Pins and needles
There’s been a bit of sewing going on around here. Nothing terribly creative or exciting, but a couple of projects I’d planned and thinking I needed to clear the decks a bit , I decided to get on with them.
The first is the quilt/wallhanging/headboard I’d started a couple of month ago for Edward’s bedroom.
I’d given myself a good talking to and made myself finish it before going on to begin something else. It didn’t take long – I didn’t quilt it very much and the longest process was getting it straightened up. I used my usual method of binding it, with a scrappy strip here and there to add some colour.
It’s still laid out on the rug in his room awaiting the next step: fixing it to the wall. That will probably get done about ten minutes before we next put the bed up!
For my next trick, I unpacked the “row by row” project I’d bought at the Woolen Needle in Iowa. It’s a metre or so wide and consists of a log cabin square and an applique scene, quilted and bound. We liked the soft colours and the small package of fabric was a good souvenir of that lovely day.
I fitted the patchwork foot to my sewing machine and began the log cabin square, feeling happy that the fabrics worked so well together and the end result looked great.
Next, I set to and began the picture panel, which is when I hit a snag. Uh oh. The pale fabric (the sky) was cut to 5” as it should be, but the ground fabric was cut to the same size – when it ought to have been 6”. I hummed and haahhed about this, for surely, an inch wouldn’t make that much difference, would it? Well, of course, it does look better if the horizon isn’t dead centre across the panel but it also occurred to me that the end result would also be an inch too narrow. The applique scene wouldn’t fit with the log cabin square and that square could not be cut down in size at all.
I emailed The Woolen Needle and had an almost instant reply. I emailed them my address and they said they’ll send me a replacement piece.
But, you know, a couple of days ago, I couldn’t wait any longer and thought I’d take a look in my stash and see if I had a piece of suitable fabric. I don’t have many pieces that wide as I tend to buy quilting cotton in fat quarters, so I didn’t hold out much hope. But fortunately, in my Christmas box, I found a piece of bottle green cotton with a tiny print. I prefer the original choice of a neat check, but hey ho. I cut out the applique shapes from the wool felt and bondawebbed them to the background.
Stitching around each of them is slow going but it’s satisfying and it’s looking good so far. Next time I’m out, I need to look for a suitable backing fabric and some for binding it too, or else it might find its way into that “needs finishing” heap in the corner of the studio
Yesterday, feeling I was starting a cold, I decided to take it easy and play with my sewing machine. I made one of these using up a few scraps of fabric from my stash. I’d read that one of my craft-judge colleagues had come across one in a show recently and as I made it, I pondered on the points I’d look for. It’s a clever design and the process is well explained but there are a couple of processes I didn’t manage quite as well as I’d have liked. Perhaps I’ll need to make a second, perfect on, but for now, this one is good enough.
