Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

From our house to yours :)



Free Motion Quilting

Sophie's Quilt

Here is the practise top put together with the double cotton wadding.  Decided our small dog Sophie will benifit from this, as she loves to sit on quilts,  and doesn't have one of her own.

Will try out different threads to see which will look best, so its a bit experimental.  

I have drawn in a couple of borders to do some whatever there too.

I will use an aurofil thread on the back.

I may not post again till after Christmas - need to get some other things done for Christmas...and the apricots need to be picked as they of course all get ripe all at once...and the plums are ready to do the same thing!!

Andrea wants to try using the dehydrator  ( which hasnt been used for some years) - should be interesting.

Have a wonderful Christmas and I will catch up in the New Year.

May your holidays be safe and healthy ... and not too cold/hot.

 

Friday Night's Sew in

Friday Nights Sew In hosted by Heidi ....
Didnt get a great deal done,  but managed to get this practice piece done  for Friday Nights Sew In ..so I could do the flowers on the runner. ( now done) I now will sew these peices together and do some practise FMQ to see how the double wadding will work out.

Sewed up the appliqued flowers and ...MADE SOME STARCH!! - fist time.  I starched both the backing fabric and the top and have double layered the cotton wadding and it is on the table ready to baste.  I am not going to pin - I will hand sew the basting again...much as it gets hooked on the machine - It really is held together better.  At least I will give it another go......Lots of lovely spaces to FMQ - I think this will keep me going for a bit. Then I need to get some UFO's completed!

Not sure if I can get any done today..its now Saturday here, and I am out for a staff dinner tonight :) Still having a problem with blogger and putting the photos in a differednt spaces.

 'Scuse the mess in the background...at least the table got cleared LOL.

Have a great weekend.

Future FMQ

I was struck with a new idea during yesterday..... which resulted in a quick - so I thought , table runner  Here are some pics of what is done so far.  The top is all together, with lots of room for me to quilt.

I designed this patten to go on a 12" block In the right hand corner is the original 1/8th of the design which I repeated around the 12" square.  I have drawn the three central white blocks with the design.

I have freezer paper ironed to the back of the quilt so it will be firm as I draw.

Freezer paper design ironed to the reverse of the block #1 andf ready to come off.

On the light box positioning it ready to draw on the fabric for Block #2

And my todays inspiration - a small flower using turned edge appliqe.... (which I still have to machine down)  I have put one of these each end of the runner.  It took me most of the day...and evening..

I havnt drawn on the rest as that other lovely space is for FMQ .

Now I have just to sandwich it together ....and quilt it.  Maybe another UFO as I dont think it will get done soon.  But I would love to get it done ....sigh

I have presents to wrap and shops to go to.

Its nearly 2am and I need sleep again to refresh for tomorrow.



Free Motion Quilting

                                                                      A finish at last!!

So - here at last is my 1998 Christmas Signature quilt that I did through SCQuilters.  Finished!

I have had it pieced and wondering how on earth to quilt it for so long.

I am putting up the individual blocks below in the hope that some of the contributers to this quilt will find it .  Each block dictated to me a little of how I should quilt it.

The Christmas fabric that came with the signature blocks are cut in two and pieced each side of the block they came with. Each of the Siggie blcks are 6" finished

I used a thin wadding...and it is sewn with Aurofil thread top and bobbin.

Underside of quilt.

I tried to get all this to go side by side - but it didnt work - sorry

Blocks sent by the following

Brenda Ibbotson



Carmel Ross  - she has already told me she recognises her block - fantastic!

Erica Spinks.  I have embroidered the Christmas tree.

Geraldine Woods

Helen Evans

Jan Prentice

Kay O'Brien

Lavone.

Lorraine Bradley

Maggie Gilbert

Margaret Cullen

Marie Fox

Tess Hunt

First half washed a nd srying

And last but not leaset

Katheryn Sheehan. 

                                                            Half drying in the sun

The other half!

And lastly showing some of the border and my signature - the ladybug :)

Thanks for being patient and viewing this huge lot of photos....

 I have Christmas things get done and sewing wise - I am now a bit flat :)

One more Friday night sew in...not sure what I will do..maybe go back to my POTC's for a bit.

See you all soon.

Friday Nights Sew In

        \

Still going on this one - been out most of the day...  

I have 4 more 6" blocks to quilt and about 6 of the small ones.

Then the binding 

More tomorrow I hope.  

General chat



Well - off I went again today.  Busy sorting out my studio... and shifting 'stuff'' around so I can actually see the top of my cutting table.

Did some machine practise, stacked feathers for a bit in between times  just to feel good.

Came across this square of fabric - too tempting wasnt it, so I started to think of different types of feathers...as I was working ( as you do )... and this is what happened.  I didn't do too much more tidying - will do that tomorrow before FNSI. 

But I have it all together...had no plan - it just evolved :) ....and now I need to S&S (Sit and Stare) and wonder how I am going to sew it on the fabric...machine button hole, with Aurofil thread - or buttonhole by hand...ho hum ... 1.15am and time for sleep.

OH my goodness the pile of UFO's is growing!!

General Chat



Lovely surprise in the mail Yesterday.

