D312-3: Regulating my stitches!

I've spent these days getting used to the BSR (Bernina stitch regulator) attachment.  It's a foot with a mouse device built in, which detects how fast you are moving your fabric and adjusts the speed so that stitches are the same length.
There are two modes: 1 is stitch while the sewing pedal/button is pressed, 2 is stitch only when the fabric moves.  You can also detach the cord and use it as a regular darning foot.

Read these from right to left...

At least I got better...

Most recent effort, with notes

The notes show the BSR mode and stitch length, and then the last one was using the foot as a darning foot (detached BSR cord, feed dog dropped, regular straight stitch, length 3.0 I think).  The lines are where the lower thread has been pulled up to the surface.

I have a set of long margins and borders to quilt, and I thought this design would be a good beginner pattern.  This one below is also terribly pretty, very complimentary to the quilt, and I think it will cope with 'close enough for a beginning' quite well ;)

From Christina at A Few Scraps

 

There's no point me considering any of them, though, if I can't get my curves smooth.  And I've only been practising on a square foot of space - nice and light and easy to move - how am I going to go with a single-bed sized pieces! :S

The thread pulling seems to be a common problem with quilting.  I imagine it means I need to go slower around the corners.  It may also be that my upper tension is too high, but its' only at 4, so I'm not too sure about that...  I will be quilting this pattern on the back of the quilt though, so I'm not very worried about it because the stitches look fine on the front.

The reason I'm quilting "upside-down" for this part is that I need to draw the pattern onto the fabric.  However, I don't really have any spare fabric from the front design, so I can't test the pen and see how well it disappears.  Rather than take the risk, I'll draw it on the back, where I already know it will fade thanks to my practise pieces.  I can also manage the bulk I'm getting with the backing fabric having a lot of stretch.

Can I also add how rubbish it is to be sick?  It's only a passing sickness, but it's still no fun.  I have a terrible cold, just short of a flu.  My head is well full of clay, with achy teeth, cracked lips, watery eyes and a crackly chest.  I even have acne.  You know it's bad when your body tries to push it out via your skin. :(  I had gastro just a fortnight ago too.  Both these illnesses came via Bub and she coped with them well.  Her gastro was rubbish for a day, and the cold presented as three days of croup plus a few of misery, but my body's taken them on with full nerdy force and done both bugs with a thoroughness any librarian would envy.  Maybe that's why my blogging and craft have been so slack.  Anything I can't accomplish in front of the telly is a big deal at the mo.  Please get better body, for the start of term three!  I want to want to do things again!

D309-11: Stitching in the ditch...

... is all done for my gifted quilt.

Loving my walking foot with the ditch guide.  Not so loving the give on the backing and how it stretches to create bulk at meeting points.  Oh well.

D297-307: Back in a tick...

Sorry... sorry.  I know.

I finished the ring stacking toy.  It's not perfect but meh good enough.  I did not enjoy doing the base.  Bub does enjoy playing with it though.

I haven't gotten any further with the bell capsules, although the toys that they're to go in are sewn and awaiting this.  My sister suggested I buy a heap of Kinder Surprises and keep the toy container... very sensible and tempting.  I could also buy a pack of 30 for a bit over $30, which is a comparable price against the chocolates, per capsule, and also save me having to faff around with teeny toys.  Something about the website puts me off though.  I'm not sure what... it just took a long time to find a supplier who sold them in batches smaller than "500pc" or "3kg" and they're unfamiliar...  I'm so precious.

I have also basted the gifted quilt mentioned here.  I ended up getting some rather thing cotton batting and a plain mid dusty green fabric.  It's quite a heavy fabric with an open weave (I can't even remember what its called, for shame) but it matches the greens in the front quite well.  So far I've done about two thirds of the ditch stitching.  It took some adjusting of the tension before the lower thread stopped breaking when sewing at speed, even with a new needle and the bobbin case freshly oiled.

I also mended some pants for a friend, including using the blind-hem foot.  It wasn't quite as hidden as I'd have liked, but time and suspecting it wouldn't actually be better without pressing, re pressing, and possibly leaving a ridge there anyway.... I just didn't want to over engineer the whole thing and make it worse.  such the optimist.

In other news, Bub has slept through three times now.  THREE!  (Not in a row.)  And I don't mean one of those ridiculous 5-hours-is-a-technical-sleep-through but an actual 8pm-7am sleep.  She's 22mo this week and she's slept through the night three times in her life.  I'm hoping it's a trend.

