I have realized...

I have just realized that the enchanted cloak will use some imagination to make a quilt.  Because of the almost half-circle of the cape, pieces do not fit together inverted.  I am going to have to cut the top flat, I think, and the sides, so I have one really big square.  Well, I guess I know now where I will have to concentrate the most effort.  I'll do a windowpane with cuddly black material.  I want this to be a quilt that is used, a cuddly comfy while I watch tv or something, I THINK it can be washed.  Well, it will look good on Halloween.  Hopefully lots of other moms will ask me where I got it.

Stitchopedia

Check out the stitchopedia link.  It has every kind of embroidery stitch know to woman.  There is a $24 1-year fee, but I think it may be worth it to find all the stitches together in one place. Print, print.

Its alive! It's alive!

Ever felt that?  The project just sorta takes off and takes over.  You want to do more just to see how it will turn out.  I like the feeling of seeing it come to life before my eyes.  That works best with embroidered pictures versus the stitches, y'all know exactly how I feel, I'm sure. The Enchanted Cloak of my handsome small prince is definitely there.  Done in animal prints, its just growing and growing--and there is no embroidery whatsoever on it, but......  It will become a quilt, eventually.  3 other cloak pieces were cut.  I will have them pieced out as well, and when Halloween is over I will pick the stitches holding the first one to the hood and sew all of them together.  It should be quite startling.  I'll back it with cuddly soft furry fabric, and it will be a comfy throw.

How-To

To make a crazy quilt like the ones to the left, first I cut out muslin squares of the size I want.  Rotary cutters  (watch your fingers, don't ask how I know) are great.  Then, I gather my fabric.  I have seven or eight 3 drawer storage bins from Walmart and three or four plastic tubs. One big tub for big pieces of fabric, and 3 little. (About $15 for the 3 drawer storage.)  I have them all in the closet of my sewing room. They are stuffed full!  Anyway, I sort through the fabric for my color scheme.  I have a drawer for lace and dodads and trims already, and I make another for the project quilt.  Once that is done then I settle down in the floor with my pins.  All of my quilts are held together primarily by the embroidery, not all but most.  I cut and pin on my muslin (backing like this is a good use of lightweight stained or otherwise useless fabric, since it doesn't show--but made sure it is all the same weight or it will hang funny). Someone who makes alot of clothes probably has a mindset about the grain.  For a crazy quilt I don't pay attention to that because the pieces are so small.

Then, I pull out my dictionary of embroidery stitches and get to work. You'll get faster as you work the stitches regularly. I like to work my embroidery while I watch movies.  I have been know to do it at work (lunch, of course!) Or after little one is in bed.  But I know not to set out all my stuff on the couch unless I know I won't be disturbed for awhile.

I have a pretty box (Hobby Lobby) only for my floss and buttons and trim.  All in bags by color, otherwise it is hopelessly tangled and I don't know what I have.  I have another bag for the buttons.  I bought some antique buttons on ebay a few times (I like metal and unusual, horn is good to) and have alot, but I only put a small selection in my permanent box.  Buttons are excellent for covering up whatever needs to be covered up!  Any lace and trim that I have aquired that I will never use goes in the craft box for my little one.  Don't buy the trims at a fabric store unless you just HAVE TO HAVE IT.  Get it at an estate sale or a garage sale full of odds and ends.

When the squares are completed, the pearls sewn and the lace stitched, (the strings of craft pearls are great, and you can buy real pearls for cheap cheap on ebay) the buttons placed, (not too close to the edge, remember you've got a seam) then you should have been thinking about a pattern for the blocks.  You can see the ones I have done--I really like windowpane patten the best--the London quilt is a small example.  That quilt is only about 40x40.  The squares and borders should be stitched with a heavyweight machine needle, about a 16.  Be prepared to break a few.  And keep in mind that all the fabric should be more or less the same weight--say, heavy tapestry and silk don't really go together.  Since mine are show I don't back in cotton, I use a designer or fancy fabric.  Be wary of stuff that stretches!

I tie my quilts.  Measure across in the middle not the edge, measure longway across the middle not the edge.  Write it down so when you buy batting you are not guessing or off by a couple inches.  I buy the bags nearest the size I need.  Low loft.  You don't really need to cut your backing a bit bigger than your front with low loft.  Lay down the backing, the batting, the front. Make sure at ALL COSTS  the backing is not wrinkled.  When you tie, I suggest you start at the middle and work out, rolling the fabric up or over as need be, check every tie on the back to make sure you aren't bunching something up.

To tie I get perle cotton, thread it on a big needle--thick with a big eye, make sure it is sharp-- go down from the front, up again from the back in almost the same place, tie on the front.  Get a color that matches the backing--the backing should blend into the front.  Tie about 2 or 3 inches apart or read your batting package.  Then, knife edge or binding as desired.

Visits

I am getting many visits to my blogspot, and that makes me happy....I'm glad that I can provide the tips and techniques someone needs, and I'm glad my projects interest so many people.  They certainly interest me!

