Sewing machine mat

So inbetween Swooning, I made up this little birthday present. My mum and her friends all made them for each other and I thought they were a great idea. A mat to go under the sewing machine with pockets for scissors and other bits.

I decided to only use scraps. I had a lot of the material for the hexagon quilt left over because I decided to make it smaller in the end as I didn't like it. For some reason, I find this new colour combination much nicer and I wish I had done that for the hexagon quilt now.

It was really easy to make and quilt. I might have to make myself one but all those colours are gone now. I used every last bit! A scrap bag success. The little gold scissors are Kelscott thread scissors which I have been lusting after for some time now.

Swoon Leftover Action

Another sunny, quiet morning with light streaming into the warehouse. After croissants I decided to make up my first block, which came together pretty quickly. Only three more to go. I worked it out that I scaled every Half Square triangle down to 2 1/2" as I wanted it to be a bit smaller and more delicate. Then I cut a central block 4 1/2". I like it when sizes match my rulers.

I laid out the blocks in the order I wanted then started sewing them together a bit at a time.

I sewed them into blocks of four, ironing my seams flat all the way through. It takes me much longer with all the ironing but I am on a constant mission to be more accurate with points.

Here's the other side of the finished block. It gets pretty lumpy where points meet making the material ruck up so flat seams seem to help a lot. Believe you me, I have done it both ways. It is a bit anal though.

Voila! The finished block. It's not perfect which was a bit disapointing and I even had to undo a few seams and resew them, but it's pretty good. The finished block is 12 1/2" so now I just need to make the remaining three and see if they are good enough to butt up together or whether I will make the whole thing bigger by putting white blocks inbetween.

Swoon Leftovers

It was such a sunny, lazy morning today. I had no emails, no pressing things to do. In fact I was feeling a bit sorry for myself because no one was emailing me. So I decided to have a think about all the mini triangles of waste material from the Swoon quilt. So I set up shop and got the chain piecing machine cranked into action. I'd sewn half of them when I realised just how many I was wasting. So I just had to go back and finish off the ones I hadn't started on. I hate going backwards in general, but today felt like a good day of nothing in which to get to grips with the task. It was much quicker than I thought. Then it was just a case of cutting and ironing each one flat. Having to do flat open seams is annoying with an iron so I have started using my seam flattening tool. It really is a great tool. Here it is. I thoroughly recommend one to everyone. It speeds up the job no end and makes ironing much easier. In fact, you don't really need to iron them afterwards as they go pretty flat, but I want it to be as perfect as possible.

I couldn't decide what to do with them so I had a hunt on Flickr and Pinterest and saw from Little Scraps of Happiness which lends itself perfectly to the offcuts I have. So I drew up a diagram. I couldn't decide whether to group the colours or not so I had a tinker and I think grouping each corner slightly will work. So now I have my station set up and I am trimming in front of the TV.

Quilting Swoon

So I have been away on holiday for a week. I took the Swoon beast with me hoping I would get loads done in the evenings, but the reality was that I was knackered each night from the daily excursions. I got one block quilted basically.


I was basing my quilting on some really nice examples I had seen on the swooning on a hop flickr group.


Now I am onto my second block and I have decided to use different coloured quilting thread for each block. I am not sure if this is a good idea or not especially as I don't own that much quilting thread and it's all different thicknesses and types but I thought it might be a good lesson in helping me decide which kind I prefer. It's not often I do something do dark and contrasting but I thought I would give it a go and see how it works out. I think I have already decided that the linen thread I bought it probably not right for this as its thickness varies and the thread goes hairy after a while.

My quilting stitches are also really uneven which doesn't help and I have found a stupid massive crease on the back of one side which is not going to look that great, but it all serves to make it look homemade I spose. I secretly wonder if I would lose interest if I mastered how to do all these things anyway, but it is annoying. I mean how did I get such a huge crease!?

Anyway here is my growing stash of quilting thread. Everytime I go to a show where Stef Francis is I get a little bit at a time but I have just been buying random thicknesses really. I really like using the 6ply fine cotton though so I might start buying a range of colours. I never thought I would venture away from the standard plain YLI thread (which I also don't have enough of) but the variegated really doesn't show that much and the quality is so nice to work with. So the aim is to build up stashes of both YLI and Stef francis thread. See my pitiful YLI collection below (I think I have a pink as well).

Eventually it should look as lovely as this

Sashing Swoon

So finally I have done the sashing, not particularly well I might had, but it's quite hard to feed such a big beast through my machine. It gets caught on everything. Makes me realise my setup just doesn't handle big quilts!

