Still busy but trying to sew

I'm still crazy busy trying to work on a variety of projects including the sew along for 2016. Last Friday my Mom fell and broke her right elbow. She is in a cast for six weeks (at least) and there will be no sewing for the time being although knowing her she is trying to figure out how she can create something without moving her elbow.

She did manage to finish the hand applique work on her latest small African quilt just before the injury so I thought I would share it with you. She loves to create vignettes that depict the lives of women (usually grandmothers) and children. This time she also incorporated her love of quilt making and embroidery. I'll machine quilt it for her and when her arm is completely healed she will add her magical touch to really bring this quilt to life!

For my part I've managed to stitch the fourth row of my Road 66 hexagon quilt which is based on the design in Di Ford's book, Primarily Quilts. There's only one more row to assemble and then I can sew the rows together. I think that won't be in the near future what with helping my Mom every day, Christmas and other commitments.

I have been reading all of the lovely comments and will reply to each one as time permits.

Until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H

Newly framed quilts and more rosettes

I asked my Mom to make me one of her African-themed quilts as a Christmas gift. She made two of them and I quilted them for her last monght. After the quilting was done she embellished with embroidery, beads and metal bits. Then they came back to me for mounting on a canvas. I love them both!

Ladies' Afternoon Walk by Anne H 2015

Marketplace by Anne H 2015

These are the largest pieces I've mounted (I used artist's canvases to mount them); they measure 18" x 24". I used the method I wrote about here but made one small change and it worked like a treat!  As usual I attached the stretching strips and top stitched them to the seam allowance. The change was that I stitched the corners of the stretching strips together so  that the quilt looked like a box top. I slipped the quilt over the canvas and stapled it to the canvas. It was a nice snug fit and the stapling process was fast and easy.

I'll do an updated tutorial the next time I have a quilt to mount.

I've had a busy couple of days but managed to get some hexagon rosettes made. I had a strip of fabric from which I was able to cut 9 hexagons. I used six to make the top rosette and I added a similar fabric to the remaining three to make the bottom rosette. You'll notice that there is a fair amount of camel in the print so I made sure that the darkest of the hexagons were used in the top rosette and the remaining three which were fairly light were used int he bottom rosette.

The centres of the hexagons above were leftovers from this rosette!

This teal fabric is a newer addition to my stash and I love it! The centres were cut from scraps I was given by a friend! Nothing goes to waste with hexagons! Isn't it interesting how different the blocks look when the outer hexagons have the dark on the outside vs the inside? It is good to play around with the hexagons before they are stitched to see what kind of combinations you can come up with!

I continue to work on the pieced hexagons for the border. I'll need 36 of them and I've already stitched 22!

Until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H

More on Birds and two African quilt tops

If you are visiting for the Grow Your Blog Giveaway on my blog please go here. 

The medallion with birds has been appliqued to my Birds in the Loft quilt. I used Superior's The Bottom Line thread in taupe and the stitches just disappeared.

Next is another round of off-white hexagons.

It looks like there's a hexagon missing at the top and bottom of the quilt but it will be added later. The reason I've left it out is that the quilt is starting to get a little on the large side and to minimize the amount of handling I plan to construct what comes next in sections. What will be in those sections? You'll just have to wait and see!

My Mom has made two African themed quilt tops and has asked me to machine quilt them for her so she can embellish with beads, embroidery and assorted bits of this and that. She has already added some embroidery but there will be more to come!  One of these two is intended as a gift for me! Lucky me!

Maybe today I can get started on the quilting but I have one other that I'm working on for a friend and I really should get that one finished first!

Until I post again, happy sewing!

Karen H

A Sentimental Journey

My friend's father passed away many years ago. She had kept his silk ties and had planned to make a quilt with them. She spent hours taking the ties apart to obtain the beautiful fabric. You would be amazed at how much fabric there is in a silk tie! The quilt was started but set aside. The box of deconstructed ties has been staring at her begging to be turned into something wonderful.

She also wanted to be able to share some something of her father's with his grandchildren and that's when she got the idea to make fabric coil baskets with the ties. A perfect gift! Here are two of the baskets that she made already made with the ties.

