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Posted by  Q in Craftie Craft, Fambly Ramblings, Sewing on  August 4, 2011, at 9:17 pm
I have already completed a quilt top from a Moda Bake Shop Tutorial written by Kim Walus (See it on my Projects Page – Dresden Plates for Your Table) from Bitty Bits and Pieces. Another one got my attention but I didn’t really have a reason to make one exactly. That is the Hugs and Kisses Valentine Banner.
 Hugs & Kisses Banner by Kim Walus of Bitty Bits and Pieces for Moda Bake Shop Then Charlotte had her second birthday last month and was given a play house by my parents. I immediately remember having some serious itchy stitching hands when I saw this project and thought it would be great for the play house. I guessed that mantles are slightly wider than your average play house, so I measured how big I thought it should be for the play house and tried to estimate the size the ‘flags’ needed to be to accommodate it. I decreased the pattern by 50% to make a teenier version of the banner.
 Charlie's Banner Preparations I went to my local Discount Craft Store Spotlight and since they still had loads and it was on sale, I just had to get more of the Denyse Schmidt range that was on sale at JoAnn’s in the US, this time the Australians got to play too!. The walls of the play house are white and yellow and the roof is red, so what could be better 
 Charlie's Play House Banner Work In Progress I have a real tough time cutting out felt shapes – anyone else?! Kim uses a sizzix machine and mentioned being able to purchase pre-cut shapes, but we’re not quite there yet in Aus I don’t think. Mine turned out alright I think.
 Charlie's Play House Banner getting it's binding I made the little yo-yos and covered buttons first and then embroidered the felt circles onto the flags, because I wanted to do some hand work. The actual stitching, turning out of the flags and stitching of the binding was super quick and then all I had left to do was stitch the yo-yos and the additional buttons to the banner.
 Charlie's Play House Banner on my Chest of Drawers Because I just had to take a pic right away after I added the last button.
And then I used some double sided sticky velcro circles and added them to the playhouse How fun!!
Trust me, you want to find an excuse to make one yourself!
 Charlie's Play House Banner - (as she would say) "All Done, Finished!" Good Night Stitchers Whereever you are!
Posted by Q in Craftie Craft, Quilting on March 5, 2011, at 7:10 pm
I decided that this month, I needed to actually do some quilting and binding as opposed to piecing tops and declaring them completed. I also quite often decide things and then unbeknowst to me my evil twin takes over and undecides said things for me.
Instead of buying stash fabrics this pay for pretty piecing and cutting up into smaller pieces, to make blocks or toys, I bought larger pieces of uncut fabrics, pretty no doubt but meant for backings and bindings instead. The first quilting project I attempted after my 18month hiatus from quilting class and first quilt top being kinda sorta pieced, I think, was this one.
It’s a beautiful project on a teeny scale and the tutorial is available at Moda Bake Shop , as of course are a lot of projects I do or am interested in doing. The little squares are 1inch but Sheryl Johnson of Temecula Quilt Co, who wrote the tutorial has some ingenious little methods of working with slightly larger pieces than that most of the time. You can read about how I did with the beginning stuff here .
I had stitched the quilt top together ( a total disaster by the way) how can you go wrong with 9 patches Q? Well I did… almost none of it is square, it’s more like a 9 patch parallelogram or maybe a crazy 9 patch? I dunno, it’s terrible, I hated it and didn’t want to touch it ever again. But then I also would not be able to tick it off the list would I? It would be a UFO forever…
I thought I would feel better if I took the plunge again and tried to finish it.
I had started hand quilting (oh yeah, I had basted it at some point…) 3 of the larger rectangular bits (there are 4) and then stopped there. Today I completed machine quilting and the rest of the hand quilting – you can’t really see it though (Note – if you spend time killing your poor little finger and sticking a little needle through layers of fabric and batting and sometimes the skin on said finger – make it so you can see it?! )
and then I used my new fangled Clover bias binder maker 25mm to make binding (not bias though straight grain), and I attached it entirely by machine, blasphemy you say? Well I mentioned my poor little finger right? and the rest of it sucked so how bad could it be with machine attached binding.
