Paint box

For the first time in ages, I completed a Bee block in the right month.  In Cocorico, Amy had asked for blocks from the 'Artist's Studio', great theme!  I knew where this was going.  When I want to do a quick colour sketch, I reach for my little water colour box, and that was my inspiration.  I drew this out on quilter's graph paper and used that to rotary cut and improv piece the block. 

  I am not a massive fan of rainbow themes.  I find them a bit predictable, they don't excite me, but this works for me with all the patterns and prints, old and new.  

  The hardest thing to piece was the paint brush, straightforward by itself but an awkward shape to fit into the rest of the block.

The smudgy multi-coloured vintage fabric was a bit of a gamble.  It was meant to represent colour mixing in the lid palettes but I think in hindsight a dirty moda grunge in cream would have been better  and given a little more clarity to the design, but I like the little cubes of paint.  

 My favourite part of sewing a block like this is choosing the fabric, put little words and pictures that fit, love that!

Basket

Charise has the last month in 318 Patchwork Bee and she chose baskets.  I restrained myself from making the sewing basket, I am designing a sewing basket block for Sew Out Loud quilt-a long so I went for knitting, just in case Charise feels she wishes to take up a new hobby.

This is 6.5" with tricksy Y seams to make the handle at the top.  I used my new favourite tiny ruler to add a generous 1/4 inch to my freezer paper pieces, the block is template style piecing rather than foundation.  

I do love the designs in this book, the simplicity and boldness of them is a constant reminder to me to keep it simple, less is more.  The basket is made with Kumiko Fujita fabric, possibly my favourite all time text fabric as there are so many great words and motifs to fussy cut.

The blue yarn is Suzuko Koseki fabric- currently available at Kit's shop The Happy Elephant on Etsy, an excellent source of text, Japanese fabrics and general loveliness.  The needles were bias strips and the tops are buttons cut from a Kaufman print 'Vintage Couturier' all sewn on with needle turn applique.  I used to be a ferocious knitter.  When Lula was born I made her cardigans, hats, jumpers all from beautiful yarns.  Moderation is not in my vocabulary, all or nothing and I did way too much!  My hands and wrists can't take that any more and I sold all my knitting supplies a few years ago but I do love seeing yarn projects pop up over Flickr and Twitter and a small part of me aches just a little to be able to knit again.

Now, back to completing a quilt, I am trying a quilt-as-you-go technique and will share next week.   At the moment it is proving to be tedious but effective.

 Meanwhile the Sew Out Loud QAL starts tomorrow at Julianna's blog!  Details of the final block competition can be found here- start preparing now, the judge is Suzuko Koseki, yes I know, I can't believe it either!

Spring Swoon

So yesterday was cold but sunny and my little pot of hope started to flower...

there is a little more light in the day.  This week I have been working on Swoon block 2 and I went for spring colours, fresh light prints. I used a mix of Amy Butler Soul Blossom voiles and Anna Maria Horner Little Folks.  The cream is Kona Snow.

I also bought a big A2 industrial cutting mat from Creative Grids.  I was a little nervous buying this online, I had one very badly mailed in the past but this one arrived well packaged and is excellent quality!  I also ordered the mini ruler you can see in the pic above, perfect for adding 1/4 seam to little pieces when freezer paper piecing.  I cannot recommend Creative Grids rulers more highly, they grip the fabric so reduce slippage when you cut, easily my favourite rulers.

Today, there is no sun just rain and cold but even late in the afternoon it is light enough to take photos .  Swoon is a bit of a palette cleanser for me, all I have to do is systematically follow instructions, arrange pieces into piles, chain pieces and make assembly lines.  It all fits together like magic

Half term next week so a week off work, time for us all to get over colds, coughs and laze around.  And whilst lazing, finish a quilt for my sister, make a dress for a wedding invitation and make a few bee blocks, plus a few other things to design and plan.

Enjoy your weekend!

I Swoon, you Swoon, they Swoon, we all Swoon

At last I found a little window of time to make my first Swoon block.  All the support and inspiration you could even need is in Katy's Swoon Quilt A Long group on Flickr.  This project would never have started without it.

I have to be very disciplined to sew a big block like this successfully.  A series of assembly lines is needed, stacks of half square triangles waiting to be sewn.  I used a Frixion pen for all my lines and a walking foot for sewing the slippy sliding Little Folks voile

Pins are definitely needed with the voile.  Along the way I must have 'lost' a square here and a piece there a 100 times.

