Quilts Do Talk!

I made a start on my Scrappy Houses quilt. I pieced this during lockdown and had everything prepared, even the binding. First I needed to cut my pieced backing to size.

Pin-basted for a good half day to preserve my back taking it real easy.

Thinking I was going to do either an edge-to-edge or an overall design, I spent some time machine basting the whole thing to get rid of all the pins in preparation for this. I used a fairly thin (Warm & Natural) batting for a bit of a change and while I was machine basting  I was really quite taken with its flatness. Funny enough I machine basted it in a grid when normally I would have just noodled all over it, so I think my head was already going into a different direction.

This quilt is for us...for next winter in front of the TV. I need this to be well quilted, but pliable and soft at the same time. As I was stitching along I was actually quite taken with how marvelously straight everything was (not the usual for me) and started thinking about the quilting process. Doing an allover design would work great on a scrappy quilt however could also mean that some of my sashings would not appear as straight due to going over at different angles and through some of the pushing and shoving that occurs going through the throat space of the sit down machine. 

Also remembered that some of our well used quilts from years ago when I was just starting off and did mainly overall meanders showed some weakness around the seams in the borders as I did not ditch them. I could, of course, ditch around major seams and then do an allover design...but doubt had set in. I really quite liked the strong geometric look.

Then I looked at my houses...they just look great and I thought that they maybe should be brought out more.

Long story short...this quilt was screaming at me to be quilted in the ditch! So I am thinking that I will SID around the major seams and houses and then do some loose background fill around the houses in each block to bring them out more. Probably will leave sashings blank but put some sort of geometric design in the border. Again, it will have to be something simple, so the whole thing does not get too stiff. Or maybe a more organic border design...I have got some nice designs in the many books and resources that are floating around (which I re-discovered during my recent clean-up of the sewing room). 

So what started out as ‘let’s just quickly finish this’ will take considerably longer, however I am actually quite excited about this. Should be good fun.

Karin

New Machine

Well, I've done it! I upgraded to the Bernina Q20. Originally I was going to look at the new Q16 but then I saw the Q20 and thought that I might regret not getting the longer machine. 20in throat space which is really quite big and very nice to work with.

And here she is

I have never owned a Bernina machine and was initially quite intimidated by the machine as I literally knew nothing about the interface ( I am a die hard Pfaff person). So, I sat down to practice...initially I did some practice samples to get used to the back kick and the steps I had to take to get it to do what I wanted it to do. After a few runs I got bored and thought it would be good to do a quilt from beginning to end.

I pulled out a baby panel that I had, pinned it and then basted over it with the machine and then set out to stitch around all the shapes. 

I did chose to do this with Inviafil thread...probably not the most clever choice as you start out! I had a bit of shredding of the thread until I figured out what needle to use. The Bernina uses domestic sewing machine needles and I must say, I am a bit rusty on my knowledge of the different size needles to be used for what. But we got there in the end. For the background quilting I chose Aurifil 50/2 Mako cotton thread and that went without a hitch. Practiced a lot with the stitch regulators at varying speeds and also did a fair amount in manual to just get a feel for it. Good fun!

Finished that little panel today. Got a bit carried away though...saw a video from Natalia Bonner the other day about a scalloped border and decided to give that a try while I was at it. 

Came out really nice and almost looks like applique. Quilting is a bit sloppy in parts as I experimented with speed and regulation, however that does not matter that much, still pretty cute.

After this, I sat down and did a thread sample, not that you can see any of the details. But I basically went along trying different threads, getting a bit of an idea how the tension behaves. That was quite valuable as I also tried a number of different colours from Aurifil. While most colours gave me a

similar tension, some of the colours gave me a completely different value, something that I had noted in the past from time to time. The reason for that I believe has to do with the dye of the thread, although today I also came across an off white colour that was completely different to any of the other spools. No idea why.

Next on the agenda is a 'real' quilt, i.e. my Scrappy House quilt that I finished during lockdown. I am thinking to do an edge-to-edge design on it, but we shall see...not sure whether that is do-able as it is not a small quilt and I remember doing this before on a baby quilt which was quite arduous. 

