A wonderful week

As my househelp asked for a cloth for dusting, I quickly conjured up a dusting cloth by hand stitching bright hexies into a fat quarter and side stitching the fabric
Love the brightness and contrast of colours.

Next, I tried out a back pattern at it turned out just perfect with some machine embroidery in the handles.!
Its my sewing machine in the background…

And then, a quilted laptop sleeve from a christmas-y fabric that my friend Shahnaz gifted me

Quite a productive week I must say !

Tagging to WIP Wednesday !

 

My very own Plus quilt

Its almost the end of the month and my Plus quilt is _finally_ showing some traction. The first row of Plus’ are pieced but then I realized that I hadn’t cut enough of the white fabric yet to take the quilt ahead, so back to the cutting board to cut some more charm squares in shades of blue and pure white. Think the quilt will turn out to be gorgeous.

Linking it to WIP wednesday

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Making targets and fulfilling them

I didn’t realize that Feb was upon us already. Its a short month and time would be limited. Targetting something doable is the plan…

For the monthly to do party here :

I would like to list a
-Quilt top and a
-small gift project

This month is special to me, as are those that have a family event coming up. My sister has her birthday this month and would greatly appreciate a modern quilt. I would be attempting a large quilt for the first time, hence, want to target completing the quilt top for her before the end of the month.

If I am able to complete the entire quilt…basting, backing and quilting included, then it would be a bonus
I am meeting her in March so ‘lucky me’ has a little time for complete delivery.

The inspiration : Piet Mondrian and his modern Composition.

The timeline declared to the world: ‘A Lovely Year of Finishes – February Goal Setting Party’

 

A kiddie quilt

This is a kiddie quilt I made for my son. He is in pre-school

Why do I specify that he is in pre-school ! Well, he is just getting to recognize the letters A-B-C and numbers 1-2-3 and wanted a quilt which had the letters (to begin with). By the time I settled down to cut out the fabric letters, numbers had also got added to the request list.

So this is a quilt made on demand …

Its a broadcloth quilt and the letters/numbers are hand appliqued onto it. Post that its quilted in a wriggly labyrinthine fashion. This is the first time I used free motion quilting…in my earlier avatar of quilting I didn’t have a sewing machine that had FMQ functionality. I used my grandmom’s mechanical hand driven sewing machine from 1949. It had passed on from my grandmom to my mom and then to me. I just did straight line quilting…and not much at that.

Since the new HV came in, I had been really scared to use/change the foot and try the new functionality for fear that something might go wrong with the beautiful piece of machinery. But I had to take the leap of faith sometime and let go of my fear of the unknown. And with this quilt, I am am happy I did. I just love FMQ now and looking forward to do more of it.

Apart from that, I am also learning bias tape making. This is the first large project in which I have used home made bias tape.The copper Sulphate bias border for this quilt is the second set of bias tape I am making from a fat quarter. The first one was white. learnt it from an online tutorial and love the magical way in which a fat quarter converts itself into yards of continuous and beautiful bias tape.

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Stats
Name: Dhruv’s ABC quilt
Size: 54″ X 42″
Quilted by: Me(Leena)
Appliqued by : Me(Leena)
Special technique: Hand needle turn applique, beginner’s FMQ
Best Category : Applique Quilt, Baby Quilt, Home Machine Quilted Quilt

Linking it to Blogger’s Quilt Festival:

 

The Modern Quilt

The modern quilt with triangles is complete and ready to be gifted to a friend’s new born. Hope she likes it…I meant my friend, her baby is too young to opine on quilts

Linking it to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

 

A modern quilt top

Its time to work out my own triangles in solid shades—some neutral with splashes of colour. The first colour chart looked like this. But soon after I realized I didn’t have any plum so just replaced it with peachy orange.

Normally I would have worked out the triangles as HSTs, but these are not in pairs so I cut them into triangles and joined them back to form squares with one half in each colour…arranging them in fours to stitch squares and then joining them to form the entire quilt.

The initial picture I coloured is not the same as the square arrangement which is not the same as the quilt. I love the surprise element rather than fretting too much on the arrangement.

Realized too soon that the actual arrangement of triangles didn’t matter. Its the splashes of colour amongst the neutral and the colour blocking that makes it look like a piece of art. I had prepared a 5″ template from OHP slide and used it to cut the pieces…it just make the process of cutting fabric in the required size a lot easier and faster. The quilt top came up faster than I thought it would.

Absolutely loved this quilt top.

 

Hot pad with hand quilting

My hot pad is ready…a day after the actual event, after removing the machine quilting and redoing it completely in small stitches by hand and learning some bias binding method in the process of completion as well!
But the important thing is that its complete and I love it. I tried hand quilting for the first time and it turned out really awesome.

Used one of the tutorials off the net to make bias binding…was always to scared too try it but one fat quarter of fabric gave me 5.3m of bias tape…if thats not magic then what is!!
My little tip here is that I used a plastic ruler(scale) to wrap the tape as I went ahead with the pressing (to shape). This has an advantage over the spindles I have seen the tape being rolled over on, it stays and doesn’t roll out the already pressed tape.

A lot is left to be desired in terms of neatness of work and making the bias tape corners look good. But am HAPPY with the output !!

Linking it to FNSI at Handmade with Heidi.

 

A day spent with friends…

Its Dusshera today and we decided on a potluck party with friends… actually neighbours, but they are also our closest friends in town. we usually hang out with them.We were supposed to make only rice and mutton curry by lunch time. And I was the sous chef for the day at home. So after waking up kid and doing the housework and breakfast and all (the other regular routine stuff that had to be done by me as house help was on her day off), I settled down for the lunch preparation…thankfully it turned out well.

Lunch got slightly late as we weren’t ready by 1pm but it turned out to be a lovely small party at our neighbour’s place with a relaxed lunch followed by a looongish chat and tea and then driving down to South Mumbai to have ice cream at Naturals…then staying back at NCPA for some ‘time by the sea’ and snaps. We were just testing the new camera and the snaps turned out.
Finally we called it a day and settled down to a movie at home. Dead tired but a day well spent…felt like HOLIDAY !!

This is truly a WIP…a pinwheel hot pad in pink and blue which was to be completed by lunch as I intended to gift it to my neighbour as we were going to her place for lunch. But I don’t know bias binding…hence its yet unfinished. First thing tomorrow morning, learn to make bias binding…

Linking it to WIP Wednesday !

 

Quilt top

A cartwheel quilt. Enough said !

Actually not, wanted to tell you how much I love the hot pink and the black in white paisleys.They are so contrasting in their character that they make a good pair. I just started off on a whim and am soooooo happy that it turned out well.

My little one gets to show off all the quilts. Each of the cartwheel blocks are 16inches square…three of them on each side makes a 48 inch square quilt. Quite a large quilt for a new born, so maybe a good one for a four year old
Haven’t thought about the end use yet.

Also, the learning from the quilt is that stiff fabric make better edges…since both the fabric used here are soft, getting the pieces to match was slightly difficult.
The other learning for me was that quilt tops take no time to fall in place like magic. So to complete the quilt I must have the batting and the rear fabric ready at home.

Now that the quilt top is ready, I ma waiting of the rear fabric to arrive.
Raring to go !

 

A quilt in making-colour value

I woke up early, determined to start my running schedule…more like walking schedule, but was met with overcast sky and pouring rain. These are the last showers of the season and each bout continues for a couple of hours. So I decided waiting would be of no consequence. I’d rather cut up some fabric

I settled down to cut into the fabric bought last weekend and put together a simple baby quilt. I havent thought who it will be for.

The first idea of putting together the catwheels looked like this !

and then this …

The first one focusses on the paisley print and the second on the solid one. Think the latter looks better. Adding some colour to teh blocks…

This is truly a WIP project…only 3 blocks out of the 9 are arranged. I havent even cut up the fabric for the rest. Just wanted to put together a few blocks to be sure the black and white paisleys looked good with the hot pink.

Linking it to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced !