Quilt Art by Lena Pugachova

January Cushion of the Month for IPS

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 21:19:00 +0000

Our Cushion of the Month project is going strong, and it's so nice to see all the various interpretations of the previous patterns at our virtual meetings. I'm hoping to see some January cushions at this month's meeting, too.

For people leaving in more continental climate this interpretation of January might seem strange, but in Ireland, this is what January looks like: there may be half a snowflake, but spring flowers are certain to pop up here and there. I have a snowdrop bud in my garden at the moment, and Dublin botanic gardens posted their first snowdrops back in December.

As usual, I made the sample with Moda Grunge fabrics, using the basic machine appliqué technique and free motion quilting. The quilting echoes the flowers with drop shapes.

I took the photos in my daughter's room, as the cushion fits well in its colour scheme; and sure enough the cat had to take part.

Here are all the cushions up to date:

To finish, here is a photo from the botanic gardens a couple of years ago; unfortunately, we can't go there (or anywhere) at the moment, but looking forward to visiting again some day.

Linking up to:

Off the Wall Friday at Creation by Nina Marie

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Owl Be Watching You

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 21:01:00 +0000

It took me the first week of January to finish my biggest "debt" from last year. I posted about work in progress on it back in July and finished the top speedily, but then it had to wait for its turn to be quilted.

I designed the pattern specifically to use a sunset-coloured fat quarter bundle and my vision was based on stained glass cathedral windows (as you can see from some of the shapes that make up the background). Every quilter is familiar with the stained glass effect you get if look at a top against light, and here it was especially pertinent.

The pattern is quite complex, with a lot of small bits, but comes together nicely. I was wondering if anybody would be interested to purchase the pattern? I'm planning to start adding patterns to my Etsy shop this year.

The whole quilt is curve pieced, this is a detail of the wrong side of the top in process:

And this is my little helper taking care of the cut pieces:

As usual, it took me a long time to decide how to quilt it; I went for some ornate pattens on the owl, especially the wing...

... mixed floral and geometric patterns on the moon...

... and parallel lines on the leaves and the sky.

This caused some problems with flattening the quilt, but I like the effect quilting gives it.

So, this is the owl finished, and I have a perfect place for it at the top of the stairs, where it is supposed to look like a window (I know you have to have a really vivid imagination to think it is a window) and the owl is watching you every time you climb the stairs.

Linking up to:

Off the Wall Friday at Creation by Nina Marie

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Christmas on the Cards

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Fri, 25 Dec 2020 14:33:00 +0000

A little Christmas post on Christmas Day.

This year's Christmas challenge at IPS Eastern branch was making a fabric postcard to be sent to a care home resident. I made a few and sent some to friends and neighbours too.

After posting the cards on Instagram I was also invited to take part in a fabric postcard exchange by some Russian quilters, and I made a special New Year themed one for my exchange partner in Moscow.

It took some time, but the card arrived safe and sound, almost at the same time as her card came to me:

So, this is how I dived into the world of textile postcards and started to discover its possibilities. If you haven't tried them before, there is a little tutorial on IPS website, and Instagram is full of inspirational examples.

Forgot to show the backsides - here I got to play with some of the decorative stitches on my machine that I do not normally use for anything.

Linking up to:

Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

December Cushion of the Month for IPS

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 17:44:00 +0000

The December instalment of our "Cushion of the Month" project just had to feature Christmas symbols, and although there are many, I picked holly and poinsettia as the whole thing was going in the botanical direction by now.

I plan to make all the samples with Moda Grunge fabrics, and as the holiday edition needed some shine and sparkle I used Moda Grunge metallics for the appliqué; red and green provide the perfect seasonal contrast.

I'm using stylised simplified shapes in Art Deco style, but the addition of berries makes this appliqué a bit more fiddly that the others. I still think they add a lot of interest, but I made a note in the instructions that buttons can be used to represent berries.

The quilting is in angular leaf-like shapes to work with the appliqué.

Previous instalments:

October cushion

November cushion

Linking up to:

Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

November Cushion of the Month for IPS

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 17:53:00 +0000

A quick post to catch up: I wrote before about the "Cushion of the month" project we are doing at Eastern branch of the Irish Patchwork society, and this was the November instalment.

November not having any holidays with recognisable symbols (I know Americans have their turkeys, but we are not in America) I found it hard to pick one seasonal thing. Finally, guided by the maxim "When in doubt do flowers", I opted for a chrysanthemum, one of the latest flowers you can see in November.

My sample cushion picks up the golden colour of the sofa, so it may become a permanent fixture in the living room, regardless the change of seasons.

The quilting is black on black (and so hard to photograph), in the shape of petals/leaves/feathers to support the shapes in appliqué itself.

Linking up to Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina Marie

Can I get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

I Spy a Couple of Baby Quilts

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 16:45:00 +0000

I fell in love with the idea of "I-spy" (or "eye-spy"?) quilts several years ago, but my daughters were two big for this kind of games by the time, so I just admired the various interpretations on Pinterest. Now I have two little nieces (on different sides of the family), and I just had to make this play-quilts for both of them.

The problem was that I don't normally use novelty fabrics in my quilt art, but I needed quite a lot of them to make the idea work. So, I rounded up whatever remnants I had from previous kids' projects and then started to buy fat quaters of this or that until I had about 42 non-repeating things to name. There I had to stop collecting and start working before the girls grow too big - they are turning two, which is the perfect age to start naming pictures and looking for them.

My novelty fabrics were cut into 5'' squares (some of them came from a charm pack) and, obviously, I had to add something to bring the quilts to about lap size. I chose a Fossil Fern layer cake and some white to tie the whole riot of colours together. I chose two simple traditional patterns - square in a square and Irish chain, to make it quick, but not too repetitive.

The first one I had to finish very fast, because a friend was flying to Moscow and could take it with her (which is much safer than posting), so I don't even have good photos of it. I quilted it in loose zigzags on the diagonal, which worked great, as I was able to the quilting in less than a day.

The 60" backing was a godsend too, as I didn't need to piece anything, and it made a perfect binding, too.

I even inserted my new label (I know my niece couldn't care less, but it just fitted in ;)) I just realised haven't shown the labels here on the blog, so I'll make a little post about them.

With the second quilt I wasn't in that much hurry, as my second niece is just 15 minutes' walk away from me, and the quilt can wait till Christmas, but I still finished it while I was on the same wavelength. This one is Irish chain for my Irish niece.

I was able to use up the offcuts of the Fossil Fern fabrics for the squares and more white for the background, and I ended up with some extra blocks that I put together into a little cushion.

This one was quilted in "orange peel" grid, and this is the first time I ever quilted a pre-marked grid, as I normally do it freehand.

And I was also able to have proper photo session, with the cat helping along as best he could.

Same fun backing/binding fabric, and a label, too.

Linking up to Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina Marie

Can I get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

The Moonflower Block

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Fri, 23 Oct 2020 10:26:00 +0000

We had a great virtual AGMof the Irish Patchwork Society last Saturday, and as usual, one of the highlights was a quilt challenge, this year it was to make a 15'' flower block using one colour only (various tints and shades of it).

Mine was a simple stylised flower in a sort of pinkish-purple colour which I don't even know the name of. Would you call it magenta? fuchsia? orchid? My phalaenopsis is kind of similar.

I was lucky to have a matching variegated YLI thread to quilt the background, it gave the simple block a definite level up.

Well, I thought I would share the pattern for this block in case somebody would like to try it. You can make it into a cushion or use a block in your project, would be lovely to make a whole quilt of these in different colours. You can choose a more traditional colour scheme, though.

It's not that difficult if you are new to curve piecing, and it should be a breeze if you have done some drunkard's path or New York beauty blocks before. The process is described in tutorials for the butterfly block and the hydrangea flower block, it's the same - just remember the matching marks, take your time to pin everything and stitch slowly. You can choose a more traditional colour scheme.

It is assembled in three blocks, and the order of assembly is reflected in part numbering.

You can download the pattern at this link.

A technical note: The overall size of the pattern is 16'' squared, the dash line shows 15'' square, the reason is this block was meant for a quilt-as-you-go project, so it was quilted and then trimmed to 15,5'', as there is some shrinkage during quilting, I prefer to start with 16''.

I'd be happy to see if you make this block, so please let me know by email or tag me on Instagram @lena.pugachova

Linking up to:

Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie

Can I get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

UPD:

I have made the block into a little cushion for my daughter's room.

Green and Grunge

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 20:33:00 +0000

Initially, I planned a wallpapered focus wall for my new living room, then the plans changed. I decided to have a mural instead, but I kept it simple, a stylised line drawing forming a sort of a frame with an empty space in the middle of the wall. And that empty space was meant for... a quilt, of course.

So, here it is, all done, but it's not on the wall yet, so we'll have an interior design update later, and for today it's all about the quilt.

It follows the bedroom quilt in being purely abstract, more or less Art Deco style art. This one is all about organic shapes and colours, hinting at some kind of plant life, but never totally clear - maybe it's not just plants, maybe it's Life itself? I wonder what you see in there.

