Showing posts with label Learning Quilt-A-Long. Show all posts

Monday, July 29, 2024

Table Scraps and Quilting with Rulers

Hi and welcome! I've finished my July Table Scraps Challenge and took out my quilting rulers to see what I could do. It was interesting and productive 😊 Let me share this weekend's learning with you.

July's Table Scraps Challenge

You may have seen a few preview pictures of my quilting in the last post. It turns out that July's colour was aqua, not teal, although teal is just the darker form of aqua. Anyway there is a little bit of aqua in this piece as well as lots of teal. The theme was butterfly and this was the highlight of the "Butterflies Table Topper".

Butterflies Table Topper

Notice in the image below, the milk can that my girlfriend's painted for me. The fall side matches this month's Butterflies Table Topper.

Butterflies Table Topper matches the fall side of the milk can

For the binding, I used a print of small colourful butterflies on a white background. I wouldn't normally use a light fabric but I'm glad that I did. Yes, a darker aqua fabric would blend in but this is cute and fanciful, just like the runner. Yay for doing something outside of my comfort zone!😁

Butterflies Table Topper and phlox

Here are a couple of detail views of the quilting. This was done with rulers and free motion quilting (FMQ)

Some of the ruler and FMQ

The three butterflies

Quilting with Rulers

As I mentioned in the last post, I knew that I had done some quilting with rulers and taken a course with Silly Moon. I had never posted it. When I found my practice pieces, I remembered why. Although the course was very good, I had problems with the universal darning foot that I had used with the rulers. If you don't get it just right, the tension can be off, which is what had happened. I had also used spray adhesive on my quilting samples and it had left stains. After these trials, I just put everything away!

However, after quilting with the rulers on the Butterflies Table Topper, I did figure out how to adjust the darning foot so that it worked fine. I watched a video on YouTube that suggested that I use a credit card underneath the foot to make sure that it was adjusted properly. The credit card has to slide easily under the foot. It worked!

Adjusting the tension of the darning
foot with an old credit card

Here are some of the samples that I quilted with the Silly Moon Eggie rulers.

Overlapping one Eggie ruler

Using the straight Eggie 6 ruler

Using various Eggie rulers

You can see in the image below some of the ruler work.

At the top, I used a large Eggie (oval) ruler to make two lines and then stitch pebbles between them.
Underneath the first butterfly, you can see the overlapping semi-circles and the straight lines over them. I used different sizes of the Eggie rulers and then the straight ruler at the top.
For the bottom butterfly, I used the straight ruler to make some of the straight "V" lines.
Finally, to the right of the bottom butterfly, the larger Eggie ruler was used to make overlapping curves.

FMQ and ruler work in the Butterflies Table Topper

While looking for my sandwich pieces, I found these four samplers that I made in 2017 as part of the Learning Quilt-A-Long I hosted. For the month of October that year, I made four scrappy samplers and used different batting for each of them. I then quilted, bound them and washed them. It turns out that on these small samplers, there wasn't much difference between them except for the silk/polyester batting, which was so much thinner but fine to quilt on. If you want to read more about this experiment, the links are below.

Four samplers now being used as placemats

What I learned

Looking at my sampler placemats, I noticed that my FMQ was possibly better than it is now, several years later. I would attribute that to taking my time back then, as opposed to just doing it now! I do tend to just go for it instead of preparing properly and FMQ carefully. I think that I need to learn to slow my FMQ down.
I never thought of using my square samplers as placemats because in my mind, placemats are rectangular. Since joining in the Table Scraps Challenge, I noticed that a few people make their placemats square - so now I have four lovely new placemats. 😊
I'm glad that I played with quilting with the rulers. It really is great for straight lines (so I'll keep them handy) but I'm really not sure what else to do with them except for those ovals and curved lines. I suspect that I won't be investing in many more rulers, unless I figure out what else to do with them. If you have any ideas, please let me know!

