hand quilting
Showing posts with label hand quilting. Show all posts
a piece of me scrappy pouch
Back with another make that was finished last year. I can never have enough storage, sewing or bags for sewing supplies. I made this pouch on a whim, using up pretty scraps and repurposing a little jewellery bag (the mustard yellow above), because it was so soft and it seemed wasteful to throw it away.
I began hand piecing the scraps together, organised by size, starting with the smallest pieces. It grew until it was enough for a panel and then I repeated the process to make a back panel.
It was so fun, just stitching the fabrics together and not being too precise about it. I like using a long needle for piecing, a milliners or straw needle, and Aurifil 50wt thread. I decided to continue the hand work by hand quilting the panels and used Aurifil 28 weight #6722, a nice neutral.
I used the Clover Black Gold quilting needle #12 and it sewed beautifully. I have used the Black Gold applique needles and they are my favourite. The coating really helps the needle glide through the layers and they are so sharp.
Of course I went with my very favourite quilting pattern, a simple cross hatch. I adore the texture.
What is cool about this pouch pattern is you can see the quilting on the inside of the pouch too. I used a plain fabric for a pop of colour, my stitches are always smaller on the reverse and I love that it shows it's handmade.
For added fun, I used some alphabet stamps to add lettering. Hooked on a Feeling has been on repeat in our house because my middle child is obsessed with it and it is a super happy song. I stitched some split crosses randomly around the letters for a bit more texture too.
Time for assembly! Despite having a stash of various coloured zips, I went for simple white and cut the bias binding ready from the blue and white print.
This pattern has the SIMPLEST zip insertion and what I love is how neatly it turns out. No faffing, just clever needle alignment. If you struggle with zips (or even if you don't!), do buy my pattern because it makes sewing them joyful!
Looking at it now, the white zip does contrast nicely with the lining and because it coordinates with the thread it makes the quilting pop too. So good choice past me.
Rounded corners - instructions in the pattern - add such a nice modern and aesthetically pleasing bottom.
For even more pizzazz I finished it off with a little zip charm I made. A felt pom pom, glass bead, split ring and perle thread holding it together. I left tails and cut the ends of the perle thread rather than burying it, and I like the fluffy texture it adds.
Not intentional, but because of how I pieced the binding strips (cut from scraps so didn't have enough for one long strip); the print ended up on one side for one edge and then shows on the bottom and other edge on the other side. I actually love it, random in the best way.
This pouch ended up being 7.5" x 7", a handy size for bits and bobs! Earlier in the week I used it to take some hand piecing with me to Cardiff, I got everything I needed in it (48 squares of fabric, embroidery scissors and a spool of basting thread - I even managed to store my glasses in there when I realised I forgot my case) and it fit perfectly in my smallish handbag. Gotta love portable projects!
You can purchase the A Piece of Me Pouch Pattern here - remember it's easy to adapt the pattern to any size and this version is a perfect stash buster, so have fun making pouches for all the things!
concrete garden quilt
I am over the moon with this finish! It's been a long time coming... it began it's life in 2016 when I created the central hexagon and my wonderful Bee A Brit Stingy friends made bee blocks. They each made a square and a triangle block. My brief as 'queen bee' was asking them to use the background fabric I sent, along with a mix of cheery fabrics and create geometric blocks for the squares and triangle blocks made up of triangles.
The starting point for all our bee blocks was a central panel in the shape of a hexagon. The hexagon was formed with six triangles cut from the background fabric. I hand pieced the flowers, which are from the Daisy Do pattern from the book Quilt Lovely by Jen Kingwell. Then machine appliqued them to the background.
This quilt is called Concrete Garden because of this central panel - the mix of prints with the monotone background reminds me of city living and a garden growing through concrete. Overall the quilt layout and blocks remind me of an allotment too, common in city suburbs.
wednesday vibes ✿ hello 40
It seems going out dancing very much agrees with me as I am still glowing after my birthday weekend - although the large angry spot on my face that's appeared since my boozy night out is glowing very red!! I'll take the spot because it was worth it. I had a fabulous time and it felt amazing dancing the night away. New year and turning 40 has definitely given me a boost, things are clearer and I have renewed energy for what I want to do. There's a lot of thinking going on, I have plans but also fears and I'm working through some ideas so I can put out into the world things I am proud of. That is probably a bit cryptic but I will share when I'm ready... part of the sharing is the process. Whenever I step into something new I have worries and that becomes amplified when it's just me doing things on my own. I'm in a good place though, I have wonderfully strong friends around me and they give me strength and encouragement.
