The Farmer’s Wife 1930s Sew Along Epidemic!

I admit it! I get very excited about patchwork and quilting. Sometimes I even finish some of the projects I begin with this unbridled enthusiasm.

My current passion is THE FARMER’S WIFE 1930’s SEW-ALONG. There is a ‘one stop page’ for all the information curated by GNOME ANGEL. (gnomeangel.com).

My book arrived last week and I am busily preparing my patterns and choosing my fabrics for the September 28th start date.

The Farmer’s Wife 1930s Book and Fabrics

I know I have promised some unique results from the 200g of scrap swap….

Scraps Become a ‘new’ fabric

Half Square Triangles created with these great papers from Quilters Barn

…and I will finish that project…
BUT, this is a SEW-ALONG and I have never done a SEW-ALONG like this before. The group has its own Facebook page and there are already over 2500 members. Can you picture the diversity and cleverness of all these Patchworkers sewing along? It quickens the pulse.
My bobbins are full and my needles are new.

Fabrics, Bobbin and Needles

Come on and join the world wide project that has developed a life of its own! You know you want to…think of it as using up lots of fabric you already have to make room for new fabric that hasn’t even been designed yet…..ooooo aaahhhhh.

Playing with Fabric and Making New Friends

I learn something new everyday. Sometimes the ‘new’ thing has been around forever…but, it is still new to me. For example, QUILT CLUB AUSTRALIA. This is a closed group (you have to ask to join) on Facebook.
This group has over four and a half thousands members. They describe themselves as “a bunch of seasoned and newbie quilters, from all over Australia……”. They do all sorts of exciting things.
Several of their activities involve swapping fabrics and/or finished items.
Charm squares can be swapped or a particular designer’s fabric line.

Charm Square Swaps

Swap Fabrics from your favourite designers

They share tips and links to a variety of quilt related information. They have been around for a while but I HAVE JUST DISCOVERED THEM!
I came upon this group because I have recently been involved in a swap with the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild. Participants weighed 200grams of their finest scraps; placed them into a small postal bag with a self-addressed small postal bag, and sent them to the nominated distributor.

Parcels in the post full of goodies

Everyone who participated received a parcel. You would have thought I was waiting for a winning lottery ticket the way I ran to the post-box every day.
Note: if my family had seen my excitement over 200g of fabric scrap they would have wondered why I needed a room for the rest of my fabric collection!

200 grams of treasures

I will be sharing the project(s) using my 200g of treasure in the near future.

Creating a ‘NEW’ fabric with my scraps

In the meantime, have a look at what is ‘new’ in the quilting world. You may find yourself re-energised by QALs (quilt alongs), SALs (sew alongs) or swaps.

My Aurifil Dog

I attended the New Zealand Symposium in Manawatu earlier this year and was privileged to take a class with Melissa Burdon. Melissa transforms photographs into works of art.
I chose a photograph of my beloved Jack Russel, Dougal. He is 13 years old and has become MY dog even though he was a pet for my sons when they were young.

Meet My Dog, DOUGAL

Using the computer program GIMP, the photograph is altered removing colour and leaving a gray scale image. This technique allows a tracing to be made of the subject separating areas by their shading.

My photo after GIMP

For this class, our photos were shaded into 6 levels. Each of these shades translated into a shade of our chosen colour. I chose purple.

The process begins

The picture is slowly built up a piece at a time until it is ready to place onto a background. Finding just the right background took some time until I found a print of his favourite thing…TENNIS BALLS.

The background

Once the background was complete and Dougal was fused in place, it was time to quilt.

Aurifil Matches perfectly

Using Aurifil Cotton Mako 40wt and 50wt threads the ‘fur’ began to ‘grow’.

The ‘fur’ grows

Quilting the Toes

Quilting the Collar

All of the quilting was done with FMQ. Each tennis ball was carefully outlined so they would ’bounce’.

SIT….Good Dog!

If you have a photo of someone or something special, have a go with GIMP and create your own fabric photo.

Recycle, Reuse, Renew……Recover

Last week we were all entertained with ladybirdee’s recovered pincushion.  It was inspired and inspiring, and I have taken this ‘recovering’ theme one step further.

I was in need of a table and chairs and after perusing the furniture stores and not finding what I had in mind, I had a look on eBay. I fell in love with a table advertised there….because of the chairs! I  purchased several meters of fabric from “that Swedish furniture store” to use for recovering the chairs.

Cotton drill fabric for recovering chairs

After recovering the chairs, I had some fabric left and the table looked so naked.

Chairs with ‘new” seats

Then, I remembered I had Judy Neimeyer’s Compass Rose table runner paper piecing pattern. The finished size of her table runner was too long for my table so I decided to do some modifications.

