Perfectly Perched? lets begin....

We had a super time on holidays..

 and I'm back refreshed and ready to start some new and exciting projects!
This bundle of goodness was waiting for me on my return!

Now isn't that just what I need? 
Some of Laurie Wisbrun's new line 'Perfectly Perched' from Robert Kaufman.

HipBee shakes!

Online sewing Bees are something I've always stayed away from.

I've never joined one because I never thought I could keep pace with one!

So this year I've taken the plunge and joined not one but two :)

Its not that I've suddenly found an extra day in the week or anything, 

just looking forward to meeting some fellow UK and Irish bloggers!

HipBees officially launches today and starts in August.

All the bloggers are from the UK, some I already know 

and some I'm looking forward to meeting!

Mama HipBee   Di - Willowbeck Designs - http://willowbeckdesigns.blogspot.co.uk/

Judith - Just Jude - http://judith-justjude.blogspot.co.uk/

Tanya - Second Chance Tan - http://sewasecondchance.blogspot.co.uk/
Rachel - Mamma Fairy Sews - http://mammafairysews.blogspot.co.uk/
Fiona - Sew Fi - http://go-sewfi.blogspot.co.uk/
Collette - Poppie and Poochie - http://poppyandpoochie.blogspot.co.uk/
Renee - Nellie's Niceties - http://nelliesniceties.blogspot.co.uk/
Lynz - Domestic Light and Magic - http://domesticlightandmagic.blogspot.co.uk/
Jan - Isisjem - http://isisjem.blogspot.co.uk/
Catherine - Sew Wonderful Life - http://sewonderfulife.blogspot.co.uk/
Sarah - Sew Me - http://sewmeblog.blogspot.co.uk/


So I'm going to be a busy bee :D

Criss Cross Returns

Last week I received a lovely email from Rea in Canada.

She had found my Criss Cross Quilt pattern on the Moda Bakeshop 

and sent me a photo of the wonderful quilt she had made.

Isn't it beautiful?

The colours are fantastic and the piecing is just perfect.

Thanks Rea, for sharing your wonderful quilt with us!

If you have made a quilt using one of my patterns, I'd love to see it.

Drop me an email or post it to the Lisnaweary Quilts flickr group.

Titanic break!

After having a 'short' break from blogging, I'm back!

June is always a hectic month, this year even more so, 

as we decided to squeeze in a holiday too!

Before we went away, I finished my Titanic quilt.

I did some free machining swirls on the sea.. 

 and some spikey or sharp lines in the sky behind the ship.

I was trying to give the impression of coldness in the air.. 

This is the finished wall hanging, which I have entered in the 

Royal Dublin Society Craft Competition.

Fingers crossed!

Quilting Made in Belfast!

Well, how do you decide how to quilt a project?

Most times I look at the project and try to take some sort of influence from the patchwork itself, or the inspiration I drew on to make the quilt in the first place.

I do enjoy free machine quilting - yes, it is very hard to get nice even stitches - but there's a great satisfaction in looking at the finished quilt and knowing you have made the whole thing from start to finish. 

On this project I used a combination of straight quilting and free machining.

The Janome Horizon has an Acufeed system, which evenly pulls layers of fabric past the needle, meaning that the layers of fabric in a quilt 'sandwich' are kept together evenly and not pushed at different speeds. There is an Acufeed quilting foot that comes with the Horizon machine, but I was given the opportunity by Janome to try out the Acufeed Ditch Quilting Foot.

It's a chunky foot, but this gives it more grip on the fabric.

From the side view, you can see the Acufeed system behind the foot.

On this machine, it's essential to lift the foot to an 'upper' position..

then the Acufeed can be brought down and into position, under the foot.

All set to go :)

The black guide, in the center of the foot makes quilting in the ditch more precise, while the layers of fabric and wadding are fed through evenly.

Now I'll have to practice my free machine quilting!

What's your preference, straight quilting or free machining?

Titanic project continues..

Last time I blogged about my Titanic wall hanging, it looked like this:

At this stage I added two borders, a narrow black one to frame the ship and then added a lovely peachy/orangey print as an outside border.

(Of course I forgot to take a picture at this stage!)

I picked this colour of fabric because it reminded me of the 

colour the Titanic's chimney stacks were painted!

The fabric is Fiesta from the Hope Valley range by Denyse Schmidt.

I then added some fusible black 1/4" bias tape to the border.

I was able to use a 4mm twin needle on my Janome machine to sew it in place.

Sewing with twin needles is very effective when sewing on bias tape.

I had to do quite a bit of maneuvering around the circles, 

but the straight lines were a breeze!

Once I had the bias sewed on, it was time to layer my wall hanging.

Next stage quilting!

Giveaway winner

We had a wonderful day last Saturday when we travelled to Dublin. 

We went to the Aviva stadium..

 to watch the Rugby Heineken Cup Semi-Final game - Ulster v Edinburgh

  and best of all - Ulster won!!

Roll on 19th May for the final - unfortunately it's in Twickenham, England.

So I think I'll be watching it on the telly!

On to the important stuff...the winner of the magazine and fabric giveaway is...

VickiT

There are some super cute projects on the Sewing World Magazine website. I really love the Bountiful Bags article. Love all the pockets inside that bag. The Blue Hussian Shopping bag is a great one too. One can never have too many shopping bags, right?

And as a bonus I've got 3 more magazines to giveaway! Yeeaahh!

Winners are:

Linda Coleman  I'm already a follower Karen. Love the quilt

Julie Nelson    I like the Eco bag but now need to back and look at the bountiful bag as everyone is talking about it.

Allison C    I like the Blue Hessian Shopping Bag project

Congratulations everyone!

Drop me an email with your details and I'll pop the magazines in the post!