Waiting In The Wings

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Happy New Year




Sending lots of good wishes for this New Year to all my blogger friends with lots of
 happy time spent quilting and fondling fabrics.

My intention was to have a post today on my
planned projects, but I'm still working through them all
and will be ready to go on Friday.

I'm starting here with my last finished top of 2018
and I'm hoping my efforts with my quilts this year will
be happier ones!

Here we have Chinese Coins 2


and you will see the result is not the best. 

In theory the combination of KF stripes sandwiched between
two strips of Aboriginal Dots was fine, in practice it was not.

I began to sew them to the rectangles re-purposed from my
Scrap Vortex. Even though I starched the combination of KF strips pretty well they
weren't happy getting together with
 rectangles stuffed full of seams. The problem is, I think, with the
finer weave of the stripe.
I unpicked and fiddled around but I'm still not happy
with the result and decided to leave it alone for now.

The Quilt Show had an episode with Tula Pink a few years
ago and I should have remembered ( I did after my experience) that she was asked by
Alex Anderson about using her (Tula's)
fabrics with the finer ones of KF, her reply was that she
had to starch the KF within an inch of their life.
Lesson learned.

Hope you've all enjoyed your Christmas and New Year celebrations
and are ready to go with lots more quilting in 2019.
See you Friday.

Maureen

14 comments:

Nancy J said...

I have some very fine liberty fabrics, and know they would not go well with anything thicker or more dense. They are all in blues, maybe now I will be able to find something plain for a contrast, meantime you keep on with that starching. Happy New Year to you both.XX

Marly said...

I wish you a happy and productive year too, Maureen. Thank you for your (and Tula's) tip about starching finer fabrics, that's good to bear in mind. Don't feel disappointed about your coin quilt; it was a challenge, but you learnt from it, which is a success. At this distance it looks fine!

Debbie said...

From here it looks good, but know what you mean with mixed fiber weight. One or two bits is ok of lighter but grouped together has caused a warp I guess. And the more you mess with them the worse it can get. I have no patience and would call it a day.

Julierose said...

Happy New Year, Maureen hugs, Julierose

Linda Swanekamp said...

The quilt was a challenge to be sure. But you did it. Hoping that the New Year for you is a calm and healing one with lots of stitching fun. I know I could use one.

audrey said...

It's a wonderful looking finish and hopefully everything will 'quilt' out! That's my mantra when the end result is a bit wonky.:)

Anne / Springleaf Studios said...

Have a wonderful 2019 Maureen. Your quilt looks great even if you struggled with it. It's good to know the stripes don't play well with other fabrics. I have a bundle I'm been wanting to use for ages. Hopefully I'll remember this tip before I start anything.

Pip said...

Happy New Year Maureen, that is a beautiful hydrange :)
Chinese Coins 2 reminds me a bit of licorice allsorts. I used a KF stripe for a thin border (1" wide I think) and I remember I starched the fabric heavily, the starch really helped stabilise it.

Ann said...

Happy New Year. I love the colors and the idea of your Coins. Hopefully you will find a way to finish it. They are wonderful colors. I'm having similar issues here with fabrics that seemed to look well together but changed tremendously after I cut them. Sigh.
And I bought more starch. Thanks for the reminder.

Louise said...

I do like that combination of colors and shapes, so I'm sorry that the different weights are frustrating you! Oh well, hopefully another project will catch your eye and get your sewing mojo working again. Happy new year, my friend :)

Raewyn said...

Happy New Year Maureen - and good luck with sorting your Coins 2 out! The combination you have used is very effective. I wouldn't have thought there was such a marked difference between fabrics - interesting!

gayle said...

I hope you can get those fabrics to play nicely together - the colors are gorgeous and want a finish!
Hugs for a Happy New Year!

Kate said...

It looks pretty good in the photo, but even though it looks good doesn't mean it wasn't a big pain to get it there. But it looks like it was worth all the hassle. Hope your New Year has gotten off to a good start.

Rosemary Dickinson said...

I think your quilt looks great in the picture. Thank you for the info. It's always good to hear tips from other quilters. I hope you have a Happy New Year!!