For Jasmine

It's been a while between posts!  I've missed you guys, although, I've been popping by at your blogs regularly.  I just haven't made time to pop into mine!

I've been working on a few things since I last posted.  My main project was Jasmine's quilt.  This little lady was born some time ago now (not telling how long!).  I'm so sorry it took so long, but hopefully she thinks it was worth the wait.

Sorry about the crappy photos.  I couldn't find my camera, so I've used my iPhone.

Here are some details.  Not sure if you can make it out, but I've used a combination of machine quilting and hand quilting with Perle cotton no.8.

The fabric is Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush in voile.

Heavenly!

This quilt was so much fun to make.

I just made it up as I went along!

The oatmeal coloured fabric is Workcloth from Cloth Australia.

It is a cotton linen blend and colour is called "Raw".

It doesn't look it, but it's incredibly soft to touch.

Here's the back, which is pieced in the liberated style as well.

And some detail on the backing.

This fabric range is perhaps my all time favourite.  I just love the colours.

I hope you like it Jasmine!

xxx

Finish - Down Under Doll Quilt Swap 2

I love this quilt and it will be hard to give away.

New Liberties with Perle cotton hand quilting.

Backed with a cotton / linen blend call Raw Workcloth (Cloth Australia).

Binding lovingly attached by hand.

And so incredibly soft to touch.

It's going to Aunty Cookie!  I hope you like it Shannon.

I decided to use 80% cotton / 20% polyester batting to try and achieve a more antique look.

I'm happy with the result.  Although I think it will look even better after a wash or two.

I want to thank my gorgeous friend, Kathleen, of Kathleen's Sewing, who sent Mary these gorgeous gifts for her first birthday.

Love the rounded corners!

Thank-you Kathleen!  Mary and I love them!

Down Under Doll Quilt Swap 2

Here is my progress...

Lots of pretty new Liberty and hand stitching...

I am enjoying working on this little project very much.

I've also got some Liberty hexies on the go, amongst other things!

Happy Easter!

Table Runner Finish

I finished attaching the binding by hand on my table runner the other night.  I'm very happy with the result.

Sorry about the poor quality of the pics.  I haven't been able to take photos in natural light for one reason or another for days and days but I really wanted to load these pics up as soon as possible.

I've been looking for a way to use these fabrics for ages.  I bought 36 fat quarters of this range - French General Rouenneries (I think it was the whole range) many months ago, and I finally found the right project for them.

Of course, I still have a lot of fabric left from this range and look forward to sewing with it again.  The colours are beautiful and the feel of the cotton is soft and light-weight.

I hand-quilted this project with Perle cotton no.12. 

I have splurged on some new fabrics for the first time in a while.  This is Anna Maria Horner's range, Innocent Crush, in fat quarters.  I can't believe I haven't seen more of it in blogland.  It is simply divine!  The feel is very similar to Liberty Tana Lawn (ie perfection) and the colour scheme is modern and in my humble opinion, sublime.

And there are more splurges to come!  Bring it on Mr Postman - I can hardly wait!

Hand quilting finished!

I'm so happy with this "quilt".  It doesn't have batting, so I feel weird calling it a quilt; it does have three layers, but the middle layer is muslin.

I love it!

I like the backing nearly as much as the top.

I'm not finished yet, of course.  Ive still got the binding to go.  Not sure when that's going to happen though, because I put hand quilting cotton in my machine and now the tension is buggered!

Stay tuned!

Does it need more?

I enjoyed quilting this little number so much.  The Perle cotton no.8 is a joy to sew with...

Hand quilting is so much fun.  I'm surprised that I like it as much as hand piecing.

I was going to create a cross-hatch pattern with the quilting, but a seed of doubt has been planted by someone else's opinion ("Cross hatching it would kill it.... Have you thought about doing something less structured in keeping with the modern look of the piece?").

Now I'm stuck.  Frozen.  Blocked.

Maybe it does need something more "interesting" that the same stitching running in the opposite direction.  I don't know.  And I really love this little piece.  I don't want to mess it up.

Another option: leaving it as it is.

Liberated Log Cabin - more progress

I've started hand quilting my liberated log cabin...

I'm using Perle cotton no.8 threads.

They are so lovely to quilt with.

I'm using blues and purples in the dark sections and red, pink, orange and yellow in the light sections.

The back is looking ok.  The stitches aren't great, but I just love the look of the stitches on the solids.

The dissecting lines are where I have quilted in the ditch, also with Perle cotton by hand.

It's going to take a while to quilt this project, even though it's only about one metre square because the rows of quilting are only one inch apart and I plan to create a cross-hatch pattern.  Eek!

PS - thanks to those readers who advised me on how to create straight lines of quilting.  I am using one inch wide masking tape and it's working really well. :-)

Liberated Log Cabin - progress

Remember this quilt?

Well, I started quilting it last night...

My plan is to cross hatch the whole thing, using royal blue Perle cotton no 8 in the dark areas and maybe pink or yellow in the light areas.

The only problem is, the logs are liberated, so I think I want the quilting to be "unliberated", if you know what I mean.  I mean, I want the quilting to be as neat as possible.

The quilting lines are about one inch apart, but they are pretty uneven looking.  I found it quite stressful as I was quilting, trying to keep the lines straight just by eye.  I think if I mark the quilt with straight lines it will take all of the worry out of the project.

Any suggestions for what to use to mark my quilt?

hello birdie - Part 2

You can see the decorative blanket stitch around the feathers, as well as the outline quilting (1/4 inch between lines) on the body of the bird.

This is the backing.  Just pink and yellow charm squares pieced together.

The quilting on the back actually doesn't look too bad.

And remember my little error... well, I think with the quilting, it looks even less obvious.  I'm happy with it.





Hexagon charm quilt update

I've appliqued the first of 30 hexagon flowers to the background fabric... I like it!  This was originally going to be a charm quilt, but I have changed my mind.  I want to make individual blocks with a hexagon flower appliqued to each block, and then I want to have sashing between all the blocks. 

This will be something a bit different from the last hexagon quilt I made, which was just all hexagons pieced together.  I still haven't decided whether I'm going to hand quilt it, or have it machine quilted by Barb on her long arm quilter.  Decisions, decisions!

And now, on to other matters...

I've been doing some more hand quilting with the Perle cotton #8 from Threadart.  I'm enjoying it so much more than I thought I would.

Any ideas on how to quilt the liberty / pink four patches?  Just outline quilting like the pinwheels?  Or little flowers perhaps?  Or a cross through the fourpatch?

Liberated Snowballs

I ordered a few charm square packs from Hancock's a while back, and the other day I whipped up a doll's quilt out of the Kona Primary Colour squares. I used the "liberated" style of piecing described by Gwen Marston in her book Liberated Quiltmaking. I love this style and I think it really suits the solids.

I've machine quilted in the ditch, and for the first time ever, I am going to try some hand quilting! 

This is my first attempt.  I have used Perle cotton, size 8 and done some large stitching.  But I don't like it.  I think I am going to need to draw the quilting lines on the fabric first, so the stitches stay parallel to the seams.  Also, I'm not sure I like this quilting pattern.  I think maybe some straight line quilting might look better with the liberated piecing.  Gwen Marston uses a combination of straight line quilting and liberated quilting in her work, and I think I like the straight line quilting better. 

Any suggestions?  I was thinking of maybe just using a diagonal lattice pattern.

Look at this box of goodies!

 I ordered these Perle cotton (size 8) from ThreadArt over the internet.  They were VERY reasonably priced.  I think with postage from America, it cost about AU$40.  I can't wait to try them all!