Quilt Prep

I have the first baby quilt all pieced. Woo hoo! I've watched Elizabeth Hartman talk about putting the quilt sandwich together. So, since this quilt is small, I thought I'd give it a shot.

I measured the quilt top (36"x36") and added two inches on each side. So I cut the batting 38"x38". The cute fabric I bought for the quilt back wasn't quite wide enough, so I had the opportunity to put a couple strips down the back (which made me happy; love that look!). Now I cut the back 40"x40".
 
I pressed everything including the batting so that it was very smooth. Next I put the backing down wrong side up and used painters tape to keep it stable. I like 505 spray adhesive  so I gave the backing a quick spray then put down the batting.

Elizabeth rolls the batting and lays it down two inches from the bottom and sides. Then it's carefully unrolled.

 Now another quick spray of 505 and lay down the rolled up quilt top.

 Here's the end result which was very nice to work with.

 

Jacquie Gehring suggests the quilt sandwich be pressed. This does make the adhesive more permanent. Now I'm happy to say that I was able to quilt the top and didn't have one of those darned wrinkles stitched into the back which I'm so used to seeing. If you don't use this method, you might want to give it a try; it makes for a neat and tidy quilt top which is great as I move forward with my work on precision. 
 

Thought You'd Like to Know

This week I'd like to share some creative things that different people out there are doing...

The first is one of my favorite sewing accessories: it's a pincushion ring.

I bought it in December from Bee Wise Bags on Etsy. It's just so handy to stick a pin in as I'm stitching. And as I move from my machine to the ironing board; it's right there with me. I don't have to look around to see where I left my pin cushion. There are a lot of different styles out there so I encourage you to go out and take a look.

The other thing I wanted to share is a tutorial I found through Pinterest. It's called a Selvage Bag and was designed by Heather Louise. You can see it on her blog How Do You Do That Again but the really clever part is how the snap closure works. You know the kind; you pull the sides to open it then when you push the  sides together it snaps closed. Heather uses a couple of pieces from a metal measuring tape for the closure. Brilliant! I had hoped to stitch one up for this post, but that just isn't going to happen, so I wanted to be sure to share. Take a look and give it a try!

Embroidery Con't.!

I'm still working on my grande Stupendous Stitching. I'm at the stage where I'm embellishing with hand embroidery and beading and enjoying every stitch.

I thought in this post I'd show some of my favorite sections of my wall hanging and show you how to do a favorite stitch.

The one thing I'd like to say I've learned; even if you do the stitch differently than a book or web site shows, it doesn't matter. It's a great opportunity to turn the lemons into lemonade! That's kinda what happened here...I struggled a bit with the stitch but enjoyed how it turned out and add a few beads; what's not to like?!

 
I like this yellow stitch too. I wanted to just go wherever my fingers led me and I came up with this fun wandering stitch that goes from east to west on my piece..

Here's the Double Knot Stitch that I wanted to show. I found it in Mary Thomas's Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches New Edition by Jan Eaton. Once again, I have this one going the entire width of my piece.

Here's how you do it:  Take a stitch and bring the needle  right up next to where you entered.

Loop the threads underneath the initial stitch. Bring it around and hold the loop down with your thumb. Now slide the needle underneath the initial stitch and then over where you came up the second time. Whew! Thank goodness it's easier to do it than to write! Take a look:

Give it a tug and you have a lovely little knotted stitch.

Give this stitch a try, you'll get the hang of it in no time. Enjoy!

Design Wall Workout

Still working on those baby quilts. I have the half square triangles all cut (woo hoo!). So I spread them out on the floor like I am used to doing. Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw my design wall. I've been using it to hang up unfinished projects (so it was kinda full). I decided to suck it up and take them all down making room for my first baby quilt.

I am happy to say that it did help tremendously. I was able to actually move the blocks around spreading out the pale pinks and aqua in a pleasing format that I was sure I couldn't do on the floor.

Then I was ready to start sewing the blocks together. Thinking back to past projects, I remembered how easy it is for me to sew the wrong two blocks together even though I carefully stack them all up.

I decided to use blue painters tape and label each piece: rows were numbers and columns were letters.

 

Here's a close up:

 

I'm happy to say it worked beautifully.  

 

By taking a little time to use the tape, I saved time which would have been spent ripping out. Win win!

Make it So

I've been commissioned to make two more necktie pillows! As I've mentioned before, I learned the hard way that paper piecing is the right way to go. Undoubtedly I'll be working with small pieces of silk and polyester; both cut on the bias so the stability paper piecing provides is important.

Mrs. S who would like the pillows for her two sons, had a photo of a family quilt that she admired. It's made up of several blocks, but the traditional bow tie block was the one that Mrs. S really admired.

So I powered up EQ and came up with some samples. These would be 14" square pillows:

 

Initially Mrs. S. liked #3 best, but ended up selecting #2. I think it's a great choice too.  

My next step is to make a sample. Remember it's important that I can paper piece the design. Here's what EQ gave me:

 

If you're initial thought was Eeeeeeeeeek! That's pretty much what I said too. But, I thought I'd give it the ol' college try.  Since the pattern doesn't really lend itself to paper piecing, I stabilized the fabric and cut out enough to try one 1/4 of the block.

 The end result wasn't pretty. So much so that this is all I'm willing to share: 

 So what to do? Luckily, my friend Kathy F. invited me over to practice EQ, so I was able to take my project with me. With Kathy and friend Betsy's help, we increased the block size to 6" (rather than 3") and added two lines. I think you'll agree that we came up with a much better alternative solution.

