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.






 

 

Showing in October

October is a busy month for some of my quilts, two small pieces are on display this weekend and other pieces have been shown during October.

Aotearoa Quilters Green 12x12 challenge is on show this weekend at Whangamata Patch and Quilt exhibition.

photo from Aotearoa Quilters FB page,
mine is middle solid green one (here it is below)

Also on this weekend is a display of postcards created by Oceania SAQA members at the Stitches and Craft show in Melbourne.  The postcards were shown earlier this year at SAQA's (Studio Art Quilt Associates) annual conference in Portland.

mine second to bottom row, third on the left

My quilt 'Knit One, Paint One' is part of SAQA's 'Redirecting the Ordinary' exhibition and has been showing in Europe.  It has just shown at Abilmente Mostra-Atelier Internazionale della Manualita Creativa, Fiera di Vincenza, Italy.  

During September it was at Carrefour Europeen du Patchwork, Alsace, France.

'Knit One, Paint One' third from the left
'Redirecting the Ordinary' at Carrefour Europeen du Patchwork
photo from SAQA's Europe/Middle East blog

My quilt 'Caveman txts' is in SAQA's exhibition 'Text Messages' and showed at 'Original Sewing & Quilt Expo' in Fredericksburg, VA, in early October. 

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.

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:

 

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.

A quilting event

On Saturday the Wellington Quilters Guild hosted the 'Coast to Coast' quilting event.  The five Wellington region quilting guilds usually have a quilting event every two years.  

It was held at Wellington Girls' College and there were merchants, show and tell, jelly roll competition, speaker and three challenges.

My entries for the challenges:

Cat not included

Flag - to redesign our New Zealand flag.

Bloke's block - circle of jandals
All the blocks will be joined into a quilt/s and donated to the Wellington City Mission.

Child's block - noughts and crosses on blackboard fabric
All these blocks will be put together as a quilt/s and donated to the Women's Refuge.



I won first prize and viewers choice for my flag.  Hmm there were only three entries!  My prize included a New Zealand flag and a voucher from Sawmillers Quiltery which I redeemed for some Aurifil thread.  

The flag was created with freezer paper stencils and coloured with paintsticks, textile paint would have been easier and faster.  To get the colour more intense required quite a few applications fortunately we had a few sunny days.  I find the paintsticks a bit messy for using inside. 

paintsticks, freezer paper (white)

Selection of the challenge block entries ...
 

 kids blocks








blokes blocks












Interesting to see the final quilts.

Sampling

I've been practicing my freemotion quilting.  Previously when I've created practice/sample pieces they tended to be on scrappy fabric/batting or larger pieces.  

I've been looking for an efficient way to have a quick reference to refer to when deciding what designs to use on a quilt.  Often I find that I've used a quilting design then forgotten about it or can't quite remember what it looked like or how I did it.  

On Candy Glendening's website she shows how she created a freemotion quilting sampler book, with small quilt samples loosely bound together.  This is perfect for what I want to achieve.  

Here is my bundle so far ...

 














Candy used metal eyelets - my eyelet installing ability failed me so I resorted to using the eyelet stitch on my machine.  The size of the samples is ~9 1/2" square - the same size as one of my rulers.
 
Individual samples ...

 

On each sample I've recorded the type of thread, bobbin thread, needle, batting used and anything else useful.

 

As well as patterns I'm trying different needle types with a variety of threads.  I'm also interested in creating textures so will explore different battings and combinations.

Accessorising

My favourite accessory for my Bernina (440) is the multi-thread holder.  It is just the best for the bigger reels of thread and especially metallics and the silky threads such as the Madeira Polyneons. 

 
Before I had the holder I'd put the larger reels in a small container out the back of the machine so the thread would thread through ok.  This mostly worked although there were times when the reel would bounce out of the container or the container (and thread) would end up on the floor.

While there are single thread holders available to have the ability to store several reels is great.  If I'm working on a project with multiple thread colours I can have them all in the one place.  What is a little annoying is needing to unthread when the bobbin needs to be wound. 


The unit comes with one main holder and two smaller holders that can be attached to the back (see photo above) or sides (see box photo).

The best time to purchase one of these multiple thread holders is when the Bernina dealers have their accessory sale.   

Knit One, Paint One, Repeat

My quilt 'Knit One, Paint One, Repeat' has been hanging at Nancy's Stitch Studio for a few weeks now.  It is mostly the same as 'Knit One, Paint One (see here) except the colour is less blue and slightly lighter to fit the colour scheme for their new shop.

Kint One, Paint One, Repeat

In March I posted about my initial progress with the quilt (see here).  

A couple of detail pictures ...

finished quilting

back view

It takes a bit of getting used to seeing the quilt when I enter the shop.  A nice feeling and now to remember to enjoy seeing it as it is and not thinking about what I could have done differently or better. 

More Ruler Work

I've continued playing with my Westalee rulers.  See here and here for previous posts.  

Note I've been using the Westalee ruler foot and not the freemotion foot that comes with my sewing machine.

Trying the set of 4 feathers rulers ranging from 2" to 5".

While you could just pick up these rulers and use them I found watching (and sometimes rewatching) the Westalee video sped up the learning process quite a bit.  



No marking of the individual feathers is required however having a basting line or marking straight lines on either side of the feathers helps to keep the feathers uniform and straight.

Straight line of feathers using one sized ruler.

 









Wavy line with different sized feathers using a combination of rulers

 












Attempting curved cross-hatching using the Westalee straight and curved ruler.

 
I'm getting used to the edge of the ruler not being where the stitching line will be but 1/4" in from that.  This catches me out when I'm getting to the end of a shape and need to line the ruler up - it is too easy to line the edge of the ruler up with the point, start sewing then realise you're not going to end in the right place! 

Still working on getting the stitch length even and better start/stops ...

Ruler Work

Back here I posted about using the Westalee foot and rulers for freemotion quilting on a domestic sewing machine.  

I've been trying the Westalee 'Circles on quilts - wreath 16' ruler.  At the narrow end of the ruler there is a pin hole, a drawing pin is inserted from the back of the quilt and the ruler is placed on the pin.  One segment/shape is stitched then the ruler pivoted so the next segment can be sewn.  Finally joining up in a wreath shape.

ruler, centre pin

stitching

 








What I learnt:
* stabilise the area to be quilted first by stitching in the ditch.  Basting with safety pins isn't a good idea as the pins get in the way and the ruler doesn't cope with them nearby or underneath. 

stabilising in the ditch

 











* extra flat space is required so either use the sewing machine in a table such as a Sewezi or an extension table for the machine.  Having a reasonable amount of flat space is needed.  

* use the Supreme Freemotion slider as the under side of the drawing pin will get caught between the machine and the insert thingy.

slider on my sew ezi table

 










* the screw on the foot does need to be tight - interesting things happen if it comes undone.

* if there are any whoopsies stop and unpick.  If you keep going it probably won't meet up at the end leaving the wrong sized space for the final segment. 

* check that there is enough space on the quilt for the completed pattern before starting to stitch.   I didn't do this and was stitching across the batting. 

oops

This did have a happy ending as I realised that the pattern was quite interesting so stitched over the unpicked shapes but within the star.

partial stitching

 

I then needed to repeat this on the other star and realised that I could stitch until I reached the outline stitching of the star, backtrack, turn the ruler stitch the next segment.









Now to fill in the rest of the space and work on getting the stitch length even ... 

See here for Westalee's video for using this foot.