Cushion cover

 

Old cushion cover

We seem to require loads of cushions on our chairs. This EPP one looked very nice on the rocking chair, little sat on. Once it came into use it sadly deteriorated and Brenda Gael Smith's Striptease workshop last Saturday morning proved the opportunity to fashion a replacement. My old fashioned prints were not the norm for this king of improv. but suitability for the room was the priority.

Aiming for 18" finished I bordered my piece

Then I sandwiched it putting checked cheesecloth on the back to avoid bulk.

Very bravely I got out the walking foot for my Bernina 570 and it worked like a dream (I finally seem to have resolved my issues with this machine).

And I put 30 weight decorative sulky cotton in the bobbin and stitched along the lines of the cheesecloth pattern so as not to be distracted by the piecing on the front. 

Then I trimmed the quilted piece to 18.75".

I made the back with a zipped closure covered with a separately cut flange, a wonderful method learnt from Louse Mabbs.

Bookmark indicates position of
flange.

Flange invisible in photo.

The cushion is now in use, creased from being sat on, but should prove sturdy enough to withstand hard wear.

As zips can be quite expensive I simply tore out the green zip from the back of the previous cover for future use.

Postscript

A very homely mug rug 
which used up the rest of the
bobbin thread for the cross
hatching

Good Deed

This has lingered on a top wardrobe shelf  for over a decade. Made by a deceased member of Oast and the Guild, it was handed to me to finish. It was obviously intended as a major project the scheme of which is now unknown. I can remember the maker confessing to me "I've never made a quilt" and this UFO bears her out. Once pressed the crumpled hand sewn blocks look lovely. I have a lot more of the red fabric from the bag and calico/muslin of my own and plan to make two separate projects which will be given to the hospice here which has worn out its first batch of quilts. I'll get my longarmer friend, Maggie, to quilt them which should give them a stronger construction. My first retreat project.

9" blocks and nine patch setting - I'll add borders.

12" blocks - I'll add two colour sashing and a border.

 

Finishing off

I am doing some finishing up. Often these tasks such as wadding and backs, binding, labels and hanging sleeves  are the "housework" of quilt making but piecing an insert for my not wide enough backing fabric was engrossing and creative. If I had had more of the plain bright white I'd have some more cutting up. Anyway I sewed and joined 2 rows of 7" Drunkard's Path blocks cut a same size piece of plain white and laid on top and then sliced into wedges and alternated cup up blocks with white.  You can see these sewn units at the top and bottom of my improv. piece.

The final backing has a cobbled together look thanks to a lack of fabric though ironically once done I found some more bright white material. Grrr .

Saturday round up

My main sewing this week has been completing my sarong crazy top. I was wondering whether to add a border but nothing looked right at all so it will remain as is 75" square. Laid out on the bed it looked a reasonable size.

More problematic was my giant nested circles from the Daisy Aschehoug workshop. I had made lots of drunkard's path type units with Judi Kirk's templates and I thought they could go on the sides but again messy and awful so I just added more white, wider at the  sides than at the top to finish at 56x78" plus binding. I plan to use a geometric black and white on the bias for this.

The drunkard's path pieces will be sliced and intermingled with white on the back as the backing fabric is only 45" wide. 

I am finishing off some old fashioned double sided log cabin blocks with narrow single fold binding cut one and five eighths wide. I don't have a binding tool for this so am using a pin to thread the strip under to form the folds and then press.

I must also add that the week before this I was on a cottage retreat with friends where I worked on sarong blocks but mostly on a  group project under wraps for now. 

Retreating

While there Maggie was laying out hexagons on her stunning triangles quilt.

I am on retreat again with a larger group in April so will have have lots to report from there.

TQG SUITCASE COLLECTION

 This written 21st March 21 but left as a draft so up it goes now.

Every so often the traditional quilt group section of the Quilters' Guild compiles a selection of small pieces on a set theme which will fit in a suitcase which can then be sent out to be displayed and shown. I do try to support it  though not with super fine pieces of needlework just some technique or other in designs and colour to fit the theme. This was my focus on getting back from FOQ. The theme this time is Seasons and I started with Spring and made Spring baskets.

Sandwiched and ready to quilt

I used the centre and leaf designs from the stencil

  

I machined in the ditch along major seams and then added hand quilting marking lines with a wash out felt tip using sections of a stencil. Disaster! Once stitched the drawn lines wouldn't wash out. It took washing by hand and machine with detergent, soap and Vanish to finally shift the marks. I usually test the marker first but assumed it was OK as I'd used this one before.

You can see the brown marks

I made a sleeve, just single thickness and attached it to the edge where it will be covered by the binding.

I had just watched a Jordan's Fabrics diamonds squared video which intrigued me. It was a bit like Hidden Wells but with with one strip square and one plain square placed right sides together, sewn all the way round the edge and then cut diagonally both ways into quarters

Oast Quilters' workshop with Mandy Munroe

 

Woorkshop project (from Facebook)

There were just seven of us at the workshop which was the first of the New Year which made for a lovely friendly atmosphere. Pen hosted and laid on delicious chocolate cake and biscuits to fuel our efforts. I have used one or two Facebook pictures taken by her. The day was a very nice mix of sewing progress with group and individual help. I have loads of sewn squares ready to go but not cut apart from the first round.

Mine, mixing up fabrics and pink as a background (Facebook picture)..

It's always interesting to see other fabric choices.

Tansy's - gorgeous

Vanessa's

Oast Quilters meeting, Saturday 5th March 2022

 

Before general admittance (Photo from Facebook page)

As our other venue has limited access and parking we met in another school, St Anselm's, to shop, Show & Tell and hear member, Mandy Munroe, talk about her recent work much of which has been published in magazines.

I always enjoy Show & Tell and usually have something of mine included especially now when there's a backlog.

My Log Cabin Interrupted from a previous workshop by Mandy

Tracy Aplin's quilt from an Australian pattern

Tracy's wonderful Christmas version of her quilt

This is Julia's from a Sujata Shah QG Zoom 
workshop

This is Liz M's made from Sampler
blocks, both sides.

I think this might be Marianne's??

 

Mariann's cats for Linus

Stack the Deck blocks

I am working from a Karla Alexander title, "Stack the Deck Crazy Quilts in 4 Easy Steps". I have quite a few of her books.

Anyway I've made a pattern template from freezer paper and ironed it to the top of my stack. I perforated the seam lines by sewing along them with no thread in the machine. This made it easy to  fold it back along the line and place my ruler in place alongside.

Then I pulled the freezer paper further back and cut, repeating for each shape.

I found it useful to use a weight to help hold the ruler steady, in my case a heavy office tape dispenser, a techinique learned from Donna Jordan of Jordan's fabrics. I enjoy their YouTube videos.

Here are cut apart units.

And here rearranged to form crazy blocks. 

Hereare six completed blocks from a stack of six fabrics.

Top done

We lived in Kuala Lumpur 1999-2000 and I bought many sarongs to use in quilt making. Today I collected ten. I cut two large squares from each to use as the basis for stack and slice blocks. Often the squares from a single sarong look different as the panel to wear in front of the body differs from the rest as can be seen here. 

At our sewing day yesterday I laid them out.

The pointy pattern is
reminiscent of bamboo shoots

A highlight was seeing Maggie's gorgeous chevron quilt  - she added the last stitch to the binding in the afternoon.