Au revoir

Its so hard to photograph black quilts but I wanted to show you my first ever applique quilt which I also hand quilted.
I adapted it from a Nancy Pearson pattern back in 1995. I made this specifically for our small guild challenge and it won a third place ribbon. The quilt also ended up in a New Zealand quilters diary. I used fabrics and methods that I would never use today and it's interesting to see the change in my style. I'm going to sit and baste these pieces on for my last princess feather block tonight. I'm hoping I can take it on holiday for a stitching fix when I need it.
I'm away in New Zealand for three weeks from Sunday. My DS, DD and granddaughters as well as a sister live in Auckland and I'm off to help out my DD as she is about to have her 4th child. A boy this time after three girls. My DS also turns 24 while I'm there and one of the children is turning two. I'm pretty excited to see them again.

Just in the nick of time I got my nine patches done for this month and thought I had better do next months as well. Never mind that I'm behind on my BOM.

I don't think I'm going to have much to blog about so this could be a break but I'll still try to keep up with my blog reading, until next time, may all your stitches be small.

Hoo roo as they say in Oz.

Another Mary Mannakee block

This is the third block completed so far. I'm so loving working with these lovely fabrics. Here's the three that I've done so far. They're not trimmed to size yet. The blocks finish at 16 inches.

When I haven't had the applique on the go, I've picked up my hand quilting. How long does it take for you to hand quilt a whole quilt? It takes me a long long time and I wish I worked on it more regularly but I do it in spurts and mainly in the evening. No wonder it takes awhile.

For some reason I feel guilty picking it up during the day, as if I have no business sitting down to quilt when I could be doing something more productive or active. I need to get over that don't I?

I've done the main body of the quilt and have the corner blocks to go before the borders. If I don't quilt inside the flowers, the whole shape pops up and the petals have no definition. Trouble is the layers I have to go through. As a result, the stitches don't always go through to the back and they are a bit bigger. Do I care, heck no!

It's not going to be in a competition and If someone wants to check, they can go right ahead. I personally think we can get too tied up with trying to achieve a higher standard that we can lose the enjoyment and forget the purpose.

Sewing gifts

On Saturday we went for a lovely drive through the countryside and ended up in quaint Berry. This is an historic town a couple of hours south of Sydney and a favourite place for weekend shopping. This is the middle of winter here and can you tell what lovely weather we've been having? There's one patchwork shop and this is what I came out with . The bird fabric is starlings by Alexander Henry. There's also a fabulous toy shop and the best needlework shop.

This is what I've been up to, the strawberries are very quick and easy to make from the free pattern on the Moda Bakeshop blog.

I filled these with silica sand, I didn't have any turnovers so used 5 3/4" squares and cut them once on the diagonal and that makes two. They'll make nice little gifts for friends.

I made the little gift bags from another pattern at the Bakeshop as well.

I have an idea to put some small gifts in these bags for my granddaughters. I changed the pattern in a couple of places by trimming down the top seam and top stitching the pleat in place. I also sewed fabric sleeves for the bottom insert instead of taping fabric to card. I used template plastic instead.

I'm not good at shopping, I'm a failure really, it gives me a headache but the exception is when I shop for birthday gifts for the little ones.

Only a grandmother would fork out and buy something like this. It's probably what I would have loved as a little girl, all sparkly and twirly and pretty.

Still appliqueing

Could you believe there was a pair of scissors missing from this photo? Do you think its a sickness to still want more? I know every pair intimately and when DH says "why do you need another pair of scissors?" I just look sweetly at him and say "for the same reason you need another torch, one for every job!" Oh ok, now he gets it, lol.
See that teeny tiny pair of snips in the middle, they are airline approved but I'm always too shy to sew on flights. I don't like being looked at. And how about this guy? I think I should make a pincushion to go with him.

I've already chosen and prepped my fabrics for my third block of the Mary Mannakee quilt.

Here's block two all done, I just can't leave this project alone at the moment. I'm sure I'll slow down, I'm just keen at the moment. I think it's because I'm going on holiday soon and I don't think I'll be stitching much at all and I have to leave my applique at home so I'll just get a few weeks worth in before I go.

I was having a nice browse through this book today, well it's actually a catalogue of album quilts that went to Japan some years ago.

Now I really like this block on the bottom right and it might do for the MM as there are a couple of blocks I want to leave out of the original pattern.

Lovely quilts on every page.

Block one and loose ends

Mary Mannakee block one. Kathie and I are really enjoying exchanging ideas and talking fabrics and techniques with this project. We happened to love each others choice of fabrics so ended up doing pretty much the same. The order of appliqueing the flowers with the yellow centers is a bit different and if I strike this again, I think I'll try her method. These blocks will finish at 16 inches. I haven't mentioned what I do with my threads when I start and finish so I'm tying up loose ends here. I don't want the knot when I start to be in the seam allowance, it could pop through or create a little lump.
On the top of the piece, I turn my work around and start under the applique and bring it up in the seam allowance. No knots on the back then.

When I finish off, I take two small stitches near the seam allowance.

Before pulling the needle all the way through, I take the needle through the loop that's formed,

and then take it through the second loop formed and then pull the needle through. Essentially, I'm going up through the first loop and down through the second. It makes no difference if you go down for the first and up through the second.

The last step is to take the needle through the layers to hide the loose end and cut the thread.This is a good way of not having loose threads on the back which may show through the background.

After showing my applique methods, I learned another tip from Cathie, no blog. Thanks for this Cathie. Remember me mentioning using a tiny bit of fray stop on the inner points as a last resort? Cathie told me that she uses basting glue here and there, it does the same thing and washes out. I like that so much better! Away with the fray stop!

I tried it out on these tight inner curves where I don't have much seam allowance and put it on while my freezer template was still attached. Then I smeared it around with the end of this manicure stick. It works a treat. If you click on my photos to get close ups, the white you sometimes see is just my marking pencil which will wash completely out.

Cathy over at Cabbage quilts is blogging on her applique methods. Jan from Bemused and Juliann from lining up my stitches are having fun with red and green too. Go visit if you haven't already.