I enjoyed this a lot more than I ever imagined I would.  The block design is simple but very effective and is just what I was looking for with the Little Folks- I know many of you suggested Swoon when I asked what I should make with these fabrics.

Cutting does take ages but I am working only one block at a time so it is easily manageable.  It is a whopper, a mini quilt in itself, 24.5" x 24.5.  I am going for the full 9 blocks but slowly, slowly.

Pressing the seams open is worth the extra effort and made joining a lot easier.  The thiness of the voiles really helps and they have a lot of give, handy when I am trying to match up points.

I am actually bursting to make another but I I have promised my sister a quilt for her birthday, end of February so more Swooning will have to wait.

The Camera Never Lies

I am normally up to date with my bee blocks but Amy's Ocotober Ringo Pie block slipped by the wayside.  Her theme was 'The Camera Shop'.   I have been saving images for a while, I was all ready to do a vintage Super Color Polaroid Land camera with a solid green polaroid coming out of it.  I drafted it, bought rainbow ribbon and kept trying to put time aside to work it through.  It never really appeared in my head, I had the concept but I couldn't visualise it and no fabric was talking to me.  Last week, a new idea crept in, fully formed, fabrics, details- I could see them all.

A vintage film canister, Kodak inspired.  I am lucky.  I have a great memory for colour.  The biggest swatch board is in my head. Unfortunately, once I think of a fabric or a colour, I then have to find it,  search round the zillions of different places where I store fabric.  Most of my stash is small pieces, half yards, fat quarters, scraps.  With this block, I pulled the fabric in minutes and unusually the vintage fabric is the background.

This could only be Amy's block.  She is an intensely creative person, her work has great colour and imagination.  Her personality comes through it as I think it does for us all.  You may not have met your blogging friends in person but you have seen their inner imagination and personality through their work.  

Fabrics- Vintage floral print, vintage green solid, Kona school bus with versacraft ink stamp, Sweetwater Authentic Newsprint, Suzuko Koseki text/number fabrics, Kona Brown, tiny squares of Denyse Schmidt's Katie Jumps Rope.  

 

To build a house you need good tools

This little house block is from the Kumiko Fujita Bonjour quilt- you can see her videos for it here.  The images come from a Japanese magazine, Patchwork Tsushin (sorry not easily available though I have seen copies on ebay) but you can get the idea from the youtube clip.

I wanted to try the hand piecing that Kumiko shows in one of the blocks.  I bought a few tools to test- a clover finger presser and clover black gold needles.  Do you notice the big reel of Aurifil?  Sometimes you need to splash out on the apparently humdrum- good thread is worth the spend- ask any sewing engineer and Alice at  Eternal Maker is stocking a huge range of colours in the mako 50wt.  I bought 2310 neutral cream and 2615 grey- each have 1300 metres on so they will keep me going.  I might have talked my local machine and sewing shop into stocking it.  As they service and mend machines they are interested in its non lint making properties.  Mr Aurifil has sent them some testers, I hope they buy it in.

Do those things make a difference- boy yes!  The needles are very fine and sharp, they are going to make the next binding I finish a lot easier.  The finger presser is fantastic, there are many times when I piece when a little marker of where the seam is would just help and this gives the perfect line without burning my fingers handling a tiny piece of fabric and an iron.  It also means you can hand piece without an iron so piecing work could be portable, nice to know for the future.  The reverse shows the inset seam where the background joins the roof, all hand sewn.  I am not up to Kumiko's standard but it was an interesting exercise.

It does take ages though so I machined the rest of the house

This is a slow burn project which I return to once a month or so and it is always a pleasure.  I have a loose red, white and blue theme going on but otherwise I just go where the fabric mood takes me.

It has been a messy weekend- we have no cooker due to problems connecting a new one (my new kitchen is nearly all done), so toast based meals and a camping gas ring have featured heavily this weekend.  I have a heavy cold, being self employed I am grateful for this coming at the weekend but it does make me feel crappy and Damian is going under too so we have been taking it in turns to go back to bed.  Better now then in the Christmas holiday but achey heads, bodies and sore noses are never good.  Cooker comes Tuesday so I hope to show you my revitalised kitchen- you know how I love kitchens.  Back tommorow witha little giveaway courtesy of Nova

Candy Cane Love Pot Holder

Thankyou for so many supportive comments for my new Candy Cane Love pattern and for the sales too!  I thought I would show you a bit more of the pot holder which uses the square Candy cane block.  

The finished block in the pattern is 6" square, the perfect size for the pot holder pattern on Oh Fransson quilted pot holder Tutorial.  This is an excellent pattern and has a great pocket feature on the reverse.

