How Time Flies

Wow! Where did June go? I haven’t even found time to post this month and July begins on Wednesday. Looking back over the month, I have been busy sewing completing one project and beginning a few more.

I am pleased to say that I have finally finished the Westalee Ruler quilt which I started  as an on online class in October. It was a 7 month course and I received instructional videos every month.

I also started  the Mysolation Mystery Quilt on line this month which was a 4 week course organised by Rachelle Denenny to raise funds for Backpacks 4 Kids. This organisation supports children who are victims of domestic abuse.
I have finished stitching my blocks but haven’t found time to stitch them together yet.

I also appliqued 2 blocks as my contribution to the William Morris quilt which will be raffled next year to raise funds for either the Royal Flying Doctor or the Breast Cancer Association.

Last week l started designing a tablecloth for my sister in the UK and did some stitching this morning. I’m quite enjoying this project as it is a change from what I usually do.

A few more butterflies to be added to the tablecloth. At the moment I’m not sure that I will use wadding in the tablecloth as it needs to be drapy. I am thinking it will be best to use a soft fabric as a lining.

Stitching Begins

As fabrics were all ready selected for 3 projects and 2 of them cut ready to begin, I began stitching this months projects yesterday.
The pattern for the first project is in the modern quilt workshop book which I own and includes  curved piecing which I really enjoy doing.
I’ve had my Bernina sewing machine for a few years now and only just found the hover function which is very useful for any type of piecing.

I got all the blocks pieced yesterday and stitched a couple of rows this morning before heading out to see my daughter and family in the country now lockdown restrictions are being eased. Haven’t see them since end of February.

I have also started piecing the first blocks for Rachelle Denneny’s mystery quilt. I have sewn 11 blocks together and need to complete 53 more blocks by Friday when we get our second set of instructions. I wonder what the completed quilt will look like. I do love a mystery.

New Projects

With most of my UFO’s completed, I have been working on the Westalee online ruler course quilt recently to get it finished. However after a mishap during this last month I decided I needed a break from that quilt having worked on it every month since November.
This week I started cutting out and selecting fabric so I can begin new projects next month. The fabrics below came from my stash of batik fabrics and are being used for Rachelle Denenny’s mysolation mystery quilt. Sewing begins on Friday.

The next lot of fabrics are cut ready to sew up a modern quilt. I love curved piecing and the block in the photo is a sample of a few of the blocks I will make for the quilt.

I am just about ready to cut these fabrics out for a tablecloth which I plan to appliqué so I will use my Brother ScanNCut to cut them.

And the Westalee quilt this is how far I have got before abandoning it. The mistake I made was to cut the centre panel too small so the blocks for the outer border are too big. Never mind I do have a creative opportunity to work through and will find a solution.

Feathers that Fly

Beautiful warm autumn day here in Perth so most of the day has been spent in the garden. I did find some time for a little sewing this morning and chose to use the water erasable pen to mark guidelines for my free form feathers. Really enjoying quilting this quilt. I used So Fine in the bobbin and through the needle and it stitched like a dream.

Balloons – Flying High

Finally finished piecing my balloon quilt and started quilting it during last week. I started by quilting in the ditch to anchor the quilt ready for stitching out the quilting designs.

Now that I am ready to quilt a dilemma has arisen as I’m not sure what pen to use for marking. My go to marking pen is a blue water erasable pen which has never presented me with any problems. However, I am loathe to use this pen on the quilt as I used jelly rolls to make it and a lot of the strips are reds. We quilters all know how notorious red fabrics are for running when wet. I’m thinking I may have to use a Frixion pen but I am not keen on using that because of the chemicals and the tendency of Frixion pens to leave a white residue on coloured fabrics.

I am not sure whether to leave the balloons with only ditch quilting or to use a curved line design within the balloons. Still thinking about that.

I have decided that I will very likely quilt the alternating white curves with a feather design thinking ‘feathers that fly’ here so they will fit in with the quilt name if nothing else.