Happy Days Quilting

A blog about Applique and Quilting

Monday 25 July 2011

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!

Saturday 23 July 2011

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

Wednesday 20 July 2011

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

Monday 18 July 2011

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

Saturday 16 July 2011

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

Monday 11 July 2011

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

Thursday 7 July 2011

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

Wednesday 6 July 2011

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