Swirls, what's not to love?

I have been sitting pondering for days what free motion quilting designs to use.  I guess after I had hurt my writs a few weekends ago it gave me more than enough time to think about it (its much better by the way), but as I had the quilt set up inside the throat of my sewing machine, I still had no idea, so I just went with what felt right.  

I love swirls, the texture and flow is just beautiful, I think together with the stippling I used and the circles inside the sashing its a great combination.

There is not much to say about the quilting, so I thought of sharing a few pictures.  They are after all worth a 1000 words, so I will let them speak for themselves, :-)  

The following pictures were taken from a completely different angle, and I think the light falling from behind really shows off the texture...

Now all that is left to quilt is the white borders and the outside pieced borders.  I am thinking feathers... If you'd like to read up previous posts on this baby quilt click HERE.

Happy quilting.

Slowly does it...

Unfortunately, I did not make a lot of progress working on this baby quilt this week.  This past Sunday, I hurt my left wrist playing golf.  I think it was about 6 years ago that I was quite a regular on the golf course, admittedly I was not great, but I enjoyed it.  So ever since my husband started playing recently I wanted to take it up again.  I guess I was far to eager to get back into it, and did not warm up properly...

So I've been working at a snails pace, quilting really small sections at a time.  I am using Machingers quilting gloves, which helps a lot with gripping, but because I keep my hands parallel to the needle,  and the angle at which my hand sits on the quilt, I cant quilt for too long.

At least I had finished all the large blocks with stippling and the white sashing with circles.  This morning it feels a tad bit better, so I will see how it goes today, it is so frustrating when all I want to do is carry on, hopefully before the week is over all will be as it should be, and I can carry on.

Thanks for stopping by, for my regular readers and those who link up on my 'Anything Goes' linky party, thanks so much for taking part, its always a treat seeing what everyone is up to, and for all comments.  

Happy quilting.

Wednesday already?

There's that saying, 'Time flies when you're having fun' we all know it, and we have all lived it a some stage.  Yes, its true!  At some point in our lives  we realize what we like to do, and since I've found my passion, there has not once been a dull moment.  

There's no denying how much fun I have when I quilt, especially free motion quilting.  Now that the time has arrived to quilt the baby quilt I've been working on, I have been quilting non stop these past few days.

Stitch in the ditch, no one really sees it, no one really knows it there, but I find when quilting a large quilt on my domestic sewing machine it just helps to secure it.  That way whatever motive/design I want to use inside a specific block, I can jump around quilting which ever block I feel like, and not be bound by working in quadrants to prevent shifting.  We all hate those dreaded puckers...

So I started by SID (stitch in the ditch) all around each large block in the center of the quilt.  With that out the way, I can concentrate on each block.

Stippling, we all know it, and I bet most of us love quilting it.  There's something about the motion of wiggling around that is very relaxing to me.  Its one of those designs you don't really have to think about too much, except for quilting yourself into a corner of course.    

I am very much used to quilting on small scale, but I really want this quilt to puffy and soft.  So I tried my best to keep my scale a bit bigger and the spacing between the wiggly lines are at about half an inch.  

I decided on stippling on the large open blocks, because once its all quilted the padded hearts will be stitched down on top, like shown in the picture above.  I did not see any point in quilting an intricate design if most of it was going to be covered up. 

Inside the white sashing around the blocks I added circles, I think I saw this specific design done by Judi from Green fairy quilts.  Admittedly my circles aren't all the same size, even or perfectly round, but I think the overall effect looks great! 

I still have to quilt three of these 'heart' blocks before I am going to move on the pieced blocks, I still have no idea what to quilt, hopefully I will know once I'm done with these.

Linking up to, WIP Wednesdays over at Freshly Pieced.

Happy quilting.

Anything Goes Quilt 'n Sew #23 - Hand Basting

There are quite a few ways to baste a quilt, my most favorite and less back breaking way are Susan Schamber's method, I shared her video tutorials some time ago HERE.  Her method used two long boards that you use to roll up the backing and front of your quilt and then rolling it open as you baste the layers together, as shown in the picture on the right.  I've used this method on my Purple Diamond quilt, and it worked brilliantly.  This way of basting works absolutely great depending on the size table you have and of course the size of the quilt.

Then there is the famous masking tape method, one that I never seem to get right.  The  moment I pull the fabric to get it tight and smooth, the tape pulls away from the floor on the opposite side, it always an endless struggle with very little success.  So I have totally given up on trying it again.

So today I would like to show you how I baste my quilts that are too big for the table I have available.  Its not much different from using masking tape and wood floor surfaces, except I go to my bedroom which has wall to wall carpeting, and instead of masking tape, I use tacks.

I smooth out the backing with the right side of the fabric towards the carpet, and pull it slightly, not really stretching the fabric, but just enough to make sure its smooth and tight, the last thing you want is puckers that might form during quilting.     

