comfortstitching

scrap strapped!

You may be pleased to know I have actually got on with a little lot of stitching, now this one somehow got pieced oopsilly and sashed wonkily, so choosing to quilt in a grid was probably not the best idea I've ever had........it's all gone a little hopscotch-ily !!   But I will say it adds to the scrap it up effect!! BUT then I would say that!

 

 

 

I don't know if the little blocks got a little lost in this quilt, maybe should have made it smaller, maybe shouldn't have rushed the arrangement due to C having a tantrum after school when her spiderman cake decoration fell on the floor and she took it out on me when I wouldn't let her eat it!!!

Talking of which, I just went out the front to see that the little darlings have been pulling all the petals off my hydrangea's, don't you just love kids 'gardening'!

My Achellia's thankfully are in the back garden and free from their artful handiwork.

Asha made her first quilt, well she has a third of the binding to finish but she made the whole thing herself on her sewing machine!!!  Don't you just love the dark purple quilting!!!!......SO 'I really cannot be bothered to change my thread'!

And so to end, unfortunately on a possibly sad ending :(((  Very highly unfortunately, the 'far far away' fabric I ordered from sewmamasew has not yet arrived, it has been a long three and a half weeks and I am starting to think the postman has fallen in love with it and eloped.  It really is living up to it's name in my case and staying FAR far away.  Please, please, please!!  release me of my sadness and regale me with tales of lost enchanted fabric and other highly prized haberdashery souvenoirs........

..until the next unfortunate tale.........*sigh

 

hexa-gone!

Here is a final revelation of hexagonalness followed by the last part of the quilt-a-long. 

 

May I present to you, my wholly finished, entirely machine stitched rainbow of Liberty loveliness and an extravaganza of hexagonal quiltarama.  All stitched and batted and stippled to within an inch of it's life for maximum quilt factor of the very highest standard and not a scrunch of a paper piece in sight.

If I didn't know about those centre seams I really would be clueless to it's construction.  The only worry with making one of these is that you want to make another one straight after.  There is so much potential for playing around with all your dream layouts.  Obviously it screams 'try me in grandmother's flower garden'....

 

 

I'm going to add in the final part of the quilt a long saga here.  All that really remains to be done is to square up your quilted sandwich.  Now my quilt's never ever truly square up so I just try to cut the edges as square and as perpendicular to each other as I can.  To make and attatch your binding, follow my tutorial here.  To sew the binding to the back of the quilt this time however I followed the advice of Liz who suggested several posts ago that I try blind stitching instead of whip stitching as I did in my tutorial.  Well I tried it and I have to say it gives uncomparably better results!   Many many kind thanks to you Liz!

I am so pleased with how this quilt-a-long has gone, there has been such quality and differentiation in the first batch of quilts made and many more are just beginning it's all so exciting!!  I will keep up with the flickr group progression and I hope you will too.  And to all those who have joined into this little circle of quilt-making camaraderie, I would like to say, truly, utterly THANK-YOU!!!!   These flowers are for you!!!

In advance anticipation of the next post I can fearlessly promise that there shall be no more hexagons for the foreseeable future!!!  So please prepare yourselves for the shock as necessary.  Many many many toooooo many thanks to all of you for standing by me as I went into hex-overdrive.    So what shall we do to fill up this fairly large quilting black hole left in the wake of the exiting hexagons???????  Any suggestions, tips, recipes, maps you think I should follow now??? Come on....surprise me!!!!!!!!!

Oops goes another day!

Not much has been accomplished today.....I seem to have come down with an acute case of onlinefabricshoppitis.......awfully timedowntheplugholing for me!  Somehow the morning seems to have turned into the afternoon (*!*)

Now I did manage to buy a little but huge waves of time were swallowed up by the monster that is 'Trying to find some Flea market fancy by Denyse schmidt'.  You know the ones, the pink the blue the green daisy bouquets and the like.  Have you ever tried to do this???  I don't actually think this fabric exists in reality, must have been a ruse all along in my opinion.  I mean have you actually ever seen any for real!!!!!!?  So if you know or know a man who does please please please be very kind and let me know.......I'm counting on you now!!!  Somebody must know something!!