For myself, I can say I totally enjoyed the process - from sketching to quilting and that I'm pleased with the result. I chose Moda Grunge fabrics to make it because they seem to fit the aesthetic of my living room and because I was hoping to finish it in time for the Moda Grunge Contest, which I didn't manage.

It was fun to use so many different quilting motifs with my beloved YLI variegated threads, I had three different green mixes which worked brilliantly with the seven green fabrics, sometimes blending in, sometimes standing out. I even managed to quilt some decent feathers, which I normally find very hard, a confined shape probably made it easier.

One question still remains, though - what shall I call it? The working title is The Green Quilt, which doesn't quite do it justice. Any suggestions?

Linking up to:

Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

October Cushion of the Month for IPS

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 15:09:00 +0000

IPS Eastern Branch committee has come up with a brilliant idea to start a "Cushion of the Month" project for the members, in order to provide a sort of virtual connection while we cannot have our monthly meetings. I was asked to create the patterns and was really excited to do it, although I can feel the weight of responsibility, too. As curve piecing is not everybody's cup of tea, it was decided that the patterns should be appliqué featuring some seasonal highlights for every month. So, October = pumpkin, doesn't it?

I wanted to bring the same stylised Art Deco vibe into these patterns as in my recent quilts, and the colour contrast plays a big role in that - nothing like black background to make (almost) everything look classy. For my sample I used Moda Grunge Metallic, which has just the right combination of dress up and dress down.

I'm looking forward to seeing how other branch members interpret the pattern while I start working on the next month's sample. Speaking of which - choosing a symbol for November was not as straightforward, what would your choice be? I'll show mine when the November pattern is released.

Linking up to Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina Marie

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

The Bedroom Allegory Quilt

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 15:16:00 +0000

This one has been mentioned a couple to times, you can see it in progress here and here, but it has since been quilted, so here's a little update on that.

I wanted to go totally Art Deco with it, pure abstract, although I do regard it as an allegory, I'm just not saying what of, suffice it to say it was meant for the bedroom.

As the shapes are quite simple I wanted to add detail with quilting using a lot of variations on pebbles, spirals, arches and s-curves.

The quilt design is symmetrical, so the quilting had to be symmetrical, too, but I went by the eye, without any templates, so it has "natural imperfections".

I used six shades of Aurifil for the coloured parts, they blended in nicely. Most of the background was quilted in black, with a little bit of colour "spillover" on top.

I even had a little late-night photoshoot with it, to bring out even more drama. Look how a different light direction highlights the quilting texture.

Linking up to:

Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Harlequin Sunset

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 11:31:00 +0000

To clear my backlog - here is one my favourite recent quilts, which has not made it to the blog for some reason yet.

I was very impressed by the possibilities of combining layer cakes with stack-and-whack techniques and thought I'd experiment with that some more. Previously, I had used a similar approach with improvised curve piecing, where each 4-piece stack was cut free hand in its own way, you can check out the Airways quilt and the Splash of Neon one. This time I wanted to cut all the squares in the exact same way to be able to mix all the colours more thoroughly.

I chose 16 squares from a layer cake of Fossil Fern, one of my all-time favourite collections, and cut them using a freezer paper template. Then came the most fun part - mixing and arranging and rearranging again.

Then I stitched them together without worrying much if the corners matched perfectly (they didn't!), but at least the whole thing came together reasonably flat. The blocks had to be trimmed, obviously, so it ended up under a meter, nor big at all.

The colours were gorgeous by themselves, but it still needed some focus, so I added some with FMQ, stitching stylised alliums in variegated dark purple YLI thread.

The background was filled with variegated pinks in arched lines echoing the piecing.

All in all, I am really happy with this quilt - the sunset colours, the curvy shapes (I'm thinking of stained glass cathedral windows, what do you see?), flowers - what's not to love? I think I'll try and explore more grids of this kind.

Linking up to: Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

WIP and the Virtual Exhibition Season

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 14:31:00 +0000

I haven't posted anything for some time now, but I have three quilts in different stages of progress in the works now. I am supposed to be quilting the bedroom quilt, but I got carried away with an idea I had while waiting for the threads to arrive.

I have had this sunset colours fat quarter pack since last year's Black Friday:

It was about a week ago that I had a vision of an Art Deco-style owl in these colours, and I just had to drop everything and draw the pattern and then start piecing. Most of it is already pieced, and I hope to do a separate post on it next week.

Lots of small pieces, but the curves are quite easy.

The main thing I wanted to write about (because I just can't contain my excitement) is the fact that my Mad Tea Party quilt was shortlisted in the Pictorial category in the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham (the competition is virtual this year).

