The Salty Quilter - Jack's World - Finished

Jack’s World

General Info

Start Date  Apr 21, 2012
Finish Date  May 1, 2012
Status  Finished
Size  30″ x 50″
Pattern  My own design
What it’s for  Gift for my cousin’s son Jack
Batting  Sew Easy 100% cotton batting.

Quilt Top Notes/Techniques

For Jack to pin his post card collection on to.

Quilting Notes/Techniques

FMQ paisley shell designs and spirals with YLI invisible thread.

Progress Pictures

The Salty Quilter - Jack's World - before binding

The salty Quilter - Hazel's Pinwheels - Finished

Hazel’s Pinwheels

General Info

Start Date  Sep 18, 2011
Finish Date  Mar 17, 2012
Status  Finished
Size  Twin
Pattern  Carnival Dance
What it’s for  Gift for Hazel
Batting  ?

Quilt Top Notes/Techniques

Using self-modified version of “Carnival Dance” pattern to use 5″  charm packs. Adding in extra borders to help increase size. Used Red  Pepper Quilts hour glass block tutorial. Had some issues with stretching on the  bias. Needed to pay more attention to making sure seams would match up  when sewing them into four hour glass units.

Used formula for  side triangles from Quilter’s Academy Vol 2. Tried to follow their method  for trimming the quilt, but was not very successful. Next time need to  measure out from centre.

Made  matching pillowcase with left over fabric. Used “The Quilter” pattern,  but modified to use a French seam on the inside. Needed to take a deeper  second seem to avoid the first coming through. Needed to hammer the  cuff joint to make it more flexible to sew through.

Quilting Notes/Techniques

Center ditch quilted with Rasant cotton  wrapped poly thread. Quilted a large spiral in the pinwheel blocks with  King Tut 40wt variegated thread (Cleopatra). Quilted running spirals in  yellow sashing with free motion X through red cornerstones. Quilted  curls in white setting triangles, piano keys in red border, double loop  in white border, “l” loops in yellow border (with the name “hazel” in  cursive in one corner), and open spirals in blue border.

Progress Pictures

The salty Quilter - Hazel's Pinwheels - Finished

The salty Quilter - Hazel's Pinwheels - Over a chair

The salty Quilter - Hazel's Pinwheels - With pillowcase

 

The salty Quilter - Hazel's Pinwheels - Folded

The Salty Quilter - Citrus Coasters

Citrus Coasters

General Info

Start Date  Mar 7, 2012
Finish Date  Mar 14, 2012
Status  Finished
Size  4″
Pattern  Citrus Coasters by the Purl Bee
What it’s for  Housewarming gift for my BFF
Batting  N/A

Quilt Top Notes/Techniques

Super cute coasters. I must have cut my inner pieces a bit big, as only six could fit. Next time I will cut inside my template lines.

Progress Pictures

 

The Salty Quilter - Sitchin n Sewin

Stitchin’ n’ Sewin’

General Info

Start Date  Jan 20, 2012
Finish Date  Jan 28, 2012
Status  Finished
Size  10″ x 8.5″
Pattern  Itching to be Stitching by Frosted Pumpkin
What it’s for  Gift for Kay
Batting  Iron on pellon batting.

Quilt Top Notes/Techniques

This is a thank you gift for Kay for sending me the border fabric for The New Food Pyramid.

Progress Pictures

 

The Salty Quilter - Tree of Knowledge - Finished

Tree of Knowledge

General Info

Start Date  Jan 5, 2012
Finish Date  Jan 25, 2012
Status  Finished
Size  25.5″ x 28″
Pattern  My own design
What it’s for  Me
Batting  Matilda’s Own 100% cotton batting.

Quilt Top Notes/Techniques

My quilt was inspired by Frances Moore\’s tree quilt featured in the video for the January Free Motion Quilting Challenge. I wanted something to go into my office where I work as a knowledge analyst and this design came to mind. I foundation pieced the borders from my green (and some yellow and red) scraps.

Over time, I liked the quilt more and more. Eventually I entered it into the NSW Quilt Guild Under 35’s quilt show in September 2012.

Quilting Notes/Techniques

I used Gutterman 50wt cotton thread to do the heart leaf motif in the center with a size 70 needle. The appliques were also free motion quilted with 50wt, but a size 80 needle was needed to prevent skipped stitches. For the border I used Gutterman Sulky 30 wt cotton and a size 80 needle to do the spiral leaf motif. I blocked the quilt before binding, which significantly improved its flatness.

I’m still not 100% happy with my stitch length. It is too long and varied, especially on freehand designs. I need to work on speeding up and varying my machine speed while slowing down my hands. Also, I am not getting great tension on the back of the quilt. I’m having issues with excess loops of thread as well as occasional bird’s nests, even while using a Bobbin Genie.

