Rachael's French General Sampler Quilt

At the start of this year I had the privilege of quilting this 56"x78" twin bed sampler quilt for one of my most long-time friends, Rachael Chalmers (from Dunedin), who gave me free-range to do whatever I liked!

Although I've had my Bernina Q20 longarm since late 2022, I had only re-erected it a couple of months before Christmas (after having moved house in June), so have not completed a lot of projects on it yet.

With this quilt I was able to do a mixture of free-motion quilting and ruler-work, trying out different designs in the different blocks - gosh, I had so much fun!  The blocks are a mix of pieced and appliqued patterns, so it was fun coming up with quilting designs that would enhance those patterns.

Altogether it took about 12 hours of quilting time, and used x6 250m reels of thread (and x7 bobbins).

Beauty in the Unity

Another catch-up of a project from the past year or two that hadn't yet been shared...better late than never!

This quilt was a mystery QAL kit from Donna Ward at Donna's Quilt Studio (the store is now closed and Donna is focusing on longarm quilting), that I completed in 2022.

It had a good mix of different blocks eg flying geese, stars etc.

It is a large lap/small twin quilt that measures 57"square, and it made a good practice piece for learning to quilt with my Bernina Q20 longarm machine - I used both free-motion and ruler work.

I love the colour and boldness of Kaffe Fassett fabrics, but have not used them much - only on this little zip pouch - so chose this colourway for the project (Donna usually had three colour/fabric choices for customers to choose from when she offered a QAL).

Another chance to use some stash fabric for the backing - a batik that has been waiting for just the right project!

FMQ/Q16 practice pillow

Catching up on sharing some projects from last year and earlier this year...

 This pillow was made from a panel that we were given to work on during our Bernina Q16 ruler-work class at the NZ Quilt Symposium.  The class was a chance for attendees to try out using a table-top Q16 machine.

I was planning to purchase a long-arm machine so took the class as a chance to try out the table-top version (and learn a bit about how to use rulers when quilting).

I was really pleased with how I went with the quilting; it was great to try out some curved rulers.

My Heidi

This is my first complete project to be quilted on my brand new Bernina Q20 longarm machine!

After much deliberation this year I bought myself a Bernina Q20 longarm machine and studio frame (with an extension ready for when I want to go big!) instead of taking a planned trip to Europe this year for my 50th birthday, which I had spent a few years saving up for. 

You can read about it's arrival here!

 I started with using the straight ruler to make the triangles in the white squares, and then used the curved ruler to create the loopy 'cross' inside the blue and purple plus blocks - being my first project with the Q20, it's all a bit wonky but I'm quite happy with how it improved as I went along!

I also decided to free-motion the side-to-side lines inside some of the triangles.

This photo shows up the quilting really well...I alternated the direction of the triangles on each row, so some are 'up' and some are 'down'.

The pattern for this lap quilt was based on a Quilty Love pattern 'Simple Plus quilt', and I made it a square quilt of 45"sq, which was just the right size to fit on the studio frame for my Q20.

The top was made with leftovers from this Irish Chain quilt, and from the leftover vintage cotton sheet that I had used for that project as well.

The backing is from stash fabric and leftovers.

As my Q20 is nicknamed Heidi, it also felt like the best name for this quilt, which I will be keeping for myself. And of course, a polka dot binding to set it all off.

Here are some shots from when I was doing the quilting:

It is so cool to have the quilt all stretched out, and the movement all takes place with the needle/machine, rather than wrestling the quilt through the space and trying to keep it flat and taut while sewing.

With the studio frame only being 5 feet wide, I can tell it won't be long until I am asking Jenny and Pauline to come back and add on the extension so I can do wider quilts!

Now, I must get away to the sewing room and whip up some more quilt tops so I can quilt them on Heidi! Our school summer holidays have just started, so that will give me tonnes of free time in my happy place...