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Final Learning QAL Sum Up

I haven't had a very productive month as far as quilting goes. December started out well, quilting wise, but I didn't end up making much progress. On the other hand, I've had a great Christmas and started getting used to relaxing and minimizing my obligations. All is well 😊

I've enjoyed putting on the Learning Quilt-A-Long but as I mentioned, there were very few link-ups so it's not really worth continuing. This is, therefore, my last Learning QAL Sum Up. I will, however, continue my learning journey but with less pressure!

For my December learning goal, I wanted to continue adding colour to my wholecloth quilt.

December Learning Sum Up

I only spent a few hours working on it, but it is slowly coming along. It's taking longer than I thought, mostly because I'm trying to think of different things to do within the pattern. Below you will see what I mean. I've done some lines within the flower in the middle (sort of a cross hatching) and I've done some echoing within the leaf, in two different colours.

Trying new FMQ techniques within the pattern

Here is the overall piece. It doesn't look like much progress but it was a few hours of FMQ.

FMQ Progress on the wholecloth quilt

A few more leaves now have colour

December One Monthly Goal (OMG) Finish

For my One Monthly Goal for December (OMG), I was hoping to start playing and creating an art quilt based on Jacobean embroidery of gardens. Instead of working on a garden, I found myself using some of the same techniques using Christmas fabrics from the bag of scraps that I brought up for the Christmas EPP.

I just built a background with strips and then started adding appliqué. I used the Crafty Appliqué technique for most of the appliqué. These worked out better than the large cardinal appliqué that was done without using that technique!

The beginning of a fun Christmas art quilt

I will be adding the embroidery and embellishment, once I've done the free motion quilting (FMQ). It is a great trial piece for my future art quilt based on Jacobean embroidery of gardens...that will come eventually.

Getting ready to travel

I'm going away for almost three weeks. I really, really dislike packing, especially when it comes to packing my hand-work. What to bring, how much, etc. It's always a pain because I want to get it right! I have to bring something with me other than books!

This embroidery is definitely coming with me. I've got another one started and will probably bring at least one solid fat quarter in case I decide to start others. I have visions of sketching what I see and embroidering it. Who knows, it could happen!

Packing a few embroidery pieces

For my last big trip, which was to China, I had packed some orange peels and appliquéd them onto blocks.

Orange peels project for my China trip

Appliquéd orange peel blocks

Appliquéing on the Yangtze River

This time, the trip is mostly to Spain. We start off in Barcelona.

I'm thrilled that I'll get to see the Sagrada Familia Cathedral again. It's an amazing building and its stained glass windows were the inspiration for my Art with Fabric in the fall of 2016.

Sagrada Familia stained-glass windows

Sagrada Familia Cathedral

Art with Fabric - stained-glass windows

What I learned

I'm happy that I put on the Learning QAL. It was a good idea and pushed me to learn so much more that I would have without it.
I also learned that it's a lot of work - not just writing the posts, but actually doing something!
I'm very grateful for those who put on QAL, Blog Hops and Linking Parties. I know how much work it is, but it's also rewarding and a great way to meet other quilters.

Related Links

Playing with colour and Learning QAL Goal, December 1, 2017
Christmas EPP block, December 7, 2017
Christmas scraps, December 3, 2017
Orange peels appliqué, October 23, 2014
Art with Fabric, Stained glass window, October 13, 2016

Linking Parties: I will be linking up to the December One Monthly Goal Finish Link-up. I will also link up to as many linking parties as I can before I leave :-) Check out what everyone else has done! Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, Oh Scrap!, Midweek Makers, Finished or Not Friday, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?

An InLinkz Link-up

Saturday, December 23, 2017

Best of 2017

Since I haven't really been finishing much this month, I may as well start reflecting on the year that is almost finished. Wow, hard to believe that 2017 is almost history!

Doesn't Cheryl have the best button ever? I love it!!

Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs is hosting the Best of 2017 Linky Party. This event is about writing a post based on your "best" 5 posts - however you want to define this.

Highlights of 2017

Celebrate - Fêtons 150!

Inspired by Cheryl's blog, I created a 2017 Finishes page using the InLinkz linkup tool. Since I'm paying for the service, I think that this is a great way to create an interesting page. And while I was creating this page, I got to go through all of the posts from the past year.

