Ten in '10

Confession time here.

My name is Di and I'm addicted to quiltmaking. Actually I'm addicted to quilt starting.

Remember this quilt? And this? There are more, oh dear....

Clearly I need help, and I know I'm not alone here.

Thankfully help is at hand, and I hope I'll soon have some beautiful quilts out of my sewing room and doing what quilts do best - wrapping folk with love.

Won't you join me in Linda's Ten in '10 resolution?

A Friday Flaunt

I'm making slow progress, but steady, on my version of Emma Jansen's beautiful Snowflake Medallion quilt, and this week has seen the completion of the hand applique on the central medallion, and the addition of a double mitred border.

I've begun work on the next border, saw-tooth stars in shades of yellow. Gosh I'm loving yellow in a quilt!

The striped leaves on the raspberry-coloured buds are actually a stronger shade than they appear here, and I'm very happy with the overall appearance of the quilt which I'm making in parallel with Linda.

We share notes, techniques and tips (though mostly I learn from her, rather than the other way round!) and while she's halfway across the world, the internet and Skype mean that she could be living right next door.

Take a look at Linda's version, using a completely different but gorgeous palette of purples, teals and greens.

It’s Tuesday (or at least it was until half an hour ago) and I can’t wait…

…to start work on the next border of my Snowflake Medallion quilt.   Here’s my central medallion, all ready for the next step.  Linda has already posted a picture of her central medallion, looking all modern and vibrant in dotty purples and greens, and I have (more than) a little catching up to do.

My applique is a little lumpy and bumpy, but I’m enjoying the process and trying not to become too anxious about every tiny curve.  As always, I’m going for overall effect (frantically rationalising here).  I’ve tried many applique techniques over the years, with varying degrees of success.  This time Linda and I are using the back-basting method which certainly cuts down on the preparation and is generally working for me. 

When I’ve completed the quilt I’ll let you know if it’s my new method of choice – the jury’s still out on that one.

[If you’d like to join in the fun of “It’s Tuesday and I can’t wait…” pop over to ButtonsByLouLou where you’ll find the rules, as well as a list of all the bloggers who are playing.]

Tutorial – How to applique a tiny (1 cm) circle/dot

At first glance Snowflake Medallion looks fairly straight forward, if on the repetitive side. 

But, as Linda and I have discovered, it has a couple of challenges - for example, appliqueeing 72 tiny 1 centimetre dots to the flower applique blocks.

For me, tracing the tiny circle onto mylar, cutting out the shape and drawing up the fabric over the shape with a gathering thread was not an option.  Try as I might I simply could not cut the edges of such a minute disk of plastic smoothly enough, and bumpy edges can really show when you’re dealing with pieces this small.  

And the thought of cutting out multiples of these babies?  No way, Jose.

The quest – Find 72 ready-made 1 centimetre circular shapes. 

The solution – Sequins!

(Forget the dimpling – the edge really was smooth.)

I held the sequin on the fabric while I traced around it, then cut out the circle leaving the smallest seam allowance I could get away with. 

Then I ran a running stitch around and gathered up the fabric over the sequin.  I drew it up quite tightly, and just left a small tail of thread (it held OK without securing it, and made life easier a little later). I had quite a bulky little bunch at the back, but this was OK. 

 

 

 

 

 

My sequin was ever-so-slightly convex, so I made sure the convex side was on top as it was much easier to sew to the background this way.  I was able to push any excess fabric under with my needle as I stitched the dot down, so the slight bumpiness in the photo above was easily smoothed in the process.

Once appliqueed, I turned my work over and simply cut a tiny circle out from beneath the shape.  Then I prised the sequin out, quite easy to do because I had left my gathering unsecured in that earlier step.

 

 

 

 

 

At this stage I could have done a tiny bit  more careful trimming of the raspberry fabric from the back, but I prefer to leave a little bulk so that the dots have more dimension on the finished quilt.

Result? A small (but reasonably perfectly formed!) 1 centimetre dot!

[Now bring on all those jokes about going dotty – I can take it!!]

Footnote: Another advantage of this method is that you can have a whole assembly-line of dots going.  My two packets of sequins together cost me $2 so I wasn’t in the least upset when my sequins often emerged bent and un-reusable at the end.

Snowflake Medallion

When Linda showed me the pattern for this pretty quilt (by Emma of Ballarat Patchwork) it was love at first sight. My arm was already halfway up my back when she twisted it – in the very nicest way, of course! – by suggesting we each make our own version and swap notes as we go. I just love working like this!

Busy as she is (and jet-lagged as she was!), Linda wasted no time collecting her fabrics and getting down to business, but it’s taken me a little longer to send for the pattern and start my journey. At last I have my fabrics – give or take. Some are from my stash, always a good thing, but I needed to acquire the raspberry and the stripe, as well as a few fresh new greens. I may swap one or two once I see how they play together.

I could never leave out the pinks, but I’ve chosen to substitute lemony yellows for Emma’s blue fabrics. After quite a few years making reproduction and mellow-looking scrappy quilts, this is my first using a white background and I’m really looking forward to the change.

The look I’m after is light and spring-like, a good mood-lifter to work on during our winter months.