"April Six" My Seventeenth Quilt.

Most recently I finished my seventeenth quilt. Yes, last holidays I fell in a bit of a rut and pretty much completed a small quilt in one day. This quilt is not my design at all (however the quilting design I did change). This quilt was purchased as a kit at 'Spotlight' here in Australia and I had been waiting for a while to purchase it on sale. I simply loved the colours of the fabric and the fun butterfly designs. So during the school holidays, I cut the fabric out the night before and set out two to three days to complete this quilt. However, I completed the assembling of it in one day. I began at about 9am and continued to midnight with meal breaks in between. This was surprising to me. I will usually take more breaks and pace myself more. In this case, I just wanted to finish it. Of course, it helped that the design was already set for me and all I needed to do was follow instructions. Ultimately this was a fairly easy process and I would absolutely recommend this for beginners.

The only change I made to this quilt was the quilting design. The kit recommended a checkered design whereas I decided to quilt on the angle to create a diamond effect. This probably cut some of that time as there were fewer lines to sew.

The binding was different than what I have done in the past. This time I just folded the binding in half and sewed the raw edges in line with the edge of the quilt. This gave me a nice fold line to hand sew the binding to the back of the quilt. I liked this method but I didn't find it more efficient than my normal process. 

I enjoyed making this quilt. It was simple and fun. The colours just made me happy. As far as making it in one day, I didn't expect it. I felt that is was achievable about half way through the day so I just continued. I named it "April Six" as that was the day it was completed. I hope to sell this quilt one day. Overall I'm very proud of my work and excited I was able to make a decent sized quilt within a day. Quite an achievement. Let me know your thoughts.

Thank you for reading.

Miss Mae. 

Bible Journaling - My entries so far

This is a different post that is not related to my quilting, but rather my faith and how I hope to grow through craft and study of the Bible. If you would like to know more then keep reading, however if you are not interested your welcome to wait on my next post. Thank you. Miss Mae.

It has been a few months since I started this hobby, and I have enjoyed it very much. It feels so nice to express the teachings of the Bible through art and scrapbooking techniques. I've been trying new ideas and reading passages I haven't read in a while. Not only that it really does feel I'm creating an heirloom, something that can be passed on that displays my faith and my understanding of the Word.

I get really excited when I finished an entry and I get to stamp and make a tab in my Bible. I love completing a new entry, I really do. So far I have ten entries.

My supplies are bountiful - literally I have so much stuff I don't know what to do with. I did buy some things from the Illustrated Faith website, in particular their past subscription boxes. I really wanted certain stamps and inks because finding stamps that have to do with faith and the Bible are really hard to find in stores. It also came with some devotional booklets which are really helpful to take a guided path through a particular theme. I have used other stamps, as well as acrylic paint, watercolour paints, stickers, wash tape, dye cuts journaling cards, pens, pencils, and soft pastels. I like using pastels and watercolour the most, especially the way the colours blend together. I mark my pages with tabs and a date stamp, I also sometimes use paper clips to mark my pages. Adds a little more texture.

At the moment I found a really interesting website, The Bible Project, it provides resources such as videos, posters and Bible reading plans. They are a non for profit organisation, that works through donations. I am currently using their Bible reading program using their "Read Scripture" app. It is a real useful way to read the Bible with a particular purpose.

My entries so far don't really follow a theme, just what I have been reading in certain moments I needed encouragement with work, health, study. It has been good to have something to show for reading my Bible more regularly.

So the images are just a few of the entries, not all. I'm proud of what I have created.

Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks for reading.

Miss Mae.

Heirloom English Paper Piecing Quilt (Part Two)

So it has been a long while since my last post. I have been sewing most of the summer focusing mainly on my white diamond english paper piecing quilt. I have now got a date to finish it by so I need to devote all my free time to it.
I have progressed into connecting the blocks together which has been very encouraging to see how it may look when it's finished. The blocks are much larger than my one inch hexagons that I progress a little faster.
I enjoyed doing the placements of the blocks. It is one of my favourite part of quilting, this is where I can get creative. I love working with patterns. Hence why I chose to use several different white and cream toned fabrics.

