Blue Leaf

This book cover is made using left overs from a quilt I made many years ago.

I had ruched some thin fabric, dyed it using a palette of various blues, then cut out and appliqued leaves to a pale blue background.

This leaf is a little too far of to the left, but I didn't have enough fabric to rectify that.

To echo the ruching, I used a straight simple FMQ motif of parallel (ish) lines, but curved the columns to wrap around the leaf. I love the way this opens and closes the lines like a concertina.

Thanks for visiting...

Hilary Florence

Please find below a list of linky parties. I may not link with all of the every week, but with some of them most weeks. Please go and have a look at some of the other wonderful quilts and quilters there.

Linky Tuesday at Free motion by  the river­­­­ @ http://www.conniekresin.com/

WIP Wednesday at freshly pieced   @   http://www.freshlypieced.com/

WIP Wednesday at TN + TN  @  http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca/

Off the wall Fridays @ http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.co.uk/

Lizzie Lenard @  http://lizzielenard-vintagesewing.blogspot.co.uk   

Finish Friday @ http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.co.uk/

Creative Goodness @ http://quiltshopgal.com/creativegoodness-weekly-linky-parties/

Simple Seedheads

Because I design a lot of free motion quilting patterns, I have a tendency to think I am cheating if everything I do isn't new and original!

This is a shame, because there is so many wonderful ideas out there, and it is not as if quilters are not willing to share. So this design, whilst not copied from anything in particular, is not particularly original either. Seed heads are deservedly a great source of inspiration for artists across the board.

I like to add a small version on the back.

I love muted autumn greens, golds and oranges on white. I often match the lining to my quilting thread colour. In this case, as the cover what quite, I contrasted it with a stronger 'tray dyed' fabric. I used red, yellow and black dye, which of course mix to give the rusts and browns of autumn.

Thanks for visiting...

Hilary Florence

Please find below a list of linky parties. I may not link with all of the every week, but with some of them most weeks. Please go and have a look at some of the other wonderful quilts and quilters there.

Linky Tuesday at Free motion by  the river­­­­ @ http://www.conniekresin.com/

WIP Wednesday at freshly pieced   @   http://www.freshlypieced.com/

WIP Wednesday at TN + TN  @  http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca/

Off the wall Fridays @ http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.co.uk/

Lizzie Lenard @  http://lizzielenard-vintagesewing.blogspot.co.uk   

Finish Friday @ http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.co.uk/

Creative Goodness @ http://quiltshopgal.com/creativegoodness-weekly-linky-parties/

Mini McTavishing

Book covers are a great way to practice or try out a new quilting technique.

I have never used McTavishing on a quilt but wanted to give it a go.

For an A5 book, this is very dense small scale McTavishing. It takes a long time, but I think the results are worth it.

Thanks for visiting...

Hilary Florence

Please find below a list of linky parties. I may not link with all of the every week, but with some of them most weeks. Please go and have a look at some of the other wonderful quilts and quilters there.

Linky Tuesday at Free motion by  the river­­­­ @ http://www.conniekresin.com/

WIP Wednesday at freshly pieced   @   http://www.freshlypieced.com/

WIP Wednesday at TN + TN  @  http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca/

Off the wall Fridays @ http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.co.uk/

Lizzie Lenard @  http://lizzielenard-vintagesewing.blogspot.co.uk   

Finish Friday @ http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.co.uk/

Creative Goodness @ http://quiltshopgal.com/creativegoodness-weekly-linky-parties/

Half way around the planet

Today we had a partial eclipse of the sun in the UK. The motif I have used in this book cover, is like partial orbits going half way around a string of planets. It makes a simple edge to edge motif with a good swing to it. I've used gold metallic thread as a good contrast to the pink.

I quite like the effect of a strip of either contrasting colour, or as here, a different shade of the same colour. This is really easy to do when dyeing your own fabric

I've carried the motif onto the back, not going quite to the other edge.

And the lining is made of the same paler shade fabric as the strip.

Thanks for visiting...

Hilary Florence

Please find below a list of linky parties. I may not link with all of the every week, but with some of them most weeks. Please go and have a look at some of the other wonderful quilts and quilters there.

