Pot Holder tutorial

You will need:
- 2 x 8in square feature fabric
- 9 in square piece of insul-bright batting
- approx 50 inches of binding fabric 2.5 inch wide
(instructions to join strips are below)

Method:
First cut out your feature fabric and lay it out with bottom one right-side down and the top one right side up. Sandwich the insul-bright in between taking care that the feature fabric pieces don't get too skewed in the process.
Then pin the sandwich together.

Using a walking foot, quilt the sandwiched pieces together. You can use what ever pattern you like. I started with one diagonal stitch line and then followed with parallel lines.

Once that is done, trim the excess insul-bright. I line up the top fabric with a horizontal marking on my ruler so I know Im keeping a right angle. Do this all 4 sides

It starts to take shape.

Now for the binding. Cut your 2.5 inch strips. I've cut 3 lengths from a fat quarter as pictured below, but 2 lengths were plenty.

To join the strips, place one strip right side up horizontally on the mat, then the other strip right side down over laying the first strip. make sure theres a little extra on the right and bottom of the joins. Get a Ruler and mark a diagonal line across the square formed and pin it as shown.

Sew down the line you drew. Continue until all your strips are connected in the same way.

Iron your long binding in half length ways, this makes it easier to pin and sew.

Pin the long binding strip to the sandwich, keeping the raw edges of the binding and the sandwich together. For ease of finishing, I line up and pin the first edge but only start sewing about an inch from the bottom. Finish your stitches 1/4 inch from the edge. (Its better to over sew that, than under)
Take the binding and at the corner, fold up at a 45 degree angle as shown below

then fold directly down to meet the side of the sandwich, as shown below, and pin.
Continue to pin the rest of the edge down and sew. Remember to start 1/4 inch from the top and finish 1/4 inch from the bottom.

When you've done this all the way around 3 sides. Come to the final side - and open up both ends of the binding. Lay them out as shown.

Make a make somewhere in the middle - I have marked the top layer at the number 3.

Then mark the bottom layer 1/2 inch more than the top one, so they over lap. See my mark here at 2.5 inch line.
Check it. Double Check it and Triple check that the bindings will overlap at those two points and there is not a gap.
Mark a 45 degree angle from both those marks in the same direction (ie \ and \ not / and \ )

Then cut along the 45 degree marked lines.

Take the two cut edges and work them together right sides together and pin

Sew a 1/4 inch seam down that edge so it joins the two ends of the binding together.

the binding will now be joined and lay flat. Pin this side to the sandwich and sew along the whole edge. Starting 1/4 inch from the top and finishing 1/4 inch from the bottom.
Turn the binding out and start to pin the folded edge of the binding to the under side of the sandwich. Hand hem the binding with small invisible stitches.

Then enjoy...

Pot Holders

Some of the other pot holders Ive made.

and matching detailed tea towel - I'll post more on those later

First use of the new walking foot

Pot Holder

My very first go at machine quilting on my own machine with the fantastic walking foot we found from Chatswood Sewing Centre.

The pot holders are made by sandwhiching insulated batting called "Insul-bright".

Notice the scarily accurate eye-balled diagonals

I got the parallel diagonals by using the guide that came with the walking foot. Just by chance, the distance between each diagonal perfectly matched the check in the fabric....you couldnt plan that if you tried.

and there with the binding machine sewn on - all ready and waiting for the hand stitching. I think its still waiting.

I'll post some others I've since finished in another post.

James' Quilt

Another back posting - this is on the first quilt I finished and I made it for a friends baby.I wasnt sure of the sex baby yet, and knowing my friend's taste, I wanted to create a gorgeous baby quilt in classy pastels of cream and green and yellow.

It somehow evolved to an extremely bright and colourful fabric collection - but I loved it.

The planning process:

Mum and I spent hours looking at the layout trying to find patterns that shouldnt be there. Im sure we changed things at least a dozen times and it was sitting like this for a couple of days

For the record, the placing of the white background spot was deliberate.
The pinning:

After machine quilting:

Some details:

And the finished quilt:

Haley's Quilt

This is a bit of a back posting, as all started almost a year ago when my niece Haley was born. Our family was all extremely excited by her arrival and that we finally found out it was a girl.

My head (along with everybody elses) went into Pink over drive and I decided I wanted to make her a quilt. Id never made a quilt before.... but what a better inspiration, than a newborn niece??

Id had in my mind a simple design quilt with pinks, greens and chocolatey browns - to match their dark grain cot. So I set about cutting and piecing 4 x 9inch (I think) squares into patches and tramming with a tea coloured check. (I didnt take photos of the piecing process)

I had finished the majority of the top of the quilt one trip home and then planned the two side borders to make the quilt wider. And I purchased the backing and border fabrics.

For the next trip home to Sydney, I had finalised the quilt top and went to buy batting. I found this GORGEOUS all cotton batting on sale in Spotlight - I'll have to remember what its called.

So the next step was to pin it all together....and here's where I have some pics.

And then machine quilt. I used Mum's Bernina Aurora machine to quilt and it was a blast. She showed me some fabulous tips like:-

- anchoring the thread by making small small stiches at approx 0.6 length

- bring the bobbin thread up to the top of the quilt before you start stitching
It was all "in the ditch" quilting and to see it all come together and start to look like a finished project was fabulous.

After machine quilting was complete, I decided to bind it in the backing fabric, a coffee coloured gingham, and then the hand stitching.

Finished quilt...

I was very happy with the end result, and I hope little Haley loves it too. I still need to label it.

Even though this was the first quilt I started, it was actually the second one I finished.

Tools of the trade

For the purposes of cataloging, here is my sewing machine...

With attached walking foot side view

Controls:

Model number:

My very first UFO - Table Runner

I was inspired by the amazing colours and prints I found in a Moda Charm pack called Flutterby by Tula Pink http://quilthome.com/index.php/cPath/38_532_533

I chose a mix of the Olive and Teal fabrics, which came together as exactly "my" green.

I decided I wanted to make a table runner for my then non-existant exquisite dining table and picked a design I had seen in Springwood's Sew 'n' Save.

Where I got to:
- I got crazily motivated while in the nice cool aircon at my mums house - and I cut and busily sewed the top to completion.
- I have a perfectly sized gorgeous piece of "Warm and Natural" (I think) batting to use, that was left over from Haley's quilt.
- Once back in Welly, I found a backing fabric (that I thought was on special in Spotlight, but turned out it wasnt. Grrr)
- I hunted around for a matching green and brown stripe (preferably) to bind it with, but only came back with a green and brown check and a plain brown homespun (both, because I couldnt decide) but Im still not satisfied.
- I even bought the dining table and chairs for it to go on.
See?


Road blocks to finishing:
- I dont have a big and old enough flat hard surface to pin this on.... I'll have to go ask at the local patchwork store to use their tables...

I'll keep you posted...

Getting Started

Ive been so inspired the last couple of weeks by other sewing and creativity blogs out there - that I thought, I could do that.... So, why is it now, in my very first entry, Im stuck for something to say??

I started this simply to document and visually share my sewing projects/ideas/creations/UFO's with my fellow sewing family and friends who reside overseas which, at the same time, would also fuel my other passion - Photography.

Recent kickstarters:
So what kicked me into gear ?
- A 3 month career break leaving me at a bit of a loose end
- A fantastic fabric tour day with my mum discovering gorgeous new fabrics and spending way too much money
- Discovery of Charm packs
- Finishing off my first large quilt for my niece; and all the great tips and tricks provided by my supervisor along the way
- Finding a walking foot that was compatible with my sewing machine at home (Thanks Ma & Pa)

So, here we go....