Appliqué

I am good at this, I am good at this, I am good at this.......NOT! I found out last year. I am completely and utterly useless with appliqué. Well, not entirely useless. As long as the shapes are nicely square I have no problems..... I get into trouble when the shapes are round. Trouble meaning that the nice round shapes turn square anyway. Strange corners emerge out of nowhere..... Well meaning people have tried to tell me that this is not that difficult, gave me lots of useful tips and advice. Unfortunately it all led to the same thing...... square round shapes!

So: Creativity also means finding ways around problems. Which I did. I accepted defeat and I just refuse to follow the instructions on folding the seams over, freezer paper, etc. I just use vlisofix and a buttonhole stitch to secure the item in place and all round shapes are perfectly round..... By using a big stitch and a contrasting colour for the thread it also gives the finished piece a different but nice look.

Just like this

The first row is finished, three more to go.....

And yes, of course I know these are just excuses for doing it the right way. I have convinced myself though! No more worrying about round shapes.

Have a lovely day!
Heleen

Patch Parade part 7

Well, the first part of it. For the second part I need to do a lot of drawing and cutting. I have not started yet. And since the world did not end yesterday at 18.00 hrs precisely, which gave me the best excuse ever...maybe today. Anyway, it is just prep work. The real work on it will start next month or so we have been warned by Francoise.

This is the finished block.

And to prove that I did finish all four of the assigned blocks:

What are you doing this Sunday?

Have a wonderful day!
Heleen

Calendar for Advent

My sister in law was admiring the calendar for advent that I made a couple of years ago. My dear brother complained that the pockets in that quilt were not nearly big enough to make this quilt interesting.... That was the start of my project. The December issue of the Quilters Gilde featured a lovely little Christmas stocking. Made with an easy paper piece method. I was looking for an excuse (any excuse) to make this little stocking and so I thought it would be fun to design a quilt around them. I should really have known better.

Almost the actual size! They were very fiddly to make.

A small sampling

I did not quite realise that I would have to make that cute pattern 48 times (to make the 24 Christmas Stockings necessary for Advent). The pattern very quickly became less cute. However, I finished all of them!

I roped a friend (that can actually draw very well) into making a drawing for my background ideas. She made a beautiful design for me. I ordered buttons to hang the stockings (arriving today if all goes well). I went to the fabric shop for the fabrics needed for the background and now......

Now I need to get started with the background. No excuses left. My sister in law has her birthday coming up. June 29th. More than a month left....I'd better get going!

Have a lovely day.
Heleen

I did finish some things

Looking back at my blogs I realised that I haven't showed any of the things I did manage to finish. Remember the Patch Parade Mystery? Well, I am slowly catching up there.

Part 6. 8 blocks just like this one. 

Part 5. 4 of these...

Part 4. 8 of these.....

And the Sweet pieces part 5.

Now, there is lots more I need to do with these two projects. I need to finish part 7 (I did start already!), lots of drawing and cutting to do. And then I need to start the borders for the Sweet Pieces. It was part 6 (so it should have been done last month....). After that two more of the stitchery blocks (part 7).

But then again, I need to finish the Advents Quilt I am making for my sister in law and I bought a fabulous pattern by Lynette Anderson that I really want to get started on.......Oh and the sandwiched Fabric Wonderland Mystery Quilt needs to be quilted too of course........

Have a lovely day!
Heleen

Catching up

Well finally a blog about quilting again. It is such a shame that I need to moan in it..... You see, this weekend I spent with my least favourite part of quilting. Sandwiching..... Before the quilt sandwich could be made I had to IRON the top and the back. Normally I don't mind ironing, but two big surfaces (2,40x2,40 meters finished size) It took me almost an hour and a half just to do the ironing... There really should be a better way to do this!

Now I do not know about you people, but my mind cannot stop coming up with thoughts at a time like that. There must be a service to sandwich your quilt for you...... Does every quilter hate this part? What would I want to pay for someone ironing and sandwiching....? I know that quilting services do exist (do not get that one myself....quilting is my favourite part by far) If anyone sees a business idea in this, please inform me. I will be your first client I assure you!

Hold on please, I am not done moaning just yet:

Because then of course I needed to sandwich the whole thing. First question was: Where? After a lot of debate (with myself....) I decided on the dining table, not big enough but I could slide the quilt across while securing. It took me just over two hours to get it done. About halfway through I ran out of safety pins, could not find the handy tacker device (@#$%^) and turned to using a (big) stitch instead.

And then HALLELUJAH finally, the fun part. I can start quilting. And it all melts away.....

Have a lovely day!
Heleen