Quilt 156 - Music, Music, Music (part 1 of 3)

Finally!  Got one finished! 

 

The center of this quilt is a clever panel that I found - and the outer borders are a print of "sheet music" (I couldn't believe I was so lucky to find that fabric!).  I bought 3 panels and am pretty much doing the same thing on each one. 

 

72" (H) x 56" (W) - bamboo batting - quilted on the longarm

 Here's a closeup of the sheet music fabric:

 

Quilt 153: Zoo Babies (part 2)

 "Wait!" you say. "Am I seeing double?  You posted this last week!"

Well... yeah...

I made 2 of these.  They're identical.

Quilt 152: Zoo Babies (part 1)

Another panel quilt - and again I had a ball with this.  Panel quilts are great fun and come together in a flash.  I've got 2 of these... Here's the first one - a simple panel quilt, but it's sooo cute!

 

 

38" x 51" - bamboo batting - quilted on the longarm

I had an absolute ball putting this together.  The center is a printed panel to which I added the green, blue, and gold borders, with all the fabric coming from scraps from other quilts (I'm determined to get my huge stash of scraps used up - there's so much in my quilting room that the scraps are taking over!). The quilting pattern is a simple "stippling" design, one that suits a very wide variety of quilt tops.

 

And here's the backing fabric, chosen (again) from my stash of scraps.

 

This one, and most of the others I'm working on, is destined for Inspirational Quilts, my favorite quilt charity. 

Stay tuned - more to come!

Quilt 151: Baby Turtles

Get ready... here they come!  I've been busy.  Finished 3 quilts, a 4th ready for binding and three more in various stages.

Here's the first one - a simple panel quilt.  All I had to do here was slap on the green border on the edges.  The rest of this is the panel itself, which is fairly large.

44" x 51" - bamboo batting, quilted on the longarm

The green border is scrap fabric from quilt 11!  Yes.... I've got quite a stash of scraps that go all the way back to 2011!

The backing is a soft fleece - feels lovely and the colours
are perfect for the top

Stay tuned... there's more coming!

Quilt 143: Tractor Factor - DONE!

This one is a simple one, but terribly cute.  It's just a large printed panel with a border of solid gold homespun on the outside.

48" x 52" - quilted on the Q-Matic - bamboo batting

I opted to use chocolate coloured thread for the quilting so that I could do edge-to-edge quilting without having the thread interfere with the images of the tractors.  as you can see, it worked pretty well.

Here's the quilt pattern I selected - it came with the Q-Matic

The backing fabric is the same as the outer border, and here's what the stitching looks like on the back.

Easy, simple, but very effective!  This one is going to the charity Inspirational Quilts - and I think some little boy is going to just love it!

Quilts 128, 129, 130: Houses - DONE!

Sometimes quilting with panels becomes almost like "instant quilts".  That certainly felt like the case with these three.  I found the "houses" panels online and ordered three of them.  The colourful prints are quite large, and after adding a 3" yellow border, 3" green border, and 3" blue border, I ended up with pretty good sized quilts. 

52" x 59" - quilted on the Bernina Q-Matic with the "Row of houses" stitch pattern

 Here's the stitch pattern I used (below). 

On the first quilt (below) I kept the stitch pattern at the dimensions it comes in.  After doing it once that way, I decided it was a little too dense, so on the 2nd and 3rd quilts I expanded the pattern to just over twice it's original size.

 Each of the quilts has a different backing.  The first one is light turquoise (with dark green binding):

 The second one is yellow (with light green binding):

 The third one is deep tea (with lime green binding)l:

I've been VERY productive in recent weeks.  Now having the Q-Matic for quilting, I can quilt one project while I'm piecing the next one.  I can't believe how fast I'm powering through my stash of fabric!  I may start posting more often, as posting once a week has left me with quite a backlog of quilts to show.

Quilt 121: Minnie Mouse 2 (baby size) - DONE!

A couple of weeks ago I posted about an adult-size "Minnie Mouse" quilt I made for a friend.  I had a second panel, and a little bit of the coordinating print, enough to make a baby-size quilt - and here it is!

48" x 55" - Quilted on the Bernina Q-Matic ("Panto_Stars" pattern) - cotton batting

I used the same backing:

When hubby Stephen held this one up for the photo to be taken, he remarked that the print on the backing fabric looks exactly like mouse droppings.

Oh, heavens... he's right....

Quilt 119: Minnie Mouse 1 - DONE!

A friend requested a "Minnie Mouse" themed quilt.  I found a great panel online - which is in the center of this quilt:

54" x 62" - quilted on the longarm (Q-Matic pattern "Panto_Stars") - cotton batting

The panel is in the center.  I added a narrow black border, a wider border using a coordinating print, and a 3rd border (black) on the outside.  The binding is done in red.

Here's the stitch pattern I selected.

And here's a closeup of the backing, binding and you can see how the stitch pattern fits into the quilt.  I used red thread, which pretty much fades into the background.

 This one is a fairly big quilt - but I have another Minne Mouse panel and will be doing a baby-sized one."

Quilt 118: Baby Australian Animals - DONE!

There was a sale at Patchwork With Gail B - and they had an adorable quilt kit marked down.  I couldn't resist.  Here's the top, after piecing.  There's a center planel with baby Australian animals shown, and the borders are an adorable coordinating print.  In the corners, the original design calls for some of the coordinating print to be cut out and applique'd - but I felt that was too busy.  Instead I decided to insert a fancy-stitch design of my own.

 I had a length of bright green that I wanted to use for the backing.  It's not an exact match to the greens on the top, however.

 But binding the quilt with this pink swirly leftover fabric would create enough separation between the back and front- and the pink goes great with both!

 I mentioned wanting to do a fancy design in the corners with stitching (instead of applique).  I found this image online - a cluster of gum leaves.  I used the Art-n-Stitch software that came with the Q-Matic to trace the leaves and make a stitching pattern I could execute on the longarm.

And here's my test of the design using scraps.  It turned out great!

The animals in the center panel are really cute.  I didn't want to do end-to-end quilting on this quilt, but opted instead to outline the animals and add a little bit of interest to the backgrounds inside the frames.

 And here you see on the finished quilt how that turned out!

The finished quilt!  Doubleclick the image below for a larger picture.  In this photo you can see the gumleaves in the corners (especially lower left)

44" x 52" - quilted on the longarm (freemotion, ruler work, Q-Matic gum leaves) cotton batting

My friend Sarah just became a grandmother for the first time recently.  She saw this quilt and fell in love with it - so it's going to be her gift to her granddaughter.

Quilt 116: Tree of Life I - DONE!

I found these panels online, and a friend was interested in them, too.  She found a photo online of a quilt made by slicing the tree panel into strips in inserting coordinating blue fabric in between the strips (somewhat as I've done to the panel on the right, below).

(click any photo on this page to see a larger image)

I also found another coordinating print - the wild rainbow swirlies I used for the border (below).  And for drama, I inserted a 2" black border on eather side of that.  Well, you gotta admit: it's colourful!

49" x 62" - quilted on the Q-Matic longarm ("PRPANTO110" stitching pattern) - cotton batting

This is the stitching pattern I selected from the library that came with the Q-Matic

The backing is solid navy homespun, and I used a medium grey thread (which fades well into the top but is nicely visible on the back).

My husband especially likes this quilt.  He said the tree reminds him of the drawing style of Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig.  You know what?  He's right!

I'm going to do the other panel a little differently.  I'm going to trim down the top of the panel and will use only the bright blue coordinating print for the borders (instead of the rainbow swirlies).

Quilt 112: "Baby Koala" Panel Quilt - DONE!

Now that I've worked out how to use the Q-Matic for end-to-end "pantograph" quilting, I'm really having a ball - and getting quilts done faster and faster!

I found an adorable Koala panel online a few months ago - and ordered it and a coordinating print (blue, green and grey leaves) for a border.  Adding a little bright solid green from my stash of leftover fabrics ersulted in a quilt that took very little time to put together.

I decided to experiment with the quilt design on this one, and chose "Panto_Square Meander" from the library of end-to-end designs in the Q-Matic.  Here's a photo taken just after I started stitching. As you can see, it's much like my free-motion "loop-d-loops", but with squares instead of circles.

I selected grey thread in the same shade as the koalas - so that the stithcing over the koalas fades back a bit.  I'm very pleased with the results!

 And here's the finished quilt!

40" x 56" - quilted on the Bernina Q-matic longarm ("Panto_Square Meander" stitch design, end-to-end) - cotton batting

The back is solid green - and here the stitching really shows up.  I love the effect!

I'm getting quite a bit more comfortable with the Q-Matic now, and have managed to figure out how to handle it when the top thread breaks and when the bobbin runs out, which happened a couple of times on this project.

What I don't know how to do is: restart quilting after shutting the machine off halfway through.  I'm sure it's just a matter of saving the design in the computer properly, but I won't be attempting it on any projects until I've successfully done it with some practice scraps.

Quilt 111: Zoe The Giraffe (and Q-Matic Headache) - DONE!

I mentioned last week I was having trouble with doing end-to-end quilting on the Bernina Q-Matic.  Here's an example of what was going on...

