A few more stitches

I did get a bit disappointed when my quilting stitches on my Mrs Vigors quilt did not show up.  I put it aside for a bit while I planned what to do next.  Thanks to my friends I got a few ideas on how to handle it.  I am not going to do fancy quilting designs over the printed fabrics, but keep these parts simple, and do the feathers etc to the areas you will be able to see.

After doing the star and heart shape over the centre, I did some echo quilting lines in the background.  You can at least see these lines!

In the circles around the centre, I stitched "in the ditch, then a 1/4" outline in the triangles.

For the next border, again I was stuck with what to do and decided to do in the ditch stitches again, then 1/4" zig zag stitches in the background.

I will come back and stitch in these squares.  My current thought is to stitch some circles in the middle.  That might show up.  Will see how it goes.

I quilted a little feathery kind of design in these corner pieces, and once again, you can hardly see it.  Proves my point.

These are my favourite marking tools.  I recon I have used every tool invented, and come back to these two.  The white Clover Pen comes out in the wash or it irons out. The first time you use this pen you will probably think there is something wrong with it.  It draws on clear, but as you wait a minute or two, the white line appears.  I love it for all kinds of marking on darker fabrics.  The blue wash out pen never lets me down.  We have all heard the horror stories about the lines coming back etc, but that has never happened to me, and I have been using it for over 15 years - or a variation of the pen.  The newer ones have a fine tip which I love.

I have used chalk pencils, that did not come out, and ceramic pencils that also left marks in my fabric, so I stick with what I know works for me.  When marking, I have them both in my hand, and flip from one to the other as I move along the fabrics.

Winter

It is the middle of winter here, and I am struggling with the cold as I always do.  We have all had a cold virus, and passing it around the family.  I think I have been sick for about a month now, and finally went to the doctor last week as I knew I had a ear infection.  Anyway, on the mend now, and all my commitments have been complete, which means I can get some "me time" stuff done.

Natalie at the Stitching show

The weekend of the 19th/20th/21st of July saw me doing my very first retail craft event.  It was the Adelaide Stitching, Sewing and Hand Craft show.  I had the opportunity to take a stand, and did.  I was so nervous, exited, scared.  My daughter Natalie helped me set up on the Thursday, and worked with me all day Friday.  She DOES NOT sew!  Although did say she knows how to, but chooses not to.  Do you believe that?  Anyway, by the end of the day she had all the products sorted, and knew where they were - even if she did not know what they were used for.

We met lots of lovely people, and were so busy, that we sold out of some things by lunch time on the first day.  It was so much hard work, but have booked again for next year.

Last post I think I mentioned the new Karen Kay Buckley medium size scissors.  They are now in stock, and I have already sold out one shipment, and received a second box!  They are going to be my favourites. They are now on the Legend and Lace website if you would like to buy.  They have the same lovely soft grip, and the same micro-serrated edges as the other scissors in the range.

 Here is the whole family!

I know that spring is on the way, as I have the first of my sweet peas in flower in the garden.

But Skylar is still all rugged up to go to school.  I am sure that hat is not part of the school uniform!  or did I miss something?

It is not a quilt until it is quilted

 When I start talking with my quilting friends about starting the hand quilting of a new quilt, I am always asked "how do you plan to quilt it?".  Truth is, I do not plan.  I start with outlining all the large pieces of the quilt, and as I do this I start to get an idea of what I can do.

The centre of the Mrs Vigors (also know as Out of the Closet) is shown above.  I took it along on Saturday to Hettie's Patch, where I lead a hand work group once a month.  I just took it for "show n tell"

I also took along this old book on quilting designs to talk about ideas - not for me, but as a part of the learning process associated with hand quilting.  I picked this book up at a Trash and Treasure market a few years ago for $2.

While flipping through the pages I found this:-

 I rather thought this design was perfect for the centre of my quilt.  It is the right size, right number of legs on the star, and the heart shapes echo the edge of the centre as well.  Perfect!  Then you have to work out how to get the design onto the quilt

 Firstly I cut it out on freezer paper, and started drawing around the shapes.  It proved a bit flimsy, so then I did it in template plastic.

This shape I put over the centre of the star, drew around the legs of the star, then pivoted it so that I could then draw each part of the heart shape.  That worked out ok.  Once again I am stuck with the right marking tool, so used a combination of my ever favourite Clover white marking pen, and the blue wash out pen.  Together, they covered all the fabric types.

It is a bit disappointing really that when you do quilting on a printed fabric, even using light coloured threads, it is almost impossible to see!  I wonder why I make such an issue with it?

Mrs Vigor's quilt is out of the closet!

