Turning Japanese

With only seven more blocks to go we are definitely on the downhill portion of our Commemoration Quilt for the Sesquicentennial Anniversary of the American Civil War.  

Last weekend's #46 Apple Tree.

There were two options, one from Blockbase and the other Barbara offered was a simplier version.  I chose to do the Blockbase version!!!  Each little square is cut 1 5/8" square (1 1/8" finished), careful piecing and fortunately it turned out at 8 1/2" finished.  

I did however use foundation paper piecing for the trunk section, it seemed to square up reasonably well, and I'm pretty happy with it.  One thing though, I know I have very few green reproduction prints in my stash, something I'll have to remedy!!!! (does that mean I will have to buy more fabric LOL  oh! no!!!)

In my last post I mentioned that I created a little project for the girls in my Quiltbee group.  They love their paper foundation piecing, (because it's easy....) but I figured they needed a bit of challenge, grin... so on to do some simple blocks to start with, then some that require some thinking about.  It's about getting comfy with accurate cutting and piecing.  We do one block in class then I give them one to do for homework (yes...we have homework!! LOL! - they groan but they love it!!!) 

We have all chosen different fabric styles, I particularly love Japanese fabrics, and haven't used them in a while.   Because I don't have a large stash I picked up some extra pieces at the recent Brisbane Quilt Show.

These were the first two blocks.  I selected all the blocks for this project from EQ and Blockbase.

As you can see the homework one was foundation pieced (log cabin).  

The next two on the top were last months', and the botton are for a couple of weeks' time.

No foundation piecing here LOL!!!

If they read this blog and I know one in particular does regularly, then this is a sneak peak LOL!!!!

The fabrics I am using are textured fabrics, and a bit thicker than regular cotton patchwork fabric.  But it is just that, that I love so much, they have texture and add a lovely dimension both visual and tactile, are not absolutely smooth or perfect, sort of a bit prim in a Japanese sort of way!!!!

About a year ago we made a bag, and I used Japanese fabrics for mine.  These prints are a lot finer cotton quality.

I have stuffed a cushion insert into the bag to puff it out a bit so you can see how big it is, one of my sewing machines is behind it, so you can get an idea of scale.  It's quite roomy!!!

I'll also share some other projects made with Japanese fabrics.

I really should learn to use the scanner on my photocopy machine LOL, (but until then I'll just photograph the photographs).   This was made several years ago around 2001-2 for some friends featuring some gorgeous pastel prints. It's just a straight set with red cornerstones.  With the left over pieces I made little fans in the corners.  I can't believe I actually machine quilted that on my domestic Janome 4800 sewing machine.  It was quite a bright day, so the colours look a bit washed out!

I kept these small pieces for my Quilt Journal.

A year later I found this pattern in a book by Mary Ellen Hopkins.   I could just see this in Japanese fabrics too!!

The colours here are fairly true, but I it doesn't show the entire quilt, the picture below does, but the colours are awful!

By way of explanation, the outer border was not some amazingly dream't up creative option, I simply did not have enough of either fabric to do the border, so improvisation had to be the order of the day!!!

Here are some close-ups of the quilting!  It is very heavily quilted and again I used my trusty old Janome for this job.   I sketched out on some paper my quilting design, and used a couple of  simple Japanese motifs in the grey and gold areas.

The quilt was pieced in Dec '03, the quilting took from Dec '04 till March '05.  I must have been pretty determined......or quite mad LOL!!!!  So over 15 months I worked on this when I could grab some time in my busy schedule!  I used 100% cotton batt.  The quilting thread is my all time favourite YLI waxed thread for hand/machine quilting.

The influence for such dense quilting really came from an exhibition of Japanese quilts I saw at a Sydney Quilt Show a year or two before I started on this.   Their work is absolutely magical, the precision and fine stitching literally bring tears to your eyes, the work of angels!!!!

Incidently I have a few of Mary Ellen Hopkins' books, if you want simple designs and effective fabric placement she provides some great ideas.

I think they are still available, I've had these for some time!

I love pincushions too!!  so.....of course I just had to make out of some Japanese fabric scraps.