Linky Tuesday at Free motion by  the river­­­­ @ http://www.conniekresin.com/

WIP Wednesday at freshly pieced   @   http://www.freshlypieced.com/

WIP Wednesday at TN + TN  @  http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca/

Off the wall Fridays @ http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.co.uk/

Lizzie Lenard @  http://lizzielenard-vintagesewing.blogspot.co.uk   

Finish Friday @ http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.co.uk/

Creative Goodness @ http://quiltshopgal.com/creativegoodness-weekly-linky-parties/

Covering my work

I've always had a tendency to cover work and exercise books.

It may be a bit early to say it is spring, but it is heading that way. So a nice fresh green with dark green quilting.

When I have quilted a self contained motif on the front, I like to do a little echo on the back.

Thanks for visiting...

Hilary Florence

Please find below a list of linky parties. I may not link with all of the every week, but with some of them most weeks. Please go and have a look at some of the other wonderful quilts and quilters there.

Linky Tuesday at Free motion by  the river­­­­ @ http://www.conniekresin.com/

WIP Wednesday at freshly pieced   @   http://www.freshlypieced.com/

WIP Wednesday at TN + TN  @  http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca/

I Quilt Thursdays @ http://prettybobbins.com/

Off the wall Fridays @ http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.co.uk/

Lizzie Lenard @  http://lizzielenard-vintagesewing.blogspot.co.uk   

Finish Friday @ http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.co.uk/

Creative Goodness @ http://quiltshopgal.com/creativegoodness-weekly-linky-parties/

Stopping, starting, snapping, shredding, skipping stitches...

... and a few others Ss (like suffering and swearing!) I can think of associated with FMQ with silver thread.

I have done whole quilts with metallic thread with no problem at all. The previous cushion I showed in the last post presented no difficulty. And then suddenly, the next day it all goes wrong. I have tweaked the tension bottom and top, put in a new needle, changed the size of the needle, re threaded the machine, changed the bobbin thread, taken the race apart and cleaned it... all to no avail.

Here is the next cushion, completed after numerous stops and starts to go over skipped stitches, snapped thread etc.

I can honestly say I did not enjoy quilting this. And  I almost think that this design would have looked better with no quilting. However, since I FMQ the first cushion it needed to match.

I did say in the last post that I would try quilting in red. My  brother-in-law fell in love with the cushions and decided he would like them and wanted the quilting in silver.

I have another 3 to go if I can ever sort out the thread problems. Any ideas gratefully received!!

Thanks for visiting...

Hilary Florence

Please find below a list of linky parties. I may not link with all of the every week, but with some of them most weeks. Please go and have a look at some of the other wonderful quilts and quilters there.

Linky Tuesday at Free motion by  the river­­­­ @ http://www.conniekresin.com/

WIP Wednesday at freshly pieced   @   http://www.freshlypieced.com/

WIP Wednesday at TN + TN  @  http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca/

I Quilt Thursdays @ http://prettybobbins.com/

Off the wall Fridays @ http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.co.uk/

Lizzie Lenard @  http://lizzielenard-vintagesewing.blogspot.co.uk   

Finish Friday @ http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.co.uk/

Creative Goodness @ http://quiltshopgal.com/creativegoodness-weekly-linky-parties/

Quick, simple and no thinking please!

I love making art quilts, but every now and then, it is fun to do a quick and simple project that requires little thought and planning and no trials.

A cushion cover seemed to fit the bill.

I also liked quiltshopgal's (formerly showcalgal) idea of a colour scheme for the month. This being February, the colour is of course reds, pinks and passion.

I found some not quite fat quarters that I had dyed - I no longer remember when or why or what I had in mind for them. They are not exactly passionate red, more an affectionate and warm selection of pink to purples.

I cut them into strips and thought they would look good pieced with some silver sliver insets. The free motion quilting is also done in silver and is very subtle.

I still have enough strips to make several more and I think the next one I will try to quilt in dark red or perhaps a soft grey. So, maybe there is just a little thinking after all!
And here is the cover, complete with cushion .

Thanks for visiting...

Hilary Florence

Please find below a list of linky parties. I may not link with all of the every week, but with some of them most weeks. Please go and have a look at some of the other wonderful quilts and quilters there.

Linky Tuesday at Free motion by  the river­­­­ @ http://www.conniekresin.com/

WIP Wednesday at freshly pieced   @   http://www.freshlypieced.com/

WIP Wednesday at TN + TN  @  http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca/

I Quilt Thursdays @ http://prettybobbins.com/

Off the wall Fridays @ http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.co.uk/

Lizzie Lenard @  http://lizzielenard-vintagesewing.blogspot.co.uk   

Finish Friday @ http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.co.uk/

Creative Goodness @ http://quiltshopgal.com/creativegoodness-weekly-linky-parties/

The travellers return

Last year I entered a couple of journal quilts for a competition and since all the entries then travelled around to various shows in the UK, I have never got around to showing them on the blog.

