FMQ Palm Leaf Design

In December I made this wall hanging -

                           

and a few people asked me how I quilted the palm leaf design shown in the upper right corner, so I thought I would add a tutorial for it. 

The design is one from the amazingly talented Cindy Needham. She uses a stencil for her starting clamshell design, mine is made using a grid. She also calls it Gingko Leaves, but since I already quilt a different Gingko design, I have chosen to call mine Palm Leaves.

The design begins with a clamshell, that is made up of a quarter circle in a grid.

Four of the quarter circles are put together to form the clamshell,

all the clamshells fit together like this - 

 

The design starts with a grid. I marked a 1/2" grid for this one, using a iron-off marking pen and a ruler. The lines should be at 45° to the grain of the fabric.

Plain Clamshells are stitched as bumpy lines, one row on top of another. Clamshells can be made on various size grids, and additions can be added for embellishment. Anita Shackelford shows some lovely additions to clamshells here.

Close up of the Palm Leaves

Here is a video demonstrating how I stitch the Palm Leaves -

I divided each half of the clamshell with 4 stitched lines, but the number depends on the size of the grid and personal preference.

When stitching the next row, the design is reversed -

Clamshells and Palm Leaves - 

I used regular sewing thread for the stitching on this piece, in a contrasting colour so it would show, usually I use a 100Wt thread in a matching colour so that the design looks better.

I also added beads to the Palm Leaves on the Whole Cloth frame (you don't notice all the backtracking with 100Wt thread).

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!❤

Pieces of Time BOM

A group of friends and I started a new Block of the Month this month - well it is actually two blocks a month, one appliqué and one pieced. The pattern is Pieces of Time by Lori Smith.

This month we did both blocks #4. I am using Edyta Sitar's fabric - Dancing in the Rain. The blocks are 8" and will finish to 7+1/2".

I am just including this picture because I was pleased to see different blooms inside, especially since outside looks like this -

Not that I am complaining, I much prefer the cold to slushy conditions.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!❤

First Finishes of 2013

 I finished off a couple of projects that have been sitting around for quite a while.

A piece of tatting and an art doll. The tatting is a pattern that I have made a few times, in different weights of thread - it is such a wonderful pattern. This piece is 12" x 19".  The art doll just needed beads around the edge, she is about 6"tall.

The best finish for the new year is that we finished off a bathroom renovation. I wish I had a before picture - it was pretty sad. The bathroom needed renovating, and a little leak in the bathtub helped us make the move to renovate. I am so pleased! The only original thing is the cabinet, and we did all the work ourselves. This is our sons bathroom.

 This time last year I did some stash busting and made a string quilt, this year is starting the same way.

I cut strips for a log cabin.

Sixty 7" blocks pieced so far. I think I'll need about 150 blocks. The fabric is mostly reproduction.

I am using the Judy Martin technique from her Log Cabin Quilt Book, and it is working well.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!❤

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

We went to Hawaii for Christmas - we were so lucky to see Santa on the beach Christmas morning!

It is the first time we have had a relaxing, beach vacation (usually there are places to go, things to do), and our first vacation away from the cold. The day we left it was -28°C here, and when we landed in Maui it was +28°C.

This was the view from the condo that we rented, in Kaanapali, on one of the golf courses. Most afternoons were spent lounging on the lanai, watching whales playing in the ocean. It was a 5 minute walk to the ocean. The island of Lanai is visible in the distance (we also saw Molokai on the right).

 There was a Hawaiian quilt on the bed.

There were beautiful flowers everywhere. This double hibiscus outside the front door, always had a lizard around.

We went snorkelling everyday. I never imagined anything like it - such clear, warm water, and so many amazing fish. My sons took these photos with an underwater camera, the pictures don't do the actual reef justice.

humuhumunukunukuapua'a (reef triggerfish) - the state fish 

unicorn surgeonfish

We visited lots of beaches,

and drove to the edge of the Haleakalā volcanic crater.

It was an incredible vacation! Now back to my normal routine.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!❤

A Year in Review

I always think it is fun to look back at the year and to plan for the next year.

I started blogging January 1st, 2010, and it has been a great experience, and I have made some wonderful friends. 2010 was really about blogging and creating. I learned how to free motion quilt designs other than the basics, and I was also thrilled to learn invisible machine appliqué. 

2011 became the year of block of the month. I participated in four!

