Scrappy Pincushion Swap

I have been the most dreadful tease and posted a slow series of tempting pics to tantalise my swap partner at the Scrappy Pincushion swap.  Entree- linen, cashmere/wool, vintage cotton lace.

Main course: Denyse Schmidt Hope Valley- wall flowers and whatever the grey print is called, Yuwa text, American Jane Recess tape measures and Suzuko Koseki button print.

Dessert: DMC embroidery thread, linen tape with bird stamp and partners initial on the reverse, linen measuring tape to finish.

Finished! The pinnie bit was based on a little block in Kumiko Fujita's book ABC Patchwork Lesson (now out of print), called St Johns Pavement, I like this  block a lot!  Stuffed with fibrefill as it has a way to travel and I don't want customs getting all touchy about walnut shells etc!

I can only just bear to part with it...x 

Come the weekend, this blog will be celebrating birthday number 1, you know what that means, giveaway time!

Quilt-a-long Quilt Sandwich and Quilting

Now to make your quilt sandwich.  If you want to add a quilt label to the back before this, go ahead!  I always use basting spray, 505.  I lay the backing fabric (in the background of pic below) out on a Durabac board which is a big foldable fabric cutting board made of cardboard, good for fixing fabric on with pins. You could use a table of a clean floor or carpet.  I put some pins round the edges to make it taut.    I always spray the batting, not the fabric and I do this outside on a washing line as the glue smells and gets everywhere inside.  I lay the batting on to the backing fabric first.

 Then repeat the spraying process with the partial sandwich hanging on the washing line, spraying the batting side and then laying it backing side down on the durabac, the tacky basting surface is on the top.  I then pin out the edges and lay the quilt front on top.  As 505 is temporary you can do as many readjustments as you need and I stuck some safety pins in as well to be extra safe.

My quilting was simple, just a quarter inch echo around the star and stitch around the edge of the central squares. I don't want it to be too dense so I kept it simple. For the quilting thread- I am using Gutermann Sulky col.1071 which matches Kona snow perfectly.  I did try a contrast thread but I didn't like the look of it (you can see below), I'll use this in the binding instead.

The lighter colour is less dominant.

I used my walking foot and you can see how I lined up the foot with the star points to keep a regular quarter inch.

When I quilt I always position my needle start a quarter inch ahead of where I want to start, set the stitch length on the smallest setting, 1mm, and make sure the top thread tail is going right and the bobbin thread tail is going left- stops lumpy knots underneath.  I backstitch to the point where I really want to start, change the stitch length to 3.5mm and stitch away.  These longer stitches make for great quilting and cover up the tiny securing stitches at the beginning.

Before you stitch all the way round and back to the beginning, trim off the thread tails.  This is how it should now look, securing stitched are hidden, all nice and neat.

This is how it looks on the back.

At the end of the stitching I reverse about quarter inch again changing the stitch length from 3.5mm to 1mm.

And this is how it looks on the back.

For general help on making a quilt sandwich without basting spray see: Oh Fransson!

Quilt your Circle of Wonky Stars baby quilt any way you want and I'll see you back for the binding!

Happy Jeans

At last I have found skinny jeans, hmm...only about 5 years after everyone started wearing them, that work for me!

I am have very sensitive skin, many things make me itch and rub and skinny jeans have been impossible.  I can't stand things tight round the waist, jeans and skirts must sit low but I don't want my backside hanging out.  These were on offer in Gap, soft, stretchy and a great fit.  I bought two pairs :)

Funny Interpretative Dance

This is the funniest 2 minutes!   Everyweek David Armand ( a comic actor) does a mime dance to a pop song on an impro comedy show called 'Fast and Loose', the contestants have to guess the song.  This week it was Queen's ' Don't stop me now'.  