The final border is attached!  I did it yesterday.  The border has actually been pieced for a couple of months, but just did not get around to attaching.  I have had a cold the last couple of days, and did not feel like doing much, so put a DVD on (the Big Bang Theory) and stitched all afternoon.  Impossible to get it all in one photo now.

I know you like to have close-ups of the fabrics.  There are lots of oldies here, and a few newer ones.  I used only fabrics that I had in my cupboard, and scrap boxes - including the borders and background.  Penny had to give me a little extra of the green large border.  I had it in the cupboard, but not enough.

Now I have to get it basted and ready to hand quilt.  That might need another day to think about.

 Something new from Karen Kay Buckley - new medium sized scissors.  These are so new that Karen has not even got them on her own website.  I got these samples to have a play, and I think they are going to be my favourites.  I still love the little ones for applique, and the large ones for doing the bigger jobs, but these are just gorgeous.  Needless to say, I have ordered a box of them, and I hope to have them in time for the Adelaide Sewing, Stitches and Hand Craft show in July.  I have a stand for the event.  First time I have done anything like this.  Bit nervous.

I have enlisted the aid of my daughter Natalie,( who does not sew) plus a few of my buddies (who do sew!) to give me a hand over the 3 days. 

Lots of preparation is about to start.

Scrap Quilt workshop

It is a bit hard to get this quilt all in one photo.  You get both angles here.  So, finally the half square triangles are all stitched together.  All ready for our workshop on July 27th.

I am going through a bit of a zig zag phase in my quilting life.  Do you think it reflects my mental state?  Hope not.  I have put my triangles together in this way, but if you have a look at my earlier photos, you can see all the variations.  You can probably come up with a few more as well.

As well as the triangles, we have the Thousand Pyramids quilt which Mary has made all from strips of 5" fabric.  You can cut full across the width of the fabric, or use fat quarters.  The more fabrics you use, the scrappier it gets.  Just need to make sure you have plenty of contrast.

Time and place........Saturday 27th July, from 9.30am, Lutheran Church Hall, McLaren Vale, South Australia.  Cost for the day is $50, which includes your lunch, and morning and afternoon tea. 

Visiting South Australia?  Spend a day in the beautiful McLaren Vale wine region, and a day sewing with us.  Great plan!  Send the DH to the golf course.  He won't mind :-)

Please email me if you would like to book a spot.  We still have places.

Where have I been?

These last 3 weeks I have been busy again.  It is winter here, and I don't like the cold weather.  We have had a few trips away from home, and some repairs done around the house, and finally I got time to work on my Rose Garden Block of the Month.  This is block 11 - a wonky looking Whig Rose.

 

Whig Rose

There is only one more block to go in this block of the month.  Usually by this stage I have worked out what I want for the next block, but my brain is in other places.  I expect I will find one fairly shortly.

The Whig Rose is on the Legend and Lace website now if you want to download it.  The price is $2.50 if you live in Australia,  and less if you live in another country.  Two reasons I don;t have to charge the 10% GST, and the Aussie $ has dropped value recently.

While it is winter I turn to my knitting.  I started this really scrappy kind of vest/wrap.  The idea is to buy 15 different yarns, different textures etc, break them up into smaller balls of between 1 and 3 metres (yards) throw them into a bag, and just use whatever yarn you pull out.

Inside showing joins of wool

Tie the knots on the back of the work and just keep going.  My combo of red and black is most appealing.  It is a bit hard to see, but I have started the shaping for the arms, and the front shaping is just adding a stitch at each end of every 4 row.  It will look better and make more sense when it is finished.  I have used sparkly yarns, boucle, home spun, angora, etc.

It is cold and flu season again.  My grand-daughter Skylar came to visit yesterday and she was not sick, but she was quiet, and made no mess at all.  Something is not right there!!  I asked her a few times if she was feeling ok, and she said she was.  This morning I got a call from my daughter to tell me she has woke up with a croopy kind of cough.  My DH John is in bed now (midday) and has been complaining of a sore throat.  Fingers crossed I don;t get it.  I have no time to be sick!!

Pyramids or triangles?

What do you prefer?  Mary and I have one of each, and we are doing a workshop - yes another scrappy happy time.

 A thousand Pyramids using 5" strips of fabric

 How many different settings can you get with half square triangles?  zig zag?

 Pinwheel

 squares/diamonds

ribbons

We are having a scrappy workshop on 27th July at McLaren Vale Lutheran church hall.  If you are on my mailing list, you will get an invitation.  So, add your names at Legend and Lace, or email me Wendy@legendandlace.com to book your spot.

Our lovely Penny will not be with us this time.  Mary and I are doing it alone - scary - but   I think we can do it without making a mess of it.

making half square triangles

My Quilters Quick Quarter rulers have arrived!  These are totally nifty little gadgets.  You use them to mark the 1/4" line when making Half Square Triangles.  I have taken a couple of photos of the process.