Granny's Hankie by Denise Russart 

this one was finished this year.

Henrietta Whiskers by Bunny Hill Design

finished 2011

EQ 2011 Block of the Month 

finished December 2011

"Hop to It" by Edyta Sitar

This was started in 2010 and finished August 2012. It is from the book "Hop to It" by Edyta Sitar. It was done as a BOM with a few friends. We are starting another BOM in 2013 - Pieces of Time by Lori Smith.

2012

This past year seemed to be all about little quilts.

Some of the little quilts from this year.

These ones are from Kathleen Tracy patterns, and were made as part of her Small Quilt Group.

I sent these eleven little quilts to the Alzheimer Art Quilt Initiative.

So far ten have sold and raised more than $550 (US).

I even hosted a small quilt quilt-along! This one was my Friendship Mini Sampler Quilt Along.

This past year I have worked on getting better at free motion quilting (and even started teaching FMQ!) - that is the reason for all the little quilts, they are fabulous to practice FMQ on.

I participated in the SewCalGal Free-Motion Quilt Challenge.

Here is my sample quilt and four bonus samples.

I also bought a Cindy Needham Craftsy Class, which I loved!

Here are some of my practices pieces after the class - yes, more mini quilts!

I did complete 9 bed/lap quilts (all my 2012 finishes are here).

This one is my Thread Head 2012 Quilt Along 

I had an amazing year with lots of new experiences. 

2013

Along with a few large quilts, my plan for the new year is to create art quilts using different techniques. I am planning on creating one art quilt a month, reflecting that month (all the same size) and binding them into a "book" at the end of the year - I will see how it goes!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful new year!!❤

FMQ Challenge Bonus Tutorials

I decided to complete all four of the bonus SewCalGal Free-Motion Quilting Challenges,

since I had completed all twelve of the monthly challenges (more about my year of the FMQ Challenge quilt here).

9.5" square

This is my version of the May Bonus Tutorial. It doesn't actually qualify as part of the challenge because we were supposed to quilt hand marbled fabric created by the tutorial expert, Linda Moran - oh well.

I interpreted the challenge to be enhancing some beautiful fabric, and decided to quilt some of my hand dyed fabric.

I started with 30Wt Sulky variegated thread (and a #90 Titanium needle).

I then used some 50Wt and 100Wt thread (and switched to a #80 Titanium needle).

This one was definitely different for me, and lots of fun!

9.5" x 10.5"

Next is the August Bonus Tutorial by Susan Brubaker Knapp.

All about taking a photo and turning it into a quilt design. (I have a previous post on this one here.)

8.5" x 10.5"

The October Bonus Tutorial was by Diane Loomis. It was all about machine trapunto, something I have been wanting to try for a while (I even had the YLI wash-a-way thread waiting).

My design was inspired by designs from the book 'The Secrets of Elemental Quilting' by Karen McTavish. I traced it on to plain Kona cotton with a very fine pencil.

I used one and a half layers of wool batting for the trapunto batting. After quilting around the design with the wash-a-way thread (top and bottom), I trimmed away the excess batting. I layered the whole thing with a very thin cotton batting.

Since I have been experimenting with different colours of thread, I used a dark beige thread for the feather design. All the thread for this piece is 100Wt silk thread (YLI and Kimono).

I did some "scribbling" around the feather, and something I call "sand dunes" (one of the "bouncing backgrounds") around that. There is also a section of double grid work in the corner (it is on a 1/2" grid).
It is the first time that I have done this style of quilting with thin cotton batting, and the whole piece has a really nice feel. I will be trying more of this technique in the future.

9.5" square

This is my version of the December Bonus Tutorial. The expert for this one is Teri Lucas. The challenge was about printing an image on fabric (created with Kaleidoscope Kreator 3 Software) and quilting feathers.

I don't have fabric to print on, and so decided to use a piece of my snow dyed fabric - I thought the kaleidoscope looked like a snowflake and it seem appropriate (that's why I quilted a swirling design around the kaleidoscope too).

You can really see the beautiful design on the back of the piece.

In this tutorial, Teri Lucas has one of the best tips that I have seen in this Challenge - "The only way to improve stitching out feathers is to spend time at the machine stitching." - so true!

Thanks to SewCalGal and all the experts for these tutorials. The whole challenge has been inspirational!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!❤