If you liked it check out his version of 'Careless Whisper', 'Eternal Flame' and 'Human' on You tube :)

Quilt-a-long, Last 2 blocks! And making the Quilt Top

Hurrah, the final blocks!  We are now making the far left and far right blocks for the middle row.  Place your 2 solid squares exactly on top of each other,  grain  running down the fabric.  If your fabric is not a solid and therefore not the same on both sides you will need to put the right sides together, as you cut it you will be looking at the wrong side of the fabric on the top square.  The first cut will be horizontal and 4.25 inches (four and a quarter if you struggle with decimals!) inches down from the top of the square (see pic)

The second cut is also horizontal, this time 4 inches down from the last cut- or if you prefer  4.25 inches from the bottom of the square.  The 3rd cut is vertical, 5 inches from the right edge and the 4th cut, vertical again and 3.5 inches from the left edge.  The square in the centre should measure 4 inches on each side-have a check! 

You should now be able to peel off the top layer of each piece and lay it out in a horizontal mirror image so you have 2 blocks cut, for either side of the centre block that you made way back in the beginning.   Fix your block labels on with a pin.

Take the centre square of the left block and use it as the template to fussy cut the centre triangle fabric.  Repeat for the right block.  Assemble your blocks using the same tutorial as before, courtesy of Victoria. Your end quilt will look better and wonky stars more like a circle if you keep the triangle points of the stars on the smallish side.  Here are my far left and far right middle row blocks to give you an idea of the sizes. 

Now to assemble the whole thing!  We are going to make three horizontal rows and then stitch them together.  Pin your top left corner and top centre block together.  I pin the far ends of the seam first and then pin down all the triangle point seams.

Sew a 1/4 inch seam.  I use a stitch length of 1.8, just in case that helps!  I then press the seam open but if you want to press to one side- its your quilt, go ahead!

Add the right corner block in the same way, pressing the seam open.  repeat for centre row and bottom row.  Now join your rows together carefully matching your seams together.  Quilt top finished!

To make the quilt sandwich stage easier i pressed all the seams again with homemade spray starch.  I used Tara's recipe but without the lavender, thought best to have no scent for a baby.  If you want to go on ahead and are happy making your  sandwich, do so- I'll see you soon for quilting and binding.  By the way, if you are going to be brave like me and do a bias cut binding, you will only need a fat quarter of fabric!

Euro Bee Call out

Quick call out to all European readers, any of you interested in joining a European quilt bee on Flickr- a great sewers need two more bee members.  Interested? Check out the group here and send an email to Ulrike (her Flickr name is lieblingsdecke

 via Flickr mail,  I have already had a peep at everyone's photostreams and there is some beautiful and very creative work in there, I am very excited to be a part of this one.  The aim is 12 members and a year long bee.

Plus a big thank you for reading my post and giving feedback and thoughts to the the etiquette theme over at Kats.  There will be a new post tomorrow.  And thanks for the spool block love too x

More to share

Lula spent the weekend on a guide activity and came back Sunday pm with a platter of her efforts.  Sugar overload.  In the future she wants to either run a cake shop or go into dentistry-there's synergy in  her plans...

Damian excelled himself, this was inside my Valentine's card.  I am very lucky, we have been together a long, long time and he is the best man and human being I have ever met.

A few weeks ago I was fiddling around on New years eve finishing a coaster for idea of a set of coasters for the Japanese fabric designer Suzuko Koseki.   Everyone made their coasters, they all got to Japan in time and Ayumi did meet SK and have the most incredible time.  Read her account here and take a look at her fantastic photos, I am practically drooling at all the loveliness!  The success of the project was a credit to Ayumi's generous spirit.  Her pic below shows all our efforts.

Fancy a visit to Kat's blog to read my post on blogging ettiquette?- I am up today!

A sneaky peek for those of you quilting-a-long!  Yay, it works and looks like a ring!  I only had this planned in my head so I am happy to see it is as I envisaged.  I'll give details for the final blocks later this week.  I also plan to round the corners off and have bias binding- haven't done this before but I have already cut it and it was so easy and 1 fat quarter produces enough binding for the whole quilt!  I think it will really work with the design.

I also joined a new flickr quilt bee with a European focus- Bee Europa 2011, should be fun!

One more thing... I won something that I cannot quite believe- I came first in the creative section of the Quilt Story block party with my vintage spools block.  Wow...

 I am so proud and there is a prize too.  Lynne from Lily's Quilts came second in the same category!  I don't know what else to say but that I am very happy :)