D285: Scones and quarter circles

There are lots of tutorials about making quarter my circle templates.  This one at Sew Inspired blog was just the second one I found, and close to how I imagined I'd be making mine, so off I went.

"Now?"

The main difference between my quarter circles and most on the net is that I want to take my curve to the very edge, not short of it like in a Drunkard's Path block.  So I decided to make my own and have made an instructional post for that. 

In the meantime, Bub and I made scones!!  

Tip of the day: Any time you ever make or do something for the first time with one of your children, get someone to take photos.  I'm a bit sad I didn't drag in Hub from the shed to take snaps.

Scones, Cookery the Australian Way

We used the recipe from CTAW.  I probably didn't need to rush as much as I did between steps, when I was asking her to wait while I faffed about with ingredients and tools.  Although I've looked forward to cooking with Bub, I've been a little worried about how it would go - nothing like having your dreams dashed with pure indifference.  But I needn't have worried so much, she was darling and I loved watching some much of her character come out in the activity.  It also helped that she really likes scones.

There are probably lots of tips and instructional posts about cooking with toddlers too (hundreds? Probably.) But, obviously, I don't care.   Here are my pointers for cooking with a littlie, keeping in mind I have a toddler who can focus on a task.  Some of these are pretty obvious, but I put them here in case you're new to baby-sitting or just wondering...

Set expectations to 'Low'.  Start with a simple recipe, something with mixing and pouring, where mess and waste don't matter.  It doesn't even matter if the food is no good.

Pull out all the ingredients and tools before you start.  If you're using the oven, set that off early too, unless you're up to teaching that part.  If things need to be chopped preparing that prior might be good too, unless your helper has an activity to do while you're chopping.  

Choose to make something they already like to eat.  I mean, I rarely cook things I don't like eating... And this way, they can get excited about the result.  

Prepare an accessible space for your helper. If they can't easily reach across the bench top, do it at the table or on the floor.  We have some picnic cloth, left over from a previous project, that I threw on the kitchen floor.  This is just the sort of thing I imagined using it for.  One of my friends sits her bubba on the table top.  I opted out of standing on a chair at the table because we're discouraging standing on chairs right now and she's too young to understand 'special occasions'.

It's called 'hands on', not 'eyes on'. Any 'thing' they can do that's related to the task is worthwhile, even if it's not what needs to be done right now, or even needed at all!  At step 2. I used my crumbing tool; Bub stirred with a spoon and scooped the flour about which was 'very important help'.  Scooping and pouring are tricky and occupy her well.  Every now and then I'd point and say "More here please," or she'd say "More?" and she'd feel involved.

Pouring is a great way to involve your helper.  Some people hog this task for fear of spillage.  Please don't - there's no real need.  At step 3. I measured the milk and she poured it in with my guidance.  While bub held the handle I had my fingers on the base of the jug.  My table top friend will break eggs into a cup and her little one will tip them in.  Use as many containers as necessary.  The involvement is what it's all about and the dishes are worth it.

Pretending still counts.  Although I pulled the dough together and got it into a ball shape, I was able to put a big bread board on the floor mat and we took turns kneading.  Bub also put her hands on the middle of the rolling pin, while I used the handles at the ends.

Get tools that help your little one.  Bub was a star with the cutter.  I got cutters with handles over the top especially for her.  She needed help to press hard enough, but I pressed my fingers on the circle rim when I helped, not on her hands or the handle.

Don't be in a rush.  Bub was really good at the procedure of cutting ("Scone!" every time) then putting the cut-out on the pre-floured tray.  Just pulling the dough out of the cutter is new and tricky and putting each scone in it's own carefully chosen place on the tray is a thoughtful task.  If you've done anything with toddlers you may already know that rushing something (or someone) that shouldn't be rushed is a sure-fire way to create trouble*.

Look at that messy tray! So much shuffling :)

Mess means it's going well.  I use a little sushi dipping dish for milk when brushing.  Bub hasn't been very good at painting - very random and without much concern for colours or making a mark - but all her concentration went into loading that brush and carefully putting milk onto each scone.  She was very deliberate and thorough, with milk going everywhere because she wanted lots of it on her brush.  It was cute as all get out.  By the end she even had the obligatory flour in the hair.  This is what washing is for.

