FMQ - July

The July challenge was given by Angela Walters whom I have followed for quite a while and always admired for her beautiful work.  Apart from teaching and hosting retreats, Angela is a professional quilter who quilts for many large companies including the Robert Kaufman Fabric Company.  She has also written two books.

The quilting design for this month is called "Tiles" which could be used in a border or in negative space as long as it is not too small an area.  Angela used a "swirl" design in her sample and I can assure you this is not the easiest of designs to do!  It took many hours of practice after which I still wasn't very happy but towards the end of my final piece, I thought it was passable!  Also to quilt the straight lines of the tiles was a challenge in itself.  I had to resort to a ruler and wash-out marker to make them line up. 

Here is my final piece which I present for the July challenge.

Tiles filled with swirls

As usual I started with pencil and paper marking direction of quilting with arrows....

  

then did a few practice pieces - here is one....

Thank you Angela for providing this tutorial.  It was really more difficult than it looks and provided a great challenge.  Thank you also to SewCalGal for the opportunity.

Argh those swirls really got to me!  Anyway, after completing my challenge piece and while my mind was still in "swirl" gear, I decided to give them a go on a hand pieced ufo, and yes I know, I know..... many say that you just do not machine quilt something that has been hand pieced, but this Spool quilt had been put aside for the past two years and periodically taken out and had a bit of hand quilting done on it.  Unfortunately I had used a chintz on the back and this made it very difficult to quilt by hand, so to just get it done I decided to put it under my machine and go for it.  At least it is finished as I really don't like having unfinished quilts put away in cupboards!

And here it is....

Spool Quilt with swirls

Thank you for taking a looky and will see you again in August.  I wonder what lies ahead for us next month?

New Books

1 July 2012

I am so excited to received some lovely new quilting books.  These 3 were on special from Martingale.

Martingale Publishers

I have so many Charm packs in my stash that I needed some new ideas of how to use them and "Charmed I'm Sure" has lots of lovely new quilt patterns to make.  I've always preferred the lovely old original quilt patterns and this is what "Fresh Vintage Sewing" is all about.  "Reversible Vests" is quite self-explanatory.  Mmm can't wait to get into this one!

The books in the bottom pic are from C&T Publishers.  SewCalGal put a post on her website that they were having a very special sale on their books ranging from $3 to $5. Shipping on these books was $30!  Oh well, the price we pay to live in the best country in the world is still worth it!!  Note the "Sophisticated Stitches" in the foreground - this is by Don Linn who gave us our March FMQ tutorial.  It has some really super designs.

C&T Publishers

Oh goodness the temptation to get into these books is so enticing, but I have 3 waistcoats to sew for a wedding so these must come first!  Thanks for stopping by....

I have typed this whole page with one hand as my little snow white kitten is on my lap and she complains when I stop stroking her.  Spoiled rotten!  DH wants to know why he doesn't get the same treatment but of course he's not as furry! 

Blogging with Snowball

FMQ - June

Cindy, you really got the creative juices flowing this month!  Cindy Needham gave us our "challenge" this month and really got us thinking "out of the box".  Thank you for letting me run free to be creative and to "just do my own thing"!  

What we had to do this month was to draw swirls across the page and fill in the patterns that developed with our own quilting design most appropriate for the space.  I found it quite a challenge when I started, but as I got going with fabric and machine, the ideas really flowed.  It was all very well practicing on paper but when I started with my challenge fabric, it was a different story!

I must say that I managed the "Hummmm Purrrrr" of my machine a good few months back, really only recognizing now that that is a wonderful way of describing what you hear with your sewing machine when you are doing free motion quilting ie. the correct speed with the design you are sewing.  In other words the rhythm and sound of your machine.

Cindy encouraged us to use the three basic shapes in free motion quilting - the repetitive line, a circle and an S-curve.  Strong geometrics and soft flowing designs are a good combo and compliment each other.  While we strive to make our quilts as beautiful and perfect as possible, remember that this world is a more interesting place because nothing is perfect and straight and this is how we should feel about our quilts.  Don't stress unduly over them, we have enough stress in our lives.  They can be imperfect and beautiful!  Whew, that took a load off my shoulders!!  We were given lots of tips while quilting and I would suggest reading them here for heaps of information. 

Here is my entry for June's challenge.

Divided and Conquered!

First of all came the doodling....

Cindy's printed swirls on which to practice

My "doodles"

Here are a few close-ups taken of my final entry.

Thank you Cindy for "stretching" me and sharing your ideas and suggestions.  And thank you once again SewCalGal for giving us the opportunity to learn from world class quilters!

Reunion Class of '62

Check that waistcoat!

May 2012 saw the reunion of DH's matric class of '62.  What a great event this was with a visit to Westville Boys High where we were shown around the school and attended assembly with 1300 students and 79 staff members.  This also had a special meaning for me as well as I was also at the school in the days when it was co-ed.