Sewing these large blocks was actually really fun. However it was not all that comfortable sitting on the floor. Simply, I needed to lay the blocks on the floor for the layout. The placement had to stay on the floor until all the blocks were connected.
This could be much easier if I could use a machine, however there is something so satisfying about hand stitching these blocks together. There has been so much work put in this already and I am so excited to see the final product.
The goal was to make a double sized quilt, however I believe I could easily make it into a queen sized quilt. I will see how I go with it.
Below is what I have so far. To see more updates on this and other quilts, I update my Instagram more regularly (link below).

That is all so far. I'm making more blocks currently and will be start the next section soon I hope.

Thanks for reading and happy sewing.

Miss Mae.

https://www.instagram.com/miss.mae90/?hl=en

Christmas Quilt

So it's Christmas. Well at least it's December, so hence Christmas quilt time. I'm so excited for Christmas this year as I have time to decorate my place and make presents, including a Christmas Quilt for some special people.

So I have cut my fabric out of my stash in the traditional red, green and gold palette with a couple of extra colours. I wanted it to have similar colours but not look too Christmassy so it can work for any season. The patchwork is a little more traditional and made to look like Christmas wreaths.

To make the wreath shape I attached two white squares of fabric to opposite corners of the colours squares, very similar to "White Diamonds" Quilt I made earlier in the year (See earlier posts). However I did this for every coloured square. I made the adjustment with the white squares from the previous time, so they were bigger and easier to match seams.

Thor was spectacular as usual, however I think I might need to service him soon. Last Saturday I made the wreaths. At the moment the layout looks a little like fruit loops. Yes, quite hilarious to me. The panel was also pretty small, so in order to expand it, I plan to place white strips in-between the wreaths. I'm hoping that will lessen the fruit loop effect.

The layout was fairly easy to work with as the colours are either bold or fair (for lack of a better word). I've included some gold accent fabrics to balance out the dullness of the other fabrics. I will also use the same binding I use for my quilt "Tabitha" which has the gold accent as well.

FTIsland, Hanson, and Mandy Moore were my soundtracks, in particular Hanson's Christmas album from when they were little. It really brought Christmas into the house which was really nice.

Anyway here is the current layout. Of course it will
look a little different in the end. I'll be updating the finished quilt when it's finished.

Happy Sewing.
Miss Mae.

Heirloom English Paper Piecing Quilt (Part One)

I have recently, and by recently perhaps a couple of months ago, started an heirloom quilt. I was inspired to begin English Paper Piecing (EPP) from an Australian Quilter, Linda White. She's an entrepreneur creating Gum Valley Patchwork, a store in Cooriemungle, Victoria Australia.

It was about three years ago that I saw her "Dear Prudence" Heirloom hexagon EPP quilt. I was so inspired at the work that I decided to learn how to do this method of quilting. I bought her book on the the quilt and taught myself the method using larger hexagons. From then I researched further and learned how to make different shapes through this method. 

For this heirloom quilt (my second EPP quilt) I decided to use diamonds and I have also wanted to create a white and cream quilt using different fabric patterns. I have been collecting this fabrics for about a year now including some from Linda's store.

I am using a larger (1 3/4" wide) diamond shape so that the fabric patterns are very clear to the eye. I am using feature fabrics for the six pointed stars and using another fabric that will act as the border around the stars. I've been using paper clips to secured the fabric around the paper and have simply tact through the paper and fabric to prepare them for slip stitching. 

It is so simple but extremely time consuming. I've recently been watching "Will and Grace" series while making this one. It's really funny, I was a little too young to understand the jokes when it came out. 

I am enjoying how big the pieces are as I can easily visualise the end result. It does help that I am using a similar pattern to another quilt I have seen just with different fabric. however its seems to be coming together much faster than expected, despite how many more patches I need to make.

Short post today, but I plan to write follow ups for this quilt. 

Let me know your thoughts.

Happy Sewing.

Miss Mae.

Bible Journaling - New Hobby?