If you want to take a look at all the competition entires, please visit the festival's website - you'll be in for a real treat, 655 quilts they say, and one better than the next. The competition is real feast for the eyes, and they are taking votes for the Visitors' Choice award at the moment.

Here's to madness of it all:

Another virtual exhibition on at the moment is held by Tomomi at her website. She usually organises the Quilt Marquee at the Tinahely Show and as the event was cancelled, she decided to have a virtual analogue. There is still time to enter a quilt for anybody living in Ireland and the voting starts next week. I sent a couple of quilts in as well, one was my latest finish - Varvara's owl quilt - and the other, I just realised, I had never published on the blog, so that's another post due soon.

So, there's a lot going on at the moment, considering the doubly quiet season! If you know any other virtual quilting events that are on, please share in the comments.

Linking up to:

Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Owls and Feathers

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 15:38:00 +0000

Ta-da! A big finish:

This is a bed quilt for my daughter's owl-themed room and I'm so excited to finish it as it has a lot of new-to-me aspects.

As I'm concentrating of curve piecing and developing a kind of Art-Deco inspired style with clean shapes and high contrast colours, I wanted to see how this style can translate to bed quilts. Me daughter's room already has curtains with an owl pattern that I designed and had printed at Spoonflower, and she said she would like a quilt in owl fabrics, too. I searched the Internet for fabrics that would suit the colour and style of our owls and discovered the "Where the Wise Things Are" collection by Quilting Treasures. I ordered two fabrics from it and complemented them by two from "Stonehenge Solstice" collection by Northcott, and I really love how they play together.

I wanted the blocks to have a stylised feather shape as I had the backing fabric with feathers and I am still planning to have wallpaper printed with the same feather pattern. After a lot of sketching and fiddling in Illustrator I came up with a block shape that repeats in rows in opposite directions, so that half of the blocks are in one colour way and the other half in a different one.

The blocks were all machine-pieced using the same technique that I describe in my Butterfly Block tutorial. It took quite a lot of time, but they went together without much trouble.

Even before I started the quilt, I had minky fabric printed at Spoonflower with a pattern I designed to complement the curtains. It was used a temporary bed spread, but intended all the time as the backing for the quilt.

The problem was that I only had two meters of it, which is exactly the length of the finished quilt I needed (I know it's not a good idea, but I could only order the fabric in full meters and it is quite expensive to order a additional meter when you only need 2-inch margins). I had to position my batting and top extremely carefully and was lucky to get away with just a sliver of white unprinted minky showing on one side.

You see, it's actually reversible. And I'll have to make a separate post about the curtains.

I had never made a quilt with minky backing before, but I read up and was prepared to its stretching and shifting. I always prefer to quilt bed quilts quite loosely, with minky it's particularly important, so I chose to support the feather idea in the quilting and free motioned simple "strands" in each of the blocks. Together with the fabric patterns, I think the texture makes this quilt quite luxurious.

It also turned out quite heavy, although I used fleece instead of my usual batting in an attempt to make it more light-weight; but I hope the wight will help it stay in place on the bed during the day.

Especially if our new furry baby comes to visit:

As he hasn't appeared on the blog yet, I might take the chance to introduce him: this is Loki, he's two and a half months at the moment and he's been with us for a couple of weeks now. He wasn't inclined to take part in the photoshoot, preferring to jump around, but he loves playing hide-and-seek in the corners of the bed.

And he colour matches the quilt, too :))))

So, all in all the quilt turned out fine and I think these blocks are very versatile, so I was wondering if anybody would be interested in if I made it into a pattern?

Linking up to:

Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

TGIFF at Tish's Adventures in Wonderland

Template for Lily The Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 00:22:00 +0000

Several people have asked me for a pattern for Lily the Dragon quilt and I replied that it is an improvisational technique that does not require a pattern per se. However, I decided I can share the outline, let's call it a template, which can be a starting point for anybody who wants to make their own dragon, so here you go.

You can find a lot of tutorials on the "ticker-tape technique" online, I can recommend one by Ruth from Charly and Ben's Crafty Corner as I learned this technique in her workshop. I'll just quickly outline the process here, with the differences I made.

So, to begin with, you can download the template and print it out (use "poster" setting in the Acrobat printing menu if you are printing it on a home printer and it will split the image onto multiple pages which you'll have to glue together). The image is 30'' by 50'', but if you want a different size, you can tinker with image scale, just bear in mind that if you make it too small it will get too fiddly.