I should have sewn the sashing, starting from the middle so they lined up better. My blocks varied in size from 25.5 - 25.6". I thought this wouldn't matter but it all adds up and leads to losing the points on a few of the stars at the end of the line. Above is the worst case. It's a shame because the block was perfect until I had to sew over the edges.



At least it's done now. Now I just need to do the backing. Sigh... so near and yet so far!

Swoon block 10!

Finally all the blocks are done. Now it's time for a well earned break before I attack which ones are in or out. Sashing later after I check my background fabric is big enough! This is my decided layout order. I took out the first block I made that used a dark grey/brown colour as I felt it was too dark against the other colours and that the other greys I was using were softer and more bluey. Also it's the lumpiest block as I hadn't ironed the seams flat. So out it went!

Swoon block 09

These blocks are really coming together quickly now. Block 9 done! Just one more to go so I have a spare. I think when I lay them all out it will become clear which ones go well together. At the moment it's all a little too blue. I am not sure what to do with the left over block though.

Swoon Block 08

Another day another swoon block. Number 8 done! I have two more to make which will give me an extra one so I can choose my layout. It's looking a lot bluer than I had planned. I hope it all comes together okay. I have made a little mockup.

Swoon Block 07

I'm on a roll now! This block took no time this morning thanks to all the hard Easter grafting I put in. Only three more to go! I didn't concentrate on getting the orientation of the fine grey lines the same though which I think would have helped but they are so fine I don't think it matters quite as much as the main patterned star material being right.

Swoon Pattern Direction

So I decided to try and break the back of my remaining swoon blocks by cutting all the fabric for my remaining blocks.


I wanted to chain piece all the half square triangles but up until now I have had to lay out each block in all its separate pieces and do it one at a time so I can work out the pattern direction. I just thought it would look tidier. So I created this diagram to help me get the pattern direction of the central star right. The paler pattern blocks represent the wrong side of the fabric laid over it's white counterpart.


Here is an example.


Then I set up shop in front of the telly and trimmed a massive pile of half square triangles. It's taken up most of my time, but I did manage to get one entire block done. The others should come together pretty easily now.

So it's another Swoon weekend kicking off to a good start. I had put everything away for such a long time that I had forgotten where I was. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had cut out all the bits for two blocks then sewed and trimmed all the half square triangles. It makes it a lot easier after that.



I did have to sew the flying geese but it was much easier with my brand, spanking, new short ruler! I don't know how I have survived so long with just long ones! Drawing all those diagonal lines is much easier! I bought this off the web after looking at all the sizes at the Quilt show the other week. I really wanted the neon edgelit ruler but they didn't have any at the show so I bought this one and even with postage it was a bit cheaper than those at the show. Not that I might spending a bit extra to support a shop, but the edgelit was the hook I needed. It's just so... so... neon!



All I had to do was lay all the bits out then sew them all together. I find laying them out helps get patterns the right way up. I know some people don't bother, but when it's big stripes I think it looks neater.

SO two more blocks finished in a day!

So another Chilford Quilt Show is over again. For once I had a list of key things I needed which I made a bee line for first.



I got some white wadding for the Swoon quilt. I was looking for Warm and White but this Heirloom was cheaper. I have decided not to wash it as I am looking to test out the antique, scrunchy look. I keep washing the one on my bed and it never quite looks as scrunchy as I would like. Anyway, I also got a new blade and some backing fabric for the Swoon quilt from Fabrics Galore.



It's very soft fabric. The lights in the show are a bit dim so it made the fabric look a lot greyer. I wish it was more grey, but I am sure it will be just fine. So that was everything I actually needed. I had basically spent all my money by then. But you know how it is. You think it's all over, then you buy something else!



Just some odd fat quarters which grabbed my eye.



I'd not seen this range before. I really liked it. I knew I couldn't walk away from it. They were from Tudor Rose which is probably close enough for a road trip one day. I love all the colours together, just as they are in the roll. I thought they might make a great sewing machine cover or mat. A nice small project to nestle inbetween these really long, big ones.



The problem with any quilt show is that they get busy. You have to decide which stalls you really want to see first as you get the room you need to look at everything and purchase easily. Every Chilford I start at Sunflower Fabrics and Washed and Worn, but because I knew I needed 5 metres of cheap backing fabric, I decided to forgo tradition and make a bee line for Fabrics Galore. By the time I got back to Sunflower fabrics it was heaving and someone had stolen a quilt! Terrible. Anyway as I stood waxing on an on about just how terrible it was, I happened to see Maggie's newest mini quilt which appeals to all my old fashioned, antique sensibilities. I just thought it was lovely. The material HAD to be mine.



I love the very fine quilting.