Curves challenge

We all met on Friday and showed our 12" blocks on the theme of "Curves".
Here is my contribution

I based it on a paisley design and decided to use wool felt as well as rick-rack and some cottons (I am a great fan of Sue Spargo's work and thought that I would have fun with all the embellishing techniques. I also used beads and embroidery stitches. Here is a close-up

The quilting was done by machine using a varigated YLI thread.

Happy quilting.

Tip of the day

I have been tidying my work room a bit and decided that I needed to do something with the UFOs I have - I am admitting to three - everything else is a sort of work in progress.  But with the UFOs, I decided I needed a storage system.  Far too much ironing is involved if they are stuffed into a bag so I decided to hang them up on trouser clips.

OK the top is folded in four but that is better than being screwed up into a ball.

This a quilt made from headers and footers so I guess it may be on the back of the door for some while!

This is another project that is so not going to get finished any time soon but the centre is pieced and I have pulled out the other two fabrics for the inner border and outer border - so they are all on the coathanger - just where I can find them when I get around to it. The centre was constructed with some hsts that I cut to the wrong size - ring a bell?!!!

They are all on the back of the door of my work room so I pass them all the time. Do I feel guilty about then - actually not at all at the moment. They will get done but just not now.

I am busy trying to machine quilt the large Christmas quilt - boy is it going slowly and I am the first to admit that I find outline quilting extremely difficult. All the applique has to be outlined before I can start on the infill quilting. The quilt is huge and I really should have sent it out to a LAr but did not have the money so I will have to put in the hours instead.  So if there are not too many posts in the coming weeks I hope you will bear with me.  I am hoping to have it finished by July so that I can show it at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham in August.

Have done some more dyeing but will show that to you next week.

Happy quilting.

Dyeing and overdyeing

I have been busy creating more fabric (as if I need it) but somehow this is more fun than just going to the shop.

We started with a drak brown dye which we used in different strengths

and then overdyed these in different strengths of scarlet dye to produce some wonderful colours

the reproduction colours are not so spot on but there is a nice selection. Also they seem to go with the collection of fabricworm fabrics I bought back in January - see the blog from 19th January. How cool is that.

Sadly I won't have time to do anything about them yet as I really have to sandwich my large applqiue quilt this week and start to quilt it. The deadline for the exhibition is  middle of July and I am away on holiday before that as well - so lots of long hours ahead I fear.

Happy quilting.

A finish

I have finally completed the quilt I have been making for a friend's 60th birthday (couldnot show it before as I only handed it over on Sunday).

I used some of Leah Day's exercises for the machine quilting - not brilliant I grant you but it is certainly getting better.

The blocks are Carpenter's Wheel with a star block inserted in the middle and they measure 18" square.

The Fabrics all came from stash and were chosen by her son (thanks Andrew!).

and here are some close ups of the actual quilting. The block was straight line free motion quilted and then I used three different sorts of quilting - a meander, a loop and a heart shaped leaf design.

Stupidly I forgot to take a photo of the back but will do so when I next see the recipient.

Off to do more dyeing tomorrow so will post results over the weekend hopefully.

Happy Quilting!

I'm back

A million apologies for not having blogged for ages but I did not have a lot to say so thought you did not need to hear my ramblings.

One of my quilt groups has posed a challenge for 2012 - make a 12" finished block every two months on a specific theme.

The deadline for the first one was the end of February and the theme for this one was "Layers".  I am not very good at conceptual themes but had a go. The layers I chose to use were layers of thermafax prints on fabric.  When I had produced the fabric I felt that it had a slight aesthic quality and this was certainly the case when I had put the pieces onto the green background.

The squares were bondawebbed down and then I had the question of quilting the piece. I decided that with this very clean look, I did not want to muddle the overall image and decided just to do straight quilting.

We are now onto the second challenge which is "Curves" - so far I am thinking and formulating an idea. I will get back to you once I have finalised what I am doing.

Have been doing lots of fabric dyeing but will show you the results in the next few days.

Happy quilting.

A new quilt

The good thing about The Beast being sick and in the hospital is that I have had to get my old Bernina out of the cupboard and start using it again. I was amazed how I had almost forgotten how to work it but slowly everything came back.

So what have I been doing. Well I have a quilt to make and thought I had better get started - it has a deadline not too far in the future and I will also have to quilt it. What pattern did I decide on - well I have always wanted to do a Carpenter's Wheel , no real reason except that I really like it.

A proper wheel has a large empty space in the middle but I did not like that and so decided to put a star in there. The block is 18" and there will be nine of them.  I have five completed and all the triangles sewn for the other four. The squaring up of each little square takes a long time - far longer than the actual sewing but it is well worth it - the  pieces go together like a dream. Or they would do if I did not keep getting the odd one round the wrong way - on all five so far I have had to do the odd bit of unpicking - so annoying.  Everything is from stash which is good.  I need to use some up this year.

Yesterday was a good day with the postman delivering the guilty purchase from Fabric Worm which I had ordered on New Year's Eve (so it does not count as a fabric purchase in 2012!!

I got a yard of this wonderful fabric

and then half yards of the following

I have absolutely no idea what I am going to do with them yet but there should be enough for a decent size quilt in due course. Once they have all been washed, they will be put away in a box while I think.

I am off on holiday on Saturday so will bring you some lovely pictures of snowy vistas on my return.

Happy quilting.

Bereft

I have just had to take The Beast to the hospital and they are going to have to keep it for a week or two. Typically I went in with one problem and then discovered that my stitch length was all over the place - hopefully they will be able to sort it out soon.

So I will drag out the old Bernina this weekend as I have some straight stitching of blocks to do.

All my good intentions of doing the free motion quilting chanllenges are now on hold but hopefully I will be able to catch up when the machine comes back.
Keep your fingers crossed that all will be well.

Happy quilting.