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Posted by  Q in Craftie Craft, Quilting on  March 12, 2011, at 11:22 am
I didn’t get a chance to post this last week about sewing achievements, but I did actually achieve something. I think I mentioned that I had basted and pinned Mon Ami on Monday night and started the quilting. Well I didn’t finish it on Monday as anticipated I was just so tired when I got home from work, that sewing was not going to be part of my evening.
 Mon Ami Schnibble Quilt using Plume by Tula Pink for Moda Basted I did quite a lot of quilting on Tuesday night, but didn’t quite get to finishing it all. Wednesday night, I got it all quilted. I stitched around the stars, did a serpentine stitch on the inner background border , stitched around the peaks and valleys on the half square triangles and straight line stitched about 5/8th of an inch apart on the outer borders.
I then made some pretty pink binding using my 1inch Clover Bias maker and bound it by machine. I wasn’t up to doing it by hand and I could nearly taste the satisfaction of completing it. I attached the binding to the back first, then folded to the front and used a decorative stitch to attach to the front. I am admittedly not very good at this, but I will only get better the more I do it, so I am quite happy with it.
Some problems with my quilting.
- I still find my tension a bit strange and inconsistent at times and am not sure what to do about that
- my machine has a handy quilting guide attachment for equidistant straight line quilting, but it doesn’t attach when the walking foot is on, only the standard foot. So the straight line quilting kind of bunched a little at the end of the lines
So this is the second quilt top I got finished so far this month!
 Mon Ami Schnibble Quilt using Plume by Tula Pink for Moda Backed and Bound  Mon Ami Schnibble Quilt using Plume by Tula Pink for Moda Hanging Up  Mon Ami Schnibble Quilt using Plume by Tula Pink for Moda draped I gifted this one to my mum as well.
Quilt Details:
Pattern – Mon Ami Schnibble designed by Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosies Quilt Co
Completed as part of Le Petite for January 2011 – Hosted by Sinta Renee at Pink Pincushion and Sherri at A Quilting Life
Parade of other completed Quilts for Le Petite Here and Here, I highly recommend having a look, it’s so wonderful to see the same pattern in so many different colour, fabric and even size variations!
Posted by Q in Craftie Craft, Softies - sewing on March 7, 2011, at 1:30 pmI was going to post this last night, but I thought that the person who I made the pony for might see it and it would ruin the surprise, I realise now (since she isn’t at work today, so still doesn’t know) that it is highly unlikely that anyone who I know personally (as in see in real life) would be reading this anyway.
So other than the new Le Petite Project for this month (Endless Summer by Pam Buda from Heartspun Quilts), I am focussing on quilting and backing and binding, because evidently (yeah, I know it came as a complete shock to me?!) your quilt isn’t actually done until it has been quilted and bound.
I’m also licking my wounds (emotional ones) from becoming single (again) last week. One of ( or quite possibly all of ) my grandparents are probably doing the proverbial turning around thing now, with their oldest on one side and oldest girl on the other side still being unmarried and *gasp* childless 4 days before crossing over onto the wrong side of her mid 30s.
So Friday night, I completed quilting the 1800′s Vintage Doll Quilt that I (tried) to make. It was gifted to my mother, who thought that my hand quilting was rather well done stippling ?! And didn’t say anything about the bad angles and the general non-square-ness of this square quilt. Saturday morning I got up early-ish and made a pony.
She is from the Pippi Pattern from Melly and Me. A friend here at work has horses and one of hers hurt her foot a few weeks ago – look away now – and ripped one of her toe nails off her foot – you can look back now. So I decided she needs a horse that won’t hurt her foot. Pippi was bigger than I anticipated, but a fun, quick and easy pattern that I finished in a few hours. Great way to spend the early morning!
 Pippi from pattern by Melly and Me Pre-Stuffing I was so happy with her, I took her around the house for a photo shoot, here she is on top of niecey poo’s toy shelves. Looking out over the play pen.
 Pippi from Pattern by Melly and Me Play Pen Pose and then I took her outside to nibble on the undergrowth below one of my brother’s Bonsai trees.
 Pippi from pattern by Melly and Me grazing I also started finishing (started finishing?! – that sounds idiotic if you really think about it) my Mon Ami Schnibble – added the borders and basted it and started quilting. I believe I could finish the quilting and binding tonight. (A little optimism never hurt anyone did it?). I am also thinking up inventive ways to add more red to My Sweet Spot Schnibble and started blanket stitching around the sawtooth stars last night with red thread.
I was quite afraid of the finishing bits because I am petrified of quilting (well free motion anyway). The idea of spending all that time stitching and making a top I like and then stuffing it all up with the quilting, makes me feel ill. I have now realised it’s not so bad if my work is not stippled or beautifully free motion quilted. So I will do this and maybe have a go at the free motion stuff, every now and again, to see if I might improve.
