Blogger's Quilt Festival 2015

It is that time of the year when Amy runs the Blogger Quilt Festival over at AmysCreativeSide.com. She does this twice a year. So this time I have selected my last completed quilt for the Small Quilt category. This is 1 block out of 9 I made.

It is my Castle Wall Quilt. I still haven't thought of a proper name for this quilt. The range of fabric I used was Twice as Nice by The Quilted Fish for Riley Blake Designs. Any suggestions for a name would be considered! Anyway I used the Inklingo Castle Wall collection to help me piece this quilt. Printing the block shapes on the back of the fabric help out heaps when I am hand piecing. I suggest you have a look if you haven't heard of Inklingo before. There is a link in the right hand side toolbar. This project has been everywhere with me over the last 12 months as I pieced the blocks followed by the triangle borders.  I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Don't forget to vote for your favourites in each category starting the 22nd May 2015.

Here is the main link to the Blogger's Quilt Festival 

Until Next Time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

My Castle Wall Quilt is Finished.

Finally after weeks of been busy I finally finished the binding on this quilt. This quilt was made using Inklingo castle wall collection and I used fabric from the Twice as Nice range by The Quilted Fish for Riley Blake Designs. There is a little bit of the range still available in the shop if something takes your fancy. My favourite is the paisley floral print I used for the outer border and my favourite bit of the quilt is the triangle border I made using the bonus triangle in the 9' Castle Wall Collection. I can see me using it again somewhere.

 It was easy to hand piece as I could chain piece the triangles together. Of course you could machine piece them but I love hand piecing as it is a portable project. It is just when things are busy I can pick up my hand stitching for 5 minutes and if that is all I can manage that day at least I know I got a little sewing done. In this quilt I hand pieced the blocks and triangle border but the rest was done on the machine including the quilting.  
Here it is all done and ready to be hung on my stand at The Stitches & Craft Show on the 7th-9th May Wayville Showgrounds Adelaide, South Australia.

 Now I need to piece my Inklingo star blocks together so I can finish this one off too.

Then there is another hexagon project after that. I am running low on hand piecing, so I better prepare my next Inklingo project. One problem, which one do I want to make next.

Until Next Time 

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

My Castle Wall quilt update.

I have been wondering how to quilt this quilt for over a month. It is something I have trouble working out. What quilting design to use? Finally it came to me. I decided on large rectangles diagonally through the blocks using the truck octagons as a guide and turning when I reached the inner border. Since I discovered free motion quilting straight lines last year it has become my favorite quilting technique. I still have the wobble every now and again but I have a wobble when I stitch in the ditch so what the hell.

I wanted to quilt the triangles but in the end I stitched in the inner border and just stitched in the ditch between the triangles and paisley border.

A couple of close up of my quilting and that just leaves the binding which I plan to use the same red as I used for the red border. Looking at the quilt after quilting I wish I had put an extra red border between the triangle border and the outer border but I was worried there would be too much red. It is a very bold colour. Never mind.

  The fabric in this quilt is from the Twice as Nice range by The Quilted Fish for Riley Blake Designs and can be found in my www.cynthiasark.com.au  I used the Inklingo Castle Wall collection for the piecing which I hand pieced.

Until Next Time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

What I am working on today!

Today is pinning and quilting day here I need to pin these baby quilts  and quilt them ready for the Laura Folk Fair in a few weeks time and my Castle Wall quilt has been waiting a while for quilting, all ready to go.

 These 3 quilts are folded in half.

Even with all my good intentions, the day was a bust. I thought I would send an email off that needed to be done and I would be free. NO. I spend over half the day working on the computer. So in the end I got the tractor quilt almost finished (just need to finish the turning over of the binding) and the fairy quilt pinned.  Oh well. That is life isn't it.

Until next time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

My Castle Wall Quilt borders.

I have been working on this project for a while. I have been making this quilt with hand piecing and machine piecing using Inklingo. I have been using Inklingo mainly on my hand piecing projects over the last 18 months so doing some machine piecing I have found some extra benefits for machine piecing with Inklingo for me.
The inset seams were a lot easier to get correct .
Though I hand pieced the wedge border as I was short on hand work and when I machine pieced those borders on  I couldn't see the points on my wedges due to seam allowances, as long I stuck to the printed line I was spot on and no points were cut off.

You can see what seams I have hand pieced and which ones I machined.

 So I am going to do more machine piecing with Inklingo in the future.

This is the completed top with the last border on. So it is ready for quilting.

Until Next Time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

Castle Wall Quilt Update.

I got to sew the first border on my Inklingo Castle wall quilt today ready for the next pieced border to go on. Even with my quilt tester (Ponchee) doing a pretest for comfort and Is this my  new quilt? I just got up to answer the door and this is what I found when I returned to the sewing machine.

I needed to get this border on so I had the right measurement for the pieced border. I only need 1 more wedge to go on the first wedge border strip to complete it and I have the other three to go.

It shouldn't take me long to finish the pieced border and then there is the last border to go on and this quilt will be ready for quilting.

Until Next Time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

A New Inklingo project is Started.

As I posted a few days ago my castle wall project is well on its way. Inklingo released a new block collection Judy Martin's Waltzing Matilda just recently and I had to get it for my collection. So now it is in my collection my thoughts has turned to the Inklingo 9 inch star which is my next project after the castle wall quilt. 

Look what happens. I start playing around with Inklingo and I got carried away and started the printing my 9" star project after I printed my octagon wedges for my castle wall quilt.

I am going to do 12 blocks this time and I thought I would share my way of working with Inklingo. There is some important steps I always take when I print my fabrics to make my life easier and for the process to run smoothly. That doesn't mean I print perfectly every time but this way I have the least amount of trouble and generally if I am having trouble it is because I am hurrying or because I have skipped a step thinking I can get by this time. Well guess what. I am not perfect and we all have bad days. So I hope this helps you work through the printing stage.

1.     Choose the collection you want to work with and purchase it from the Inklingo website if you haven't done so already. Then decide how many blocks you will need to print.

 I know some quilters who have purchased the collection they like and haven't taken the next step. We might have to do some Inklingo workshops in the New Year to encourage them to take the next step.

2. Prepare your fabric selection, by choosing your fabric, washing and pressing the fabric while still just damp.

Fabric I have selected for my star quilt

3. Print out Monkey's Cheat Sheet so you can record your projects printing details. That way if you need to print more you have all the details and you can just print rather than having to work out it again.

 Half filled in Cheat sheet.

4. Cut a small piece off each fabric to print your test page so you can work out which ink will be suitable for each fabric. Iron it a piece of freezer paper and follow the Inklingo instructions on printing your test page.

Cynthia's Tip #1 I keep all my test page fabric samples in my Inklingo folder as a reference guide. This is if I want to print on small pieces or there is a chance I may not have enough fabric for the whole project and want to skip the test page printing. I look through my samples for a similar fabric weight and colour and use that to select the ink colour I need and I always go one shade lighter to be safe.

You can just make out the little squares.

5. Once selected look at how many pieces you need to print and  choose the layout you need and the custom sizing to work out  your page size, so you can work out how many sheets you need to print. Then print on the custom setting you need on to a piece of paper first. This is to check you have all the lines and the print direction is correct. Adjust if needed. This avoids wasting fabric.

6. Cut 1 piece of your fabric and freezer paper to size. Iron together and print.

Cynthia's Tip #2 I always cut my freezer paper slightly larger than my fabric. Then press the fabric to one end of the freezer paper so I have an edge of just freezer paper that is the edge that goes into my printer first. I have found this works the best for me; it reduces the amount of times the fabric gets jammed in the printer. So if you are having trouble it may help.

7.  Check the first print on your fabric and once you are happy cut the rest of your fabric and freezer paper you need and print the remaining sheets and fill in all the details onto your Cheat sheet for future reference.

Cynthia's Tip #3 Depending on how many sheets I am printing depends on how many sheets of freezer paper I cut as you can use the freezer paper a few times before you have to replace it. If I am only printing 2-3 sheets I only cut the 1 piece of freezer paper and reuse it. If I am print 4- 8 sheets I will cut 2 sheets and so on for more sheets. If the freezer paper gets a little bit linty as it will with some fabrics I run the shiny side of the freezer paper along the edge of my iron board then use a lint brush or roller to clean the iron board edge. This helps keep the freezer paper clean and your fabric will stick better to the freezer paper and you are less likely to get printer jams.

