FACING FOR A QUILT - TUTORIAL

This type of finish is used in the place of binding. You can use the same fabric as the border, the back, a contrast - the choice is yours. I used this method for this particular quilt because for some reason I had some sort of brain infarct and the back wasn't big enough - oops.

Check the edges of your quilt to see if any adjustments need to be made to the width and length. I do this by folding in to the middle. Do the edges overhang? If so, you will need to adjust them, just as you do with a normal binding. Measure through the middle of the quilt or take a couple of measurements across the quilt (whatever method works for you). Cut your strips a little longer than this measurement. Mark with a couple of pins, the start and finish leaving the excess evenly at each end. Quarter and eighth this strip, marking with a pin at each point. Make a matching second strip for the other end. Now fold and pin the quilt top into quarters and eighths. Pin the strips, right sides facing each other, matching your marking points. Do both ends. Ease if necessary. Stitch these strips into position using a 1/4inch seam. Leave the end pins marking where it should line up with the edge of the quilt and start stitching about an inch in. Don't bother to tie on and off as you will need to undo some stitches shortly.

Repeat for the other two sides. Make sure you open out the ends so you don't accidentally sew over them. Take the quilt to the ironing board.

You are going to make a mitred corner now. The edge just sewn on to the quilt should be laying flat on the quilt - right sides together - this will be a little messy at the corners for a minute. Peel back the first piece of fabric from the corner and fold back on itself creating a 45degree fold. The fabric will now be wrong sides together in the corner. It should line up with the corner of the quilt. Fold back the other piece of fabric, it should look like the picture below.

Press in a fold line on both pieces. This is where you may find it easier to undo a few stitches. Pin the the pieces together following the fold lines and stitch.

Trim the seam and press open. Restitch around the corner, making sure everything sits flat.

If you are just going to do a straight facing, you will now just need to trim the corners back and then flip the facing over to the back. (You can join me in a minute for the finishing).# If you wish to do curved edges or scallops, you are now going to need to draw up some paper templates to create a placement guide.

For this example I did a scallop template. You will need to decide how deep you wish to take the scallop - this example is 1 inch. Fold your paper into a concertina type fold or just do two or three folds. If you are doing a more sweeping design for the edges, you may need to make a full size template or just draw up one half, but remember to flip it over where necessary.

Cut out the desired shape. You will need to take care if you are doing scallop type designs. Every single scallop needs to have the same side depth. If you are doing a round corner, you will need to draw this in.

The best methods for marking out the templates is to either start bang in the centre and work out or start in the corners if you have some specific shape in mind for those, and then work towards the centre. You can adjust these shapes to get a pleasing arrangement when you get to the centre.

The following photo shows the back of the quilt. The facing in position on the front, waiting to be flipped to the back. You can also see the stitched line that you have completed (1). (2) shows the template line that you will sew on. When drawing the template, do not draw above the sewn line - if you are doing scallops or curves, they will end up with flat tops (3).

Now sew on your drawn line, remember this is the stitching line. If you are doing curves make sure you have your needle down when sewing, it will make for sharper corners and cleaner curves.

Trim back the fabric to a 1/4inch seam, clip the curves and make "v" notches where appropriate, trim off any corners.

#Flip the facing over to the back of the quilt and adjust the seam line, by rolling between your fingers, until the seam is either right on the edge or just rolling to the back. Pin until you are ready to press.

Now as we all know, a third hand would come in very handy at this point, especially when you are trying to roll, press and take a photograph - with the back of the quilt facing you, and with pins removed from the area where you are going to work, adjust the facing by pulling towards you a little and press at the same time. Continue around the entire quilt. Remove the pins before you press as you will end up with marks.

Using a suitable thread - needle and bobbin, stitch around the entire quilt. Work from the front and stitch using either a straight stitch or decorative stitch with tensions adjusted accordingly.

To finish off the raw edge, undo a few stitches from the corners and fold the fabric under. Press and pin, then slip stitch into position. As you are stitching, make sure you secure these corners as you go.

