Sewing Room- Painting

When we moved into our new home six months ago, the painted accent wall didn't work for me at all. It got worse when I started quilting again. I added extra lighting, but it didn't help either. My pictures were always shaded and it drove me nuts to constantly reorganized my three folded tables.

Last Saturday, I decided to clear the room completely. It took me four hours because as you know me,  it's the best time to reorganize my sewing stuff and fabrics.  With everything out of the way, I could measure my sewing area, which is 8' x 11'.  Not bad, if you think I have only two walls the play with, because of the rest in the traffic area to a bedroom, laundry room, bathroom and under the stairs. 

 Will it make a difference? On yeah!  The paint I choose is a light grey called Shiny Luster.

 My plan for this is was simply to add one 5 storage units that could store my fabrics and other sewing things,  and two tables (2' x 6 1/2').  My husband and I discussed if we would build the unit and table, but we decided to purchase them from Ikea. Can't wait to set them up in a week from now.

It hard to believed that the area I'm using is 8' x 11". My basement has a L-shape. sewing area is hiding from the entrance, but I can see outside my windows from that corner. And yes, the lighter paint as definitely lighten up the area. Love it!!

Quilt 10- Add it Up

Designed made by Libs Elliott. The pattern uses rectangles and squares, making it suitable for quilters of all experience levels. 

Charting your fabrics 

I changed some of the fabric required in this pattern, because I wanted a more vibrant look for my quilt and to use only the fabric from my stash.  It's a good idea to make a chart with all your fabric choices, so that when sew your pieces together, it not confusing.  For example, I changed the blue-grey suggested in this pattern for a light-blue.

So when you cut your fabric you can use the chart as your guide. Even the three reds in the end got mixed up when I sewed them together. Yeah, it did happened to me.

Precut & Store it!

Sometimes I precut my fabric ahead of time and store it all in a craft bin with the pattern and the rest of the fabric, because you never know if you will need of an extra piece you forgot to cut.

Series of Circles

For this pattern I got a bit lost. All my fabrics didn't seemed to match exactly with the ones from the pattern.  No fear my quilting friends, there's are many creative way you can find a solution to that problem. There is a book called  Color magic for Quilters by Ann Seely & Joyce Steward. Helpful book if you don't know how to mixed fabric color theme together.

My favorite method is to decode the selvage markings and see how many colour I can use. In this print, there are 17 in total. You can usually find on the selvage the designer or manufacturer, and a series of colored circles.  Those circles represent all the colour contained in the fabric line. I use that as my springboard in choosing my fabrics. 

Sewing Rows

Sewing this pattern together was a bit tricky, like piecing a puzzle.  I laid down the pieces for one  row #1, before sewing the pieced together. It was very easy to make mistake, because my reds were so closed in shades.  We were two working on this quilt. One sewing, one laying down the piecing in rows. 

There are ten rows in all.  First I sewed each row individually. Then by pairs, and halves. It easier and more manageable that way. Either from row #1- #10. Or in pairs, the result are the same. It's a preference. 

                                                  Finished Quilt Size: 72in x 90in.

Quilting Design- Gentile Waves

One evening while I hand-sewed my binding on my crazy patch quilt, I watched Leah Day how she quilted her design undulation on her block. It seemed fun and easy enough that I wanted to try it right away. Fortunately for me, I had the perfect small quilt available just for that. Some left-over blocks from a previous quilt put together. Nothing to lose if I failed with the practice.

 
                                                            25 1/2" x 35 1/2"

Here is Leah's Day link on:
How do Quilt a Tree of Life Block with Undulation Quilting Design

Crazy Waves

Yesterday the freezing rain kept me indoor and today there are strong winds. Instead of complaining about the wintery weather,  I went to my sewing machine and quilted my crazy patch. This top-quilt was made two years ago. Bad winter days are great for catching up on a thing. Something would take that opportunity to clean up my sewing room or reorganized little things. 

One evening I drew three different designs for my crazy patch quilt. At this point, I have to admit, I find it a bit challenging to come up with new designs and find my creativity non-existent. But I refused to give up, so I stayed at the kitchen table with my pencil in hand,  and the black/white photo of my quilt, and drew lines and waves or whatever fancied my mind.  In the end, my daughter and I both liked option #1: crazy waves effect.

Two years ago, when I stitched decorative designs on every crazy patch with my Janome 7700. At the time, I didn't realize all those decorative stitches would be quilted all over them.  For that reason, I've chosen a simple overall design that blended with the entire top-quilt.  I was surprised yesterday how much quilting I completed in two hours by listening to a few podcasts.

Crazy Patch Quilt

This very simple pattern used a ‘stack into a strip and cut’ technique. Not sure if there is another name for this one. You can find the Sophisticated Crazy Patch by Nancy Vasilchik in the book Quilting in Black & White by Leisure Arts.

I marked my first wave, starting from the length of the left border, drew across its middle, and finished on the length of the right border. Only drew four waved and they were marked 2" apart because I used the walking foot guide for the rest.