My current work in progress is the cushion pictured above. I had planned to just add a little bit of hand quilting but then I added a bit more. Enjoying every stitch! It just needs a back and then it can go to live on my sofa. I am replacing some of our tired looking cushions with new ones. I've decided bigger is better and I will probably make just a few more until you won't be able to see the sofa, haha! Truly though the ones I made a few years ago are looking worn and it's nice to be able to update them to suit my style now.
I've realised I am hugely affected by my surroundings. Mess and disorder makes me crazy and unfortunately it's hard to keep on top off. Little by little I'm tackling all those spots and areas of rooms that collect clutter. Once something is at least organised (if not neat) I do feel better. Clearing out mess is like a weight lifted. It's also about things looking homely, inviting and happy! Even if there's 'stuff', if it makes me feel warm, inspired or peaceful that's a win. At the moment my house is like the most beautiful florist. I got four bouquets for my birthday, some so large I had to split them up. It means I have vases, jugs and jars of flowers everywhere!
A room with flowers becomes beautiful automatically. It's a mood booster for me.
With a good mood comes ideas, creativity and planning. I enjoy setting aside time to get our family routine, appointments and commitments written down. We have a family calendar and then I have my cherished planner. I have switched to a week on one page inserts, I find now I'm working full time I don't need so much space each day. I still like to keep track of my schedule for evenings and weekends, especially as I'm teaching quite a bit and electronic planning does not work for me. I like to write things down, tick things off (ahh that checking things off my list feeling is SO good!) and there's something about flicking through the paper pages of the weeks that is not the same as swiping on a phone.
And this new, excited feeling I have is also because I got a hair cut and a fringe. Amazing how a hair cut can make you feel. It was time for a change. Hello 40.
keith haring wholecloth quilt (in progress)
This month's Aurifil Artisan challenge was to make a wholecloth quilt. I was sent fabric and thread to work with and given free reign to create. There were a few ideas swimming around my head but when we went to the Keith Haring exhibition in Liverpool recently I couldn't resist doing hand quilting inspired by his designs.
This is an incredibly playfully stitched project and there are elements I absolutely love and also some lessons learned.
I was sent solid fabric in the colour Haze, Painter's Palette Solids by Paintbrush Studio. It's one of their 2019 colours of the year and it a beautiful grey blue. It looks different in the photos because of the time of day they were taken but the one below is possibly the closest to real life. The piece I'm stitching on is about 20" square. Aurifil also sent me a spool of 12wt thread, in #2612 Artic Sky - a lovely soft grey.
dazzling thead and fabric
Experimenting with thread is always fun and I'm keen to try different varieties of threads. I have been adding metallic thread to sewing projects, even using some Wonderfil Spotlite on cork (which had it's challenges!). Metallic thread definitely requires you sew at a slower pace and do use a larger needle so it doesn't break.
This week I bought three spools of Aurifil Brillo from Lacewing Designs, in Black/Gold #646, Dark Copper #752 and Light Copper #723. They have really nice colour choices and I'm very tempted by the pinks.
It almost has metallic specks rather than being metallic all through because of how it's twisted. So it has both colour and a glittery effect.
slow and quick projects
Cathedral windows are lovely to make, different from traditional piecing and so satisfying! I made this little sample for Sewing Quarter and demonstrated yesterday how to hand sew the blocks.
I chose to hand stitch the folds with some perle thread, which is quicker than appliqué (although I did demo that too) and gives a lovely effect - the Valdani variegated thread is particularly pretty.
To watch the repeat of the show, click here.
On the same show I also made this Peonies block from 100 Any-Size Flower Blocks by Rita Weiss and Linda Causee. Fast and easy to put together.
rainbow pincushion
Finally a lazy day; with the kids back at school I spent time with my husband (we skived and went to the cinema!) and then I finished off this rainbow pincushion this afternoon.
The rainbow is part of my Whatever the Weather hand pieced mini quilt pattern, which I will be teaching at Stitch Gathering at myBearpaw in October.
I have added borders and just finished some appliqué on them so I will be quilting the mini soon - I have a plan and a rough sketch of how I want to quilt it!