And there you go, a faced wavy edge. (Yes I know I started out with scallops, but there was a mishap - okay!! - it involved scissors and clipping).

For enquiring minds, the turtles are machine embroidered and came from Embroidery Library.

Hope this is of help to some of you.

Till next time.

Sue

SLEEP DENTISTRY

I am, without a doubt, a big girl's blouse. I fear many things, but the thing that is "fearing" me most at the minute - well the last year and a half anyway, is "the Dentist". My dentist had the nerve to retire. This left me in a dilemma of major proportions, who would take the time to drug me, keep me calm, what to do. I remained at the same surgery because they do gas, and a few other drugs, that allow the dentist to get on with their work without me "assisting" . This worked well as a system for many years, so I decided to try another dentist in this practice. This dentist was a newby and when I returned a couple of days later complaining of tooth pain on the wisdom tooth just filled(yes I still have all of mine), x rays were taken and it was decided I needed a root canal. Next dentist in the practice to have a go, was herein after referred to as Dr Kevorkian. I was suitably drugged up and gassed and ready to go. First needle, he says - do you gag? and without a reply something hits the back of my throat, even drugged I start to flail, "just some salt to help with the gag reflex" - he starts to drill, I yelp, another injection and the drill hits the tooth again, apparently I have now wasted enough of his time and am sat upright and told to wait in the waiting room for my beloved to come and get me. Mental note, find a new dentist. A referral is made for an endodentist - they don't do drugs. I am now panicking. Endodentist suggests jaw issue not root canal - I ask him about new dentist - he recommends one (4th dentist in three weeks) - he looks at me and recommends his associate (5th dentist) - there is talk of crowns - many crowns (obviously he has many children requiring private school tuition or has a world cruise booked). Crown one is completed - this is not without incident, but I try not to cry whilst I am in the surgery, only in the car on the way there and on the way back. A couple of months go by and I head back for crown two. I suggest perhaps we could look at drugs, he assures me that I did so well the first time around, that I will be fine - I double my deodorant strength, I sweat, I shake, I cry, and mostly I panic. Get to the temporary crown part, two days in I ring and ask about the fact that my face feels like it is on fire - guess what - you need a root canal - good gravy - my blood pressure is going through the roof. Back to the endodentist (different one this time - that makes dentist 6) and we are only in June. Still no drugs on offer - they have the audacity to ask me to be still whilst trying to inject me - not just one lot, but 4 lots of needles to numb my face and don't get me started on the "dam". I endured the two root canal treatments with a temporary crown. This became almost comedic as I would be back at the dentist every two weeks or so (I think they lost money on this one) having to get the stupid thing re glued. I lost it on a long weekend and had to go to see an emergency dentist to get it re stuck, (dentist 7), I lost it on holidays in July (kept in a safe place that time, until I got back home) apparently in Cairns the dentist didn't have 5 minutes for a re glue and wouldn't be able to fit me in for a week!! Of course, by the time the root canal and waiting time had passed the proper crown that had been cast month earlier - DIDN'T FIT - you know what this means don't you - another set of impressions - oh the indignity of it all. So fast forward to the start of this year and its time for teeth cleaning - that fabulous form of water boarding that you get to pay for, still showing fear, still being reassured I would be fine. I then loose a temporary filling on another tooth that was lined up for a crown. With shoulders slumped, I return once again to my arch nemesis. After discussing options with regards to making a start there and then, (his faithful assistant is in the background making noises about mixing the impression stuff) he can see the deranged look that is forming on my face (he had seen it before on tooth two) - we opt for another temporary filling - let's face it, I wasn't going to open my mouth if I saw the impression plate coming at me - by the end of this session - the dentist admits defeat. He says - "you know - I hate to see you so distressed" -I interrupt with - "not as much as I am hating to see ME so distressed -"so I think I should give you a Valium for your next visit". A Valium(READ ONE) - is he kidding - I could drive on A VALIUM - I make an appointment for some time in the future or when the next temporary filling falls out and hit the Internet. And there I found it, the holy grail of dentistry - sleep dentistry - I make an appointment - he is a nice quietly spoken chap and his faithful assistant looks into my eyes and I feel calm - yes - you can get that done whilst you are asleep, no you won't know anything about it. I leave the surgery feeling like the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders - appointments are made. Fast forward to last week the visit went off without a hitch - one minute I was talking to the anesthetist and the next I was awake and in an armchair drinking apple juice and taking my coffee with a syringe with my beloved leaning over to wipe up the overspill. SO calm, so easy - I still have to deal with the actual crown fitting, but if you have terror at the thought of the dentist this is the way to go. Whilst all of these dentists (with the exception of Dr Kevorkian) were all very calm and patient and even though my appointments that should have gone for a hour, went for longer because I kept stopping them and generally interfering - they didn't get the "fear" and were convinced that in some superior being fashion they could fix it when in reality I was under so much stress and it was only making it worse. So for those of you who feel the fear, you are not alone, there quite probably is no rational reason for the fear, but this may be a way to resolve it for you. True, you are not actually fighting it (cause your asleep) but as long as you have somebody to drive you home, who cares??

