Actually quilting!

I don't know why I've been spending so much time spinning and knitting lately... I walk past my sewing room and sigh... wishing for time in there...

Finally I've got myself a couple hours with my beautiful sewing machine, and I had a great time!  I've been working on a BOM from Florida Cabin Fever and it's been hanging on my design wall.

Now I've got most of the top finished, working on the pieced border.  The pictures are not great, but I think you get the idea?

There are more borders coming, hopefully I will able to show you the finished quilt soon!

The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt

I've bought a new book, which in itself is not astonishing news..  But I wanted to share this one with you, since I'm a little in love with it.

It's Laurie Aaron Hird's The Farmer's Wife sampler Quilt.  It is full of wonderful letters from farmer's wives about why they would want their own daughter's to marry a farmer.  For a scrappy quilt lover like myself, the quilt blocks and the quilt is just.... sigh.... wonderful...

I couldn't help myself, so I made some of the blocks just for fun.  I haven't worked much with templates so this was a new adventure, the accompanying CD has all the templates.

Of course I had to hand sew since Laurie hand pieced her quilt, and I just love the look of hand piecing.  There is something very sweet about the not-quite-perfect in (at least my) hand piecing.

Here is block nr 7

Making a design wall

I have finally gotten my design wall up.

It is made to fit one of the walls in my sewing room completely lengthwise and from the roof to 8" above my work table.  It basically covers the whole wall, which is great!

My husband made the framework and I covered it with 2 layers of fleece (cheap fleece from IKEA) and then a beautifully taupe colored thicker fleece totaling 3 layers which makes pinning easy and gives you a luxurious feel.

I am sure you can figure out how to do it from the pictures:

Back of design wall showing framework

Framework

Framework

Tacking on the basic fleece, first on the sides..

Then on the back

in two layers

Front of design wall with basic fleece

Third layer of fleece is tacked on the same way as the other layers

Finished design wall

The design wall is fastened to the wall with the same kind of brackets as we used to make the frame.  It could also be screwed to the wall right through the framework.

Sewingroom in progress

You didn't think I would let my sewing room stay empty for long did you?

I'm far from done, but it is functional at the moment.  I've got a work bench along one wall and with a corner unit where my sewing machine is set up.

There are 4 storing units instead of legs for the work bench.  2 of them are full of yarn and one is packed with buttons, thread, needles and all that wonderful stuff.  I've got see through plastic boxes for scraps.  The bigger scraps are sorted by color, and then I have a simpler version of Bonnie Hunters scrap users system, in the future I will cut more of my scraps according to this.  Then I've got a book case with glas doors for the rest of my fabrics. 

In front of the window I've placed my beloved treadle machine. It doesn't show on the picture, but it's there.

My design board isn't in place yet, so I've started pinning on the very ugly wallpaper....

The blocks on the top are from the Scrap Happy BOM (click on "for members" and then on "block of the month" and then on "2010") , it's been a blast to sew, I can really recommend their BOMs!

New house!

Sorry about the silence, we've spent the last weeks moving to a new house and getting everything sorted.  I'm very happy with the new place, and we are both saying that this is our last move... we have said this before...

This is my sewing room to-be...  it's got the ugliest wallpaper ever made. 

I'll keep you updated on the progress.

Quilting the Storm-at-sea

I've been trying to figure out how to quilt Storm.  I had an all-over feather pattern all thought out and everything.

But once I got it in the machine.... it didn't want all over feathers...  This is what happened instead:

I think I'm going to make the swirl in the square-in-a-square larger and fill the block, and I'll make another swirl inside the biggest block - because the feathered wreath doesn't show up well enough to make it worth the trouble.

Storm progress

I've been working on my Storm-at-sea quilt today, got half of it pieced...

...when I realized that I somehow messed up when cutting the diamond blocks.  There are not enough of them to make the size I wanted.  Very disapointed!

So now I'm trying to figure out how to solve the problem.
Borders?
Pieced border?
Just give up and make it a throw?

Mug rug tutorial

I've been making crazy quilt mug rugs out of scraps. Start by putting some Joni Mitchell on the CD, I cannot guarantee a good result without her..  ;-)

Let's see what's in the scraps today...

Start sewing pieces together with a quarter inch seam allowance. Don't put too much thought into it, just find scraps and sew.

