter was back in the theatre yesterday and at R25,000.00 per kidney later we honestly believe her problems would be resolved now.  The doctor told her that she’d miss the hospital as she won’t be returning soon.  I choose to believe him.  So our little princess spent the night by us but she is such a brave little star, in and out of the theatre as if it is simply a normal daily routine but this has been going on for more than 6 years, so in her little life it might just be part of her normal routine.

Woodland Animals 7

We had the most rain in years over Easter weekend so our little world is wet, wet, wet but after the intense drought we endured I don’t think anyone will complain.

The nest was the first of the smaller applique pictures I made and these tend to be more time consuming than the larger ones but I should not start complaining now as this will be the way to go until done.

I ran out of Steam-a-seam lite and I find other applique paper so annoying.  Even though my choice clogs up the needle a little I can assemble a whole unit on a Teflon sheet on my light table before taking it over to the quilt and this cannot be done with ordinary applique paper.

I made 4 little mushrooms to place on the background but did not applique the white dots due to the tiny size and decided to paint these.  I allowed the first coat to dry overnight before applying another coat of paint.

Four (of what must surely be the tiniest applique I’ve ever done) bees were sewn and I see my satin stitch doesn’t look good at all but just as I think I’m heading in any direction it was time to turn and head another way.

The scattered leaves were the last of the applique work and not a moment too soon.  Now, however, my posting about this will be interrupted until quilted.

Joining batting

Now this is definitely not one of my favourite activities but when I finished the Woodland Animals top it was a public holiday and I didn’t have enough batting on a roll BUT a drawer full of remnants and decided ‘waste not, want not’ and joined these.

Still left with a bunched up amount of batting stuffed in the most horrific way in my batting scrap drawer I decided to turn these into more user-friendly bits.  I measured a couple of pieces and it turned out cutting 8” squares would result in the least waste and that is what I did.

If I had strips of pieces less than 8” wide I’d see if I couldn’t join two pieces to still end up making an 8” block.

If I did have a full width of batting or long strips I would not chop this up into squares but kept it full width and just cut 8” strips – thus making the math when having to determine the final size to match a quilt somewhat easier.

I ended up with a much neater batting drawer, even though still not enough to make anything but a crib quilt, but I am sure these will work much easier than having random crooked strips stuffed in a drawer.

Woodland Animals 6

Thursday evening hubby and I decided to sleep late on Friday morning with it being Easter Friday.  This is something neither one of us can really do but we thought we’d give it a try.  Wishful thinking as our security alarm went off at 3 am, showed it was outside somewhere and we got up, switched lights on, ready to attack the unknown enemy.  Silence….. a whole lot of nothingness but by then we were wide awake.  Had some coffee, got back into bed, watched a little TV and got in another hours’ sleep or so but then we were done with the fun and got our lives started.

Pulled the bedding off and while having these in the wash I continued with my sewing.

DIL invited us for Sunday lunch so we moved the pickled curry fish and Hot Cross buns up to Friday lunch for another family get-together. I made pizza for the grandkids as I know they wouldn’t like the fish and/or curry. After lunch, the little ones even dared their bodies in the water even though colder outside.

The rest of my Friday was exactly as the name suggested ‘Good’.  After the kids left I took a lovely afternoon nap and then enjoyed watching ATP tennis until I was ready for bed again.

Next to get done was the squirrel and another one that, after I took the photo, only realised I didn’t do the little feet and knee/hip.  By then the thread I used to outline the body has been put away and I had to find it again.  Turned out that what I thought to be the right colour was way lighter than the outline colour but so it will stay.

I did the bird which in hindsight might be somewhat out of scale compared to the other animals but this too will not change.

While hubby and our garden helper entertained themselves outside cleaning roofs and gutters I went to a local museum where they exhibited the annual Travelling Quilts.  I saw two that really caught my attention.  Always something new to keep me motivated.

Woodland Animals 5

I moved on with this and finished the little bunny later one afternoon.  I am so grateful for my Isacord thread cabinet as it seems I am using a variety of thread colours. I suppose once done, I’ll have to tack down those little pesky thread ends with fray stop or something?

I thought of doing at least one or part of one critter per day but life happens while you are making other plans.

Had to take Socks to the vet, been vomiting and losing weight for months now but a huge chunk of my salary later, none the wiser.  Not HIV, not Leukaemia, no dental issues and no tumours in the stomach.  Blood taken to test for any kidney issues and so we wait.

It was good to have a fairly normal routine the next afternoon to make and finish the hedgehog.

Midway in my attempt to progress with this, my machine simply froze/jammed.  Took it to the dealer after work, quick fix but once home one centimetre after stitching, the same thing happened.  

Obviously, it was back to machine hospital and this just before the weekend.  Anyhow I feel a cold/flue creeping up on me and thus not such a bad time for my machine to act up (if it is the machine, I would not be surprised if the dealer phones me saying something like “hey, stupid, next time remember to do this or that”.)

Fortunately, I do have a spare machine but haven’t used this is ages.  After cleaning it I managed to finish the racoon

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Results of our cat, Socks’ blood tests came back with no significant ailments, so because of his constant vomiting the vet suspect that the tummy acids might be burning his stomach lining, throat and mouth.  Medication given to sooth the stomach, boost his appetite and a general immune system builder and as a special treat canned food for digestive problems. Socks eats regularly but only tiny amounts at a time and thinking that I’ll give him some canned food after forcing the medication down his throat I dished up 2 teaspoons in a saucer.  Big mistake, Socks ate as if he never had food in days.  So if lucky a can might only last me a day if I feed him twice after giving his medication.  What I wouldn’t do for these pets!

