Dresden Plate Quilting

It has been a busy week (3 days of volunteering). I am hoping to finish machine quilting the Dresden Plate quilt on Saturday.

There are 12 feathered wreathes all quilted and

the scalloped edge around the Dresden Plates. I wanted a really classic style of feathers for this quilt (I'll go into more details on how when I finish the quilt).

I am working on the background filler now (not such a classic style - for contrast).

I am using wool batting for this quilt. I bought it at the LQS for $75 for a King size, and purchased this King size package from Hamel's for $57 when they had free shipping last week (plus I saved a tax). I know where I will be buying batting from in the future.

The book I won from Wendy at Inky Threads came this week. She is having another great book giveaway until the 30th of November.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Friday Night Sew In Results

My Friday Night Sew In started at 8.30 yesterday morning.

After I drove my youngest to school, I Skype'd with Joan (Joan at Leschenault) in Australia - so her (late) Friday night.
I got the freezer paper all traced and cut out for this month's Hop To It appliqué block, and Joan worked on her Granny's Hankie BOM block.

In the afternoon I started quilting the Dresden Plate quilt.

After free motion quilting around the centres, I quilted a feather style flower in a peach Aurifil 50 WT thread on the DP's.

All 25 DP's are now quilted, and I have started working on the background.

I also finished the socks I have been knitting.

They have such a pretty top. The pattern is "Traveler's Stocking" from the "Knitting on the Road" book by Nancy Bush. I made them with a kidmohair blend yarn from L'Angelaine - lovely and soft.

I started knitting a hat last night. The pattern is from Ravelry - a wonderful site. The pattern is Button-Tab Knit Hat and it is one of the free patterns.

Great Friday Night Sew In - thanks Heidi!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥

New Shelves and New Look

Not much sewing these past few days. My husband made me a book shelf to replace a "not so nice" cupboard in my sewing area. It was my job to stain and finish it - all done - 

Yesterday I spent some time clearing out things in my sewing area (still have to go through bins of fabric in the storage room - but that is for another day and a whole other messy story!). 

I even found a spot for my Quilt Along quilt on top of the shelves (it's too big for any of our beds).

I am really pleased with the new shelves, they have given my area a whole new look. 

We had the wood in the garage for a few years now, so it was good to use it up, although now that I know what DH can build I have a few other projects I would like him to make!

On the table in the photo above is my Dresden Plate quilt - I pinned all the layers together yesterday, I plan on starting the quilting at tomorrow night's Friday Night Sew In.

The grey partridges where at bird feeder this morning. They are all so round. Lots of fun to watch, especially when they start running (I can't help but think of "The Partridge Family" intro from the 70's).

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Three More Art Quilts

I worked on three more art quilts this weekend.

They all have fabric painting on them, and are all about 8" x 10".

This one is one of the butterflies that I stamped on white fabric that I painted the background of first. I tried some thread painting (through all the quilt layers).

For this butterfly I traced around the stamp so that it would be the same size as the painted one.

I tried out some Metallic thread by Wonderfil. It worked very well (I tried both free motion and walking foot quilting). I found that it worked better with an Embroidery needle (#90) than with a Metallic needle (#80), and I sewed slower than I normally do.
Diane Gaudynski recently mentioned that when sewing with metallic thread the stitch length should be longer than normal to show off the shine of the thread (not a direct quote) and you can tell the difference.

This is the other painted butterfly with strips of fabric added log cabin style. I stitched on the butterfly with Invisafil thread by Wonderfil, and added some accents with the metallic thread. I also added some beads to both of the butterfly mini quilts.

I did some decorative stitching on the seams (all the stitching was done through all the layers) with Sulky Blendables 30 WT thread. It is such a beautiful thread, it has random colour changes and is perfect for machine embroidery and free motion quilting (it is a heavier thread and I like it for a simple all over quilting design).

This one is similar to the one I made last week.

