Wholecloth, Batiks and Hexies

It's been a busy week since the last post. I've made some progress on a couple of projects, including starting a new one.

November's Learning Quilt-A-Long

My goal for November is to create a wholecloth quilt from each different batting being tested. In some of the projects, the FMQ follows the design on what will be the backing.

For this first piece, I began by quilting on the silk batting. Last month I had quilted on the cotton-wool batting first, so the silk batting felt very thin in comparison. This time, the silk batting was great.

FMQ the bird panel from the backing

For this wholecloth quilt, I used #100 Kimono silk thread from Superior Threads in both the top and the bobbin. It was perfect and quilted beautifully.

Below is the front of the wholecloth quilt. I changed the colour to off-white because I would like to try to either paint or dye the piece. This will be a learning project for this winter. I'm hoping to visit my girlfriend who is a painter. She has promised to help me since I'm pretty nervous about painting :-) I'm the kid who had a paint-by-number of the Last Supper and proceeded to paint the whole ceiling in one colour of brown!!! Needless to say, the painting (and the ceiling) were never finished.

The wholecloth quilt created from the FMQ panel

I added a border to the panel and then marked the wholecloth so that I can FMQ something interesting in the border.

Another Batik Lap Quilt

I've started another batik lap quilt using a couple of charm packs that I bought a while back. The colours are absolutely stunning. I'm having a great time working with these colours!

I have almost half of the quilt top pieced. It's now time to go into my stash for more fabric since I only bought 2 charm packs but I need slightly more than that to make a respectable sized quilt (roughly 50" x 47").

Batik lap top - almost half done

I love making these quick quilts. Minimum piecing with all kinds of potential for FMQ. I've been thinking of doing an all-over quilt pattern. I've actually never done this on a quilt. I think that it could be a good learning experience :-)

Hexie Project

I've spent a lot of evenings working on my hexies. It's a restful activity after a day of working and thinking. So far, I'm planning for a runner of two hexie flowers wide and possibly five flowers long. I'll see how far I get before I decide to call it done!

Hexie project coming along

I'm not sure that I like the white border. I could remove it (it's much easier to remove than to add!), but I'll wait to see how it goes. It might be cool to add a border outside of the white border, possibly in all of the colours that I've used in the hexies. The fun part of working with hexies is that it's easy to try out a design by just putting them into place, before attaching them.

To-Do Tuesday

For my To-Do list this week, I'm going to work on another wholecloth quilt and add a few more rows on my batik quilt!

What I learned

• FMQ the panel by following its outline went really well. I find it much faster than trying to figure out what FMQ pattern to use next. Since I was only outlining everything, it only took a little over an hour. That's good because if it had taken a huge amount of time, I might not be willing to try to add paint or dye to it! I even have more of these panels if I end up wanting to start over.
• I forget how much I love batiks until I'm doing another batik project. I really hope that I'll remember to use them more often. I get such joy out of working with awesome colours! 
• After reading a book about Leaders and Enders, I'm really tempted to start one. I think I may have enough batik scraps to start. That would be very cool. I'll let you know when it happens.
• I'm still having a great time working on the hexies project. It's great to see it grow. 
• I've been sucked into looking at hexies and EPP on Pinterest. Oh the things I could make.... maybe.... if I had the patience!!!
• Speaking of patience, I just came back from listening to Kathy K. Wylie who was our guild's guest speaker. Her latest quilt, "For Such a Time As This" won first prize in Houston this fall under Traditional Appliqué. It took her 3 years to make and over 200 hours to FMQ. That is the definition of patience. Wow. Check her quilt out in the Related Links below.

