BOM 29 - Algae Blooms

C29 Algae Blooms

And so we have reached the beginning of yet another month and so our next free BOM. This month it comes from Collection 29 and like all of the other blocks from this collection Algae Blooms is hand pieced. What a relaxing way to spend an evening. Even though most people don't like algae blooms you must say this is one of the prettier ones you have seen :-)

Joy's Central Block

Well I have finished my contribution to Joy's NYB quilt. The inner arcs were taken from the wedding quilt and the extra arc was designed to extend the circle from a 9in to a 13.5in circle. Should be interesting to see what fabrics Joy uses. 

One thing that did surprise me was the number of foundation paper sheets that were needed...24. That has to be the most that I have needed in such a small area. Although with the wedding quilt I did need two per block minimum which makes108 for the central blocks  and I'm still working on the borders.  :-)

What a difference a fabric makes - Joy's NYB

Well what do you think of this version of the wedding quilt? Joy has been making the New York Beauty blocks for one of her grandchildren for several months now. He has requested a quilt with paisley. Isn't it amazing what children ask for and what surprised her even more was that he actually knew what paisley was. She had searched high and low for something other than the traditional dull mud coloured paisleys we are all used to and one day came across the fabric in the background. Isn't it a beauty?

Joy had found a layout that she loved and wanted to substitute the NYB blocks for the circles in it. Only one problem with her original layout .... there was no where to showcase the fabric. So change of plans was called for. She decided that my wedding quilt layout would suit.... it also only needed another 12 blocks as opposed to her original design.

So a few days ago we sat down together to design the setting for her centre. Unlike my quilt, where I have many different backgrounds Joy has only one. We didn't want to bring in another to frame the centre and we didn't want just the feature fabric as that would leave the centre all lost and forlorn.

Joy chose four of my wedding quilt blocks and then I drew up various designs extensions to take the circles out to 15in. Thankfully it only took a few hours to draw ones that matched what Joy was looking for. Lucky she doesn't need them right away as I am flat out with other things I need to do, but if you check back in a few days I will put up the design here so you can see how different it is. It will probably take her another month to make the extra blocks and the centre then I will post that also.

Mind you after working on this design I'm considering redoing my wedding quilt middle...boy will I be glad when I get it finished and can't change my mind again 

Cafe Creme & Thoroughly Modern Topsy

I said I would show you the quilt that I practised my FMQ on earlier this month. Most of the blocks in this quilt, Thoroughly Modern Topsy, were made by people from Nowra Quilters when I was teaching them how to do QAYG. 

We decided to also add some life to the back of the quilt and as you can see from the photo here on the right the backing looks pretty good too. After making the blocks various people, me included, added some extra quilting ... just to practise. It was a good practise size as the blocks are just 18in by 22in.

I then had the fun of joining the whole thing together.

The photo here at the bottom shows Cafe Creme, the original quilt .... which still needs extra quilting added ... someday. Still ditch stitching along at present and this has improved out of sight ... mind you improving was the only direction I could go from whence I started :-)

Margaret Foster's Fantastic Fabrics

 Just over a year ago I taught a class to women from Bateman's Bay and Margaret decided to make two of the classes that were offered. 

It was one of my Scrooge Quilt workshops where people can use any strips they have lying around. Any width, any length, any colour... just use up what you have is the idea..... that's where the name Scrooge Quilts came from. In the class I offered four different quilts that all start the same but then deviate quite dramatically depending on what you want. 

Margaret dyes her own fabrics and wanted to use those and didn't they come up beautifully. Oh btw if you want to do a dyeing workshop with her you can find out the details here.

FMQE

Well my in the ditch is definitely improving. But it was a boring chore...plus I had to send a quilt off and needed to add some more to the original so figured it was time to try real FMQ.

 The black, top right was my first go and it was simply wavy line in each strip. Next was top right and that was wavy anywhere ... would you guess I like wavy. Reason...it's easy and a bit like in the ditch but not as precise.

the two in the bottom show a bit more adventurous attempts. Left are gum leaves and branches...definitely easier than I first thought and one the right you have wavy lines and sunflowers. The big block to the right at the bottom shows the back of the sunflowers.

Actually should put up a photo of the quilt. It's not too bad :-)

The rest of the month will be more in the ditch ... but better. The wedding quilt will need to be started soon ... well the quilting on it that is ..... after I finish the border and ..... the new middle. The wedding is in June and wish as I might it won't be finished just by wishing.