I ended up with a better pattern and ultimately the end result will be better as well. Here's an idea of the finished block:

How will it actually stitch out with a variety of neckties to work with? I'll have to wait and find out, but at least I have a game plan that will provide a great result.

 

Decorative Stitches are a Good Thing

I really enjoy the Craftsy classes. And one of my favorites is Stupendous Stitching taught by Carol Ann Waugh. In the course you learn great techniques; including both hand and machine embroidery.

One of the first things you do is develop a Stitch Bible. And this is mine:

It is actually a sampling of every decorative stitch available on my machine. I've had other quilting instructors recommend something similar. One that I saw looked like an old fashioned sampler that could have been framed it was so beautiful. In my case, you can see that I was going for the 'utilitarian' look rather than a piece of artwork!

It's not difficult to do; just be sure you use a stabilizer with each page. That is very important so that the stitches lie flat. In my case, I knew I wanted to use striped fabric so that my stitches would be straight. (As you'll see, I still wasn't totally successful, but trust me it looks better than if I had winged it!) After you get all of the pages done, you can put them in those clear notebook pockets if you like. In my case I just stacked them up, stitched from end to end and then added a fabric binding to hide the stitching.

Oh, and one other thing you can do...you'll see in the example below that I tried some of the stitches with different stitch lengths/widths just to get an idea of what I could customize.

As I mentioned before, putting something like this together isn't difficult, but it is certainly tedious. I had over 100 stitches to sample! But, I have to say, in the end it was definitely worth it and I'd recommend everyone give it a try. I've used my little book on many occasions and I'm not sure I'd have turned to my decorative stitches so often if I only had that little card to refer to that came with my machine.

Give it a try and I'll bet you'll be glad you did!



Downloading an Embroidery Design

There are a lot of sites that provide embroidery designs. And for some of us that is a good thing! One that I've used is called Urban Threads. It has some great contemporary designs. In this post, I'm going to write about selecting a design and how to use it.

Magpie Quilters has a challenge we're working on; everyone has a piece of linen/cotton and is to embellish one square for each member of the group. Only rules are that the finished piece is to be 3.5"x3.5", a clear quarter inch band around the perimeter (to allow it to be sewn into a project), and the embellishment must include some green. Pretty simple, eh?

When I sat down to decide what I wanted to do, I knew I'd like to do some hand embroidery and maybe some beads. Then I started to think about the design. hhmmm. There are flowers, geometrics...oh, and there are Celtic Knots. I have a soft spot in my heart for Celtic Knots. 

So I went onto the Urban Threads site to see what they had. There were a few different Celtic Knots to choose from. After looking through them and deciding what I wanted to do, this is the one I selected.

You can see that when purchased, the design can be either for hand or machine embroidery. In my case I wanted it for hand embroidery.  Next I considered what I'd have to do to get that pattern on fabric myself (via light box - assuming I had one!) I thought the price of $1 was reasonable. Once I paid the fee, I received an email from Urban Threads with the download which I saved to my hard drive:

 As I mentioned previously, I don't have a light box, so I had to look for an alternative to get the design on my fabric.  I shrunk the pattern down to about a 3" square and printed two copies. Then I got a piece of freezer paper, ironed it onto my fabric and ran it through my printer. Voila!

The nice thing about having the design on a bigger piece of fabric is that I'm able to put it in a hoop. I decided to use the simple back stitch  with a very fun and colorful embroidery thread.

I'm really pleased with the result. I'll use the same Celtic Knot again and change it up a bit.  Maybe some  beads...love to use beads. If you're interested in adding embroidery to a project, give some of the web sites like Urban Threads a look; you might find something inspiring that will really compliment your project. Happy stitching!

Fabric Journal for Lois

My friend Lois' birthday is in a couple weeks. I pondered about what to give her when a little light bulb went off over my head...a fabric folder would be ideal. My friend Kathy G. brought some cute fabric journal covers to the Columbus Modern Quilt Guild meeting for show and tell. And as I recall, she said she had a tutorial on her Kwilty Pleasures blog. I took a look at it and saw the genius in its simplicity.

Now to the fabric...I know!...I have fat eights of the entire Collage collection. It has a coffee cup design on some of the fabric and Lois loves coffee. But that would mean I have to cut it (gasp!). That's something I've been trying to avoid. Okay, this is a good cause I tell my self and take a deep breath. Whew! So I pick out fabric for the journal cover.

In the tutorial, the outside of the cover is sewn in diagonal strips. Since I want the coffee cups to be front and center, I take a little creative license with the design and am very happy with the results:

 

 

Now its time to select the fabric for the inside pockets and lining. Although I do have the entire collection they are fat eighths. And (of course) I can't get two pockets and the lining out of one piece of the fabric (bummer). The pockets are designed by folding a large piece of fabric in half, so I sewed together a piece of fabric to match the lining to the outside pocket fabric (it kinda looks like deconstructed coffee cups, doesn't it?)

 

  

So I put the pockets together and top stitch them when that darned light bulb started flickering again; I forgot to quilt the cover of the folder! I wanted to do something simple and geometric. I decided to quilt around the perimeter of the folder in a continuous line and then keep sewing around - a Grecian key kind of design. I have a tool that I think is typically used by long armers, but it's nice and small with lines on it that help me keep my lines straight and even.

 

Next I just assemble the pieces and leave a section open so it can be turned right side out. Then a nice top stitch with a pretty heavy variegated thread .

Voila! I lovely journal cover. Now I just need to get a tablet to slip inside. I know Lois is going to love it. Thanks Kwilty Pleasures for sharing such a fun project on your blog!