Well - something I wasnt going to show...but I guess I need to confess to my mistakes...so here is the back of the quilt ... not sure if you can see the tension problems I had.

The blue fluffy bit on the right side is some wool roving I was using to make pin cushions with :(

I think this is a better photo to see the incorrect tensions...and the many colours of the silk...the border colour is great - that is the Aurofil, and works well with the silk on top. The yellow you can see is the silk that I was first using top and bobbin...but I ran out SO fast it wasnt funny, so I first changed to different coloured silk...then got the Aurofil.  The blue in the ditch was Guterman cotton - and I didnt like that - it was too heavy.

This is a closer shot of the back showing the sewn design of the fabric I was sewing round FMQ on the border, from the top...Sounds confusing ..hope you get what I mean?

And this is REALLY showing you dreadful tension !

Now I have to wait till the Posite gets here with the next lot of silk, so I can finish the last length of the border and do the binding.  This time I have ordered the large spools of silk as suggested by Diane Gaudynski, which you can find in here

I have learnt many things

1.  Dont use squares on the backing - it never seems to line up.

2.  Always check you tension - even if it looks great from the top!

3.  Dont forget to pin the backing out of the way when you are sewing the border

as its very hatrd to un-pick. 

$. Dont play with wool roving while you are quilting ...not on that table anyway. 

5. Practise Practise Practise :)

6.The next one will be better.

My First quilt - King sized!

I began this quilt in the 1980's .. I went to a sampler class when I lived in Perth, and instead of making just one block ...I did 2 of the same in different colours.

The lace in the Grandmothers Fan blocks belonged to my Grandmother..and the pink and the pale teal fabric is from the sheets we had when we first married - nearly 50 years ago.

I cut the sashing..and forgot to wash to wash the fabric first...it runs ... very badly....so I put the blocks away in a chest for another 10 years...and when I moved to the country in the hills above Perth, I made a very special friend of Liz, and I have mentioned in an erlier post that without her, I would not have been on this journey...

Anyhow, I managed to sew it together with her help and encouragement, and marked - very heavily in pencil! -all the designs,  after first drawing and cutting my own stencisll....I burnt them with a hot knife...difficult.

This is all hand quilted - I really thought that was how I had to do all the quilting.  

Well... I finished the hand quilting last year! and the binding is still not on...but we sleep very warmly under it :)

The back of the quilt.

Very heavily quilted as it was a wool batting.

As this quilt had taken sooo long...I decided there must be quicker ways to do this.  Hence I have been learning to do machine quilting.,

I have made a few quilts now, but never FMQ ...and I now prefer to sandwich the quilts and put the designs on afterwards...also time consuming.  

I tried various methods one of which I used in the quilt below. 

Called 'From My Heart to Yours', this is a quilt I made for Andrea in 2003.  All machine quilted...and also not marked before it was put together.  I machined the designs onto  a heap of tear away fabirc with the sewing machine - needle and no thread, then threaded with the cotton I sewed each design with a separate 'block' of the tearawy fabric. ...and long strips of the tear-away for the borders. That was easier than the pencil

A different view of the quilting on Andfrea's quilt.

More later...I am trying to get a video up af me quilting the border fo my Prism Quilt....but not having much luck getting it from the camera to the computer.

Oh - I had more bad luck last night.  Silly me wasnt watching the edges of the quilt when I was quilting, and of course - I sewed some of the edge bits onto the patterned area...so unpicking is in progress...not easy!

But a lesson hard learnt!

More of my story later

What I have been up to today so far.

For the first time I have hand sewn the basting for the small quilt..I have always used safety pins before.  This was actually a lot easier than using the safety pins.. though I have a sore index finger now!

I can now put this away till the new large cones of silk thread arrive .. hopefully next week.

I have only two more of the Prism blocks to complete...a blue and a red, and I hope to get these done tonight..then two and a half sides of the border to go.  It seems to be taking ages, but it is fairly heavily quilted, and I have to keep stopping to stretch.

This is  turning out to be a great learning project .  I can look at what I have sewn first on this quilt...see what I have done badly, .and hopefully correct it the ...next? ..one :)

I have been watching a lot of DVD's on FMQ and these have been enormously helpful.

My DH has been terrific, and  has cut me boards to use for the hand basting...and filed some of a sewing foot from my Pffaf to make it easeir to quilt with.

So far I have been using my Bernina 440

The Chook Yard is progressing and the chooks will arrive next week - YAY.

Need to stop for a bit - I guess we really should eat !

After my small disaster slicing through a 'play' square..I put the borders on this, a block I had previously drawn a design on, and now it is ready to sandwich...and do some more play with my machine quilting.

The photo is not very clear though I hope you can see my design.

Today was a bit bad...as you can see - I sliced through this design - three of my own and two (the same) from Wendy, which was availabe for public use, at Ivory Springs... (through a magasine article of some of her work)...and I was looking forward to this one...so - I shall do it again on some different fabric -

Later...probably much later.

My studio has changed again, as I have a new counter...and so a different set-up which actually is working well... maybe a photo later.