Sierra Leone

The adventures of the young. My youngest son Richard is in Sierra Leone with the WHO contingent fighting Ebola. He is a data manager and had set up a monitoring system to track people from suspected Infection to either recovery or burial..they have to track past death to make sure that people are buried in a safe manner.

 He was staying in a hotel but has now moved to a tent city as he and his supervisor got fed up with there being no food and atrocious living conditions in the local hotel. 

When Richard arrived he asked for light globes as his room had none. After a few hours they found some and he discovered why there were none in his room. The electricity isn't wired correctly and the only way to turn them on or off is to literally turn them.... as in screw them in or out of the sockets. 

There was only ever food for the first five people, after that it ran out. 

When you left the hotel in the morning you had to leave you key at the desk as they don't have spares. On the final evening that they were at the hotel Richard and his boss returned home at 8:00 after having been working since 7:00. No one could find the key to his bosses room and there was no food. After two hours they literally knocked down her door as key was still not to be found. So she spent the night in a room without a door. 

In the morning she hit the roof and told Richard they were moving to the Danish tent city. Richard says it is great ...... they have food and vegetables. He hadn't seen a vegetable for almost three weeks. He arrived in Sierra Leone just under three weeks ago. 

Days are very busy. Rise at 6:30. Breakfast between 7:00 and 7:20. One the road at 7:30. Work til 7:30pm. Then home, dinner, bed by 9:00. He looks totally exhausted but has learnt a lot.

They are very happy with his work and wanted him to return to Freetown to draw some graphs for them and then to move to another area and set up the same thing there. He refused as he said it will take him the better part of his remaining time to train some of the Brits to maintain the system. This is the first time  they have been able to get any reliable figures from this region. Once the Brits go it will unfortunately all collapse but hopefully they will be there for a few more months.

Plus he can draw the graphs from his present locality and email them up.

Wedding Quilt Progress - Frames completed

Well have finally managed to piece the central frames and join all of the blocks together. I'm not sure if I like it or not but will now start to work on the border. I had initially planned to have plain borders but have now decided to return to a long ago plan of a spiked border ... also somehow incorporating curves. Will be interesting to see what I can come up with.

Hilde's Camel

Yes the camel quilt is a true quilt. I found a series of photos of different camels, plus a few stitchery designs that I liked the look of. I contacted the original designers asking if they minded my basing my quilt on their designs and all were happy with that. 

I went out to a friend of mine who does lots of applique and she simplified it for me and viola we have the design for Hilde's camel. 

I have even collected the fabrics for it. I was going to say I bought them but in truth I had most of them already. I did buy the fabric for the background which are a mixture of creams and contrasts sewn together as a 1600 quilt. I went to a shop and asked them could I have a jelly roll cut out of fabrics I chose if I was willing to do the cutting. They were willing to let me and so 40 strips later I had the perfect background.

Not Just a Pretty Face

Ok so just for those of you who think I do nothing besides quilting here are two photos to show you that there is life outside of quilting.

Do you know that making your own sourdough bread is a great way to spend several hours. In case you don't have several hours to spare then you just are not going to fit it in.

I generally make two loaves a week. When I started it was quite a task but now I am even able to quilt between the different stages.

From the second photo one would assume that I also have chickens. Not quite I hope to have chickens one day...when I stop travelling. Paul was going to give me chickens for Xmas but then we had to go away for a few weeks and at that stage realised that dogs may be a problem when you go away but they can always be taken to the kennels. There are no equivalent facilities for chooks.... so no chooks for now. Oh these are my brother in laws chocks. Don't they look cute?

Friendly Advice

A friend just sent this bit of advice to me and I thought it was worth sharing with my other friends. I'm fortunate that I have never been one to sing in the shower but for those who do partake of this activity be warned!

Collection 28 - Where Did That Name Come From?

Can you believe it? Collection 28. My has time flown since staring this trip. Raconteur itself has also flown many miles. It's now almost 18 months since it was last home. In the time since it has been to the UK where it came 2nd in the UK Nationals and won a host of other prizes. At the Birmingham Festival of Quilts it was voted Viewers Favourite on opening day. Next it went to Houston where it was part of the Lark Publications, Selections from 500 Traditional Quilts and now I have no idea where it is. But it is due home in August... I think :-)

So where did the names originate for this collection?

