Websterquilt: February 2019

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Island Batik Ambassadors Mini Challenge Quilt 3 - Part 2

I love to Free Motion Quilt! It's one of my favorite parts. Here's the back of my Island Batik Ambassador Magnificent Mini about half way through. Be sure to read all the way through to find out WHY it was finished in the hospital...

The finished quilt.

Picking out quilting thread...Aurifil of course! The batting I chose is Hobbs Tuscany Silk. I love the draping help it gives my minis so they're not too stiff.

Look how well the black hides.

A close up of the black pattern is my favorite Webster Clams.

I love how the arches in the center make it look like a snowflake!

Auditioning border ideas...

I decided to go bold and stitch the feathers swags in red.

The finished back! Time to bind.

I've been working with 1/8 inch binding on these minis and I continue to do so. It's a bias binding of course.

I sew it on with my trusty Bernina zipper foot. It works amazingly well for small seam allowances and as a bonus I can use my even feed system on the foot! Perfect.

All sewn on and ready to hand stitch.

Binding clips are amazing.

The binding's done. BUT there's a story behind it...

You see I had a very VERY sick child who had to go to Children's Hospital and get fluids. I knew I would need something to keep my hands busy so I took the binding along. Once he was settled and comfortable I was able to calm down too and bind.

All done!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Saturday, February 23, 2019

Island Batik Ambassadors Mini Challenge Quilt 3 - Hand Piecing?!

I drafted a pattern for a mini quilt that ended up needing to be hand pieced. I think that it must have been 20 years since I last hand pieced. However, in this case, it was easier for me.

I started with pulling out some of my gorgeous Island Batik fabrics.

Next, I drew my paper piecing designs on a stabilizer that I was going to use to piece on so I didn't have to rip paper later. I was glad I was only doing one block!

Here you can see the drawing before I cut it apart into pieces.

Here's what the pieces looked like when the paper piecing was done.

This is the back.

Here's another finished section.

A progression on the hand piecing. It's getting better!

Done! All the hand piecing is complete!

Here's a picture with a pencil for scale.

A close up of the center. I steamed the top and it made it lay really flat!

I added some black around the edge to make the quilt square.

Come back Wednesday to see the quilting!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Friday, February 22, 2019

Free Motion Friday - Feather Fun

I'm quilting away on Peculiar Posies. More on that next week, but I thought I'd give you a peek at two of my newest feathers!

The first is Toothed Feathers. It's like someone took a bite out of each feather.

The second is Cloud Feathers. There are clouds inside!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Show Your Wings Blog Hop

When Carol of Just Let Me Quilt announced her Show Your Wings Blog Hop I was really excited. My mind went immediately to butterflies. My dad counts butterflies for the county parks each summer and we share a love of these beautiful creatures.

What fabric to pick? Of course I dug into my stash of Island Batiks. I'm an ambassador for the company and I just love to work with their fabrics. Isn't this batik perfect for a butterfly wing?

I designed a swallowtail butterfly because I really like the way their tails hang down.

Here he is all stitched. I had great fun using my decorative stitches to add antennae. It's the first time I've done anything like this, but it won't be the last!

I decided my runner needed two butterflies. For the quilting I marked some dots of various sizes all over the piece. I also marked an outline for where I wanted to do a curvy binding. I then filled the area with swirls going around each circle as I came to it. I like how you can see the circles in the quilting as the negative space stand out.

I used Hobbs Tuscany Silk batting because I like the way it drapes even though I quilt things to death! The quilting is done in Aurifil 50 weight.

The back is really fun too.

Once I was done I decided the dots needed to stand out more. So I used my Fabrico markers to color them light green. I think it's super fun! You can also see I did a curvy 1/8 inch binding.

This binding has a STORY. You see, the purple fabric was a five inch wide strip. I had to cut many very small bias pieces, sew them all together, and then I had enough to go all the way around the edge of the runner. The things I get myself into. Fortunately it worked well and turned out great.

However, I did not realize that the end of my runner was going to curl. So I had to do something about it. I got out the steam iron and pressed like crazy.

It worked like a charm and I now have a perfectly flat runner!

Check out all the amazing bloggers who will be participating:

February 18

What About Rheema?

Hill Valley Quilter

Nutz For Redwork

Kathy's Kwilts and More

February 19

Patchouli Moon Studio

Vroomans Quilts

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Songbird Designs

Quilts Fabric and Thread Tales

Sew Many Yarns

Kathleen McMusing

Life in the Scrapatch

DesertSky Quilting

Clever Chameleon Quilting

February 20

Creatin' in the Sticks

Cynthia's Creating Ark

February 21

For The Love Of Geese

Two Maker Chicks

madeNcorrea

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop

I am excited to be a part of the Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop by Beaquilter today! I went searching through my quilt book stash and found one from the year I graduated from high school...it's old enough I think. Here's a hint...

Circles of the East is based on traditional Japanese Family Crests. The funny part was that the book had post-its marking the ones I liked....many years ago. Guess what? My taste hasn't changed much. I picked one of the marked patterns.

Image result for 1997 japanese crest quilt book

I didn't want to make it as large as the book said, so I played around with it on my scanner and in photoshop. You can see that the design is a flower with butterfly antennae coming out. When choosing fabrics I of course dug into my pile of Island Batiks! I am an Ambassador for Island Batiks and I simply love working with their fabric. I also chose their gray solid to use as the background.

Here's the first round of pieces all stitched down. I do blanket stitch applique as it's my favorite.

You can really see the stitches on the back.

I decided to do something different with my circles in the middle of the flowers. I used suede. Yes, you read that right. There is an advantage to using leather. It doesn't fray! I also decided to add some more circles outside the design. I think I'm a glutton for punishment. Those circles were not large.

Next came the quilting. You may ask why the quilting stops....wait for it...

The batting is Hobbs Tuscany Silk. I love how it drapes and find it works well for minis. It is of course quilted with my favorite Aurifil thread.

And the back...keep scrolling! It's worth it I promise.

Ta da! I did a scalloped binding. This binding is 1/8 inch wide and it was a real trick to do those inner points. NEVER AGAIN (though I did say that two years ago too...I guess this technique just has to age for me to try it again!).