WOW or WIPs with Esther 11th April 2018.

Nearly 1/2 way in to April! A Head cold and the Commonwealth Games has had me sitting down a lot more than normal so I have been doing more hand quilting the last week than I have been doing of late.

I managed to get all my stems appliquéd down by machine this week.

Was so happy to finish machine appliqueing those stems down I kept worrying I would loose some of them before Id machined them down. Thats the story of my life having to put part finished blocks away and then loosing pieces and not having any more fabric? So now I have all the leaves ironed down also, so I can not loose those LOL Now to machine applqiue them down, I did buy some thread online to do this but it is tooooo dark, thats the trouble buying online, it looked a lot lighter than it is. So will ahve to wait and see if I can buy some next time I’m in the city?

Placed my centres to get a feel of the design.

When I add the borders around these centres I will add the extra leaves to give the pattern this circle look of the leaves. For now it has to sit waiting for the aqua thread I need.

Ive set up my Janome just so I can work on my Red and Green when ever I can get the time. Its sitting on a glass computer desk but works perfectly for a portable table for the Janome.

I completed my first 16 Tiny houses this week, Ive taken a break from my Tiny houses to work on my Red and Green Quilt, but have been forced to hand quilt with a head cold and throat infection

Loved making these 3inch square Tiny houses Thanks Nancy LOL Yes they really are only 3inches square when finsihed!!!!!!

Close to finishing

First 16 completed!

I wanted a light background for my Tiny houses but it just did not jell.

Inbetween all this happening this week I came across a huge box of my mums number 5DMC threads, there were over 150 in the box!!!! My brother (bless him) sent them to me when she died over 10 years ago and they ahve been in storage as I was not using threads this thick back then. I spent an evening sorting them, two boxes are threads that have never been used!!!!

I will use these lovely lovely threads when doing sashiko quilting. what a gift my mum just gave me. Every time I use them she will be beside me. I wonder what else is in the attic from her????

To make my joining strips and 1/2 inch corner stones??? I cut a 3 1/2 inch strip of dark mauve fabric joined the light mauve to it, cut the light mauve back to 3/4 of an inch then cut across this every 1inch to give me the perfect strips for those 1/2 inch corner stones ! Nancy reminded me to do it this way, was so quick and much more accurate.

Putting these tiny houses together.

First two rows joined

Slowly the block grows!

Nearly there, it took ages as I have used silk fabrics for these joining borders???? and I have to pin each strip 4 times to stop the fabrics sliding and shifting? Yep I do it the hard way some times but I had the fabric and did not want to buy any more fabric.

One completed block of Tiny houses Thank you Tiffany. Click on Tiffanys name to see other Tiny houses!

MY Bernina set up with lots of tin6 fabric scraps and some not so small so I can sew any time I want to make a Tiny house, I have my cutting mat one side and iron the other side of me as I’m constantly pressing and cutting

Hand quilting an antique very fine woven woollen fabric panel.

I’m using a thick synthetic wadding to get a deep 3D effect on th falcons and the cloud shapes. But the backing was a big mistake, it’s 100% cotton but a kimono lining and is so tightly woven that I can not take a quilting stitch as the needle pings back out of the backing fabric so I’m haveing to do what my mum called the push and poke stitch that one does when doing tapestry, So I rescued her Fanny hoop which I’ve never used and I’m 1/2 way through quilting this panel now.

Mums Fanny hoop, these have been around for a long long time and are still made, they are quick and easy to use and free up both hands to be able to sew with.