Quilting

Today's blog is not about Fudge my Janome 6500, which I sew enjoy, it is about my first attempt at a wholecloth quilt. 

Handquilted. 

I  have always enjoyed handquilting and have many quilts finished this way...Why I have never attempted a Wholecloth before I have no idea.

I belong to a group ..Celebrate Handquilting...such inspiration ....

As quilters do I was able to help another quilter out with something she wanted to try and in return was offered a small Wholecloth marked by this quilter...her pattern..

 Oh yes please says Kiwi Jan...

The quilt is not big 40 x 40 inches  that is..

After much debate I purchased some Auriful Mako 28 thread  in several shades to hopefully match the colour of the Wholecloth ...one was just what I needed, I am sure I will use the other threads I purchased sometime!

Just need to batt it up and ready to go. 

I started in the middle as one does and here is the middle quilted...

The photo is a little off colour the top is looking good.

The next area to quilt is the crosshatching and then the floral middle border 

The colour here is more true...the first crosshatching is half the width of the crosshatching on the other side of the floral border... 

The next border is a wide feathered border... 

I have one side and a half to finish this feather border and then another small border of crosshatching to finish it off...maybe another few weeks... 

I am enjoying the process and pleased with how it's looking...

The batting is Quilters Dream Wool sent to me by a friend from Florida this batting is super to quilt..the needle glides thru very easy.

I do not rock the needle but stitch one stitch at a time ..down and back up once makes my stitch...no pressure on my fingers or thumbs trying to rock a needle but must admit to many finger pricks...... I use a hoop as you can see in the first photo.

Must do something about the photos ...how to make them look the same colour...

More as I progress....

Thanks for looking 

Kiwi Jan 

Cold day ...catching up

Hello again...  We are now looking at my stitching efforts for .2014, well some of them.. I like to have small  projects to take with me when I go out stitching ..or just for a little light relief ..I love these and have made a few... 

 They are quite addictive and I have a little box of then tucked away for..........

My special friend in the States has moved house and her new colour scheme includes grey..I had a little book made to send her and then made a journal cover as well...

 

The little book sits inside the cover ..the bird is collage made a while back from a serviette she sent me.

 Front of the cover lots of hand work on this ..the lace and fabric was painted to get the shade of grey I wanted  a real fun project 

Back of the cover... I believe it sits on a bookcase  looking pretty ..to nice to use I am told..

But holds special photos and memoriablia .... So I am told.

 Next post will be my quilting both machine and hand.

Thanks for reading  this far...

Hello hello hello again

Carrying on from my last post a few minutes ago this time it was helping  my granddaughter Danielle with her gifts... Danielle has sat beside me watching me sewing or many years she has her own machine now but prefers to use Fudge..my Janome 6500  which she can handle well with the speed turned down .. 

This is the Wine carrier Dannielle made for her mum ..goes with the green oven cloth and place mat in the previous post 

Didn't she do well..another of Danielle's stitching efforts a rug mat again for her mum..I did help a little with this one ....

Front view or is it back...

Danielle also sews at school and she made this for me...

Not sure what they call him..maybe potato head... He sits on my bed 

More to come 

Hello hello hello..

It has been a long time since I last blogged no real excuse ...I have been busy stitching by hand and with Fudge... Christmas tags, gifts, bags, surprise surprise... Quilts, even some handquilting...more on the handquilting later. 

I made these little tags for Christmas and they were well received by family and friends with plan backs to write names on ...I know several will hand on Christmas trees.

As usual before Christmas is a busy time making gifts for family and friends .. Oven cloths, pot holders, placemats for benches ...loved the green ones I made for Julie 

Some of my friends have 4 feet... Can't forget them at Christmas they love ripping Xmas paper from their gifts.. 

I also made these for the 4 footers 

The larger of the balls was not for a 4 footed friend, my new grandniece has the pink red one..Aniela  loves it .. Fudge did not help me with these..all made by hand..

How's this for a start more to come and thanks for looking 

Trying this out

Hi all I thought I had worked out how to use my iPad and add a photo from my iPad to my blog ...the first try did not work now trying something different. 

I have been making bits and bobs for gifts and here are some of them 

Just a sneak peek....now to send this to blogger.  

Thanks for checking my blog

Churn Dash

One of my favourite traditional blocks is Churn Dash, so with the fabric left over from the Turning Twenty what better then a small Churn Dash quilt.

I had several pieces of Fairy Frost in shades of cream which I felt showed the block up nice just enough for a small quilt.

Of we went Fudge and I stitch stich sew sew.. trim this join the rows together and whoop dee doo all done..add a border or two and its ready for quilting….well…..there was something about it that was not right…the pattern did not do for me what I wanted it to ….

so i unpicked the rows and sashed them with a narrow brown sashing…much better…I am about half way thru the quilting…very traditional quilting outlining the cream pieces to make the Churn Dash stand out.

On two corners I have reversed the border and used the floral fabric I will embellish these corners when the quilting is finished.

Turning Twenty Quilts

Kia ora friends I have been asked to blog about my turning Twenty Quilts…I have so far made two.

A couple of years ago my quilting club..Pinestream Quilters from Upper Hutt had a club day and one of the classes was the Turning Twenty Quilt. This quilt required 20 fat quarters or in my case I used 16.

Off to Spotlight I went for the fabrics….great summer colours orange, teals ,green, blue ,Lemon ,brown, spots, stripes, florals, geometric patterns and believe it or not it only took me ten yes ten minutes to choose these fabrics.

The pattern and method was supplied to us on the day but if you use your favourite search engine you will find lots of info available on the net.

There is a lot of cutting required as each block has 11 pieces to it… once cut there is a special way of taking fabric from each different cut to make up a block…each block will have one piece of each  fabric used, different sizes and in a different place in the block.

The block is made up into 4 units then joined to make one large block..approx 16 x 16.

I made my quilt using 16 blocks.

When joining the blocks together each block is turned a different way the the one next to it…hence the name Turning Twenty…

I hand quilted mine using a big stitch and pearl Cotton in all sorts of different colours….I quilted half a block going up and dwon and the other half across..this gave a very nice textured look.

Now for the photo.

showing top corner the peg is where the block joined to the next one

this is a very summery quilt just love the end result

My second Turning Twenty is quite different in colouring…more subtle  it has been quilted the same .big stitch using brown pearl cotton number 8.

as I wanted that same textured look

and here is  part of the back showing off the label

Thanks for checking out my blog

fudge and kiwi Jan

Jan Cotton