UFO Sunday # 7

Another week gone...

Still working away on my Japanese Table runner, however had many distractions this week. As I am not working on any bigger project at the minute I have been free to just explore different things that tackle my fancy. We had the Australian Machine Quilting Show in town last weekend and I spent most of the afternoon there, coming home with a bag of goodies. Bought  another book... 'Dream Feathers by Peggy Holt' and have been drawing feathers all week and practising FMQ in general.

Karin's Swirly Freeform Feather

How cool is this. This is the final version of a drawing I started earlier in the week. All freehand...I am very impressed with this book, it seems to have made that final link for me in terms of putting feathers together. At first I was a bit sceptical as Peggy Holt talked a lot about coming up with your own versions of designs but before I knew it I had half a book full of different ideas...some good and some not so good. Main thing was they were all achievable and were tailor-made to what I like and find easiest. This is what I like about this book, you do not need to hunt around for that perfect motif, rather you can just make it up yourself making it fit into the specific space that you need to fill on a quilt.  I did stitch the drawing above and did the feathers freehand in a 4 inch space. Worked fine in the feathers without marking but realised I would need to draw in the base shape beforehand,  as this is just too long to stitch freehand without a wobble in it. Will keep going on this...

In terms of UFOs, here is the next one that needs completing



This a panel I stitched together into a wall hanging. I used it to try different decorative stitches of the machine and outlined the main parts just with the walking foot (yes, this has been sitting in the cupboard for a few years by now). The problem was that it left me with hundreds of threads to sew in and this took the fun out of it and it got left behind. Not sure what to do with it and even thought about chucking it...I used a wool batting for this and it is very puffy.

Maybe I should use it to practice FMQ in it. I could microstipple the background behind the house, outline some cats and birdhouses...the border has little stars in it, so I thought I could do a loopy line design with some stars in between.

Question:
- If I microstipple one area will I then have to heavily quilt all around it to make it even or could I just outline some of the cats for example in the next few sections. Not sure whether this would look odd with a heavily quilted section in between.

And what is this...yes, could not help myself...trialling a new block I found. It is from the EQ program Blockbase and is called Gumleaf

 

Here are 2 blocks sewn together out of scraps, forming one half of the very skinny star in the middle. Love this, just have to find a way to deal with the bulk of the seams where the three skinny points meet. This is foundation pieced, so comes out very accurate (I use very thin interfacing for the foundation rather than paper- this way it can be left in).

As you can see I am off in all sorts of directions at the moment. Should be interesting to see what I actually end up doing.

Linking up to Leah Day's UFO Sunday  later on.

Until next time

Karin

Quilt along #33

Still doing Paisley in Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays. This design is called Pointy Paisley.

Lots of backtracking and like the Snake Paisley I found that I had lots of very awkward spaces to fill.  Strange really, I did not seem to have the same problem with the Lava Paisley...somehow that sat better with my brain and flowed much more evenly.
I think in this sample I possibly went around the shapes too many times and the design gets lost a bit...I think I prefer it a little bit smaller and more defined. Never mind, good practice.

Also practised swirls with hooks while I was at it and was impressed. After a whole week of doodling the shape and trying to fill up areas I was able to translate this into my square without too much of a difficulty. Goes to show the power of doodling your design first...

My 'practice quilt is taking shape, only a few more squares left before I will have to go into the sashing

Until next time

Karin

UFO Sunday #6

In clean-up mode. The English Paper piecing project is finally finished. Cannot believe it!

Last photo, I promise...

19.5" x 34"

I then set about to make some labels on the computer. I am about 3 quilts behind in labels, so this took a while. Unfortunately I cannot show any completed labels as we have run out of one colour for the printer, so I will have to wait to print the labels out on fabric. Never mind, I felt pleased with my efforts.  This will enable me to finally send off my baby quilt to Germany...this has been long overdue and as I just heard the baby has arrived a little bit earlier than expected.

Apart from this I started cleaning up my EQ 7 program...I have hundred of quilt ideas on there and I decided that this is probably another one of those barriers in actually progressing with anything. At the moment I have about three different ideas in my head and struggle to decide what to actually begin with. So, I started to delete those quilts that will definitely never be made, categorised some others, and deleted a great many blocks in individual sections that I did not need anymore. Not finished as yet, but I am getting there. This has also been long overdue...


And finally, continued on my other table runner. As I have made this table runner before I am quite bored with it, so I decided to just finish it off with some simple outline quilting...I think the design is dramatic enough and any more fancy quilting would go under in it. Will include some FMQ in the inner border and maybe also in the outer border.

 Apart from this I have been doodling. Got obsessed with trying to master a swirly design with hooks. So for the last week I have been doodling this shape in meetings and on the phone, in the evenings...quite funny really. Definitely got it now...very happy with this as this design has eluded me for a while. Not so much the shape itself but the continuation of it and filling a whole area with it from left to right and back again. I can now do it in my sleep and have stitched it onto my practice quilt with no hassle at all.

 

Will be linking up with UFO Sunday on Leah Day's Freemotion Quilting Project a bit later on.

 

Until next time

 



Karin

Blockbase Sew Along

Another sew along....

The EQ blog Behind the Mouse is having a Blockbase Sew Along starting on 1 October.

