Design Wall Monday

Its my Poppy quilts turn to be quilted, the pattern is adapted from one from a book called Flower Show Quilts by Lyn Ann Majidimehr.

It was spray basted on Saturday and this time I placed a large bed sheet underneath it while I was basting, I usually lay out newspapers, but they tend to get stuck to my feet once I start spraying and it gets quite farcical!
At the moment I am just doing the in the ditch parts, I am still thinking about what filler to use for the sky background and will probably puts some feathers in the borders.

This post is linked to Patchwork Times,  and The Manic Monday Linky Party!

Happy Sewing!

A Finish

Hooray! its finally finished , Happy Dancing Happy Dancing :0)
Its only been in the making for several years (I think its at least 6 years old Yikes!).

This is my daughter Katie standing in front of her new quilt, she loves it!

The Teddies have new smiles and a loop d loop design around them.

I didn't quilt around the butterflies as I wanted them to poof out a bit

This post is linked to Finish it up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts,  its her first week as a link up, I love link ups.

I hope you have got a finish to show too.

Happy Sewing!

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Work in Progress

I have been quilting loads of butterflies over the weekend on this quilt

This photo shows the quilt before I unpicked and re basted it

I used freezer paper to make my template which is a new technique for me and was suggested by A nudge who has a lovely blog called A Quilting Reader's Garden.

I free motioned around the template using my closed toe darning foot, the open toe foot caught the edges and pulled it up more.

Once I finished quilting around the template, using a scissors I peeled it off.

I then added some details to the butterflies, I tried to make them all look slightly different, not an easy task as there were 20 of them!

I played with idea of hyper quilting the butterflies with different coloured threads and adding more details, but after talking with my quilty mates and the phrase "over kill" was mentioned I decided against it  LOL!

I will definitely be using this technique again, I only had to make one template for all of the 20 blocks and it was still going strong!

This post is linked to Ester's Blog and Freshly Pieced, two of my favourite blogs.

Happy Sewing!

Quilting Gallery Competition

Please vote for me :)

I've entered my flying geese applique quilt in the Quilting Gallery's weekly themes competition.

There are loads of lovely quilts in the competition, so I need all the votes I can get LOL!

Here is the link Quilting Gallery, wish me luck!

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Happy sewing!

Work in Progress

This quilt is another UFO, and again its several years old.

Its for my youngest daughter Katie, she has asked me frequently over the years when I will finish it, but after two disastrous attempts at quilting it, its been folded up in a draw.

The Teddy's need buttons for their eyes

There are loads of eye spy fabrics

I am going to make butterfly stencils to fit inside the quarter squares, and I'd love to do feather wreaths inside the four squares.

The quilt is one of my very early attempst at patchwork, and all the squaes and triangles are cut out seperately, so its not as accurate as it could be.

I have nearly finished unpicking all the original in the ditch quilting, so I hope to spray baste it soon.

This post is linked up with Freshly Pieced for the work in progress link up.

Happy Quilting!

Flying Geese Applique Quilt

A finish!

I can't tell you how pleased I am with how its turned out, I am going to Happy Dance thru the rest of the day!!

Some Quilty Facts!

The pattern for the applique bouquets came from the book Machine Applique by Sue Nichels 
Its a UFO, four or five years old
Its 50 x 50 inches
Its machine fusible applique, with blanket stitch
I quilted my first feather border on it
It is going to be hung on my bedroom wall
The backing is a IKEA sheet
I quilted it myself on my Bernina 440
The batting is Quilters Dream Cotton



I have entered it into an online quilt competition, over at the Quilting Gallery, voting starts on Friday, the theme is flying geese so I'm hoping that the border qualifies it?

A big thank you to everybody who has left such lovely comments on my blog when I have posted about this quilt.

My first posting was back in March so definitely time for a change LOL!

This post is linked to Patchwork Times, I'm heading straight over to check out what everyone has been making.

Happy sewing!

Design Wall Monday

I have quilted around the border applique, I echoed around and then did pebbles, finishing off with feathers.

I don't love it as much as I thought I would thou, so I am going to finish quilting the geese before quilting the other three applique border parts in case I decide to unpick it and choose another design!

I am happy with the corner blocks, so no unpicking there.

This post is linked to Patchwork Times, its my favourite blog to visit on a Monday !

Happy Sewing!

