Community Quilt 366

30 01 2018

[I spent a long weekend at a private retreat a few weeks ago, which is when I quilted this quilt (and 7 others). Therefore the photos aren’t as good because they were taken indoors, and I don’t have information on the threads used.]

There was a LOT of white space in this big quilt. After stitching in the ditch around all the little squares, I then quilted it using my variation on McTavishing. It took a few hours…

(Click on a photo to view it larger)

 





Community Quilt 365

30 01 2018

[I spent a long weekend at a private retreat a few weeks ago, which is when I quilted this quilt (and 7 others). Therefore the photos aren’t as good because they were taken indoors, and I don’t have information on the threads used.]

I quilted corresponding motifs in each square to match the fabric used (where possible) — so circles/bubbles/pebbles in the squares with spots and dots, scallops in those fabrics, etc.

(Click on a photo to view it larger)

 





Community Quilt 364

30 01 2018

[I spent a long weekend at a private retreat a few weeks ago, which is when I quilted this quilt (and 7 others). Therefore the photos aren’t as good because they were taken indoors, and I don’t have information on the threads used.]

For this quilt, I left the plain beige fabric unquilted. In the centre of each block I stitched a curved matrix motif, and in the surrounding squares, cathedral windows.

(Click on a photo to view it larger)

 





Community Quilt 363

30 01 2018

[I spent a long weekend at a private retreat a few weeks ago, which is when I quilted this quilt (and 7 others). Therefore the photos aren’t as good because they were taken indoors, and I don’t have information on the threads used.]

This quilt was similar to #360, but this time I quilted ‘cathedral windows‘ in the small squares, and piano keys in the border.

(Click on a photo to view it larger)

 





Community Quilt 362

30 01 2018

I spent a long weekend at a private retreat a few weeks ago, which is when I quilted this quilt (and 7 others). Therefore the photos aren’t as good because they were taken indoors, and I don’t have information on the threads used.

This quilt was very similar to #359, except for the borders, so I quilted it similarly, with a squared stipple in the main top and piano keys in the plaid border.

(Click on a photo to view it larger)

 





Community Quilt 361

31 12 2017

How to quilt this quilt? As usual, I started by stitching the ditch around all the main blocks and elements. For the border, I did a large meandering stipple, with stars in the corner squares. In the main top, the busy fabrics leant themselves to a simple motif — I chose my ‘go to’ open headband motif, using red thread.

(Click on a photo to view it larger)

Threads used:

  • Top: Robison-Anton ‘Tuxedo Red’ (40 wt, rayon, colour 2420)
  • Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (candy apple)

 





Community Quilt 360

31 12 2017

This small, bright scrappy quilt should cheer up a child in hospital. It had a soft flannel backing too, so will be nice and cuddly. I kept the quilting simple, but reasonably dense because the variety of fabrics used resulted in quite a few wonky seams and puckers.

(Click on a photo to view it larger)

Back:

Threads used:

  • Top: Gutermann Sulky ‘Dandelion’ (40 wt, viscose, colour 1187)
  • Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (light tan)

 





Community Quilt 359

31 12 2017

I liked this quilt, though it was a bit of a challenge to quilt because it was quite wonky. The reason this quilt top was so wonky was because the maker had used all sorts of plaid shirting fabrics + denim to make it — those different fabrics had different thicknesses and ‘hand’, resulting in the fabric reacting in different ways to being sewn. This was not the maker’s fault – it’s just a consequence of using widely varying fabrics.

But those wonky seams and the puckering in this quilt top needed to be tamed — either by ironing them out or stitching them out. I chose the ‘stitch it out’ method because I didn’t think ironing would’ve worked in the long term. This meant I needed to use fairly dense stitching to beat those puckers into submission 🙂 To achieve this end, I decided to quilt it using a ‘square meander’, crossing lines to form sort of rectangular shapes. And yes, I tamed it!

(Click on a photo to view it larger)

Back:

Threads used:

  • Top: Madeira ‘Country Kitchen Blue’ (40 wt, rayon, colour 1028)
  • Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (lead gray)

 





Community Quilt 358

31 12 2017

This was a pretty pink and green quilt. I started by stitching in the ditch around the main blocks and borders, then did straight lines in the border, following (approximately) the lines formed by the squares in the fabric’s pattern. I quilted the main part of the quilt top with a flower variation on the open headband motif — instead of an arc for the final layer, I stitched half shells, emulating flower petals.

(Click on a photo to view it larger)

 

Threads used:

  • Top: Superior Rainbows ‘Wedding Bells’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 818)
  • Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (white)

 





Farewell, good and faithful servant

26 12 2017

We bought a new car earlier this month to replace my husband’s car. We didn’t need to, but decided to do so for several reasons:

  • None of us is getting any younger, and getting into and out of standard cars starts to become an issue as you age and your joints start to ache. We’re not there yet, but no doubt will be some day.
  • Car technology has advanced in leaps and bounds in the 20 years since my husband bought his last car, and if we’d kept that car for another 10 years, there’d be 30 years of technological advances to have to learn with any new car he bought. Better to bite the bullet and trade up into a more modern car now while we are in control of the learning curve than to be forced to if the old one broke down and wasn’t worth repairing.
  • His 20-year old car was starting to cost us — we’d had the engine mounts replaced in the past year, and a few other things. And the cost of the annual insurance was almost as much as the value of the car too! His new car’s insurance is actually LESS than that for his old car.

He traded his 1998 model Mazda 626 Classic Sedan for a Mazda CX-5 Touring model. And it’s very nice!!!!

In the almost 20 years (April 1998 to December 2017) he had the 626, he drove 183,466 km in it (114,000 miles). At least 70% of those kilometres were driven in the first 10 years when we lived in Perth and he was commuting to work. The car didn’t get driven as much once he retired and we moved to the country in 2007. But it was a good and faithful servant, giving us basically no bother at all. It was sad to say goodbye to it, but we’ve stuck with Mazda as our previous experience with the brand has been very good (I had a Mazda Astina from 1997 to 2012 and only changed because I had an offer ‘too good to refuse’ to purchase my current car).

Here’s hoping the CX-5 also gives us 20 years of great service.