Visit the blog on Monday, October 1 to find out which block they’ll be sewing first. On Friday, October 12, visit the blog again to post a picture of your finished block. New blocks will be posted every two weeks, on Mondays.

The only requirement is that you own the BlockBase software and have it installed on your computer so you can print the patterns for the blocks. Blocks can be done in any size.

Tempting, tempting....

I just got Blockbase, so this could be a good exercise to explore the program a bit more fully. Will think about this a bit more and have a look when the first block comes out.

Karin

Quilt Along #32 - Snake Paisley

This week's design at  Leah Days Quilt Along Wednesdays  was Snake Paisley. Felt a bit encouraged by Lava Paisley and went straight to it.

and close up of the back:

 

This was much harder than the Lava Paisley shape for me. I had to really concentrate on the curvy lines ...a bit reminiscent of the sharp stippling shape. The more I concentrated the more I got into trouble with very odd situations in between and lots of backtracking. Got there in the end though...will have to practice this to get a bit more of a flow happening.

Overall though really happy with my FMQ efforts...FMQ has become so much easier and as always learning a lot about what designs sit well with me and what designs appear to need a bit more re-wiring.  Funny also that some designs that I think will cause me great difficulty flow like a dream and then there are some, like today, which I thought would be no problem at all, cause all sorts of issues.


Until next time

Karin

UFO Sunday #5

This week was much better. I felt back in control and got started on quilting my English Paperpiecing WIP/UFO.  Doubts were put aside and I just pursued what I liked for this quilt top.

In the end, I decided on a grid which took me ages to work out, as it is an irregular grid across the quilt top, quilting 1/4 inch off the seams of selected 1 inch squares. The overall grid that emerges is about 2.5" X 3". While the rectangles should be true rectangles in a perfect world this grid is slightly uneven as I thought it was more important for the overall look to keep to the 1/4inch spacing approximately correct rather than stress with the measurements. This is not how a normal grid would be done however that was the only way that I could think of placing a grid over the hexagons where I would be able to avoid the seams. If this was perfectly pieced (which it is not) one could extend the grid and place 1/2inch lines on either side of the major lines in a different colour to make it a bit  more interesting, I thought. I did not do it because in the end I thought that this might really draw attention to some of the inaccuracies. Like this it is not noticeable , I think, unless you get a ruler out and measure it (which I, of course, did do). Measurements aside, I was really happy with the end result and then tackled the border design.

The grid:

Normally I FMQ my borders, just winging it around the corners, but for this little piece I wanted a more formal border. Found a nice continuous design in Quilting Dot to Dot by Cheryl Barnes, however could not make it fit within my border.

As you can see the design actually reverses around the corner. I made several copies on paper trying all sorts of ways to place this. In the end I drew the corner elements for the top border and then tried to link up the design in the middle....problem was that the design does not link up as it is coming towards the centre in a reversed way (angles are completely different). I then tried to come up with another way to combine this, putting another heart in, having it literally freestanding in the middle...all a bit odd.

In the end I came up with this after many hours of trying to put this together only to decide I did not like it that much (ha, ha...the trials and tribulations of quilting). Totally wrong design (what was I thinking?), I needed something more dainty. (Definitely keep my drawing though, this would look nice on a country quilt).

I definitely dislike working out and marking border designs...I am no good at it and I continually struggle with trying to make a design fit into a space. Actually this is the reason I originally started FMQ  as this allowed me to just stitch a border design free form in that space. I did mainly leafy type of designs and with time they became pretty consistent. The only problem is that it limits me to a few selected designs.

Anyway, found another stencil (which was adjustable) and this is the end result....

This was a great exercise in trying to follow straight lines. The thread on the photo looks white...it is actually dark rose (Gutermann 50/3) which will blend in more once all the chalk is removed from behind the thread.


















I am actually finished (almost)...cannot believe it!! Yep, while a bit frilly and old fashioned, I like it. In fact, if I had been better organised and planned out, this would have looked great with a scalloped border around it to match the stencil design. Never mind, I am thrilled to bits that I finished this...I was so out of my comfort zone with this. While I am actually not a great fan of hexagons, there is something about this I really like...and I do like the fabric.


Linking up to UFO Sunday on Leah Day's Freemotion Quilting Project.

Karin

Quilt Along #31 - Lava Paisley

This week on the Quilt Along Wednesdays with Leah Day we are sewing a design which is called Lava Paisley.

I have been doing a bit more FMQ practice this week and gave the design a go earlier (see earlier post). That actually was a lot of fun and while this is not a design that instantly appealed to me, I was amazed at how nice it turned out. I found it easier than the 'normal' Paisley design as it did not seem to matter whether or not one got the distances and wiggles exactly right...the design seemed to just flow and evolve.

Here is my completed square on my 'practice' quilt:

Bit all over the place and for once I am glad you cannot see the stitching close up...I was trialling the Mettler Polyester thread and don't think I got the tension quite right. However, this is the 'practice' quilt and therefore it will be good enough. This is as much a practicing piece as it is also an exercise in letting go of perfectionism. When I had a look at it from a bit of a distance I was actually amazed at how effective this looks, uneven stitches and all. This quilt will be one of a kind.

Linking up to Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays.

Until next time

Karin