So here is the front: I used Symphony Fabric Collection designed by Sentimental Studios for Moda ( a charm pack) and some plain cream or beige homespun. The backing is something from my stash I don’t have an identification for and the binding fabric is from Art Gallery Fabrics, but I forget the name.
 1800s Vintage Doll Quilt Completed I wasn’t going to show this, but since part of what I am doing is learning as I go, you get to see all the horrors too. (boo hiss!)
And this is the back.
 1800s Vintage Doll Quilt Quilt Rear Now… before I change my mind and delete this post, I am going to run away.
Posted by Q in Craftie Craft, Quilting on February 18, 2011, at 6:02 pm
I am so happy with how this project turned out!
Kim provide excellented instructions and the Fabrics are just awesome!, It’s going to hang like this against my book shelf, but I couldn’t take a picture there because it’s in an akward spot in my room. Now it needs to be quilted and bound and will be done 
 Its a Hoot Fabric in Dresden Table Runner Top
Posted by Q in Craftie Craft, Quilting on February 15, 2011, at 6:46 pm
I got to the end of my last Dresden Plate (I made 5 all up) and had no other half of the pairs of wedges I was stitching together. Anyway, I grabbed another piece of fabric cut out a new one. Dresdens done (well sans centres at that point) but check…
Then I started stitching together the half square triangles for the hour glass sashing strips and look what I found *frown*, the little orphaned dresden blade. Just lying there laughing at me… Well now, you don’t get to be in my table runner you silly little blade, 20 blades are better than one, so there!
 Its a Hoot Pile of Chained Half Square Triangles and an Orphaned Dresden Blade Then I had to turn my Half Square Triangle Pile into an Hourglass Block Pile carefully divided into Left and Right Halves for special pressing.
 Its a Hoot Hourglass Blocks Cut and Ready for Pressing It took me a while, to figure out what Kim meant (this project I am working on is from Kim’s Tutorial Plates for your Table at Moda Bakeshop) when she said open up and press your seams on the rear of these blocks, but I saw this post by Amy Smart at Diary of a Quilter where Amy explains the opening of the seams in a slightly different way, then I fuffed about a bit but eventually figured out how it was meant to be done and ended up with some hourglass blocks.
Kim and Amy would probably be ashamed of them, but I was so excited that some of the points met in the middle! tee hee!
 Its a Hoot Hourglass Blocks Sashing Strips I chose a white fabric with yellow spots as my background fabric after wandering around in my local fabric store surreptitiously draping dresdens over bolts of fabric to audition them. It was a toss up between this one and the fabric I ended up using in the centre of the dresdens and also for the top and base of the pillar sashing.
 Its a Hoot Dresden Blocks Ok so that was my pile of 5 Dresden Blocks… I think this is supposed to be where I tell you about how stitching with invisible thread is awful. I don’t like it. The first time I tried to stitch with it (supposedly the easy option when trying to learn how to free motion quilt – don’t believe the hype!) I ended up calling my dad (he is a motor trimmer by trade so knows sewing machines like the back of his hands) because I could not for the life of me, get the tension right, not to mention the crazy curling up and jamming of the machine with this strong thread bunching up behind my fabric. Anyway, I chucked it away (in my beading supplies where I thought it belonged). Eventually read about how your bobbin should be normal thread – yes, I had both nylon… – and also saw in one of mum’s quilting books someone had placed their thread in a tall glass jar instead of on the dooflicky that holds the thread.
So when advised to machine applique the circle onto the Dresden I thought, I would try it again.
Before I tell you about how bad an idea that was, I have to mention that after cutting out all my circles, stitching around them with running stitch and pressing them into pretty circle-y shapes, I placed the first one ont othe dresden only to realise that it would not cover the centre of the dresden – boo hiss!. So I made bigger ones, and attempted the invisible thread thing.
I had the stitch too small and the tension too something and it just looked horrible. So I decided to hand stitch them with the thread. That got better as I went along and I eventually got all the circles attached. Then naturally, I would hand applique the dresden to the background block right?! Wrong… when I did that, even though my circles came out fine, the first dresden was all puckered and silly looking. So I unpicked and tried the machine applique idea again, slightly optimistic that my straight stitching would be ok where stitching the circle was not.
