Machine Cover Project

Have been a bit tardy in keeping up with my blog and several other things this week, but did manage to work on something!

It's been more than 3 years since I have had my Bernina Q20. I never bought or made a cover but just always covered it with a very thin white sheet to keep the dust of when not in use.                          

 

The machine sits in the spare bedroom which is also now the bedroom for our cat. Recently I noticed that the cat had a swipe at it over the front panel, possibly going for the white sheet just hanging over. Lucky for me, the claws were trimmed and it did not leave a scratch but you could see a white faint mark from the trimmed nail. That came off, no problem, but I thought it was time to tackle the cover for the machine.

You can buy a cover, however that is quite expensive. Similarly, Amanda Murphy offers a written pattern which looks quite involved. In the Bernina FB group there are two patterns that generous quilters have put up there that one can follow and people have made the most fanciful covers. Just amazing! Over the years I have looked at that, but always shied away from it as it involves a zipper.

Anyway, I have started my cover having a bit of fun with it. Initially I thought that I just will make a box with an opening for the thread mast, but now have also bought a zipper. We shall see whether that works for me or not. If it does not work for me I can still just sew it together as a box.

This is pretty rough...I did not piece this, but just appliqued the piece of fabric on top, zoomed around it and presto! This is a piece of fabric I had left over from my recent bag making adventure. Just love those cats! In terms of quilting I kept it simple. I used double batting (wool and cotton) to make it more sturdy and just did the simple grid. The loft was unbelievable and going over that with the ruler was precarious as I did not even baste the piece beforehand. Learned my lesson and basted my second panel which made it much easier to quilt (less distortion as I went along).

Currently doing the top parts and when that is finished  I will trim the panels to size. And then comes the zipper. Should be interesting, to say the least, as the zipper has to come from the top to the bottom creating a corner.

Hopefully this will work out as it took ages to do the grids. Mind you I am hopeful that I will get some sort of cover out of this.

Karin

Playing with Rulers

I like to push the boundaries a bit with my sitdown longarm, i.e. see what else I can do on there and how difficult (or not) is it to push my quilt through the machine with the latest ideas I have. Given that I have a draw full of rulers I am always looking for new ideas to use my rulers to complete allover designs.

I recently picked up a panel quilt from the charity group I am involved in. The panel is "Elsa" from Frozen. The quilt is a little bit bigger than the usual baby quilt and measures approx. 47in x 55in. In the past I have often finished those types of quilts with clamshells using the HQ Clamshell ruler. Fun to do and relatively quick. For this one though that would have been too small and I needed another idea. Looked through my draw and decided to use one of Amanda Murphy's circle rulers to do a big Orange Peel design over the quilt.

I picked the 7in circle and started...literally regretted my choice straight away. The 7in ruler fits my whole hand. Thinking I would just go around and around I thought that this would be quick and easy. Wrong! The ruler shifted of course with the movement of the quilt. As you have to backtrack over one part of the circle as you move along that became quite difficult, particularly starting off with the batting making everything more wobbly and moveable. I struggled big time...

Solution: those little rubbery draw liners. Cut myself two pieces off and placed them under the ruler for every circle I did.

So much for quickly quilting this out, but at least my backtracking worked out nicely. The size of the ruler made it challenging to move along, but as I now was committed to finishing this off, I had to think this through a bit better. An added challenge was the wool batting. It does give you a fair amount of loft, so I had to concentrate and go slowly to ensure my hopping foot stayed on the side of the ruler. The way I quilted around the ruler involved shifting my hands constantly to hold the ruler next to the foot steady while at the same time adjusting the quilt a number of times as it was always shifting sideways as I went around the ruler. All this while holding the ruler in exactly the same place to get the backtracking right.

Must say I was not confident that this would work. A few rows in I measured where I was up to in relation to the bottom edge. I was pretty sure that my circles were not straight across and that I had lost my way. To my surprise I was spot on...same distance on both sides. This was encouraging!

Gave it a bit of a visual...not too bad. Not perfect by any means but overall looked quite good. Every now and then the shape in the middle of the circle looked a bit off center but that had to do with me not always hitting the exact point where the circles meet. I let go of worrying about that because there was just too much going on in terms of stitching, holding the quilt, avoiding drag and keeping the ruler steady.