It was tiday till I stared playing ,

Machine quilting this morning.

Three of the blocks have now had the 'filling' on the outer edges quilted and are complete....and one side of the border is completed.  I am slowly sewing round the actual design on the border fabric.
This is all taking heaps of time, frequent stops...and a huge amount of silk.

I will never show the back of this quilt, as it is a learning curve with many differnt threads. 

The silk is working best at present so I am going to go with that...but as I run out of colours - the back coloured thread is changing.

The right hand border is finished and I have three more to go.  I will alternate between hand sewing and machine quilting for a bit..Getting too side-tracked.

The strange thing is that when I look at these photos I can see parts I have missed!!

Back to my sewing now.

Look what Came in the Mail today.

A fantastic gift from SandyB with the McCalls Quilting book with the Cubism quilt - and many more Inklingo-able projects. some fabric cut to size to press to the freezer paper....to go through my printer to make the diamonds in Inklingo, and a printed sheet to show me how she fitted the number of shapes to the page. Also some ready cut and marked.

I feel so spoint...

Thank you Sandy...they are beautiful!

Also ...from the Cotton Club  an Isabelle  fat roll...yummy!

Never heard of a fat roll before...but looks great.

Last but not least - some Micro-brushes to clean my sewing machines...and some aurofil thread for my machine quilting.

Now to wonder what to do with whats left of today.

This is taken yesterday. 

These Kangaroos are always snacking on this paddock not far from us.

I may take another photo when I can get a larger number in the photo.

Baltimore...thought I had done more..have lots more to do yet

The first I did were the four pink flowers and buds and leaves...not well sewn, but I guess I will keep it, as its part of the history

Then...another

Machine Pieced Applique .

I remember I stopped at this point as I was not sure what to use as a border...

I think I may finish this one soon as I can practise my machine quilting.

I am NOT looking through any more boxes!...Yet

My husband Mal and son Andrew clowning yesterday while putting up my last design board...

Three blocks of the 3rd row of my Patchwork of The Crosses, using the Inklingo collection of Linda Franz - which you can find here, .....so it is progressing slowly, though I did sit and sew quite a lot!

Bought these fabrics in Perth Yesterday...and this is actually anothe Jinny Beyer book ...I gave my original one to a good friend ( I had been VERY late with a birthday present...so gave her my one) and what a great surprise, mine was waiting for me to pick up, so as I had a heap of food shopping to do  of course I went and picked up my book. 

What a great book this is!

Waiting for me when I got home were 3 DVD's on Free Motion Quilting...hope to watch them later tonight.

They are all by Sharon Schamber which I got from this site

We stayed at Andrew and Cristina's house, and here is Andrea, her father Andrew ( my eldest son) and Patrick, Andreas young brother Patrick. Cristina was busy working.

When we got back home, Heather and her boys were here too.

They are now back in Perth..Andrew and Patrick go back on Sunday.

As you can see by the lovely colours in our Chinese Tallw tree - Autumn is here,  the rain from the last two days is gone and the sun is shining..and its cool.

My younger daugther Heather with her 'heirloom cushion' that I gave her for her Birthdy.

so now you see how that project has been completely completed ..

I meant to post these before I went off to Perth.

No idea how they ended up in my car :)

Not sure what I will do with them - or when !!

Hi... I have been in Perth for a few days - ...managed to get 3 more of my 8  POTC blocks... Patchwork of the Crosses ...completed ...for the 3rd row...while here with my eldest son Andrew...Andrea's father.  We will be back home tomorrow,  so hopefully some photos then. Thankyou all for your comments and your visits...I will answer all the comments when I get back home ♥ Some photos of Andrea's young brother Patrick then too :)

Oh and somehow some more fabric got into my bag today......photos later!

First two rows of the POTC quilt completed...its quite a marathon..but easily pieced with Inklingo.

I have seven more rows to put together..........

And up on the big design wall...

First of 2 new design walls up today...so I thought I should put something on it.  At the top are small Inklingo blocks for the Insanity Quilt, and the lower half are for my almost insane...I hope I got the name right.

Next design wall goes up tomorrow...my DH and DSIL have been wonderful!

Cousins, Mattie,Andrea and Lachie, watching a DVD under the 25?  year old hand quilted, King sized, unbound (as yet) first quilt I ever made. 

When I get to binding it I will post a picture..till then it keeps us warm.

Looks like it was a great film ☺

Look what came in the mail today.

What a wonderful book!  Well worth waiting for.

Yesterday sewing!

The first 2 rows of my POTC going together...

I am halfway with these 2 - 7 more rows to complete after this

Practise machine quilting.

The white I did with great frustration...I couldnt get the tension right and was trying different threads.

 In the top and bobbin.

Then I put the BSR foot on the machine, ,which I have been having trouble with, and did some sewing on the blue fabric.  I used BSR 2 with the large clear foot, and much to my surprise,I actually managed to use it a lot better.

