I made my October Journal Quilt a couple of weeks ago and forgot to blog it.

The blue patterned pieces are paper I made as a result of Isobel Hall’s workshop.  I wanted to see how it would piece together and if I could do a bigger quilt.  Whilst this one looks fine, I am not convinced these lovely papers will make a large quilt that I am happy with. It won’t bend well in a machine and of course, you can’t really press the seams – I forgot that you can’t iron the paper – well, unless you want a very mucky iron!! So I will stick to using these papers for book covers.

Back to FMQ for November’s JQ.  Yvonne and I had spent a couple of messy days large mark making, first on paper and then on fabric.  The paper or fabric was on the floor and we had to work standing up – I got very messy feet!!  The JQ uses the fabric which was done in black print paste dye.  Unfortunately it is Kemtex’s black that washes blue – but I still like the results.   They have a Japanese feel to them.

Not yet the end of unexpected results.  I cut up the fabric into 6 by 11 inches patches and pieced it.  My Juki had just come back from the “hospital” so I decided to try free motion quilting with it.  I wish I hadn’t – it will never FMQ successfully as it jerks and pulls when you change direction – it is now off to the knacker’s yard.  In case, you are considering a Juki, this is the Exceed F600 which is their most expensive domestic machine.  I understand that the straight stitch only Juki is fine for FMQ.  So I moved back onto my old Bernina to see if it was me – it is not.  The FMQ I did with the Bernina is fine.  Unfortunately, the large piece of fabric is now no good for a quilt so I have cut out a section of the Bernina stitched fabric to use for this month’s JQ.

Here it is:

Now I only have to do December’s …..

Have a good day