Monday 30 September 2013

WIP: Playing with Colours - Finished!

My WIP: Playing with Colours is finished.

Have a look...

Complete with cat
Close up...had to spray it with water several times, i.e. soak it to get the blue marker out.


Very happy with it, turned out really nice with the simple motif in the white squares and the striped binding.

So, what's next...already seen several amazing projects that some fellow bloggers are doing...have to restrain myself though as I myself have several other WIPs to complete. for now I will continue on my Disappearing Four Patch and my Wholecloth, I think.

Linking up to Anything Goes Linky Party at Stitch by Stitch

Until next time

Karin

The Quilt Photography Workshop

September Challenge of The Quilt Photography Workshop over at Plum and June.
Topic: Subject and Composition

Inspiration
 
Inspiration
 
Inspiration
 

Colour Palette Inspiration

  
Love FMQ




Relaxing/Peaceful


Things (or cats) that make me laugh


Getting better-Learning from August Challenge (photographing fabric)

Linking up to the Quilt Photography Workshop

Plum and June
 
 

Karin

Tuesday 24 September 2013

A Finish and WIPs in progress

Is this you?

I have several WIPs in progress. When I walk into my sewing room I am bombarded with WIPs.

On my work table I have:

- Cheryl's quilt: neatly folded up and ready to baste
- Kaleidoscope quilt blocks: stalled due to lack of motivation
- Disappearing Four Patch blocks and material cut out ready to go: very keen, but got side tracked with another project, i.e. the 'Playing with Colours' project that is currently adorning the lounge room floor.

So I am left with a limited space to work on the table. Very irritating.  Under the table is an assortment of scrap material - really have to stop just dropping them there...

Behind the sewing machine, on the extension table, I have the white table runner rolled up, but ultimately in the way...under the extension table I have my stash in one of those big plastic containers. Currently I cannot see the lid as it is littered with material and bits and pieces of wadding...hence getting to any fabric is a hassle.

Then there is the floor...unfortunately I am one of those people who uses the floor. There we have my Colour Adventure quilt ready for attaching a hanging sleeve. On top of it I have my Feather Wholecloth waiting to be continued (need to buy some thread). And then there is the FMQ Sampler from last year...rolled up and waiting for the binding (actually did have some binding for this but used it up for another project recently). I could go on to lead you through the other rooms as there are another few finished quilts adorning the floors, sofas and every other conceivable surface.

I walked into my sewing room the other day and thought...right, this is it!

I took the white table runner and had another look at it. I stopped working on it a while ago  because I was not happy with the quilting. While I love the feather border, the lack of quilting over the blocks looked somewhat unfinished and under quilted. The problem was that I was so focussed on the feathers that I really did not give all that much thought to anything else. In retrospect I realise that I should have constructed this a bit differently...I am thinking that these blocks maybe should not have had any sashing in between or if I wanted sashing, then I should have also put a frame around it.

Also, the blocks themselves may have looked a bit better if I had alternated their direction.

Anyway, I decided to not stress about it and just finish it. The piece itself is very pretty and it was a pity to just let it waste away. So I quilted 1/2in lines in all the white spaces to just finish it off. Still think that it needed something different but I was lacking in brain waves and determined to make a start on finishing some of those WIPs...also used the last lot of jelly roll strips from that range to construct the binding and really like how that turned out. Gives the whole piece a bit of a lift.



The finished product...while not exactly the way I imagined this to turn out when I started it, I am pleased with this and bonus, it's a finish and off my hands (and off the table). 



I like the lines in the block but am thinking that this may not necessarily go with the flowing feather border. Will the less obsessed person realise?...probably not.

Well, here it is...An Arrangement Of Small Pieces", named after the block.


Let's hope my productivity lasts for a while

Linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced
 
Karin

Saturday 21 September 2013

Arghhh...stripes!

Had a bit of a hiccup with my binding.

This is a direct result of my impatience...did not line up the stripes when sewing the binding together and thought I would get away with it. When I had finished sewing the binding on and stepped back to look at it, I thought that the mismatched stripes were a real distraction (duh!).  One mismatch I could have probably gotten away with, but all of them really hurt my eyes.



So, off with the binding! Seems I am doing lots of things twice lately.

