I Love My Cat Wall Quilt

I love this quilt by Lynnette Anderson. Earlier this year I tore out all the patterns I liked from my magazines and threw the magazines away. I kept out a couple of patterns that I thought I might try this year.

The pocket was in view just under my sewing machine and I kept looking at it. Then last week I pulled down my scrap box and moved the pocket to the top of the box. Yay! I had started.

Yesterday I put together a cat body and I feel very pleased with myself.

However, today I have found a bag making challenge for November with tutorials and tips and give aways. Over at Elm Street Quilts. I already have my eye on my zipper box and will use scraps to make a little pouch to enter in the competition this week. Well, that's the plan anyway.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
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

Playing with Washi Tape

The book Washi Wonderful by Jenny Doh and my washi tape set.

I borrowed a lovely craft book from my library, all about using washi tape. There are some great gift wrap and card ideas but I was taken by the covered light switch.

I used my Kikki K washi tape set.

The finished light switch.

I can just see it from my desk and it looks so pretty. I really need to put washi tape on a lot more things :)

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