Multi-tasking and New Pattern

I am still multi-tasking. In fact, I have added things to my list...🙀

Finished the third quilt top for Bethanne Nemesh February online workshop 'Breaking Boundaries'. No problem at all after all those borders I did. Fabric selection maybe a bit odd, but I do need to make some space in my 'fabric cabinet'. I reckon this fabric is a good 10 years old and with the binding cut out it will all be gone. 

Then I continued on the feathering. The class on variations was 3 hours long...a marathon of online watching. I could not do it in one hit and spread it over a few days. Given that I had started on the 'Bird on the Wire wall hanging, I thought I might as well give some of those variations a try. Also did start on some of the backfilling today but forgot to take a photo.

Close ups

That was good fun...tried all sorts of weird and wonderful things on that. Some of them worked great and some maybe not that well, but all good practice. I am stitching the feathers with Superior Fantastico variegated thread. I am using Bottomline in the bobbin and while it is better on the Q20 I still feel that I am struggling with that thread...this time it was pulling the bobbin thread up a fair bit (and actually just as I am writing this I realise that I should probably have tightened my bobbin more). I was following the settings that were given on the Superior web site, but maybe I just need to run my bobbin thread tighter. Mind you, I am also using a fairly thin batting of 60/40 Cotton/Poly blend of average quality which may have also played into this. Anyway, I managed to get a decent quality out of the thread for most of the time, so I did not worry too much about it.

I was really happy about how my curves turned out. In general I can do them better if I have feather variations in there. Not sure why that is happening.

This is stitched following Bethanne Nemesh' method of spineless feather quilting, i.e. you do not pre-stitch your spine, but stitch the feathers and spine all in one go. I deliberately chose the variegated thread to see how well that would work for me and I must say, you cannot really see any difference unless you look really closely trying to follow the feather path. Happy with my efforts.

Also sold a little quilt in my Etsy shop this week...great! That of course got me thinking that I need to get going on continuing to fill my inventory, hence sat down to do a new pattern (and another little quilt).

Here is a stylised shot

Nothing too drastic...a variation on the good old pinwheel. I have a lot of bright tone-on-tone prints left over. Not strips, but also not enough to make an entire quilt out of the colours that are left. So I gathered the bitses and pieces and decided to use them up for this idea. This will be colourful and again fairly bold. Still need to decide on placement and also I am eyeing off those cut off triangles to maybe incorporate them as well...we shall see. Love those quilts. While I was at it, also cut another panel to size to use for another round of clamshell quilting.

So, fairly busy over here and I don't think it will be letting up as I keep adding to my list of tasks.

Karin

Edge to Edge Design On Sit Down Longarm

Working on finishing my 'Block Quilt'.

This is a new pattern for my Etsy shop. Will have the write up done in the next couple of weeks. Basically I constructed this one to again try an edge to edge design on my sitdown longarm. So once basted and secured around the edges, I was looking for a design.

First though I did some serious thread testing. I have got this variegated Superior Fantastico (40wt) thread and for the life of me I was going to use this on this quilt. Had some problems with this thread in the past and was determined to work out what this thread needed in the bobbin.

This is what that looked like...did little samples for days!

Problem also was that I have a purple backing...duh, did not think about thread colour  when putting this together. Usually people use Bottom Line in the bobbin for Fantastico thread. I have some Bottom Line spools and one cone, but unfortunately all in white to beige tones, so this was not going to be an option. Had read somewhere that it is good to pair a more grippy thread in the bobbin with polyester on top. Tried a purple Rasant thread but somehow I had some fuzzy stitching on the back. Not necessarily bad tension but some fuzzy stitches (as if the needle was damaging the fabric). Next I fiddled with Aurifil 50/2 in a grey colour...that could work but still had some fuzzy stitching here and there. Tried So fine thread and that worked very well. The strange fuzziness on the back disappeared mostly, however only had that in a sort of tan colour. In the end, I ended up using the grey Aurifil colour and with some fine tuning, including going to a different needle,  got the tension not perfect but way better than in previous attempts.

 

In the end I chose the same edge to edge design that I did about two months ago...Daisy Dotz#2 from Urban Elementz. Just love that one and thought it would be a good exercise to do it again (anyway that was my excuse).

Starting off...

I am using Golden Threads paper...drew the design with a blue water erasable pen on it and attached it with sticky glue dots which you can get in a stationary shop. That works like a treat. The glue dots adhere very easily to the paper and you can just stick this on your fabric. No residue...they pull off easily as you pull off the paper. Will also try to pre-stitch this design to make multiple copies in one hit as was suggested by a reader when I did this last time, as the tracing does get tedious as you go along.

Absolutely love doing this

The design is not too arduous in terms off getting the paper bits off and looks great. Wondering whether this might be a bit much in terms of looking a tad busy as this is not exactly a calming quilt. However, now I am committed and will just run with it. Remembered that I was thinking exactly the same when I did this design on another quilt.

Karin

New Pattern - The Traffic Jam Quilt

Not sure how exactly this title came about, but it stuck.

This is my new pattern available in my Etsy Shop in two different sizes, i.e. crib/baby quilt size (40.5in x 50.5in) and lap quilt size (50.5in x 60.5in). I took my time with this as I always test the patterns myself, so I can be assured that my instructions are correct and easy to follow. The quilt itself comes together very quickly and could be done in a few days. It is extremely beginner friendly using strip-piecing as the main technique.

While the pattern is easy to do you could also end up with an entirely different looking quilt if you vary the placements of colours which I always find fascinating, like for example in this variation:

With that being done, I am already working on another pattern that includes the old time favourite 'the stretched star' arrangement. Bit excited about that one, ready to wash my fabric, got another Accuquilt die to speed things up, now let's see how long that will take!

Karin

And The Year Comes To A Close

Unbelievable...how fast did this year go!

I finally managed to write up my latest pattern. Had been talking about it for most of the latter part of the year, but just have been too lazy. I was going to upload it to Craftsy early December...good thing I did not, as Craftsy send out an email mid-December about closing a whole lot of shops on their website to re-vamp the site. The cut off date was the 28th December! Needless to say that left a lot of people unimpressed.
I retained my little Craftsy shop however they scaled it down to 2 patterns. All I managed to do was to get some of the images off the website as I was busy with Christmas. All in all there are 5 patterns that are no longer on the Craftsy site.

So, I set up shop on Etsy...you can find the link to my humble beginnings HERE. I already had started that process prior to December, so for the new pattern I just had to actually write it up and upload. Still got a bit more work to do on the Etsy site...any feedback/comments welcome.

This is it...tada...the new pattern 'Bright Baby Quilt'

Original Colourway

...and here is a close up of the latest version with my ruler handiwork

Alternate Colourway

I love this pattern and already planning on another one using more of Anne Kelle's cute Urban Zoologie fabric, this time 'Mini Cats'. This pattern is strangely addictive.

Very happy that I got my pattern up in 2018 as I had promised myself to do!

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year.

Karin