Work in Progress

Just a quick post, I am trying to finish this quilt by the 25 April, to enter it in a Quilting Gallery competition, the quilts have to be flying geese ones and I'm hoping that my border geese will qualify it.

There's an awful lot of quilting to do, I found a lovely feather ish motif to fit into the geese that I'd love to be able to sew soon, no idea yet how I'm going to quilt the applique in the border yet thou.

This post is linking up with Freshly Pieced and Ester's Blog.

Happy Sewing!

This post is linked

Flying geese applique quilt

I have quilted the green border, it was my first feather border and it won't be my last!, I quilted one side of the feather at a time, I used a flexible ruler to mark the stem.

I have started quilting my geese, again one side at a time LOL!

I am really enjoying the quilting and it's mostly gone well, but there has been lots of ripping out too, I treated myself to a new clover ripper and a little cute red pot that sits by my sewing machine waiting to catch the threads.

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Thank you for popping by : )


This post is linked to Patchwork Times

Happy Sewing!

Flying Geese Applique Quilt

This is the latest pic of my quilting progress.

I think I may have a problem with the borders, they are looking seriously wavy!

This post is linked to Freshly Pieced and Ester's Blog.

Happy sewing!

Hexalong

I have made nearly all the hexies for my wall hanging, and have started to assemble them, they are sewing together nicely.

They have made a great take along project this summer, we have just come back from a trip to London and I even sewed them together when traveling on the tube!

It will be a lot bigger than I intended when I started, but I'm sure that's very common with hexagon projects LOL!

This post is linked to Patchwork times

Happy sewing!

Work in Progress

I have done some more quilting on my flying geese applique quilt.

I tried quilting pebbles around the appique on the weekend, but it just looked wrong, so that block is in the process of being un picked.

Today I tried feathering around the applique, and it looks much better.

This post is linked to Freshly Pieced and Esther's blog

Happy Sewing!

Hexagon Needle case

I found a really cute hexie needle case with a tutorial on how to make it over at My three Sons, and I couldn't resist making my own.

Because I didn't have all the bits I needed to make one exactly the same, I had to deviate from the tutorial, I only had three hexies ( matching left overs), I used one piece of felt and a very small hair band, as I didn't have the right sized ring.

To make mine, I placed  two hexies wrong sides together, with the hair band (cut to size) placed in the middle and I sewed around them.
I cut a piece of white felt the same size as the last hexie and placed it snugly against the wrong side of the  hexie and sewed them together.
Then to finish up I sewed along the top edge of both hexies with the hair band at the top.

I am pleased with the way it worked out, but do wished I had taken more care making it, Its not my most precise effort Lol, but its a template for a matching pink polka dot one I plan to make to match my hexie pencil case and scissors.

Happy sewing!

Work in Progress

This weeks work in Progress

My hexie project is coming along nicely, I've made loads of hexies this week.

This is not a photo of the offending feathers, but ones that I,m happy with!

 I have fallen out with my quilted feathers, the tips haven't formed nicely on the latest half triangle that i have sewn, so I'm going to unpick them and practice drawing them out before I start quilting them again.

No progress on my Poppy quilt, its waiting in the quilting queue.

I challenged myself to make a grab a button for my blog tonight, I read through a couple of tutorials which made it sound so simple, but its taking ages to get it right!
Don't suppose anyone will grab it, but it will look nice hanging around the side of my blog, just got to figure out how to set up the links for it, a couple more hours and I should have it sorted LOL!!
This post is linked up with Freshly Pieced and Esther's blog!

Happy sewing!

Design Wall Monday

I have a flimsey!

 I have finally made up the stems using my curved ruler as there were no templates in the book (Flower Show Quilts) for them.
The curved ruler did an excellent job, as I could place the poppies where I wanted them first and then curve the ruler to match and then trace the curve onto fusible web.

Deciding on a layout took ages, its not like the original pattern due to my fabric choice of the brown sashing, I have spread out the poppies more to hide them so that they don't over power the quilt and I added  two seed heads as I love their shape.

This post is linked up with Patchwork Times!

Happy sewing!

Friday Night Sew In

That's it I'm afraid, its a quite pathetic for a sew in LOL, but I didn't feel well and ended up going to bed early!

This is my progress so far on my hexie bargello type wall hanging, its as big as I wanted it to be already and still growing!
As is very common with our hobby, I now can't wait to finish this wall hanging so I can start on a larger hexie quilt.

