Inspiration

Inspiration for my quilts come from far and wide.  I love scouring books, magazines, Etsy, blogs and Flickr for inspiration.  Just recently I happened to be at the right place at the right time, when Victoria from The Silly BooDilly updated her Etsy Store. 

I could not resist this gorgeous pincushion pieced with iridescent shot cottons, featuring both machine and hand quilting.  I absolutely love Victoria's unique style of patchwork and quilting inspired by Japanese Boro Textiles.

This pincushion sits alongside my sewing machine, has been admired from every angle, and has inspired me to pull out a selection of my Kaffe Shot Cottons:

And the woven checks and stripes:

Be sure to check out The Silly BooDilly blog and Etsy Store - oh I see there are some pincushions there now!  Hurry ...!  You won't be disappointed.

More on my new project soon.

Sunday Stash #44

I shouldn't have looked, but I did ...

New arrivals at Kelani Fabric.

From left to right:
Cosmo - Japanese Blue and Pink Flowers
Kiyohara - Puti De Pome Retro Dots in Blue and Red

Unique and beautiful linen blend and medium weight fabrics with a lovely drape, very suitable for quilting.


And from The Fabric Shack:

Cross-Weave Wovens by Moda

Two tone solids Red/Yellow, Red/White, Pink/Red and Green/Yellow.

Enjoy!

Meet Oliver

Name:   Oliver

Breed:   Miniature Schnauzer

Age:      6

Loves:   (in order) food, food, going for walks, socks, shoes, and toilet paper

Just so you know - the mini quilt has been claimed by Oliver.  It is draped to cover the armrest of the couch, much like Oliver who loves to lie frog like, legs either side of the armrest, balancing precariously.  He has been known to slip off - only to get back up again and resume sleeping.

Flying Geese Quilt

After some delay in deciding and then purchasing the binding for the Flying Geese Quilt, I am now happy to say that it has become a finished quilt.

Finished Quilt measures 44 inches x 51 inches 

No surprises here!  The fabric used for the binding is the Japanese import Kei Honeycomb in Black.

I cannot go past a dot fabric, and particularly love how it looks as a binding.  I was in no doubt that this quilt needed a black binding to frame it, and trialled different striped fabrics but settled on the dotty fabric without disappointment.

The Back of the Flying Geese Quilt

This quilt is for sale and if you are interested you can find it in my Etsy Store.

Aligning the Quilt Sandwich

I have finished the Mini Quilt and in doing so have also prepared a simple tutorial to show you how I go about aligning a pieced quilt back with the quilt top.  

The back for this quilt was pieced with a horizontal strip of small squares of fabric and was at least three inches larger than the quilt top.  To baste the quilt the backing was taped right side down on a hard surface.  This quilt was small enough to baste on my work table, which sure makes it an easier task than on the floor.  I then used a pink chalk marker to mark the center of each of the edges of the top, bottom, right side and left side of the backing fabric.

This image shows where the backing, batting and quilt top

were marked for both the top and LHS and RHS.

The next step is to place the batting on top of the backing ensuring it is centered.  To take out the guess work out of placement be sure to mark the batting the same as for the backing and match the chalk marks.

Each edge of the quilt top was then also marked with its center point using a pin.  The pin and the chalk marks were matched at each side to ensure that the quilt and the horizontal line of the backing were aligned.

 Guide lines for quilting

The plan for quilting the Mini Quilt was always going to be a squared off spiral, starting in the center of the quilt and spiraling out to the edges of the quilt. To assist in when to turn/pivot the quilt, and rather than marking the quilt top with chalk which will disappear as the quilt is maneuvered,   I used cotton thread and hand stitched diagonal lines using a measuring tape or ruler as a guide (much like an "X" from corner to corner)

I then pin basted the quilt and commenced quilting using a walking foot. The quilt was turned (with needle down) whenever the quilting line intersected with the quilting guidelines.

Remove quilting guidelines carefully so as to not to break any of the stitches, after the quilting is finished.

I really love the squared-off spiral quilting, it is easy and visually very effective on solid fabric.  However, it does involve turning the quilt often and therefore becomes cumbersome quickly with larger quilts. 

The binding fabric is Amy Butler Lotus - Polka Dot in Red.

I hope this answers the often asked question as to how to align the quilt sandwich.  This really doesn't take all that long to do and with practice will quickly become routine.

MiniQuilt Monday on Tuesday

I started a mini quilt on the weekend with the intention of posting it on Monday, but I seem to have underestimated either how long this was going to take to piece or maybe more so the lack of sewing time available on the weekend.

 My creative inspiration came from a recent book addition: -

Freddy & Gwen Collaborate Again: Freewheeling Twists on Traditional Quilt Designs

What caught my eye in this book was the Garden Path quilt.  It is made with a wide variety of prints in a largely pastel palette, and pieced with strips sewn together to make Strata, which is then re-cut and assembled freeform.  I really wanted to try the intuitive design and a mini quilt is a great way to try out different techniques.

 Quilt Top measures 25 inches x 25 inches

I have used both large and small scale pastel prints by Kaffe Fassett as well as a few high-contrast fabrics to add depth to this mini quilt.

In my next post I will detail the steps that I take to ensure that a quilt top and the backing are centered.  Although ensuring the quilt back is straight is easier for a mini quilt, the technique does apply to quilts of all sizes.

I am sure it is still Monday somewhere in the world.   Right?

It's a Family Thing VI

My 16 year old daughter is studying Studio Art as part of her VCE studies, something I wish I could have studied way back then.

Her instructions for this project were left to her creative imagination. The step by step documentation of the entire process is the key to success, rather than the finished product.  Thorough documentation is required for all practice runs, difficulties encountered,  testing of ideas, materials and equipment used,  whilst taking progress photos along the way.

And the final product is a Patchwork Cube, made independently after I introduced her to the very useful Half Square Triangle.

 

Steph enjoyed raiding the fabric stash and has learned much from her foray into the patchwork world.  Not only did she learn how to sew a quarter inch seam, but also:

• that despite all your best efforts not all pieced blocks turn out the same size! 
• sewing with tomato red thread it not a good idea
• fabric is stretchy if you don't cut it straight
• dinosaur school sewing machines are not for taking apart
• mum's spare sewing machine is pretty cool after all
• that you learn from your mistakes.

Steph so enjoyed her project that I have absolutely no doubt that there will be more fabric play to come.  My stash is her stash - with the odd exception of course!  I must also say that this photo shoot was hilarious with many outtakes picturing only blue sky.  In the end any portion of the cube captured in an image was considered a bonus!