quilting – Page 2 – Shark's Dinner

The Purple Quilt

Worst blogger ever, I forgot to take a picture of the quilt before I gifted it…

I did remember to put a label on it, though. I simply couldn’t think of a good name for it and I didn’t want to put the name in my head (Purple Sucks) on there as a lot of people love purple. So in the end it I named it The Purple Quilt. The Aurifil I used, purple 2581 in 50wt, shows up beautifully on the back.

Here’s a picture my sister sent me of it in situ:

Doesn’t look too bad, does it? It crinkled up nicely in the wash and I hope she’ll use it lots.

The next quilt is already in planning, although it’s only a mini for a swap I’m in. Templates have been drawn, fabrics chosen, thimbles sewn (I make my own leather thimbles) and the Aurifil’s ready. The only hiccup: my fabric is still in America. I’m hoping that it’ll arrive soon as I’m looking forward to this one.

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The Longest Break Ever

eli 4th February 2016 #purple #quilt #quilting

Hello, anybody out there? This has been the longest unplanned break ever. What happened was simply life and a lack of creative juices. I suddenly had no urge to create nor any ideas. Instead I focused on getting fitter and concentrating on my yoga and running. It was lovely but now I’m ready to get back into sewing and the ideas are piling up.

I haven’t been completely idle but have very little to show for the last few months. I might write about the things I made at a later stage but first I want to show you the quilt I’m working on now.

It’s purple. I’m not naturally drawn to purple so when my sister asked me to make a purple quilt I was not really inspired. I pulled all my purple fabrics out and looked at them. Nothing. I decided to add some blue and pink. Much better. Then I started cutting them into 4.5″ x 6.5″ rectangles and suddenly I loved it.

The quilt is now basted and ready to quilt. I’m going to attempt to quilt some ivy or honeysuckle growing on this ‘wall’ but before I do, I’ll practice doodling the pattern on some paper first. It would be a shame if I had to unpick lots of stitches now that I’m finally enjoying sewing again.

Categories: Quilts2 Comments

Martha Again

eli 16th February 2015 #Foundation Paper Piecing #Giraffe #quilting #Tartankiwi

I’ve started to sew Martha the Giraffe and I’m really upset. Despite having coloured in the templates and knowing exactly how I wanted her to look I managed to use the wrong fabric for her mane. I really wanted Martha to have a purple mane but instead her mane is orange. What a dimwit.

She still looks cute but I just feel really disappointed with myself. I’m going to continue as I don’t think I have the patience to unpick her ear and the mane. I’ve added a different orange print for her inside legs and am hoping that that will help me love her again.

Or I might just unpick…..

Categories: Foundation Paper Piecing1 Comment

Cobwebs

eli 4th August 2014 #Aurifil #Cushion #Dresden Plate #Kaffe Fassett #quilting

Goodness, I can hardly remember when I last wrote a post for this blog. However, the cobwebs have well and truly been dusted off and I’m excited to share lots of new makes with you.

First, is a cushion I’d promised Little Miss Bossy-Boots ages ago. She’s gone off the pink and wanted more purple in her room so I bought some lovely Kaffe Fassett’s and made her a Dresden plate cushion. Everything was going really well until I decided to hand quilt it. Hand quilting is hard on your hands so I put it away for a while before finally finishing it yesterday.

I added some free motion quilted pebbles to the centre and some leaf shapes to the background. The cushion was pieced and quilted with Aurifil 50wt (2024); for the hand quilting I used some Perle cotton but the very fine one. Could it be a 12? I’m not sure.

Next is a quilt to go with the cushion. I’ve already started cutting the fabrics and I’m adding lots of other colours to the mix. This is going to be a big quilt that will, hopefully, last the Little Miss a long time so I don’t want it to be too restricted colour wise.

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Practising

eli 21st October 2013 #Aurifil 40wt #Aurifil 50wt #Feathers #quilting

Life here in Switzerland is still going in the slow lane. I have no internet, no phone and no tv at the moment and although I miss being connected to the quilting community I’m quite happy with the tv break. It’s funny how much more you can do when you’re not stuck to the laptop or tv (not that I watch very much tv in the first place).

However, I’ve been ‘stealing’ my mother’s wifi a few evenings last week and have been watching various courses on Craftsy, one of which is Ann Petersen’s Beyond Basic Machine Quilting. Yesterday evening I was watching her quilt fabulous feathers and was so inspired that I got my pencil and pad out and started practicing. This morning I sat down at my machine and tried to do it on a practice sandwich.

I used the Aurifil 50wt in 2024 that was already in my machine. It’s easy to see that the left side is easier for my brain to wrap itself around. My stitch length was also more consistent on the left.

I then decided to change to a slightly thicker thread and changed my top thread to Aurifil 40wt in 2150, a nice bright orange, leaving the white 50wt in the bobbin.

I love the thicker thread and am now itching to go and order lots and lots of different colours. Both these feathers were free form and I loved having a bit of ‘air’ between the fronds. However, I thought I really need to try them without space too and drew a circle on another practice sandwich. I was trying really hard to retrace my steps and keep the fronds together.

I first did the outside feathers and it’s fairly easy to see where I started in the top righthand corner. The inside was fine until I got to the last frond. Poor planning meant that my angle was off and it looks really messy. Alas, it’s only a practice piece and I don’t mind it one bit. After all, they do say that practice makes perfect and you learn from your mistakes. I’ve absolutely loved making all my mistakes and I now want to make a quilt that I can quilt with feathers in all shapes and sizes.

Ok, I’m off to watch the rest of my Craftsy course. I’m sure I’ll find more I need to try out soon.

Categories: Quilting3 Comments

Tweaking

eli 4th March 2013 #English Paper Piecing #EPP #quilting #scraps

I’ve appliquéd my Pantone Emerald challenge star onto the the grey Essex linen background as I know that I have to finish it soon if I want to actually enter it. It’s been slow going as I’ve been watching Downton Abbey (Season 2) at the same time.

I probably would have finished quilting by now if I hadn’t decided to tweak the pattern at the same time, snatching a few minutes here and there. I had to get the seam ripper and scissors out a few times as I had problems with a couple of the pieces not fitting properly. If you look at the small green star and the grey elongated hexagons you can see they are quite pouffy as I literally had to shoehorn the grey pieces in.

The fabrics I picked for the tweaked version remind me of spring flowers. Kaffe Fasset, Denyse Schmidt, Robert Kaufman dots and Kona Solids in happy reunion. I don’t know about you but I’m definitely ready for some sunshine and warmth. It’s not quite finished but I’m hoping to get the last apricot pieces sewn on this evening.

The apricot colour isn’t something I would normally have picked but I really liked how it coordinated with one of the colours in the Kaffe Fasset print.

Lying next to each other you can really see how fabric choice influences the perception of the stars. The hexagon shape which is so prevalent in the Spring Version sort of disappears in Réalt Glas. I love both of them. One last trial version to go before I put the templates up on the blog.