Work on 1st Feb

Hi Everyone,
Wow, January has gone already but I'm glad it's the 1st of Feb as have been waiting in anticipation for the first block of Esther's new mystery BOM Secret Garden. Woke early and thought will it be there, YES had arrived at 3am so there was no going back to bed for me.
Printed a test sheet of the pattern and like Diamond Hill a fraction small, am sure it is our windows 10 causing it as never had a problem until we upgraded. 103% worked perfectly for size so pattern is ready to go. But my fabric, that was another matter.
Last week I found a fabric at Country Dawn and knew it was what I wanted for my background.

From Wilmington Prints Subtle Song range

Different from what I would normally choose but love it. 

Once again what I like everybody seems to like, it measured out at only 3.6m left on the bolt.

Came home with it anyway thinking lets wait and see what the pattern says then figure it out as surely there would be borders somewhere so maybe it was enough. I had found a fabric that I really liked for border sas well so it was fingers crossed.

Silently swore when I read the naterials, 6M plus a contrast!! 

Not what I wanted to read but at least I knew what I wanted for my contrast fabric and this is it.

Also from the Subtle Song range
Just how a Secret Garden should look.

Spent ages doing a pile of calculations and finally worked out I would need approx 2m for just the four blocks mentioned plus the unknown size center block so there was an option, find a toning fabric to go with what I have and buy my missing 2.4m and use it for those five blocks and if necessary some other small blocks keeping my 3.6m for the rest of the background.
So I've been shopping again and I hope it works out.

Wilmington Prints again, Hydrangea Radiance range

The darker tone is a perfect match for the other fabric.

Wasn't 6m of that one either so couldn't swop fabrics which had crossed my mind
 as my fabric hadn't been cut from the bolt, it was all there was

Hopeful this combination will work for me.

My UFO's haven't seen the light of day this week, It has all been Diamond Hill and Secret Garden.

Spent some time figuring out how Paint works so was able to play with colouring my version.. 

This is what I come up with.

Will probably be some colour changes for flowers as the blocks evolve but am fairly sure I have enough dark fabric for everything except the little square borders. Have played with them as well as was still feeling unsure if my teal fabric really worked. Decided to applique some little squares to the background fabric and see how they looked.

Better than I thought, especially after I stitched them with a thicker variegated thread. I might just be appliquing not piecing these borders. LE zigzags anyone, thats where the idea came from.

Want to press and then cut my 4 blocks for secret garden so I can make a start tomorrow so linking to Esther's WOW and back to the sewing room.

Cheers Jenny

Work on Wed 25th Diamond Hill

Hi Everyone,

Have had such fun this week making the first bock of Esther's new free BOM Diamond Hill. It is ages since I played wuth brights and especially batiks which I love for applique as there lack of fraying makes them such a pleasure to work with. My stash of batiks had got very low so the last few months I have been buying fat quarters or 20cm strips whenever I have found colours I like.
With having my main fabrics decided it was out with my stash and select which were possibles.

Batik possibles

The six in the lower right corner are the ones I choose for block 1

You can see I prefer the marbled batiks rather than those with a pattern, for me they look more realistic especially for flowers which is where I use them most.

I don't usually colour my pattern, this time I did but it was after I had picked my fabrics.

Softer colours in pencil but more to check how the colours worked together.

This also shows how I do my numbering.

Happy with how my first flower looked 

rest of my stems aand leaves added

Buds went on at this stage as didn't want to stich under them with my stems.

Maybe I should have gone with pink instead of orange for them.

With next three flowers done time to do my vase.

Tried strips but decided to add my vase as one piece and stitch the lines so that my fabric got a chance to show off. Didn't really like this either, maybe I had

chosen the wrong fabric as it didn't seem to have enough WOW factor. Time to wait and see so went back to my flowers.

At this stage I started using pencils on my yellow fabric to add tinge of orange and pink as it seemed a little light, especially the center flower of these three where I had used a slightly darker pink fabric.

Flowers being prepared on baking paper.

