TiramiSue

ANTIQUE STYLE TRINKET OR SEWING BOX

2012-02-26T22:22:00.001-08:00

Today's little "how to" are these trinket/jewellery or sewing boxes. They are not difficult to make so don't be put off by the amount of photo's it took to cover all the elements.

But what will I need?, I hear you ask:

Some fabric (naturally) - You will need a strip of fabric - the width of the fabric (42 - 44 inches) x 8 1/2 inches wide, plus enough to cut two circles for the lid and the base.
Lining Fabric - width of fabric x 6 1/2 inches plus enough for two circles for the lid lining and base lining.
An embroidery hoop - the boxes above have been made with a set of hoops 6 inches in diameter. Use the cheap hoop that is made from lightweight wood or balsa wood. They are usually only a couple of dollars each.
Cardboard - cut 4 circles using the embroidery hoop as a template.

I used a dress making fabric for the first two boxes - both were a little wider than cotton patchwork fabric. The box with the separate lid is lined with a velour fabric. Don't think this is the only size you can make, the hoops come in many sizes and there are even some that are an oval shape. If using other sizes, just make sure that the amount of fabric is adjusted to give a full and voluptuous (for want of a better word) look. You can also make the boxes as deep or shallow as you like.

With right sides together, sew the main fabric and the lining fabric together lengthwise. Press the seam allowance towards the lining side. Top stitch close to the seam on the lining side - This helps keep everything in place.

Now we are going to sew this fabric piece into a tube. Place a pin at the seam.

From the outside edge of the lining, sew a seam about two inches long. Repeat on the main fabric. Carefully press the seam open, keeping the seam allowance straight in the area you haven't stitched.

Now fold the tube in half - there should be some of the main fabric in the half with the lining fabric. Measure the thickness of the embroidery hoop. Top stitch on the folded edge (not right on the edge) leaving enough room for the embroidery hoop to fit through comfortably.

Pin the bottom edge so the lining and the main fabric a together. Make sure there are no twists. Run two rows of gathering stitches around the bottom edge.

Before drawing up, place pins at either 4 points or 8 points along the bottom to use as markers when the bases are attached. Prepare the embroidery hoop.

Cheaper hoops are usually made from some type of balsa wood and are therefore easy to cut. I was able to use both parts of the hoop for the purpose of making these boxes. The hoop with the hardware on, I used a screwdriver to prise the metal pieces off. (This is the one I used in this demo) The other hoop could be easily cut with a craft knife or shears.

Thread the fabric on to the embroidery hoop.

To join the hoop, I used a craft glue and some duct tape (not terribly antiquey but perfect for the job!). Cut a narrow piece of duct tape. Apply glue to the two edges of the hoop. Use the first piece of tape to join the two hoop edges. Cut another piece of duct tape and wrap this area of the hoop. Don't make it too thick.

Distribute the fabric evenly around the hoop. You can slip stitch this seam together now if you wish.

Make the base pieces. There are two pieces for the base - one is covered with the lining fabric and one will be covered with the main fabric.

I covered both pieces of cardboard with some batting/wadding. The lining circle also had an extra layer of wadding cut to the size of the cardboard. The main layer of wadding was cut larger than the cardboard circle and prepared as per the photo's.

Once the wadding has been put into place, each circle will now be covered by the chosen fabric. Use either glue to hold the fabric in place or stitch with a running stitch around the edge and draw up the fabric around the cardboard. Eliminate any wrinkles around the edges of both pieces.

Now start gathering the fabric attached to the hoop. You are going to sew the lining base piece in first.

Once the fabric is gathered, I used pins pushed into the cardboard base to hold the pieces together.

When you are happy with how the base looks, check how the sides look and adjust the fabric folds. I stood a jar in the centre and lifted the box base up and fiddled until I was happy with the distribution of fabric.

Thread a needle with the lining colour and using a ladder stitch, go around the base and stitch the base to the "walls". I went around twice, the second time just neatened the look of the base and took care of any gaps where the contents of the box could hide!

Here is the base all sewn in.

Now you are going to attach the outside base. Again this is sewn into place with ladder stitch and again I went around the base twice. The first round making sure all the folds were evenly placed and the second time to pull the sides and base together.

Now you need to make the lid. This particular box has the lid attached with a hinge. I had a nice lace that suited the task so used that. If you wish to use fabric for the hinge, make a tube of fabric and use.

One piece of cardboard will be the top of the lid, the second piece is for the inside of the lid. Cover both pieces in the selected fabric as for the bases. This time you are going to stitch these two fabric covered pieces of cardboard together.

The box lid has been decorated with a piece of lace and some Swarovski crystals. The edge of the lid will need to be covered with a suitable trim. I used black Maribou. Use whatever suits the theme.

If you can't find a suitable button to close the box with, you may be able to see on the box below, that I made a covered button and then attached some crystals to add a bit more sparkle! I do like a bit of sparkle!

To make the loop for the button, I used the some embroidery threads (25 strands) I simple pulled them off the reel about 20 inches long and then twisted them together, tie a knot and cut the tails and hey presto, a button carrier with a tassel.

This is the top of the box with the loose lid. To keep the lid in place I covered a third piece of cardboard with a few layers of wadding in different sizes. This piece of cardboard was smaller. The extra padding keeps the lid in place.

So there you have it. Antique style with a modern twist. Any questions, feel free to contact me.

Sue xxx

MAKE A SEWING BOX!

2012-02-23T17:08:00.000-08:00

Take a cane basket, some fabric, glue and padding, and hey presto, a very snazzy sewing box. Lots of photo's show the process of putting this together. You may not be able to find an exact match for this particular basket, but I have included as many tips as possible, to enable you to transform any basket or box that takes your fancy!

To weave in and out of the sides of the basket, I made tubes of fabric. I was aiming for a slight "scrunch" so the finished sizes of the tubes needed to be greater than the size of the holes to be filled in.

These "spaces" measured at 2 1/2 inches so I cut the strips of fabric into strips 3 1/2 inches wide. These strips were then sewn with a 1/4 inch seam. The seam are pressed open. I have a set of "Tube Turners" that I purchased at a craft show a long time ago, and they have been a great investment over the years.

Once the tubes had been turned, I pressed them again, this time centering the seam in the middle of tube - this is then technically the back of the tube. I made four of this size and wove them through the basket. I then folded these strips to the back and glued into position for a neat finish. The skinny purple strip was pressed into thirds and then glued - this too was then woven to fill in the gaps.

Next the basket needed some padding. I padded the basket itself with one layer of wadding/batting - take the inside measurement and cut to size - the padding should just fit the basket without any overlap - this will stop any thick bits (technical term). Use a good tacky craft glue - it makes this type of work so much easier.

Now to make the liner. I found a lovely shot taffeta type fabric that perfectly matched the purple in the butterfly fabric.

Measure the depth of the inside of the basket. Add an 1 1/2 inches or more - you can always trim, but it is impossible to add (well it isn't impossible, you will just have to get creative). I kept the lining simple with no gathers, because I would be adding pockets. Measure the inside top rim of the basket and add a generous seam allowance. Cut another piece of wadding/padding. On the lining fabric, turn a seam allowance on the top edge and press to the back - make this fold a generous 1/2 inch . Place the wadding onto the lining fabric, level with the fold line. If you have a glue stick handy - dab some glue on the 1/2 inch fold - this will keep your edge neat whilst you sew. Feel free to press the glue dry - It is on the back so not visible.

Top Stitch close to the edge.

Next, set your sewing machine as follows - straight stitch - stitch length of 4 drop tension down a couple of full notches from its normal sewing setting (eg. If normal stitching tension is 4, set the machine to 2). Stitch the lining fabric into a tube and test that it is a perfect fit. Too small, simply pull the bottom thread and the stitching should pull out quickly and easily. Move the seam over a little and sew again. Test the fit again, when it is right, you can now take the opportunity to measure up for the pocket piece. Decide how deep you need to make the pockets. Remember you have to be able to reach to the bottom, for small items. Place a pin where the top of the pocket will be. When you are happy with the fit - no gaps - reset the machine to its normal stitching. Mark the stitching line and remove stitching. You now need to add the pocket!

Cut a piece of the lining fabric (or use a contrast) twice the depth of the pocket plus a little to take the pocket under the base for a neat finish. This piece will need to be the same width as the lining you have just prepared.

Fold in half length ways and press. If the design is a one way design, make sure you lay the pocket piece on to the lining the right way up! The open edges should be at the bottom. Lay the liner out flat and using a tape measure or ruler, carefully pin the pocket piece into position. Check it is straight!!

Stitch to the liner at the bottom edge. You will possibly need to run another line of stitching, when it comes to the final fit. Now you need to place dividers into place. The fabric I used was very hard to mark, so I used tape instead. You can either sew through the tape, or just use it as a guideline.

As you can see in the picture, I used my quilting ruler to make sure the pocket mark was straight by lining up the ruler with the edge of the pocket and then I placed the tape next to the rulers edge. I used painters tape for demonstration purposes (it is easier to see on this fabric), but any sticky tape or low tack tape will do - "whatever is to hand" I say! Make sure you put the machine back to "normal" sewing and stitch the dividers. Remember the edges - these will make their own pockets when the side seam is sewn up.

As an afterthought, I added a row of decorative stitching just above the pocket. I often do this on the internal pockets of tote bags, but actually stitch on the pocket before its final placement and use a contrasting thread. If the lining is dark, it makes the pocket easier to see.

This photo shows the back - use tearaway stabilizer to ensure your decorative stitches look their best!

Now sew the side seam. To keep everything flat, trim back the wadding after the seam has been sewn.

Test the fit again before gluing. Check the bottom row of stitching, is this level with the bottom of the basket or will it go under the base. If it goes under the base line, run another row of stitching, because if you put anything in the pockets that can work its way under the base, you can bet that it will.

When you are happy with the fit, glue to the edge of the basket. I used pins to keep everything in place until the glue dried. Don't glue the bottom just yet.

Cut some sturdy cardboard for the base. Make it a little smaller than needed because there is padding and a frill to fit into the space. To give a nice padded look to the base, I cut circles of wadding in a few sizes and glued them smallest to largest on to the cardboard. Place the circle padded side down on to the back of a circle of the lining fabric. This circle has been cut at least an inch or more bigger, all the way around. Cut notches around the outside of the fabric. Place dabs of glue, on to the back of the cardboard and starting at opposite sides, glue the fabric into position, pulling to keep nice tension on the front. If you look at the circle like a clock, glue at 12, 3, 6 and 9.

Continue gluing opposite tabs, until all have been glued into position. To achieve the padded look, you will need to pierce two holes into the cardboard. I used a covered button as my centre piece. I also used a flat button on the back to tie off with. Thread a needle - I cut a long piece of thread and folded twice so I now had 4 threads. You are now going to thread up through the backing button, leaving a tail, then through one of the holes in the cardboard, then through the decorative button, back through the second hole (and all the layers) and then back through the flat button. You should have nice long tails to tie off with. Put a generous dob of glue on the cardboard and then tie off over the flat button. Slap another dob of glue on the knot and there is not a chance that it will come undo!!

If you wish to add a frill as further decoration, cut a piece of fabric, twice the length of the outside edge of the circle by twice the width of the proposed frill. I cut my piece of fabric the width of the fabric x 2 inches and the stitched the two short ends together. Press in half - you now have a tube of fabric 1 inch wide by the chosen width. Set your sewing machine up as follows - Straight stitch - stitch length 4, stitch tension - at least 2 full notches below normal sewing position. (eg if the machine is normally set at tension 4, go down to 2 or lower). Sew two rows of stitching, taking care that you keep the tails of thread out of the way as you start each row. DO NOT BACK STITCH OR TIE OFF! Sew the rows with a space of at least 1/2 an inch. Gently pull on the bottom thread and start your gathers. Ease up the gathers until you reach the desired size. Tie off the ends and distribute the gathers evenly. Glue to the back of the cardboard circle evenly around the edge. Have as little or as much showing as you like. When the glue is dry enough that it won't end up on the basket lining, you are ready to test the fit. Do this when the glue on the liner is firmly set (overnight).

Check the length of the liner, does it need any trimmed off the bottom edge - too much fabric in the base won't sit well. The liner really only needs to fit into the base of the basket by about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. Make sure the sides are straight and then glue the bottom of the liner onto the bottom of the basket.

Place some glue on top of the fabric as shown in the photo and then gently slide the base into position. I put a weight on top to make sure it all stuck evenly.

