Garden Globes

This is a shop sample at Patchwork Corner. It is one of the two quilts I quilted over last weekend. It is made with the Floragraphix range of fabrics from In the Beginning. It's an amazing range, which I will be making a quilt from as soon as I have time. The quilt thoough was a challenge to quilt. I didn't feel I could just use and all over. It's didn't seem to add anything to the piecing. I also know that Jenny likes her quilting to match the fabrics in colour, and with this one there are a lot of colours to match. I decided the only way for ward was to match each colour in it. So there are four colours of quilting in this one. You can see that better in the picture of the back (I usually match my bobbin to my top thread). Rather frustratingly the quilting doesn't show a lot on the front, but that does seem to be the way when i put in this much work. The more time you put in the less there is to show for it.

Hopefully the quilt be be bound and on display at Malvern in just over a weeks time. It will be on the Patchwork Corner stand and if you would like to make your own version there will be kits available. If you are really keen you could even to get me to quilt it just like this one.

When I quilt I often listen to audio books, and I have found cusomers like to know what book was involved in their quilt. This one was Eragon by Christopher Paolini.

Christmas Party

Before I rave on about the party tomorrow I had to show you a bit of this quilt. I took this quilt on as my emergency quilt. I had filled all my before Christmas bookings when I got a request to do this one extra, for a deserving lady. Well When people ask nicely and tell me it is a well deserved favour what can I do? Even better the customer was quite prepared for me to finish if on the 24th and she would have sat up all night to bind it. Even better she told me to d whatever I fancied and I was sure she meant it. I loved working on it, the plaid is so soft it feels great to work on. The real treat was handing it back. She was so pleased to have it back so soon and she did like what I did. Her reaction is why I do this job, and believe me after Christmas I will be thrilled to show you the whole quilt. I was very pleased to get the squares, it let me try out continuous curve. I found it was easier than I remembered it and I think I will have to try and find more to practice on, as I might really like this technique.

So the Christmas Party. It will be at Patchwork Corner 10am to 4pm tomorrow. There will be sale fabrics, demonstrations and lots of goodies to eat. If you have ever been to a shop hop there you will know the drill, if you haven't and you are in the area come and say hello. I will be demonstrating a quick shopping bag, with ridiculously over engineered straps. they are made from the webbing I use for car restraints. I have a lot of it so you too could have a very strong bag for your shopping.

Leafy quilting

Here is another quilt I worked on recently. It was a fun diversion and allowed me to check that my problems with the shirt backing weren't just to do with having a pieced backing. Isn't it good when a customer is also a friend and you can say things like that. I really like the idea that the maker will be doing the artistic quilting while I just put in the background to hold it together. It is an interesting way of making use of a longarm quilter and I enjoyed it more than basting the quilt. I am sure I shouldn't say this given my line of work but I do enjoy enabling people to do their own quilting. I hope I get to do more pieces like this.

Back in the blogging world

Well I have finally finished the quilt that has been talking up all my time for he last week. It was a great learning experience, but I didn't entirely appreciate it's timing. My tip is not to use recycled shirt fabrics for both the front and the back of the quilt. Using it for one seems top be fine, but both is 'interesting' to quilt. If you really must then I suggest a large needle and a very fine thread. Still the owner seemed very pleased with it and I think it looks great. Hopefully after Christmas I will be able to show you it.

Other quilts I have been working on are these three for Project Linus. I'm afraid I can't tell you who made any of the tops, I don't know, but if they are yours do get in touch and I will happily credit you.

I take tops and backings and supply the wadding and the quilting. I like doing Linus quilts as I feel more able to play on them. I know that the most important thing is to get them finished although I have to admit I have had these a long time.
The first is a t-shirt quilt and I didn't feel it wanted much from my quilting. I did use a bright variegated thread to add some life to the quilting, but I kept the design simple, 'decadent swirls'. I used this pattern on the nine patch quilt as well, as my quilting wasn't going to show.

The blue and green quilt I really had fun with, this is the sort of top I love to find in my Linus package, what a fun piece to quilt. I tried out some new (to me at least) border patterns, and found some a lot easier than I expected. I was especially pleased with the one in the dark blue outer border, of course that doesn't show up too well. This design is one I developed from a design taught by Deloa. In the plaid border there is a similar but I think less well executed design. I was less sure of it so I put it somewhere it wouldn't show so much. I don't think the small half squares show up too well either, and I was very pleased with them too. They have a different style of flower petals on each fabric but share the same center. I hope the new owners will get a lot of of them.

If you would like to help with making quilts for Project Linus you might like to join the Quilt-a-thon at Patchwork Corner next year. We will be quilting for 24hrs to make as many quilts as we can. I will be at the shop with my longarm to get tops finished, and we will be using every quick technique we can think of to turn scraps into quilts. All help will be welcome, even non sewers can be put to work ironing or making tea. If you have scraps you could donate those would be appreciate too. It will be held on the weekend of the 6th July, more details will be posted as we get closer to the date.

