Pretty in pink.

Free motion quitting so far on this project

Quilted feathers on cotton sateen .

The start of a new Quilted design . Using a piece of colour dyed cotton sateen. .

Thread tidy ideas....

Thread tidy bands. 

Like many of us out there, keeping your threads neat and tidy can become a bit of a problem.

Whether you keep your spools of thread in boxes , or on display , stopping those threads

from unwinding and getting tangled with others can become problem , not to mention how untidy they look.

So off  I went to  purchase some small children's head bands, these became the answer to a tidy thread collection.

As you can see I have more than enough of these, it's handy having many different colours.
The next time you are working on a project and selecting your threads  , instead of looking like this ......

 they can look like this ..... you have to agree so much better ..

No more tangled threads .. 

Happy Quilting.

Julie


 

 

Feather Quilting over the week end .

Vase with feathers.

This week end brought  heavy rain fall .. So what better way to spend some time

than down in the sewing room . . 

Here you will find the ideas that brightened up my day. 

I made up the quilt sandwich using a light 2oz polyester batting.

Drawing a vase outline , followed by the stem lines of the feathers ..  these as usual were only a guide to help

fill the available space .. 

Creating a natural curve and flow the feathers can bring more depth  to your quilting .

As you can see i went on to echo quilt around the whole design , filling in the space where possible.

 Quilted  headbands filler design  was used throughout to finish this project. 

this simple design quickly fill the space . the fabric colour was a lovely autumn gold so i kept the colours of thread simple  , a dark green and an ivory.

 Here is the finished project . measuring 20x26 inches .



Happy quilting

Julie

fabric Dying .

Fabric Dying.

Hi there , it been a couple of days of heavy rain here.. 

So i thought why not indulge in some fabric dying . 

ive always had a love for tie-dying ever since i can remember , brightening up white cotton T shirts and other items  for myself and my Daughter .

So this time i thought why not dye some plain cotton fabric and see how it turns out . 

So with fabric at the ready coloured Dye salt etc i got started . . 

I tend to mix up separate colours and have them on hand to add as i wish .
Here you can see i have used a beautiful coral blue for the initial colour , then adding a tulip
red to certain areas . I then leave it to soak and mix for at least a couple of hrs . 

With another hr or so wrapped up in a plastic bag and placed somewhere warm to help what
i call the cooking process , this i find helps to  soak up the dye and produce much stronger
colours .

 Here you have one of the pieces  of fabrics dried and ready to iron later. 

By the end of the day i have  quite a collection . 

 the colours and patterns that are created are unique and individual , and would excellent for use
in applique pieces .

The nice thing is that you never really know what patterns and colour mixes you will end up with .

So now i have  seven meters of patterned  fabric ,
I cant wait to make up my very own charm packs, jelly rolls and sashing . . 

This will help to make my quilts and wall hangings even more unique .

Happy Quilting

Julie

feather Hyperquilting.

Hyperquilting.

Still trying out the new machine .. Im Hyperquilting this morning . 

Still got a few tweaks to make to get everything running smoothly ., had ago at using the machine stop/start

button and setting the speed . . it allows you to start off slowly and then reaches up to the speed you have set., therefore set your speed a little slower at first to get use to it , as it feels like the machine can run away with itself .

  Looks like this machine perfers Rayon thread the best .. and botton line in the bobbin.

 Using Superior Topstitch needle 90/14 , open toe quilting foot .

 just love the idea of using different colour to create that new look .

Finally add a loose quilted filler spiral design .

Happy Quilting 

Julie

Free Motion Quilting practice

Thought i would give my new machine a little run today .
Took a while to get the tension and type of thread sorted out. .

Free form feather practice .

Feather Practice

On these practice pieces i have used a bright thread when quilting the echo design .

Its a nice way to see what two colours work well together. as well as putting your

free form feathers into practice. 

 Both these exercises were quilted on black fabric , this was then made up into the quilting sandwich .
Using this bright green thread , i feel it really does bring the feathers to life , and almost giving them a
velvet appearance.

This time i used a different thread for the initial feather design , then echoed in a light blue . 

Again no stencil was used . just played around as i went along .

It allows me to develop my own style of feathers . 

