Thursday 28 March 2013

TGIFF! - Snow Crab Nebula

Welcome to TGIFF! The wonderful Lynne from Never Too Hot To Stitch is hosting today so if you get a chance, head on over, link up your own recent finish and/or see the other fabulous Friday finishes.

This project began a few weeks ago with my first snow dyeing experiment. Yellow, ringed with red and then purple snow dyes turned this:


Into this:

This looked like one of those NASA images from space to me so I decided to see what I could do to accentuate it with some free motion quilting.

I used June Tailor fusible polyester batting for the first time. As this piece was going to be a wallhanging, I figured that I would be fine with some stiffness from the fusible. At first, my machine occasionally skipped a stitch, which was frustrating. Then I changed my needle and all was fine. I was surprised at how much the batting flattened down though. Despite the poly batting being about a 1/2-3/4" thick, it flattened right down to about what I'd expect from my regular Warm & Natural. It is stiffer though, which it fine by me because I like it to hang straight.

For the quilting, I did swirls, pebbles, wishbones, loop-d-loops, stars/satellites, and ribbons. I put the information I learned from Angela Walter's Free Motion Quilting Negative Space class on Craftsy to good use in mixing up the swirls and pebbles and moving from one type of motif to another. I'm very happy with the quilting, especially after the first sad attempt at the centre nebula - happy dance!

I used a variety of Aurifil colours in the yellow, orange, red and purple families (#2277, 5009, 1103, 2581, 1240, 1243, 2140 to be specific) in the front and black thread in the back. I just love the sheen of the Aurifil thread against the colours of the fabric. It's hard to see the quilting in the photos so feel free to click on them to enlarge.

I faced it using Susan Brubaker Knapp's Non-Mitred Facing, which I've used on a number of pieces.

Snow Crab Nebula - Front
My husband suggested I call it Snow Crab Nebula since it was created with snow dyeing. What a perfect name!

Quiltography: "Snow Crab Nebula," by Michèle-Renée Charbonneau, Ottawa, 19" by 21", 2013.

Snow Crab Nebula - Quilting Detail
Snow Crab Nebula - Quilting Detail
Snow Crab Nebula - Quilting Detail
To keep with the theme, I used some solar system fabric for the back.
Snow Crab Nebula - Back

Linking up to TGIFF!, which is over with Lynne @ Never Too Hot To Stitch.

I'm also linking up with Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Friday -- fabulous projects too so check it out!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and Happy Easter to those who celebrate it!

Tuesday 26 March 2013

Mo' Snow, Mo' Snow Dyeing

I took advantage of the fresh snow dump of snow last week to have another go at snow dyeing. I used the same process as last time, but this time I used the cool dyes - Sun Yellow 108, Mixing Red 305, and Basic Blue 400. I used the same process as last time, but dyed fabrics in yellow, green (1/2 tsp yellow and 1/2 tsp blue), blue, purple (1/2 tsp blue and 1/2 tsp red), and a ringed version using yellow, blue and purple.

This:


Turned into this:

Upper Level
Lower Level
This:

Turned into this:
Upper Level
Lower Level
This:

Became this:
Upper Level
Lower Level
 This:
 Did this:
Upper Level
Lower Level
And this:

 Became this:
Upper Level
Lower Level
I love how the greens, blues and purples turned out. Einh on the yellow and multicolour. I can't help but relate Forrest Gump's 'box of chocolates' quote to snow dyeing -- you never know what you're going to get!

Hope you are having a great day!

Saturday 23 March 2013

Friday Night Sew-In - Getting My FMQ On

It's been a loooong week with the munchkins so I grabbed the chance to participate in the Friday Night Sew-In with Handmade by Heidi and Crafty Vegas Mom for the first time in a long time. I wasn't sure what to expect after the cast, so I took advantage of the time to practice my free motion quilting on Snow Crab Nebula.

Well, the first go wasn't a success:


Not what I was hoping for at all so I ended up ripping it out. Second go went much better.

And then I got to play...Milky Ways, satellites/stars, wormholes (a.k.a. ribbons, stars, pebbles, swirls) in lots of fabulous Aurifil colours.