I did manage to sash up my scrap it up blocks yesterday, I'm liking this a lot!  So many thanks to ALL who helped make my mind up by commenting on my dilemma  on Tuesday.  I really enjoyed reading what you all thought I should do and it really helped me clarify things!!!

 

I think the sashing worked a treat!  Course it did turn a little ooopsilly wonky!!!

 

So what did you get up today?  Did you get to accompolish more than me ( you must have!)..........Come on let me know!!!!!  What did you cook?  What did you buy?  What did you say/think/eat/sing/sew/break????????????............and oh please please please....if you know anything about operation find flea market fancy, please let me know.

sunny disposition

 

 

So yesterday I began a new quilt project (surprised myself a little there!).  This quilt is going to be a little special, for this number will not be an addition to my ever expanding quilt family at home, this quilt will go far, this quilt will travel! and seek adventure in the unknown..............well basically to cut this little long story short, this fabric baby is to be a wedding quilt for my sister who weds into a holy matrimonial life of bliss this September. 

 

Now as I write this, the sun is out, like really really out, really really loudly bright sunshiney rays and surprisingly enough this quilt of mine is basking in the very best of sunshingness glory glaring like it's echo-ey ray.

So as a starting point I began with the lovely Dandelion Girl layer cake I won in Lorraine's giveaway.  Lots of co-ordinatingly friendly design-y patterns in Mediterrenean reminiscent shades of terracotta and olive.  Well me being me, I decided to mix in a little of my stash and to my surprise, the combination works eclectically, unexpectedly well.  The shockingly pure sunny colours of kaffe and denyse schmidt just lift that colour tempo a little in places to give that lovely juxtoposition of sublime neutrality and painterly fun.

 

The design of this quilt is called 'String X' and I first fell head over heels with it when I saw this quilts progress on flickr.  You can find the tutorial for this quilt here.  I think the way I put together the fabrics for my version was to give the design a scrappier look, I think I just have a scrappy outlook!!!

Talking of which, there has been 'Scrap it up' progress!  So much so that I think the end is near! 

This mini-scale miniscule project has expanded wonderfully contagiously well and decisions are being made as to it's future...

 

To sash or not to sash?????.....???......that is....the......???????

Any thoughts????? ............to stop me from pondering overdrive over this very question over the next few hours/days/weeks/eternity.  Do let me know...too much pink/too much yellow/too much sentencing descriptively over fabrications a la pointlessly.........

half hexagon quilt a long part 5 - quilting

Firstly I know only a few are at this stage now so don't panic if you haven't started stitching/cutting/bought your fabric!!  These quilt a long instructions will remain here so you will have all the info you need when you get to this bit!!  Last week's instalment was quite a bumper editon so I'm keeping it short and sweet here. 

Once you have your quilt top ready, you will need to iron it.  I strongly advise you iron all your seams open.  This might make you actually hate me but it really will make a H-U-G-E difference to the end result as your hexagons will lie flatter and disguise those giveaway centre seams.  Once ironed you will need to think about the reverse of your quilt.  Many people seem to like constructing the back into a simple design.  I however prefer my back to be just one fabric.  So obviously do as YOU please.  I simply buy twice the length of my quilt in yardage, chop in half lengthways, then stitch together along the lengthy side.  Easy! 

 

To make up your quilt sandwich, place your quilt back out flat on the floor RIGHT SIDE DOWN.  Using duct tape secure down at intervals so it remains flat during pinning.  Place your batting (I always use quilter's dream 100% cotton in select weight) on top of your backing fabric.  Starting from the centre, smooth it out evenly.  Now add your quilt top onto the top (where else!) ensuring you can see at least a few centimetres of batting and backing all the way around your quilt. 

Grab your quilting pins and starting from the centre smooth out your quilt and pin through top, batting and backing approximately every 10 - 20cm.  Peel back your duct tape and remove your quilt from the floor.

Your next decision will be to decide how you want to do the quilting.  Ruth has very kindly come up with these fantastic quilting solutions,

For machine quilting,one andtwo.

