Spring Halo

50 Hours on the Frame!

It's been an intense fortnight up in the loft! This is my adaptation of Sue Garman's Halo Quilt. I call it 'Spring Halo' because it features a lot of fabrics from the 'Printemps' collection by 3 Sisters for Moda (as well as several others from my Treasure basket). I made a much smaller quilt than the original design (with additions of my own) and finished it at the curved Flying Geese section, because I wanted to try them. So I thought it would be good to scallop the edge to really set them off.


The skipped stitches problem plagued me right up 'til the end. I think it was due to the combination of a polyester and a cotton wadding. I wanted to double it up like the professionals do, to get the added definition, but at least I've learned that these two don't work well together. Next time I will try something else.  

However, I used it as a learning opportunity and changed my intended quilting design from free-flowing feathers and curls to much more ruler work, so that I could control the direction and avoid the problem to some extent.










I love how the little inserts in my appliqued Dresden Blooms 'popped' right up!














My miniature Flying Geese were too small to quilt around, but there was enough fabric behind them to make them sit up. And I got in a lot of practice on tiny cross hatching! 










I did manage to squeeze in a workshop at Connecting Threads and made this pretty Etui Japanese workbox, again in some of my favourite 3 Sisters prints.

I thought it would be quick to finish on the day because some of it was glued. In the end it took me 2 days to finish, but it is so pretty - I love it! 

Happy Quilting Everyone!

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Heaven is in Hampstead!

Unbelievable!!!

The other week I suggested to Viv, Susan and Karen that we visit the Antique Textiles company in Hampstead. Having seen pictures on Facebook, I had an inkling of what to expect. But to see it for real was something else!

We had arranged with the owner Christopher Wilson-Tate for him to open up specially for us.  He is often out and about on business buying and selling his amazing antique quilts, so the shop isn't open every day.

But don't think about organising a coach trip - the shop is barely the size of my dining room and is literally stacked floor to ceiling with some 1500 or more gorgeous examples of mostly English and Welsh quilts. We could only just squeeze in and were rubbing up against these lovely pieces which we were actually allowed to pet and stroke! So much so that Viv set off an avalanche! I was surprised at how clean and fresh everything seemed - not the musty smell you might imagine.

Christopher was so friendly and enthusiastic and chatted away with us for an hour and a half. Check out his Facebook page at Antique Textiles Company 

Of course I was so inspired by the visit that I went straight up in the loft when I got home and put in 5 hours on the Halo Quilt. Unfortunately, though, that project is not going as smoothly as I'd like. I am trying out double wadding, like the professionals do, but it is causing skipped stitches on an upward motion. So I can't do the free motion work I had planned and am reverting to more ruler work which takes a lot longer. Never mind - I won't be beaten.

Yesterday I handed over this lovely quilt that I finished for Jean Hipwell earlier this year and she was really pleased with it. Good job my free motion skills were working well that day !!!!

Happy Quilting Everyone!

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Meryl's Magic

Scraptastic!

What a burst of colour! This mainly hand pieced (EPP) marvel, made by Meryl, got off to a dodgy start last weekend. I was going to use a multicoloured thread in the border and centre section, but I couldn't balance the tension so that it didn't show through on the plain cream calico backing and I just wasn't happy with it. I spent about 3 hours unpicking and eventually reloaded it to start again and walked away from it for a couple of days.

On Tuesday I went back to it and chose a soft yellow thread and all went well. I decided to outline the stars after all; I figured that is what Meryl would have done if she had hand quilted it, and just linked from star to star with flowing curls.  

Then I made flowers in the inner border corners and petal feathered my way around the cream section.

The clean finish on the back was worth the extra time I took to restart. 

Now the way is clear for me to start work on quilting the Halo Quilt.

Happy Quilting Everyone!

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Double Wedding Ring

There's always a challenge! 

When I was asked to quilt a piece that had already been sandwiched and bound, I nearly turned it down. It goes against all the rules. But when I saw how lovely it was I agreed to give it a go. It was all beautifully hand pieced and made from a gorgeous blue oriental print. For some reason the lady who made it said she hated it because there was too much pink. 

Really ? Too much pink! 

But there was a lot of open space, so we agreed I should try to tone it down with a different colour thread.  Before I saw the quilt I thought I might be able to remove the binding to get it on my frame. But as you can see it is scalloped and so neatly bound I couldn't do that!

So it was a real struggle just to load it onto the frame and keep it from shifting as I quilted up to the edge. 

It was crying out for some sort of feather motif inside the rings. I chose a light blue to match the other fabric which of course showed up against the pink - No pressure then!!