Download the template

Next, you'll need to transfer the template onto your background fabric. I used black background, and this is what makes her really pop and creates a stained glass effect, but it will also make image transfer trickier. I can suggest making holes along the lines in the paper template and tracing them with chalk. Alternatively, just cut out the large shapes and trace them around with a white pencil or washable marker (in this case you can just freehand the spines). I didn't stitch around the outline as I thought it would not go with the stained glass effect.

Assemble your quilt sandwich and baste it in your preferred method.

Now you can get out your scrap basket and start playing. If you go for a black background, bright and light-coloured fabrics are best, in my case I used patterned ones for the body and blenders for the wing and the spines. The exact shape and positioning of the pieces will depend on the scraps you have, you'll just need to trim them to follow the line of the template on the outside. Leave from 1/8'' to 1/4'' between the pieces. Ones you fit several pieces in place, secure them with pins, glue or fusible tape and take the sandwich to the machine. I used quite loose zigzag stick with a neutral thread to stitch around all the pieces. Again, check out Ruth's tutorial for the details.

Continue the process bit by bit until you fill in the outline. Because you are stitching through the quilt sandwich, it will also mean you have already quilted the dragon shape!

So, all that is left is quilting the space around her, and here the sky is the limit - you can create a whimsical landscape around her or just go for echo quilting. I tried to use Angela Walter's Swirl hook pattern, it didn't turn out great, to be honest, but I still love the overall effect created by the bright variegated thread (it was one of YLI machine quilting threads).

I really hope this is helpful, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me, and if you make your own dragon, please send a pic or tag me on Instagram, I'd be thrilled to see it!

Linking up to:

Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

TGIFF at Devoted Quilter

The Bedroom Quilt

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Fri, 26 Jun 2020 13:34:00 +0000

While waiting for quilting threads to arrive, I decided to piece a quilt top for the bedroom. it was designed and pieced in just several days as it consists of simple Art Deco style shapes.

The colour palette is one I plan for the bedroom in general (as I haven't made a new bed quilt yet). I seem drawn to teals and corals nowadays.

The top is curve-pieced (which is my go-to technique now) but I plan to add texture and interest with quilting.

It will, however, have to wait for its turn to be quilted, as I have another one pinned and ready to go.

Linking up to:
Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
TGIFF at Faith and Fabric

Mad Tea Party

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 22:21:00 +0000

“Take some more tea,” the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
“I’ve had nothing yet,” Alice replied in an offended tone, “so I can’t take more.”
“You mean you can’t take less,” said the Hatter: “it’s very easy to take more than nothing.”

This is The-Big-Quilt-Of-The-Year for me and it turned out a bit more hectic than planned, but I think it's still a true rendition of the theme :))) Two of the previous posts show the background piecing and raw-edge appliqué in progress.

The idea was not to literally illustrate the text, but rather play with the familiar imagery and take the"crazy" part to the extreme, combining and transforming the various elements to the point of dizziness. The cups gradually turn into hats, gateaus into chess pawns, petals into cookies and milk drops, the cake plate serves as a clock (and a melting one, too).

I abandoned my beloved vivid colours for a softer vintage palette plus dark outlines and"hatching" inspired by Tenniel's illustrations. I have very few patterned fabrics, especially with this kind of chintzy vintage patterns, so I collected some bits and pieces specially for the china in this quilt.

The space and time are warped and everything is shrouded by the smoke of the caterpillar's hookah.

The quilting was a big unknown till the last minute, as I'm too lazy to quilt each square in the corresponding black or white, changing the threads and burying the ends all the time, and an overall fill could break the shapes. Smoke was the game-changing idea. It meant I didn't have to stick with black-and-white thread, and instead went for a variegated YLI thread in pastel hues which worked well with the vintage-style prints and softened the sharp contrast of the background. The smoke comes out of the stack of cups, which is a (very obscure) reference to the caterpillar.

The wavy-flowy quilting was quite enjoyable, although it did take a long time, but the fun and game ended when, on the home stretch, with the last corner left, I realised the spool was empty.

I used a full spool of thread on the quilting (top only, the bobbin had a neutral colour), and had to order another one. Needless to say, the shop I bought it from was out of stock... So, I had to wait a couple of weeks until they restocked and could send it to me to finish those last five minutes of quilting.

The roses are one of my favourite parts.

Linking up to:
Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Patchwork and Quilts at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué

Of Flowers and Letters

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Mon, 25 May 2020 21:53:00 +0000

This project lies at the intersection of two of my interests - quilting and lettering. I heard about the #36daysoftype challenge in Instagram several years ago, but didn't have the time then, or the year after, or... until this year, anyway.

The commitment is to design and post a letter or number every day for 36 days, the reward is to enjoy all the beautiful, quirky, mind-boggling, sweet or provocative interpretations of the same letter posted by artists, calligraphers, animators, illustrators from all over the world.