MYSTERY QUILT DAY

Another day, another quilt. The quilters were asked to sew squares together, and many were thinking - is that it? By 4 oclock the first was ready to start marking their work. There was fear, there was "but I quite like it like this", there were complaints, but like troopers they followed the instructions. Armed with scissors, first cuts were made, first and second rows were sewn with threats of death or expulsion if any one of them went near the iron, and suddenly there was calm and oohs and aahs. First two rows of the big reveal. Nobody got the centre finished, but everybody could see where their fabric and design were going to take them. I hope to see centres finished by next quilt day ladies!! Here is one I prepared earlier.

Good news is, they all seemed to like the results and were spurred on to get cutting and stitching. This is the worst part of working the details of a Mystery Quilt, will everybody be happy with my plan? Will the reveal result in participants packing up there and then and going home!

Busy at work, making row after row....

Liz from Teddlywinks with her coffee confection...

Vicki did this....



Friday was a family birthday, so of course there was cake...

and kitchen carnage.....

And Norman giving his best "what" look.

I was just amazed he was in the same room as all of us.

My computer keeps telling me that my "c" drive is just about full, so I guess this week there will be some cleaning of the computer to be done, better go and see if I can find my external hard drive and get backing up!!

Bye for now.

Sue

MAY - HOW FAST YOU GO

Well, it's already Wednesday again, the rest of the week will now zip on by at a great rate. Baking has been done, cupcakes for Mother's day, sponge roll for Running Away from Painting group, chocolate cake for the elf.

We have had the builder in again, this time to repair a leaking window. The window area has been doubled, I have a window seat (which is stuffed to the max at the moment as I paint the bookshelves), we now have insulation and most importantly the exposed beams that allow spiders to build ropes that Tarzan could swing on have been plastered away....... remember this started with a leaking window! The painters came in and did the ceilings, but try as we could we couldn't get them to do the walls (very busy apparently) I think the "busy" word came into play when I said I wanted suede finish on the walls. So out came the paint brushes again, and my other half and I got to work. You gotta admire a bloke with a sense of humour. I am reasonably fearless when it comes to wall colours and finishes. I have sueded or river rocked a lot of walls in this house. It hides a multitude of sins when it comes to hiding bad plaster work. I poured over the colour charts, bought sample pots, had bits of plaster with paint strips on them hanging around the room and so off we went to Bunnings (hardware store) to purchase the selected paint. My friend Sue and I often laugh about paint colours (we are both a little fearless in the colour selection department - or we have no taste - whatever) but when folks get all excited about new paintwork and are asked what colours are they selecting and the reply comes back Chalk USA we giggle. I wonder why paint companies go to so much trouble naming all those lovely colours when they get left on the shelf, however I digress. Whilst I am standing at the counter with colour card in hand, the lady in front of me is busy selecting a 1/4 strength beige (truly why bother) and I look at all the other shade cards at the 5 or so folks hanging around the paint counter - all shades of beige or brown. Having lived through the 70's as a child with orange and mission brown - you can call it latte, mocha, cappuccino, - it's brown. So up I rock and order my Corsage Suede. The lady behind the counter offers advice - "now you know these don't come out quite like the colour in the can" - yes, yes, yes, I am a suede aficionado - so off she goes and mixes the colours. The audible gasp from the crowd at the paint counter was hysterical. That's all I'm saying.

