Blue Hexagon Round Table Runner

After finishing the Christmas table cloth for my dear friend, Marijke, during my stay in France in 2010, I would like to make a round table runner for myself using the same technique; English Paper Piecing. It was just the right project, for hand sewing, to start at the time when I joined the local ladies at the 'Fat Quarter' sewing group. After several stops and starts and 2 years on with my acquisition of the Gammill Statler Stitcher along the way, I have finished this blue hexagon table runner for the round table that I have got at home. I used 1 1/2 inch size hexagon, pieced the hexagons and appliqued the finished piece on the background fabric by hand. It was a good chance for me to have more practice on custom quilting, so I custom quilted it on my wonderful Gammill Statler Stitcher. The swirl pattern named 'cinnamonroll L107' was by Laurie Thomas. I also experimented with using Creative Studio to divide the pattern (for the little daisy in the centre), and to create a scallop edge, a few tips that I learnt from Karin while visiting her in Stange, Norway. It worked out really well. Thanks, Karin. :-) Although I was managing fine, I also learnt that shallower curves would be easier when it comes to doing the binding....something to keep in mind for the next scallop edge.!! Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable task, overall, during a restful weekend.

My 'Recipe Card' Quilt

When I was at The Log Cabin patchwork shop in Germany with Marijke and Renee last year, I 'liked' and bought half a metre of this colourful fabric that was for making a bag. I, as usual, didn't really know what to use it for and had no plan for it. Just happened that, one night, I came across a picture of this particular quilt named 'Recipe Cards' in a catalogue from Keepsake Quilting (I'm one of the shop's on-line customers). I, then, started to calculate and scribble the measurements of the fabrics for the quilt in my notebook, working backward from the finished quilt size given. It's my 'relaxation' after work, and suddenly, there was a purpose for the piece of fabric from the trip. :-) At the same time, this would allow me to 'indulge' my love of sunny orange colour. Perfect.! ....Although the piecing wasn't difficult, I had to unpick a few sections when I wasn't checking the directions of the pieces with the pattern while sewing them together. The background fabric was soft and easily stretched as I don't normally use spray starch on my quilt tops. So, it was a good opportunity to 'float' the quilt top when quilting it on my wonderful Gammill Statler Stitcher. The quilted quilt was (and is) beautiful, and I had none of the problems anticipated even though it's the first time I utilised the technique. To match the feature fabric on the quilt top, I decided on the quilting pattern named '2394 Dogwood Flower E2E' by Tammy Finkler.

'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' Quilt

I bought this 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' quilt kit when the fabrics first became available a few years ago. It's an easy quilt top to piece but finding a block of time to finish it in one pass was much harder, so taking quite a while to get done.!! There was a generous amount of fabrics given in the kit, enough for me to also use as part of the quilt backing. It was always my intention to make the quilt for my Sunshine, and he's now using it. The cushion was my most recent Christmas present but it has to be 'lent' to my Sunshine for 1 billion days in return for me to have the story book (his first birthday present) to read for ONE day, and that's fair.!!! The quilting pattern, 'Caterpillar pano_02640', was by Kim Diamond, and of course, it was quilted on my wondeful Gammill Statler Stitcher.

Before AND 'a very happy' After

....My best attempt at longarm quilting, so far....

BEFORE

 

....and a very happy AFTER

 

'Automatic Continuous Clothing Closure', WHAT?

We are a household fan of Wallace and Gromit. Yesterday, we made a trip the city to see the exhibition on Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention, at the Power House Museum. We all enjoyed the exhibition very much. Lunch out at the favourite 'Sushi train' restaurant was a bonus. :-)

At the exhibition, I have come across a couple of sewing related stories. One was about a zipper or a zip fastener. It was originally called the 'Automatic Continuous Clothing Closure', invented by Elias Howe, the inventor of the sewing machine. I'm definitely grateful for the more simple term; zipper, as I would have had some difficulties with referring to it, otherwise. !

Another was a display on the invented quilting ruler by Leonie West. I'm one of her admirers and have got a few of the rulers. They have been very good to me with accurate cutting of the fabrics for my patchwork quilt tops.

Making oven mitts

A little while ago, I read about Insul-bright by the Warm Company in a quilting magazine. I needed to make a few Christmas presents and thought that making oven mitt would be a good chance to try it out. I ended up making 4 oven mitts (1 metre of Insul-bright would make 5 of 6 1/2 x 32 inches oven mitts). On the non-insulated side, I actually added a layer of cotton batting to give the mitts a little more loft. The batting also added extra insulation to the mitts. I have kept 'The Cat' for my kitten [kitchen!], and to feel what it's like with handling hot dishes from the microwave oven.It works really well and I'm very happy with it.

 

Baby bliss

In a span of two months, I have made 3 cot size quilts. One for my piano teacher's baby girl, one for my neighbour's grandson, and one for my DH's granddaughter from his first family. I enjoyed the process of making each of the blankets, and was certainly keeping very busy. 

 Blanket for baby Hollie Belle

I made this quilt top out of curiosity when I saw the free pattern published by AmandaJean. I'm one of the very many followers of her blog. I just happened to have the two slightly different patterns and colours of fabrics for the quilt top. I used some left over fabrics for the sashing, border and binding. I quilted the quilt with the 'DragonFlyFlowers' quilting pattern shared in 2006 by the Statler Sisters Yahoo Group. It turned out quite nicely, I thought. My piano teacher loves dragonfly, so it was very well received.

 Blanket for baby Wil

Before the arrival of baby Wil, I had this unfinished quilt top waiting around for some time as there wasn't enough motivation to finish it off. As soon as I have heard the happy news, it didn't take very long to complete the quilt. Again, I used some left over fabrics for the binding. The 'baby bear' quilting pattern was by Kim Diamond, it came with my Gammill Statler. My wonderful neighbour couldn't thank me enough for the quilt. It was a very good indication, and I, of course, was very pleased.

 

Blanket for baby Charlotte

I started working on this quilt top when baby Charlotte was progressing well, after being born 7 week prematurely. There was a little bit of my DH's old shirt in the quilt top (squares near the corners). I found trying to match the points between blocks quite a challenge, but I was manging OK. I have got the backing fabric with heart pattern to match the quilt top. But seeing that the family lives next to the sea (Bondi Beach, Sydney), I have decided on the backing fabric with cute little mermaids, instead. I chose the 'blowin in the wind e2e' quilting pattern by Tammy Finkler for the quilt. It looks like swirly ocean waves (to me, at least!). The quilt is now on its way to Bondi Beach.