New Tricks

I am attempting to teach myself how to do machine applique.  Yes, I know, everyone can do it!  I have never learned, and I thought I would teach myself as it could come in handy some day.  I asked friends and got all their suggestions together.  this is what I have come up with.  It is not intended to be a tutorial, just my clumsy attempt.

First thing is the list of things you need - design, fabric, vlisofix, pen, iron, tear-away, bobbin-fill, top thread, sewing machine, scissors.

 First thing is to draw your design shapes on the back of the Vlisofix - that is the paper side, not the sticky side, then cut out leaving a little space around the shapes.

Iron the shapes sticky side down onto the back of your fabrics.  Cut out on the line that you have drawn, through all layers.

Peel the paper off the back of the pieces, and place them where you want them to go.  I put them onto the drawing first, and them lifted them over onto the background fabric.  I used a block from the Maltaville Album Quilt for my drawing.

You still have to allow for the parts that go under and over, so leave a little extra fabric if you have to do this.  the top of the stem here goes under the flower.  I put the bits where I wanted and ironed them in place.  Behind the background fabric I used something called "tearaway".  I bought the iron on one, as I thought it would be easier for me as a beginner.  Not even sure if I actually need this, so will try some more without it.  Ready to go!

Get out the little book that goes with the machine, and find out what stitches you can use.  Some people recommended zig zag, others satin stitch, all kinds of ideas.  I settled on buttonhole/blanket stitch.  And, wouldn't you know it, my machine, has two varieties of these.  One goes back and forward and makes a fat looking stitch, the other is just single.  I tried the fat stitch for the bottom of the flower, and it just took ages to do.  Impatient as I am, I flicked the switch on that, and used the single stitch.  Just have to be a bit careful where the needle falls - inside or outside the line - when you start to go around corners.  Also, use the "needle down" position if your machine has that.  It helps with the corners.

Got the whole thing done in under an hour - drawing, cutting, ironing, sewing.  I could be going over to the "dark side" here....

On the back, with the tearaway still there, it looks like this.  Can you see the part at the bottom of the flower where I started with with double stitch?  Rip that paper away, and press it again.

All done!  I used only one thread on this sample - a caramel coloured Rasant thead.  I have been given lots advice on threads, and I think I just have to experiment with it and see what i like.

So, my advice here today, is if you want to try something new, just give it a go.  Talk to other people, read books, get all the ideas together, and give it a whirl.

Star quilts

After I posted the other day about the books I received, and in particular the Star book, I received an email from Marge.  Marge is the maker of the little crib quilt I showed the picture of, and was quite excited that I had chosen this one to display for you.  I love that little quilt, and if given permission, will re-print here  Marge's comments about how she made the quilt.  The inspiration for the quilt was the book "Small Endearments" by Sandi Fox.

I have made a few little quilts out of this book, but must admit that I missed this little beauty.  I am now going to correct that oversight, and make one for myself.  It will not be identical, and I usually adjust the measurements to make it easier.  Marge tells me she went to great lengths to authentically recreate the quilt.

Another of my favourite books for inspiration is "Crib Quilts and other small wonders" by Woodard and Greenstein.  I have spent many hours pouring over the pages of this book, and have made (I think) 5 quilts from this book.  The very first quilt I made from this book is this dear little medallion.

 at the top of the page.  If you look very closely you can see where the maker chopped off bits of fabric and blocks to make the rows fit.  Love that!  I made mine very similar, but used more colours.

 When ever I show this quilt I point out where I made the rows fit by adding bits of fabric.  We all get so hung up these days on perfection, and this little quilts shows that we do not have to have it perfect to be captivating.

I think I might take these two books to bed with me tonight.  It has been ages since I had a good look.

Bird of Paradise

For fans of the Bird of Paradise quilt,  also known as The Civil War Brides quilt, there is now a book!  I received a supply of these today.  They are by Karen Mowery, and contain beautiful photos and full size patterns.  I will have them on my website a little later today, but I am keeping one for myself!

There is a whole blog devoted to this quilt, and a great following.  I plan not to get caught up in it, but it is almost irresistible.

There were a few other books in the box that I am a bit excited about. "History Repeated" by Betsy Chutchian and Carol Staehle, of the 19th Century Patchwork Divas, in Texas; "Confederates in the Cornfield", by Edie McGinnis;  and finally a favourite topic - "Stars!A Study of 19th Century Star Quilts"

this one I LOVE!  There is no pattern for this one, but I think I could work it out myself.  There are patterns for many other star quilts.  I think it is the colour first that attracted me, and the simplicity of it.   I will have to get some more of these books, so I get to keep one for myself!

Big Shirt

All finished!  I got to use the button hole gadget on the Bernina for the first time in 5 years, and also there is a stitch for sewing the buttons on.  Very clever!

