Beauty is in the focus of the camera

Quilting has resumed... two sides of the applique border are completely finished, the other two are half done.  Whew... so far the thread is holding on - hopefully enough to get to the end of the last panel!  Although I wasn't prepared to risk it - more thread is on order!

I've started hand stitching down the stems on the Bunting Quilt.  Working with a large applique like this is awkward.  I like to work on the stem and leaf placement together to ensure both are nicely balanced - but you do end up with a lot of unattached bits.  It is not practical to shift something so large to the ironing board, neither was it practical in this situation to pin every leaf.  My solution this time was to iron on the floor on the carpet!  I was very careful to apply just enough heat to tack it down - not enough to cause major damage to the carpet underneath.  [Although with wool carpet - I'm not sure what it would do?  Shrink?  Definitely do not try doing this with nylon carpet - I'm sure that would be a disaster.]

Once it was tacked, I shifted my table top ironing board onto the floor, and gave it a better press - enough to adhere to allow the hand stitching to occur without causing any bits to fall off anyway.  Once I've finished hand stitching, I'll give it another press, and again from the back - before I start machine blanket stitching.

I've also been working my way through the list of jobs I wanted to get done during the holidays.  Clean my bedroom windows... turned into strip the bed... turned into change the whole room around and vacuum all the corners and skirting... perfect time for a new quilt on the bed - Lola's Medallion.

I haven't had this one on yet - and it's been about a year since it was finished.  On the one hand I kinda hoped I would sell it... but on the other I didn't want to.  Looks like this one is going to stay with me.

And just to show that cropping is a wonderful tool!  I still have plenty of mess to sort through, but that will be a job for tomorrow.  At least there is a clear path to get to bed tonight!

And I still only got one of the windows cleaned.  Typical!

Perfick!

A sort of almost finish and a sort of almost start

Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who has helped out with my problems with Google +, comments not working, and being a no reply blogger all of a sudden.  I switched back to my boring old Blogger profile and switched off the Google + buttons.  Sorry if this has mucked anyone up... but it was just too hard!  Transmissions should now be back to normal.

This week in the sewing shed... we have a sort of almost finish:

Free motion quilting has been occurring.  Enough in fact, that Lola's Medallion is fully quilted!

Although it looks enormous in this photo - it's only 69 x 69".  A mere baby :0)

I think you can see the puff in the applique elements in this one?  And you can also see the triangle pattern on the sashing much better than you do closer up - in fact, you hardly see it at all in real life.

The final decision was to do a ring around the rosy for the pieced corner stones... in the variegated thread that I outlined the triangles with.  Job DONE!

Here's a closeup of the baptist fan pattern after quilting, but before the markings were removed.  I used a Friction Marker... disappears with the touch of the iron.  There has been mixed reviews on this product - it seems to cause problems for those people who live in very cold climates.  I don't think I'll have a problem in Northland, and I'm unlikely to put my quilt into the freezer.

Now I just need to make a decision on the binding... I have the perfect brown... if there were enough!  Need to decide whether to wait and buy more - or throw in a different fabric or two and do a scrappy one.

I also bought a new book... (it's been on my wish list for ages... but I think I just really liked the green chair on the cover :0)

In the middle of which I had an A-Ha! sort of moment... rows of crosses... row of 5 big stars...

Wait a minute... I have something very similar.  This could be the perfect way to turn two WIP projects into just one... isn't that cunning!  I know I could run the world just given the chance :0)

I'd need to do some serious measurements... my blocks are bigger than the instructions - and work out how big the sashing would need to be, and how many of the modern cross blocks I'd need to fill the row... but it is do-able.

That eternal problem of having enough time...BUT - it would be working on an existing project... so it doesn't really count as being a NEW project does it?  So would it be a sort of almost start?

However the rest of the week - I really should focus on catching up with my Tokyo Subway blocks for October, and this weeks Modern Sampler blocks - which I chosen fabrics for, but gotten no further.

What are you up to?

Sunday Stash

A couple of naughty packages from over the seas arrived on Friday. 

It all started with a particular fabric that I loved, and drooled over, but didn't buy.  Then I started thinking about it all the time, and decided to look online for it - but couldn't find it anywhere. Every waking moment was spent desperately searching. Of course, not knowing its name, range or designer didn't help. 

Then low and behold, Hancocks of Paducah had a sale, and what was on the first page I looked at... of course, the mystery fabric:

But you can't just buy one fabric... there is the rest of the bag to fill as well.  These ones fitted the mellow and useful for something bill.

I just like these birds, and my stash is seriously yellow challenged - doesn't this one look happy?

And who can go by a nice grey print - especially a Happy go lucky one.

Then switch to another day, another email.  Fabric Worm just has nice bundles... and I'm a sucker for a a lovely bundle of fat quarters.

This is two bundles of a range from Adorn-it.

