Progress

Yikes! June is almost finished - just a few hours left!

Dahlia flower (although I see tulips!)

This is a quick post to prove that progress has been made! My June OMG (One Monthly Goal) was "to do some free motion quilting on my Neutral Lap Quilt - Take 5 Loves Coffee Milk", and I did!

I sandwiched it on the weekend, did some stitching-in-the-ditch around each block and then decided on a few stencils to use.

This quilted block is made from a large dahlia stencil but I'll be adding a little something later so that it fills out the edges of the whole inside block.

Lotus Flowers

This quilted block is from a lotus flower stencil. This was great since it does take up most of the inside block. I just added a leaf on both sides of the middle strip to complete it.

Fanciful Heart Pattern

This third block has a fanciful heart motif. I'll be adding a little something extra so that it takes up the whole space of the inner block.

I now have 13 more blocks to quilt! I'll be using these stencil patterns again as well as one more that I haven't tried out yet.

I also found a great series of Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) sample blocks at ipatchandquilt. I have been practicing Esther's Fantasy block which is part of her FMQ samples - part 13 - orange peel variations. Have a look (see Related Links below) - she is doing some amazing quilting!



Practicing the Stem Stitch

I've been adding to the stem stitch sampler which I started on my trip to Quilt Canada last week. I'm calling it Étude in Stem Stitching.

Étude in Stem Stitching - to date!

Details of Étude in Stem Stitching

I had a great time coming up with different FMQ designs to draw and then stem stitch. I did use a few detached chain and lazy daisy stitches.

The colours aren't always very visible on this background. I'm not sure what I'll do with this after I've finished the embroidery. I think I would like to add beads and maybe even add some paint (that would be very brave of me!)

More details of Étude in Stem Stitching

Isn't is amazing how a photo lets your really "see" your piece? One of the National Juried Show winners at Quilt Canada said that she takes pictures at every step to review how her quilt is coming along. I really want to use this technique.

I'm mentioning this because as I look at the flower here, I see that I should be adding a few more petals in the lower right side to even it out.




Come back tomorrow for Canada Day - Celebrate - Fêtons 150! 

What I learned

• As I just mentioned, I want to take more photos of my pieces, especially those that I am designing, to get another perspective of the work. This is one lesson I really hope I will remember.
• It would seem that I don't really do quick posts! I always have something to say about quilting. Thanks for humouring me. :-)

Related Links

• Esther at ipatchandquilt - FMQ samples - part 13 - orange peel variations

Post of the Stem Stitch project

• Countdown to Canada Fêtons 150, June 22, 2017  

Posts for Neutral Lap Quilt - Take 5 Loves Coffee Milk

• Celebrate - Fêtons 150 in June - June 1, 2017
• April Finishes - April 30, 2017

Linking Parties: I am linking this post to OMG June Finish Link-up, as well as many others. Please check them out to see what is happening.  Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off the Wall Friday, Free Motion Mavericks, Finished or Not Friday, Slow Sunday Stitching, MOP Monday,

Only 146 blocks to go!

Splashes of Color Quilt

Many years ago I fell in love with the Splashes of Color quilt at allpeoplequilt.com – with a simple pattern of pastel batiks, it looked both soft and yummy! Perfect for sweet dreams. Over the next few months I made the quilt.

When it was finished, I was disappointed. It didn’t look like the quilt that I had fallen in love with. I put it away since I wasn’t ready to quilt it yet. I didn’t have a sewing machine that did FMQ and I was told not to hand-quilt it since batiks are dense and difficult to hand-quilt.

About a year ago I found the batik quilt top. With trepidation, I unfolded it and lay it over my bed. Wow! It was stunning! It may not have been the soft quilt I wanted but I love it! On my king sized bed I noticed that it almost fit. I showed it to my husband who liked it, so I decided to finish this quilt for our bed. At a retreat I made a few more rows so that I wouldn’t have to fight my husband for my share of the quilt as we slept!

I bought some Tula Pink fabric for the backing as well as king-size batting. I was now ready to sandwich this monster. One day when I had the house to myself, I removed all of the furniture from our kitchen eating space, vacuumed and then lay down the batting. It took the whole space!

It's the size of the kitchen eating area!

Chevy in the middle of the action!

It was a rather long and tedious process. I placed the quilt top on the batting, tapped the top to the floor, pinned it and then flipped it over. I did the same to the backing. When it was pinned to my satisfaction, I put the table back, sat down and basted the sandwich together.

I then quilted every block. This helped to stabilize the quilt and I was happy to see that I had done a good job of sandwiching the quilt since there was very little puckering.

I FMQ (free motion quilted) between the blocks using Superior Thread’s Bottom Line in both the bobbin and top. I wasn’t sure what thread to use for the actual FMQ of each block but decided to keep using the Bottom Line. It’s very fine and won’t take attention away from the quilt itself. Besides, every block has different colours – changing and deciding on the colours of the thread to use in each block would have been impossible.

