So sorry its been such a long time since I last visited this Blog. It has been rather busy here. The serger quilt is nearing completion. I am currently doing some free machine embroidery on all the sashing to enable it to lie satisfactorily.

Progress is steady.

I'm knitting and planning some sewing too. A blouse and a shirt, with a skirt and a pair of trousers are amongst the projects I have in mind. I really could do with getting rid of some rather shabby pieces in my wardrobe..........

Another project is the monthly journal quilt for the Contemporary Quilt group of the Quilter's Guild.

I call this series "A year in the life of a village - Moulton 2011." It sounds rather presumptuous, but the idea is just to show elements of the village where I live as the seasons change.

Each quilt is just ten inches square. The first one shows the sign at the side of the road, as drivers approach the village. The house stands very close to the sign. The crows are the emblem of Moulton and will be shown in each journal quilt. It is called "Welcome to the village - February."

The second quilt, entitled "Spring is coming - March." It shows the metal spire of the local church, with nests in the local trees. The snowdrops and daffodils are some of my favourite signs of Spring.

Part of the challenge of these quilts is that the first four quilts should show a circle. The next four should have text in some form, with the final four quilts having buttons somewhere on the surface. I decided that I would use all these elements is all the quilts I make in this series.

Both of these quilts have a painted background with appliqued items, photographs printed onto fabric ( I used Jacquard's Cotton sheets made for inkjet printing), and free machine embroidery.

Work in progress

Work has finally started on a quilt I planned to do in January! This is being made using my overlocker (serger), rather than piecing it using my sewing machine as usual.

The idea for this came about as a result of a serge-a-long organised by the Serger group on My Sewing Circle.

All of the blocks are being made from fabric out of my over-sized stash. I am not using wadding simply because the backing is fleece, again from stash. Some blocks will have the yellow as a backing, the rest will have a chocolate brown. This last piece of fleece had been intended for mum's quilt, but proved to be too dark. It is hiding away in the top photograph.

Other projects under way at present are the February Journal Quilt for the Contemporary Quilt group, the next section of the Stitching Sisters Sampler for Norma, and a bag I need to get around to rebuilding. Yes, I am woefully behindhand with some projects. I get sidetracked easily...................

I completed the first of the bags some time ago, but forgot to post about it here. This is what it now looks like:

As is usual for me, all four sides are different:

One of the ladies in my local library really loved it when she saw it.

I had had to completely take the bag to pieces since the only good fabric left was that used to make the handles and also the lining I had made to prolong the life of my bag. The sides now have wadding as a backing to stiffen them a little so that the bag can stand up.

I'm not sure exactly what my next bag will look like. It is a pile of fabric pieces and a box of buttons, ribbon and iron-on motifs at present.

Making a bag from made fabric.

This is the bag I made from the fabric shown in the previous two posts. It is a very simple cylindrical bag, twelve inches tall with an internal zipped pocket, two large external pockets and padded handles. The tops of the bag and pocket are bound - this was sewn into place by machine and then handstitched into place to leave no stitchline.



The two pieces of fabric I used were: 26 inches long and 12 and a half inches tall (for the main bag), and 26 inches by 8 and a half inches for the outer pockets. I put a piece of wadding inside the main bag to give it some "body". It now stands well.

The base was constructed very simply after the main pieces had been sewn together to form a cylinder. The basic bag structure then became the outline for the base. I quilted this to give it some shape. The chalk marks show the internal dimensions of the bag itself.



This was then sewn to the main bag, being careful to not stitch in the lining - this was then handsewn into place.

The bag has now gone to it's new owner. It was constructed as part of a Swap organised by the United Kingdom group on My Sewing Circle. The theme for the swap was "Stash busting/repurpose". Mine used fabric scraps and pieces from my stash.

At present I am considering writing up this pattern as a free tutorial. Please let me know if you would like to have a copy.

Making fabric - completion

This is the next stage of working on the fabric pieces I constructed last time. I am oversewing, doodling with my machine. This is FME - free machine embroidery. It is good fun. If you have never tried it for yourself - try this:




Start doodling on a scrap of paper. Here, I have started in the centre and swung round in a spiral.




Then I have added loops like petals.




The loops have then lead on to heart-shaped leaves which link to each other.




Thats all it is. Just drop the feed-dogs on your sewing machine, get out the darning foot and try it for yourself. Don't just try copying my patterns. Why not try using the patterns left on the scribble pad beside the telephone. (If you doodle like I do there should be plenty of inspriration there.)




