Loveandpeas #3

Funky squirrel!

I haven't completely stopped my Loveandpeas makealong, stuff has got in the way a bit but here are two I have completed.  Number three was this adorable squirrel, for this one the technique to be used was filling stitches and I just had the best fun.  On the leaves I've used variegated 4ply wool in a satin stitch radiating out from the veins and then I've gone over the top of the veins in chain stitch in the same wool, part of the fun was trying to figure out which bits to stitch first.  The squirrel is almost all stitched in long and short stitch, angled to go in the direction of the fur, and is a mixture of embroidery flosses and wools.  The eyes and the lines on the face are backstitched in dark embroidery floss and the tummy is done with single short stitches scattered all over.  There are french knots on the squirrel and the acorn, and on the background flowers and just a bit of stem stitch on the curling acorn leaf stems.  What a lovely design!

Number two was a bit of applique and a deer design.  As with most

Pretty deer

things in fabric design there are a lot of different ways to do something and I followed the instructions and used interfacing to stabilise my bits of fabric before pinning them onto the background and blanket stitching them in place.  However, in future I will use fusible backing, something I've used so many times in the past but didn't think I had any (I did, it was hiding...).  It basically glues the fabric onto the background and you don't even need to stitch, but I would have done the blanket stitch anyway, it does look so good.  This time I did copy the embroidery pattern onto quilting paper, a flimsy substance like tissue paper which is strong enough to draw onto but tears away easily once you've stitch through it.  Then I embroidered all the loveliness of the design in place, wool for the tree, french knots, plenty more practice.  This was all done during the Boat Race and it did a lot to distract me from the rather awful result...

Around The World - Quilters' Guild AGM Dundee 2012

This is my 8 year old daughter Caitlin's Australian quilt which she had been working on since Christmas, her answer to the theme of 'Around the World' inspired by a school project on the country and my fabrics brought at my very first Festival on Quilts in Birmingham from Aussie Dreams, these make up most of the territories of Australia on the top right panel and the various animals and Uluru in the bottom left panel.

The rest of the fabric was all bought at the 2011 Knitting and Stitching show in Harrogate, the bottom right was a Langa Lapu sun print from The African Fabric Shop.  They are a long time favourite of myself, my daughter and my mother, the owners, Magie and Bob, travel around Africa to source their fabrics directly from the weavers and dyers and each piece is unique.

For the first two panels, Caitlin sewed strips of fabric together then cross cut them to make the backgrounds of squares, using the sizes to give the effect of zooming in from outer space.  In the first panel she appliqued on Australia, New Zealand, Antartica and Indonesia and then appliqued the whole globe onto the dark spacey background.  In the second she used 505 spray to stick the Aussie Dreams fabrics down and appliqued them onto the squares background with a space dyed WonderFil thread she bought at her Quilters Guild Region 16 Regional Day.

In the third panel the sky, land and billabong were strips of fabric sewn together, then all the animals and the rock were appliqued on.  The sun and Uluru are reverse appliqued.

The koala and kangaroo joey were the successful product of my first foray into printing onto fabric with my laser printer with Crafty Computer Paper, who I've used before for inkjet printable fabric.  I printed onto their laser heat transfer paper and we carefully ironed the animals onto white fabric.  I was so nervous because the paper is not cheap, but the results were stunning.  Caitlin then used my Derwent Inktense pencils to colour in the kangaroo joey and a little bit of the koala joey, they are quite grey anyway, and then appliqued them on.

You can't see it, but the quilt is backed with the most fabulous green liquorice allsorts fabric.  Caitlin quilted in the ditch round each panel and also quilted a couple of stars with invisible thread.  She sewed on the binding, which is from the Very Hungry Caterpillar range by Makower, and I slip stitched it in place.  I found basting with 505 spray easy and it held the sandwich of quilt top, backing and 80/20 backing in place perfectly while she was machine quilting.

The borders are strips pieced in turn, and there is a kangaroo button from The Button Lady sewn onto the central square.

It can be difficult to fit the time and mental energy needed to focus on sewing inbetween the busy day to day life of an 8 year old and I was very proud of her hard work.  She created really all of this, designing and executing the whole thing with me acting as faciliator more than anything else, holding down the ruler for rotary cutting, paying for fabric, being an extra pair of hands and providing support if needed, moral and practical!  She won her class in the YQ competition for the Quilters' Guild AGM in Dundee and I freely admit to being a very proud mum!

And finally ... catching up with the Sampler Quilt

9. Clamshell
Ironing fabric onto freezer paper as with Inner City, but this time the pieces are curved, technically more challenging but looks good, and they are appliqued down like roof tiles rather than pieced.  This gave me a chance to use a nice colour changing piece of ikat as the background and some of the smaller scraps of the Naturescapes fabric used carefully to complement the changing colours of the ikat as well as a new toning fabric.  Looked lovely when I created it as it was and then even better when it was quilted and the shells really stand out.