Settling in

I've just completed my little Stars meet Hexagons quilt and it is settling in at home. How do you settle in a new quilt? Sometimes, but rarely, I know exactly where it is going. But usually it does a bit of a wander around the house till it is 'comfortable' somewhere. 

First a garden photo shoot...

Then decorating a gate...

Could be a table topper...

Finally in to the lounge for a sit down...

Just to recap on the making of this quilt: 

I started it in January 2014 - the pattern is from Petra and An's book Promenade in a Dutch Garden. I saw their little red quilt at Quilts in the Barn in 2013 and loved it. Mine finishes at 41 inches (104cm) by 48 inches (120cm).

The EPP and fussy cutting process was such fun. 

Gradually it grew and grew..

Hexagon chains for an applique border...

I hand quilted it with Aurifil size 12 thread, trimmed the edges and added a red binding. 

I'm really happy with the texture of the hand quilting. It was a good chance to try big stitch quilting and a 'safe' one to experiment on as the stitches are not a feature of this quilt. The wadding used was cotton - a change from my usual wool. There was no particular reason for the change of wadding - just thought I'd try something different! It was easy to stitch through and light but possibly less loft than the wool.

I wanted the hexagons in the chain border to pop out a bit so only stitched around the edges and in the joins between the hexagons. I was tempted to add more quilting to the 3 inch border but thought keeping it simple might be best.

Last post I showed you my red CWB blocks on the portable 'design wall' that I move in and out of the family room. Well...the design wall is now doing double duty! In a rare moment of clarity I realised I could use the back too. What a great solution for someone doing far too many projects at once?! 

So, on the back I have pinned my Benjamin Biggs BOM progress - a very long-term project:

Here are close ups of the latest two blocks - 13 and 14:

 

Block 14

My secret sewing of Auntie Green in neutrals is going well - I have finished the top! I don't want to reveal too much at this stage (because it is a special gift)  but just to prove it is done - here is the last little bit of applique on the corners of the outer border. 

Preparing to applique

A finished corner

Now I have till my daughter's wedding at the end of November to quilt it. I have no idea if that is enough time to hand quilt a 90 inch by 78 inch quilt (gulp) but I'd like to give it a try!

Taking stock

The trouble with doing too many lots of projects at once is the feeling of moving in slow motion - nothing seems to be progressing. I know I'm spending hours on it... but where exactly ...?

So I gathered the projects for a quick stocktake.

Here is my Stars meet Hexagons - not looking much different but it has got larger since last report, and there is a lot prepped ready to sew. I am aiming for lap quilt size and still love the fussy cutting.

Here is a quilt I started in my monthly quilt class and posted about here in December - a wedding gift for my niece ( I'm calling it my Double X or Lucy's quilt). It has been all machine pieced in class with one flying geese border ready to add. I've learnt a lot about machine piecing in the process but still don't enjoy it as much as hand work, so it largely only gets worked on in class.

I'm just about to start Block 5 on the Benjamin Biggs BOM - and here are the fabrics selected ready.

There has been progress on my Ann Randoll reproduction - but lately some of it backwards. I'm really enjoying the challenge of this quilt but might need a little extra hair colour added this month (to cover the extra white hairs that Ann has contributed!). Three minor hiccups ...

• Glue stains. After the pinwheel border comes an applique vine border with an large sawtooth edge. Here is the border attached with the sawtooth completed ready to add the bias and leaves of the vine.

The placement of the bias vine is fairly tricky - so it lines up with the corner feature and there must be enough room for leaves either side - see below.

Well - I decided on my first attempt to try glue (Roxanne bottled glue) to attach the bias strip to the border background ready to applique. But once it dried I found my placement was wrong so removed the bias - only to find some truly nasty glue stains were going to be visible. I washed/scrubbed/soaked it every way possible but they would not come out! So that border had to be scrapped and started again. And the lesson learnt ? extreme caution if anchoring applique with glue! I went back to pins...

Here is the stained reject:

• The hole - when I unpicked a seam to adjust it (another story). A patched repair.

