Machine Quilting (in my pyjamas)

Oh dear, I noticed how long it was since I last posted something.  The past month has been so busy that I have hardly had time to think, never mind sit down and compose.

I have been making a quilt/wall hanging for a friend's birthday recently. It's her birthday today, and I held off posting anything earlier in case she had a sneak preview.

It started when I was spending time on Pinterest (just 5 minutes, honestly), and I saw a print which said "Oh dear. I really should do something but I am already in my pajamas". I think it's a quote from Futurama, but it made me laugh. However, the spelling of pyjamas was not the English spelling, (is it the American spelling?), so I thought I'd make my own. I changed the wording slightly, but the gist is still the same. Basically, we both love not having to get up for work/school and time off in the holidays is usually spent conferring about how late we are getting dressed in the morning. It's a well-kept secret I think as the more people I speak to, the more widespread this guilty vice appears to be.

I used my Wordplay Sizzix die to cut out the words and bonded to some plain stone-coloured fabric I bought from Lovely and Lovely. I pieced a border (I have never done traditional pieced quilting so this is as far as I get) and then set about machine quilting it.

I tend to have a ad hoc approach to free machining usually, but I have recently resolved to have more method and create pattern. A couple of things have influenced this. I recently reviewed a book by Angela Walters called Free Motion Quilting and I found it really useful.

She takes you through lots of different styles of machining and there are diagrams showing you how to 'draw' them. What I then did was use the advice given in the book and practice doodling patterns electronically before attempting them on fabric.  I found it helped a lot - you get into a rhythm of working and the pattern flows easier.

I also have done a felt course (more about that later) and it made me look up some pictures I had taken from The Festival of Quilts in 2008 of the work of Jacqueline Heinz. Her work combines felt and wool tops on large pieces of cloth with exquisite stitching. Luckily, I had a few close-ups and could see the kind of effect really neat stitching can have. It was with Jacqueline Heinz in mind that I resolved to do this wall-hanging with neat and tidy stitching.

Jacqueline Heinz.  I bow at the altar of perfect machining

Jacqueline Heinz

It took me quite a while, but I think I did a good job.  This is the finished piece:

Finished quilt

All the lettering was hand-stitched around the outline

Close up of machine stitching

Machining from the back.  Note that I cut away all my loose threads as my [late] New Years Resolution is to be fastidious in my work.

Next up will be a book I have been making for my daughter's teacher's leaving present.  And the felt course I was on with my very good friend Paula Watkins.  Her blog has a link from here, and there are more photos from this course.

Felt Hearts

I am in the middle of a little project, currently at the stage of work in progress. I saw a short tutorial on Pinterest of these felt hearts strung together and thought it would be an interesting diversion from all the other pressing engagements of my life (currently, it's school holidays so nothing is proving to press very hard). The general idea is that you cut 2 pieces of felt, sew along one short end, fold over and sew the other short end, thus creating a heart shape. Then you cut strips off and, voila, lots of hearts. If you cut two different sizes of felt, you can get big and small hearts. I did yellow hearts this way, but found that two thicknesses of thick felt produced quite uneven cutting lines for my hearts. So with the orange hearts, I cut pieces beforehand (both widths were 1 1/4" and the length of the larger was 6 1/2", the shorter 4").

I also jazzed up the orange felt with a bit of printing with a stamp. It was from a set called Ironworks from Prima Marketing that I got from That's Crafty Online. In the sale as well - bargain! I used Sherrill Kahn Sorbet Lemon and when that got a bit low, I switched to a Dulux Tester Pot in Lemon Pie which wasn't as clear, but did the trick. The emulsion paint went on the inside so it's not as noticeable.

I used 3 thicknesses of Perle and zig-zag stitched them together to create a cord, and then started to string them together. I haven't quite finished yet, as it's turning out to be longer than the Nile, but I will try and print a picture of it in-situ when finished.

The only trouble I had yesterday was when washing the stamps. Due to its close proximity, I used the bathroom sink to wash my stamp, brayer, hands, face (it's easy to get carried away with the sheer delight of being messy) and later on was on the doghouse for leaving traces of paint in the sink. I did explain that it's preferable to trailing everything downstairs (probably) dripping as I go, but I have now been banned from the convenience of upstairs rinsing out. So when we have Mixed Media stairs, he'll only have himself to blame.…