Latest Craftsy Pattern

Finally getting ahead and feeling a bit more productive.

Check out my latest free pattern, the 'Dresden Plate Table Runner' in my Craftsy Store.

Finally got around to writing up this pattern...had wanted to do this for a very long time.

You will need a Dresden Plate ruler for this...I used the EZ Dresden ruler by Darlene Zimmerman. I did not include templates as I thought that most people would have access to one of these rulers.


Anyway, have a look and let me know what you think.



Most of you would have seen this already, but for those who have not, here is my version
(not the best photos - need to redo them)

Until next time

Karin

Bloggers Quilt Festival

It's that time of year again...the Blogger's Quilt Festival 2014 held over at Amy's Creative Side.

This seems to have come around very quickly and I am relatively unprepared, so I have decided to enter my Dresden Plate runner in the MINI Quilt category. Always wanted to do a DP and a lot of leftover strips from my Jelly Roll inspired me to construct this variation. Initially I considered making a vertical split in the individual spokes but then thought, why not go for a horizontal split...I then did a few trial spokes and really liked the look of it. Ideal project for using up leftovers.

Details:

Quilt size: 21" x 46.5"
Fabrics used: Moda Jelly Roll-Chateau Rouge/French General (for DP) and coordinating background print.
Quilting: basic outline quilting on DSM

Head over to Amy's Creative Side to look at all the other quilts. It is always a great event to participate or just to browse through the various categories for inspiration.
The linky is open from today until October 31 when voting begins. You can find the Festival Main Page HERE

Karin

Dresden Plate Table Runner Finished!

It is quiet in my corner of the world. I have been working away on the DP table runner. The quilting was somewhat frustrating. I really do not enjoy quilting with the walking foot. While it works well, I do not like the constant turning and wrangling with the project at hand. That is where FMQ is so handy as you can go any direction you want. With the walking foot and the turning I had some extra puff in the middle block where I must have pulled too hard towards the seam of the block. Not a big issue though, as it is hardly visible. Nevertheless, for this one I thought it was safer to use the walking foot when outlining the shapes for consistency sake (except for those circles in the middle and ditch quilting around the Dresden). This turned out really nice, I think.

The detail of the outline quilting

 

I stitched some lines in the border which proved a bit difficult...again had some pulling of the fabric. Then I decided to try out Susie's Magic Binding tutorial demonstrated on 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks: All About Aunt Marti. As you can see, not a lot of forward planning on this piece. This binding was sewn on from the back and then machine stitched to the front (in-the-ditch of that little flange). This was very interesting to do...I was not confident at all that I would be able to machine stitch the binding on straight. To my surprise, this worked really well...all I needed was lots and lots of pins to hold it all in place. Given that this was my first time of doing this method, the stitching in the ditch was a bit challenging, however I soon got the hang of this with using one of the pins to gently hold the binding straight. Overall, I was impressed.

What I was not impressed with was my lack of forward planning. Given that I had quilted straight lines around the border, the flange then highlighted that they were not straight (compared to the line of the flange), especially around the corners...this is very noticeable but nothing much I can do about this now. I reckon if I was to do this binding again, I definitely would not be quilting lines in the border...just in case. Can't trust myself to get things straight lately.

Anyway...this binding looks nice on the runner...it is fairly big and chunky though...I like this for a runner, but I am not sure I like this for a quilt.  Might try a different method that I have seen where the little flange is sewn on first and the binding is attached as per normal. This would give you the flange without the bulk.  Well, all good learning though.

Linking up to Anything Goes Linky Party at Stitch by Stitch
and Let's Bee Social Linky Party

Karin

Slight Overestimation Of My Capabilities

So I was going to FMQ some circles over my Dresden Plates. Sounded simple enough and given that I now have a round FMQ foot this should have been a breeze. Well, you should have seen me yesterday...tried to circle around the center circle. I normally can echo around shapes with no problems...maybe not always 100% consistently but close enough. This though drove me to distraction...could not keep up a 1/4 echo, no matter how hard I tried. Changed the foot to the Echo FMQ foot that I got which involved dismantling the shank of the machine. Also did not work for me...back to my round foot...and so it went on.

