Double Mitre Ruler

My colleagues are wonderful caring people, so each year I show my appreciation by making a Christmas placemat for use at our staff Christmas lunch. Each year new colleagues have a new placemat added to the growing collection.

These ‘Kris Kringle’ gifts have been going on now for nearly 10 years and it’s all down to this wonderful ruler – the ‘Double Mitre Ruler’! It makes mitred corners on small items so easy.

‘Double Mitre Ruler’

Over time the quilting has changed from very basic beginner walking foot, to free motion pictures, and onto Westalee Free Motion Quilting Rulers for domestic machines.

The quilting for the series of 2016 placemats

Here is a centre that looks like a circle of petals done with a gold thread, and in the corners, arcs that ‘point’ to the centre motif. The edges of the centre fabric are blanket stitched with the same gold thread.

12 arc; Circles On Quilts: Spinning Wheels #36

For the following year I dug out what I thought was the same centre ruler, and to change the pattern it made.

The quilting for the series of the 2017 placemats.

This is the back which shows the design, along with theme of red thread. A new Cross Hair Square of 8″ was used to mark the rotations for the pattern.

Double Spine; Circles on Quilts: Spinning Wheels #36; 12″ arc.

Little did I realise that I had two versions of the same template – this year’s ‘Spinning Wheels #36’ is a ‘squat’ shape. It took some sorting out of the ruler collection (suppose it had to be done sooner or later), to work out that it came from an earlier set of templates!

It’s time to go stitching!

Shift the Schedule and Do the Deadline!

Just when I thought I had the schedule for 2017 UFO’s mapped out, along came a Deadline.

Family handsome lad had his First Birthday coming up! So, dig through the stash – ’cause I’m not supposed to be starting anything new! – and found a hidden gem of fabrics and pattern tucked away in one of those tubs in DH’s shed.

Piecing the top went fairly quickly, next the quilting and ‘How to Quilt It?’

Ditch stitching each block to anchor the quilt is a first must. Then stepping back to let the quilt suggest it’s own pattern – it’s a one block quilt that uses light and dark value of bright colours to show depth. After that out came the Westalee Rulers, and on with the Westalee Ruler Foot.

Using two rulers from the Sampler Set, and alternating them between the two blocks, gave the quilt the interest of close up detail.

Matching thread colour to light value fabric and using the ‘Spinifex’ ruler.

Matching thread colour to darker value fabric and using the ”Circle” ruler.

I missed the Deadline by a few days, but met the Schedule by improving my finishing rate! Phew – that’s another one done! But there’s still left over fabric in the tub, perhaps enough for …think about that later.

‘Lachlan’s Quilt’ by RobynsPatch

On the back, animals to delight any little boy.

Backing fabric has jungle animals.

Time to work on another UFO…

‘Crooked Path’ – ’tis finished!

Time to get back to what’s been happening with the ‘Crooked Path’ table runner. It took some time to get used to the Westalee template and ruler foot, as I found it easier to do them a few at a time, and not be ambitious in ‘getting it all done now!’ I improved over time, gradually getting the hang of it, and can see how it fits in between using a walking foot and free motion quilting.

Completed quilting with the Westalee ruler foot ‘Spin-e-fex’ motif.

I needed to unpick a few of the ‘petals’ that had got ‘squished’, and a couple of the inner circles (that are formed as the template turns around on the pin), as they were more like mountains and valleys. With persistence each square patch had the pattern quilted on it. However a few of the circles were still a bit wobbly, which I would notice but others may not – and I was over the unpicking, so what to do? Simple, appliqué a circle over the centre of each square! After all it does look like a ‘flower’.

Centre circles – colour choices.

After auditioning fabrics from the stash, it came down to only a couple of pieces. The strong pattern of the squares, along with the yellow background and contrasting red, clashed with so many choices. So these were it. Next was what sizes and which colour to put where – and another day went by.

Inner circles glued down ready for appliqué

‘Roxanne Glue Baste It’ kept the circles in place until I had time to start the appliqué. I chose to use a matching thread and a narrow zig zag on the Bernina 801.

‘Crooked Path’ appliquéd centres.

An unexpected effect was that the circles tended to ‘puff’ up – possibly due to all the quilting underneath them, flattening the lower layers.

Crooked Path

Well, ‘Crooked Path’ began as a pattern for International Quilt Day (seen by chance while wandering the web), and ended up as a gift for a special lady. I’ve enjoyed making this table runner, juggling the choices along the way. And it’s sooooo good, knowing that I’ve actually finished something – and on time – instead of it going into the bottomless pit of ‘UFO’s’!

I hope you too are joining me in this slow journey, and stitching to ‘get it finished’!

 

 

Australian Quilt Convention 2015 – Part 1

Do you attend your national quilt conventions? I’m lucky enough to live in the city (Melbourne) that hosts Australia’s premier quilt show – The Australian Quilt Convention (AQC), so a quick trip on a tram right into the city gets me to the historic Royal Exhibition Building where the show is held each year.

Royal Exhibition Building

As usual, I always attend seminars to learn about new techniques and products, or have a refresher from an expert. This year there were no qualms about listening to Leonie West of Westalee Rulers, as she elaborated on the new ruler foot for domestic sewing machines. As I have tried it out on the ‘Crooked Path’ runner, it was enticing to see what other quilting patterns could be done by combining this foot and other rulers in the range. I think that for lots of ‘block’ style quilts, this is going to be the method I may use for quilting.

Deb Layt, a ‘luminary quilter’, released a book that explains the technique she used for award winning innovative quilt ‘Connected’.

‘Quilting Analysis’ by Deb Layt.

She also gave a talk about a new product for appliqué – ‘polystick’ – a sticky paper that can be repositioned. Deb used it in these quilts with a turned edge technique, before machine appliquéing with a ‘blind’ stitch, or elongated zig-zag. Having bought a sample, I’ll give it a try on a ‘UFO’ – as an incentive to get moving on one of the many that got away! Let you know how it goes later.

Made by Deb Layt using ‘polystick’ paper.

Made by Deb Layt using ‘polystick’ paper.

The joy of attending national quilt shows is viewing the quilts entered into competition or for an exhibit. This year the theme of the international ‘AQC Challenge’ was ‘True Blue’. A stunning array of interpretations and the outstanding quality certainly made for interesting judging. It was hard not to touch these textured and dimensional works of art.

Winner ‘True Blue Jacko’ by Jeannie Henry.

Second place ‘Really True Blue’ by Jan Clark.

The machine stitching, or machine thread painting, on the Blue Heeler caught my eye on this entry – very fine yet dense thread made it look like a photograph, it was that realistic.

‘True Blue Mates’ by Yvonne Chapman

This one evoked a quiet reflection – it was so quintessentially Australian, drought, rusty cars and abandoned farms. Although it depicts the time from 1937 to 1947, we’ve recently experienced another ’10 year drought’ in our ‘Sunburnt Country’.

‘The Big Dry’ by Camilla Watson

The Australian love of beaches and surfing offers a total contrast to inland drought, in the depiction of the oceans that surround our continent.

‘Girt by Sea’ by Sue Broadway

No wonder we spend hours at quilt shows, there’s so much to take in!

More to come …