Karin

Monday 16 September 2013

WIP: Playing with Colours

Have not posted that much lately as I am trying very hard to stay on one project at the moment, hence not a lot of new information to share. I now finished the quilting and must say it suits this little quilt perfectly. Now it's onto the binding.



Bought this blue striped fabric for the binding. I think that it will set this off quite nicely.

Linking up to Monday's Anything Goes Linky Party at Stitch by Stitch.


Karin

Saturday 7 September 2013

FMQ Motifs

Still working on my WIP: Playing with Colours. Decided to place a simple heart design in the white spaces.


 
Initially I was going to use a filler for the entire white section to emphasize the strippy appearance of the quilt. However, I believe that this quilt would have ended up being somewhat unevenly quilted unless I then also went into the coloured blocks. In the end I decided to keep it a bit simpler and just use this plain heart design. This is one of the few commercial stencils that I bought some years ago and this is the first time I am using it for an entire quilt.
 


This actually looks quite nice and does not overpower the quilt top but adds to the playful appearance of the design. I am quite happy with how this is turning out.

FMQ the motif was a breeze...yep, practice does pay off. I still remember how hard I found it to follow lines when I started out FMQ. In fact the lines initially seemed to be a major distraction and following became a bit of a hit and miss experience. This problem seems to have disappeared and I am able to quilt the design quite quickly.

The overall appearance of the quilt has remained soft and fluffy and is exactly how I wanted this to feel and as you can see it has that crinkly look about it due to the bamboo batting. If I was to make this quilt again I think I would use Wool batting to give it more loft...I generally like a bit more puff and less crinkles.

I am quite pleased though as I have not bought anything new for this quilt (except for the binding, could not resist to buy a little bit of fun binding to go with this)...these were all materials I had just sitting around here. Have I made a dent into my stash?...no, not really. Just need to keep working on it. I am getting a bit excited now...once this is finished I will get back to my Wholecloth quilt where I recently completed the feather frame.


Linking up to FMQ Friday at the Freemotion Quilting Project with Leah Day.

Karin

Monday 2 September 2013

WIP: Playing with Colours

My WIP: Playing with Colours is coming along.

Finished all the stitching-in-the-ditch along the major seam lines with invisible thread. As I did not want to go out and purchase new batting, I used what I had which was an entire bag of bamboo batting. I know I said I would not use it again, but really, I was not just going to waste it either. I now believe that I might have made a mistake with placing the bamboo batting in the last piece (which produced an enormous amount of bearding)...this time I placed the batting with the bonded side up and I have noticed that I have hardly any bearding (mind you I also have not quilted it densely).

 
 In terms of the quilting I got very confused there for a while in terms of what to do...overall quilting would have worked but I had just done that on another piece, so thought that I better to do something else. Having completed the stitching-in-the-ditch I am now thinking...ok, that is it for a while again...this has reminded me of how painful I am finding this. Then I laboured over what to do next...in the end,  the deciding factor for me is what I want his to feel like.

At the moment it is nice and fluffy. Quilting only the white sections really densely with a filler would make this appear unevenly quilted and looking at quilting allover the coloured sections would present me with the dilemma of what thread colour to choose. Besides I do believe that this then would turn out too busy. It is unbelievable how difficult this can get...

Anyway, I decided in the end that I would place a simple heart motif in the white sections. This will be light enough not to make this whole quilt top unevenly quilted but on the other hand, add some interest and in addition, I can also take that right into the edge of this quilt by halving the design (so as to maintain consistency). I think this will look good and will not distract from the pieced blocks which are really the main focus of this quilt.

Another little thing I produced last week...finally! Winter is almost over but I managed to sew up 2 more wheat bags. That took me about half an hour...very simple to construct and the only major hold up is getting all the wheat in the bag (particularly if you left the opening a bit small).

In terms of size, I make them approximately 15in long and about 5in wide. I get the wheat filling suitable for a wheat bag from the market at one of the health food stalls...they sell all sorts of goodies there including the filling.


So, now that I have completed this, the weather really warmed up and spring is in the air. Never mind...there's always next year.

Linking up to Anything Goes Linky Party at Stitch by Stitch


Karin

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