The Little Mushroom Cap: A Quilting Blog

About A Quilt Sampler QAL #16 : Quilting Block 7

August 20, 2013 6 Comments

This post is a part of a quilt along series which I have archived HERE.

In this post, I share how I quilt block #7 of the About A Quilt Sampler.

This time, I tried quilting on grid marking. I marked mine 1/4″ apart, but I think it is a bit too small. You can try 1/2″ apart instead. Mark grids using washable pen in areas that you would like to try some grid quilting.

First quilt the middle square as you prefer. I highlighted the octopus and did a simple swirly around it.

Then I quilt a bead shape trail along vertical lines of the grids till it fills up the whole area then turn and do the horizontal lines with the same bead shape trail.

As you can see, from one area to another area of the grid quilting, I also fill up other areas with radiates and curves pattern. I do this in order to travel from one place to another without having to cut off the threads and starting again. Though if you feel like filling up all the grid area you can too, just stop and do a couple of static end stitches to ensure no stitches will come off later. Then you can start again at another corner of the grid quilting area.

Here is how my block looked liked in the end. Trim to 12.5″ block

Here is the back.

Here is a close up of the grid quilting.

Have a go at grid quilting and some radiates!

Quilty hugs,

Amira

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Studio Spotlight

August 18, 2013 24 Comments

Hi!

I am joining over Ellison Lane for the studio spotlight linky party..

So if you are here from there, I very much welcome you to my little sewing space!

If you have visited here and have visited my about page, you have probably seen a part of it. However, the table often moves around and I rearrange constantly too to maximize the room. So here is how it recently looked like:

I store my fabric scraps by colour and they are placed in these container on the table. This way I am more prone to use scraps before digging in to my fabric stash. And it is so much easier to place away scraps after a certain project.

I don’t store my uncut fabrics outside, because I have done that, and with my little one being around , things can get messy. He loves – loves – “tidying” back my fabric stash! Last time I arrange a shelf neatly with fabrics by colours and size and the next thing I know .. I am back home from school with a lot of fabrics on the floor! And since this is a rented house, I can’t have any hung shelves either… so I am thankful I have a built in robe in this room! So here is my stash..and mess… and pretty much everything else that we rarely use.

I love these drawers as they fit my stash perfectly. But I am thinking soon I need to have another space for more fabrics??? haha.. or maybe I should just keep this much fabrics only. I am in need to keep sewing and to keep myself away from shopping more fabrics.

On the shelves, I have solids and more than a yard fabrics.

I also have a bit of vintage sheet collection. I love to thrift around for these, and am working on a project with some of them.

Well, I guess that’s it. Hope you enjoyed the tour around my sewing room!

Stay around and visit me often, I’d love that.

XOXO

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Update Mid August

August 15, 2013 24 Comments

Hi!

A little update on things around my sewing room these week:

I am done with August Lucky Star, a perfect addition to all my other blocks.

I am done quilting the HST sampler quilt, waiting for binding. More of this quilting and more photos maybe soon in upcoming blog post.

I am on my way catching up with patchwork please SAL but I am still on the late train.

Patchwork Please Swedish Bloom and Up Up and Away from Sunday Morning Quilt

My sister is having fun learning patchwork with me and she even made two of the bloom block up there and that mini quilt top is hers as well. She is now in love with Sunday Morning Quilt Book too! That wonky Triangles are from scraps and the instruction for the block is the Sunday Morning quilt book.

Well I am halfway with my August Year of Finish goal which was the HST quilt. I am catching up with the schedule. I will be posting on the About A Quilt Sampler FMQAL soon too.

Thank you for visiting me! By the way, Bee and Lotus, my new sponsor’s giveaway is still on and I would love you to come and join and give support! Click here for the giveaway post.

Linking up to:

XOXO

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About A Quilt Sampler QAL #15 : Piecing Block 7

August 12, 2013 8 Comments

Hi!

Block for August is here! I decided to make this block for this month:

If this is your first time here, you can read more on this QAL by clicking here.