I reckon it has to do with going over multiple colours and patterns...normally I echo around a shape that is surrounded by one colour...so I can focus on my foot and the distance that I am echoing. In this piece, every time I hit a new fabric, it threw me...maybe my brain just cannot handle it. After a while I tried drawing the circles in...ha, went through half the kitchen cupboard to find suitable circles! This happens every time I need to stitch circles on something.

On Sunday I had enough and went out and bought a stack of circle templates.  Beautiful, a whole pack of 9 ready made circles...that fixed the problem (I think!)...should have done this ages ago.

I did the outer circle with the walking foot and once I got the templates drew on the center circle. Tomorrow I will FMQ this and then echo this around the outside of the center circle. I think that is all I am going to do on the plate.

Linking up to Anything Goes Linky Party at Stitch by Stitch

Karin

Dresden Plate Table Runner

Working steadily on my projects and finished the Dresden plate quilt top (almost!).  There is method to my madness. I am trying to finish a number of things to get ready for a FMQ marathon. Would be great if I had two machines where I could swap between piecing and FMQ without having to switch over the machine all the time.

Anyway, as so often with these spontaneous type of projects, I ran out of border fabric just on the last top part of the outer border. Obviously did not plan this through very well, so I had to get some more of the red fabric the other day.  Good thing too as I had no binding fabric for this piece whatsoever.



 So here is part of the table runner
 

This looks great even though it is a bit plain. For a moment I thought that I might add another little border  or do something else a bit more decorative but in the end I decided to just put the plain red border around it. I reckon it is enough...

PS. Got the last  70cm off the bolt when I went to the shop...lucky I went when I did.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts.

Karin

Quick Update On Dresden Plate

Slow progress with my Dresden Plate, but what a beauty. For readers who missed the previous post about this Dresden Plate, I am using up some leftovers from a Moda Jelly Roll (French General).

Have the other two plates finished as well, but have not got around to sew them into place or do the center. This is a bit finicky so I don't want to rush the process. So much for my idea of a 'quick fix' project!

Not sure yet how I am going to quilt it...this looks quite busy. Probably will just emphasize the circles and go around the spokes with 1/4in outline.

Linking up to Lorna's Let's Bee Social Linky Party and WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Karin

Progress on Dresden Plates

Steadily working away on piecing these small wedges together started this last week... see also my previous post 'Going off on a tangent...again'!

 

Then of course realised I needed some background fabric...and something for the border. Wanted some dark fabric for the background but could not find anything suitable, so went for a tone-on-tone beige background. Then found the red fabric that sort of goes with the red in the wedges...

That is as close as I could come to matching the red. This Jelly Roll - French General from Moda is very tricky to match, I must say.

Did I say Quick Fix project before? Well, I then went ahead and centred the plate on my background fabric, basting the plate in the middle to the background fabric and securing the spokes with a bit of fabric glue. Initially I tried to sew it on with an invisible thread using a very small zig-zag stitch. Did not like it at all ...maybe I did something wrong but it looked very obvious and so I proceeded to stitch the plate on by hand.

This is how far I got ...2 more to go and then I need to figure out how to get the centre exactly where I want it to be...this should be interesting. Intending to also sew the centre on by hand...just looks neater, I think.

Wow, a bit very colourful...maybe a bit too much going on here. But I am happy to report I used up lots of remaining Jelly Roll strips, but still got enough variety for another small project, I think.

Linking up to Anything Goes Linky Party at Stitch by Stitch

Karin

Going Off On A Tangent...again

Have a look what I have been up to

Yep, I still have not started on that Windmill baby quilt that I am planning as I was too curious of how this would work.

I have all those leftover fabric strip from a Moda Jelly Roll (Chateau Rouge/French General). It has been sitting in the shelf and was collecting dust. The fabric is just lovely and I do not want to let it go to waste. On the other hand I did not feel like making a quilt out of it, as I very likely would not have enough (and I am not going to buy more fabric!).

These pieces, while a bit fiddly, come together very quickly. I did all those in one evening...just need to press them now and probably make a few more.










Well, you would have guessed it by now, I am making a Dresden Plate. Always wanted to do that and so far just had not got around to it. This will be a nice little Quick fix project (here is hoping!)

I like it...just need to fix up the wedge on the right as I did not pay attention to the light/dark theme.

So, Let's Bee Social and head over to Lorna's Sew Fresh Quilt blog to have a look what other people have been up to...and also linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Until next time

Karin