Travel Projects

 I'm leaving next week for a trip that I've dreamed about for a long time.

At this time next week I will have landed in Australia for a quilting cruise with Debbie Roberts Tours. It is a two week cruise along the coasts of Australia and New Zealand with one stop in Tasmania.

On the return, I will be spending a week in Vancouver with my son and family.

There might not be much blogging going on, but I will post some pictures if I can.

Since it will be a very long trip, I thought I would make a few projects to keep myself organized and comfortable.

Remember this!  This was my first attempt at Diane Gaudynski's feathers in Free Motion Quilting Challenge at SewCalGal.

Feather Sample

After cutting it down to size, I added some hyperlinking as per Patsy Thompson's tutorial in same challenge and  and stitched on some bias binding,.

hyperlinking

Stitched up the sides, added a big button from my mom's button box and a ribbon, and voila!  a little travel bag.

Travel Bag

With enough room for my new headset,  Blackberry Playbook and a couple of puzzle books.

with contents

I need a little pillow for my lower back when sitting for long period and saw a "Dog Bone Pillow" in a store but it was really firm and too big, so I decided to make my own out of a nice soft brown corduroy.  

It also make a great neck pillow.

Dog Bone Pillow with carrying handle and luggage tags

Before Christmas, I made a bunch of these leather luggage tags for stocking stuffers, and a few for myself.

close up - leather luggage tags

Almost ready to go, just need to finish packing.

Terry

It's a Wrap!

 The 2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge from SewCalGal is complete.

Even though I have been free motion quilting for several years, I have learned so many things from participating in this project.

All the teachers have been so giving and inspirational with easy to follow instructions, which could be gone back to anytime you wanted. The tutorials were so full of information, not only about free motion quilting but everything from fabric, batting, thread as well as design and products that can help make the process easier (or even just how to go about getting it done).

As part of the project, we are asked to do a summary of our year's samples and projects.

This my recap of the year's projects.

So here goes!!

January with Frances Moore

This is a little mini that was in the UFO pile and perfect to practice Frances Moore's leaf design. It is a replica (in miniature) of A Trip Around the World I made back in the '90s for my mother-in-law.

back

Mini Trip Around the World - front

February with Diane Gaudynski

This tutorial was excellent and I finally understood how to make feathers that I was really happy with.  The background filler on my sample was also new to me. 

Plumed Rio Grande was great to practice feathers and another UFO out of the closet.

feather sample

Plumed Rio Grande

March with Ann Fahl

It never occurred to me to combine the Loopy loop and stippling,  Ann calls this Loop and Twist. It was so much fun, it was hard to stop.  I kept adding different designs to stippling and ended up quilting six placemats, each with a design of its own.  The picture below shows the back of 3 of those.

sample

Red Placemats

April with Don Lin

This was another new technique for me.  After doing the sample, I tried the technique onto a little amish quilt that had been around for a long time.

sample

Purple Amish

May with Leah Day

I have followed Leah's blog for a long time and used a lot of her designs.  This was a new one and fun and easy to do.  In keeping with my plan of finishing a UFO using the technique of the month, I picked a lap size Trip Around the World to practice the double stipple. 

sample

Best Friends

June with Cindy Needham

I love Cindy's "Divide and Conquer".  Looking through my UFOs for something to try out this technique I found this  top that I had made many years ago to learn applique.   I decided I could adapt Cindy's technique with a little change . The inspiration for the squares (rather than random shapes) came from Melanie Testa's book “Inspired to Quilt”.

sample

Out on a Limb

July with Angela Walters

Angela taught us how break down large areas with tiles.  My first attempt was the straight square tile and I had a hard time keeping the everything looking square.  I then tried the irregular and jagged variation which I found suited me a lot better.  I have a twin size quilt about 3/4s done with this design.  That will have to go on the list for next year.

August with Wendy Sheppard

Wendy's challenge was Jester's Hats which looked real simple at first glance but took some practise to “try to” master.  Another small UFO - Little Irish - a miniature Irish Chain got covered with Jester's Hats.  

sample

Little Irish

September with Paula Reid

This is my sample but since I did not have any Golden Threads paper I used Glad Press 'n Seal.  It worked well and stuck to the paper for tracing and to the fabric for stitching.  

sample

October with Teri Lucas

This was the first time I ever quilted on silk and I love the looks of it.  On this sample I tried as many different kinds of threads that I thought would work for this project. 

sample

November with Sarah Vedeler

Sarah challenged us with doing spirals in a grid format. I especially like the looks of the small spirals in the grid (mine are 1”). I thought I would give myself an extra challenge and quilt on satiny fabric.

Spiral Cushion

December with Patsy Thompson 

Patsy challenged us with doing borders. My favourites were the feather borders, the tutorial on how to do take offs and kissing corners to get mirror images was excellent.  My sample  is a reversible table topper, measuring 22” x 22”.

Border Sampler - Side 1

Border Sampler - Side 2

Thank you SewCalGal for all your hard work and thanks to all the great teachers who made this possible.  I learned a lot and enjoyed every minute of this challenge.

Go have a look at all the Grand Prize Entries at Insights From SewCalGal here.

Terry

December, 2012 FMQ Challenge with Patsy Thompson

 Quilt #115 - Border Sampler

Border Sampler - Side One

This is number 12 and the last challenge of the year for the SewCalGal Free Motion Quilting Challenge.

Border Sampler - Side Two

This month, Patsy Thompson challenged us with doing borders. My favourites were the feather borders where we learned a couple of different designs. The tutorial on how to do take offs and kissing corners to get mirror images was excellent.

I found Patsy's video very helpful in getting the feathers to fit in the border spaces

Here are some close-up shots:

My sample this month uses plain white on side one and black on side two, for a little reversible table topper, measuring 22” x 22”.

