2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge - February

February in July you ask? Better late then never right?

I've wanted to be able to quilt feathers freehand since I first saw them on a quilt. It was the dream, the ultimate FMQ goal. Well, I may not be there yet but I am a whole lot closer then I was before this tutorial. I've been looking forward to trying it since I saw it, Diane Gaudynski sure made it look easy enough ^^ I really LOVED her tutorial! Super easy to follow thanks to very clear pictures and just the right amount of text that you would actually read it all (otherwise I always skim, I'm a bad girl), but still feel you've gone in depth on the subject

Luckily, it wasn't as difficult as I had feared! It's not easy and I do have a lot of practice to go before I'll be happy with my feathers, but at least, it's one of those "terrified to even try" things I can cross of my list!

 My brain is not made for echo quilting! I was really bored after the first round back from the feathers... And it shows. But it does give a pretty cool effect.

I really like making feathers though and there's a lot of fun stuff I'm dying to try, like the branched feathers, more swirls and twirls, leafs and tendrils. But unfortunately, work doesn't permit much play at the sewing machine atm so I figured I'd settle with the above, my second attempt to show you. I really hope I'll have time to play some more with feathers soon though.

This was my first attempt, I actually prefer the more regular shape of the feathers like the ones here I think, then the more crazy ones I did for my second attempt above.

If you haven't taken the pledge yet, it's not to late, you can join up any time during the year to become a better free motion quilter and have the chance to win fabulous prizes!!  

Back to bags

I need a new bag badly as I've been toting around my old favorite for well over 3 years now. I change her up now and then but I always come back to the old one as it's so comfortable, just the right size (ok maybe a little too small, I always stuff it to the rim) and I love how comfortable it is to just sling across on shoulder.

So upon getting the inspiration I needed from the Purse Palooza at Sew Sweetness and previous post with Miss Beau Jangles pretty tote I decided it was time to dig into my jeans pile and get started. I had this vision of one of the really popular fold over bags that you can find everywhere right now, however, I didn't find any pattern that caught my fancy so I just decided to go where the jeans took me, and a little trial end error later, this bag was born =)

It's made from an old and very loved pair of Calvin Klein jeans of mine so I figured I make good use of the little mini pocket with the tag on which normally is in the front pocket, I think it looks quite fun in the back pocket like so.

When you open the fold there's a very handy zippered pocket hidden there. 

The little elephant was a gift from a good friend and I really wanted him to come along.

Really poor photo of the inside I know but you can see that there's another zippered pocket in there, as well as some pockets for pens, my comb and what will be my my phone pocket. I was super excited to find that I had some more of the lining fabric, I thought I'd given what I'd left away. But as it turned out I apparently had even more in one of the last bags I had to unpack from the move ^^

The original shape of the bag was actually this but when I'd sewn it together like so I didn't like it at all so I cut it straight and redid it. Like it much better now =)

I'm quite happy with the outcome, really has the potential to become a new favorite =)

A very pretty bag!

Remember my 100 Followers Giveaway?

The winner was Miss Beau Jangles and she has now turned this pile

Into this a beautiful bag using Noodleheads cute tote pattern. The photo below is used with her permission and more photos can be found in her blogpost about this. Thank you for sharing your beautiful creation with me, makes me really happy to see they where put to such good use! =)

 

Periodic Table Quilt

I couldn't be happier to introduce you all to my latest secret project (the "rainbow" I was quilting in the post below) that I have been working on in different ways all spring! My gift to my fantastic sister when she took her Masters Degree at Uppsala Universitet after having finished up by doing 6 months research at Harvard University in Boston this spring - Anna's Periodic Table Quilt! I couldn't be prouder of my amazing sister who's been working so incredibly hard these last 5 years and I knew I had to give her something that reflected just how proud I was, and the idea for her own, 100% custom quilt from fabric to finish, was born.

She was heading the pharmaceutical students student union for one year and was incredibly invested in them her entire time at the university so I wanted the backing to reflect that. Her wonderful boyfriend helped me in secret to get a hold of an illustrator file of the logotype for the backing so she always would remember her time at university.

