A challenge for the day....

...and a challenge it was.

Today I began with a list:

finish of the last set of placemats, oven mitt and trivet

buy wadding and backing for the strong quilt and Precious Hearts quilts

piece the 6 inch squares for the Precious Heart quilts

make two European quilted pillowcases to match the quilt on my bed

finish and bind the strong quilt

So..................


what did I get done?

Firstly, I had to research how to machine quilt.................there are sooooooo many tutorials out there!

I found out that:

you need to relax while you machine quilt ......really? Has this woman actually done this backbreaking task? Her suggestion? Drink a glass of wine before you start. Hasn't this woman read or heard about not drinking whilst operating heavy machinery?

So, I managed to fit the new free motion quilting foot thingo to my new Janome. Found the 'feed dogs' thingamijig and 'dropped' them.

Put on my 'quilting gloves' ( checked these out in the patchwork shop - too much money for maybe one failure) saw they had sticky things on the finger tips and had a pair of gardening gloves that looked pretty similar at home- so they are now my quilting gloves- considering gardening has never managed to be on my agenda and I don't even have a 'live' plant pot to care for ( do have a dead one that needless to say was not looked after and never met the gardening/quilting gloves).

I finished the plcemats pretty quickly. Thry look lovely.

I went down the street early to get my wadding.....managed to fond some at Patchwork on the Bay. David Bates, the owner is always interested in what I am sewing so I told him I was piecing and quilting the Precious Hearts pram/bassinette quilts today. He gave me two metres of backing fabric that a rep had given him today to use for the backs.  Thank you David from all the beautiful babies with heart disease. There is enough for three quilt backs and the bindings so I came home and pieced an extra top.

I finished piecing the 6 inch blocks I cut when I was cleaning out the sewing room. Most of them are pretties left over from making dresses and quilts for my grandbabies.

I did learn today that a good way to baste small quilts and blocks was to use spray adhesive-- very cool and worked. Thank you  for that wonderful tip.

I decided it was time to get into the machine quilting. I decided to try a sample first. best tip amongst all the blogs was to pull the bobbin thread through before starting. After clogging the thread twice decided this must be a good tip and worked perfectly after that.

I used a big swirly design to quilt each block. Not sure if I imporeved.

One of the problems with all the tutorials I read was the RULES!!!!!

RULES

Now, once there are rules then there must follow guilt for breaking them - just another thing in my life to go along with being a pathetic cook, lousy plant pot looker afterer and a host of other things.

One of the rules is that you should never cross a line you have already sewn - really????????????? crossing the line?   well I didn't manage to avoid that a couple of times but just sew (sic) you know, I tried.

Came to putting the blocks together I had to go back to the tutorials to check out how to quilt as you go - again, many many videos and tutorials - clearly I need hands on teaching here. Could not seem to make it happen. Eventually got there but  trying to get the points together with all those layers was a nightmare- had to go back to old fashioned tacking. I did try to 'debulk' my seams. I am an English teacher so metalanguage is important to me. 'Debulk'? I think they apply that word on medical shows to tumour removal.

I did try 'debulking' and all the other hints but the whole task was onerous.

Finally got the quilt together so now just have bindings to sew on. Should have it finished tomorrow and will post a pic.

Now I am the master of machine quilting ( hiccup loudly here as one should imagine I was relaxed from drinking while I did it- except  I don;t think Chai tea counts) .

I decided to put a little owl applique on the back of the pram quilts.


Here is one finished. I will finish the other two tomorrow and send them off to Precious Hearts.

So, didn't get everything on the list done but covered a fair bit so am pretty happy with my day. I will be sad to see the end of school holidays and sewing.

Tomorrow is officially my last sewing day of the hols.  So sad.

More pics tomorrow.

Freda's Hive: "Doll House" Potholder Tutorial

I found this gorgeous tutorial today....just have to make some for myself and my daughter. She will love them.

Freda's Hive: "Doll House" Potholder Tutorial

still 13 July and..............

it is almost done.

By 1:11, 3 hours after starting  my cutting I am at the final block stage.

64 squares cut by 10am - had to stop for a cuppa and a chat with my granddaughter Rory

16 ginger zinger squares cut, folded and pressed for my sandwiches

Ready to SEWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

I decided to chain stitch so set up all my squares with the first sandwich.

All sewn together ready for the other side of the sandwich.

The final seam pinning took about 20 minutes but then the result......

I have laid the quilt out on my bed. Still think it needs a little something so am off to Steph's Patchwork for a crazy ginger zinger border.

I am very happy with this...might need sashing?

Will show off the final product soon. Not bad for 3 hours work!

13 July A great day for a sewathon!

8:11

Make the decision to keep attacking the stash cupboard. I want to make another quilt colorway of the 3 seam quilt. I think I shall empty the top shelf and see how many fabrics there are and make a scarppy style quilt. The dimensional squares will all be the same to tie the quilt together, I can bind in the same fabric, but all the sqaures should be different.

MMMM..... so, for a queen bed quilt top I will need 64 scrap squares and 16 feature squares.


To the cupboard.....

OKAY................. 70 fabrics here in a variety of lengths and sizes. A couple of squares extra will be handy for any fabrics that just don't work or can be used to make some matching euro pillows.

I hate cutting but here goes.....

9:10 Time for a rest .....

32 squares cut so half way.

Some of these fabrics are quite old- over 20 years; and there is at least one vintage apron scrap I have had for over thirty years- so sad... but they will look amazing in this scrap quilt and smile happily at me from my bed by tonight... I hope!

So tea and toast finished, I have indulged myself with sitting in the sun drinking tea and eating toast with Rose's Lime Marmalade- just the best... but back to the quilt. Will post more when the other half of the squares are cut.