Month: September 2015

Stars in Your Eyes

by Kay, posted in Quilting from Little things

I am trying to finish off all the UFOs that are languishing in bags or boxes and this little dolly is one of them. Instead of making the dolly quilt ‘Peaks and Troughs’ I decided to make a section of the larger quilt that is paired with it – ‘Stars in Your Eyes’

The purpose of both quilts is to teach you how to do ‘L’ and ‘Y’ seams and I should have read the beginning of the chapter where it says ‘L’s are easier then ‘Y’s but I was entranced by the lovely stars on the full size quilt so bypassed the dolly to make a star – intending that it could become a cushion cover. The first lot of photos are over two years old which tells you something.

The first part was easy enough – strip piece five fabrics, fold in half and cut out triangles with the widest part of the triangle ruler on the fold line. When opened out you have diamond shapes to play around with, which I did

The next part involved making a diamond-shaped template for the inset piecing, cutting the fabric and then attaching using Y seams and that is where it started going wrong. I found it in a bag with only one piece set in, rather badly, and a second piece attached by one seam and the inner corner slightly chewed…..It was obvious why I had set it to one side for so long.

Still I had to finish it and it wasn’t so bad this time round. It definitely helped having a better machine and after one false start it was done. No great dramas; the key was ignoring the dots that marked a quarter inch seam and feeling where it was and then marking it. Also I left the needle down the whole time when repositioning the fabric contrary to Sarah’s instructions

Stars in Your Eyes

On reflection it was on the large side for a cushion cover once squared off so I bound it as it is. A certain furry someone certainly appreciates it!

Now, where are those little fans for ‘Fanfare’ hiding…..

 

Slow Stitching Sunday and TGQP

by Kay, posted in The Global Quilting Project

We have confirmation that another member has pulled out of The Global Quilting Project and that another is definitely staying in so I am busy making a second block. I have nearly finished and just need to complete two more yellow applique ‘suns’ to mirror the applique blue/green ‘earths’. Other members of the Balkan Puzzle group have also made an extra block to boost numbers so I am doing my bit too

Applique for TGQP

I may even get to post them tomorrow but I have an interview so they might have to wait for Tuesday – we’ll see!

Spring Cleaning

by Kay, posted in Quilting from Little things, Spring

I thought drawing the spiral on the fabric in pen could go horribly wrong – even if it does have 2 sides! An easier and less fraught way is to iron it into place and reposition as needed. After that I put it on the glass table top and tacked it on with very large stitches; simple.

The second difficulty I had was doing the needle turn applique partly because the fabric glue I bought was useless so I used a quilting pin to hold the leaves in place. This didn’t really work as it didn’t hold it flat enough to the fabric. The ends of the leaves, I found particularly fiddly and I did not want to use the freezer paper method. The precision of this method doesn’t go with the naïve style of this quilt.

In the end I tacked the edges under and once the end of the leaf was attached to the spiral there was no need to glue it in place, I just held it with my thumb which allowed for some manoeuvring if need be. In the end I made too many leaves but I squeezed them on anyway!

IMGP4368

When it came to quilting, I had lots of embroidery thread but only a couple of spools of perle cotton. I am following Sarah on Facebook so I emailed her to ask if embroidery thread was ok. She kindly replied the same day and said that the stranded embroidery thread would split and to stick with perle. An order on EBay sorted that out.

I enjoyed the handwork for this project and remembered how much I used to like embroidery – I got grade A for ‘O’ level embroidery – don’t know anyone else who has it. Most people don’t know it exists!

This is a very enjoyable project for hand sewers just right for Slow Sunday Stitching, but not if you love your machine.

