Quilt No 024: Modern Background

I have a chair in our hall that seems to have been designed specifically for the dogs to sleep on, clamber onto to see out of the hall window, and otherwise act as a dumping point for bags as one comes through the door. Thus, apparently, it needed a contemporary cover that looked smarter than the throw that routinely covers it. The suggested colour scheme matched some fabric I bought some time ago, and after a quick planning session, I set to with a quilted pattern of my own making…

Continue reading

Autumn Lily Layer Cake Quilt

IMG_5766_wI finished a mammoth quilt last week, the first I have designed using a Layer Cake – Blackbird Designs ‘Autumn Lily’ by Moda. For the uninitiated, layer cakes are usually forty two 10×10″ pre-cut squares of fabric from a coordinating collection. I augmented this with a lot of calico to make a relatively inexpensive throw for the bed – it reaches over the sides, but only goes 2/3rds of the way up the bed by design (and by the fact that I would have needed more patterned fabric!). Each block in the above photo is just under 10″ square for a sense of scale, and the finished quilt size is 110″x67″ (roughly 3m by 1.5m). Each square has been quilted, and the repeating motif is my own continuous line quilting design.

I spent yesterday afternoon having my first play with Electric Quilt 7 – a quilting software package that I purchased last week to aid in production of quilt patterns, as well as designing my own quilts. As all the reviews I looked at have said, there’s a steep learning curve, but the help screens and tutorial videos do help you get to grips with what is actually an unintuitive interface (at least at first). It does have the benefit of being able to import photos of the fabric swatches, and Moda are kind enough to provide these as a download via their website.

Continue reading

Overlocked Layer Cake Quilt

Following on from my speedy success with my first overlocked (serged) quilt, I popped into Quorn Country Crafts for some spare overlocker needles, and I left with some woolly nylon spools, the needles, a layer cake and another jelly roll of fabric; oh, and an offer to talk to me about leading some quilting classes later on in the year.

For the uninitiated, a layer cake (in quilting terms) is made up of 42 10×10″ squares of coordinating fabric. There’re many different ways of cutting up these squares, but it does also allow for larger squares to be used in patchwork quilting. This is my first layer cake quilt, and I’ve kept to straight lines so that I can use my overlocker for all but the quilting.

Here’s the interim pics – trialling the quilt-as-you-go overlock technique I’m developing – and I’m pleased to report success!

IMG_5612_w

 

Continue reading