Self threading needles

Back in March, when I was moaning about the chore of burying my threads, a very kind lady called Lori left a comment suggesting I try using self threading needles, so I sent off for them and have been using them for several weeks now and they have made a huge difference!

 
 My frustration levels are right down, I don't find burying my threads such a pain in the ass and I don't let them pile up anymore as they are so quick and easy to do.

The ones I use are made by Clover and I have not tried any other brands, so I can't compare them, but I can certainly recommend them.

Happy quilting!

Patricia

Design Wall Monday

Its been a lovely sunny Monday here in Wales, I hope you've had good weather where you are.

My sewing machine cover is coming along nicely and I'm enjoying doing the Mc Tavishing stitch with a twist.


Happy quilting!
This post has been linked to Patchwork Times.

Patricia

Work in Progress Wednesday

I have been trying out fused applique with a straight edge stitch, with swirls on the leaves, the sewing itself went well, but I don't like the way the edges tend to fray a bit, it drives me nuts!!... the fusing that I used was Steam a seam 2, so I have bought some Heat n Bond lite to try instead.

The applique is done the same time as the quilting, which is great as the project has moved along quite quickly.

I have also had a go at Mc Tavishing, but with added bananas and bubbles, and I'm really pleased with the texture that they create.

This post has been linked to Freshly Pieced.
And also Esther's Blog.

Happy Quilting!

Patricia

Work in progress

My new project is a sewing machine cover for my beloved Bernina 440 QE.
I am using up left over applique roses from this small wall hanging

The threads that you can see are from the bindings decorative stitch, it was a complete pain in the butt to sew and I was pulling my hair out by the time I finished it, so in a childish fit I have never buried the threads! It is on my to do list now thou

which hangs above my sewing machine, it will have to budge over thou for my Roses around the Log cabin quilt that will be hung there instead, my sewing room/dining room will be all co ordinated.

I am going to try some new techniques, I started with a new gadget that I had for my birthday, its the Applique pressing sheet, it made assembling the flowers a breeze.
I am going to try my hand at free motioning the Mc Tavishing stitch and have been busy drawing out the design and sewing on a practice piece.
The applique is raw edge and I am going to straight stitch along the edge this time and not do blanket stitch as I did when sewing the small wall hanging.
I want the cover to be boxed, so will be busy researching tutorials over the next couple of days.

This post is linked to WIP over at  Freshly Pieced  pop along and enjoy some lovely projects!

Happy quilting!

Patricia

A finally its finished!

Thank goodness my quilt with its new name of Roses around the log cabin is finished.
I can't tell how pleased I am to move on to some new projects, even thou it was a pleasure to make, the length of time it took really got on my wick!!

Some Quilty Pictures

Some Quilty facts

Its made up of 16 log cabin blocks
I used fat quarters of eight different tones four of pinks/red and four of greens. Plus an extra metre of the red
It has both hand applique and blanket stitch
The quilting is free motion feathers and invisible thread around the applique
It was spray basted (My first time spray basting)
The pattern is not my own but one adapted from a book by Keiko Miyauchi called Applique Flowers
It took months to complete January-to last Monday
It will be hung above my sewing machine
It is 48 inches square

I promise not to blog about it ever again!! Lol
Happy quilting

Patricia

Happy 40th Birthday to me!!

It has been my 40th birthday today,  I had loads of sewing goodies and money to spend on more!

I spent the morning watching the Royal Wedding which was lovely, and to carry on the Royal theme I thought I would post some photo's of Buckingham Palace in 2009, when I attended a Royal garden party with my husband, who is a Welsh Guards veteran and our friends Paul also a veteran and his wife Sue, the garden party was for the Not Forgotten Association.

Me and Sue outside Buck house, I look ready to pee my pants I was so excited!

Me and hubby Robert

Me again very excited to be eating Royal strawberries!

High tea tiny cakes and sandwiches

And a very handsome Beefeater

 The weather was lovely, we got to stroll around the grounds which were beautiful,  it was an awesome day and one I will always remember.

Patricia

Work in progress

Hooray I've got a Flimsy!

At last it's ready to be quilted, its got to wait its turn thou.

This post is linked to Freshly Pieced's WIP , there are some really great quilts and projects being made this week.

Design Wall Monday

Its my favorite day of the week again, I love doing this link up with Patchwork Times, I love to see what everyone is up to.

I took some outside shots of the fabric in my current project this week as the colour sometime looks wrong in my previous posts of this quilt, the threads are all YLI varigated ones.

 

I only used one yellow fabric as there wasn't a matching yellow line of fabric in the collection

Anyway onto my progress, I have finished sewing the blanket stitch around the flowers of the corner blocks and have attached them to the geese borders, I was going to have a different flower in each block but went with the curly flowers in the end as they were quick to do.

I have sewn the two smaller borders onto the quilt top, they went on very well, I was quite worried they would distort when I did the blanket stitch on the applique and then not fit, but so far so good!

Unfortunately my design wall is now too small to put the quilt top on for more photo's!

Tomorrow I plan to finish sewing on the borders and then go back to this quilt.

There is not much quilting left to do and I can't wait to see it finished.

 Patricia

WIP

Wednesday has come around again, I have been working on my borders this week, machine blanket stitching the flowers etc, they are coming along slowly nicely! Applique is slow work, whatever method you choose LOL.

 I love to see what everyone is up to over at Freshly Pieced on Wednesdays.

Thanks for popping by see you next week.

Happy sewing

Patricia

Design Wall Monday

I've been sewing the applique on the borders the last few days, with machine blanket stitch. The borders are not attached yet.

Thank you for popping by, head on over to  Judy's blog for more design wall Monday's

Happy sewing!

Patricia

Saturday sew in

Been busy on my borders today, I made up all the flowers and then ironed them onto the borders

First I folded and ironed in a crease along the centres as a guide to placement

Next I ironed the stems and middle flower

 

I popped on the end flowers

 

 Leaves next

All done and looking pretty!

Now that the applique is in place, I can start sewing the blanket stitch around them.

I haven't decided yet whether to put some larger applique flowers in the corner blocks or sew a quilting motif instead, decisions for another day thou.

I hope you had a lovely sewing day too!  :)

Patricia

WIP

I've got some leaves prepared ready to iron for the machine applique borders, I'm using all the small off cuts of material left over from making the geese.
I'm off for the next few days, so I hope to spend some time making up the borders.

Thank you for popping by, check out some more WIP over at Freshly Pieced!

Patricia

Design Wall Monday

I have been making flying geese this week, and playing around with their placement on the quilt, I have also added the green border.

I could be much further along with this quilt, If I had made up my mind what I wanted to do a bit quicker..........Iv'e done lots of dithering!

Anyway this is what I've come up with, the geese will be sewn around the four corners and then I will do some machine applique in between.

The applique will look like this but a single straight version with single flowers in the corner blocks.

Because I couldn't decide what the quilt was going to look like,  I have about thirty extra geese!, so I've decided to make a small vertical flying geese wallhanging, this way I can use up the rest of the fat quarter fabrics, they are extra lovely so it will be a pleasure to play around with them some more!

Pop over to Judy's Blog to see some other design walls.


Happy quilting!

Patricia