All of us present at the school tour

After a scrumptious tea served to us in the old "quadrangle", we set off for Cathedral Peak Hotel in the Natal Drakensberg for two nights, meeting up with "old" school friends.  Two days to catch up on 50 years!

A view of Cathedral Peak from the hotel verandah

Cathedral Peak Hotel is situated in the heart of the Drakensberg mountains and is probably the closest to the well-known peaks of all the hotels.  The approach to the hotel is through typical rural settlements and along pot-holed roads lined with goats, sheep and cattle, the latter often forcing cars to negotiate around them while lazing on the narrow roads in the sun!  After signing in through two boomed entrances, we arrived in the magnificient surroundings of the hotel. 

The next few hours were spent introducing spouses and renewing friendships and acquaintances...... followed by a delicious buffet dinner in the diningroom.  Oh the food!  What a beautiful spread, not only at dinner; breakfast was quite amazing as well.

The highlight of our stay in the 'Berg was hearing "The Savages" playing together for the first time in 50 years.   During their latter high school years, Dave, Pete, Derrick and Jeff formed a band, calling themselves "The Savages".  They played at various venues including the Westville Hotel, local "socials" and private parties as well as a gig during the Christmas holidays at Drakensberg Gardens Hotel.  (This is another story)!  Considering the fact that they spent an afternoon practicing and another hour or so before the Thursday evening "event", one found it hard to believe it had been 50 years since the band had played together last!  Of course, the music and songs they played reflected what had been popular in the 1960s and everyone enjoyed the evening and sang along to songs we remembered from that time.

Dave, Keith, Pete H, Pete C, Derrick

"The Savages"













It was with very heavy hearts that we bade everyone a very fond farewell with promises to keep up the contact from here on!  Sadly, we had learned of classmates who were no longer with us and of others who were faced with ill health and fighting dreaded diseases.  There were messages sent by e-mail from those now living in far-off lands and who were unable to be there for the reunion.  It felt that 50 years had passed in a flash, but the memories from this reunion will stay with each one of us, not for 50 years, but for many years to come. 

Friends 50 years ago

 

Derrick and Dozy and ourselves

FMQ - May

May's free motion quilting challenge was done by Leah Day who I have been following for quite a while and from whom I have learned so much.  Leah is a very self-assured young lady who has overcome challenges in her life that none of us would want to face.  She and her husband Josh, run a thriving and exciting business selling all things necessary for quilting and freely teaching many quilting techniques.  You will find a link to her website here.

She called her tutorial "Foundational Designs" and began with telling us about the essential equipment to use when doing free motion quilting.  The Supreme Slider and machiners' gloves, I feel, are absolutely necessary to produce excellent work - apart from a lot of practice of course!

The first of the two foundational designs she did was "Double Stippling".  This entailed sewing a wiggily line and then sewing another wiggily line crossing backwards and forwards over the first line.  This did not come easy to me as I always try to avoid crossing over lines when stippling.  But anyway, this is what we were to do, getting me out of my comfort zone!  The second foundational design was "Railroad Tracks."  Much the same as the first design, but the lines were squared off.  A video of  both of the foundational designs can be found here.

Here is my usual doodle page, quite simple really!

Then comes my practice sandwich....

 

 And finally my attempt.... oops I've photographed it upside down!!  Haha.  But you get what I was trying to do!  I used Seralon in the bobbin and Gutermann Sulky Cotton in my 80/12 needle.

 

This was not my favourite quilting design but it was great to learn something new anyway.  I feel that we have progressed 5 months down the line and look forward to something more challenging next month; I think it is pebbling!  Thank you Leah Day and SewCalGal for giving us the opportunity to add another design to our sample quilt.

FMQ Challenge - April

April's tutorial was given by Don Linn and was how to transfer a quilting design on to your quilt top tracing the design on to a piece of tulle set into a quilting hoop, with a permanent marker.  This must then be ironed to set the permanent ink so that the ink does not come off on the quilt top.  Then with a purple marking pen (which should disappear when wet so please try it on a scrap piece of the quilt fabric first), trace the design lightly on to your quilt top.   It can then be easily seen to machine quilt.  This is an ingenious method of transferring a quilting design and I know that I will use it again. There was no "doodling" to do this time!

Tracing on the tulle

The design traced with a permanent marker onto the tulle.  I have used a piece of white paper under the tulle so that the tracing shows up nicely to photograph.

I chose to do the sample design which Don gave us as it fitted nicely into an 8 inch square of my prepared quilt for this FMQ Challenge.  I used the usual Seralon in the bobbin, Colorful embroidery thread in green through my Titanium 80/12 Quilting needle and Gutterman Sulky 100% cotton in peach/green variegated thread to micro-stipple the background.  I also chose to do a little embroidery on the leaves.

Quilted design

Close-up

Here is a close-up showing the embroidery on one of the leaves and the micro-stippling.












Thank you Don for an awesome tutorial on how to transfer a design on to a quilt top for machine quilting.  I really enjoyed this and am intending to buy your book on quilt designs!

