A productive week.....

I hope you have all had a good week!  Here it has been wet and windy on and off for most of the week which, has meant that it seemed a good idea to spend a lot of time in my sewing room (well that's my excuse!)

Flushed with the success of my 'improv' pieced cushion which I wrote about recently, I thought I would try a slightly bigger project using more of the techniques from the book 'Artful Improv' by Cindy Grisdela.  At the beginning of the week, I pieced together a wall quilt using three different techniques from the book.

I am really pleased with the results but, I haven't decided how to quilt it yet, so it is still a work in progress.

While I was making up my mind how to quilt the improv quilt, I decided to start another project.  This was a free pattern from many years ago (2009) called 'Honey Bunny' by Kellie Wulfsohn of Don't Look Now!  (Kellie now has a shop called Cutting Cloth.)  It has been sitting in a folder all that time waiting for me to make it!! 

The pattern uses a technique for raw-edge appliqué which I haven't used very much as I was never very confident to try it. However, since learning to free motion quilt, I now feel I have the skills needed and, I thought I would make it.  The original pattern was made into a small cushion but, as I have made a couple of new cushions recently, I decided to make it into a mini wall-hanging instead.

It was a lot of fun to make and I really loved quilting the back ground with this all-over swirly pattern.  In fact, I liked it so much that I may quilt my improv quilt with it too!!  The bunny wall-hanging is perfect for Easter or, I may send it to my Granddaughter to hang in her nursery!

Thank you for visiting!

Another new cushion.....

Following on from my last post when I showed you an 'improv pieced' cushion that I had made, I thought I'd share another cushion that I have made since then.  It is not 'improv piecing' but it is a 'modern' style.

The pattern is a pattern by Suzy Quilts called 'Modern Fans'.  It is a little on the tricky side as it has curved piecing but, Suzy walks you through these with her online tutorials of how to best approach curved seams.

As I was unsure about sewing the curved seams, I thought it best to start with one block and make a cushion to test out how I felt about them before I launched into sewing a whole quilt top.  With this in mind, I used the same solid fabric colours that I had used for my last cushion so that they would coordinate nicely together.

Cushions are also the perfect size for practising free motion quilting, so before I made the pieced block into a cushion, I quilted it using a mixture of straight-line walking foot quilting and free motion quilting.  Overall I am very happy with the results and I now have two new cushions to decorate my home!!

Thank you for visiting and until next time 😃xx

Something I had been meaning to do.....

Some while back (at least over a year ago, before I moved back to Switzerland) I started taking an interest in modern quilts/quilting.  I think this probably coincided with experimenting more with my free motion quilting as, modern quilts often have more negative space than traditional quilts, leaving lots of space for free motion quilting.

As I love quilting books, I of course added one or two modern quilting books to my collection.  One of these was a delightful book called 'Artful Improv' by Cindy Grisdela which I read from cover to cover and then put to one side meaning to try some of the techniques and ideas.  However, life took over, we moved home, other projects (baby quilts) took priority and I still hadn't tried any of the techniques.

That is until the beginning of 2019.  I had pulled this book out and put it on my list of projects to make in 2019.  I still had some quilting to finish on the last baby quilt which I showed you in my last post but, the idea to try some of the techniques from the book was still there.  Earlier this week I was browsing on the internet (as one does) and found a delightful pillow project on Pinterest, which reminded me of the style of the projects in 'Artful Improv'.  Well, it wasn't surprising as the pillow was a project made by Cindy Grisdela and is a free project from the publishers of the book C&T Publishing.  It felt like the Universe was speaking to me and I just couldn't resist trying the improv piecing and making the pillow.

I even had some similar green fabric in my stash to that which Cindy had used when she made her version.  It was a really fun project and Cindy's instructions are clear and easy to follow, so I didn't have any trouble with the improv piecing or sewing the curves.

The pieced pillow top was nice but, I knew that some quilting would bring it to life.  I added some wavy lines using the walking foot on the machine (as Cindy had done on her pillow) then I just couldn't resist adding some free-motion quilted bubbles.  

The construction of the pillow was a straight-forward envelope back, so that didn't take long and I am now the proud owner of a pretty little improv-style pillow!  I am really thrilled with it!  Now I am keen to try some of the other techniques from Cindy's book!!