Now this practice piece i used a silky gold  curtain fabric . First drawing a light sketch of the vase .
Then filling in with the feathers .



Happy Quilting

Julie

Hyper Quilting Practice .

Hyper Quilting . 

After watching a few tutorials on the subject i thought i would give this ago . 

The fun part is adding as little or as much as you like . Introducing  bright bold colours of thread

this can transform a quilted designs into something even more pleasing to the eye . the hardest part of this 

is knowing when to stop .. 

Here are a couple of practice pieces of me attempt at Hyper Quilting .

I started with a swirling  free form feather, then went hyper quilting ..  

By adding a number of different coloured threads and designs to your already quilted design you can bring more of the wow factor 

to your project .

Happy Quilting 

Julie

 

Free motion feather Quilting .

 Free motion feather Quilting .

 Enjoying myself quilting  free motion feathers  around some  poppy designed printed fabric.

 Ive found this really helps you getting used to filling in available spaces on your quilt .

Happy Quilting

Julie

Summer Quilt .

 Square within a square quilt.

 Here i started off with using 2 21/2 inch strips , cutting into small blocks and sewing together.
 Using flower design fabrics helped add a summer theme to this quilt .

then adding jelly rolls strips to form the surround squares , then finally adding white sashing .

And all over stippling design was throughout .



Happy Quilting

Julie

Applique flower cushion cover

 Applique cushion 

Placing and  attaching the applique designs with a machine blanket stitch was the first step.

As you can see a Free motion feather design completed the borders, followed up  with a clam shell design , now to sew in all those ends .. 

 Close up of the filler design , i do find this really helps the applique pieces to jump forward .

Happy Quilting

Julie

baby lap quilt.

 

 

Baby lap quilt.

 This lap quilt was fun and fast to make , using 6inch square of pastel colour fabrics.  it came together really quickly.

Then using an all over swirling quilted design.

. Happy quilting

Julie

Autumn patchwork quilt

Autumn lap Quilt.

 Thought i would try my hand at raw applique on this quilt . and with using the colours of
autumn its turned out pretty well ..

 I did a very random design of stippling , and then worked designs of leaves in each block .

Happy quilting

Julie

Patchwork quilt.

 Fence rail quilt.

This started out using just three strips of fabric from a jelly roll .. but decided to add three more, 

this created a bigger block to work with .. The quilt came together really fast , i used the walking foot to help sew all the segments together , it does really help when you are working with more than one layer of fabric . Now all that is needed is a simple all over quilting design . 

I call this the swirling vine design.

 Happy quilting 

Julie.

Quilted vase with feathers .

Quilted vase with free motion feathers.

I love this design . I started it a while ago , and at long last its complete. 

The design i stretched out on paper first , then laid it by the side of my machine and off i went . 

But as usual i never stick to the finish deign , but use it more as a guide , but was very pleased with the result .   

thanks for looking and happy quilting

julie 

Dragonfly Applique cushion cover .

Applique has got me hooked at the moment .. so here is another one of my
own designs ..
this time i would use dragonflies , using softer shades of fabric .

Once again i started off with a 12inch square of light fabric adding a border around
of the chosen fabric .. then started applying the applique pieces ..

When this was finished I made up the Quilting sandwich of wadding and backing fabric all pinned and
ready to start echo quilting around each applique before quilting a filler design .

 The filler Design i call waves and pebbles ..

Here is the finished cushion cover measuring 18x18 square.
Also teamed up with the Butterflies applique cushion. from a previous Post. 

Thanks for looking and Happy Quilting .

Butterfly Applique cushion cover .

First things first was to cut out a 12inch square of cream fabric and then decide on the main 

fabric for borders and applique .. 

Cutting out the Applique pieces of a single flowers with butterflies ..

Attaching them with a blanket stitch ..

 After this was complete i made up into the quilt sandwich of wadding and backing fabric.
 Echo stitched around the designs and stitching each separate piece that makes up the
applique , I find this really helps to bring the design forward giving it a 3D effect .


Filling in the back ground with a simple Quilting design which i call
hairbands ..

This borders will remain un quilted and made up with a light moss green fabric for the back of
the cushion cover.. This will measure 18inch square when complete.

Thanks for looking and Happy Quilting .