Placemats

I don't think any family read my blog :-) and if they do ... oh well.

Thinking of making placemats for Christmas. I want something simple that still looks effective. I figured out placemats are about (6 x4) 3 inch blocks or (3 x 2) 6 inch blocks. 3 inches is pretty darn small, and I'm not so hot on the accuracy. I think I've decided on simple half square triangles in dark & light scraps. If your'e not a quilter - take 24 squares of paper; draw a line diagonally through each one; colour one half in. Have fun arranging them in a 6 x 4 grid.

I have lots of scraps; HST aren't too hard. I figure on cutting the correct size square (think that's 3inch finished, plus 1/2 inch seams, plus 1/8th for the HST; have to check that), which will give me at least 2 blocks of each fabric. I can then layout each placemat slightly differently - diagonal lines, square in square, pathways etc. The repeating fabrics from placemat to placemat will make them a "set", but they'll each by unique.

These are a few of the options I came up with in EQ. Designing them is as far as I got today.

Sewing Holster pattern

I've had a couple of people comment on my sewing holster (post here). The pattern comes from Inspired to Quilt by Melanie Testa (available from Amazon and probably a dozen other places, including the library, where I got it).

The basic set up is: quilt one long thin rectangle (5x42"); quilt two pockets (5x8", folded so the fold forms the top edge of the pocket); sack quilt one 5 x 7" (also folded) to form the pin holder. The pin holder has a magnet put in it (check its the right way around :-) before you quilt it. Then cut the neck and pocket patterns out of the quilted pieces.

The main piece has a long straight edge; the other edge is narrow around the back of your neck and curves out towards the ends. The ends are rounded. The pockets are shaped to fit the ends. The pin holder is shaped on an angle to fit nicely on the shaped neck piece. The unseamed edge of the pin holder is the one that attaches to the neck piece. The whole thing is bound, and the pockets are bound into it. A slightly smaller piece of felt is sewn under the pin holder.

I don't want to put the pattern on line 'cause it's not my copyright. I'm guessing if you're clever you can probably make one to your own design, or hunt for the book at your local library.

Better photo

A better picture of the quilt top.

Retreat

My last post is dated the 6th, today is the 9th; but it feels like I've had about month in between. Firstly, Heavenly Harry (Mark II), aka "Kevin's Heaven". My boss was sitting on a different floor to us for a several months and it was a right pain in the proverbial. When he was finally moved to the same floor he tacked to his door a scrappy piece of paper, held in place by great globs of packing tape, "Kevin's Heaven". I try very hard to overcome my perfectionist nature, but after a while the untidy nature of the note started to irritate me. Last Thursday I had a brain wave. I remembered an applique pattern I had made called "Heavenly Harry". (In case you collect magazines, he's in Australian Homespun, No 19, Vol 4, No. 5). I made Harry in batik-like fabric 'cause Kevin spent several decades in Indonesia. I was pretty impressed that I whipped him up in a single night!


Friday afternoon I headed off to my annual quilting retreat. The lovely Julie organises this weekend every year and it my favourite annual event. Some of us know others of us in real life, but many of us only know each from Julie's retreat. We all take our own projects and work on whatever we want to work on. Last year I had the sewing blahs and achieved precious little. This year I was pumped and ready to go. I previously posted my plans and I came up with the goods:



Hopefully later I can get a better picture. It's rather overcast and gloomy today and I have no spare hands. I am quite pleased with the finished result. The plan now is to add a narrow blue border as most of the fabrics have blue through them, and then a wider pink border to keep the warm feel. Then I'll have a think about whether that's enough or not and what to bind it with.

It took longer than I expected but not as long as I thought :-) I was thinking "6 FQs, 6 blocks, easy done". But I've also never made a quilt from someone else's pattern and instructions.

The 1/2 square triangle instructions were to cut strips to something and some eighth. I don't have good 1/8ths on my large ruler so decided to go for the next 1/4. A good proportion of my finished blocks turned out the right size. That's a good thing, except it means either my cutting or sewing (or both) aren't terribly accurate! The four patch in the double four patch was also measured in 1/8th so I cut those to the nearest 1/4 too. And what do you know! All of them needed trimming. And because they're 4 patches I had trim every side to keep them even :-( Just can't rely on myself to maintain standards of inaccuracy!

It was fun and I will possibly make another quilt from instructions now. There's less stress, particularly for one who is mathematically challenged. I'm tempted re-try a Hidden Wells quilt. My last one was a disaster. Note: lots of ironing of seams and poly thread don't go together. And neither will your quilt when the threads all melt!

It's now Monday afternoon and although I had a great night's sleep in my own bed last night I'm still stuffed. I feel like I spent the weekend hiking not sewing.

Heavenly Harry

Just a quick note 'cause I'm away tonight until late Sunday on a quilting retreat YAY! I started and completed a wall hanging for my boss's door at work last night. I took photos and will upload them when I return. Will post the entire story then too.

Peasant Skirt

The peasant skirt, with the shirred elastic waistband is back. Strangely enough, this is a fashion The Girl seems to like. Whether she likes her mother's creative efforts or not is another matter.

The skirt still needs to be hemmed, but obviously that will have to wait til The Girl gets home from school 'cause not everyone got the day off today :-) I didn't use a pattern. I sewed two widths of fabric together and seamed into a tube, gathered the top back to a single width, put a wide waist band on, then added about 5 layers of shirring elastic.

I've never worked successfully with shirring elastic before. I think the difference this time is a couching foot I bought some time ago.

I don't use it very often, but its very handy for what it does. I bought after spending a day doing "arty" quilting with a friend, including couching wool threads to the background. She couched hers without any effort at all, while I muttered and mumbled and unpicked a lot. At the time, The Man did think that $40 for a single fancy foot was a bit much, but maybe now I've made a $30 skirt for basically nothing, he'll appreciate its worth :-)


The ribbon, or elastic, or wool, or whatever, goes through the ring at the front, then through the hole in front of the needle and under the foot to the back.

You can sew ribbon with a straight stitch down the middle, or couch finer threads with a zigzag. I guess if you're keen you could set the needle to the edge of the ribbon and sew one edge down, then sew the other edge with a zipper foot or similar.

Birthday Part 2

Surprise, surprise, I did do something creative :-) The Girl wants a FULL skirt out of something light weight. The left over fabric from my wrap trousers is the perfect material so I started. Remains to be seen whether she likes the results LOL. Eleven year olds are pretty tricky. I have the day off tomorrow, so maybe I'll even get it finished.