8. Repeat with all your fabrics for your project.

All printed ready to be cut. I hope you can see some of the lines.

9. Cut your shapes out using your rotary cutter or scissors what way works the best for the shapes you have printed. Linda has a great tutorial on the Inklingo blog on cutting.

Then you are ready to sew by hand or by machine.

I am affiliate with Inklingo so when you purchase something from Inklingo don’t forget to highlight Cynthia’s Ark when you get to the where do you hear about Inklingo question and help me learn and experiment with Inklingo so I can help you.

Until Next Time

Try Inklingo

Cynthia

My Castle Wall Blocks are nearly done

I am coming to the end of my 9 castle wall blocks; the last one is half done. I picked 9 blocks and then I thought I will put 2 borders around to make a nice size lap quilt. Then the other day I was thinking is 9 enough or should I have done 12 blocks. 

Not enough fabric to do more blocks and then borders. I know I should stick to the original plan so I can start my next Inklingo project (I have a couple I want to do) but I am not quite sold on a 1" inner border followed by a 5" outer border. I am thinking I might want to piece 1 of the borders using Inklingo of course. I might join all my blocks together and then decide what shape to use.
 There are a few possible options in the castle wall collection I could use; there is a square, diamond, triangle or the octagon wedge in 9" collection. I wonder if the wedge could work.

I am thinking a 1 inch red border followed by the wedge border using all the fabrics and then may be the multi coloured floral paisley print for a 4 inch border. What do you think? 

Until next time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia.

I am Inklingo-ing.

Is that a real word Inklingo-ing? Or I have just made it up. I just couldn't think of another word to describe that I am working on my Inklingo projects.

Have you tried Inklingo yet?

If not? Inklingo is downloadable shapes to print on to fabric using a standard inkjet printer. Here is the link to the Inklingo blog for more details, if you are curious. I know I was 2 years ago when I came upon a post about this technique. Since then I haven't looked back, I always have an Inklingo project on the go. 
Here is a couple of my completed projects and the Case of the Secret Garden was my first project. Really! It was a mystery quilt Linda had on the blog and I found it the perfect project to start with as she had all the details worked out for you. 

The other one was my Camelia Hexagon Quilt.

There is a free starter collection for you to download and try before you buy as well. The Inklingo method is suited to hand piecing and machine piecing so whatever one you prefer, try it. Now I love to hand piece so it saves me from have to make templates and drawing around them and cut them out. Too long, with Inklingo I cut the fabric to the size I need, iron the same size piece of freezer paper to the right side of the fabric and put it in the printer and hit the print button. Then all I have to do is cut them out and I am ready to sew. 

You can just see the printed lines.

 I have 2 projects on the go at the moment and they are my Kaleidoscope stars which will be a table runner once I choose the background. 

This is the first time I have tried the fussy cutting with no waste technique which will become a table runner and my other project is my Castle Wall quilt, I am halfway through block 4 of 12.

The Inklingo blog is a great resource of information and it is well worth bookmarking it for easy reference. Here is the Inklingo link to get started. 

A disclaimer from me. I am affiliated with Inklingo so please click on Cynthia's Ark when you are asked where did you hear about us question as you go through the checkout when you purchase anything from the Inklingo website. I think I will be trying the newest star release next after I finish my kaleidoscope star table runner. I might not be able to wait.

Until next time 

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

Castle Wall Project

The Castle Wall block collection was released by Inklingo earlier this year and there has been a number of Inklingonists working on their Castle Wall projects out there. I had picked my fabrics out a few months ago but have been short of time to get going on it.

 I have played around with the block in EQ7 so I knew what my block would look like before I printed the shapes on the fabric as I imported my fabric choice into EQ7. It is a great resource. I am hand piecing these blocks as I am ready for a new hand piecing project for my lunch breaks now my Farmers Wife Sampler blocks are nearly completed.

Once I was happy with fabric placement I printed my fabric ready for cutting and sewing I did fussy cut the centre octagon as it would have been a waste not to.

I was surprised how quickly my first block came together when I sat down to sew it. Pressing was a trickly to start with but once I got going I was able to do it. 

If you haven't seen Inklingo before, Linda's blog is a great place to start your Inklingo journey

Until next time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia