Seemly Seams

This post goes along with my quest for precision piecing. When sewing two blocks together I very carefully press the seams to the dark fabric (as I was taught in Quilting 101). Then I'd stitch and quite often find out the block looks like this:

Bummer! How could this have happened I ask myself. The answer quite often is that when I stitched the pieced block to another, the pieced block was on the bottom instead of the top. Now whenever possible, I put it on top  so that I can be more successful.
 

 

Now I can be much more successful and it's improved my precision! Woo hoo!
Hope you like this idea. Any tip that makes it easier to complete a project is a tip worth sharing!

Sewing down binding by machine; imagine that!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I typically stitch my bindings by hand. It isn't something I mind doing, hand sewing can be kind of soothing. However it is time consuming. The clock was ticking on getting Abby's quilt to her by her birthday, so I followed a process that my friend Catie told me about.

Now keep in mind, I've tried the technique before. And the flip side of the quilt looked grotesque with a wavy stitching line. But this time I used my blindstitch foot.  But, I'm getting ahead of myself (imagine that!)

The technique I follow for attaching the binding itself is Susan K Cleveland's and you can read Piping Hot Binding book for details and you can watch her on You Tube. After all, who am I to quibble with a woman who's favorite part of the quilt making process is sewing the binding!

Here's the part that was new to me...using my blindstitch foot. It's meant for sewing hems, but it did a great job on the binding and kept me stitching straight at the same time!

I pressed the binding fabric in half, wrong sides together. Then I wrapped the fabric around to the front. Now it's time to stitch using the blindstitch foot. All I had to do was keep the bar next to the fold and stitch. It gave me a great look on the front as well as the back. If you haven't tried this before, give it a shot on a small sample project and see what you think. Hope this post will help someone else and please join me in shouting "Thanks, Catie!".

                        

Hand Sewing Binding

It's finally time to add the binding to Abby's quilt. Typically I machine stitch the binding to the quilt, turn and then hand stitch. For a long time I used pins to hold the binding in place. Can you see the accident ready to happen in this photo?

Yes, as you can imagine, I got stabbed with more than my share of pins using this technique.

Then I found out about the clips that can be used for the same purpose AND (better yet) they are pain free.

 

 

If you haven't given them a try, I think you should. Your fingers will love you for it!

Quilt Label

I'm not the best when it comes to putting a label on my quilts. But this one for Abby is going to be different.  I've always enjoyed drawing letters in different ways; big, bold, lower case, upper case; everything. My friend Ellen and I used to do it all the time when we were in junior high, so I guess that's how I got my start. 

So now that it's time to make a label for Abby's quilt, I started to doodle. Then I had the brainstorm that I wanted to put her initials in a monogram format... you know, the last initial is larger and over the first and middle initials.

Okay, I have the idea but how to implement it is the question. I'm pretty good at machine applique if I say so myself so that's probably how I'll go. Ohhh, then I had an idea...what about reverse applique? I showed samples to hubby and he liked the reverse applique better. He thought the letters stood out better.

 

So a sewing I go!

Now, since the front of the quilt made of rectangles, I wanted a circle shape for the label itself.

Now I think I should kick myself. I couldn't wait to use a new ruler I got to cut circles so I went ahead and cut it out...but I didn't machine applique a message on it and that was part of the master plan. 

Okay I had to let it perculate. That's the way I work; I get idea and then have to let it simmer in my brain until the light bulb clicks on. This time when it turned on I saw Plan B. What was that plan, you ask? Why it was to free form stitch the message. I have some nice heavy blue thread and I've done that technique successfully before. So here's the final label. Can't wait to put it on the finished product!

 

Holiday Planning Time is Here!

I know it's September. But I have to say that when I went into one of the big box stores, I was surprised to see Christmas merchandise already! But then, my crafter gene took over and reminded me that for those of us that make gifts for Christmas need to plan ahead.

