Free Backing Fabric

Now I like a bargain but I like free even more.  I found this duvet cover discarded.  It was dusty and coffee stained but 100% cotton and a nice close weave at that.  I took it in and gave it a soak in  the bath and then a good hot wash and it came up a treat.  There is one tiny hole (a fag burn?) near a corner of one side of it  I suppose it got chucked because of the coffee stain.  Having got it clean I thought it would be great to use as a muslin for a shirt or dressing gown but now I have decided I am going to use some of it to back the log-cabin quilt.

I spread the duvet cover (inside out) on the sitting room floor and got out the trusty Fiskers.  I figured that if I trimmed away the overlocked seams I would be left with two nice large pieces of fabric.

I trimmed as close the the line of overlock stitching as I could so as to make the most of the fabric.  I selected the side of the duvet cover that doesn't have the hole to back the quilt and cut it down to 48 inches by 62 inches that allows for a three inch margin around the finished quilt top.  I will use the off-cuts to play with getting the tension right for straight-line quilting on the 401G.

I then pulled out the left over wadding I was planning to use from my stash and discovered that even if I cut and joined what I had it would be about 25% less than I need.  I knew my luck would run out somewhere along the line.  Oh well shops tomorrow or the next day.

The Log Cabin Quilt: Pieced and pressed

It feels like it has been a long time coming and I know that I still have a way to go.  Nevertheless I cannot help feeling that I have crossed a personal rubicon this evening.  I have finished piecing the log cabin quilt top.

The top is now 42 inches wide and 56 inches long.  I think this will be a decent size for a cot plus a little bit of growing space.

I finished the borders on the Singer 201K.  I am still quite new to the treadle but I managed the long seams reasonably well.  The large level workspace is a bonus.  I only had one sticky moment when I upset the apple cart by letting the machine run backwards.  Result?  - Great wads of top thread knotting up on the underside of the work - this is to be avoided.  I had to stop, cut the work from machine and unpick the mess before I could continue.

So now it is time to think about putting the 201K to bed for a little while and introduce the Singer 401G.  That's the machine I am going to use to straight-line quilt this project.  But for now I think I've earned a beer.

The Log Cabin Quilt: Every Last Scrap

A long break from sewing over Easter but I am back in business now with a borrowed camera.  Last time I said I was nearly out of white fabric to finish the piano key border.  After another frantic search through the scrap box I turned up these.

They are the cuffs from one of my old shirts.  Most of the shirt has now been turned into log cabin blocks and piano keys.  Each cuff is double thickness so, between them, there is quite a bit of fabric here.  The middle piece of fabric is in fact bias cut interfacing so it will not be used in the quilt.  I will save it just in case it can be used for something else at some point.  The dark line on the fabric nearest the camera is actually the table showing through a very worn strip.

The cuff has yielded five more piano keys for the border.  I could only get two out of the piece with the worn strip.  I pressed and spray starched the fabric before cutting out the piano keys.

I have one more cuff to "process" and if I run short again I still have the collar as a last resort.

This is how I have decided to solve the problem of my corner stones.

I am happy with this effect.  It feels like these are going together more easily than mitred corners (which I used on my first ever quilt) and I like the way that the stepped strips continue as a variation on the log cabin theme.

I am setting myself the personal target of having this quilt top finished by the weekend.

The Log Cabin Quilt: Sashing and Border update

Here are the log cabin blocks pieced together in the sunshine and shadow setting. All the paper foundation has been removed [with the help of TMB - thanks!] and the narrow red sashed border added.  I think I like it... 

Spot the toe of my carpet slippers! 

Production has switched to the 201K.  The 28K's bobbin ran out on Saturday afternoon and I already had a class 66 bobbin wound with white thread.  The large level work space of the 201K's cabinet made the long seams more manageable. Does anyone else ever switch machines part way through a project?

Here is the quilt top a few minutes later with the first long side of piano keys added.  The border has been pressed and the quilt is making me smile.

Next job is to make another long piano key border for the other side but I may get distracted working out how I am going to handle the corner blocks.  I'm not sure I have the strength for mitred piano keys.

