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Posted on Saturday, May 19, 2012 9:20 PM
I now have a few more blocks pieced this week, which are extremely fast once you have the half square triangles all made in a pile.... The design is evolving quite nicely, maybe I will get some time on Sunday to make a few more blocks. This will make a great sampler quilt for a pantograph design. |
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Posted on Saturday, May 19, 2012 9:13 PM
This quilt I believe is one of the first that my customer Heather has made, and she made a wonderful job of it too. She chose a duck egg blue thread which quilted out beautifully over the white. The design is "petal pushers" and looks great. |
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Posted on Saturday, May 19, 2012 9:08 PM
I really must get to posting some photographs of recent quilts, but I have been busy quilting them. This gorgeous quilt is a lovely fresh and bright design by my customer Denise, who chose the Alfresco design with a bright pink thread. I always love how this design quilts out and looks so different on many different style quilts. I wish that I had taken a better photograph of the whole quilt top though as it was such a pretty one. |
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Posted on Tuesday, May 15, 2012 10:55 PM
I attended a wonderful workshop with Katharine Guerrier on Saturday completely out of my comfort zone making scrap quilts and half square triangles...... focusing on light and dark block variations. I felt like a complete novice again as I struggled with the measurements and maths and my 1/4 inch on my machine which was also misbehaving with tension too, but after adjusting my needle to the right a couple of notches, all was accurate again.... I didn't think I had that many scraps until I searched through my stash.... and spent Friday evening cutting up some 4 inch squares in preparation.... I quickly realised I have barely any light fabrics, and most are mediums or brights and lots of pinks and purples, but it is amazing how the light and dark combinations create the dynamics of the quilt, and although I tried to be random, I still found myself matching things too much maybe for the scrap effect.  I had a great day which flew by way too fast, and although I only managed to accomplish two blocks on the day (maybe I talk too much !!!) I continued a little on Sunday and now have 4 blocks finished and it will look so much more effective when I have more blocks - I have a pile of half square triangles all made up ready to be made into blocks .... I am going to have to try not to make this yet another unfinished project..... but things are busy at the moment and there is not much spare time for piecing projects. I like to be busy though and am not complaining about that... there is not as much time for blogging either... |
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Posted on Sunday, May 06, 2012 7:47 PM
This is a quilt made by my customer Pat who made a wonderful job piecing this huge quilt with some gorgeous jewel toned batiks and cottons. She chose a Jade green thread and the Clover quilting design for luck as it is a wedding gift, and I think that this has turned out just great and will look even better when bound and lying out on a bed. I didn't get an allover photograph unfortunately of this quilt as it is quite a large one, but you can see the colour choices are stunning. It looks even better in real life. |
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Posted on Sunday, May 06, 2012 12:32 AM
I have lost some time this week with my ongoing back and neck issues which were possibly made worse for driving to Lincolnshire and back again for a family funeral earlier in the week. Driving any distance is enough to drive the pain up even further so I am dosed up on more painkillers. I will be so glad when all of these issues are gone for good. I keep being told that it is only temporary, although it has nearly been two years since my car was hit from behind which caused all of these issues. Not to dwell on the negatives of the week though as I try not to go on too much about my back (although my family would probably disagree with me with that comment) honestly I am fed up too with moaning about my back. As mentioned last week I have been doing an online evening course on tablet design, although this week I have not been as actively involved due to my back and neck because PC work doesn't help at all either. So today (Saturday) I sat for a little while and got caught up on some classes and have attempted a couple of wholecloth designs that I drew directly in photoshop, and this is what I came upwith ..... maybe one day one of them will end up as a quilting project for me. These are drawn using the bamboo tablet and stylus drawn directly into photoshop, I have only just started using the tablet and at the moment I have greater control of drawing the old fashioned way with a pencil and paper, but I suppose that computers are the way to go so I should persevere.. |
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Posted on Sunday, April 29, 2012 8:51 PM
I have been busy not only with customer quilting this last couple of weeks, but also I have been attending an online course in the evenings by Carla Barrett known for her "quilt whispering" techniques, which teaches the use of photoshop elements software and tablet design where you can draw and doodle on photographs of quilt tops on your computer for seeing possible quilting choices before actually quilting your quilt. I have learned alot of new skills with regard to cropping and editing photographs along with a whole host of new ideas for custom quilting design. So this original photograph of my quilt top on my large design wall in my studio gets some photoshop editing including skewing and cropping, and drawing on for my intended quilting layout. Of course this is only an idea, how I decide to quilt my quilt in the end will depend on how I feel at the time I quilt it. I may decide on a pantograph design too. |
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Posted on Saturday, April 21, 2012 8:21 PM
This great quilt has some gorgeous Japanese themed fabrics both on the front and on the back of the quilt. My customer Ann chose a dragonfly design and copper thread to compliment her already beautiful quilt top. I love her narrow 1/4 inch red sashing. Quite often I use red in my quilt tops, (in fact I can't think of many which do not have red in them) The Japanese believe that a dragonfly symbolizes summer and autumn and is admired and respected, the Samurai use it as a symbol of power, agility and victory. In China, people associate the dragonfly with prosperity, harmony and as a good luck charm. Amongst Native Americans, it is a sign of happiness, speed and purity. I think it is a fun design on the right quilt, and this quilt suited it very very well.(The first photgraph is the reverse of the quilt.) |
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Posted on Tuesday, April 10, 2012 9:15 PM
Jamie made this quilt for her boyfriends birthday, and is her very first patchwork made and she made a great job too. For some reason I don't tend to receive very many masculine quilts - maybe we all like to sew with girly fabrics.... I know I tend to. Jamie chose the "Dazzle" quilting design which I would agree is a great choice for this quilt. It turned out great with a tan thread to match. It has great texture and drape, and I am sure it will look even better once trimmed and bound. |
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Posted on Tuesday, April 03, 2012 9:15 PM
This quilt is another gorgeous quilt made by Nicola from a bali pop, and other beautiful batiks. I have quilted it with the Fire flower design and copper thread. Nicola chose the fire flower design because it is very similar in shape to the flowers in the border fabric of her quilt. It can be nice sometimes to have a similar feel in the quilting to the fabrics used. The backing fabric was a lovely black moda marble, and the wadding used was a black 60/40. A black wadding is always a good idea when using a black backing fabric to avoid any potential bearding of the wadding through to the back, and also to avoid all of the fluff from a cream wadding being so noticible on black. Unfortunately the lighting was not brilliant when I took the photographs of which I apologise for my lack of photography skills.... |
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