 I have already chosen the fabrics for the next shirt.  More golds/browns/teals.  Might have to leave it for a while and get some of my hand quilting out of the way.

There are two quilts I have to have finished by early March - one machine quilted for a magazine, and one hand quilted for a retreat at which I am teaching.

5 year project

I had a visit from my friend Marilyn today.  She is starting work on her UFO's and brought along the most pressing of these so we could baste it.

this quilt was started at the Quilt Encounter camp about 5 years ago.  We can not actually remember how many years it was or who the tutor was.  The design is called (I think) Grecian Keys.  If anyone can remember who the tutor was can you please let me know so i can acknowledge her. 

This top is about to be machine quilted, and needs to be completed in 10 days as a gift.  Don't you think it looks stunning!  It is So Marilyn!

I am a quilter

but a dressmaker as well.  I use to make every scrap of clothes for my family, including undies!  Since I started serious quilting, I have hardly made a scrap of clothing, and almost forgot some of the basics.

I had an idea about making a shirt of patchwork fabrics, and teamed up 5 different prints from Moda.  The fabric is beautiful to work with, and it drapes really nicely.

Do you think I like paisley?

It is not totally finished yet.  I need to sew down the collar stand, and work on the button holes.  In the past I have made button holes manually on my old Bernina machine.  I have not done any serious dressmaking since I have had the new Bernina 230.  According to the instruction book there are about 3 different ways to do them, and there is a fancy attachment as well.  I will have to do lots of practice I think to see how it all works.

Bright, isn't it?  You will see me coming in it.  I just chose fabrics I liked, not bothering about where they would be placed.  Nearly forgot - there is a pocket to go on LHS as well, so that might break it up a bit.

I am half way there

with these little Hexagon blocks, for the BOM, This Goes with That.  There are 8 months to the programme, with 2 different patterns each month.  As a sample, I have decided to make 3 of each block.

As you can see, I am having fun with the prints, and I LOVE big colours.  There are lots of different ways to set the blocks.  That is an entirely personal choice, but I plan to scatter amongst the pieced blocks, just some single hexagons with interesting prints

 I bet we all have a few of these types of prints, that you had stashed away, and knew that one day they would be useful.  This is the day!

In the packs each month you get these nifty perspex templates.  You can place these over your fabrics to see what they will look like once cut.  I either draw around them if I am sitting watching TV, and cut out by hand, or if you are in your sewing room, then you can use the rotary cutter.

Ok, this is the "advertisement" part.  The programme starts mid-February, so if you are kind of thinking you might want to join in, you have a couple of weeks (to the end of January) to register, after than there will be no extra names taken.  The cost is $38 per month, plus postage, which is about $3 in Australia, and $10 for the USA and Europe.  Other countries, please email me for a quote.

Back to playing with fabrics......

My New Job

For the past few years I have been a great fan of Karen Kay Buckley products, since discovering her Perfect Circles.  Then last year she brought out the Perfect Scissor, which are fabulous.  Now I have a new job - I am the Australian and New Zealand Distributor for KKB products!

In addition to the Perfect Circles, large and small, there are also Perfect Stems.  These are a bit of a treat, they help you make stems as thin as 1/8th" wide.

The scissors come in large and small - 7 1/2" and 4 1/2" .  The small ones I use for applique as they have  a slightly serrated cutting edge, so that it helps prevent fraying, and they cut right to the very point.   The large scissors also have the serrated edge, and you can cut up to 5 layers at a time.  Handy if you are cutting multiple shapes for applique.

All items are still available for retail customers on my website.  If you are a shop owner in Australia, or New Zealand , or have an online shop, you can now buy wholesale from me. 

Over the next couple of months there will be promotions in some Australian patchwork and craft magazines. I am a bit excited about it all.  When I "retired" from work last year, I never thought something like this would come my way.

Sometimes they find us

When you are thinking about what next to make, don't you think that sometimes they just find us, instead of us finding them?

I was out at my local op shop yesterday with the DH.  He looks for books, and I look for other treasures.  He called me to show me a heap of quilting magazines he had just found in a box.  I stopped him in time as he was loading his arms up, as they were mostly recent Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazines, most of which I already have.  However, there were a few treasures near the bottom of the box.  I always look out for old Lady's Circles and Quilt magazines.  They have old quilts often shown in historic homes.  I flipped through the pages and found something that took my eye!

this is dated 1988

I know the quilt shown is not exactly what I made but it gave me the idea.  Guess this is where "inspired by" comes in :-)

Last night I traced off the templates, and went through the scrap boxes - yes "boxes" - I have several and bags.

Before I went to bed I had the circle made, and settled on the cheddar background.  This was in the bottom of the cupboard.  I bought it for another project on the "to do" list, but that can wait a bit longer.  It is Moda Bella and the colour is Cheddar.

