Category Archives: Free MotionQuilting

Fabulous fabrics, Free MotionQuilting, Patchwork, Quilting

Tumbling Blocks Quilt

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The last few days have been bitterly cold with a fierce icy east wind, the ground has been frozen solid and although I had gardening plans they’ve been on hold.

So we followed the necessary parts of our lockdown routines and then the rest of the day loomed ahead.

Thank goodness for sewing is all!
An ideal time to get up to date with writing the blog and to finish the Tumbling Blocks quilt.

Just yesterday I finished writing up the story of ‘Football Fan’ and in it I wrote that Nova had asked for two quilts for her girls. So this is the story of the second quilt ‘Tumbling Blocks’ so far.

Once again I was given the freedom to choose the design with purple and green being the colour choices for this one. I knew that there would be plenty of choice and after showing Nova an inspiration piece I had an idea of the tones and began the search. I was collating the fabrics for both quilts because it was inevitable that another lockdown was coming.

Here is the eventual fabric pull. I was rather surprised to find nothing suitable in my stash but then really pleased to find all but one of these fabrics in Aberdashery the wonderful shop right here in town. Something vital was missing though and when I found the green with white leaves online I knew that was it. It balances the other greens and lifts the whole pull. It’s sometimes a bit of a risk buying on line but I have to say that now I have a range of reliable quality suppliers I buy from I never worry about it.

Aberdashery, Market Street, Aberystwyth

I’ve wanted to try the ‘Tumbling blocks’ pattern for a while, I love that ‘box’ illusion. I looked around for a pattern and found one in a back copy of ‘Love Patchwork and Quilting’ magazine.

Their patterns clear and comprehensive. Even so ‘Tumbling Blocks’ did need concentration when it came to the piecing and there were some moments!

I did eventually get the hang of the sequencing and the blocks were put together in rows and the the rows joined. The back was to be plain purple so I put together a row of blocks to add interest to the back.

Time to make the sandwich.

The ‘sandwich’ is when you layer the quilt top, the wadding and the backing together. All three layers need to be lined up and perfectly smooth and flat. Sounds simple really – not always. This one was quite well behaved. Having layered them I began pinning from the middle, moving outward an smoothing the quilt as I went.

Now it’s time to quilt. I’d been planning this all the way through and had decided on free motion quilting with a sort of daisy chain . The daisy chain would begin in one corner and move down the quilt, branching as it went. Free motion is when the machine’s grip of the fabric is turned off and the operator moves the fabric to ‘draw’ with the needle and thread.

What hadn’t decided though was about that thread. I had a multicoloured, mainly green and purple thread that could work well but I just couldn’t make up my mind so eventually I did an Instagram poll and went with the result, a very decisive ‘YES’ for the variegated thread. Get me using an Instagram poll!

This was clearly going to be far more visible on the back of the quilt which was good, it would leave the blocks speak for themselves on the top and give interest on the back.

There was only the binding left to do now having measured, cut, pressed it in half along it’s length I sewed it to the front by machine then as always hand finished the back.

Just before Christmas a friend asked me to make a little drawstring pouch big enough to hold her car and house keys. Of course I said yes but not until the quilts were done. So as hand sewing tends to happen in front of the TV in the evening there was time on a rainy day for a little pouch.


So ‘Tumbling Blocks’ is off to it’s new forever home to continue it’s story and I’m taking a break from sewing to re-decorate the sewing room. Now there’s an undertaking.

baby, Fabulous fabrics, Free MotionQuilting, Fun, Gifts, Grandchildren, Patchwork, Sewing

Woodland Creatures Quilt

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Florence is growing quickly and suddenly she’s ready to move into her own room so I wanted to make her a quilt of her own for her cot.

I’ve had the Moda ‘Thicket’ panel for some time and it seemed just right for her quilt. After a little bit of research around quilt patterns and blocks to complement the individual creatures I settled on a wonky log cabin block with primary colour and of course black and white logs. A quick look at my scraps made me rethink the primary colours to bright colours.


I was glad I had recently sorted my scraps into colour boxes, it made the selection for the blocks so much easier!

A word about black and white. Bold black-and-white images are great for young babies because they stimulate the development of the optic nerves, teaching the eye muscles and brain to coordinate and function properly. I’ve noticed that they are also naturally drawn to them in the early months in particular.

  • Rabbit was first up.
  • I really liked the block.