Collection 28	Triffids - I'm positive everyone has read the John Wyndham book, Day of the Triffids,  about a post apocalyptic world where everyone goes blind after viewing a nighttime display of gigantic flashes. The small triangles in this block suggested people, arms stretched out trying to feel their way around. Must read that book again.	C28 Triffids
The Beat Goes On, as more and more people arrive at the late night party	C28 The Beat Goes On	Is there a better time to photograph The Lotus than when it is in full bloom. Aren't they beautiful flowers?
C28 Follow the Leader	Follow The Leader, do you remember the time when you were young and you had to perform the maypole dance. Everyone dancing around this pole. Going in and out and round about. Confusion was always triumphant in that exercise...plus I had two left feet and couldn't find the leader let alone follow her!	C28 The Lotus
Run Spot, Run a story that we all read back in the dark ages when all readers were written overseas and there was no cultural or location sensitivity to anything. I still remember reading that 'birds fly south for the winter'. I never understood why they would go to Antartica in the cold months.	C28 Run Spot, Run	First Bouquet, I have no memory at all of my first bouquet. Did I even receive one? I assume I did as I remember going to my debutante ball .... but no memory of the actual event. C'est la vie!
C28 Bursting Out	You can see the fragments as the star bursts outwards?	C28 First Bouquet

FMQE

Well the past fortnight was not as productive as my first fortnight in the FMQE but I did manage to complete some more ditch stitching and I am improving so all is not lost.

As for the next fortnight I think I will need to change my time frame to monthly as I have so much on my plate at present that I can see myself throwing in the towel if I commit to too much.

So my target for the next month is to ditch stitch a different quilt...after finishing off this one.

 Last week I took one of the many quilt tops that has been languishing on my spare bed to quilting and with some friends basted it. Although it would benefit from more than simply in the ditch stitching I intend to first ditch stitch it...purely for the practise. 

After that is finished I may add some more FMQ ... But not in the near future. 

It was my second attempt at reproducing an antique quilt that a friend purchased several years ago. The colour differentiation in the first wasn't the best and so as I still liked the design I made a second one. It's not often that I reproduce a quilt which I haven't been happy with. I usually just move on but I did like this design and am happy that I redid it.

Will have to dig out my first quilt using this design and you will see that colour, or in truth value, makes a world of difference. Perhaps next month.

BOM 28 - First Bouquet

The BOM this month is First Bouquet from Collection 28. It was interesting playing with designs based on the hexagon in the middle and it never ceased to amaze me how easily different designs would pop up as I sat in the garden drawing.

Don't forget that in each set of instructions not only is there the miniature pattern and templates but there is also the larger size. If you haven't tried it yet this is the perfect time to give it a go. You can make the blocks using EPP or just regular piecing.

Slower and Slower with Mary

Not a lot has been happening with Mary Prince in the last month. I have made a few of the flowers that will fill the next round but then I found the perfect place to store it and that's it...it's been stored. I am hoping to get back to it soon but the wedding quilt has really been taking a lot of my time.

Central Layout Plans

So today has been spent on the computer working out different layouts for the spaces surrounding the central ring. After spending ages surfing last night I had decided the way to go was a variation of split four patch for both the areas surrounding the central circle and the outer border. I even took out pen and graph paper last night and made a preliminary sketch which looked great! Don't you just love my understated opinion! I would show how great it was but it was just too good to keep and I was glad I only wasted my time and not my fabric as well.

My next idea was to extend the rings that form the inner circle and develop within these more spokes similar to those that I liked throughout the quilt. I hoped to carry the idea of a ring by using the same colours in all four segments, even though the ring was broken by overlapping blocks in places.

Worked it out and was very happy with it until I printed it out and went to lie it in place on the quilt. Slight problem... I had miscalculated the size of the spaces...... back to the drawing board. This time the task was a lot quicker and I now have worked out a design which at least fits the spaces. Yes I realise the above plan looks more balanced but... and this is a big but.... it doesn't fit in the space.

I have tried out a few fabrics and think these will look good. So tomorrow's task is to cut the fabrics and if I'm lucky sew the missing blocks also. If it looks good I might even make a spiked border. I have been tossing up,the idea for a while now. Sometimes think it will look great other times feel it might be over the top....we will see.

All Together Now

Well Carol has now finally finished her quilt and doesn't it look great! She has been working on it now for a little over two years showing that this quilt doesn't have to take six years like it did for me :-) 

When Carol showed it to her children and said they would have to fight for who received it when she passes on, her daughter replied that they would bury her in it as she had enjoyed making it so much. 

Carol's horrified look and threat to haunt them forever if that eventuated means that they will now flip a coin for it. 

