Great things in small projects

I have a few customers who for a number of years, have allowed me to quilt for them.  One is Marge. Marge is an older lady who is working her way through her stash and finishing smaller projects.  So, every so often she calls and I drop by for a visit and pick up a collection of table runners, wall hangings and small quilts.  This last visit resulted in 4 lovely quilting projects.

I just LOVE this wall hanging.  Marge's plan was to finish it and hang it at the cabin....

I used a double batt of cotton/poly blend and a wool on top to give some dimension to the quilting.  I knew I wanted to quilt this heavily when I started. I also find that doubling the batts on a wallhanging help it to hang much better.  I started by stabilizing the quilt and stitching in the ditch in the background pieces.

I outlined each of the shapes with WonderFil DecoBob (an 80wt polyester thread) and some spaces were stitched 2-4 times and they don't show the heavy thread use.

I quilted the background sections with feathers (in the darker strips) and a fern in the lighter background strips.   A little bit of straight line stitching helped to show off the feathers.

Once all the back ground and outlining was stitched, I doubled up some threads to highlight the flowers and leaves.  I combined a dark purple with a variegated purple for some shading effects in the flowers.

 Gotta get a better camera for those close-up shots I want to take.

I always like to quilt a design that will work well with the fabric or piecing design of a quilt.  This little table runner called for simple quilting in the squares (free hand continuous curves) with something special for the centre. 

 I repeated the leaves and curls from the quilt centre in the border.

I quilted this basket quilt after watching a couple of lessons in Angela Walter's latest craftsy class, Borders and backgrounds.  It was a fun little project to try something new.  Love that Marge allows me to play on her quilts.

I stitched continuous curves in the baskets, but the bottom looked empty, so a curl was born!  It also allowed me to stitch this quilt pretty much without any thread cutting.  Very efficient way of quilting.

The border wavy lines were very quick and easy to stitch and I think they are perfect on the printed border fabric.

And last but not least, this table runner was quilted using a curved ruler for all the quilted lines,  

I worked my way back and forth across the quilt and as this table runner was very simply pieced, I felt it needed to be simply quilted.  I have since thought that this would have been a great quilt to try some really funky detailed fill designs.  Maybe on the next one.

So, I've delivered Marge's quilts and she will bind them up and put them to good use.

Farmer's Wife 1930's Sampler Quilt Sew Along - Becky & Bonnie

I did it!  I joined a sew along!  The plan is to make 2 blocks every week and at the end of the year we'll have enough blocks done for a full quilt.  Woot Woot!

Its the Farmer's Wife 1930's Sampler Quilt Sew along.  You can find all the info here if you want to join up too.  

I'm going to try my hardest to get my blocks done every week.  After all, 2 blocks each week (one on Tuesday and one on Thursday) shouldn't be too hard!!!

I'm going to post at least once a week with the label - Farmer's Wife 1930 Sampler and share my adventures and a few pictures.

My first plan of action is to choose my thread and set up my machine. I have chosen to use WonderFil's Deco-bob thread.  It's an 80 wt cottonized polyester that will give me a perfectly flat seam and my blocks WILL be exactly 6 1/2" from cut edge to cut edge.  I will never (hopefully) have to mess with my blocks once they are sewn.

I will probably do most of my piecing on my Elna 7200.  I've adjusted my needle into the perfect 1/4" seam allowance position and shortened my stitch length.   All set.

My only rule when making these quilt blocks will be to use from my stash (as much as possible) and use only Batiks.  I will be using a light background for the blocks to "float on".  So, I just grabbed 4 different batiks.  Not gonna worry about them "matching" too closely.

I'll store the small usable scraps in one of my flat boxes.  The completed blocks will be stored in a 2nd box.

First up is the bonus block - Becky.

 I'm going to date each block as I sew it.  

The second block this week is - Bonnie.

I'm going to include only one of the fabrics from the previous block in the next one. There is no rhyme or reason for this other than I'll be using up some of those little scraps.

To label the blocks, I'm writing the block number and name on one of the seam allowances of each block.

The seams will all be pressed open.