For grandmothers flower garden type layout's/scrappy style

For handquilting

 

Free motion quilting/stippling

I chose to free-motion quilt mine and love the end result.    If you are interested in free motion quilting here are some pointers :-

A good sewing machine makes your quilting life so much easier.  My machine is a Pfaff quilt expression 4.0, it is made with the quilter in mind and comes with a sensormatic free motion facility and foot.

You will need to use a darning or free motion foot.

Use good quality thread, this really does make a difference as you are going fast and poor thread will keep getting caught up.

Lower your feed dogs, these are the two lines immediatly under your presser foot that move the fabric for you during sewing, for free-motioning you will be moving your fabric with your hands.

Make sure you needle is sharp, if in doubt replace with a new one.

Increase the tension on your machine, I raise mine to 6 and use stitch length 2.5.

Keep all parts of your quilt that are around your machine loosely bunched up/folded for ease of sewing.  DO NOT let them hang off the edges of your table.

Keep your foot fully pressed down on your pedal but move your fabric with your hands at a slower speed.

Fill as many bobbins as you are able to before starting, you will use many!

Practise practise practise!!  Make up some mini quilt sandwiches using spare fabric and batting and play around on those until you have a good feel of things.

 

This discussion thread is a very useful read.

If you're still unsure how to go about things, this video clip is great.  

If you want to free motion quilt but don't have a sewing machine where you can lower your feed dogs, you might find this discussion thread very interesting!

 

If you have any queries about quilting or stippling or anything else or if you're just feeling chatty or want to talk about what you are making or what the weather is like where you are just ask or tell!!  I only learned to free motion quilt about two months ago!!  So I remember how it feels to try something new!  I hope whatever you are stitching it is going well for you!!!

quilter's block

I hope I'm not suffering from writer's block but I can't think how to start today's post, not even a title is forthcoming yet.  Though by the time you're reading this some description or other shall be headlining this post, I hope....

There's been progress, thankfully!  I have yet to suffer from quilter's block, if such a condition exists!!  So the spiderweb scraps have spun their web rather quickly and I have decided to keep this quilt small-ish, as the girls say they want some little quilts for their toyroom ( relax, we don't live in some big house!  It's just that we have the usual 3 bedrooms and the girls share, so the little spare bedroom sleeps all their toys!).  Quite unsurprisingly they have taken a little shine to this one!

 

All finished!!! I decided to quilt this one in straight lines, only because I got an attatchment with my machine that you screw onto the foot, that guides you in keeping your lines straight.  It worked a treat and this one was speedy to quilt. 

 

I'd love to do more spiderweb's soon, if only to keep my scrap crisis at bay and that seems to have hardly dwindled since I started the two scrappy quilts I have going.

So I was having a think (dangerous!) and wondering if anyone fancies a scrap swap kind of thing.  Currently there's lots of Liberty Tana lawn, kaffe and Cath kidston in my stash department.  Like most people I'm quite fussy about fabric, especially colour, which I like clean and reasonably bright and bubbly but not garish!!  And I hate to say it but no cheap stuff! (sorry!).   So if you think your fabric tastes are similar-ish to mine and especially if you have some nice bits of flea market fancy/heather ross(I know, extremely wishful) etc. drop me a line below and let me know what kind of scraps were talking.  Like I say, I'll only swap if it's beneficial both ways.

 

Scrap 'til you drop!

Operation quilt hexagons is progressing very smoothly indeed!! 

I got myself a nice little treat in the post today, treat meaning fabric and also translating as won in a giveaway!!!!  A lovely  'Dandelion girl' layer cake.  Now I've never previously had the layer cake experience!  So cannot wait to slice my rotary into these, it will indeed feel like slicing into a cake (don't worry I won't eat it!).   Thank you so much Lorraine!!!!  I love it!

