Monday 25 March 2024

Baa!

I know you must be on the edge of your seat wondering what I'm up to next so wonder no more!
My niece, Alice, in the UK is expecting a baby in August and as my husband is planning a trip back there in May I have to get a move on to get a quilt made for her so that he can deliver it.  I found lots of lovely quilts on The Red Boot Quilt Co website and asked my husband which one he liked best.  Jim chose the Counting Sheep one because it reminded him of when Alice was young and they enjoyed Shaun the Sheep together.  I purchased the pattern and realised it's a large quilt so my options were to make the blocks smaller or just make fewer blocks.  I'm not completely daft so I went with the fewer blocks option.


Then I used Word to plan my new smaller quilt.  It was at this point I wondered why I'd paid for a pattern ;-)


I bought my fabrics when Judy and I went on retreat.  I decided to make my sheep using wool felt.  Once I'd bought the felt I then matched the fabrics and luckily Spotlight were doing a deal on fat quatres woo!

Here are my fabrics.  This is the exciting part when nothing has gone wrong.  Yet.


I bought all the wool felt in those colours that the shop had in stock so I thought I'd just make sheep until it ran out.  I actually had enough felt to make the amount in my Word plan but I realised there would be 13 sheep and that's no good!  So I made 12.  I decided not to add the stars.


After working out how many I had of what I coloured in my plan.  


I tried to stick to my plan after that beautiful colouring in job but I did have to change some.  I was getting very confused so I had to lay the bodies out onto the background squares so that I could see what was what.  It didn't help that it took me a while to remember that all the sheep facing one way (A) were now (B) after I'd traced them onto appliqué paper, stuck them onto the felt then cut them out.  


I got as far as this and gave up.  When is May?  
I did have a little giggle to myself when I was prepping  these wool felt shapes remembering another quilt I made with wool felt.   I made a Hat Creek Quilts quilt and the designer, Dierdre Bond-Abel, had instructions for carefully cutting out the felt and lovingly hand stitching it to the background. Yeah, not going to happen.  So I used appliqué paper and steam ironed the living daylights out of that felt before machine stitching it onto my background.  I later ran into Dierdre at a quilt show and she winced when I described the machine stitching part of my (her?) quilt so the naughty part of me then went into great detail about the ironing just to see if she'd faint.  She didn't but it was close I think!

I think once I have the shapes stuck onto the fabrics I'll be able to move more quickly.  And there's nothing quite like a deadline to get you moving!


I've been attempting to do some exercise recently and bought myself a yoga mat.  I unrolled it, got my exercise book ready and when I turned around this is what I found.  So a quick shout out to all you Yoga experts out there...THIS is the downward dog position.  You've been doing it wrong your whole lives!  And no, I didn't have the heart to disturb her so I did my exercise right beside her on the floor.  I bet you thought I was going to say I gave the exercise a miss!  I was tempted...

Tuesday 19 March 2024

Quillows


Judy and I went to retreat last week from Tuesday to Friday and it was fantastic as usual!  On the Monday I realised that I had to go shopping for my grandsons birthday as I wouldn't have the opportunity while I was away before I saw them on Saturday.  So my husband and I went shopping.  My grandsons are Super Mario crazy at the moment and I'm sure they had everything Mario for Christmas so what was I going to get them?  They're not ungrateful children but I know if I didn't give them Super Mario something they'd be disappointed.  At the shops my husband went to the toy section to find something that would be fun for the boys but annoying for mum and I headed to the bedding section.  I found a Super Mario single quilt cover which I'm fairly certain they already have and I wondered how I could make something different out of the cover.  I decided on quillows!  A quillow is a quilt with a pillow pockets so you can fold the quilt up into the pocket when not in use as a quilt.

Easy peasy right?  Well kind of...if I didn't have to prep and quilt two quilts in one afternoon that is!

The quilt cover was great as it had good designs on the front and the back so I only needed to buy one.  I thought about quilting them both together but they were just too big so I cut them apart and realised that the fabric wasn't straight.  I did consider quilting them because I was in a hurry then squaring them up afterwards but thought that would be harder in the end.


This is one of the tops on my ironing surface, which is also my cutting surface.  I know I'm lucky to have it but it's a nuisance taking the cutting mat off and putting it back on only to take it off again.  In my next life I'm going to have separate surfaces!  Ooh yeah, more surfaces to pile my mess onto!


I put it on the frame and crossed my fingers all would go well.  


After I managed to turn my tablet the right way up so I could see what I was doing the quilting did go well.  I managed to cut my binding strips out while it was quilting and prep the second top. It took a couple of hours and there was no rest for the wicked and the second top had to go on the frame.