The pattern is a great stash buster and it was fun picking out fabric for the rainbow. I used Wonderfil Eleganza #8 perle thread for the hand quilting, it has a lovely sheen to it and was beautiful to work with.
I sewed some pom-pom trim to the short edges. I did this recently when I made my Liberty scraps pincushion and it adds a pretty flair. It also looks like little clouds framing the rainbow!
The pincushion back is the gorgeous Social Climber print by Anna Maria Horner, which really makes it double sided!
I enjoyed making 'just because' and I can totally see how pincushions are an addictive make!
festival frolics!
My Festival of Quilts 2017 experience was filled with so much good stuff! I'm going to start with people, then goodies and then the quilts! So jump through this post as you like :)
Of course I wanted to attend the festival but I knew I had to when Clare - Selfsewn told me she was going because we have been online friends for years. I love meeting people in real life and Festival is the best place to meet quilty friends (Nat and I did a few years ago!).
I'm sure I squealed when I saw her, gave her a big hug and I might have even held her face because I was so happy to see her! We went in the festival together (having both failed to fill in our details on the back of the ticket!) and on the way to meet Collette, we stopped to exchange gifts. Clare gave me the most magnificent mini quilt and I will share what I made for her tomorrow.
Absolutely, perfectly Clare. Beautiful stitching and quilting. My very own 'quilt label' - she knows I've always loved her labels (so much so that I naughtily looked at the back of her quilt hanging at festival last year to see the label she made!). And can we talk about the pink ribbon and heart so prettily appliqued?! LOVE! Also striped binding ♡♡♡
We met up with Collette - Poppy and Poochie, another long time friend and inspiration to me! We had a good chat and all met Victoria Findlay Wolfe as we admired her quilts. I failed to get pictures of that. Then we wandered through the exhibition, chatting and taking silly selfies.
We met lovely Irina - Zepher Skies, who is so sweet and her joyfulness is contagious! And the superwoman Catrin @patshyncatrin, who totally amazes me with all she does and her huge heart. Also she's hilarious and speaks Welsh so beautifully I could listen to her all day and wouldn't care that I don't understand. Lucky she speaks English too though ;) Then I got to chat more to Anna Maria Horner after meeting her when we did Sewing Quarter the day before - she was so funny and genuinely lovely, I think everyone I spoke to that met her fell in love!
I was lucky to chat to so many other lovely friends I saw as we walked around. It's so cool to see familiar faces and meet new people! I end up in a bit of a daze so sorry if you saw me looking blankly, I do get overwhelmed by the sheer size of the place and slight anxiety that I can't find the exit!! I also didn't take that many pictures this year, I did put quite a few on my Instagram story but the quality of those pics isn't so great and then I just got tired of holding my phone.
So on to my haul... well this time it's quality not quantity. I'm not lacking in fabric but I can't resist Liberty, especially good sized scraps that are £1! These are from Alice Caroline - who had a beautiful stand and the ladies there were really lovely. And thank you Clare for treating me and buying the bright one on the left for me! (I forget what that print is called - leave a comment if you know!) The one on the right is Pepper - I love this print and have a couple of other colourways. It's a great stash print.
I also got what I wanted! A wooden seam roller from Purple Stitches. I can't wait to try this out, I will let you know how I get on with it. Purple Stitches also had an amazing selection of fabric, gorgeous florals and a great mix of modern prints from different designers - do check them out, they also have a crazy good sale section!
I realised that Simply Solids is always a 'base' at festival - because Justine and Lisa, as well as Katy and Kelly who were there on Saturday are the most fun, the shop is awesome and they always know where to go and where people are somehow!!
The Aurifil stand was fun too, I watched Anna Maria Horner do a hand quilting demo!
There were so many great demos and things going on, I couldn't see everything and I just can't mention it all because I'd be here forever but it was all so good.
So let's get on to some quilts shall we... I am just going to show a few here, ones that I would like to remember because they caught my eye (and perhaps I hadn't seen them on social media - so if you don't see your quilt here please don't take offence, it may just mean that I already know where to find it!). Do go and see all the pictures people took at #FOQ2017!
Penny Chattey
Pippa Moss
Victoria Findlay Wolfe
Julia Attwater
Vivian Fox
Jenny Ladbrooke
Alison Mayall
Did you have a favourite quilt from Festival of Quilts this year?
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