Busy Times

Too busy to blog? Surely not..........

It has indeed been a busy week - following my last post, I finished Topsy and here she is in her glory, managed to catch a little late sunshine for the photo shoot.

My week started off rather brilliantly with a surprise package from Australia. Prior to my holiday there this summer, Helen introduced me online to Salley, from Sydney. We made arrangements to meet up at the Sydney quilt show, but due to "technical difficulties" our meeting did not come to pass. I was disappointed and annoyed with myself for missing the opportunity. Salley must have read of my fruitless search for Aboriginal fabrics - see what she sent me -

Such a kind thing to do, thanks again Salley.

It was Zakka week 20 this week and the project was a child's pillowcase with pocket and teddy. I have looked forward to this one as I think little ones would just love their own special ted in a pocket beside them at night. But it's a little bit early for my little'un to have a pillow so I decided to make one for my little nephew - I recently made hi a quick Sesame Street quilt and had a tiny amount of scrap left. 

The size of the pillowcase worried me a bit as it seemed very small so I checked out toddler pillows available at John Lewis and adapted my pillow measurements. Tie was not on my side this week so I dispensed with patchwork diamonds and opted for a quick nine-pact pocket. My very last strip of fabric replaced the piping and the teddy became a sort of Elmo - I used the teddy pattern but traced it with arms included rather than separately and missed out the ears. I am quite happy with the outcome and will make this again, in the future.....

My classes started last week too. On Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, my "Home is Where the Heart is " classes began - I think this is going to develop into a fun and interesting course. All the students have chosen a place that is close to their hearts, and we are going to explore the different elements of design before embarking upon a quilted piece of work, very exciting stuff.

On Thursday afternoon, it was the turn of my new beginners - these ladies are all starting out their quilting journey and by Easter, will have made their first quilt. I love watching them develop their skills and enjoy watching their excitement grow with their quilts.

This next week, I have three more classes all starting my Topsy quilt project and the finished quilt, above, is my new class sample. There is a choice of central blocks available and I have made this cushion as a sample.

I used up my 1001 Peeps scraps for this and have decided to do a few different ones linked by these fabrics -

I also manged to put the finishing touches to my BQS3 swap mini - I don't seem to have taken its photo though so will leave that for another day.

My week finished off with a couple of hours of peaceful sewing today, in the company of Janet,  Katy  & Nikki at our meeting of the West of Scotland Modern Quilters' Guild. We could do with a few more members so if anyone is within cooee of Glasgow for get togethers, why don't you contact Katy for more info.

Quilt as Desired

We've all seen those words at the end of a pattern, and you feel a bit dumped don't you?
I have been quilting the last couple of days and thought some of you might like an insight into my thought processes.............first of all, after 14yrs at this game, I still prefer the patchwork to the quilting - shocker.
I don't think this is unusual, just look at the rise in long arm quilting services and think of the UFOs in your cupboards.
I love to finish a quilt top, it feels good. Usually I'll throw it over a sofa for a week or so before forcing myself into the quilting. My current project is a class sample and my classes start next week, so I have a deadline, that's good.
Last week I did my most unfavourite bit - layering up and pinning, hate all that crawling about the floor. I use masking tape to secure the backing to the floor, all nice & taut. Then the same for the wadding and then smooth down the top. I pin from the centre out, can't over pin, I have a lot of pins. I don't baste any more, I did for many years and I use Hobbs 80/20, it's my absolute favourite wadding
I need to get myself in the right frame of mind to quilt, I earmarked yesterday to start. I have to clear my workspace, nothing worse than knocking a box of pins onto the floor when you are heaving your quilt about.

I clean out the hook race on my machine, yesterday I removed a very satisfying ball of fluff. I changed my needle - I always use Schmetz denim, size 12 for piecing and quilting. They have a long shaft that pierces fabric and wadding well. I make sure I have a cushion on my chair to keep me a little higher than the machine - this helps relieve strain on your shoulders.

I chose my thread, a nice deep, creamy Aurifil and filled a couple of bobbins. Radio on, no more prevarication, I'd better start quilting.Oh, and I put these on - my Machingers. Word of warning - should the doorbell ring whilst you are wearing these gloves, remove them before answering, just saying...............