So for someone with not very much to say at the beginning of this post???!  I really haven't done too badly have I !!!!!!!!!  Now it's your turn!  Don't be shy, say hi!!!!!  And while you're at it, it might be an idea if people let me know where they are in the world and what time it is there, I don't know why but I can't get my head around all the different time zones!!!!  Don't forget to add if you want to talk swap!

hexagon & on

By my intuitive reckoning you must be pretty bored of tuning in and being greeted by a never-ending conveyorbelt of hexagon imagery by now.  So I sincerely apologize in advance if this is the case.  I think hexagons in half and full format are what I see 24 now even when my eyes are closed.  This week I at last began to quilt up my quilted sandwich.  This involved a lot of umm-ing to begin with and a lot of ah-ing to continue.   In response to my quilting quandry the lovely as always Ruth posted up a few quilting possibilities on flickr and I really, really wanted to use this design.  The trouble began when my heart was having none of this straight line business, oh no! deep instead in the sub concious of my sub concious I wanted to play, to run around and go weeeeeeeeeeeee! but straight line stitching would not let me do that.  No! straight line stitching said 'order' and discipline and concentrate and precision and everything else that made me want to procrastinate like I never have before.  Supremely deep deep down, I wanted to stipple away to some heartish content.

I was convinced that free-motion quilting would not work with this design so I fought it and fought it some more until I was all fought out and decided to give in and it a go.  And to my complete and utter suprisisness It worked beautifully, at least in my opinion. 

I have been thoroughly enjoying myself cruising around along the scenic route of my quilt at grand prix speeds, meandering along it's many details in a joyously playful manner.  Suprisingly since my last attempt at free-motioning somewhere along the way I have completely and utterly got the hang of things.  I just don't think I ever want to stop.....

 

More spide-y fun!

Last week when I posted pics of the beginnings of my spiderweb quilt I recieved a few requests for how to go about making them.  I got the tutorial from this as ever invaluable site, only I don't stitch all my scraps onto paper instead I cut out a 8.5 x 8.5 x 12" paper triangle.  I place my kite shape in it's position in the centre then add appropriately sized scrappy strips into positon overlapping them by approximately a quarter of an inch.  Make sure the strips completely cover the paper triangle.

 

 

When happy with the layout, I begin stitching my strips to my kite making sure to pick them up very carefully so I start stitching in the correct position.  I re-evaluate after sewing each strip to make sure the next is sewn in the correct position by placing back onto the paper triangle.

 

Once all are sewn up.  I place the paper triangle over my fabric one and draw around it before cutting using a ruler and rotary cutter.

 

So nice once trimmed and ready to.....

 

jigsaw!!

So hexagons and spiderweb's that are surprisingly so hexan-gular in composition!!  As I said, so sorry if your hexagon sick from over-indulgence right now,  please let me know if you are and I could try really quite hard actually and not (!!) have picures of any in some soon to come postal attraction.  Just say the word!!  I always listen.

scrappy do!

I've been making more of these stitchy little blocks for my 'scrap it up' quilt.  These are so addictive and my favourite thing to do at the moment so I have been sewing to my hearts content in between livng, child rearing and other more necessary pastimes.  Sorry about the picture quality of these, I don't know why but everything seems to have gone a little soft focus. 

(Edited to add - Many, many thanks to LauraJ and Jen who both pointed out in the comments that I should try cleaning the camera lens, it worked!!!!  Thanks ladies.  I've re-uploaded these photo's, so no more blurry vision!!)

I just can't find enough hours in the day to make these, I don't think I've ever enjoyed making quilt blocks more so maybe small is the way to go for me!

The blocks are completely improvised according to the size and co-ordianating abilities of each particular scrap.

My garden is looking a little bedraggled and in need of a make-over, though it's not hard to find a nice detail of two in the current features.

 

Clematis, Rouge something or other I think.

 

The centre's look waxily spidery!

 

Verbena Bosaneresis, I think I've spelt that wrong but at least the writing (accidentally) matches it's colouring!

 

Achilleia milleforium 'Cerise Queen'.

My half hexagon quilt has progressed along nicely over the last few days too, I hope you have been finding the instrucions easy to understand and of some use.  How are you getting along?  I love how the main hexagon above matches the Achilleia above and the colour of this text!!

 

 

 

Quilting next!! OOh decisions, decisions!!

