Progress

Although nothing like Marg's amazing work there has been progress over here too on a couple of fronts. Managed a lovely day at MO in their studio yesterday and got all the strips sewn together ready to be cut into the star.

And to our huge relief we finally exchanged on the farm on Friday - bubbles were drunk!

Now to maintain the momentum...

C

trying to get another finish

Hi remember this one.

Well of course I have decided I cannot hand appliqué this so am going to machine sew it using the raw edges. Also didn't like the vase I had so got rid of that too.
Can anyone give me any pointers on how to do it like the one Kim did for her mother (Yes Kim any ideas). IS there any tutorials on the computer you could point me in the direction of. Also is the flower arrangement balanced ?

Any help will be greatly accepted, feel free to email me Tks

Finishing and finishing

A couple of fast finishes to report.  You all have seen the cot quilts before, but I am pleased to report that they are finished.  Yes, quilted by me, bound by me and washed by me ready to gift.  I discovered a couple of things which you all probably knew.  How much better is it to sew on binding with a walking foot.  Doh!  I hear you say, but I've always been a slow learner .... The other thing was the machine attached binding.  Now I looked at the various tutorials online, and thought I would give it a whirl.  I was quite pleased with the results, but can see how to improve it next time.  And frankly, it does take the "OMG to I really have to sew all the way around this quilt" feeling out of the process.

I really like the Trefle fabric I found in the voluminous stash for the border.  Tiny green frogs and little capital letters which seem just right for a finding quilt.  I also used some organic cotton and the sides off my prickly pear quit for the backing.  Stash reduction girls, that is what it is all about.  I used a piece of the Tula Pink Arcadia range for the HST quilt, and a nice piece of Japanese floral which was just right too for backing.

 My other project has been this cute cushion cover which is the first in my series of using someone else's needlepoint efforts rather than doing it myself.  Now the background here is that it has taken me 12 years to nearly finish  a Bloomsbury cushion cover I bought in the UK when I was pregnant with number one son.  I like tapestry and needlepoint, but just can't keep at it.  Some lovely lady sewed this beautiful cross stitch town scene and I surrounded it with linen, a bit of quilting and some piping and I have a lovely cushion.  There are more to come.

My stripey quilt is progressing and I have rediscovered a quilt with Ohio stars I started from the MO II book.  I found to my delight, that I had already sewn up 11 blocks and cut out a further 11.  Its funny now I look at the fabric choices, but I have challenged myself to finish it before next class with the HLs.  There, I have thrown my own gauntlet down and you will see if I am up to it in a few weeks time.

M's machine like production of quilts has spurred me into action.  You see, I have no other outlet for my competitive drive when I am not working.

spools

Hi me again as promised the information re invisible thread.

As you know I had lotssss to finish and most of it was appliqué. It got over welling so I decided to do it all by machine. Then I thought of having to change all the thread colours so it would look right. Again everything went to the back burner,  then someone mentioned invisible thread. This I thought may work so I did a bit of investigating.

Some like it, but some don't because it shines and I found out some of the threads melt when ironed and so I did more investigating. As it happens about the time I started looking at this method there was a book being published called "The Modern appliqué work book" by Jennifer Dick. So I checked out all the blog posts I could fine.  It was also birthday time so I received a book voucher so an ebook was given.  I asked all the great ladies at the local quilt group, in my town what they thought and then went looking for the different threads to try. 6 shops later I found some I found two of the brands recommended and it was hard to find.

Home they came and I threaded the invisible at the top and normal thread grey at the bottom and experimented with different stitches. Settled on invisible hem stitch and got started. yes it shines at times. You can use dusky thread for darker colours but I just used the same one for everything.
The Sulky brand now owned by Gutermann invisible colour 1001 and Superior threads were the ones I tried. I finally got them at Spotlight but tried many local quilt shops first.

I used it for this quilt larger photo in previous post and with so much going on it worked great.

Another finish

Here is another finish, in fact two finishes. Both started a long time ago the baby quilt was from material from a win on someone's blog (I forget who, it was so long ago, when I first started quilting)

This one above is a block of the month by Sue Ross. I finally got the boarders done. So another to quilt!!


The half hour here and there is now being used for gardening and my upholstery so hopefully a little enjoyment around my work.

The other thing I said I would post is the thread for Caroline I will do it as soon as I get back from work tonight sorry ran out of time. M

Class Activity

Sorry it appears that my camera didn't take quite as many photos as I had hoped for.  If someone has some more pretty pictures please upload them so we can all share the excitement!

I so so so love how Marg expanded the stripy block ….. absolute winner and so clever!

Saving the fabric

As you can see my 'virtual' cutting is even worse than in real life but at least it gives a rough idea of what my star is going to look like.

Does my quilting committee approve of the current fabric placement (I know I've kept going round a few more rows than I should but I was on a roll with the cut and paste!) Just realised I missed a row on the bottom point but the top one gives the right idea.

Now to stop wasting time playing with the image on the computer and actually sew it all together...once I get approval of course!

C

finally I will have some show and tell

Finally something finished!

I had /have so many quilts on the go at the moment that I need to take a breath and finish a few so here is a sneak peep of one of 17. yes that's right, the greater percentage of these need quilting but I have another 5 tops to finish piecing- then even more to quilt

I have put a stop to starts until I have more finishes. We will see how long that lasts.

Looking forward to spending time with everyone

My African experiment

I promised the lady who gave us her cat, that I would make a quilt for the grandson.  After finding some fabric of large african animal pictures in Armidale, I have started putting something together.  This first block has been an extreme exercise in unpicking.  I think I have spent more hours unpicking than actually sewing!!!!!  After much anguish, the first block has been put together. 

It is 22.5" square so the plan is that six blocks with sashings and a border will make a single bed quilt.  Now only five more!!! 

Hopefully I have got the design sorted now though.  Maybe I will have a couple of more blocks finished before our next get together.