                            

If my quilt is made up of blocks I will tell myself I only need to do 3 or 4 blocks in a session, and will work out how long it should take to complete the quilting. Then I often get carried away and exceed my own expectations, more feel good stuff.

This quilt however, is a medallion style and then there is my deadline, so asap was my goal.

I never mark out quilt patterns in advance, I often (tongue in cheek), tell my students to let their quilts speak to them. For me, this translates into, making it up as I go along, but yes, I am often influenced by a block design or the fabric pattern.

The centre of this quilt is a 20" NY Beauty and I didn't want to spoil it's shape. Oh, and a word about my actual stitch. I normally choose 3.5 or even 4 stitch length and I have a favourite stitch that I select on my Husquvarna Lily , not always, but very often I opt for an S shaped stitch, it is meant to be a quilting stitch. The brilliant thing about my machine is that for this and other decorative options, I am able to opt for a longer stitch length. In many other makes of machine such stitches have pre-set default lengths. So for this quilt I set my S to 4 length and just 2 for width, which will produce a shallow curve. I love using this because it is very forgiving and looks good too.

See the gentle curves...........

Even if this hadn't been a medallion style quilt, I always, always start quilting in the centre of a quilt, helps to avoid puckering.

 Centre done, not too shabby on the back.

 Once I completed the centre, I took a look at the narrow green border.The print on it was very regularly spaced so I did this - a bit like not stepping on the cracks on the pavements.

 With that border done, it was definitely time for coffee while I considered my approach to the teal border. The print has lots of swirls on it, and I momentarily considered fmq (free machine quilting) swirls but quickly abandoned that notion. What I often do instead is my cheat's version of fmq. Still using my gently curving stitch, I move my quilt about so the needle isn't going straight. "They" say when planting a garden you should do it in 3s or 5s and I apply this to these rows of quilting. For this border I did 3 rows, crossing over each other in a random manner.

I was now down to my last two outer borders, one 6" and the other, 9", both all over florals. Hmm, what to do?

A wee spot of lunch helped me to focus and I thought I might quilt both borders, as one, in a similar pattern to that in the central section. I would need to measure and mark. This is my favourite marking tool - soap ends. Use soap till it gets thin, dry and store.

It's very effective on darker fabrics, doesn't harm your quilt, and as a bonus, it smells good. Remove the marks later by holding a steam iron above and giving it a shot of steam.

I divided the quilting area into 3" sections and marked the jaggy lines I wanted to follow - again, using the gently curving stitch, the marked lines are a guide and not the end of the world if you wobble a bit. I completed one side before calling it a day.........but so far, so good.

Today, I managed to avoid  I had a few things to do before I could return to my quilt. Because I only use pins to baste, I can re-adjust as I move to the outer edges, smoothing as I go.The measuring and marking was a bit of a chore but I soldiered on - I had four 6" corner blocks to deal with and I popped in a"Sheila's Star" in each of them, I tend to slip this into every quilt.

And then it was just the outer corners to do - I just copied what I had done to the NY Beauty in the middle....I was on a roll and nothing was going to stop me. My OH obviously could tell that dinner was not on my mind so came up trumps and went to the chippie - result!!

and the back view,

What a good feeling to have this done.I am really pleased with how it looks, I think the quilting suits the quilt design and I love when a quilt top becomes a quilt, it's like a whole different thing altogether. I should add that this is the first quilt I have made without pre-washing the fabric, reckless devil that I am. Just the binding to prep and sew on and I'll come back and show you the finish. I apologise for such a lengthy post but thought it might be helpful to some of you out there.

Grammar

Has anyone noticed the latest additions to English verbs since the start of the olympics?

to medal.............not to interfere, but to win gold, silver or bronze!
to podium...sounds painful, but it is the desire to get on the podium to receive said medals so I guess you couldn't podium unless you have medalled.

I am adding in a less strenuous verb,........ to zakka.
Yes, in addition to my usual weekly Zakka project, I needed a couple of gifts this week, so I Zakka'd a few of these -

I am also progressing with my Brit Quilt Swap 3 project for my secret partner. I am ready to bind now.
I originally intended my piece to be a triptych (posh eh?) and made 3 separate panels.
My inspiration was a huge palm leaf that I saw on holiday.