If you miss previous post you can always go back to all the post by clicking the button on my blog sidebar or below:

The tutorial for the block above is as follows:

Cutting direction :

1 Piece of slightly darker solid measuring 5 1/4″ square

1 piece of light solid measuring 5 1/4″ square

2 pieces of printed measuring 5 1/4″ square

4 Pieces of light solid measuring 4 1/2″ square

1 center square (can be fussy cut) printed measuring 4 1/2″ square

Stack all the 5 1/4″ squares and slash through the diagonals so that you will have 4 triangles from each squares.

Pair up one solid triangle with one printed triangle and chain piece all of them making sure you will end up with the solid triangle on the right hand side.

Piece the two large triangle together as the photo below forming a square.

Square up the patched piece into 4 1/2″ square

Arrange all the 4 1/2″ squares and piece them as aroows shown in the photo below forming three rows.

Piece the three rows together

And voila! You are done! Press seams, and trim to 12.5″ square

Hope you have fun making the block! As always, don’t forget to add your version to littlemushroomcap flickr group!

Will be posting on the quilting soon!

Till then,

XOXO

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Welcoming a new sponsor + Giveaway! from Bee & Lotus

August 11, 2013 38 Comments

Hi!

I am welcoming a new sponsor to littlemushroomcap today!

Bee & Lotus Textiles is designed by an indie fabric designer, Clair. You can visit her blog where she shares her crafty adventures and projects with her childrens.

Clair has a visual arts background specialised in printmaking and began creating textile designs two years ago when she discovered Spoonflower.com, a fantastic company in the USA that sells print-on-demand custom digital fabrics.

You can find all her fabric designs and collection here at the spoonflower shop. You can view by collection here. The best thing about spoonflower is that you can literally print the design on a lot of different weight fabrics or even as wallpapers and decals!

I would definitely be getting this in an upholster weight fabric someday :

Bee and Lotus designs are inspired by different cultures and personally I love the variation and the colours used in the designs.

I also love the watercolour effects in some of the designs and find that very unique. Clair has specially designed a Width Of Fabric (WOF) in a yard where you can get a whole strip of 5″ of seven designs in a yard. It works like a charm pack or a very wide jelly roll that you have to cut up yourself.

I received a yard of this, a collection named Granada from Clair and decided to make a runner and a pillow out of it.

Granada_Bee&Lotus Fabrics_New Sponsor_wof in a yard

And today, you have a chance to win a yard of it too!

And another lucky winner can also win the pillow cover and the runner I made!

For a chance to win,

Visit Bee and Lotus blog or spoonflower page then come back here and leave a comment with your favourite design. I’ll pick a winner on the 20th August!

Good Luck!!!!

XOXO

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In Completed Projects

Scrappy Trip Along Quilt Done!

August 10, 2013 31 Comments

Hi!

At last my Queen Size Scrappy Trip along Quilt is done!

I started this quilt because I got the Scrappy Trip Along bug when I keep envying all the quilts that keeps popping out of the blogland. You can even visit the Flickr group for all Scrappy Trip along goodness.

I posted a bit of the making of this quilt here and here.

And if you interested in making one, here is the tutorial. The making of each block is really fast but I hate pressing so I took a long time doing that.

This is my first time making a queen size quilt and my first time to quilt this large quilt on my domestic machine so I learn a few tips as I go along and hopefully I’ll be able to share the tips soon!

Anyway, today was a beautiful day in Canberra. The sun finally came out to play today after a week of cloudy cold days.

So, I took the advantage of today’s weather by taking photos of this quilt over at the riverside.

It is still windy and to pick up this large quilt is quite challenging. Here is me and my sis trying to hold up the quilt while making sure my hubby take a good photo of it.

scrappy trip along _ hold on to the quilt

The best we could get is this… so much for the efforts. Hehe.

I hope that gives you the idea of the whole quilt.

Here is the photo of the quilt laid on the ground

ScrappyTrip Along Quilt_laid on the ground

The backing of this quilt is vintage sheet with a stripe of orange solid with one scrappy diamond block.

