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Showing posts with label zenstudioqal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zenstudioqal. Show all posts

Monday, 3 June 2019

#zenstudioqal - Finish #5

Queen's Birthday weekend, winter has started - time for sewing! I'm glad I had posted those goals at the top of the last post, I almost forgot about them 😮. They were:

Plans for the next six weeks or so:
  1. Finish #zenstudioqal in time for baby shower (date tbc)
  2. Continue piecing #patchworkcity2018 when blocks are posted
  3. Continue piecing Rainbow at Sea
  4. Finish #scrappyappliquequiltalong
  5. try to not fall into too many other rabbit holes!
I'm happy to report that 1) #zenstudioqal is finished and will be handed over at the work baby shower this coming Friday :) (I'll be teaching at that time, but someone will hand it over on my behalf). I'm really happy with how it turned out, I just LOVE Malka Dubrawsky's Simple Marks of summer line 💕. It wasn't easy to document the quilting from the front, so there are a lot of photos from the back:

I've posted this one before...
... and that one...
Using the shapes created by the blocks as inspiration (thanks, Suzanne 😘)
Straight-line quilting (ruler) in the 'negative' space
Using the 60deg angle as inspiration for the quilting in the border:
Again I'm using my rulers but keeping it varied to stay true to the nature of the fabric line.
Seems overexposed (can you even do that with digital photography?!) but shows up the quilting nicely
Finished: Texture in the winter afternoon sun...
... borders and faux-piping binding...
... and from the back :)
2) #patchworkcity2018 on IG has been sitting at block 17 for a while, with my three bonus blocks my personal count is 20 (of 30 I hope to make). This is a little mockup I created on Pic Collage a few weeks back:

The cream lines between the blocks have since been replaced with black sashing.
To get back into the swing of things, I will make a list of the blocks in the book I have not used yet and start making more bonus blocks until Joe @manhandledthreads is ready to post more in the actual SAL.

Yesterday I finally got back to my 3) Rainbow at Sea quilt, just quietly plugging along with sewing more FPP blocks to piece into the larger blocks. There is still lots of blocks to go on this project, but by breaking it down into the individual parts, the task seems a little less daunting.

I also pulled my 4) #scrappyappliquequiltalong back out, added more swirls to the background quilting. It's been several weeks so I forgot what tension I had set for the invisible thread in the top. I ended up with a few small spots of funny tension that I ripped out but overall the aqua batik is quite forgiving to the invisible thread - grey bobbin combo.

On the 5) don't fall into another IG rabbit hole: I have been tempted more than once, but so far work has been keeping me far too busy to seriously contemplate getting into anything else!

So here are my next 6 week goals:

  1. Finish #scrappyappliquequiltalong (quilt, bind, hanging sleeve)
  2. Piece more #patchworkcity2018 bonus blocks
  3. Continue piecing Rainbow at Sea quilt
  4. Continue quilting Metro Rings quilt

That gives me two goals for piecing and two for quilting, one of them 'finishable' and all the others likely to remain WIP for some time to come. I better don't go looking for rabbit holes on IG...

Happy Sewing!










Monday, 22 April 2019

Taking stock

While 18 (soon 19) posts for the year so far really aren't bad for me, it's been a month (!) since I last posted! As expected, work has been just go-go-go, and the weekends are filled with utter exhaustion - and housework :(

[I had just written my goals at the bottom of the post, but that's where they get lost so I cut & paste them right here at the top, so there's no excuse lol]

Plans for the next six weeks or so:
  1. Finish #zenstudioqal in time for baby shower (date tbc)
  2. Continue piecing #patchworkcity2018 when blocks are posted
  3. Continue piecing Rainbow at Sea
  4. Finish #scrappyappliquequiltalong
  5. try to not fall into too many other rabbit holes!

This is what I've been working on lately:

Firstly, Mstr 14 had requested a new cushion cover as the old 'Very Hungry Caterpillar' ones had disintegrated. He requested 'a sunset with elephant silhouette'. After some online research I drew up this:


Seams just suck up material - I had to add a row and then some to make it fit across



4th finish for 2019
He says he likes it - the highest praise a mother can get from a 14y old 😏

IG is for me like the rabbit hole for Alice, and I fell into yet another QAL:

Shannon Brinkley runs the #ScrappyAppliqueQuiltAlong; I liked the idea of using my scraps for this...

I bought her Globe pattern, but I didn't like the idea of NZ at the bottom right end of Globe 4 😮.

I toyed with the idea of my own world map but decided to go a bit smaller for now:

Aotearoa New Zealand, right here on my design wall :)

Mistyfuse-backed green shapes cover the outline; not sure I would go for the same fluffy pellon again?

Excuse the odd colours; Te Wai Pounamu (South Island) and Rakiura (Stewart Island) are fused to the background.