I thought I would bind them separately and then join with the top binding strip. My plan now is to join the 3 sections QAYG style with strips, and then possibly invisibly bind the outer edges. It is a technique I saw once at an exhibition, I'll see if I can pull it off.
All the panels were stitched directly on to wadding. The outer panels have additional machine quilting and I have then added some hand stitching with one strand of embroidery floss to the centre panel. I did try first with some sashiko thread that I had but it was too heavy a look, so I unpicked........think I should win gold for unpicking.

Off Piste Again

Armchair olympics are very good for hand sewing & knitting aren't they?

This week sees the 19th project in the Zakka sew a long - I haven't managed all of them and hesitated on this week's project, a Sugar Cookie Sack complete with felt cookies.
It's going to be a long time before the wee girl in my life will be old enough to appreciate such goodness so guess what? I adapted and made it a bit different.
Our mentor this week was Jen, who made a little modification herself which I copied. Instead of an embroidered label on the front of the sack, I added a pocket, using the very last scrap of my chosen fabric.

                           

As I stitched the sack, I reckoned it could be a useful little pouch for sewing bits and bobs so added some of my tape measure tape as the ties. As Jen pointed out, a loose tie would be quickly lost, so I secured my tape with a couple of stitches on the back.

In an effort to stick with the programme, I made a wee felt pinnie in the shape of a reel of thread.
This is a simple little sack to construct - I tried to be clever and made mine with French seams to conceal all the raw edges but they proved too bulky, I should have cut the pieces a little wider to accommodate the extra seaming - so I unpicked 4 rows of stitching. I also unpicked and reduced the width of the pocket, pretty much doubling the time it took to complete a straightforward project. Smarty pants!!
Returning to my olympic achievements, I knocked up another wee hat, this time for an older baby I know, so a bit bigger than the last one.

Super Saturday, Super Sunday?

Don't have a lot of energy after all my armchair participation in the Olympics yesterday - what a wonderful day for team GB, how exciting to see the joy on so many faces and heartbreaking to witness near miss disappointments.
My favourite moment was the one where Sophie Hosking and Katherine Copeland  won the lightweight women's double sculls. I have no knowledge or prior interest in rowing but the delight on Katherine's face was wonderful....to be captured forever on a Royal Mail stamp!

Meanwhile, my weekend started on Friday with a girls' day out to Ayr Flower Show. It's many years since I went to this home - grown event and in those intervening years it has grown......we had a great day viewing giant vegetables, huge flowers, reading comments on flower arrangements, all very Kirsty Allsop............there were loads of traders, super plant sales, yummy foods (with samples) and a large craft marquee -  not a quilt in sight tho, something bluepatchquilters might just have to address next year!!
I shall leave you with these bonkers images of begonias. Clearly someone harnessed the little sun we have seen this year.

                                                                 Enjoy Super Sunday!

Wet Weather Work

It's been a productive July, a mixture of post holiday enthusiasm, rotten weather, and oh - not having to go to work!! As always, linking to Lynne's Fresh Sewing Day.

Zakka - Boudoir Basket

At first, when I was studying this next project, I didn't think I'd use it for the table as a bread basket - my choice of fabric changed its style a bit.

Recently I told the story of my friend Caryl who comes to class, sometimes bearing fabric samples for "distribution". These samples, once taking centre stage in furnishing stores are retired to landfill apparently - so Caryl's friend rescues them, and we in class willingly relieve her of most of the booty.

I also mentioned recently, the tea towels I bought on holiday. One of those was pulled for use in this project.

The tea towel is on the left, is 100% cotton but heavy, like a linen. The "sample" on the right is 100% linen, quite a fine one, with a tiny metallic, splodge like pattern that tones well with the tea towel. The trims were all part of the sample.

The cotton was quite coarse and frayed a good bit. The linen had a mind of its own and was tricky to cut straight without it moving. The construction of the basket was familiar and I kept to the instructions this week as far as dimensions were concerned. I used the cotton for the base lining to give a bit more body.

I fussy cut the tea towel so the word Paris lay across the front of the basket.

  And, on the back, I used a piece of the sample trim. Waste not........

    and, the inside shot,

I finished it off with a blingy button from my button jar. 

No,. it won't be used for bread - I rather fancy it being located in a bedroom, full of pretty soaps or the like - I am calling it my Zakka Boudoir Basket - it was fun, and quick, to make.

As always, I am linking to Lindsey's blog where you can check out the other Zakka makes.