Followers

Monday 8 August 2016

Disney Cot Quilt

I've just finished a cot quilt using my embroidery machine (Brother Quattro 3, Inv 6950D) stitch the Disney characters. I was asked to do a variety of characters, and use neutral colours.

I used really good quality fabrics, and a cotton / wool wadding.

Originally I was going to quilt in each and every square, but after putting it all together, I decided that to embroider in every square would be too much.

So here is the finished quilt. It only needs a light gentle wash to remove my quilting marks. (I find that simply sponging them doesn't completely get rid of some marks, must have been a bit heavy handed with the marking pen in places)






















Now I have to do another one, again in neutral colours. This quilt took about 2 weeks to make.

Thank  you for visiting today.
Have a happy crafty day!
Hugs
Beth

Monday 11 July 2016

Black & White with a touch of blue, or, You don't know, what you don't know quilt.

My eldest granddaughter Jaime-Leigh asked for her quilt to be made using Black, White and just a touch of Blue, also, she was unable to find a design she liked in my piles of quilting design books and magazines, which left me with no option to design it myself.

Have you ever heard the saying "You don't know what you don't know"? well that was me, never designed a quilt before and gungho as always thought "how hard can it be? Well let me tell you, it wasn't hard at all, despite people telling me I was somewhat 'Brave' to tackle it, I honestly found it quite easy.
I did after all base it on a simple 9 patch, the hardest part was deciding my fabric legend, once that was done I was off and running. Oh I also decided to make the quilt using quilt as you go and I used Some Westalee free motion ruler templates to do this. You can find how to use Westalee rulers here: Westalee YouTube Videos. You can purchase them here: Punch with Judy Westalee Design Rulers.

I have done 1 online course with Punch with Judy using the original rulers, I can now call myself and 'Original Ruler" since there have been several courses since the very first course which I did. I'm currently enrolled to do the Mystery quilt as you go quilt using templates not yet available for general sale, nor will you find these videos on You tube since they are only for this course, they will probably be posted at some later date by Westalee or Punch with Judy, I can't say.

Anyway, back to my YDKWYDK ( You don't know what you don't know) quilt, In all honesty I can't say it was all plan sailing, I made mistakes and it's far from perfect, but I was sort of happy with the end result, and it does look rather nice. Jaime-Leigh loves it and that's all that matters to me.

Here is a photo of the completed quilt.

Here it's hanging from my curtain rail, the only way I could get the whole thing photographed. It's a queen bed size.
The next photo is a closer look at the quilting. Each 12" block has this same free motion quilting done using Westalee Designs Circles on Quilts Wreath 15 COQW 15 Template.


I hope you like my Granddaughters quilt, and if it inspires you to step out of your comfort zone and make your own original and unique quilt, then wonderful, I'd love to hear about it.

Thank you for stopping by, hope you visit again when next I post.

Ps, my next project is the Labyrinth walk quilt, it's AMAZING!!! I'm currently in the process of quilting it, It's hard work on a domestic machine I tell you, but I won't let that stop me getting the look I want. So far I've learned how to do pebbles quite well if I do say so myself. Lol.
Bye for now.
Beth

Monday 25 April 2016

Dr Who Tardis Quilt

I've just completed a quilt top for my youngest granddaughter. She is a Dr who fan and wanted a Tardis quilt as soon as I mentioned one was possible.

The quilt top measures 50½" x 80"

Instead of doing the traditional thing with this quilt, that is layering with wadding and a backing fabric, for this one I'm going to use Minki for the backing, and will do minimal actual quilting to hold the two layers together.

I believe this will make the quilt not only more snuggalicious, but be deliciously warm and last but not least, it will I hope stand up better to washing more frequently than a traditional quilt would be.
 (I believe there really should be a word such as “Snuggalicious” allowed in our language, and when all is said and done, the English language is constantly evolving and changing any ways, so I’m only helping it along a bit.)  

The pattern I used is called ‘Relatively Dimensional’ and can be found for only $10 at hunter’s Design Studio. You can find it here Hunter's Design Studio/relatively-dimensional

I had a beautiful red brick fabric which I decided to use as my background, but all other fabrics used are as recommended. I bought them online at the suggested shop.

This quilt top only took 3 days from start to finish. I do recommend cutting and labeling all pieces before you start. 

For the POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX lettering, I used my brother INV6750D (Quattro 3) embroidery machine.

The pull panel, I photocopied the supplied words onto inkjet printer fabric. In retrospect I believe I should have made the ink heavier, I used a standard print setting, and while the text is clear, it could have been to my mind, a tad darker.

I know it looks a little uneven hanging up on my curtain track, but it is only the top and not yet finished, being hung a tad unevenly also give it a lop sided look, lol.




This is a good starter pattern if you're interested in quilting. It's all straight seams.

I hope you enjoyed your visit today. Hope you come back again soon.
Happy Crafting,
Beth 



Tuesday 19 April 2016

Fly High be Free


This particular card is made using only Kaszazz products. A full list of products used with relevant catalogue codes will be posted at the end of this post.


Side on so you can see the acetate tag.


The base of this card is a black A5 card scored at 10.5cm and folded, use a bone folder to give a nice sharp crease.

A layer of cream sponged around the edges comes next followed by a piece of Earth elements double sided paper onto which I created my brick wall.

I used a brick stencil and embossing paste to create the bricks, I didn't want to completely cover the specialty paper as i wanted this to be still visible for extra visual impact.

Once the embossing paste was dry, i swiped over the top with Distress Inks, I used 3 colours to get the effect i wanted.