The size had to be A4 which was quite a change from working on bigger quilts. The set theme was 'Landscape'. I often notice that quilters can interpret themes to fit whatever they are actually working on and I have to admit that is just what I did here. You will recognise my style at once!

The first one, I called 'Beneath our Feet - the Earth's inner landscape'. It is of course a mini version of 'Strata'.  I wanted to work to see if I could work with a mottled background without the quilting getting lost.

I had tried using bright yellow on the darker bits, but that did disappear. Sticking to black works quite well I think.

The second piece I entitled 'My Inner Landscape - the circles in my mind'

I used a solid blue background, but two colours of thread.

Thanks for visiting...

Hilary Florence

Please find below a list of linky parties. I may not link with all of the every week, but with some of them most weeks. Please go and have a look at some of the other wonderful quilts and quilters there.

Linky Tuesday at Free motion by  the river­­­­ @ http://www.conniekresin.com/

WIP Wednesday at freshly pieced   @   http://www.freshlypieced.com/

WIP Wednesday at TN + TN  @  http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca/

I Quilt Thursdays @ http://prettybobbins.com/

Off the wall Fridays @ http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.co.uk/

Lizzie Lenard @  http://lizzielenard-vintagesewing.blogspot.co.uk   

Finish Friday @ http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.co.uk/

Creative Goodness @ http://quiltshopgal.com/creativegoodness-weekly-linky-parties/

Here is one I made earlier

There had not been much sewing going on at the moment, but rather than disappear for the next few weeks, I thought I would show some things I had made earlier.

This tote was inspired by the wonderful Yoshiko Jinzenji, who makes the most beautiful white on white baby quilts using nothing but FMQ parallel lines. If you follow this link you will see an example of what I mean.

This tote does not resemble the baby quilts, but it was the idea of creating patterns out of close parallel lines that I wanted to use. My original stitching was white on white fabric, but at the end of all the work, all you could see was white. The stitching didn't show up at all.

My solution was to dye to bag grey, accenting some of the patterns with a darker grey.
I used a cotton batting here, which has shrink a bit so some of the texture has got lost in the antiquing affect. I also think that perhaps I need to redye the grey darker.

The handles use one of the patterns.

This is quite a small tote - only A4. Although it wasn't too successful here, I still like the idea and to return to it is on my 'to do' list!

Thanks for visiting...

Hilary Florence

Please find below a list of linky parties. I may not link with all of the every week, but with some of them most weeks. Please go and have a look at some of the other wonderful quilts and quilters there.

Linky Tuesday at Free motion by  the river­­­­ @ http://www.conniekresin.com/

WIP Wednesday at freshly pieced   @   http://www.freshlypieced.com/

WIP Wednesday at TN + TN  @  http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca/

I Quilt Thursdays @ http://prettybobbins.com/

Off the wall Fridays @ http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.co.uk/

Lizzie Lenard @  http://lizzielenard-vintagesewing.blogspot.co.uk   

Finish Friday @ http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.co.uk/

Creative Goodness @ http://quiltshopgal.com/creativegoodness-weekly-linky-parties/

The search for loft

For some reason I have always used cotton batting. When the time came to buy some more, I wanted to see if I could get more loft and after some research came up with a polyester and a wool batting. I bought a meter of both and made did some trials using cotton and metallic fabric.

First the Polyester Quilters' Dream high loft batting. It certainly puffs up the solid circles but doesn't seem to like the larger rings.

Now with metallic fabric

The circles puff up nicely. Heavily quilted, this batting disappears to almost nothing.

Now the wool. I am not sure you can see much difference on the pictures, but there is a big difference in feel.

The puff, though not higher, has much more substance to it. It is much more springy.

With the metallic, again solid circles well. There is some puckering on the rings, but that is also slightly due to the plastic nature of this metallic fabric.

Side view show the loft well.

I'm not sure the evidence is conclusive in these pictures, but for me, wool batting/wadding wins hands down.

Thanks for visiting...

Hilary Florence

Please find below a list of linky parties. I may not link with all of the every week, but with some of them most weeks. Please go and have a look at some of the other wonderful quilts and quilters there.

Linky Tuesday at Free motion by  the river­­­­ @ http://www.conniekresin.com/

WIP Wednesday at freshly pieced   @   http://www.freshlypieced.com/

WIP Wednesday at TN + TN  @  http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca/

I Quilt Thursdays @ http://prettybobbins.com/

Off the wall Fridays @ http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.co.uk/

Lizzie Lenard @  http://lizzielenard-vintagesewing.blogspot.co.uk   

Finish Friday @ http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.co.uk/

Creative Goodness @ http://quiltshopgal.com/creativegoodness-weekly-linky-parties/

New Year, New Diary Cover

I noticed that Quiltshopgal - formally Sewcalgal - has started a new weekly linky party which she has named CreativeGoodness. The idea is that ever month has a suggested colour and a theme.

Aptly enough, the theme for January is 'New' with colours of winter white and blues. By coincidence, my new diary cover is in just that colour scheme. All the quilting is done in different shades of blues.

I'm afraid I have not caught up with the digital age so still rely on an A5 diary. Every year I make a cover for the new year.

Although they are removable, I tend to leave the cover on and if I am looking for an old diary, I can tell which year they are by the cover.

The lining is dyed to match the thread colour.

I must have been in a similar mood last year, because the out going diary cover is also in blues.

Thanks for visiting...

Hilary Florence

Please find below a list of linky parties. I may not link with all of the every week, but with some of them most weeks. Please go and have a look at some of the other wonderful quilts and quilters there.

Linky Tuesday at Free motion by  the river­­­­ @ http://www.conniekresin.com/

WIP Wednesday at freshly pieced   @   http://www.freshlypieced.com/

WIP Wednesday at TN + TN  @  http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca/

I Quilt Thursdays @ http://prettybobbins.com/

Off the wall Fridays @ http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.co.uk/

Lizzie Lenard @  http://lizzielenard-vintagesewing.blogspot.co.uk   

Finish Friday @ http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.co.uk/

Creative Goodness @ http://quiltshopgal.com/creativegoodness-weekly-linky-parties/

Mum's the word

I didn't want to post about this before Christmas.
My 84 year old mother is not really into blog land, but she keeps saying she will get around to looking at my blog one of these days. It would have been just my luck if she had done so the day I posted about her Christmas present.

It - her Christmas present that is - required quite a bit of thought this year. Basically, she has everything she needs and wants - and a lot of stuff that she doesn't want or need. She has decided to have a great 'de-clutter' and we were under strict instructions not to give her anything as all she wanted was to see us. And before you suggest it - she already has the quilted tote, purse, jacket, wall hangings - even the cat has it's own quilt.

I realised that what she did want and need, was not 'stuff'; what she wanted spent on her was not money but caring, time, thought, and effort. So I got 25 large envelopes that she was to open one a day for the holiday period.
I decorated each one with a print and in each, I put something to do - a game or puzzle, some eating goodies, a riddle and a card with a saying or quote.

The cards I made from quilting samples and papers that I have printed/painted. I haven't beautifully neatened the edges - they are not meant to be kept. I thought I would show you because it was also a wonderful re-cycling of trial pieces.

It was also quite a lot of fun finding all those sayings. Some of my favorites include:
'Take my advice - I'm not using it'
and
from Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham (for Downton Abbey fans amongst you), on being questioned on what it feels like to be wrong: 'I wouldn't know. I'm not familiar with the sensation.'

Or how about:
'Sometimes I pretend to be normal but it gets boring, so I go back to being me'!!

Thanks for visiting...

Hilary Florence

Please find below a list of linky parties. I may not link with all of the every week, but with some of them most weeks. Please go and have a look at some of the other wonderful quilts and quilters there.

Linky Tuesday at Free motion by  the river­­­­ @ http://www.conniekresin.com/

WIP Wednesday at freshly pieced   @   http://www.freshlypieced.com/

WIP Wednesday at TN + TN  @  http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca/

I Quilt Thursdays @ http://prettybobbins.com/

Off the wall Fridays @ http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.co.uk/

Lizzie Lenard @  http://lizzielenard-vintagesewing.blogspot.co.uk   

Finish Friday @ http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.co.uk/

Creative Goodness @ http://quiltshopgal.com/creativegoodness-weekly-linky-parties/