 Here is the 12" ruler out of the pack.  They also come in 8".  I think 12" is a handy size

 Instructions on the back

 Place the ruler diagonally across the back of the light fabric, and draw lines on either side

 Stitch on the drawn lines, and you can see that I chain pieced.  i sewed up one side of a pile of them and down the other side.  Then cut the threads

 I lay them on my cutting mat 2 or 3 at a time and offset them like this, then cut through the centre.

 Please use your normal cutting ruler for this job.  Do not use the QQ ruler as it is too narrow, and you will cut your fingers!  Ouch!

 They are now seperate

 Press to one side

 And trim off any excess.  I always cut my squares 4" or 5" or 6" then once they are made cut back to the 1/2" needed.  It is usually only a slither than you have to take off.

You can now make heaps of HST in an hour or so.......off you go!

The rulers are on the Legend and Lace website for $8.80

Cutting two quilts at one time

 

When I started cutting up my last quilt - the scrappy Wrench - I decided that I would cut another square of the same fabric for another quilt.  At that stage I had not decided what the "other quilt" might be.  However, as I sewed the wrench blocks, I also sewed sets of half square triangles.  There are lots of things you can do with HST's.  By the time I had finished the first quilt, I had 30 of the little blocks made and set aside.

 Last night I got busy and cut another 30 light squares and 30 dark squares.  It did not take that long and today I sewed them into blocks.

I am still playing with ideas for these little pieces.  No matter what I make, I know for sure I will need a whole lot more!  Or will I?  should this be a full sized quilt, or will I just leave it at cot size?

I started with a zig zag, but if you turn the blocks on another angle, you end up with straight lines diagonally across the quilt.  No doubt I will work out the size and setting in due course.  It is rather appealing to know that I can make 60 little blocks in about an hour using the Quilter's Quick Quarter ruler.

I like these rulers so much, that I decided to stock them on the Legend and Lace website.  They are not there yet, but will be in a day or two.  Will post again with a demo on how to use them.

Big Stitch Quilting

I have just about finished my "big stitch" quilting on my scrappy wrench quilt.  It was easy enough to do, but I had to work hard to make my stitches larger!  I kept doing them small as that is what I am use to doing, then having to correct myself.    I did mostly cross-hatching, and some "in the ditch" stitches.

The border I did differently

Can you see my stitches?  I traced along the line of the fabric print.  It was absolutely perfect for using this technique.  Now I just have to do the binding, and I hope to have time to get to the sewing machine tomorrow for that.

It took me 2 reels of DMC 8 thread to do this quilt, and already I am planning the next one.  I have my scrappy Trip Around the World to quilt, and I was thinking of doing it on the sewing machine, but this might work even better.  Just have to get those stitches bigger!

Rose Garden Block of the Month - Block 10 is on the Legend and Lace website.  Sorry to has taken so long, but I had things happen :-(  I had a trip away, then when I came home my computer would not connect to the internet.  I did all the tests myself, unplugged, re-plugged, disconnected, ran virus scans etc,  Finally, I called in the Big Guns (brother in law) and he could not work it out either.  We got onto the ISP and after much convincing, they sent out a technician.  Turns out it was the connection at the telephone exchange, plus lines to our house which were problems.  All fixed now.

The Rose Wreath Block is all ready to download.  Thanks for your patience if you have been waiting.  When you see the photo of the block, you will see that the leaves and buds swirl around in a clockwise direction.  However, when you download the pattern, they are going anti-clockwise.  Oops!  this is because I drew the design onto the back of my background for the back-basting applique, but forgot to reverse the design.  Never mind, I say to myself, who cares ? what difference does it make to me? None! You can reverse it if you like, or leave it as it is.

Rose Wreath

Block 10 - Rose Wreath.  I am pretty much going to be late with this one, for the first time in the 10 months the BOM has been going.  I have lot of excuses, and I am sure you want to hear them!  The main one is that my iron blew.  We had our Scrap Day on Friday, and we begged and borrowed irons, power boards and extension cords from all over the place.  My iron was on the ironing board, and someone called out about "something burning" - yes it was my iron.  We think it was the extension cord that was the problem, but it burned my iron's plug.  My "emergency" iron, I just chucked out as well.  The good news is that I got most of the block completed, as you can see.  The only parts missing are the tiny circle centres of the flowers.  Can't do them without the iron, as I use Perfect Circles, and you have to iron them. 

The good news is, with Mother's Day coming up, a lot of the shops have irons and other trinkets on sale, so I should be able to get myself a new one at a good price.  That is how I bought the last one.

The scrap day was very successful.  We had 3 quilts on offer, and 36 people attending.  I have some photos and will get them out of the camera tomorrow.