Here are some photos:


I think I'll have the finished piece ready to share by Friday for TGIFF!

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Wednesday 20 March 2013

Works in Progress Wednesday - March Edition

I shudder to think what's going to happen as I update my WIP list for the first time in six weeks. It feels like there's been some start-itis around here and very little finish-itis. Let's see...

New Projects:

Hard Core: I've renamed Burst of Colour to Hard Core because I made the medallion with my broken wrist. If that doesn't say that I'm a hard core quilter, what does? Also, I find it looks a little like the core of the earth...if you squint, turn your head to the left, stand on one foot and close your right eye. ;) When I shared the name with a friend, she pointed out to me that people might make the connection to porn. LOL!

Hard Core
Snow Dyeing: Fun, fun, fun! My first snow dye experiment went well so that when we got a dump of snow yesterday, I took advantage to snow dye some more fabric in a cooler palette. It's still batching right now, but I'll post pictures soon. 

Snow Dyeing - Snow Crab Nebula
Completed Projects:

Sewing Machine Cover: I was feeling a little rusty on my free motion quilting skills so I decided to make a sewing machine cover to practice before tackling Su{Brrr}nova and Seeing The Forest For The Trees (you say procraftinating...um, I also say procraftinating). Now that the cast is off, I'll need to practice again. Soon Su{Brrr}nova, soon!


Current Projects:

Something New Sampler: All but one block is quilted. Here are the two newly quilted ones since Friday.



Scrappy Trip Along: I've received most of the blocks from my Simply Solids bee mates. They are fabulous and I'll share them soon.

Kingston quilt: Pulled it off the On Hold/UFO Mash-up list a couple of days before I broke my wrist and decided to restart it and do one block a month. I was partially through the first block that fateful Wednesday. I will share more about this one soon.

Scrap{Bee} Quilt: As wonky piecing was about the only piecing I could do with the cast on, I made four more improv pieced blocks. Now I'm just waiting for two blocks more from bee mates and I'll be able to piece the top.





Su{Brrr}nova: No progress.

Seeing the Forest for the Trees QuiltNo progress.

Wedding quilt
Nine patch colourwash

WIP Wednesday Recap: 
New projects: 2
Completed projects: 1
Current projects: 6
On Hold/UFO: 14


Well, that wasn't so bad after all! I'm linking in to WIP Wednesday at The Needle and Thread Network and to W.i.P. Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. Thanks Monika and Lee for hosting such great linkies!
Right Click to Save ImageWIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Friday 15 March 2013

Unfinished

My cast is off! Woo hoo! Five looooong weeks, but it's off! Even with the cast, I had hoped to finish the Something New Sampler with Amy @ The Cute Life. Today is the last day for the Something New Sampler link up, and while I finished all of the blocks, plus made three extra Sashiko blocks, I've only quilted half of them. Oh well, c'est la vie! Thanks for a fun quiltalong, Amy. I loved trying all the different techniques! Thank you also to all the blog teachers who provided the tutorials for the different techniques -- very well done, all!

Here are my new blocks:
Something New Sampler Blocks
Machine Appliqué
Something New Sampler Blocks
Circle Sashiko

Here are the quilted blocks:
Chain Reaction
Trapunto - Tutorial Here
Something New Sampler Blocks
Sashiko Diamonds
Something New Sampler Blocks
Cathedral Windows

Something New Sampler Blocks
Fabric Folding Quilted With
Decorative Machine Stitches
Something New Sampler Blocks
Triangle Sashiko
Something New Sampler Blocks
Reverse Appliqué
Something New Sampler Blocks
Scrappy Pieced Block
And here are the rest of the blocks, still TBQ (to be quilted):

Improv Curves - Something New Sampler
Improv Curves
Something New Sampler - Sashiko
Hexagon Sashiko
Something New Sampler - Bargello Block
Bargello

Now that the wrist and fingers are free, I can't wait to get quilting! Hopefully the next time you see these blocks, they will be in a finished quilt!
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