Late night sewing tip

The sewing machine shop informed me that you have to change your sewing machine needle every 8 hours. As someone who has not changed their sewing machine needle in as many years, that is a good tip and potentially why my sewing machine has decided to give up the ghost (that might be putting it a smidge melodramatically): pure neglect. 

A needle only costs a couple of pounds, so it's nothing major and, if you think about it, 8 hours probably doesn't equate to too much packed-in sewing time. I'll probably just start changing the needle 4 times a year and flout the rules until I become a millionaire, preferably through crafting genius. Looking at prices for new sewing machines, however, really makes you appreciate what you borrow from your mum for an extended period of time, and sometimes let her use!

And on that bombshell. night night!

My favourite tutorials

I like Hey Quilty best for tutorials because it is filmed like a TV show. 

They have 2 people discussing a subject, lots of text visuals, quilt examples and explanations. The audio, video and close-ups are great. The lighting is also very bright. The presenter (usually Mary Fons) speaks clearly and is also very clear about their techniques and what you have to do to achieve their results.

Here is an example of a brilliant Hey Quilty introduction to making your own bias binding 

Exploring Martineau Gardens in Edgbaston

My sister, my niece and I discovered a beautiful trail through the woods at Martineau Gardens last week. We tramped along the woodchip path and found Mister Fox's lair, Mister Badger's den and to be honest I'm not sure what Mister Toad was living in but it was woven in willow. I have a feeling they have something Wind in the Willows-themed going on in the Summer but we didn't have too much time to do that what with all the exploring. The garden has lots of open spaces for kids to run around in and a wild flower meadow which will look amazing in the Spring! By the time we got to my car my niece was definitely ready for an afternoon nap!

One of the volunteers working to keep the gardens tidy showed us the snowdrops that had just started blooming in the wood. A sign that Spring is nearly here. I think I need an opportunity to get my hammock out. It's been far too cold for far too long, although it does mean an excuse for hot chocolate and knitting which I love!

So much work goes into keeping this idyll running. It costs £250 a day to keep it going with no government funding (so donations and volunteers are key) but the core team that work there are dedicated and they have loads of great events which keep the public coming back for more! They have a Bat Walk, a Honey Show, a Storytelling Festival, they did Tai Chi classes last year, they sell their own jams and honey and have a great Art collective, (Tiger Skins of Sunlight) which is in the studio for the Summer - lovely, friendly artists making excellent art and planning loads of brilliant arts/crafts workshops for February Half Term as well.

I can't wait to go back with my picnic rug in Spring!

Goring up the lining of my waistcoat

The Gores I had mainly been avoiding yesterday... are predominant today. You are getting sewn in and you're going to look sleek and elegant and THAT'S THAT! 

So I have tacked in my triangular gores to the slits in my Tudor waistcoat. I've fitted them so the seam is graduated so there's no bunching-up in the garment. 

I might need to put some overstitching or blanket stitching at the top which will look fine. Not sure how that'll look on the woolly exterior of my waistcoat but we'll see. At the moment the tacking looks fine - I'll go somewhere with better light to make sure I get a good, straight, hand-sewn seam so that the bottom of the waistcoat really sticks out (literally - Tudor gals need a good set of hips!).

This is just a Tribute - to my disappearing blog post re: Applique banner

Blogger app just deleted the post I just wrote so I'll leave it 'til the morn to remember what eloquence was portrayed in this space just moments ago! I was having a bit of a crisis anyway as my machine had completely eaten my fabric. Humph. I don't know who was more tired, me or the machine, but one of us definitely had to stop sewing!

The (very eloquent I might add) blog post definitely had something to do with applique... Anyway, here we go...

This is an applique banner I'm making for my friend who has just moved into a new workspace! I thought I'd customise a little strip quilt I've been working on and give it a new lease of life (as it hadn't quite developed into a project by that point)) by making it into a colourful and decorative banner for her which can be hung (from tabs) on the wall.