Stitching along...

As per usual half way through I turned the quilt around and quilted the circles towards me. Struggled with the drag of the quilt at that point and also thought that my circles were really going out of alignment. Turning the quilt at that point is always good as you now pushing it in the opposite direction and those inaccuracies are starting to disappear.

Was very curious how I would go approaching the top of the quilt and prepared myself for an uneven finish. But, lo and behold...more or less finished evenly across the top. That was a bit surprising seeing the pushing and shoving I had to do... 

Took the basting out and had a close look but cannot take a photo at the moment as it is evening over here and the shots would come out too dark. Will post a shot of the finished quilt in another post. 

Overall happy with my efforts...looks fairly consistent even though my circles shifted slightly to the left but I don't think that that is noticeable once the binding is on as it is only by about a quarter inch.

Might try this again on a smaller quilt using the smaller 5in circle.

 

Karin

Festival of Quilts 2024

I had the bestest time at the show! The atmosphere was great, the vendor hall so very tempting and on top of that I had the biggest surprise on the day.

As my readers would know (I talked about this for weeks on end) I entered my wholecloth quilt into the show. I have entered quilts before in the show and was familiar with the process. Normally if you win an award you do get a phone call a few days before to attend the award presentation. Well, I did not get a phone call so told everyone in the family that I did not win an award this year. Went to the show on the Friday to take some photos of my quilt and spent some money in the vendor hall. Had a fabulous time and was just at the Wonderfil stand when a friend texted me from the show grounds congratulating me!!! She sent a photo of my quilt. I was absolutely stunned and somewhat gobsmacked. Had not looked at the display as yet and actually went over to have a look. 

Won two awards: First place in my category which was 'Other Techniques' and also a Special Award for Excellence in Machine Quilting. Made my day...I am so very pleased with this.

Apparently somebody forgot to ring for this category. Bit of a pity that I did not get to the award presentation, but realistically I could have gone of course even if I did not win, however it was a rainy and very cold evening so I did do some knitting instead.

So finally I can share some process photos which I have been waiting for:

Finished project: can honestly say that this is probably the first time I was really happy with every aspect of my workmanship (...and this is big for me, does not happen that often!)

The centre motif: stitched with a combination of rulers, freehand and also used one of Cindy Needham's stencils (rope) for the inner border.

Lots of feather arrangements

Amish Curling Feather border: put the learnings from one of Bethanne Nemesh' workshop ( I think it was called Feather Fiesta) into practice

Lots of texture: chose to do mainly tiny lines in the background. While the main elements were stitched with Aurifil 50/2 thread I did use 100wt Invisafil thread of the same colour to totally flatten the background. Included a little bit of a microstipple in the feather centers, however that was tedious and very heavy-going on the eyes. 

I am so glad I finished this. This was a design that I started back in 2018 when I did a workshop with Cindy Needham. Was so enthused in her class that I drew up an entire wholecloth in the class. I was going to stitch this out but as the design needed several tidy ups never quite got around to it. Over the years then I altered the design several times...never quite happy with it until last year when I finally had enough and spent the time to finalise the design.

Well, onto the next project...

Karin

Another Tote Bag - to Do Tuesday #79

This is what I was supposed to be doing last week:

- finalise my quilt show entry ...only need to put a cover on the label, prepare my bag and that's it!)

- finish the quilting-in-the-ditch on my background filler project

- continue to knit in the evenings ( currently trialing a raglan jumper and also need to make a start on a second sock)

- keep looking at my Etsy shop until the pressure becomes so great that I will actually start on a new pattern.

Well, have not done a lot of this other then getting my quilt show entry ready. Instead I tidied up my sewing room a bit (always dangerous) and found this

The cool cat fabric...bought at a quilt show, I cannot even remember how long ago. Had just enough for two panels and with that I got side tracked into making another bag.

I used an old pattern from Rebecca Mae Designs called the Victoria Tote bag. I made this bag several times already over the years for myself and also my daughters. The bag is just so useful...just the right size to carry all the essentials, with a zippered pocket to put your phone or the house keys in and it holds your water bottle comfortably as well. Always liked this bag and have used mine a lot. So rather than looking for a new pattern I used this tried and trusted pattern again.

