Big Stitch Quilting

I have just about finished my "big stitch" quilting on my scrappy wrench quilt.  It was easy enough to do, but I had to work hard to make my stitches larger!  I kept doing them small as that is what I am use to doing, then having to correct myself.    I did mostly cross-hatching, and some "in the ditch" stitches.

The border I did differently

Can you see my stitches?  I traced along the line of the fabric print.  It was absolutely perfect for using this technique.  Now I just have to do the binding, and I hope to have time to get to the sewing machine tomorrow for that.

It took me 2 reels of DMC 8 thread to do this quilt, and already I am planning the next one.  I have my scrappy Trip Around the World to quilt, and I was thinking of doing it on the sewing machine, but this might work even better.  Just have to get those stitches bigger!

Rose Garden Block of the Month - Block 10 is on the Legend and Lace website.  Sorry to has taken so long, but I had things happen :-(  I had a trip away, then when I came home my computer would not connect to the internet.  I did all the tests myself, unplugged, re-plugged, disconnected, ran virus scans etc,  Finally, I called in the Big Guns (brother in law) and he could not work it out either.  We got onto the ISP and after much convincing, they sent out a technician.  Turns out it was the connection at the telephone exchange, plus lines to our house which were problems.  All fixed now.

The Rose Wreath Block is all ready to download.  Thanks for your patience if you have been waiting.  When you see the photo of the block, you will see that the leaves and buds swirl around in a clockwise direction.  However, when you download the pattern, they are going anti-clockwise.  Oops!  this is because I drew the design onto the back of my background for the back-basting applique, but forgot to reverse the design.  Never mind, I say to myself, who cares ? what difference does it make to me? None! You can reverse it if you like, or leave it as it is.

Rose Wreath

Block 10 - Rose Wreath.  I am pretty much going to be late with this one, for the first time in the 10 months the BOM has been going.  I have lot of excuses, and I am sure you want to hear them!  The main one is that my iron blew.  We had our Scrap Day on Friday, and we begged and borrowed irons, power boards and extension cords from all over the place.  My iron was on the ironing board, and someone called out about "something burning" - yes it was my iron.  We think it was the extension cord that was the problem, but it burned my iron's plug.  My "emergency" iron, I just chucked out as well.  The good news is that I got most of the block completed, as you can see.  The only parts missing are the tiny circle centres of the flowers.  Can't do them without the iron, as I use Perfect Circles, and you have to iron them. 

The good news is, with Mother's Day coming up, a lot of the shops have irons and other trinkets on sale, so I should be able to get myself a new one at a good price.  That is how I bought the last one.

The scrap day was very successful.  We had 3 quilts on offer, and 36 people attending.  I have some photos and will get them out of the camera tomorrow.

Zig Zag Scrappy

Yesterday I picked up my scrappy Zig Zag quilt, from Elaine, Quilting in the Vines, McLaren Vale.  I had the all-time-favourite, Baptist Fan design quilted on this top.  I almost don't even have to tell Elaine that is what I want- she knows I love it.  The curved lines are just perfect to enhance these straight block kind of designs.

All ready to take to the Scrap Quilt workshop on May 3rd.  Well, almost ready.  I have put on the machine part of the binding, but need to do the hemming.   I hate that part, but I do have 2 weeks to get it done.

You can see the quilting lines in these close ups, and some of the old time fabrics I used.  This quilt is made from strips of 2 1/2" wide, cut across the width of the fabric.  You can cut from fat quarters as well.

The workshop is full!  In fact we have more people than we planned, and have to beg and borrow tables and chairs.  If you are still interested in a scrap quilt, I might be holding another day at one of the local quilt shops in August and/or September.  So, keep an eye out here for further posts.

Perle Cotton quilting

 I started on the Big Stitch hand quilting last night.  I got the Clover Sashiko needles, DMC Perle Cotton, thimble, finger stall, and scissors.  My favourite thimble is the Thimblelady thimble, as it actually holds the needle while you push it up and down.  So no great revelations here - it is practically the same as the Little Stitch quilting I have been doing for 20 years!  A bit tougher on my hands I think.  I used the largest of the needles in the pack, and I am going to now try the smaller ones and see if I like that better.

I use the finger stall as a "needle puller".  It helps a lot.

 This is the length of my stitch.  These squares are 2", so I guess my stitches are about 4 to the inch!  Not really award winners, but I bet I get it done pretty quickly.

