Cheap Flights with subtitles

Just found this on youtube and had to share!

WIP

This is a white background fabric Honest!

My work in progress is an old quilt that I started  maybe five years ago, It got bigger than I could handle to quilt at the time and I had run out of the white fabric needed to finish making a flying geese border, so its languished in a drawer ever since.

The applique is fused and then  machine blanket stitched

But now in the true spirit of patchwork, I've found another white swirly fabric that's a good match, and I've started making more flying geese blocks, I'm using my Marti Mitchel flying geese ruler so there is no fabric wastage and they sew together brilliantly.

Little geese waiting for their wings

Hope you are making progress on your quilt project!

Patricia

Design Wall Monday

I have been quilting the borders this week

I need to finish quilting in the filler scrolls.
Its on hold at the moment thou, as I've run out of thread!

Thanks for popping by, hop over to Judys blog for more design wall monday projects.

Patricia

New foot

To ease my big disappointment at missing a Sewing for Pleasure/Fashion & Embroidery show, I sent for a new open toe freehand embroidery foot.
(I was going to get one for my birthday, but this excuse came along first!)

And at last I can see,  what a difference its makes!
I am much better at sewing over previous stitches now (a must with feathers) .
Another thing I have tried today which worked, is altering my speed dial to reduce the speed,  my  foot control is naff and I kept going too fast making my stitches go tiny!
I just have one last border to do now with feathers, and then fill in around them all with scrolls.

Just one problem, I've nearly run out of red thread, I sent for more, but I must have highlighted the wrong box as I received the wrong colour this morning!
Not to worry thou, I'm itching big time to start a new quilt, its going to be a daffodil one that I'm designing myself.
The only reason I haven't started yet, is that I'm trying to be good and finish my quilts first and not start any more.....   Its really difficult thou!   Scratch  Scratch

Happy Quilting!

Patricia

New cover for my homemade ironing board!

This is one of the most useful gadgets that I have and I made it myself!

Its my mini ironing board that I use to shape my applique flowers and leaves etc, its also useful when I'm piecing blocks.
It is 14 inches square (but can be made any size) and I needed to give it a fresh cover as it had scorch marks on it and was starting to look a bit grubby.
To make one for yourself  (go on you know you want to!)

You need a small thin piece of wood (mine is about 1cm thick )

Cover it with wadding, I used a spray baste to hold it in place  (if you don't have any, just carefully align it on the material, then lay the wood on top

 Lay it batting side down onto the material

Fold the material over itself, so you don't have raw edges, then fold over the wood and staple it down at the centres

On the corners, to avoid a build up of material , cut away a small piece

If you are very thrifty you can save this bit of material for your scraps collection

Fold down 

Then tuck in the corner and fold over

 Make a neat corner, spend ages on this bit and strive for perfection

Pop in a staple to hold

Carry on all the way round, making sure the material in taut and flat (Don't go flabby on me)

Use a hammer to finish burying the staples into the wood and fabric, check for any sharp edges that could scratch your work table
If you need to, you could glue a piece of batting or fabric over the staples.

This is my finished board, ready for action

 

I used a spring loaded stapler and a hammer (I can't accept any liability if you are a fool with a tool no compensation will be paid)

Happy quilting!

Patricia

Design Wall Monday

Its been a week of quilting, its lovely to be back on my sewing machine after weeks of hand applique.

I have free motioned around the applique (thank goodness for invisible thread as I'm still learning this skill!)

Then in the centre of the quilt, I quilted my one sided whimsical feathers, I downloaded the pattern off Patsy Thompson's website, I marked out the stem only, and then in the centre of the feathers I quilted the scrolls.

Next I started the borders, but with two sided feathers this time.

I will fill in around the feathers with more scrolls.

Thanks for stopping by, check out some more quilts at Judys Blog!

Happy National Quilting Day!

I have been quilting feathers today, I have been working on the inner side of the my whimsical feathers and doing the scrolls.

At the moment I have only added one little scroll on the outide of the feather, I have'nt decided if its a keeper and if I want to add more.

Next I auditioned the feathers for the border, and marked out the stem.
I got the angle wrong though they are a bit too straight and I'm not especially pleased with how they turned out!

I decided to quilt complete feathers in the border and not one sided, I definitely prefer the left side to the right, but now I'm not sure whether I should have stayed with the one sided ones.


I think I will stop for today, until I decide what to do.

I hope you had a lovely quilting day too!

 Patricia

Quilting Progress!

I spray basted my quilt yesterday (and used a bit too much I think, as it was as stiff as a corpse at first!).
Then I free motioned around the applique, the centre and outer border, I was a bit ropey to start with due to the stiffness, but it went well in the end (invisible thread rocks!).

Today I did my whimsical one sided feathers, I used a  free downloaded pattern off  Patsy Thompson's website.

I cut around the pattern to see how it would fit

I used the picture as a guide for sizing the feather, I made my feathers slightly bigger to fill around the edge of the block.

The paper on the flexi ruler is my guide for placement

I just marked out the feathers spine.

I pinned the picture up and using it as a reference started to quilt out the motif's. 

I have only quilted the feather part and now that all four sides are done and I know how much room I have, I can now start to quilt in the scrolls.
Happy quilting! 

   Patricia

Design Wall Monday

Hooray!! I have finished the hand applique and I have buried all the pesky threads.

Right well I've got to quilt it now! umm I keep changing my mind, at the moment its one sided feathers x 4 in the middle with scrolls...  Not sure about doing them trapunto :)
I'm off now to stare at it until I decide .

Stop by Judys Blog for some more design wall Mondays!

Hope you all have a lovely day!
Patricia

Design Wall Monday

Gosh does'nt Monday come around again quickly!

This week I nearly finished all the hand applique, I've just got a small bit left to do (thankfully).
I can't wait to start quilting it, feathers here I come!

For more Design Wall Monday WIP's pop over to Judy's blog!

Happy sewing

Patricia

Rose quilt , a bit of progress!

I have finished hand sewing three out of the four corner motif's, the last is not far behind...   tomorrow I plan to finish  machine sewing around the buds ready for its design wall Monday pics.

When all the sewing is finished I have a million threads that need to be buried in the back of the quilt (Oh dear!) I did start off with good intentions to bury my threads as I went along but threading the needle was difficult anyway so I soon abandoned that idea. But I did buy myself a needle threader for my upcoming 40th birthday, So I might sneak that gift early to save myself  lots of frustration.

Earlier this week I had a go at freemotion sewing a feather wreath , the first one was rubbish I struggled with the outside curve, so for my next attempt I drew another circle for me to sew out towards and that worked much better!  I will keep practicing until I'm confident, but luckily the fabric in the centre is red so the flaws will not be very apparent!

1st effort

2nd attempt with outside circle drawn in as guide

View of the back

My last Dan Brown audio book has also finished and next up is the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit that should keep me going for a while!!