I also need to finish my Dresden Plate Runner, which I am using as a wall hanging; and my Amy Butler Daisy Chain, High Flying Geese quilt. As well as make a pot holder later in the month for my swap. With this in mind, only little projects like Pippi, that I can start and finish in a morning are allowed to be commenced.
Well that’s the plan today anyway…
Posted by Q in Craftie Craft, Quilting on February 8, 2011, at 10:33 am
I am not sure if I detailed my quilting journey at any stage in here, but will give a brief overview, that will mean this will make a bit more sense. Around 3 years ago my mum and I signed up for a beginners quilting class at Patchwork by Sea (my local quilt store). I went along with a hand me down sewing machine that was around 15 years old but good enough for me to quilt with. Unfortunately a few weeks into the course I got ill and was in hospital for most of the rest of the course. Mum would bring me the course info and I was hand sewing my table runner in hospital. This wasn’t too bad, since I am quite comfortable hand stitching and also quite happy with blanket stitching my applique blocks by hand.
When I got out of hospital I did my usual trick when I learn something new, trying to do a very complicated over the top project and expecting it to be easy. I decided on a raising the barn log cabin quilt with a rainbow colour scheme. I was doing ok with the piecing, when my relationship with my ex fell apart. I had to move house, start a new job and get used to being single again all around Christmas time (2008) and well I promptly forgot about quilting. The following year, my mum bought me a new sewing machine for Christmas but told me about when she purchased it in July (lol!) It’s a Toyota machine especially for quilting with an extension table. After I think stitching a few times after it was bought it stood neglected and ignored for a while.
Mum and I went to the Adelaide Quilting and Craft Show that year (2009) and she bought me a Strip Roll of Amy Butler Fabrics from the Daisy Chain Range. I know at the time I could recognise the range on sight and was very excited about it.
Cut to July 2010 (eh?) my latest contract (I work in IT) ended abruptly and I had nothing to go to… this ended up going on till November, but during that time I started sewing again. Slowly with softies and then I started going crazy, which brings us right up to date…
So I had decided (mid crazy quilting build up) that I would make this quilt called High Flying Geese in the Book Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts by Pam & Nicky Lintott and use my Amy Butler Daisy Chain Strip Roll, but still too scared that it would be like my Log Cabin (way too complex for me to play with) or that my flying geese units would not so much be flying but sort of limping in some pitiful way.
Here is the log cabin by the way, when I basted it – I started the quilting, then gave up again, but I am a bit more comfortable that I will eventually finish it.
 Raising the Barn Log Cabin - Rainbow - Quilt Top anyhooo…
Because of playing with the Mon Ami Schnibble project in January and starting to try Dresden Plates (see next post), I have actually gained quite a bit of confidence, and I finally started cutting the strips for the High Flying Geese Quilt!
 Daisy Chain Strip Roll and Yardage So here are the strip roll (untouched for 2 years!) and the additional yardage I purchased for the border and backing of the quilt.
 Daisy Chain for High Flying Geese Cut and just in case you think that is an illusion…. here they are again below, with the leftovers of the strips that will be used to bind the quilt.
 Daisy Chain for High Flying Geese including pieces for Binding
Posted by Q in Craftie Craft, Quilting, Softies - sewing on February 3, 2011, at 7:05 am
So, remember the Mon Ami Schnibble I was working on? – I finished the top (well sans borders) it has yet to be quilted, but was what I wanted to do during January because of the Le Petite or Year of Schnibbles Project Hosted by both Sinta on her blog Pink Pincushion and Sherri on her blog A Quilting Life
So on the 1st of the Month, everyone who participated project is paraded on each of their blogs and this month I am proud to be one of the parade!
Here is the post on Sinta’s Blog for the Mon Ami Schnibble Parade 1st Feb 2o11 (I’m in this one – about half way down the post yay!)
Here is the post on Sherri’s Blog – as you can see one pattern can have a life of its own.
As you know I am not the speediest of sewers/quilters, but I did get a start on Miss Perkins, but she is not quite ready for a parade just yet. I tried to attach her legs without a doll needle and was not happy with the results so will be getting that today. Miss Perkins also doesn’t have a mane, tail or eyes just yet. But with the Rosalie Quinlan Fabric Collection by Lecien Fabrics Grandmother’s Flower Garden, she is quite the Melly and Me child isn’t she?
 Partially Completed Mrs Perkins Giraffe from Pattern by Melly and Me -Note to self – Iron On Interfacing does not work well as a photo background he he he 
I also got some stash additions yesterday, want to see?
 Three Yards of Pretty Bird Fabric Designed by Pillow and Maxfield for Michael Miller Fabric Whoop Whoop! This arrived yesterday from my mum’s latest Fat Quarter Shop purchase ( I snuck some stuff in there!) and will be use to make the wonderful Stella Handbag pattern by Patty Young!