You may not want to have a lid on this basket, but if you do, here is how I did mine.

Place mat blank and teapot blank.

I found a place mat blank at my local craft shop, it is made of craft wood. I also found a teapot stand blank. A nice solid cardboard would also do the trick if you can't find the right side circles. Mark the centre of both circles. The will both be screwed together, so make sure the smaller circle is centred evenly. Drill holes through both pieces. I am using a small cupboard door knob as the handle. Cut the screw that came with the door knob to the required depth - through both pieces of wood and into the knob itself.

For the top of the lid, I drew around the place mat, adding an extra 2 inches all around.

Press the fabric circle.

Cover the place mat with Modpodge or other suitable glue and centre of the fabric circle. Use just enough to glue these two together, so that the glue doesn't come through to the front of the fabric. Turn the piece over and make sure it is smooth with no air bubbles. Turn over again and clip around the circle, not quite up to the edge of the place mat.

Glue the tabs into position.

I then applied modpodge over the fabric right up to but not over the edge. Let this dry. If you get a good finish you may wish to apply a couple more coats of modpodge.

Next I made the under lid which I wanted to be a pin cushion.

Put the screw into position. You cannot add this at the end. Cover the lid with wadding, as you did the base. Make it as padded as you like. Cover with fabric as you did the base.

Make sure the edges are as smooth as possible and when you are happy with the finish, apply a generous amount of glue to the back of the inner lid and push the two layers together, by screwing the handle into place. If you have a couple of clamps handy, clamp away, otherwise place on a flat surface and stand a couple of weights on top until dry. I also added some glue to the top of the screw, so the handle didn't come undone.

I added a frill to the underside of the lid....

and a bit of trim.....

....and a couple more butterflies. If you wanted to add a button to give a quilted look like the base, make sure you drill a couple of holes into the smaller base piece before applying wadding and fabric. Omit the button, just tie off and glue.

As you can see in the photo's I added another frill and a couple of butterflies to finish - the final look is up to you. AND IF ALL ELSE FAILS, this one will be for sale in my Etsy Shop.

To finish, here is O'Reilly - kinda like - "Oh my grandma, what a big tongue you have" said Little Red Riding Hood. "All the better to taste you with" said the wolf (well that is in my version)....

Sue xxx

FREE STANDING MOTIFS (PART 2) AND A PURSE FOR A BRIDE

2012-02-08T16:08:00.000-08:00

My lovely neighbour, entrusted me with the train of her wedding dress. The plan was to make a purse for her daughter-in-law to be. The fabric is a white satin, with beautiful embroidered tulips. The stems and leaves are silver lurex. The fabric is forty years old. To say I held my breath a lot when taking to it with the scissors is an understatement.

The embroidery consisted of two designs. One a large row of tulips, and the other two thirds of the pattern repeat, single tulips, some facing left, some right.

As the bag was only going to be small enough to hold a phone and a lipstick, I had to work a way around getting the most from the two versions of embroidery. With scissors in hand I cut five of the small tulips and pieced them together to make the front. As the last person to cut the fabric hadn't left any fabric directly under the tulips, I decided the best way to approach the placement was to have the smaller tulips all at different heights.

For the back I used the larger piece of embroidery.

The flap of the bag has a single motif on both the front and the back.

To keep the brides treasures secure, the purse has a zipper under the flap. I attached three charms to the flap, this will give enough weight to keep the flap down. The charms are a bird, a Swarovski Crystal Heart and a silver heart.

And do she doesn't forget who she is, I put the brides first initial on the lining as well as the date of the nuptials.

For the strap I used a silver chain. The easiest way I could think of to make the strap simple to remove and not have bulky fittings was to use two sets of toggle connectors (the type with the "T" bar that slips through a ring). I stitched the rings to the purse and attached a "T" to each end of the chain. The weight of the purse will keep them all in place.

Our quilting group is having a Portrait Challenge. The plan being that these will be on display at our local library mid-year. I finally made a start on mine last week. Here she is - with some hair.

My piece is called "The Queen of Over Embellishment". I have taken liberties such as removing wrinkles and may have beautiful nails instead of the split brittle manky ones I actually own! I spent a lot of time with her on Saturday and she now has a lot more hair, and facial features. My friend Liz of Teddlywinks fame has been getting I Phone photo's periodically - her husband wanted to know when I had had collagen injections in my lips. Artistic licence David, artistic licence!!

NOW - ON TO MAKING FREESTANDING EMBROIDERIES - PART 2

In my previous post, I demonstrated making free standing embroideries using a candle. This method is great for large, simple designs. For smaller more delicate designs, I use a wood stencilling tool or a wood burner as they are sometimes known as well. These are a very handy tool to have in the supply cupboard.

This method is very straight forward, so straightforward there are only 4 pictures. I think they cover technique, if not, drop me a note and ask questions.

Embroidery is done on water soluble material and organza. The designs should be embroidered and then the stabilizer removed. Some stabilizers need to be soaked to get rid of them. Trim the excess fabric away from the design, leaving enough to keep a grip if necessary. I use a ceramic tile as my base for the cutting.

The burning tools usually come with a stand. Use it!! They reach very high temperatures. Make sure your work area is clear and well ventilated. Have a wet cloth on hand for periodic cleaning of the tip. The burners come with a number of different tips. For this exercise, I used a very fine point. (I always use a very fine point, but by all means experiment with some of the others). DON'T CHANGE TIPS whilst the burner is on.

In the first picture, you can see a butterfly embroidered on to organza. Because this design was not too dense, I used two layers of organza and no stabilizer. See what works for you.

First cut - like a hot knife through butter!

Working around the design.

The finished cut out. Because of the fine tip, I could even get in between the antennae. Any tiny clumpy bits (that is a technical term) can be removed carefully with a small pair of scissors. Butterfly ready to applique in place.

Just because we haven't had any O'Reilly love here for a couple of weeks. Here he is with Harv the cat - smooching/tasting.

Ooh and my Australia Day dessert - some weeks ago now - mini Pavlovas with a green and gold theme - mango and kiwi fruit floating in raspberry sauce.

Bye for now. Sue xxx

VINTAGE STYLE HANKY BOX

2012-01-25T02:06:00.000-08:00

These little boxes were once made from greeting cards and held hankies and or other little treasures. Now with so many beautiful papers for scrapbooking, beautiful stickers, cheap greeting cards and the ability to transfer your own designs with a computer and photocopier, the inspiration for these boxes is endless. The last couple of days have been spent, cutting papers, making confetti (from the holes - it is everywhere) and re-acquainting myself with a crochet hook (well I used a latch tool, I have crochet hooks somewhere ...safe.....) creating this Vintage Style Hanky Box.

I have downloaded the pattern sheets to Google Documents (you will find them here and here ). NOTE: I have placed a 1inch marker on one of the pattern pieces. I am not sure how these will down load - the pattern may have to be enlarged. This is my first pattern download - be kind! You may also notice that during the course of this blog I sometimes use inches and sometimes use centimetres - 2.5 centimetres is roughly equal to an inch. ANOTHER NOTE: Use printer option "fit to page".

Transfer the designs on to template plastic. I used scrapbooking sheets but had to hunt around a bit for acetate sheets - you know you are getting on, when you ask for acetate sheets, and the young-uns look at you dumbfounded. To make your search a little easier, I eventually found acetate/plastic sheets at Officeworks under the banner of Lowell A4 Clear Binding Covers - 150 microns. There are 25 sheets in a pack and cost somewhere around $8. I also purchased overhead projector sheets, but these where a lot more expensive. Both were in packs that couldn't be opened, so I had to take a punt that I had been steered in the right direction.

For the large box, I used 1 piece of scrapbooking paper for each panel (that is two panels per piece) with leftovers from each. Depending on how you lay out and cut the side panels, the base should also fit on a couple of the sheets. Some papers are definitely a one way design and this may limit how many pieces you can cut from each sheet. You may also find that some papers are double sided! To make the lid of the box, wait until you have finished putting all of the pieces together. The lid will be a bigger size, and you can either photocopy the pattern and enlarge, or using the template, add extra all around. When making the lid, do keep in mind the width of the acetate sheets! Not having the opportunity to see an original box, I am not entirely certain as to how rigid they actually are. The large box I completed is probably not as firm as it could or would have been and I'd consider adding a layer of cardboard between the two sheets of scrapbooking paper. These boxes aren't meant for heavy lifting/storage so I think this one will be fine. Just something to consider!

So here are some photo's of how to put the boxes together.

I didn't mark the template pattern with holes because if you plan to make smaller boxes, then you will need to make adjustments to the placement of holes. For this box (large size) - I marked the holes at increments of 1.5 cm. The hole punch had a guide to determine the depth of the holes from the edge. If you can't see what you are punching, make pencil marks that extend towards the middle (see lid further down). Trace two panels (the box is lined - I shuffled the colours around for the inside) from each piece of scrap booking paper. Keep pattern in mind when placing templates - you don't want sideways or upside down!

For each panel of the box, you will need two side panels cut from cardboard, scrapbooking paper or old greeting cards. You will also need two acetate panels - one on the front and one on the back. You can see in the photo below that I used small bulldog clips to hold all of the pieces in place.

Tip One: The template should allow two side panels per piece of acetate. I folded the acetate sheet in half and used the bulldog clips to hold the template plastic panel and the acetate sheets together whilst I cut.

Tip Two: When you are placing all the pieces together ready to punch holes, make sure they are all in the correct order - acetate sheet/decorative paper wrong sides together/acetate sheet. If you are adding an extra layer of thin cardboard, place it between the decorative papers. This way, when the holes are punched, all the holes will align correctly.

Tip Three: To help keep all the layers together, a couple of small dabs of glue stick between the decorative papers or gluing the papers to a thin card stock - will help. Do not glue the acetate. I found there was enough static to keep it in place. (But still use the bulldog clips). I didn't use paper clips because they can catch and damage the acetate.

When each section is cut and punched, you are ready to start the needlework.

I used a cotton mix thread. The stitch used was a simple double crochet (feel free to let me know if this isn't the correct name - I don't crochet much ). I did this stitch three times in each hole, and then one chain stitch and moved on to the next hole.

Tip Four: Don't start in a corner hole. I started one hole in from the corner on the bottom edge.

When I reach the corners, I did three double crochet and one chain and then another three double crochet. This got me around the corners neatly!

As you are crocheting, you may find that the stitches come to the front like this......

Adjust them every few blocks of stitching so the edge is balanced on the edge of the panel. See below.

When all the pieces are finished (including the base), you can lay them out and move around until you are happy with the arrangement. I had three panel that were definitely green, so I made sure they weren't all together. (The stripe on the base, was actually the back of one of the scrapbooking papers).

Working from the front, with a needle and thread, you can now start stitching the panels together.   I did a basic overcasting stitch, catching the outside edge of the chain, this kept the outside and the inside looking neat and tidy.

When all the sides have been sewn together, you will then be able to determine the size of the lid. Using the base as a template, I outlined the template on the back of a piece of card and then added an 2 cm all around.   Don't take this measurement at the corners.   Make a couple of small marks (two per edge) and then using a ruler, redraw the lines, intersecting at the corners.   When you are happy with the sizing, cut out as above.   You can see here how I marked my pieces.

I ended up having to use a piece of card stock between the layers because I was using a few scraps up on the lid, I had one sheet of scrapbook paper left so used that on the underside.

I used the yarn to make a couple of hinges for the lid. Simple chain stitch, or you could twist some yarn to make these.

I punched a hole in the middle of the lid to place this fancy heart shaped bead. In the next picture, you can see that I tied it off with a bit of a tassel.

Tip Six: The punch I used made a pretty big hole. This made crocheting the best option. If you can't operate a crochet hook, other ways to finish these boxes including:

* Cross stitch - Criss cross all the way around the panels and then stitch together.

*Blanket stitch - use blanket stitch all the way around each panel and then stitch together.

*Use 4mm ribbon in the place of thread for a different look.

If using these methods, I would try and find a punch that could make smaller holes. I would then punch the holes closer (but not too close) to the edges of each panel. Something to think about! For lots of ideas good old Google (Vintage Hanky Boxes) will find you plenty of inspiration.

So there you have it. A genuine Vintage Hanky Box.

