Bloggers Quilt Festival

For several years I watched all those wonderful entries to the Bloggers Quilt Festival, and tried to decide which quilt I should be voting for. This time I have decided to enter a quilt myself, so exciting!
This is my "Vestibule", inspired by photos of a building by Frank Lloyd Wright:

Regular readers are well aware that I have been working for my City & Guilds Certificate in Craft and Design for Patchwork and Quilting (to use the full name for once) for the last few years. This involved a serious amount of sewing and art, and has virtually kept me from any other sewing. Now it is all finished except for a few last stitches, I am looking forward to starting some new projects - and finish some old ones! I have so many ideas in my head...

For the course, I have had to make a cushion, a bag, a box, a wall hanging, and a bed quilt (see the City&Guilds tab above if you want to know more...). Unfortunately, the bed quilt is the one that needs a little more hand quilting to finish, so it cannot now be entered into the Festival (maybe next time). But the Wall Hanging is finished and has been hanging in it's place above the stove for a few months now.

In place above the stove

The quilt is made using raw edge machine appliqué and quilting using many types of threads and different stitches.

quilting seen on the back, before being covered

After finishing the stitching, the edges were faced (no binding) and a "false" back was inserted into the facing for a neat finish. Some detail:

A bit more detail of the stitching

The facing is quite wide for stability, and the back is neatly covered

An earlier post with more detail on this quilt can be found here.

STATs:

size - 34½" x 39½"

materials - patchwork cottons from Soho Chic by Sandy Gervais for Moda, plus one lime fabric from elsewhere; cotton wadding; cotton, silk and polyester threads in different weights and colours

techniques - raw edge machine appliqué, flanges, faced edging, machine quilting

Thank you, Amy, for organising what undoubtedly is going to be another fantastic quilt show!

Nominations for the Viewers Choice can be entered now, and voting starts on May 22...

Sandra

Wall Hanging for City and Guilds - updated with a label

Do you remember this one:

Back in November I announced that the Wall Hanging that I made for the City & Guilds Certificate was finished. So why an update?!

That is because though the wall hanging itself was completely stitched, it wasn't completely finished. It was appliquéd, quilted, embellished with stitching and flanges, all threads were tied off and hidden away, and the back was covered with another layer for a neat finish. The edges were finished with a facing. Even the tunnel is in place to hang it with.

But the all-important LABEL was still missing!!

So this has been rectified today. I thought I would show you how I make my labels:

* In WORD, I type the text of the label. My labels always contain the TITLE of the quilt, the NAME of the maker (myself, hah!), LOCATION of the maker (this has varied over time), DATE finished. If appropriate I would add to whom I am gifting it, and sometimes when I had started the quilt; in this case I've added that it was made as part of the City & Guilds course:

* I then select all text (CTRL-A), centre the text, choose a nice, but clear font, and increase the font size to an easily readable size. PRINT.

* Trace the text with pencil onto a piece of calico or other light coloured fabric. I use a piece easily large enough for the label, trimming to size is done after the lettering. I wash the fabric first to remove any sizing, and iron well. Tracing is easy against a light window, I use masking tape to keep the printout and fabric together. The letters came out crookedly against the edges of the fabric, but that was so that the letters are straight with the grain of the fabric (this piece of fabric was very uneven).

* Trace the letters again over the pencil with a permanent marker (use some scrap paper underneath to prevent marking the table underneath). I used a Pigma pen this time, but I have also used a Tee-Juice pen before with good result. I usually mark with pencil first, because it is easier to do that against the window, and also, the marker may mark my printed template through the fabric. I want to keep the template clean in case I make a mistake and have to start again... though fortunately it has never come to that!

* IRON over the pen lettering to set it good and proper! Then also mark the outline of the label's edges. I measured about 1" outside the edges of the lettering on all sides, making sure the lines are square and parallel to the text. If you are not sure how well your pen ink will hold when washing, now is the time to test it...