Karin

Re-organising Sewing Room Again!

Not a very interesting post, but it is time that I check in again. I am not quilting at all at the moment as I am planning to re-organise my sewing room. Somehow the set up that I have had for at least the last 3 years is just not working properly for me. I spent the last few days cleaning up and cleaning out. Amazing...all the little bits and pieces that I found! Not so amazing was the accumulation of dust and fluff just about everywhere.

Anyway, cleaned up my table in preparation to swap it over for a slightly smaller one...this one is  just too big for this room.

The white thing underneath is a very handy IKEA drawer unit where I keep all machine quilting related stuff. Unfortunately with it sitting under the table I frequently hit my knee on it as I am a bit boxed in through the shelf in my back. Finally had enough of that.

Then there is the sewing machine in its Horn table.

Does not look like much as it’s nicely folded up at the moment. When extended, it is quite big. Have been looking around for smaller sewing cabinets, however not really that thrilled with what I have come across. My sewing cabinet is great, so for the time being I will hold onto it and try to make it work.

Over the weekend I am going to shift everything around to see whether I can come up with a better layout. 

At the moment I am thinking to shift my sewing machine into the corner where the table is and place the blasted bookshelf on the other wall, together with a slightly smaller cutting table. 

Wish me luck...this is going to be very interesting.

On a positive note, given I am not quilting at the moment, the house has never looked cleaner...have done all the floors, the washing plus the folding, cleaned some windows...will have to stop this as it is becoming increasingly obvious where  and on what I usually spent my time on 😆😜

Karin

9 Patchalong Finished

I have been largely missing in action. Had some problems with my machine which put me a bit behind.

Have not kept up with Tuesdays either for the To Do List Linky or the the Longarm Learning Linky that I usually participate in.

Anyway, got sort of back on track and just made sure that I kept up with my blocks for Natalia Bonner's 9 Patchalong. Did some more work on it on the weekend and finished off the last block today.

These designs look so easy but some of them were quite challenging as my quilt had started to compact a fair bit and trying to align the ruler got just that little bit harder. Put piano keys around the border which I usually love doing but  when it was finished I thought that this was a bit of a fail. Looks all too uniform as my loops are also about half inch apart. Would have been better to insert an additional 1/8in of a line in between but now I am just not feeling it anymore and decided that this is finished. Will be a good reminder to pay some attention to this in the future.

This stitchalong was really good fun and I did enjoy having to stain my brain to follow the stitching paths for the blocks that Natalia demonstrated in her various videos. Felt in the end that I was getting better at this but I guarantee you that next time I will equally struggle to work out a stitch path. 

I decided to participate in Natalia's next quiltalong 'Let's stitch a year of stars which begins at the beginning of the new year. Purchased her piecing workbook, selected some fabric and now need to sit down and actually construct the blocks. This will take me a while, but hopefully I can knock this off over the next few months.

Linking up to Rebecca Grace Quilting to participate in the weekly Longarm Learning Party

 

Rebecca Grace Quilting

Also linking up to Free Motion Mavericks (hosted by Muv of Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing and Andree of Quilting and Learning - What a Combo) who celebrate their 300th Linky Party.

Karin

To Do Tuesday #58 & Weekly Progress Update

So, what have I achieved for the week

1. Natalia Bonner’s 9 Patchalong.✅ 

Managed to keep up and even almost finished the border

Block 3 and 4 done

2. Make another few cat blocks ✅

3. Work on a new pattern ❌

4. Prepare fabric for piecing Natalia's Bonner's Star Sampler for the Let's Stitch a Year of Stars which is starting in January 2021✅

Not too bad, considering we had some major upheaval around our place this week with the construction of a major retaining wall.

For the week 15 September to 22 September, I am planning to:

1. Continue with Natalia Bonner's 9 Patchalong, i.e. Block 4 & 5 and maybe complete the border

2. Continue with piecing the cat blocks, maybe another 2 blocks

3. Start piecing at least one block of Natalia's Bonner's Star Sampler for the Let's Stitch a Year of Stars

4. Work on the new pattern, i.e. clean up design in EQ8 program

Linking up to To Do Tuesday #58 over at Home Sewn By Us

Karin

More 9 Patch Ruler Work

Block 3 and 4 of Natalia Bonner's 9 Patchalong

This one was a beauty...continuous line design, always looks great. Of course, mine was not entirely continuous as I got confused. I am certainly learning a lot in terms of thinking through your stitching path before you actually have a go. I made myself a little folder on the Ipad with these blocks and an accompanying stitching diagram, because no doubt, next time I look at it, I will have forgotten how it goes. 

My accuracy is definitely improving and I am finding the ruler work increasingly easier. The stitch regulator on the Capri is a big help as I can focus in on the stitching without having to worry about the stitch length. 

The next block was interesting

Lots of straight lines and again some concentration was needed to follow that stitching path to make it a continuous design. Easy to execute and looks also good when only stitched in one direction.

Today then I tackled the border. Followed Natalia's suggestion of stitching a loopy design above the scallops, however then encased this with a wiggly design (Natalia cut her border off past the loopy design which I did not want to do). I used the HQ Wiggle Wave ruler for this exercise

This ruler is fast becoming my favourite wave ruler. 

The ruler makes it very easy to fit your waves into the border. All I did was measure my border and determined how many repeats I will fit into the border. On the long side I was out by half the repeat. If you look on the ruler, half of the length would have ended me up on a high point in the corner which I did not want, as I started on a low point. In order to end on a low point and make the corners look the same, I then needed to reduce my waves by 3/4in across the length of the border. I normally struggle with this when drawing out a border, but with this ruler I find it is quite easy as long as you keep track of what you are doing. So, as I am stitching along the wave and stop in the valley or a  high point, I shift the ruler by about 1/4in to elongate the curve, 3 times before the center and 3 times after the center. Without fail this works a treat and I arrived smack bang at a low point in the corner, making my corners appear identical. The only marking I did was an approximate position of the repeats so I knew I was on track as I was stitching along. I could, of course, have chosen a different starting point for the corner, however I thought it was safer to start at the beginning of the repeat as I get easily confused with these things. Maybe next time I try a differently shaped corner by starting on a high point or somewhere in between.
 Anyway, more ruler work coming up in the border. I am thinking of going around it one more time with a piano key design...not sure yet what width though or maybe a pinstripe arrangement. We'll see.

Thoroughly enjoying this quilt along.

Linking up to Cheeky Cognoscenti's Longarm Learning Linky Party.

Karin

To Do Tuesday#57

First time participating in the To-do-Tuesday Linky Party over at Home Sewn By Us. Have been wanting to do this for a few weeks but keep missing Tuesdays all the time. Seems to come along too quickly.

For the week 7th September to 14 September I would like to work on:

1. Natalia Bonner’s 9 Patchalong. 

She is releasing two videos per week and I need to be on the ball to keep up. This week I stitched 2 of the blocks, but have heaps more to go...need to finish the filling of the sashings and the borders as I go along. This is good fun and I am learning heaps, particularly as I am stitching along on my new HQ Capri with the stitch regulator.

Block 2

2. Make another few cat blocks

Started spontaneously on another project...the 'Kitten' quilt from Elizabeth Hartman. Got super excited as I am making a brownish type quilt with fabrics that I have had in my stash for a while, always looking for that right project. The project is all cut out, its just a matter of getting going on the piecing.

This quilt will feature our two cats, Abby and Pixie (Abby featured above) 

So, for this week I would like to at least get a Pixie block done

3. Work on a new pattern

Have designed a new pattern for my pattern shop. This has been sitting on my computer for at least the last 6 months. Need to actually do it! Maybe this week I could finalise the design on EQ8 and select the fabric (let’s keep it real, there is no way I am actually going to make a start on piecing this).

4. Prepare fabric for piecing Natalia's Bonner's Star Sampler for the Let's Stitch a Year of Stars which is starting in January 2021

I think this is enough for just one week. Hopefully this will give me a structure to work to and get me a bit more structured throughout the week.

Linking up with Home Sewn By Us for the To Do Tuesday Linky #57

Karin