The next time we make scones someone will take pictures.  I might even make it into a picture story for Bub because she loves the photobooks of family holidays & activities.  As I type this, I think I might actually have become one of those mummy bloggers for real.  Pictures stories of our scone baking?  More pureed fruit for the reusable food pouches?  Oh, and Hub was busy in the shed cutting out parts to make a stepping stool for Bub - because we're that adorable.  I can least reassure myself that I still have rubbish photography on my blog.  Plus I don't remember when the laundry was hung up and I have no idea how to grow veggies.  Stereotypical perfection is a long way off for me folks!

"More scone?"

*I think there's probably some law out there about it... "The stamina and creativity of your toddler's resistance is inversely proportionate to your task's urgency and importance." Or some such.

Instructional: How to make a Quarter Circle template with a straight ruler

This method is helpful for drawing circles of uncommon widths, or whenever you need a circular curve but have no circular ruler.  To jump ahead, here is a picture of the tool I made to draw the curves in this template.

Both pieces of my template, the 'pie' and the 'crust', overlapped to make a full square with seam allowances.

You will need:

• At least one piece of paper big enough for your quarter circle.  
• A pencil with a sharp point
• Scissors
• A ruler
• A pin
• Thick cardboard that's bigger than your circle (corrugated is good)
• Sticky tape (optional)*

To make:

1. Draw two squares that are the width of your chosen quarter circles.  (Having trouble making a square corner?  See **) 

My squares are 4" wide. (This would make 8" circles.)  You don't have to put seam allowances on these yet.  I did, but to remind me of my pivot corners without marking the square itself. 

Two 4" squares ready for quarter circles

2. Cut out a strip of paper that's at least an inch longer than your squares.  Mine is 6" long. 

3. Rule a line down the strip and mark a zero point near one end.  Measure your square's length from that point, as well as a seam allowance before and beyond that length.  My seam allowance is a quarter inch (6mm), so my marks were at 4", 3.75" and 4.25" respectively.

My completed paper compass.  First hole: Pie seam allowance. 2nd hole: Circle arc.
3rd hole: Crust seam allowance. 4th hole: zero, the pivot point.

If you want to use sticky tape, put a strip on the back to reinforce the paper.

Use a pin to put holes in the measured points.  Make the 'seam & allowance' ones big enough to take the pencil tip. (I used a darning needle for this.)

4. Place your paper on your cardboard.  Take the pin and put it through the strip of paper at the zero point.  Now put it exactly through a pivot corner, pinning the strip and paper to the cardboard. (See pic below)

5. Short version: You're going to use the first and second holes (the top two) to mark two arcs on one square (making the pie piece) and the second and third holes to mark arcs on the other square (making the crust piece).   

Long version:
 

5.a  Poke your pencil through the hole for your circle edge (the middle of the three holes) and a draw corner-to-corner arc on your square, using the strip like a compass.  Here are both my squares with their quarter circles drawn.

Two quarter circles.  Note the pin is stuck through the cardboard.

Choose one to be your 'pie' piece - the quarter circle part - and the other to be the 'crust'.

5.b  On your Pie piece, pin the zero point to the same corner as before and use the outer pencil hole to mark your seam allowance arc.

5.c  On your other square (the 'crust' piece): again, pin the zero point to the same pivot point as before.  Use the inner pencil hole to mark a seam allowance inside (below) the quarter circle edge.

The seam allowances marked on both pieces.

6.  Mark a seam allowances on the corners. Using the same pivot point helps keep track of the pieces.  In the picture below, that's
- the lower and left edges of the top square for the pie, and
- the upper and right edges of the bottom square for the crust.

Seam allowance added to the crust piece (bottom square).

7.  Cut out your template pieces along the seam allowance lines. All done!

Both pieces cut and ready to go.

* I know in the US it's call cellotape, and such, but in Australia we call it sticky tape.  Coz it's sticky and it's tape. 
** If you only have a straight ruler, with no grid or right angle, it can be hard to make a perfectly straight square. The corner of another piece of paper can be a good guide.  However, a piece of firm paper (not wrapping paper, which can warp) folded twice - once to create a straight line and again in exactly the opposite direction - can make a good reinforced right angle to guide you.

D282&3: Time Away

The original layout

We've spent a few days at the in-laws', relaxing and resting.  Between all the walks, cups of tea, naps and trying to get Bub to eat something, planning the quilt was all I could tackle.  The softies fabric was brought but not unpacked, such was my access to the kitchen table over the days.  I didn't even bake anything!