No wonder I'm tired! I was really productive this year. Not only with quilting but also with hosting 2 linking parties. It would seem that I can't start small!

Beaver Block designed by
Sew Fresh Quilts

A few of my Celebrate - Fêtons 150 posts were in the top 10 of my most popular posts while the launch of the Learning Quilt-A-Long was the second most popular post (as measured by the number of people who viewed the pages).

Celebrate - Fêtons 150 in March

This post would probably qualify as the most successful in the Celebrate - Fêtons 150 series because of the number of viewers, comments, and its 12 posts that linked up.

This post highlighted the Canada's Big Quilt Bee and the Sew Fresh Quilt Bee. These are 3 of the blocks that I created for the Canada's Big Quilt Bee. The Beaver block above is one of her designs.

12" slab blocks made with
Stonehenge Oh Canada fabric by Northcott

This is one of Lorna's Canada 150 quilts. She is a Canadian pattern designer of Sew Fresh Quilts. She very generously sponsored one of my link-up prizes.

Sew Fresh's Canada 150 lap quilt

Announcing the Learning QAL

My second most popular post this year was the launch of the Learning Quilt-A-Long in July.

The series has been popular as far as readership, but it hasn't attracted many link-up posts. I suspect that many people don't see learning as I do - in practically everything. It's also a lot to ask, to have a learning goal every month and a post to share the learning at the end of the month. I've had 2 wonderful, loyal quilters who linked up and won a few treats. Thanks :-)

I haven't decided on the future of this Quilt-A-Long. I'm finding it hard and stressful to keep up with my learning for the month - at least I've learned something about myself in the process.

Hexies Table Topper

Finally, my most popular post ever was my finished Hexies Table Topper post. It was a lot of work to finish it this way, but it really was worth it. It is lovely.

The finished back with the hexagon facing attached

Finished Hexie Flowers Table Topper

I also suspect that some of the post's popularity came from my friend's foundation paper pieced bunny. Isn't he adorable? It was so nice to play with a friend since most of my quilting is done alone at home :-)

Lyne's first foundation paper pieced block

Growing Up Quilt-A-Long

One thread that has been woven in many of my posts this year is Alida's Growing Up QAL
I learned many interesting techniques and made some very pretty blocks for another UFO!

Thank you so much Alida! Next year will bring a new quilt along that should be just as much fun.

7 Ways to Survive the Holidays

My fifth choice for a post is sort of cheating. Last December, I wrote one of my favourite posts about 7 Ways to Survive the Holidays. I really loved writing it and wanted to do another one this year. However, after I re-read it, I'm not sure that I have anything to add or change - so I'm featuring it here. So if you didn't read it last year, or if you don't remember it, feel free to check it out.

What I learned

It was really fun going back to see what I had made in the last year. I participated in two Art with Fabric Blog Hop and had a great time. These are the two textile art pieces that I'm most proud of:

My interpretation of Joyce Wieland's Reason Over Passion
Gaïa, Mother Earth.

I also created pieces and exhibited in two shows with the Out of the Box (OOTB) Fibre Art Group. I'm really happy that I have a chance to show my pieces in a live venue. Blog land is great, but it's just not the same.

Lone Tree 2 - Tired or Overachiever for the Colour Unboxed Exhibition
Some of my older pieces at the Fibre Fling 6 exhibition.

I also created quite a few pieces for Celebrate - Fêtons 150, that you can see on the Celebrate - Fêtons 150 page. That really kept me producing! I have great news - my Sergeant Sesquicentennial made a splash at our Workplace Charity Auction this month. Obviously my colleagues prefer more traditional quilts than my art quilts. Good to know for next year!
I participated in a few quilt-alongs, some more successfully than others.

For the World Quilting Travel Adventure, I made almost all of the projects, sometimes incorporating them into other pieces. Thanks so much JoJo!
I got a little ahead on my Postcard from Sweden quilt by participating in the Busy Hands Quilts' Quilt Along.
Same thing for my Shattered Angle Quilt that I worked on while participating in the Splash with Colour Quilt Along. Both were UFOs that I had already started when I participated in these quilt-alongs. Thanks to these events, they are now closer to being finished!