As I do with all my pincushions I love to hot glue-gun them to a small plate, in this case a tapas dish for stability!

The Crazy patch is a Carol Doak design, which I miniaturised!

My last offering remains a UFO!!  I belong to Carol Doak's yahoo group and a couple of years ago she did a Mystery Quilt.   We had no idea what the eventual quilt would look like, a giant leap of faith for me, as I love to know where I am going, especially when I have to cut into fabric!!!  We were given a fabric requirement list and off we went.  I decided to use a Japanese floral as my focus fabric and chose the other oriental prints from there.  If you are interested in Foundation Paper Piecing, check Carol out here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CarolDoakQuiltingGroup/#ans

All the blocks are foundation paper pieced.  

I added the red, gold, floral and green borders (oh! dear what was I thinking!!!!) maybe too much green here eeck!!!!   One thing I'm sure of, I am definitely not going to give it 15 months of my life LOL!!!  I'll find a sympathetic long-arm quilter to do the job on this one!!!!

As much as I love 18th & 19th century reproductions I also love Japanese fabrics as well and always enjoy working with them, they fit into any decor from traditional to very modern. 

Another CW block due out tonight, looking forward to seeing what Barbara offers us this week!

Hope you are all having a great weekend where you can find a little time for some quiet soul soothing sewing!!

Until next time, take it easy!
Merilyn

Near the end of our BOW's

Can't believe how fast this year is moving along, just counted and we have around 44 days till Christmas!!!!
Scarry thought huh?!!!!

Of course this also means that Barbara Brackman's Civil War Blocks of the Week are also drawing to a rapid close.  

We're up to #45, Port and Starboard.

This block was supposed to have a nautical theme and the only nautical print I had to include in this weeks' blocks was the little repro blue dot print!   I love doing HST's, so this was a joy to put together!!

Last week #44, Union.

A great block, but with all those HST's that were an odd-ball size I decided to use paper foundation piecing for this one!  As usual I had a hard time deciding which fabrics to use, but the centre floral print really determined the colours for the rest of the block! 

I also had a completion over the past couple of weeks.  I finally finished handquilting a small quilt designed by Kathy Tracy of SmallQuiltTalk, she has a great blog http://sentimentalquilter.blogspot.com/ and yahoo group to which I belong.

Last year she put together a special 6 part series called 'The Americal Schoogirl Club' in booklet form.  I have only completed the first two so far!   They are beautifully presented little projects which has a page of history attached to each set of instructions.

This is the first one!

 

It is the sweetest little design!  I just used some small scraps for the nine-patch blocks and some darker prints for the setting blocks and border.   The border print I found is a little different, it is where the design is actually woven into the fabric, it also allowed me to handquilt to accentuate that design. 

Here is a close-up!

It sort of reminds me of winter in quaint rural village!!   

I completed this quilt last year and have it hanging on a wall in my living area where I can see it everyday!!!

Number two of the ASC is the latest completion, although it did lay aside as a flimsy for a year!

The pinwheels posed a real challenge due to their small size, so I decided to paper foundation them for greater accuracy!!

I used the fabric range called 'Reflections of an Era Past'  by Paula Barnes of Bonnie Blue Quilts (Marcus Fabrics).

In this side shot you can see the quilting.  I machine quilted the inner portion of the quilt, and handquilted the small inner and larger outer border.

I am quite happy with the result, I love the scrunched up look the quilt gets after it is washed!

Incidently I think Kathy still has some of the 6 parts still available, although not all.  You can check in at her blog if you are interested!!!

I am now working on some Christmas gifties and trying to finish handquilting a small four-patch, another of Kathy's designs.   

As much as I love working with Reproduction fabrics, I also have a love of Japanese fabrics!  My Quiltbee group wanted a small project which I put together, so I am using some beautiful textured Japanese fabrics for my version, the other ladies are using whatever they like, some are using brights, others repros and contemporary.  I'll share some of the blocks in my next post!!

Thankyou for dropping by, and I appreciate your comments!!!   Hope your fingers are busy being creative!!!

Take it easy,
Merilyn