Tag Archives: HST

butterfly, thread and fmq

There was no spectacular sunrise this morning to take photos, but instead I found a butterfly on the street. He looked like that he is having a rest. But he wasn’t – what I found was just a colorful dead body of a butterfly.

butterfly on the pavement

As I am going to Prague this Saturday I was finishing my last pieces that I want to take with me. I made more Christmas Tree Blocks – original design by Christen from Love By Hand. Each block is on its own and makes a nice table decoration or a wall hanging. I have used (as before) Kaffe Fassett fabric designs. Once I had made the quilt sandwich I realized that I do not have any of my “neutral” thicker quilting thread. But I had the exact hue in Aurifil Mako 50/2 as I have pieced the blocks with this thread. I just wasn’t sure if I can take it also for quilting. After some research on the web ( a nicer expression for google ) about threads I decided to stick with this lighter weight thread also for free-motion quilting. According to the motto : learning by doing. Over the years I found out that there are no strict rules in quilting. Each quilter can find its own way, own technique that they prefer, threads that they love. I have also done some experimenting with threads and I always  go back to Aurifil Mako 50/2 for piecing and Sulky from Gutermann for quilting.

aurifil mako 50/2

aurifil mako 50/2 thread - skalabara.com

Here a close up of my meander design free-motion quilting:

meander fmq - skalabara.com

And the 2 Christmas Tree Blocks:

red and blue - skalabara.com

Happy sewing, I am over to have a look on Bloggers’ Quilt festival at Amy’s Creative Side. Next time hopefully with one of my quilts!

Barbora

 

 

avenue loop – another quilt is finished

We had some rain over the weekend. So this was the right time to finish my Avenue Loop quilt. Somehow I got hook on half-square triangles. An easy unit, but thousands of possibilities how to finish a quilt design. Here I used Freshcut collection by Heather Bailey. Love the colors and the fabrics were nice to work with.

Size : 55″ x 69″ or 140 x 176 cm. Quilting detail of the center piece – once more meanders with loops. This time I used a white polyester quilting thread So Fine! #50 from Superior Threads.

Backing has a favorite fabric from Freshcut collection and a soft aqua hue in solid.

Double folded binding is machine stitched from front to back using the soft aqua solid fabric.

As mentioned before we have had some rain lately. The dog stayed inside :

and the cat took over his kennel and enjoyed the soft land-rain, fresh air and the peace outside :

 

Happy quilting………..

 

HST – Half Square Triangle Quilt Tutorial

HST – Half Square Triangle Quilt – the one I always wanted to make and never started. This easy pattern is ideal for practicing precise cutting, piecing and pressing. Since I was working with the wonderful batiks on my last project and liked them very much,  I decided to carry on with the same fabrics. They are so colourful and warm.

Quilt size : 42″ x 48 “

Distribution : 16 rows with each 14 HST blocks, all together 224 HST blocks.  I have decided to work with 4″ strips. After piecing and trimming the blocks have a size of 3,5″ x 3,5″.

Material :

Solid fabric : 1 1/2 yard from colour of your choice; cut in 4″ strips and then in 4″ x 4″ squares

Colour fabrics : all together 1 1/2 yard or 13 different colours; cut in 4″ strips and then in 4″ x 4″ squares

Backing fabric : 1 1/2 yard

Batting : 43″ x 50 ”

Binding : 3/8 yard, cut 5 strips each 2,5″

Assembly :

1. Prepare all pieces by cutting into squares

2. Draw a diagonal line on the left side of the solid fabric, pin together with a batik one

3. Sew all squares along the drawn line with a 1/4″ seam allowance (normally width of the presser foot) using the chain piece method.

4. Complete the piecing by sewing along the other side of the line.

5. Now cut the squares diagonal along the drawn line in

6. Press seams open

7. Trim the squares to 3,5″ x 3,5″

8. You are ready to work on the layout. Using a design wall you can distribute the colour squares according your imagination – see below

I have decided to subdivide the quilt into several sewing batches. Taking always 4 rows with 7 squares. First I sew each row together, then the rows and as last the batches.

Here the rows are pressed a ready for pinning :

Accurate pinning is the secret to a nice and tidy quilt top. So take time, don’t hurry and work on your skills :

Once more : I pressed all seams open

And this is the finished top :

Prepare a sandwich and quilt as you want. After a lot of straight line quilting I decided to go for free-motion quilting. Trim the quilt and add binding. My favorite machine binding tutorial.

The quilt is listed on Etsy and Dawanda.  S O L D ! !