Hmmmmm.

Am quilting the Arrows Quilt. It is going------ well, it's going. I tried a loop stitch, and that was silly. 3 hours of unpicking ensued. I started outlining the arrows on the white, which went well except for my tension issues, which meant another hour of unpicking. So third time lucky - have outlined all the arrows in white.

Now I'm wondering what to do next.

1) Should I quilt inside the arrows with colour?

2) Should I do another smaller design in the white areas?

3) Should I fill in the gaps with stippling or other patterns?

4) Should I just leave well alone and bind it?

All help appreciated! Linking to Crazy Mom's Finish it Friday for some help!


PS My hubby has a vomiting bug. Oh yay. We're all treating him like a leper. Yay for another bathroom. Not yay for him feeling even more ill than he has been already :(

First Block of Game of Thrones !!

Here's the first one, Martell House, the easiest to practice on, and still with wee bits of paper hanging into the stitches at the back. I will be spending some time picking them out. No hardship next to the fire!

Block size 24 and a half inches.

Game of Thrones, Martell House, Applique

Notes:

• I used spray glue to stick the back of the motifs to the backing fabric, and did the circle first, then the flames 5 at a time. 

• Paper backing to stabilise the sewing. 

• The spear shaft was a bugger, had to unpick the whole thing once but the second time worked once I had swapped the applique foot for a walking foot to cope with the extra layer of fabric. Phew!

• Stitch length almost non existent, stitch width varied from 2 to 1 (my machine goes from 0-5, its a Brother XL5700) 

• Stitch used was a blanket stitch, used both directions of it (nos. 4 and 5 on my machine)

•  See Applique notes for more info

Roll on the next one! 

Things I have found out about applique (updated)

1. It is time consuming. But in a good way.

2. The backing makes a difference. I started out with no backing and it was crap, wavy as anything. Went on the Interweb and found a couple of videos, one of which recommended PAPER behind the design. Result - success! Ordinary printer paper works for me, btw.

3. Spray glue is wonderful stuff.

4.  It takes a bit of practice for first timers to master. There is an array of leaves and leaf-type shapes hovering around the sewing table, plus different stitch experiments, all of which are varying degrees of crapness. But, eh, that is how we learn.

5. I quite like it :D

--------

6. I don't like it quite so much after pulling out threads (which took me about 40 mins. Hmph) when the bit I was doing wrinkled like buggery. Hmph. 

7. Have discovered that appliqueing on top of applique doesnt work, unless you swap the feet over for a walking foot, and lose the paper. Until you are back down to 2 layers, then you need the paper again.

8. Get one of these:

 
Applique Foot - It's ace!


9. Remember to spray the wrong side of the applique, otherwise there will be penmarks all over the front. 

Feel free to learn from my mistakes!

Winter Is Coming....

...and the need for warmth on the bed is growing ever stronger, so I've been inspired (and am finally well enough) to get on with the Game of Thrones quilt I've been commissioned to do. Seems a long time since I was asked, stupid colds Grrrrr.

But anyway, work progresses. Have cut out all the templates, cut out the fabrics from the templates (am using spray to hold them down to the block backing as they are too intricate to needle-turn)  and started putting them all together! I think the one I've done looks pretty darn good - do you agree?

No prizes for guessing THIS House!

Have attempted a few practice runs of sewing round applique, and they began with Awful and so far have progressed to Mediocre. So I went on to the lovely Interweb last night and found lots of instructions about how to make applique sewing easier and look better. Thank goodness.

Tonight (after badminton) I shall be mostly in my sewing room - Experimenting MWAHAHAHAHAHA

4 hours of quilting so far

That post title first came up as 'wilting', and after 4 hours I reckon I have had enough for just now. Going well so far, no puckers or folds (touch wood, cross fingers, chuck salt over shoulder, kiss the cat, etc) and the stipple effect is looking good.

I'm quite happy to stay stippling for now, although I do have an occasional foray into straight lines. I like the overall background effect of the stipple, how it looks like a scribble but doesn't detract from the main theme which, for me, is the colour. I LOVE the colours in quilting. The richness, depth, bouyancy and life of a mix of colours is what it's all about, I reckon.

And here's some shots to document the process:

Light slightly blue on this one, not sure why, but work going on. The machine was red hot by the time I'd finished today!











My sewing machine feet :)




I like to sew barefoot.
It seems I can work the pedal better.














More of the quilting. I use ordinary rubber gloves to move the quilt around, they have good grip and are inexpensive. Only trouble is, they give your hands a horrible rubbery smell. How we suffer for our art!

I've used 7 bobbins, with less than half of the quilting done. Stippling is heavy on the thread, but worth it in the end. I should have some more bobbins really, but find that by doing 3 at a time, I can have a good break when winding some more on.

I also sit on a gym ball when at the sewing machine, which really helps during a long session. When you start ot stiffen, just lean back and roll around for a bit, it really helps :)

More later then, peeps....