New York Beauty

Finally, I can show you the quilt I have been enjoying so much for the last week. The pattern is one by Karen Stone, as as with many of her patterns, is wonderfully spiky. This particular quilt top was made by another Karen and is a birthday present to herself. Her husband bought her the pattern and the fabrics last year, and if all goes well it will be finished in time for her birthday next week. I am so pleased it is going to a great home where it will be loved. I think it has twelve colours of thread in it. I didn't really keep careful count as I just chose the thread as I found places that needed a new colour. I didn't want my quilting to shout. This pattern can carry the glory all on it's own.

As I worked on this quilt I enjoyed the different textures of fabric in the top. Apparently my method of moving my machine if very unusual, but it works for me and I like having contact with the top. My hands tell me things my eyes don't. The plain dark green fabric is wonderfully soft, although it doesn't look out of the ordinary. Apparently it is a silk blend, so it isn't surprising it feels good.

As soon as I saw the quilt I felt I needed to enhance the spikes, so as I worked I tried to make those pointing outwards in the blocks stand out. To achieve this I quilted the spaces between them and allowed them to rise up. This had the side effect of giving each type of spike a very different feel. There are plump soft spikes and very sharp hard ones. I hope that at some time in the future someone will 'view' the quilt with their finger tips and appreciate the patterns from this perspective.

I will have to make myself one of these quilts, or at least something similar. I rather like tie idea of designing something unique, I love Karen Stones patterns, but I like to be different. If nothing else I want to scale it up to a good king size quilt so I would have to draw my own borders. I've got to come up with something, I really miss this one. Strangely even more than ones I have made and sold. I wonder why some quilts grab me so much more than others. I wish I could work that out as it would probably be a good way to create popular patterns, but until then I will have to carry on with trial and error.

Hmmmm, it seems blogger is having some problems so I will have to add the pictures tomorrow. Sorry guys, but they do say they are working on it, so hopefully it won't be long.

After several attempts it has allowed me to put up one image. This is a picture of the quilt on the frame when I was working on the first border. I had intended to take more pictures as I went along, but I got so absorbed by the quilt I entirely forgot to take the pictures. Still maybe it will serve as an appetizer until blogger starts working properly again.

Yay, finally I have the pictures up. Enjoy.

Strange feeling.

I've just finished my quilting for the day, and turned off the light in the room with the longarm. I will finish the quilt on the frame tomorrow, and I am sad. I have really enjoyed this quilt, so much so I have taken longer over it than I really needed. I have savoured it, and in doing so planned my own version of it. For the first time I will be sorry to hand back a quilt. It's very strange, in so ways I am more attached to it than to some of my own. On the bright side, I know the owner loves it at least as much as I do and I am pretty certain she will like the quilting I have done. In fact it is also the quilt I have been most confident about. I wonder if that is because it speaks so clearly about how it should be finished, and I have been able to accommodate it's wishes. Well once I have handed it back on Wednesday, I can show you and maybe you will see why I have enjoyed it so much.

The reason I was finishing so late is I managed to open a new bank account today. I've been putting it off for a while, even though my bank had been providing less and less service. I tried a while ago to move my personal account and none of the banks were in the least bit helpful. When I opened my business account they were ever worse, actively misleading me about the facilities I would receive to persuade me to open their accounts. So banks are not my favourite people to deal with. However I would have to admit the people I met today were pretty decent. Of course I haven't actually tested the account yet, so they may have told me a lot of rubbish, but I have a good feeling about this one. It did take 3 hours though with I could have done without. Still, if it does work I will be a lot better off, and able to write cheques again, and I don't think it would be possible to be more hopeless than the account I have been trying to use. I am also looking forward to being able to write to my ex-bank and shut my other accounts, explaining exactly why I won't be doing business with them again. I suspect they won't be surprised, today they were surveying customers leaving the branch, and had put on extra staff who were behaving very differently to usual. I know I wasn't the only one who was getting a bad deal, but waiting until I get desperate enough to move my money is no way to run a business.

Latest Quilting Revealed

Well as this quilt has now gone back to it's owner and she is happy I will show you the quilt that was causing me all the stress with feathers.

The bit that was giving me the problems was the setting triangles, the more traditional feathers. They don't look too scary now they are done but boy did I struggle with them. Oddly I had moments when I could just do it and all was well, then suddenly they were hard again. It was a very odd experience.

On a more positive note the feathers in the kaleidoscopes were great fun to do. I love the way they flow. I've started putting them onto my quilt this evening. Of course the machine detected my desire to do this quickly and has been having a bit of a strop. Still it is going well and I love the way it looks, so I will persevere. I am a little concerned I may run out of thread. I have a 3000m cone but I am using it front and back. I can't remember how big it was before I started, but I think I will weigh a similar one and compare it to this one. If I am short I guess I will have to order another. Rather annoying given it will have to come from the USA. Still I have a little time to get things together.

I have lots of things I want to get on with now. I have a nude to quilt, a pattern to finish writing up and not one but two quilts to make for the local quilt shop. The best bit is these are all actually exciting and I want to be getting on with them. Sadly no amount of excitement adds hours to the day. It really should you know. So much to do so little time.