Dot to Dot quilting, Ruler Work and dollar store craft

Finally, the second L Block quilt from the hearts2hands virtual retreat has been quilted.  I attempted some Dot to Dot quilting in the smaller squares.  That was fun.  Of course I had to do it the hard way.  Because of the pattern I chose, the thread had to be secured with each square. But it's now a habit to secure the threads properly at the beginning and when ending the quilting.  And that's always a good habit to get into.

The large centre block in this quilt was my first attempt at "real" ruler work. 

Every time I tried to practice ruler work, either the thread broke, didn't make a stitch, or the foot would fall off in the middle of the seam.

 I finally watched a video for installing a ruler foot from a different company.  They add a washer between the screw that holds the foot in place and the foot.  Why not give that a try?  There are a lot of small washers left over from putting my Grace frame together (don't ask).  Well that solved the problem of the foot falling off all the time.

 Then I decided to try lowering the foot to the height of a dime instead of the recommended height.  All issues resolved!  A bit of playing around with the tension and I now have a great stitch when doing ruler work.  And ruler work is as much fun as everyone told me it was!  This photo shows the quilting a bit better:

This shows what the quilt really looks like:

The quilt is made from one piece of fabric using both the front and back of the material. 

Now for the fun find at the local dollar store:

Ever bring back brochures, resort maps post cards and the like from your vacations?  Turn them into souvenir cups.  The Dollar Tree had these plastic cups on sale for $1.25.  Remove the lids, twist to separate the two layers of plastic, remove the paper "template", fussy cut from the maps and brochures.  And this is what you get:

These two cups even show the path from the main building that we travelled to get to our rooms.

I know some who use their kids artwork in these cups.  A fun project to give the Grandparents.  Unfortunately the cups cannot go into the microwave.  That's okay.  We all need to drink more water anyway.

I almost forgot...we have an addition to our collection of sewing machines:

Th

This is one of the few machines where DH and I do not agree on the probable date it was made.  I'm saying late 1800's.  DH says around 1910.  It makes a beautiful stitch.  Unfortunately the needles for this machine are no longer made.  So I won't be able to play with it as much as I'd like.

Quilt Backing Talk

A few weeks ago there was a discussion on the hearts2hands group about how different quilters with mid/long arms attach their quilt backing to their frames.  There seemed to be a lot of

• pinning one side to the leaders on the take up bar, 
• rolling the backing onto the take up bar, 
• pinning the opposite side to the leaders on the backing bar, 
• rolling the backing onto the backing bar, 
• then re-pinning the backing to the take up bar so the backing lays flat. 

I'm not that patient.  I pin one side to the take up bar leaders. Roll the backing up until the opposite end just reaches the leaders on the backing bar.  Pin that side to the leaders.  A quick look shows me if the backing is square.  If it's not, then I slide the leaders to the left or right until the backing is square.

Not square:

Squared by sliding the front leaders to the right and the back leaders to the left:

Notice the diagonal seams?  What's that all about?

If your backing is to narrow or short extra fabric naturally must be added.  But if extra fabric is added to one side then there will be bulk where the seam lays on top of itself as the quilt is rolled up on either the take up or backing bar.  Definitely a problem.

Diagonal seams do not stack.  This means no bulk throwing off the even advancement of the quilt onto the bars.

Is there any benefit to quilters who use domestic machines for quilting?  I think so.

Say you have the perfect piece of backing but it's just a bit too narrow or too short.  The problem is solved with a diagonal cut.

Here's a rectangle.  It's either too short or too narrow.

With a diagonal cut like this:

We can make it longer by sliding the two sides:

Or wider by sliding in the opposite direction:

If the backing needs to keep it's length but needs to be wider, then this just might be the answer:

By adding the rectangle between the diagonal cut the backing keeps it's length and is made wider.  If the quilter does not have the same fabric for this step, another fabric could be used.  Adding the second fabric this way does not yell "I ran out of the fabric I needed".  Which is what happens if the quilter just adds the different fabric to one side of the quilt.  Putting the fabric on a diagonal through the centre makes this a design choice.  Not an oops.

Not another machine!

This time it's DH's fault.  Okay, maybe a little bit mine.  I spotted an older machine on kijji and made the mistake of telling DH about it.  In my defence I did tell him we shouldn't buy it.  That we have too sewing machines already.  But he felt sorry for this forgotten gem.

Made in Germany, approximately 1890, this Saxionia Fiddle Base hand crank was shipped to Poland.  The family moved to Canada and the machine was passed down from mother to daughter and then to the daughter's son.  His children and grandchildren have no interest in this piece of their history (they weren't interested in the antique dolls that belonged to their great great grandmother either).  So the sewing machine became ours for $45.