She also added a little bit of batik fabric to create the green band on the basket on the left. I think the grandchildren will be very touched by these gifts this Christmas.

I've asked my Mom to make me one of her an African themed wall hangings as my Christmas gift. She started this one but doesn't think it is good enough. She still has more work to do but so far I think it is looking pretty impressive! There are more figures to add and of course she will embellish it like crazy once it is quilted!

Tomorrow is Value Proposition Hexagon Quilt Along day so I'll see you first thing in the morning! Until then happy sewing!
Karen H

Ten minutes too many of quilting and a reader question

ARGHHHHH! It is one of those bad thread days! My Mom (Anne H) has a new African quilt that she has asked me to quilt before she adds her magic embellishments. This is an original design - I love the chickens on the right! Right now the pot appears to float in midair but she will be adding logs under the pot as part of the embellishment. Here is her quilt top before I started quilting.

The quilting should have been a fast, straightforward project. I started off with a rayon variegated thread that has wonderful earthy colours and I wanted to use it for the foreground BUT no matter what I do or which machine I use it on I have problems with it shredding. Tension adjustments don't help. Larger/smaller needles don't help. I've tried it on three different machines with no success and that leads me to believe the problem is with the thread. So after ten minutes of sewing (ten minutes too many) I spent an hour of reverse sewing. ARGHHHH! I switched to a Gutermann 50 wt cotton thread that is variegated dark brown. It quilted the foreground beautifully.

I used a variegated Gutermann thread for the midground and again it worked beautifully. I move on to the background and at the risk of repeating myself.......ARGHHHH! I was using a Sulky variegated 12wt thread and it shredded like crazy. I adjusted the tension to no avail. Switched needles and no change. Rethreaded the machine top and bottom with no change. I would  move up to a topstitch 16 needle but I ran out. ARGHHH yet again.

I'll just persevere and when the thread breaks as it does I'll rethread and start again. It is a wall hanging so it won't be a problem as far as the threads working their way out. I do like the texture this heavy thread is giving to the background but am frustrated. If you have any suggestions I am open to them!

Ventura0404 asked where I buy my fabric. I reply to every comment unless you are a no reply blogger in which case I have no way to contact you unless you include your email address. Since I can't email Ventura0404 I'll answer her question here. I live in a large city but quilt shops have almost all disappeared. There is a local fabric store, Fabricland, that is part of a large Canadian chain. It carries quilting fabric so I often buy my fabric there. Other than that I have to shop online. I have bought from Hancocks's of Paducah, Fabric Shack, Thousands of Bolts, Quilt in a Day, Connecting Threads and eBay. If I am looking for a particular fabric I'll go to QuiltShops.com where I can search over 200 shops for just the right fabric. What about you'where do you shop?

I'm off to sew with my friends today. Until tomorrow when I post Block 8 in my Value Proposition Hexagon Quilt Along, happy sewing!
Karen H

Little gifts, more Grannies and the latest African quilt

Yesterday Dorothy left a comment and she asked what are Godstone Grannies (GG). Dorothy is new to my blog and she is a no-reply blogger so I couldn't email her directly. For those of you who are new to my blog I send an email reply to every comment.. So what is the Godstone Grannies (GG) quilt (or coverlet as it is described)? It is a quilt that was made by a group of women in the WI Denman College. I came across a picture of the quilt at the Quilt Museum and Gallery in York. The quilt was made in the early to mid 1960s. You can read my post about it here.

Godstone Grannies Coverlet, c1960-1965

 I've made three little gifts to go with the tote bag for my secret partner. She likes hexagons so I hope that these will tickle her fancy. On the left is a hardcover needle book. I used a pattern from The Studiolo which you can find here. On the far right is a tissue hold which I made from a tutorial on Melinda's Quilts Etc blog and you will find the instructions here. Both are super easy patterns, especially the tissue holder. If it takes you more than five minutes to make you probably took a coffee break! Really, it goes together that quickly!

 In the middle is a scissor fob/pincushion and it is my own design!

