Quick Quilt!

Well it was a quick quilt for me, I started it around Christmas 2008 and finished it by Easter.  I did start a quilt for my daughter to take to university with her, and I presented it to her on her Graduation 5 years later... so yes a quick quilt.

This one is made in Van Heusen shirt fabrics which a friend, anxious to destash, so kindly gave to me.  The fabric is so smooth and nice to touch.  I did the quilting on the centre squares on my Janome 300e embroidery machine, then I pieced the logs right onto the wadding, which gave me a chance to use the IDT function on my new Pfaff Creative 2.0 machine.  I put the quilt together using Sharon Pederson's book called Reversible Quilts : Two at a Time.  This quilt has plain squares on the reverse side.

The beauty of this method is it is quilt as you go, so you don't have to manhandle the quilting of a large double bed quilt other than the joining strips.

April Textile Challenge

The focus for April was using a rubbing to create texture and pattern.  When I joined the Textile Challenge Group I added a couple for rules for myself, firstly to make something of the challenge rather than just a sample, and secondly to try not to buy anything to make the piece - I have so many things on hand and lots of projects in mind, so I kill two birds with one stone, I challenge myself and make a project too.  

I had a carved wooden box, so I decided to use this for the rubbing.  A friend had given me some Markal oilsticks (and yes you know who!) so I thought maybe a cushion would be nice.  The fabric is a deep red and black shot taffeta, remains from an evening skirt which I made for my daughter.

The rubbings done I backed the fabric with batting, cut a template from the rubbing shape and stitched around in machine saddle stitch to give the quilted ovals.  I used a decorative stitch to go around the edges of the Markal shapes and then I applied some beads and just a little hand stitching.

I applied a zip in the back of the cushion, by following this YouTube video -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTKn_QrvU-U

Then I put the front and back of the cushion, wrong sides together and piped the edges first with some drab old gold fabric, then I bound the edges as I would for a patchwork quilt.

March Textile Challenge

This month we were asked to work with the colour wheel.  I chose to use a bright blue and it's opposite colour on the colour wheel.  I made a padfolio, the instructions are here -

http://www.fibreandstitch.com/pdf/padfolio.pdf

I used blue felt with some orange silky fabric for contrast with an overlay of different net fabrics.  I used the Pfaff couching foot to apply the orange cord.  The felt and the lining were attached to craft vilene with Bondaweb before the edges were satin stitched.

Details of the satin stitch -

Pfaff sewing machine, first pass 4.2mm wide and .8 long, then second pass 5.5mm wide and .8 long.  I had the foot pressure set to 4.0.

I intend to keep my machine instruction book in the padfolio.

Socks - Bamboo!

I was tempted by some Wendy Happy sock yarn which is made from 75% Bamboo and 25% Nylon.  I used my well tested sock pattern which was from Cat Bordhi's Socks on Two Circular Needles book.  Knitted on 2.5mm Addi turbo circular needles.  The yarn is nice to knit with, but I haven't worn the socks yet.

Tricia's Textile Challenge for February.

Earlier this month I joined the Yahoo Group called Tricia's Textile Challenge.  Each month members participate in a mixed media Challenge and Tricia's gives guidance and instruction.  February's challenge is about Tonal changes.

I chose a photograph, changed it to a black and white image, and attempted to pick out the tones of colour.  Then you traced the design lines and made a record of several of the tones in the picture.  You could then go on to change the colours but trying to keep the tonal structure.

I chose a photograph of a church dome taken inside a church in Paris.  I did think that I would use a picture of a lane going through fields with hills in the background, which would probably have been easier as it turned out.  However I did like the structure of the dome and thought it would be a good exercise using mixed fabrics, machine and hand embroidery.

I picked out satin, net, synthetic and metallic voiles and layered them onto a piece of craft vilene. I used the line tracing on the back of the craft vilene, and I free motioned stitched all the lines through all the layers of fabric.  Then I proceeded to cut away varying layers of fabric to get the tones.  The piece is 7x 5.25", and being this size made it quite fiddly to cut through the layers of fine and slippery fabrics.  That done, I did some free motion stitching with metallic threads.  I couched the lines of thread by hand, then added beads to highlight.  Finally I did three rows of machine stitches in metallic threads, squared up the embroidery, stuck it on to a piece of card and edge stitched it.

I haven't done anything like this before so it really was quite challenging, but also enjoyable.  The pity is that I can't get the glitz and glamour of the fabrics and threads to come through on the photos.

My thanks to Trish for the Challenge.

Hardcover Padfolio

Having intended to make a padfolio quite some time ago, I finally made one on Sunday after seeing instructions on Sue Bleiweiss's website, www.twocreativestudios.com for a hard backed version.  There are lots of other projects there too.

I just used the instructions as a base, my pad was a different size, and I used fabric rather than paper to cover the mountboard.  I embroidered the outer cover first on my embroidery machine and added some beading.  I also added a sleeve to hold a pen on the lining where the spine of the book was.  I prepared the lining fully, sewing on the pockets before I stuck the whole lining on the the cover.  I stuck some card on to the pad cover too to improve it.

Here I go..... first entry

I decided to keep a Blog of the things I make and sometimes I'll outline the details.  I keep occupied with crafts and cooking, in particular sewing and knitting.

Last night I finished a hand knitted sweater for myself.  Last year I was a beta tester for the Wild Stitches knitting Software by Wildginger.  I use Patternmaster Boutique, also by Wildginger for my dressmaking, so I used my measurement chart from PMB for the WS pattern.  I dislike dropped shoulder knits, so I chose to make a set in sleeve style, with a side bust dart and the contoured side seam and long sleeves.

The thing about using software for knitting patterns is that one is in charge of the whole project, you choose the yarn, the needles, the stitch pattern and the style of garment and the body measurements - no mean task really.  You also have to make decisions on the amount of ease you need according to the fabric you will subsequently knit and the style you have chosen.

 

Unlike dressmaking, when you knit a garment you are making the fabric too.  So one of the most important factors is to make a sample of the knitting you aim to use - then measure it correctly. A 4 inch square is the absolute minimum tension swatch I would recommend, and I always remove the needle from the stitches before I measure as knitting spreads off the needle.  Some yarns you might wish to steam press to change to handle of the fabric, for example some machine knitting industrial acrylic yarns, so I also do this at the tension swatch stage too.

I have lots of yarn stored away, no suitable patterns, so making my own patterns lets me use some of my stash.  For this sweater I used Pingouin Sweet'hair, which is 50% mohair, 25% wool and 25% acrylic. 150m to a 50 gr. ball.  It was knitted in stocking stitch on size 4mm needles.  Rather than ribs I chose to do a 6 row moss stitch border, then on the 7th row I twisted the left hand needle anti clockwise every 6th stitch and this puts a twist into the hem, then I continued in stocking stitch.

The sweater fits me nicely, the side bust dart and the contoured side seam add shape taking away the baggy look of an unshaped top, and the shoulder seams sit just right on my shoulders with the set in sleeves.

I now need to try to take better photographs! and find out how to put the pictures where I want them to be in the post!