Painting planets

I researched images of the planets to get an idea of textures and colours. I already had an ideal commercial print for the moon, and an over-painted print which will work well for Mars, but the rest I painted myself today. Earth is going to be the hardest with the details; I'm undecided yet how to achieve it; probably raw-edge applique on top of the circle prior to adding it to the quilt top.

 Top - Saturn; bottom left - Venus, bottom right - Jupiter

I'll create the planets and insert a layer of batting to work as trapunto and give them a little fullness, then I think I'll applique them by machine as invisibly as possible, but I'm undecided just yet, so am having an early night while  I mull it over..

Top, L-R: Neptune, Uranus, Moon (commercial print)
Bottom, L-R: Earth, Mars (over-painted commercial print), Mercury

After that, there are just a few details to add before quilting - at which stage I'll be adding a lot more details. I want to add in some of Jupiter's moons, a pair of green martians, the ISS, Saturn's rings, a comet and tail, the Southern Cross....

Making space

As James and Eleanor have been watching youtube videos from the International Space Station (the function of the toilet in particular is hilarious to 5- and 7-year-olds!) I have been piecing together my own version of space.

Once I'd run out of my flower-headed pins with cutting the pattern pieces from fabric, I started pairing them up and sewing them together. After going back and forth to the computer screen and flipping between the 12 photos I took of the layout, I decided to print them out and puzzle them together. I edited the photos first, removing any colour and increasing the contrast and sharpness, then printed them at about 20 x 25cm, trimmed the margins and puzzled then taped them together as neatly as possible. This is taped to the wall next to my pinning/sewing space, and I mark each seam with a wiggly line as it's sewn. It worked really well; I managed to keep track of what I'd done nicely.

I divided the pieces into piles for each 10 (1-9, 10-19, 20s, 30s and so on) so they'd be easier to find, and that worked well, too. I did find it frustrating when I'd work out a pair to join, then find I hadn't cut one of them, but that'd be solved by buying more pins - which I've been meaning to do for ages and now done - for next time!

Because of the way I drew out the curved shapes, some seams need to be sewn before others - although with some it's less important. This keeps the sewing lines as smooth as possible. I've found that the registration marks are beyond helpful, although I wish I'd put a few more in in places. On the whole, the curves sewed together really nicely. I pin as little as possible - at the registration points, any cross-seams, where there's a big curve, and from the first registration mark back to the beginning of the seam. I leave the end unpinned, and just ease the edges together under the presser-foot as I sew. The main difficulty is getting the ends of the seams smooth at the same time as ensuring that the ends of each seam are completely encased in the next seam. It's all pieced using my usual 1/4in foot.

I pressed with low steam as I went, just to make sure they're lying nice and flat, and the seam allowances stay neat when I sew across them. I was worried that the unmeasured and hence somewhat inaccurate and varying seam allowances (added by hand/eye) might mean the top wouldn't lie flat and square. But that's not been an issue and the few small problem areas are easily pressed into submission with a little steam.

 

I finished the background late last night. Above is the whole pieced top (apart from the sun; I just need to decide on the fabric) and below is a closer section. It's lying square and is accurate size-wise. Although it doesn't lie entirely flat, I'm confident it will do once quilted.

 

 

After the sun (and I also need to add some flame-shaped rays) it will be time to add the planets etc., so tomorrow I'll be painting some fabrics to get the right colours and textures.

 

BQF Bed Quilt: Along the Jetty

This is my recently-finish beach scene quilt, which I called "Along the Jetty".

Each of my beach scene quilts is a little different, and this is one because of its size (single, or twin)and borders. To make the scene work on a bed, we (the friend who commissioned it and I) decided to make the scene to cover the top of the bed, and use a coordinating pieced border for the drop at the foot at sides, otherwise key parts of the scene would be lost. I also thought the scene might not work so well at the much larger size.

Something else new on this one is the appliqued kite. I continue to add to my stash of fabrics suitable for these quilts, and the kite print was a recent purchase. I like the extra pop of colour, and it's fun on a child's quilt.

The sun is the only section where the foundation-piecing is pre-determined. Everywhere else I allow the prints to dictate the cutting. In the lower section of sky, I used both an as-purchased section of a commercial pinkish sky print, and a few pieces of the same which I'd over-painted with a blue wash a while back - I like the over-painted bit better!

This time I also tried adding in an extra hut from a different print as an applique. I left a little of the background around the hut in the applique piece for a few reasons; to include the dog, to see if it would blend in better (not really!) and because the applique stitches would blend better on the background than over the edges of the hut.

Because of the taller scene section, I built the reef deeper than usual. This is all foundation-pieced onto sections of lightweight interfacing. Because the reef isn't right at the bottom of the quilt, I didn't quilt it quite as densely as usual, so that the quilt would be flat and have an even hand.