This is a different post that is not related to my quilting, but rather my faith and how I hope to grow through craft and study of the Bible. If you would like to know more then keep reading, however if you are not interested your welcome to wait on my next post. Thank you. Miss Mae.

The latest craze in the the craft world and especially for Christians is the art of Bible Journaling. This is something I found out about from my mum about a year or so ago. The first thing I thought was "Why would you want to draw in your Bible?"

Yes I was one of the people who didn't understand the fascination, and upset that the words would be covered with paint and writing. However that's what I get for assuming.

I am a Religion Teacher and I have studied the Bible and other religious scriptures intensely for almost eight years now. It is something I enjoy even though it can be challenging at times. I am also a Christian. My faith has been challenged constantly and it has been tough. Working within my faith sometimes makes it hard to separate myself from the people I want to teach and teaching myself. I have lately needed and wanted to study the scriptures for myself and to rely entirely on God.

I decided to create a Bible Study Planner. I researched on Pinterest and Youtube on how others planned their Bible study as well as incorporating what I know works for me. I decorated my dividers with verses and planned my sections. However I couldn't work out how to start my study. I am one of those people that if I haven't got something to show for it I won't do it. Now with that in mind, this should be easy for me to write notes and prayers etc. This is how I planned to show my progress. Currently it isn't working. I can't seem to bring myself to choose a book or a verse or a devotional to begin my study. I became extremely busy with work, creating resources, marking and admin. Another reason why I haven't posted in a while either.

In my research as I looked for ways to really come back to the Word of God, I came across Bible Journaling. Now the first Youtube clip I watched was a young woman named Meredith Grace. She spoke about how she wanted to share her faith more on her social media and how she found out about Bible Journaling through a blogger which led her to Illustrated Faith. Illustrated Faith is a company that informs and sells products for the art of Bible Journaling, and their founder Shanna Noel has inspired so many people to write, draw and paint in their Bibles. So once I watched Meredith Grace's video and got an understanding why she was doing it, I wanted to know more. I researched other people about how and why they were decorating their Bibles through Youtube, blogs and Pinterest. There are many schools of thought of what supplies to use, what they will write in the margins, whether it is okay to cover scripture or not and if you even need a Journaling Bible. Some people will cover the words, others will use only the margins, and some will use a completely different notebook and not write in their Bibles at all. Some students of this art form have more than one Journaling Bible because they can't fit anymore in their first one. The artwork of these people is astounding and there are tutorials, and templates you can use in your own Bibles. There are even Bibles that have the art included on 500 pages, like an adult colouring book for those who don't feel they are artistic.

The world I had just stepped into was incredible. I cannot believe the community that has come out by just writing and drawing in Bibles. This sort of thing I believed to be at first somewhat unnecessary, and now I feel that this is my ticket to getting into the Word. I have ordered a Journaling Bible based on the reviews of Rebecca R Jones on Youtube. I purchased the ESV Journaling Bible Leather, Antique Flora as I kept being drawn to the floral cover. Plus the spine looks like an old leather bound book. It arrived yesterday and though it's not completely new (I bought a slightly cheaper one), it is gorgeous and I am super excited to work in it. 

I have yet to start my entries and test my supplies. I would call myself a lucky person as I draw and paint occasionally and already have supplies such as watercolours, coloured pencils, soft pastels, stickers, stamps, tabs and many other supplies to use. All I needed to purchase was a good archival pen and some setting spray for the pastels I have. I am hoping that these things work. I hope to test them out and maybe write a post on them in future. 

I hope to write more on this in future, I may use this as my platform or create a different blog should there be enough interest. I am a beginner in this so if you have any tips to share, comment below. If you want to see my entries or my supplies or anything please comment below. 

Thank you for reading.

Miss Mae

"Crème Berry" (no.15)

 I am not doing any favours for my 13th quilt. I have since completed another quilt in its place. Yes this is my 15th quilt. I had recently gone to a fabric store about 40 minutes from my house on the way to Melbourne and I bought this layer cake along with another. "Ville Fleurie" by French General for Moda. I was inspired by the colours when I returned home and began designing for it. I have always liked the idea of having the colour and pattern in one corner of the design and keep the rest in a white or cream fabric. So I made this chevron pattern using the moda collection and a cream and white fabric in-between to create that theme.

