Showing posts with label Placemats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Placemats. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

18 in 2018

Ok, so yes, just a couple of days ago I remarked that resolutions about UFOs have not historically been successful for me. But, I know several people had great success with 17 in 2017 last year. And, having now read the "rules," I see that 18 doesn't mean 18 different projects, it could be 18 milestones in one project. So that sounds reasonable! And since I'm sewing anyway, I may as well join in. Click here to read all about it!

It's been quite difficult to whittle down the list, actually. I did have to add some "bonus" goals. In any case, these are the projects I will be happiest to get finished. The biggest challenge will be the projects that need quilting. There are also a few easy wins and old stinkers that I'm ready to see the back of! So, in no particular order as far as scheduling goes...


1. Bind Homegrown placemats. Yes, I still haven't bound these dratted things, and I think they qualify as both an easy win and a very old stinker.


2. Finish quilting and bind Picnic. This quilt has been occupying the "chair of shame" beside my sewing table for at least six months. I'm keen to start looking at something else!

3. Under Picnic on the chair of shame is my old yoyo project, Spring Planting. It's half sewn, and getting it to the flimsy stage is its first milestone.

4. Quilting and binding Spring Planting will be the second milestone on that project!

5. Quilt and bind Sunshine.

6. Quilt and bind Nettie.

7. Quilt and bind Daydream Baskets.

8. Quilt and bind Circa 1998.

9. Sew borders on Allietare to finish the flimsy.

10. Finish sewing together my Technicolor Turkey flimsy

Bonus -- Quilt and bind Technicolor Turkey. (That's definitely a "stretch" goal!)

11. Finish the Aunt Millie fused applique, piece the alternate blocks, and assemble the centre.

12. Piece, applique and attach the Aunt Millie border to finish the flimsy.


13. Finish the Moth in the Window blocks.

Bonus 1 -- Cut the sashing, lay out, and assemble the centre
Bonus 2 -- Design, make and attach an applique border



14. Make a final decision on the border, then piece and attach it to finish the Hanami flimsy.

15. Finish the 49 Cheddar Broken Dishes blocks.

16. Cut the sashing, lay out, and assemble the flimsy.


17. Finish the Rose Boll sawtooth blocks


18. Finish the alternate string blocks for Rose Boll and assemble the centre.

Bonus -- Piece and attach the Rose Boll border to finish the flimsy!



I didn't put links in for all the projects, you can click the labels at the bottom of this post to find more information on any of them. My New Year's resolution to make four new, small wall quilts is still the top priority. But, I would certainly like to make progress on all of these. And also a few that didn't make the list!


Tuesday, May 20, 2014

New Machine!!

I've had my eye on this sewing machine since another Ontario quilter whose work I admire recommended it to me. A couple weeks ago I finally had the chance to drive up to That Sewing Place in Newmarket and give it a good trial. Needless to say, it came home with me after that! Isn't it beautiful?


You can see that my sewing table had a previous incarnation as a paint studio. But never mind, the machine is the Brother 1500S, which is a single stitch, high speed sewing machine. It has everything I want, including a needle down function and lots of workspace, and nothing I don't want, like a bunch of fancy stitches I'll never use. My old Janome still works well for those times I'll need the zig zag stitch. Although I am starting to think that will not be too often!

I was very lucky that the owner of the store, Jaret, who is an expert on this machine, was there to give me a complete lesson. Once I got home I was able to get it all threaded and set up without even cracking open the manual. It also comes with an extension table and a knee lift, which are not shown in the photo.

LOL!

So far I've used it to piece the flannel parts of my snowmen blocks, I've done a little free motion quilting on the Homegrown placemats, and I've done some straight line quilting with the walking foot on Edward's quilt. It is really nice. When you get the free motion up to speed, the fabric positively glides under the needle. And the humongous walking foot is making easy work of Edward's wretched quilt. Plus, the machine will hold a full sized thread cone, which I really love.

So, no more excuses! I have a back log of projects that need quilting. Some are so old and long forgotten that I thought I'd post some photos with my to do list:

Homegrown kitchen set -- a little more FMQ in the centres and these will be ready for binding.
Edward's quilt -- long, long, long overdue, the straight line quilting on this quilt has been an ongoing nightmare. I used a new flannel sheet for the backing and the fluff goes everywhere, and it just keeps getting hung up for no apparent reason on my old machine. But the new machine copes beautifully!
It's Warm Inside -- I have some FMQ and an experimental quilting in sections technique to try on this one.
Hen Party -- I almost sent this out for quilting, but I had my own ideas that I wanted to try too. Now I can!
Highlands Houses -- my latest idea is to quilt this all over in a small clamshell pattern. I hope I can pull it off. :)
Spring Planting (aka the yoyo quilt) -- I think I finally have a way to quilt this monster. The yoyos make it very fat!

Since my WIP list has grown again, it seems appropriate to link up to WIP Wednesday at The Needle and Thread Network. Here's to a decent list of finishes in 2014!

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Homegrown Kitchen Set, Part 2


Here, finally, are the three completed tops for the Homegrown placemats that I started before Christmas! We only ever use three, so that's a complete set for us.

I finished the last seam on them today with just 7 inches of thread left in the bobbin! Don't you love it when that happens? "Clean living," is what I always call it. :D

To refresh your memory, here are the two co-ordinating potholders as well:


The next step will be to quilt them, with a combination of straight and free-motion quilting. I'm hoping to buckle down to that soon. It's several years now since I last did any FMQ, and I was never more than a beginner, which is why I want to practice on these placemats before I do Highlands Houses. It's always the first step that's the hardest!

Monday, December 9, 2013

Homegrown Kitchen Set, Part 1

The other day I was looking back through the last few months of posts, and I realized that there have been a lot of Best Friends Forever posts, and not much else! Except my big finish, of course. I figured it's time for some variety!

So today I pulled out this Homegrown collection of fabrics from Connecting Threads. A few hours later, I finished a potholder!


LOL. No, there's more than that!


You can see another potholder coming in the centre of the mat, and at the bottom right are strip sets that have already been cut 2.5" wide, ready to be added around the edges of these...


...which will be placemats.

The vegetable print is more like a light home dec weight than a quilting fabric. Perfect for placemats and potholders. It's almost all gone, but I see there're still some kits left.

I adapted the patterns from the kits to my own sizes, and I was able to streamline the construction by using the same strip sets for both the placemats and the potholders.

Normally I put everything away at the end of the day, but today I am living dangerously and I have left it all out and hope to finish the construction tomorrow. They probably won't be quilted until after the holidays. My plan for the new year is get more serious with some FMQ practice, so these are the first to be prepared for that.

See you again tomorrow, with luck!

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Happily Stripping


Here's the photo that got Eleanor Burns on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.  It's from Failblog, and the caption reads "Nobody wants to see that.. ever."  To me, what's really funny here is that the teenage boys (and Ellen, apparently) who run Failblog assumed that Burns didn't understand the double entendre.

I saw this when it first posted on Failblog, but it wasn't until I watched Eleanor on TQS that I heard about Ellen's involvement. I would love to say that I stopped reading Failblog because I'd matured, but the truth is that the ads became so intrusive that I couldn't hear the videos! Here's my all time favourite photo from Failblog:


Today's title includes the word "happily" because I have just figured out that I can sew strips without pins.  It is extremely freeing!  Not to mention way faster.  Right now I am making placemats.  These ones will be with the Christmas fabric I just bought at Fabricland:


 

These are nice, wide strips that will finish at 3.5" and are mostly from a lightweight home decor fabric. They went together so well that I was inspired to try it without pins. Then that went so well that I tried it with quilt fabric. First with 2" finished strips, and then when that worked, with 1" finished strips:


The real breakthrough came this morning when I tried to put the final chequerboard together, also without pins:




Every corner came out perfectly! Win!

The secret is to keep the strip with the seam allowances that are ironed upwards on top, with the seams pressed the other way on the bottom strip. This happens automatically when you are alternating directions like I did here. Then the presser foot pushes the top seam against the bottom one, and does the work for you. I have a few strip-pieced quilt projects similar to these waiting in the wings, so I am thrilled to have improved my process like this!

Although I have never read a book from Eleanor Burns, I really enjoyed her Legends show on The Quilt Show. She wrote her first book before she finished her first quilt! I identified with her quite a bit. :)
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