UFO Sunday #9

I did a lot of work last Sunday on my little crazy wall hanging.

In retrospect, the idea of the panel was great, but next time,  I will look at the size of the motifs a bit more closely because this panel is very small, hence outlining these tiny bitses was a bit of a hassle. Mind you, I will never again feel reluctant to outline anything after having gone around tiny cat ears and teeny-weeny birds.

I continued to outline the major bits and then started to microstipple around the shapes. Seriously, I think my stipple is more of a nanostipple it is that tiny...and all this with white thread on a white background, enough to drive you insane. However it got done and not a line crossed (ha, ha...). I can be absolutely assured that this thing will never become undone, ever. Don't know whether you can see it, I even outlined the tiny nine patch block pictures...it was hard to stop after a while. How great is the wool batting. The cats just about jump out of the panel.



Microstippling

With that done I tackled the house because this was seriously puffed out. Not wanting to nanostipple again I just followed the bricks and the windows...a bit untidy because it is so small, but never mind, it got the job done.

Then the border...decided to stick with my idea of the loops and worked some stars into it...all on a bit of a smaller scale. I chose this as I don't find loops that easy if I have to fill an area with them. The design always looks so easy-going but is actually quite tricky because it sends you in a certain direction, so you always have to think ahead. And well, the stars...I have struggled with them in the past  but after the first few on this border I got the hang of it. Bit wobbly, but adds some charm to it, I reckon. I did this in variegated thread which had the added advantage of allowing me to place the stars at pretty regular intervals...just had to wait for the colour change.

 

And tada...did the binding over the week...here it is, all finished.

Cat Wall hanging 18" x 22.5"

Had a few anxious moments as I could not remember whether I had washed the fabric beforehand. I carefully wet the edges before I washed it...Yep, must have washed the fabric beforehand...no colour runs, not even a hint. Dried it a bit, then blocked it and managed to square it off pretty well (mind you, it is so tight, there was not a lot of 'give' in there).
 

After I had done all this, I actually remembered that I have two more panels sitting amongst my fabric stash...totally forgotten about them. One small lighthouse, similar in size to this and one big panel with lots of blocks printed on it...here we go, should really finish them off. I reckon they have been sitting in there for at least two years. Should really be counted as UFOs as I had all good intentions to finish them quickly by just quilting over it.

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

Until next time

Karin

Quilt Along # 35 - Goldilocks

This week's homework on Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays  was the design Goldilocks which is an extension of the Flowing Lines design from last week. Leah demonstrated it in her sashings on the video in her post.

I could not use my sashings for that as they are only 2 inches wide and if I wanted to stipple in it, I would have had to microstipple and I decided that that would be too dense for the sashing. Hence I needed to do the design in one of the blocks which allowed some space for the design. Sorry, photos are not that good but I need to fill up some of the lighter colour squares by now (almost filled up my entire practice quilt - very exciting).

and the back

I'm afraid my design did turn out somewhat differently as I started to veer off to the side making this more of a filler design...this happened as my square started to dangerously puff out on one side (due to some pulling on my part, I think). Hence, I needed to severely flatten this to avoid serious puckers.  Got away with it and then stippled the other side half way down to match it a bit. Looks quite alright. I reckon this could look quite nice in a border but wonder how you would stitch that at the bottom...

Question: If you were to stitch the design in the border would you stitch off the border into the batting travelling to the next point to re-enter your border...would this work?

Linking up to Quilt Along #35 on the Freemotion Quilting Project.

Until next time

Karin

UFO Sunday #8

Thanks to Leah Day for answering my question re the amount/density of quilting on my little 'cat' wall hanging on Question Thursday #35 on the Freemotion Quilting Project. That was very helpful, particularly re the need to quilt the border a bit more densely. I was wondering about that...now it is just a matter of working out what design to choose.

I did make a start earlier in the week and microstippled the area around the house and yes, the sun (and moon) popped out nicely.

