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December 13, 2022
Last Mini Wholecloth Finished - To Do Tuesday 13/12/22 from The Quilt Yarn

Well, I lost the plot again for a few weeks in terms of my weekly goals, however did manage to finish at least one thing from my list a few weeks ago.


Finished the last of the little wholecloth quilts for a workshop next year.

Have three examples of the same design now and plenty to talk about. The last one, the yellow wholecloth was a bit of an exploration of thread. I used Magnifico 40/3 wt thread from Superior for that for the main elements and 100 wt Invisafil for the background.

It looks lovely in that gold ...

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November 27, 2022
Another Mini Wholecloth Finished from The Quilt Yarn

Finished the second wholecloth from the same design that I did some weeks earlier. 


This time I stitched this out on a dusty pink fabric using a 'run-of-the-mill polyester thread. While this worked fine, I am not sure I would do this again...the thread was almost abrasive. No problem stitching with it, but a real hassle to pry it out of the fabric if you tried unpicking. However, as this wholecloth is for a class I am doing next year I thought that I give this a whirl as people will come with all sorts of thread.
I used ...

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November 25, 2022
New Listing in Etsy Shop from The Quilt Yarn

Finally finished my latest project and put it up in my Etsy shop. A bit on the late side, but better late than never...here is the Quilted Christmas Table Runner/ Wall Hanging with the three applique sheep.




The runner measures 18-7/8in x 37-5/8in and looks also great on the wall as a bit of a Christmas decoration. In terms of quilting, I put a loop design in the background behind the sheep, then put a wavy line in the red sashing with a wave ruler. This took me the longest time to work out how the wave ...

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October 2, 2022
The Rose Charity Quilt from The Quilt Yarn

I made a concentrated effort to get that Rose Charity quilt finished, again focussing in on minimal marking and keeping the quilt nice and soft. For this quilt I literally just wanted some embellishment as the fabric itself is quite striking and very patterned. So I mainly quilted in the black parts and just did a few line designs in the other parts to stabilise the quilt. This is what I like about these charity quilts. Not only are they a real surprise every time I open the packets from the Orange Tree Quilters group, they are also a real ...

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September 28, 2022
To DoTuesday - 27/9/22: Minimal Marking - Feather Wreath from The Quilt Yarn

Here we are again...another week has gone!


My goals from last week were:
August 24, 2022
To Do Tuesday 23/8/22 from The Quilt Yarn

My goals for last week were:


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June 27, 2022
Clamshell Quilting from The Quilt Yarn


Have been clamshell quilting again. After having finished my big background filler project I made a start on the charity quilts that I picked up about a month ago. To my delight they are little baby quilts in really nice bright colours. Love those!
Me in action
The finished product

I am playing a bit with Idea Pins on Pinterest at the moment. If you want to see the process head over to my Pinterest account and watch my Idea Pin on clamshell quilting (under the Ruler Work board). Would be great if I could display this here but I ...

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June 10, 2022
Background Filler Project from The Quilt Yarn

I m back onto my background filler project after a few weeks of a bit of a break. Felt somewhat overwhelmed with the enormity of the project and lost some steam to keep going. So I did a few other projects to take my mind off mainly working on some listings for my Etsy shop but also 'playing' around on EQ8 with some new patterns (fantastic program...was able to manipulate a pre-existing layout into the custom size that I wanted, changed it a bit and ended up with at least 5 different versions of possible quilts - there is another ...

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June 2, 2022
Invisafil on Bernina Q20 from The Quilt Yarn

Today I thought it might be useful to people to share how I use Invisafil from Wonderfil Threads. I have been using this thread for a while, initially only using it for stitch-in-the-ditch but lately also for freemotionquilting. Invisafil is a silk like 100wt, 2-ply cottonized polyester thread. Obviously very fine, I have been using it in preference to invisible Monofilament thread as it blends in like a dream.


This is my settting on the Bernina Q20
The tension is set on 2.0 and I am stitching in the ditch with the BSR2 stitch regulator. Needle-wise, I am using ...

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May 18, 2022
Edge To Edge Quilting on the Sitdown Bernina Q20 from The Quilt Yarn

I am finishing off my little side project and thought I do a post on how I put an edge to edge design on a quilt using a sitdown longarm machine. I did do an earlier post some weeks back but thought it might be interesting to people to see a more detailed description of the process.


As I am in a bit of a hurry I again used the Cloud Nine design by Patricia E. Ritter that I purchased as a self print design from Urban Elementz a few weeks earlier. I printed several pages of the design and ...

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March 15, 2022
Edge To Edge Quilting On a Sit Down Longarm from The Quilt Yarn

Finished putting my little owl quilt together and was wondering about how to quilt it. Did not feel like stitching-in-the-ditch (never really feel like that ), but was also bored with my range of allover meandering designs. Thought about just stippling over it, but felt that this was too boring. While I can do other allover designs, did not feel like concentrating that hard to do one of those more complex designs.