The world never sleeps. However, I do.  When I have worked and sewed my little heart out for the day, it is gratifying to see.

Bernina

Today my quilting is on a back burner.  You know how you get caught up in things.  I'm still wanting to get links up to various how-to videos for doing the different stitches--that will happen soon.  Meanwhile, my tips for today are that I have learned metallic thread-while it looks great-is very hard to work with.  There is a site I have run across--I'll look for it and post the link--where she does as far as I am able to tell squares of freehand designs with metallic thread and beads.  It's not a quilt or a part of a quilt but a 'piece', if you know what I mean.l It's under 'blogger, hand embroidery'.  I just looked and can't find it.  Oh well, good luck to whoever you are!

Berninas are the queens of machines!  I use my mom's Bernina 830.  I tell you what, within  the first week I had it I had hemmed 2 pairs of pants, fixed 3 shirts that had been in the basket in the corner for a year, and made puppets. (I started much of my hand sewing simply because I couldn't thread my machine at the time. Recently I found a handmade unfinished queen-sized quilt, 2 finished runners, 2 pillow shams, a table skirt/cover, and unfinished curtains I had made during the time I couldn't thread the machine.) She says she let me 'borrow' it to 'get it out of her room', but she just bought one of the fancy, electronic, 247 stitches machines by Brother.  Well, all I can say is the Bernina can take 4 thicknesses of tapestry without too much of a problem. Automatic tension control!  Always get automatic tension control!  It was and still is a top of the line machine--and I can thread it easily.  It's all about having the right needle.  I just buy a lot of Universal heavy-weight needles and I am set.  

However, I do have a denim project quilt in the making-denim needles for that one.    I am using denim back pockets to make a quilt of 10x10 squares.  I have put one pocket per square.  I will do it like a windowpane pattern, I think, and use heavyweight cotton or heavyweight something that is washable for the bordering around the squares.  4 child's back pockets per square if that is what I have.  Garage sales, here I come!  Garage sales are great to get fabric--only I never tell them that I am buying it not for my little whippersnapper but to cut up into little pieces.  They probably wouldn't appreciate hearing that anyway while they are saying or thinking that the piece is good quality, shame to sell it, someone just loved it. You can get fabric scraps, and scarves.....Goodwill is excellent too but I am a miser and garage sales suit better.  Estate sales are the best--handmade lace and crochet pieces, and little dodads.

enchanted cloak

Look how far I have to go.  'Course, I'm stitching with a machine on this, just a straight stitch, but still.....

Current quilt

Today I got out my current unfinished quilt.  I have pictures of it along the left side with the other completed projects.  This quilt I put away because of the binding issue, meaning to come back to it when I was in a better state of mind.  It is approximately 40x50, and backed with black velvet squares.  It is tied (most of it) with black DMC thread.  Around the edge, it has a 'sidewalk' of 4.5x2 pieces, embroidered and sewn in a straight border.  (I took those pieces to work and worked on the embroidery at lunch--all the women in the lounge stopped by periodically to see how I was coming along).  Originally, that 'sidewalk' was 18x2.  But the pattern of it has been used in one other quilt, and it was cut down in the process.   The other quilt it was used in had 5 parallel lines of the sidewalk, positioned so it would go sideways across the quilt when it was laid on the bed--it was a twin.  Most of mine are throws.  The squares of the sidewalk quilt are 10x10.  I used to do 12x12 always, but now 10x10 just seems to work better for me.  Another option is to just divide the size you want--be sure and have a calculator--but the very first time I did it that way I forgot seam allowance, aargh!  Usually I don't have to be a certain size, so just working by the square measurements is good.  The inside border is of red velvet, and the interior pieces are  really just this and that and the other.  Here's a tip for corners--I got samples of various fabrics.  At most fabric stores, they can cut a 2' strip for a customer for a sample, and for free.  The inside border was about 2 inches.  I am very proud of it.

I also have pics of the cloak for my son I mentioned--just as an interest to someone.  It was one of those ideas that just came to me for a use for that animal print fabric.  I really wanted to use the fabric and not throw it.  I actually have been know to throw fabric away now--I've improved--hoarders of fabric, unite!

Halloween Cape

My latest creation is a cape for my son for Halloween.  Easy? Sort of.  Want to do it again? Nope.  I bought a pattern for child capes and costumes.  The cape is little red riding hood-like, I made the hood, then cut the cape out of muslin.  Why?  Because I am going to piece it like a crazy quilt and topstich it, zigzag.  The thought behind the cape is that in Grimms Fairy Tales, the handsome prince is always under an enchantment where he has to wear  a cloak made from 'all the beasts in the forest'.  At the last garage sale I went to, I had bought (unknown to me) a box stuffed full of  animal print fabric.  It's really turning out to be something.

Links

I am going to post links to video's of how-to do various stitches.  I always find pictures helpful.  The the book I mentioned, Encyclopedia of Embroidery Stitches, is still good.  I am in the middle of tying my newest quilt--I don't have pics of it here, but it is similar to my earlier red velvet quilt, only larger.  Still can't decide on the knife-edge versus binding.