Quads and Quilting?

Who said Quads and Quilting don't go together? As long as he keeps his mud on his side this will work!

That lonely space in the On yer bike cafe has been lovingly and creatively filled will all things colourful, shiny and pretty. There is new stock arriving regularly and kits being added and classes planned.

In stock already I have:

• Tim Holtz eclectic elements fabric and some of his scrapbooking elements and stains and paints.
• NZ themed fabrics
• Found and dyed wool fabric for that ever-increasingly popular folk art wool embroidery
• Sue Spargo wool embroidery patterns and her popular Creative Stitching book ($46)
• The 50% genziana wool thread she uses for wool applique
• Loads of perle cottons, chenille, sheeps silk and sea grass threads to stitch with
• Shiny threads like silk, Halo and Razzle Dazzle
• Enough hand sewing needles to sink a small ship
• Olfa rotary cutters, boards and rulers
• My favourite sewing notions
• Some of my own kits for wool softies
• Large cones of piecing thread in neutral colours
• WIDE backing fabrics 
• Poly and cotton quilt batting
• and more........

I am still longarm quilting so you can send me your tops to complete and return postage is always FREE.

I try really hard to be there 10am till 4pm week days. I'm usually there longer and some of the weekend but if you want to make sure before making a trip out, txt me 021 2511 861 or phone (03) 7627 438

The Pink Possum has dragged herself away from the vege patch long enough to work on some customer and raffle quilts. I have enjoyed the summer and made the most of the fine days, but am looking forward to the winter influx of beautiful quilts, they warm me up just looking at them!

Every year we have a West Coast Quilting Weekend and this July the Greymouth clubs are hosting it. This is a quilt we completed to raffle in April. The sashing fabric is snow dyed calico I dyed during the great snow storm of 2011.

 This is my friend Mary's quilt. She embroidered the butterflies on her Bernina.

A pretty rose quilt I quilted freehand.

Officially my first vintage quilt, 1950's, send from USA. Mustard was a popular colour then, and teamed with orange and pink....why not?!

Look out for my advert in the NZ Quilter Magazine coming out in April. If you would like your quilt quilted and you live far away, you can post it to me, I will email/phone with options and prices and courier your quilt back free of charge when finished. It will also be trimmed ready for you to bind.

Happy quilting :)

Sisters of The Travelling Triangles

SISTERS OF THE TRAVELLING TRIANGLES (SOTTT) 2011

Earlier this year I participated in a HST (half square triangle) swap through www.thequiltshow.com They had over 700 participants and around 3/4 million HST's to sort and swap. I was the only NZ participant.

The idea was to sew HST's, paper pieced, and send them in multiples of 28 to the US and the organisers would mix them up and you would get back new ones from around the world. I sent 308 and recieved back 308 HST's from the US, Australia, Germany, Finland, Scotland, Canada, UK, and Wales. I even got some signed ones from Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson. All the HST's were labeled on the back so you could see where they came from. Such fun!

Early on in the exchange, before anyone had sent in their swaps, the February Christchurch Earthquake happened. Immediately I was asked through the forum if we were OK. We were, but family members in Chch had lost a sister in the CTV building and their house damaged. Wanting to know how they could help, they offered donations of HST's to make something special for that family.

A few months on, 1500 donated HST's arrived in the post! Oh boy, what to do with them!?

A message went out mid July on the Quilt Show to say one of the members was planning a book to show all the quilts made from the swaps and could we have a picture of the quilt to her by 1st September? PANIC! No pattern and no idea of what to make. I started by ripping off all the papers from the HST's, trimming the 'ears' and ironing them open. That took almost 2 weeks.

I found an 'orphan block' that would really suit the centre of a quilt and looked on the net at other quilts to steal ideas, I mean use as inspiration, and designed and made that quilt, even quilted it and had it professionally photographed. How I did it by the deadline I don't know!

Anyway, here it is, and it still hasn't been presented to the family, so don't say anything!! They don't even know it's coming.

Feathers galore!

This quilt had loads of empty areas just screaming to be filled with feathers, so that's what it got!