 8 Fat Quarters from Playdate Collection Designed by Patty Young for Michael Miller Fabrics and speaking of Patty Young and Michael Miller Fabrics, I also added these 8 fat quarters to the stash! – They are not ear marked for anything just yet, but I can’t to have a ‘date’ with them.
And last but definitely not least, my local discount craft store Spotlight has a sale on that started yesterday so I grabbed two of these 25 X 2.5 inch strip rolls which equal one ‘jelly’ roll and are also not yet assigned to a project.
 2 Times 25 Strips of 2.5 Inch Widths from Spotlight Pink and Lime Green
Posted by Q in Craftie Craft, Quilting on January 23, 2011, at 7:12 pm
So… with a scant 8 days to spare (get it scant… oh hilarious Q ) I have finished my Mon Ami Quilt Top!
Actually I found out that my seams are probably not not that scant, but more about that later!
I finished the 25 main blocks for my quilt on Friday (21 Jan) and excitedly started laying them out to see what they would look like together. Then I noticed the 1st error, and then the second and then… Well I found 7 blocks that I had made mistakes on. Of the 7 though, 5 of the mistakes were exactly the same, so their must have been some flaw in my piecing production line!
In the pic below you can see 4 of the errors are the same. One block was totally wonky, I must have been half asleep piecing that one!
 Mon Ami Schnibbles Core Blocks Starting Layout but Spotting Errors So just for some added hilarity… I decided to hand stitch the fixing so sat on my bed watching telly and patiently unpicked the errors and started fixing them. I am busy fixing the first block looking at another for reference, and well… I only took the blocks with the errors into my room to work on and left the correct ones in my study/sewing room. So I fixed my block with another error!
Aaargh!! LOL. What a moron. After that I did ok I think.
 Mon Ami Schnibbles Core Blocks Final Layout after Fixing Errors (the ones I noticed!) Anyhoo, then I had all my blocks layed out in the order I thought would work well, by row 2 I had a made a mistake there too (woo hoo!) You see how the background fabric and the contrast fabric (the one that isn’t the star) flip from a vertical to horizontal position in the layout- I sewed the second row incorrectly so I had to move that row somewhere else. I didn’t panic too much about that one, no unpicking required!
 Mon Ami Schnibbles Core Blocks Stitched after Fixing Errors (the ones I noticed!) Anyway so here are the 25 core blocks after I stitched them together. Now smarties would see an error, but I didn’t I was too excited or something..
This centre square was supposed to end up measuring 23inches by 23inches, mine was 22.5 by 22.5 so my seams were less scant than required, but hey it was a square, which is better than I have done in previous projects!
After piecing the blocks, piecing the pieced border was a breeze but yes… you guessed it I made a mistake there too! One of my half square triangles had the wrong side of the fabric facing, so it’s slightly duller than it should be. And if you didnt’ spot the error, but now you have to know what it is, in the middle row in the pic below, the block to the right of the middle block is wrong 
Here is my quilt top. I initially cut out outer borders that are the same as the background fabric, but am considering changing that so have not done the outer border just yet.
 Mon Ami Schnibbles Quilt Top using Plume Charm Packs by Tula Pink for Moda
Posted by Q in Craftie Craft, Quilting on January 10, 2011, at 8:03 pm
It took me a while, but I finally read the bit where Carrie explains the name for the Mon Ami Schnibbles Pattern that is being used for January in the quilt-along hosted by Sherri and Sinta. You see it’s a friendship block variation and it’s a Schnibbles so it’s small hence My Little Friend Mon Ami… I was a little daunted after my last piecing effort and convinced that it would be My Little Enemy, but I have started and so far so good!
I am using: a quick quarter II ruler (mad by Quilter’s Rule) to help me with my half square triangles and my newly purchased 6inch square rotating mat and rulers to square up the 2inch by 2inch half square triangles blocks before putting the block together. I also added a magnetic seam guide to my machine to help with my 1/4 inch seams so armed with all this additional assistance I am optimistic about lines potentially meeting where they should!
 Plume Fabric Range Designed by Tula Pink for Moda Here are my paired up charm squares (had to pick 25 light and dark pairs to use in the quilt)
 Background Fabric Chosen for Mon Ami This is a close up of the background fabric I am using.
 Plume by Tula Pink for Moda Half Square Triangles for Mon Ami Schnibbles Paired up Charm Squares are in the top left ready for cutting, the new rotating 6 inch mat (by Fiskars) beneath the unsewn block and my first 2 completed blocks.
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Blurbie Thing Hi, I'm Quanita, Q for short and this is my space... Qspace
30-something - IT Geek - totally neurotic - In an wonderful relationship with a cool cable guy - Aunty to Charlotte Rose (and another niece coming in August 2012!) - introverted extrovert - Gen X - Arty Crafty
Welcome and enjoy your stay!
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