Craft: Quilting: Bird Quilt. Part 5

I've been steadily progressing with my Bird Quilt but realised I hadn't taken any photos lately. So here's where I am:

I've stitched in the ditch everywhere I need to. I also attempted some free motion quilting which is so hard! All the books advise to practise first but I'm rubbish at that. I like just to get started and see where I go. Also no matter how much I practise I always seem to go back to where I was when I started when I get to the proper piece I'm working on. So I skipped the middle step.

Is it the best free motion quilting ever? Nope. But remembering that Comparison is the Thief of Joy I am proud to say it is the best free motion quilting I have ever done. You can also see I have quilted a line all around the outside border to tidy that up.

The panels themselves are progressing nicely too. I started with the metallic threads Peter got me for Mother's Day. I'm not using them on every panel and some panels have just a tiny amount but I'm liking the effect. I won't be using this quilt for a bed or daily use so I can afford to be fancier with it.

I'm also attempting to hand quilt. Again all the books and tutorials give great advice. I have watched lots of videos where someone sits with their work in a hoop, between needle and thimble all in place then they do the rocking back and forth motion to make tiny, neat stitches. I have tried and tried with this and all I get are ugly stitches that don't even go through all the layers. It saddened me.

Then I saw a lady who hand quilts without a hoop. And who doesn't do the rocking back and forth motion with the needle but who bends the fabric into the right place. It was like a lightbulb switching on for me. Why on earth try to bend a needle when you can bend fabric? Perhaps the end result isn't as neat (and certainly my end result wasn't perfect) but it's so much easier. I managed to quilt which even stitches that went through all 3 layers. Success in my eyes. I'm going to try this method for this quilt and see if I improve.

I'm not sure how well it shows up but in this panel I have quilted the nest with gold thread and round some of the leaves, the trunks and the bird with hand quilting thread. Again is it perfect? No. Is it the best I have done so far? Yes!!!

Christmas Lattice Quilt: Part 1

For a while now I have been toying with the idea of making a Christmas quilt. My idea was to make something to put on our bed in December, or even just have downstairs on the settee. Yesterday I was watching some of the fantastic tutorials by Jenny Doan from the Missouri Star Quilt Co. One in particular caught my eye as being perfect for a Christmas quilt: The Lattice Quilt.

 

Inspired I sent for 4 charm packs of Fabric Freedoms Art Noveau Collection Christmas. I looked at a few different charm packs but liked this one best as it is a little bit more grown up and artistic. It has some gold in it and at this very early stage I have the idea of having a gold binding to the quilt but I'll make that decision one it's made up.

 

 

 

I'm going to wait until the fabric arrives to make the final decision about what colour to do the lattices. Again in my mind I have the idea for a lovely, Christmassy red but want to see all the squares first. Once I decide on that I can buy threads at the same time. Hopefully once all that arrives my Bird Quilt will be done and I won't be working on 3 quilts at the same time.

 

To do:

1. look at fabrics in charm pack to decide on colour of lattice fabric

2. buy matching thread.



Craft: Sewing: Blue Curtains

These were a quick project, well compared the quilts they were. I bought the fabric from Textiles Francais  (be warned, do NOT press to go to that link if you have a fabric addiction!). It is called Toile de Jouy Fabric | Aimee and is glorious though I made a bit of a mistake and didn't order enough so had to insert a length of cream cotton and lace to lengthen it, which will you will see in the photos.

So this is the fabric though it needs a bit of an iron here.

I hemmed the bottom of each curtain.

 

 

It was after I did the hemming that I realised I hadn't bought enough fabric so I found some lace and cotton fabric to add a piece in. I cut the curtains about 1/3 from the bottom and inserted the lacy bit. I tried, and was successful, doing a flat fell seam for the first time.

 

 

 

I did this at both ends of the lacey piece. This made the curtains the right length. I added curtain tape and then got Peter and Hans to put them up for me.

 

And here they are:

 

 

 

I love that last photo particularly as it shows my lovely sewing table. I could happily sit there all day. 





Craft: Quilting: Blue cushion.

I made some curtains for our bedroom (I will post pictures soon) and wanted to make a cushion to match. I thought it would be a good idea to make it using the crazy patchwork method as that's something I want to learn to do and as the cushion will only be seen by us I could relax if I make mistakes.

 

I began by fussy cutting out a central shape choosing one of the motifs from the curtain fabric.  I used my Simplicity EZ Quilting Simply Crazy Template which I didn't 100% understand the purpose of when  I bought it on a whim but now I see it's good to have an irregular sided shape for the central piece.I pinned my central shape to a square of cream cotton then sewed a strip of another fabric to it. I had marked the dimensions of the cushion onto the cotton.

 

 

 I continued in this way going round and round the central motif.

 

 

 

Once it covered the cotton fabric I trimmed it to be the correct size (40cm by 40cm).

 

 

 

From there I made the quilt sandwich and pinned all the layers together.

 



 

I then attempted free motion quilting. I'd like to say I did a loop style but in reality it was chaos. It's an odd feeling as I feel panic and fear when I do it. Everything speeds up and goes a little out of control. I'm not that happy with the quilting as I did the loops too close together so it looks crinkly but it looks better in the flesh (in the fabric?) than in a photo so all is not lost. Also it went better than my first attempt so all's good.

 

 

 

I'm currently embroidering the joins. It's slow going as I'm learning the stitches and I haven't got a hoop that fits the piece with the wadding. I'm not in a hurry though.

