Daily Quilting Report

I finished the binding on the mini quilt this morning. I had to look up how to finish the ends of the binding again. I knew it was an ingenious method that I never would have thought of myself but I think it may be used in the quilting world. I know different people have different ways to finish their binding ends.

Here is my finished mini. Front...

...and back.

And here it is in one of the places I will use it. It will generally be a mat for my tea pots and coffee mugs on the side table or counter.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

I missed a day but that's OK. I wore my amethyst bracelets the last few days and my pearl and pink opal bracelets. They give me such pleasure and they come with affirmations to make me feel good about myself. I love making my own bracelets and looking up what powers they are supposed to have.

I give myself permission to rest and re-energise.

I feel fulfilled and I am happy with my life.

I am in harmony with my personal power.

This morning I just cut the pieces to make the appliqué block and sewed it together.

This afternoon I attached all the appliqué pieces.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

 

I finished the appliqué block quilting this morning. You can see below where I made some swirls to represent smoke fro the chimney. 

The major downside of doing the quilting on the individual blocks is that each block shrinks a bit rather than the whole quilt. I also seem to have been a bot careless sewing on the strip at the bottom and it is quite crooked. Along with a bit of shrinking this has left me with nearly 1/4" of batting showing. I will have to be careful sewing the blocks together to make sure I catch all the raw edges.

Here is the February appliqué block. They look so nice. I finished this one before I decided to blog my progress.

In March I used the left over small blocks from the February kit to make a cushion that will go on the bed with the quilt.

They are left over because I only need three of the 12 that I got with the mini quilt kit to use in the big  quilt. I completed the backing with a zip and now I am ready to bind the edges.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

 

Today I put the batting on the appliqué block and started the quilting.

I have been doing my quilts in sections like this for a while now. I sew manageable sections together then add the batting and do the quilting. I then sew the quilted section together to make the whole quilt. I add the backing and secure it in straight lines following main block seams. The back ends up with just lines on it rather than being included in the quilting process.

I just did the straight line quilting around the house, along the stems and some curvy lines on the grass.

I'm not doing any quilting on the small squares border. I just stitched 1/8" in from the seam.

I use basting spray to hold the flimsy securely on the batting.

I didn't have spare batting for this block so I had to add a strip down one side. I butt the edges together and use the 3 stitch zig zag (I think it is the darning stitch) to hold it together.

I had some scraps I had trimmed off my Garden Quilt the other day so while I was at it I created a batting piece that would do for the little mats I am making.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

 

I love playing with my quilt in the morning first thing. This morning, however, I got up at first light and at outside with a cup of tea and watched the sun come up and listened to the birds getting busy.

Back inside I knew exactly what I was going to do with the quilt and had it set up from the night before.

I completed the raw edge appliqué stitching and added the final strip on the bottom of the block.

Last week I made the little table mat from the scraps.

Cheers,

Val

Daily Quilting Report

 

Today I had my work table ready to go with the space cleared and just the block pieces and instructions laid out. 

I have been trying to get bit more organised with my sewing. I will be practicing a routine of preparing my sewing work table the night before. I can add that action onto putting my iPad on the charger before I go to bed.

I sewed the last block and the bottom edge of the appliqué block. Next up is sewing round the appliqué pieces.

I now have 3 kits so I found a cube box to store them in. 

Cheers,

Val

Cross Stitch, Applique and a Fun New magazine

I was certainly in a cross stitch mood recently. After doing the cup outline piece I stitched up this cute little cat in a mug design. It is all over Pinterest along with others from a set.

I inadvertently did the outline stitches in 2 threads instead of 1 but I am still happy with it.
I will be making this one into another tea mat using my scraps.

I have been busy this last week going through all my craft room boxes. I have managed to move quite a lot of the store for later boxes so there is much more room for my using now boxes. Things are looking much better. At the same time I have sorted and ironed all my scraps ready to start the Splendid Sampler and I have also filled another floss box. The floss skeins are down to the last bag or two now.

As a bit of a cross over project I have combined doll clothes with applique and thread sketching. I have a thing for pictures out of fabric or thread. They just call out to me.

This cute little A-line skirt is being modelled by one of my Australian Girl dolls. The 18" A-line skirt pattern is already on my facebook page as a free pattern and this 20" size skirt will be up soon, also free and including the pumpkin applique design. The applique will fit just as well on the 18" skirt.
If you like doll clothes then check out my Doll Designs blog and my Etsy Shop.

On Friday I discovered Daphne's Diary in the newsagent. The colours and designs and layout was irresistible. I have limited my magazine reading to library magazines on Zinnio for a few years now so it felt good to buy a lovely magazine in the flesh.

Once a magazineaholic always an addict. The first thing I did when I got home was to look up back issues. The only ones I could find in Australia were the two previous editions. It has been going for 3 or 4 years in Europe but I am sure it hasn't been here long. I am not prepared to pay for back issues from the Netherlands but I did pay $14.99 for each of the back issues on eBay. The newsagent one cost me $10.95 anyway so I thought the price was bearable. I can't wait to get them.

You can cut out these shapes...

...and create a necklace picture.

You can read about designers.

You can read nice stories and get craft ideas.

The back cover is a lovely sheet of paper with no text.

Hope you are having a wonderful crafty weekend,

Val

A Little Coffee Mat

I decided to make mum a coffee mat to put on her glass table outside when she has her morning coffee out the back. It is difficult to think of Christmas presents for her so this will be it.
I go down to visit her once more before Christmas so I need to have it ready.
I have a collection of cup and saucer drawings that I traced off photos so I picked a nice shaped one. I also liked the bit of design on the cup.

