Beginning a new project, with others still unfinished. (no.14)

The latest quote to pop up on my Instagram feed that made me laugh out loud was this...

"You know that feeling when all your sewing projects are finished? Yeah, me neither."

I've been unable to finish some of my projects due to an unfortunate incident a few weeks back where I cut a decent piece of skin off my right pinky while making dinner. Not to get into details but due to having to wear a fairly large bandage around my finger it made sewing very difficult. It is now healing well and because I only took some skin off it should grow back to normal after a few more weeks. Now it's healed enough to just cover with band-aids, I can finally sew.

And yes I began a new quilt. This will be my fourteenth quilt even though it is quite possible I will finish it before no.13. I won't be changing the order though. Quilt 14 is significantly smaller which sort of takes me back to when I first started quilting. It was also somewhat unsettling, as my quilts tend to get larger with each new one I make - downsizing was a bit of a surprise. But I realised that I didn't need to make massive quilts every single time. I've now come to peace with it after seeing how quick it is to make.

So for this quilt I am finally using one of my layer cakes of 5" pre-cut squares. The collection is from Moda called "Piecemakers" designed by Kathy Schmitz. I love the colours in this set and it really suits a baby sized quilt. There were 42 squares and when I laid them out in a 6 by 7 rectangle I was a little underwhelmed by how it looked. The colours were pretty but it didn't stand out to me. So I went to my Pinterest Board for quilting and found this patchwork design from
'byway-hobby.blogspot.com.br"
I really like this block and it is such a simple design, but with the diagonal diamond quilting, it is so effective. I found some white and cream fabric from my stash and tested the design and loved it.
With the pre-cut squares and 60 small squares to make from the white fabric, there was little cutting to do which made this project very easy to start.

The patch simply needed to add the smaller white squares to the corners of the bigger squares and then trim the seam. Some squares only required one small square, some needed two and some didn't need any. As shown in the original design the small squares do not appear on the edges of the pillow and look like the number 5 on the side of a dice. I wanted to replicate that look only to be made into a quilt, so I kept the small squares within the middle of the front panel.
Making the front panel, I was very careful not to confuse the lay out of the fabric. The fabrics were all on the floor in order and I picked them one by one so to not accidentally mess up my placing. Thor, my Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.2, breezed through each one and it felt so nice to be able to use him again after 2-3 weeks.

Music I listened to was Lifehouse, Daniel Powter, Mika (The Origin of Love) and Hanson (Roots & Rock 'n' Roll EP). Of course I'm likely to have different music for tomorrow.

Piecing together the squares was fairly unproblematic. The only thing I wish I'd done differently was to make those smaller squares slightly bigger. The small squares were about one and three quarter inch and I completely forgot about seam allowances. Had I made them at least two and a half inches the squares would have firstly looked bigger, and secondly be a little easier to meet seams together. However with a little persuasion I was able to get them where they needed to be without any puckering.

Pressing the seams flat was simple and quick as was completing the front panel. I am astounded how fast it is to make a smaller quilt, I haven't made one for years and I think I might do it more often.

After completing the front panel I then cut my boarders and my binding. This binding I believe it the best binding I have made in a while. I was able to cut the right width for my little binding tool and ironed it with ease. I do cut my bias on the straight mostly because I find it is easier to work with when hand stitching it. But I really am excited by this fabric in particular. It has a bunch of sweet words on it such as cupcake, lemon, bakery, cake, chocolate etc and I am looking forward to sitting down and hand stitching this binding to the quilt. The word pattern compliments the design as there are fabrics on the front panel with words on them too. The colours work so well together I am so itching to see the final product. The final front panel is below, I will be bordering firstly with the same white fabric as the small squares and then a darker brown with a blue and black accent. The backing will be a blue, cream and brown stripe pattern. Let me know your thoughts and stayed tuned for the next post.
Happy quilting.

