Thursday 11 August 2011

Scrappy

Lots of tiny scraps and strips were leftover from my recent baby quilts, plus I seem to have aquired more fabric than I need by rummaging through the remnant bins of the local fabric stores, so I created some placemats.

Crazy wild colours and my first attempt at freehand machine quilting... not entirely successful as my Singer is almost 45 years old and probably not really suitable. However, I'm learning.

I used metallic thread for the top quilting. Hard to work with, but it got easier as I got the hang of it. I found quite a few tutorials on the internet, e.g.: how to make perfect HSTs, and how to mitre the corners of the quilt binding.

The placemats weren't made with any specific patterns in mind, they just grew according to the scraps I had left. And it's amazing to me that they all ended up roughly the same size without a lot of planning.

My next project, now that my grandtwins have arrived, is to embroider the babies' names and birthdates on their quilts. And then I start on the next quilt!

11 comments:

  1. Love the quilting. The idea of placements is really clever to use up pieces. You are so lucky to be able to use a sewing machine, I tried in the past, but it was awful as the thread kept breaking, came to the conclusion that sewing machines hate me! Ended up sewing double quilts by hand....yep, it took some time:/

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  2. Another quilt??? hummmmmmmm...is that a clue???

    I love the placemats. I'm green with envy with your quilting skills, i never got the hang of it. i should try again.

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  3. You are so clever, I admire anyone who can quilt. I am not sure I have the patience. Love the colours.

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  4. those are just gorgeous I love the material,

    Gill

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  5. They are so lovely, believe or not all the colors flow. Thanks for sharing, you are really skilled. Anna :)

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  7. Love these! Made with blinding speed, too. To this day I still sleep under a quilt that Peggy made for me in a day before she moved across. Don't know if she still does this or has the pattern & instructions, but she really did make it in a day. (Maybe less!)

    I honor your creativity with the placemats!

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  8. These are FABULOUS! So imagineative...! Quilting these could not have been easy...They Are Really BEAUTIFUL, my dear....!

    I hope you will be in this beck of the woods, one of these days, soon....!

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  9. Bravo Shammie....terrific placemats. They make me feel happy just looking at them. Good job for freehand too.
    I haven't done anything "crafty" for a long time. Maybe its time to get started again.

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  10. Oh, those metalic threads are a NIGHTMARE! Your quilting is beautiful, I can see the love woven through it. My old embroidery sewing machine has gone senile, I'm afraid, plus her foot is broken! Sigh. I can't afford to replace her, but neither do I have the heart to throw her out - so she sits out her retirement in the linen closet..

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  11. You are definitely someone to be reckoned with, Sham, aren't you! :) so very creative....

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