A weeks worth of stitching

Panel 10 of the Trailing Vines pattern is ready for download at long last. You can access the panels as I do them over here or by clicking on the link below my header.

I'm behind myself on this project, I've started stitching on the ninth one and it makes me realise how much I've missed my leaves.
Pop on over to Dorothy's post to see her single bed size version done in a different colourway. It's looking pretty awesome.

I'm kept pretty busy these days with the Auntie Green and at the last class we got the instructions for the next stage which is the woven bias border and floral sprays that fit inside them.

These are just the leftover bias strips with plenty more to cut and stitch later on so they won't go to waste.

In the true style of the old quilt, the bias is laid down without a pattern so the end result will not be perfection. Oh the thrill and charm of having some inconsistencies is a nice change from trying to be exacting. This part is going to take awhile, it's slow but oh so pleasurable.

I did manage to get the last Mary Mannakee block finished, I took my sweet time with the finger shapes on the leaves and I know my circle is a bit oval but what the heck, it's staying put.

The next block won't be for ages, I'm trying to focus on just a few projects right now and am working towards a finish on one that's been hanging around for years.

Last weekend I popped out to attend the Stitches and Craft show. I've only been once before when it was mainly scrap booking and beading.

This time they incorporated the woodwork show which gave DH something to see. There weren't a lot of quilting stalls but I enjoyed the Japanese ones. I even got to play on the sit down Sweet Sixteen quilting machine and no, I have no plans to buy one.

I didn't buy much but I did pick up a tool that I've been watching out for and I must share with you.

This is one by Clover and looks like the tiniest crochet hook ever but in fact it's not for crochet.

You can click on the photo to get a closer look.

You've probably had those annoying coloured threads between the layers of a quilt with a light background. They are a real bear to get out with a pin which can damage the fibers.

Put the end of this tool between the layers and hook out that nasty thread without damaging the quilt, brilliant I say. It's also great for the getting snagged threads through to the inside of clothing too. It won't do any harm because that end is like a tapestry needle which separates the threads as opposed to piercing them.

 

Until next time, Janet

More about the red and green

I always think of winter as hand quilting season and I usually have some grand plan to do lots of it and it just never seems to work out that way. I haven't done a lot more on the Coxcomb quilt because the marking has been difficult. I should have  marked it before basting but I hate doing that and never have. If only we had professional markers these days.
The background is 1/4" lines and inside the trapunto wreaths, a 3/8" grid is done on the diagonal. The 3/8" grid will be repeated on the outer side of the border to tie it all together.

The rule is that no matter how careful lines are drawn with a ruler, marking will always go astray. I  knew that but did listen to myself?

I bought myself a lifesaving tool which is now one of my favourites. The June Tailor marking grid has slots every 1/2" and I love it.

I've nearly finished marking the whole background and I'll go back and mark the 1/4" lines as I go. I found out it pays to put masking tape on the sides just so that the ruler won't shift as I mark but it's important to remove the tape after a session or it will be hard to get off.

I'm using the Berol hand washable pens that I wrote about here.

If you adore red and green quilts like me, you might be interested to know that a kind blogger has pointed out that the quilt this was based on is listed for sale again. 

when you click on the main photo, you can scroll through close ups of them all. Go here for a look, how big do you think the background grid quilting is on it?

Meanwhile, I'm still plugging away at my vines, it's a slow process. Have you seen Dorothy's? Go have a look, she's doing it in different colours, it's gorgeous.

 Until next time, Janet

More applique and testing new marking pens

I've made some progress on my Coxcombs and Currants quilt and the more blocks that get added, the more I love this quilt.
I have had a couple of enquiries about making the block available but I've lost the emails so if you'd like a copy, please email me and I'll be happy to send it to you. My address is available in my profile on the side bar, just click "Janet" and put "coxcomb block" in the subject line and let me know.

I'm so mad keen to keep going that I decided to draw up the design for the hand quilting and trapunto planned for the plain squares.

I do have the fabric marked but it's hard to see in the photo above so I pinned the master pattern up for you to see.  

I decided to mark my quilting design as I go so it won't be such a tedious job later on. These are the new pens I'm using. They're quite safe to stay in the quilt long term and will wash out completely after the quilt is finished.

I wrote about the washable Berol pens here and was thrilled to see they've bought the coloured ones out. They're made in England and I purchased them on EBay for a great price and the postage was excellent too.

I test all my marking pens before using them and I thought you might like to see how.

The test piece on the right has been steam pressed with a really hot iron, and the one on the left has not.