I fussy cut the elephant and a complementary fabric for the back of the fob and basted both to paper hexagons. Once stitched together and stuffed I embellished with beads. The fob has a looped cord so it can be attached to a pair of scissors. It sure makes finding the scissors easy when there's a mess on the table (not my table of course but someone else's messy table)! Or it can just be used as a mini pincushion. I think it is adorable! If anyone wants a detailed tutorial just leave me a comment and I'll work on it!

My Mom has another African quilt on the go. She has asked me to quilt it for her and of course I am happy to do that for her. Once quilted she will be adding the embellishments! Can't wait to see what she does but I know it will be interesting. I'll baste it up and quilt it. Fingers crossed I'll be able to show you the quilting later this week! The inspiration for this quilt was Allison Wilbur's quilt which she made for Quilt for Change. To find out more please go here!

Are you sick of seeing my Godstone Grannies (GG) blocks? Well the "to be stitched" pile is getting smaller and smaller so pretty soon I'l be showing you pictures of the GG blocks being stitched together into the quilt top! For now I've got two more blocks to share!

This is another GG filler block for the bottom edge of the quilt.

That's about it for today. Looks like I have some quilting to to so until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H

Godstone Grannies Update and another African Quilt by Anne H

YAHOO! I've stitched all of my Godstone Grannies blocks into rounds. Here you can see them all in their storage box ready to be stitched into blocks! It looks like a bunch of hexagon noodles!

Sometimes I like to stitch my hexagons in rounds. Godstone Grannies is made of diamond blocks so four hexagons make up the center. The next round is made of 12 hexagons, the following of 20 hexagons and the final round is made up of 28 hexagons.  I sew the rounds together and pin them together. That's what you see in the box, a bunch of these.

In the picture below you can see them laid out ready for to be stitched together. I'll use a colour of thread to match the round that is being added. In this instance I'll choose an orange-gold thread to stitch the round of 12 hexagons to the 4 rusty hexagons in the center. I'll sew all the way around and then close the opening. I like doing it this way because it is much easier that starting and stopping by stitching one hexagon at a time! The next round will be an off white thread to sew the round of twenty hexagons and finally a deep gold will be used to stitch the final round of 28 hexagons.

This is my Mom's (Anne H) most recent African themed quilt. This one is very dimensional  and you get a feel of depth. I will quilt it for her and then she will add her magic touches to bring it alive! It measures roughly 19" square.

I pin basted the quilt and then started the quilting. I used Superior Monopoly on top and The Bottom Line in the bobbin. I quilted around all of the appliques. Once that was done the fun could begin! I started by quilting the foreground, mid-ground and background with a variety of threads.

I love the little girls - they are so cute! You can see that the grasses in the mid-ground were worked in a up and down zigzag type of stitch. This is a great movement for coordinating the hand machine speed when quilting. It is a smallish design so it would also be a great warm up or practice exercise before moving on to a good quilt. I always do a warm up on a practice sandwich before I start quilting. It serves several purposes: it helps me get into the groove of the quilting movement, to check my tension and to test my thread.

Once the whole thing was quilted I bound it with a facing. My Mom likes to have her quilts finished this way because she wants them to look like pages torn from a magazine. I'll return the quilt to her so she can put the final touches on her quilt. Once she has beaded and embellished to her heart's delight I'll share pictures with you!

That's it for today! Until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H

It is time to get back to quilting

I've been so busy blogging, Soupcon QALing an whatnot that I've fallen way behind in my quilting. My Mom has made another African quilt and it to be a gift for her friend. She has asked me to quilt it for her so that is the job I have set for myself over the next two days. If it looks familiar it is because she made a quilt like it in the summer. Once I've quilted it she will embellish with beads and whatnot!

Have you ever had it happen that you are quilting with a light colour thread and you stray onto a darker fabric. If not, lucky you but I seem to have that problem from time to time and today was one of those times! You can see some of the stitches strayed into the black fabric. Not a catastrophe but it bothered me so what's a quilter to do?

HELPFUL TIP ALERT: I pull out a dark Sharpie or Sakura Pigma pen and I touch the offending stitches with the tip of the pen and voila - offending stitches "appear" to disappear!