I remade the little animals with the new colours, leaving the most flexible ones, like butterflies, till last to diversify and balance the colour range.  Then I spent some time shuffling them around, dropping a few out, looking at economical ways to arrange them in a balanced rectangle. 

Hub reckons I should knock back the range of animals and make it smaller.  I'm already changing it from the original 6"-squares to 4"-squares. I'm still getting over how long and narrow a single bed quilt is!  Although it's also not much bigger than a cot quilt when you chop off 15-18" for the the pillow area.  

I'm going by this advice from Stargazey - Standard Australian quilt sizes - but I suspect I'll be doing whatever size takes my fancy and feels proportionate. ;D

A bit tricky to sash, with lots of open spaces.

This one could be sashed in columns.

A square quilt? Almost random sashes would be awkward... hmm.

D279: Doodling fun

May niece was over for a few days on the Easter weekend and, as it's also my birthday on the Saturday, I'd schuleded something of a dream day for myself - watching Supernatural with a few uni friends and eating whatever we want, interrupted by toddler cuddles.  Afterward, we spent the evening brainstorming quarter-circle animals...

My final arrangement, thus far, of what we thought worked.

Hub even created a quick webpage to help us quickly flick through the different configurations for 2x2, 2x3 and 3x2 quarter-circle arrangements.  It's not available online I'm afraid, but it was pretty cool.

D272-78: Oh my goodness - it's done!

Long story short: the house had been sick, with Hub home since Tuesday and Bub coughing and gooping everywhere.  But in the midst of that I took quiet moments for this quilt, and all of a sudden I could see the end!  Blogging took a back-seat to quilting (as it should really).  Here's how it went, in pictures...

My thread choices for the top quilting

All the zigzag quilting complete, with the sashes to be quilted.

My idea for feeding the bias tape to the sewing.

The detail of the quilting at the corners.

The whole thing, getting an airing in the sun.
You've no idea how paranoid I was about birds flying over.

Plus some other things I did in between sewing, which require less attention and are more interruptible :)

Children's clothing patterns; ideas for the next quilt.

D271: It all my fault! Yey!!

I'll start with the key point here...

Tip of the day: If you love your machine, use quality thread.  It affects the tension and the debris and build up in the machine (at least). The quality of your machine's performance begins with the thread.

The poor quality thread in the bobbin is fluffy

My sewing machine dealer provides a free lesson on any machine purchased.  Today I used mine.  While I waited for the previous lesson to finish up I mentioned I'd had trouble with my machine's tension and was worried about the timing.  The technician plugged it in and, after looking at my trial swatch, did these things:

• Changed the needle
• Oiled the only user-accessible oiling spot available.

Thunking sound gone.  :0  

Stitches even and beautiful.  :O

Me stunned. 

And delighted!!  It was me!  I'm not sure which thing made the difference - he didn't run it between the changes to see - but there are three things that may have caused the problem.

1. The needle may have been bent. This is highly likely when I think of the fifty or so pivots I've done, on the nine or so zigzags so far.  This involves manoeuvring a lot of heavy fabric, which I'm very careful about, but it's only the needle holding it in place.
2. The thread fluff may have collected in the oil.
3. The thread fluff or quality may have affected the tension pads.

A low quality thread, such as a brandless bulk-buy three-pack spool I may or may not have been using, it can be uneven in it's thickness and fluffy.  The fluff can pack up corners and lubricated points.  The thickness can make the tension pads lose their even grasp on the thread as they adjust from thick to thin patches.  Top-thread loops on the back of your work can ensue.

I thought that, like with my old workhorse machine, I could throw anything at this one and it would suck it up.  I wrongly assumed that a higher quality, more refined and sensitive machine would adjust itself it all sorts of thread - coz it's awesome right?  Nope.  It's sensitively means it needs consistency and, well, protection.  Cheap and nasty thread was okay on my old 807 as it wasn't sensitive enough to notice.  My 530 needs better quality thread.  Like I said, the quality of it's performance begins with the thread.  Also, like a commenter on my quilting forum discussion mentioned, it's not really the machine, in the end; crap thread is crap.

I also learned that 'quilting' needles aren't desperately important; regular universal needles are fine.  It's more important to match the needle to the thread thickness and to the fabric.  Can I mention my awesome Bernina, again, and the page in it's manual dedicated to different needles and their purpose? 

So, with all that under my belt, I finished quilting the white zigzags tonight.  I plan to tie up all the loose ends and remove most of the basting, and then do the coloured zigzags.

