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

My sewing room

I have had some new additions to my sewing/dining room, I had a new red chair and extra large cutting mat for my birthday and some neat stuff from a trip to IKEA today.

This is my sewing area

My new red metal drawers

My new mini light

I often struggle to have enough light when I'm sewing, so this mini spotlight will be ideal.

A new red laptop table

I bought this little table for when I am sewing large quilts, to help support the weight of them.

Where I store my knee lift and foot pedal 

My cutting table

My fabric cupboard

Ruler and applique bag

I don't have my own sewing room just one wall of our dining room so I try to make the best use of space I can, my design wall is on the darkest side of the room but on the largest free wall, so I often struggle to take true colour photo's.

The only thing missing is this quilt that still needs its hanging sleeves, but I hope to hang it above my sewing machine some time next week.

I hope you enjoyed your tour :)
Happy sewing!

Patricia

Poppy Quilt

I popped the borders on today

You need to imagine this quilt horizontally

They went on with only minimal unpicking, its always nice when that happens!

The technique of sewing the blocks was a new one for me and really easy

Place fabrics right sides together and mark down the centre

Sew a 1/4 of an inch either side of the line and cut apart along the marked line

Iron open

Place two blocks together with opposite colours facing and again draw a line down the centre

Sew 1/4 inch either side of the line, cut apart and voila!

When I started sewing I would have made that block up with the four triangles and it would not have been half as accurate, so thank you to the bright spark that came up with it this easier method.

Happy sewing!


Patricia

Work in progress

My sewing machine is sitting pretty under its new quilt, It was supposed to be a proper boxed cover but I got the size wrong!

My new poppy quilt has the sashing sewn on, but then I went into a panic because I thought the brown overpowered it ,even thou I want it to look like fencing.
I have made up one poppy to see how its looks and they are so big and there are eleven of them it should work out as they cover a lot of the quilt anyway, so I am carrying on with it.

The poppy needs its black and yellow centre added

This should be a quick quilt to make as you do the applique the same time as you quilt it.

This post is linked to Freshly Pieced
Happy sewing!

Patricia

Design Wall Monday

Its make a lovely change to be doing some piecing and to have a quilt up on my design wall, the blocks themselves are sewn together and I'm now in the process of sewing on the sashing.
The quilt looks darker up on the wall than it is in real life and the sashings will shrink to 1 inch and not be so over powering when it all pieced together.
Once the borders are attached, I will be fusing on the poppies and it will look a lot more colourful.

Thanks for stopping by, this post is linked to Patchwork Times, pop over and see what everyone else is up to.

Happy sewing!

Patricia

The Binding tool

There are several parts of the quilt making process that I have struggled to master and putting on the binding has always been one of them, even down to joining the strips has had me pulling out my hair and reaching for the seam ripper, so when I discovered the binding tool and this helpful video on how to use it, I ordered it immediately!
I have used it twice now, the first time was not the success that I hoped it would be, but put it down to my own inaccuracy, so when I was putting the binding on my sewing machine cover I thought I would take photo's of the process to help me identify any errors on my part.

First step is to measure and mark a space of 12 inches

Sew around the binding leaving the 12 inch gap open, you need enough length of binding to have 10 inches left on either side

Lay the tool on the marked line and the draw a line on the binding

Lay the binding on a cutting mat, match the tool to the marked line and cut

Rotate the tool and again mark the binding

This time the edge of the tool is where you line up the marked line and then cut

Pin the two edges together and then sew

This is where it  went wrong, on the tool guide its says to cut away the points, so when you sew them together they are easy to match up, but when I did that it came out wonky!

When I re sewed it judging it by eye it worked out much better and layed lovely and flat

I definitely like this tool and will continue to use it, next time I won't cut off the points to see if it works better.

I have also pulled off the blue backing, I didn't realise it had one, I thought it was made of blue plastic (Duh) its now much easier to see the marked lines!

 Happy sewing

Patricia