I've also been doing more hand work, from English Paper Piecing (EPP) to embroidery. I find it very relaxing and hope to do more next year.

Since this post is so full of links, I've just included these in the text of the post, instead of adding a Related Links section.

Linking Parties: I will be linking to Cheryl's Best of 2017 Linky Party on December 26. Make sure to check out other blogger's Best of 2017 posts! I will also be linking up to many other parties. Check them out! Finished or Not Friday, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?, Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers,

Friday, December 01, 2017

Playing with colour and Learning QAL Goal

Welcome to the December Learning QAL Goal Setting Link-Up

I'm trying to learn from experience, therefore my goal for December is less ambitious - besides, with Christmas in a few weeks, who knows how things will go :-)

December's Goal

In November, I was able to work on two wholecloth quilts using different batting. In December, I want to keep FMQ (free motion quilting) Wholecloth 2, the one that was made with the cotton-wool batting. I'm going to experiment with colour and texture to put some pizzazz into that piece.

Here's what I've done so far:

Adding colour to the wholecloth quilt

I couldn't wait to start playing with the butterfly. I accentuated the yellow and then added some purple.

Colouring the butterfly

This little fellow came out well.

FMQ bird with Kimono silk thread

Progress to date

I've coloured some of the leaves. It's going to be a challenge figure out how to quilt them differently.

I got sucked into the vortex of Black Friday week sales. Resistance was futile - till I ran out of money :-) However, I did get a great little video to help me along with the FMQ of this project.

In the Quilting Arts 1709 episode on Free-Motion Stitching, Susan Brubaker Knapp interviews Nancy McNally who is doing FMQ on a longarm. The equipment may be bigger, but the principles are the same. Nancy McNally's quilting is really incredible and I did learn a couple of things that should help me figure out how to quilt this piece.

One Monthly Goal (OMG)

I haven't been participating in the OMG lately because I had too many things on the go. I do want to add something since I've been playing around with a fun art quilt based on Elizabethan and Jacobean gardens and embroidery. I found a fantastic book and of course just had to make something!

It will mostly be appliqué with embellishment. I just fell in love with the style of their work and can't wait to get started. So far, I've found most of my fabric for the appliqué. This project will probably take a few months to complete, but I really want some incentive to start it. I'll let you know more about the project and its progress in the next few weeks.

What I learned

I've been FMQ with # 100 Kimono silk thread. I didn't know if I would have to switch to something thicker, but so far the silk thread is doing great. It's such a pleasure to work with :-)
The hardest thing about going back to add colour is trying to keep the lines from getting too thick. Just quilting over the line makes it darker, but often I also want to make it slightly thicker. Sometimes they get pretty thick and lopsided because I've wondered too far off the original line. I'm hoping that practice will help.
The most important thing, as far as I'm concerned, is knowing when to stop. Today, I FMQ for two hours, and it was probably 15 minutes too much. It's hard to stop because I just want to finish what I'm doing, but being tired ~~can~~ will lead to trouble!
I've watched the Quilting Arts video a few times. I tend to pause it and write notes or take pictures with the Snipping Tool for reference. It was well worth purchasing, especially on sale.
I'm predicting that I'm going to like working on this project a lot!!!

Related Links

Wholecloth Quilt 2 and Goal Sum Up, November 26, 2017
Quilting Arts video 1709 - Free-Motion Stitching purchased from the Quilting Company

Linking Parties: I will be participating in many link-ups. Join in the fun and see what the fuss is about! OMG - December Link-up, Free Motion Mavericks, Off the Wall Friday, Finished or Not Friday, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?, Midweek Makers # 100, Let's Bee Social, MOP Monday, Design Wall Monday, Main Crush Monday, Monday Making, Linky Tuesday,

I hope that you'll be able to join us on our learning journey. It would be great if you can link up. It doesn't have to be anything complicated. Probably anything that you're working on right now has a few lessons to teach you, so why not share it with us?

An InLinkz Link-up

Sunday, November 26, 2017

Wholecloth Quilt 2 and Goal Sum Up

In the November Learning QAL, I very optimistically said that I would try out the 4 types of batting on wholecloth quilts.