My bedroom now looks like the poster child for Cadbury Dairy Milk - this is not a bad thing in my world.

We have a lot of cypress pine walls in our room and the suede is just magnificent against it. I am working on the furniture at the moment and will post further pictures of the room when it is finished. I wanted girlie, and girlie it is gonna be.

The next challenge has been the furniture. I wanted to steer away from timber furniture I got all excited about a bed I found and then was told that it wouldn't be available until the end of July, so I did what any self respecting bargain hunter does and went on to Ebay. I got a fantastic piece. After a bit of sanding it looked like this -

After 5 coats of paint, it now looks like this -








I have distressed it, and beeswaxed it and it looks great. I now need my faithful assistant to cut 10cm off the legs so it doesn't smack into the new ceiling and attach it to the bed (I might add at this point that this is the same faithful assistant who apparently hit the new ceiling with the ladder and I now have more touch ups to do).

Whilst in the painting zone, I have recycled another chest of drawers and purchased the most gorgeous knobs for the drawers (these are worth more than the pine chest they are on I fear) and I made myself a notice board from a picture frame that I got at the op shop for $2.







So before the carpet repairer/cleaner comes next week, I have to find two chests of drawers for the bedside tables and get them painted. This is proving to be a challenge because those new whizz bang mattresses are so high and I like my tables higher than the bed so I don't send my half drunk coffee whizzing across the floor in my sleep. And remember - THIS ALL STARTED WITH A LEAKING WINDOW!!

In my last post I mentioned that I was having issues with a camera lens I had purchased. Well that wasn't the end of it - how could it be. Whilst trying to shoot (in the nicest possible way) my niece's pet rabbit (hereinafter known as psycho bunny), the camera again stopped working. So back to the camera shop I went - tales of - "you're not going to believe this" as I return lens number 2 countered with "we have sold so many of these and never had a problem" (well now you have) - I might have looked like this:-




I couldn't fault the camera shop, after looking at different options, we tried the Nikon lens and so far it hasn't stopped. The camera guy thinks it may have been the way the Tamron lens has the smallest of movement when connected to the Nikon and looses contact every now and then. We will see - I swear they thought I was bonkers, but we will see. If there are problems with this lens then it is obviously a camera issue.




You wouldn't think butter would melt in its mouth would you? This thing growls and even chases, going into the attack stance - balanced on it's back feet like a kangaroo. And yet when my niece goes near it - calm as calm.
There has been some sewing and embroidering going on here, I finally started a small piece that will be some kind of pond, and have been preparing for a Mystery Quilt class that I am hosting on Saturday. The last one we held was a fantastic day - food, lollies, chocolate, coffee, wine and great company so I am looking forward to a good day although I think I will be resting well on Sunday. 10 til 10 is a loooong day.

I might add that my faithful assistant has paid attention this time and is aware that I will be missing for the day - last time I got a phone call at about 5.30 asking where I was and what time I would be home. The elf had said I would be out til 10 (at least somebody listens) but apparently my assistant missed the memo!!

I have to finish off with action shots of "the boys".

This is always a worry. Harv is the cat most likely to fall off or knock stuff over - he is known as "the brain's trust" and that is said with as much sarcasm as you can muster. He was out on the beam watching the ceiling fan spin.

Norman on the other hand "the thinking" cat has decided that my camera bag is ideal for a nap. Doesn't matter that he doesn't fit and oozes out of it.

I think we are boring him!

Bye for now.

Sue