Once the first block was complete just a little bit of planning was needed to make sure the animals were all going to be central and it was off we go. Later I wished I’d spent a little more time planning the orientation of the black and white and the colours but in the quilting world I’m a relative novice and it’s still a developing skill. Next time!

I like to hang my blocks on the ‘washing line’ as I go. It helps me spot potential problems in improv blocks and generally refine my colour combinations if necessary.

I could see a little problem developing here. My final log (on the left of each block) was having to compensate for my over cutting the other logs. It would be easy to put right and get a more balanced block.

Coming together.

The blocks were quick to put together once the fabrics were ready.

Then it was just about finding the best layout. It can take time! This was when I wished I’d thought more about the orientation of the black and white and colour. Note to self. It’s all in the planning!

Next up the backing for the quilt.

Here’s the layout.

Lovely Aberdashery (isn’t that the best name for a haberdasher’s shop in Aberystwyth) had just the right wadding, an eco-blend suitable for a baby quilt.

The front the wadding and the backing were pinned together to make the quilt sandwich and so it was on to the long job of actually quilting. ‘Free motion’ quilting was always a skill I wanted to grasp and I love the challenge, but it is a challenge and needs patience, concentration, a steady hand and nerve! One of the earliest free motion patterns I learned was stippling and early attempts were dreadful. I’m pleased that its now one of the patterns I frequently turn to.

I stippled around each of the woodland creatures and then stitched around each animal for definition and ‘stitched the ditch’ (sewed exactly into the seams) between each animal and the ‘logs’ and the each block with a cross stitch continuing with the black theme.

You can see this best on the back of the quilt.

The final step is the binding and for this quilt it had to be a black and white binding attached to the front by machine then hand finished at the back. I really enjoy hand finishing a quilt, its a final contact with the finished article and needs to be done at leisure, usually in front of the TV and definitely with thimbles. There’s nothing attractive about red spots on a quilt and stabbing fingers with needles is not recommended.

Cushions, Free MotionQuilting, Grandchildren, Quilting, Sewing, Story cushions

Finished in February II

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Story Cushions

The first Story Cushion I made was The Very Hungry Caterpillar cushion it’s in the blog for April 2014. You can see it here.

It had been in the making a lot, lot longer. It was actually the catalyst to my long path to free motion quilting and to my beginning patchwork. I had the idea for the cushion and realised it was something I would need to actually learn. I was lucky, I found a great teacher in Kate Higgins and the rest, as they say, is history.

Just before Olivia’s 2nd birthday she became obsessed with very same Very Hungry Caterpillar story so…… on to the net to order fabric and cushion number 2 was on the way.

The panel and the foods fabric were soon cut and the book pocket made.

The caterpillar and butterfly were outlined with this amazing multicoloured cotton thread. I love this and have it in several (rather expensive-but-worth-it) colour ways, this one is ‘primaries’, there must be around 50 colour ways.

Next it was on to the quilting and I have to sing the praises of another sewing thread here. I kept reading about this thread, it was everywhere; it was on just about every professional blog I read; it was in magazine articles; on pinterest; everywhere.  You really can’t miss it and I decided to stop ignoring it and invest in this Aurifil. I bought mine from Barnyarns, simply because I’d had some freebees from them and they really seem to know about thread.                               I am converted, it is ultra smooth and it doesn’t break and I really have to say it’s made a huge difference to the flow of my free motion work. I’m totally sold and don’t think I’ll go back to quilting with anything else. I only regret not trying it sooner!

So it was caterpillar quilting  for the caterpillar side

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And butterfly quilting for the butterfly side.

 

 

Now there was one more thing. I’d made two story cushions and I have three grandchildren and although Heidi had the cushion that matched her quilt it’s not a story cushion with a pocket for a book!

So cushion number three. It could’t be the same as Dougie’s,  I didn’t need a particularly good imagination for that bit of sibling interaction! So here is what my search led me to choose.

 

Once again I outlined the motives and then stippled in between on the outside of the pocket.  But this time the  top half was plain/plainish  so I decided to write on that.

After sketching out a couple of font ideas this was my choice. Think I might use it again, simple but effective I think.

I can’t believe how quickly these two cushions came together. The first one took me so long. The quilting was so much easier, having a new machine since I first began has helped a lot. The Pfaff is so much more controllable and the Aurifil is a great find. Mostly of course its all down to experience and I must say that is pretty satisfying really. I think these two are destined to take up residence in the girls’ teepees where they both enjoy having stories read to them and where hopefully, in the future they will curl up to enjoy a book themselves.