Til next time....Sue

HOW TO MAKE FREE-STANDING EMBROIDERIES

2012-01-10T15:58:00.000-08:00

This tutorial is designed to give you that little bit extra from your embroidery machine. I mentioned yesterday that I was back on the fish quilt - I think its last showing was way back last year. I have been adding mossy rocks, and ferns and other leafy bits. Sometimes you just don't quite get the look you are after! After embroidering your little heart out sewing leaves over other leaves your work looks flat and lifeless and a bit of a mess.

I wasn't happy with the leaves over the ferns, so I set to work with Embird and "chopped up" the plants. The leaves were reasonably plain without any fiddly holes to deal with. I copied and flipped sets until the largest hoop was filled. Do not colour sort when you are doing a large batch of designs. Whilst it is a bit of a pain with machines that are single needle models, I have found that there is a lesser chance of the designs starting to "go out of whack" (for want of a better term) as the stitching progresses. That is my theory anyway!

Hoop some stabilizer and a layer of organza. The organza can be any colour, although I would aim to either match the designs colours or that of the background. I use black a lot! The type of stabilizer you use is up to you. The leaves I was planning to stitch were pretty straight forward and didn't need to be soft, so I used a tearaway stabilizer. If you are doing something lacy or delicate then the best stabilizer for the job would be a wash away. If the designs are really dense and could pull out of shape whilst embroidering is underway, you might think about using two layers of organza.

You can see in the photo above how I saved the designs ready to sew. You may also be able to see that the two colours used for the leaves are alternated, as I did not colour sort. Below shows the leaves in the process of being stitched in the big hoop. I managed to fit 19 leaf segments into one hooping.

Here they are all sewn out!

If you are using tear away, remove all of it now. If you are using washaway, wash it away now. I find with washaway, the pieces may need to be soaked a couple of times to remove all of it. Trim the organza close, but not too close to the edge of the design.

It is perfectly ok to have pokies!

Now comes the fun bit. Make sure the designs are wet - not dripping wet, just well wet. I work at the kitchen sink on the drainer - just make sure it is fire proof! If you are feeling nervous, don't be. Have a bowl of water beside you or some water in the sink just in case. I use a chunky candle for the next part. You won't have to worry about knocking it over (I don't spend too much time worrying about these things, but I know some do!).

Hold the design close to the flame, but not in it. Because the embroidery is damp, only the organza will melt. Move the design along the flame. If you do a practice with one or two pieces, you will soon get the idea about what will work and what won't.

Tight corners can be dealt with by a bit of manipulation. You can pull the pieces apart as you hold it close to the flame, then go back and burn out any bits you don't want.

When you have finished, place the embroideries face down on the ironing board and give a good shot of steam - when they are dry, they are ready to go - I did press mine until they were dry because as usual I was in a hurry......

They are now ready for placement. I should also add, if you used washaway you may find when the iron hits the embroideries, they may still be a bit tacky, just put them back into some warm water and leave to soak for a while and try again with the iron.

Set your sewing machine up for free motion - darning foot on, embroidery needle in, feed dogs down and for the stitching, I use a zigzag set at length (1) and width (2). Thread up with a suitable coloured embroidery thread for the top and bobbinfil for the back. Loosen off the top tension by a couple of notches - down from your normal sewing position. This ensures that the top thread is pulled through to the back of your work and no bobbin thread will be visible on the front of your work.

Position your embroideries as required and start stitching into place. You can go "around" as many times as you like but once is usually enough.

Here they are in place.

NOTE: Some embroideries are designed to be "free standing". There are many laces etc designed specifically for the purpose of being sewn onto wash away stabilizers with no need for organza. I sew lots of embroideries on to organza and make them into applique motifs by using either the above method (with fire) or by using a stencil burner. Stencil burners have a variety of points and are used a bit like a hot knife through butter. I place the embroidered piece on a ceramic tile I have specifically for the purpose. Sometimes (after a lot of cutting) you may have to stop and turn off the stencil burner and once cooled, clean the tip. This is why I like "fire" for simplified designs, but a stencil burner gives you more control when cutting fiddly designs.

The methods I have described above, would also work if you appliqued on to organza or did free motion work, that you wanted to add to a piece. Sometimes when doing a lot of "artwork" by machine on a piece, the fabric starts to distort, or you may be concerned that your machine (either in embroidery mode or stitching) is not going to be able to stitch through the background work. Doing some of the pieces separately and then stitching in place, helps to solve these problems. It also gives a lot of freedom when you are working in layers - and you want to weave pieces in and out. It is far simpler with a separate piece.

You can see examples of that here on my Pirate Quilt. If you look at the fish swimming through the some of the weed, I was able to weave them so they looked like they were coming through the seaweed, rather than just plonking them either at the back or in front. The other area where making some free standing pieces proved to be invaluable was in the large piece of purple coral on the left border. I sewed the coral, cut out the organza in the centre and then added the fish - I could then play with how much of the fish would be visible. (If you want to see more of the Pirate Quilt and some of the others I have completed, take a look in my Photobucket pages, listed on the side bar).

The above methods also make embroidering on bulky items, such as heavy jackets etc a breeze and if there is a "stuff up" it is easier to re hoop and do another embroidery than having to start trying to remove stitches. You can also "hide" problems - if something has gone awry on your item. If it helps to remove bulk, you can cut out behind the embroidery!

The following photo's show some of the elements I have added so far:

Bubbles/foam - more stitching will be added to this, possibly in the quilting phase.

A little frog waiting for some leaves for camouflage!

If you don't find my instructions clear or you want more information, feel free to contact me at tiramisue at bigpond dot com - there is a link on the side bar - I am always happy to try and help!!

Bye for now. Sue xxx
PS I have now added pictures of some of the quilts I have finished over the years. They are listed under Quilts I Have Made (duhh) over on the side bar. All links will go directly to photographs - More closeup photo's are available in my various Photobucket Pages (also listed).

TERRARIUMS

2012-01-09T02:56:00.000-08:00

Natural greenery is something that evades me. Our home is dark in some rooms, quite bright in others - and I have a bad memory - so watering can be a bit hit and miss. Once winter hits, I like to keep the temperature at a level somewhere in the vicinity of a tropical holiday destination, so plants tend to curl up their toes - not a pretty sight.

Flicking through pages of interest (depending on the day - today it was collecting pictures of feet) I noticed a few Terrariums making an appearance. I felt the need for greenery, this was the answer. Let the shopping begin! A tall Apothecary Jar at Tarjay last week, and another larger jar in a lovely gift shop in Montrose at the base of the Dandenongs, and the third jar I got for the bargain price of $3.99 (just need to "Shabby Chic" the lid) at an op shop. Now to find suitable plants.

Another gorgeous shop in Bayswater, just a few shops up from Spotlight, is "The Complete Garden" - boy could you spend some money in that shop. I digress. I found a couple of plants - of the fake variety - and hey presto - AN EVEN I CAN'T KILL IT Terrarium.

This one is my favourite though. I found this fabo' toadstool. It was a little top heavy, so I siliconed it into the base of the jar, and then added the layers of "dirt" and pebbles.

Here is Norm, inspecting my work.

I finally found a frame to use for my bakery sign. Naturally it was the wrong orientation, and yes I could have pulled all the staples out of the back, but there were that many of them, I would still have been at it this week. The frame was very plain, but with some wooden swirls from the scrap booking section of Spotlight, a bit of sanding , the swirls then glued into position and the whole lot receiving a coat of undercoat and a few coats of semi gloss water based paint, a bit of roughing up at the end and "hey presto" the frame was suitably "shabby".

The print was redone to fit the frame and printed as a poster print - with a matt finish. The wording was put through my computer painting program and the edges fussed up a little. When I got the print back home I used the glass as the template and trimmed the edges. It didn't quite have the look I wanted (I wanted it to look a little like a chalk board, complete with that dusty look of used chalk boards) so I set to and after a bit of "research" (that would be googling), I went back to Spotlight and bought some transparent gel medium. For those that haven't seen or heard of Gel Medium, this, I discovered, can be used to add "brushstrokes" to your photo's, prints or paintings. I applied mine with a cross hatched stroke - don't be too generous with the medium or it may not dry clear. It still didn't have the look I was after, so with damp paper towel and some white acrylic paint in hand, I rubbed the white paint over the surface of the gel medium. Let the paint dry and add another coat of medium. Again I had been a little cautious with the amount of paint I added - I had taken off a little too much - and I had a couple of spots in the medium that were a bit flat so another coat of Medium was added with the same cross hatching method and then rubbed it over again with the white paint on a damp piece of paper towel. It didn't take long to dry - it was up in the high 30's (Celsius) that day, and I was able to put the whole thing together that night.

The vertical lines are just a trick of the light.

It is now back to working on the goldfish quilt. Today I decided it needed another design element. (You have all seen the Ghastlie Quilt, so should know I like a design element or two, or three or six). I am adding a jetty/viewing platform. Found some great "plank" fabric.

This is where the feet googling came in. Then I took a few photo's of my feet. When and if they make it on to the viewing platform, the toe nails will be perfectly manicured, the calves smooth and silky or the feet will be wearing shoes and the legs will be covered in pants - the jury is still out - the final decision will be determined by my drawing skills or lack thereof!

Whilst I was out and about, I gave a brief thought to my self portrait that we are doing this year with the quilting group. Purple is a personal favourite, so this will most likely be the background.

Next, whilst perusing the fat 1/4's I chose the hair colour. I may have been delirious when choosing the colours, but who says I can't dream of golden tresses. I can add silver bits when I applique them into position!

So there we have it, the first 9 days of January in a nutshell.

Bye for now, Sue xxx

AND NOW MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM O'REILLY....

2011-12-23T16:03:00.000-08:00

......or payback for eating mummy's shoes!

Merry Christmas to all!

Sue xxx

QUICKIE BRACELET HOW TO

2011-12-20T20:27:00.000-08:00

I have made a few of these little bracelets. They are reasonably quick and very easy. I have quite the stash of beads and charms (you look surprised!). The last craft fair I went to I bought some beading elastic (again, you seem surprised!). There are a couple of thicknesses available, this one is somewhere around the .5mm thick - strong enough for the task at hand - but you do need beads with a reasonable hole in them.

First collect your supplies up. Spread them carefully on your work surface. Work out your colour scheme. Allow the cat into your room where it will proceed to send everything flying. Pick up supplies from floor. Scream at cat and then cut your beading elastic to size. I cut mine to about 8 or 9 inches. You need to have some over to tie the knot - the longer the tails, the easier it is at the end.

The skulls didn't make the grade for this project - but they are very striking. Thread beads on to the elastic as desired.

Thread enough beads to fit the wrist loosely - you don't want the beading elastic to show when wearing the bracelet. Make sure the last bead has a large enough hole to take the knot. I used a silver bead for this bracelet.

I tried a few times without success to do a reef knot, so I went ahead and just did a tie off type knot, take the two ends of the elastic together and tie a knot. Simple, but did the job.

Carefully work the knot into its correct position - remember the elastic should not be pulled tight. The job of the elastic is to slide over the hand and stay in position without overstretching - otherwise even without the cats' help, you will be picking beads up off the floor!

When you are happy that the knot is tight, adjust the beads and trim the elastic leaving small tails. Work the knot into the bead. The secret to keeping the knot both in position and from working open, is just a tiny dab of glue. I used the Gel (non drip - supposedly) variety of Superglue.

Leave to dry for 24 hours if possible. Simple and effective. I added some charms to my bracelets. I am not very good at working with the jump rings - I can never get them to close properly. I have been using split rings and find them a little bit of a fiddle getting the charm on to start, but they do stay put. If you don't know the type of rings I am talking about, they are a very tiny version of the key ring. They are available in both silver and gold, and probably other metals as well.

So there you have it, a reasonably quick present, and you could include the kids if you wish, as chief threaders, and you can be in charge of the glue!

On the machine embroidery front, I have been designing some Babushka's for Christmas. They all stitched out beautifully, and I made alterations as necessary. I put together a table runner. Very Christmassy.

It was quilted and bound, but then I needed to wash it to remove the blue pen I had used to mark out the holly positions for quilting. Doesn't show it off to its best in black and white I hear you say. Of course it doesn't. Black and white is the only way I can show it now - after hours of work and amazingly perfect positioning in a row - the red backing fabric ran and ran and ran. I had washed all the fabric before hand in hot water to get rid of any problems, and it was all dried in the dryer, but no tragedy struck. I put the whole thing in some of the product "Runaway" but that seemed to make things go from bad to worse. As soon as it hit the water, the red colour came straight out of the white, but so too did some of the colour in the green. The green went from bright and cheery to olive and unattractive. In fact, the stuff is so strong that it even altered one of the embroidery threads which is polyester and shouldn't be affected. So another lesson in what not to do.

