'Sew' Much Fun

I made this piece of crazy quilting a few years ago and thought that is was about time I made some thing with it (I originally had other plans for it and never got around to making it).

The crazy quilting measures about 6" square.
The tatting patterns are from the book "Tatted Fashion" by Teiko Fujito - which is a wonderful book and great for all levels of tatters.
Since I have been doing lots of free motion quilting recently, and I purchased some different plain Kona cotton to practice on, I decided to incorporate the CQ into a whole cloth quilt.

Here are the steps I took -

After adding large borders to the square of CQ, I layered it with backing fabric (from an old white cotton sheet), and two layers of batting - the bottom one is cotton and the top is half a layer of wool batting (both by Hobbs - just what I had). Stitched all the seams in the ditch. I did mark the spines of the feathers with a white Clover iron out pen and stitched those first. More about the design inspiration later.

After all the feathers were stitched, I knew I wanted to have a large section of a palm leaf design in the corner (Cindy Needham calls it "gingko", and uses a stencil, but I quilt a different ginkgo design already and think this one looks more like a palm leaf - so to avoid confusion I am calling it a palm leaf design).

I marked two semi circles with a Hera marker on a piece of string, that I held at the corner.

There is pebbling quilted in the narrow band,

and "scribbling" in the section around the CQ. Scribbling is as fun to quilt as it sounds!

I marked a 1/2" grid with a Hera marker for the palm leaf design (you can see how well the lines show up - the Hera marker just flattens the fibres. To remove any lines that were still visible after quilting, I sprayed a tiny bit of water on the fabric to swell the fibres back up - my fabric is cotton).

This area (about 11" radius) took almost 4 hours to quilt!! The whole FMQ took about 9-10 hours.

But it was worth it in the end - I love the movement this particular design creates.

When I started this piece I knew that I wanted the quilting to move around the CQ, from the bottom left corner (the lone button), around, and "out" the upper right corner. I added diagonal straight lines around the rest of the feathers to create more of that movement. There is also a section of binding that is different in the upper corner (it is the same Liberty cotton that is in the CQ), and the CQ is purposely not centred in the piece.

this photo shows all the different designs

I added beads to the palm leaf design, in different colours and sizes (11 and 15) to create more movement.
All the quilting is done with a matching dark beige Invisafil 100Wt thread. The feathers are bump-bump feathers, and I used a #80 Titanium needle (still the same one that has been on my machine for ever it seems, well worth the extra money).

Before I started the piece I knew that I wanted to practice a few design elements - the palm leaves and feathers with triangular elements.

The above photo shows the triangular elements in the feathers and how they mimic the triangle shapes of the CQ. There are more triangles in the piece created with other designs and beads.
The semi circle in the upper corner and the pebbling mimic the buttons and beads in the CQ.

the finished piece is 19"x20"

I can't tell you how many times I took the above photo and there were always blurry sections - the joys of a point and shoot camera, but at least I am still blogging for free!

The Cindy Needham Craftsy online class that I took really helped show the importance of backgrounds, and it has been fun trying out different ones. Thanks so much to Cindy Needham!!
More of my opinion of the class here.

Practice, practice, practice - the only way to get better at free motion quilting! My Mother asked me what I was making this for - once it was finished it served its purpose - it was to practice. I don't know why, but you do a better job practicing on something that is worth while, than just an old scrap of fabric.

I just wanted to mention that I quilted it the ditch first with a walking foot, in all the seams. After the piece was quilted I found that I didn't like the areas of the feathers that were stitched down and I removed some stitching. In the above photo you can see the feather on the right side of the spine (the large lobe) has had the stitches in the ditch removed, and the ones on the left haven't.

I hope this inspires you to practice!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!❤

December Free Motion Quilting Challenge

The December Sew Cal Gal Free Motion Quilting Challenge was with Patsy Thompson, and it was all about borders.

It is always good to try something new, and this month for me is was  feathers on a "roller coaster" spine. Since I don't have the bendable ruler that Patsy Thompson talked about, I made a template with paper to mark the spine - although I didn't stitch the spine first like I normally do. On the video Patsy showed a beautiful way to quilt feathers that was also new to me.

I used a dark purple 50Wt thread for quilting the feathers,

it is easier to see them on the back.

the border was a mirror image

Then I added "hyper quilting" with a green thread.

Hard to see the feathers on the front in this photo, but the hyper quilting helped the design to be more visible in real life. I can't wait to try this style of quilting out on some plainer fabric.
Thanks to Patsy Thompson for a wonderful lesson!

It is sad to see the challenge come to an end. Thank-you so much SewCalGal!

Here is a post on my finished sampler quilt.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!❤

Also thanks to everyone who left comments about adding photos on blogger (I have used up all my available space and didn't want to buy more). I now use my "point and shoot" camera set to the smallest picture setting, and have no problems uploading pictures.