As I was going to retreat and I hadn't packed a single thing I decided I'd gather everything I'd need while this quilt was quilting.  Yeah, right.  The thread broke, then broke again...and again.  The machine stopped randomly and refused to move.  I was tearing my hair out!  By the last line the machine refused to finish the quilting so I decided I'd just cut it shorter ha ha!  In the end I realised only a quilter would notice the last line missing so I left it so both quilts would be the same size.

I swear these quilts almost did me in!

But that's ok because it was time for retreat yeah!!  Judy and I stayed in a lovely cottage on acreage just outside Ballarat.  On the way we went to The Crafty Sewing Sisters in Bacchus Marsh where I bought a lot of felt wool for my next project and we had a cake and a hot chocolate.  We then went to Gail's Patchwork Emporium via a very bumpy and dusty unsealed road through a forest.  Google maps!!  After that we went to Spotlight and then grabbed our groceries and made our way to our accommodation.

Judy took advantage of the design floor while I guzzled a bottle of wine...and sewed on the binding.  After that I had to make the pockets which I made out of the pillowcase.  They weren't the right size so I had to add a border.  Do you think I could work out how wide to cut my border fabric?  I cut it wrong three times!  Hmm do you think there's a link between messing up and the guzzling of the wine?  Surely not!

Well I got both pockets done and most of the binding hand sewn at the back.  Here is the one I finished on my bed at the retreat.


And here is the one on my floor I finished once I got home.


And here are the pillows!  Cute!  And my grandsons decided they were going to be movie night quilts especially once I told them they could stick their feet inside the pocket while the quilt was covering them.  Good luck to mum getting those quilts back inside the pockets mind you!


Judy brought a lot of things to retreat to finish off so in between leaving the rotary cutter uncovered, leaping on the table to take pictures and saving my life when a white tail spider decided I was going to be his midnight snack this is what she worked on...





Next up for me is a baby quilt that will be heading to the UK in May.  I'd better get a move on!

Sunday 25 February 2024

Say Cheese!

I started a new quilt!  This one is a belated gift for my friend, Sherryl, for her big 0 birthday back in December.  I knew it was going to be late but I was taking my time hoping somehow I'll be able to deliver it to her in Western Australia in person!  I'm still working on that part!



I bought my fabric at Spotlight.  A few of the fabrics looked like this!  The cutting tables have grooves for the scissors so that they can cut straightish lines so how does this happen??


I'm never a fan of following pattern instructions and I usually look at the picture and do my own thing.  This is a different kind of quilt so I'm following the instructions and I can't say I'm enjoying them very much.  There's nothing wrong with them as far as I can see but I'm spending far too long trying to work them out. 

Anyway, here are my fabrics cut out.  Of course now that I've piled everything on top of each other I have no idea what piece is what and when the pattern asks you to use a specific block I have to measure them all to make sure I have the right one.  I'm an idiot.  


The first thing I made was the binding.  Of course.


The pattern has eight drunkards path blocks.  The instructions wanted me to cut out freezer paper templates, iron them onto the fabric and then cut them out.  I only have a scrap of freezer paper left so I put my white fabric onto the pattern and traced it.  I couldn't do that with the black fabric as it's not see through so when I went to cut them out I paired each white block with a black block and cut them both together.



Then I sewed a drunkards path block very drunkenly.  


Oh dear.  Judy has been lying to me all these years saying how simple drunkards path blocks are!


I realised half my problem is that my hand isn't working properly so I'm unable to manoeuvre the fabric to align the edges.  Nothing that a bit of glue can't fix!

They're a lot better.  I don't think I'll be making a whole quilt of them in a hurry!


I followed the instructions and sewed a couple of pieces together in a line and then I had to sew that strip to another piece of fabric and it didn't fit!  I checked my measurements and they're all correct so I adjusted my seam allowance so that I'm not sewing a scant 1/4 inch seam and it went together.

The only problem is I sewed the strip on upside down.  I can see this little project taking me quite some time to finish at the rate I'm going. I might wait a bit before I book those flights to WA!

Sunday 18 February 2024

Just press the button and it magically quilts itself!

My friend, Joy, did the most beautiful embroideries on her embroidery machine.  I used to wind her up by saying there was no skill involved as she just pressed the start button and left the machine running while she had a cuppa with her feet up.  I knew there was a lot of work involved but it was fun teasing her! Well now I have a quilting frame and a machine with automation and people think I press a button and put my feet up with a cuppa! So let me tell you what goes into quilting a top...