And the title? Originally this was on a page but I tidied up the page to change this to a link

Are You Ready to Tumble?

by Kay, posted in WIPs

This is the title for Bonnie K. Hunter’s Leader and Ender Challenge 2015 and I am now ready having calculated and cut nearly 300 tumblers using my Dear Jane triangle ruler. I didn’t want to buy a new ruler and it works just fine

I love the look of the tumblers all stacked up ready to use, almost like a treble sized layer cake. The striped material came in fat quarter bundle and I didn’t know what to do with it but now it is perfect for this project as it unites the colours in the rest of the tumblers. Many of the fabrics in this quilt will be orphans from bundles I thought were out of place, or others that I bought when I first started quilting and really bought because they were cheap to get my stash started – not because I loved them! Some are the last pieces of fabrics I did like and all of them are more muted than I usually go for now, but…. I am on a mission to use up any fabrics that have been languishing in the stash otherwise it is a waste of resources. The once tidy stack is now jumbled up ready for piecing

Tumblers ready to be pieced

 

Bonnie’s Leader and Ender Challenge is also about cutting down on waste and she clearly explains her motives in this post. She is also re-purposing a ruler – using a Dresden plate ruler to make tiny tumblers from a 2.5 inch strip! Mine are cut from a 4.5 inch strip so I will finish fairly quickly.

The idea, in brief, is to use the tumblers as bridging pieces of material between your projects when you are chain-piecing instead of a thread bunny and to avoid leaving long tails of thread that can clog up your machine. I have been making blocks for the RSC15 Challenge, The Block Lotto and improvised log cabin blocks for my second entry for The Global quilting Project 2015 so I have already put together nearly half of my tumblers.

It is going to be a large lap quilt for the settee as the one on there at the moment is a lightweight summer quilt in bright colours and I want a heavier warmer one in more muted shades, I have bought an old but good condition wool blanket from a charity shop for the wadding.

So I am using up neglected fabric, saving thread by using the tumblers as leaders and enders, re-using an old blanket, re-purposing a ruler, having a warmer quilt so I don’t put on the heating unnecessarily and making more than one quilt at the same time. If only I hadn’t given away my Nan’s treadle Singer sewing machine I could have saved electricity too!  I think that covers ‘Reduce, Re-use and Recycle’ pretty well, don’t you?

Purple Pain

by Kay, posted in Quilt-a-Longs, RSC15

Do you remember a certain singer who decided that a symbol would represent him instead of a name? Well that’s how I remembered him after twisting the title of one of his songs. Now that’s what I think of this block. I just kept getting it wrong and the final product is wrong, but I like it the way it is. Nothing to do with the instructions, they were fine, but I have a bad habit of making things late at night when I should go to bed. I am tired and I make mistakes, fortunately it’s not brain surgery!

Purple pain RSC15

It was supposed to be Carrie Nation but I completely forgot to add a third purple to the small squares which are supposed to run through the middle, so I played around with the arrangement and made this instead. Not so much Carrie Nation as Frustration!

I was multi-tasking and making more than one block so I could chain piece but things went awry, never mind the end result is going in the final quilt anyway!

Another purple block still to be made yet. Watch this space

Churn Dash and Mini Sawtooth Star

by Kay, posted in RSC15

What a boring title LOL  I hope the blocks aren’t boring though! As usual I used as many different fabrics as I could. Traditionally a churn dash block is made in two fabrics, I used seven but this is a scrap challenge quilt so I only had small amounts of a couple of them. Now they are even smaller!

RSC15 churn dash

I love the little mini sawtooth star inside the bigger one. The greens for this block are completely different to the previous one; it’s not until you put them together that you can see how much variety there is in one colour.

RSC15 mini saw tooth star

Now I have a third green block to make. The flying geese are ready and waiting for the inner block but I haven’t decided which one to do. Angela has a lot of choice over at So Scrappy which you can visit HERE

This month the blocks are all orange and I really like the ‘whirling blades’ block but I have already made my orange blocks https://thecraftyyak.wordpress.com/2015/09/12/a-couple-of-oranges/ and https://thecraftyyak.wordpress.com/2015/09/11/a-bird-in-the-hand-and-why-i-chose-this-block/

Maybe I have found my third green block!