And don't you just love these fun fish?

OK enough about the fabric.  What about progress this week?

This weeks Modern Sampler blocks - isn't this one pretty?

This has a rather Karitane Yellow tone to it... (somewhat of a NZ "in" joke - Karitane nurses used to be the newborn baby nurses - any yellowish green colour that looks like it could possibly come from the back end of a newborn is referred to as Karitane Yellow :0)

But it complements the surrounding blocks nicely.

And the killer teeny tiny half square triangles

 PROOF!

Free motion quilting has been progressing well.  The triangle borders were treated identically.

I decided to try this triangle treatment for the narrow inner borders.

And even though I talked myself out of using the Baptist Fan template for the outermost border, when it came down to it - I just wanted to give it a go.  My "following a line" skills need to improve - but I've only done three fans... so there is plenty of time to  practice.

And I've got about 50cm of binding left to do.  This week is not over until the fat lady sings Sunday at midnight... so I will get this done before bed!

Oh Crap It's Wednesday Already!

Just where exactly did Monday and Tuesday go to?

My handwork focus last week was Flower Pots by Kim McLean.  I got bored with stitching the stem, and switched to something with a little bit more colour.  I'm appreciating that the pieces are pretty large (and colourful) - but there are still 36 odd pieces in this panel (not counting the pot pieces) - which means I've really only just stitched on pieces one to three.  But it is exciting!

I also got the chance to finish the last block for the week for Tula's Modern Sampler.  I really like this block for some reason.  And I've done the hard part for this weeks blocks - chosen the fabric :0)  This is the week of the teeny tiny half square triangles - wish me luck!

However, this week my primary focus is going to be machine quilting - (not on Janet, normal old freemotion quilting on my Brother) Lola's Medallion.  I finished the backing on Sunday (using Elizabeth Hartmans technique for pattern matching) and basted on Monday.  On a roll, yesterday I had a bit of a whirl with some McTavish style background filling.  While I don't think this is my Go-To style - it does look impressive once it's finished. 

So far, half of the applique centre is finished!  I'm using 100% polyester 100wt thread (Invisifill).  Although there has been a bit of breakage, it's going pretty well.  I upped the needle size and though the holes are a bit bigger than I would prefer - it does mean the thread behaves a bit better.  After all, it's nothing that won't disappear once it's been washed.  White fabrics can be notorious for being a pain in the butt to quilt.  At this rate, I'll have the centre quilted by the end of the week - then I need to decide what I'm going to do on the rest of it.

Although I have thought about my handwork focus for this week - I am yet to actually do any of it.  Hand stitching the binding on Hometown Wagon Wheels.  I can do it.  I have the technology.  I am on the home stretch with this one - I could get it finished this week (my first major finish this year), but I need to pull finger.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced and Lyn at What a Hoot (if I remember).

The Weekly Report - The Saturday Edition

I'm feeling quite chuffed with myself. FYI chuffed is a good thing :0)

It's only taken me from Easter (this year, which is not that bad) until now to get from a "lonely orphan block" to a finished quilt top.

Measuring in at 69.5" square is is not too small, and not too big... just right.

The cornerstone dilemma was solved thanks to a comment from Suz at Patchwork n Play.  The idea to form a cross that continued into the cornerstone was suggested first - but I just didn't have the fabric to play with.  In fact, I was hoping that I had enough to go around all four borders!  The second idea of a coloured square and a white circle really jumped.

Although I had plenty of leftover bits of fabric - none of them were big enough to cut four 7" squares - except the grey.  And once I'd decided that, the text fabric seemed an ideal match...

...as it finally gave me a chance to repeat the fabrics from these earlier borders...

The way this triangle border sits with the cornerstone from the first border still irks me

A bit of history, this was the source of the original block - and I in fact bought enough white fabric to create the whole quilt.  Maybe in another lifetime...

It was from this magazine, American Patchwork & Quilting Feb 2011

An interesting side note, the hand quilting goes right through the applique pieces.

And finally I think this is the perfect quilt for this particular backing fabric

Now, a furry little visitor surprised me in my sewing room yesterday... a furry little visitor with dirty feet from digging a hole under the fence.  Thankfully the damage was not too bad (and she came to visit me instead of running out onto the road) - nothing a run through the washing machine won't fix anyway.  As Poppy is an "excitable widdler" - I was lucky that it is only dirt I have to worry about :0) and that she has quite a dainty footprint.

In other news, Blocks 46 and 47 have been completed:

And Block 48 has had it's fabrics chosen:

I haven't done any of the blanket stitch for Taupo Tiles due to this crisis situation which sort of knocks blanket stitch off my Focus List for the meantime.

As this is the third quilt top to add to the pile, I'm starting to think that I need to get my machine quilting groove on pronto, don't ya think?  Probably need to add it to the list.