And it actually went ok (with cotton in the bobbin and my thread in a tall glass jar prior to threading through the guides to the needle). I also played around a little with the tension. Another note to self… Pay close attention to the stitching, because the thread is invisible you can go on stitching for a while before you realise you ran out of bobbin thread ages ago.
My sashing strips were way less eventful. I used all the hourglass blocks – not all are required and then ordered them so that the ones with most of the pointy bits meeting were on top and the one with the least at the bottom, I am working my way down the pile. I got all the way up one side of the table runner when my back starting screaming about me being crazy and if I didn’t give it pain killers or chocolate I would be in big trouble so I stopped.
 Its a Hoot Dresden Runner Half Sashed I only have one side of the runner left to sash and I will be done. I also realised I don’t have a table long enough for the runner, but now know that it will be perfect length to hang on the side of my bookshelf in my study/sewing room.
Here is what it looks like (kind of) length ways.
 Its a Hoot Dresden Runner Half Sashed Lengthways
Posted by Q in Craftie Craft, Quilting on February 8, 2011, at 1:04 pm
The minute I saw this project, I new that I wanted to do it!
 Plates for Your Table Dresden Plate Table Runner Project by Kim Walus for Moda Bakeshop isn’t it just gorgeous? Here is what it looks like in full (both these pics are from Moda Bake Shop)
 Plates for your table Dresden Plate Table Runner by Kim Walus for Moda Bakeshop I decided (especially after I saw this blog post from Bloom and Blossom on how to cut the wedges for the Dresden Plates from Charm Squares!) to go ahead and give it a try. My mum has the EZ Dresden ruler, which I borrowed and like the Bloom and Blossom post, I just stuck some masking tape on it at 3 and 3/4 inches as it only has markings at every half inch.
The fabric collection I chose is It’s a Hoot by Momo for Moda. The first step was to cut 20 wedges for each dresden (I am making 5 as in Kim’s project)
 Its a Hoot Charm Squares cut into Dresden Wedges Then you have to chain piece the wedges together to keep them organised (Kim’s intsructions are awesome, because I followed them like a good girl and didn’t stuff up, so if I can anyone can!)
 Its a Hoot Charm Squares cut into Dresden Wedges and Chain Pieced Then turn the wedges, now I have to confess despite kim’s awesome instructions, I did stick my skewer through a couple because I was impatient and I don’t for the life of me know why or how, but I sewed one wedge wrong sides together instead of right sides together… oopsie (or as my 18mnth old niece says oopies… )
 Its a Hoot Charm Square Dresden Blades Turned Then lay em out…
 Its a Hoot Charm Square Dresdens Layed out  Its a Hoot Dresden 1 Completed 4 to Go Aren’t Dresdens just the coolest?
Posted by Q in Craftie Craft, Quilting on January 8, 2011, at 6:09 pm
 1800s Vintage Doll Quilt by Temecula Quilts for Moda Bake Shop This is the beautiful little project available for free at Moda Bake Shop. I decided to attempt it myself. I generally tend to prefer more contemporary colours and fabrics, but I thought that this would make a great table topper for my mum who prefers more traditional colours and fabrics.
Unfortunately I didn’t have much luck with the making, I am still trying (mostly in vain) even with ironing to get my seams to align perfectly (and yes I guess a one inch pieced quilt should probably not be my training ground!) and so instead of squares I have parallelograms and some rectangles and even some slivers (due to the amount of chopping up of my blocks I ended up doing to square up the quilt.
I was reading the guide to sewing machine quilting feet on Sew Mama Sew written by Florence from Flossie Teacakes (I can’t say thanks enough!) anyway, I saw the section on the 1/4 inch foot and well mine doesn’t look like that. Mine has no safety guard to butt up the fabric against, I’m just supposed to you know, line it up with the edge of the foot. I don’t do that so well  My next step is to attempt to attach a line on my machine or get a foot with an edge like that from another manufacturer in the hopes that it fits my machine. – Stay Tuned for that one!
