Grandmother's Fan Quilt - More Qulting

Hi there,
I had a good week, ploughing on with lots of quilting.
Last post about the quilting on the Grandmothers fan quilt, I had got to the pale green border and had started adding some flowers.

I am using a Gutermann sulky varigated thread for the flowers and just a matching  machine quilting thread ( from Empress Mills) for the background pebbling.

 I'm free motion quilting this on my domestic machine and using a Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 wadding - one layer..

 Onto the outer borders now and I decided to do random, continuous feathers with swirly bits.

                                                                   Back of the quilt

 Front - I was going to scallop the edges but have decided not to cut into the feathers.  Instead I think I will just round the corners off.

Apologies for the flurry of photos in this post. I'm really pleased  with how this quilt has turned out. When I was piecing it, I had planned to put appliqued hummingbirds in the border but they didn't look right.
Without them I thought the quilt was a bit plain and lacking something but I'm so happy the quilting has brought it to life and I have an unexpected bonus in the form of my hummingbird wall hanging - another unplanned project that just happened.   The embroidery is finished on that, it is off the roller frame and today I will be making a pieced border for it.
Also yesterday, I got DH to put my machine back on the Gracie frame so I spent last night 'playing'.
I'll show you some of that in a future post.
Happy stitching til next time
Rhianon.

A Couple of Inbetweeny Projects.

The wait is over !!
Yesterday my new sewing machine arrived.....

and here it is.  the Janome 1600P.   What a beast of a machine !  So far I am loving it but have to wait a day or two to try FMQ becasue the dealer forgot to include the quilting feet set.  I don't mind becasue it gives me a chance to get to know the machine.

Before it arrived, I was still sewing on the wee cheapy supermarket machine.  I made this oversized mugrug / small table topper for my Mum.

Here is a close up of the teeny feathers ....

...... and the appliqued flower

Also last week, I got this cushion finished for my daughter's bedroom.  Its just been decorated so she needed some new soft furnishings.

Some close ups of the feathers...

These two pieces were quilted on the little machine, which has been unceremoniously shoved to the side!..

Today I have several hours of working on these ( masonic sashes - my day job )

....before I can go and play with my new machine......but happy days are here again!
See you all again soon.
Rhianon..

Big Star Quilted Cushions

This week I got these cushions finished.....

They started as a test block for a lap quilt I am making.  I liked the block so much I decided to make another and turn them into a pair of cushions. 

I quilted feathers all over, although they do not show up too well on the darker patterned fabric.

I saw this block being demonstrated by Jenny from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  You can find the tutorial here.    Jenny uses 10" squares with her block finishing at 25".   I did a slightly smaller version, using 8" squares to give me a finished block of 17".

I have used this block for a lap quilt I'm making....  here's a wee sneaky peek

I am having a lot of fun with these feathers - just the borders to finish quilting then it will be ready for binding.

So hopefully I will be back very soon with another finish.

See you then.

Rhianon.