25 Friday Sep 2015
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I’ve been finishing up the layout and piecing of the steam punk blocks. I finally decided to go with one of the layout sketches I showed you before, this one:
and here’s a sneak peek at it before I square it up.
You may be able to pick out the almost invisible cat helper. I’ll post more photos when I’ve pressed it and squared it up.
04 Friday Sep 2015
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I like English Paper Piecing and I’ve recently been playing around with fancy hexagon/diamond patterns. There’s a great Craftsy course that shows you how to sew fabrics together and then piece the hexagon. It’s called Pieced Hexies: Beyond English Paper Piecing by Mickey Depre and it’s well worth a look.
Today I received a book I ordered, called the New Hexagon by Katja Marek, which does similar things but uses different paper shapes to make up the hexagon. It looks like a lot of fun but I have to get back to sewing my steam punks together first…
27 Thursday Aug 2015
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I’ve squared up my steam punk blocks but I’m putting that project on hold while I try to to think of a way to make them into a quilt I’ll be happy with. Thinking, thinking, thinking…
So, in the meantime I’m going to go back to my Islamic Tile quilt. It currently has two borders on it. See below.
So the next step is to fuse the crosses onto the plain teal fabric and then attach them. I think I actually need to cut some more crosses. I have enough to cover the width but not the corners.
26 Wednesday Aug 2015
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I’ve finished the Steam Punk blocks but I still can’t decide what to do with them. I had a play on the floor but I’m not really enamoured of the results. Take a look. I even tried using them as a sort of border so I could create a medallion for the centre.
Here are some more designs I played with on paper – slightly easier due to not having to deal with a four-legged, shameless camera hog.
Any ideas?
23 Sunday Aug 2015
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Well it worked! I was a bit sceptical that it would produce a smooth circle but it did. So freezer paper on top is now my go to technique for appliqueing circles. What do you think?
22 Saturday Aug 2015
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I’m trying a new, to me, technique. I’m about to appliqué the centre circles onto the Steam Punk blocks. I made the mistake of using the template to cut out the circles. What I should have done is cut out larger circles, tack around them and then use my Perfect Circles to make the circle. Now, because I used the template, the circles aren’t big enough to do that with. I tried freezer paper and that didn’t work either, so I’m trying the freezer paper on top method. I’ll let you know how it goes.
04 Tuesday Feb 2014
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fabrics, foundation paper piecing, machine piecing, patchwork, quilt, quilting, quilting blog, sewing blog, sewjournal blog
I’ve finished the coverlet I started in January. It’s all bound, washed, ironed and I’m using it and it feels so soft and lovely.
Here are a few photos.
Now I’m working on some foundation paper pieced stars from Don’t Call Me Betsy’s 2013 and 2014 Lucky Star Club. Here’s where I’m up to so far. I’ve done two quarters of the practice star.
All the fabric for the coverlet came from my stash and scraps and all the fabric for this first star also. I didn’t buy any fabric in January at all. So far in February I’ve bought 1.6m of an Echino extra wide bird print that was only $16.80 per metre. I’ll tally up at the end of the month and donate 50% of my spend to charity as I promised.
23 Thursday Jan 2014
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fabric, fabrics, patchwork, quilt, quilting, quilting blog, sewing, sewing blog, sewjournal blog
This is the first project that I’ve started this year and it uses scraps and other fabric from my stash, as per my fabric challenge here.
I’m making a coverlet, i.e. only two pieces of fabric with no batting in between. They are nice to use on hot nights when you want to be covered but a quilt is too thick.
I made one a while ago for my husband and this one is for me.
I’ve spray basted it and now I can’t decide if I want to machine quilt it; hand quilt it with normal quilting thread; or hand quilt it with 12wt thread; or do a combination of the two/three.
Any suggestions?
28 Tuesday May 2013
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applique, cushion, cushion covers, patchwork, quilt, quilting, quilting blog, sewing, sewing blog, sewjournal blog
The girly cushion covers I made for my daughter’s birthday arrived safely and have been “stuffed” and are now adorning a new day bed.
Now I just have to finish the quilt that goes with them. Trouble is I’m almost frightened to start in case I wreck my wrists again. Wish me luck!
12 Sunday May 2013
Posted in Sew journal
Do you remember this quilt?
That purple fabric is quilter’s lamé. I sewed it with a 1/4″ seam as we quilters usually do and after a few washes this is the result…
Looks to me like 5/8″ seams would have been in order here. Sigh…
I was really interested to get all of your comments and Annette I agree that your bobbin arrangement sounds exactly what I’m after, consider it included as an explanatory note to the list. Kate has added a knee presser foot lifter when she commented on Facebook too. I wonder if Singer or Janome or Juki or Bernina is listening. It’d be nice wouldn’t it?
