Finally Quilting Again

 Many of you may know that I have been unable to quilt for a couple of months now due to mechanical failure with my quilting machine.   Luckily for me, the tech services in the United States provide a good service and are very helpful in determining what the problem may be.  After three sets of parts, I am becoming quite an accomplished electronic installer - although it may really be their good instructions.   However, the machine still could not be fixed so they sent me another machine that has not been in active service.   My DH and I set it up this week and I have been putting it through it's paces.

I pieced this quilt a few years ago and have never gotten around to quilting it -  you know customers come first!   Anyway I put an Edge 2 Edge (Pantograph) pattern on it ... I am very happy indeed with how it turned out.   I even sat watching the news on QLD unfold last night and put the binding on.   One UFO finished.

 A close up of the blocks ... I loved this fabric and am so so happy I made this quilt with it.

 I used strips of every fabric in the quilt to make the binding - I just love the look.

 The beautiful backing from Widebacks - fabulous quality as usual and beautiful to quilt.

 This little baby was quilted quite awhile ago and I hadn't gotten around to putting the binding on ... it is also finished now.  It is only a lap quilt - I think I will put this one in the car for the longer trips - I always get cold when I am a passenger on a long trip.

 That beautiful backing again.    This time I used an all over pattern (pantograph) of Anne Bright's design.

 This is the naughty machine ... all packed up ready to be sent back to the USA ... I hope they can whip it into working order again ... sniff sniff I will miss my little Millie.   At least I have a new Millie that works well.  

I have been doing some custom quilted blocks to test it out some more ... but white on white doesn't photograph very well ... I'll see what I can do when I have finished them. 

So next week I am back quilting customer quilts ... I have  a few to catch up on but am taking orders.

Happy Quilting for now ... Jane x

A linen Quilt

This is the first Linen Top I have quilted ... my customer wanted this quilted loosley. I told her I would use the embroidery pattern as the quilting motifs and this is the result. She was over the moon - the pictures really don't do this quilt justice - it looked so much better in person.


the looser weave of the linen can be a problem, so I needed to take care when squaring the top up when on the quilting machine.

You can click on the pictures to enlarge them. Please don't use them for any purpose.

The back looked pretty darn good too! I used the daisy motif in the open areas around the centre quilting so the design didn't look too full, extended out the flowers from the embroidered design and did a curving flower border, again with one of the flower motifs. The end result is a lovely linen quilt that isn't "formal" but has a nice flowing feel to it. My client was pretty happy and that makes me happy too! Thank you for letting me publish a picture here on my blog.

Happy quilting,

Jane

x

Hopscotch Quilt Finished

This is the bright boys quilt I made when I went to TasScquilters Retreat recently. I purchased some fat quarters from Cranberry Crafts on the Saturday and made the quilt up on Saturday/Sunday - went back and got some more to make a bright girls quilt too! The pattern, called "Hopscotch" is in Karla Alexander's book "Stack a New Deck".

The backing is from Widebacks and was beautiful to use and very effective with the coloured thread I used.











A close up...










And the whole shebang....I have only pinned the binding to the back at this stage and still have to hand stitch it down - a job for the evening I think.

Happy Quilting for now.

Jane

Beautiful Quilt for Charity

Check out this beautiful oriental quilt. A group of ladies on the North West of Tasmania have put it together and are donating it for charity fundraising. They have done the most beautiful work and I love the little applique blocks - especially the Koi.




It was a pleasure to quilt.

Customer Quilts

Close up of circles quilting on square in a square quilt.,
















Back of circles quilting - love those circles.

Quilt Studio - Finishing Up

Wall building still in progress......

Outside hardiplank cladding finished - been a long morning... but still going!

Carpet has been laid out and cut roughly - waiting for it to settle before fixing to the floor area and trimming.

Now we just have to finish the inside lining and sealing up the top areas...such a great job in such a short time frame - less than two days work.

Work in Progress - Quilt Studio

Well, the first window (the small one) went in today, then the second (a big one)! Two doors and a further full length window to go.

This is really exciting - James has been very busy all afternoon and I have been the carpenter's lacky when needed.

The space is coming alive and I can't wait until it is finished and I have flooring down. With my APQS due any day ... I am beside myself with excitement - hence being up at 2am and can't sleep! Anyway James has gone to work now at 3.30am so I am just fiddling on the computer - looking at thread, batting, pricing etc.

Next post should be ..."It's here"..... Cheers for now - off to work in an hour or so! Jane x