Snug as a bug

My sort of Christmas themed neonate mini quilt ...
  

 















I have a lot of white narrow strips of fabric, mostly left over from trimming quilts.  So started playing with a selection of red, orange and lime green fabrics cut into smallish squares with even smaller white squares on opposite corners like this ...

After sewing what seemed to be a rather lot of squares with even more to go to make a 27" square quilt something was needed in the middle.

The something was a ladybug, although here in New Zealand we call these ladybirds.

The fabric had fusible ironed on and then cut on my Silhouetto Cameo cutting machine.  

The shapes and letters were fused on to a square of white fabric that had another layer of fabric to help stabilise the applique.  






Using a straight stitch, stitched around the letters 3-4 times.  The bug has a mixture of straight stitching and blanket stitch.
  
 

There was one false start ...

When I cut fused shapes I've been placing the fabric side down on to the sticky carrier mat as I've found it is easier to peel the pieces off and it seems to cut better.

Using the mirror image is a bit more useful.










 


Final layout.  

I kept the quilting simple with cross hatching around the bug and the words.  Each white square was quilted in the ditch, while a little bit time consuming the end result is what I wanted.






 

 

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.

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 ...

Sampling bigger

Here I posted about my freemotion quilting samples. While making them I also created a mini quilt sampler.  

I'd sorted some hand dyed fabric that I'd purchased ages ago on Trademe (NZ's version of ebay) and had never used mostly because the fabric was quite flimsy and the colours a little light.  

For the initial piecing of the front used gentle curves then the back with straight piecing. Then the back became the front!  

For each segment a different quilting pattern was used with varying threads. 

back

closer look

 











One of my favourites is the fill in the slim white piece.

While I could keep this as a sample it is also the right size for a neonate quilt or maybe a large cushion.

Wannabe Longarmer

Recently I've been reading blogs about using rulers, that longarm quilters use, for freemotion quilting on a domestic sewing machine.  

It was clear that using the freemotion (darning) foot and an ordinary quilting ruler wasn't going to work.  I'd read enough that I wasn't even tempted to try and see if I could get it to work.

The blog I keep going back to is Amy's Freemotion Quilting Adventures in one post (here) she talked about using a combination of Janome feet on a Bernina.  I thought there must be an easier way.  

And there is .. an Australian company Westalee Design has designed a foot and rulers for domestic sewing machines.  After watching their video, I ordered the foot and ruler and a week later it arrived. 

Westalee foot and ruler

For the foot to work on my Bernina 440 a Bernina 'low shank adaptor foot' is required, which I already have. Following their great instructions, attached the foot and was off ...
 
... had a bit of a play ...

Then onto a mini neonates quilt.  While I could have achieved the same result with a walking foot, it was a great trial.  

using Aurifil 50wt thread

I found it easier to hold the ruler when it was on the left handside of the foot.   On the righthand side it tended to move abit - probably as I'm left handed. Would also help it I stuck on the non-slip strip that came with the ruler!

So now more practice and experimentation, although this will need to wait until I've finished my knitted quilt.

Mini success

Each February Sawmillers Quiltery, in Te Marua (~40 minutes north of Wellington), host the Stonestead Outdoor Quilt show.  Which I have yet to get to!  

For the show last year I started an entry for their challenge, a table runner.  I got as far as piecing the top that needed to feature a sawtooth block - the block that appears in all their logos.  

 
The challenge for this year was a neonates quilt for Hutt hospital.  The dimensions were 17" by 29" and again had to feature the sawtooth block.  Before Christmas I made one block, had my plan drawn up ... and not a lot happened.  A week or so before the due date put a bit of effort in to complete the quilt. 

A week before the show I delivered the quilt and my daughter's hockey quilt for the youth section.

Neonates quilt

'Hockey Rules'

 






The show was on Sunday 8th February and due to the kids various activities we weren't able to make it - so maybe next year.

It was worth the effort we both won prizes!

 







What I also discovered is that Sawmillers are stocking Aurifil 50wt and hopefully soon will have 40wt and even better they will post it out.

Aurifil in Wellington!

Spring Fling - finished

A few days ago I posted here about my mini quilt using Sew Wonderful's Quick Curve ruler and their Spring Fling tutorial.  

It is now finished - I mostly followed the quilting as shown in the tutorial.

completed

a closer look

The quilt is ~28 inches square and will be given to the Neonatal Unit at Wellington Hospital.  I don't get too hung up about where it ends up, some quilts are used within the unit, some  given to parents to take home with others sold for fundraising.

This is the first one I've completed this year, I find this size really good for trying techniques, practicing my quilting and using up fabric.  They are also quick and easily finished pieces to do between (or during) larger projects.

Spring Fling

'Spring Fling' is the name of a block by Jenny Pedigo of Sew Kind of Wonderful.  Some time ago I purchased her ruler when I was keen to try and master curves.  My first block was a complete failure and I threw it out.  (this wasn't due to the ruler!! more like operator error!!!)

I've continued to follow her blog and the other day had another go, this time with her new tutorial - Spring Fling.  

The block went together quite quickly and easily - even cutting the curves and sewing them was fine.  Only once did I need to unpick one curve because when I came to trim it - it was more like a parallelogram than a square!

What I did notice (and this may have been one of the reasons for my early failure) is that the ruler and patterns are for right-handers.  I'm left handed and sometimes I found I was holding the ruler quite awkwardly.  The next time I use the ruler I'll put the pattern/pictures upside down - hopefully then it will be easier.

As I didn't have any of the orange/white fabric left and hardly any of the checked decided that this could be a Neonate quilt.  Added a couple of borders to get it upto the required 27" size.  Now to quilt it ...

Jenny has a giveaway on her blog for her new book Contemporary Curved Quilts, see here.

Another Mini

Another mini

A random-ish selection of 3 1/2" squares.  Some squares have black triangles on diagonals.

Straight line quilting with either a blue or green variegated Sulky 100% cotton thread.  The lines are in groups of six, quick and easy.

More minis

Some more small quilts for Neonates.  Another Mosaic pattern by Elizabeth Hartman

And another Mosaic, I think this will be my last using this style. 

 

I've almost used up my supply of pink FQs.  Various widths of strips of pink had white strips joined at either end.  This was a bit random if I did this again I'd take more care with the lengths of each piece when cutting.


I used this piece to practice my free motion feathers.  I spray starched the top, stabilised the back with freezer paper then using a stencil marked the feathers with an ordinary pencil.  
  
The spray starch and freezer paper makes the whole surface like drawing on paper.  Any pencil marks either wear off when stitching or just wash out.  

After the marking the pattern and removing the freezer paper the quilt top was basted and quilted.  Another advantage with the spray starch is that the quilting surface is nice and smooth.

This is based on Elizabeth Hartman's Sparkle Punch Quilt (follow the link for her tutorial).  Here I was using up my bright FQs. 

The quilting is Orange Peel.  Looks hard but is quite easy using the grid created by the seams.

Next time I'd try making the stars a solid and the background patterned.