...having a go at hand piecing

On the last school holidays (or is could have been the ones before - these things tend to get away from me) a  took a few days of work and worked my way through a reasonable jam packed 'Crafty things I would like to do/try that I never have time for'. It was the best holiday I have had for a long time - at home, with purpose.

One of the things I did was attend a class on hand piecing at Amitie with Jenny. I have been interested in hand piecing for a little while but apart from the EPP projects I hadn't sewn anything together with just needle and thread (ie sans machine).

Frankly, I didn't trust my stitches to hold up over time - even just the time to get the top together, let alone quilting and years of use. And I couldn't bear to think of it falling apart as I was sewing or soon after and have all the hours of stitching wasted.

The class lasted the morning and I took along a small bundle of fabric and a new acquired pattern (Galaxy by Trish Harper) that specifically recommended hand piecing and the normal odds and sods of sewing. To that bundle I added a new 1/4 wheel, a sandpaper board and and needles recommended for hand piecing.

And the process was much as I had imagined but a little demonstration and encouragement can go a long way when you are learning something new. I pieced the center section of one star that day and have just now started working on it again. It think this block will became a cushion cover as I am not quite convinced with the fabric choices I have made for this one.

But in the meantime of course I bought the Green Tea and Sweet Bean pattern booklet and starter pack and I have started it!

I've drawn around the templates and then added the seam allowance as directed and stitched and stitched and now I have the first block for this quilt.

My two biggest decisions with this new technique developing now are
1. What project to take with me to Perth over the Christmas break, Green Tea and Sweet Beans or the unfinished Circle Game?
2. How I am possibly going to find time to start, let alone finish even half of the hand piecing projects I how have my eye on!

...another Hexy MF update

On Friday night I sewed the last (with the exception of a few for the borders) of the flowers. There are 70 there - seven in each of the fabrics.

For those that are mathematically minded interested (I am sure the minded can work it out for themselves) that is 490 basted 1.5" hexies and 8820" of hand sewn seam. 

I spent some time at the inaugural Sew Shells event laying them out on the floor and mixing them up until I was happy with the placement (there were a couple of changes after this picture was taken but it is the one I am working from)

The background is ordered (Robert Kaufman Quilter's Linen in Beige) along with some samples for the stems and leaves.

Better get to adding more columns to these to then!

...on a whim

A couple of weekends ago, on a whim, I bought a 90 degree triangle ruler at Spotlight with a 25% off voucher.

When I got home, on a whim, I got home and used it to cut up a 1/2 yard bundle of spring theme prints I bought ages ago from Sew Fresh Fabrics when I got free shipping.  Cutting them into strips and then cross-cutting with the new ruler.

On a whim, by sewing the triangles into pairs, the squares and trimming to 12.5" I made this quilt top. 

It isn't huge - the blocks are 12" finished - which if my maths is having a good day means that this is 49 x 61" in the current state.

I'll need to wait for another whim to help with finding a backing, basting, quilting and binding but even without all that yet this was a pretty satisfying evening of sewing. 

... A Hexy MF update

There isn't really a lot to say except that I have based all of the centre hexagons and am doing the 'petals' as I   go. My aim to to get 10 done a week. So far I have done that twice in he four weeks I've been working on it so I am only two weeks behind!

I lay them out tonight to have a better look at the mix of the patterns/colours together. Obviously there are a few I would around when I sew them together.

Looking forward to working on this some more.

...quilting, quilting, quilting

It has come to that time of the year when getting pictures is difficult, it is dark when I leave for work in the morning and get home at night... and the weekends are often gloomy and rainy.

The upside? It is wonderful to sit on the couch in the evening under the quilt and wield the needle threaded with the perle cotton. 

I'm having a great time enjoying the the little frames fairytale friends. 

...N's quilt - Cog and Wheel

I took the fabric and the recently cut templates for this quilt to the first Sit and Sew Day for the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild I went to last year, in April.

A year later I have finally finished it! After I was inspired by this stack of fabric sitting on the table near this pattern and coming to the impossible to forget conclusion that this fabric and this pattern were a match too good to pass up I worked on the top almost exclusively at the sit and sew days over the next few months. I finished the top in about September but was stalled there for a little while as I tried to find the right green solid for the back. My Kona Color card said Bayou was what I needed but it was a discontinued colour by the time I started my search and I couldn't find enough.

In the end I have gone with a different shade altogether - Green Tea from the Spotlight Prima Homespun range - but N seems to like it. There are a couple of extra scraps from the front fabric in there too to bring it all up to size.

I chose to quilt it as described in the pattern - this was not my original plan but I think if a quilt designer goes to the trouble of suggesting a design there must be good reason for it. I know when I plan a quilt I almost always consider the quilting design at the same time as I plan the patchwork and fabric choices.

The one change I did make was to follow the marked line with my walking foot rather than hand quilt the design. Despite the need for some fairly heavy duty pushing and pulling through the rather small throat of my machine, and the related puckers on the front, I think this was the right choice for me.

I like to quilt my own quilts (like in the planning I think all the stages of making a quilt are equally important and I'd feel a little like I cheated if I got someone else to quilt my top for me - but I know and respect that is not the same for everyone) but sometimes my lack of machine space is a little annoying, especially as I usually choose to make twin or queen sized quilts. However, unless the machine fairy decides to come along, these are the parameters that I need to work within.

...the trimming of the chair

You can now vote for the winners of the Umbrella Prints Trimmings Competition by repinning from the Pinterest board here

I like to patchwork but I firmly believe that there are some things that shouldn't be made that way. Until recently I thought furniture fitted in that category.

But somewhere between ordering my trimmings pack and it arriving I had an idea that meant I might need to change that opinion and last weekend after a sewing day I was converted.

Meet my new patchwork chair. The chair is patchwork you understand - I don't patchwork in it.

You would have thought that upon embarking on such a chair renovation project I might take a before picture in preparation for a blog before and after profile. Before I started I would have agreed with you. During, I realised I had forgotten. After is all you get.

The 'patches' are the complete set of the trimmings I received in my Umbrella Prints Trimmings Competition pack. The patchwork strips were made from the patches being trimmed to straight and squarish sizes and then some Duck Cotton added to the sides and then trimmed to 5".

The strip was made to length with an addition of a strip between each patch unit. The seat cover is made from Duck Cotton in Natural and there is also an additional layer of white cotton or another to add some bulk and coverage.

I used the existing cover pretty faithfully as a pattern as there was no real need to change the cushions of the chair.

It took about a day over the course of a weekend - with an embarrassingly large amount being devoted to working out all the notches I had made to help the insertion of the side panels on the chair back - even with the help of the pictures I had chosen to take before pulling it all apart.

As I finished putting it all together and admiring the way it fits in the room I couldn't help but think of the old credit card ad that screened in Australia several years ago

Chair - $15 from the opp shop
Trimmings - $10 from Umbrella Prints
3.5m Duck Cloth - $12 on clearance at Spotlight
Zip - $1.49
Lining - $0.50 after Spotlight Voucher

Chair - Priceless

My little secret at the end - the chair pad covering the spring under the cushion was free motion quilted with the name of my blog, Umbrella Prints and Trimmings - unfortunately the latter two were chopped off a little when the front flap was added!