A patch inserted

Not too noticeable in the scheme of things...

• Running out of fabric. I realised part way through appliqueing the vine leaves that I had very little of this fabric left and it was not a good feeling as I know it is long out of print. Not easy to work out how much was needed for the rest so I just plodded on regardless. With the help of my lightpad and the back basting prep technique for applique I managed to to wedge the leaves into every skerrick of the remaining fabric, leaving the tiniest seam allowance for needleturn - and just made it - phew!

Pinning for back basting prep on the leaves

some leaves ready for back basting stitching 

nearly finished the vine leaves

Now measures 55 inches square

Plenty more borders to come - just in case anyone thought it might be finished! No rest for the wicked? Next is a wide border of clamshells.

There has been some secret knitting: 

There's been a teeny bit more machine quilting of my Medallion quilt ....

So that's the stock take done - no finishes but lots of "nibbles" of this and that. 

 Autumn has been especially colourful in the Southern Highlands this year. Here is part of my garden.  Yes - am loving the colour of the maples, grapevine and golden ash, but am not loving the colour of the lawn! Actually it is very green under that bird netting :)

The reason for the netting is a desperate woman's defense against a flock of crows who have adopted our hill as their territory. They are usually quite harmless but at the moment have been ripping this lawn to shreds in search of beetles. It seems there's been an infestation of lawn beetles/grubs. I have spread powder to kill the beetles but the crows are not convinced and keep ripping the grass up to check! So the netting is there for a little while... hopefully not long, hehe.

Threadbear's Applique School

That was last Saturday on my visit to Castlemaine in Victoria. 

Since then it's been a busy week what with work and life...but I've been keen to post about this great workshop. It was a very full day of mastering applique techniques  - half the day with Di Ford and half with Margaret McDonald. 

This is the very generous collection of goodies we each received in a bag on arrival. And there was chocolate and lollies, but that has vanished ...who knows where.

3.3 metres of fabric included

Both Di and Margaret have taken these same fabrics  and used many similar appliqued elements (broderie perse, chain borders, dresden plate, drunkard's path etc). But their quilt tops are distinctly different. Neither tops are completed - due to time constraints - but are wonderful samplers of many applique techniques. And don't they both have a gift for fabric selection!

Di's quilt

Margaret's quilt

There was a lot to cover and it was heads down frantically stitching technique samples. 

A busy class

Here is a compilation of my meagre samples ( finished them in the evening due to being a bit of a slow poke on the day - too much chat).

For me there was a bit of a 'light bulb' moment -  adding a border to a quilt does not need to be just a straight-edged strip of fabric (or even a pieced strip) stitched to another. With the use of fussy cut appliqued borders there are all sorts of interesting new possibilities to add charm and movement to the quilt. 

Looking at the close up of Di's pink border below - it is a  strip of fabric that has been fussy cut in a wave edge and appliqued on to a tiny printed stripe  - magic!   

Appliqued mitre corners

Margaret has similarly fussy cut the light green border (below) and appliqued it onto a mustard print. And what a stunning applique chain border! She devised her own special technique to construct this and it worked a treat.

Broderie perse flowers and leaves, and more fussy cutting.

Di's centre

Margaret's centre

So much inspiration, great teaching, delicious catering, and my 'quilting cred' has just gone way up because I can now say "I've had a class with Di Ford"!

There was a lot of  blogger meet-n-greet going on. I can now put a face to Ruth from Ruby's rhetoric. Do check out her projects - there is even a beautiful Morrell quilt if you look back through the posts.

By the way - I have finished my son's beanie well in time for his birthday. Here it is - nothing bright and beautiful, sigh, but just what he ordered . 

And here is some progress on the EPP pinwheels for my Ann Randoll marathon quilt. See - they do come together quite fast by this method - so portable and easy to do a little at a time. Almost all of this was stitched in my evenings on the 5 day trip to Castlemaine. One or two of the fabrics are new acquisitions from Threadbear.

Happy stitching :)