Busy month...

Not so long ago, we were busy putting all the Christmas decorations away, preparing to go back to uni and school and looking forward to getting some serious piecing and quilting done. I have decided which quilt shows I will be going to and booked some classes, then worked out a time table for what needs doing and by what date. This is scary, but at least I can plan ahead and work to a schedule, which if I did not do this, I would think "Loads of time, will get to it in due course!"
My Handiquilter was due for a service and after my needle dropped out while stitching just before Christmas, the timing has been just ever so slightly off, so I could not risk putting Whistler back on the frame until Alan had come and done his magic. I now have done over 10 000 000 stitches on my HQ. Lesson learnt re needle - check the screw holding the needle in place every time I change my bobbin!  This has never happened before and I have not heard of it happening to anyone else, and I hope it does not happen to any of you, but if you are reading this, then do yourself a favour and just check that little screw next time you use your longarm.
Whilst waiting for Alan to come out, I decided to do some serious piecing, so that I can just concentrate on the quilting bit later.

My piecing projects in January:

Fire Island Hosta
This one is a foundation pieced pattern by Quiltworx, and was much easier than what it looks. The most difficult part was deciding which colours to use and where. I am very happy with how this one has turned out so far, just have the borders to add to it.

Fire Island Hosta

Jack's chain
A picture of this quilt was posted recently on Facebook and it just looked so lovely that I there and then ordered the pattern from Lessa Siegele.  I replaced the appliqué flowers in the original pattern with little hexie flowers. Have just finished the quilt top, will be quilting this one next.  For the moment I do not have a name yet for this quilt, so will just call it "Jack's chain" for now.

Quilt for Etienne
My eldest son asked me to make a quilt for him and bring it with when I go to see him in Australia. Not that he needs a quilt for warmth in Cairns (!!!) but he would like a colourful quilt to drape over the sofa in his apartment, to brighten the place up a bit and also as a reminder of home. I had bought some fabrics in colours that he likes and started playing with ideas of how to put it together. Decided on a design with lots of flying geese. The fabric was quite stiff even after I have washed it, but I thought it would soften with washing and I would wash it again once I had done the quilting, so proceeded with cutting out and stitching.
No problems with the first seams, but as soon as I started seams where there were 4 layers of fabric together, my machine would just cut through the thread. I could also hear a different sound from the machine.
I changed the thread, replaced the needle, changed the thickness of fabric from "medium"to "heavy", lengthened the stitch, then changed needle again. All to no avail. Still happened. Gave up and went to bed in a sulk. Thought about it some more during the night, only thing that I could think off that changed was the different fabric. I had stitched perfectly fine through 6 layers of fabric the day before on the Jack's chain quilt, so why have I got problems now?
Decided to go test and see if it was the fabric. Took 2 totally different pieces of fabric and started stitching through just 2 layers and gradually added extra layers until I had 8 layers together. No problem, machine behaved impeccably and not so much as a whisper to indicate the transition from less fabric layers to many more fabric layers. Good! So, my machine is out of its mood. Started again with the flying geese. Problems straight away with thread cutting and change in noise. Again, nothing else changed, just the fabric.
So, problem is the fabric. And if I have this kind of problem when piecing, can you imagine what I am going to have when I start to quilt it? Decided to ditch this one and restart with some different fabrics, so back to drawing board and will need to start this one later. A shame really, as I think it would have been a lovely quilt.
Having spoken to quite a few quilters, this is what I have learned: In times gone by, we used to all buy much more fabric (stash) and fabric stores would have a reasonably quick turnaround on the fabrics they stocked. Now, times are harder and we do not build up our stash as we used to, quilters today are much more likely to buy for the projects they are working on or are planning. As a result, fabric sits on the shelves much longer than what they used to. And what would we as quilters like when we buy fabric? Nice clean and crisp fabric that does not look creased or dusty. How do the manufacturers achieve this? By adding lots more chemicals, starches, etceteras to the fabric, so that it looks better on the rolls.
The fabric I have bought clearly had excessive amounts of 'additives' in it, if even after washing at 40C it still felt stiff and hard. I will only be buying fabric that feels reasonably soft to the touch from now on.

So, deciding to use fabric from my stash rather than go and buy replacement fabrics for Etienne's quilt, this is what I have come up so far:

My quilting projects in January: 

Kirsty's quilt
Kirsty brought this quilt to me desperate to have it custom quilted. She had been quoted the most astronomical amount to have it quilted because the quilt would have needed turning so many times to get the straight lines through the 'chains' of the Irish chain. Kirsty wasn't at all convinced about the straight lines, so we discussed alternative ways of quilting the chains and decided on a continuous curve design with a heart in the blocks. Each tiny little block measures only 1", they were made out of lots of scraps, but doesn't the colours just zing? I love this quilt and wish it was mine.
I thought this one would be a quick one to quilt, not so with those tiny little squares, I must have spent around 26 hours on it, and it is not that heavily quilted.