Today I dug out the collection of solids I had stashed for an Amish kind of project that never happened, and cut out the circles around the edge

The two circles are hand pieced together, then the outer circle appliqued in place.

I used my Larger Perfect Circles to make the centre ring from the background fabric.

Then I removed the circle template, pressed the circle, and appliqued that in place

Finally I could make the centre circle with one of the small Perfect Circles, and applique that in place.

Don;t you just love starting something new?  I do, and it inspires me to use up some of these treasured old fabrics I have laying about.  I plan to make each of the 20 blocks from a different set of fabrics, and the featured outer and inner rings will be a mixture of darker solids

Circuit Rider

All the Circuit Rider blocks, plus the extras I made, are now a quilt top.  I have been working on this for about 2 years now, and I am very happy to have the top done.  It will be a little longer before I get around to quilting, it.  I chose blocks I liked out of the book, plus some I found in other books, and on EQ.  The only colours I used were red, green, gold and pink.

Something interesting happened when I started sewing them together, I realised that the blocks had shrunk more in one direction, than in the other.  We always expect some shrinkage with applique, but you would expect it to be uniform.  I used my trusty steam iron, and they kind of went back to the original size.

I don;t thing there is any right way up with this quilt - it does seem to be a bit all over the place as far as direction goes.  I will pretend that was the plan :-)

Now, I really want to start something new.  I have this red/black/cream applique quilt in my head and it really needs to be started.  I have been collecting black fabrics for a while, so no excuses. 

A little more

of the English Paper Pieced blocks, for the new Block of the Month.  I have been digging through my scraps to make these little blocks.

 I always buy directional fabrics when I see them, no matter what the print or colour, as I know that one day I will use them in something like this.  Even the smallest bit I keep.  The grey fabric above, I found just the other day when I was having a clean out of my drawers.  The piece was maybe 8" square, and not good for much, except these little hexagon blocks.

These are a sample of the BOM, This Goes with That, which starts in February.  Each month you get two patterns, papers and perspex templates and a fabric pack.  It is envisaged that you will add fabrics from your own stash, and make more blocks.  They don't take long to make.  The final 4 blocks I made tonight watching the TV. 
I now know why EPP has been so popular over so many years, it is because you don;t really have to have very good eye sight.  As the shapes are made by the papers, you can not really go very wrong.  Well, that is my theory, and it works for me.

Christmas pudding time

I have been making Christmas cakes and puddings for as many years as I can remember.  The first attempt at making puddings was many years ago, the first year I was married.  I was 17.   I took the recipe from my high school cookery book "Commonsense Cookery Book".

This book came from the days when every one had big families, and the quantities were enormous.  I can recall adding the ingredients, and the mixture getting so large that I ended up putting it into a plastic bucket to continue the mixing, and sitting on the floor with it between my legs.

I had a long post last year about my Christmas Cooking which you can have a look at, so I won;t repeat the same photos.  This years I ended up making 4 puddings and not the fruit mince pies. I decided to use the fruit mixture in the extra puddings and give them to friends.  My kitchen looks like a commercial cookery with them hanging around.  They have to left to dry, and then boiled again on Christmas day for several hours before serving, with brandy custard.

However, I have found out about reheating them in the micro-wave.  I have not tried it, but willing to give it a go.  It is something like putting them on medium for 5 minutes, for each 500g, but I had better find the slip of paper where I jotted it down.  Must have put it some safe place, as I can't find it now.

Found it!  Just as well, had it all wrong.  60 seconds, for 500g on medium.  phew!  I would have had it burnt to a crisp.  If you boil to reheat, then you leave it in the cloth in the water for 1 hour for 1 kg.  If you microwave then it is out of the cloth.

At Home

This weekend is about the first for months were I had totally no commitments. I had plans of what I could do with my spare time.  I thought perhaps I could get a little Christmas shopping done; maybe some baking; a little stitching.

Turns out I had my DGD Sklylar overnight.  She is 5 now and has been at school about 6 weeks.  I don't know if it has made much difference to her behaviour, but I seem to be answering more questions, and running about more.  Best way to keep her happy is to keep busy - baking!

 This is how we make cakes - in our underwear.  Easier than trying to clean up later.

 only a grandmother could love this face :-))  I remember fondly cooking with my grandmother.  She taught me lots of things, one being patience.  Not sure is Skylar is ready for that lesson yet

 mmmmm......lovely green cupcakes!  my pink food colour is missing.  Green will look very nice in the lunch box.  I sent them all home - apart from the tested one.

 Hollyhock time again.  I know I brag about them every year, but I never get tired of looking at them.  They are so beautiful.

 Can you see the bee?

This is a whole new crop of them.  The seeds fall to the grown, and they just take root.  I will leave these a little longer, and see if they get through the summer, then move them or pot them.