THQA 2012 Half Blocks

Depending on the layout you have chosen for the Quilt Along, you might need some half blocks. For the layout I have chosen I need 4 half blocks (the above picture is a rough guide of the layout). More layout ideas can be seen here.

I have chosen to make 4 - Half Nine Patches.

For one half block you will need -

Print A (mine is green) -

                          1 - 4+1/2" square, cut into four on the diagonals
                                        - you will only need three of the resulting triangles
                          1 - 2+7/8" square

Print B (mine is the brown/green print) -

                           2 -  2+7/8" squares

Remember cut accurately, scant 1/4" seams, press seams in opposite directions....

The half block will be sewn like the layout above.

Beginning by sewing the pieces into rows,

and sewing the rows together.

Finished Half Block.

All four of my half blocks.

Next week there will be more information on layouts for the blocks.

Thanks for quilting along and have a great day!❤

A Year of the FMQ Challenge

I can't believe that it has been almost a year since I started the Sew Cal Gal Free Motion Quilting Challenge!

I filled in a square every month, plus the border - which is the December challenge. The squares are 8", and the whole piece measures about 35" x 50".

Here are all the months in order (click on the month for the link for that particular challenge on the SewCalGal site) -

January-

this was a nice, easy one to start the challenge

February -

Diane Gaudynski is my favourite - her books started my FMQ journey

March -

this one was fun because I tried out different threads (hard to see but there are some metallic threads in there)

April -

good to learn a new way to mark a quilt

May -

this was another fun one

June - 

this one lead me to take an online Cindy Needham class, that I absolutely loved!

July -

August -

this one came at the right time because I was looking for a different background for a quilt I was quilting at the time

September -

for this one I just added some "Hyper Quilting" that Patsy Thompson described on the December Challenge

October -

I had lots of fun trying all kinds of threads, and quilting designs for this one

November -

I had fun trying the swirls in different ways

December - 

I created a very tight, curvy centre for the feathered border, which was very different for me, and I love how it turned out

this is the back - I added "hyper quilting" which was hard to see on the front

I am pleased that I chose to make the sample quilt, because now I have a great reference that is all together.

I really enjoyed the challenge because it introduced me to new (to me) quilters, and it expanded my quilting design repertoire.

A huge thank-you to Sew Cal Gal and all the wonderful teachers! It was a really great experience!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!❤

Block 11 THQA 2012

Since this is the last whole block of the Quilt Along, and we started with a variation of a Variable Star, I thought we would end with one. This is a plain Variable Star.

For one 7" block you will need -

Print A (mine is brown) this is the "background" of the star -

                                1 - 4+3/4" square - for the Fast Flying Geese
                                4 - 2+1/4" squares - for the corners of the block

Print B (mine is orange) -

                                4 - 2+5/8" squares - for the Fast Flying Geese (these will be the star points)

Print C (mine is green) -

                                1 - 4" square - for the centre of the block

Remember measure accurately, sew scant 1/4" seams, press seams in opposite directions....

Start by making four Flying Geese with the large print A square, and all four Print B squares (all the instructions can be found here).

When sewing the scant 1/4" seams I have to sew quite a bit smaller with my new 1/4" sewing foot for the seam to be accurate.

These four units should be trimmed to 2+1/4" x 4".

The four Flying Geese, along with the small print A squares and the Print C square will go together like the above photo. Sewn together like a regular Nine-Patch,

sewing the units into rows and then the rows together.

Trim the finished block to 7+1/2" square.

My other blocks -

For this one I added a Pinwheel centre.

I made the Pinwheel with Easy Half Square Triangles (HST) using 2+3/4" squares - two squares each, from two different fabrics. Trim the Half Square Triangles to 2+1/4" before sewing the Pinwheel. All the instructions for the HST can be found here.

The Pinwheel should be trimmed to 4".

Have fun with this Variable Star - any 4" block will work for the centre.

 All three blocks together.

all 33 blocks!

We are now finished with all the whole blocks, next week there will be instructions for the half blocks.

Have a great day and thanks for quilting along!❤

November Free Motion Quilting Challenge

I had fun with this month's Sew Cal Gal Free Motion Quilting Challenge.

The expert this month is Sarah Vedeler, and the challenge was creating swirls. I tried different sizes and the variation.

This was the last square of my sample quilt, and since it was a 8" x 16" I decided to add a feather with some swirls too. I used 50Wt thread for quilting the feather and echo, and then 100Wt thread for the background swirls and lines.

Another great challenge and it was fun to try something new. Thanks Sew Cal Gal and Sarah Vedeler!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!❤

I have recently been getting messages on Blogger, when I am uploading pictures, about having used all my photo storage space, and that I would have to buy more space - and then the next time I have no problems uploading pictures. Does any one else get that message? Or know anything about that. I don't want to have to start paying to have a blog.