Pillow Party

I am hoping I am just in time for March Pillow Party over at Stitched in Color!  I finished this over the weekend for my nephew's 6th birthday next weekend.  I started with the print in the middle, 'Tasty Retreat' by Michael Miller.  I wanted to show his love of the outdoors; camping, exploring, messing around.  A log cabin style seemed to fit in with this nicely!

Possession is important when you are 6 years old, hence the property stamp- Versacraft ink again.  The other prints relect his interests- Lush dots for paint, a bit of Kumiko Fujita for the essential foods in life- biscuits, milk and cereal, and the other prints are for the outdoor life- wood, water, frogspawn- was my train of thought.

For the straight line quilting I used this rod thing that came with my walking foot to see how it worked.  I have not tried it before.  Great results, very straight lines but you can only quilt one way, maybe I have missed something here, I like to stitch in alternate directions for straight line quilting. 

  I also used the stitch in the ditch foot for my label following a tip I saw on one at Melissa's post as part of March of the Tools participants- it sews right to the edge of the label with ease.I loved this technique!  So easy and so useful.  I will be using this for top stitching on clothes and for stitching pockets down.

More tools, I found a great new chalk pen, the Signet marker, with loads of different colour refils at a quilt show on Friday.  The vendor got it out of the packet and showed me how good it was, less than £10, I was impressed! I used this for the first quilting line and to put in a lapped zip.  I used the sewing machine maintenance brush to remove it, worked a treat.  You can buy it in the UK with the same seller, Pauline's Patchwork, they have an excellent pen and marker selection!

I have been looking for something like this for ages, a good purchase with all the colour options and refillable too so no waste.  Nice and pointy too, the chalk sharpens with a pencil sharpener for a precise line.

I am sure Ted doesn't read my blog so I haven't spoilt his surprise!  He does love cuddly stuff so it should be well received, and a portable box of watercolour paints too so he can paint on the go.

Have a great start to the week x

Tooltastic

I thought I would share more handy tools  as part of Heather Bailey's blog feature.

These are sewing related again.  I get asked a lot about the ink I use for printing on fabric and here it is.  Versacraft is designed for fabric and other surfaces, is easily available ( I buy from Ebay) and heat sets with a hot iron.  It washes well and what more can I say- great stuff!

As I have mentioned before, I get arm and hand strain so anything which makes life easier is good- sprung scissors help a lot- these are Soft Touch Spring Action by Fiskars, nice and sharp and reasonably priced.  Without these I am really stuck, I can only use other scissors for a short time.  They are widely available.  The thread snips are invaluable for quilting and patchwork, anything with a multitude of threads.  Mine are Janome,Soft 'n Sharp Professional range, don't go mid or low range with these, I have found that option to be money down the drain.  They need to be super sharp quality blades to cut first time and so are a little more expensive be still reasonable.

I am sorry that there are no great revelations here and you may have seen all this stuff before, but just incase you haven't, my next choice is Fray Check.  Great around raw edge applique, helps you when your seam is too narrow and you worry it will fray, saves the raw edges of linen which is starting to fall apart- a sewing lifesaver

Rotary schmotary, yeah I know we've all seen rotary cutters before.  But, I have found that using a 28mm is a whole lot less strain on arms and hands than a 45mm.  The bigger size is good for cutting long, whole selvedge widths but this smaller one is great for everything else and gives better control.  Mine is an Olfa with an ergonomic retractable handle.

YLI Soft Touch thread is the best I have found for piecing (check out the PDF in that link for thread usage).  This is thinner than the YLI Machine or Sulky that I would use for quilting and strong and smooth for piecing.  It makes my points more accurate, it is finer so it doesn't swallow up the seam like quilting thread.  When a seam is just a quarter inch every bit counts and this has made my piecing a whole lot more accurate.

Any secret gadgets that make your life, sewing or otherwise easier? Do share...

Doll Quilt Complete

Finished at last. Doll Quilt Swap 10.  My secret partner likes intricate tiny piecing, traditional and modern fabrics and is generally easy going.  I knew what I wanted to do but this one took a while to make.  I listened to a podcast from Radio Lab, this one was called Help!, take a listen, like all Radio Lab podcasts it's an interesting journey.  Elizabeth Gilbert quotes Tom Waits describing the creative process.  Every song has a distinctive identity that it comes into the world with.

There are songs you have to sneak up on like hunting for a rare bird.  Then there are songs that come to you  fully intact like a dream taken through a straw.  There are songs that you find little bits of, like pieces of gum underneath the desk, and you scrape them off and you put them together.  And there are songs that need to be bullied into shape to give itself over.

This quilt was one of those.  I had to kick it into shape, give it a talking too, and ask it to sit by itself until it was ready to  co-operate.  

There is a song theme to it too- can you find it amongst all the words?  Look for the stamped text...

I used a lot of different processes to make it including hand stitching and hand quilting.  On Heather Bailey's blog,  she and others are sharing tools of any kind that make life a little easier.  Check Florence's for great ideas on fabric markers

These sticky dotties make hand sewing just that little bit easier and reduce strain.  I had RSI for a long time and it still gives me problems, especially hand sewing, so anything I can find to make life easier is worth buying.

These are invaluable.  They give grip and stop the needle leaving long indentations in my fingers too- I've got skinny fingers, not much cushioning!  I have bought them at Hobby Craft and you can find them elsewhere online.

For piecing fabric and machine quilting, I use Clover Non Slip Finger grip.  I don't know what this stuff is made of but it doesn't stain the fabric and it doesn't irritate my skin.  It gives you an extra bit of grip or purchase (almost archaic word usage there, but I like it) and again reduces strain.  Easily available in sewing shops and online.

You just rub it on the tips.  When you have a big pile of piecing it speeds it up and allows you to put those edges together quickly and easily. It is not hot and itchy like quilting gloves- which have their uses, and their drawbacks-this is easy, I love it.

And I'll end today with a bit of Tom, a snippet and the whole song is here