Saturday, September 30, 2017

Quilt Shot Block #97~ Double X

Double X
12½ inch square

 The book I got the pattern from
showed an eight inch square.

Of course I'm making 12 ½ inch squares.
 Of course I miscalculated the first time. Duh.
I pulled from the scrap pile my friend gave me about a month ago.
These were the larger pieces of fabric ranging from about 1/8 yard and larger.
 Needed 2 sizes of half square triangles and I had 2 ways to make them.


Rather easy block because there is very little matching of seams.
***
Possible quilts
 
 No rotation

In the following, notice the new designs made by the blue triangles,
and the secondary design by the red.
This is what always interests me about quilts.
 Rotation 1

 Rotation 2

 Rotation 3

And there are probably more?

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Thoughtful Thinking Thursday #108 ~ Old Fabric?

Found about 6 yards of this silky fabric at an antique store here in town for $5.
Just the right kind of fabric for a dressy tank top.
The entire time I worked on this top,
I thought about how old the fabric might be.
It didn't seem that old.
As a matter of fact,
The fabric I had that matched this silky fabric,
might even be older!
Here you can see a jacket cut from that fabric,
and a short pair of pants cut from fabric
from a yard sale.
Who knows the age of that fabric?
And then I'm thinking,
how old is my thread?
Some of you know how long I have been sewing.
*******
"THINK about it."

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Sewing Vinyl Angled Seams

      I was asked by a friend to help her sew the seams for this costume.  The non-sewer that wanted this costume made bought the fabric
and didn't know it would be hard to stitch a flimsy knit fabric with a stiff vinyl! AND then bought a pattern that involved sharp angled seams! Here are some tricks I used.
******************
Tuesday Tutorial Tips
******************
Check out those right angled seams in the front.
The pattern directions showed the seams to be sewn with right sides together!
My friend tried and it just wasn't going to happen.
Sometimes I wonder if the designer of the pattern actually followed their own directions?
Because the directions had called for a quarter inch seam,
I marked a quarter inch seam on the wrong side.
Snipped the "in" angles and turned the vinyl under & overlapped the knit fabric.

Since I couldn't use pins on vinyl, 
and
I needed to stabilize the lightweight knit somewhat,
I used painter's tape, and
my beloved edge stitch foot.


It worked really well.
You just weren't allowed to look too close to the stitching.
Still we got the job done!
Another Halloween costume saved!
******************
 You may find this post at several Linky Parties. Please check them out for some great ideas.

Thanks to 
GIMP for cropping & other digital effects
PicMonkey creating collages used on this page
 Photoscape for downsizing & watermarking photo

Monday, September 25, 2017

Memory Mon 65~ Drive-In Visit

Remember getting those ice cold root beers in those tiny mugs
& later larger mugs?
A good memory.

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Sun Best ~ 2017 Fall Yard Flowers

 These mums bloomed early this year.
Even though I pinched them back in July,
they started blooming at the end of August!




and told folks not to throw away their mums because they will come back.
All of my gold mums are still surviving as you see above.
Below is the only burgundy mum still living.
Maybe they don't like a lot of shade which they now have,
nor sharing with the ornamental grass?


Saturday, September 23, 2017

Quilt Shot Block #96~ No Tear Paper Piecing Log Cabin

Log Cabin
 6½ inch block
No Tear Paper Piecing
Log Cabin Foundation Paper Piece
found in
the May/June 2009 Fons & Porter Love of Quilting Magazine
(see below for more information)

However a quick web search can bring up several Log Cabin Foundation patterns you can download.

I used the same method to make this Log Cabin block that I made 
Dug into my scraps for these tiny 1/2 inch strips.

Remember for "No Tear" paper piecing, stitching is not done through the paper,
but rather the paper is folded on the stitch line,
and fabrics are stitched just beside the stitch line.
 
Small pins are used to hold pieces in place during stitching and pressing.
This pattern does start out with a rather large center.
Paper was folded as the piece progressed.



***
Possible quilts
 
No Rotation
 
Every other counter clockwise
 
When half of a log cabin is done with dark verses light fabrics,
there are many layout designs that can be created.
 

 




















And there are probably more?