Here is how I went!
 Moda Symphony Charm Pack, Cut Into 1 3/4 inch Strips So this is the Charm Pack I chose to use, along with plain beige (ecru?) homespun cotton.
 Moda Symphony Charm Pack Cut into 1 3/4 Strips Again, but this time way… way… closer 
 1800's Vintage Doll Quilt from Moda Bake Club After Chain Piecing Here are the strips just after I finished chain piecing half of the strips to the Home Spun.
 1800's Vintage Doll Quilt from Moda Bake Club Light to Dark Strips Here are the dark-light-light pieces, the light-dark-light and the dark-light-dark pieces.
 1800's Vintage Doll Quilt from Moda Bake Club 9 Pieced Blocks Here is the entire top ready for assembly. I have since then stitched it together, pinned and basted it to the backing and started quilting it. I have decided to use a mix of hand and machine quilting and will post updates later, to let you know how I am going with this.
was quite disappointed withe the inaccuracy of my seams and the non square-ness of the blocks and hope to keep practising like mad to get better.
Anyway, that’s all for today, have some more to show, but no time left to type.
Posted by Q in Craftie Craft, Quilting, Softies - sewing on December 27, 2010, at 4:02 pm
Thought I would make my pending project list public!
when I am trawling online and find tutorials or patterns I often gawk and ooh and aah and think I have to make that, I have to try that, I have to put that on my list. Well this way, I thought I would save my list… So I don’t lose it, so I keep myself kind of accountable and just for fun!
Pending Quilting and Sewing Projects
High Flying Geese Quilt
 Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts by Pam and Nicky Lintott the High Flying Geese quilt is on page 30 of this book by Pam and Nicky Lintott. I have not done a quilt with pieced triangles in it yet, and my mom’s jaw dropped open about the number of flying geese blocks in this quilt, but I really like the look of it and I have the perfect fabric to go with it.
A couple of years ago at the Adelaide Quilt and Craft Fair, my mum bought me a jelly roll (not technically, as jelly roll usually specifically refers to precut 2.5inch strip rolls from Moda Fabrics) and this was a 2.5inch strip collection from Amy Butler‘s fabric Range Daisy Chain. I will be referring to it as a Jelly Roll though. I have purchased border and backing fabric, which I am currently waiting on delivery for and will be using white as my background fabric.
I also just discovered an Amy Butler Flickr Group, to share projects made from Amy Butler products, so I will have a place to share my progress and quilt on Flickr!
Charming Stars Quilt
 Charming Star Quilt Project by Stefanie for Moda Bake Shop This project is available for free at Moda Bake Shop and has been designed by Stefanie from Little Lady Patchwork.
I love the colours and hope that the fabric range I am going to choose looks as good as this one does. I have chosen to use the Moda Fabric Range called Sugar Pop designed by Liz Scott
1800′s Vintage Quilt
1800s Vintage Doll Quilt by Temecula Quilts for Moda Bake Shop This is another Moda Bake Shop Project. It is designed by Sheryl Johnson of Temecula Quilt Co. It is a doll size quilt and finishes at 20inches by 20inches. I think the design on it is what is traditionally called Irish bra
id? but I am not 100% sure about this. I have a charm pack in my stash from the Moda Fabric Range called Symphony Designed by Sentimental Studios, that I think will work well for this little Quilt.
I intend gifting it to my mum as a table topper. This one is a little daunting as the pieces look tiny, but it’s supposed to be deceptively simple so I will give it a go!
Grocery Bag Dispenser
Again from Moda Bakeshop ( can you tell how much I love the site?!) The grocery bag dispenser tutorial is designed by Rachel Griffiths from PS I quilt
Clermont Farms Bag
 Clermont Farms Quilted Tote Bag by Glen Dragone for Moda Bakeshop Another Moda Bakeshop Project, This really caught my eye and I would like to give it a go. I have half a jelly roll from fabric I purchased at Spotlight on sale for next to nothing yay! and would like to use it for this project, so it won’t have the American feel that the red white and blue fabric lends as intended by the designer Glen Dragone , but I am sure I will love the version that emerges from the fabric I chose. So this bag project is also on my list!