I plunged the samples into cold water, left them for five minutes and you can see the colour coming out quite well except for the dark blue.

The photo below shows the samples after I plunged my fingertips in and swirled the water a few times. The ink has dissipated into the water. Except for that dark blue.

These are the samples after drying and pressing. It's hard to make out but every bit of ink has washed out except that dark blue which is very faint in both pieces. The blue is a fail. The fabric with the pin is the steam pressed one. As you can see, steam pressing made no difference to how the ink washed out.

I'm very confident about using these pens, I had more trouble with the red fabric bleeding on a couple of blocks so they're going to get another bath with some colour remover.

I'm busy quilting

Sometimes you just have to step away from the computer so sewing can happen. This is what I've had my head down doing. I'm half way through  quilting the scrap quilt which is 81 inches square. I wanted to show you this picture so you can see that I still have a ton of room under the arm so it would accomodate a king sized quilt no problem.

I forgot to put the Supreme Slider on at one point and wondered why it was harder to push the quilt along so it gets the big thumbs up from me. I have a Hobbs Heirloom batting in this one which is so light and beautiful to use.

 I was good and finished the quilted pillow first otherwise it might not have got done.

I went to a small quilt show last weekend and captured a few shots of bits and pieces. Amongst these are  some machine quilted motifs for ideas.

 Can you believe I didn't buy any fabric? It's true but I couldn't resist this sewing box.

On the way home, we stopped off at the OfficeWorks store. I was looking to replace my office chair which is on the way out with the hydraulics. I couldn't find a replacement I liked but did get some gadgets. This lumber support fits over the back of the chair and will also help keep my back cool in summer when it gets hot.

I have hips that need chiropractic intervention every few weeks, along with other body parts. When I have longer periods on the machine, I can really do myself some damage. It's such a pain having short legs. I rest my left foot on this footstool while the right foot is operating and it evens up the hips. I've had no pain since using it.

Before and after

It might have scared you if I'd shown you the during photos of the great fabric stash clean up so I'm happy to just say that it's done and the five bags of orphaned fabrics will be going to a worthy cause soon I hope.

I don't have the fortitude to go diving into the bins under the table just yet.

I've been testing again, I did a barter with a blog buddy and got these Crayola washable markers a while back which I've been using. I haven't found the fine tipped ones here in Australia, just the thick ones and they're no good for my purposes.



 I recently read about these pens from England.  They are Berol handwriting pens that are designed to wash out of clothing and used by young children learning to write with a pen. They make a nice fine line but again, not available here.

I bought a pile off EBay which was the cheapest option and they cost around $AU 1.60 each including postage. You can get dark blue, light blue and black.

Both test samples went into cool water but then I decided to switch them to a bowl of warm soapy water. I used the dish washing liquid that was sitting on the bench since it was handy.

They sat in the water for 45 minutes while I went and did other things. I did swish them a few times at the beginning.

The results speak for themselves, not a skerrick of a mark on either sample. You can read more test results on the Berol pens over on the Feather On A Wire blog here.

As always, I'd recommend that you do your own testing.

And just because I'd like a progress photo on my blog.

No free motion Friday today, I haven't organised myself, maybe I'll get on the machine today.

Stitch, stitch, quilt

The bobbins for my Bernina 820 are a lot bigger than a normal bobbin and they've been rattling around in a tin which is not good for the senser thingymigig part. You know what they say, "neccesity is the mother of invention"

Mr Quiltsalott and I got our heads together and came up with this simple little number. It's made from a scrap piece of wood and some dowling. No Nails, no glue because he has power tools to do the job. As soon as the prototype was knocked up, I ordered another one quick smart because there's no flies on me.

I suggested some stain to flash it up but the comment was that then I wouldn't be able to smell the wood. Silly me, what was I thinking.

I just about wrecked myself getting all the blocks made for the scrapalicious quilt so I'll just wait for a little bit before I sew the them together. I'm glad I got this far because in the middle of sewing, I was beginning to doubt it was anything but a mish mash. I'm sure it'll look great on a bed, it's not art people!

Some thought I was really dedicated to make pieced blocks, sorry to dissapoint you but this is cheater fabric, it's pretty effective and did a lot of work for me.

What else have I been up to? Well I've spent a fair bit of time practicing some more machine quilting which means that my applique was put on the back burner.

I'm going to keep it real and show the good, the bad and the plain ugly. I'm going to be self critiqueing so that I can improve and learn.

The lesson here is to figure out better paths from one motif to another so it flows more naturally.

This one was a play with a feather and look, look, circles blobs! We shouldn't be afraid to experiment, it could lead to something great.

