Tag: Needle-turn applique

The Global Quilting Project

by Kay, posted in Uncategorized

I have been a part of The Global Quilting Project for the last eight months. It has been a long process as it was more than the usual block swap where everyone exchanges a known block. For this we had to design our own.

I won’t go through all the steps as the teaching programme belongs to Kim Andrews who organised the whole massive project, what I can say is; that it stretched the capabilities of all involved. Many dropped by the wayside when they realised that it wasn’t a basic block swap. Others dropped out due to family problems, lack of time or lack of confidence in their designs. The ladies in my group – The Balkan Puzzle Group – have been very supportive but we dropped from twelve to eight members. I wish they hadn’t chosen the most difficult (for me anyway) design to make ha ha. I shouldn’t have given them a choice of four

This is basically wedges but cut into a curved design and hand appliqued. I need to pick which colour Suffolk Puff looks best and attach them. Next remove the basting stitches and parcel them up for posting and waited with for the others to arrive from around the World!

End date to make a quilt from the blocks is December – so watch this space

Now I am off to see what everyone else at http://www.kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/ is up to for Slow Sunday Stitching

Fanfare

by Kay, posted in Quilting from Little things

I love these little fans, I almost feel like leaving them as they are but they are for the next challenge from Sarah Fielke’s book ‘Quilting from Little Things’; the dolly quilt called ‘Fanfare’. It is rated three stars and so far it has not been too difficult, I think that will come in the next few stages; applique and piecing the little blocks.

I had fun scribbling alternative layouts before I had made all the fans and then more fun as I played around with the placement using actual fans. The template is very small so I was able to get most pieces from my tiny scrap bag (the scraps are tiny not the bag…) which I keep mostly for applique. As I rummaged through the scraps, all the colours turning over and jostling for attention I decided to use all of the colours and have a different fabric for each fan blade

Piecing doesn’t take long and it was easy to draw on the seam allowance as a cereal bowl happened to have the exact curvature I needed to draw it. The squares for the background are cut waiting for their fans now all I need to do is attach them

I will have to put them on hold for a short time though as I am taking part in The Global Quilting Project. I am more than half way through completing the blocks ready to post to the other members of my group – The Balkan Puzzle – but more on that later!

A Little Silhouette

by Kay, posted in Quilting from Little things

DSCF4301

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

 

Spring!

by Kay, posted in Spring

The purpose of this dolly quilt is to teach you how to use needle-turn applique to attach bias strips; you get lots of practice with this lovely swirly design as you can see from the photo. To make it easier Sarah suggests buying ready made bias strip, I couldn’t get a nice spotty one but I like the bright green of the plain one that I found

IMGP4425 Spring basted vertical

 

You also learn Sarah’s method of needle-turn applique for the leaves, using a silver gel pen to mark the template outline. This outline forms the edge to be turned under. This way there is no need to worry about freezer paper, gluing, ungluing or seam allowances, etc. It is easy to position the template where you want it if you like to fussy cut. Thinking about it you could even use this method to draw freehand if you are confident enough

I love the colours of this mini quilt, purple is a favourite colour and I used to wear lots of it whether it was in fashion or not.
I changed this slightly from the 21 x 20 inches to 21 inches square. Sarah suggests using it as a cushion but I thought it would make a nice picture and it would be easier to buy a frame if it was square. They have nice box frames in Ikea but I should have checked the sizes as it is slightly too big for their large box frame – I won’t make that mistake again!

I haven’t hand quilted before but enjoyed the process – I like finishing binding by hand too. both are lovely jobs to curl up on the settee with while you watch a film

Now it is finished it is pegged up on the line in my little workroom