I cut a 10 1/2" square then cut 2 1/2" strips 2 x 10 1/2" and 2 x 14 1/2". You must measure and cut them to make the mat square.
I like to press my seams open.

I made a one piece applique of the cup and saucer then drew in the details with my air erasable pen. It was easy to free motion over the design.

I glued the wadding and the backing on with 505 basting spray.

I used a 2 1/4" wide strip to make the double fold binding and folded it using my electric bias machine.

I stitch the binding onto the wrong side stopping 1/4" before the corner, do a back stitch, then with my needle down turning to direct the stitching out to the corner. That is the only different step all the rest is the same. I find this little angled stitching makes mitring the corners so easy.

Here it is all done. I love it. It was quick and easy so it doesn't have to be treated like a treasure. I know mum will like it.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

KNK Zing Air

I have been far too slow to get on the Klik n Kut and work out how to use it. Today I took the final plunge and used the cutting blade. I had several goes with the pen only, to work out how to place my fabric and set up the machine to cut in the right place.

I already had my SVG file ready to import into Make the Cut software. I deleted most of the shapes and kept the heart and two circles for testing.
Using 100% cotton quilting fabric backed with fusible applique paper I did a test cut on the minimum settings recommended. The fabric didn't quite cut through.

The only two things I could adjust were the amount of blade sticking through the holder and the force.
I adjusted the blade so it easily cut through two sheets of paper and I adjusted the force up to the higher recommended level.
I was thrilled that it worked perfectly. The fabric was cut through nicely and the paper backing was only just cut. My fabric pieces peeled off the paper backing very neatly.
The fusible paper backing is perfect to use with this machine because it sticks very well to the cutting mat.
As you can see, my mat isn't very clean. DH has been doing lots of testing and playing with light card. The paper backing stuck well though.

Here you can see where my first go didn't cut right through. On the new settings the fabric lifted out easily.

My KNK Zing Air settings were:
Yellow Fabric Blade - easily cuts through 2 sheets of paper. It just peeps out of the casing.
Speed - 9
Force - 135
Cuts - 2

I used a 12" virtual mat on portrait.
I chose the WYSIWYG setting for cutting.
I set the origin at the bottom right hand corner of the mat.

What is the point of all this?
I need to cut out 14 sets of applique pieces for 14 blocks of my Go Wild Quilt. This machine will make it very quick and easy.

My next experiment will be fabric on its own. I have read that the fabric tends to be dragged by the blade rather than sticking firmly. We shall see.

Happy Quilting ans Crafting,
Val

Welcome to the North Pole November update

This is the final update for the SAL. Some of you joined up 2 years ago and several did a wonderful job of finishing their quilt early this year. Then a few more wanted to start this year.
I have put mine on hold indefinitely while I get over my obsession with dolls clothes. All my quilts are patiently waiting.
If you haven't posted about your progress yet make sure you add your link to the linky at the end of this post. This is as far as mine got. I changed the design quite a lot because I wanted it to look like a scene. I have started the last blue row for the top. It has the moon and stars on it and the other two reindeer. It is put away in a box for now.

Thank you to all those who joined in along the way.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

An InLinkz Link-up

Welcome to the North Pole SAL August 2014

I have started to pack up some of my sewing things in anticipation of the big move early November. The house will be locked up today when the garage door goes on and the kitchen will go in next week. I love the kitchen. I will post a few pictures soon.

I feel like a bit of a poor hostess not working on my Welcome to the North Pole blocks but I do hope some of you have managed to get a bit done this month. It is quite exciting to see some of the quilts started last year almost finished now.

I hope you will post some progress in the linky at the bottom of the page.

In keeping with the applique theme at least, I have created a small Tribute to Spring with some flower pots and flowers that could be used for applique or stitchery but I think it would look great with a bit of both.

It is so easy to put patterns in my Craftsy store so that is where I have put this one. It is free to download. If you are not a member of Craftsy yet please sign up through my affiliate link in the left hand side bar. I get a small commission when new members sign up.

I have just been down to Brisbane for a visit with my mum and we went up to Tea and Niceties (32 Eagle Heights Rd Tamborine Mountain). What a lovely high tea we had. Well worth a visit. Especially now they are in their new garden location. It was $55 each. My favourite thing is the tiny scones. We even bought a teacup and plate set like the ones they use. It is a design they had made just for them. I haven't got a picture of the cup design and I scoffed most of the goodies before remembering to take a photo. Pathetic I know, but you will just have to visit for yourself.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

An InLinkz Link-up

FNSI

I managed to get some sewing done. The little applique pinny has been hanging around for a while so I got busy and finished it off. I am thinking the applique pieces are just a fraction too big. The dress bodice is my vest pattern cut a bit shorter.

I played around with the basic skivvy a bit. There are still a few tweeks to make it perfect. Here is Jessica modelling it with the jacket I made before. Unfortunately there is no coordinating skirt or pants so she just has her shorts on.

I used a narrow zig zag stitch to sew all the seams and hem. The pieces are just a bit small for the overlocker. Today I will make the few changes to the skivvy pattern and work on a new doll tote bag pattern.

It is overcast and not very pleasant weatherwise today so it will be good for sewing.

Make sure you have a look at what all the others have been up to at Sugarlane Quilts.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val