Fabadashery Longarm Quilting: June 2016

Thursday, 30 June 2016

New Zealand Quilt by Sarah

'Bird's Eye View' Digital Pantograph
quilted by Frances Meredith, Fabadashery Long Arm Quilting

What has been on the quilting frame lately? A lovely quilt with memories of a special holiday made by Sarah.

New Zealand Kiwi Fabric

The quilt design is called 'The Birdwatcher' by Tracey Bowen and was a quilt project which Sarah picked up on her travels in New Zealand. The fabrics feature a variety of birds native to the islands including the Kiwi, the Tui and the Saddleback.

New Zealand Kiwi Fabric

The fabrics Sarah used to complement her feature blocks was also from New Zealand and were printed with patterns found in Maori art. We used a deep grey / brown Isacord (1375) for the thread and 100% Hobbs Polydown for the wadding. Sarah had chosen a lovely soft grey fabric for the back and once finished the thread colour and quilt pattern looked fabulous on the back as well as the front.

'Bird's Eye View' Digital Pantograph designed by Barbara Becker

She wanted a quilt design which reflected the traditional New Zealand patterns which featured on the fabric. As soon as I saw them I immediately thought of this 'Bird's Eye View' digital pantograph by Barbara Becker. I have been waiting for an excuse to add this to my collection for a while, so I am pleased Sarah popped by with her quilt.

"The Birdwatcher" New Zealand Quilt made by Sarah,
Quilted by Frances Meredith, Fabadashery Long Arm Quilting

Tuesday, 21 June 2016

Blue Sampler Quilt by Lynne

Lynne's First Sampler Quilt

This is a lovely sampler quilt made by Lynne and includes all our favourite quilt blocks - Dresden Fan, Log Cabin, Flying Geese, applique, and even some 'improv' blocks. She started making the quilt blocks as part a class held by Jenny Lester at Poppy Patchwork in Bristol last September and added a few of her own to make a good sized bed quilt.

William Morris fabric

Amongst the soft blues and greens in the quilt was a William Morris fabric design which Lynne had used for the sashing. It had a feathery swirl feel about, which is where we took our lead for the choice of quilting pattern.

'Alouette' Digital Quilting Design by Natalie Gorman

Lynne's choice of colours blended well together and she chose an all over digital pantograph called 'Alouette' designed by Natalie Gorman for me to complete her quilt.

Lynne's First Sampler Quilt

Now this is quilted it just needs the binding and it will be ready for use.

Thursday, 16 June 2016

Jelly Roll Quilt and Celyn Quilters 2016 Exhibition

Jelly Roll quilt made by Helen, quilted by Frances Meredith (Fabadashery)

My customers have been keeping me busy on the quilting machine this week. Helen and her Mum brought in this Jelly Roll quilt which she has made for a kind friend. It is a design from one of the first Pam Lintott Jelly Roll quilt pattern books.

The lovely soft, pastel colours were fabrics from a Moda Jelly Roll '30's Playtime' and with so many flower motifs all over the quilt we used this as the starting point for choosing a quilting design.

'Ginger Flower' digital pantograph by Apricot Moon

The digital pattern Helen chose was 'Ginger Flower' by Apricot Moon, which is always a popular one with my customers. For the wadding we used Hobbs 100% Polydown which will be great for washing, and for the thread we used Magnifico 2169, Elegante.

Helen is a member of Celyn Quilters and they are having their 2016 exhibition in Newbridge, Wales, this weekend - do pop along, you should be able to see this lovely quilt in the flesh.

Monday, 13 June 2016

Quilting the 'Nearly Insane' Quilt

'Nearly Insane' quilt - made and quilted by Frances Meredith

Over the past few weeks this has pretty much been my view of the world at Fabadashery Long Arm Quilting, as I have been quilting one of my own hand pieced quilts. Since February 2013 many of you may have seen me hand piecing a red and white quilt blocks for my 'Nearly Insane' quilt and now, in June 2016, it is finally quilted. You can follow the full journey on my other stitching blog.

'Nearly Insane' Quilt - August 2015

Sometimes you start a project in all innocence of where it is going to lead you. I just wanted a hand stitching project that I could carry around with me. Gradually, as I accumulated more blocks, I started to think how I was going to quilt it. Some of the pieces are small, with one 6" block having about 244 pieces in it. I knew I wasn't up to hand quilting blocks with SO MANY seams in them. I didn't even have the patience of struggling with it under my domestic machine, so this is when the seed was planted to invest in a long arm quilting machine.

Having decided I would be custom quilting it, I spent a lot of time ruminating about what design I would use. I spent several days with rulers, paper and pencils trying out different ideas and auditioning them on the machine, until I found a design which I was satisfied with. Once I had a road map in front of me, although time consuming, the stitching has been quite straightforward.

All the quilting on it has been hand guided and you can see in the picture that I have been using a long arm ruler to get the shapes and straight lines that I needed for the design. The blue marks are a water soluble pen, which are washed out as you go.

The quilt is off the frame now and I am slowly stitching on the binding, ready for display at the Festival of Quilts in August 2016.

Wednesday, 8 June 2016

Twisting Triads Quilt by Sue

Sue with her 'Twisted Triads' Quilt, quilted by Frances Meredith

I have recently had the pleasure of quilting this 'Twisting Triads' quilt top made by Sue at a Jan Hassard workshop held at Busy Bees Patchwork in Newport. Having completed a Jan Hassard quilt myself, I can appreciate the mental concentration required to get all the right fabrics in the right place, but it looks like a great pattern to use up fabric scraps for great visual effect.