This took a while to do but was a great warm-up. I then outlined the cats underneath it...not sure whether I will leave it like that or whether I might do a bit more on that area, but I thought it needed some variation, rather than microstippling every single area.

Next, I pondered over the cats above the house and finally came up with this

 

 

Here is a bit of a close-up

I did not want to microstipple again and thought I just follow the wood grain lines...now those cats just about jump out of the wall hanging. Great 3D effect with the wool batting. This is also a design Cindy Needham had demonstrated on the  SewCalGal Freemotion Quilting Challenge during June. I had not tried this before and must say, what a great way to flatten an area quickly and effectively (yes, I am a bit of a lazy quilter). Like Leah had suggested I outlined the cats and heart first then started the lines in the left hand corner moving one by one across each section, i.e next to the left cat first, then moving on to the section between the heart and the cat from top to bottom and up again the other side making my way around to the other cat. Too easy...lines are not straight, I just followed the wood grain feature loosely and it looks great.

Also stitched out my motif again...not totally freehand. I wanted a stitched out decent sample of this, so I used Golden Threads paper with the motif drawn on it and stitched over it. I love doing that...the noise of the needle going into the paper provides an excellent rhythm to the stitching and I always produce very consistent stitches with the paper. Like it. No major problems with the sweeping curves and the feathers came out decent enough, just have to make up my mind whether I use the backtracking method or just backtrack across the top. Got a bit confused at times. If you can imagine this as a quarter of a motif this actually would look quite nice and there are several possibilities in orientating this. Also would work as a border motif with just two of them either up or down next to each other.

 

I am really enjoying just 'playing' around a bit with different things at the moment as usually I am under some self imposed pressure to work on a major project. This year has been good in that I have been able to truly concentrate on developing my skills in FMQ and to let go of the need to produce quilt after quilt. Mind you, I have spent last weekend washing a whole lot of fabric ready to start a quilt using the 'Sweet Gumleaf' block I was talking about last Sunday. This might be my major project for the next half year if the block works out.

Linking up to UFO Sunday on the Freemotion Quilting Project 


Until next time

Karin

Blockbase Sew Along # 1

This is the first block of the Blockbase Sew Along held over at the EQ blog 'Behind the Mouse'.

The block is called Seesaw and is #1336 from Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.

I made the block 8 inches square and kept the colouring to 4 different fabrics, making the centre light instead of a darker shade. The fabric is from a Jelly roll (30's Playtime, Chloe's Closet) from Moda fabrics that has just been sitting around here and I am hoping that I can use some of it for the upcoming blocks , substituting it with other pieces of fabric from my stash when I need bigger pieces.

I think this block turned out really pretty. Was really surprised by how the choice of fabric changed the look of the block.  Might have to do it again though as the first attempt turned out a bit wonky on the corners.

Have a look at the EQ blog site at all the different blocks

Until next time

Karin

Quilt Along # 34- Flowing Lines

It is Quilt Along # 34 on Leah Day's Quilt Along Wednesdays. This is the Flowing Lines design.

As I have sashings in my practice quilt I decided to give this design a go in the sashing. The design itself was not that difficult, however the stitching-in-the ditch was. Really struggled with going sideways in the ditch particularly on top of the sashing where I could not see properly. So overall my focus was on the stitching-in-the ditch and my flowing lines were not quite as wiggly as I would have liked them to be. I think as soon as I approached the ditch I would already tense up...did a fair bit of cheating with stops and starts and undoing wonky stitching, as some of the in-the ditch stiching was positively outrageous and it showed up like anything with the white thread.

Flowing Lines design

 

Some wider than originally intended gaps





Swirl design in inner border

Also did the swirl with hooks design in the inner border. Works like a dream and covers a lot of space very quickly. This inner border is 2 inches wide and the design seems to be particularly suited to this. Has just become my new favourite border design. You can find this design in Angela Walters book 'Free-Motion Quilting'.

Until next time

Karin

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