Miss Mae

Something Special The Reveal (part 3)

The reveal... yes I have given my client her gift and she literally teared up! Then she proceeded to thank me several times and to be honest that is why I sew. I really enjoy seeing reactions of joy on my clients' face. It just makes my day.

So on with the reveal.
The portfolio has one clasp closure which keeps it all together. The folio allows for one book of A5 size as well as pens, pencils, paperclips, notepads, sticker sheets, business cards and other important documents.
The cover in is quilted with hexagons of 7cm wide in diagonal rows. It is bound with a bias strip to keep all raw edges closed.

The inside was accessorised for the client including a pen, pencil, notepad, bookmark, bull clip, paper clips and an A5 book. They were selected to compliment the fabrics and gold accents.
The cover was personalised with the client's name so it's extra special. The exciting thing about having Thor is that I can make these personal touches. And yes I have been going on and on about how wonderful my new machine is but it's only because I haven't been able to do anything it offers. Button holes and zips were a nightmare before and now I can make them with ease.
Anyway enough about that. My client was so happy to receive this. As she is a follower of me on Instagram, she had been following some of the progress. She was so curious as to what the final product was but she had no idea that it was for her. It was truly wonderful to see her face light up when she opened it.
The reason for making this project for her was to accommodate for her business. She is an artist in Plush design as well as watercolour painting and cosplay. She takes commissions and is extremely talented. She will be moving to Japan in two months and has created an Etsy shop to sell her small plush patterns. Link to her shop will be below, you most definitely should check it out.
She will be using this portfolio for her planning and business. I'm so excited for her to use it and to get the best out of it.
Thanks to her for the inspiration, it is one of my favourite pieces I've made and even more now that it will be used and loved.
Links to her shop are below as well as the link to my Instagram. Feel free to visit.

Comment below on your thoughts. I'm so happy to receive any feedback.

Miss Mae.
















Chinta Etsy Shop
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/ScarletSongstress?ref=search_shop_redirect


My Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/miss.mae90/

Something Special Part 2

Several processes to finish this project including decoration, personalisation, assembling and binding. With the size of this project it was fairly faster to complete. These are the last processes in completed, I will save the big reveal for another post.

The inside pockets were designed to fit two writing implements, business cards as well as paper, receipts, sticker sheets and paper clips. The design is very simple with the writing implements and business cards to be stored on the right and the rest on the left. As my client (Shhh... she doesn't know yet) has her own business and needs to have everything on hand I have allowed this to be a kind of business wallet for her designs and her contacts details. I included a small decorative stitch on the top left pocket for some added flare. It is of similar colour to the fabric but I believe if it stood out in a different colour it would look a bit tacky. Hence the gradient quilting thread.

The next decoration was a small hexagon flower for the inside of the portfolio. So instead of 7cm hexagons that are on the front panel, I downsized to 1" hexagons. I'm currently also working on my first all english paper piecing quilt using 1" hexagons so I had a ton of these templates.
Sewing all the petals to the middle hexagon, I then sewed the sides together. After I carefully irons the flower with an iron before taking out the tacking thread and paper templates.
I appliquéd the the flower onto the top right hand corner. This was a slower process as I had to be careful to stitch outside the lines. The flower is so small there was a lot of turning, I put the machine on a slow setting and using the pressure foot to run the machine instead of the start/stop button. I sewed around the edges and in the seam ditch to secure it to the inside of the folio.

After putting the finishing touches on the inside, I followed on with the outside personalisation. So I will show this part in the reveal, (as my client may be reading this) but "Thor" (my new machine's name) can stitch letters! So I can now do a level of personalisation without hand stitching! For my quilts as well, this is a life saver as far as labelling goes. The process is all automatic using the start/stop button and all I had to do in this project was make sure that the name was straight. I was able to personalise the portfolio with the client's name with out any time wasted!

Once that was finished I then squared the lining of the portfolio to the front panel carefully so I could close the folio with ease. This included testing with a book and a few pens inside. Pinning with huge quilting pins, I trimmed the excess fabric of the front panel and zig-zag stitched the edges together. I do not normally do this with quilts as in most circumstances the quilting keeps the edges together. However in this case there wasn't anything keeping the lining and the front panel together. I didn't want any slipping so this was a necessary step.
Next came binding! Has anyone used these awesome binding making tools? This is one of my favourite things to use other than my scissors. This one creates 1" width binding which is what I always use and I wish I knew about these things years ago when I started quilting.

You simply cut a width of one and three quarter inch strips and sew the binding strips to get the length you need. I cut the end of the binding on a 45 decree angle and then pull the fabric through the binding tool. Using an iron you carefully iron the fabric as it goes through the opposite side. It creates the folds in the fabric to make ready to sew binding. It still takes some time but it beats folding the fabric in half and then   fold those halves into half again. Anyway so sewing the border was easy with the secure of the zig-zag stitch.

The hand stitching was pretty quick because of the size. I was watching Scrubs while I did this. One on my favourite parts of doing sewing is having the excuse to watch DVDs while still being productive.
So it's finished! I'm very happy with the result. I'll reveal the final accessorised product once the client has received it. It's exciting to complete something for someone.
Stay tuned for the reveal and my client's reaction. I can't wait!

Miss Mae.

Something Special

 So I started something special this weekend. I had a little hiccup with the border of no.13 so I decided to take a break from it and think about the what I'm going to do next.
So I decided to make a A5 portfolio. I haven't made one of these in at least four to five years. I found the idea for this kind of project in school and again as a school project I made three customised portfolios for my two sisters and myself.
The purpose of these portfolios is like a handbag for stationary. Its primary objective is to carry a notebook or notepad as well as pens, pencils, sticky notes and any other essential items for the person's hobby or study.
This portfolio will accomodate for an A5 note book and will have an English Paper Piecing cover using hexagons. The hexagons are about 3 inches. I can not recall exactly the size, I will put it at the bottom of their post or in the comments. There are six colours on the cover not including the border colour.
To the right is how I formed the hexagons, I secure the paper template with a pin and then tack the seams under with thread. I then roughly slipped stitched the hexagons together with the same colours connected in a diagonal pattern. I sewed them roughly because I intended to quilt the cover in the ditch.

While I sewing I was watching "Masterchef Australia 2016" encore and then watched one of my favourite Australian films, "The Dish". It's a special film for me as I studied it in school and was fortunate to visit Parks and the Dish in the same year. This process took a good few hours even with just the rough sewing. Below is a one of the complete flowers. I make flowers first and then sew any extra hexagons around the flowers to make it in a large rectangle shape to cover the area of the portfolio lining.

This picture shows the colours that I used. It reminds me of a Japanese robe with all the rich reds, greens, black and the gold foiling accents through the patterns. I also love the way hexagons look in quilting, they look like little cushions which makes me feel cozy. So this image is before quilting and almost finished.

The next image is a close up of my stitching which is a little easier to see because of the cream thread. Yes not an ideal colour but the closest I have currently. I switched from cream to a sort of dark red almost black thread depending on the fabrics. Ultimately the thread would be invisible as it will be stitched over in the quilting stage.

Completing the hand sewing, I carefully remove the paper from the back and with the hexagons that are on the edges I make sure the edges are ironed flat to keep the crease sharp. Eventually these edges will be trim in the assembling of the portfolio but I still like to keep the shape of the hexagons for quilting purposes. I then ironed a light interfacing on the back to hold the shape of the panel.
Using my new Machine, which is now been named "Thor" (Friend's suggestion), I started quilting in the ditch - between the two fabrics. I used pins to secure the layers which include the panel fabric, light interfacing and cotton wadding. The lining is not quilting as the insert of pockets, etc would then effect the front of the folio, the lining will be attached at the binding stage.

This process took about an hour. I was listening to CNBlue mix which I have made for myself. Helps that I don't have to change my CD every 30 minutes. Quilting with Thor is so simple and I realised half way through that I could do some decorative stitches on the inside.

So this is the back of the quilting. Incredibly neat and the machine brings all the thread to the back and cuts it. This makes it so easy to check for threads.
So that's where I am at for this project. I love doing this kind of smaller project because its a little quicker and measurements are a easier to cater for. Happy with the result.
Stay tuned for final result and let me know what you think.
Miss Mae.

Late start...

I have learned... I need start earlier in the day. I could get so much done if I did that. 

Keeping with being prepared for anything, I made sure my face was somewhat presentable. My glasses are an old pair that I need for reading when I was in primary school. They are slightly tinted in violet and have almost no magnification. I use these as safety in case anything breaks and flies in the air. So its not a fashion statement but I do like to wear them for safety reasons.

Continuing with quilt 13, the pattern is one I found on Pinterest from Neil Burley (See above). I loved the 3D effect of the pattern and also the colours. So my colour choices are pretty similar. In order to test my new machine, (Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.2) I wanted to do something simple but still have an amazing visual effect. 

My machine is currently on a straight stitch. The great thing about this machine is that it ties at the beginning and end of the seam and cuts the thread. I won't waste any more thread, and you have no idea how happy I am about that. 

I use the side of the foot as a guide to make the patchwork seams. This is a process that I usually use to keep the seams the same.
I am so impressed with how easy it is to use this machine and how the seams match so well. Of course there were still a few hiccups. At one point I sewed the white squares on the right side instead of the bottom of the patch, which would have made it very difficult to sew the rest of the squares. I got a little confused because on the right column at the top there is two white squares and two green squares and my brain just assumed it was the same, especially when I have to sew something that's similar. A terrible flaw of mine, but nothing a good quick unpick/seam ripper can't fix.

Pinning the seams together was simple as each patch is a square, and a large square at that. The squares when sewn are roughly 7 inch squared which makes matching seams easy with no adjusting needed. I must say part of this is due to the machine. I think I might be falling in love...

The music I was listening to today were "Life in Cartoon Motion" by Mika and "One of the Boys" by Katy Perry as well as a mix of Big Bang songs. Yes, I am a massive K-Pop fan. Music is a motivator for me. I love music and have lived with music my whole life. So soundtracks as well as TV shows and movies will always make an appearance with my quilts. Nothing like quilting to some hard rock and pop music in the background.

What I have so far is just over half of the main panel. I have yet to decide what to do for the borders as I have only bought fabric for the patchwork and the green pattern was left over from an apron. If you are interested in the aprons I have made let me know in the comments.
Hoping I will be more motivated to finish the panel early tomorrow.

Until tomorrow... maybe...
Miss Mae.

Visit to Melbourne and the beginning of no.13

In Melbourne today for professional development. It's so nice to see the ocean again. I recently moved to the country in Victoria Australia for a teaching position, so coming to my city is now a luxury. This morning the ocean was so blue I was very reluctant to leave it. 

After a great day I went hunting for some coffee for my long two hour drive home and saw this awesome red brick building by the beach. This is a little gem on the Port Phillip Bay Coast called Dollies. Such a cute place with great coffee. If you cannot tell this is the beginning of my coffee obsession. My order is a cappuccino with full cream milk and occasionally I will have sugar. I love, love, love coffee! I feel especially lucky to live in Victoria, Australia where good coffee is an art form.

Coffee addiction aside, I have started making my thirteenth quilt. I began on the 1st of May with the cutting the patchwork element. I'm making something a little simpler this time. I want to test out my new Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.2 to see what I can do with it. I also need to get used to its features, especially to the buttons as opposed to dials and levers. So far assembling the squares has been very quick. I feel that it has already cut my time in half. Even though it's such a simple pattern, there are several squares to make. From here I made the centre of the quilt and I'm going to work my way out. I am excited to see how it turns out. 

Miss Mae