This post is linked to Friday Night sew in over at Handmade by Heidi

I hope your Friday night sew in was more successful!


Patricia

Work in Progress

Lots of progress, I'm loving doing the feathers.
I have made the spines a tad wider than the first four feathers in order to show up the pebbles better.

This post is linked to WIP over at Freshly Pieced  and also Esther's Blog  for her WOW post.


Happy sewing!


Patricia

Flying Geese Appliqué Quilt

The quilting is going well, all the feather borders are done around the appliques, it was quite a challenge when doing the centre block to match the feathers in the surrounding blocks, I nearly bottled it and did another design there because I didn't think I would be able to sew them to match, it worked out quite well.

In hindsight I wish I'd made a template for the wavy quilting lines around the blocks, so that they all matched perfectly, I used my bendable ruler this time and if it had been for just one block it would have been fine.

I still haven't decided what filler to do inside the feather borders yet, I'm thinking maybe bubbles to match the feather spines, it would take an awful lot of bubbles thou!

I have started the quilting in the half squares, they were really intimidating me at one point yesterday as they looked so big, I knew I wanted to do some sort of feather, but not one big feather motif and I'm really pleased that I went with the feather fillers instead and with a different type spine for me.

I need to do more quilting around and maybe on the applique, to help it lie flatter!

There's loads more quilting to be done on this yet, it is really eating up the hours!


This post is linked to Design Wall Monday over at Patchworktimes.

Happy sewing!

Patricia

Flying geese applique quilt

I finally started quilting today, I have really procrastinated (big word for me LOL) over this quilt!, I had loads of spare hours today and so I was determined to start quilting.

Still with no quilting plan at all, I decided to start with one applique block, so I quilted around the block and then around the applique and then sat and stared at the quilt again!

What I really wanted to do was all over feathers inside the block, but I knew my quilting ability was not up to that challenge yet and also I wasn't sure if that motif would work.

So this is what I very suddenly decided to do, I marked it with my blue washable pen before I could change my mind and started quilting.

I cant believe I got lucky and it worked out so well, since this picture was taken, I have quilted the block next to it the same way and sewn all the prep work ready on the other blocks, so tomorrow I can finish quilting the feathers.

I now can't decide which filler design to use inside the feathers, so I'm off to the The freemotion project  for some inspiration!

I'm so happy that my sewing worked out today, I really thought I would be spending my quality time with my  unpicker!

I hope you had some quality sewing time with your projects today too!

Patricia

Hexagon Wallhanging

I've started a small hexagon quilt, its a take along project, I'm undecided about the layout at the moment,  although I fancy making a small braid quilt or bargello with them, they are 1 inch hexies and they are made up of left over batiks.

At the moment I'm making up 7 of each colour and then having fun playing with different layouts.

They are quick and easy to whip up, I watched this video tutorial from Texas freckles to get me started, she has also made up a pdf  print out for the 1 inch hexies, that I have downloaded and use.

I bought this cute little pencil case to keep in my handbag, it holds everything I need.

LOL just realised all the layout photo's only have six hexies, honestly I have made seven of each!

This post is linked to Patchworktimes.

Happy sewing!

Patricia

While waiting for more fusible web for my poppy quilt, I have basted my flying geese applique quilt ready for quilting.

My preferred method of basting is spray basting, I have tried safety pins and the basting gun but I'm quite lazy about this stage of the quilt and find using the glue spray quicker.

I am also trying a new batting with this quilt, I've always used Hobbs Heirloom 80% but I hate having to hand wash it first as I don't like the shrink effect (I know really lazy again), so I'm trying out Quilters Dream Cotton, I don't think its as lofty as the Hobbs but it feels lovely and soft.

Anyway the quilt is all basted and now its just waiting for me to decide how to quilt it!

Happy sewing!

Patricia

Poppy quilt

I have nearly finished making up my fused poppies, they are quite big 6 1/2 inches in diameter, they have used loads of fusible paper, I ran out of it on Sunday so my poppy wall hanging is on stand by at the moment.

I did have a play with possible layouts thou, the first one is the same as in the book.

Both layouts are minus the stems and some large leaves due to running out of the fusible web.

This second layout has the poppies more at the top half of the quilt.

I have made a whoops as well, I should have fused the poppies before adding the borders, Note to self read the instructions properly!

I keep changing my mind about which layout I prefer, what to you think?
This post is linked to Freshly Pieced!
Happy sewing!

Patricia