Quilt Basting

I spent the morning pinning two quilts ready for quilting.  

The local gallery run by the regional arts group is an ideal place to put two tables together and pin quilts and today it was a hive of activity.  Watercolour painting, spinning, sewing happy pants and lots of chatter.  The quilt above is another scrap quilt which has been foundation pieced.

I also had time to pin another baby/cot quilt.  I like to have a couple quilted and on hand as they make fantastic baby shower presents.  This 'owl themed' quilt is made using an ABC panel and I tried out a new setting.  I think it will come up looking good when quilted.

One of the ladies had brought in 4 panels which she was going to cut up and use to make happy pants.  As soon as I saw this one, I told her 'No, you can't cut them up', I want to quilt this one'  LOL   When we explained what we could do with them, she got excited and thought it would be a great idea to have them quilted and she could either hang them as wall hangings or join them together to make a bed quilt.    I came home with two and have pinned this one ready for quilting and then embellishment.

I had this nice piece of fabric that I used for the backing.

Happy quilting  !!

Sewing Machine Cover & Bits n' Pieces

My Janome sewing machine now has a cover !

I had some blocks left over from a panel featuring these lovely sewing ladies so what better way to use them.  The above photo is the front section.  Below is the back.

The background fabric is sewing words and came from Spotlight.  The side panels got their own special lady too.

This morning I made a 'sample' block of this tractor. 

This block will be used for one row in a Row by Row quilt with an agricultural theme.

Another UFO I want to get finished is this 'mini Economy block' quilt using red/white/black fabric scraps.  I needed quite a few more foundations drawn up so these were done last night and I am now ready to sew.

Happy quilting !

Photography and Quilts

Taking a photo - it seemed easier to shoot a pic of the kids, the dogs or hubby asleep. 

 But put a camera in my hand in front of a quilt and my photography skills are seriously lacking.   Until 3 years ago I struggled to take any sort of decent photo of my quilts.  Then I decided to have an outdoor quilt display and use temporary fence panels to hang them on.  So of course before the display, I had to try one out so off to the hardware store we went and bought one which is now permanently attached off my patio.   The temporary fence panels worked well for the display.

Today, no rain and only a slight breeze and not too cold - pleasant winter's day in Tasmania and a perfect time to take a photo of some quilts before they are packed away.  

Here is my latest selvedge quilt using both plain and writing selvedges.  The binding is also a selvedge.

'Falling Selvedges' was time consuming to make but so much fun.  The top and bottom sections are foundation pieced as is the middle background sections, all from selvedges.  The 'falling' selvedges are raw edged machine stitched onto the background and then they are all individually machine quilted around.    I love this quilt.

Another UFO also had its binding stitched down over the weekend so it can now go to a good home.

Happy quilting  !!

Storing Selvedges

http://www.quiltsofafeather.com

The Selvage Along on Quilts of a Feather asks today :  It's link up your selvages day! We are wondering, how do you store your selvages?

I must admit my selvedge collection is all over the place.  Here are some kept in containers I made using papier mache (my other hobby).

Others are kept in a plastic (doona) bag - I find these bags are great for keeping my quilting project together in one place.

Sometimes I go through and sort the writing selvedges from the plain ones, other times they are all thrown in together until I am working on a specific project, really there is no semblance of order.

The selvedges in the green container are the latest ones gathered and are 'earmarked' for my next selvedge quilt, foundations are all drawn up and it's ready to go.

Happy quilting !!

Butterfly using Selvedges Tutorial

I am often asked how I sew my selvedges together so I will share this little tutorial I have done.
My butterfly outline is traced onto vilene, and half inch guidelines are horizontially drawn.

I choose the two selvedge strips I want to start with and place then on the foundation as shown

I sew along the selvedge edge as close to the edge as possible as shown below

Continue sewing the selvedge strips onto the foundation as shown, this is what the front of the butterfly foundation looks like before it is trimmed.

Turn the foundation over and cut around the butterfly outline leaving about 1/2 inch seam.

Here is the butterfly foundation trimmed and ready for the visoflix to be attached. 

Once the visoflix has been attached, cut around the butterfly on the actual outline and then fused onto the background fabric.

Here is the finished quilt

Happy quilting !

'Saturday Patchers' Sewing Day

Today was our monthly 'Saturday Patchers' sewing day and it was nice to sit inside a warm room with great company and sew and chat!

I worked on foundation piecing more blocks for my Eastern Sunrise quilt.   Love this pattern as it gives you some nice negative space between the scrap rows to do the quilting.

Janine and Lesley were also working on their foundation piecing, dipping into our combined scrap stash for inspiration.  

And look what the postie delivered yesterday, another little package of lovely fat quarters to add to my 'scrap fabric stash'.

Happy quilting !!

Quilt Binding

Not one of my favourite parts of making a quilt, but necessary to get the quilt finished so it can be used.   I wanted to use a selvedge on this quilt but as it is 45" x 45", I didn't really have enough white/cream/beige selvedges to make a binding...until...I bought 3 metres of a white fabric to use as a background fabric in another quilt.  The selvedge was perfect so I cut the selvedge off the length of the fabric at 3" and folded it in half.

I laid the selvedge along the edge of the quilt at 1/4 inch in from the quilt edge with the selvedge edge facing into the quilt 

I sewed the selvedge edge to the front of the quilt along two sides as shown here

Then turned it over and hand stitched the binding to the back of the quilt.   Added the other two sides and will stitch them on the back tonight.

Not normally how I would attach a binding but hey sometimes you have to be a little bit creative to get a satisfying end result and I am pleased with how this method has worked.

Happy quilting !

Quilting on a Wintery Day

It's raining, blowing a gale so it's a perfect day for sewing !

Look what the postie delivered this morning.  Two cute fat quarter bundles I liked and bought from a detash FB page, will fit nicely into my already overflowing stash but perfect for sewing into scrap quilts.

Despite the room being lit up like July Christmas lights, quilting on the twister quilt will have to wait today as it is just too hard on my eyes.  I am making great progress though and another morning's quilting will see it done.

So I thought I would bring out this quilt which I was given about 3 years ago to quilt, it seems to get pushed down to the bottom of the pile but I should be able to get a few more blocks quilted today.

Happy quilting !

Finishes

Another two scrappy quilts done and packed ready to distribute.  This hexagons in this quilt were foundation pieced by machine and then hand stitched together in rows.  Machine quilted.  I love making hexagon quilts like this one and especially scrappy ones.  I really need a new camera or else some tuition on how to photograph quilts so they look as straight as they are.

This quilt is another easy scrappy block done by machine.  I thought a scrappy binding would look good on this one and it does but doesn't really show up in the photo.  

My daughter sent me a huge arrangement of flowers for my birthday yesterday and it reminded me of this selvedge wallhanging I made recently.  The background is cream/white selvedges sewn together.  It is even bound in a selvedge.  Love this one.

Happy quilting !

60 Today !

What a busy few days over the weekend.  This past week has been a birthday week for myself and my two of my friends.  My quilting mentor and dear friend Janice was 70 on Friday and we had a lovely soup/sandwich luncheon at the Gawler Gallery for her and her 80+ friends.  It is was so much fun.

Saturday was a nice sunny but cold day but for 18 of my close friends and family who came along to celebrate my 60th birthday, it was a few hours of constant chatter, amazing Middle Eastern food and laughter abound.  My dearest friend Barb organised this beautiful cake for me and I almost didn't want to cut into it.  

This morning, the postie delivered two parcels, one from my American pen pal Dianna and inside the box was so many wonderful goodies - beautiful fabric, lovely little basket filled with selvedges, Aurifil thread and magazines.  

The other parcel was my new Fitbit Flex - my latest attempt to get healthier and fitter.  Let's see how it goes for such a teensy bracelet !

On the quilting front, I only managed to get a scrap binding sewn onto another scrap quilt over the weekend.  It is half sewn down and as soon as we get another sunny day, I will have it and another 2-3 quilts to photograph.

Happy quilting

Val's Quilting Studio - Selvage Projects and Quilts

Selvedge Apron

I am mad keen on collecting fabric selvedges and sewing them into useful and sometimes not so useful projects.  This is my selvedge apron, using both plain and print selvedges.

What do you do with your selvedges?

Quilting, quilting...and more quilting

I have engaged the walking foot on the Janome this week and getting some quilting done on a couple of donation quilts.  Got this one finished yesterday, just needs binding.

Found a piece of fabric which will bind this hexagon quilt nicely and got it sewed on.  Hand stitched about half the binding down last night, will get it finished tonight and will post a pic of the completed quilt tomorrow.

Today's quilt under the machine is this black/white/red twister.  So love the twister quilts, they are easy to assemble and make great lap quilts, especially using the 10inch squares.

Bought this cute fabric panel off a destash site on Facebook.  It's called Fabric Hideaway, funny how I can relate to most of the pics on this panel.