Quilting my bargello.....

I finally got to sit down in front of the machine on the weekend (and today), and have loved every minute!  I have been having a lot of fun quilting my bargello quilt (remember that??) with an all over free motion.  I can completely lose myself when I free motion quilt.. I just get in a groove and off I go... lose track of time (as daughter #2 impatiently waiting to be picked up from work will confirm! ...oops).  But fun I had, which after all, IS the main aim of the game!

Here is a close up of my little 'wiggly jig' that I did.. just a big doodle really.. and as usual I got in the groove of it by practising on paper first, just to get an idea of 'where' I would go. 

I used a specialised thread, something which I have not really had a lot of success with before.  It was 'wonderfil' and I placed in both the top and in the bobbin.  It was perfectly variegated in the colours of my quilt.  The only problem was it came off the spool too easily whilst sewing, therefore knotting up often.  Liisa had told me a tip to help with this was to pop the spool in a cup on the table, this helped a little but not entirely.  My cup accidentally fell over at one stage, and with it 'accidentally' finding me a solution!  A cup on the side, who would have thought? But it worked! 

So tonight? Binding!  I will do a little tutorial on this as I have been asked to show my preferred method. So pop back in a day or so to take a look at this.

Oh, and my little Elsie has been sewing up a storm recently... although I must teach her NOT to cut into the middle of my fat 1/4's when she needs a little scrap (eeeek!).  I let her have the use of my machine as I believe experimentation is the best teacher... But.... what I am most intrigued about is her technique... The chair has gone, which I understand as she often stands up to sew, but now the foot pedal has turned up on the top of the table, and I have no idea how she can possibly operate the machine!

Squeezes,
Michelle xx

This Goes With That....

I have to admit to being just a tad surprised at how long since my last post...
There has, as usual, been just a tad going on, and I think since finishing a number of projects around mid year, I have been thoroughly enjoying (ok.. maybe slightly 'obsessed') with 'This Goes with That'.  It is a block of the month project, designed by Sue Daley (of Busyfingers) being an 'English Paper Piecing' Hexagon Project. 

English Paper Piecing Hexagons was in fact the first ever 'patchwork' project I did when I was 15, taught as an end of year elective at school.  I became obsessed then too, and used to go down to the local fabric shop (no quilt shops in Adelaide back then) and spend my pocket money on a few snippets of coordinating fabrics.

I have done a couple more similiar projects over the years, but am absolutely in love with this one.  It is highly addictive and a lot of fun.  I have chosen to do my project in civil war fabrics, and maybe this is part of the reason why I am having so much fun also, as it completely different to what I normally work with.  It has lead to me looking into the history of such fabrics, and therefore the women sewing them at the time. Do you know that the women used their quilts in the civil war era as vehicles of political propaganda? They used to embroider little messages to the men on the front line... I love it!

So here are a couple of pics of my work so far.  I have chosen to join my hexies with triangles, but there are other options.  I just like to separate them so can be seen more clearly (and damn it! ..if I've gone to the trouble to make them, I want them seen!!).  The project runs for 8 months, and each month you get 2 hexie patterns, with the template, papers and thread to match.  At The Quilters Corner, we have two colour ways available, civil war and bright florals.  Please note however, that I have used mainly my own collection of fabrics as I started well before the shop :)

 

Enjoy your week,

Squeezes, Michelle xx