Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Wednesday - a bit of progress

I'm binding - hand stitching

I am happy to have some work in progress today. On Tuesday night I was hand stitching the binding onto my Across the Sea QAL quilt. My version of this quilt has a Kona Charcoal background and back and the plus blocks are made from various Kaffe Fassett and other similar bright fabrics. Finishing the binding is slow and calm work. I should be done this one by the end of the weekend.

A look at the quilting pattern and the binding fabric.

I spent Sunday free motion quilting it on my sewing machine. You can see that I tried an all over rounded corner squarish motif - I like to think of these imperfect squares as having a 70's vibe. This is my first attempt at this motif - it was reasonably easy to do. I used King Tut thread in a variegated dark colour called obsidian. This quilt will finish at about 60" x 72" and I can't wait to see how it looks after it is washed.

Twinkle

That star is part of a new mini quilt called Twinkle. It is also the first ever paper pieced  pattern that I drew myself. I started out with the idea for Twinkle - a fancy but small star on Kona Charcoal, quilted to be similar in style to Shattered and Shine. I just needed to find the perfect star and since I could not I took another approach.


On the recommendation of Lynne at Lily's Quilts, I loaded Touchdraw onto my ipad and in the spirit of "how hard can it be", on Saturday I drew the star, printed it and set about figuring out how to paper piece it. 

Well, it seems that it can be a lot harder than it looks to just make up your own pattern. The tricky part of paper piecing design so far for me is that you have to divide the project up into parts that can be pieced at once and then the parts are sewn together - hopefully with easy seams. I learned that this fairly simple looking star had to be made in 16 separate parts. And joining the tricky bias cuts so the seams matched was also not easy. I learned a great deal making this star. 

And worse, I did not even chose fabrics to show off all its paper piecing difficulty, as I was going for more of a twinkling quality. But I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

Twinkle

So here is Twinkle. It is a mini quilt which is about 15" x 16.75". I know there are a great number of spectacular mini quilts about the internet right now - especially at the Modern Mini Quilt Challenge (oh and if you have not yet done so, go over and vote on the finalists in the people's choice award by clicking here.) However, I was inspired to make Twinkle anyway, and there are a few others that still might have to be made before the inspirations that came along as a result of Shattered are finished.

So on the progress report is to continue to work through my mini quilt ideas. Also, as soon as I finish the binding on the ATS quilt, I am hoping to get back to the borders on the Mystery Quilt. I also have a couple more swaps to get moving on, and some packages to pack up and mail. Progress on all my projects is being made, but I also have to admit to having a great desire to start a new quilt or two, it is hard to stay on one thing it seems.

I am linking this progress report to Lee at Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday and also with the Canadians at the Needle and Thread Network. The buttons are over on the right sidebar. There are always wonderful projects posted at each of these links, I hope you have time to visit them.

Best,

Leanne

25 comments:

Debbie said...

I'm anxious to see Across the Sea all done! I'm really intrigued with the quilting you did (and yes, it has the vibe!)...do you stop at each corner, or just keep going & try your darndest for 90-degree angles? I'd love to try this, but....
Anyway, Twinkle is great! Good for you for wading through the pattern design! Your quilting, of course, just makes it! Good goin!

Letterpress said...

Leanne--this is amazing. I love that you figured out how to make such a complex star into a paper-pieced pattern, and I'll bet we'll see this again in different colorways and fabrics.

I also like that "rounded-square" quilting. I'm a fan of overall designs that cover a lot of ground, yet let the quilt top shine through.

Elizabeth E.
opquilt.com

Diane said...

Twinkle is fantastic! Love the quiltling on it.

Mary Ann Tate said...

Twinkle is wonderful...well done.

Mrs Flying Blind... said...

The twinkle star is amazing - well done on figuring out the cuts!

Oh hand-stitching the binding - my favourite bit!

Katie said...

Twinkle is gorgeous! Simple, yet not simple, beautiful.

Annabella said...

Loving the sneek peeks of the ATS quilt and can`t wait for the full reveal. Twinkle is stunning - you never fail to surprise me Leanne!

mtnquiltr said...

The Twinkle star looks beautiful, and your quilting complements it so well. Congrats on figuring out a pattern. I think I would get a headache!

Rhonda the Rambler said...

I can't wait to see ATS in all its glory. I think Twinkle is great but I hope you do another one with different fabrics. Like you said, I don't think these fabric choices really show off your hard work. I love paper piecing and think I need to do a PP project after I get all these UFOs done. UGH!!!

Catherine said...

I love the star pattern and the fabrics that you have used really make it spectacular

Sheila said...

Twinkle is just delightful - well done on drafting your own pattern, it is challenging.
BTW I am playing with white and red at the moment...

Canadian Abroad said...

Love twinkle and that it is your very own pp block. I may have to have a look at the app.

elle said...

Squarish corners totally work. Good for you at trying your own pattern. It does twinkle!

Marg said...

Wow, making up your own complicated pattern, that's fantastic. Twinkle looks fabulous.
I really like the FMQ design you've used for ATS, I'm looking forward to seeing it when it's finished.

Susan said...

WOW! Twinkle is stunning! I am so impressed with your drafting and construction! And of course your quilting finishes it off perfectly! And your ATS is going to be lovely to see finished too! You have been busy!

Jennie said...

I LOVE Twinkle - well done on creating your own pp pattern!

Marjorie's Busy Corner said...

oh boy; I am liking Twinkle

Sheila said...

Twinkle is just great , good for you making your own PP pattern , I can imagine that was not easy but you sure did a fantastic job and I like how you quilted it .

Katy Cameron said...

Love the look of that quilting on your ATS quilt, and I adore that mini! It's so fun (but also a bit stressful) to draw your own patterns :o)

Lucy | Charm About You said...

Truly I just love each and every thing you make!! The fmq looks incredible, I've seen the pattern but not been brave enough to try it yet!
The star looks amazing too :)

www.randomthoughtsdoordi.com said...

I love your paper pieced star. I have yet to try to design something. Mr. R has an iPad, I might have to try it.

Catherine said...

Your star is amazing - and I love the quilting.

Archie The Wonder Dog said...

I love the quilting you did on ATS - I can't wait to see the finished quilt! And Twinkle is fabulous!!!

leanne said...

love the rounded squares quilting and just had to tell you I love the twinkle block - really effective - so glad to hear that you've got more of that fabulous inspiration that helped you create shattered and shine - they are all so gorgeous - thanks for sharing them :)

Prof. S (the enchanted bobbin) said...

I'm always impressed to see someone draft their own block -- and yours is lovely. And thanks too for mentioning Needle and Thread; I hadn't heard of that site...nice to know about it!