I only found out that it started on the day that it started, so I didn't have the time to make a couple of entires in advance or even to think through my concept and it emerged gradually through the first couple of days. I think D was the first really nice one.

The concept, as it developed, was Art-Nouveau inspired illustrated initials with floral motifs. Three fabrics for each letter: a pastel background, relatively dark letter, and a lighter tint of the same colour for the flowers of leaves. Detail and stems were added with a thread, which more or less matched the main colour. The appliqué was done on Pelmet Vilene with the help of Bondaweb, then free-motion quilted.

I did the initial sketches in Procreate on my iPad, several at a time, whenever I had the time, so the process of making the letter itself did not take long and could be fitted into most days. I fell back a couple of times, but then caught up making two or three at a time.

Unfortunately, I ran out of Pelmet Vilene before the end of the project, and not just anywhere, but right after I completed the letter X. None of the scraps left was big enough to cut one last 6 inch square.

Obviously, I knew it was coming, and I had ordered more, but that was the beginning of the strict lockdown and the shop closed even its online operations, so the order was left to hang there for several weeks. I finally received my materials when the instagram challenge was over, but I still completed the last letter and decided not to go into the numbers this time.

So, here they are, all of them:

I used some of the scraps to make two floral compositions for the covers and put them all together into a textile alphabet book, which will go to my niece when she's big enough to learn her ABC.

To make the pages, I sandwiched two sheets back to back and zigzagged around with thin light-grey thread, which is almost invisible on all the pastel backgrounds.

I found a tutorial on single-sheet book binding and stitched the pages together with leftover cotton knitting yarn.

It turned out rather sweet to look at and nice to hold. Working in such a small format was a welcome change from the large quilts, though it required a lot of concentration for the small details (few of them will stand up to close scrutiny).

Linking up to:
Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Lots Of Pockets

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Thu, 14 May 2020 10:34:00 +0000

Another look back at the projects not featured on the blog yet - this was a first birthday present for my niece:

I rarely buy panels, but this one had bright colours, cute animals and lovely florals - everything I love, so I thought it would be great for one on my baby nieces. As they both had been supplied with baby quilts already, I decided to make a panel of pockets that can go on the side of the baby cot, rails at the the top of the stairs of on the wall somewhere.

I was sensible enough to buy a blender fabric from the same collection at once, so that was used for the sashing, and three baby fabrics from another collection went to the inside of the pockets, backing and binding. I used the quilt-as you-go method to put it all together, with the only difference that the pockets and pocket "lining" had to be quilted separately before stitched together at the edges. The pockets are slightly wider than the lining to allow for two little tucks that create the volume inside.

The quilting was very simple, just parallel lines in various directions, but it did take quite a lot of time. Putting the blocks together was easy, although handling the thing became more difficult when the rows were put together, because it's heavier and more unbending than a normal quilt with all the layers going on.

The corner triangles and loops at the back hold the poles, so that the whole thing keeps shape even if stuff is stuffed into the pockets, and the ribbons are there to tie it to the rail.

On the whole, it was quite a different project to what I usually do, requiring a lot of technical decisions rather than artistic ones, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

Linking up to :
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie

It's Always Tea Time

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Fri, 01 May 2020 10:15:00 +0000

Just a few glimpses of appliqué on the Mad Tea Party quilt before I start quilting.
The first part shows the background piecing.

Keep on stitching, but don't forget your tea breaks!

Linking up to:
Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Little Sailor

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 21:40:00 +0000

While the Mad Tea Party is gathering momentum in the background, I'd like to share another quilt that was recently completed, but hasn't made an appearance on the blog yet.

I made it for my nephew's seventh birthday and it features a layer cake of the Lake Life collection by Anne Rowan for Wilmington Prints. It has fun boat- and fishing-themed prints, which I didn't want to cut much, so I went for very simple HST blocks, then cut about half of them horizontally and vertically to get smaller HST and solid blocks. I mixed up the blocks and arranged them around the centre to form a sort of "lake".

As I only had 42 squares to play with, the layout is 6 by 7 blocks and the quilt was not that big, so I added a border in grey Moda Marbles to bring it more or less to single bed size.

The quilting is a simple walking foot spiral, quite hard at the beginning, but easy-peasy near the edges. I like the effect of circles in the water that it creates (don't look too close, though).

A fun fact about it all is that the previous quilt I made for my nephew was my first ever finished quilt - it was his first birthday and I was still doing my basic patchwork course, but we had just covered HSTs... So, that baby quilt was also made with HSTs and also featured boats! Here's an old photo:

I also had very few cotton fabrics to play with at the time, one of them was actually my grandmother's curtain, no longer in use, but folded away carefully (for a rainy day, presumably).

