I haven’t had my sewing machine out for more than a month and I do miss it, instead to keep me in touch with something crafty I’ve been doing a bit of dyeing, experimenting with different hues of the same colour….
It’s been fun, more to follow soon and then perhaps a little sewing time too:)
Dianna
Last week My Boy’s school had a maths and science week. He asked me to come in and share some of the maths in Quilting. I wasn’t convinced it was going to be easy to get 30 kids to do something patchworky – with my boy and the internet I spent a day preparing an English Paper Piecing (EPP) Class.
Challenges:
After practising the day before with my boy I realised the first hurdle was actually to get him to cut enough fabric around each pentagon without it slipping all over the place and he was not that motivated to stitch the fabric to each shape.
So I took some advice and instead of stitching we used a paper gluestick (I guess fabric glue would be preferable) to keep the paper attached to the fabric
Indeed the project took longer than I thought maybe four hours from start to finish.
The class managed to get all their pieces stuck with glue and a few got onto sewing some of the pentagons together.
All in all we had fun, did something different from a normal maths lesson and thirty children and a teacher were introduced to EPP – How exciting:)
I’m hoping at least one or two of them will be motivated enough to finish the project at home and bring it into school to show the rest of the class.
Oh, I am having some fun with this fusible batting. And a smaller project such as these lovely whole cloth place mats is the perfect opportunity to use the left over bits of it, making them without a binding ‘pillowslip style’.
Birthday present finished and given:)
Back with more about my LMQG Challenge…
‘Celebrating 150 years of the London Underground’
next post.
‘Till then,
Dianna
Finished the quilt – so pleased, ignored all phone calls texts messages to get it done on Sunday.
The fusible batting seemed to work pretty well, although I wasn’t manipulating my quilt too much under the needle as all I was doing was crossing diagonal lines to create more triangles on the quilt. I didn’t have any problems with the quilt sandwich slipping or coming apart, but I think the idea of securing the outer edge, and if you are wanting a bit more reassurance the odd pin around the quilt, is a good idea. I didn’t feel the need for adding any pins in the centre of the quilt, only around the edge and enjoyed a pin free quilting experience.
The thing that got me on this quilt more was cutting the fabric on the bias with all those angles. I found it difficult to get the quilt straight, each time I thought I’d squared the thing, I would measure again and found the fabric had bowed again. So I lost some inches around the quilt, Argh!! I think, if I had had enough white cotton fabric I might have added a border around the triangles. (In my rush to finish this one I got sold some poly cotton by my local fabric shop, asked if it was 100% cotton, shop owner said yes, got home – did the burn test – not impressed, more on that another time)
I’m glad I finished it ‘cos there were certainly a few times it almost ended up in the scrap bag.
Quilt Stats:
64″ by 70″
Hand Dyed Recycled Calico Fabric
White cotton Fabric
Recycled White Cotton Bed Sheet
Diagonal Lined Machine Quilted on Home Machine (Superior Thread…more on that later)
Thanks for coming to visit.
Linking with Judy@ patchwork times
Dianna
The postie did bring along my fusible batting this week and yesterday I got it out the bag to get busy with. It’s so tacky that it sticks to itself and I really had to pull in out of the roll shape. I laid and smoothed out my backing fabric, the batting and the top on my table armed ready with an iron full of water and at top temp for a good steam.
It is as easy as all comments read and from what I have seen over the net. Because it’s on a table no need for crawling on the floor with those pins, although if I do pin, I do it over this same table. If you do find crinkles or air bubbles as you go it’s easy to pull away from you quilt and steam again. As Joyce suggests in her comment, once the front is done flip and repeat for the backing, she also recommended machine sewing around the edge of the quilt after fusing to stop the sandwich separating when quilting. The Snarky Quilter recommended re-ironing the quilt sandwich if need be when quilting. All handy hints. I chose to pin around the edge about 6-7 inches apart to stop the layers separating.
And the quilting of it is fantastic, not to have those pins caught up on the foot as you go a pleasure.
Looking forward to finishing the quilting today, earlier than thought and for the binding to be sorted tomorrow.
Hope you are all having a good weekend….
Dianna
You know, I’d never heard of fusible batting until I read Charlotte’s scrappy coaster tutorial. That seems along time ago now but I researched further and found many youtube videos on how to apply this batting to your quilt – it seems a whole lot easier than pinning. Have you ever used fusible batting? If so, has it become your favourite to use?
January has been full of sewing and dyeing – and as always it’s so much fun. Thought I’d share a few highlights and link with Lily’s Quilts for Fresh Sewing Day
Escher’s Distortion Grid Revisited
Some Dyeing
Some Triangles
A Mini Appliqued Quilt
and some more dyeing.
Looking forward to seeing what you’ve been up to.
Dianna
I dyed some more calico cotton about a week ago and was a little disappointed with some of the outcomes – the colours were not as deep as my first lot of hand dyeing.
(first dyeing colours shown above)
In fact, I didn’t think to spend some time ironing them until today…what a difference a week and some ironing can make….even though the colours are more subdued, I still like them. The only difference was that I added about double the fabric to each dye mix, and I wondered if maybe the cold cold weather might have affected the temperature in doors too.
Sweet and Simple pleasures.
Have a fantastic weekend where ever you are.
Dianna
For someone who claims to have NO stash of fabrics, I seem to have uncovered a huge pile of oilcloth which I’ve been hoarding for far too long;) So here’s the deal, I would love to share some of this oilcloth to any of my readers and the likes, who might fancy a go to sew with some of it. It does make up really pretty bags, cases, aprons and more – let your imagination run with it. I have a few tutorials on things I’ve made as well as some tips on how to sew with it. Best to use a teflon foot as it has a tendency to stick and can be detrimental to your sewing machine, but failing that, some masking tape stuck to the underside of your machine foot does the trick pretty well.
I’ve listed my oilcloth on etsy and will be selling it in bundles – have a look see if you are interested…
Thanks for stopping by.
Dianna
English: Pigments for sale on market stall, Goa, India. Русский: Красящие вещества на прилавке в Гоа, Индия. Français : Des pigments à vendre sur dans un de marché Goa, Inde. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Candy Glendening has a super and informative site for ‘people who love colour’ called Candied Fabrics. I first discovered Candy through Serendipity Patchwork and Quilting where Brenda Gael Smith was talking about dyeing and now I’ve found Candy again through the recent Sew Mama Sew Give Away. She has some great info, fabric, and all sorts of other things and ideas including some on-line classes for hand dyeing.
Maybe worth checking out?
Dianna
From this
To this
To this
It’s been a real challenge to keep this baby flat.
I have a few more blocks to piece and add before the top is finished.
Tomorrow:)
‘Till then.
Linking with Nina-Marie’s ‘Off the Wall Friday’
Dianna
