Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Just Green
The current Aotearoa Quilters' colour challenge is Green. This time I've only created one 12x12" mini quilt. The previous colour challenges were Red, Blue and Purple.
It is a wholecloth quilt with matchstick quilting in a variegated thread.
I did stitch around the letters in a clear thread, each letter has an extra layer of batting.
The green quilts are on display at the Christchurch Quilters show 1-4 October. At the Whangamata Patchwork exhibition during Labour weekend and then at the Auckland Festival of Quilts 6-8 November.
All are for sale at $125 each.
It is a wholecloth quilt with matchstick quilting in a variegated thread.
I did stitch around the letters in a clear thread, each letter has an extra layer of batting.
The green quilts are on display at the Christchurch Quilters show 1-4 October. At the Whangamata Patchwork exhibition during Labour weekend and then at the Auckland Festival of Quilts 6-8 November.
All are for sale at $125 each.
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Thursday, September 17, 2015
SAQA Benefit Auction
SAQA's annual online Benefit Auction starts 2pm Friday 18th September EDT (early Saturday morning NZ time) and runs until 10th October.
SAQA members donate 12" quilts to be auctioned. The funds raised are used to support SAQA’s exhibitions, publications and education outreach. The full details of how the auction works are here.
My quilt 'Just Tapa' appears in Section 3 where the bidding for that section opens 5th October and runs until 10th October EDT.
To view all entries have a look at this video:
SAQA members donate 12" quilts to be auctioned. The funds raised are used to support SAQA’s exhibitions, publications and education outreach. The full details of how the auction works are here.
My quilt 'Just Tapa' appears in Section 3 where the bidding for that section opens 5th October and runs until 10th October EDT.
To view all entries have a look at this video:
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Green Orange Peel
A few days ago I posted here about starting a new quilt and the issues with cutting the applique shapes.
The applique shapes have all been ironed on. I didn't have enought fabric to cut enough shapes to cover the whole quilt mostly because of the number of abandoned shapes.
I quite like the final pattern.
Once the shapes were ironed I was about to start appliquing by machine each piece. Then thought how was I going to quilt it?
The answer - applique and quilt all at once. So the top was basted and stitched with blanket stitch.
To eliminate the stops/restarts, I started at a point blanket, stitched to the next point, changed to straight stitch, stitched to the next point, changed to blanket stitch, and repeated.
My Bernina has a feature that allows easy switching between two stitches without having to reset the stitch settings each time. I increased the width and length of the blanket stitch from the default setting. I also used the walking foot.
For the squares with no shapes, the quilting was straight line and repeated the petal shapes.
Now it just needs a bit of a trim and the binding sewn on.
The applique shapes have all been ironed on. I didn't have enought fabric to cut enough shapes to cover the whole quilt mostly because of the number of abandoned shapes.
I quite like the final pattern.
Once the shapes were ironed I was about to start appliquing by machine each piece. Then thought how was I going to quilt it?
The answer - applique and quilt all at once. So the top was basted and stitched with blanket stitch.
To eliminate the stops/restarts, I started at a point blanket, stitched to the next point, changed to straight stitch, stitched to the next point, changed to blanket stitch, and repeated.
My Bernina has a feature that allows easy switching between two stitches without having to reset the stitch settings each time. I increased the width and length of the blanket stitch from the default setting. I also used the walking foot.
For the squares with no shapes, the quilting was straight line and repeated the petal shapes.
Now it just needs a bit of a trim and the binding sewn on.
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Know when to stop or not
A few days ago I decided to work on a quick and easy project - a neonate quilt. I'd seen a picture of a pieced quilt using an orange peel/petal design.
My version was to piece the background and then applique the petal shapes on top.
Piecing the 3" squares went well, I was happy with the applique shape I'd designed using the Silhouette software.
Next step - quick and easy to cut the pieces out on the Silhouette Cameo ...
... a little while later I had nicely cut and fused shapes that only needed the paper removed before ironing to the top.
In the hours between there were a few mishaps.
first problem - my original Silhouette mat had lost much of its stick as I discovered after carefully adhereing (or so I thought) the fused fabric (minus the backing paper).
While the Silhouette did a brilliant job of munging most of the shapes, I did manage to retrieve a small number of shapes to use.
Now it would have been sensible to watch the cutting and stop it sooner!
next problem - when I ordered the Silhouette I also received 2 cutting mats (not Silhouette brand) that can be used with any brand of cutting machine. The cover sheet for the Silhouette mat is shiny on one side and matt on the other with both sides sort of plasticised so they easily peel off the sticky mat. What I learnt with the other mat is that one side of its cover sheet is paper - as I peeled it away from the mat it managed to flip back onto the sticky mat and did not peel off!
Perhaps this was a sign to stop, but no, I continued and used the second cutting mat. Carefully putting on the fused fabric. Now new mats are super sticky and the fusible pretty much became one with the sticky surface.
I managed to retrieve a few fused shapes. Mostly the fusible stayed with the mat and not the fabric.
At this point I almost gave up, instead decided a bit of research might be helpful - like watching youtube videos on cleaning mats and working with fusibles.
The recommended method of using painters tape to remove stray items from the mat and to restore the 'stickyness' works well with the Silhouette mat. Just didn't work with the paper and fusible infused cutting mats.
So they got a wash with warm soapy water and a high-tech scraper - an old credit card.
After this I was off.
Successful cutting of a 12" x 12" piece of fused fabric.
Cutting smaller pieces of fabric is easy - the grid in the Silhouette software matches the grid on the mat making it obvious which shapes to remove or deselect in the software.
From the videos I'd learnt to keep the fusible backing paper on and have the fabric sticking to the mat. Also to select the thicker fabric (canvas) cutting option.
What this meant was that the shapes lift out perfectly and they didn't roll the paper did. It did mean a bit of time pulling off the paper from each shape.
While not relevant to this project the same applies to stabilising fabric with freezer paper, when cutting put the fabric against the sticky mat with the freezer paper on top.
Presumably using freezer paper and the fusible paper will blunt the 'fabric' blades faster - not a big problem when you get a way better cut.
Meanwhile the quilt is progressing ...
My version was to piece the background and then applique the petal shapes on top.
Piecing the 3" squares went well, I was happy with the applique shape I'd designed using the Silhouette software.
Next step - quick and easy to cut the pieces out on the Silhouette Cameo ...
... a little while later I had nicely cut and fused shapes that only needed the paper removed before ironing to the top.
In the hours between there were a few mishaps.
first problem - my original Silhouette mat had lost much of its stick as I discovered after carefully adhereing (or so I thought) the fused fabric (minus the backing paper).
While the Silhouette did a brilliant job of munging most of the shapes, I did manage to retrieve a small number of shapes to use.
Now it would have been sensible to watch the cutting and stop it sooner!
next problem - when I ordered the Silhouette I also received 2 cutting mats (not Silhouette brand) that can be used with any brand of cutting machine. The cover sheet for the Silhouette mat is shiny on one side and matt on the other with both sides sort of plasticised so they easily peel off the sticky mat. What I learnt with the other mat is that one side of its cover sheet is paper - as I peeled it away from the mat it managed to flip back onto the sticky mat and did not peel off!
Perhaps this was a sign to stop, but no, I continued and used the second cutting mat. Carefully putting on the fused fabric. Now new mats are super sticky and the fusible pretty much became one with the sticky surface.
I managed to retrieve a few fused shapes. Mostly the fusible stayed with the mat and not the fabric.
At this point I almost gave up, instead decided a bit of research might be helpful - like watching youtube videos on cleaning mats and working with fusibles.
The recommended method of using painters tape to remove stray items from the mat and to restore the 'stickyness' works well with the Silhouette mat. Just didn't work with the paper and fusible infused cutting mats.
So they got a wash with warm soapy water and a high-tech scraper - an old credit card.
After this I was off.
Successful cutting of a 12" x 12" piece of fused fabric.
Cutting smaller pieces of fabric is easy - the grid in the Silhouette software matches the grid on the mat making it obvious which shapes to remove or deselect in the software.
From the videos I'd learnt to keep the fusible backing paper on and have the fabric sticking to the mat. Also to select the thicker fabric (canvas) cutting option.
What this meant was that the shapes lift out perfectly and they didn't roll the paper did. It did mean a bit of time pulling off the paper from each shape.
While not relevant to this project the same applies to stabilising fabric with freezer paper, when cutting put the fabric against the sticky mat with the freezer paper on top.
Presumably using freezer paper and the fusible paper will blunt the 'fabric' blades faster - not a big problem when you get a way better cut.
Meanwhile the quilt is progressing ...
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)