Free Motion Mavericks - Week 139 - Using Up Offcuts

Every project produces scraps, and my Mother of the Groom outfit has left me with a pile of quilted offcuts.  Today I started putting a few together with the intention of making a cushion cover.

It is a bit of a brain teaser, because there are so many awkward shapes and so few straight lines.  This project might take a little longer than I anticipated.

Here goes for Week 139.

The project that caught my eye in Week 138 was Afton's Wonderland Quilt.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and have a closer look.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post and/or grab the linky button for your blog's sidebar.
  
3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland and Brazil have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 131 - A Silk Cushion

Over the past month or so it has been really difficult to take photographs because the sky is almost always cloudy.  For some reason my camera can't cope with silk, but this week I have finally managed to take some decent pictures.  I thought I was never going to get accurate colours, but these photos are fairly true to life.

This cushion cover is made up of practice pieces, my first ventures into free motion quilting on silk.  Not only did I have to find a way to actually grip the work - rubber thimbles did the trick - but I also had to experiment with thread colours, see how well seams went together and try out buttonholes.

I think I struck lucky when I went shopping for buttons.

If this cushion stayed in this house it would end up with tea spilt on it and being generally sat on.  It is being put aside as a present for somebody who is sensible.

Here goes for Week 131..

The project that caught my eye in Week 130 was Yanicka's apocalyptic wall hanging.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and have a closer look.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post and/or grab the linky button for your blog's sidebar.
  
3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland and Brazil have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Linking up to Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday
and Amanda Jean's blog Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday.

A Joint Project

Easily the most comfortable item ever to come out of my husband's shed, this chair is a prototype for the chair he dreams of making one day.  The wood he used is cheap and cheerful, formerly odds and ends that were cluttering up the shed.  He had foam cushions made to measure, and my job was to cover them. 

Not to be outdone in the economy stakes, I rummaged around the cupboards and decided to use some leftover curtain material to make the cushion covers.  In theory it was an easy job, but in practice it wasn't exactly fun-packed.  Firstly, I tend to avoid zips, but there was no escape here.  Then I had to work out how to go around the corners, so I just fudged my way through.  Perhaps I should have looked at a book, but trial and error is more my style, so one particular corner of the larger cushion has to face the back.  Finally, the material was a nightmare, fraying if you no more than breathed on it, so every seam is encased in broad bias binding so that the fabric doesn't unravel itself the first time it is thrown in the washing machine.

All the effort was worth it.  My husband loves relaxing with a book in this chair, and doesn't seem to be in any rush to make the posh version yet.

Linking up with Connie's blog Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday
and Amanda Jean's blog Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 69 - Cushion Cover

Have you ever had the feeling that you have inadvertently made a fancy truss?  Or a bodice for the woman with the cylindrical figure? 

This is the quilted panel that I started last week, cut to size, bound at one end and with a buttonhole band stitched to the other.  It was a great excuse to play with one of my favourite gadgets, the buttonholer.

And here it is transformed into a cushion cover.  I used up fat quarters that I originally intended to use for bindings, but the fabric was a touch thick and frayed too readily.  Brown isn't a colour that looks particularly marvellous in our house, but I know someone who loves brown, and it will be just right for her settee.

There was no real plan for the arrangement of the bands of colour or the free motion quilting.  I decided to see how it looked once quilted, and then I settled on how to fold it.  In the end I went for a symmetrical look on the front... 

... and all the pale grey-brown went to the back.  The pieced buttonhole band was made from an offcut from the main pieced panel, and the three dark brown buttons I found lurking in an old button tin in a charity shop.  I think I prefer the back to the front.

Here goes for week 69...

The project in Week 68 that really caught my eye was LeeAnna's demonstration piece, a free motion quilted sketch made with paint sticks. So colourful!  (Especially after working with brown.)  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more photos.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post and/or grab the linky button for your blog's sidebar.
  
3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France and Macau have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Linking up with Kelly's blog My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday
and Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday
and Amanda Jean's blog Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday.

Free Motion Tweed Cushion

Finished yesterday evening, a rather late Easter present for my husband - here it is in all its woolly glory, and he loves it.

He particularly wanted oak leaves and acorns, so they are on the central panel, and his favourite of all the tweed offcuts was the dark green on the right.  I used dark green thread for the oak leaves to match the colour of the green tweed.

The back is fastened with five buttons.  I didn't have five buttons the same,  

... so I used three plastic buttons in naff 1970s brown...

... and two rather nice old metal buttons.

To get the best view of the free motion quilting you need to turn the whole thing inside out and look at the calico backing, but this cushion is about warmth and comfort, so from now on the backing stays out of sight.

I used three machines for this project - the 1949 Singer 15K hand machine for all the straight sewing, the 1945 15K treadle for the free motion quilting, and the 1936 Singer 201K treadle for the buttonholes.

Linking up today with Leah Day's blog for Free Motion Friday
Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday
and Laura's blog Quokka Quilts for TGIFF