I used a craft mat to keep my work area clean whilst using the embossing paste, and inks, this is so easy to simply wipe clean.

The Bi-plane was stamped using StazOn  Jet Black onto a piece of acetate (plastic sheets) leaving sufficient space to have a hanging tab. I then stamped it again onto a scrap of cream card using Memento Tuxedo Black, I used Memento Ink because I then coloured areas of the  plane with Kaszazz Alcohol Ink Art Markers. After fussy cutting out the Biplane with sharp pointed scissors and craft blade, I adhered the plane to the acetate using Glossy Accents. Don't be tempted to MOVE this once put into place. It has to be left to dry completely.

Once dry, I semi fussy cut out the biplane again, leaving a 2.5cm wide x 7cm long strip of the acetate at the top, After deciding where I wanted the plane to 'Hang' over the brick wall, I scored the acetate and adhered it to the reverse of the front panel.

The Fly HIGH be Free sentiment was stamped onto cream with Memento Tuxedo Black, opposite corners with punched with a corner rounder, inked with one of the Distress Inks used on the bricks, then mounted onto Black card. I used magic mount to fix the sentiment to the front.



All products are available from the current Kaszazz catalogue. As a Kaszazz demonstrator, I would be happy to place your order for you.

Thank you for swinging by today. I hope you like my latest project, and give it a try.

Happy Crafting.

Beth


Tuesday 16 February 2016

A large Jelly Roll Lap Quilt

I got this pattern from a Quilting book called " Jelly Roll Quilts" by Pam & Nicky Lintott. Published by David & Charles ISBN:10:0-7153-2863-8. This quilt can be found on page 24 and is called "Garden Trellis". To make it I used a Moda jelly roll and completely forgot to record the name. Typical.....

I used 100% pure wool batting, and the backing fabric I bought from Kornacraft Sewing Centre which is located in Gawler SA and ships just about everywhere.

This quilt is very easy to make and uses the tubular method. I'll say no more about the pattern as it's covered by copyright.

I free motion quilted this in the centre with a large stipple. The borders are quilted in straight lines, using the faint printed lines of the border fabric as a guide. I kept an even spacing simply by using the these lines.


 I don't have an owner for this quilt as yet, so may very well donate it to a raffle for some worthy cause.

Thank you for popping in today.
Hugs
Beth


Sunday 14 February 2016

HuggiesCrafts: Triple Heart Easel Card

HuggiesCrafts: Triple Heart Easel Card


For those interested in making this card, the original maker and card can be found here: Cardmaking Paradise

Special Anniversary Card

A Very Special Anniversary Card


It this day and age where the majority of things are so disposable, relationships seem to fallen into this category as well. Many don't even bother getting married anymore, citing it as an out dated institution, others say they don't need a piece of paper to cement their relationship, to prove their commitment to each other. I believe we each walk our own path, and make our decisions according to how life pans out for us as individuals, we can do no more.

I come from last century, in many more ways than the obvious one. I believe in commitment, of cementing my relationship with every avenue open to me. I believe in doing the hard yards, hanging in when it might seen so much easier to simply walk away. (This does NOT mean I would ever accept physical or emotional abuse as acceptable)
My own marriage is heading rapidly towards the Golden 50 mark, it will arrive in 2018, and while it's not always been as I would like, would wish and may have dreamt of, we have (I believe) a good solid, happy, (MOST of the time) life together.

When you meet others who have been married even longer, it makes my heart sing, It makes me proud to be part of a dying breed who stick with it regardless of the trials and woes which honestly befall us all at sometime or other.

Last year I made a 60th Wedding Anniversary card for just such a wonderful couple. and I'd like to share it with you here.

It's nothing extraordinary, nothing I consider to be really special. Yes i took more time, and tizzied it up more than I would normally do. But 60 Years folk! 60 long long years, and I consider that to be something worth celebrating.  So here is my celebratory 60th wedding anniversary card.

This is a gatefold card with a Heart embossed and layered over the centre front.
I used my KNK Zing to cut the banner layers, the Numerals, and the names.

 there were a number of paper punches used to cut the butterflies and the flowers. These were all cut out of silver glitter paper. They were finished with rhinestones.
Inside the card was also decorated,with flowers and butterflies, non dimensional so the card sat flat in its custom made box. I can't show you a picture of the inside, I forgot to photograph it before I wrote inside.

I made a box for the card, and die cut a heart from the top which was covered with acetate. a few rhinestone flourishes and a silver and white ribbon around the edges finished a very pretty presentation.


                              

(in my humble opinion anyway)

Thank you for visiting my blog today, I appreciate your constructive and polite comments.

Hugs,
Beth

Thursday 11 February 2016

Wow! how time flys!!!

February 11th 2016

I can't believe how long it is since I last posted here.
I feel ashamed of myself.

The past year has seen me making a few large quilts, as well as some cot quilts for great nieces and nephews born over seas.

Having looked at my last post, I think it's over due that I post the finished Underground railroad quilt.
So here it is folks in all it's glory. I loved making this and learning the story behind it as well.

As mentioned in my last post, I went on to make a king sized quilt for my eldest son and his wife for their 25th wedding anniversary which was last March.

Here is that finished quilt.

This is laid out on my dinning room floor, it's easier to see the whole quilt if it's not on the bed.
the next photo is a close up. This is the first time I tried stippling.

In my next post, I'll show you some photo's of other quilts I've made in the mean time.
Thank you for visiting my blog.
Hugs
Beth