 

 

 

 

I also used one of the pieces of lace that Mam gave me as a trim. I'm going to use a piece if I can when I make something for home. In this cushion I sewed a strip of cream lace along a seam on the left side.

 

 

 

Once all the lace and embroidery was done I sewed the front to a piece of backing fabric with a length of blue piping in between. It's now finished and looks like this:

 





Craft: Quilting: Bird Qilt: Part 4

I sewed the piano key strips to the bird panels, one strip at each side. This, as I mentioned previously, was to widen the quilt as I felt it was too long and narrow. I tried to use colours which complimented the colours in the panels.

I then added a border of the blue/grey flower fabric. Same one I used for cornerstones. It was then time to make the quilt sandwich. I struggle with this as it's tricksy getting the layers to stay flat and not bunch up. This is not a huge quilt though so managed sort of to my satisfaction. I taped the backing fabric to the table which helped though next time I will pull it tighter. I've also bought some large clips to try.

 



I ironed it again and then moved some of the pins to get the backing even more flat. I started the quilting part by 'stitching in the ditch' down and across all the panels. I like to start and fasten off by setting the stitch length to 0 then sew a few stitches in the same place. I also leave a tail of thread and, at the end, go through and put a knot in it and pull through wadding layer. 

York Quilt Museum and Gallery

Today we visited York. Hans and Peter went to a guitar shop and I went to the York Quilt Museum and Gallery. It's a small exhibition space but very beautiful. They have a shop downstairs and the quilts upstairs. I found it very inspirational. Partly because the quilts were beautiful but also because not every one was perfect. We are our own worse enemies when it comes to our work. I agonise over every wonky seam and uneven block. Some of the quilts I saw today had small issues too. But this didn't detract from how wonderful they were. In fact it added to the wonder. I felt a greater connection to those women (and men) who had made mistakes then I did to the more perfect examples. It made the maker of the quilt more real and human. They live on in their work.

 

I also got some great ideas. I'm kicking myself now as I didn't take a notebook in with me (next time!). You can't take photographs of the quilts but what I should have done is taken a notebook and pencil and written down some of the methods and ideas which impressed and inspired me and also the names of the people who make each quilt.

 

Two things stick in my memory as something I want to try: sequins and wrong way round paper piecing. The sequins were sewn in the centre of hexagons in the Star of David quilt which had been machine sewn rather than hand sewn. The sequins anchored each hexagon in a way I'd not seen before. Two other quilts, by the same person, were made up of tiny squares (1 inch?) which had been paper pieced but instead of each square having it's right side facing out some were turned the other way so the back was showing. It added a really interesting texture and also an effective distribution of shade and colour.

 

I bought some fabric (of course) and a couple of books. One from my endless Wish List; The 1718 Coverlet by Susan Briscoe. The quilt is one of the earliest known dated patchworks. The book gives its history then a block directory so you can make some (all!!!) of the blocks yourself. I am not kidding myself I will ever have the time to do them all, and I'm not sure I would ever want to, but I do want to try at least a few. I have the vague idea of recreating them in very different fabrics to the original. It's a very vague idea at the moment though.

 

 

Here is a photo of it. I don't want to recreate it as the original is lovely but I do think I'll have a go at some of it, maybe for a cushion cover.

A final thought though: quilts are works of art. They are designed and thought out, colour and shape and form are considered, they are created and stand the test of time. Yet they are seen as 'sewing' or something for the home. They are both these things, of course, but in addition the are art. Art with a function (the best kind of all in my opinion). I can't help but ponder that if quilting had been a male occupation, done for pleasure not practical purposes, then they would be hanging in galleries next to Van Gough and Monet.

Craft: Quilting: Hexagon Quilt. Part 1.

OK, so this one has been on the go for ages. A couple of years at least. It was what got me started with the quilting in the first place. I read about English Paper Piecing and it jogged my memory to when I was a teenager and I had an interest in patchwork.

 

I bought Tacha Bruecher's excellent book Hexa go-go. My first project from it was a pair of placemats; yes, a reasonable way to launch into the world of patchwork. They turned out quite well (I use them so that's a mark of success) so looked for Quilting Project 2. And, of course, chose one of the biggest quilts in the book. As I am insane. A double bed size take on a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. 804 hexagons to hand sew. Then strips and panels and quilting. Oh yes.  

 

 

I started off by cutting out 804 1 1/2 inch hexagons. That in itself was a huge task as I found it tricky to get accurate sized hexagons. I tried printing them out from my computer but that didn't always give me accurate hexagons. I eventually opted for making templates out of a plastic folder and marking round them onto paper then cutting them out. I then cut out the required number of fabric squares and tacked them to the paper templates. All 804 of them.

 

 

The centre of each EPP block is a hexagon flower so I made 12 of those. I tried to vary the fabric so there is a good selection.

Then plain fabric hexagons were sewn to the flower. I have various colours in shades of blue, yellow and green, and also white. (Yes, that's the Bow Baby Blanket there).

Then the remaining patterned hexagons were sewn and a final border of the white hexagons. I have to do 12 of these in total. I have done 10 so far.

 

As I reached the 8th or 9th block I realised I had no idea how I would move onto the next steps once they were all finished. I didn't want to practise on such a large (and expensive when I calculate all the fabric and whatnots I have bought) piece. So this is why I made the Charm Square Quilt and got interested in the Bird Quilt. I do feel ready to tackle this larger hexagon one now and am also considering quilt as you go (Tacha advises this quilt lends itself well to that technique and nothing ventured nothing gained).

The plan is to finish all 12 blocks and finish the Bird Quilt. At that point I should be ok with what I need to do with this one.