Miche'le from By Hoki Quilts in Hokitika made this quilt.

My Grandson, Jacob, just arrived on the 14th of May. He is SO cute, and yes, it is wonderful being a Grandma!!

The Last Year or so.....

It's been quite a while since last blogging and SO much has happened.

I have quilting some amazing quilts over the past year and am constantly humbled by the talent we have in this part of NZ.

We lost a dear friend in the quilting world on March 20 2011. Kris Jemison lost her battle with cancer, but before she did we were able to make her this gift of love. The Grey Valley Patchwork members made colourful star blocks which were pieced together and quilted. The quilt was laid over her casket at the funeral. We shared a caravan at quilting retreats and I miss her!

Last year I went to the Houston Quilt Show in November and was totally overwhelmed by the size of it (a whole city block, and 2 1/2 floors high). To give you some idea of the size of the convention area, the building housed 7000 evacuees during Hurricane Katrina.

I took multiple classes and learned some great techniques, including this mixed media paper cloth. I am teaching the technique in Reefton at the annual West Coast quilters retreat in July.

It was also fun to meet many of the quilting celebrities we only see in books!

Paper Cloth combines fabric and paper using PVA or Gel Medium and can be painted, dyed, stitched, embellished, textured, sprayed, stuffed......

So versatile, and I get to use some of the bling and found objects I've been collecting forever!

Here a just a few customer quilts completed over the last few months:

This is a gorgeous batik diamond quilt made in Karamea.

I freehand quilted feathers up and down it.



Below is a baby quilt completed using Pam Clarke's design with lines method.

A hand appliqued quilt that I outlined quilted and added a feather border. You should have seen the hand work on this, it was perfect!
Well done, Kath.



Happy stitching!!

An entry for the Longarm Conference

A customer was kind enough to loan me her quilt to take to the Longarm Conference in Cambridge for the display.

I really went to town on this and tried all those new techniques and designs I'd been learning about and seeing for a while. This quilt is perfectly pieced by it's owner and had lots of empty space to play in.

I told you June was busy!

I could only upload half my photos on the last blog post, so here's some more.

My quilting studio has just been doubled in size with the removal of a silly wall that someone put up to make 2 bedrooms. My studio is now so cool I am sometimes jealous of myself! It is also cool in the fact it's the coldest part of the house - a cool 5degC this morning in fact. Brrrr! One good thing is there is no sun fading on the quilts - always have to look for the positives.

June Quilts

June was a very busy quilting month and I have a few photos of some of the many quilts I worked on. I was able to try out gold metallic thread which worked a treat, I attempted and conquered my first bargello and perfected McTavishing!

This month I am quilting a wholecloth for the first time with my own design - butterflies on black.

The NZ Longarm conference is on in Cambridge June 24-27th which will be another inspiring event and opportunity to meet with other longarmers in NZ. There is always a few overseas tutors at these conferences who have had years of experience. Can't wait to pick their brains - and steal their ideas!! No, they're all willing to share their secrets every time. :)

Handy hints for preparing a quilt for professional quilting.

If you are thinking of sending a quilt top to a professional longarm quilter, and are wondering what you can do to make sure you get the best possible result, I have some suggestions for you here.



Quilt Top:
1. The quilt top should be relatively square and the borders should lie flat. To avoid fullness in your border, measure through the centre of your quilt top, cut a strip of border fabric to that measurement, then pin to the body of the quilt and sew. Do not cut a long strip for the border and then sew as the top fabric will ‘walk’ and you will have wavy borders.
2. Clip loose threads and press quilt top well with seams lying flat in the proper direction and no tucks. This is especially important for in- the- ditch quilting.
3. Stay-stitch 1/8” from outer edge of quilt top if there are any biases or pieced edges, or thin fabrics. This stabilises the edges, helps keep the quilt square, and protects it from the pull of the machine rollers.


Backing:
1. Backs should be approximately 4” larger than the quilt top on all sides, squared and pressed.
2. Backing seams should have all selvedges removed, with a ½-1” seam allowance pressed open. Bed sheets are too thin for the machine tension to work properly and may not wear well.