I am just quilting across the blocks, not on the seam lines, no "in the ditch" as i thought I would be able to avoid the tough bits this way.  Lets see how long the whole thing takes.  It is needed by the first week in June.

Nothing to do with quilting stitches - but I picked up this magazine in the shop the other day.  My that quilt looks nice (I am thinking to myself).......It is nice......it is my quilt!!  This quilt was published by Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine a couple of years ago, and they paid me at the time, and assume the copyright.  So that allows them to publish it again, in any of their magazines, without me knowing or getting any extra $'s!  I am perfectly happy to be a "cover girl" but I would have liked to know about it before I just stumbled across it in the shop.

Big Week

It was a very big week for me, and I am still getting over it.  Last week I was lucky enough to be one of the teachers at Threadbear quilts, Applique School.  This was the first such school, but the shop is well known for the wonderful stock of reproduction fabrics, patterns, books and great classes.  The school was a great success, with over 6o people attending.  Corliss has put some photos on her blog.  You can see them here.  There are some people putting there names down, in case the school is run again.  How cool is that?!

Edit - I forgot to mention the "surprise"!  As I was greeting the people coming through the door, in walks my friend Kim!!!  I nearly started crying.  She had booked,  not told anyone, and asked Corliss not to tell me she was coming.  Kim belongs to my sewing/social group - and she is very special.  xx

Back to reality....deadlines.....class notes......samples to finish....breathe......

Yesterday we had the monthly sit n sew group at Hettie's Patch.  It is normally held the 1st Saturday of the month.  As I was off in Victoria, the girls agreed that we could hold it this weekend instead.  One of the regular girls popped in with this large bunch of lillies.  She could not attend the class as she had a prior engagement.  Thanks so much Lyn.....so much appreciated.....and I did find a vase to fit, and a spot for them.  Today the flowers started to open.  This is my kitchen window that gets the northern winter sun and it is stunning today.  Not that it is actually winter....it is still so hot....but the earth has moved to the winter tilt and the sun is streaming through.

This is what I got done this morning.  No, not the whole quilt!  Just the borders on.  the pink fabric I auditioned before, got the vote of approval from a few, including me :-) so there it is.  I was going to put a little green border on first, before the pink, but I do not think it really needed it after some careful fiddling about.  I am going to *try* some BIG STITCH quilting on this quilt.  I had to do some research on the big stitch, perle cotton kind of hand quilting to help a girl in my hand work class.  I did the research, and got the needles and the threads recommended, and checked out all the blogs, and she did not come to class.  So, now I am all fired up and want to try it.  Will let you know how I get on with it.  If the whole thing is a thorough mess, I will just pull it out and machine quilt.

All I need now is half a day free to get the quilt basted.

I am working very hard on my "to do"list and this block is about the only thing that worked out ok today.  I decided last night that I would start machine quilting my scrappy Zig Zag quilt for the workshop in May 3rd.  Lots of things going on at present, but I thought I could get it done with simple cross-hatching.  I got about a 3rd of it done, and it looked really horrid.  So, I did what I hate most, I un-picked it!  I decided to get it professionally machine quilted, and I hope very much that Elaine can fit it in before I need it.  If not, then I take it to the workshop unquilted, which is a whole lot better than taking one that looked so bad.

Next week end I am teaching at the Threadbear Patchwork and Quilting shop in Castlemaine, Victoria.  They are having an Applique School and I am one of the 4 teachers charged with the job of making applique easy for everyone.  I am very excited and nervous.  This past week and a half I have been working on class samples, so there has not been a lot of time to spare - and I go and waste a half day on un-picking!!

Anyway, the latest block on the Rose Garden BOM - Prairie Rose - is now available to download on the Legend and Lace website.

For those lovely ladies who made comment on the borders for my scrap Wrench quilt - I am going with the final fabric I showed, the lovely pink and green.  It is all cut out and ready to attach.  Now I could have been doing that today, instead of unpicking.  Much more positive!

Too many choices

 I starting playing with my selection of border fabrics today trying to find one that might suit the Wrench quilt.  I already discarded two - one because it colours were too "cool"  and the other too "warm".  the first one was purple/pink/blue and the second mustard and black.  Love them both, but not with this quilt.

I love the chocolate with turquoise.  Brown goes with everything and the blue brings out the splashes of blue in the quilt.  Also, if I use this one, with the brown closest to the blocks, then I don't have to do a narrow setting border as well.

