Saturday Sewing

Aren't weekends lovely? The rhythm of the farm keeps on, no matter what day of the week it is but there is still a slight change of pace which indicates a bit of down time.
I spent Saturday morning working in the garden, a little bit of rain has made the soil friable and weeding is a pleasure, as is tidying up bushes and planning new plantings :-)
Then it was some sewing time, and I caught up with a few pieced  Pieces of Time blocks I was behind on. This quilt is one my online sewing group is doing as a BOM; one pieced and one applique block a month. We started at the beginning of last year so it is definitely a long-term process!! Nice to see some progress though! This is where I am at so far with the pieced blocks —

14 pieced blocks completed - yaay!

 Here's a slightly closer look at them all. The blocks finish at 7 1/2" so vary in their fiddliness!

I'm sure you can pick out the one I am going to re-do; however I will wait till all the blocks are done before doing this, in case, by some miracle it works after all!! (That blue is actually a fine stripe which I thought might read a bit lighter than it has).
Here is what we are aiming for - isn't it beautiful? —

Photo from Lori Smith's website,
From My Heart To Your Hands.

So my goal for the next little while is to catch up with the applique blocks. I am doing these by invisible machine applique and am still experimenting with this - freezer paper or washaway, which threads and getting my stitch right. Maybe I'm being too fussy, but I do need to sort myself out!! Any tips?

I also want to spread the word about another blog. Karen of karensquiltscrowscardinals has launched a pattern design company and is having a giveaway to celebrate. Karen has designed some gorgeous applique patterns and has posted some awesome tutorials on her blog over the last few months (or more). She has some free patterns available and the giveaway is a great one.
*Here* is the link for the giveaway post. The giveaway closes Monday so head on over for a look!

Daylight Saving ended last night so I'm feeling bright-eyed and bushy tailed... seems like another productive day may be in the pipeline :-)
Happy weekend stitching and thank you for visiting,

Conquering Pieces of Time...

Photo from Lori Smith's website.

....block by block.

Pieces of Time by Lori Smith (From my heart to your hands) is the quilt my online group and I are making as a BOM. Last time I reported on it, I had done my first appliqué block using the invisible machine appliqué method. I was taking deep breaths as the next scheduled appliqué block was a Nasty one.

I can now report that I have completed it!!

I was very concerned about all those tight deep curves and wiggly bits but in the end patience paid off and I am able to tick it off the list. I did the previous appliqué block with freezer paper which I removed through the back. For this one though Joan sent me some washaway solvy 'stuff' to try. (I used it with glue rather than the iron I used for the freezer paper technique). It means I can just rinse the block and the inner will be gone, without having to pick freezer paper out of all the nooks and crannies. Interesting stuff - I would be interested to know other people's experiences with this product....

And my recent conquest in this project is this one -

Bird's Nest

It is 7 1/2 inches finished so the smaller squares and setting triangles are quite tiny. It was a challenge at times making sure bits matched up but it did finish at the right size and it's not too messy so I am quite pleased!!

It's always fun to see a pile of these turn into a block!

I've realised too that I haven't shown this picture of a cushion I finished recently.
It's a Gail Pan design (I just love her work!) and it was a joy to make.

Cosy Home Cushion by Gail Pan Designs.

I used a Cottage Garden thread for the stitchery. I love these threads,
they have a beautiful effect.

And following on from my last post - I hope you all managed to get some extra quilty-things done over last weekend for International Quilting Day. I enjoyed some of the free shows offered by The Quilt Show... always hard to decide which one to watch first though! And fun to join in with SewCalGals' virtual sew-cial to see what others got up to.  Lesley on sewhappy.me shared a sweet doorhanger pattern - here is my version.

It was a door hanger but as our doors have big knobbly knobs, I decided it would look cute on this little hanger.

Oh so true!

Now, this quilter is going to get back to some quilting - have a happy week everyone, and thank you, as always, for visiting, Happy creating to you all,

Mainly applique

Many of you will know that I love all aspects of quilting and my sewing lately has seen me thinking about appliqué. Last year my on-line quilting group worked on Hop To It from the book of the same name by Edyta Sitar. I loved making this quilt...and doing all of the appliqué by hand. I used my favourite method of needleturn appliqué; the back basting method, as outlined beautifully here in Sentimental Stitches, and I have waxed lyrical about it in the past.
Here is what my Hop To It quilt looks like at the moment.

It's laid out on the spare bed waiting for decisions about corner stones and sashings.

This year my on-line group is working on 'Pieces of Time' by Lori Smith. We are making one pieced and one appliqué block each month. I thought long and hard about what method of appliqué to do this time around... I love the look of hand appliqué but it does take me an age to complete each block. So I have decided to do this project by the invisible machine applique method.
While I've dabbled in this method in the past, I've been a bit scared of using it, worried that I couldn't achieve a truly invisible look.
Well I've bit the bullet!!!
I am doing the method using freezer paper - Joanne (Threadhead) gives a tutorial on her blog, and Kim Diehl does an excellent chapter on it in her pattern books.
I've decided to do a quick run through of it here to inspire others to give it a try as well.

Trace and cut out template shapes from freezer paper.
Use a little glue to stick the matt side to the wrong side of your fabric.
Clip inner curves and carefully press raw edges over edge of template.
This takes a little while but it is worth being patient to get the shapes nice and even.
The fabric will adhere to the shiny side of the freezer paper.

Prepared pieces.
Layer these on your fabric background, as you would normally do for other appliqué methods.

Set the machine to a very narrow, small zig-zag.
'1' and '1' settings are recommended elsewhere but the settings on my machine were '0.3' and '0.4'.
(EDIT - The next time I did this I used 0.6 and 0.7, which was easier/quicker to sew and
because my thread matched so well was just as invisible).
I used smoke coloured Aurifil monofilament in the top and fine Mettler Seraline in the bobbin.

As you complete each layer snip through the fabric at the back and remove the freezer paper.
You must remove the paper from one layer before you sew the next piece on top!

Back of completed block - cool huh?

Front of completed block.

Here are my first two pieced blocks.
Monkey Wench (left)
Northumberland Star (right).

Now I cant rest on my laurels for too long as I still have the February appliqué block to do. It's a nasty one, but apparently not impossible as two of the others in the group have already done it! (Joan and Joanne).
I'm going to rest before giving it a try!!

Now I have a faux pas to correct from my last post. Gulp.
I thanked the very kind Cat for the lovely doily she made me...silly me... it was a wash cloth. Now in reality it is too pretty to use as a wash cloth but once Albert (the bear) has finished with it, I will try it out in the bathroom. I'm actually quite excited about this as I haven't had a handmade wash cloth before. Thank you again, Cat.




Thank you for visiting, I hope you all have a happy, stitching week