My work in progress. Reckons it's looking pretty cool. It's quite patterny. If I were to do another applique letters project I'd probably choose a block colour for the background to make more of a contrast - so that those letters REALLY stick out. (I wanted to use the pig material, though, and this is the last of it as I've had it for a couple of years just looking pretty. I might look for more farm-related fabrics in the future too.)

I realised, too late in the cutting stage, why I had originally wanted to use the squares material (other than it being really colourful) .... 

because applique-ing curves is so hard on a machine!

- but I have my walking foot now so maybe it will be easier. I only have a couple of letters left to do but it's always worth having a play. 

  

Mum's insight

Why is it always after your mom says, "isn't that sewing machine due for an MOT? (hilarious concept but let's go with it)" that the needle falls out of the space where the needle lives, your fixed needle gets jammed, and your overlocking goes squiffy. Whether it's me or the machine that's tired, it's time for bed!

N.b. If the needle drops out on you, just poke the needle back in the hole and screw the little screw so the needle stays in place. Similar trick - but a different screw (you'll be needing a penny for that) for when the machine foot drops off! No drama. Check out this post 

Today's blog was brought to you by the letter 'M'

Get ready for learning your Quilt Alphabet! Should be loads of fun with embroidery, quilting and potentially sequins! :) Learn to quilt a letter!

Machine bias binding

I just realised that I got really excited about sewing both sides of the bias binding (on a quilt) via the sewing machine instead of sewing one side on the sewing machine then doing whip stitch on the other (which takes AAAAGES!). 

All this excitement because I thought that there was some sort of quilting voodoo behind it when actually it's really simple - Just doing what I usually do but the opposite (i.e. machine sewing the wrong side, then machine sewing the right side) - oh the joys of being self-taught!

If that all sounds cryptic, (hmm...blog post fail) here is a great tutorial (from Missouri Star Quilt Company) I found online as to how to do the "Quilting Voodoo." 

How To Bind a Quilt With a Sewing Machine

SO just a simple machine sew on the wrong side of the quilt, then machine sewing on the right side with a very wide zigzag - which looks nice but not quite what I want specifically. More internet trawling pour moi (but later as I am GOING TO FINISH MY QUILT! No more procrastinating).

Some of these bias binding tutorials are soooooo boring. The one above is ok and tells me most of what I wanted to know with minimal faff, although I think I fast-forwarded it a lot. 

MY FAVOURITE TUTORIALS

I think I like Hey Quilty best for tutorials (but I can't find a tutorial for bias binding techniques) because it is filmed like a TV show. They have 2 people discussing a subject, lots of text visuals, quilt examples and explanations. The audio, video and close-ups are great. The lighting is also very bright. The presenter speaks clearly and is very clear about their techniques and what you have to do to achieve their results.

Here is an example of a brilliant Hey Quilty introduction to making your own bias binding 

n.b. There is still no quilting voodoo anyway because the sewing is on both sides so i still don't understand how the Instagram lady made the quilt have a line of machine sewing on only one side!!! Agh!

Workshop research

I'm really excited about the craft workshop I am running on Sunday. Although I am completely organised for what we will do at my Knit your own blanket square workshop, I always like to trawl the internet for a bit of extra insight about how it might go. I'm always finding great ideas for future workshops on Pinterest or by discussing ideas with friends!

If you're thinking of organising a craft workshop in your area, here is a useful link I found on Folksy - 3 Tips for running your own craft workshop.

I might test the knitting workshop on my dad. Always a useful guinea pig. I've also seen a Batman knitted square pattern that I'd like to try out before the weekend! I made my brother-in-law some Iron Man gloves recently and they seemed to go down well! I'm thinking for the next fingerless gloves I make I'll add fleece!

Knitted blanket squares

Sewing together some knitted blanket squares in preparation for Sunday's craft workshop at Cherry Reds in Birmingham! 