Here are a some more pictures of the quilt. These figures will look great once they have beaded necklaces and gold hoop earrings!

Once the quilting is done the quilt will be finished with a facing so that it will have a nice clean edge with no binding showing.

I've got loads of quilts to quilt but I've narrowed my choice down to three the first of which is 81 The Giant Monstrosity! It is a big job and I'm not sure if I want to tackle that one first. My Guild is having a quilt show in September 2014 so I'm going to have to tackle it sooner or later because I would like to show it.

Maybe I'll quilt Piccadilly to the Nines. I like that quilt, it isn't too large and I've got some great backing fabric for this one - it is a lovely sunny yellow with cherries! This one is tempting considering the temperature is -30C with the windchill!

My third option is my Lazy Girl quilt top! It has lots of wide open spaces where I can experiment with some quilting designs!

Decisions, decisions, decisions!

I am so impressed with the Soupcon quilts that are being made. Each is so unique and my hope is that at the end that while we all started at the same point, each quilt will be different. Judging but what I've seen so far that is exactly what is going to happen. Posting pictures on the Soupcon FLICKR Group is so important because it inspires others. Clare has posted her block. She combined applique and embroidery to embellish her block. I love how the embroidered star and hexagon are intertwined!

Another quilter has just finished Step 1. She doesn't have a FLICKR account so Happy Appliquer posted the block for her. This one will be fun to embellish. I can visualize so many treatments and don't know how I would decide on just one! Wouldn't some metallic embroidery thread be pretty?

Nellie is certainly on a role and has embellished yet another block. The before is on the left and the after on the right!

Skootchover's block was posted late yesterday. To quote Nellie, WOW! To quote me, WOW and WOW again!

Time for me to get back to quilting my Mom's lovely African quilt. Until I post again, happy sewing!

Karen H

A busy day quilting, cutting, sewing and pressing

It was a busy day and I got lots done. I've quilted my Mom's African themed quilt. Now it goes back to her for binding with a facing and embellishing with beads. There's lots of movement in this one. I left some of the spaces in the sky unquilted to create some depth. This is also the case with the huts and the trees. They are all very dimensional!

I'll be sure to take pictures of her quilt when it is completed.

I've been working on the Hexagon and Blue Star quilt blocks. The pattern is in the book Feathering the Next. It is loaded with wonderful pictures of luscious quilts but the patterns are short on instructions. For me this isn't a problem but for an inexperienced quilter it could present a challenge so if you are considering purchasing this book and you are a beginner you may need some assistance from a more experiences sewer. That isn't to say that the pattern is complicated but simply that the instructions are very brief. For example I like patterns that provide pressing instructions but there are none in this book.

I've been sewing and pressing the blocks and they are almost all done. Here are a couple of pictures of some of the blocks up on the wall.

This design is a great way to showcase large prints and busy patterns. I am very happy with how it is looking!

I am pressing the seam allowances open so that they will be less bulky. A triangle is sewn to the upper left of a hexagon and the lower right. You can see a pink hexagon at the bottom of the picture and it has the blue triangles attached. The hexagon is now a large diamond and these large diamonds will be sewn into rows. It is all straight line sewing with no set in seams!

I wanted to stitch some blocks together to make sure that everything will come together nicely once all of the diamonds are made, pressed and lightly starched. I selected two hexagons with the triangles attached and seam allowances pressed open. The little dog ears were not trimmed because they will be important landmarks when I sew the blocks together.

I placed the blocks with their right sides together. In this picture you can see the dog ears.

I lined up the dog ears and pinned through the seam allowance just below the dog ears and then I place a pin on either side of the seam.

I stitched the blocks together and then pressed the seam allowances open. This is how the blocks look from the wrong side.

And here they are from the right side. Using the dog ears as land marks, lining them up and pinning well resulted in a perfect intersection!

To prove it is perfect here is a close-up! As an added bonus there isn't any bulk at that intersection which means the quilting will be MUCH easier when I get to it!

 

Tomorrow is another busy day so I don't know how much sewing I'll get done but I'm having great fun with the Hexagon and Blue Star quilt so I'll be itching to get at it again!

Until I post again, happy sewing!