The binding is my favourite of all. It looks like liquorice. I love stripy binding!

What a lovely weekend. I hope you are enjoying yours too!

XOXO,

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July Recap & August Plans

August 2, 2013 25 Comments

Hi!

Another new month arrive. Really??? Already? Yes. That is often the reaction isn’t?

I didn’t blog much last month as I barely have time for photographing, editing and blogging and I was mostly just keeping up with life. I did some sewing, but didn’t have time to update much.

So, this recap will have some new stuff I haven’t shown yet here in the blog that I did in July and also the links back to projects that was blogged already.

I haven’t blogged about me being stuffed up with this quilt most of my nights in July. This scrappy trip along quilt top was previously blogged here.

It is finally finished in quilting and yet to be bound! I can’t believe I have not yet get it bound after a week of it being done with the quilting. I guess I grew quite sick having this quilt on my machine. So, taking a break and being apart with it for a while isn’t that bad.

I’ll get it bound soon and do a full blogpost on it. Then you can see the whole quilt. I hope it will soon be sunny so that I can take it outdoor for a photo session.

In July, I also did some little sewing projects like making bags and pouches during those nights that I don’t feel like quilting. And since my sister is here, I have been teaching her to do a lot of small projects too.

Perfect Quilted Tote Pattern by Elizabeth Hartmans

Had to put the mushroom on the inside too!

Testing out my new labels

Other than that, I managed to keep up with my Lucky Star BOM blogged here. And though currently I am left behind in the Zakka 2.0 SAL, I did manage to make the apron and the diamond placemat blogged here this July.

So enough with July, what is my plan for August?

These are on top of the plan:

1) My mum’s quilt to be quilted and done by the end of this month! . It’s her birthday this month!

Free Motion Quilting on My domestic machine - HST quilt

HST quilt, pattern by Jeni Baker In color Order

2) My MIL quilt : to be quilted and bound too!

That’s it. I am being rational. I think that will pretty much takes up all my August time. If I start on anything else, I doubt that I’ll get this two quilts done!

Now let see what you are up to… Lets visit others on AUGUST Fresh Sewing Day and A lovely Year of Finishes.

XOXO

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Lucky Stars July BOM update

July 30, 2013 15 Comments

Hi!

Just a short post to update my version of Lucky Stars BOM.

I am loving paper-piecing more and more as I go through these star blocks!

Here is my July Block:

And here are all the blocks together on my wall. Need to think of arrangement soon! Any ideas???

I am off to more sewing tonight!

If you follow me through Instagram you might get some more snip bits of my sewing projects!

I am now officially a bot more active on my Instagram. Follow me there if you do Insta too! I am amira_littlemushroomcap on Instagram.

Linking Up to W.I.P Wednesday

XOXO

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About A Quilt Sampler QAL #14 : Quilting Block 6

July 29, 2013 4 Comments

Hi!

I am on the late train to blogposting lately. Life can get messy right?

Anyway, today I am posting you the 14th post on the About A Quilt Sampler QAL. We will be quilting the Churn Dash block.

If this is your first time here, you can read more on this QAL by clicking here.

If you miss previous post you can always go back to all the post by clicking the button on my blog sidebar or below:

I thought I’d keep it simple, so here is my block quilted with wavy lines

Although I started with the wavy lines on the sides instead from the center I really suggest you to avoid that. Always try and quilt the center first then go out from the center. This should prevent any unwanted fold at the back and any bulge.

So a tip for today :

Whether you are quilting small block or a large quilt : quilt from the center.

I marked the center then started to do a swirly wavy lines. You can play with the density of the lines. I think it will look great having dense lines close to each other.

Or you can also try starting with dense line then sparse it as it comes outwards.

Here is my finished block

From the back:

Well, I hope you will try some wavy natural lines in your block. It is fun and easy! You can add your version to littlemushroomcap flickr group and I would love to see it.

Till then,

XOXO