This piece has a wool batting and I washed it to see how it would look. I was attempting to make a branched feather. More circular blobs this time.

With every bit of practice, I'm learning. To keep it up, I've decided to try and give myself time at the machine. I'm calling it free motion Friday. I may just have ordered some bits and pieces to help me. I'll wait to tell you when they get here.

I think my next goal will be to do something that's not so heavy with thread and more casual and airy.

There are a couple of generous bloggers who are helping us with free motion quilting. Leah has a blog called 365 days of free motion quilting and Christina over at A Few Scraps is hosting a beginners machine quilting party you can join.

So why do I want to learn?

Because I can't afford to send the tops out  to get done by a proffessional.

I want to retain ownership of the quilt by doing it by myself.

It's a challenge and a new skill to learn.
I have more quilt tops than I can get through by hand quilting even though it's still my preference.

Thanks for visiting, until next time, find some time for stitching.

Hand quilting tools

I've got two  new hand quilting tools to share with you. The first one is a  quilting hoop for hand quilters. It was kindly sent to me from Harry of Barnett's Laptop Hoops to try out. I use a 14 inch hoop, my arms are quite short really, like the rest of me so this is my ideal size.

At first it took a bit of getting used to but I persevered as it's a little different from using a normal hoop.

This is the bottom part and as you can see, it has a base that you put under your legs to hold it stable. The black knob is to change the angle of the hoop and the metal hardware is actually a magnetic lazy susan. That's the ingenious part of the whole setup. You can very easily rotate the hoop as you work. It rotates 360 degrees and tilts to many angles.

This is the  hoop that magnetically attaches itself to the lazy susan and it just gets placed on and pulled off really easily. The part that I love is having two options for hand quilting, one with the stand and this hoop part that can sit on your lap that you turn manually.

I actually prefer to sit on my leather couch with my feet up on the foot stool because having short legs is such a pain you know. I am a little worried about the base under my legs on the leather but that could be fixed by putting something on the couch first.

I love, love this black knob, so much better than a metal wing nut.

What you didn't know is that I have a lot of pain and fatigue in my left shoulder area and supporting my basic hoop when it has a large quilt in it restricts how much quilting I can do in a sitting. With Harry's hoop, I don't have the same problem as the hoop is supported in my lap.

The other advantage is that when I need to do the odd stab stitch, both hands are free to do that easily.

The only disadvantage is that the base is heavy with the metal hardware which is to be expected and once you have set it up, it's not a problem. I'm still learning about getting the large quilt positioned but I think that's practice and will come with a bit more time.

There are several quilt hoop designs available and I think perhaps the magnetic tilt and frame might have suited me better, just because of the way I work in a hoop. In any case, these are made with a lot of passion, attention to detail and what quilters want.  There are also videos on the website  to see how they work, go check them out.

Have you tried these new clover needles? The price had put me off but I finally buckled and bought a pack. There's only six needles and they cost more than double for my usual pack.
I tried the fisrt one and liked it a lot, I thought they were very sharp at the tip and indeed seemed quite strong. The needle glided through the layers.

I was happily quilting away on my second length of thread when the eye snapped off when I pushed the needle through with the thimble. Could have been a fluke.
Threaded up another needle, didn't even get the thread used up when the same thing happened. Not a fluke, I think I'll keep these ones for hand piecing, the needle is not holding up to the force I'm using.

It's been a good week

The weather has been sunny during the day but cold at night so the crocheted ripply blanket has come out to keep us warm. Oh so cosy! It's been good to put in a few hand quilted stitches this week.

Make a basket block a day. It's growing!
Sew on yo yo's and aim for a row a week.

Maybe a couple of blocks now and again for a sampler.

A few intensive days of "age is no barrier" colouring in and drawing. Quilt related of course.

Oh yes, I'm in cahoots with a blogger friend to go down the red and green path again.

I've never worked in solids exclusively before but these are exciting me.

I must tell you about these two products I wouldn't be without. The tape for under rulers and templates that bloggers have cottoned on to. It works marvelously.

The Dylon product has been a godsend after I washed a red and green quilt and one of the pink fabrics bled (a lot) all over the white background. I tried Synthrapol to no avail and then this product. I won't be without it now, it worked and saved a quilt. Now we also are able to get the dye catcher sheets so when I wash a quilt, these two things go in the machine with it. For the Aussies, I bought mine at Spotlight.

Oh it's been a good week for a bit of everything and as you know, I love to have a lot of projects on the go and it's been just how I like it.