Busting those scraps

The weather wasn`t cooperating enough to take an out door picture of this.  I haven`t posted pictures for some time, if I wait for weather now that I am motivated to post...I may lose the mojo.

This is a scrappy wonky log cabin, started some time back. Several years, I am guessing.                    

It was an excercise in reducing the string scraps.  It was  also an escape from the tyranny of practically perfect piecing. 

 Here`s a view of the stained glass windows on the upper portion of the staircase.

Back of quilt. 

Hey ho,  I have a number of quilts that require recording here....back soon.

Gudrun

Numbers and Colours a Question.

2013!  Some days I am startled,  or is that I startle when that number 2013 rolls across my brain.
I wonder what it is about that number?
So here's an odd question, do any of you 'see' or associate a colour with a number?
Wishing everyone an exemplary 2013!   On to quilting  :)
 This quilt is called Rose Cottage, lots of sweet applique, lots of buttons. This was stitched freehand from the front. The piecer knows about the pros & cons of sewing on the buttons before quilting...her choice.

Here it is displayed on a queen size bed

The colours are not very clear in this picture of a crib size quilt.  I find  it a very pleasing green, looks a tad grey here.  A very quick all over large stipple is all this needed. 

Wahoo....I am sure enjoying having the long arm in a warm room in stead of the very cool Attic.

Happy Wednesday...good ol hump day...weekends almost here.

gudrun

Winter and Summer

We have been experiencing another blast from Father Winter. I watched it snow while I quilted this little Quilt, which celebrates winter. There is a second batt in the body of the quilt to facilitate extra 'poofy'. I believe this extra batt made for some thread issues, so I changed thread mid stream and all ended well. Apparently I was using a thread recommended for piecing....I have used it before.

This one should be finished today.  It was snowing while I worked on this one.  But, it had me thinking about a forth coming wedding in August...wondering if the mother of the groom (me) would be able to wear flip-flops.(grin)


  I had to do some frog stitching on one side of this quilt.  I didn't notice the fullness, did not like the way it looked.  If I am not pleased with the result how can the client.
More on this one that later......

Happy Tuesday,
gudrun

Mission Complete

Once upon a time, I made a log cabin quilt for my eldest son...as the story goes I worked late into the night before Christmas because I had made a rather gross error in calculating the # of blocks required for this quilt. Then came the January sewing room clean up time.  What to my wondering eyes did appear but all the blocks previous miscalculate. Hiding!! doh! Eight years later the blocks are a quilt....plus part of a tote bag (see this post)

I used a whole lot of green bits for the back.

I quilted it with a few medallions using a Circle Lord motif template, and filled  with a filigree style swirl, that I wanted to try...needs work :)) 

I added the binding while on the long arm, and stitched it down using the Horizon with the dual feed foot.

I tried a number of stitches...liked this the best.

Sunlight these days is at a premium,  so these photos don't do the quilt much justice, the colours are soft, and comfortable.

Anyway I am a happy quilter to finish my first UFO of the year.

 it aint great, 

it aint square 

it aint going to hang anywhere,

 it will make someone happy,

 heck it makes me happy!

Oh yeah this quilt was done completely by machine.  'Machine bindings' yeah!  I need to get a better fabric glue to assist with binding.  It was a successful mission.

Happy Wednesday,

gudrun

Batiks and Alpacas

I completed this a few days ago.  It was not a favourite of the piecer, once quilted, she liked it again.  This is what usually happens, it's a good thing that happens.  I enjoy the smiles that come when the quilting pulls the 'flimsy ' into a usable lovable quilt.

I had an opportunity to 

work with an Alpaca & sheep wool blend batting  on this quilt...a strippy quilt with great colour contrast.

I used large leaf panto, and I checked tension often.

 It quilted up nicely, though the varied thickness of the batt contributed to some small tension issues in a couple of places, also contributing to tension issues was the use of selvage in the piecing. I use to leave them on as well, until someone explained how tough and different the selvage edge is to the rest of the fabric, and
how this causes problems, for machines and hands.
Well that's today's lesson.

I wonder how it will wash, when the time comes.  I am of the  'don't wash them until really needed' school.

Spot cleaning and airing come first.  This is a heavy quilt, it will no doubt be lovely and warm.  It will be even heavier when wet,  washing maybe a cumbersome job.   If anyone has had experience with this type of batting do let me know.