I have been perfecting my sewing-together-blanket-squares techniques too. I think people with lots of different levels might turn up, so I'm thinking I might bring some extra wool in case anyone wants to do different colours but we'll see how it goes!

http://instagram.com/p/ypkBytxDi1/

PART FOUR: Chevron style St. Clements quilt

///I'm back from the land of Bedfordshire and up for another afternoon's quilting. I had planned meeting people for an afternoon of French chat and Galette des Rois eating but I got snowed in. Oh well, good excuse to do some more quilting///

PINNING THE COLUMNS TOGETHER

Put the columns together (right sides together). Make sure that the horizontal seams are lined up because it will look better later on, but you also need to make sure that the points of the triangles match as well.

Matching horizontal seams and triangle points

 

I used a ruler to make a straight edge which gives me an idea of what the sewing will look like when I'm done. It then means that I can immediately pin the fabric and draw a line, which I will sew along.

I am double-checking that tacked seam in this picture. It didn't seem (fighting the urge to pun here) right so I drew a line a bit nearer the edge to make a better finish.

Pinned, tacked and the guideline has been drawn. 

  

TACKING AND SEWING COLUMNS TOGETHER

I tacked (left image: in white) and drew a line, in biro, to indicate more clearly where I should machine sew.

N.B. better to tack in a different colour thread if you has it as it's easier to unpick later! (see right image)

 

When you sew, sometimes the flappy triangle bits will get in the way. (I haven't cut them off as yet as, earlier, they helped me to see what the triangles should be in line with). 

To make the flappy bits flat, make sure your needle is down, then click the foot up and just flatten the flappy bits the right way, then click the foot back down.

Needle down, foot goes up

Organise flappy bits

Foot down, continue sewing

EXAMPLES OF SEWING CHEVRONS

Here are some examples of the fact that it doesn't always turn out right first time and that sometimes you need to check and check again to get a good result. Instagram is testament to this - just look up #unpicking if you ever feel overwhelmed about the whole thing!

This tacking seemed to work well but I knew I needed to make the seam allowance a bit bigger so I got a nice point on the inside of the chevron

This one went completely wonky so I undid the bottom, jiggled it about a bit and retacked and stitched it so it looked better.

STOP! In the name of Quilts! What on Earth is that hole doing there?!

Random unsewn line of sewing within the quilt

TIP: Make sure that the bobbin is full of cotton. When quilting, you can sew a whole line and not realise quarter of the way through that your bobbin thread has gone. To me, it looked as though the sewing was done because the top thread was there, but actually, it hadn't been sewn because the bobbin thread wasn't there. Hence, I had a hole in my quilt which was tricky - but not impossible - to correct. 

See my later blog post on WHIP STITCH

So you've sewn two columns together, and another two columns together. Now you want to put each set of two columns together. Easy peasy. Just do the same as before! Right sides facing and just make sure it's the right way up and that the correct patterns are matching.

Almost finished. A last double-check before I sew on my last column. I just checked the size of my quilt against the last one I made. It's a wee bit too small so I'm going to add a border of orange fabric to make it bigger with minimal work, and then I'll sew some yellow bias binding around the edges. This also gives a nice finish to the quilt and brings all those lovely colours together. 

 It's the final quilt seam... Doodle oo doo doodle ooh doo doo doodle ooh doo doo, nearly the final quilt seam!

THEEEEEN - Iron your seams! 

I always feel like when you finally get to iron the seams you must've done a load of work and need a reward. I had a cup of tea and a biscuit after this one. It's snowing too so just making quilts made me feel that little bit warmer and cosier. My chickens didn't think so, though. "Sorry Phyllis! I don't control the weather."

HAPPY QUILTING!

Introduction to Quilting

Although I've been sewing for a while now, this is my first foray into quilting. I've really been enjoying it and have found some great starter tutorials online.

To get you started, here are some of the tutorials and blogs that have inspired me so far!