I'm working from right to left in all the initial zigzags because, even though I'm using a walking foot, I want to avoid twisting or pulling the fabric by working back and forth.  It means that I'm not sewing the quilt in the most convenient way, which would be to put whichever end is closer through the machine throat. Instead I'm putting the same side through and rolling up its bulk, when necessary, for easier management.

Here is me working through the last of the zigzags with as much bulk as possible being put through the throat.

Top: At the start, I support the length of the quilt over my shoulder and change shoulders as I zig and zag.

Middle: Managing the bulk of the quilt through the throat of the machine is challenging, especially midway when pulling it all back through as I pivot to go up the zigzag (the 'zig'!). I keep a firm hold on the roll to ensure my sewing area is flat.

Bottom: To keep the quilt weight from pulling on the machine I hold the tail of the sewing with one hand and guide with the other.  I don't know if I could do this with a full-sized quilt!

D267&8: Happy and Sad

I was happy and now I'm not.  

I was chugging along so well, with another three rows done, and then I refilled the bobbin and something changed.  I'm not sure what but the tension was so sloppy I had to unpick two rows of zigzags and spent a good portion of my baby-free afternoon rethreading, looking, checking, sewing at various speeds, and redoing things with all sorts of language about that.  

I called the dealer to see if they had any advice and they talked about upper tension... Which it shouldn't be as I hadn't changed it.  The thunking sound it makes, while the tension is off, makes me a bit uncomfortable.  So, I've got a machine lesson with the Bernina dealer scheduled for next week but until then I'm hoping a post I've created on http://sewing.patternreview.com will turn up something.

Mostly I hope it's something mysterious I'm doing, or have done, and not something that requires a service.  I really don't want to have anything bad to say about my new machine.  

Sad face.

D266: Pink through grey

Today I quilted the white bands between the pink, purple and grey zigzags.  I love my machine.

I've also found it's easier to manoeuvre the quilt if the bulk in my lap is instead flung over my shoulder.  I swap shoulders at each pivot.  Around the time it's too short for flinging, and rests against my chest, is when the beginning needs folding on the tabletop.  Pictures later.

And can I just stress how important it is to dust around your work space? Maybe use a radius that's as long as your quilt...

D265: What a marvellous entrance, folks...

Sort of...

The practise run.  This is really easy! Why am I doing this? Yeah, don't get ahead of yourself, A...

Practise run, back & front, with different stitch lengths.

I'll do 4mm stitches, I thought, which will mean I'll go quicker! But the longer the stitch the harder it is to match it to the vertical seam, which is a pivot point.  It's a 7cm sewing line, so 2.5mm is a much more sensible stitch length, if you're going to be all mathy about it.

Things we're going so swimmingly with the practise that I decided to get on with the actual real deal.  Then, on the first zig, the machine took in the bobbin tail and chewed on the thread.  Hmph.  I trust that's what happened anyway - it looks suspiciously like the symptom of a not-properly-loaded bobbin case, or one that's popped out but since I've been sewing on this bobbin for quite some days that should be unlikely.  Hmmm. 

Anyway, after that inauspicious beginning, I was off and things looked pretty swish.

One thing the practise run doesn't help with is managing a larger quilt on the machine.  The rolled portions need pinning to be held in place, which I only did at the ends.  Here's my quilt at the end of a quilting line, folded for the easiest management.

It also took a while to realise that a zigzag pattern means you feed rolls of quilt through the machine throat, only to pull it back through after a pivot.  The last few zigzags are quite awkward.

I intended to work in the same direction for every zigzag so that any pulling of the fabric (which shouldn't happen much with a walking foot, but it's not magic) would be less apparent.  Going back and forth, while maybe helping to square the quilt, might created a sort of pulling of the fabric between the quilting lines.  However, it might be something I'm willing to risk when it comes to the edges so I don't have to manoeuvre a whole quilt through the throat of the machine.

Actual quilting!

The back looks nice.  It's a friendly  and soft fabric but I wish I'd had more conviction and chosen either a plain grey or persisted with a finer geometric pattern.  The zigzag lines are going to be really striking and unfortunately lost in this woodland print.  I'm quite annoyed about it but it's likely something the recipients won't even think of, thankfully.

One quilting line takes me 10minutes... That's 6 hours and 40 mins to go! Wheeee! 

D263&4: Getting theeeere

I'm sure I'm dragging my feet over breaking ground on the actual machine quilting.  But... I just wanna be sure, 'kay?