Here are the second tested Babushka's. I had hoped to have them up on my Etsy site, but it looks like they will be ready for next year now. The red in the body of the wall hanging is not the problem - it was a broadcloth from Spotlight.

Can you see the holly outline I did in the quilting. Never mind.

So for now, it is back to preparing for the Christmas activities this week. Here's to everything being finished and ready by the 24th before the shops shut!
Bye for now.
Sue xxx

SPELL CHECK!

2011-12-15T14:54:00.000-08:00

Christmas shopping has finally started in this house. Nobody knows what they want, need or desire (except Santa, because she always likes expensive things). So my sister and I made our way to Knox City last night for a bit of a marathon shop. Just for sympathy sake - I should announce here that some bludger gave me a head cold, so I am less than enthused about shopping - we took our time - couldn't say that either of us achieved - but we did have a laugh when we saw this.

Does anybody employ spell checkers in the garment trade? These shirts were done with a very bold metallic print - it made me laugh. Ahh, simple things.

Sue xxx

THE GHASTLIES ARE NOW FOR SALE!!

2011-12-06T23:44:00.000-08:00

Now listed on Etsy - See Here

The Ghastlies won a couple of prizes at our local show - First Prize in Machine Embroidery and then won overall in the Patchwork section. I have ummed and aahhed over what to do with "The Ghastlies" next but have decided to try and sell this quilt. So if you or anyone you know is interested, you can contact me here on the side bar (tiramisue at bigpond dot com) and we can talk! I have opened an Etsy account and will also lodge it over there. Wish me luck.

Sue xxx

QUILTING FRAME AND MACHINE FOR SALE

2011-11-17T13:54:00.000-08:00

I love machinery - sewing/quilting/embroidery/knitting machinery. I love it so much, that I have too much. I started off with an old Empisal knitting machine, and now my little empire is vast. As I said, I love machinery and technology - so much so that I wish to sell some to by some more. I have put my John Watts Quilter and a Janome 1600p up for sale on EBay. Here is a picture -

Here is the link.

Update. The Janome has sold, but here is the link for the quilting frame.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/JOHN-WATTS-QUILTER-/170741607976?pt=AU_Quilting&hash=item27c0fe2e28

My quilting frame and the sewing machine have had very little work. Originally when I purchased the quilting frame, I had such great plans. Needless to say neither of these two have seen much work. I think you could count on two hands the amount of actual quilts that have been quilted on this set up. My choice of quilt design means loading and rolling with large amounts of bling and 3D stuff doesn't work for me. So if you are interested, contact me here or through EBay.

I am also rather keen to upgrade to a PR1000 and so thought I would mention that I have a PR600 for sale. You can contact me here (tiramisue at bigpond dot com). "The Beast" as she is affectionately known comes complete with cap hoops (I have never used them), and all her accessories. She will sew a design up to 200 x 300mm.

Bye for now.
Sue xxx

A BIG THANK YOU......AND A BIRTHDAY

2011-11-08T22:20:00.001-08:00

Well, with "Ghastlie Mania" over for the time being, I just wanted to send out a big thank you to all those who took the time to pass comment on my "Ghastlie" quilt. I am absolutely floored by the kind and encouraging thoughts sent my way. I would also like to say a big hello to my new followers. I will try to keep it interesting and keep you interested!

Just to rub it in, the following couple of photo's are gifts currently winging their way to my blog hop winner. I hope they give you a laugh Leesa.......

I will post a little "how to" on the bracelet shortly - they are quick and easy and would be a great little gift for the Christmas stockings........yes it is nearly that time of year again (48 or so days to go).

Click on the side buttons to view "Pintrest" pages set up for Ghastlie projects, and Madame Samm will keep the Ghastlie Site with the 54 participants blog posts at the ready.

Now to step away from quilty bits - this is a bit of handiwork by the big heap himself..........I, naturally, was sewing - all was quiet, too quiet as it turns out.............

Not a bad effort for an hour. Good gravy some days you need a sense of humour. Can you see a resemblance to "Bear" from Bear in the Big Blue House? That takes me back - the elf turned 16 a few weeks ago - seems like only yesterday I suffered Thomas, Bear, Postman Pat - now I am looking forward (not) to an endless summer school holiday, having my ears assaulted by Spongebob Squarepants and even more endless reruns of the Simpsons. I have told my husband to employ the elf gainfully for a few days a week or else a crime could well be committed.

And because O'Reilly fills up a fair swag of my posts these days, here he is celebrating his first birthday on Sunday.........

I know, it is not very respectful of such a noble breed, but sometimes you just have to extract some revenge with silly hats and cake.

Well now I had best get back to the grindstone. I still have quite a few large pieces of Ghastlie fabric with big holes cut into them, to use up. Speaking of which (Ghastlie Fabric that is) - I have seen sneak peaks of the new range on the magical interweb today, and it is a giggle - there are babies in prams and pregnant people - ooooh the mind boggles).

Bye for now.
Sue

GHASTLIES FAMILY ALBUM

2011-10-30T18:12:00.000-07:00

I present for your viewing pleasure/amazement/horror my take on the fabulous "Ghastlies" fabric. The plan was for a Scrapbook page, showing all the treasures I think the Ghastlie Family would collect. So here goes.....

Melbourne weather is being very unkind to my photographic endeavours. I ran next door and "borrowed" their fence in on brief burst of dry, yet cloudy weather, trying to get a good shot of the colours. No sooner did we have the quilt up on the fence then it started to rain. So if the colours are a little out there I can only say "I tried".

A snake in hiding...

Is this the family business.....what the girls are brewing.

A pink bow and a hammer, what more could a girl want. Sebastian features in the cameo brooch here.

Check out the feathered lorgnette - rose coloured glasses!

Another snake hiding ready to strike. Silverware hanging on a hook....

A Victorian fan, heavily encrusted with Swarovsky crystals, the steampunk choker has crystals, pearls, silver flowers and a huge silver cross - slightly Gothic styling! The black canary sits in his cage, surrounded by ivy leaves and pink crystals. The velvet coin purse has a few family treasures spilling out.

All the quilting between the family photo's is naturally spidery. Hundreds of tiny spiders webs between all the treasures - I am thinking that like myself they have other more interesting things to do than dust for cobwebs!

Check out the cattitude being exuded from this slick black feline....

Madame's silver dinner bell....

3D ivy leaves, there are a couple of lizards and frogs hiding in amongst the leaves, and a spider has captured its dinner in the top corner.....

The bottom of the quilt is finished with continuous prairie points and a black daisy trim.

Techniques used in the creation of this Ghastlie piece:

Applique, Machine Embroidery, Free Motion Embroidery, Quilting, Continuous Prairie Points, 3D Applique, Free Standing Lace Embroidery, Digitizing (the leaves, branches, cage, 3D ivy leaves, large bat in the top left corner were all done by myself), Fabric painting (well, I painted white lace daisies in shades of pink using fabric medium), beading, bedazzling (sticking crystals on), Couching, and my personal favourite - shopping for costume jewellery to chop up - oooh and I also learned how to use the Dremel for a bit of grinding (removing some of the joiners on the jewels!).

This has been so much fun over the past couple of months - I spend hours ~~wasting time~~ I mean, researching on the Internet looking for all those slightly Gothic/Victorian ideas.

As mentioned in the previous post, Madame Samm over at Sew I Quilt will draw a lucky winner each day. So leave a comment and make sure you are a "reply" blogger and you could be in the running for today's prize. I will also send out a small gift to the second name drawn at the end of the day. (My gift is a ghastlie memento bracelet).

Here are today's other bloggers showing off their ghastlie creations:

If there is anything you want to know about my piece, don't hesitate to ask.

Have a "ghastlie" day. Don't forget the blog hop lasts all week.

UPDATE

I have a bracelet winner - lgentymk from A Little Less of Me

Abbeybeth has gone into the draw over at Sew I Quilt

GHASTLIES BLOG HOP HAS COMMENCED

2011-10-23T17:49:00.000-07:00

It's here, it's started - click on the link here or on the side bar to see who is in and have a chance to win some great prizes. Madam Samm and her helpers have worked hard to make this a success. It should be a very Ghastlie two weeks with 54 entrants doing ghastly things with fabric. Alexander Henry should be pleased!

There is poetry courtesy of Madam Samm:

Behind the scenes we ( 54 ) Ghastlie obsessed
Sistah- Stitchers have been rather busy, you could say.
We all have been stirring up some pretty GHASTLIE
projects, searching for a cure...
Your assistance is required...YOU are the
Prescription we are looking for..
A comment, of ohhs and ahhhs
that will help our flu...Are you ready?
It all begins tomorrow morning at the stroke
of MIDNIGHT ....tick tock tick tock..

OH Ghastlie....

If you have this thing for Ghastlies
and they have tied you in a knot
and you wish you could get them out of your mind
than this may be a thought.

We heard her plea for a cure
Mdm Samm was pos/it/ively sure
that we could stitch the nights away
in hopes that we MAY----
( all 54 of us)
BUT....

The side effects are Ghastlie
there is no mistaking too.
if you don't run this very minute
YOU too will catch the FLU...

We suspected all along
this was her master plan
she did not want to be alone,
with all YOU Ghastlie FANS...

Join the fun and be inspired - I'm up on the 31st - Halloween. Now I must go and finish sewing dodads and whatnots on before my time is up......

(I only just realized Lizzie is my button - how positively ghastlie!)

GHASTLIES PEEK

2011-09-05T17:38:00.000-07:00

You may have seen Madame Samm over at sewiquiltnow.com will be holding a blog hop featuring the Ghastlies, in October. I signed up. The Button is on the side bar. It looks like there is a lot of interest. Here are a couple of shots of some elements on my quilt. It is looking like "The Ghastlies versus Where's Wally" with a Victorian/Gothic feel. I love lots of glittering, shiny things on my quilts - I will be finished when a. I have run out of room or b. somebody says enough already!!

Every time I see this charming little girl I start to hum to myself -

Lizzy Borden took an axe, gave her mother 40 whacks, when she saw what she had done, gave her father 41...........

Keys to the mansion, dungeon, and maybe under the stairs.

The owl in the dinner party scene tickles my funny bone - I made an applique up.....

Lace bats from Urban Threads - I could and probably will end up spending a fortune over here.

Check out the key and the lock. I am using wash away from Embroidery Source.

I am having a go at including a little video. It is O'Reilly washing Harv. The sound is awful (be kind, this is my first YouTube video - I have no idea what I am doing) and I had to keep reminding The Big O to be gentle. He likes to keep pushing until the cat runs.......

O'Reilly is extremely food orientated/obsessed. Ask me about the chicken fillet and a half (large - closer inspection would have you thinking it came from a turkey..) that he managed to steal with such stealth and speed as I reached for a bowl........so here is a little montage of O'Reilly sharing an apple with me.

And just so he doesn't feel left out, Norman voguing on the kitchen table in the sunshine.

Thanks for dropping in. Sue xxx

ANYBODY HAVE SOME EMBRIGHT EMBROIDERY THREAD?

2011-08-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

In what turns out to be a rather foolish act on my part, I have made great inroads into my "Ghastlies Quilt". I have been busy embroidering applique roses and other what-nots and in my haste to get started a couple of weekends ago, I used a brand new reel of embroidery thread that was an absolute perfect match. I didn't plan ahead. I don't think I have enough to complete my "masterpiece". Sooo, does anybody have a reel of Embright Thread. It is on a cardboard reel - mine is white - the colour is a shade of dusky pink (best description). It has a number of 810. It has a lovely sheen, so I think it is rayon. I have had it for a really long time and I may have bought it at a quilt show in Melbourne. Help..........

Sue

EASY BAG / POUCH FASTENING

2011-07-24T21:51:00.000-07:00

A call went out at the last Waverley Quilters night, for some small bags to be used by folk undergoing Chemotherapy Treatment that requires them to wear a pump for a period of time, at home. I have done a few and whilst fiddling and making up an easy pattern, I worked out an easy closing system for these pouches, that will adjust as the pump is worn. I have used buttons and press studs, but I think this will work a treat. So here goes.....

From your chosen fabric, cut a strip 1 1/2 times or more (no more than double) than the width of the bag.

It will need to be wide enough to encase your chosen width of elastic (mine was about 10mm wide). Make a tube and turn. I pressed the tube so that the seam was running near the middle of what would be the back. Now top stitch close to the edge of each side.

Thread the elastic through the tube and do a little bit of stitching to hold the ends in place.

Lay the gathered strip across the front of the bag, making sure it is high/low enough to hold the flap that you have cut. Mine was positioned about 3 inches down from the top of the bag. Pin well in from the edges, and adjust the fabric out of the way whilst you sew the seams. You can push the gathers back when you have finished stitching. When you are happy with how much play there is in the elastic piece, sew down to the front keeping within the seam allowance (1/8 inch will do it).

When the strip is tacked in place, finish the construction of your bag. Be careful when you turn the piece that those pins don't stick you!! The photo below shows the finished flap and how the elastic holds it down. I added some fabric roses for a bit of tizz. This method of closing a bag could be used on any bag with a flap. If you wanted to make it a bit of a fiddle for those with light fingers and thieving in mind, you could add something a little chunky like the flowers to make opening the bag more noticeable.

This bag has a press stud closing. and a shabby flower.

This denim look would work for a man or woman.

This frog one has a button and hair elastic closer.

And what is a post without O'Reilly with an appendage belonging to a teddy bear. He is now tall enough to check out everything on the kitchen bench and weighs in at 62kg with a little more to go. Needless to say - nothing is safe!

If you have any questions about the bags, you can contact me through the Tiramisue email.

Bye for now.

Sue xxx

PS - my followers are still missing and have been for about two months now - greetings to you all :-)

THE GHASTLIES

2011-07-10T00:40:00.000-07:00

When I saw this fabric go up on Hancocks of Paducah I had to get some. Luckily I was feeling rash and bought at least a yard of each - you will need at least a yard of each - the designs are enormous - that is not mentioned in the fine print!

This one is at least 13 inches tall and probably more than that wide. It will have to be fussy cut! I also didn't realise when I was busy ordering wildly, that the same fabrics have different names on the Hancocks site, so just keep that in mind if you don't want or need yards/metres of the stuff. I think I will pick some designs out of each colour way to cut the big blocks and then may be cut the fussy cut leftovers into some sort of border arrangement and not worry about how the designs work out.

I did buy two yards of the tree fabric for some sort of outside border and had to buy the cat fabric (Sebastian) as he reminds me of Norman on a bad day. Total Attitude or is that Cattitude!

Whilst in a buying frenzy, I also purchased some books from The Book Depository . I have quite the collection of fabric folding books - perhaps I should start making things from them........

The two little books on the side are for those who appreciate a quirky turn in their reading. The little one in the top right of the picture had the girls at quilting laughing. Its title is The Curious Sofa - A pornographic work by Ogden Weary. The only naughty bits in it are what you think of when you read it and look at the pictures. The other little book is a delightfully macabre alphabet. It starts of with A is for Amy who fell down the stairs, B is for Basil, assaulted by bears, and goes on from there. Both these books are by Edward Gorey (Ogden Weary is one of Mr Gorey's made up names) the alphabet dates back to 1963.

During the week I spent some time making a couple of pouches for our quilt guild. I am still working on my digitizing skills, but both of these appliqued frogs turned out a treat.

Just for a change of pace, a huge amount of time was spent playing with my photo program trying to make a sign for my kitchen. The computer spent of lot of time having a cow and making cryptic comments about how much space being wasted (it sounded better from the computer, but I can't remember what it's problem was - mostly cause there seemed to be so many of them). Anyway, eventually the computer agreed to save my work in a place where it could be found, instead of shutting down and losing my work just as I was getting to the end. Here is the masterpiece - hours it took.........

So now I need to find some ratty old frame - which no doubt will require hours of trawling through op/thrift shops in a quest to find the perfect frame that I can "shabby chic" - and set too with the white paint and then take the file down to the camera shop and get it printed up in the appropriate size.

Off to gaze at my fabric now. Bye Sue xxx

PS - I noticed I have a couple of extra followers. Due to whatever the technical difficulty is with followers I can't see you, but I know you're there - thank you.

DIAMOND CATHEDRAL WINDOWS

2011-06-21T00:41:00.000-07:00

Cathedral Windows completed as diamonds can be a little daunting. (I think so, anyway). Cathedral Windows seem to be back in vogue and the traditional manner of completion is a little bulky and difficult to combine into a quilt. Whilst trying to work out the easiest way possible to get the look without the folding, I suddenly had an epiphany - what is the basis of the Cathedral Window - it is working with a bias edge. Buzzinga, an idea was tested. It works!! So the following is a brief description/photographic how to on making the easiest Diamond Cathedral Window Quilt ever. With planning it can be used to complete Cathedral Windows as any shape or size you wish to try.

I had a stack of batiks that where sitting around looking pretty, so I put them to work.    I started cutting and realised I would naturally need a trip to the fabric shop - I had 14 fat quarters, so off I went to find two more fat quarters in shades that would be suitable for the job.

If you are using one colour for your background, you will get away with a lot less fabric.   Those calculations I will leave to you.

First you are going to need rectangles. Technically, 4 rectangles make 1 block. I cut these ones at 6 1/2 inches by 4 1/2 inches. From each fat quarter I cut a strip at 6 1/2 inches and then cut this strip down to 4 x 4 1/2 inch pieces. On each 6 1/2 inch strip there were rectangles left over that didn't quite make size. Before cutting, count out the 4 1/2 inch strips, if the layout doesn't give you at least 4 across the fabric, check if they can be cut from the other direction. I repeated this for all the fat quarters. I decided to go for a random look (how hard is that - I think it took longer to decide on a random plan, than it did to sew).

Once all the rectangles are cut, you will need to cut the bias strips. You do not need to do anything fancy, such as making a long piece of bias, you just need to cut strips. On your ruler, look for the 45degree mark. Line this up with the edge of your fabric - I placed a ruler on the line to show positioning.

Make a cut across the fabric. Now measure out 2 inches and cut. Repeat this 4 or 5 times. Remember this is what I did with fat quarters, if you are using a single fabric for this part, you can cut a few longer strips and then cut more as needed. In the picture, you will see that I am actually cutting a strip off the corner I removed. I got a couple of strips off this piece that were usable, and then I went on to cut strips off the bigger piece. Be careful with the strips, they are bias and can easily be pulled out of shape or stretched.

When all the strips are cut, I gave them a good spray with Crisp Spray Starch and then proceeded to press them all in half length ways - now double 1 inch strips. Remember to press, NOT IRON.

I pinned my strips to the rectangles, to try and spread the darks and lights evenly. This took a while. If you are using a single fabric for this part, you can get stuck straight into the process.

The double diamond shapes are created by placing the strips in a zigzag fashion. Each Square on the first row has only one strip (unless you want to take the design right out to the outer edge). Working from left to right, you will need to mark the corners of each square - I marked mine at 1/4 inch - make sure you keep the marks within the seam line if you are using something permanent to mark, otherwise the lines will be visible when the seams are sewn! I kept the strips out of the corners, to keep the bulk to a minimum. If you want your diamonds to meet right in the corners, then you will have to place them from corner to corner. The strips are placed on the fabric rectangles, with the fold towards the centre of the block.

I used my 1/4 inch foot to sew these strips into position with a straight stitch. You can see in the picture that I am sewing with the foot aligned with the raw edges of the strip.

This is what the blocks look like when forming the middle section. Both strips are sewn with the folds in to the centre of the block.

Work row by row, making sure that where the strips meet, they match perfectly. You may find that the second strip misses the seam when sewing block to block, do not worry, they will be sewn into position when you sew row by row. As each row is completed, trim any excess from the strips. All the seams are pressed OPEN. This keeps the bulk down.

As you finish a row, sew to the previous row. This helps to keep everything in order! You will notice that the outside blocks only have one strip - this again is to keep the design away from the edges. If you want to take it out to the very edge, place strips accordingly. You can see the diamonds starting to form.

The bottom of my design wall was starting to get a little messy as bits cut off already sewn blocks, were added to blocks yet to be sewn.

When all the rows are sewn together, it will look like this.

I decided to pad my diamonds out, so used cotton batting. You may decide that you wish to skip this step and just place the fabric straight into position. I cut out a piece of paper and played with the shaping until I was happy that it would fit nicely in the diamonds. So first cut the batting to the shape required. I then trimmed just a little off each point. This will cut down on bulk later. You can see how the folds are going to make the diamond window. Make sure that the wadding is just within the folds, otherwise it will possibly be too thick and cumbersome.

Once you have cut all the wadding/batting you can now cut your feature fabric. I bought a metre of the orange for this. Place the batting diamonds on the fabric and simply cut the same shape and size with the exception of the tips. These I put back onto the diamond shape. (I hope that makes sense!)

Using my "Best Friend in the Sewing Room" (glue stick), I then folded the tips back over the wadding. If your final folding doesn't quite cover (and some of them won't for whatever reason), then they will stay neat and won't fray.

Place the diamonds into position once covered with feature fabric.

Start folding the bias strips into position. Try and fold the same way for each diamond. I pinned mine at first, but they kept sticking me as I sewed, so went back to using the glue stick to hold everything in place. This worked much better. For best results take the work back to the ironing board and once a diamond is glued, I hit it with the iron. Glue sets, folds stay in place. Pins don't stick you in unmentionable places!

Sometimes when the folds are being worked, you may find that those little flattened corners are not sitting correctly. If they won't sit well behind the fold, just shave a little off -(but don't cut the folded bit off itself) - any little pokies can be pushed into position with either a needle or the pointy end of the quick unpick.

If you look closely at the picture below, you can see that the orange bit is not going to fit. I just thinned the point out a little.

Now you are ready to sew. Keep the bulk of the fabric to the left of the machine. I worked down one side of a row of diamonds - stopping and starting for each one.

As I completed one side of all the diamonds in the row, I then went back up to the top and started sewing the other side of the diamonds. This cuts back on the amount of turning you have to do. When I reached the halfway point, I turned the whole quilt around and started again working back into the centre.

As you can see, you have all of the dimension of a traditional quilt without all the stitching and folding.

If your feature fabric has a large design, you could certainly fussy cut the design elements you want.

I am thinking of cutting out the diamonds from the back, so when I get some fabric to finish it off I will let you know what I decide to do. If you didn't add any wadding to the diamonds, and you are concerned that you can see any of the seams or the point where the four corners meet, there is absolutely no reason why you couldn't remove this portion. Once the final quilting is done, none of it will be seen. There are lots of bits left over, so these may be incorporated in the binding.

I can see this technique being very useful, if you wish to vary the size of the diamonds or squares, leave some out, the possibilities are endless.

Now just for a laugh, this is what happens when the men in my life are left in charge of O'Reilly.

Just checking this couch out for size - I still have a foot on the floor!

Nope, this one is definitely better. It is like Goldilocks trying out all the beds.......

Ahh, to sleep and dream in such comfort.

I hope you find this tutorial useful. Til next time, Sue xxx

More on 3D Flowers

2011-06-14T02:34:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned on the last post, here is another way to complete the flowers. In this example, I used some hand dyed fabric. Again the squares were cut at 6 1/2 inches. The following arrangement uses 6 petals to form the flowers.

For this flower, I stitched a centre line through each petal, directly on to the backing fabric. As each petal was stitched into shape, I folded the other petals out of the way. From memory I did every second petal first and then finished the others.

For the centre of this flower, which was quite large, I cut a strip of organza on the bias (1 1/2 inches wide) and then stitched through the centre of the fabric, forming a concentric circle. The outer layer of the organza was then stitch down using the free motion foot.

The pink and purple flower quilt were completed using the "quilt as you go" method. My theory for using this method, was that I could work on a small piece (I have a bulging disc at the minute, so needed to pace myself at the machine) and complete each block ready to put together.

Cut backing and wadding the same size as your block.....

Quilt as desired........

I join my blocks together with a wide zigzag.

I cut strips of fabric, folded them in half, then unfolded and refolded, this time with the raw edges in to the centre (just like making bias binding, only without the bias part). Using my faithful glue stick, I attached the strips between each block, and stitched in place, firstly with a straight stitch - just to keep everything in place and then with a decorative stitch.