So far, I made the beginnings of a wholecloth quilt with the silk batting. The quilting is mostly done, although I do want to try quilting some kind of grid pattern in the border. The project won't be finished for a while because I will be painting within the FMQ. (See the Wholecloth link in Related Links below for more details.)

First Wholecloth quilt - the back

First Wholecloth quilt - the front

This will be the front of the quilt

I started the second wholecloth quilt Thursday night. Since it's essentially just following the pattern of the fabric, it's not that difficult. The hard part is making the decision of which thread to use where!

I am using # 100 Kimono silk thread on this wholecloth quilt as well. So far I've used teal and blue on the plants and a maroon on the bird. The colours don't show that much, but once I've quilted the outline, I hope to add more colour from the front (instead of the back). That would be much easier :-)

You may be able to see two upside down birds that I've x-ed out, on the fabric. I don't care about the direction of the plants but didn't want the upside down birds. I x-ed them out in the hopes that I won't quilt them by mistake. The marks will come out when I iron the piece.

The pattern that I am following, which will be the back

I used the cotton-wool batting for this project because I would love to have the extra loft. In my last batting experiment, I found that once the quilts were washed, there was little difference in the loft of each. Since I don't expect to wash this one, I'm hoping that the cotton-wool batting will give me the best result.

Here's a closeup of the FMQ. You can see the bird in red and some of the plants.

Closeup of the FMQ so far

This is roughly the same section as the top, but in reverse. It's so weird looking at all of this colour and not seeing it on the quilted side :-) I'm really hoping that I'll be able to add more colour once I've outlined the pattern. Then I'll be able to follow the FMQ and see exactly what I'm doing.

Closeup of the pattern that I'm quilting. Isn't it amazing?

The fabric also includes 2 butterflies. I could leave them upside down but I'd rather not. I think I've figured out how to reverse the image so that I can quilt them right-side up.

I copied the image on freezer paper. Next I'll outline the butterfly from the wrong side of the freezer paper so that it will be facing the flower. I may have to transfer that image to another piece of freezer paper so that I can iron it onto the fabric. If that doesn't work, I can always pin it down.

I'll let you know how that works out!

Working with the upside down butterfly

Since I never did press the publish button, I can update this project. I ended up FMQ the butterfly from the wrong side of the image - I just pinned it down. It worked really well.

The FMQ from the back is essentially finished. Here it the front.

The front of the wholecloth quilt

Here's the back. Someone mentioned that I actually had 2 quilts - one from the back and one from the front. I am tempted to show the quilt from the printed fabric side, but with the butterflies moved over, it doesn't look as good anymore.

The back of the piece - all FMQ

Here's a close-up of the butterfly. It's not easy to see, but it will be nice once more colour has been added.

Close-up of the quilted butterfly

What I learned

I've had a great time FMQ this by essentially tracing the fabric. I find it very easy to do, but then when I thought about it, I've been tracing pictures since I was ten or so. I used to make my own monthly calendars by tracing from my favourite colouring books (that I rarely coloured) and then adding the grid for the dates over the images - which were often Peanuts characters :-)
I mentioned that the butterflies traced onto freezer paper worked really well. What I didn't mention is that I didn't place one of the butterflies as carefully as I should have, so that it's overlapping a leaf. I'll have to work on that from the front when I add more colour.
I'm happy to say that I learned from my mistake - the second butterfly is very well placed! Now the first one can be considered a creative challenge as I try to fix it 😊
This has been a great experiment, but I have to admit that although I love my second wholecloth piece, I'm not sure how great it will come out. I really feel that it needs more to focus on. I may end up doing a lot of stitching on the birds and the butterfly so that there will be something to draw the eyes. That may mean that I won't do much stitching on the flowers or leaves. That is how I intend to proceed once I start working from the front.
I'm not sure if I will have time to do more FMQ on this piece before the end of the month, or to even work on the other two wholecloth quilts. I have come a long way since I am really not stressing about it, except that I just realised that I have to post my Learning QAL - November Sum-up. So I will add it to the post. Oops!!!

Related Links