Thank you to each and everyone of you who left a comment after the last few posts, I really enjoy reading what you think of my ramblings and amateur quilt and photography efforts!!!!  I also like hearing about who you are, where you're from and what you may happen to be making.  So please don't be shy!!!!!!!

half hexagon quilt-a-long part four - sewing your quilt top

I have decided to add this instalment today for those of you who wish to sew over the weekend.  As I have said before do not worry if you are not at this stage yet or haven't even started yet, there's no rush!!!!  Today we are starting with stripping!  Hopefully you should now have a few piles of half hexagons all ready to sew.  I use 100% white cotton thread for almost all my stitching.  Before you start, I would suggest you fill up as many bobbins as you can so you don't have to keep stopping while sewing. 

Starting with your first row, take your first two pieces and place them right sides together as shown, so you have the bottom edge of piece one aligned with the top edge of piece two.  As we are sewing diagonal seams, the end points wont be flush but cross a quarter of an inch from the edge. 

I never pin or tack but you can if you find it easier.  Sew your seam, allowing for your quarter inch seam allowance.  Continue by sewing piece number three to the bottom of piece number two and so on.  I normally temporarily remove the paper row label number then re-attatch it once the row is sewn.

 

 

 

You may want to lay out your strips as you go, to check each half hexagon meets it's partner in the next strip!!

 

Once sewn you need to iron your strips, I would recommend you iron your seams open rather than to the side as your hexagons lie much flatter like this. 

 

Now you can start sewing your strips together.  Line up the first two rows as shown so that the vertical edges are aligned and the points are flush then sew with a quarter inch seam allowance.

 

From time to time as you sew you'll notice that your points wont be exactly flush.  To remedy this I usually pull the top/bottom strip down gently as I sew so that the points are aligned. 

In this instance the top strip was pulled down. 

 

Sew all your strips in this way until.........

 

Hooray!!!  your quilt top is done.

I hope you are finding the instruction here useful and easy to understand!!  I am not trained in any technical way and learned to quilt from books and just giving it a go!  I hope your quilt's are coming along nicely and you are enjoying participaiting in this quilt-a-long.  Can't wait to see how you are all getting along.

Have yourselves a lovely weekend whatever you do!!!!!!!  See you all next week!

Itchy stitchin'

I've been bitten by the bug, it probably gets all quilter's eventually and here I am all embroiled up in it's web........the spiderweb!  Now you know patchwork + me  = addicted but these are even more so!  Almost obsessive even and the best thing....they are scrap gobbler's...and so easy!.......suit's me fine!!

I've been bitten in more ways than one (scratch!), thanks to the summery (scratch!) weather last week.  Some kind of allergy to nice sunshiney weather perhaps (just my luck).  So last week and this I really have been living up to my name and comfort stitching!!!!

 

Stitching.......more teeny blocks for my 'Scrap it up quilt'!

 

Crazily close........

The sunshine did however present an opportunity to wash some quilts.  I have been putting this off and off, in a state of worrying panic that they would fall apart.  Then at last I knew it had to be done.  I did whatever any self respecting quilt washing worrier would do in the circumstances, I asked an expert, my specialist of choice.........the lovely Katy.

So this was Katy's advice.  Wash at 30 degrees (using a couple of colour run sheets), tumble dry on low heat, then finish drying naturally preferably outside in the sunshine.  It worked a treat!!!!!   Katy you are my quilting heroine!!!!!   I love my quilts even more now! 

Of course, sunshine also = flowers

 

Beautiful and mine!, Tuscany..mmmmmmmm...

 

Such a peach!, Queen of Sweden.

Before I tear myself away from the computer to wash the dishes I have some goooooooood news!!!    Wahoooooooooooooo!!    I won a sewn giveaway!!, well actually I came second but the ever lovely and generous Lorraine is sending me some fab Moda fabric.  Isn't she a sweetie!!

Thank you! thank you! thank you! to all who have left me a comment recently, I really (you can't guess how much!) enjoy reading them and have been tremendously touched by so many heart warming lines.  If you do ever get bored just let me know and I will disappear into a whisper of smoke.......no problem, that's a promise!! 

Let me leave you with a  little more hex-action......

 

 

  

bored of these yet??????

More coming soon..........just be sure to let me know it you find any...... of ..........this interesting........................... or.........  entirely or otherwise......................useful!!