New Shirt Pattern

Hello.  I would like to start today's post with a big thank you to Muv and Peter for posting links to my blog on theirs.  This has led to record number of page views, new followers, and some great comments.  Thanks to everyone who has stopped by and especially to those who have left comments or decided to join the blog as followers.

With all this excitement was there ever a worse time for my poor camera to die on me?  Well with me planning to show you all how the borders for the log cabin quilt are coming along with I should say NOT!  With the MOT paid for and road tax just around the corner I'm not sure when a new camera will be on the cards :0(

I think I'll have to dig out the cable and do some experiments with my phone to see if I can produce any pics to keep the blog going in the meantime.  Keep watching

In other news I now have a shirt pattern.  I've been inspired by Peter's use of this pattern

I've never made a shirt before but I think it's time to take the plunge.  Or it will be when the log cabin quilt is finished.  I like all three versions shown on the pattern envelope.  My head has been turned by view B which has tucks on the front yoke but I will try to make the short sleeved version.  I'm a bit scared, as a beginner, of cuffs and plackets.  I've got some cheap nice lightweight cotton shirting for a muslin.  Let's see how that goes.  With a bit of luck I might have a new shirt in time for my holidays!

Piano Keys Quilt Border

I have made a start.  Here is the first section of the border I am preparing for the Log Cabin Quilt (two pattern repeats so far).

Piano Keys Quilt Border for the Log Cabin Quilt

I just wanted to get a bit done as a sample.  The keys are cut at one and half by six and a half inches so finish up the same width as the strips in the log cabin blocks.  I rather like how this is turning out so far.

I am not sure how much of this I am going to need yet.  I need to park the piano keys, piece the centre section and add the narrow sashing.  I wonder if The-Much-Beloved will allow me any sewing time over the weekend.

The Log Cabin Quilt: Progress

Here are the log cabin blocks I have made laid out on the sitting room floor.  No design wall for me.

Log Cabin Blocks

Now when I started piecing these I didn't really know what I was making.  I started the green log cabins as an experiment in paper foundation piecing.  I have now made 24 log cabin blocks. That's four blocks in six different colours.  Having done this I feel that I have made as many log cabin blocks I as would like to for the time being.  I think I am tired of sewing, fabric I can't see, through a sheet of paper.

Each of my 24 blocks will finish at seven inches square so at the moment I have a potential width of 28 inches and length 42 inches.  I think I have two options.

1. make another 24 blocks and to create a quilt top 42 x 56 inches
2. take what I have and use borders to bring the quilt top up to a similar size

I have decided that I am going to go with the second option.  Thinking about borders and my small fabric stash some kind of pieced 'scrappy' border is going to the answer.  I used piano keys for the border on my first ever quilt and enjoyed making them and the finished look of them.

Having looked at the scraps I have available I think I am going to use the red from the middle of the log cabins to add a narrow sashing border around the outside of the 24 log cabins.  Then I am going to use strips of the printed fabric, alternating with strips of the remaining white, to make the piano key border around that.  I am hoping that the red will frame the  log cabins and that the alternate white strips will prevent the outer border from over powering the centre blocks.  We will see.

Chain Piecing with the Singer 28K - Note the seam guide set for a scant quarter inch

Here I have started chain piecing one and a half inch strips to make the border.  This is the first time I have used this technique and I like the way it seems to save time and thread.

Pressing Chain Pieced Piano Keys - please excuse my ironing board cover.

These piano keys waiting to be snipped apart and trimmed open.

Making a decision about where this quilt top is going next has reawakened my interest and excitement in this project.  I am already thinking about what style of quilting will suit this patchwork.

Saturday Shopping Spree

I haven't done any sewing since Thursday but I have been planning and shopping.  Next best thing?

A few weeks ago my oldest old friend told me the fantastic news that she was expecting her first baby.  Wonderful news for her and just the excuse that I've been looking for to make a cot-sized fence rail quilt.

I had stumbled across a free pattern at Victoriana Quilt Designs a few months back and stored the idea in my memory bank for later.

I imagine something bright, fun and cute but not mawkish for a baby quilt and as we don't know what type of baby we are expecting I am steering clear of pink flowers and Disney Princesses.