I have a large selection of wide backings here, and a good selection of battings including black.

I hope you are making the most of the cold days enjoying your sewing, take care.

More from the Pink Possum!

This is the back of a bright batik quilt I quilted with a lizard pantograph pattern in a variegated thread. It looked fabulous!

Part of the front of that bright batik quilt. I so want to make one of these now......

A gorgeous rose quilt that I quilted entirely freehand. I was rapt with the way it turned out, and so was the customer :)

This cute blue quilt was custom quilted in a very fine heirloom thread and each block deserved it's own special quilting to bring out it's best. This was a fun quilt to quilt, and admire. I love those 2 little 'love' birds at the bottom.

This is a Jinny Beyer kitset called "Moonglow". It is spectacular and the patchworker said she didn't foundation piece the stars, they're all normal pieced. I couldn't believe it, they were so accurate. I stitched in every ditch on this as I didn't want to compete with the patchwork.

I am humbled the way quilters trust me with their quilts and I attempt to make each one special as if it were my own.

Some Recent Quilts

This quilt was made by Pat Middleton's mother in the 70's, and the fabrics in it are much older than that, being remnants from a clothing factory. It was a joy to quilt examining all the old fabrics and being thankful fashions have changed! It was quilted with an allover pattern called 'feather frenzy'

This quilt was made by Kath O'Donoghue using her own hand dyed fabrics. It was quilted in a variegated thread in an allover pattern called 'paisley playtime'.

This is the first time I have quilted a trapunto quilt, and I may be addicted now!

It was easier than I first expected and I loved the result.

It is quilted in 'sew fine' an heirloom quality, fine thread, all freehand.

Quilts on the web

It's really cool when you see your quilts or photos on other people's websites.
Dena Dale Crain from Kenya taught a class in Reefton earlier this year called 'ladders and crystals'. I sent her a photo of my finished quilt, here it is on her blog, www.denacrain.com/blog/
posted on 21 September 2009.

Examples of the Pink Possum's work

This butterfly quilt I made for my sister. It is custom quilted and I designed the quilting pattern from the applique shapes.

This log cabin quilt is edge-to-edge quilted with 'autumn leaves'.

The kaleidoscope quilt above was freehand quilted with a sparkly thread and black thread.

Picture of the Pink Possum

Look what someone sent me! My very own Pink Possum, ain't she cute?

Preparing your quilt for professional quilting

So, you've finally finished that beautiful quilt top you've been working on for months and now you've broken out in a cold sweat thinking about the horrendous task of quilting it on your shortarm sewing machine, let alone what quilting design you're going to use!

Maybe you've considered having it professionally quilted to save you time and your back, but you're unsure what you need to do to prepare it, how much it will cost and even whether your piecing is good enough to send to a professional quilter.....

It IS easier than you thought, and probably cheaper than you imagined.

PREPARING YOUR QUILT:
All you need to do is iron the seams flat and trim off all the loose threads from the front of the quilt.
Don't worry if your patchwork is not as good as you'd hoped, I understand every one is at a different stage in their patchwork and you will be the worst critic of your work. It is amazing how the quilting will camaflauge many imperfections. Any open seams or other mistakes I will tack down and note for you to handstitch when the quilt returns. Sometimes I can do small repairs myself, it's no big deal.
I have 4 types of batting available and access to others if required, a small stock of wide batting fabrics and a catalogue of a large selection of others. I can supply thread and specialty threads also such as metallic or variegated or even glow in the dark. I do prefer to use my own threads as I've tried many and know which ones will produce the best result. Cheaper threads will sit on the quilt surface and look terrible, rather than 'sinking' into the quilt.
If you're supplying the batting and backing, please make sure its a couple of inches bigger than the quilt top on all sides.

Welcome to Sue Roper's Quilting Blog!

Thanks for visiting! I hope you find the information you need here and enjoy the photos. If you need any help, or even quilting advice, please contact me and I'd love to be able to help.

Here's one of my latest projects using all hand dyes and no pattern. Oh boy, the quilting was fun on this one!