New Listing In Etsy Shop

Finally finished that little pastel quilt and put it up as a new listing in my Etsy shop.

The colouring of this quilt was an absolute bugger to photograph...spent hours on that!

The quilt measures 35-3/4in x 44-1/2in and came out nice and soft. I used Minijumbuk Nu-Wool wadding which is 60%wool and 40%polyester. The overall line design was just right for it, giving it a soft, cuddly feel. 

Now it's on to the next pattern which is already waiting for me.

Karin

Progress on Pastel Quilt

Made some progress on the pastel quilt. Decided to also go through the diagonal of my curves, similar to how I do my Cathedral Windows. Love it!

...and a close up

Only got the binding left to do...

Karin

Another Little Project

I am really into 'clean up' mode lately. Found leftovers of a pastel quilt I made the year before last out of a Fat Quarter bundle called Foxglove Gardens by Leanne Beasley for Ella Blue fabrics. I made a baby quilt out of that with pretty pink birds on top...even used some of the Fat Quarters for a pieced backing and still had heaps of fabric left. So I cut myself a Charm Square stack and just sewed them together (still got fabric left!).

Colours look a bit dodgy in this photo...it does look better in real life.

Further trialled the Aurifil Monofilament thread for the ditch work...yep, no issues, performed very well for me. Did not break or do anything else weird, just easy sewing. Had my tension very low as before and used a simple thread net. For the bobbin I used Aurifil 50/2 thread. I am using a wool/poly batting so the squares puffed up nicely.

Today I finished the ditching and started on the ruler work. I am using Lisa Calle's Pro Echo ruler #12 for a bit of practice. It is a rather large ruler and initially I struggled to hold it tight. In fact, I realised that I have to stop half way down the curve to re-position my hands otherwise I loose the grip on the ruler ever so slightly and have inaccuracies on the point. While I sort of knew this I was initially being lazy and trying to go down the curve in one go...yep, definitely needed to slow down and re-position my hands as the ruler just gently slides sideways.

Love doing curves and absolutely love Lisa Calle's rulers. Might have to invest in the #10 one...might be easier to hold on a sit down machine. I initially bought #12 and #8 and given I loved them so much then invested in the small Pro Echo set (which goes up to #7), so I am missing a few curves in between. Use these curves all the time, particularly the smaller ones.

Not sure yet exactly where this is going to go in terms of quilting. The idea originally was to just do a simple line design over it and be done with it...we'll see where this will take me.

Karin

Plugging Along

Very hot over here today. Fur Baby is completely knocked out

I am currently working on three projects all at once. Why I would have thought that this is quicker I shall never know. Everything seems to be taking so much longer!

Natalia Bonner 'A Year of Stars' Quilt

Made good progress and then discovered that I did not have enough backing (or wadding for that matter)! So had to wait a moment until I got to the shops to get suitable backing, then wash it...finally ready to put it together

Will wait for the weather to cool down a bit before I baste this together, then start on the stitch-in-the-ditch quilting in order to catch up on the quiltalong.

Pastel Quilt

Also coming together and will probably finish this today. A bit undecided whether I should put some applique shapes on there. This is just for freemotion quilting as I have not had anything to quilt on for the last 3 weeks!

Incidentally, my Superior Monopoly thread cone arrived in the mail and I can report that the Bernina Q20 just runs beautifully with it ...had no issues at all.

Actually hardly had to make any adjustments at all other than loosening the top tension a bit. 

Initially was going to go for Aurifil Monofilament thread but could not find it anywhere in cone format in Australia. Will have to wait until we (hopefully) have some Quilt Shows again and see whether I can grab it then.

New Pattern

Almost done...will have all of the blocks finished this weekend and will just have to work out what dimensions I make the borders. Thinking of offering the pattern in multiple sizes...

Still a fair bit of work to do before this can go up in my little Etsy shop, but at least the piecing is almost over.

Still feeling incredibly productive 😄

Karin

2019 Finish-A-Long - First Finish

My first finish for the year - the Pastel Baby Quilt. 

You can find my list of proposed finishes for the 2019 Finish-A-Long in this post. 

Please visit Leanne's blog She Can Quilt for more information on the Finish-A-Long. You will find  detail on how this link up works and also find the list of bloggers who are hosting this great event. The Link up for the First Quarter Finishes is on April 10th.

This quilt was a surprise all around. I started this over Xmas for something 'mindless' to sew, so started to cut up the Fat Quarter bundle of Foxglove Gardens fabric by Leanne Beasley for Ella Blue fabrics. These are not my colours but I thought that they would look nice for just a quick little baby quilt. As things go, I then cut out a few birds with my Accuquilt Go cutter just for fun and appliqued them on the quilt top to jazz things up a bit.

As these pastels are very specific, I could not find a backing that I could use. The green in particular is a green-yellowish colour and it was clear that I was not going to find a good match. I finally decided to piece my backing together from the leftover fabrics...for this I watched Elizabeth Hartman's free Craftsy (now Bluprint) class 'Creative Quilt Backs' and with her fabulous guidance was able to piece all the bitses together. This was great...no measuring, minimal cutting and just like putting a puzzle together. And bonus...I finally 'got it'!

For the quilting I selected a dainty, cute design from Christine Maraccini's book 'Machine Quilting Solutions'...also a first. Had looked at that design many times, but was never quite game enough to try this for an allover design. However, this little quilt just needed that particular design.

Finished quilt measures 36.5in x 41.5in

Binding is a bit hard to see...I was able to find a striped binding with the exact pastel pink and green in it. Funny enough it also has some blue in it which is not in the quilt top, but it weirdly matched anyway.

The quilt is stitched on my HQ Sweet 16 with dusty pink Omni thread (40wt) both in top and bottom as I wanted the quilt to be reversible and the pattern to show both front and back.

Close up of the Cotton Blossom allover design

Nice texture and easy enough to stitch out, however you do need to be able to improvise a fair bit to fill in the empty space consistently. Overall I managed this quite well, but had to concentrate, stop and start and look ahead and around me to see where I missed spots. This design was great in that you could just swirl over to the spot that needed filling and then continue on your way.

Linking up to Quilting is more fun than housework Oh Scrap!

Karin

Pastel Baby Quilt Almost Done

I finished the quilting of my little baby quilt. I chose a dainty floral design that I had found in Christine Maraccini book 'Machine Quilting Solutions'.

Close up

Hard to see because of those pastel colours...looks better in real life! Now I only have to attach the binding and the first finish for the year is ticked off!

Karin

Floral FMQ Design

How many times do you sit starring at your quilt wondering what to quilt over it? And how many times do you think of a design, but then decide that it is too complicated, too time consuming or too risky to try?

Believe me, even if you are a more experienced freemotion quilter, that happens with every single quilt for me. 

I was looking at my pastel quilt and initially just wanted to quickly do a meander over it and be done with it. However, it did speak to me asking for something different, more dainty, floral and cutesy. Tried to ignore it, but kept coming back to it...

I have this really good book called 'Machine Quilting Solutions' by Christine Maraccini that has a number of beautiful designs in there. I like this book as Christine illustrates her designs on the one quilt in 3 different modes...the dragger (quilt that is going to get more than average use by being dragged around), the keepsake (special, but you don't want to spend too much time on it) and the showstopper (prized heirloom). Lots of leafy, floral and swirly designs...great resource with step-by-step illustrations.

Well, I ended up choosing the Cotton Blossom fill. It is absolutely perfect for this little quilt, but I was somewhat hesitant, as doing overall leafy fills are not as easy as they look. I nearly did not do it, fearing that I would stuff it up, not get it right, make it look awful etc...you know the drill!

Glad I persisted and overcame the voice of my inner quilt police...it actually does not matter greatly whether this turns out and with some concentration there is no reason why this should not work.

So, off I went...and it looks beautiful! I am trialling a different thread also...after having stitched with my trusted Aurifil thread for the last year or so to get used to the Handiquilter Sweet 16, I am finally ready to venture out a bit. I am using Superior Omni thread in a dusty pink colour. Have a whole cone of it that was part of the package when I bought the machine. I am using it in both bobbin and top (Needle size 16) because I want the quilting to show on the back of the quilt as well. To my surprise it worked like a dream...

Done about a quarter of it and yes, it is a bit challenging to keep the area consistently covered but I like the way this design complements the quilt. Should be interesting when it is all finished. Planning also on a striped binding to jazz this up a bit. 

Karin