Paper piecing

Using my left over pieces of fabric from recovering the chairs, some gorgeous Reece Scannell cottons and other pieces from my stash,  I stitched my compass sections, using Aurifil 50 wt. cotton Mako (orange spool).  Use a slightly shorter stitch length to make removing the paper after piecing easy.

Aurifil for perfect piecing

Stash fabric,chair fabric and cotton like SILK from Reece Scannell

Triangles were cut over sized and added to the compasses to create squares from my octogonal shapes.

Triangles ready to sew

One Finished Compass Rose…3 to go

Sewing these new squares together resulted in the perfect sized runner for my ‘new’ table.

‘New’ table with a new look

This project was quick and easy and ready to enjoy in a few days.

We would love to hear about your adventures with turning something old into something new again.

How to Fold Quilts (Crease Free) when Moving Across Town, the Country or the World

I have moved cites, countries and continents. Most recently, I moved from the east coast of Australia to the west coast of Australia…and back again. Some of the first items I planned to take with me were a selection of my quilts.

Taking your quilts with you to a new community not only gives you and your family something familiar and comforting in your new surroundings, it also provides a common talking point when you visit or start a new quilting group in your new location.

The baggage allowance for my flight was dedicated to clothes, so I decided to pack a suitcase with a selection of quilts that would be transported in our shipping container. The amount of time these quilts would be in transit was only an estimate and I wanted my quilts to arrive without creases or wrinkles.

Avoid folding your quilts into rectangles or squares as this can create a permanent fold mark into the grain line of your piece. If you have ever ‘finger pressed’ a piece of patchwork you know how the fabric can ‘hold’ a crease.
Good results are achieved by folding your quilts on the bias.

Follow these steps for best results:

1st Fold diagonally

Fold Diagonally again

Third Fold

Fourth and final fold

Stack of Folded quilts

Suitcase of quilts

Smooth, Crease-free quilt after 2 weeks in a suitcase

There are several ways to keep quilts at their best when in transit. We would enjoy hearing about your methods and experiences transporting your quilts around the corner or around the world.

The Poppy

I began sewing my poppy in 2007 after visiting a Quilters Unlimited show in Herndon, Virginia, USA. I purchased the Carol Morrissey pattern at their merchant’s mall and then spent several years deciding on which fabric to use.
The years sped by and the applique took place a petal at a time with other projects started and finished as the poppy was pushed to the bottom of the ‘to do’ pile.
The poppy has special significance as a flower of remembrance world wide. After the first World War the following resolution was passed:
“The Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia and other Returned Soldiers Organisations throughout the British Empire and Allied Countries have passed resolutions at their international conventions to recognise the Poppy of Flanders’ Fields as the international memorial flower to be worn on the anniversary of Armistice Day.”

” Centenary of Gallipoli ” Poppy

The Centenary of The First World War; 1914-1918, is being commemorated with poppies in many ways around the world.
• The 5000 Poppies tribute calling for knitted poppies is now pushing 130,000 poppies as of late February this year.
• The quilt historian, Barbara Brackman, has featured a World War 1 Remembrance quilt on her blog; Material Culture during 2014. Where Poppies Grow-Remembering Almo was designed and made by Denniel O’Kell Bohannon and Janice Britz. My friend at Colvin Kiwi Quilts has made her version of Where Poppies Grow to commemorate her Great Grandfather’s involvement in WWI.
• The Tower of London marked the centenary with poppies as well. Artists Paul Cummins and Tom Piper created 888,246 ceramic poppies that progressively filled the Tower’s famous moat between 17 July and 11 November 2014.
As 2015 approached, in Australia and New Zealand, the ‘Centenary of the Gallipoli Landings’ significance was spoken about more and more, I felt my poppy needed to be finished for ANZAC Day, April 25, 2015.
With the hand applique finished, I decided to machine quilt the whole flower to the yellow background with Aurifil 40 wt and Aurifil 50wt thread.

Poppy pin basted and ready to FMQ

With all the beautiful threads to choose from, it is hard to decide!

The petals were made using hand dyed fabrics and many Aurifil threads were auditioned to either match the colours or complement the pieces as I quilted the petal’s texture.

Thread for a perfect petal

The stamens were quilted with a patterned stitch that came with my sewing machine. A zigzag or blanket stitch would have worked as well.

The Poppy Stamen and Petals

The label includes the poem In Flanders Field written by a Canadian Medical Corps doctor, Major John McCrae, who was serving with a Field Artillery Brigade in Ypres.