This is the top in question.  Unfinished blocks were donated to Marie for her charity work and Annie loves a good challenge so she stitched them together.  Firstly, I made backing and binding and then I prepped the top.  I like to stitch 1/8 inch around the edge of the top.  If there are seams along the edges they often come undone so I make sure they're fixed.  There's no point in quilting something that's going to fall apart after the first wash!  This quilt had borders so the seams coming undone wasn't an issue but I like to do it anyway so it's like stay stitching a garment and when I'm rolling it on the frame the edges don't stretch or go wobbly.  I also like to add an extra border, which will be trimmed later, to the bottom as it tends to keep the quilt straighter for some reason.  


I then realised I didn't have any large amounts of batting so I ended up piecing one.  This one had nine joins in it!  The quilt police would arrest me for that!  But I somehow manage to keep it pretty flat so it works for me.  So far I've put in around 3 hours of work and it's not even on the frame!  The quilts I make myself don't take as long to prep as I do it as part of the quilt top construction.


The first step was to pin the backing to the top rail of the frame.


I then had to roll and smooth the backing so it was all rolled up on the top rail.


Then I had to pin the bottom of the backing to the belly rail.  I positioned this by eye but if I wanted to keep a backing really straight I'd have measured it carefully on the frame.  It's at this point that I realised I'd messed up and the take up rail was on the wrong side of the fabric!  Oops!  I blame Jill because she was chatting to me at the time ;-)


Thankfully the rail slid out and I easily repositioned it.  After that I had to roll and smooth the backing around the belly bar.  I used to pin the belly then the top when I first started but Lizzy from Grace advised me to do it the other way round.  It does go on neatly but it seems to be twice the work!


I realised that one of my rails was loose so I called Jim to come and fix it.  He fixed it.  Ahem.


Next I laid my batting on top of the backing and stitched a straight line across the top.  I used that straight line to position the top of the quilt so it was nice and straight and I stitched that down in the binding allowance.


Lots of things start happening next.  I have to turn on the automation, chose a design, plan the design, pull my hair out, make sure the sides are straight and secured, pull my hair out some more and then...I press the button and it magically quilts itself!  Kind of.

Years ago my quilters group had a quilt show and the lady we invited to judge the quilts was really impressed with the quality of our quilts but told me that she was disappointed that so many of them had loose threads and pet hair on them.  She was particularly annoyed with the threads the professional long arm quilters had failed to bury and trim so I make a point of checking the top for threads as I'm smoothing the quilt and during the quilting.  The funny thing is that lady has now ruined quilt shows for me because all I can see are loose threads and pet hair!  

This top didn't have many loose threads and most of them just pulled out.


I chose a design called Pansies.  It's a free design from Urban Elementz.


While the machine is doing it's thing I check for those loose threads, hope my thread doesn't break or my bobbin thread doesn't run out and I routinely push the encoder connections into the machine because they work themselves loose all the time.  If they aren't connected I end up with giant long stitches so it's better to keep an eye on them rather than fix the stitching when it goes wrong.


I also have to deal with the automation deciding in all kinds of weird and wonderful ways that it doesn't want to work.  This particular pop up is telling me that the machine is not connected to my automation.  I press retry enough times and it usually decided it is actually connected after all and just wanted to annoy me.


The machine quilts in rows and after each row I had to roll the quilt up, smooth the new part down, secure the edges, check for loose threads...

This quilt was kind and ran out of bobbin thread while I was stitching the sides down so that meant there was no repair in the middle of the quilt.  Every time I change a bobbin I have to clean the bobbin case and bobbin area with a brush.  Look at the lint!


I then decided to start cutting out fabric for a new quilt and was punished for walking away from the machine when the thread snapped.


It's a terrible picture but the thread had formed a giant knot in the top guide.  I think the there was an issue with the thread rather than the machine.  Anyway, I repaired the quilting and buried my threads in the quilt and pressed go and went and did some more fabric cutting.  I like to live dangerously.


It takes hours to quilt a quilt but all of a sudden you reach the point where you're on the last row.  It is compulsory at this point to do a happy dance!  I was obviously too happy though because the machine punished me with three thread breakages and then I ran out of bobbin thread.  Arghhh!


And then it's done!  I unrolled the quilt and admired all my hard work.  My faithful hound is just exhausted with the effort!


The quilt is going to hang there until I can muster up the energy to stitch the binding on.  If it's this much work why do I do it?  I love it!  I no longer have to baste my quilts or kill my back and shoulders pulling it through the domestic machine and I'd never in a billion year be able to free motion quilt to a standard I'd be happy with.  Plus I now have the incentive to make more quilt tops knowing I can actually finish them!  I do wish that I could just press that magic button though...

Baa!

I know you must be on the edge of your seat wondering what I'm up to next so wonder no more! My niece, Alice, in the UK is expecting a b...