Linking up to:
Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

We Are All Mad Here

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 22:21:00 +0000

Finally working on a new quilt which I had been thinking about for a year now. With all the "practical" projects I did recently, I was really longing to something "arty". The general idea is playing with the Mad Tea Party theme (I have tea on my mind a lot for some reason).

So, the quilt is going to have a curve-pieced background and raw-edge appliqué, a combination of my favourite techniques, and a nice balance between the planned and the improvised. This is the original sketch for the background:

I was rather intimidated by the number of pieces and the small size of some of them, so I had to be very careful keeping track of everything at the early stages, it felt like playing with a jigsaw puzzle.

However, the piecing went quite smoothly, and the top turned out flat, and proper pressing and quilting will take care of any wobbles left.

Basically, I needed just black and white fabrics, but I decided to use slightly different shades - three black/dark grey and three white/light grey - of Moda Grunge to create a little bit of depth.

If you look close enough, you'll see that not all the corners are perfectly matched, but I'm not really fussy about that as long as everything lies flat. The geometric nature of the pattern makes it easy to deal with seams - just iron everything to the dark side as in "normal" straight-line patchwork.

With the background ready, I now have to choose fabrics for the appliqué and decide what to do in the way of quilting. I really wouldn't like to change the quilting thread from black to white and back again for every "square", so I need to find a way of quilting it all with one thread.

Off to find my thinking ~~cap~~ hat and hoping I won't go any crazier than I already am.

As always, linking up to Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Locked In The Grid

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 09:53:00 +0000

Going back to some of the quilts made but not posted on the blog - this was another of those project long in the planning, but quick in the making. As I normally don't use a lot of black and white fabrics, I had to collect quite a lot of those for some time, on the other hand, the bright fabrics were quite hard to choose from, as I have a lot of those ;))

(I don't even have proper photos of this quilt, only those shot with the phone.)

So, the idea was to create a triangular grid in a black and white gradient with bright butterflies fitted into the triangles. The butterflies are curve-pieced, each wing with a bit of background makes a separate triangular block.

The assembly for this was quite straightforward - triangles into rows, then the rows pieced tightener. The quilting was more of a challenge, as the background is already very busy with all the high-contrast prints. I decided to try Superior Threads Microquilter thread in light grey, which is almost invisible, but was quite naughty, even with the recommended Bottomline thread in the bobbin. I had to adjust the tension in every possible way and still the stitching is far from perfect in places. On the other hand, I haven't had my machine serviced in a while, so it may be her fault. Anyway, that was quite a change as I normally quilt in cotton thread, often in the 40 weight YLI threads, which I sneaked into this project anyway, creating sort of "flightpaths" for the butterflies in a bright variegated tread, as well as simple lines on the wings.

As I said, the quilting is almost invisible, you really see the thread only on the darkest fabrics, but the texture turned out nice and flowy.

I know it's hard to see in the photos, in real life it's all very subtle, too.

All in all, I like the way it turned out - simple but quite affective due to all the tensions going on with colour and value contrast and geometric versus organic shapes.

Linking up to Can I Get A Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie

Tips and Tutorials Tuesday - 3D Aloe Plant Appliqué

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 20:44:00 +0000

Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl used to run a special linkup called Tips and Tutorials Tuesday, which is still a great collection of useful resources on her blog, so if I'm going to publish a tutorial, why not do it on a Tuesday?

My Funky Succulents quilt is, essentially, a reimagined Succulents Sampler just to show a different possible layout for the 3D appliqué. I made it before teaching a workshop on this technique, but in it I decided to replace the snake plant with the aloe for a change. So, the aloe was not covered in the workshop and to make up for that I shot step-by-step images of the process; it's about time to get them out.

So here we go. Make your own cute little succulent in a pot, it can be wall art on its own or a part of something bigger, and I hope it will give you ideas for more fun stuff. Best thing is - it's really really easy.

You'll need:

a quilted sandwich at least 8'' square (your background fabric, batting and backing quilted any way you like);
two fabric scraps for the pot about 4'' sq;
a scrap of batting same size;
a piece of green fabric about 10'' sq, or two slightly different shades of green half the size (batiks work best as they fray less);
thread to match the leaves and the pot;
a little bit of toy stuffing or batting scraps.

You can print out this template, but it might be easier just to hand draw the shapes, they are really basic, just make sure the bottom part is sight wider than the top one.

