Ronny Rooster found himself a wife

I wrote a few weeks back about some additional roosters I made for the kitchen and added to the collection with a little hen.

The embroidery design is from Embroidery Library and can be found here.

Playful Pyramid Quilt

I saw this quilt on Man Sewing, Rob Appell's Youtube channel, some time ago and bought the fabric in November 2022.  Started cutting and sewing a week ago and the whole top is done.  The fastest queen size quilt I ever made.

It is constructed from 4 shades of two colors to which white is added, cut in 2.5" WOF strips and stitched into strip sets shading from light (white) to dark.  45-degree triangles are then cut and stitched into light and dark blocks.  The blocks are quite large measuring 20" (50cm) with only 12 blocks needed for a queen size.  I made a total of 8 strip sets in each colorway which each yielded 3 triangles for a total of 48 triangles.  A really fast and easy project with a beautiful outcome.

Now just to quilt and bind it.

Strata Star finished

I finished quilting this runner and added it's label.

 I used a combination of embroidery designs, walking foot quilting as well as free motion/meander using variegated thread.

The feathers was done using this set from Embroidery Library.

I then added the circles using the walking foot and meander in-between.

With the label added, the first quilt for 2023 is done and dusted. (For the backing I used Shweshwe fabric, a first for me.  It is a printed dyed cotton fabric locally produced by Three Cats, widely used for traditional South African clothing.)

Big Footed Lamb

I finished another Big Footed Lamb, this time for my son's friend.  She is going to participate at Bloemshow's sheep shearing competitions which will be held between the 27th April and the 6th of May.

The design is from Dolls and Daydreams and can be found here.

The lamb as it comes out of the frame before it is stuffed.

Made from an Original Days and Daydreams ® Pattern

Shopping at Wookeys, Kimberley

My son had a function in Kimberley on Saturday and as he had not driven on main roads since getting his driver's license, my husband suggested we go with, and I could go shopping at Wookeys to which I did not need another invitation.

I visited Wookeys a few times before and are always amazed at their stock as well as prices.  Saturday was no exception with 100% quilters cotton priced between R89 and R100 per meter.  Tie dye 100% cotton which is locally priced R110, is at Wookeys available for only R69 per meter.  It just blew me away.  I can maybe understand that local shops can't compete with Habby and Lace in Vereeniging which might be classified as a fabric shop, but Wookeys is just a normal little fabric shop in Galeshewe?  (Now, I am not referring to local small dealers selling imported fabrics which I consider to be my quilting friends.)

I even found a strip tube ruler which Donna Jordan (from Jordan Fabrics) use in most of her tutorials.  They also sell whole rolls of satin ribbon, packets of ric-rac trim etc.  I haven't even looked at their selection of wool of which they have a room full.

I also bought fabric for our quilting group's next project, a courthouse step runner which we will do under the guidance of teacher Annie du Toit.  I needed only 10cm of 5 different lights, but Wookeys doesn't cut less than 25cm which didn't matter though as it is so cheap.  Had no problem gathering 5 lights which can also be a problem locally getting 5 shades of a particular color at one shop.  They also have a wide variety of solids which is a rare find locally.

A really big find was these baby prints which was on sale for only R25 a meter, so I bought all 3 remnant pieces totaling just over 6m. 

I love doing embroidered items with Chintz which is really getting more and more difficult to find with some dealers not selling it at all anymore.  It is a lovely fabric to make in the hoop items with with a lovely shine and not as flimsy as satin fabrics. I did buy white and cream locally and was able to get these 3 colors at Wookeys as well as white Scuba with which I want to embroider quilted cushions as it creates a beautiful loft.  Now to find grey, black, beige and light brown chintz.  Also for projects on my to do list.

This was only the 2nd piece of Shwe-Shwe I bought and will combine this with orange and blue tie dye fabric to embroider placemats.

This concluded my purchases which will be used to stitch another Big Footed Lamb for a friend of my son.

Bubble quilts 4 & 5

I completed this quilt which was ordered in December by a friend of mine for her newest granddaughter which is expected in April. I used this method which was brought to my attention by one of my quilting friends.  Although it is not necessarily a faster method than stitching the individual pockets (the general and most widely used method) it certainly has some positives going for it like using less fabric and thread and the most important one for me is getting a much nicer backside as I just wasn't satisfied with previous methods.

The front with a ric-rac braid added around the edge as this method doesn't require a binding.

Back

The original one I made during the middle of December, turned out a big disaster which derailed me for a few weeks.  I used polyester cotton, not thinking anything of it as one gets the most beautiful prints for babies/children.  But oh boy, never again.

Whilst stitching the pockets, the fabric kept on unravelling, but I kept on making the pockets, thinking that when I stitch the final seams, everything would be fine as would be the case with 100% quilters cotton.  After adding the back, I discovered that the quilt is literally falling apart at the seams.  I was horrified.  So, I put this one aside and continue with the butterfly bubble quilt using among others mini matt.  I also immediately overlocked all the seams just as a precaution.

So, after mulling of what to do with the polyester cotton one, I decided to take it apart and overlock all the seams as well, cutting off all the unraveling fabric.  Stitching together the rows was rather difficult as all the pockets was stuffed already, but I finally manage to put all back together again, add the back and..... it was still unraveling....  Not all the pockets though as I used different types of fabrics.  I then closed it up by hand and stitched a serpentine stitch over all the seams, catching both sides of the pockets.  

I even cut the backing piece with a pinking blade, didn't help, was unravelling before my eyes.  Finishing the edge with a binding solved this problem.  So, at the end I made a quilt which someone could still use, but I could never sell.  Learned a very valuable lesson the hard way.  

According to a local dealer, the cotton to polyester ratio is being reduced resulting in a lower grade fabric.  Now, my question is, what is the use of manufacturing a fabric that will come apart after the first wash (if it will stay together that long)?  I used to stitch with polyester cotton all the time when my daughter was little.  When I asked the dealer where I bought the fabric for advice to curb the unravelling, I was taught to use Fray-Check....  Oh boy, a puff quilt containing 121 puffs will take how many bottles of Fray-Check???

This is the beautiful, yet sadly imperfect and smaller quilt which was made twice.

Strata Star / Spinning Star / Swirling Star / Card Trick table runner

Whilst visiting local quilt teacher, Annie du Toit, last year, I saw an absolutely gorgeous runner on her table made in various shades of blue, arranged from light to dark.  So, when I stumble across this free tutorial on YouTube, I was so excited to realize it was the same pattern.  After surfing some more, I found this free pattern as well.

The video as well as the tutorial don't do this pattern justice though.  Using 5 to 8 colors in shades from light to dark is the secret.  

When our quilting group talked about possible projects for this year, I suggested this project.  We all got to buying fabrics as getting 8 shades of a particular color locally, is rather a challenge.  But by shopping around we manage to get our fabrics together.

All got busy cutting WOF strips and sewing 5 strip sets.  As we used more colors than the pattern suggests, we cut our strips 1.5" wide instead of the proposed 2".  At our first meeting in January, we cut and stitched the large triangles and started to lay out our runners and oh my word, they all turned out absolutely gorgeous.  When we adjourned, all had to cut their small triangles and piece the top.

Today we added the backing and batting using the stitch and flip method to omit the use of a binding as there are quite a few corners.  All that remains now is to quilt the runners and our first project for the year is all done.  (Donna Jordan of Jordan Fabrics use the stitch and flip method on the majority of her table runners, so if unsure just watch this video.)

And now for the photo's...

First up is mine.  I used 7 colors and the runner measure 1m across.

And in no particular order, the other group members runners.

Marietjie

Angelina

Elsa

Rika

Frances

This was such a satisfying and extremely fast project which really went together super easy but looks very complicated.

Roosters

I embroidered two additional roosters for the kitchen, although there isn't really space for anymore.😃

Ronny Rooster was done in Jinny Beyer fabrics.

Design is from Inspiration Mutz and can be found here.

The rooster dangler is from SewAZ-Embroidery and can be found here.