From the sewing room

Don't you just love those free tutorials that bloggers are kind enough to share? I found one last year that I wanted to try but it was an english translation from a German blog. I couldn't quite understand all the instructions. It was for a cosmetic bag that was made in fabric.

 I asked a good friend who is a whiz at sewing all sorts of things if she would kindly try to figure the instructions out. I'm happy to say she did and here is my finished bag.

It was very frustrating trying to figure out, especially the part where the zip ends go and it nearly got trashed. That's the time to walk away and come back later. Well I decided, it wasn't great but it wasn't worth chucking so I did the best I could to get it together and now I'm glad I didn't bin it. I won't be making another one I don't think.

The tutorial is here if you are interested and  there is a link for the english translation.

Other things I'm working on are not blogworthy at the moment so you'll have to put up with some sneak peeks.

What a tease, see you soon with what I'm playing with.

Klosjes week 1

Here it is, my first klosjes Saturday. These are being stitched all around the world, the virus started at Supergoof and she has a list on her side bar of participants. Nadine has listed some new people who have joined in and Valentina has explained how to pronounce the word. Shirley has just joined in too, waving to you all.
How exciting is that!
After making 25 of them, I've been thinking about changing my pattern for the block. What! There's been too much thinking going on while I've been sitting and stitching, could you smell the wood burning? If I'm going to change anything, I had better do it now before I go on.

The one on the left is  3" finished, the one in the middle is 2.5", the one on the right is also 2.5" but has a bigger middle. I redrafted the block, the middle is still 1" finished in size but it now looks more like a spool than a bow tie shape. Which one shall I carry on with?

Of course I've been travelling around blogs, looking, comparing, getting more indecisive, how unlike me!  Which one do you prefer?

Edit: I did a paste up of options without seam allowances and have decided to stick with what I've been doing. Spools are all different so there is no right or wrong, just personal preference.

I had an impulse buy yesterday, again, so unlike me. It's true. I was on my way to the pharmacy and passed a shop that had a closing down sale.  Look what I found and bought home in the boot of the car. It fits lots of little bits and pieces and now I've got rid of a couple of those plastic drawer sets and made room in my bookcase for more books.

Until next time, happy stitching.

Decisions, klosjes part II

I've had these fabrics for awhile with the idea that they would play together really well  in a quilt one day  To me, they look a bit "oldy worldy English" They seem to be mostly muted tones and this collection is what I've decided on to make the klosjes, little spools blocks.

Sometimes choosing fabrics and colours is a hard decision to make, I could just as easily have gone reproduction, reds and creams, scrappy anything goes or with some other theme or colour scheme.

I like to make quilts that you wouldn't necessarily be able to put my name to. I like variety and flexibility and a bit of a change now and again, but in the end, colours and fabrics have to be decided upon. That's not to say that minds can't be changed down the track.

I've had some queries about finding a tutorial or print out of templates so here it is in my finished size. Just remember to add seam allowances. It is based on a nine patch and I think the drawing is self explanatory. If you wanted, you could elongate  the size of the center square to make it look more like a spool. You don't even need graph paper to draw this, you just need to start with an accurate square.

I should add here that a lot of these little blocks are being made by others to finish at 2 1/2"

Usually there isn't just one given name for a patchwork block, there can be many and some would call the spools a bow tie or visa versa. That's not wrong but here's a drawing of what I understood a bow tie block to be. It's drawn in a four patch grid rather than a nine patch. I guess both could be called spools or bow ties.

The other question I got asked is how to arrange the block for easy machine piecing without set in or Y seams so I drew that out too and made a practice block. You would of course add seam allowances to the drawing as before.

Adding the half inch all around for seams, these are the measurements for a 3" block if you were to rotary cut it. Easy peasy!

Sewing the corners. I do trim off the excess behind the patch.

I really don't know if this is quicker than hand piecing, there are more patches to cut but hey, we like choices.

Roll on Saturday, klosjes day.

Join the club

I've jumped on another bandwagon! Despite my best intentions not to be tempted by new projects, this one just kept beckoning me. Klosjes, Dutch for little spools have been slowly spreading around blogland and the world.
I first watched Ingrid from Supergoof as she sewed her way through hundreds of these tiny little blocks, all handpieced.
In the Netherlands, there are a lot of quilters who dedicate their Saturdays to sewing klosjes.

I saw Valentina's and Nadine's and that was it, I caught the bug. I tried a couple of practice blocks first, one 2 1/2" finished and one 3" finished. I am going with the 3" so I won't need so many and I if I get sick of them, I can always do a medalion center for them.

I thought I would go with a lot of red, pink and tan colours and add the others as I go if I like the look of them. So far, I like them a lot.

The blocks are easily drafted as it's a simple nine patch. Watch out for updates as I dedicate my Saturdays to little spools, will you join me?

Slow progress

Unfortunately, I've been a little under the weather this week so I haven't been able to get stuck into the sewing like I had planned.

I'm so glad to have finished vine panel #3 on the Susan McCord quilt. It is a bit long to get a whole shot in but here's a portion. The two hundred and something mumble mumble leaves on the third panel was a bit of a marathon so I was glad to have got this far. Now to draw up #4 of 13.

There was a minor wee glitch when I washed the panel before trimming. In my haste, I picked up a certain marker to use. After three weeks, the blue washout pen had turned black and looked just like permanent pen. See the black line below?

This was the culprit and it got binned straight away. Silly me knew it did that and neglected to get rid of it long ago. I use a trusty and much tested one usually, not sure what I was thinking here.

I have a recipe for getting out pencil marks which has worked for me, (you might know it) which I thought I'd try.

One part water

3 parts rubbing alcohol

a few drops of green dishwashing detergent.

Is the green one necessary? I don't know but it works so why mess with that. I used tablespoons as my measure and a soft old toothbrush to rub it in with. I just might have got a bit enthusiastic during that part.I often add more detergent to the area too and do it on a soft towel.

So you'd like to know if it worked, right? Yes, it got most of it out so I was happy enough with that considering it wasn't pencil, it worked ok. I also then got a run from a red fabric  I hadn't noticed before (leaf on the right) so washed again using Dylon colour run preventer. It worked it's magic.

Onto the good stuff. I have had great sucess with my sourdough starter after putting  about four grapes into the mix, covering it with a cloth and rubber band and placing by a window on a very warm day. It captured more wild yeast spores. I did use organic white flour and spring water too. I've made a couple of hybrid loaves this week using a little dried yeast until it gets a bit more mature. No photos because they didn't look pretty enough but they did taste the part.

I had a huge surprise yesterday. Mr Quiltsalott bought home a something for me, my very first laptop and............

A television for the sewing room!!  How spoiled am I? I think there was a super deal and tough negotiation going on. I can watch movies now while I sew or do the ironing! You probably don't know that I get very bored with sewing seam after seam which is why I don't seem to get things finished.

There's a little story there. The first time I ever went away without him was to a weekend retreat. When I got home, he had built me a small rose garden.

Another time when away in NZ, I came home and he had taken out the sliding door and knocked a hole in the wall to put in french doors. I was glad I didn't know about that one.

As you know, I've just been away for three weeks. Do you suppose there's a pattern here?

Edit: I almost forgot to tell you about those pillows I crocheted the edgings on.  You Go Girl is going to do a tutorial on making them. There is also a button on my side bar which you can click on to go there and sign up or have a look.