But I am quite pleased with the effect and hope she likes it too.

It looks nice on the back, and surprisingly I managed to do it with very little puckering.  

After that adventure, I spent half a day 'processing' a bag of scraps I'd been given (Thanks Jean - it doesn't take much to distract me!) I was quite ruthless in chucking some of it away (green camouflage fabric - I don't think so!) But then I found some pretty pinks and blues and I was lost. Like I said, you can never have too much pink!

 

This weekend I had planned to start on a hand pieced quilt for Meryl, but the thread tension was playing up and I did more unpicking than sewing. So I walked away from it  for a while and went back to the 'Halo' quilt. 

And today I finished piecing it.

I love the final stage of assembling a quilt top - it seems to come together so quickly after all the fiddly bits. I really enjoyed playing with my favourite treasured fabrics which I have used very sparingly. I just need to add an edging of the background so that the binding will clear the flying geese.

After I complete Meryl's quilt, I want to set some time aside for some serious custom quilting on this one.

 Happy Quilting Everyone!

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96 Geese - a - Flying!

Know When To Stop!

Ok! So I got a bit carried away with these tiny flying geese, but they were so much more fun than foundation piecing somehow. They are no harder to make than larger units, it's just that they don't go so far. They are so sweet and finish at 1 inch by half an inch!

I was in my element and stuck with it all day, but eventually called it a night at 96. 

Today I have made them into a little border for the Halo Block.

Then I joined my Dresden Bloom blocks into pairs to be trimmed down to the same size as the curved flying geese. This was not as simple as I thought it would be because I had to part unpick the appliqued quarter circles to tuck the inset triangles underneath. So the join is a bit messy, but I think I can hide that with some clever quilting. 

Now I have to build up from the centre outwards to meet that border. 

Back to the school of make it up as you go along!!

Happy Quilting Everyone!

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Throw Me a Curve!

Sewing by Numbers! 

Much as I dislike the tedium of foundation piecing, I have to concede that sometimes it really is worth the effort. This delightful top was a charity shop find which Jean M and her daughter asked me to quilt. The piecing is absolutely perfect and it is such a charming design. What a shame that someone went to all this trouble to make it and it ended up unfinished in a sale. 


It would have been a crime to quilt an edge to edge design over it. So I loaded it onto the frame just to baste it, then took it off and stitched in the ditch on the Bernina. Then I put it back on the frame and quilted some simple meandering loopy 'bubbles' in the background. 

Then I went back to my own foundation pieced project (based on the Halo Quilt design). I made another 12 'Flying Geese Arcs' and then had to pick out all this foundation paper. 

The next job was to cut the background pieces to set them into blocks. I found the perfect template for the outer curve, in a set I already had, which made it a lot easier. 

I got the hang of the curved piecing quite quickly and really enjoyed that part today. The instruction for squaring up the blocks was very accurate and I now have 28 of these pretty blocks to add to the 8  Dresden Bloom blocks I made last year. 

This is where I am going to deviate from the original  design and now I am working on these minute little Flying Geese spacers.

I just can't resist playing with the little scraps!


Happy Quilting Everyone!

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Firm Foundations

 Necessary Evil!

It must have been withdrawal symptoms... not being able to sew over the Easter weekend... but this week I have thrown myself into 2 things I generally do very little of.

The first was foundation piecing. Sandy has been leading the way on a very intricate Block of the Month project called the 'Halo Quilt', designed by Sue Garman (sadly no longer with us) for the Quilt Show.

I made the centre star a while back and have been too busy with other things to get any further. 

But I really wanted to have a go at curved flying geese and there really is no other way but foundation piecing. 

It is not my favourite technique, but I got stuck in and produced these 16 'arcs' in 2 days. I was pleasantly surprised at how little waste there was, as it gave me the opportunity to use up little odds and ends from my 'Treasure basket'.

I will probably need to make more, but I haven't decided on the final layout yet. As usual I am making it up as I go along and will adapt the original pattern to incorporate other elements of my own.

Today I have started to set them into their background squares. Curved piecing WITH PINS - no option with these!

So far, so good!

The other thing I have been playing with is English Paper Piecing. I was so impressed with Karen's little hexie quilt made using pre-cut 'Hexieforms' which can be left in, that I ordered some (300 actually), but smaller, with 3/4 inch sides. I am inspired to make a smaller scale 'Mrs Billing's Coverlet' style quilt and I plan to use them for applique rather than make a whole piece with them.

The cutting out and tacking is rather tedious (though not wasteful), but once you start to piece them into these little flower shapes they come together really quickly. 

I can see how this can become addictive!

Happy Quilting Everyone!

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