Quilt for a dad

A quilter brought a quilt on Tuesday and wanted it done before her dad came to visit.  Fortunately, we have a public holiday today and I could get some extra quilting time in late last night and in the wee hours of this morning.

I used 5 different thread colours on this, 4 on the top and 1 for the bobbin and it just so turned out that the bobbin winder on my machine died after winding 2 bobbins.

With the bad luck some good fortune too.  I am an absolute fan of Pfaff machines and my the machine on the frame was my first ‘non-Pfaff’ purchase BUT as usual Pfaff to the rescue and I could wind my bobbins on my domestic.  It didn’t quite fill a bobbin as much as the long arm machine did but I could still carry on quilting with just more bobbin changes.

The quilt had no less than 4 borders and I did something different on each and here the first 3 thread changes can be seen.

The forth border was white and yet another thread change.

Because of the time restraint, I did not use any rulers and decided to deliberately leave some wide-open spaces to allow the quilt to have plenty of texture.

The quilt was actually way too big for my frame and it took a couple of nifty tricks to get it done, endorsing my belief that I should not take on quilts larger than my frame can handle.

Got it done though and glad it came off the frame intact.

Royal Squares – 1

Some time ago I got an e-mail, thanking me for my purchase on bluprint and asking me to rate my purchase.  I purchased something from somewhere I didn’t know???  How much wine did I have when doing this??  Took me some time to realise Craftsy had a name change, so if I bought a Royal Squares pattern it should be saved somewhere on my computer.  The search began and then I found it!

It made sense, with me wanting to work away some of my scraps, this would be a darling.  I just can’t help wondering how many other amazing patterns are hidden on my computer.  It is time to stop purchasing and start doing.  Anyway turned out this was a free pattern, so luckily no money wasted.

I guess the pattern is easy to make if you work according to it and it suggests quarter meters or a jelly roll.  I, however, need to get rid of my scraps so my cutting turned out way more tedious.

The pattern consists of only 2 blocks and said 32 of Block A.  I did not like the size and decided to start out with 40 Block A’s.  I might have to make more once I’ve finalised the layout and size.

Got 40 blocks A’s done and on the design wall.

Invited the kids for lunch yesterday and tried at least 2 new recipes and one new ingredient and I love it when everything turns out really tasty.  From now on liquid smoke too will become a standard condiment in our house.

Almost twin quilts – The second one

Hubby went to sleep with the grand dogs (yip, some of us have those too) while the kids went out of town but I asked him to clear the dining room table in order for me to start marking the second quilt.  We are in the process of redecorating and everything is absolutely all over the place. 

Started marking and almost got halfway when the need for sleep took over but needed to get up early the next morning to finish as grinding into the walls to move an electric socket needed to be done.  I don’t need all that dust on a customer quilt.

I chose a different motif for the printed blocks but wanted to keep the two sister quilts fairly similar.  Didn’t want the one to feel she got less.  Marking, needless to say, took forever and just when I thought I was done and walked away from the light table, I saw that I missed the marking on one full row.  Duh!!!

Anyway, the age-old saying proved itself again with this second quilt.  “Practise makes perfect”.  Sewing on the marked line on this second quilt (after doing it on 48 blocks in the first) came so much more natural and easy.

When I only had one more border to do I took a photo to show the ever so subtle differences between the two quilts, the centre motif, the sashing and the borders, all had a different take on it.

Finally done with both and this is quilt B

Almost twin quilts – The first one

I got two almost identical quilts made from kits by a mom for her 2 daughters and having played around with marking a motif on a quilt with the blue pen, I opted to get some more practice in with this technique.

What I didn’t think of was that marking ONE test block might seem easy but marking 48 blocks (one quilt only) on a large piece of cloth, sliding every which way, was a totally different ball game.  I moved the light table deeper onto the dining room table to try to prevent the sliding which meant leaning forward to mark the motifs….. my glutes complained all the way.

On some of the heavier coloured squares, I also found it almost impossible to mark, neither my blue pen nor the white chalk marker showed up properly.  Thought I’d take a photo to show how feint the image showed up and guess what?  With the flash of the camera, it stood out like nothing before.  If only I had enough hands to control the sliding fabric, trace with the pen while looking through the camera, this might be easier.

For a moment there I thought of giving up but persevered.  Started the quilting, which goes much slower and the usual free motion quilting but as I almost completed the first row, I took another picture and decided to stick it out.  Even though I missed my marked line while stitching and had to unpick more than once, this could turn our very nice.

There can be nothing as depressing when you are having fun, advance a quilt and see a mess on the back and this is what I saw midway through this quilt.  Luckily I immediately knew why the problem arose as I saw thread loops on the top, saw that my thread jumped out of one guide, fixed the loops on top, not thinking then that what happens on top, will happen on the back too.  So more unpicking awaited me.

Once done with the top and bottom border and the inner of the quilt and before turning it on the frame to do the sides, I roll it off the frame and inspect the back for any missed problem areas.  Apart from the two blocks that I need to unpick and redo, I couldn’t find anything else.

With the quilt turned I did the side borders and this one is done, on to the second one, repeating it all over again!

Winnie the Pooh

On Wednesday one lady of a dance school group brought me a printed Winnie the Pooh top that I had to turn into a quilt for their dance instructor, who is apparently Winnie obsessed.

I decided on a large scale overall pattern as I had no blocks to work in and also knew outlining every little detail would take forever and these are all non-quilters, so they won’t even appreciate or understand the effort.

When done thinking that one of them will have to do the biding which they may not have thought off, so ‘what the heck’, let me finish this up completely.

I could phone her on Saturday to fetch their quilt.

The back

The Front