A new addition

As I hinted in the last post, I have a new addition to the collection. Yes, I bought a new sewing machine. Well not new, but new to me. I have always been a big Pfaff fan. I originally had a 1471, updated to a 1473 about 18 years ago and I absolutely loved that machine. Way ahead of its time - built in dual feed/walking foot, bobbin thread monitor, needle threader, hundreds of stitches 9mm wide and various types of alphabets. You could even design your own stitches and enter them into the computer of the machine and store them. I was so happy with this machine I was beginning to worry that should anything happen to the computer board it may be getting to the age that parts are no longer available.

I had been keeping an eye out on ebay and other places for a spare when I saw an ad for a more recent model, the 7570 including the embroidery unit and digitizing software for what I considered a very reasonable price. The 7570 was the last German made Pfaff. Pfaff merged with Viking/Husqvana and the machines were made somewhere else in Europe after that. So I have spent the last few weeks trying to learn all the ins and outs of the 3D software. Its like trying to learn another language. I must admit I have never really desired to have an embroidery machine and I would have happily bought this machine even if it wasn't included but seeing I've got it I thought I'd better learn how it all works. Even without the frame embroidery stuff, the machine is fantastic. All the great stuff the 1473 does plus as well as 9mm wide pattern stitches it even does 60mm wide pattern stitches because the feed dogs don't just move backwards and forwards but sideways as well. Its the strangest thing to watch but you can tell it to stitch in 16 different directions. So if you want to stitch in the ditch with the foot on and you stitch down one side of the block you can just stop at the corner and tell it to stitch sideways instead of turning the quilt. This model has been superceded a few times since it was released and if I wanted to pay 6 or 7 times what this one cost I could have gone for the latest and greatest but I really don't think they're worth the cost.

More quilting on an oldie

I seemed to have dropped off the blogosphere there for a while. Sorry. But don't get the idea I've been sitting around twiddling my thumbs. (well maybe just a bit) No, I've been continuing to finish off some ancient UFO's and adding more quilting to some others. Here's one that got more quilting added to it. I was never particularly happy with the quilting I originally did on it. So following the adage that there's no such thing as too much quilting, that's exactly what it got.





and a close up

.....and I bought myself a new toy (HINT: this makes 21) .....but more about that next time

Another ancient UFO bites the dust

Many moons ago there was a quilt competition. About 1994 I think. Quilts had to be a specific size 90cm x 125cm (35 1/2" x 49"). Many hundreds of entries were received and a large number of these were juried in to a huge exhibition held in the Sydney Opera House. Of these 40 were selected to go in the book and also to be a part of a travelling exhibition touring around Australia for about 4 years. The exhibition was shown in regional areas and country towns that wouldn't normally have the opportunity to see a quilt exhibition. I was fortunate to have a quilt selected. Because it was an acquisitive exhibition the quilt was no longer mine so at the time I made a duplicate. The quilt titled 'Keep the Aspidistra Flying' was air brushed using fabric paint and hand quilted with heavy black crochet cotton around the main shapes. The duplicate never progressed further than a top so when I came across it recently languishing at the bottom of a pile of UFO's I decided to drag it out and quilt it. Only 15 years late. Got done eventually.

I got a little sliver of it showing on the cover.
At the time I made it, it was very unusual for me to do anything so 'arty'. I had been playing around with a recently acquired air brush and compressor and was doing a lot of fabric dyeing and printing with leaves and found objects around this time.

Another Journal Quilt and a UFO finally finished

I've been so busy quilting the last couple of weeks I've neglected the blog. This is one of the pieces I finished recently. It's another journal quilt for the Aus/Nz Artquilters Group. We don't necessarily have to do the monthly themes in order so this is actually the June theme - The Centre. These journal quilts are A4 size and quite fun to work on.

As I was doing this I remembered a quilt top that I did many years ago along similar lines and never really finished off so I dragged it out and was inspired to finish it. The background green is piece I hand dyed. The black border was sewn around it and then I printed with grevillea leaves using gold fabric paint. The 'woven' bits are actually cut from the one piece of fabric that I dyed and appliqued after the printing. I felt it didn't stand out from the background very well in places so I ended up couching a heavy metallic thread along the edges. The title is 'Unravelled'. I'd love to hear your comments.

Another Journal Quilt

This is another journal quilt I made for one of the on-line groups I belong to - Aus/NZ Art Quilters. We have a monthly theme for the journal quilts. This was February's and the theme was 'Love'. I was a bit uninspired by this. As you may have gathered if you've looked at my work, I don't do - cute, pretty, tizzy, frilly, lacey. Nor will you ever find a cute bunny, pussy, chicken, duck, cow or any other farm yard animal on anything I have sewn in the last 40 years or indeed likely to sew in the next 40 years. Sorry to offend the bunny lovers out there, but it just ain't me.

Batting tests

I mentioned in the last post that I wasn't happy with how stiff the wool/poly blend batting went when it was closely quilted, so I've been doing some testing of different battings. The first one (blue) is Matilda's Own 60/40 Wool/Poly blend (before washing and after washing). I drew around my 6 inch square before quilting and then marked around it again after quilting to see how much the close quilting drew it in. After the piece was washed I marked around it again. As you can see the quilting brought it in about 1/4 inch and the washing nearly another 1/4 inch. So 1/2 inch over 6 inches. That adds up to quite a bit over the size of a large quilt. Washing did soften it a bit but not a great deal. Nice loft. The quilting stands out well even after washing.

The next batting I tried (green) was Matilda's Own needlepunched Polyester. A bit less loft than the wool/poly but drew in about 1/4 inch after quilting and a further 1/4 inch after washing. So almost the same and the wool/poly.


The pink sample is Matilda's Own Cotton Batting. Quite flat. The quilting didn't stand out as well. Still drew in after quilting and more again after washing but not as much as the previous two. Had the usual distinctive cotton batting crinkled look after washing which can look quite good for traditional quilts but not really my preference for the quilts that I do. Softer drape than the others.

The last one I tested was thin polyester Pellon. About half the thickness of the others. Quilted up fairly similar to the cotton. Very flat. Really didn't show off the quilting and crinkled up much like cotton after washing. Quite soft but seemed too thin. Pulled in much the same as cotton. I thought I would like this one but when it was done it was a bit too thin. I want to try some Bamboo batting but I suspect it will be similar to the cotton.

So, what did I learn?

Surprisingly they all drew in about the same amount from quilting and from washing. If you're going to do heavy quilting it's probably best to wash the quilt before you sew on the binding or you could end up with a rippled edge. If you're going to do heavy quilting don't just do it in some areas and less in others or the quilt will probably distort badly. The more quilting you do the stiffer the quilt becomes.

What will I use in the future?

I really like the wool/poly for quilts that don't have really close quilting. For the heavily quilted ones the search continues. I would really like your ideas on this. Let me know what you like to use for these types of quilts.

Done at last

I've just put the last stitches in the binding. Doesn't have a hanging sleeve yet but that can wait. The quilting seemed to take forever. As you can see from the detail, there's quite a bit of it. I've hand-dyed all the fabrics in this quilt. I'm on a roll with quilting at the moment so I think I'll drag out a couple of tops from the 'I'll get around to quilting these some day' pile and finish them off.