90th Birthday Celebration

90 beautiful roses for the birthday girl!

We celebrated Mom's 90th birthday on 12 April 2012 with my two sisters and their husbands, Lesley and David and Barb and Russell at Ama Casa in the Natal Drakensberg.  Les and Dave have a beautiful home in the "valley" in the Drakensberg mountains where they run a very successful Bed and Breakfast hospitality business.  They have 3 self-catering cottages with stunning panaramic views of Cathkin and Champagne Castle.

A view from the front garden looking out onto the peaks

We were blessed to stay in Di and Colin's lovely cottage with Barb and Russ.  Such peaceful surroundings as is obvious here!

Barb relaxing!

The lounge which also looks out onto the peaks

    

 And then came the gastronomic delights!  Barb and Russ brought a prawn starter which was followed by a scrumptious dinner of Moroccan Lamb prepared by Dave and Les, well actually Dave!  Les prepared the salad and set the table with her table cloth from Mauritius.  I provided the Lemon Meringue Pie - the amount of lemon to Mom's specifications!

The table set for dinner

Dave putting the finishing touches to the Lamb

Well, we drank wine and ate delicious food and talked and then talked some more.  I think that Mom was quite exhausted as we had spent a harrowing day before sitting in stop/goes on the way to Bethlehem and then again on the way down to the Berg.  To top it all we were held up by a HUGE herd of cattle being herded in the same direction in which we were traveling, and which we gently - actually not so gently - nudged passed.

We departed the next day with Mom returning home to Kloof with Barb and Russ and ourselves back to Harrismith.  We left Les and Norah to do the cleaning up before the next lot of guests arrived in the afternoon.  Three cheers for Les and Norah!!

I was delighted to make Mom a quilt for her birthday which I know she will enjoy having on her bed and undoubtedly will show off to all the residents at Chartwell Retirement Village.  It was a privilege to put many hours of hard work into this quilt which I know Mom will appreciate.  I also made her a knitting bag out of Dad's ties.  I feel that this turned out a little large for Mom's diminutive size but I'm sure will be put to good use during flea market shopping expeditions!

Knitting bag made from Dad's ties

Quilted with meandering FMQ and feathers

No quilt is ever quilted without Purdy making herself comfortable!  What a spoiled cat!

Barb, Lesley, Mom and myself

FMQ Monthly Challenge - March

At last a new month!  I so look forward to a new month to see what challenge we are in for.  This month the fabulous art quilter, Ann Fahl, was our "challenger".  My first reaction after watching her great tutorial was disappointment in not actually seeing her in action in front of her sewing machine, but after going through it again and digesting all she had to say and the wealth of information given, I realised that no video could have covered the amount of info and knowledge she so kindly shared with us.  I have ordered one of her books, "Dancing with Thread" and can't wait for it to arrive. Click here to see other books by this wonderful teacher.  Thank you Ann Fahl for this great tutorial.

As usual here is just one page of many of my "doodling".

I found it difficult to do the spirals as per Ann's as they looked a little "messy" to me so I rather travelled back to go onto another shape.

Here is my practise piece using a 75/11 quilting needle and Loomtex batting (in South Africa we don't have the same types of batting as in the USA) and Seralon thread top and in bobbin.

Here is my final effort on one of the oblong sections of my wall hanging which SoCalGal suggested we put together for this Challenge.  I used a gold colour Colorful Embroidery Thread on the top and Seralon in the bobbin.  I chose to do some meandering, adding a few little leaves along the way and then going into a flower and a few spirals.  I think it looks quite pretty and would like to use this on a larger pieced quilt.

Close-up

I really enjoyed this month's tutorial as it encouraged us to be more innovative with our quilting designs and to think "outside the box".

FMQ Monthly Challenge - February

FMQ Challenge - February

Our February challenge was really awesome - feathers by Diane Gaudynski.  I have tried many different ways of stitching feathers and this was a keeper!  Thank you Diane, your pictures describing "how to" were excellent and simple to follow.  As before, I did a lot of practicing on paper first to get the flow of the design well and truly embedded.  Here is one of my first pages.

Then came the practice sandwich, in fact many sandwiches!  I used a Schmetz Quilting Needle size 75/11.  The red and pink examples are done with Seralon thread which is cotton and I think unique to South Africa as I have not seen anyone mention it before.  For the cream feathers I used Colorful Embroidery thread.  This was superb and produced beautiful feathers.  I will continue to use only this thread for FMQ.

Below is part of a sampler that I stitched by hand about 15 years ago and am now using as my final practice piece before stitching on my prepared FMQ quilt.  The centre is stippled and I've stitched feathers around the pieced outside of the block.

Here is my final effort.  I'm quite pleased with it but feel that my "echoing" needs a bit more practice and that will surely come as I intend using feathers regularly in my quilting.

These two close-ups show a bit more detail.

Thank you Diane for this tutorial.  I really loooved it!!