DH has spend a few hours removing the coats of oil, tar, lint, dust, pet fur, etc.  The feed dogs move, the hand crank turns, and the needle goes up and down.  There will be hours more involved in the cleaning and polishing.  But this is the first machine we've found with Mother of Pearl inlay.  And the first Fiddle Base machine I've seen in person.

On to the quilting front:

Many moons ago the hearths2hands group had a virtual retreat.  Anna gave us instructions to make the LBlock.  I kinda got carried away.  Here's the first of many quilts made from the block.  And the practise doodling I did before quilting.  I'm happy with my first attempt at doing this style of all over quilting.  Out of my comfort zone, but fun!

Another LBlock quilt is loaded on the frame and I'll be using the same pattern for the quilting.  Hopefully the quilting will be a lot better!

Oops I did it again

Did I just break a copy right law?  Oh well.  I, or I should say we did it again.  DH knew I wanted a sewing table for my vintage machines.  I've been using a plastic folding table from Costcos that uses up quite a bit of room in my sewing room.  He spotted a small table with a machine on kijji and the seller was only a few blocks from home.  For $35 it was worth a trip over to see it.

The seller thought the table and machine was about 40 years old.  It was her mother's and she had no desire to keep it.  When we brought it home DH checked the serial number on the treadle machine.  It was made in Scotland in approximately 1912!

After a clean up of machine and table, and oiling of both, the machine is singing.  Beautiful stitch and reasonably quiet for a treadle.  And it fits in my sewing island!  Bonus.  When the machine is lowered my other vintage machines can be used on the table.

On the sad news front, we went to Massey Sewing to pick up a spare belt for this machine.  They are closing the shop!  Time to retire.  Very sad as the guys have years of stories and experiences.  They will be missed.

I have a new sewing challenge ahead of me.  A good friend of my DS's called today.  She recently got married.  They decided to do a "trash the wedding dress" party.  Their version was to paint the bridal party's clothes with latex paint.  The couple would love a duvet cover made from the clothing.  Any pattern, but king size please.

I should be getting the clothes next week.  I'm really happy that there is no deadline for finishing.   The bride is bringing a king size flat sheet for me to use to make it easier (and less cost).

Catching up in the sewing room news

June must have been a busy month.  I forgot to post anything!

Sew...on the quilting front, not only am I caught up on my Add A Boarder A Month project, I've finished July's as well.  Confession time.  I was behind on this project and needed to add May and June's borders.  I figured since I had the fabric and the project out I may as well do July's as well.  So I'm good until August.  And August will be a plain border.

I'm happy with how this is turning out.  But coming up with borders that will work with the fabric I have is going to be a challenge. 

I'm keeping up with the 365 Block of the Day project.  So far. 

There are 5, 6 or 10 projects on the go (probably more) that I keep forgetting about.

I'm really liking my sewing machine island from the last re-organization of my sewing room.  Having three sewing stations in the centre of the room has been working great.  Each machine is set up for a different part of the quilting process.  Piecing, free motion, etc.

My in-laws were out garage sailing and found this beauty:

It's a "nostalgic" Singers 15 made in the 1970's (we believe).  It still has the anti-rust coating on all the parts and has never been used.  At the moment it is being used as a decoration piece.  Reviews on the machine indicate that some of these reproduction machines have issues with stitch quality and noise.  Since we have no shortage of vintage machines to play with, we'll keep this one as is for now.

Speaking of sewing machines...A dear friend of ours who is on very limited income, took her machine (Singers 132 Featherweight) to a local repair shop.  She was told that the machine could not be fixed, wasn't worth spending the money on, and that she should just leave it at the shop for them to dispose of.  Since she walks or buses everywhere she left the machine.

Fortunately a friend of hers smelled something fishy, went with our friend to the shop and demanded the return of the machine.  My husband then picked the machine up so she wouldn't have to carry it and brought it home to look at.

The first thing we found was that there was no bobbin tension.  I'm the tension person in this family (I mean sewing tension, not personal!).  I could not tighten the tension.  DH took the bobbin case apart and it was full of lint.  That fixed, he then took all covers off the machine and used an air compressor to blow it out.  The repair guys probably never even opened up the machine.  There would be no way they could have missed seeing that
A:  the machine was in need of cleaning and oiling
B:  there was nothing wrong with the gears (which they claimed was the issue)

The belt is frayed a bit.  The bobbin case rattles because of some wear.  But this machine is now ready to stitch!