Related Links

• Learning QAL - November Goal Setting, November 1, 2017
• February Finishes, batik lap quilt, February 28, 2017 
• Hexies:  More Learning and Updates, November 5, 2017
• Kathy K. Wylie, "For Such a Time As This" 

Linking Parties: I will be linking this post to many great linking parties. Check out what others are up to! Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Design Wall Monday, Linky Tuesday, To-Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Let's Bee Social, Needle & Thread Thursday, Free Motion Mavericks, Off the Wall Friday, Finished or Not Friday, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?,

Patches the Pumpkin Patch Protector

It's completed! Patches the Pumpkin Patch Protector, whose pattern is by Jaynette Huff is done! I downloaded this pattern from Martingale - it was free and I couldn't resist....but I didn't expect to make it for a while. One day, I felt like starting something new and voila! The rest is history.

I blogged about Patches in my last post, but I'm so happy with the result that I had to share it (aka show off!).  My husband's comment was: "No offence, but he rather looks like a Calvin Klein scarecrow". No offence taken...I'll choose to take that as a compliment (it might be the white linen shirt!)

Patches the Pumpkin Patch Protector, pattern by Jaynette Huff

Here he is in all of his glory!  For now, he resides at work - it's frankly too large to put on the wall at home! That's what happens when you don't look at the measurements of a project before you start.

I want to thank Martingale for the free pattern and I need to give credit to Craftsy: First to Carol Doak for her Mastering Foundation Paper Piecing course and then to Leah Day for her Free Motion Quilting a Sampler.

I also hand appliquéd the birds - and I used the skills I learned in Kathy Wylie's class.



Free-Motion Process:

• I marked the clouds so that I would get them right.
• I used multi-coloured thread to stitch the wheat - both on the wheat fabric and on the horizon. I like the way it came out.
• Quilting around the pumpkins makes them "pop".
• You can't seem them in this picture, but the black border has pumpkins quilted on them. I made a template so that the pumpkins would all be the same size and also made a template of a pumpkin leaf since I had the horrible time trying to draw them!

Isn't it great to be putting all that learning into practice? Don't give up - it is all about practice!

Learning Needle Turn Appliqué from an Expert

I had the pleasure last week of taking a hand appliqué course with international award winning quilter, Kathy Wylie. Wow, this lady knows appliqué! She was the speaker at our guild meeting last Tuesday. She’s funny, smart, knowledgeable and really down to earth. Her work is meticulous and has won many prizes. Those are actually the kind of quilts that I see at quilt shows and in magazines and automatically think that I’ll never be able to do that. Both the appliqué and the quilting are really unbelievable. She has sure earned those prizes.

I registered for the course this summer, before even knowing what we would be appliquéing. It’s just as well, or I probably wouldn't have had the confidence to take the course. We learned to appliquéd a small section of her pattern, Flourish on the Vine. Our pattern is one of the horizontal stem pieces coming out of the centre. It’s placed at both ends of the runner.

Flourish on the Vine by Kathy Wylie

Applique project

I thought I was exhausted coming home after the workshop, but once I got some supper in me, I kept going and finished the section we were working on. I even transferred the rest of the pattern onto freezer paper. It’s now all ready to cut out and be appliquéd.

Butterfly

Applique Inside the Lines

I've only done needle-turn appliqué a couple of times before. Based on the book, Appliqué Inside the Lines: 12 Quilt Projects to Embroider and Appliqué by Carol Armstrong, I embroidered and appliquéd two projects that are in my cubicle.

I put aside the Flourish on the Vine project to practice a little more. I’m working on the feather project from the book that I had started but never finished. I’m doing the project as fall coloured leaves. I know that quilters will recognize them as feathers but anyone else will see leaves!

Dresden Plate

What did I learn?

• Like anything else, the more you practice the better you get.
• Appliqué is addictive.
• It’s best to appliqué in really good light. It makes all the difference!
• It’s important to have a ¼ inch to do the needle-turn. Less is NOT a good thing!
• Kathy taught us to mark the pattern onto the fabric before doing the appliqué. It really helps! 
• It’s also important to mark the appliqué piece on the fabric before cutting it a ¼ inch larger. This helps you guide where you should be turning and appliquéing. 
• We learned many other things, but I’m not going to reveal all of Kathy’s secrets here. Instead, I’ll encourage you to take one of her classes!