3D Aloe Plant Template

Process:

Trace and cut the leaf shapes, adding 1/8 seam allowance (it doesn't have to be precise as you'll trip it later anyway). I made three smaller leaves and three larger ones, each leaf has two parts, in my case the top is a slightly darker green.

Stitch the two parts together, trying to keep 1/8 from the edge. You'll need to align first one side than the other, when you get to the tip.

You'll see that the stitched leaf is already 3D.

Stuff the leaf with toy stuffing or scraps of batting fluffed out to resemble cotton wool (it'll be less bumpy this way).

Trim the seam allowance cutting out curved notches, so that the remaining edge forms characteristic points.

Here is a reference image, what about painting the edge pink next time? It will stop the fraying, too.

Once all your leaves are ready you can start stitching them to the background, plan the position first, then only attach the bottom parts leaving the tops free. Do one leaf at a time. The stitching doesn't have to be nice or invisible, because it will be concealed by the pot anyway.

And so on until you assemble your plant. The small leaves tend to be in the middle, larger ones - on the outside.

Now to the pot. Cut out two fabric pieces and one piece of batting, adding 1/4'' seam allowance (or not adding if you want a smaller pot). Now layer one fabric piece right side up, the other one right side down and batting on top. Align all three layers and stitch around, leaving a gap in one side for turning out.

Turn out, ..

... press and close the gap with hand-stitching.

So, now you only have to pin your pot in place, rounding it slightly so it hugs the plant and has a rounded shape on top. Use invisible stitching with a matching thread to secure it in place.

Step back and admire.

Linking up to Can I Get A Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie

Floating Squares

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 22:30:00 +0000

It's been a long time since I updated the blog as I find Instagram more immediate and less time-consuming (if you are there, I'm @lena.pugachova, please have a look, say hi and follow to see what's going on). However, sometimes I feel the pics are not enough and I want to tell at least something of the story.

I rarely make large bed quilts and I always find the process daunting, especially quilting them on my little Janome. In this case I had the additional complication of very limited time. I had planned it for long time and chosen the fabric long time ago - it's Summer Flowers batiks layer cake by Robert Kaufman Fabrics and I added it to my wishlist at www.fatquartershop.com as soon as I saw it, because I know my sister-in-law loves sunflowers and I thought she would love the colours, too. The quilt was meant for her birthday.

I bought the fabric in Black Friday sales, but I only started making the quilt in February, what with moving house and setting up a new sewing spot, which is now in the bedroom, in a sunny recess under a big south-facing window (the master bedroom, btw, is in the converted attic, don't ask me why, that's what "house type E" is laid out like). I have here a large IKEA table with plenty of drawers for all the bits and pieces.

So, because I had limited time and also because I didn't want to cut the fabric too much as it has some lovely large-scale patterns, I chose a simple pattern, one of those Gaye Grant demonstrated at the IPS Eastern Branch some time ago. Making the blocks was a breeze and even putting them together with the sashing wasn't too bad, it's the quilting that I was dreading as I had the whole thing laid out on the living room floor (with very little space left to walk around :))

Top tip: two layer cakes plus two yards of sashing fabric make a quilt big enough for a double bed; here it is on my bed for scale:

I decided to quilt it with the walking foot in flowy curvy lines to balance out the straight lines and squares. It was still hard and it isn't perfect, but I like the effect.

Another shortcut I took was machine-stitching the back of the binding. Usually, I hand-stitch it, but given the "mileage" here, I decided to go with the machine.

All in all, I managed to finish it in time, and even had a day to take some photos and wash it. After washing, the quilting texture became more pronounced and the whole thing looks scrunchy-er and fluffier.

Some more photos if you haven't had enough (I couldn't get a full straight-on photo as I couldn't possibly hang it straight anywhere):

Linking up to Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Funky Succulents

noreply@blogger.com (Lena Pugacheva) — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 13:54:00 +0000

I finished this piece some time ago with the then-upcoming 3D workshop in mind, now the workshop is finished (and a great day all in all!) it's about time to publish it.

It is really a variation of the Succulents Sampler, with most of the plants the same, but just a different idea for layout, giving each little character more space to shine (and a brighter pot).

The Cactus:

The Echeveria:

The Aloe:

And the Fern:

As the aim here was not to use a different technique for each, the aloe is made in the same way as the echeveria and, because it was not covered in my workshop, I will be posting a tutorial on it shortly, watch this space.

I wrote about the background and quilting of it earlier here.

I really love how bright and funny they turned out, but to appreciate the 3D nature of them you really need to see them in person, it's hard to judge in the photos. Let's try to look at them from different angles:

Hope that adds a little bit of brightness to your day, especially if it's winter where you are.

Linking up to:
Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina-Marie

Can I get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict