Hemming Clouds

Just a quick project to show you today but a finish is a finish.., right ? !

I spotted some double gauze at my local fabric shop awhile back and since a friend will be welcoming a new grandchild next month I thought I’d sew up a couple of swaddle blankets.

I used 1.25 yards to make each blanket. After squaring them up I tried making 90 degree corners with a regular straight stitch. I soon discovered that this fabric sews a little different than most. Being so delicate, fine, wispy, diaphanous, chiffony ( is that a word ??) downright cobwebby , you get the idea… it was hard to hem, to say the least ! So the 90 degree corners looked like a blind monkey sewed them. I picked out that,  rounded the corners, prepped them with some stay stitching – which I highly recommend with this fabric – and made out much better with a largish zig zag stitch.

Hopefully the new parents and baby will like them. They should be just the thing for a baby in warm weather and they feel just like a cloud !

Thanks for having a look – if you have any tips for sewing with double gauze, I’d love to hear them.

Enjoy your weekend.

linking up with Amanda at Crazymomquilts for Finish it Up Friday.

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A Gardenvale Finish

Well, here she is. This is the view from my chair as I completed the binding on my  latest quilt. The main fabric is all from the Jen Kingwell line “Gardenvale”. The setting triangles, binding and backing fabric are all from a local fabric shop.

The blocks were made using a layer cake and a jelly roll. I made two diagonal cuts on each layer cake and cut the jelly rolls into 2.5 inch squares and 8.5 inch by 2.5 inch strips. I don’t have the measurements for the setting triangles close by but if anyone would like them just let me know and I will dig around for them… I probably wrote it down somewhere.

The quilt measures 65″ x 82″.

This is the best shot I have of the back – it was really windy yesterday.

The pattern I choose for the quilting is called ‘twister’. I thought the combination of points and softened curves was a good choice for the blocks. I also thought that since the quilting pattern is loosely spaced ( as opposed to closer together – more dense ) that it would give the quilt a softer hand and it does.

I am still a little saddened by the loss of all those points around the edges which I wrote about in my last post.  I think that the quilt has more positive aspects and I am focusing on those.

It is the Victoria Day long weekend here in Canada we are still seeding here on our farm but the end is in sight, now.. if we could have some rain… please !

Thanks for having a look, enjoy your weekend – long or not !

linking up with Amanda over at CrazyMomQuilts for Finish it up Friday.

 

 

 

A Pouch and a Peek

Whoa ! I just realized it’s Friday the 13th !! You know you’re busy when those kind of things sneak up on you !

Many of you have probably heard of the’ May is for Makers ‘campaign begun by Lindsay at LRStitched. I think it’s a great idea ! I have often said to friends and family that I am amazed at how many truly helpful sewing and quilting tutorials and free patterns there are on the internet. I do appreciate and value the time and effort that goes into these freebies. For my part I always try and remember to link back to the source and I buy patterns from people that I have learned so much from. Tutorials are a great way of sampling how a designer writes and if her teaching style works for you. Allison Harris of CluckCluckSew is a good example of generous information/tutorials on her site and a shop full of great patterns to buy. I  am afraid to count the number of patterns I have purchased from her and of course I bought her book. Anyways, my point is… I do buy patterns from many of these great designers and for some weird reason they get put on the back burner. So today I’m showing you a little pouch I made from one of Svetlana’s patterns I bought.

This is the small size of her “Little Pyramid Pouch”, cute huh ?

As you can see I have a few more of her patterns to get going on ! They are well written and fun to sew.

In other news, I am happy to say my Gardenvale quilt has arrived back home.

They say each quilt has a story and this one is no exception. I had taken it to a long arm quilter the middle of February who said she would have it done in a week. Well looong story short – it wasn’t and I picked it up 2 months later and sent it elsewhere.

There is a long arm rental shop in Edmonton that I have done some long arm quilting at and they have started a “quilt by mail” program.

Here is a review I wrote at their request:

I was extremely pleased to receive my quilt back via Canada Post from Sparrow Studioz through their Quilt By Mail program. The turnaround time on their program was excellent. The quilt was well packaged for shipping and was neatly folded and tied with a ribbon and card that thanked me for my business and requested a review of their QBM program. The intake process on their website is quick and easy, included is a good selection of threads and a nice selection of pantographs. They have added more pantographs since I sent my quilt. Once my quilt arrived at their studio there is a live camera set up and it is possible to watch your quilt being quilted, ( lol, bonus ) ! The quilting itself was very professional and well done. My only negative comment is that my quilt was not squared and trimmed the way I would have done it. In hindsight I would have preferred to do this at home, myself. I have always done this step and took it for granted that everyone did it the same way. There is a box for comments on the intake form and this would be a good place to let your wishes be known. Overall I am very pleased with their program and will be using it again as well as recommending it to my friends. Thank-you to everyone who had a hand in helping me finish my quilt !

Below is a close-up of how the quilt was trimmed

each point along the edge of the quilt will be lost once I have sewn on the binding. So… you can imagine my disappointment. After submitting my review the owners of the shop contacted me and said that they realize that not all people trim their quilts the same way and are now only trimming quilts when requested.

Oh well, no crying over lost points. The quilt will still be cosy and colourful.

Thanks for having a look.

Linking up with CrazyMomQuilts for Finish it up Friday.

 

Medallion Table Runner

It is seeding time here on our farm so I haven’t had much time at my sewing machine. I have been able to finish up this table runner that I started… eek !… a few years ago !

I know, it’s a blurry, terrible picture. Sorry ’bout that, the others I took are worse.

The block was a free tutorial by the women at Sew Kind of Wonderful using their Quick Curve Ruler. I spent a few minutes looking around their site but I think they have taken the tutorial down. As I said… I made these blocks quite sometime ago 🙂 .

This table runner measures approximately 17.5″ by 53″. The tutorial was well written and the block was not too hard to do – curves and all but I just decided that I didn’t have enough other fabrics to continue to make an entire quilt. It’s really too bad my photography and my camera are lacking. The centre fabric reminds me of middle eastern tile work, the purple bordering the centre has quite a bit of depth as it is multi tonal and the cream on the outside has a shimmery brushstroke pattern floating over it.

I quilted most of the runner by stitching in the ditch and then did a small stipple in the middle part of the medallion – yes ladies – that’s me being wild and crazy !

Above is a close-up of the backing fabric. I purchased the fabric at a local shop but I have done this technique on silk many many times. The fabric is stretched on a frame and lightly wet with water then areas are painted with dye and salt is sprinkled randomly across the fabric. Since salt is hydroscopic; it draws moisture to it, the pattern emerges as the fabric dries.

In other news – There is quite a lot of smoke in the air here these last few days from the wildfires at Fort McMurray, Alberta. We are just over 400 miles south east of there. Fort McMurray is a city of aprox. 62,000 people that has been evacuated due to devastating fires that have done a tremendous amount of damage in the area. The pictures on the news leave no doubt how large of an area is involved, scary ! Have you heard of the fires ? As a social experiment, please leave a quick “yes” and rough idea of where you are in the world if you have heard – the comment button is on the left at the top of this post by the date.I’m just kind of curious how far some of this news travels.

Thanks for having a look, I’ll be linking up with Amanda over at CrazyMomQuilts.