I’m adding headers for the rest of my to do list and will update this post later:
Mon Ami Schnibble
as part of the ‘year of schnibbles’ hosted by Sherri at A Quilting Life and Sinta at Pink Pincushion I am also going to make (in January) a Mon Ami Quilt Top from the Pattern by Miss Rosies Quilt Co. I think this will help me with my sewing and also give me ideas from watching others work with the same pattern. I am very inspired by all the eye candy in the monthly parades on Sherri and Sinta’s blogs, from all who are participating in the quilt-a-long!
Mrs Perkins Giraffe Softie
Robot Softie for Sammy
Peg Bag
More Owl Softies
Quilt from Free Fatquarter Shop Pattern Pinwheel Pindot
Posted by Q in Craftie Craft, Quilting on December 27, 2010, at 3:25 pm
 Patchwork Ironing Board Cover Tutorial by 33 Stitches Julia Bravo Our mini ironing board was so worn and disgusting, that after I took the before photo to show you I decided there is no way I would actually post it, you will have to just believe me that it was really bad! I decided to make a new cover for it, by following this tutorial by 33 Stitches (aka Julia Bravo).
Mine is slightly different to Julia’s as I don’t have foam on the board and had no pattern to work from. So I needed to make my own pattern and I also needed to add wadding to and actually quilt mine (which negated the need for Fusible Webbing.)
To create my pattern, I basically laid a piece of plain butcher paper on top of the board and traced around the edge, then I added a few cm around that so that the edges would fold over the board. I then followed Julia’s tutorial, using my ‘pattern’ as a basis to figure out the layout. I used one charm pack of the Frolic Fabric Range by Moda, designed by Sandy Gervais
 Quilted Ironing Board Pieces Layout I made 7 columns of 18 squares, with the 3 centre columns having an additional square (the squares are 2.5inches square so one charm pack square divided into quarters. I used most of the charm pack other than the plain squares.
Julia uses fusible webbing to stop her cover from fraying, I quilted mine so first basted with wadding
 Quilted Ironing Board Cover Basted with Wadding and Safety Pins I did not put a backing on the cover (its on the ironing board right?). Then I quilted using in the ditch quilting along the length of the squares and diagonal criss cross quilting across the squares.
 Quilted Ironing Board Cover Quilting Step Then I used my traced pattern (excuse the hole in the paper, and the wobbly tracing from my wobbly hands!), pinned it to the quilted piece and cut out the ironing board shape.
 Quilted Ironing Board Cover Traced Pattern I used binding which was too narrow and elastic which (probably because the binding was too narrow) was too wide (doh!)
 Quilted Ironing Board Cover with Binding and Elastic for Finishing and here is my final product!
 Quilted Ironing Board Cover Completed Thanks to Julia Bravo for her excellent tutorial! You can find it here
Posted by Q in Craftie Craft, Quilting, Softies - sewing on December 15, 2010, at 10:56 am
I made my niece another little softie, this time a bird from an American Quilting magazine (which I don’t have on me now, so I can’t credit properly.- will edit this later). But I also saw a free pattern on the connecting threads web site, that looks very similar to the pattern I made so if you want to have a try go over there and get the free one, then let me know if it looks the same I was however super disappointed to find that they do not ship to Australia, as I would probably go a bit crazy especially on the sales!!
Here is the free pattern it’s for a partridge and a pear!
 Partridge and a Pear Free Pattern from Connecting Threads So this one doesn’t have stuffed wings, the one I made has stuffed wings and this one has a head shaped to include the beak whereas the pattern I used you need to stitch in a separate beak.
I have to confess that I know nothing about partridges, do youI may (or may not) google them later.
I think the pear looks quite cute too, would be great in really bright greens I think. Love the curvy bottom!
If I try it will be sure to post about it.So Anyway on to the little birdie I made. I got carried away when I took the photos and perched her in a bright pink feather boa. Well it’s not every day you get to play with a boa right?