Quilted duvet cover completed

I fished this way too fast as now I again have no free motion to do.  I used the original duvet backing for binding.

This year is going way too fast for me.  I am usually rather organised with things such as family gatherings and preparation of food for these events but somehow Easter crept up on me without me even noticing.

I plan a menu for the next week during the week we are in.  By Sunday early morning I shop for my groceries, start prepping later Sunday and during the week I only have a little to do to finish the meal of the day. Last week was no different but when I checked my diary – mostly to see hubbies travel plans (I don’t cook if he is not at home) – I saw Easter hitting us already this weekend.  NO!! I thought I still had a month or so. Shopping list had to be adjusted dramatically and suddenly to include ingredients for pickled fish which we have as Easter Sunday brunch with Hot Cross Buns.

So instead of prepping my weekly meals on Sunday, the plans changed and I started out with the pickled fish.  New recipe containing only 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes but it turned out to be hell hot.  Hope I can get any of the family to eat some or I will be left with the whole dish to myself.

I even made a vegan version for my daughter.

While busy pickling, with some baby onions on hand, I tried a pickled onion recipe too

And finally while searching for recipes I saw a thick vegetable soup and started cooking this seeing that colder weather is on its way to us.  I can always freeze this for other days when I am not in the mood for cooking.

Back to quilting, these are all the elements used to quilt this duvet cover.

This grayscale photo shows the all over motif used on the larger part of the quilt more clearly.

Woodland Animals 4

I’ve already taken a picture of the bear when I noticed I forgot to stitch the mouth but by then I’ve tidied my sewing room for the night and left it until the next morning.

As much as I do enjoy working on the Woodland Animals quilt I can only go that long without free motion quilting.  Unlike other longarmers simply taking a blank piece of fabric and playing on it, does not do it for me.  I prefer structure.  I need shapes, a plan or something to work in or around and not having anything at this time; I bought a duvet cover for our bed, popped it in the wash and unpicked the sides.  Bought backing slightly larger than the top and loaded it onto the frame.   

            

I am still not any good at designing but with every new quilt a new idea comes to mind and it usually looks just fine.  So for the rather blank top area of the duvet cover, I decided on doing circles – our bed is after all round.

Circles done, I started with the fillers.

Fillers completed.

When the grandkids came over last weekend I noticed grandson (2½) started playing with cars and I decided to get him a road mat.  Then shopped for some cars so next time this little terror came over I would have something new to entertain him for a couple of minutes… hopefully.

The duvet cover had a band of about 8” separating the plain top part from the rest and on this, I decided to stick with the circles and just add some curved lines in between.

DIL went on a school tour with the chess kids for this weekend so we had the little ones over again.  As predicted, grandson was fascinated by the mat for about 2 minutes but the cars had to stay with him all the time.  Granddaughter stayed over for Friday evening and grandson came to visit on Saturday when his sis went to a playdate with a friend.  So not much else happened quilt wise.

Woodland Animals 3

With my layout rather set I had to begin to applique each and every little animal and detail.  Ughh… what did I get myself into.

The animals were way too tiny to do fold over applique and I just had to go with satin stitching.  Phoned my local Pfaff dealer and heck, it is not who you are but who you know and within two ticks, telling me, over the phone, which stitch and tension (I am after all a quilter and use mostly straight stitching) to use, I got the hang of it and with my ‘newer’ Pfaff it automatically lifts the foot to allow you to turn direction, I got Bambi (or then the deer) finished.

With a little thunder in the air late afternoon, I decided to switch off my machine and clean my room midway in doing the little fox.  Got up early morning and was able to complete this little critter.

Apart from being vegan my daughter is also really set on being kind to Mother Nature so she decided not to use disposable nappies but go for cloth nappies.  Another surprise to me, these are no longer the square white cotton towelling I used but modified to perfection.  I again had to search Google to see what, where and when.  Found a shop and seeing that I did not know which was what I simply ordered a birth to potty complete set.  If they regard it enough I guess it should be.

Woodland Animals 2

Standing by my ironing board I couldn’t understand why I used to love this technique as it suddenly felt so tedious. 

Then it hit me, I bought a mini iron especially for this purpose, to be able to sit and iron and then I changed my setup to make this more pleasurable.

I have the tree pinned to the background but not stitched in place yet.  The plan is to let Bambi stand behind the tree, so first Bambi and then the tree.

Turned out Bambi’s body was just too short to come out from behind the tree.  Bambi had to move forward and my tree trunk made shorter so Bambi would not stand on top of the tree.

We had the grandkids for a sleepover and it differs so much from when they were tiny and unable to walk.  Now they can go where they want to, do what they want and we just need to keep bringing the food and drinks.

Woodland Animals 1

My daughter has decided on Woodland Animals as the theme for her first baby.  Needless to say, I had to google it.  I knew about pets, farm animals, wildlife, baby dinosaurs and circus animals for baby quilts and then she pulls the rug out from under my feet coming up with this!

I started playing with ideas while they were away for a weekend and we were asked just to check on their dogs once a day, which we did and this is what hubby found when he went to their house Sunday morning.

Time to start designing and it is so sad that freezer paper is not readily available in South Africa for I regard this as the best designing tool ever.  Luckily my sis lived in Dubai for a year and upon returning their furniture in crates, she popped in a couple of boxes for me.

Background layout is done, and ready to start with the piecing.

I cannot remember when last I used spray starch to fold over the edges of an applique piece but I wanted to do it on this quilt.  I am not a huge fan of raw edge applique but would much rather use raw edge, than a satin stitch, now that I truly dislike.

Okay, the background is finished but I think that was the easy part.  I am somewhat stressed about the scale of the different animals and how that would work.  I’ve never quite been able to view a flat object in 3-D.