I used Florence, my new machine, to practice a bit of free motion quilting.  Lynne has been trying FMQ and asked for advice here and the comments include a lot of useful tips.  I have done a little free motion before- it makes my arms ache so I only do small areas.  I keep the feed dogs up, use a darning foot, machinger gloves, adjust the tension wheel to 7 and have a thinner bobbin thread e.g. YLI soft touch or Aurifil 50.  I think it varies hugely according to sewer and machine. The most useful thing for me was practicing drawing out the patterns over and over again on scrap paper.  Getting the doodling loose and free prepares my brain for the same patterns with the needle.

I can get a reasonable front and back tension balance and fairly even stitches.

My patterns always end up a bit smaller than I anticipated.  I think if I did more free motion quilting it would loosen up a bit. 

Or maybe if I drank more...and then quilted.

I hope to put another post up soon showing how I use the pattern alignment marks to match up the different sections.  Can you just about make up the free motion writing around the edge?  t'is the season to be jolly

Would you like a little music?  Last weekend I watched a great documentary looking at 20 years of Pearl Jam on BBC4.  I was a massive fan in the early 90s, it made me feel a little old as it captured a time that I didn't realise was so far behind me.   Saying that I am much happier person now than I was then, so I leave you with a bit of Eddie Vedder

Happy weekend x

Candy Cane Mini Tote Bag Tutorial

My new Candy Cane Love pattern pdf includes two canes in mirror image which join together to make a candy cane heart.  The block is perfect for a mini tote bag.

A little bag perfect for putting filling with treats or a present in itself!  The finished tote bag is 7.5" Square.  There is a gadget at the bottom of the post for printing this pattern with and without the photos.

To make a Mini Tote you will need:

For the front- 7"x7" Square Candy Cane heart block (pattern available to buy here).  You could use any quilt block 7" square. 

Sashing strips for the front blocks-2 strips 1" x 7" and 2 strips 1"x 8"from a co-ordinating fabric

For the back-8"x8"Square from the same co-ordinating fabric as the strips

For the Straps- Cut 2 strips 3"x 8" from same co-ordinating fabric

Lining-Cut 2 squares 8"x8", contrasting fabric

Fusible Fleece- 2 squares  8"x8".  I used Vilene 630 fleece interlining (supplied by Julia at Gone to Earth).  You could also use cotton batting or interfacing.

Sewing supplies-thread, rotary cutter etc.

Step 1- Sashing the front

Stitch sashing strips to the top and bottom of the 7" square block.  Press seams away from the block.  Repeat adding sashing strips to the left and right sides.  Block should now be 8 x 8".  

Step 2- Making the Handles

Take the 3" x 8" handle strips and fold length ways so the long edges meet and press.  Open out and bring both long outer edges in towards the centre fold.  Leave a small gap, less than 1/8 inch between them, press again creating fold on the outer long edges. Bring the folds together and stitch as close as you can to the outer edge.  Repeat for the other handle.

Step 3- Adding the Handles

Fuse fleece/interfacing to the wrong side of the front and back bag pieces.  If you are using batting you could use basting spray or tack/baste your batting to the front and back pieces.  Mark the centre of the top front and back bag pieces (right side facing) with a pin.  Place handles an inch either side of the pin so that each handle loop is lying downwards on the bag.  Stitch along the top edge to secure the handles 1/8 inch from the outer edge.   

Step 4- Making Bag Outer and Lining

Take the front and back bag pieces with handles attached, with right sides together, stitch 1/4" seam along side, bottom and side edge.  Use very small stitches around the bottom corners and trim the corners.  Turn through to the right side.  Press side seams open at the top of the bag-this is to make seam matching easier when you stitch the bag outer and lining together.  Place the lining squares right sides together and stitch from the top edge, down the side and a little way accross the bottom, securing the seam at this point.  Leave a 4" gap at the bottom to turn the bag through in the next stage.  Repeat on the other side seam.  Trim corners.  Press seams open at the top of the lining side seams.  Leave the lining with the wrong side outwards.

Step 5- Joining Outer bag and Lining

Place the outer bag inside the lining so the right sides are facing each other.  Use the open side seams to match up the outer and lining as in the picture, use pins to hold in place.  The handles should be lying downwards.

Stitch all around the top edges sewing through the lining and bag outer with a 1/4" seam.  Turn the bag through the 4"opening in the lining.  Press.  Close the opening with ladder stitch or by machine.  Top stitch around the top edge of the tote bag.  Fill with goodies and get ready to give- you weren't keeping it for yourself were you?