New Toy

I am feeling so chuffed - I have shouted myself a new Juki sewing machine and swiftquilter frame.

 

When we set it up we didn't realise that it had an extension for larger quilts - will have to rethink how I set it up as I wouldn't be able to use the extension at the moment. 

 

However I have quilted one cot sized quilt already.

 

 

This quilt has been sitting around for awhile although I have only recently added the 4" squares in the border.  I made this quilt in response to a challenge on http://www.15minutesplay.com/ to use low value fabrics.

 

I also rescued a much loved small quilt from my daughters place that needed a few repairs.  Because of my love of using small scraps of fabrics I don't always use 1/4" seams and have had a problem with seams coming adrift.  I mended the seams with invisible thread and the quilted it all over.  Hopefully it will last a lot longer now.  I have no photos of this one.

Tumbling Bricks

 

I  am working through my pile of UFO's and have recently finished this bright lap quilt. 

My pile is reducing but unfortunately I cannot resist starting new ideas so I have many WIP's as well.

I am entering this one in the small quilt section of Amy's  Bloggers Art festival.

Bloggers Quilt Festival

There are several categories in this years Bloggers Quilt Festival. 

Here is my entry in the mini quilt category.

 

I have been playing along in the background with a local 12 x 12 group.  I missed out on getting into the first group and we are waiting to start a second group.  In the meantime I decided to make a small quilt for each of their topics.  I am using as practice to improve my skills. 

The topic for this quilt was "Link".   This is my daisy chain - it is the first time I have made a 3D quilt with the addition of the netting and large daisy in the centre.

Textile Art Classes

Over the last few months I have been taking part in an informal textile art class.  There are usually only around 4 - 6 of us at each class and we have learned some fabulous techniques which I hope to put into practice.  In the most recent class we did sun printing.  I have carried this on at home and these are some of he pieces I have produced so far.

 

The above piece was produced by twirling the fabric and then leaving it to dry.  This piece of fabric has been ironed flat and the apparent creases are an optical illusion.  I love the depth to this piece.

The rest were created by overlaying stencils on the fabric.

 

Wow it has been so long since I last blogged - I hope to include some more examples of our work in future blogs.  

Cone Flower Quilt

I have just completed my first Craftsy course   - Pictorial Quilts with Wendy Butler Berns. 

I used the pattern that she supplied with the course to produce this gorgeous quilt.  I am really happy with how it has turned out.  This is the most quilting that I put on a quilt so far.  I am starting to become more comfortable with free motion quilting but have a lot more to learn yet.

I am now hoping to progress on to producing pictorial quilts from my own photos. 

This is the first one I want to attempt.

 

It is a photo of one of my granddaughters taken a couple of years ago. 

Happy Scrap String Quilt

 

I am addicted to working with scraps and seeing what I can produce.

 

I recently finished this scrap string quilt.  I sewed many various width strips of scrap strings and then joined them with scrap pieces of a blue batik which had been cut of a backing of another quilt when preparing that quilt for binding.  I purposely kept the blue strips different widths and didn't straighten the edges either so as to produce a wonky look to the piecing.  The side edges were constructed from some of my scrap 4'" blocks cut into half square triangles.  I only quilted along the blue pieces stitching in about 1/8" from each edge.  It has given the effect of binding applied between each block of scraps.  I also quilted the blue triangles in the same method.

 

At a recent regional day someone commented that it looked a happy quilt hence the title to this blog post.

12 x 12 Play

 Our local regional quilt group TPQ has recently started a small group who are creating 12 x 12 mini quilts to a set theme each two months.  I missed out on getting into this group but am waiting to work with the co-ordinator of the first group to establish a second group of 12 quilters.  In the meantime I am working along in the background using their themes as practice. 

The first theme was energy and I have decided to try something different each time if possible.  The above 12 x 12 was made by using a piece of my made fabric and then threads painting a lightening bolt onto it.  This is my first attempt at thread painting.

The second theme is labels.   I was given a packet of photo printing paper a while ago.  I have previously printed images onto fabric for other people using fabric backed with freezer paper but this is the first time I have used printed images myself.  I took a photo from our trip to Vietnam which I have always liked.  I also downloaded some label images and printed them onto fabric.  I have placed the images onto a piece of linen I found in the cupboard.  The result is rather stiff but I will continue with it as these pieces are just practice for me.  I intend facing this block rather than binding.  I don't think there will be too much quilting as I don't want to quilt over the images.