Well, after a lot of to and fro, decided to do an edge to edge design over it. You have to wonder though because that meant a lot more ...

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September 19, 2021
Another Nursery Panel Done from The Quilt Yarn

This panel has been most interesting. I decided to again use my Handiquilter Multi Clamshell tool, however expanded on the clamshell design and made a 'cloud' pattern. 


For this little exercise I did mark a grid onto the panel though as I was not confident that I would be able to keep the design straight otherwise.

The finished product

So, how did I go about this...first I decided on the grid size, i.e. 2in x 4in and marked this with a blue water erasable marker onto the panel. As I am a very sloppy marker, I half expected ...

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September 15, 2021
The Cutest Panel from The Quilt Yarn

I am in clean up mode, trying to get rid of some of the panels that I have collected over time.


This particular panel I have had for some years...it is called 'Jungle Friends' by Deborah Edwards for Northcott Fabrics. Finally cut this panel to size which is always a challenge as the material is never entirely straight, i.e. it is a bit tricky to get fabric and design perfectly straight, particularly if you are a stickler for detail like I am.

Decided to do another clamshell allover design...really like that for little baby quilts.
 
Here are ...

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September 13, 2021
Love a Good Stipple from The Quilt Yarn

Finished another of the charity quilts for the Orange Tree Quilters group. In looking at this quilt I decided to just quickly finish it off with an overall meander design.


It's again a very eclectic mix of colours and fabrics. Did not feel like doing any stitch-in-the-ditch  and any quilting in the rectangles would have gone under, so it had to be an allover design.

Must say, even after all these years, I still love the stipple design. I know that many people find it incredibly boring but I just love the texture and feel it provides, particularly when ...

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September 9, 2021
Baptist Fan Quilt Finished from The Quilt Yarn

I finished one of the charity quilts for the Orange Tree Quilter group. Took me a bit longer than expected as I had other things popping up throughout the week.



Looks great! Quilted with Aurifil 40/2 cotton thread in a pale green colour.

Still thinking about the ruler situation. I quilted this with three of Amanda Murphy's circle rulers and two of the Handiquilter rather largish Circle rings. While this was do-able, I did not manage to keep this consistent from row to row. Was pretty happy with my vertical alignments, but horizontally I seemed to struggle and ...

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May 2, 2021
A Year of Stars with Natalia Bonner - Morning Star/New Project Coming Up from The Quilt Yarn

Just a quick post to show you the quilted Morning Star Block for the month of April.


Loved doing this block. Particularly like the centre motif. Still have the sashings to do, but waiting for an opportunity to change the thread as I am quilting the pebbles in that dusty pink colour. Given that this is a year long quiltalong, there's plenty of time to pebble along. Have a few other things on the go at the moment.

Apart from this, we had our first Quilt Show after the isolation of 2020. Went the other day to have a ...

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April 25, 2021
Fearless Quilting from The Quilt Yarn

After all that practicing of the woodgrain design it was time for me to go on my actual project.

First though I basted my table runner. I did this in a loose grid following the seam lines where I could in order to keep it straight. I thought that this might help me to keep my design straight.
This time I used red thread for the basting so I could actually see the stitch line well enough not to get confused with my stitching. 

Thread choice! I was going to quilt this with a grey-ish thread, however during my trials ...

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February 7, 2021
Block #2 of the Year of Stars Quiltalong with Natalia Bonner from The Quilt Yarn

Finished the Dandy Star quilting.


Look at that texture, it's really puffing out.
Loved quilting this block and learnt a few things. After many, many years I finally figured out how to echo around star points with a ruler without having to mark the exact spot you need to stop. That was a bit of an eye opener and very helpful. Usually I make a little mark on where to stop however that often is not exact and without fail my next quarter of an inch echo line is either too fat or too skinny because I did not ...

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February 3, 2021
Playing With Aurifil Monofilament Thread from The Quilt Yarn

Today I trialed Aurifil Monofilament thread. This is the first time that I have used this super fine, invisible nylon thread.


First of all, the cone is huge!

It comes with a thread 'sock' rather than a net. I was unsure whether to remove that, but here it is...a word of warning! Be extremely careful when you remove it because the thread instantly untangles from the cone and gives you a bit of a mess. There is nothing you can do other than to unwrap it to the point where you only have one thread hanging off. Of course ...

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January 13, 2021
Freemotion-Quilting Again from The Quilt Yarn

Ahhh...after what felt like weeks on end, I finished my three quilt tops and am finally able to get back to what I love most... freemotion-quilting.


Made a start on my Natalia Bonner 'A Year Of Stars' quilt for the quiltalong that has commenced in January.  As I am not on a frame longarm, I have to secure my quilt with stitching in the ditch before I can start all of the ruler work. I did order some Monoploy thread on a cone which arrived recently and started with testing my tension.
I have a few blocks that ended ...

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