I decided to try a very bright variegated thread on both sides and do alternate rows in plain rayon, light blue on the white side and yellow on the black.

Work in progress:

Auditioning for binding.  All along I had thought of using a black and white print but did not care for that look so went with a wild colourful print instead.

choosing binding fabric

I think it looks nice on my blanket box.

Thoroughly enjoyed the whole process, thank you Patsy!

Linking up to SewCalGal Free Motion December Quilting Challenge.

Have a look at what other Canadian bloggers are doing at The Needle and Thread Network.

Terry

2012 FMQ November Challenge with Sarah Vedeler

This is number 11 in the Free Motion Quilt Challenge at Insights from SewCalGal. 

This month, Sarah Vedeler challenged us with doing spirals in a grid format. I especially like the looks of the small spirals in the grid (mine are 1”). They are also the easiest to make and control shapewise.

Lots of spirals

I have often quilted spirals but always found it difficult covering an area evenly. The spiral variation is a great way of changing the direction of the spiral and moving to different areas.

I thought I would give myself an extra challenge and quilt on satiny fabric. The dark blue is different than the yellow and the white, heavier and not as shiny.

I also experiemented with three different threads:

Superior's Trilobal Polyester (Natural Colors) in gold on the white,

Gutermann 100% Viscose in dark blue on the yellow,

Mettler's Poly Sheen 100% polyester in grey on the blue.

This is what is looked like after blocking before making the pillow.

Lots of fun, thank you Sarah!

Also, Nina Marie has invited me to link up to her Off the Wall Fridays, so check it out, lots of nice art quilts.

Terry

October's 2012 FMQ Challenge with Teri Lucas

October Challenge - Teri Lucas

This is my sample for Teri Lucas' s Challenge for October 2012 FMQ Challenge at Insights from SewCalGal.

I started with drawing a sketch.

sketch

Teri suggested silk with cotton and wool batting, all of which I had, so I made my sandwich, marked my square and gathered up as many different kinds of threads that I thought would work for this project. I changed thread with each design but used Bottom Line only in the bobbin.

Threads used

Here's a couple of close-ups:

Teri suggested using the rest of our piece for further experimenting, so I did a practice run of a feather design that I want to use on a quilt I'm currently quilting.

I tried some echo quilting on one side but did not care for it.

echo quilting along one edge of feather

This is Diane Gaudynski's design that she calls Diane-shiko which I just love doing it and really like how it sets off other designs.

Diane-shiko between the two feathers

This a link to SewCalGal's October, 2012 FMQ Challenge.

September's 2012 FMQ Challenge with Paula Reid

These is my sample for Paula Reid' s Challenge for July 2012 FMQ Challenge at Insights from SewCalGal.

Front using Isacord

Since I did not have any Golden Threads paper I decided to try Glad Press 'n Seal. I have used this for applique placement but not for quilting through.

I printed the design provided by Paula and layered the Press 'n Seal over it, it stuck nicely to the paper. I traced the design with a fine Sharpie and let it dry. I then peeled it off the paper on stuck it on my quilt sandwich (again it stuck to the fabric really well) and stitched through.

Using Press 'n Seal

I used Isacord on top and Sulky Rayon on the back. I really like the shine of the rayon but the thread kept shredding when I tried it on the top.

Back using Sulky Rayon thead

Needed to use tweezers to remove as some areas are pretty small, but it did come off clean and easily at the stitching lines.

After removing the Press 'n Seal, I stippled the centre and area around the design. 

The only problem I ran into was that a little of the ink transferred onto the thread, but I would certainly use this method again with darker thread but would be leery to try it with white fabric and white thread.

Little Irish and August 2012 FMQ Challenge with Wendy Sheppard

Quilt #100

Little Irish

These are my samples for Wendy Sheppard's Challenge for August 2012 FMQ Challenge at Insights from SewCalGal.

Wendy's challenge was Jester's Hats which looked real simple at first glance but took some practise to “try to” master.

My first sample was the simple Jester's Hats:

Jester's Hats

And here is the cultured Jester's Hats:

Cultured Jester's Hats - front

Cultured Jester's Hats - back

Little Irish was made in miniature after making a bed size Double Irish Chain documented here .

Like a lot of other quilters, I found that filling the space evenly was not easy. I stitched the simpler version and I started in the centre and kept working around but I'm not sure that is the solution as I was getting a sort of echoing look in spots. I will try this pattern again in a larger size with more space between shapes.

detail - front

detail - back

No label but I stitched my name and date through all layers.

signature and date

The borders were all stitched together and then mitered at the corners.

borders and binding

I used a 12 wt Egyptian Cotton thread, Wonderfil Fruitti on the top and something lighter in the bobbin and a cotton batting. I find the look a little overpowering, a thread colour closer in value to the colour of the fabric may have worked better but all in all. am happy with the results.

The back is one of my own hand dyed Egyptian cotton.

Little Irish - back

Great tutorial, thank you, Wendy!

You can also check out my completed UFO, Out on a Limb using the June tutorial from Cindy Needham. 

DOCUMENTATION:

Quilt Name: Little Irish

Description: Small Table Topper

Pattern: Miniature Double Irish Chain

Size: 23¼” x 23¼”

Fabrics: 100% cotton

Predominant colours: red and blue

Construction Techniques: strip-pieced

Back: Hand dyed Egyptian cotton

Batting: cotton

Edge finish: Single fold binding

Quilting: Free motion quilted on Domestic Machine

Quilted by: Terry Whyte

Sleeve: no

Label: signed

Date completed: 2012

Inspiration: quilting inspired by Wendy Sheppard

Maker: Terry Whyte