Progress Pictures

The Salty Quilter - Tree of Knowledge - Finished

The Salty Quilter - Tree of Knowledge - Fill

The Salty Quilter - Tree of Knowledge - Border quilting

The Salty Quilter - Tree of Knowledge - back

The Salty Quilter - The New Food Pyramid

The New Food Pyramid

General Info

Start Date  Jan 5, 2012
Finish Date  Jan 16, 2012
Status  Finished
Size  22″ x 27″
Pattern The New Food Pyramid by Fun Thread Designs
What it’s for  Gift for my sister-in-law
Batting  Matilda’s Own 100% cotton batting.

Quilt Top Notes/Techniques

I saw this pattern and thought it was so cute (I got it when it was free, but it is totally worth the $5, very well written with a fusible applique tutorial). I’ve made cupcake themed stuff for my sister-in-law before, so I made this as a late Christmas gift. I used a buttonhole stitch with width and length of 1.5 to go around the appliques.

The pie fabric was a swap from Kay.

For the embellishing I should have put the rick rack on before going around with buttonhole stitch to help hold them down. The ends began to fray. I also should have waited until after quiting to put on the yo-yos. I added the candy cane to make it look less lop-sided because I didn’t centre the appliques properly.

Quilting Notes/Techniques

This was my first time FMQ on my new Janome MC6600P. It went pretty well. I used Gutterman 50wt cotton for the filigree quiting in the inside and YLI invisible thread with Gutterman in the bobbin. After I finished the quilt top, I read on CLK’s blog that when quilting an applique quilt, to go around the appliques with invisible thread after quilting the background. This way the left over “puff” goes behind the appliques. I tried it and it worked perfectly. When putting on the binding I needed to use a size 80 needle; the size 70 kept skipping stitches in thick areas.

Progress Pictures

The Salty Quilter - The New Food Pyramid

The Salty Quilter - The New Food Pyramid - Close up

The Salty Quilter - Pear Purse

Pear Purse

General Info

Start Date  Dec 10, 2011
Finish Date  Dec 10, 2011
Status  Finished
Size  8″
Pattern  Mod-O-Pear
What it’s for  Me
Batting  ?

Quilt Top Notes/Techniques

I saw a tutorial for this adorable purse on the Craft Passion blog. I’ve never made a purse before (I did make some breast cancer bags for charity, but they weren’t very fun), but this looked fairly simple. I could only find a 100mm frame, not a 85mm like the pattern called for, so I blew up the pattern by 115% to make it bigger. It fit perfectly and it’s a good size. I used felt for the leaf and glued it and the cord stem on.

Progress Pictures

The Salty Quilter - Pear Purse - size reference

The Salty Quilter - Pear Purse - Open

The Salty Quilter - Silver Wreath

Silver Wreath

General Info

Start Date  Dec 10, 2011
Finish Date  Dec 10, 2011
Status  Finished
Size  15″
Pattern  My own design
What it’s for  Christmas decor
Batting  N/A

After our move I couldn’t find my snowman wreath (I’m sure it’s somewhere, I just didn’t want to dig). I had a wreath and bought some ribbon, plus used some left over ornaments. $5 + 10 minutes + glue = wreath.

 

 

The Salty Quilter - Snow Star Table Setting - At the table

Snow Star Table Setting

General Info

Start Date  Nov 25, 2011
Finish Date  Dec 10, 2011
Status  Finished
Size  15″ x 18″
Pattern  Handmade magazine
What it’s for  My Christmas table setting
Batting  Iron on pellon

Quilt Top Notes/Techniques

The placemat pattern that was in Handmade was using the left overs from a tablerunner featured in a previous issue. Some of the pieces did not make sense (sew a 4.5″ rectangle to a 5″ square, huh?). I rang the designer, Angela Bradbury of Sew Bright Quilts, and she promptly emailed me the entire pattern, free of charge! Awesome service!

I still ended up cutting my pieces down and using slightly smaller vertical borders, due to a fabric shortage, but they still turned out nice.

Quilting Notes/Techniques

The coasters I made using left over fabric and my square in a square ruler. I used my new Janome MC660P to embroider each family member’s name on one, so that they know where to sit and which drink is theirs. I used Gutterman metallic thread with a 90 topstitch needle with a 50wt cotton Gutterman thread in the bobbin. I still had some issues with the thread tangling on the back, so I got some 100 metallic needles to try when I quilted them and they worked much better. I only did straight line quilting – not FMQ.

Progress Pictures

The Salty Quilter - Snow Star Table Setting - At the table

The Salty Quilter - Snow Star Table Setting - Placemat

The Salty Quilter - Snow Star Table Setting - tops

The Salty Quilter - Christmas Tree Ornaments

Christmas Tree Ornaments

General Info

Start Date  Nov 14, 2011
Finish Date  Nov 14, 2011
Status  Finished
Size  4″
Pattern  Online Quilt Magazine 2010 November(?) issue
What it’s for  Annual family Christmas ornaments
Batting  N/A

Quilt Top Notes/Techniques

So easy and cute!

The pattern has you sew the circles together and turn them right side out. I was lazy and just zig zagged them together and pinked the edges. I used a CD-R for a circle template. I made six in 45 minutes.

Progress Pictures