Turned out lovely

Nice and sturdy. Would have been great if I would have had more fabric to match the cats up on each side, but I only had two identical panels, so the sides do not match. Still is fun to look at and I actually used the fabric for what it was intended for.

For the remainder of the week I will put down only one task because next week is the quilt show week and I know that I will not be doing much.

In the meantime I will try to finish off my stitching in the ditch on my background filler project. Almost done, only a few more lines to go and then the fun of Freemotion will start in earnest.

Linking up to To Do Tuesday #79 over at Quilt Schmilt.

Karin

Quilting With Invisafil - To Do Tuesday #78

Last week I planned for:

- to sew up a cover for my label for the wholecloth and also prepare the hanging sleeve✅

- maybe make a start on my next background filler project✅

- seriously look at a new pattern for my Etsy shop (which I have neglected over the last few months). - Well, I did look at it, but that's about all!

I started on my background filler project with the rather tedious task of quilting in the ditch. As this is an improvisational piece the quilting in the ditch has to be done largely freehand. A definite skill to practice! I am using Invisafil 100wt from Wonderfil Threads for the most invisible stitch in the ditch Using three different colours:

Antique White on the left, Orange (in the background) and Nude on the right (Yep, started another thread collection). I could have used just the nude colour...this would have blended nicely with everything as Invisafil does blend into the colour you are quilting, but given that I had the other colours as well, I used them for the most invisible finish.

Many people find Invisafil fiddly. Must say I don't...I have my tension on the lower end (on the Bernina Q20 on 2.25), use Decobob prewounds (80wt) in the bobbin and go in manual mode rather slowly. Never had any issues with that.

The thread just sinks in and virtually becomes not noticeable. Gives a really nice finish. Also made use of my new foot, the 72 S...a ruler foot with a slit, so you can switch between sewing feet if you need to without cutting your thread. Actually forgot that I got this...I have a couple of straight lines in this piece and only remembered when I was about to change the foot. 

So, I am working away at this, hoping that I can start the freemotionquilting some time next week.

For the remainder of the week I am going to

- finalise my quilt show entry ...only need to put a cover on the label, prepare my bag and that's it!)

- finish the quilting-in-the-ditch on my background filler project

- continue to knit in the evenings ( currently trialing a raglan jumper and also need to make a start on a second sock)

- keep looking at my Etsy shop until the pressure becomes so great that I will actually start on a new pattern.

Linking up to To Do Tuesday #78 over a Quilt Schmilt.

Happy Quilting

Karin

The Nude Quilt

Finished the quilting on another charity quilt which I ended up calling 'The Nude Quilt'. It is an exceptionally well made quilt top...the seams mainly line up and the maker has taken great care in painstakingly cutting out a motif to put into the corner stones for the sashing. Those little corner stones are just 1-1/2in squares, so that would have taken a lot of patience to cut out. The motifs then re-appear in the striking border. 

The corners are neatly mitered. Love the muted colouring of this quilt and am assuming that the fabrics are quite old. Love doing these charity quilts. When I am quilting these, I am always wondering who made this, for what purpose...was it meant to be a gift or did somebody just love the colours of the fabric.

Anyway, initially I was going to do some ruler work in the charm squares, however then decided that this quilt would look best if I just ditched it. It is wonderfully flat and having just stitched in the ditch lets the fabric choices shine. I decided that this is what the maker must have had in mind.

See those little corner stones...too cute! Like little diamonds all over the quilt.

I have not done stitching -in-the-ditch for a while and thought I practice cutting my thread tails off rather than burying them. Well, that did not work for me...I did cut a few off but went straight back to burying my threads. Not that it does not work...it does, I just find it really difficult to trust that and straight away fall back into burying those threads.

A little bit about my machine. I am stitching on a Bernina Q20 and was reminded the other day that some people might find it useful to read about the settings and how I use this machine.

I stitched in the ditch with my favourite ditch ruler from Handiquilter (the right one in the photo below)

I like it because it has the quarter inch notch on both sides, so I can easily switch between stitching on top of the seam or next to it which is handy when you are stitching down a quilt and the ditch side of the seams of each block alternate as you go down the quilt.

