New Projects

May 27, 2020 ~ Pieces of Pye ~ 2 Comments

With most of my UFO’s completed, I have been working on the Westalee online ruler course quilt recently to get it finished. However after a mishap during this last month I decided I needed a break from that quilt having worked on it every month since November.
This week I started cutting out and selecting fabric so I can begin new projects next month. The fabrics below came from my stash of batik fabrics and are being used for Rachelle Denenny’s mysolation mystery quilt. Sewing begins on Friday.

The next lot of fabrics are cut ready to sew up a modern quilt. I love curved piecing and the block in the photo is a sample of a few of the blocks I will make for the quilt.

I am just about ready to cut these fabrics out for a tablecloth which I plan to appliqué so I will use my Brother ScanNCut to cut them.

And the Westalee quilt this is how far I have got before abandoning it. The mistake I made was to cut the centre panel too small so the blocks for the outer border are too big. Never mind I do have a creative opportunity to work through and will find a solution.

Feathers that Fly

April 26, 2020February 11, 2023 ~ Pieces of Pye ~ 2 Comments

Beautiful warm autumn day here in Perth so most of the day has been spent in the garden. I did find some time for a little sewing this morning and chose to use the water erasable pen to mark guidelines for my free form feathers. Really enjoying quilting this quilt. I used So Fine in the bobbin and through the needle and it stitched like a dream.

Balloons – Flying High

April 25, 2020February 11, 2023 ~ Pieces of Pye ~ 1 Comment

Finally finished piecing my balloon quilt and started quilting it during last week. I started by quilting in the ditch to anchor the quilt ready for stitching out the quilting designs.

Now that I am ready to quilt a dilemma has arisen as I’m not sure what pen to use for marking. My go to marking pen is a blue water erasable pen which has never presented me with any problems. However, I am loathe to use this pen on the quilt as I used jelly rolls to make it and a lot of the strips are reds. We quilters all know how notorious red fabrics are for running when wet. I’m thinking I may have to use a Frixion pen but I am not keen on using that because of the chemicals and the tendency of Frixion pens to leave a white residue on coloured fabrics.

I am not sure whether to leave the balloons with only ditch quilting or to use a curved line design within the balloons. Still thinking about that.

I have decided that I will very likely quilt the alternating white curves with a feather design thinking ‘feathers that fly’ here so they will fit in with the quilt name if nothing else.

Quilt in a Day

April 19, 2020April 25, 2020 ~ Pieces of Pye ~ 1 Comment

Not quite a quilt in a day but very nearly. I have been busy sorting my fabric lately and came across a few metres of William Morris prints that I bought several years, so I thought I would make a quick quilt following Joe Cunnningham’s style.

I attended Joe’s workshops at AQC last year and his ideas seem to be let’s see where the design takes you. Having done a few of Joe’s lesson I have noticed that he does have a recurring formula, that is cutting your strips at 5,1/2” 4,1/2” 3,1/2” 2,1/2” and 1,1/2”. It is quite easy to remember this formula once you have made a few quilts using this method.

I cut and made 50, 6,1/2” square blocks using Joe’s formula and following the instructions for his Fantasy Four Patch yesterday morning and laid them out in a design that I liked ready for sewing together.

In the afternoon I stitched the blocks together but because of a creative opportunity the design did not turn out the same as the original layout.

However, I prefer this design and will add the borders later today. In my estimation this quilt top will have taken about 8hrs to make including the addition of borders.

2020 year of the UFO

February 11, 2020 ~ Pieces of Pye ~ 1 Comment

I have been working on UFO’S ( unfinished objects) since early January of which I have plenty. About 8 in total. The reason I am working on UFO’s is because I got a Bernina Q20 a week before Christmas and wanted to test various thread combinations using the different modes on the machine.

The quilt below has been sitting in my cupboard for nearly 6 years and only needs the binding stitched on to complete. I kept the quilting simple on this quilt using stitch in the ditch and diagonal straight lines. I used SoFine in the bobbin and monopoly and Glide through the needle.

The second quilt has been in my cupboard since about 2003. My friend Julie gave me half a pack of 1930’s Scottie Dogs which I love. This quilt is now completed. I once again used Glide thread. I free motion quilted the feathers and did a little ruler work where needed. I really enjoyed quilting this quilt. I has a few short term goals during the quilting. After every 8 feather motifs I rewarded myself with 2 pieces of chocolate. The quilt was quilted in no time!