A quilting foot - an idea whose time has come

I've been quilting for 8 years now - and you'd think I'd have thought of this before.  You see, I've made over 100 quilt tops on my little sewing machine - using a zig-zag foot.  Now, the zig-zag foot doesn't have a 1/4 inch mark on it - I've been just sort-of faking my way through.

But last month, it finally occurred to me that there probably is such a thing as a 1/4 inch quilting foot for my sewing machine.

eBay to the rescue - and here's my new quilting foot!

Why didn't I think of this sooner?  Now my seems will be exactly 1/4" - uniformly.  And whoa, I can sure sew a lot faster now - as I don't have to worry about getting uneven seams!

And it only took me 8 years....

Quilt 102: Turkish Delight - DONE!

I love it when there's a sale at the quilt shop.  In the last sale I went to, they had marked down a layer cake pack of prints I'd been eyeing long before the sale.  The prints are all jewel-tone fabrics with metallic gold embellishment.  I loved the set - the prints looked somehow exotic, in my imagination, "Turkish".

I snatched that pack up in a hurry, but then was stumped about how to use the fabric.  Not all of the prints seemed to really go well with the others.  I ended up pulling out some that looked a bit Christmas-y (red and green) and some that really clashed with the rest (white and gold).

I wanted a simple design for these squares.  I started out with a square like the one below.

Here's how I divided the block, using my 2.5" Binding Buddy ruler.

I opted for black sashing because I wanted a neutral frame for the pieces, so I opted for solid black.  The colours in the photo below really don't tell the story.

I needed a border  on the outside to bring the quilt up to an acceptable size - and opted for a very strong solid turquoise, which makes the interior blocks really pop!  The backing is the same colour.
The quilting is done with navy thread, using my "Blustery Breeze" groovy boards, and the binding is solid black.

(doubleclick the photo above to see a larger image)

The finished size is 57" x 68".

Not the best week for quilting

I can't believe how fast the last week went - and how little I got done.

I now have several projects in various stages of completion, but none have had enough progress to warrant talking about in a post.

I'll do better next week.

Quilt 101: Indigenous Zig-Zag

About 5 years ago, on one of my trips to the US, I picked up a fabulous quilt pattern at "The Quilt Place" in Rockledge, Florida.  Here's a photo of the sample quilt from the pattern:

(doubleclick the photo above to see a larger image)

The designer calls the pattern "Zigzag" - and the sample shows thee quilt made up with a variety of animal prints.  It's adorable!

Last April, at the Australasian Quilt Convention, I bought a large bundle of fat quarters with indigenous Australia-inspired prints - thinking they'd look great with this quilt design.  So I've launched into this project and very quickly had cut up about half of the fat quarters and started working in the zig-zag corners.  Here's an intermediate picture, showing some of the small blocks:

(doubleclick the photo above to see a larger image)

The quilt designer's example uses black for the zig-zag edges.  I like that a lot on the sample quilt, but my prints are already dark, so I opted for burnt orange instead.

 

And here is a photo showing a handful of the completed blocks lined up to show the zig-zag effect:

I don't want two of the same print too close together, so used the back tray on my longarm to lay the blocks down and begin sorting through which ones go next to what

Once I worked out my rows, I pinned them together and started stitching the blocks together.

So far so good!

Revisiting Quilt 99

In December I completed a tablerunner for a friend of mine.  Lil wanted something special, something unique for Beryl - her partner's mother.  She gave me the colour scheme and left me to my own devices to come up with something (I was very flattered that she trusts me so much).

About a week ago, Lil sent me a photo of the tablerunner on Beryl's table.  It pleases me to no end to know Beryl is happy with it and is using it - and I just can't resist showing you!

(as always, doubleclick the picture to see a larger image)

I'm so very pleased she likes it and yes, it suits the space beautifully!