This is what the batting looks like.

  

gudrun  in wet & windy Ontario

Back at work....Star Sampler

  

 

Summer is over in a flurry of activity and then back to quilting.....
The colours in the photo, do not do this quilt  justice, the red is a very rich colour and the blue/green is one of those happy colour surprises it just don't show in these photos....

 Lots of stitch in the ditch, filler stitch and filled vine in the red sashings.  It's a lovely piece, on either side.

Happy Tuesday,
gudrun

Hockey

I am working on what I think of as a Boston Bruins quilt. I am quilting hockey players on it. I got this little image, and reproduced it on tracing paper, tried stitching through a printer image but there was ink transfer. Pencil seemed the better choice.

The yellow fabric is not the usual quilting cotton and requires a little caution but it's coming along. Of course there will be some paper bits to clean.
Happy Quilting,
gudrun

Another Fall Fair Win

The quilt from a previous post, "Some Days are Diamonds"  where I explained how I adjusted
a full border on a quilt based on the pattern "I Had A Dream".  I am so pleased that this method
worked well, well enough to give the piecer  a 'second place' in her category at
 the Great Northern Exhibit, Fall Fair .
You go Sandy!!
gudrun
(I have the remnants of a cold and some annoying allergies, only George and I  here today, so I am blogging, and surfing instead of quilting. Later  I'll go outside for a bit.... see how the spider webs are doing  :)) 

Some Days are Diamonds....

I recently quilted this large quilt called "I had a Dream".  I am unaware who is the pattern designer. This was fun to quilt till I got to the borders. My my.... 

If you look closely you will see the wee pleats I made to gather in the fullness. They haven't been appliqued down, so they are not flat and neat, yet! But looking decent already...lots of spray starch to help.

Fullness in Border.

I 've arrived in the season of fullness, here's another quilt with fullness in the centre.

This one of three 'same' quilts in different colour ways. The piecing is lovely except for what ever happened in the centre??  There was some fullness that I ended up carrying along to the border.  When I got  to this point on the first quilt, I re-examination of the other two quilts...same thing.  The piecer took them home and worked on the problem.  The next one I worked on  was substancially
 flatter,  a hit of spray starch, and of course tape on the tiny loose border,  it finished off well. The last one is not as well behaved :)) However, spray starch, extra batting and careful stitching should keep the fullness from traveling to the borders. Stay tuned.
Hope your Monday is a good one,
gudrun

BIG QUILTS

 This quilt measures 122" x 107". I mentioned in a previous blog, quilts are getting bigger.  Families are acquiring large pillow topped mattresses. I can remember when a larger bed may have been useful in my home...3 kids and pets, but this nest is empty now.
 I had to fold top edge, in order to photograph it...didn't want the all white back to find any dust bunnies (rhinos) behind the bed.  It took a long time to quilt or so it seemed, one row took 2 + bobbins.  The bobbin winder got a workout (smile)

Wishing you all a happy Monday,
gudrun

Scrappy

Here is a scrappy quilt, described by the customer as an everyday quilt, no need to concern oneself with  dogs or children (jumping?) on the bed. I admit I don't get excited about basic scrappy quilts, and as you know if you read this blog, I don't care for the colours beige or brown.  I am slowly becoming a convert.

Basic beige backing, gold thread, simple meander, and the result is what I hope the client asked for when she said, 'do whatever..... '

.

Happy Thursday
gudrun

Confession

Not everyone will find this quilt ugly. It is, and it was poorly constructed,  make it impossible for me to quilt.  The centre is larger than the outside, using an extra layer of batting in the middle helped a little, but lots of other problems.
I got this in an auction.  I took a 12 inch outer border off, before I started. I tried quilting this as a newbie long armer, realized I was out of my depth, threw it in a corner. Pulled it out again a few weeks ago, for the third time and decided I needed to get it out of my life. Just not worth the effort.  So I took all the pins out, wrapped it up nicely and donated it.  Maybe some one will give it a life, maybe not.  I feel so much better, like when you take the tight pants off and put on elastic waisted sweats. (grin)

"Recycle" The story of Trish's Quilt

This quilt is called "Recycle".  It is going home to the maker's

son.  Son works in our neighbourhood's solid waste management arena  (where is this

going?) Well, the symbols for this industry are green and circular, the quilt was made

with mostly scraps. It is a happy quilt, all those lovely bits of fabric. It sure made this long armed quilter happy as she recognized so many fabrics and  hung out in the memories 

that belong with them for a few hours.