Here are my criteria for choosing the quilting design in each of the 8 inch blocks:

• Not very small or dense so that the quilt remains supple;
• Simple enough to FMQ on my home machine (this is a king size quilt!);
• Experimentation, repetition and learning is encouraged; and
• It can be a stenciled pattern, a dot-to-dot pattern or anything else that fits the above criteria.

Since there are 169 blocks to FMQ (13 x 13) this will give me plenty of opportunity to practice these designs. Here is a sampling of the 23 blocks that I’ve done so far. The stencils are mostly from The Stencil Company while many of the FMQ comes from Angela Walters' Shape by Shape book. The marking on each block hasn't been ironed off yet.

An old fashion stencil, circa 1850

Dot-to-Dot Fan

More Dot-to-Dot quilting with echoing

Dot-to-Dot

The Stencil Company (Celtic Flower 7")

The Stencil Company (Continuous Teardrop 6")

The back of one block

What I learned:

• You won't get a soft pastel quilt if your fabrics are dark!
• Beware of those expectations. Allowing time to pass can help you change your perspective. 
• I have done some FMQ designs that really don't show well, but it's good practice and they are very lovely from the back (see the picture below).
• This is an excellent way of practicing my FMQ. The blocks are not perfect, but the overall effect will be stunning I'm sure.
• These blocks are very time consuming. I've put the quilt away for now so that I can work on other projects.
• Chevy wants to be included in the pictures - besides, pictures with animals are always popular!

The back of a couple of blocks based on Angela Walter's designs

 I will be linking to these Linky Parties. Come see what everyone else is doing! Free Motion Mavericks, Can I get a Whoop Whoop! Off the Wall Friday. I've also linked Chevy's picture to Pets on Quilts 2017. Check out the cute posts 😊

Only 146 blocks left to go!

Bali Back Flip Quilt

In September 2013 I went to Philadelphia on a bus trip to see a quilt show and of course, to shop. After the trip, all of the participants made two beige and brown blocks using the Bali Back Flip pattern. Our trip organiser put the quilt together and quilted it for Jay, our bus driver.

After making the two blocks, I decided to make my own version, also using beige and browns. I decided to make it a little more structured by placing the lightest blocks in the middle and the darkest near the edges.

Bali Back Flip Quilt in beige and browns

The 6 middle blocks all have a beige that has a fairly prominent light brown pattern in it. For visual interest, I turned these blocks 90 degrees.

One of the middle blocks

I found it difficult to work with beige and brown since there are so many variations of each. Some beige are more cream while others have more yellow in them. The browns range from light to dark and chocolate to taupe. Some have more yellow or orange in them while others are more grey or green. In choosing the fabrics, I tried to stay away from anything too yellow or orange.  I didn't know if these would play nicely together, but they seem to!

This wasn't an easy quilt for me to do because I find neutrals rather dull. Adding structure helped me make it more visually appealing. It's hard for me to work on a quilt when I'm not in love with it - and that's mostly about colour. 

Chevy modeling with the quilt 

I started this quilt over two years ago, but didn't put it together until a few weeks ago. I decided a while back that this would be a perfect gift for my sister-in-law's mother, Kirsten. I know that she loves neutrals and will appreciate it. Since she lives in Denmark, I waited until she came to Canada to give it to her. She is leaving in a few days, so the quilt was finished just in time for her journey. It`s a lap size (48 by 56 inches), perfect for bundling up on the couch to read.

To make the back interesting without too much piecing, I enlarged the Back Flip block while using beige and a brown fabric that has a touch of blue. I had to add colour somewhere :-)

The back is a large version of the block

Quilted block

I wanted to FMQ the lap quilt with something interesting that would also make it soft and cozy. I stitched-in-the-ditch around each block and then used a stencil (SCL-354-06 from The Stencil Company). This time, I followed one of my lessons learned and practiced drawing the pattern before quilting it. It made a big difference in my confidence to quilt the pattern and was well worth the 10 or 15 minutes it took.

The Stencil Company

This morning, before bringing over the quilt, I made the label. Since I had spent so much time thinking the project through, I wanted a nice label to go with it. I made a 4 inch paper pieced cup from Quilting on the Square's Miniature Collection 2. To receive their free paper piece patterns, just sign up for their newsletter.

What I learned:

• It's great when I put into practice lessons learned from previous projects, such as drawing the free motion pattern from the stencil before quilting it. It's even better when doing so really pays off.
• I learned early in my quilting journey that there are many types of pinks. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that there are as many types of beige and browns!
• If I don't love the colours in the quilt then it's important to find other ways to make the project interesting. 
• I was tempted to add more colour within the quilt but in the end, it's about the recipient liking the quilt, not me. I just have to like it enough to get it done!
• The continuous teardrop stencil was perfect for the project. I didn't want anything too complicated since it's not very visible against the fabrics. It's just enough quilting to give it interest without making it stiff.

Here's wishing you the best in the new year!

Here are some linking parties to check out: Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Fabric Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, Needle and Thread Thursday - My Quilt Infatuation.