Pricking and Pouncing Day

At last I've made a start on Leah's Goddess Quilting project.....I printed the design out a couple of weeks ago and couldn't decide how I wanted to proceed with it. I asked myself  should I try  white cotton and paint the design or stay with black, black had obvious problems with transferring the design.  So I started with a cream  fabric, tracing the design was a doddle and last night I started to stencil with Markal/Shiver paint sticks, whilst I enjoyed applying the colour I realised that the speed I was working it would be another couple of weeks before I could even start thinking about FMQ which is what I want to learn.

Above picture shows my progress the colours on the scrap quilting lower right are colours I wanted to apply at some point to the goddess quilt.  I will continue with this quilt at a later date...Because I can't wait to start  FMQ I decided to start again this time with black fabric, only problem is I don't have a large enough light box or window that would allow me to trace the design onto the fabric, so I remembered I had a pouncing bag which I sometimes use for calligraphy, despite the fact I can do embroidery I've never used this method to transfer a design onto dark fabric...To cut along story short I took a few pics whilst I was working the design to show how I managed to get the design onto the black fabric.

Pic above shows a felt mat, pricking tool and my pouncing bag filled with chalk.  First I needed  to perforate all the design with a pricking tool, I placed the felt mat under the design (remember to protect your table from the needle.  the picture below shows part of the perforated design.

 

 

When I had perforated the whole design  it was time to lay the fabric out.  I held the fabric in place with tape I then placed the perforated design on top of the fabric  holding it in place with tape.

Then using the pouncing bag I gently stroked the bag over the perforated design, I was not sure how well the chalk was going through the perforations so did a second pass. When I was sure I had covered the design I very carefully took the perforated paper away.

 

 

And voila! one successfully transferred design, the only thing to do now was connect the dots with a white pencil to make the design more permanent

 

 

There is a little residue left on the fabric but this will soon disappear.

I'm sure there must be other ways of transfering a large design to dark fabric but for now I'm happy with this technique.

Can't wait to start the FMQ I know there will be lots of $%^& but does it matter if it's kept on the level of having fun.

 

Happy Quilting

Kathleen

 

 

Snowball and nine patch quilt

I'm not sure if I fully understand the concept of Pinterest but thought I would join and find out more, two hours later I was still trying to find a user name that hadn't already been taken, I've decided I must be unimaginative as all my made up names were already taken, to think I could have spent the two hours happily quilting.....

I've made good progress with the Kim Diehl quilt from the book ' Simple Charm'  

   

I've still to sew the leaves on, I'm not sure if I should do this on the machine or by hand.  I have omitted the corner leaves which to my eye seemed cluttered and used fabric rather than the suggested wool felt.

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Whilst searching the web I came across this block of the month from Sulky which looked a fun project you can find the link on the left hand bar.

 

Kathleen

January 2013 New FO Challenge

First I would like to wish everyone a very happy sewing 2013

I've already kick started January with a project from Kim Diehl's book 'Simple Charm' I love every project in this book so it was a difficult choice which to start first. 

 

As I'm on a learning curve I chose this project from the book

 

                                  Good practice for the Snowball block and the 9 patch

At this point I should point out that the nine patch are 1.5 inch squares individually cut to that size, as I'm on a learning curve  and have already tried the alternative method of sewing longer strips and then cutting to size it seemed a good idea to try different method of constructing the nine patch.  After I had cut the tiny squares I did wonder if I could sew the little blighters with accuracy, surprisingly I found sewing them to be really relaxing.

The first 120 pairs for the nine patch

 

 

Already complete 41 Snowball blocks

The fabric I'm using is from a Moda Charm pack called Harvest Moon.

So there you have it my first 2013 New FO Challenge  and WIP Wednesday

 

Kathleen x