I created the squares and that was a fairly relaxing process. Seeing as the design was to split the squares in half diagonally it was simple to sew two seams and them cut between the
sewing lines.
One tool I have found amazing is the "Frixtion" pens by Pilot. I found this out somewhere, for the life of me I cannot remember (Either Youtube or Pinterest) but I used this to mark the middle of my fabric for when I would cut it later. The awesomeness of this is that when you iron the seams flat the heat will erase the pen mark! The picture above shows the mark with and without heat. When I did this I was astounded! I have never liked using chalk on my fabrics because I just couldn't get the mark completely off. This is a saviour for me, to the point I have to buy specific ones just for fabric as I regularly use them for writing.
I then laid out the pattern on the ground and with the colours I decided to make it a gradient design with the grey colours at the top, then red in the middle and purple at the bottom. I really liked the look of it and with the white fabric as a base the colours stood out.
Thor did an excellent job once again to match seams with the added insurance of pins. This quilt was a very relaxing process. It is a smaller quilt than no.14 "White Diamonds" (Check out previous posts) so it's mainly a lap quilt for cold winter nights.

I used Craft Smart spray adhesive to assemble the quilt and I'll need to purchase another as this one seems to be running out. I don't know that it is the best type of adhesive spray as it seems to leave drops of glue while being sprayed. Might be the way I tilt the can. It still did the job and the droplet marks have disappeared so it's not all that bad. 

Quilting was a little more time consuming. Though it is a small quilt I wanted to keep the same chevron pattern on the back as is shown on the front. I didn't attach any borders to this quilt as I didn't want to destroy the illusion of the design. So even though there was no border to quilt the pattern required a lot of stop and start. 
I quilted along the horizontal lines firstly, beginning in the middle and working my way out. I then rolled the quilt diagonally and quilted the diagonal chevron pattern, again starting in the middle and working out. I did quilt in the ditch where the patchwork was and then continued the quilting over the plain white squares in the top left corner. I had no problem with puckering - and as you are probably sick of me talking about my machine I'll restrain myself, but I still cannot get over how much better my quilts are using Thor. 
For binding I used some fabric from much stash, cut, joined and ironed to make it into a binding strip. The fabric is a cream colour similar to the cream in the backing and parts of the feature fabrics with a red almost paisley shape design over top. The red looks a little like coloured pencil strokes creating the same shape as paisley but without the inside decor between the lines. I've had this fabric for years and have used it for a lot of small things like broaches and hair clips. I hope to use the remainder of it in a quilt or something else but I really liked how this joined the backing fabric I picked with the front of the quilt. 
Hand sewing was pretty quick - only a few hours as opposed to several. I was watching "The Community" Season 3 while sewing the binding on. Music while making the quilt - Richard Marx Greatest Hits, FTIsland's "Treasure Box", The Corrs, Michael Jackson's Collection, Mika - there were a few others but I can't remember. I do tend to listen to the same stuff because my collection is not very big, but I'm glad I don't get sick of the same music all the time.

The last couple of photos are the final product, one has my feet in it. In that one you can really see the quilt design. I love the chevron pattern simply because the shapes just fit together so well. It's the same with hexagons and triangles, complicated shapes that look like they wouldn't fit but just do. 

This quilt I felt was just relaxing. It felt a little like I had come back to a place of joy in my work. Nothing went wrong in this project. Nothing really annoyed me. I didn't need to redo any part of it which was so wonderful. This was just a small, inspired and joyful project for me and I think it'll be hard to let this one go, but I do hope it will be sold. It is called "Crème Berry" - naming rights go to my mum, she's very good with names. I think it suits it very well.

Let me know you're thoughts. Come visit me on Instagram for ongoing updates on my quilting. (Link Below) I post about a lot of other things too, so everyone is welcome. 
Sew Happy.

Miss Mae.

https://www.instagram.com/miss.mae90/