Here's the stitch pattern I selected for the quilt from the library that comes with the Q-Matic.  As you can see, it's circles which are overlaid, creating an interesting design: "Half Moon Border 03". 

With the Q-Matic, you can select this design and have it repeated on the quilt, effectively stitching from left to right in rows.  As you advance the quilt on the frame, you have to keep things lined up and spaced properly - something the Q-Matic is supposed to do automatically with it's "Re-align Safe Area" function. 

But I was having trouble with that when I did the quilting on this project. 

In the photo below, you can see the result.  After the first set of rows, the Q-Matic just wouldn't line up the next rows correctly.  Instead of adjusting the Q-Matic's area, I had to get as close as I could and then manually shift the quilt on the frame to match up what the Q-Matic was wanting.  It was, frankly, a nightmare.  In the photo below you can see the worst-matched row (look in the lower left corner, and you can see the points don't match up as they should).

(doubleclick any picture on this page to see a larger image)

I'm certainly glad I didn't select a more elaborate design. I managed to do OK with this.  I don't think you'd notice the incorrectly aligned rows without me pointing them out, but I certainly have trouble seeing anything else...

Here's the finished quilt.  It's made from a single printed panel, with a 3" border of solid tan fabric, and solid dark brown for the binding.

40" x 48" - quilted on the longarm (Bernina with Q-Matic) - cotton batting

Fortunately it looks just fine.  I used gold thread for the quilting, and it fades well into the pattern on the top.  And here's the backing.  With the patterned backing fabric, you can't see any goofs at all because the green swirls just swallow  up the stitching.

The quilt is fine - just not quite to my usual standards.

And, as I reported last week, I did finally find a video showing how to realign the safe area, and managed to get one of the 2 methods they show to work consistently for me. 

I've got another quilt mounted on the Bernina and expect I'll be able to report a very happy success next week!

Quilt 108: "Flight of Fancy" - DONE!

This one is a kit quilt from Patchwork With Gail B.  I bought it in April, at t he Australasian Quilt Convention.  It's a little larger than some of the other projects I've been doing lately.  Hubby Stephen is holding it for me, and the corner on the upper right is flopping back in this photo because it's so wide.  (doubleclick the photo below to see a larger image)

72" x 69" - quilted on the longarm (free motion nested C's) - cotton batting

It's made up of two panels (the dragonfly/butterfly print) and rectangular blocks made up of coordinating prints.  Here's a closeup:

I love the rich teals and turquoises - and the fabric has little flecks of metallic gold as well.  I used a soft dove grey thread for the quilting, and am very pleased at how well the stitches fade into the prints.

Here's a closeup of the back:

I'm getting quite comfortable with the "nested C's" freemotion quilting pattern.  It's easy to do and is the fastest stitch pattern I've used so far.

Quilt 106 - Flower Panel - DONE!

I love making panel quilts.  They generally come together very quickly and, although they are simple in design, the results are lovely.  Here's another example:

48" x 66" - quilted on the longarm, cotton batting

The center panel has a splash of summer blossoms on it, with a butterfly and dragonfly near the top.  I simply added borders of solid lavender cotton and two coordinating prints (blue and green) from the same manufacturer that sells the panel.

The quilting was done using my "Baptist Fan" groovy boards.  The backing fabric is a pink-polka dot print, and the binding is the same lavender cotton used in the smaller borders.

Simple but lovely!

Free-motion "Nested C" Quilting Stitch

My long-time friend and quilting buddy Jen recently sent me a link to an interesting video she saw on YouTube.  In this video, quilter Laura Ann Coia demonstrates an interesting free-motion stitch (click here to see her video).

Up to now, I've not done a lot of free-motion quilting.  I've done some "loop-d-loop" quilts, and these two quilts:

This quilt has a panel in the center with fairies and butterflies

I did free-motion outlining around the fairies, butterflies and flowers in the panel.

On this quilt I wanted quilting that would standout, but would complement the theme.

I used free-motion radio-wave stitches around the outer border - very effective.

In her video, Ms Coia is stitching on a sit-down machine.  She made the "C" pattern look pretty easy, so I decided to give it a try on the longarm using some scrap material.

Here's the result:

I'm delighted!  This was really pretty easy to do and VERY fast.  The results remind me of my "Blustery Breeze" groovy board pattern:

I love that groovy board pattern - but it is a bit "busy" for some quilts.  This new free-motion design will work well for quilts wshere I want a similar style, but less dense quilting. 

I've just finished a "jelly roll race" quilt top - and I'll try this new "nested C" stitch pattern on it.  Stay tuned!