Category: Quilting from Little things

A Little Silhouette

by Kay, posted in Quilting from Little things

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What a sweet little dolly is this little silhouette. Rated 2 stars I would agree. I had practice on the smaller shapes for Spring and which was good practice before tackling this one as the piece is larger and the shaping more difficult. I was tempted to do a cockatoo instead but thought the plumed feathers on the top of a cockatoo’s head might be too fiddly

I really enjoyed the quilting and used different blues, getting lighter the further away from the eagle. I love the look of the close quilting lines and how they almost look like a landscape when viewed close-up.

I also loved the simple small squares of the background and am keeping a bag of small squares ready for another project – not that I have decided what it is – I just love the look of them

There was no real problem with this dolly as I had already completed needle-turn applique for ‘Spring’ but I would recommend that they are completed in that order if you are new to this type of applique

 

Geese Around the World

by Kay, posted in Quilting from Little things

Geese close-up

My first go at foundation piecing and I thought it was harder then the woodpile, even though they are both rated two stars for difficulty. The first part; attaching the inner patch and the ‘goose’ wasn’t too bad and I only used one strip of background fabric out of the four needed. I thought I was being very economical but for some reason attaching the last piece was harder – it must have been some thing to do with the angles – and I used all of the other strips.

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When I finished I thought ‘I won’t be doing that again!’ , but I love this little dolly quilt and it is the only way to get perfect piecing. Not sure that I will rush into making a Mariners Star but maybe in the future…

The Woodpile

by Kay, posted in Quilting from Little things

Forget everything you learnt about carefully selected lists of fabric, precision cutting, points that meet and parallel seams. The aim of the game is deconstructed piecing more commonly known as wonky log cabin blocks.

I found it really strange to let go and the first few seams were a bit too, err… straight. After a few tries I got in to the swing of things and thoroughly enjoyed it! Blocks are trimmed at the end and there are only two straight seams in the whole piece. I did sort of fussy cut the centre section which goes against the grain of the woodpile but I fancied having a flower in the middle – so I did. After all we make things to make them our way.

This is the first time I have made a log cabin block too and I will definitely try it again  There was quite a lot of hand stitching and I put more in some blocks than others for variety and interest – plus it gets a bit addictive!

Design Wall

by Kay, posted in Botanic gardens, Quilting from Little things

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This is vital for this quilt as there are so many fabrics and colours in it. Eight each of light and dark blue, green, yellow/orange and pink/red. I didn’t have enough colours in my meagre stash so mine is predominantly blue/green, a little yellow and orange with the addition of purple – just use what you have! It is not meant to be a slavish copy.

Design wall

I also didn’t have enough room for an actual design wall so the bookcase was temporarily covered with a table protector. This is plastic on one side but more like flannel on the other. It makes a great alternative to batting and was only $6, so much cheaper too.

Shame the bookcase wasn’t bigger as it started to creep a cross the floor!

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I have also pieced the quilt in sections as I like to chain piece and 21 squares is too awkward to remember the order if chaining in pairs. So it was 8 plus 8 plus 5. It also means you get used to the pattern and don’t make as many mistakes, it helped me anyway

Next the strips were sewn into ‘blocks’

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This quilt is rated 1 star for degree of difficulty – it is only squares and a few half square triangles, but the length of the strips made it difficult to chain piece – for me at least!

I added a border of two fabrics in similar large and medium scale prints in different blues/green/purple but after some thought decided to remove it. It just didn’t look right.

The backing was made up of different fabrics from my stash plus a couple of metres from Spotlight’s stash builder basket. Photos soon