Free Motion Quilting Project

The sun was shining this morning, so I popped out into the garden to take a photo of another finished project for the May issue of the Bustle & Sew Magazine.  This one is a quilted cushion cover – with some hand applique inspired by a vintage Art Deco embroidery transfer from 1933.  I wanted to give the whole project a springtime feel – so I chose fabrics from the “Echo” collection from Lotta Jansdotter and “Across the Pond” from Cloud 9.  There’s another Cloud 9 fabric in there too – “Hydrangeas” by Heather Moore. 

If you are a regular blog reader, you will know that I am fairly new to quilting – being very well aware of my faults – sloppy cutting, inaccurate measuring and total impatience – just wanting to sew without too much preparation.  But … I have been practising lately – and managed to create this simple patchwork cover perfectly first time!!  Yes – I know it’s just squares, but all the seams join in the right places – that’s quite an achievement for me. 

So to celebrate I decided to try free motion quilting as I wanted  to create the impression of a blustery spring-like day when the wind swirls around the corners, making the daffodils dance and Ben’s fur blow sideways into his eyes!  I found the most brilliant tutorial on Elizabeth Hartmann’s Oh!Fransson blog which gave me confidence to try this technique.  And it worked – the cushion cover looks just how I wanted it to. 

Of course my canine assistant took a great interest in the photography session – particularly as he discovered me lying on my front trying to get just the right angle – he crept up while I wasn’t looking – then rolled his big furry body right up against me and tried to look irresistible… 

 … and that was the end of my photography session outside this morning!  But I have one more picture to show you.  Rosie has been telling me that I should post a picture of my work space, she’s been very interested in looking at other people’s sewing rooms online – so I took just one (it’s too messy to take any more)

 My work space is two small, interconnecting rooms at the back of the house.  You can see my ironing board through the open door, and just beyond that is my sewing machine and quite a lot of fabric!  There’s even more out of view, but I’m not going to take you there… too embarassing.  Maybe one day when I’ve folded and stacked it neatly.  Then next to the open door is my lovely comfy armchair where I like to sit and stitch in the winter closely observed by Charlie the Patchwork Elephant.  At the moment it’s home to some of the projects for the May Bustle & Sew Magazine, whilst on the right you can see yet more fabric storage and last month’s Giraffe Laundry Bag project. There are two Eileen Soper posters and lots and lots of books .. it’s a bit of a muddle, but I love it!