I bought a bunch of threads that compliment the colour ways.  The backing thread will be all white cotton, and I'll only use the coloured thread on their matching strips.

I also need to practise using the walking foot. 

My quilting plan

If I 'stitch in the ditch' - which is sewing on the seam line and a common way to start or stabilise a quilt, and apparently terribly popular - I'm only going to be stitching on white fabric.  All the coloured seam allowances have been pressed toward the coloured fabric to keep from having a coloured shadow under the white fabric.  Stitching in the ditch, I think, will not really stabilise the coloured sections of the quilt.

Another slight problem I have is the division of the space.  Initiwlly I imagined stitching in the ditch and doing one or two echoing lines in each coloured and white band.  But the widths don't easily divide. 

Each band is 3.5cm - or 2 ³/₄" - wide. The inches are useless (coz how do you divide ¹¹/₄? (Hint: making it ²²/₈ doesn't help)). 35mm isn't a prime but it's still only got two factors.  I'm not interested in stitching every quarter inch nor am I willing to stitch every 7mm.

My solution: I'm stitching a quarter inch line either side of the zigzag seam.  This will stabilise both strips and protect the joining seams but only give me two lines to sew per band.  I'll only be going horizontally, with no vertical lines planned at this stage. For a cot sized quilt I think this should be strong enough.

Here is how I prepared a strip of quilting cotton for practise zigzags.  The green line represents the joining seam and its junctions because, in practise, those are the only guides I'll have for the quilt line.  I'll be using a walking foot attachment and if I need more practise I'll use already stitched lines as a guide.  

Now, I need to actually put foot to fabric and give it a bash! (Have I said that before...?)

The plan and tracing, then ruling and marking a 'vertical seam' guide.

D261&2: Baaaaaa...

...aaaaasting.  So much basting.  Today I took up a piece of advice I saw somewhere, which was to baste the backing over the edges of the front to prevent fraying.  And, with a few pins remaining in key places, it's done and basted!

Next is the actual quilting... Eep!  

Actually there's one or two things first. No, three!

1. Decide decide decide on a quilting pattern.  I've been thinking about it for ages - from the start! - but I'm still not final about what lines I'll actually create;

2. Buy necessary thread; and 

3. Maybe do a Craftsy lesson or two before I put foot to fabric.  Even though I've batting and fabric set aside to practise I'd like a bit more education first.

D258-60: Happy Quilting Day!

Today is Worldwide Quilting Day!  I am very glad there is such a thing :D  I celebrated by buying a few quilting tools to see if they make life easier.

(The metal thimble is my usual, and the new plastic one is for quilters, but it's too big!  I'll have to make a fabric cap for my finger!  It's meant to be worn the other way around, I suspect, but I'm using it in place of my fingernail.)

I spoke with my sister-in-law a few nights ago, who has an extensive career as a seamstress and wedding dress maker.  She has made quite a few quilts but still doesn't count herself as much of a quilter...which means she knows waaaay more than me.

I've watched and read about the process of basting as a stitch, but how to approach a whole quilt is different.  I wanted to ask her about how to start, especially since my quilting will go from side to side.  A lot of the basting advice I've seen look like this:

1. Tape down backing squarely
2. Lay down batting
3. Lay down top quarterly
4. Begin in the middle and baste towards an edge, then the opposite edge.
5. Then baste from the middle to the other two edges.
6. Baste in even intervals parallel to both your first two basting lines (which will be in a cross form).

Then they talk about the quilting beginning from the middle and working it's way out.  

I've gotten a walking foot specially because I knew I'd be doing straight stitching on quilts - I love the repetition of straight lines in some modern designs - and I've had frustrating experiences with layers shuffling in the past.  I wondered if that might still be a problem with a walking foot and if basting would make a difference, and it does. So...

Tip of the day: If you're quilting path has a direction, baste perpendicular to that.  I'm basting in a north-south direction because my quilting will be east-west.

My basting is quite frequent, but I'm being finicky as I've not machine quilted before.  I ruined a fingernail (heavens!) with my straight-needle basting so I splurged $3 and bought a curved one.  

I'm not sure I love it yet - it's thick, it's hard to get a small stitch length and it's a bit flippy while wearing a thimble - but I suspect it's still better than a straight needle, especially if the holes can be worked out later.  The plastic thimble was in case the curved needles didn't workout, but I forgot how small my digits are - it almost slides to my second knuckle.  Still, trying out new toys is hardly a hard ask.  