One In, One Out

by Kay, posted in Uncategorized

Books, that is, except it isn’t working out that way. The lure of the bootsale proved too strong last Wednesday and the lure of books even stronger. I wasn’t going to buy any but I saw an interesting looking cover (I know, don’t judge a book etc., etc.) that had no writing on it but looked very old. The minute I opened it I had to have it. Beautiful engravings of birds and animals, foxed in places, but mostly in good condition leapt out at me. I love engraving and one day I want learn it myself.

It is a strangely bound copy of Cassel’s Natural History and there are pages missing and it seems to be various volumes bound together, not always in the right order, but I bought it for the illustrations so none of that matters – and it was only £1.00!

This was followed by three more books; two volumes on Wayside and Woodland Blossoms with lovely colour plates and the British Girls Annual; also only £1.00 each.

The British Girl’s Annual is dated 1918 and is full of stories and poems, plays ‘that can be entirely acted by girls’ and hobbies. It is not all girlish; Doron might be ‘frightfully queeny’, but there are dogfights in the air and cowboys too. The chapter called ‘The Girl’s Own Bookshelf’ has suggestions for the books about cookery, and nursing at home but also art, literature, poetry, science – even a primer of evolution.

I thought as I haven’t even unpacked all the books from storage I better get rid of some via EBay as I have bought more – four books bought and four listed. Now let’s hope they sell

I also bought a little sewing box destined to be painted and then to hold my EPP projects as I sit downstairs to do those when I am Slow Sunday Stitching

IMGP5156 IMGP5154 Socks the cat

I’m sure that cat is sticking her tongue out at me!

 

 

Pink To Make The Boys Wink!

by Kay, posted in Quilt-a-Longs, RSC15

Catching up with the sawtooth stars, although the alternating blocks are still to be tackled!

RSC15 snowballs RSC15 bear pawish

We associate pink with girls ( in the West) but it was not always so as this article by Polly Curtis writing for the Guardian, points out;

“Interestingly Goldacre quotes in the same piece newspaper articles from the earlier part of the 20th century in which mothers were encouraged to dress their boys in pink and girls in blue, proof he says that clothing tastes change over time. He writes:

Back in the days when ladies had a home journal (in 1918) the Ladies’ Home Journal wrote: “There has been a great diversity of opinion on the subject, but the generally accepted rule is pink for the boy and blue for the girl. The reason is that pink being a more decided and stronger colour is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.”

The Sunday Sentinel in 1914 told American mothers: “If you like the colour note on the little one’s garments, use pink for the boy and blue for the girl, if you are a follower of convention.”

You can find the full article HERE and there are some other interesting points about stereotyping for toy preference.

My mother wasn’t one for sticking to the stereotypes; I almost exclusively wore blue, one of my sisters had a train set and none of us were particularly interested in dolls. My main interest was making them clothes rather than ‘make-believe’ that they were alive.

I think things are actually worse today – Lego is a prime example – once advertised in the 70 and 80s as a toy for children, now it is segregated into ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ sets.

Compare their philosophy and old adverts to the ‘modern’ ones Here A huge step backwards and making 5 year old girls worry about their appearance rather than just playing with toys is a disgrace

Feeling Blue

by Kay, posted in RSC15

Completed three blocks for the RSC15 but not all of them have worked out the way I wanted.  Actually they are not even meant to be blue but one light blue and two turquoise. I have one more light blue to do

Here they are, can you spot the mistake 😦

The light blue looks the same as the turquoise ones! – it’s the one on the right of ‘whirling geese’ I think the main problem is the colour of the geese on the outside. Perhaps a little reverse sewing and substitution is called for, like this –

RSC15 whirling geese alternative

Not sure I like the square in the middle or white geese either! This is the first block that I haven’t really liked much since starting this project so I think it’s best if I put it to one side and carry on with the other colours for now and hope things turn out a bit better!