Birdie Softie – according to my niece this is also an owl (most of the flying variety softies she has – some made by me and some by her godmother and some from shops) are owls, so when she saw it, it was an owl. It’s not a favourite, none of the softies are, but I like making them, so I am not going to stop!
 Birdie Num Num Softie in Pink Feathers
Here is another Photo, just in case the first one wasn’t feathery enough for you!
 Birdie Num Num Softie in Pink Feathers And the coasters? They are another story. I made ( a while back) a ribbon block for my niece, they are supposed to be a big hit with babies, especially when they start working on their thumb and forefinger pinching. I got the pattern and idea from one of my most favourite sewing/quilting sites The Moda Bakeshop. The site is filled with eye candy from both a fabric and a project perspective and I currently have five projects on my to do list that come from there.
The pattern and tutorial (referred to as a recipe at the Bakeshop) can be found here and this is what it looks like with pretty moda fabrics.
 Baby Ribbon Blanket and Block from Moda Bakeshop I made the block, but not the blankie, and my niece did enjoy playing with it and grabbing at the ribbons. My sewing can be quite untidy, so mine was less square than the pretty product here and I think I used a little too much stuffing in it as well. But she liked it anyway.
So I had this brilliant (crazy?!) idea that I would make her a block for each letter of the alphabet and for each number. That would mean 26 letters + 9 numbers multiplied by 6 sides for each cube which makes…. (26+9)*6=210 blocks, simple right? Well… maybe for an accomplished sewer, but for this Auntie, it wasn’t to be. Halfway through cutting and quilting 5 inch square sides of cubes, I had another brilliant idea *scoffs* that maybe I would just make one side of the cube and have an appliqued letter or number on one side and a stitchery on the other. Effectively coasters. I thought this was my brilliant idea, but since then I have seen it on (drum roll please) Moda Bakeshop so, probably what happened was I might have glanced at it, then it implanted itself into my brain as ‘my’ idea at some later point. Here is the pattern for them on Moda Bakeshop. Much neater than mine.
Here are mine:
I knew that I had to make a choice between getting this done before my niece already knew her entire alphabet and getting it done neatly and nicely… I chose the former.
 Pile of Quilted Alphabet Coasters (binding not completed) I hand appliqued the letters to the squares using double threaded cotton (not embroidery cotton) They each have a single square of batting in between the sides. I used raw edge applique and vliesofix to attach the letters.
 Alphabet Coasters Applique Side A to H I used a diagonal stitch on the binding and to stitch the stitchery square to the coaster. By the time I was done I hated binding. I found it easiest to tack the binding to the square and then go over it with the diagonal stitching and then un-pick the tacking after.
 Alphabet Coasters Stitchery Side A to H As you can tell I did not use interfacing behind the stitcheries so you can see through them I didn’t know about that until after, but I know now, so future stitcheries will be safe from loud patterned fabrics. I chose to stitch an upper case letter and a lower case letter in each corner, the word in upper case and lower case above and below the picture kind of centred. I hand drew all the pictures with a marker that fades with air and then stitched over my drawing. My niece recognises some of the them so I think I did ok.
 Alphabet Coasters Applique Side I to P  Alphabet Coasters Stitchery Side I to P  Alphabet Coasters Applique Side Q to X  Alphabet Coasters Stitchery Side Q to X  Alphabet and Number Coasters Applique Side Sorry about this fuzzy pic, the stitchery side was even worse, so I am not uploading that one. For the numbers I stitched large novelty heart shaped buttons to the other side so 4 has 4 buttons, 5 has 5 buttons etc.
So far my niece knows all her numbers and A to H on sight so I think I got them done in time. I can’t help that she is such a smarty pants, learning all that at 17 months!
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Blurbie Thing Hi, I'm Quanita, Q for short and this is my space... Qspace
30-something - IT Geek - totally neurotic - In an wonderful relationship with a cool cable guy - Aunty to Charlotte Rose (and another niece coming in August 2012!) - introverted extrovert - Gen X - Arty Crafty
Welcome and enjoy your stay!
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