2 new pieces

"Singled out"

This is a small quilt hand- and machine stitched, all cotton fabrics. It measures 23cm x 23cm.

My Janome sewingmachine is broken and is being repaired right now (at least I hope so) and I dug out my old Pfaff. Boy, do I love my Janome. Although I have to admit that the Pfaff is a bit better in straight piecing. The lines are better and the 2 pieces of fabric aren´t moving at all while sewing. But quilting really was a nightmare and I hope my Janome will be back soon.
I did some piecing over the last few days, so I can start quilting right away.


And here is a new small Canvaswork pincushion. The colours are brighter in reality, but I couldn't get the photo to show it correct. It' about 7cm x 7cm.

Red Jellyfish

I started this piece a few weeks ago and got stuck, cause I wanted to add some more but didn´t know what and how. I finally decided it had to be Red and circular. So here it is - the finished

Red Jellyfish

Needle felted, quilted and embellished 43cm x 33cm
Taking a photo of this piece is absolutely impossible. Don´t ask why! I tried in different rooms, different light, with and without flash and even outside. No matter what I try, it looks awful. Either the orange in the felted area looks like a neon orange or the colours are all dull like in the pic above. So I´m afraid, this is all I can show to you, sorry.
The jellyfish are done by wrapping red yarn around key rings of different size. I got the idea for them from the last "Stitch" magazine, where they did buttons in a similar way.
Here is a side view:
And here is a detail which is a bit better.
I think it might be the diffent reflection of the materials. The yarn is like silk and the felt is matt.

Simply Orange better picture

This is a better picture of "Simply Orange".

Simply Orange

Fused, machine quilted 44cm x 55cm or 17,5x21,5 inches

A small quilt I started yesterday and finished an hour ago. It is completely fused and machine quilted. It is almost impossible to take a good picture of it with all this orange.
It is created for a small wall in our dining room.

Cut it up...

... and took a new turn...I removed the red grid I had sewn on the felted part before. I think it´s much better this way. And I cut it up and - well you can see it yourself.
In daylight the both oranges are exactly the same. The flash changes the felt into a brighter orange than it is in reality. So the photo gives a wrong impression. Will try another photo tomorrow outside, but it is dark already.
Will add some FME tomorrow.
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Got a new book today. "Creative Quilts" by Sandra Meech. I love her work and already own her book "Contemporary Quilts". So, time to sit down and read and drool over the wonderful pictures of her and other artists work.

"Unbalanced"

Unbalanced

25cm x 25cm

This quiltlet is finished now. I don´t like it too much cause I think it is unbalanced and it lacks a focal point. It is no good at all, but it helped me to get my inside back into balance and I hope the next piece will be better. It looks so "neon-ish" on my screen. Don´t know why. The orange and pink is much softer in reality.
It also was a nice piece to try some of the deco-stitches on the Janome.

Baaaack !!!!

Oh my, it feels sooo good to be back to normality (well, at least almost).
Daisy is better now. We have a 95% sure diagnosis. It is an allergic reaction that caused so much trouble. Now she is on a diet, to find out which food is OK for her for the future. She also gets cortisone, which I don´t like, but helps her. She is almost back to normal. Now if we are lucky the diet will solve the problem on long sight. If we aren´t she might have to stay on cortisone for the rest of her life, as there is a form of this allergic reaction nobody knows what causes it. So let´s hope it is the food and all I have to do from now on is being a dogfood-cook. So far Daisy and Joker like the stuff. Meat and potatos. Not that difficult *grin*
We´ve been to the vet yesterday morning and in the afternoon I had to start a new little quiltlet. Just to feel the fabric and threads again - aaaaaahhh, how I missed it.....
Although I haven´t been lazy the last few weeks. I did sort all my threads and yarns. Doesn´t that look good?
Not sure how long it will stay that way, though...
Thanks to all of you for sending me good wishes. It sure helped to know others care, too. THANKS!!!

I hope to finish the little quiltlet tonight and then I might start a felted piece. Saw a few very interesting pieces on fickr lately and think it is time to work with my Happylock embellisher again.

Oh, forgot to tell about the Ricky Timms CD I ordered a while back. It is great. I think the title is "Grand Finale" and there are tons of great tips on it. I did those "Ricky Doodles" and it was fun to do them on my new Janome and to get a feel for the tension and all that with a new machine.

"Intruders" finished

--- INTRUDERS ---

Just did the last stitches on the little "Intruders" quiltlet. It is 30cm x 30cm (12x12 Inches) and I cut it to a square size. Like it better this way. Here is a detail.

It is the first time I chose 2 completely different Batiks and the more I look at it, the more I like it. Will try to free motion embroider/quilt a lot more on Batiks. Really enjoyed doing this piece.
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Ooops, I almost forgot to post a picture of this bag I made from leftover scraps of the "Hanabi".
It is also fused and I didn´t quilt/embroider it. I am curious how the edges will look after a few months time. Will they fray or not? The strap is done with yarn on the embellisher machine.

Dreams DO come true

And here it is - my new Janome 6600. Tadaaaaahhhhh.......

It arrived here last week and I had the chance to work on it for a few hours so far. It is quite different from the Pfaff I have, but I am getting used to it and I LOVE it!
There is so much new to try and learn, it is almost impossible just to sit down and only sew *LOL*
In the beginning I had some problems with the tension of the upper thread, but I think every machine has her own way of reacting to different threads. I am more than happy that now I am able to use all those Madeira Rayon threads I bought years ago. My Pfaff simply hated them and shredded them, no matter what I tried. The Janome so far took all threads I tried very well and even the metallics are easy to work with. I haven´t changed the needle, even with the metallic threads. It is like a miracle compared to the Pfaff handling.

And this is what started out as a little test-piece and now becomes a piece with meaning to me. It is a Batik I bought a while back. I started with free motion quilting, just to get a feeling for the machine, but than it started to get a life of it´s own.
The red areas are satin stitched and it is a pleasure to work with the speed regulator. Doing the satin stitching with the darning food is what I never was able to do well on my Pfaff.

I am going to name this piece "Intruders" because to me the Batik dots look like DNA or something like cells. As my dog was very ill for the last 2 weeks and the vet didn´t know at all what was going on, I feel that the red areas are those intruders who caused my dog`s health problems. The dog is almost fine again, as we now found out it was an allergic reaction to who know´s what. She is still very week, but getting better every day.
The Batik piece is only 26cm x 20cm (6x8 inches), so I will have to think about a way of framing it. But first I will have to finish the free motion quilting and then the satin stitching. Unfortunately I am still not able to work on the machine for hours, so it might take a while. But I am back and hope as soon as the temperatures will drop a bit, I will be able to stitch away like before.