The photo above shows the completed piece, well part of it. I use a size 14 (90) Universal needle with a slightly looser tension than usual. The thread being used here is YLI machine quilting thread in the colourway V70 Red Hat Club, by Luana Rubin. The bobbin thread is Coats Duet 1033, a cream colour. Yes, I should be using cotton, but didn't have any in the right sort of colour.

My sewing machine allows me to set the sewing speed. I usually set this to medium, not too fast but then not too slow either.





The picture above shows the underside of the finished fabric. I shall be lining this before using it, but it does show the stitching quite nicely.


All you need to bear in mind with FME is that the patterns need to link into each other in a continuous line. This isn't hard, and it avoids having to weave in any ends................... and there is no stopping and starting either. If you should find yourself stuck in a corner and not easily able to get out of it just stop, cut the thread and start again somewhere else. I often need to do this. It isn't obvious once you have completed the piece.


Do let me know how you get on.

Making fabric using scraps - a short tutorial.

First collect all the scraps.





Sort them into colour groups - blues and greys, purples and lilacs, reds and pinks, browns with orange, yellow and cream, then the greens. Well, those are the colour groups I sort them into. I also have a bag for multicolour fabrics.






This is the base fabric I shall be using. This time I am using HeatnBond, though quite often I use Bondaweb.
I cut the base fabric to the size I need before ironing on the HeatnBond. Then play around with placing the fabric scraps. This time I am using greens and reds with some purple.





This way I can use up those tiny pieces left over from applique as well as offcuts from various projects. What is so useful is that the oddly shaped pieces from the applique usually still have the Bondaweb adhered to the back. So useful to break up too-large areas of solid colour.





A warning, though. Do make sure the plastic bags get put well out of the way of the iron. This is what I had to get off my poor iron.......... scraps of plastic self-seal bag. Ooops!
You will be pleased to hear that my iron is now perfectly clean and no fabric was damaged in the incident.

A quick post script to the post - I found the HeatnBond I used far too thick for the stitching I intended to do. In the end, I restarted the whole piece using Bondaweb. This produces a much thinner fabric which is easy to stitch through.

Calligraphy on fabric

After the fabric had dried, I decided to write over the top of the printing. Here you can see that I have used masking tape to stick the fabric down onto my cutting board. The words used are all linked to the theme for this piece, which is "Books".



I am using a fabric marker from "Fabrico" an the colour is #118, ultramarine. As a dual marker, it makes this style of pen very versatile. For this piece of calligraphy, I am using the fine line side. The second side gives an effect almost like using a paintbrush.



As you can see, adding words makes a lot of difference to the finished texture. It is a very easy effect to achieve. All it needs is a steady hand, and a list of words to copy from.

Do give it a go. It is fun.

Simple fabric printing.

My colour palette for today.

My water pot, an old mug. Did you spot the mistakes? I forgot to wash it out first - it usually holds my pens. Oops! I also forgot to clear a space around my work. Luckily nothing got damaged this time... But I did forget to remove my best cutting mat. It won't be damaged, but might have turned an interesting colour.

My first colour. I am using a scrap of old tea towel to print with. The tray originally came as part of one of those packaged meals. I have added quite a lot of water to this paint since I want it to really soak into the fabric.

As you can see, not too much of the fabric paint is needed.

My fabric is a loosely woven cotton. I would describe this as "cheesecloth". The fabric needs to be stuck into position using masking tape. The table needs to be covered to avoid staining.

This is some more Setacolor being added, just a small dollop. One of those small tubs (45ml) goes a long way.

I have deliberately not mixed thoroughly, but have added more water and will print with the mixture looking like this.

The reason being that I can get some wonderfully unexpected effects like this one above. The two greens have not mixed together and I get pure colour.

I am now going to add in the red.

I love the colours in the mixing basin.

This is the completed cloth, still wet.

Yes, I used every scrap of the Setacolor mixture.

This is the washed cloth, it is rather interestingly stained. I shall use it again.

Talking of stains, I should own up and mention that the nails of my right hand are currently slightly yellow. One thing I keep forgetting to use are gloves................

The fabric I have printed today - it is still damp as I write - is intended for a new round robin I am taking part in. I intend to overwrite the piece with words linked to Books. Whether this piece of fabric will be good enough for this purpose is another matter. I shall have to wait until it dries.

Thanks for reading my Blog. Please let me know if you have found this post of interest.