Baby Fence Rail - Pt I

Last night I pre-washed the fabric I bought for this project back in March.  It was all dry by the time I got home this evening and ready to be ironed.

With the fabric ironed I got to work with the rotary cutter.  I didn't set out to do all my cutting in one go but I had no idea how quickly this would go when working with new yardage and a new cutting disc.  To date my patch work has all been put together from repurposed garments or left overs from other projects.  This has meant dealing with irregular shapes and a certain amount of patch by patch cutting.  New fabric is regular in shape, easy to fold and it took no time to cut eight, two and a half inch, cross-width strips from each fabric.  I then cut a further six wider strips from two of the fabrics.  These will form narrow and wider borders.  The binding will be made of the third (yellow) fabric.

Don't the cut fabrics look satisfying all laid out and ready to go?

The brand new spool of natural coloured Gutermann's sew all was too much for me to resist so I got to work filling a bobbin.  I have decided, as this project begins with sewing strip sets, to use the 201k to piece this project.  The large level working space provided by the cabinet will be useful.

Filling bobbins is a task I always enjoy and never more so than on my 201k.  The rubber tyre is nearly new so the winder fills bobbins a treat!  This is where I intended to stop for the evening but all that lovely cut fabric was just too tempting.

So here it is - the first strip set I have sewn and pressed.  The ironing board cover is new.  I bought it off the peg but had to do major surgery yesterday afternoon to make it fit my tiny ironing board.

The Log Cabin Quilt: Final!

Cast your minds back and you may remember that I used to write a blog here.  I didn't mean to stop writing but I didn't have anything to blog about as I seemed to have lost my sewing mojo.  I have read that this can happen.  Well my mojo has returned and I have some progress to report.

Remember my to do list?

Progress so far:

Machine baste around the outside of the quilt a quater of an inch from the edge of the quilt top

Trim away the excess backing and batting and square up

Cut two and a half inch strips of the red fabric for binding

Join strips using 45 degree seams

Attach binding

Wash, line dry and press

That's right!  Only a few minutes ago I put the final stitches into the binding on the quilt.  Thank you to follower Ken who explained how to make my hand stitching invisible.

Finished log cabin cot quilt (thank you to The-Much-Belovéd for holding it up so well)

Detail of quilting and binding back and front

I machined the binding to the front of the quilt and then hand stitched it to the back.  Yes, it took hours!  I am happy enough with the result to make it worth the investment of time.

How's that for a mitre?

I am particularly pleased with the way the mitred corners worked out.  I am indebted to Lizzie Lenard's tutorial on binding.  The finish on this quilt is about a hundred times better than on my first quilt at the end of last summer.

Well that's another project completed.  I will need to wash the quilt before I post it off to it's new owner.  I now have the excitement of starting a new project.  I wonder what's next...

And the Singer 99K makes five!

Another new arrival at Oil and Thread.  Oops.  I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to do it.  I couldn't help it.  She was a local beauty, the price was right, I was weak.  Anyone will tell you these are excuses and not reasons and they'd probably be right but who could have resisted this little honey?  A 1935 Singer 99k, the bright work is unmarked and the black lacquer still has a deep gloss.

The following were included with the machine

• rigid straight stitch foot
• adjustable hemmer foot
• two class 66 bobbins
• a couple of needles
• Singer screw driver
• correct instruction book

The key and the extension table are missing but as we all know a narrow screwdriver will open and lock the case with impunity and I can live without an extension table until fate is kind enough to send one my way.

The vendor told me that he had bought this machine from a sewing machine dealer, for his wife, in 1979.  I think she must have used it quite a bit because the bobbins were each wound with the statutory five different colours and there was a LOT of fluff behind the faceplate, around the hook and in the base.  I resorted to a vacuum cleaner and an old toothbrush.

With the fluff removed, oil in all of the usual places got shot of the slight squeak from under the machine bed.  The slide plate had been pulled off but was easy to replace by following the directions in the instruction leaflet.  The machine produced excellent stitches with balanced tension right from the word go.  It must have been well set up back in '79 because there was very little for me to do except get down to some sewing!

Not just a pretty face(plate).  The eagle eyed will notice that a binding foot has been fitted.  What can Mr G be up to?

The bentwood case is in more than fair condition but missing a key.  I will wax polish it someday I promise.

In closing today I am going to offer some buying advice.  This machine was offered for sale at auction at a tiny starting price.  I have seen similar on offer for ten and even twenty times what I paid for it.  My point?  Set a limit and then be patient.  There are a LOT of little black Singers out there in the world.  If you sit tight the right one will come and find you (almost).

The Log Cabin Quilt: Quilting in the Ditch

 Well where has the time gone?  Over two weeks since my last post.  The Log Cabin Quilt should probably be finished by now but alas it is not.  Here it is as of this morning.