Each row of blocks was then joined in the same way. The back needed to be taken care of next, and although a little messy in spots, I thought I would give same lace a try to cover the seams - these were hand stitched in place. I used a lace which had no directional qualities (well not noticeable anyway). My original plan was that the quilt would be a wall hanging but the lace seems pretty hardy so I think it would work for any application.

The binding was done in two fabrics. When stitched in place, it gives a look of a piped edge and raises the opportunity to add more colour - as if there wasn't enough already.

Cut one half of the binding at 1 1/2 inches wide and the other piece at 1 1/4inch wide. Join with a 1/4 inch seam. I pressed towards the lighter fabric (the thinner piece). Now fold in half and press again - you will see just a little of the wider fabric. Of course, you can make these any width you like and vary the amount of secondary colour that will be seen. Again I used a little of the good ole glue stick to tack things down as I pressed. As it is water based it will wash right out at the end.

Next step is to attach the binding to the back of the quilt. Normally you would attach it to the front. For those of you who like to do quick quilts, may I say, this is a much faster method and so neat on the back if you like to sew your binding on and down with the sewing machine. There are no surprise bits, like finding that you have sewn all the way around from the front, only to discover that you have not folded as well as you should and you have missed bits.

Mitering the corners is exactly the same, just in reverse.

Fold carefully on the corners, I use a needle or the quick unpick to get nice sharp corners.

And the beauty of this method is that you can do a bit more decorative stitching if you wish, or you can just stitch in the ditch (if you stitch on the line between the dark and light fabric the piping would be loose and look more like piping).

So there you have it - a couple of tips to speed up the process of binding.

Now for those of you following the O'Reilly dog, here are a few photo's. I apologise for the quality - my phone was the only thing close to hand.

We all know the classic lines from Sylvester and Tweety - I tawt I taw a puddy tad - well you might have seen a pussy cat Tweety, but you didn't notice O'Reilly sneaking up from behind did you? No.....

Figure 4 Head Lock

Do you think Tweety has a look of surprise on his face - I thought so when I turned on the lights in the kitchen one night, to find just a head laying by the fridge. Very disturbing.

And a question I ask many times a day these days - why? If you get so comfortable on this setup.....

.......why would you do this?

Cushion on footstool totally obliterated (pic taken through fly screen door).

On a floral note, finally, previous comments about funereal bouquets have been taken on board and red roses surfaced for a wedding anniversary. All flowers these days are the "focus" (pun intended) of photographic endeavours.

Bye for now.

Sue xxx

DIMENSIONAL FLOWERS

2011-06-13T22:04:00.000-07:00

Sauntering through the bedding department of Spotlight a couple of weeks ago, I saw a lovely doona cover with some three dimensional flowers on it. I took photo's with the I Phone in hope of recreating something similar. These are nothing like it. However, they did come up quite well, so I have put together some photo's of how to do it, if you feel the need. The first couple of photo's are early attempts. I finished off by quilting around the flower, then added a stem. The piece was then made into a cushion complete with zip!

So now comes the fun part, how to make pretty flowers using some lovely crystal organza.

For this little quilt, I cut background fabric to 10 1/2 in squares. I purchased 1 metre of each of the colours of organza (naturally I made two trips to the shops because 1/2 a metre didn't go very far). Cut the organza into squares that measure 6 1/2 inches. The organza is a little fiddly and doesn't keep it's straight edge very well when you try to move it - just cut one row at a time and then adjust as necessary as you cut. Organza is an extremely tough and very forgiving.

You are now going to fold a square in half to form a triangle. Have your pins handy.

Starting in the middle, make folds in the fabric, overlapping as you go. Use the pins to keep everything from unravelling.

Keep folding towards the centre until the petal kind of looks like this. There is no right or wrong way to fold, just adjust until you get a pleasing look. As you get to the outside edge, you can use the last folds to cover any raw edges. The organza stretches beautifully, make bias work for you!

Now you can stitch the petal using a nice size zigzag - length 2/width 3. Stitch at a point where you will cover and hold all layers of fabric - this will NOT be on the very edge. My Pfaff has a nice wide foot and I used the edge as a guide.

You can see here how far in I actually started stitching. As this fabric is a little slippery, I would also recommend that if you are going to chain piece the petals, you do a couple of back stitches, otherwise you may find as you pull the petals away from the machine, the thread will rip right out.

Use a sewing foot with a nice clear view, here you can see that I am adjusting the fabric layers under the foot with a quick unpick, but a big needle, skewer or awl will all complete the task.

For each flower in the quilt, I made five petals.

Clean up the edge and cut up to the zigzag stitches.

Now prepare your background fabric. I cut my squares at 10 1/2 inches. To mark the centre, I folded into four and then lightly pressed. After pressing in some marks, I drew 5 lines to give a rough guide for petal placement.

To attach the petals to the background, I used my free motion/darning foot. I still had the machine set to zigzag. As the petals are going to overlap, sew the petals in a fashion that gives the look of a couple to the back and others to the front. As I sewed the petals into place, I pushed them under the foot so they finished with a slight curve. Again you can use something to help get the desired shape.

When you have the petals held in place, you can form your leaves. Again, these are 6 1/2 inch squares, but this time you fold them in half like so.....

Another fold into the centre and a couple of pins and they look like this.....

And then fold again, until they take on a rough leaf shape.

Again, sew across the bottom of each leaf shape with a zigzag stitch and trim the bottoms straight across.

Once more with the free motion foot, zigzag the leaves into place. On some of my flowers I used two leaves, others had only one. You are best to add the leaves after the flowers are in place - you can see if and where they are needed to balance out the flower. As you stitch the leaves into place, make sure your flower petals are pulled out of the way.

Now with a bit of free motion work, stitch the leaves down, do a rough vein design.

The leaves are now firmly in place.

Now you can go back to your flower petals and stitch down.

Once the petals have all been anchored in position, you can add some heavier stitching to form the centre of the flower.

The flower centres need to be carefully considered. If it is going to be a wall hanging, then you may choose to add buttons if a quilt that is to be used for a child, then I would recommend a centre that is embroidered into position. Here I cut circles of orange organza large enough for the centre. I used two circles for each flower. I also cut a small circle to fill in behind the organza centres.

Using free motion, I then went around the circle fanning the stitches out into the petals. I also stitched into the centre. You could also cut circles and use Suffolk puffs as the flower centres.

I have given this quilt a wash 30degree celcius - normal - nothing delicate and the organza has come out perfectly. It is certainly a fabric that can easily be incorporated into a quilt.

In my next post, I will show another sample of these flowers done in cotton fabric, and also making use of some of your decorative stitches on the sewing machine.

Bye for now.

Sue xxx

DIAMONDS AND DISASTER

2011-05-15T19:38:00.000-07:00

I have come to the conclusion that white fabric and I, just do not go hand in hand. I have continued to work on different types of cathedral window quilts and have come up with a natty way to produce diamonds. So after spending a bit of time making the sample, I thought I would give the quilt a wash to remove the blue pen leftovers.

Naturally the colour ran in two of the diamonds......and before you say it, yes they had been washed.
So what to do, chuck it back in the wash with some bleach - at this point it couldn't look any worse than it did after the first wash. Here is a discovery - if you apply bleach to fabric you have used the dreaded blue wash away pen on - you will get dirty brown marks that do not come out, even with a second and third wash with bleach. Just so you know........ that's what photo shop was invented for.

Naturally, I also managed to entrap some bright orange thread in the quilting on the back (I suppose it would have been worse if that was on the front too!) I will have some instructions ready in the next couple of weeks.

Our quilting group has been playing around with trading cards. Here are the first round cards - subject "Spring"

We have since done another round with a Japanese theme (photo's to follow) and the next set will have the theme of "Coffee and Chocolate" - Guess who chose this theme!

Just before we left for holidays, the first of our dahlias came in to flower - I always associated these flowers with earwigs, but they do make for a bright spot in the garden.

O'Reilly joined us on the family holiday - he had to stay in kennels, but was allowed out for day release.

So here is a look at our holidays from the dogs viewpoint.....

I'm not convinced I want to spend 8 hours in the car, but ok if I can sit here.....

Are we there yet.......

Not sure about this wet stuff.....

In the swing of if - fun on the beach.....

Making new friends....

Kids on the beach thought there was a tiger loose at large .......

Resting between games - football, stealing a fish, knocking over fishing rods (well you will fish on a dogs off leash beach), finding a bird wing to drag up and down the beach, chasing seagulls........

Wasn't that kind of someone to leave me a towel to rest on......

Sand castles are sooo yesterday....

Trying ice-cream for the first time...

Brain freeze, it's stuck to the roof of my mouth.......

And somewhere in the last week or two was Mothers' Day. We celebrated with these pots of chocolatey gooeyness.

Having injured my back two weeks ago, I have been spending a bit of time laying down, or computering standing up, but have managed to read a couple of lovely books, both that required tissues and moments of the men in my life wondering what was wrong now. So if you need a good cry (it may just be me) these are just the ticket:

The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein (I was blubbering quietly by page 4) Dog Book

and

Cleo - Helen Brown Cat Book

So that's it for the minute,

Sue xxx

BET YOU DON'T HAVE ONE OF THESE ON YOUR DESIGN WALL....

2011-03-20T18:34:00.000-07:00

Going....

Gone.......almost...

Honestly, that cat, if he isn't using my design wall as a scratching post, he is using it as a climbing frame.

When not dealing with the critters, I have been playing with Cathedral Windows, which seem to be back on the menu at the moment. I have done a couple of samples so far, and am working on one with an Asian Theme, trying to use up some of the dreaded stash.

Here is my take....

My method allows for insertion in to a quilt, so I will report back when I finalise the right way and wrong way to do it!

Had a Martha Stewart moment and created this....

Lemon Meringue Pie - from scratch - nothing beats it! With my failing memory I had to make myself stand in front of the oven and wait for the meringue to brown. I have a bad habit these days of waking away and doing something else - by the time I think - ooh something smells nice - it usually means the item in the oven has been burnt to perfection as the elf describes it! I did order a kitchen timer - hopefully it will be really loud, this may help.

Now here is the O'Reilly dog. Weighing in this week at 33.1kg at 4 1/2 months. We have been doing puppy school - and we graduated - so from next week we are on to obedience lessons. O'Reilly had pretty much mastered the "sit" command from day one especially when it comes to his meal time. Sit/stay is good sometimes, although in class he does have a tendency to get tired of waiting and usually ends up laying down (this seems to be a favourite position - laying down). Wolfhounds do like doing things in their own time. He really took to doing the "A" frame/Tunnel/Boardwalk section of the class - but he does have a tendency to send the tunnel skidding across the floor when he hits it.

Here is the boy and his bear - teddy is missing an arm and had just been disemboweled at this point - another little job - re stuff and put the arm back on.

This is how the bear lost his arm.....

Re-arranging the agapanthus.

Resting between gardening and finding new ways to make a mess....

Don't you just love those ears - we call this the double comb over - kind of like when men grow long bits of hair and pull it over the bald spot.

Hope you enjoy the photo's.
Bye for now
Sue xxx

GOLDFISH QUILT

2011-02-24T15:35:00.000-08:00

I have been slowly working away on this project. I have digitized all the appliqued fish myself and am quite pleased with the results so far. Each one gets a bit of a tweaking as I sew them out, so it does take a little time. The fabric is painted and then rock salt was liberally sprinkled and created a speckled effect. I did this - possibly two years ago - so I am not sure of the paints I used. There is of course, a bit of gold dust splattered about.

Here are a few closeups of the fish. I added some colour to the yellow fish because they just took over (if that is possible with such a group of bright orange fish.

I think I know where I am going with this piece, but we will see what happens with the next stage. The waterlilies are incomplete - I am working on the next two layers of petals, to give a 3D effect. The waterlily leaves came from ABC Embroidery or Anna Bove Embroidery. It took me forever to find them in my stash of embroidery designs, I knew I had them because I had sewn a couple out before, but chose to use some sort of obscure filing system on the computer, which I am sure made sense at the time......

Here is Harv, trying reeaaallly hard to get a tummy rub. Norm hasn't been sighted a lot, preferring to remain upstairs away from O'Reilly (aka Gonzo the Giant). He did make his presence briefly known by doing what he does best (peeing on the carpet), but over the last week has finally accepted that life as he knew it, was to include a large dog (who just wants to play). No Prozac has been used at this point.

On the goldfish front, there was a little hiccup. Coles/Myer (names are interchangeable here) was given the traditional burial, complete with the last post being played through pursed lips, as the flushing was completed. A replacement Coles/Myer was installed, this time a comet, and so far all is going well in the tank. The fantail has accepted his new tank mate.