I was thrilled to find these fabrics in the shop that is never knowingly undersold.  I spotted the owl print first and fell for it.  I've had a bit of a thing for Owls for ages.  I think it goes back to childhood memories of Blackberry Farm, Winnie the Pooh, The Sword in the Stone and Clash of the Titans (the original one with Larry, Maggie and Burgess).  Wise nocturnal birds seem to me to be appropriate to watch over infant sleep.

The bright yellow leaf print was next to catch my eye.  The yellow is a spot on match for the yellow on the owl print and the leaf is stylistically similar on both fabrics.  I toyed with a few options over the the third fabric.  I wanted to bring out either the red or the blue from the owl print.  I saw some blue with irregular yellow dots that I liked but the yellow wasn't quite right and then, a few bolts down the rack, I spied the petrel blue version of the yellow leaf print.  I hummed and hahhed a bit over it.  I didn't want the thing to look too leafy but The-Much-Beloved and the staff helped me make up my mind.

The pattern I intend to make calls for three fabrics; a dark tone on tone, medium tone on tone, and a light print.  I think I am near enough on that one.

I have one or two things to finish before I go at this project hammer and tongs so I guess I can enjoy the smell of new fabric for a few days more before I get down to washing and preshrinking the new yardage.

Liberty Print Boxer Shorts

After being cleaned and oiled I felt that the Singer 15K80 needed a work out so I ran these up.

Liberty Boxer Shorts

I picked the liberty print up at Fabric Galore in Battersea  months ago.  I had pre-washed, ironed and put it into the stash ages ago.  I had even been so organised as to buy thread and elastic at the same time.

The pattern I used is fairly simple.  It uses only two pattern pieces or rather the same pattern piece cut, flipped over and cut again.  I managed to cut out and nearly finish the boxers last night and hemmed them while the dinner was cooking this evening.  I have made this pattern once before (it was my first project when I started sewing after being given the 28K) so I had a fair idea of what I was doing.

From winding the bobbin with brownish red thread to finishing the hem the 'fifteen' performed faultlessly.  The old machine seemed to run more smoothly and more quietly with every stitch and it feels like it has some serious piercing power.  This fabric is probably 'dress weight' and as such maybe a shade heavy for boxers but two layers of it were as nothing to the 'fifteen'.  There is one point in this project where I was sewing through (I think) nine layers of cotton (it can happen) and the machine never missed a beat.

 As written the pattern suggests a zigzag and trim seam finish and even zigzagging the hem.  That isn't possible on a straight stitch machine so I did some thinking and adapted it for flat felled seams.  Neat and tidy for the inside of undies!

Flat Felled Seam

The elastic is encased in a tunnel waistband and the fly went together without too much bother.  It's not quite ready to wear but I am happy with the result and I'm sure it will be fairly robust.

Fly and Waistband inside view

At one and a quarter inches the hem is much deeper than any of my shop bought boxers but they hang well and both legs are the same length!

And I've now got plenty of scraps to turn into log cabin blocks!

Liberty Scraps

More on the Log Cabin Blocks

This is one of my completed paper foundation pieced  log cabin blocks.  Note the wide, uneven, margin of paper all around the outside of the fabric.  Although the foundation will remain in place until I join the blocks together I fear this wide margin will make that joining near impossible.

This is the same block flipped over so that the paper foundation shows.  That uneven margin will need to be trimmed to the same width on all of the blocks.

I line the first quarter inch mark on my ruler up with the printed outline on the foundation and trim with my rotary cutter.

I can then join matched blocks in the manner of a four patch unit by sewing along the printed line on the foundation, nesting the seams in the way that I have been taught.  Here are the first two blocks of a four patch coming together.  Note the neat narrow margins on the foundation pieces which give the quarter inch seam allowance I am looking for.

Here is a complete unit.  Colour matched log cabin blocks sewn as a four patch block in a setting that I have seen called sunshine and shadow.  Only a few more to go before I have something nearing the size of a cot.

Tea, Tiles and Inspiration

Look at this!

Quilt Floor

I mean the tiles and not the feet.  I believe that this type of tile is known as encaustic tiles.  The pattern is made up by inlaying clays of different colours rather than by paint or glaze.  They were first seen in churches and cathedrals during Medieval times and became hugely popular in the hallways of Victorian England.  They appear to be enjoying a revival in this delightful cafe bar in London's West End.

