St. Clement's quilt - That niggling project

My unfinished object. I also have a waistcoat which is unfinished but I'm going swimming with the Scouts tonight so it'll have to wait 'til Sunday! Please enjoy these pictures of my progress. They're laughing at me. It's so close! 

NEW MACHINE FOOT!!

The day I post principally about machining and machine feet, THIS arrived in the post. Feel like I've been waiting for so long! Can't wait to play :)

Sewing machine dissection

It feels very intimate showing you the inside of my sewing machine all laid bare. 

It's very dusty in there but I've just given it a little spring clean so we should be good to go very soon!

So this is how we get some cotton out when the machine is trying to eat it and turn you into cotton as well! (I'm getting an old Superman visual here *spoiler alert - when Lex Luthor has the machine in the cave and they get covered in tin foil).

LET'S OPEN HER UP!

Grab yourself a 5p piece or similar. A screwdriver is not going to do it! 

It didn't fit!!! Use something everyone has about the house instead - check in the sofa...

 

Unscrew the 2 bolts on the sewing machine with the 5p / 5 centimes. Keep them safe!

Take the panel off and have a look inside. I took out 3 big bits of fluff so it's good to have a look inside every so often just as a bit of an MOT, although some shops will do this for you. 

N.B. If you have bought your machine from a retail outlet you can go back to them with any problems. John Lewis is quite good at that sort of thing, but if you can go back to the Brother/Singer people they can help you too.

  

Look at that! So much cotton rammed in his mouth! I wonder if they wanted it to look like that when they designed the machine, or whether it's random? Right, I'm off to get my tweezers :)

Found the tweezers! Bish bash bosh, job done.

Look at all those strands that were tightening up inside to try and chew up all my fabric :( 

Pondering: Bit of a distraction but, now that the machine is fixed and as my yellow bias binding has just arrived in the post, I could also finish off another quilt while I'm at it. Pondering on whether I should try my luck with the new quilt foot or if I should get my sewing machine MOT-tested in case there is a bigger problem there. It's an old machine and has been a bit finickety but it's not like all sewing machines AREN'T finickety...hmm... Agh! Don't want to spend a small amount on a machine just for now. Some people save up for cars - me, I save up for a fancy new Singer sewing machine. But then there's always going back to my grandma's old 1950s Singer which fits into a table and has a knee handle! I'll show you that sometime. It's cool. It's currently my bedside table so very practical!

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.