And here are two more shots, of the backing, which I think show up the quilting slightly better.  I quilted in the ditch between each log cabin block and then the border.  My certainty left me at that point.  I then decided to to quilt in the ditch between each pair of piano keys in the border.  I think that overall the quilting feels quite balanced at this stage.  

I was toying with the idea of adding diagonal quilting across the centre log cabin section of the quilt but after some discussion with The-Much-Beloved I have decided not to.  We both agreed that additional diagonal lines might detract from the detailed patchwork of logs.

At the moment the quilt feels robust enough to stand up to wear and washing.  The batting suggested quilting up to ten inches apart.  The widest point between rows of quilting on this piece is seven inches so I am well within tolerances.  At the same time the quilt is still supple and flexible cuddly.  This is intended for a cot so I wouldn't want to over quilt and end up with something that felt too rigid.

In an attempt to focus on the finish line here are the next steps

1. Machine baste around the outside of the quilt a quater of an inch from the edge of the quilt top
2. Trim away the excess backing and batting and square up
3. Cut two and a half inch strips of the red fabric for binding
4. Join strips using 45 degree seams
5. Attach binding
6. Wash, line dry and press

Preparing the Singer 401G for Straight Line Quilting

Here is the needle of the Singer 401G set up with the general purposes presser foot and throat plate.  This is how the machine was when it arrived and how it normally lives.  There are easy changes I can make to the machine to improve its quilting performance.

The changes revolve around this little lot.

• No1 a walking foot
• No2 a straight stitch throat plate

The general purposes throat plate is pictured on the left for comparison.  Apparently the smaller needle hole helps stitch formation by offering more support to the fabric.  The benefit of the walking foot is that it helps reduce "shift".  

This robust looking lever is the means by which the throat plate can be lifted to carry out darning (notice the symbol that looks like a darn), embroidery and free motion work.  Move the lever to the far left to remove the throat plate either for cleaning (notice the cute brush symbol) or to swap the plates.

Here is the machine with the plate swapped, the walking foot fitted and the stitch length adjusted to ten stitches per inch (just like the books told me to do).

Next I made a trial sandwich using off cuts of the batting, backing and quilt top.  No point using materials that aren't similar to those in the finished project.  I played around sewing lines of quilting.  I found that the bobbin thread was only slightly visible first time so I reduced the upper tension half a number and tried again.  It took a few goes until the bobbin thread vanished somewhere inside the work.  That should do it.

Now I like quilting on the 401G with all this kit but remember - my first quilting project was pieced and quilted on a diminutive 1899 Singer 25K hand crank.  What is more that quilt, although it may never win first place and the Minnesota State Fair, actually looks ok and has been keeping me warm at nights since November 2012.  My point?  Don't let the gadgets put you off.  Think carefully, take your time, have a go!

The Log Cabin Quilt: Batting on the Matting

I can hardly believe it has been a week since I last wrote on the blog.  Busy times for me if not for Oil and Thread.  Anyway this evening I feel like I have had the space and the energy to get back to work (or back to play) on the quilt.

Since I last wrote I have been to see the lovely Angela at The Creative Sanctuary to buy some lovely Cotton/Polyester blend batting.  It's suitable for machine or hand quilting up to ten inches apart and I spent Saturday afternoon pre-washing it in the bath and then most of the rest of the weekend trying to get it dry.  Up until this evening I was wondering if it would have been worth the bother.  That was before I began to assemble the quilt sandwich.

In the following picture I have lightly pinned the backing fabric to the carpet using quilter's pins.  I have read about this method but I found it hard to imagine that it would work.  It seemed only marginally less futile than trying to stick masking tape to fabric and carpet.  I guess a lot will depend on the type of carpet and how it is laid but here I was pleased and surprised at how I got on.

In my second picture I have smoothed the batting out over the backing fabric.  See how lovely and fleecy the cotton mix batting is.  I have pinned the batting, making sure not to stretch it, but I have yet to trim it to size.  I did this with my shears.

The third picture shows the quilt top added to the sandwich.  I have used the same quilter's pins to baste the sandwich.  Each of the red squares at the centre of the log cabin blocks has a pin through it.  It is worth remarking on how easy it was to get the pins to go through the cotton batting.  Progress this evening felt much smoother than my experiences working with safety pins and polyester batting on a previous project.

My plan now is to start quilting in-the-ditch between the long cabin squares.  My hope is that this will stabilise the layers and then I am imagining some sort of diagonal grid of quilting covering the middle panel.  Have I the strength to quilt in the ditch between every one of those piano keys in the border?  Would that be too heavy a treatment?  Questions I will need to ask myself and answer but first I want to set up the Singer 401G properly for the task in hand.

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.