Fancy Fox Details

Seams pressed to the sides

Seams pressed open

I have been doing more testing of the fox 🦊 quilt block. I got somewhat confused with the pressing of the seams and the pattern only talks about pressing of the seams in the first segment. In the picture on the left I pressed the seams to the sides as I always do when constructing quilt blocks. That worked really well but made the middle part somewhat more bulky and protruding. I then started to read up on how others where doing the blocks and found that most people pressed the seams open. This is not something I ever do...

Anyway, knowing that I will do an allover quilting design over the quilt, I thought...why not, let’s give that a go. While I was at it I also changed the eye colour as I was not happy with the quality of the brown fabric. So, the new fox on the right has black eyes and all the seams are pressed open. It does make a difference in the block...you have a more tidy flat block, however it also added in width and length. My Pfaff machine does a very scant seam allowance and is usually spot on, but pressing the seams open, I was then out by several millimeters and the putting together of the segments became a bit of an issue. I then changed my thread from Aurifil 50/2 to Guterman 50/3 and that got me back on track. Also followed some advice on one of the blogs I read to measure each segment as I went along to keep the block straight and accurate.

The other thing I had paid no attention to was the direction of the fabric in the ears and also the snout (as you can see in the fox on the left). Given that some of my fabric is directional I paid some attention to it in the fox on the right. Looks heaps better, however requires some additional cutting, so one strip did not give me all of the fox. As I am planning to do another fox quilt, that does not matter so much, as I will be able to use the additional strip cut for the next quilt.

So now I am ready to get going on this...

Karin

Image Gallery

Finally found a blog that explained how to do a simple image gallery. For a long time I have been mucking around with trying to get images sitting next to each other with little success. I do find that a bit of a nuisance on blogger. Then I stumbled upon Liliflora Pretty who put up a post in 2016 on how to add a simple image gallery to blogger. When looking at this I thought that this almost looked too simple, but tried it anyway...

and tada, how easy was that...


Now this was particularly easy as I knew that I had reduced and cropped those images to the same size, so it looks pretty good. No hassle, just copying a few codes...very simple.

I then went ahead and set up my Quilt Gallery (see tab above). I previously kept all my finishes under the tab 'My Quilts' but was never happy with this as the quilts were all arranged underneath each other. I also had not kept this up-to-date, so over the last week I went through my whole blog looking at what quilts I had done, adding captions with the name of the quilt and the year of making. That was quite interesting actually as you could see how my taste has changed over the years.  Also it showed how I slowly but surely became hopelessly addicted to FMQ. The images are all different sizes and shapes which makes this gallery not quite as neat as above but it still looks ok, I think...anyway, better than it was. I am sure there is a way of making all your images the same size but I was not game enough to really start mucking around with that for fear of messing it all up again.

If you are in search for a simple image gallery or just want to be able to put images next to each other in your post have a look at the link provided above.

Karin

Fancy Fox Quilt: Test Block Done

I have got nothing to quilt 🙀 so I started on the Fancy Fox Quilt. It is on my list for the 2019 Finish A-Long, but in between I might have to construct something else so I can do some FMQ. Always have that tension between the actual piecing and the FMQ. Piecing takes me a while and takes away from the time that I can spent FMQ, but eventually I run out of quilts to actually quilt on. Might clean up my design for the next whole cloth, then maybe I can alternate between the two because I get a bit restless if I have nothing to FMQ.

I love Elizabeth Hartman's Fancy Fox pattern...in fact I love all her patterns. You can find them at Elizabeth Hartman Design. A friend of mine just did the Llamas and the Flamingos, but that looked a bit too involved for me. I finally got the Fancy Fox pattern with a gift voucher from the Fat Quarter Shop that I got for Xmas.

Yesterday I made a start. I am using my all time favourite fabric, the Dryad range by Shannon Brinkley for Paintbrush Studios.

It is absolutely gorgeous fabric and almost falls into the ...'too good to cut up' category, however I thought the other day ...'how ridiculous'!...what am I keeping it for?

So, I made a start...you need only one strip of a Fat Quarter for one fox, so my Fat Quarter bundle will last me a very long while. I am starting with a baby quilt size to see how it goes, but already am thinking that I may make another one straight after.

My first fox...so cute!

This was very easy to piece together once I got my head around cutting all those pieces out. For the background I am using a grey organic cotton, so I am closely following the colour arrangement of the pattern. Love the look of it! I will need 20 foxes for the baby quilt, so this should come together relatively quickly.

Onto the next fox...

Karin

2019 Challenge Quilt

Spent the afternoon completing block No7 of a challenge quilt I am involved in through our local Handiquilter group

Enjoyed this block enormously...even though my blocks are not entirely square. The grid design, while work intensive, produces a really nice texture. A bit work intensive but well worth the time and effort.

Only two more blocks to go...wonder whether we are also going to stitch down the surrounding zigzags.

Linking up to Quilt Fabrication’s Midweek Makers Linky Party.

Also linking up to Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing for Freemotion Mavericks Linky Party Karin

First Finish of the 2019 Finish Along Third Quarter

Have blogged about my Funky Bird Quilt extensively, but need to do a post on the actual finish for the 2019 Finish-A-Long (to be able to link up later).

You can find my goal list HERE

So, here it is

The quilt measures 40in x 49.5in and is quilted with Aurifil 50/2 white thread using a variety of rulers  in the blocks and a swirly freemotionquilting filler in the bird blocks

For now, I am linking up to Meadow Mist Favourite Finish Monthly Linky Party

Karin 

Finished

I finished the quilting on my Funky Bird Quilt

Very happy with the result...decided in the end to just add some lines into the narrow border.  This was a bit of a hassle...I am finding dead straight lines actually quite difficult. I was using the 2in Skinny Ruler and while it was nice and long it also kept sliding away from my alignment. So I did this very slowly and deliberate...a few wobbles here and there but acceptable.

Cut the binding, but then I got side tracked into more FMQ...wanted to use up the last of the white thread in the bobbin. The low sensor alarm had gone off so I did not think that I had a lot of thread left. Played with the Petal Pusher ruler and created a little mini dahlia

...then kept going until the thread ran out. Need to adjust my bobbin sensor as this just kept going and going.
That was it for me today...now only need to attach the binding on that quilt and I have my first finish for the third quarter of the 2019 Finish A-Long.

Karin

Follow up on Echo Foot

I did take my echo foot set to the dealer on the weekend. When they put it on their machine, it was also not centred. In looking at it it took us a while to work out what exactly the problem was. However, on closer inspection, the problem actually was in the neck of the foot, i.e. one of the sides of the neck was thinner than the other. This is when looking from above into the neck. Here is the replacement model that has nice and even sides.

Probably a bit hard to see, but hopefully you get what I am talking about.

Also checked the clearance on the foot

You can see that I have a little bit of clearance between the needlebar and the footbar and the foot is centred. So, long story short, the foot that I had was a dud!

We did try the other echo feet and on their machine ....they were tight but it was thought that there was some clearance. When I came home I tried my other two echo feet again and ...no, there was no clearance whatsoever, in fact I could not even pull a thread through, so it is in fact hitting the needlebar. I will ring on Monday and ask for the other two to be replaced as well as I am a tad uncomfortable to have it hitting the needlebar, even if it is only by a fraction. I think my whole set has been faulty.

By the way...that was the last circle above...all done and now I can concentrate on finishing the blocks. Certainly a bit challenging to fit the circles into those sashing!

Karin