It is amazing how our children sometimes don't see that we wish for them to keep the things we lovingly made rather than gift them to us for the afterlife like in ancient Egyptian times. 

So what's next? 

Another Option

Well I definitely wasn't happy with either of those two layouts, and I was even less happy with the unpicking. Thankfully it was only the hand stitching as frog stitching is a real pain with the shorter stitch length I prefer these days. As I now press my seams open where possible I have shortened my stitch length to add strength to the seam. Why am I now pressing seams open? Well it gives less bulky spots when machine quilting and while my machine quilting leaves a lot to be desired....one day it will be to dream for. Hey I dream about that now!

So after unpicking a number of seams I have worked out a third layout and it's looking OK. I still need to work out what to do in those spaces around the central block but that is tomorrow's problem.

Layouts for The Wedding Quilt

Well as you can see the wedding quilt is chugging along beautifully....says she with a totally biased viewpoint. I have now finished 55 of the needed 56 blocks. Will get onto the last one ...... soon.

My first plan was to make the quilt 6 x 8 and have a semicircle extending into the border on each side. However when I sat down and checked over my calculations it seemed as though this would leave the quilt just that little bit too narrow. Ok no problems I thought. 6 x 8 + 8 is the same as 7 x 8. See you can tell I was once a maths teacher... no need for that look!

Anyway the ahh ha moment  was soon an mmmmm? moment when I discovered that New York Beauties don't work that well in odd numbered settings. Actually it was a very long soon. You see I'm the kind of person who jumps in and sews things together as soon as an idea comes into my head and then I work out the finer steps.

So on a quick trial and error, taking only about an hour I decided I would make 12 circles and then use the leftover blocks to fill in the gaps. Two days later I have HAND stitched all of the blocks into pairs and have laid them out to check that they still look good. As you can see they don't look good at all. Phooey...will have to look into it further tomorrow!

FMQE Success

So after two weeks of ditch stitching with my FMQ foot I can honestly say that Helen was right. With practise I am improving. When I concentrate and watch just what I will be quilting next, rather than later in the project, I find that I can be rather accurate. I was using my BSR initially but found that it seemed to stick and so I resorted to the old darning foot and although my stitch length needs working on I am improving on stitching in the ditch. I even managed to keep up the practise for ten days out of the fortnight so that is also pleasing.

The tools that I found most helpful were the extension table, but this goes without saying as it is impossible to manoeuvre a huge quilt without having some space to work on.

Also extensively used was the supreme slider. This is like a large Teflon type sheet that sticks to your extension table and then allows the quilt to be moved with less tension than usual. You can check it out here. If you decide to get one check out Judy's site everyday as January is her birthday month and she has a different special each day. In previous years she has offered a choose anything in the store and receive a discount. Discounts vary, depending on the product and the special she has going that day.

Another tool that I found very helpful are the Grip and Stitch quilting disks. These are also available on Judy's site here. They work similarly to the gloves with the rubber finger tips, except they are easier as when you want to use your bare hands you simply let go of them.

My target for the rest of the month is more of the same. I have several quilts that I can practise on and as I expect to be starting to quilt the wedding quilt sometime in February I have room for further improvement before that day.

Now off to see how others are going.

Back of Carol's QAYG

Oh for those interested here is a photo of the back of Carol's Quilt.... all lovely and tidy isn't it?

The Wedding Quilt

I have been very busy this past few months and the wedding quilt is going along great guns. I was actually starting to stress with it and had reached a stage where I was doing too much. to the point that RSI was starting to hurt so I had to slow down. 

Having slowed down it may not be finished by June but hopefully it will be close.

Here are nine of the blocks and in a totally biased opinion I think they don't look too bad. My plan is for 56 different blocks and I have planned and cut the fabric for 54 of them so it's on the way.

Another Way to Finish Backings

Well I don't think my photoshopping has shown this too clearly but here you have Carol's quilt in progress. Her method is different from mine and I thought people may like to see her way of doing things.

After completing the collections she quilted them with only the top and the wadding, no backing fabric.

Next she machine stitched her quilt backs together in two sections using the same colours as she'd used for the collection frames. Above left is the beginning of the joining process and to the right you can see half of the quilt. There is another section similar to the below one but without the middle row. 

The back hexagons are cut 1 1/8in larger than the quilted collections. The backs are then joined using 1in seam allowances. If you look closely at the photo below you can see the large seam allowances.

The quilted collections are next placed into the backs with the frames being the same colour as the backing and the extra backing fabric is folded over onto the front covering the outer edges of the collection. A small hem is folded and the extra backing fabric is folded over to meet where the outer border of the collection is joined to the collection centre. I made the picture larger so hopefully you can see her pins holding the backing in place on the front. Using the same colour backing as the frame means it is impossible to tell that you are looking at the back fabric framing all of the collections. 

Quite a clever bunny isn't she!

Quilting Extravaganza Suggestions

When I first mentioned the possibility of a quilting extravaganza several people posted their suggestions in the QDU forum so I have collected and posted these below.

Jacy Wong wrote 

The only thing to do is practice, both totally free and along a pre-drawn pattern (use a blue wash-out pencil or something of the sort). Gloves with rubber studs on the fingers and palms are a help. Jacqy Wong

Rosemary from Marrar wrote

I like this young lady's techniques and tips.  I've watched a number of her U Tube videos and my kids bought me one of her DVDs for Christmas last year.  It's great to watch it in the sewing room while I practise her tips.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=leah+day

Susan Korrel suggested 

I found this blog, which looks like it might have good patterns and advice.

http://afewscraps.blogspot.com.au/p/free-motion-quilting.html

Helen Ducker suggests

I have been following Leah Day since the beginning of her 365 day challenge to invent a new FMQ pattern each day. Of course life got in the way and it took her more than one year to do it, but she did it  - and more - far more.

All her patterns and how to videos are available for free on her website. But I wanted to be able to print them out, so I have been collecting them on a series of Word.docs. As I use them, I draw them out many times first until my hand know what it is supposed to do  ... then I go to scrap sandwiches and have a go with the machine.   They are hardly ever right first time, but as I practice the pattern seems to develop my own personal quirks and suddenly it feels right (even if it looks nothing like hers)

This year I bought her book of patterns - and I LOVE it - but you don't have to.

Christine Cameli from

http://afewscraps.blogspot.com.au/p/free-motion-quilting.html

is doing what I did when I was beginning FMQ - develop a series of "Things on Strings" that are simple to remember AND to quilt. For complete beginners, her patterns might be more friendly than some of Leah's.    Why ? Leah's patterns seem to have lots of spots where you need to go over the same line twice. This is great for learning how to develop absolute control, but its Very demoralising if you are just starting.

How did I learn ? I learned because I had a Desperate Need to draw winter trees with thread. [I'm an art quilter and we have these urges/needs to do strange things from time to time]  Winter trees have no leaves - so focus is on the trunk, branches and twigs.   I raged around going backwards and forwards on the trunks, layers and layers of thread and no one could see if the stitches were even or crossed - easy. Then branches I did the same but slower  and when I felt ready I slipped in some twigs - up and back - tricky.    Having raged with the trees I then had to put on a false back and quilt the background .....hmmmmmmmm     so I took a poem about silence and wrote the poem in thread the same colour as the background.   

Discovered the poem is a good lurk, as people always want to read the words which takes attention from the deficits in the tree quilting !!!

Have added a photograph of one of my trees on snow - though strangely not one with the writing - to our photos.    Aim was to get effect of shadows on the snow    - numerous attempts but was never quite happy with the effect.  BUT it did teach me not to be scared of using my bouncy free motion foot.

Hugz Helen from Hobart

PS The only way to really master it is to practise - 5-10 minutes a day will do it... and don't care too much about what it looks like  - the cat or dog will still sit on it and be happy.

Collection 26 - Where Did That Name Come From?

Collection 26	Have you ever stood on a bridge watching as petals float below in the flowing water? Isn't it the perfect way to spend those hours?	C26 Petals in the Stream
In Oxford Penny Lane is just down the road from where my son lives. Delightful name isn't it?	C26 Up or Down?	Up or Down? absolutely no idea where this name came from. It must have just felt right at the time.
C26 Penny Lane	Consternation I felt a triangular centre would be a good alternative but then unsure as it seemed unbalanced placed on the flat rather than on point	C26 Consternation
Debutante Ball... do you remember your first ball? How you felt everyone was watching as you and the other girls danced? It was fun and we were young.	C26 Castle Keeper	The old castles had a guard's post, known as a keep, at each corner whilst in the middle was the treasure.... the royals.
C26 Debutante Ball	Spring Blossoms, yes I realise that blossoms are usually pink or white and the surrounding sky is blue but this still seemed right when I named it.	C26 Spring Blossoms