That scribbly stitching

This is a photo of a work colleague's first quilt. T just bought a new swanky-doo sewing machine with lots of bells and whistles. She is making this quilt for a gift to the host school in a Japanese exchange.

T has excitedly been showing me various stages of her progress. Then she asked me: what button do I press to get that scribbly stitching (stipple). I explained it was obtained by moving the fabric in a free-motion style, and to achieve results she would be happy with she would probably need to practise for about 20 hours before-hand. Did she have that time? So, I offered to quilt the borders for her.

Then I saw the quilt with its 3 dimensional leaves and flowers. I was not putting scribbly stitching on here! I stuck on press'n'seal a friend brought over from the U.S. a few years ago and drew large Eucalypt leaves. It didn't take long to quilt the borders. It was pulling all the sticky bits out of the close stitches that took a long time.

NB - I had a previous incident with press'n'seal. While I discovered it was wonderful for holding your quilt marking in place, it was a bugger to pull out when the quilting was detailed and close (If I forget, remind me and I will post a photo of my feathered star quilt).

And finally, my maverick quilt: Kaffe and Liberty United. Sometime around 2006 - Rosie, Andrea and I were stopping at earmarked quilt shops on our way to a particular shop about 2 hours uninterrupted drive from home (Sandra was overseas this time). We stopped at a shop selling Kaffe and Liberty prints and lots of other lovelies. The Kaffe prints were about A$32 per metre and the Liberty prints were about A$40 per metre. I found some of them irresistible and purchased a little from each family. I blended them with some fabric I was saving for a Paula Nadelstern kaleidoscopic quilt (lots more collecting to go anyway and I might not like them in another 10 years when I finish all my UFOs!).

Here she is with the binding on. Mum quilted large modern flowers in an allover design. Did you notice 2 of the corners are not square?