This morning I did some more squiggles with it, on the blue and now I am a lot happier.  I am using silk thread top and in the bobbin...so I may get some more machining done on the Prism quilt later.

So Joanne  I am keeping up with  my daily practising.

Off to have a read of my wonderful new book, and to sit, listen to my audio book and do some more hand stitching on my POTC quilt.

While I was inside, Andrea and my DH Mal were outside busy painting the chook yard :)

One day we may even have chooks!!

Just thought I would show how I am mult-tasking today.  I have put the Prism quilting on hold, as I think I may use a slightly different sik thread colour., and I am waiting for it to arrive.

 Joining the 2nd row of POTC blocks...three of the eight are joined.

Sandwiching some fabric together as I am off to have a look at some new sewing machines on Thursday and I want to try sewing on my own fabric.

Not that I am getting one  - YET...but it will be good to look.

Back to my hand sewing now for a bit till my hands give up again.

Hi...thought I would change the Header to something more quilty.

This is my quilt called Andrea's Rainbows, completed in 2003.Amazingly  it won a first in an AP&Q Jinny Beyer fabric competition.  It toured Australia for a year before I it got back. It is named for Andrea,  as of course I started it long before it was finished and when she was small. She watched me cutting the small 'petal's' out and we talked about her rainbows.

 It now graces our Guest bedroom.

It is made Quilt As You Go, and is all hand quilted, The blocks have been joined together by machine.  The back of the quilt is joined in strips of  the complete Jinny Beyer Pallette Collection - in order, and the  the flying geese border is also in order.

I used a dark green cotton for the quilting for the main area of the quilt and the plain black blocks are quilted with hand dyed cotton made by my good friend Liz..

Without Liz this quilt would not have started - or been completed!

Liz has been my mentor and teacher from the start, and without her I would not have begun this wonderful journey!

I may put up more of my other quilts later.

The photos were taken this morning in our garden, and as you can see by the tree - Autum is on its way, and the weather is becoming cooler.

Getting there.

Making lots of mistakes - but getting there slowly.

I am so pleased this is not a large quilt!

View of the sunset from our Patio, a couple of evenings ago, just outside my studio.

Perth had a really huge storm at this time - we are nearly 200Kms South - thankfully

         Yesterdays trial work.

Having problems with tension for the silk thread on top...can only actually see what I am doing if I use a distinctive thread...so I may now change to a mustard cotton thread and have another go today. ...on the real one!

Maybe.

As I have been tidying up my studio and stash/craft room, I have found projects I have not completed, so I thought I may be able to get some more machine practice in and complete some.

The first is a Jinny Beyer quilt from about 2 years ago. 

Trying to work out a design.

Preparing the quilt.

Trying to work out if the designs are suitable.

Looking at the quilt, I think maybe it would be better to quilt round the squares like a Diane-shiko design, as I may be going over too much of the actual quilt seams...then again maybe the squares are too big for that.

I can also see in one of the square designs I did that I have the pattern incorrectly drawn, as the feathers were meant to go in one direction and I have got them facing each other.

At this stage I am unsure how I will put the patterns on the quilt and may need to do this with the pounce pad.....decisions.  In the mean time I will keep pinning

Feel free to comment on what you think of the designs - or not.

Andrea is home from school with another migraine and sleeping at present.

She made it for 3 hours of school.

This photo of her machine quilting yeaterday with a bit more light to see our view....

and the cover on our frog pond

Thanks for 'listening' to my thoughts

From this corner you can see where my computer and Printer are where I work out and print my Inklingo pieces, and my Pffaf sewing machine, and my ironing board...which I shift round constantly!

The blank wall is waiting for another design board, still to come from the hardware shop when my DH gets there.

Cutting table and my Bernina that Andrea has, for a short while longer, been using to learn to machine quilt on.Hopefully she will be migraine free and back at school next week!

I have lovely views of hobby farms and the Leschenault Estuary from my windows. 

Unfortunately the sun was in the wrong place really for the photo.

I can see what the family is doing in the family room and in the kitchen when I am at my cutting table, which is at a comfortable standing height.

My design wall...with POTC blocks...have 2 more to do on the 2nd row and then I will actually join the first 2 rows, before I start on the next block borders

Have shifted and re done the shelves on the right. Everything labelled, which does NOT say the I will always be able to find what I want ....sigh..at least I hope I remember that I have whatever it is I am looking for :)

I hope I have got it right...but things can be re-arranged again if needs be.

Now back to my sewing!

Project completed...cushion finished

Andrea is now at my sewing machine, learning the basics of machine quilting....so its back to hand sewing for me for a bit while she is busy.  I am sure she will be putting something of her achievements up on her blog when she has done some more.

She has no school this week as she was excused from school camp because of her migraines.

We are busy having fun!

Finished the square. 

Full of mistakes but a great learning curve!

At some places I had missed drawing some of the lines in and punched holes in my tracing paper and used the pounce pad to remidy that.  Now I have 'blue' patches where I used the powder. 

Hope it comes out in the wash.

Will make a cushion of it..now off to get a zip.