Sometimes the scraps are too big, I sew them on first and adjust the size later, I find it easier to see the design that way.

This mug rug is going to be small, just 4 x 6 inches, just enough for a mug and a cracker.  When you feel happy with the design and size of your top, cut it to size.

Now cut a piece of backing and a piece of batting half an inch larger than your top.  (I didn't do this... but do as I say not as I do...)  My batting is an old wool blanket, leftover from a quilt, and my backing an antique sheet-scrap.

Sandwich them and pin.

Then quilt.  I chose to quilt in the ditch, sewing just next to the seam on the side that doesn't have the seam allowance under it, if I had used a better color thread this would have made the quilt seams almost invisible.

Now cut to size and bind.  There are easier/faster ways to bind a mug rug, but I do it the same way as my full size quilts.  See the binding tutorial.

Good luck!
Comments are appreciated.

Mug rugs

It's been awhile... I've been taking it easy bitten by the lazy bug.  But I haven't been completely idle, in an effort to close the top on my scrap bin I've been making mug rugs.  Loads of fun!

Playing on the design wall - storm at sea.

I've got all the pieces sewn for the Storm-at-sea quilt and I've been trying to deside on the lay out.... Here we go!

The traditional Storm-at-sea layout:

Ok, so traditionally it should be in blues and greens...  I really like how the straight lines somehow curve over the design,  making circles and waves.  Looking at it now I'm wondering why I didn't make the diamond blocks in the lightest fabric bringing out the star shapes...

With added diamond and square in a square blocks:

I really like the lines working together in this layout leading the eye back and forth over the quilt.

Let's put it all on point:

It seems to me the waves come out more when the blocks are on point.  I like this!

Now, lets add more diamonds and square in a square: 

I like it, but maybe it's a little busy?

I'm going for the third option, a traditional layout on point.  I like the waves and the simplicity of the lines.

Pin wheel quilt

The pin wheel quilt is finished.  It finishes at 160 x 160 cm (63 x 63 inches). 



Pin wheel quilt



Pin wheel quilt



Pin wheel quilt



Clams and pebbles quilting

Almost done....

Pin wheel quilt

I've been sewing up a storm on the pin wheel quilt all day.  There is  almost 2 km of thread in the quilting alone on this thing!  Now I'm sitting in front of the TV hand sewing the binding, almost done, almost done..  I'll show it to you as soon as it's done.

I also got a package in the mail (I really love getting packages in the mail!), it was a book I ordered.  And what a wonderful book!

Kaffe Fassett's Quilt Romance

 I've been drooling over it all day, it even got to go with me to the bathroom!  His colors are not my colors, but I love the way he uses them.


Speaking of sewing binding... do you know what this is?

Alaska native thimble

It's a thimble made of seal skin.  I bought it at a store in Anchorage, Alaska last summer.  It's just a tad too big for my finger, but it works great.  It can be worn for hours on end unlike metal and plastic thimbles. 

Well, back to the binding!

My current enders and leaders project.

Have you heard of enders and leaders?  It's a wonderful way to get "boring" piecing done without thinking about it, saves thread and your machine.  I learned about it from Bonnie Hunter at her website "Quiltville", here's a link to her leaders and enders page. 

When you are finished sewing a seam, or a chain of seams, instead of pulling the thread out and cutting it, put some fabric under the foot and sew a seam, then cut.  This results in you always having fabric under your foot.

This prevents the thread to get pulled down and tangled, and saves thread. 

At the moment I'm making 12 cm crazy quilt blocks as leaders and enders, not because it's boring but to use up some scraps.

Next to my sewing machine I've got a bin that catches all scraps big enough to sew on.

At the end of a chain of sewing, I pick up two pieces of scrap fabric and sew them together.

Then adding more pieces as enders and leaders, usually I've got 3 or 4 blocks going at a time.

Honestly I only finger press the seams as I'm working on them and ironing them as they are finished, I guess I've got a lazy streak..

These blocks have a life of their own, this one is not a traditional crazy quilt block, apparently it wanted to look like this.  :-)

When it's bigger than 12 x 12 cm, I cut it to size, this shows a different block.

These blocks come together quicker than you think, and it's like magic.  They almost sew themselves while you are working on your other sewing...

I haven't decided how to put together this quilt yet, I'll have to get back to you about that...