In Flanders fields

The Poppy Label

If you have created a textile piece to commemorate an anniversary from your history, please share with us so we can all remember.

Twenty First Century Quilting Plan

A few weeks ago we were treated to the first of four 21st Century Round Robin quilts. The quilting always changes the look of a quilt and these little gems are no exception.

I wanted to do something very modern and edgy. Using the idea of Twitter communication for inspiration, I thought I would quilt my ‘Tweet’. I drew my Tweet on non-fusible interfacing;  quilted through the interfacing on the drawn lines; then removed the interfacing to reveal the message.

Quilting design drawn on interfacing

 

I changed the thread colour to match the fabric colour. I have used Aurifil Mako 40wt cotton AND Aurifil Mako 50wt cotton.

Aurifil has a colour for every fabric

Aurifil Cotton Mako 40wt and 50wt thread

 

The Hash-tag and letters needed to ‘pop’ and the ‘matchstick’ quilting was easy to complete with FMQ (free motion quilting).

Hash-Tag symbol ‘pops’

Free Motion Quilting around ‘U’

I have photographed this little quilt at an angle so the message can be seen in relief.

Twitter Message

This little quilt says it all about creating with Aurifil….#FUN.

Another Day; Another Scrap Quilt

Last week I shared my Square in a Square scrap quilt and discussed my choice of quilting thread.

Today I will discuss my choice of piecing thread on a scrap quilt. I have been working on an ‘Easy Big Block’ Pineapple quilt, designed by Cindi Edgerton for McCall’s, using only white and red fabrics.

When I say ‘red fabric’, I really mean anything remotely looking red in my stash.

Blocks with fabrics that ‘read’ red

And then, of course, when I say ‘white fabric’, it could be beige, tan or snow white.

White Fabrics…compared to the red fabric

This type of quilt construction lends itself to a production line approach sewing strips of fabric to the paper foundation, following the numbers in order.

Tissue Paper Foundations from Cindi Edgerton

I don’t want to worry about my thread colour choice becoming an issue with each new fabric addition.

Here are the threads I considered on several pieced blocks.

Auditioning Aurifil thread colours

I decided on the Aurifil Mako 40wt Colour 2900. It is ‘neutral’ enough to blend with my ‘white’ fabrics and ‘brown’ enough to blend with my ‘reds’.

Decision Made!

I can wind several bobbins and sit and sew without changing my thread colour every time the fabric colour changes.

It is helpful to have a range of basic piecing colours so you can choose the right one for your current scrap piecing.

Several Panels are ready to stitch together

The ‘basic’ , or MUST HAVE Aurifil thread colours are different for each of us. What are yours? Personally I want them all!

Choosing a Quilting Thread Colour for a Scrap Quilt

The one thing that ALL patchworkers have in common is scrap fabric. Some discard their scraps and others collect and save them as precious fabric morsels. I consider my scrap collection as somewhere in between.

I will however save my scrap organization methods for another blog because I have just finished a ‘scrapy’ quilt top and I want to talk about my thread choice for quilting.

Quilt layers ready to quilt

The block pattern is ‘Square in a Square’ and each block is color co-ordinated with itself.

I had just enough blue fabric left over from another project to make sashing strips and enough brown print for the setting squares. Aurifil 28wt Cotton Mako thread in colour 2735 is, I think, the perfect match for the sashing.

Quilting Thread Matches Sashing Fabric

 

Aurifil 28wt Cotton Mako

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am hand quilting a 1/4″ from all the seams and I think it will look just fine.

First Hand Quilted Block Completed

How do you choose a quilting thread colour for your scrapy quilts?

 

Red, White and Blue

 

Many colours in our lives have special significance. Some colours reflect age old traditions and some reflect new and exciting trends.

I am the proud owner of a red, white and blue quilt. When I moved away from the Midwest in America, my quilting friends made this delightful quilt. It came with plenty of room for signatures and thoughtful phrases.

 

Red, White and Blue Goodbye Quilt

Happy messages from dear friends

 

Wonderful edge to edge quilting adds texture

Today when I consider making a quilt with red, white and blue fabrics, Aurifil’s variegated threads spring immediately to mind as they give me several choices.

I can use these traditional fabric colours with Aurifil Mako Cotton Colour #3852

Traditional fabrics and thread for patriotic blocks

For a more modern look, I match the colours in the Mako Cotton Colour #4647.

Modern Fabric Choices and matching thread

The next time you want to remember a place or an event with a quilt, try matching your Aurifil thread colour to a Holiday themed quilt or a country’s flag. I’m off right now to gather my red, white and blue fabrics for an Independence Day or maybe a Bastille Day quilt …..