  

Whistler
I finished all the micro quilting in all the areas I wanted and took it off the frame, ready to block. Then thought, something is missing here, it needs a little bit more doing to it, so loaded it again next morning and spent another day quite happily stitching in some more background. This time, when it came off, I really had to stop. Sometimes it is just hard to stop, I loved the quilting on this one and could easily have carried on for another day or two, but over quilting it would have spoilt it. So glad I stopped when I did. I have now added all the little Swarovski crystals (again - knowing when to stop is an art that I need to master) and hanging sleeve is in place. All ready for Malvern.  Will post photos of the complete Whistler in my next post.

2014 coming to an end

For various reasons this has been a very special year for me. Rather than recapping every thing that happened, I will just mention the 2 that was the most exciting for me. I found out in May that my quilt Kutch Diamonds has won several categories in the UK Quilts show at Malvern and was also awarded the Best in Show. This was a lovely and timely special present for my 50th birthday which was a week later.

Now for an update on various projects I have been working on since Houston:

Dutch Treat

All 196 blocks are finished and sewn together, I have stitched the appliqué on the outside borders and just need to join the borders to the quilt top, then this one is ready for quilting. I am particularly pleased with this quilt, as this is my first reverse appliqué project. I started it in December 2012, so it has taken me just over 2 years to complete the top, a huge achievement, as I almost gave up after 6 months. Will I do another reverse appliqué quilt? Probably not. Glad I have mastered the technique and willing to use it in small projects but not ever again in a project this size. Very pleased with the result though


Rohan's quilt
Rohan's quilt was a bit of a challenge. You know how we all sit and sometimes just wish that we can be given a free hand when it comes to designing and quilting a quilt? Well, I was given a free hand with this quilt. The request was to make a quilt for a newborn baby boy with his name and date of birth on, in baby blue colours and was given a total budget. That's it, no other instructions. Trouble was, I did not know the customer all that well, I had no idea whether to do a wholecloth, something very traditional or very modern, off course I tried to explain the different types of quilts to the customer, who by the way, is not a sewer but got the response : "Just do what you think will be nicest".  I played with the idea of doing a traditional pieced, and do another one, a wholecloth, leaving the space for the name, then showing it to the customer and letting her choose which one she wanted. But time constraints meant I just had to make a decision and hope she liked it.  She was delighted so all ended well.

Whistler
This is a Glacier Star pattern by Judy Niemeyer and is foundation pieced. The instructions look complicated but once you have read through them a couple of times and set up your work desk, it is really easy. Foundation piecing is not a quick way of piecing, but it does give the most accurate results for complicated designs. I have probably spent around 3 weeks piecing the quilt op together.

and then spent the best part of a week removing all the papers from the back! I am determined to find a better way of getting rid of the papers and am at the moment trying out some leave in dissolvable papers. Life is just to short to spent 5 evenings with a pair of tweezers!!!!

Then the fun bit started. I had so much fun quilting this, that I did not want it to get finished. 

That is, until got to quilting on the darker fabrics! As lovely as those fabrics are on their own, they are not the type of fabrics you would want to quilt on if you want the quilting to be a feature. The quilting gets completely lost. To solve this I had to play with several different threads, finally decided that a thread which is slightly darker and in the "wrong" shade of that colour, is the only way the quilting will be showing. Off course, every little mistake you make then shows up. There is also the danger that the quilting can be too prominent and dominate the quilt in a way that makes the design of the quilt (the overall look of the quilt) gets lost. Lesson learnt - before piecing think about how the fabric will change once it is quilted!

 I have now taken the quilt off the frame, I still have to do the micro stitching around the feathers in the darkest colours, but will load it back on the frame later on in January to finish it off. This is what it looks like so far:

Gabi's quilt
This is a "graffiti" style quilt for my youngest daughter, she will be taking it back to boarding school with her once the Christmas holidays are over. She does not particularly like girly colours as you can tell, she chose the fabrics below. The fabric is Grunge by Moda, the top is a denim blue colour, the backing is jade and the binding will be in tangerine.  I bought the threads from Linda Taylor and then came up with some suggestions for the words and motifs, which we then both agreed upon. Although she has seen the quilting that I have done so far and loves it, I have a surprise up my sleeve for her. Along the bottom of the quilt, there will be a few blocks in the style of a comic strip, with pictures on that is very relevant to her. I got the idea from a post on Facebook that a friend recently shared. I will post pictures here on my next post, but I am very excited about it.  

New project
I have been looking for a new hand sewing project as I knew that Dutch treat is coming to an end and then spotted this quilt at Houston. Whether I make the same or make up my own design or do another one altogether, I have not decided yet. I have however started cutting out and basting my hexes and have so far prepared 1300. Not bad for starting on 1st December and it is only 29 days in? But given that these are 1/2" hexes, I will probably need around 9000 to make a decent sized quilt.  Not a quick project then, it will keep me busy for most of 2015.

Workshops 
I just had to share this. I have never done any thread painting before and on a whim decided to take a break from the long arm classes on offer at Houston and sign up for one of Pam Holland's thread painting classes. Boy, am I now hooked! I can't wait to learn some more and am signing up for loads more classes to learn as much as possible about this. Didn't Abbey turn out really well? She is not finished yet, this is as far as I got in the class.

Finally…
Youngest daughter gave this to me for Christmas. Brilliant present and it was done on boxing day.  So glad I know my teal from my turquoise otherwise this could have been a very difficult jigsaw :-)

I know I missed posting a post before Christmas, but I do wish every one a very happy New Year