Aotearoa all fused down

Zigzag in variegated green to stitch the edges down; next time I might either try invisible thread or a full satin stitch.

FMQ stipple for the land...


A first, unsuccessful attempt at quilting the background - everything was wrong, colour, scale, shape...

Feeling much better about this one - 

- so I'm now fmquing the background all over, using a invisible (white) thread in the top with a grey 50wt Aurifil in the bobbin.
My other IG QALs are also progressing:

We have a completed flimsy for the #zenstudioqal!


It's not that easy to match the vibrant colours with a different line of fabric, I bought a bubble minky in red for the back but it looks too pink with the way the light reflects off it, thankfully the lovely Suz parted with a warm red flannel so one of these days I will sandwich and quilt it. My go-to for baby quilts is an all-over pattern, after talking with Suz I am toying with the idea of treating different areas of the top differently but we will see how much time I get before that baby is due ;)

The #patchworkcity2018 QAL is also still going, I have now completed 16 blocks plus 3 bonus blocks.
The moment when you realise a minion is watching you from your design wall...

Week 16

The blocks for Week 17 have already been posted, I better get onto those soon :)

I'm rather excited for a parcel I'm expecting, I ordered one of Judi Madsen's 'Celebrate' panels from Honest Fabrics when there was a sale recently, after watching it being moved between various Los Angeles shipping facilities for a fortnight it has finally arrived in and departed from Auckland, so with a bit of luck it should be in my hot little hands this week. While I'm still a bit ho-hum about the 'polyester blend', I want to use it to give my quilting rulers a work out.

I have just updated my Quilt Planner:




- and now I have moved my goals for the next six weeks to the top of the post where I simply CANNOT overlook them 😇

Happy Sewing!

Sunday, 17 March 2019

Progress?

You know those weeks that just fly past, and you think you have achieved nothing? I felt like this over the last fortnight, but I actually still made some progress:

Block 14 - completed at the end of Feb but I don't think I have had it on the blog yet

Block 15: I had wanted to save on fabric for the top left block Forest Park, but in the end had to recut the triangles... Note to self: Measure twice, cut once... The rest went together very quickly.

One of the examples of how much material gets sucked up in the seams; from this...

... to that!
The #zenstudioqal has come along in leaps and bounds:
Week 4 asked for the blocks with furry friends... here you have one of our kittens and her 'furry' friend (Master 14 needs a haircut...)
Week 5 saw the 24 block centre pieced together...
... and the IG challenge required toes peeking out from under it - thanks Master 16y!
The cushion pattern had the first two fabrics chosen...
Amazing what one can find in the scraps box...
Thanks to my hunt through scraps (which I continue to cut down using the Scraptherapy approach) I rediscovered my #berninazenchicqal leftovers and started playing with triangles to cover the footstool to go with hubby's chair:



_______________________________________________________________________________

Overshadowing everything is the absolute tragedy that has unfolded here in New Zealand since Friday afternoon when one gunman killed 50 people in two Christchurch mosques and injured another 50 - absolutely unprecedented in Aotearoa New Zealand. The outpouring of love and support for victims and their families from around the country and from overseas has been immense, and the one good thing that I hope will come from this is that Kiwis and other peoples will be closer and more united against hatred and racism. He tried to steal the innocence and the peace of Aotearoa New Zealand but he will not succeed.

Kia Kaha - Stay Strong!




Saturday, 2 March 2019

Like a hole in the head...

Did I need to start a new project? Nope - but it's good fun anyway :)
Week 1: Malka Dubrawsky Simple Marks Summer - such yummy colours...
... cut up into the required sizes

Week 2 - 6x Block A - the log cabin block is so versatile!
Week 3: A Block B in the wild...
This is what Michelle's pattern could look like:



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Calling all last minute QAL registrants!! Today is the last day you can register for the Zen Studio Quilt Along. It’s also the last day to get 20% off the pattern!! Link for both are in the bio. And if you’re worried that you might be a little behind, no worries, you’ve got plenty of time to catch up. 🐘〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️🐘 I’m working on next week’s blog and checking out all the posts for this week’s contest. Be sure to share a pic of your fabric in your feed/timeline. I can’t see it if it’s in your stories and those disappear 🤷🏻‍♀️ And if you’re being shy about posts, please remember the whole point of the QAL is we do this together and share our progress! I love seeing all your creative fabrics and layouts! 🐘〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️🐘 #zenstudioqal #jellyrollquilt #quiltingismytherapy #throwquilt #sundayfunday #creative #fabrics #quilts #quiltalong #qal #quiltpattern #pattern #sale
A post shared by Michelle (@schneiderhousequiltstudio) on

 - and this is my layout so far on my design doors:

Tetris anyone?
Happy Sewing!