Karol at the Window - Finished!

Here is the photo of little Karol in Poland gazing through the window at the snow.  The picture was taken by my brother in law, Richard, and he loves the picture (and Karol) so much that this is his screen saver on his computer.  When Richard said he would like a miniature quilt based on this photo I wasn't at all sure how I would do it.  I thought of appliqué for the shape of Karol, but really could not work out what colour to use.  In the end I decided that the answer lay with free motion quilting, not appliqué...

... and here he is!

Thank you to everyone who has posted comments about this project - you have all been wonderful and helped me along!

I think Richard will be pleased when he gets this little wall hanging - it is only 13 and a half by 15 and a half inches.  I'm not sure that Karol is going to be too impressed.  He is a big boy of 5 now and will want to know why I have shown him as a little baldy with a wrinkly neck.  I fully expect his granny Bogusia will want one, so I will see whether I can make a better version.

Anyway, I'm happy with the end result, and I hope you all like it too.  It was nice doing a project just using the two Singer 15K machines - the 1949 hand machine for all the straightforward straight stitch, and the 1945 treadle for the free motion work.  Truly marvellous machines. 

This post is linked with  the BedTime Quilting blog for the TGIFF link up- lots more Friday finishes to see there.
Also to Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday.
And to Leah Day's blog for Free Motion Friday
And to Vals Quilting Studio for Tuesday Archives.

Adding Outlines to Karol at the Window

Here is the top of Karol's head.  I needed to make him stand out a little better against the background, so with the Singer 15K hand machine I put in a line of stitching in yellow thread to make him stand out from a distance.  Perhaps white might have worked better, but it's too late now.

The curtain behind him isn't exactly neat.  I had no clear idea of what free motion pattern I was going to do.  My approach to free motion quilting is to thread up the machine, put the work under the foot, and then think "now what?".  The results vary.  The curtain is a bit messy.  I had to put in extra quilting over the pattern I had already done because from a distance there wasn't enough contrast between little Karol and the curtain behind him.

Anyway, it's nearly finished...!!!

Linking up today with Connie's blog Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday - lots of other projects to see there!

Free Motion Moon and Sky

Thank you to everyone who commented on Monday's post.  

The general consensus was that it had to be a night sky with a shining moon, so here it is!  I hadn't got any navy blue thread so I had to buy some, and I finally settled down for a spot of serious treadling this afternoon. Stitching the sky was tricky at times because the thread was difficult to see against the background.  It was a bit like flying by radar.  The stitched moon isn't perfectly round, and there is so much thread packed into a small space that it is stiff as a board.  

I'm really pleased with the result.  It is my first stitched landscape and now I have a hankering to do some more.

Linking up again to Leah Day's blog for Free Motion Friday - plenty of exciting projects for you to see there!
And also Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday.

Free Motion Trees

I did a bit more free motion quilting today on the little wall hanging of Karol at the Window - a few shrubs and trees.  It looks quite intriguing at the moment with the dark blue sky and the bright white moon.  It's almost a shame I can't leave it as it is, but the sky needs to be filled in with quilting because otherwise it will billow out.  The moon is in fact a circular sticker I put there to find the best position for the sun.  Originally I was thinking of putting in a pinkish setting sun, but now I am getting used to the sticker, so perhaps I will do the moon instead.  Such an agonising decision.  I think I will mull over it for a few days.

Thank you to everyone who has posted comments about this project so far.  This is only the second project I have posted as I make it (the first was the tea cosy).  It is very encouraging to have you all cheering me on!

This post is being linked to Marelize's blog Stitch by Stitch for Anything Goes Quilt 'n Sew - lots of projects to be seen there!

Also linking up to Plum and June's blog for the Monday Link Up.

And Connie's blog Free Motion by the River for the Tuesday Link Up.

A Quick Wave from Karol

Progress has slowed down a bit on the little wall hanging of Karol at the window.  It felt a bit odd sewing a snow scene in the middle of a heatwave, and it has been too hot for treadling.  Also, I have a secret project to be getting on with, a doll quilt for my partner in Minnesota, Diane.

So here is Karol's hand against the window.  I have done the bit which I was a bit worried I might mess up, the quilting in the tight spaces between his fingers.  The middle finger is a bit wobbly , and there is a crease across the hand, but so what I tell myself.  It's all an experiment.  However it turns out I'm sure my bro in law will be pleased.

This post is being linked to Lee's blog Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday - lots of interesting projects to look at there, and also to Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday.

Karol at the Window - The Second Stage of Quilting

This is the latest stage in the wall hanging of Karol at the Window - the second layer of wadding needs to be quilted.  The quilt is now a proper sandwich, with a backing and wadding.  I have had to do a second line of quilting around the outline, again using the Singer 15K hand machine, with the hinged cording foot.  I always have the foot set to the right hand side of the needle.

Here is the hand with the second line of quilting finished.  I have used a dark colour that will not show up against the background.

The next stage was free motion quilting the background - just a simple infill of parallel(ish) lines to represent the snow outside.

I am going to use a few different coloured threads so the snow outside doesn't look too monotonous, which is a good excuse for a quick shopping trip this afternoon.  Anything to put off quilting the tiny little spaces between the fingers...

Linking up again to Leah Day's blog for Free Motion Friday - lots of other projects to see there!

Karol at the Window - Starting the Quilting

Once the outline was stitched on the background fabric I was able to do the first stage of the quilting.  I used polyester wadding and some very lightweight polyester cotton for the backing, and quilted over the stitched outline, adding a couple of lines of quilting for the detail on the cuff.  I used the Singer 15K hand machine with a standard hinged foot for this quilting.

Then I turned the work over and trimmed away the wadding and backing as close as possible to the stitching, and made sure all the tail ends of thread were pulled in between the layers before starting the next stage.

Next it was time for a bit of fun on the Singer 15K treadle doing the free motion quilting.  The idea of doing the wavy lines was to give the impression of a knitted jumper.

Perhaps it might have been easier to see what I was doing if I had worked from the back, but I'm not expert enough yet at free motion quilting to avoid getting little bobbles of thread occasionally on the back - a sure sign that my feet had been working faster than my hands.

The bobbles don't show on the right side, so I can live with them on the back.

Karol at the Window - Using a Stencil for the Outline

A bit of progress today on the miniature wall hanging of little Karol at the window.  Last night I made the stencil, in exactly the same way as I have made stencils for appliqué, only this time I used white paper for both the original tracing of the photograph and for the stencil itself.

Next I pinned the stencil to dark blue fabric.  I reversed the stencil because I am stitching it from the back.

The machine is threaded with a dark purple for the top thread because I wanted it to show up well against the white paper.  Here I am stitching along the cuff.

I left the fiddly bits, the little fingers, until last.

When finished, I pulled all the threads to the back of the work before removing the paper.

And here is the front of the work, Karol's hand outlined against the background.  This is the bobbin thread that is showing, a lighter purple than the top thread, which shows up fairly well against the background colour without being too obtrusive.  The idea is that this line of stitching is there as a guide for the next stage, a bit like doing faint pencil lines at the beginning of a drawing.

Welcome to Diane, the latest follower - thank you for joining!
Diane is my latest partner on the Doll Quilters Monthly swap and is posting a quilt to me any time now!

Karol and the Hand - Work in Progress

This is as far as I have got with a new project, a pencil outline on greaseproof paper.  This is the fiddliest section of the outline that I am going to stitch, a little hand.  It is taken from my brother in law's favourite photograph, a picture of Karol, a little cousin in Poland looking out of the window at the snow.  He is silhouetted against the snowy scene outside.  Months ago my brother in law, Richard, asked if I could do a wall hanging based on the photograph.  I have finally figured what I am going to try - whether it works is a different matter.

I am going to make a stencil so I can transfer the design onto some plain dark blue cotton, then do free motion quilting around it.  If it works, more posts will follow.  If it's a complete failure, I'll own up, but it could take some time.

Rome wasn't built in a day, as they say...