Wool Appliqué with Free Motion Quilting

Wool Appliqué with Free Motion Quilting

I tried something new!  There seems to be very little time to actually sew, so I decided to broaden my horizons and try some projects that would give me something to do with my hands in the evening or while riding in the car.  I really like the look of wool and decided to give wool appliqué a try. 

 It didn't turn out great as I know nothing about threads to use or embellishing techniques.   In fact, I used sewing thread.  It's not bad, just not what would be expected.

The design was appliquéd onto a gorgeous fat-quarter piece of hand-dyed Cherrywood fabric that looks like suede.  I added some stabilizer to the fabric prior to adding the appliqué.  When I realized I was off base with the appliqué, I decided to see if I could salvage it with some free motion quilting.  

So I sandwiched the fabric with two layers of Hobbs 80/20 cotton wool, planned a lovely feather spine, grabbed some So Fine 50 weight thread, and started quilting feathers.  Then I took a 60 weight Mettler embroidery thread and micro-stippled on the inside of the feathers around the appliqué and outside of the feathers by the border.  

 It doesn't fix it completely, but I like it!  I think I'll get a kit next time and try to follow some directions!  Have a super quilty week!

Curvy Purple Log Cabin

CURVY PURPLE LOG CABIN

One of the more recent popular classes at our local quilt stores has been the curvy log cabin.  There have been quite a few beautiful finishes.  I must admit, it is really neat.  It really "moves" with the curviness and brings a little more interest than the traditional log cabin.

Most of these quilts I've seen quilted were done so with gorgeous, luxurious feathers.  They were stunning, but all of the attention was given to the feathers.  So here's a twist.

My customer brought her "curvy" with the statement that "I want movement, but I don't know what". Now this is not unusual for this customer, she almost always comes with a plan and I like that.  Her quilts speak to her.  But when I heard "movement, my eyes just enlarged.  What a challenge.

So we both got on pinterest and started looking for what would fit the description of "movement."

Here are photos of some beginning ideas I drew using plexiglass and dry erase markers on top of the quilt.

This one?  Nope

Uhhh....Nope

Definitely not, looks like peacock feathers.

Well, not as bad as the others.....

 

Ok.  I've had it for the night.  We'll take a fresh look at it in the morning.

Following a goodnight's sleep and a fresh look:

Oh, hey, this is looking good but something is missing.

YES!!  That's it.  Movement and swirling in both the white and purple.  This is it!

Now, the center called for a little break from the movement, so we softened it up just a bit with a combination of swirls and kind of feathers.  A variation of this design was used around the sides of the quilt.

What about thread?  Because the quilt shined with batik fabrics, it seemed that some shiny tri-lobal polyesters might work so I put out several Isacord threads I had for my customer to choose from.

White for the background was obvious, but a lighter purple for the purple pinwheel and darker purple for the border.

Perfect!!!

Let's see how it turned out.  Here are the pinwheels and the center sections.

For the border we ended up using that little swirl design we had considered for the pinwheels.  It really enhances the quilt.

And no quilt is complete without a look at the back.

So you get a better feel for timing versus design, this quilt is about 76.5" square and took about 13 hours to complete.  

I hope you enjoyed a look at the quilting process for this Curvy Purple Log Cabin quilt and that it will assist you in your own quilting endeavors.  I love the finish and definitely feel we reached the goals of "movement"!

I've been away from my blog for quite some time but plan on linking up with some of the sights on my sidebar this week.  And I'm looking forward to checking out Finish It Up Friday here:http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com

Enjoy your week!

Precious Hearts Table Topper

What an awesome time of quilting this past weekend!!! Friday afternoon was Quilt Club over at Blakeman Vacuum and Sewing.  Among a couple of other projects, I demo'd a heart block to add to quilting projects for February!

That beautiful red is a fabric from Edyta Sitar with Laundry Basket Quilts.  It was actually from the backing of a customer quilt.  She decided that once it was quilted, she had no need for the fabric and gave me quite a bit of it.  

As soon as quilt club was over, I quickly headed home for a weekend quilting retreat with a long time and awesome friend.  My family was out of town and we had the weekend and the whole house to ourselves!

However, I was so busy during the week that I wasn't able to plan what to sew over the weekend.  I looked at this block, which went together quickly, and thought: "What am I going to do?"  

Ta da!  Put a few more heart blocks together and I had a fabulous table topper approximately 21" in diameter  I love it!

Well, I might as well get the whole thing done or I knew I wouldn't get back to it!  So I decided to quilt it on my domestic machine.  First, stitch in the ditch with my new Line Tamer Ruler from Four Paws Quilting.  This ruler is fantastic!  It helps you to stay in the ditch and makes short work of what so many of us despise!

Usually Bottom Line thread by Superior Threads would be my choice for stitching in the ditch, but sometimes that gives me trouble on  my domestic in the bobbins, and I don't have many bobbins.  So I decided to use the same Aurifil 50 weight thread in beige that I was going to use for the free motion work.  Not my first choice, but I think it worked fine.

Next up was some  lovely arched work using my Quilted Pineapple Curve ruler by Linda Hrcka.   

Add to that some feathers and heavy stippling for the background fill and my table topper was complete!  Plus, I added a circle wreath in the middle red using this simple template for drawing a circle.

The finished product in one weekend?

The center wreath was stitched with a red Isacord 40 weight Trilobal Polyester, but the hearts were left empty.

I am thrilled with the results on my Precious Hearts Table Topper!  

Thank you for visiting and check out the links on my sidebar for some awesome quilty sights.  Don't forget Finish it up Friday at http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com  Have an awesome week!

A Passion For Purple

A Passion for Purple!

This past week found me with my favorites:  quilting, purple fabric and free motion feathers!  What a wonderful and challenging time of design!

I've taken the month off from customer quilts to do a little quilting of my own.  One of my plans was a relatively quick whole cloth wallhanging.  What an experience!  The best part was the opportunity to brainstorm and use an array of unusual tools to complete this pretty lavender fat-quarter-size whole cloth quilt. 

First, I knew I wanted the simple scroll design with a feather and I could draw that freehand but I really wanted it encased in an oval.

After looking everywhere, I saw this!  My husband had taken this photo years ago when we were out pheasant hunting.  It hangs in our hallway.  What a great template!

Perfect!!

A pretty scallop or lacy effect would really add to that oval but how could that be accomplished?   After brainstorming again, I remembered the scallops on this Handiquilter 8" ruler/template and decided it would be perfect to create the echoed scallops surrounding the oval.

And this quilters hexagon rotary ruler/template was just right the echoed angles surrounding the oval.

Thread!

The main design and feathers were stitched with Metallic 40 weight thread by Superior Threads in purple with the hearts and pebbles in the echoed areas in green.

The background area behind the feathered scroll was completed with this 1" on-point stencil grid designed by Gina Perkes.  I had to move it a couple of times to fill the area but it worked great and I used the new 100 weight Microquilter by Superior Threads for that background stitching.

The final outside background I wanted to have blend more into the fabric so I changed to Prescencia 60 weight cotton in a lavender that blended perfectly.

This wall hanging took form step by step.  It really wasn't planned all in advance but rather grew as each step was completed.  I love it and am thrilled with the finish!

I hope you enjoyed the post on  A Passion For Purple!  Have a most blessed New Year and enjoy a wonderful quilty day looking at some at the creativity at the blogs on my sidebar!!

Oriental Paper Piecing

Paper Piecing & Beautiful

This finished customer table topper/wall hanging is absolutely gorgeous and entailed so much work that the quilter decided she was willing to have the project quilted for judging or appraisal should she desire to have that done.  So the quilting entails more work than is often put in to an everyday quilt.

This little quilt finished at approximately 19" square so you can just imagine what the quilter was dealing with.  Now what do I do?????  The first step was choosing batting for the quilt sandwich and I went with two layers:  Hobbs Tuscany 80/20 cotton/wool for the top layer and Hobbs 80/20 cotton/polyester for the bottom layer.  This creates a bit of three dimension effect and allows the quilting to pop.  If you'll look closely you can tell that the quilting began with most every seam stitched in the ditch.  For a project this size, that was critical.  So I began by going down the seams on every angle:  diagonals, vertical and horizontal, and then stitched around each sawtooth star as well as the center square of each star.  This resulted in every seam being stitch but one tiny area in each block that was not a concern.  Now what????

Because of the size of this quilt, a photo did not work well so I layed my trusty plexiglass out on top with a  dry erase marker and began dividing areas.  The original plan was to do some very dense quilting but some beautiful designs started appearing that went well with the design and fabrics of this quilt.  Here's what just the drawing on plexiglass looked like.  

Now, what thread?  When at the International Quilt Festival in Houston in November, I picked up the new 100 weight polyester Microquilter by Superior Threads and decided to use it in the bobbin throughout the quilt as well as for the top thread for the ditch stitching only.  Isacord tri-lobal polyester in 40 weight in white and green was used for the remainder of the top quilting.  Why Isacord?  Why not one of my favorite cottons on a quilt like this?  Well, it was actually a hard thought out decision.  The answer?  Isacord was the only one I could find with a thread that matched the green almost exactly.  With the shiny appearance in the oriental style fabrics, I figured that would be ok.  

Here's the finished quilt.  Once I started quilting it, I realized I needed something in the blocks around the sawtooth stars so we added a few feathers.  The thin green lines following the green in the quilt created a ribbon-type of effect that was very soft and pleasing.  The small outside border was finished with straight lines to bring the quilting to a close.  The way the quilting was done, the stars really pop up off the quilt.

I absolutely love how this quilt finished and enjoyed every step of the detailed process.

That's my finish for the week!  Join me at the links on my side bar as well as Crazy Mom Quilts here: http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com  and have a wonderful weekend!!!

Pansies & Fethers!

Pansies & Feathers!!!

The last of a group of six quilts brought to me for completion!  Yay!  This simple customer quilt is so cute and gorgeous with the addition of the appliquéd pansies in the main area and the butterfly in the top right corner.

Two instructions were given:  all over quilting in the middle with pansies and feathers and do what you need to make the appliqués pop and become more interesting, but not too much.  

Once the quilt was sandwiched with Warm and Natural batting supplied by my customer, I began stitching in the center and working toward each appliqué piece to surround each with hidden stitching.  The tiny bit of texture inside the appliqué pieces was added once the entire quilt was completed.

Swirls and leaves were used as the means to accomplish the all over quilting using a white (you got it!) 50 weight cotton Aurifil thread.

The gorgeous batik border was quilted in a soft pastel pink (you got it!) 50 weight cotton Aurfil thread with simple pansy feathers.  

More often than not, I forget to photography the backing.  This one was done in a soft pastel yellow and turned out so pretty that I managed to remember to grab some pictures.

I love how this quilt finished; it is quite stunning in person.  It has a good bit of back tracking but the Aurifil is so nice in that the 50 weight lays lovely and does not create build up. 

If you enjoy free motion quilting or would like to start, leave me a comment if you are interested in design tutorials or simple stitches to start with for future posts.

I hope you enjoyed Pansies and Feathers!  Have a great quilty weekend!