Spirals and a small circle, and a small swirly thing along the

edges.  The edges were serged, and there was a generous seam allowance for points. 

Every quilt has its challenges, true here too. This one is large, lots of piecing, bias edges.

 Translates into a  heavy quilt and  some wonk to the edges. Having quilted many quilts I say

fore warned makes life a bit easier.

As I got closer to the end (even though I was careful with "the wax off wax on")

I knew there would be stretch as I got to the end of the quilt.

To tug on a quilt, or moosh it around too much (there is a lot of stretch in fabric)

 is to give myself a big head ache. (Gently, gently always gently. )  


It looks like a lot of fullness, not really though, carefully as  George watches, I pin down the edge easing in the fullness, watching that the pattern lines are straight.

 

Sew...go back to the top for  another look at the finish  ...turned out great.  Trish's idea of the spirals was a great finish to this happy quilt.

Happy Sunday,

gudrun

ps the picture was the correct orientation on the desk top, don't know how

to fix it, don't strain your neck muscles looking   :)

A different Quilt

Oh my...look at this.

I quilted a multi fabric lap quilt, designed for Alzeimer's patients.

The quilts are designed with ' tactile-ness'. Okay sew, the back is fleece,

 just a hunk no selvages.  I tried not to stretch it.

  BUT I wasn't successful,  did an very open meander.

 What we have here is indeed tactile.  Ha, it's very tactile.

  Just look at that pucker-y back....heck the whole thing is one big pucker.
It feels nice though, and the variety is great.




I put the binding on this one too. Machine binding,  and don't cha know I broke the needle plate of my Husky.  Tsk.  I dis-remembered  cracking it...it didn't like bulk.  Well it was only a matter of time.(sigh)  I am sure glad I have a 'spare' sewing machine  :)

A bit of satiny fabric with a bit of embroidery....check out those puckers  :)

A bit of lace, fleece, knit, some shimmer and some shine....I hope someone enjoys it.

gudrun

Canadian Grade School Reader Quilt

Do you remember Dick and Jane? Here's  2009  quilted version





Oh oh what fun! Sorry about the soft focus...I will get better with the camera I promise.

Happy Tuesday!

Gudrun

New York Beauty

Check out this lovely little quilt. Wahoo wild and wonderful oranges and brown. The right now kinda colours!





Of course George came outside to help me photograph this lovely...the wind was up and the photographer is an amateur.


It's a small piece 46 x 68 and is not rectangular...as you can see.

What all ya 'all think?  Love to hear from you.  Leave a comment.

Gudrun

Mystery Quilt

Greetings,

I have been on a lovely vacation. I have lots of vacation pictures. To be edited and

such before I can begin to share them.

  I am going to get back into the swing of blogging again, with this gem.

Prior to my vacation in Beautiful Northwest British Columbia, I had the pleasure of quilting this  one.   The colour choices are lovely.  This picture doesn't do it  justice. (they never do) Except for the borders this was a 'mindless' job, of  SID.  Mindless, yes but concentration is a must :)) As my fellow quilters know.

Embellishing the Lily

Our last trip to the summer place was a short one, the sewing machine stayed home. A small quilt and container of 'things' and a few beads did however come on vacation with me. (smile) 

I only took a few things along so this is far from finished.  I think it is coming

along nicely.  

I am now in the process of looking for a box (somewhere in the studio) that contains

a small supply of silk ribbon, and some silver embroidery floss. Every garden needs a  spider and  its web.

 
These are parts of a set of ear rings that I bought from a street vendor on Queen Street, when I first lived in Toronto.  The only reason they are still a set after all these many years, is of course due to the difficulty I had putting them in, consequently I think I probably wore them less times then fingers on one hand. What a way to break a set... I am well know for single earrings, and gave up worrying about it a long time ago.  I wear 'odd' pairs all the time, the ear ring police haven't found me yet!
Happy Hump  Day Folks!
gudrun