Saturday, February 27, 2016

More Splendid blocks ...

Fortunately I can use the sewing machine pedal with my bandaged and booted right foot so I've  made progress with my sampler project blocks. Not all of it has been good but I've learnt a lot about preparing fabric for accurate cutting and sewing and I'm grateful to have had some time to obsess about flat seams, even points etc. etc.



Here's block two, lots of Half Square Triangles, HST's to use the jargon, so lots of points to match and plenty of opportunities for inaccuracy. The result is a not good, not totally bad and of course, one corner block is different to the other three.

I'll probably leave it like this and hope the quilting disguises its quality and somehow I'll cope with the fact that it measures less than 6.5 inches when the time comes to join it to adjacent blocks!!


The butterflies need some attenae, not yet decided whether to embroider as suggested by the designer or to use metal foil and pressure sensitive glue.

The 3rd block was a real challenge for me, with 48 pieces to make a 6” square! I wondered what would help improve my accuracy and produce matching points and seams, and a final block of the correct size.

In my research I came across these articles on fabric preparation, on the merits (or not) of using start and sizing


The results for me is that I still experimenting. As I started the project with unwashed fabrics, I shall continue to use them unwashed. But I did use Best Press for Block 3 and found it made a big difference in terms of flat seams, easier handling of the fabric and, woopee, the finished block is the correct size.



OK, the points are all perfect but they are much better than I’ve achieved before with such small pieces of fabric.   The next time I need to piece like that I plan to use Spray Starch and to compare the commercial can with my own solution.  Watch this space for the results.

Meanwhile, block 4 is much more my style and here's a peep at the fabrics ... 

I'm trying to use a little of what I'm calling the key fabrics in each block to keep some overall cohesion.

Watch this space for the finished block ... another design arrives tomorrow but I always knew I'd only be ahead at week one. 

Sunday, February 14, 2016

The Splendid Sampler block 1 ...

Here's the first 6'x6' block for the Splendid Sampler Quilt by Pat Sloan and a lot of other designers  - I'm calling it my 2016 sewing marathon. 

The project continues for the year and this maybe the first time I'm not playing catch up as there are two to complete each week.

The block design will be a twice weekly surprise and I'm using fabrics from a fat quarters bundle I bought a while ago.    I've started to use these in two previous projects, realised quickly that both were destined to be unfinished, so hopefully its third time lucky.





Here's a few of the project's fabrics  - I did buy a few more last week, mainly some plains and I'm hoping to also use oddments out of my bags of tiny pieces. After all these are small blocks so those tiny cut off bits should be ideal, somewhere in some of  the 100 blocks.
I'm going to use my blog as a way of journalling my progress through the project. Along with a photo of each block there'll be reflections on choosing the fabric and on lessons learnt  - of which I'm sure there'll be many.


Clearly block 1 is in celebration of today's date. I was pleased to see the need for some raw edged appliqué as I have now done quite a lot of that. And some of my tiny pieces did prove useful as the corners.  It's a shame that the lovely matched points are hidden under the heart but I know they're there.

Some of the fabrics I used in this block frayed badly so I'm going to do some research on preventing too much of that going on. With the small pieces the frayed edges changes the size very quickly.

I've stay stitched the edges to hold the pieces more firmly in place and to make it easier when this block is joined to the next three.

It's been great today looking at everyone else's finished block on the project website or Facebook page. I borrowed someone's idea to add the date to each block, its probably difficult to see here on my block because of its size but I didn't want the lettering to be too obvious.





I'll be back with block 2 soon (I hope). Here's the link to the Splendid Sampler website http://www.thesplendidsampler.com and perhaps I'll be seeing your SS blocks there or on Facebook soon?


Saturday, February 6, 2016

Busy sewing houses



It's Saturday, some minutes to catchup with my week on this often forgotten blog.

My two house blocks are finished for the Quilting Class  ...





  I used pressure sensitive glue and gold
 foil to make the window and door frames ... a wonderful disguise for the needle holes which seem to be so much bigger with the invisible thread I used to applique the edges.















And I now have a some spare gift tags from the foiling on fabric demonstration I did with Sue and Ruth at our Thursday evening Quilters meeting. The tags also used the pressure sensitive glue and we showed three other ways of attaching the foil - with Bondaweb, glue powder and a tacky bobbin thread.


  Have a good weekend everyone.