I use curved safety pins to secure the three layers, and the only tricky part is pushing the pins through the three layers and to not catch the carpet.  If you do try or use this method already, you'll see that once you feel that you've caught the carpet threads, you just pull back ever so slightly and it will automatically let go of the carpet and pull only the three quilt layers.  

Yes, you still have get down on all fours, but knowing the backing is secured and wont shift around while pinning, makes it all worth while.  Its really easy and I've had a lot more success doing it this way than with masking tape.  

So now that I have the baby quilt all ready I'm off to start quilting, I'm pretty excited to start.

Now it's time for this week's linky party

It's Monday and a new week, so lets all share some of our projects, please link up any current projects you've been working on, anything at all...  This link is open for a week and will run every Monday.  Remember to come back next week, or follow my blog to get regular updates.

If you wish feel free to add any other blog posts you write during the week, since this linky stays open for a full week, I think its a great idea to share and keep sharing.

All I ask is that you either add the 'Anything Goes' blog button to your sidebar or add a text link to your blog post, and comment on a few of the other links too, share the love and make this weekly link party a fun way to connect.

<div align="center"><a href="http://marelize-ries.blogspot.com/" title="Stitch by Stitch"><img src="http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj592/MarelizeR/LinkyButton2_zps83805f35.jpg" alt="Stitch by Stitch" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy quilting.

Finished baby quilt top..

Before I start sharing with you today's post, I want to thank each and everyone for linking up to this week's Anything Goes linky party.  We're at week 21, and so far its peaked at 22 link ups, the most since I've started this linky party, and more are added daily.  Remember its open for a full week, so be sure to come back and read the ones you've missed... 

...It is very gratifying when piecing a quilt, and everything just works out.  The seams match up, no need for adjustments or using my seam ripper.  Admittedly if not for a ¼ inch piecing foot it would be a lot more complicated. 

So all that was left to do, after I had all the blocks and hearts done for this baby quilt, was to start assembling the quilt top.  I did use quite a bit of pins to secure the rows before sewing them together.  The last thing I wanted was shifting and having to do it over again.

I was not too picky about placement, but I did try and match the blocks up in a way that it did not have the same print and colour in the same row.

Almost done, but not quite.. The last bit, was the outside borders.  To make sure I did not mix them up, as they were placed dark, light, dark, I worked in rows.  I also marked them with stickers to makes sure once the rows were completed to add it to the quilt exactly as planned.

Its completely sewn together and all that is left to do now, is basting it, and of course to start quilting.  I do however want to plan it out first and not jump right in.  There are quite a bit of negative space to fill, and I want to do a bit of custom quilting instead of a meander.

I don't yet have a full view of the quilt top, but will share it with you very soon.

If you'd like to read up on the process of this quilt that includes a few tutorials, you can find it here, here and here.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday, over at Freshly Pieced and needle-and-thread-thursday-yall with My Quilt Infatuation 

Happy quilting.

Hearts, hearts ... and more hearts ♥

On Wednesday I showed you how I made the padded hearts for the baby quilt I'm making, so it would only be fare to show you the small hearts that go into the border too.  I made these the exact same way as I did the small hearts for the valentines mini quilt I made.

I started out by piecing two different, 10 inch x 2½ inch strips of fabric together pressing the seams open.  I made a small heart template the same way as I did for the larger hearts (you can see how HERE) and traced 20 hearts on fusible applique, I used Wonder Under.  After I had all my strips sewn, and hearts cut out, I pressed the applique hearts (glue side down) on to the back of the pieced strips right in the center, making sure the inside- and outside points are right on the seam and  the bottom of the heart facing towards the inside.  

  

The rest is very simple, I cut out the hearts and they were ready to be used.  By placing the hearts points towards the inside of the strip, you end up with mirror image hearts, same fabrics, but they look different.  

Then it was time to sew the hearts onto the strips of white fabrics.  To make sure I got the hearts exactly right and spaced exactly the same, I placed the strips right next to each other, and pined the hearts at an angle, I would then peal back the paper from the fusible applique and place them on the fabric, and press them with a really hot dry iron.

To sew them on, I used a blanket stitch.  This part was a bit tricky, spacing the stitches just right, especially in the center of the heart, and the bottom point.  Not all of them came out perfectly but most came ended up looking just fine.

To hide the thread tails, I pulled the threads to the back, tied them in a knot and pulled it through the existing stitches.  Because the heart is fused to the white fabric, there was no way of hiding them between the layers, and I did not want to leave the threads to show, since its all white, I don't want the black threads to show up when quilting.

These strips are for the side borders and I still have to get the top and bottom done.

This part is quite time consuming, since I'm stitching the blanket stitch quit slow, making sure they end up exactly right.

Linking up to can-I-get-a-whoop-whoop over at Confessions of a fabric addict.

Happy quilting.