This is my technique for assembling flowers for raw edge applique. Pieces have been traced on to Vliesofix, pressed to my fabric and cut out with a small allowance where they underlap another 

piece. I draw this underlap on when I am tracing my pattern.  With baking paper pinned over my pattern I start with the bottom piece and gradually build my way up lightly pressing each piece into place as I go, then place and fuse each finished flower to my background. My new LED Light Pad has been fantastic for this as even with the dark background the patterns lines show up and make placement a breeze. 

Block finished and I am happy but the vase is still bugging me.

It just seems like a blob in the corner.

My first colour thought for this block had been purple instead of orange but it got lost on the big flower against my background which has a definite blue/purple tinge to it. Not sure why or how but purple leapt back into my mind. 

  Now I am REALLY HAPPY

Have about a metre of this purple so have another option in fabrics.

Now it's time to get back to my other projects - until the 1st Feb at least when Esther releases the first block of Secret Garden her new mystery Block of the Month. The preview of the first block looks so amazing I think it is going to be as addictive as Love Entwined.

Linking now to Esther's WOW for this week

Cheers Jenny 

Work on Wed 18th Jan

Hi Everyone,
Most of you that read my blog are as excited as I am about the release of Esther's new free BOM Diamond Hill, What a beautiful pattern Esther has shared with us and I just can't resist it.
Not that I need a new project as my plan was to finish ALL my UFO's before starting anything new.
I don't have many so it should have been easy as these are my to do's

Complete the quilt top at least.

Finish quilting Fly Away

I have made progress in the last week and quilted most of my star backgrounds.

Finish quilting Hearts Desire

have three of these borders and the blocks still to do.

Quilt my Bamboo wall hanging.

It only needs the background to be quilted as borders are on and I have stitched around the applique.

Have you noticed what the last three have in common, yes all done apart from the quilting which is why I started the oriental quilt, to have a break from quilting

So which have I worked on the last couple of days?  You are right if you answered, none of the above.

It was love at first sight with Esther's dark colourway and knew I just had to make it.

For the first time I had issues with printing the pattern, I have heard that Windows 10 (which we now have) can have it's own mind when it comes to printing and override settings, don't know if this is true but have never had an issue before. Anyway, what helped me was a blog I read a few months ago on how to resize any block pattern with easy maths to what you want, bigger or smaller.

It is very simple really, start with what you want and divide it by what you got.

I taped my pages that were all a fraction small together and measured, 17-5 inches and it should have been 18 inches. It wasn't really a problem for the applique but the vase had to line up perfectly and at that size it wasn't going to.

Simple division on the calculator, want 18 divided by got 17.5 equals 1.03

Move decimal point two places and my answer was to print at 103% result was perfect 

For full details of this easy method for resizing any block this is the link.

http://blog.shopmartingale.com/quilting-sewing/quilt-math-how-to-reduce-and-enlarge-quilt-blocks/

Yesterday I went shopping for my fabric and came home with a slight change of plan.

Knew I didn't want a a solid dark colour and fell for this charcoal fabric straight away, has a bluish tinge and of course my favourite a touch of mettalic. Only problem was a large one, 3.25 metres was not enough for a completely dark background so had two choices, pick another fabric or put light borders around the blocks. this fabric won and my blocks are cut.

Loved the vibrant look of Esther's little squares and found something that should give a similar effect but in a very different colouway.

This left me with what to use for my light borders, couldn't go to a straight cream because the teal above is alot stonger than in the photo.

Stonehenge to the rescue, lovely mottle in teal with peach/ yellow

I think it will work and have had an extra little play

Now I'm not so sure.

Plenty of time to decide while I am working on the applique.

Linking now to Esther, have a great week everyone.