And of course, I can't finish without the O'Reilly Dog. Puppies can seriously eat into your day, it is like having a new baby in the house, only it moves and the mop and bucket are on permanent standby. Now at 16 weeks, O'Reilly weighed in at 26kilo's. He has had to adjust his sleeping habits with regards to his favourite chair.......

We are currently doing puppy school, after receiving our diploma in puppy kinder. There is nothing like crouching down, doing the "come O'Reilly, come "- and having a large dog without brakes (and not much in the way of co ordination some days) screaming down the hall towards you - sometimes it just doesn't end well!

Ohh, and there was one of these in the last couple of weeks. It was a big number - the amount of candles does not represent the actual amount of time I have been here.

Til next time.
Sue xxx

THE WATCHER'S

2011-01-11T04:01:00.000-08:00

Norman taking in the view - watching the dog.

Below is a baby Kookaburra, awaiting Mum and Dad's return with food. You know they are coming because they sit in the trees and "laugh" announcing their arrival.

Having another play with my digitising software - I posted this quilt block over at Sewforum. Whilst repetition is not my strong point, I got on with it and made a small quilt top. I need to add the borders of course, but I was working with a couple of remnant pieces of fabric so will have to take it shopping to find just the right fabric - there's a good excuse to buy fabric!

As it is supposed to be summer time here, (all we seem to get is liquid sunshine), it is cherry time. For Christmas I was given this little gadget......

It takes the joy of eating cherries to a whole new level. I usually each cherries by standing over the rubbish bin and elegantly spit the pips as I go - attractive I know. Now I can load the little suckers into this gadget...

and hey presto, you get a hole and no pip. Brilliant.

Here are a few I prepared earlier - well actually I put these in a small bowl to photograph and share, but decided to skip the last bit. They were just too good. (If you like olives, it does them too). I knew there were gadgets out there for this kind of thing, but didn't realise what a simple task it makes of cherry pips!

I bought these two beauties from Urban Threads. They were having a sale on some items for $1 each. The site has a lot of designs that would appeal to the younger set, especially those trying out "Goth" for size. I do like a good skull and some of the gothic stuff is just lovely. I did these today just to see how they stitched out. The Vampire Hunting Kit didn't have the frame around it, so I added a rope style frame. I think I will frame the bird (it appears to quote from "The Raven", by Edgar Allen Poe) and hang it in the bathroom downstairs.

And now we move on to the portion of the program where we have a look at O"Reilly......

When he arrived on the 30/12, him and the crate weighed in at 10kg. When I took him to the vet on Tuesday last week for a getting to know you, here's a liver treat, don't mind whilst I stick a thermometer up your butt session, he weighed in at 9.6kg, all by himself. I swear he looks to have doubled in size in just over a week.

We were wondering if he was actually going to bark - he did when he was chasing Norman. When he wakes up he howls like a banshee. Being an older mother, I can't say I found this overly amusing at 4am, 5.30am and 7.15am, but he is at least now sleeping in until 6ish.

He does like this outdoor chair - it won't fit him for very long.

The outdoor shoe rack is going to become somewhat obsolete - he can already reach shoes on levels one, two and three if he really tries hard. This is at least making some members of the family actually remove their shoes pronto!

I am facinated that he can stretch out like this. If he were human you would swear that he sleep walks. During his many daytime naps, O'Reilly may start on the mat, but between stretching, rolling and dragging himself under the kitchen chairs, he is never in the spot you last saw him.

Sometimes whilst O'Reilly sleeps, the phantom comes to visit.....

Never staying very long, but always lurking!

Sue xxx

INTRODUCING......O'REILLY

2010-12-30T03:26:00.000-08:00

Here is O'Reilly, Irish Wolfhound......all 8 weeks of age. We picked him up from Tullamarine Airport this afternoon. He is pictured with the remnants of yoghurt on his nose. No sooner had we got him in the car than he curled up and slept for an hour until we got him home. Below is O'Reilly enjoying his second nap for the evening. I trust this means I will not be up between 12 and 2 am entertaining him!

Harv is very interested in O'Reilly's bed - the introduction to the cats has been relatively good (so far). I guess Norman will show his displeasure soon by peeing on something. I have the mop and bucket handy.

My husband, who was keen to have a lap dog but gave up/in when I scoured the Eastern Seaboard looking for a Wolfhound pup, is totally smitten. O'Reilly has been referred to in the past weeks as "halfahorse".

Happy New Year

Sue xxx

MADE IT THROUGH ANOTHER ONE (CHRISTMAS 2010)

2010-12-26T22:20:00.000-08:00

Well, another Christmas crossed off the list. Now to kick back and wait for Melbourne to stop producing liquid sunshine and get going with some of the real stuff. My husband will tell you that I am not a fan of the heat - (although he can never understand why he can get around the house in shorts in the middle of winter when the ducted heating and the wood fire have the house in the vicinity of a balmy 27 C and I then complain when the weather warms up and gets over 23 C) but even I am sick of the rain.

Above are some "glimpses" of the tree skirt I started this year. This is version no.2. The tree skirt saga started after I had been on the "Designs by JuJu" site. After taking advantage of one of her sales, I added a few more North Pole designs to my considerable collection of machine embroidery designs and in a rash move, decided a beautiful piece of fabric that had been laying around for a couple of years - originally purchased to make a heavy jacket - looked like the perfect canvas for a tree skirt. I knew it had been washed a couple of times already, because it was one of Norman's favourite sleeping fabrics. The fabric was a lovely fake suede look on one side and polar fleece arrangement on the other. Did I give any thought to how such a wonderful fabric may have been produced? NO. I had sewn about 4 designs when "The Beast" aka the PR600, began having a cow and telling me every 20 stitches, that there was an "issue" with the bobbin or the upper thread. Did I give any thought that it may have been the fabric? NO. So I begged the repair man to come and check "The Beast" out, and we did samples on other fabric, and he changed all the needles and she began to sew again. So we decided it was the brand of needles, and he left and I continued on with the next design. Needless to say, he had no sooner left the building than the problems started again. I deemed that as I was already 5 designs in and it was (in my mind anyway) beyond the point of no return, to continue. Closer inspection revealed that the needles were becoming coated in a sticky substance. Did I stop here? NO. So I pressed on and on, until I had successfully completed the 16 designs. I was going to do more houses and it was going to be soooo lovely. I decided before adding the snow border, that some trees were needed to give the street scene that little something extra, so between all the designs I added trees, all the time taking needles out of the machine, soaking them in metho, cleaning the scarf of the needles to remove the glue, until I had finished. (At some point in all of this, I discovered that my beautiful fabric was actually two layers of fabric glued together - hence the sticky glue on the needles). Behold the tree skirt was finished as far as the embroidery was concerned. As I had drawn lines all over to get even spacing I thought I would give it a rinse, to remove everything before I added snow. (Some of you will know where this is going). What happened - the colour ran. Everything was pink. It ran with 5 dye catchers in the machine, it ran with oxyaction napisan, it ran with more dye catchers - it ran until I threw it in the bin. There was two weeks sewing I wasn't getting back.

So above are glimpses of the second tree skirt. Needless to say, it isn't finished, that will be my project to finish shortly, or before next Christmas, whichever comes sooner.

I think I need to add a hat to Norman, and the title could be "Ho Bloody Ho". Maybe next years Christmas card! Oh wait, I forgot, I never remember to send them........ Harv looks good in a hat, although somewhat mournful and pitiful.

Having survived 6 years at the hands of these two, from kitten hood on, our previous Christmas tree went to the tip straight after last Christmas. The new tree came in about 100 pieces, good luck putting that away, I hear you say. However, the branches are a more dense than the previous tree, so Norman hasn't yet been able to work out how to climb it. This means the new tree will live to see next Christmas. This is Norman pretending he really didn't want to climb the tree and has found something more interesting to do (like wait for Harv to walk past).

This is Nelly. Nelly is my sisters dog. Nelly thoroughly enjoyed Christmas Day. There was lunch, there was mid afternoon snacks of bacon, and there was an expectation of dinner at some point later in the day. Nelly had a great Christmas. It is nice to see her smiling. More often than not she looks like she has the worst life and yet quite the opposite is true.

Just before Christmas, the fish tank finally was placed in position. Santa coughed up a few more camera accessories, including a flash, so I was able to get some better shots of the new fish. Introducing (keeping in line with the Department Store names) Coles and Myer.

You can almost see fish tonsils in this shot......

Needless to say, the tank and its occupants have kept Norm thoroughly entertained.

Of course, the camera was downstairs when this was taking place, I only had my iPhone on hand to take the shot, so the quality will not be great.

I'm just looking.....

really......

What.....

Just as a teaser, there will be a new addition to the family this week. I can't wait.

The tree and the decorations will be getting the flick pretty quick this year. I think I will be busy sorting out disputes and territorial arrangements. I am sure the phantom piddler will be keeping me on my toes as an act of revenge, but it wasn't like I haven't told him.......

See you soon. Sue xxx

DECOUPAGE

2010-11-14T17:12:00.000-08:00

What a fun but time consuming little project this turned out to be. A basic pine cupboard, add some wheels, trim and a couple of doors, find some fantastic hardware and hey presto, a fish tank stand with an oriental inspired theme.

Not too bad for a first attempt at decoupage. The pictures were from odds and ends collected over the years. I pasted the images on to a black background and then transformed them in to watercolour sketches using Painter Essentials 4. I set the pictures up in a document using Word and mirrored some of the images before photocopying them. Cutting out was pretty laborious, as was going around every image with a black pencil to hide the cut edges. 18 coats of varnish and lots of sanding, I am putting the cue in the rack as it were. Now to leave it for a week or two to let the varnish set well. In the meantime I am in search of a filter for inside the cupboard and some decent sized goldfish!

I looked everywhere locally for the type of fittings on the cupboard and couldn't find anything like these. I ended up here -Chinese Brass Hardware - took about 10 days to arrive from USA to Melbourne, great service.

Bye for now. Sue xxx

APRON RECIPE

2010-10-30T20:43:00.000-07:00

As promised last week, here is the recipe for the aprons. Please remember, I am not a pattern writer. I have drawn diagrams to the best of my abilities, and hopefully, as there are a LOT of photo's you will be able to follow along. The measurements on the chart are a starting point only. It may be wise to make a mock up first (top bit only), then you can determine where darts need to go and how big a dart is needed. I used drill fabric for the black and pink aprons, and the floral apron is a poplin type fabric with a poplin lining. The drill aprons are finished using a facing, the floral is a full lining. Use of a lining fabric is recommended if the main fabric is a little thin.

I purchased 1 1/2 metres of fabric (59 inches) at 112 wide. This makes an apron 1 metre long (40 inches). For the lined apron, I also purchased 1.10 metres/43 inches of lining fabric. There were bits left over, but I wanted to make sure I had enough as I was working the aprons out as I went (and in the case of the floral apron I used all the floral up due to an "unfortunate incident"). You will also need 3 - 4 metres (final length is personal preference, I like to tie mine around the front) of good quality herringbone tape - 1 inch wide (2.5cm). Some are better than others, one of the ones I purchased had absolutely no body at all so I ended up making a strap. Okay, here we go....

Fold your fabric in half length ways. I gave mine a light press. Trim top to give a straight edge. Measure desired length and cut. At the top edge, make a mark - 1/2 the width of your above the bust measurement. (On this sample it was 7 1/2 inches/19cm). On the outside edge (length) measure down 12 to 14 inches (if you are high waisted 12 inches/30cm will probably do). Draw a gentle curve between these two points. The remaining fabric will be for the pocket and the facing. Keep it folded.

This is the "armhole" for want of a better description. If you want to vary the neckline with a "sweetheart" shape or any other shape that takes you fancy, you can draw this in and cut out also.

Next, we have to draw out a facing. This needs to be drawn on the fold (neck edge). I used the apron piece I had just cut, as my pattern for this piece. Trace the design and then across the neck edge, make a mark 3 inches/8cm down. On the armhole edge, the facing doesn't quite have to be as deep - 2 inches/5cm will be sufficient. Do place your drawing as close to the top of the fabric as possible to allow the waste to be used for the pocket.

Use your tape measure to mark a cutting guide. Here I am marking the facing at two inches and will use these marks as a cutting guide.