There is a really pretty Christmas quilt on the Fat Quarter Shop blog that I want to share this week. It's called Deck-ade the Halls Quilt Along. You can see the different holiday motifs available such as ornaments, wrapped packages, and stockings. And to make it extra easy, there's a video available for each of the blocks.   If you're not up to making the whole thing as a quilt, there are other possibilities: pillows, wall hangings, and table runners come to mind. 

Check it out; I'm sure you'll be glad you did!

Book Report: Bead Embroidery Stitch Samples

Earlier this year I was wrapping up an art quilt and wanted to add some hand embroidery. I know the basic stitches, but I wanted something new...something with pizzazz.

Have you ever googled "hand embroidery"? Believe it or not, the outcome is pretty dismal. Just the basics, and those I already know.

Next step was to peruse the books that are available (twist my arm!). That's when I happened upon Bead Embroidery Stitch Samples by Yasuko Endo. It mixes embroidery ( #1 on my list) with beading (the pizzazz factor).

It's a great book. The first several pages address different embroidery threads, types of beads etc. as well as marking and tracing a design. This is key for me because it helps me keep my stitches uniform and straight.

The majority of the book contains what I call the "nitty gritty".  Photos of finished stitches on the left hand page and on the right are the actual steps I need to follow to get those great stitches. And it's outlined stitch by stitch.

The Magpie Quilters is having a block exchange to give us the opportunity to show off some of our hand sewing and embellishment skills. I'm sure I'll be referring to this book as I work on my blocks for the swap. Hopefully my blocks with ooze with pizzazz!

Iron Envy

This post is about my iron envy. Yes, I can admit to being green with envy. Here's what happened...

My friend Sheila told us at a Magpie Quilters meeting that she had a cordless iron. I could just picture it; when I needed to press a big quilt ready to be quilted, I wouldn't have to calculate the length of the cord and distance from the electrical outlet. I could iron a quilt block without having the cord for the iron catching on the corner and wrinkling all of my meticulously pressed work.Why hadn't anyone thought of it sooner?? 

I told myself that whenever the time came for me to pitch my old iron; I would get a cordless.  Then one day it happened...I realized that the cord was fraying and water was leaking ( I swear I didn't destroy it so I could get a new iron) (I wouldn't do that kind of thing!). Finally the time had come.

I did my research. There are a couple companies that make them. But when I read the reviews, it was apparent they were not all created equal. Some of the bases were smaller and it meant that I would have to be a bit more careful and aware of how I sat it on the base.

I made the decision and went with a Panasonic and I love it as much as I hoped. I holds the heat for a minute or two before I have to put it back in the base which is really quite fine with me.

So if you're in the market for a new iron, I highly recommend the cordless. You'll thank me later!

Sewing on a Plane

Sewing on a plane. Good idea or bad idea? Well, I thought I'd give it a try and see how it went. We were flying to Western Canada so I figured I'd have a set amount of uninterrupted time (other than a flight assistant asking me is I'd like something to drink, that is) (wouldn't mind interruptions like that at home, though) so why not try to take advantage of it.

In one of my little cosmetic bags I had my English Paper Piecing project; fabric cut with tiny paper shapes, thread, a couple needles, and thread snippers. First question was; would I make through security? Answer is Yes. No on questioned me about the contents. (I did have a friend once that had her eyebrow tweezers confiscated. We could never figure out why that was...did they think she'd groom someone to death??)

Once we took off and I read the Sky Mall magazine. That lasted about 20 minutes. Then it was time to see if I could get everything out without dropping anything...you see, I was in the middle seat. Voila! It was all out and my lap table was down and in position. I spread everything out with the overhead light on. Which I must say gave pretty darned good light.

Long story short, I only almost stabbed the woman next to me once. Moral of the story is not to work with a really long thread. My habit is to try to use a long thread so that I don't have to rethread the needle as often. However, that means that I pull up and to the right, but there was someone sitting on that side of me. Luckily she was sound asleep so there were no words exchanged or confiscation of my sewing.

Was this a good use of my time? All I'll say is that I sure thought that in 4+ hours I'd get a heck of a lot more done than this. So how long, I wonder will it take me to get the pillow done?