Cheers Jenny

Welcome 2017

Happy New Year everyone,

Hope you have all had a relaxing start to 2017 and are looking forward to a wonderful year.
Ours started with the hottest days of summer so far with officially 30 degrees for the first few days however in our sheltered back yard we could add on several more so it was time spent inside.
Steve had decided on xmas morning to take out our old laundry tub ready to install the new one we have had waiting patiently for several months. We had a week being unable to do any laundry as water had been disconnected and he was busy from boxing day helping friends shift their business.
Finally ready to start on New Years Eve our kitchen looked like this.

 It was takeways for dinner as we couldn't reach the cook top and couldn't sit at the table anyway.  

Our laundry is a really small room, just measured it and in quilters terms it is 72" wide by 60" tall, a med size wallhanging  would fit on the floor. It also houses our tall and narrow hot water cylinder so maximising space was a necessity for the new layout.

  

Plumbing moved and tiles in place, cylinder cupboard is on the right

What a transformation.

Priority was to get it working again so the floor got tiled but only painting was where it was necessary on the lower walls. Cupboad door is waiting to be put on  and the bench needs it's trim but I love the bench space, my food processor and standmixer now have a home where they can be used as well, Even found a use for the wine rack which didn't fit in our kitchen, fills the corner gap perfectly,will be adding more overhead cupboards above the bench as well.

For my quilting year ahead I want to finish my ufo's, luckily I don't have many so will be able to start some new projects as well, am looking foward to the 15th to see what Esther has planned for her new BOM, if it's applque I probably won't be able to resist . Just before Christmas I bought some dice as I really like the idea of how Jenny in Wellington rolls a dice to decide her quilting project for the week.

Only problem is I don't have six projects at the moment, maybe I just have to keep rolling until one of my numbers comes up - or I give my favorite projects two numbers.

My oriental style quilt is on my design wall with more blocks added as a japanesse friend at the thurday group gave me some beautiful fabric that she thought I might like to use.

The fabrics were too beautiful to cut up

These two blocks make up one repeat of this gorgeous Obi (sash) fabric.

The second fabric, also Obi I think but it was wider and folded in half, 

I have added applique elements to this fabric.

Origami Kimono's to this one

3 dimensional fans to this one.

Fans are backed with gold satin and only attached with the blue at the top.

Both the Kimono's and the fans are from the pattern by Yvonne Morris that I used for my quilt Oriental Expressions a few years ago.

I still have some of the blue brocade fabric and I plan to use it for the sashings for my blocks.

 Silk Kimono fabric which I have had for many years and have never found quite the right place to use. Correction a little bit found it's way into the small flower baskets of my LE.

The last couple of days Fly Away came back out as I finally decided how to quilt my background and I have literally been going round in circles ever since.

I read an interesting blog a few days ago on tips for spiral quilting which I found through pinterest.  http://flourishingpalms.blogspot.co.nz/2015/11/10-tips-for-spiral-quilting-success.html

Thought I would try it with three rings around my small stars that were seperate and then like topsy it just grew, ended up not being spirals at all but keeping the sets of three rings has given an interesting effect which I am happy with, now to work on the rings themselves.

Finishing here to link with Esther for her first WOW of 2017

Enjow your week everyone,

Cheers Jenny

Last WOW for 2016

Hi everyone,
Hope you are all having a wonderful festive season and spending time with your loved ones.
Have had a busy few of weeks between the Christmas get togethers with quilty friends and then Christmas day spent with good friends as having no family here in Whangarei ourselves it is wonderful to be part of their family on Christmas day.

Quilt wise I have been working on my oriental wall hanging, second embroidery based panel is finished.

 

Only 9" wide without the border I'm happy overall with how this has turned out but slightly disappointed with my big waterlily. The main petals all look as they should but I placed the center too low so added two more petals to cover part of the center and try and lift it. I got more depth but still seemed a little out of balance with one very long petal.

Feeling better now.
 I stitched an extra petal line on the long petal and coloured it darker with pencils.

Love how the bird turned out. Spent ages moving my bird body around on the fabric until I found the perfect tail to go with his wings.

Third panel is the same size as number two, have combined a couple of patterns for it as I wanted to use a willow tree from one pattern but didn't like the ducks it had in the foreground so found another that had a bird and butterfly.

Used three shades of green and a machine embroidery stitch for my willow leaves creating the branches as I travelled along the lines between my leaves.

Used the digitised butterfly fabric for my wings, love the effect.

Lighter flowers than in the first panel.

This is how I envisage the panels placement within the hanging.

The only other thing I have done is to finish my thread painted picture of Gracie.

Stitched her collar and added a bit more stitching to a few areas.

Thrilled with how she looks now.

Linking now to Esther's WOW so wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2017

Cheers Jenny

Work on Wed 23rd Nov

Hi Everyone,

As many of you already know the last couple of weeks have definately been WOW weeks for me.
It was a friend from the sit and sew group at Country Dawn who convinced me to enter LE into Festival of Quilts in Auckland. Ngaire has been a member of the Auckland Guild for many years and is a successful exhibitor (this year included) so with her encouragement I joined the guild and have been attending their monthly meetings. Have to say I have been astounded by the number of community quilts the members make for those in need.
I felt like a child going to a birthday party just taking LE to the hand in day in October but nothing like the excitement when I got the phonecall after the judging day. OMG it was a fabulous feeling but it was really LE's day. All of you who have made or are making this quilt know how it has she has a personality all her own and wants her story told, I am just so happy I did her and Esther proud.

To hear last week LE received the Viewers Choice for Amateur Quilt was the icing on the cake, there were so many wondeful quilts on display I didn't think it possible LE would be a contender.

Would just like to thank here  everyone who has given my support and encouragement while I have been on my LE journey especially Esther for giving us the amazing pattern and all the members of her group, many becoming long standing on line friends.
One more thankyou is to the wonderful sponsors whose generosity allows shows like this to give fabulous prizes to the award winners. I hadn't even thought of prizes apart from the rosette but from I my award sponsors Cushla's Village Fabrics and Trendy Trims this is what my coffee table looked like on arriving home.

Fabulous prizes from wonderful sponsors

AQG has just posted photo's of all the award winners to their face book page, here is the link for anyone who would like to take a look. https://www.facebook.com/pg/AklQuiltGuild/photos/?tab=album&album_id=881535455314011

What have I been sewing recently?  Gathering unfinished quilting projects is the answer.

Have put the last border on Fly Away but it is bundled on a corner of my sewing table at the moment as I have started a new project instead of finishing what is on the go.
Fell in love with a roll of 8 inch strips of oriental fabrics while in Auckland and just had to buy them though no real idea what to do with them, you know what its like.
Started to think about the old embroidery patterns of Mum's that I have and an idea started to gel.
Could I applique some of the oriental ones and create a wall hanging.

Pattern for an Oriental Firescreen.

Found a wonderful background fabric at Country Dawn for my applique blocks, Japanese and I think it is linen with a lovely slub effect so couldn't wait to get started on my first block and yesterday I finished it.

Am really happy with how it has come out, here are some close ups.

One of my oriental fabrics had these little blossoms, perfect size for fussy cutting and I found a digitised fabric with large butterflies that I could again fussy cut my wings from.

Am so happy with my choice of background.

Butterfly fabric for the bright colours on the bird and some peacock fabrics gave me the body and the tail detail. Found a stitch that I could stitch and then mirror image to give me my tail feathers.

Metallic threads are in full use .

Lots of experimenting for this part as I wanted to replicate the pattern as much as possible.

I used the grass stitch on my bernina and loosened my foot pressure to very light so I could move the fabric sideways easily while stitching. Had a heavy weight tearaway under my fabric for this and the stright triple stitch.

Fussy cut the flowers and darkened them with pencils. original is on the right.

Border fabric is a Japanese fabric from a friend and I think it finishes this block perfectly.

With borders this block has finished at 18" x 25"

Two more panels to make in the same style, will be the same length but narrower.

Heading to my sit and sew group this morning and it will be fussy cutting more blossoms for me.

Enjoy your week everyone.

Cheers Jenny