Craftsy Classes are great!

I received an email last week about new classes (or new to me).   I checked them out and then treated my self.

Sketch it, Fuse it, Quilt it

Hand Stitched Collage Quilts

So, here are some images of what I have stitched in the past week.

This little quilt I had started a while ago.  The flower was made with sharpie markers and rubbing alcohol.  Then I hand stitched using WonderFil's Eleganza and Dazzle thread.

This was a fun project to work on, although I was using the wrong fusible web.  I had to go shopping to get something that I could hand sew.  I'll save the heavy fusible for machine stitching and try the new lighter fusible for hand stitching later.

I machine stitched the border using WonderFil's 8wt cotton Eleganza in my bobbin and a 50wt cotton (Konfetti) in the needle.  I increased the needle tension just a bit and set a 3mm stitch length.  I still need to spritz and get rid of the previously unsuccessful needle holes.

The centre purple of the flower was created using a pebble pattern over a washaway stabilizer.  The stabilizer was rinsed away and I used french knots to anchor the centre.

This morning I prepped 4 of these Applique Fun Flowers (my own design) with fusible and got one completely stitched using WonderFil's Splendor thread.  I'll use different weight threads to stitch the other 3 quilts.  I love Laura's method of fusible binding.

 I stitched her "curly fries and bananas" quilting design in the sky and grass in the lower half.

Handi Quilter Academy 2015

I didn't register this year for the Handi Quilter Academy in Salt Lake City....but I did get to go.  I went with WonderFil Specialty Threads and had such fun!  

Our booth under construction

The only downside of the trip was that I stepped off a speed bump (don't ask) and turned my ankle as I was leaving Calgary.  I then "dragged" my suitcase through two airports and a hotel with a very sore ankle.  I was quite worried about how I was going to function during the week.  My suitcase was filled with all our display quilts and was quite heavy.  It wasn't until I was setting up the booth that I realized why it hurt so much to walk and "drag" my suitcase along!  Guess I need to get a new suitcase before my next trip.

One of these wheels is not like the other!

I had some great times chatting with quilters from all over North America as well as putting some faces to names that I see in the groups I am in on Facebook. We talked about where we're from, what machine(s) we have and what classes we were registered for..and I helped to educated them about WonderFil threads.

One day at lunch every registrant received a lovely box of thread from WonderFil.  Andrew had an opportunity to share a little bit about the spools of thread in their boxes.

Aren't these the cutest boxes?

  

I slipped into a ProStitcher class the first afternoon and in 10 minutes got my biggest stumbling block cleared up!  I've already practiced and feeling so much more confident.  I learned that you have to do something 21 times before it becomes a habit...I have a lot of sewing to do!

I was able to slip into more classes during the week and sit at the back and observe and learn!  

Applique and Couching on a longarm.

Got hugs with a few old and newer friends

Debby Brown showing off her new thread FabuLux

We went on a tour of the new Handi Quilter headquarters and were allowed to walk around the offices and go into any office and look at the quilts on the walls. I saw a lot of inspirational quilts.  My favourite was the Lone Star that hung just at the front door.

 

The flights home were wonderful.  I had plenty of room and got a short nap on both flights.  I couldn't resist taking pictures of flying above and through the clouds!

 

Free Motion Quilting - Basics

Yep, I'm teaching a class next Thursday evening at the WonderFil thread offices...actually in the Threaducation classroom next door.  6:30-9:30pm.    We'll be doing the first-basics-beginner FREE MOTION QUILTING class.

In this class we'll cover the basics...how to set up your sewing machine for Free Motion Quilting, the necessary and optional accessories, thread and tension issues and also (most importantly), the 5 basic shapes that make up ALL free motion quilting designs.  There will be lots of time to practice in class and I'll keep an close eye on everyone as they sew.  AND WonderFil thread is included!

I like to keep my classes small (8 maximum), so that everyone has enough room to work, but also so that I can get around to everyone in the class and give you some personal attention and tips and tricks.

If you are interested in this class, give me a call (space is limited) at 403-819-8126 to register.  $42 including GST.  You can register with your credit card.