Cut the facing out. On the wrong side of the apron piece and the facing, mark your dart position. As a starting point, try the dart at 3 1/2inches/9cm in from the outside (armhole) edge. Adjust as necessary. I drew the straight line (dart centre) 3 inches /7.5cm long and then placed a mark at 1/2inch /1.5cm on either side of this line. I then drew a line down to the point - this gives you the centre of the dart and a stitching line.

You will notice on the facing for the pink apron, I didn't make the neckline facing area as deep as I have stated in the above instructions. This means that the dart point on the facing will not be able to be completed. This works fine, just draw the lines using an imaginary finishing point and then sew accordingly.

When pinning the two pieces together, make sure that one dart faces one way, and the other faces in the opposite direction so they butt up to each other nicely.

Sewing order is important in the project, for ease of finishing. Pin the facing - neck edge to neck edge - be very careful of the armhole areas as they are now bias edges - so treat them kindly! Make a mark (or pin) as follows: Armhole edge - mark at 6/8 inch, from this mark, make another mark at 1 1/4 inches, this is for the tape/strap slot. Do the same on the other side. You will now stitch a short seam, leave a gap of 1 1/4 inches, sew to the next mark, stop, leave a gap of 1 1/4 inches and then sew the remaining 6/8 inch measurement. With the wrong side facing up, lightly press the seam open.

You are now going to do a little bit of top stitching around the holes you have just made.

Now fold back, right sides facing and sew the rest of the facing on to the apron piece.

If you have done a sweetheart neckline, you will need to clip the curves. Turn right side out and gently press, making sure to roll the facing slightly to the back to give a neat finish on the front. Using a small zigzag stitch, neaten the edge of the facing. REMEMBER follow the order of stitching, for ease of construction!

Now we will approach the side seams. These were completed by folding over once and then folding a second time. I used the glue stick to keep them in place, (pins will be sufficient) and gave a light press. You can see from the photo that this seam incorporates the facing.

Next is the hem. You can see from the photos how this is folded.

First fold.

Second fold - nice neat corner.

Now top stitch in order - side, bottom, side.

Now we have to take care of the armhole area. Press the facing into postion and pin the facing down to stop any puckers. First top stitch the outside edge. Use the slits you made on the top edge as your guide. Sew each of the two outside edges first. Next, using the quilting guide, you are going to sew the channel for the tape. To set the guide, line up your needle with the edge of the slit (it doesn't have to be bang on it - to the side slightly is fine) and adjust the guide until it sits on the top stitching line you have just sewn.

Sew the two channels.    You can now thread your tape.   Start on the side, come up through the neck slit, go back in through the other neck slit and come out back on the side.    Try the apron on before adding pockets.  Mark where the pockets should be placed.

The pockets are made from the leftovers.    I had enough left to make one piece for the front of the pocket, and joined the two pieces from the armhole scraps for the lining.   The best way to sew these is to leave a gap in the lining pieces and press open the seam.   With right sides together, sew all around the pocket shape in one piece and use the gap in the stitching to turn through.   This makes for a neater edge. Slip stitch the seam together, press and top stitch the top edge.   Find the centre of your apron and the centre of the pocket, and sew in place.    My pocket is a rectangle, with a centre seam forming two pockets.

FULLY LINED APRON

For the fully lined apron, you will need to cut two pieces, one main and one lining fabric.    The darts and neckline will be cut as above.     Again, mark your darts and pin and check that they fall well. Adjust if necessary, and make the same adjustments to both pieces.

Sew darts and press in opposite directions as per the facing style. When sewing the darts, and to get a good sharp point, try the following - start at the widest part of the dart, with normal stitch length. As you get closer to the point, start reducing your stitch length until the last 1/4 inch or sew your stitch length is 0.5. Run off the fabric - don't back stitch, leave a small tail, done!

There is a slight change of order, when doing the fully lined version of the apron. Sew the neck edge first, leaving the holes for the tape/strap to feed through. Press open as before and top stitch.

Now you are going to carry out the same procedure for the sides, to make a slot for tape/strap. This time, sew the short line of stitching, leave the same width gap and then stitch for 3 inches down the side of the apron. This will make your top stitching around the hole easy to manage. Once this step has been completed, you can sew the armhole seams on both sides. Go back and finish sewing the side seams, top to bottom. Leave the hem open. Turn the apron right sides out. Carefully push corners out (remember to clip). Press. As before, top stitch the two armhole seams first, and make the channel. Sew across the neck edge. Then sew down the sides, taking care not to sew over the tape slits!!

Turn up the hem, I folded twice to get a neat edge, and top stitch into place.

Thread the strap through as before, try on and mark for pockets if desired. I attached the pocket, sewing through both layers.

I hope the above instructions are clear and easy to follow, any questions, just ask. I look forward to seeing some aprons in the coming weeks.

Bye for now. Sue xxx

CANDLE MAT FOR CHRISTMAS

2010-10-27T20:54:00.000-07:00

This week, instead of finishing aprons, I was momentarily sidetracked with making a candle mat. The embroidery design is for an embroidery machine, but if you haven't got an embroidery machine and you like a bit of applique, this is a simple project you could recreate with a simple triangle shape and a suitable shape for the basket. If you are using your machine for applique, and it has a few fancy stitches, you could use these as the swags of tinsel on the tree. (This design will be posted on Sewforum, shortly).

If you fancy making one of these, the following are some of the measurements you will need to get started. It is an idea - run with it, make it as big or as small as you like, decorate as you wish. I used some Swarovsky Crystals to finish off the tree baubles.

For this size mat, you will need 55 cm or 22 inches of 112cm/42in of fabric. Mine was plain white with self coloured stars. Cut this in half - one for the front and one piece for the back.

Batting/Wadding 55cm/22inches by 55cm/21inches. You will also need scraps of fabric for the trees.

I used the front fabric and the wadding first, and quilted using stippling, to stabilise the fabric. You could also use a grid type of quilting or a few random lines running up and down and across - maybe even some fancy stitches if you like.

This will be the base for the applique.

Now you have to draw up your star. I drew up 5 stars on paper, and moved them around until I was happy with the arrangement (suitably star like). I pasted them down on to a bigger piece of paper to make my pattern piece. When pasted, I took a ruler and added a 1/4in seam line all the way around. Cut the paper pattern out and pin to your fabric. Now using a method you prefer, transfer the design to the pre-quilted fabric. DO NOT CUT ANYTHING!

Here are the measurements of my triangle (before seam allowances).

If you are using the embroidery design, print out a template and use to position the Christmas Tree correctly. I lined the tree base up with the bottom corners of each triangle. You can of course, position them how you like.

There is a line included in the embroidery that I used to make small adjustments to placement. I temporarily used the good ole glue stick to tack the paper in place and made adjustments on the machine until happy with the placement. I let the machine sew a few stitches on this line, stopped it, moved it ahead a few and sewed out a couple more stitches - just to make sure it was all straight. To remove the paper, just carefully clip the stitches between the paper and the fabric. If you didn't go mad with the glue stick, it will pull off easily - I used the same template for all five trees.

When everything is in place, do your tack down row of stitching and prepare the fabric for applique - I used vlysofix on the back of my applique pieces.

Sew out all five trees. The finished top should look like this. If you want, you could also add something to the centre at this point, perhaps Merry Christmas or Seasons Greetings.

Now that the front is finished, we have to prepare the backing fabric. You may choose to do this in another fabric, entirely up to you. With the right sides together, fold the backing fabric in half. Now cut in half using scissors. Sew a seam, joining the two pieces of fabric together leaving an opening in the centre. This will be for turning. Make sure you do secure the stitching at each side of the gap. Press the seam open.

Using the drawn line as your cutting guide, cut out the star shape now.

Lay the backing fabric, right side up, on to your work surface. Place the star shape on this fabric - face down. Try to avoid having the seam line fall on the points or in the valley, (see the arrow) - make sure the gap you left is in the centre of the star. Move the star shape until you are happy with the arrangement and then pin into position. DO NOT CUT ANYTHING.

Using a 1/4 inch seam allowance, sew all the way around, joining the two pieces of fabric. I find it best to start my seams halfway up (or down) a triangle, not in the corners or on a point. Now you can cut the star shape out from the backing. By doing this, you are not working with bias edges that will shift and loose their shape whilst you are working on them. Trim the points and clip in the valleys ready for turning.

Using that gap you left in the two pieces of fabric, turn the star through, taking great care with the corners so you don't pierce the ends. By having a seam in the middle of the backing and not on the edge, all your edges will keep straight, and it is then a simple matter of ladder stitching this seam closed.

Work the points and seams with your fingers and then give a good press from the back. Once everything is in place, you can now top stitch around the edge of the star.

The best way to get a good stitch on the points is to run a thread through the end of each point before sewing. As you reach the end of the point and turn (remember to use "Needle Down"), you can pull on the thread, to make these points move under the presser foot and not get caught by their bulk.

I had a go at doing a slide show, to show you the finished product. Here goes nothing.....

And just to finish off for today, how about some sticky buns straight out of the oven.

Bye for now, Sue xxx

APRONS

2010-10-22T02:14:00.000-07:00

Aprons seem to be all the rage at the moment, as long as you are pencil thin and flat chested, they cover what they are supposed to. Now, I am neither of the above, you try to keep "nice" whilst baking only to discover one of the girls is now covered in flour because she has slipped out from behind the curtain. So to rid myself of this dilemma, I have been working on these.

Cupcakes seem to go hand in hand with the apron theme....

or we can go with a little bit of Pink and Poodles .....

The poodles and the Eiffel Tower came from a set called "Ooh La La Applique" that is available from Designs by JuJu. I used fleece for the poodles.

I have one more apron to go, a little floral number. When I have worked out the kinks, I will tell you "how to" if you want to make one for yourself.

Now I have to get on to one of my crabby rants and sink the boots into......

ITEMS THAT ARE NOT LIVING UP TO THEIR EXPECTATIONS.

So far this week, I have had to replace the toilet seat on a reasonably expensive suite. It has been in operation for five, possibly 6 years, the seat split. Guess what, that style is now obsolete. I have a new seat, it is not the right seat and it looks wrong - curved seat versus squarer style porcelain. At this point I am settling for this arrangement, 1. because there is nothing worse than having your thighs pinched in the middle of the night, and 2. because it is better than parking it on cold porcelain. I have been watching one of the renovation shows on the go at the moment (The Block) and laughed when somebody put in a loo that cost a grand. How ticked off will the lucky owner be when the seat breaks and a replacement part is unavailable because it is out of fashion. Thanks Porcher, I won't be buying my next suite from you.

Now I'd like to move on to the next failure, and that is my Sunbeam Pro Stick Mixer. I have been making smoothies for breakfast and like to use this unit. That was until yesterday when I suddenly realised that milk was seeping up the rubber seal and fermenting in the tube - gross. As it is still under warranty, guess what Mr Sunbeam will be getting back.

And drum roll...........finally (for this week anyway) I'd like to thank Mr Ilve and his team for an expensive and shoddy product. The piece de resistance today; when I noticed part of the badging of my oven laying on the floor. It is only a little thing you say, but surely an oven that is going to be used, a lot, should have it's badging riveted or screwed on, especially when it is in a prominent place on an oven that gets hot...... and wouldn't you think it would be enamelled, not plastic on what looks like brass, but probably isn't. How is it attached? Well, as you can see, this bit isn't, but the brass part is glued by the look of it. (See how it has dropped).

This was an expensive piece of equipment and truly, I don't think it lives up to the hype - remember - those model type people covered in food, look of ecstasy on their faces. (Google Ilve and go to their Advertising Page).

Where to start, where to start, lets see:

* Even cooking - no need to turn trays - somebody forgot to tell my oven.

* Oven that would impress great cooks, the shelves bend when you put a heavy casserole dish on them.

* The actual unit spent three weeks on my kitchen bench, when one of the controls burnt out.

* The unit had only been installed for 4 months and nobody was available to repair it over the Christmas/January break.

* The knobs come loose too easily.

* As part of the matching set, I have the cook top as well. Wouldn't you think, in this day and age, that the trivet part of the burners would be made in a metal that could go in the dishwasher, instead of being made of aluminium that is impossible to get clean? I'm just saying......

If you are doing a kitchen renovation, think carefully. I can't wait for the next exciting installment with Ilve.

Ok, now I have this weeks issues off my chest, I will go and sew something and take calming breaths until something else drops off, blows up or catches fire!

Bye for now, Sue xxx