Thank you Sandy.  You are very special!

Andrea and I will treaure these....and you know how much I love Ladybugs :)

I was a bit down yesterday - not able to get either of the new sewing machines...but thats OK - I still have two good ones to use..the ones I have been using...and thats a good thing.

Today I may even get back to sewing . 

Machine Quilting

Had a great full day today using the Handiquilter Sweet Sixteen... 6 hours!

It was a wonderful machine to use.  You can see it here .

As you can see I had a busy day

This sample had two lots of wadding - one cotton and one wool,  to see how it handled the double sandwich.

All the squares except the one on the right were done on my Bernina 440, half the one in the lower right square was done on the HQ 16.  There is quite a noticeable difference - for the better, for the section I did on the HQ 16

I went really easily  and I think gave lots of extra puff.

The circular one was sewn with Aurofil thread on top, and I did get a bit muddled only in what I was trying to do. The swirly one with the multi couloured thread was interesting, but I was not sure about the actual colours... It was quite forgiving to oversew on. 

This was the first piece I did, the feather on the far left was half done on a Pffaf machine, and I then went - and stayed with the Sweet Sixteen.  The feathers on the right side are sewn with silk thread ' I used cotton fabric top and botton and wool wadding in the centre..  It was harder to get the tension right for this, however by the timne I got to the filler feathers in the lower right...the tension was OK.

I had almost decided to get ...if I can ...the Bernina 820, but now I am not sure. 

I am too tired to try to work it out now.

Has anyone any thoughts on these two machines?

I am off to do nothing now...I have a day in Perth tomorrow...so not getting anywhere fast with my projects for now.

Friday Night Sew In

Been slowly working today as we have had school presentations and appointments...

Its now after 1.am - and I have 2 more grandchildren arriving tomorrow at 11.0am - so I need to go to bed.  They are staying overnight, so I may not get much done...Late at night is my time :)

Here is my FNSI to date.

I have 7, 6" square completed and 9 more to go.  Plus the small squares at the sides. I really want to get this finished...

I will send more pics as they get done.  I am trying some different fillers and trying to suit each block.

I would love to do feathers as such - but they dont really wuit...so I got christmas feathers instead.

The last one which I didnt photograph I am pleased with.

Would you believe this is a 1998 Christmas swap I entered with Squilters.

Tired - and now to bed!!

Excuse spelling mistakes if there are any :)

Free Motion Quilting

What I am working on today...and the last few days ....

Difficult to see what I have done this side

Borders and two of the 6" blocks so far

Now - I have 14 6" squares to go.

All the quilting I am doing without a pattern- except I am now drawing the spines of the Chrismas feathers in the 6" blocks.  The small squares I am also drawing on, so I dont foregt what I am doing :)



Machine Quilting

A finish!!

The finished quilt before washing! The dot you can see is one ladybug - the other is more difficutl to find...but its there - they are on the one block :(

Showing the ladybugs

Back of the quilt

Washed and on the line.

Some detail of the back

Off to do some more -  tomorrow .



Free Motion Quilting

Andrea has taken over my machine!!

As you can she - she is a busy bee.

She was inspired yesterday as we went to look at a John Watts Quilting machine and table.  We both had a go at it, but found it soooo different from our DSM, and when we got back home, she just wanted to quilt.

Just as well,  as I am back to doing my binding. One more long side to go

I think Andrea  is a natural - but then I am biased I think :)

I hope she finishes it soon and she can put it up on her blog, Obscure Thoughts, where she has already put some of her poems.



Free Motion Quilting

Today is a good day!!

 I decided to quilt today - and this is my youngest Grand-daughters Happy Quilt! 

Would you believe I started this about 18 months ago...found a small tear in one of the fabrics when I had it nearly all quilted  - just the 2" border to go... I was so upset - that was it.

Now I am almost finished the  border - FMQ :) with a bit of freehand drawing,

and later I will fix the tear....its really only tiny after all.

I hope to get the binding sewn on and finish it!

My FNSI is planned :)

I will take a full picture when I have finished and washed it.

Joannes Quilt Along

Another boo-boo I'm afraid - in fact two!

Block #8

I must have sewn some of the seams too large, cause the blocks were 9" when they should have been 9 1/2 - (9" finished!)

So I fudged! 

May not use these ones - may do some more - too weary for now.

Back to my FMQ - tomorrow!

Just checking the blog - and noticed one of the blocks is an
Amish one - you know... nothing's perfect...in fact one piece is sewn in completely the wrong place!!
Now THATs a boo-boo and a half!!
Definitely wont use THAT one :(

Joannes Quilt Along

Block #7

Completed today for Joannes quilt along.

Now to tackle Block #8

Todays FMQ

Some years ago - I participated in a Christmas Signature swap.  This has been sitting for some years - ready to quilt and as I had no idea how to go about the designs on it - I left it.

Last night I desided to bite the bullet and really do some FMQ - this is what I am up to so far.

It would be great if I could finish it for Christmas!

Its actually a good practise piece :)

I am still trying to work out how the actual signature blocks will be quilted.

As I just realised its Wednesday - I need to go sew a hexagon :)