 This is my next favourite, with red and charcoal/brown in the print.  I could use this without a setting small border as well. 

This is an interesting fabric I have had for ages.  It is light/medium blue, with a fawn stripe, and the blue floral motif on the fawn.  It is a very wide repeat, so the quilt will end up quite large.  I kind of had in mind that I would keep this fabric for a "strippy" quilt some time in the future.

This pink and green print is very pretty.  The pink is very bright and will certainly make it a bright quilt.  It also brings out the splashes of pink in the quilt.

When I put my border on I do not try and mitre the stripes in the corners.  I know this is a popular technique, but I found that it was a technique devised some time in the 1970's and not really a traditonal feature in the mid-1800's, which is what I try to make my quilts look like.  It also wastes a lot of fabric, and I am too stingy!  I put the side borders on first, then the top and bottom.

The borders should be cut from the length of the fabric where possible, as the long threads (the warp) are far more stable, and the quilt will have a much straighter edge.  I know that sometimes that is not possible.  You just have a small amount of fabric, and it is just "the perfect" one, so you want to use it, and cut across the fabric and join it.  I do that too, but when I can I use the length.

Close to done

I have been making 2 full sized blocks a day, and 2 half blocks.  It did not take all that long to get these blocks completed and the top assembled.  Now I need to find one of the nice border fabrics I have stashed away and get the whole thing together.

These half blocks gave me a headache just thinking about how to go about it.  Cutting a whole block in half does not work.  You have to allow for seams on the outside of the quilt and you also have to take into account that the outer edge needs to be in the straight grain, not the cross.  On the cross you get a wobbly edge.  I recalculated these side blocks and they worked out fine.

The interesting thing now is that they just don;t look like Wrench blocks!  Not sure what they look like, but the original block design seems to have faded away with them assembled.

New scrappy quilts

We have our Scrap Quilt workshop coming up on 3rd May, and I thought I would show you my version of the Trip Around the World.  Penny has made hers and it is set differently.    For those who are interested, the workshop is now full!  However, we are taking names for anyone who might be interested in doing a twilight class - 4pm to 9pm the same day.  You can see the other quilts here.  There are 3 different patterns we will be doing on the one day.

Something else I have been working on is a Wrench quilt.  I had this in my mind for quite a while and finally got it started.  The thing that stopped me was trying to work out how to handle the half blocks in the side.  Well, I wondered do you just cut them in half?  I was horrified about this.  So I started asking questions of my quilting friends.  I got lots of good advice, and came up with a plan.

 You have to recalculated the edge pieces so that they are cut on the straight, and not the cross.  Otherwise you get a wobbly quilt.  One lady suggested that I do a stay stitch along the edge and then I don't have to re-do the blocks. 

I also had to do the corner blocks.  They are also recalculated, and each part made seperately in order to get the pointed bits on the straight.

I think that in the older days they just cut them in halves and quarters and hoped for the best.

You will see some more photos of this one as I progress

Feathered Star

This is the final block in the Pieces of the Past sampler quilt.  All nine blocks are on the Legend and Lace website to download.  This is without a doubt the most complex of the blocks.  You need to make it in segments, then join them like a Nine Patch.

Next month I will write the instructions on how to join the blocks, with the sashings and the borders.  All the finishing off stuff - working on the assumption that you will all be ready to finish it :-)).

What is next?  Well I am still doing the Rose Garden BOM; working on the Mrs Vigors quilt, which a couple of the local shops have asked me to teach; applique the Calico Paradise from Collector with a Needle......and all the other half finished projects.

Scrap quilts are still happening.  Our workshop on 3rd May is just about full, and I have a couple of commissions from Aust quilting magazines for some scrap quilts.  You know what?  No matter how many of these scrap quilts I make, I never have any less fabrics in my cupboard, or any less mess in my sewing room.  What do you think?  Does it breed?

Now, some words of wisdom.   You know I love Scrap Quilts, and I love books, and I love antique quilts.  I was reading through one of Gwen Marston's books - I think it was Liberated Medallion quilts.  She writes that people often ask her how she gets that lovely scrappy look of her quilts.  She states that she actually uses scraps- it helps!  People ask me how I choose my fabrics - I just put my hand in the box and if it is not the same as the last fabric I used then it gets a run.  Then I just work on light and dark - get some contrast in there.  Don;t spend too much time thinking about it, that is what makes them seem bland or contrived.

Happy Stitching.