Done

Tokyo Subway Map Quilt is done and dusted de-haired - though I can see already that the cats like it way too much that it ever would stay clean for long!

It's not easy to take decent photographs as our bedroom is not very big

Suz from All the Good Ones are Taken and I both started our quilts back in January 2013, we pieced a couple of blocks each month (I used 3" squares cut). I started quilting during 2014, first with lines 1/8th" from the coloured edges rather than SID (something I'm not very good at). I filled the coloured subway lines with different patterns and started filling the black background with echo swirls. The black on white subway stops were treated with a petal shape which reminds me of frangipani (I've said hibiscus in a previous post but that's wrong of course!).

With the move to Australia quilting went on the back burner for a while, and just before I was finished, my machine gave up! I'm glad that it's all finished now, though:) Below find some more close-ups of the quilting:

I think I need to practise better close-up pic taking!

I have had tension problems with the machine for a while, in fact ever since I was working on D4P. The lovely NZ technician had spent a lot of his own time trying to work it out, but he was not aware that there was an actual manufacturing problem which the AUS technician has now finally fixed. There are some tensions issues visible on the back, but I have decided not to go back and redo them - there has to be a point when you say it's done!

quick shot of the texture

The finished size is approx. 100"x100", the backing is a 108" Wide Spot On Wide Quilt Backing Circles Steel, batting is black cotton with a small percentage of polyester from my former LQS The Country Yard. The top is pieced from Kona black and the squares are a mixture from Suz' and my stashes and a few bits we have bought to supplement. The thread is mainly Aurifil 50w, the white used on the stops is 40w (and I'm finally able to tell them apart!). Here you can see Suz' finished quilt.

While lots of work trips are looming, I have basted as SID the Giant Chevron - will share more progress soon!

Happy Sewing!

What possessed me

to make a black quilt??? The cats obviously love it, though it's yet to be completely finished...

 

Giant Chevron

A flimsy ready to get sandwiched and quilted:

At approx. 86" I haven't found a suitable space to photograph all of it. The setting triangles were slightly larger than needed so I carefully mitered where the corners overlapped. The backing is pieced (two lengths of the fabric I showed you yesterday) and now top & backing are hanging over the line in the basement with the batting until I get time to baste it all together. Nice to be back in the swing of things:)

Yesterday I managed to finish all 400" of binding on the Tokyo Subway Map Quilt:

Back to work tomorrow...

Happy Sewing!

Binding and more threads:) for Easter

Happy Easter to you all! After a fun afternoon/ evening with friends yesterday today was a quiet at home day - perfect for sewing! The Subway Map Quilts has the binding on and I'm heading towards the half-way mark with hand stitching the binding to the back - love the skinny Millinery needles I bought back home in Kerikeri last year, makes handwork so much easier! I alternate this with burying threads, unbelievable how many threads are still left to do.

Hubby made the mistake of asking me what quilt I will work on next:)

(Can you see yet another furry helper?)
The setting triangles were cut ages ago, and I might even have the right size batting and suitable backing:

Hope you have a happy and productive Easter weekend, too:)

My Happy Place!

I've definitely visited my Happy Place today... The technician called me on Wednesday and gave me a very thorough description of what had been wrong with my machine. It appears that (at least some) Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.0 machines have come with a fault to do with the tension, and he said in my case 'bits' (my term, can't remember the term he used) had actually fallen apart and were sitting inside the machine. He replaced those under warranty and gave the machine a thorough service, and I picked up my repaired machine on Thursday; now it's almost working perfectly! I tightened the bobbin tension a bit more,  it was a bit too loose for my liking, and unfortunately the knee lift does not engage. This has never happened to me before, does anyone have any suggestions, please? I will call them and ask to have it fixed, but  if there is anything I can do, I would love to have it working over the long weekend! (It's funny how used I am to it lol).

On Wednesday we also came across a nice second hand Ikea TV unit on Gumtree and so our lounge had a little reshuffle:

Very European looking lol, but we love it:)

DH put the grey cushion on the top for the cats who even have their own 'stairs' up via the scratching post to the right lol. Of course I could not resist the chance to bring my fabrics up into the house:

Needs some sorting out, especially after I squeezed a bit more in...

The drawers are just perfect for threads etc...

but I didn't want to be greedy and take over all of it (apart from that I would have needed to refold too much fabric to fit it into the drawers on the left of the unit; I would never keep my fabrics tidy enough to have them in the open shelves!) so I had to find another space:

With my large rulers on the top shelf and my cutting board underneath:)

The batting went back into the basement (there is only so far that I can push it lol) where it will remain with my other craft things until we get to move into a bigger place (probably September).

So for the rest of the day I just tutued. The quilting is all completed on the Subway Map quilt. I have cut a very skinny binding at only 2'' because I was short on the black and I hope this will suit the design. I still didn't quite have enough so I pieced some of the left-over coloured squares and added these pieces into the binding. Tomorrow I will try to get some Elmer's School Glue so I can glue baste and stitch it on. I have also done a bit of {cough} mending - some things just have to be done.

My furry supervisor;
it's not ideal to have the sewing area in the lounge, but maybe it gets my to tidy up better?

The weather has been grey and rainy over the last 2-3 days, for all I care it can stay like this for most of this weekend - gives me more time to play:) My boys are quite happy to just blob out, term 1 finished yesterday and they will have two weeks of holidays now. Tomorrow we are expecting our first proper visitors, friends from New Zealand, so really looking forward to this!

Suzanne and I have been talking for some time about our Vintage Quilt Revival Samplers, and this is a feature fabric we are considering:

Daydream Arcadia Scarlet by Kate Spain for Moda Fabrics - Image Source

I'm very keen to get back into some regular sewing - watch this space! In the meantime I will try to find / piece a suitable backing for the Giant Chevron and start marking out what will happen to the quilting on it - really excited about that!

I hope you visit your Happy Place this Easter, too - Happy Sewing!