In terms of settings, I do all my ruler work in BSR2 (which is the Precision Mode on HQ), i.e. the needle stops moving when I stop moving the fabric in contrast to BSR1 where the needle keeps going when you stop moving the fabric. Find that just a bit precarious with a ruler next to the needle.

For this quilt I had just the right coloured thread, in fact it was a perfect match with the red of the sashing.

It is one of the small Aurifil spools that I acquired a long time ago when I was still stitching on the DSM. I have a side spool for the machine, however the thread is wound crosswise, so I put it on the top as per normal and it worked just fine. No problem at all.

Also used a different thread in the bobbin as the backing was multi-coloured. Chose a soft pink that just sunk into the fabric. Had no pokies either top or bottom as both threads were Aurifil 50/2 weight. With a little bit of care when setting the bobbin and top tension you can absolutely avoid pokies. The domestic sewing machine needles that this machine uses of course helps with that. I stitched this with an 80/12 Jeans needle. Strong needle with a fine point and good to use when you quilt with some speed.

What next for me?

Missed out on the To Do Tuesday Link Up again for 2 weeks, I think. Since then I finished my wholecloth and am currently preparing it for the show. Will show photos of the wholecloth in July once the show is happening as my entry is a juried one so you cannot have photos of it circulating. Am I happy with it? I am, however it does look rather plain so not sure how it will go. Always interesting at quilt shows...you must be interested in FMQ to recognise the amount of work and effort that goes into a wholecloth even a seemingly plain one.

For the week ahead I am planning

- to sew up a cover for my label for the wholecloth and also prepare the hanging sleeve

- maybe make a start on my next background filler project

- seriously look at a new pattern for my Etsy shop (which I have neglected over the last few months).

Linking up to To Do Tuesday #77To Do Tuesday #77 over at Quilt Schmilt

Happy Quilting

 Karin

Basting on the Q20

I love basting on the Q20 and have been using this function extensively.

One of the things I find extraordinarily useful is the programming that is possible for the Q20. It has five slots to occupy for different thread combinations that you use all the time. 

Here are the ones that I use most with Gutermann highlighted as I put this in as a new preset. Feeling a bit frugal at the moment and decided to use some of my older threads to baste my quilts to use them up. So I decided to use the old Gutermann thread. Must admit I am not one to believe that my machine loves a particular thread like I so often read in the various quilting groups. To me it is a machine and it needs to handle whatever I throw at it from very fine 100wt Invisafil thread to the more robust 40 TEX Rasant thread. Opening the slots will show you the settings that you have set, i.e. the setting for each of the modes (BSR1 - 3 plus Manual mode. With a bit of adjustment and tweaking I set up my machine for Gutermann thread the other day so that when I come to do some basting next time I only will need to hit the program button to select Gutermann and it will set itself to the settings that I have selected. Very handy! The only thing that has happened to me from time to time is that I forget to switch programs and for example quilt with Aurifil 50/2 thread at a setting for Rasant. 

I have a short video on how to baste on the Q20 on Pinterest if you are interested. Basically I just meander over the entire quilt stitching (carefully) around my pins and taking them out as I go along. I do use a highly visible colour in order to prevent accidentally ripping into my quilting when I take the basting stitch out. The basting has 3 different options on the machine, 1in,2in and 1/4in. I use the 1/2in option for the overall meander and the 1/4in feature to secure the edges of the quilt.

For my current quilt, which is a gorgeous little quilt from the Orange Tree Quilters charity group, I used a lime green thread instead of my usual red thread as there is a lot of red colour in the quilt.

The basting is very quick, in fact this was so easy to complete I basted another one of my quilts straight after. Once basted I can leave the quilt sitting around until I am ready to do the quilting. Nothing will move, the basting keeps everything nicely secured.

Another background quilting project coming up for which I will use Invisafil thread.

Felt very frugal this week as I also stitched some batting together to make one bigger piece for another quilt. Had lots of little leftovers though and spent some time to sew them all together. Made quite a sizable piece.

This will be for practice only as I sewed them together fairly roughly and also did not concern myself too much with the different quality of the batting. It's amazing though how much you can save by just sewing strips together. This will give me two decently sized practice bits.

Happy quilting!

Karin