This quilt brought on many new first for me, my first custom designed fabric from Spoonflower was ordered for both the front and the backing and let me tell you, to get the front right in dimensions and color and everything was by far the hardest part in the making of this! I'm very much an illustrator beginner (darn what a tricky program to learn!) so it took a lot of time to get it the way I wanted.  I referenced a pre-made black and white periodic table file I'd bought for this specifically and used it for element names and atomic weights and so on. Just to realize when I got the fabric in my hands after weeks of anticipation, that the guy I had referenced had got like 1/3 of it wrong!! Saw it when I stitched up the first row of elements (luckily, I'd not finished the quilt) which was the Lanthanides, I saw that Lutetium had Hydrogen's atomic weight and then suddenly a ton of errors appeared before my eyes! I felt like an idiot for not checking it's accuracy before I ordered but when you buy a periodic table, you kind of assume it will be correct... So a second order was made to correct the 25 or so faulty elements I had. Which resulted in them arriving 3 weeks before the set delivery date, so you can imagine my panic at the end. I'll stop babbling now and show you some more pics =)

Did my first micro stippling (at least I think it s micro ^^) in the small squares.

Closeup of some Transition metals and the quilting. Did normal meander for the elements with a small frame around each separate element to make them stand out individually a bit more. And I did a boxy loop-de-loop on the white for contrast. This was also my very first time using a different colored bottom thread (off-white all over) and with the thin cotton batting I used, it was a true hassle to get the tension right all over the quilt!

I did the binding with a decorative stitch to make the transition from white to black a bit smoother and I have to say I'm very happy with that decision, it looks very nice I think even if it did for some seriously long time dedicated to binding.

And the tag, since I was ordering custom fabric anyway I snuck in a tag at the bottom of the second top order, which sadly shows a little as the letters where cut off at the bottom a bit...

It says: "Made with love by Maria Wallin 2012. I'm so proud of you my beloved sister"

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And some "the making of" photos, all laid out a first time for sorting.

This was how far I'd gotten when I realized I had errors... Here I've piled them up and checking them towards a number of periodic tables online for accuracy.

Finally! Top finished and I'm preparing or borders.

Quilting with the speed of light to have it finished in time! Not a single fold, plucker or bubble! I'm so proud of the quilting for this quilt! I know it's all simple patterns but to get the meander decently even all over, get the tension right with the white bottom thread and no pluckers and therefore no need for any stitch unpicking. All over an amazing feat for me =)

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Anna: I hope you know how much I love you and that no one could be prouder of you then I am, every day. You, my little sister who "didn't like to read" and thought I was so boring with my nose stuck in a book all the time growing up. Now you have had your nose in a book for so many years and it has made you even more clever than you where (I'll never win an argument again ^^), and given you so much experience in so many areas, not just studies and lab work and I'm sure that whatever you decide to do in life after this, you'll keep making me and those who love you just as proud.

You're nothing short of amazing little sister and I love you. 

Quilting and quilting my rainbow

So I've been working so hard on my latest secret project, and I have to say it's coming out great, the FMQ challenge has really paid off I think! I'm extremely proud to announce there's not a single bubble or plucker at the front OR the back and I'm pretty much done apart from a few small sections! *beams with pride* I can't wait to show you all this quilt!

Here's one of each  color of thread I've been using apart from the green and white which for some reason was didn't want to be in the photo ^^ It's also my first time quilting with one color thread at the front and another at the back, it's been a bit tricky to get the thread tension right but I think it's coming out great.

Diana is very bored with me because I haven't had any time for her at all and she's not been allowed to help me quilt this quilt as I didn't want to risk quilting in any cat hairs as they're such a hassle to get out. So she's been helping me "measure" from a distance and when she's done "measuring" she's snuggled up as close to the quilt as I've allowed her to get and looked at me when I'm working =)

Tovas dress is finished!

My sewing student Tova has finished her dress! She was so patient with the final stages and hemmed the whole thing by hand ever so neatly! She's such a great student and I couldn't be prouder, she learns so quickly! You couldn't believe that she's only had two terms of sewing classes and that she a year ago had never used a sewing machine!

 

We had to take it in quite a lot, she's a very small person ^^

Hemming and hemming...

Closeup of her neat hem and beautiful ruffles.

Our classes are always so much fun and I too learned a LOT making this dress as I normally don't sew clothes (in fact, I generally very much dislike it) and it's been such a fun project! =)

You too have a dust bunny problem?

I used to have it too but I can't really think of them as a problem anymore after seeing this adorable Spoonflower fabric design by meduzy:

Isn't it the cutest fabric ever? Next time I make a Spoonflower order I have to order some of this!

In other notes, I'm very happy with my Spoonflower fabrics so far, the only things is that each of my two orders (about 4 yards each time) the fabric has been "pulled". I don't know how to describe it otherwise so that the designs are kind of wonky in some areas. For example 5 inches in there's an about 5 inch long section in which all the straight lines get a big belly and are distorted about an inch to the right, and that's all over the 4 continuous yards in two parts. A nothing major but a bit disappointing I have to say, luckily I could work around it sort of but you can clearly see on text and such that it's distorted in areas :( I can't show you as the project is still secret though.