* Press in the corners of the label, so that the corner marking is just turned to the wrong side of the label:

* Then fold and press each edge over so that all markings are just folded over to the back:

* Give the whole label another good press to set all the folds (I sometimes use a damp pressing cloth for extra sharp creases):

* And there is your prepared label:

* Pin to the back of your quilt, and slip stitch in place:

DONE! (The photograph is slightly angled, the label is really straight on the quilt!!)

And now I am updating anyway, I have also added some stats to the original post!

Sandra

Wall Hanging - DONE (and soooo pleased)!

If only you could see my face, today it looks even sunnier than my current profile picture! And all because of this:

*edit: this was my profile pic at the time...

October 2014

 
Can you imagine? I am grinning from ear to ear, to be honest. Maybe not the best look, but it does convey my happiness with this one...

I can finally, FINALLY, announce the finishing of a third Item for the City & Guilds course!! (just in case anyone is interested, my finished cushion and bag can be found here and here, respectively) So today I have taken the opportunity of a small break between the showers and have taken it outside for a little photo session:

I have decided to name this one "Vestibule", simply because that's what it is. This wall hanging started more than 6 months ago with a brief ("a wall hanging for on the chimney breast above our stove in our sitting room"), and the search for inspiration (magazines, books, online pictures - anything to give me an idea to work from). In the end I settled for some photographs of a building by Frank Lloyd Wright. I had only a very dark black-and-white photograph, and worked from that to make a design for the hanging.

The design has been drawn, traced, tweaked, retraced, coloured, recoloured... using pencils, colouring pencils, markers, even a little EQ. When I was happy with the picture, the whole design was drawn out at full size. Each piece then was traced individually onto steam-a-seam, which was used to temporarily "stick" the fabric pieces in place until I was sure which fabric should go where.
The hardest part was the placement of the fabrics to create a good three-dimensional picture, which led to a crisis for a while, but in the end I am really happy with how it has worked out.

When the fabrics were all in place, machine quilting was used to attach the fabrics to the background at the same time as adding colour and texture to the piece. Flanges were added to peek out from behind some edges, and different coloured threads added further details to the picture.

I am sure not everyone would like to have such a striking picture above their fireplace, but I am happy to drill a couple of holes in the right places to hang it, and be able to look at it every time I sit in front of my cosy stove this winter. And to imagine what might be found behind that door at the other end of the vestibule...

Stats:
"Vestibule" -  35" x 39¼"
- fabrics: cotton, most from Soho Chic by Sandy Gervais for Moda, and a few others of unknown (to me) origin
- wadding: cotton
- threads: large variety (cotton and polyester (gasp!?); 50wt, 30wt, and 12wt; in yellow, purple, brown, bright green, blue-green, cream, and probably some more...)
- quilting: a variety of stitches using my walking foot; and small areas of free motion meandering
- edges: faced (no binding)

Finally, in it's full glory:

ta daaa!!

STATs:

size - 34½" x 39½"

materials - patchwork cottons from Soho Chic by Sandy Gervais for Moda, plus one lime fabric from elsewhere; cotton wadding; cotton, silk and polyester threads in different weights and colours

techniques - raw edge machine appliqué, flanges, faced edging, machine quilting

And now on to the next one...

- see more of my City & Guilds work at the tab above -

 

Sandra

Linking up with:

My vestibule

A vestibule /ˈvɛstɨbjuːl/ is a lobby, entrance hall, or passage between the entrance and the interior of a building (Wikipedia).

Today, and actually most of this week, I have been working on my (City &Guilds) wall hanging. To be honest, the idea was already on paper for a long time, but I have been struggling to get it together in fabric. I just could not decide on the fabric placement. 
In the end I decided to go back to the original design and play a bit more on paper (and on the computer) with colours and (scanned in) fabrics. Finally after a few days stewing, my ideas crystallised into a firm plan. So today I have been cutting, placing and sticking fabrics to make this:

Tomorrow I hope to decide if I will leave the panel on the right pieced (as above) or if I will use one fabric (below), detailing may then be added in stitching/quilting.

Then the fabrics will be permanently bonded in place and the stitching can begin... 

Sandra