ONLINE TUTORIALS AND DEMOS

• Intro to quilting (stuff you’ll need) by Amy Smart http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/p/beginning-quilting-series.html

• Rotary cutter demo (stuff you’ll want) with Mary Fons            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDMQyerht9E

• How to quilt circles by Jess at Elven Garden Quilts http://theelvengarden.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/decipher-your-quilt-circles.html?m=1

• Bias binding tutorial by Debbie Shore                                                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLWfH8o49Ws

GETTING IDEAS FOR QUILTS

I have been scouring the web to find different types of quilts. 

Pinterest has been great for making mood boards and deciding which shapes make eye-catching effects. 

How to make a pompom!

It's PomPom time!

I saw a tree in my local town covered in pompoms recently! Amazingly I had some free time this Christmas, so I decided to make a pompom in the same way I did at my Grandma's house when I was younger. So here is my recipe for lovely pompoms.

Tools

Pen/pencil

A pair of scissors

A pint glass (to draw around - or to contain liquids)

50p coin / Glue stick (or similar circle shape to draw around)

Materials

A big ball of leftover wool (I used black and yellow for a bumblebee but you can use whatever you'd like)

Thin-ish cardboard - I used an Amazon packet

2 googly eyes

Superglue

Card/paper (glittery card/paper makes nice wings)

How to make a pompom 

Step 1: Take a pint glass and some cardboard. Use the pint glass to draw 2 circles with a pen or     pencil (the shape dictates what diameter the pompom will have). Cut out the cardboard circles.

Step 2: Cut a central hole about the size of a 50p using some good sized scissors. It can be a bit tricky so get an adult to help! ;) The cardboard doughnut needs to be a good thickness (but the thinner the cardboard the larger the pompom will be, because you can wrap more wool around it).

Step 3: Take the two cut-out cardboard doughnuts and put them together like this.

Step 4: Make a few balls of wool that are small enough to fit through the cardboard doughnuts holes. I probably used 5 by the end (3 black, 3 yellow).

Step 5: Tie the TWO cardboard doughnuts together with the end of one of your small ball of wool and start wrapping the wool around the cardboard doughnuts.

Step 6: Well done! It's looking good so far! (Pat self on the back) Make sure that you wrap the wool around until you can't see the cardboard. Try and keep it even so the stripes will come out even. (If you are doing a plain pompom or using multicoloured wool it won't matter so much).

Step 7: (Can you tell at what time of year I made the pompom?!) Tie the black wool to the end of the yellow wool and keep "wrapping." It doesn't matter where the knot falls but if you can make it near the centre/edge of the woollen doughnut you can snip it off later.

Step 8: Keep wrapping the woollen doughnut until it's black (I was impatient but it's worth persevering for the stripes!). Knot in another of your yellow wool balls and wrap it until it's yellow. Keep doing this until there is no hole. Towards the end you'll just be pushing strands of wool through the hole which means you're nearly on the way to finishing your pompom! Yay.

Step 9: Put a pencil through the middle of your wool doughnut to hold the strands of wool in place. Now cut around the edge of the pompom until you can see the cardboard doughnuts.

Step 10: Almost there. Careful now. Get a strand of wool which is long enough to encircle the circumference of the cardboard doughnuts. Slowly poke the strand of wool in between the two cardboard doughnuts and keep doing this as you cut the woollen doughnut. Try not to cut the woollen strand while you're doing this.

Step 11: Now that your strand of wool encircles the pompom, wrap it around a couple of times and make a knot so that the pompom does not fall apart (they get stressed easily). Cut the cardboard doughnuts and pull them away from the wool.

Step 12: I used googly eyes. the sew-on ones are quite good as you can easily tie them to the pompom. I just used superglue here.

Step 13: Make sure it has a loop to hang it somewhere. As it's Christmas, I put mine on the tree and gave him some paper wings. I just cut them out of a white sheet of A4 but you could use card or even glitter paper!  

Step 14: EXPERIMENT!!! Hack your pompom and find out how it works. Here are some ways to make different coloured/patterned pompoms...