Our local quilt shop (Sew Divine) is collecting quilts in for those who lost everything in the huge Fort McMurray forest fire.  So you know where my last batch of charity quilts went!  Now to get busy finishing some more.

I currently have about 15 tops to quilt.  So the quilting goals for July...try to get some tops quilted!  I'm going to try for at least an hour of quilting on my Bailey each week day.  It will be interesting to see if I can discipline myself to do it.

I have some obstacles to overcome.  My colour vision, in fact my vision period, has suffered from all the laser procedures and eye injections I've had over the past few months.  So using blending thread is a no go.  I just cant see where I'm quilting.  Even with the magnifying glass I've attached to the Bailey.  So any error in the quilting is going to stick out like a sore thumb.  I'll have to make sure the quilt recipients have poor vision as well.  Then it will be all good.

And finally....Anna wrote an article about me in the July issue of The Quilt Pattern Magazine!  Sorry folks.  If you want to know what she says you'll have to subscribe!  (Or come over for a cup of coffee and a quilting session and I'll let you read my copy.)

The Sewing Room Re-Design

Stay away from Kijji.  Never look up sewing machines for sale.  Too late for this warning to do any good for me!  Last week I ended up purchasing an Elna Grasshopper.  But I'm really happy with it.  It is such a sweet machine!

The Elna Grasshopper's case turns into the table that the machine fits into.  Threading is so easy.  Drop in bobbin.  No need to loosen the flywheel when winding a bobbin.  Pop the bobbin on the bobbin winder and the flywheel disengages automatically.  The stitch is perfect!  Other than a good clean and oiling, all that needed to be done to the machine, was to change the protective pads at the bottom of both the carrying case and the machine.  Time had damaged the original rubber feet.

My friend Joan picked Mom up and the two of them came over to play with the Grasshopper.   It got rave reviews from both.  I had to watch carefully to make sure the machine didn't leave with them!

But Mom did mention that it would be a good idea if I could figure out a way to have more of my machines set up in my sewing room.  Now that's a great challenge for a rainy day.  And today it's raining.

First I had to put the sewing room contents  temporarily into the living room.  That "temporary" word always worries DH as he knows it can quickly become a permanent resident.  And I had what to move:

Back in the sewing room, no matter what I did with the sewing tables I ran out of walls to put them against.  So my solution was to move the sewing tables into the middle of the room.  Time will tell how well this will work out.  Most likely everything will be pushed against walls again the first time I stub my toe on a furniture leg.  Here's my "sewing island". 

The ironing/cutting table stayed where it was (I did move it to clear out all the threads, bits of fabric and pins that had fallen.  The book shelf that supports the thread/ruler stand stayed in place as well.

The living room is now back together, ready for company.  All the boxes and bins of quilting supplies are stashed under the sewing tables and in the closet.

And I have over 10,000 steps on my FitBit just by walking from one room to another all day.  Think this would be considered exercise by anyone else?

Gadgets and the "Sewing Buggy"

You never know when you will have that "I didn't know that" moment.  It's like making a wonderful discovery, but then you feel silly that you didn't know about it before.

I was watching a free Craftsy video the other day with my friend Joan.  We both had that moment.  The instructor was using a machine needle thread-er to remove the sewing machine needle.  We did a double take!  Why didn't we notice the little hole in the handle. There is always the worry that the needle may fall into the sewing machine when loosening the needle bar screw. 

Then we were totally blown away when we watched the instructor use that same needle threader to insert a new needle and hold it in place while tightening the needle bar screw.

Note the small hole at the end of the needle threader.  Pause the video, check the tool boxes for each of my machines.  And sure enough.  There is the hole for inserting the needle.  On one of my threaders there is a flat side so you can control the direction of the needle so it goes in correctly.  Beats using your fingers to hold it in place.

When checking my threaders for hand sewing needles we found that this little gadget has another use.  In the handle is a thread cutter.  I've had these threaders for years and never noticed.

The moral of this story is....check your gadgets.  You never know what else they can be used for.

Now on to the Sewing Buggy.  A while back my DH purchased a Feather Weight sewing machine for me.  It's small and light for taking to volunteer sewing.  But it's still too heavy to carry all that way.  Being the intelligent man he is, DH purchased a used jogging stroller for my new to me machine.

Well I'm not one to just walk the 18 blocks to my local quilt shop pushing a plain stroller.  Not when I can have some fun.  There was weeks where I could have worked on the cover.  But naturally I waited until the day before I was going to use the "Sewing Buggy"  But even with the time crunch I think it turned out quite well.  And it's so easy to go up and down curbs.  The timing won't be out on the machine because of a rough ride!

Off to check some more gadgets to see what else they can be used for!