Hope you were able to enjoy World Quilting Day somewhere too, even if it was simply to be under one! (A quilt, I mean, not a quilter.  Although...)

D256: Jumping in

So before we went away for our long weekend I decided to get started on basting this thing together.

Pre-apologies for the rubbish pics.  My work tends to be in the evening so good natural light isn't available for photography.  I'd promise to get some better shot before I'm done, but I'm not really the place you should be coming for a tutorial on quilt basting!  I do however have a great tip for you...

I have a big fold-out cardboard cutting board.  It's grid is in 2cm increments and I love it.   It fits on the floor snugly between our couch, the toy tub and our coffee table, or on our Ottoman by length with the width overhanging.  I love that I can fold up a portion if the work or the space is short.  One of its best features, besides being cheap, and folding and storing very nicely, is that you can use it for blocking.  Just a towel under a knitted item, plus some well placed pins and some misty water squirts, and you've got a sturdy flat blocking base.

Tip of the day: get a large cardboard cutting board (sometimes called a "pattern sewing cutting board").  It's cheap, easy to move and store, has a variable length and you can stick pins in it.  Be mindful of any precious tabletop you place it on, but otherwise it'll be the best $12 you ever spent. 

I pinned the backing down, ensuring it was even, fairly well aligned and flat, and lay down the batting.  I was able to use my cutting ruler and the lines on the board to square up the quilt top and use pins to hold it in place around the outside.  Once I'd basted around the outside I set to evening the rippled, warped or puckered patches. The clip in my last post was so good at showing me where, why and how to pin.

The left, below, shows the alignment of the fabrics against the grid. The edges had been aligned, basted and the pins removed.

The first pin in the right photo is correcting the width of the border by pinching it a bit at the seam.

This is where I got to before I had to get to bed... Look at that cutting board go!

Not especially even pinning but it seems to be a fairly even top.  I haven't finished basting it yet anyway. That will be more evenly spaced and organised and I can give it a final check then.

D255: Research

I actually got a nap out of Bub today.  With this precious time I didn't really touch any fabric at all, but did some research on quilting.

I've actually made a quilt before but it was a long time ago and I wanted to check I wasn't blindly making mistake I didn't know I'd made before. (Or making new ones. I'm so innovative.)  I also have a few errors in this quilt top, in spite of all my careful cutting and sewing - puckering in the triangles, a bit of a waist in some rows and slightly wobbly edges - and wanted to know if there were any techniques for correcting these.  It was surprisingly hard to dig up some solid support.  Nearly everything I found was to do with tension issues while quilting, troubleshooting machines and such.

I discovered this forum, reassuringly full of people who have also had similar problems (hurrah!).  These guys mostly recommended steaming, which I've already tried and I'm concerned that I'm overcooking parts of the white patterned fabric and it's colouring yellow.  Maybe some fabric between iron and quilt would do, but I've already tried setting it a bit.  These errors aren't that huge and may not even really show up once the batting is there...

Some recommended "quilting it out" which is to quilt heavily in the area to reduce any visible puckering.

What that discussion did share, however, was this awesome tutorial on realigning blocks and borders:  Sharon Schamber's Beginning Quilter : Magical Basting p1.

This, alone, was worth the time spent looking online.

D254: The top is finished!

These are the sashes I attached. 

Obviously there's a bit of trimming left to do.  I couldn't decide whether the sides sashes or top/bottom sashes should be the longer set, so did... umm, I don't know what to call it...  it's that thing where, like, the right side is capped by the top sash, but it caps the bottom sash, which caps the left ash, which caps the top sash... Know what I mean?

Anyway, I'm chuffed.

D252&3: Snatches

We've had a wakeful, napless week so all my sewing has either felt stolen or 'completely beyond me tonight'.  But in the moments I've snatched I've sewn on a few things to this old project (Bub will grow out of it any day now), pressed and attempted to block the chevron part of the quilt top and started on the quilt sashes too.

I tried out a few different stitches too.  The blanket stitch is in photos 1 & 2, and a star stitch and umm... A cloud-edge stitch (?) are in photo 2 too! I bought some invisible thread too and you cannot really see that in photo 3. 

D251: Pretty Confetti

No nap from Bub again so crafting was all after dinner.  These are the trimmings from the bulky seam allowances.  No, I won't be saving them for no hipster wedding.