It's all free-motion quilted; I started by going along in the ditch where the beach section is appliqued to the sky, and where the water is appliqued to the sand, and then did the kite strings. The sun is quilted in the ditch, and then has a row of peachy-orange flames surrounding it, and the rest of the sky is filled with wind-like swirls. The sea is filled with wavy lines, which get more free-form deeper down, and I quilt around the feature creatures as I get to them. The reef is quilted in a multi-coloured variegated Superior Rainbows (trilobal poly) thread to add to, blend and complement the prints. I quilted in the ditch around the border frames, but left the actual strips unquilted for contrast.

I really like the way the borders worked; it just took a little luck and some calculations to make it all fit nicely.

Size: Approx 66 x 82in
Completed: April 2013
Design: Original
Techniques: Free foundation-piecing, machine applique, free-motion quilting

I am entering this quilt in the Bed quilts category of the May 2013 Bloggers' Quilt Festival.

BQF Applique Quilt: Fluttering By

I made Fluttering By for my Gran. Gran taught me how to do English paper piecing when I was in my teens - unwittingly setting me on the path to quilt addiction. I've now been quilting over half my life!

After Gran moved to a smaller home several years ago, we decided she needed a new quilt for her smaller, single (twin) bed. That it would feature butterflies was a foregone conclusion. Any letter from Gran is instantly recognisable even by my children, by the flock of butterfly stickers she adds!

I had Vicki Welsh custom-dye the wide fabric for me in a gradient of Gran's favourite greens and turquoises. All the butterflies are cut from my considerable stash of Vicki's hand-dyed gradient fabrics, too.

I found a selection of butterfly silhouettes online and printed them out in several sizes, then traced lots and lots of them onto Lite Steam-a-seam2 - from memory the quilt has 137 appliqued butterflies!

It took a while to position them to my satisfaction, then I fused them in place before sandwiching the quilt. They're free-motion appliqued in place, and I went around each one twice, using matching Aurifil threads. By doing this after sandwiching, the applique stitches are also quilting. While appliqueing the butterflies, I added the antennae. There's also one wholecloth butterfly, for something a bit different.

Once all the butterflies were done, I quilted some feather plumes in the large open spaces, then filled the rest of the space with a free-hand swirly design which worked well in all the odd spaces.

I finished by binding with the main fabric. I'd carefully cut what I needed for the top leaving enough spare all around for the binding. I flipped it so the turquoise section is at the bottom, against the green, and vice versa.

Size: Approx 66x82in
Finished: 2012
Techniques: Machine applique, free-motion quilting
Design: original

This is my entry in the Applique quilt category of the May 2013 Blogger's Quilt Festival.

Curved piecing

Here's just a quick glimpse of the first few pieces coming together; more later when it's not 4am!

I've got a system in place to help me keep track of all the pieces, but I still need to be really careful to build it in a smart order so the piecing is as smooth as possible. So far, so good...

Starting a big quilt

I started a new quilt on Friday night. It's one I've been designing in my head and on paper for a while, and I finally made a decision on how to achieve it. Unfortunately it requires me to draft a full-size pattern to work from.

It's 1.7 x 2m, and the background is pieced from curved shapes - 125 of them as it turns out. I started by taping together large sheets of paper to get a piece big enough, then drafted the shapes in pencil. Then I drew over them in a black marker, numbered all the pieces, added registration marks on all seams, and photographed the whole thing in sections for future reference.

Then I had to cut them apart. The cut shapes are the final design, and it doesn't matter if they're not perfectly along the lines, as long as the curves are smooth.

Then I pushed the pieces back together into position, and started selecting fabrics. Note the supervisor on the sofa; it was probably about 2am by this point, but I couldn't leave it like this, so kept going - luckily Simon had taken James and Eleanor away for the weekend, so there was nothing to get me up on Saturday morning!

I used a funny assortment of household items (different coloured straws, cutlery, plastic cups, coins, even balls of yarn!) to represent the different fabrics, as I chose which pieces would be cut from which prints:

(Note the other supervisor on my folded quilt - I kept blocking access to his basket under the table shoved to the side, so put out the quilt as a replacement; arthritis stops him from jumping onto the sofas.) I finally got to bed at about 4.30.

Then came the slow task of pinning each pattern piece to the selected fabric, drawing around it with a contrast marker, adding the 1/4in seam allowance as I went. I also marked the registration marks in the same black and white permanent markers (all in the seam allowance or on the cutting line, so none will show in the finished quilt). Oh, and cutting them out. I keep them pinned to their pattern piece until I use them, at which stage I also write the piece number in the seam allowance. More on these next steps tomorrow...

Foundation piecing

Although as far as I'm concerned, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages, removing the papers is definitely the downside of foundation piecing. However, it's made far better when you have a 5-year-old assistant who just wants to hold the bowl (for all the paper scraps) in exactly the right place for you, and have a cute conversation. Thank you Eleanor!

It certainly made the process much more enjoyable, and got I all the blocks done this afternoon. One of my favourites is above. This evening I've joined all the block, added the first border, and am no auditioning the main border. I couldn't find a batik matching what I had in mind anywhere, but have found a print (from my stash - even better!) which gives the right effect. It's just not quite the colour I'd intended, so I'm not rushing into a choice.

Red and white quilt

I've been making a concerted effort recently to get my digital photos properly sorted. Although most people would probably consider them already in pretty good order, it's one thing I'm really fussy about. I go through and weed out all but the best, then I edit them as necessary. I rename them all, sort them into the right folders, and make sure they're backed-up - preferably twice and in different locations ( I keep a second external hard-drive at my parents' house, though I don't update it quite as often as I should).

At the same time, I've caught up on photographing a few quilts, so I have some ready to share -although a few  must wait until they're published. Today's quilt is made from simple equilateral triangles, and is called Dziękuję - which means 'thank you' in Polish.

I quilted it using the all-over swirls which I like so much at the moment. I was a bit unsure about an all-over design with such stark contrast to the fabrics, but the red BottomLine is fine enough that it doesn't look out of place on the lighter fabrics, and of course it blends well on the red. I especially like the way the quilting shows on the plain ombre border.

It measures close to 50 x 60in - a nice size for a lap quilt, and joins a large pile of quilts waiting to be given as gifts (I just need to make one more, then can take them to their intended recipients).

From the stash

The new quilt I'm working on requires 67 different fabrics. I managed to get 60 from my stash, which I thought was pretty good going. I filled all but one of the gaps at one of my LQSs this afternoon, and the only one I still need is a feature print for the main border, but I can't find anything close to what I used in my EQ7 design. So I've decided to piece the rest, them play around with some options for the border later on.

I started the piecing tonight, but there's a way to go before it starts looking like anything.

My new long-arm...

...only cost $40.

Sadly, it's only a long-arm stapler! But it did make collating the recent new print-runs of my patterns much easier. (The tree pattern is A4 sheets folded in half and (now) stapled at the fold, which a normal stapler just can't reach.)

Both Winter Harvest (above) and the Beach Scene (below) quilt patterns are now back in stock in my Etsy store.

Etsy has also introduced a simpler method of delivering digital patterns. After purchasing the PDF version of my Beach Scene the buyer will receive an email from Etsy, advising them their files are ready to download instantly, with a link to where the file is stored with Etsy. However, their system cannot yet manage this for the package deal, so those purchasing both the digital and hard copy together will still receive the files directly emailed from me.

Beach with borders

I finally got myself into gear and finished the beach quilt top. It's pretty big (66 x 81in) so for the quick photo I draped it over one of the sofas and onto the freshly-cleaned floor.

I really like the way the border turned out. I'll sandwich and start quilting tomorrow. I usually bind my beach quilts in a bright stripe, but I think this one might be better with plain navy - or I do have a white, navy and mid-blue diagonal stripe which I'll audition as well once the quilting is done.

A week on from her accident, and Eleanor's recovering nicely; we have a follow-up appointment tomorrow just to be sure.

Not quilty

Our school holidays started early and in dramatic fashion. James and Eleanor's school had a student-free day on Friday before the official 2-week break starts, but our quiet day didn't go as planned. I'd hoped to do some quilting.

At 11.30 Eleanor had a silly accident tumbling over the arm of the sofa and bumping her mouth on the coffee table. It was quickly obvious she'd knocked one of her top teeth loose, and by 12.45 we were at the children's dentist, with the surgeon who'd removed James' teeth after a similar (but more dramtic) incident at almost exactly the same age. It turned out, she'd badly loosened her centre-left top tooth, and the one next to it, and they didn't want to wait to deal with it. They also decided that since, also like James, as her front 2 adult teeth are coming through at the bottom and the baby teeth weren't at all wobbly (they obviously share genes for long roots) they may as well take them out at the same, to make room for the adult teeth. This takes copying one's older brother to a whole new level!

So by 2.45 we were at the SurgiCentre and not long after I took her through to the operating theatre and held her in my arms as they administered the gas, then went and read for a while. She was out within half an hour, and the dentist came along with the teeth in a pouch for the tooth fairy to tell me it had all gone well. She even got to keep her little teddy by her side from start to finish. Not long later she started to stir, and spent the next hour or so snuggling on my lap on a very comfy recliner and having a few licks of an ice block while I was plied with food and drink when the nurses realised I'd somehow not had a chance to eat all day!

By about 8pm she was quite cheery and managed some home-made custard before going to bed and sleeping all night (though I did wake her when I went to bed and top her up with some panadol). She was a bit quieter than usual most of Saturday, but is pretty much back to her usual self.

(less than 10 hours after the accident; giggling at her new toy whispering in her ear)

I'm sad to see the last of her cute mouthful of little baby teeth, but very thankful at the same time that they were only baby teeth. She'll be gappy at the top for a while to come, but we expect no ongoing issues, and the new bottom teeth should fill the space there quite quickly.  While it obviously wasn't a nice (or cheap!) way to spend the day, especially for Eleanor, it was remarkably easy, all things considered. Once again, I can't speak highly enough of the dental staff, surgeon and SurgiCentre staff fro the way they handled everything. To be home, fully treated, so soon after the accident is wonderful. I'm also grateful to my parents, who looked after James at such short notice (and even took him to an appointment I'd expected he'd have to miss) since I couldn't get hold of Simon at work until minutes before the surgery.

(The 'before' photos were taken during their Easter egg hunt - as an aside, you can see James' gum was damaged in his accident, leaving more of his upper left centre tooth showing, but with no ongoing trouble)

Another beach

Sorry, I didn't mean to vanish for a few weeks! I've been plodding along, quilting a bit and procrastinating a lot (especially when it comes to blogging!) I've started on a commissioned beach scene.

This one will be single bed size, but to avoid losing half  the scene off the foot and sides of the bed, we decided to make the scene as the centre, and I'm doing some coordinating water piecing for the 3-sided border.

I made a good start on this at  Easter; I took the equivalent of seven full shopping bags worth of fabric with me - I need plenty to choose from as I piece these. As it turned out, I only got the reef/water section done (shown above with all the fabrics cut and pinned in place, but none sewn), so could have left the stacks of sand and sky fabrics at home - but I chose not to mention that to Simon!

In the last week I've pieced the sky and beach. I've added quite a few fabrics to my beach scene stash recently (I'm always on the look-out) and this time have added a kite to the sky. I've got some hot air balloons on the way now, too, so might incorporate one of those into the next one. I still find the beach the hardest to choose the fabrics for. Although it gets easier and I'm more confident in my choices, I do still occasionally look back on something after it's cut and pinned into position on the foundation and realise it contrasts too much with a neighbouring piece and needs replacing.

Change of plan

An email late last week suddenly changed my quilty plans for the weekend. This pile came out of the cupboard on Friday night and got cut:

Simon took both James and Eleanor sailing on Saturday, so I got stuck in. I laid out all my pieces, and was just pressing the final seam when they got home.

I did most of the quilting last night, using a flower variation on my open feathers I worked out recently.

It's just one open feather plume to each side, then a swirl up from the centre, and 4-6 half-circle petals around the top of the swirl. Then repeat. It  fills the quilt nicely, and I just threw in a few extra plumes here and there to fill odd spaces or get myself out of a corner.

The working name for this quilt is Garden Paths, and it will be appearing in AP&Q later this year. It's fun and pretty easy and makes a lovely baby's play quilt.

Binding

This is leftover binding.

There are strips here from over 60 quilts; a few pieces as short as 5in, several closer to a metre and a lot in between. I can't bring myself to waste them - there must be enough here to bind several lap size quilts! But I need the right quilt; I'm not willing to sacrifice the integrity of one of my designs just for the sake of using it up. Maybe I'll have to design a future quilt with scrap binding in mind?

Put a swirl over here...

A few days ago  I set out to quilt this red and white lap quilt. It didn't get done during the day because the deep red backing fabric just kept bleeding, through 10 hand rinses and at least 8 cycles through the washing machine. And yes - in hindsight, I should've googled for ways to stop it earlier. But eventually I decided it was close enough, and when I gift it, I'll add a note to use some colour catchers when washing it and be sure to hang it out to dry right away.

I did get it sandwiched and make a start  before collecting James and Eleanor from school, but ended up quilting into the wee hours (again!) to get the quilting finished. I chose to use the extended swirls I've been liking (and doodling a lot) recently.

The thread is red BottomLine by Superior, and I used the same top and bottom. I chose a lightweight thread so it didn't stand out too badly on the white-based fabrics, and it has a nice effect. It blended so well on a few of the red fabrics I found it hard to see where I'd already quilted! I like it best on the red ombre border:

I just need to decide on the binding fabric now, and it will be done, too.

Finished at last

Tonight I finally finished this quilt. It feels as though it's ages since I  started it, though it was actually only about six weeks ago. But since then, I've quilted 2 customer quilts and one of my own, started and finished the linen wholecloth table runner, started a new applique quilt, worked on about a dozen designs and written a set of instructions.

Now I need to  start on the instructions for this one. That's going to take some focus, since I'm much more interested in finishing the current applique and getting stuck into the beach scene commissions.

This quilt is called Mediterranean Tiles and I'll share it in full when it's published in Australian Patchwork & Quilting in the middle of the year.