The-Much-Beloved has an eye for architectural detail and is a great believer in snapping a record of features that please just in case we ever need them.

"Oh look at the lovely floor!  I bet you'd want to sew that as a pattern"

Hmmm.  Sounds like a challenge is that a gauntlet I hear hitting the encaustic tiles?

The tile here looks like a variant on the eight point star.  I think it's do-able.  How scary can half-square triangles and flying geese be?

Watch this space...

Crazy Patchwork Cushion

Crazy Patchwork Cushion

This cushion case is made of scraps of shirts left over from my first quilting project and various other bits and bobs including a nice hunk of "ready for action" fabric by Alexander Henry.  Some of the first stitches I made with my Singer 201K treadle hold it together.  I was inspired to make it after reading "The Quilter's Bible" by Linda Clements.

I used a variation on Stitch and Flip but unlike the log-cabin blocks I didn't use a paper foundation for this crazy patchwork.  I pieced scraps and strips, stitching and flipping, until I had rough, out-sized, blocks.  I then used a six and a half inch square ruler and rotary cutter to 'square' the blocks.  When I had made nine of these I sewed them into what is essentially a large nine-patch unit.  I think it was best that I waited until I had all nine patches ready before sewing them together.  This gave me the chance to 'set' the blocks to my satisfaction.  I am happy that I managed to get a fairly even spread of colours here.

I sandwiched my block with poly batting left over from that same first quilt and white poly cotton I had left over from lining an apron I made for my sister.  I quilted the sandwich on my Singer 401G Slant-O-Matic simply because it came with a walking foot.  I choose a very boring regular grid pattern and variegated blue and white thread for the quilting.  I liked the way this contrasted with the 'scrappiness' of the quilt but somehow it didn't feel enough for me so I shadowed the grid with another line of stitching using the edge of the walking foot as a guide.

I completed the cushion cover on the Singer 201K.  I went for an envelope closure because that is the only type of cushion cover I have experience of and I was anxious to get the thing finished as a Valentine's day gift for The-Much-Beloved.  I used an adjustable hemmer and my trusty seam guide to help me get the job done as accurately and speedily as possible.

The cover finished at an approximate 17 inch square so an 18 inch duck down cushion form makes it pleasingly plump.

Piecing By Numbers with the Singer 28K

This is a technique I am trying to teach myself from instructions I found on the internet.  It's sometimes call Paper Foundation Piecing and I've also seen it referred to as Stitch and Flip.

I start each block with a paper foundation.  I designed this simple log cabin foundation using the table function which is part of word processing software.  If you look closely at the photograph you can see that each piece of the block has a number starting with 1 in the darkest square at the middle of the foundation.  The shading on my paper foundation is a nod to what I have read about the tonal values of traditional log-cabin blocks.

The next step (for my block) is to cut some fabric.  The blue is the left overs of some super smooth shirting I picked up online very reasonably and the white is from one of my shirts whose collar and cuffs were past their best.  I have started to cut one and a half inch strips half an inch longer than pieces on the foundation.  This gives me my quarter inch seam allowances.

Here I have flipped the paper foundation   and pinned my first piece of fabric over the back of the correct section.  I hold the paper up to the light to help me centre the fabric.  Notice that I have used red for the centre.  The story goes that the middle square of the log cabin block is supposed to represent the hearth of the cabin and so it is often red to indicate that fire that would have burned there.  I like a good story don't you?

Here I have layered the number two piece of the fabric on top of the first.  The next step is to flip the paper foundation back over and carefully carry it to the sewing machine without anything shifting.  Next time I will layer first and  then pin I think!

My lovely 1899 Singer 28K

This is where I start and where I finish.  I aim for about a quarter of an inch before and after the outline on the foundation.

I then continue adding strips, pressing with a dry iron as I go, following the numbers and tonal value already printed on the paper foundation.  When finished the block looks like this:

Nice?

The paper foundation stays with the completed block until I am ready to set the blocks and piece them into a quilt top. At the moment each block takes about an hour to piece (including cutting time) so I suppose I am some way off that.