I couched down different types of thread and yarn. I used Invisafil thread for most of the couching, but also the Metallic and Iris (the one with the decorative stitching) thread for a couple. The fabric has a heavy stabilizer added before couching.

More circles for the quilting (in Metallic, Iris and Aurifil).

I plan on making three more ini quilts (I will then have 10) before I send them all off to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Machine Quilting

I machine quilted a table runner that my Mom made - 

the pattern is Cabin in the Woods.

I did an all over leaf and loop design with variegated Aurifil 50WT thread.

My practice on the white board before I got started.

Here is another art quilt for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (I hand stitched the binding down this morning while Skype-ing with Wendy and Joan - amazing world).
This one is 8" x 10". I painted the square, couched thread on it, pieced it and quilted it. I used Aurifil 50 WT red thread and the gold thread is a thicker rayon thread (Iris thread from Mexico).

I tried out a Frixion pen - it wrote beautifully on the fabric (I used a Staedtler circle template to mark the circle - thanks for the tip Wendy),

but when I ironed the quilt to get the lines out, you could still see a faint white line. I even tried water, and the eraser on the pen to try to remove the lines. I wouldn't use this pen on an heirloom quilt. It probably didn't help that the fabric is dark.

I finally got around to making this month's EQ BOM - November Novelty, just one month to go.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Playing with Fabric Paint

Today I was playing with fabric paints.

For these ones I used watercolour paints (my children's old school paint) with textile medium on wet fabric. For each one I only used two different colours, but as they sat drying, different colours appeared. I heat set them. The butterflies are stamped with fabric paint after.

This one is painted with fabric paint on dry fabric.

I then couched embroidery threads down (with a special sewing machine foot) using different types of sewing threads, and zig-zag or decorative stitches. It is the first time that I have used this foot and it worked very well.

All ready for  quilting. This will be a quilt for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Finished Art Quilts

I finished up the three art quilts I made for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (Michele has a great little video and pictures on her blog of the AAQI booth at the Houston quilt festival this year - they sold over 1000 art quilts this year!)

This is the one from yesterday.

This one has a picture that was made with Photoshop Elements (I copied a postcard from my Grandmother from the early 1900's and added some other photos) and printed it on fabric. I free motion quilted "Love" on the side - first try at writing in FMQ. It is 8" x 10+1/2"

This one is my favourite - I love the colours and I had so much fun with the free motion quilting. I used Invisafil thread for most of it and

I tried some rayon thread as an accent (this one is by Gutermann). I think I will be buying more rayon thread!
This little quilt is 8" x 10".

I finished stitching the binding this afternoon and I thought the spools of Aurifil thread were so beautiful - such pretty colours.

I have really enjoyed making these quilts and will be making more - they are a great way to try new techniques and are so quick to make (they have to be no larger than 9" x 12"). Great way to use up little leftovers too.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Art Quilts

I am trying my hand at some art quilts.

My friend Wendy (at Inky Threads - she has a giveaway going on until the 10th of November) kindly gave me some fabric (haven't used it yet, but I will) and batting to make some mini quilts for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. These are my first three.

I tried a couple with photo's that I created using Photoshop Elements. This one is made up of many layers - a sunrise from last week, a tree with the blue sky - the image of the tree has been removed from the picture, that is why there are those blobs, and the faint mottling is a picture of the bark of the tree. Plus I added an picture of some old keys that I have. I printed the photos on fabric with freezer paper, using my regular printer (the fabric is soft and pliable, better that iron on transfers, but not as bright).

This one is 11" x 8+1/2".

I tried some Laserbrite thread by Signature for the first time (I used a large metallic needle). I only tired it with the walking foot on my machine not free motion quilting - it seems hard on the sewing machine (lots of odd noises - I should have reduced the upper tension).

I used a french curve and a Hera marker to mark the veins for for the feathers. I find that the Hera marker works better when it has a guide to run against, the fabric doesn't "drag".

I used a white board and dry erase marker to try out different feather designs. A white board is a handy tool to have to practice free motion quilting designs before moving to the sewing machine.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