 By back was taped to the table, then I laid the batting and top and pressed over it because my batting was too wrinkled.  Then I pinned it all the layers.

 It a good practice to lay a few thread choices over your quilt. For this quilt, I wanted my tread to blend with the fabric. The backing is grey.

  I used the guide with the walking foot for the entire quilt.

Trimming the Binding

 Use the side of your ruler to square off. Even if you square everything, sometimes it's better to trim a little off the border and have a straight edge and wavy one. make sure that the inner border it straight too. There is a lot of movement going on because of quilting. You can fix it by tugging gently of the edge of the fabric till everything aligns nicely.

Binding 

To make my binding colorful and original, I used stripes fabric and cut it on its width. It makes a really nice border.

Show & Tell: Magic Tiles

Here are my Magic Tiles all quilted. Love how the flow of the quilting reflects on this quilt.

Labelling your quilt

This week I wanted to make labels for my finished quilts with the freezer-paper and fabric. As I remember it, it was nothing complicated. Boy, was I wrong? The freezer-paper and fabric jammed into my printer and if it went through the words came out smudged. The printer was just the beginning of my problems and it got worse when I switched to the press-on sheet. 😕

I thought to myself, why not using the T-shirt press-on sheet. It should be easy enough right? Print text on paper on. Iron-on fabric. And voila!  But no. For at least two hours I searched for the function on a computer, to flip or mirror my text image,  so it could be readable when it's iron on the fabric.  My irritation with the computer elevated that my husband could hear me loud across the house. He came to my rescue and together we figured it out. Different programs have their tools on how to flip/ mirror an image.

Here are well-known methods used for labelling a quilt

Freezer Paper

Cut the freezer paper to the size of your printer's sheet. Ironed the glossy side on the back of the fabric. Edges should be neat with no frills of thread loses, so it will not catch in the printer. Insert the paper/fabric in your printer main tray.  Write down the information for your label. Print. Let the ink dry and iron to set the ink in the fabric.  Be careful, some printers do not well with this technique. My printer is an HP Officejet5740 and it didn't do work.

The result of  freezer-paper labelling with a printer

T-Shirt Transfer Sheet

There are different transferable press-on sheets available. For these labels, I used this method and made sure the text image was flipped before it was printed on the press-on sheet. After it's printed on the sheet you follow the ironing direction on the package. 

At this point, I have not tested if the ink will stay on the fabric after being machine-wash.

Fabric Markers

Markers are good for labelling if you have nice penmanship. 

Embroidery Machine

Depending on your talent with an embroidery machine,  you could make beautiful labels. 

Hand Stitching

Another way of writing labels that would be without a doubt, beautiful and appreciated by everyone.

What should be written on a label:

• Your full name
• Who pieced, quilted, designed it.
• What or who it is for
• Where the quilt was made: province, city, country 
• When: year
• Title

More details are given to the quilt, more its value of importance. It’s not just another quilt. It’s a quilt for someone special.

Here are few instructions on how I used the T-Shirt sheet for labelling and how it works.

 As you see here, the text was flipped and ready to be iron on my fabric.

 For ironing, follow the direction on the package

 Let cool off the paper before pealing it away. 

The words should show clearly.

 If you want the label with finish edges, double the fabric and folded it in half. Sew all around 1/4", but leave a small opening to turn it over. Press. (See finished labels in the picture above.)

Binding your Quilt

When I prepared my binding today for the Magic Tile quilt, it strikes how much I learned from my quilting friends. Their instructions and tips helped to improved my binding with straighter and nicer edges that don’t show much either on the front or on the back of the quilt. So here’s my note of appreciation for all the sharing you did with me. Thank you to all my quilters in Prince George, BC.

When I began quilting in the ’70s, I used to turned over the backing and used it for the binding and stitched it in the front by machine. The results were not satisfying, but that’s all I knew then. If I find the courage to put some of my first quilt pictures binding, you’ll see what it looks like.

                             
This is my first quilt. Didn't know anything about binding a quilt then. Large and no batting inside. Just turned the fabric from the back. Very ugly indeed. But that quilt has a lot of memory for me. So it's a keeper.

Measuring Quilt

Measure the perimeter of your quilt. A pattern will already have given you the dimension of the quilt, use it to find our the perimeter. I used Quilter’s Reference Tool, to find out how much fabric I need and the number of strips I need for a double-fold binding. I preferred my binding to be cut at a 2 3/8”. Not everyone has the same preference, so find of you work best with a 2 1/2” binding.
An example of this would be like a quilt that is 54” x 60”.
54 +54 +60 +60 = 138” This is not hard math:)


If you have a guide book, you check for its reference. In this case, the Quilt’ Reference Tool guide said I will need 1/3 yard, and cut 4 strips. So far that book as been my best friend. A quick reference is so helpful. But if you don’t have the tool book, what I’ve done for many years, is used by the same principles.

• Find the perimeter of the quilt
  
• Use the fact that the width of the fabric from selvage to salvage usually 45”.
  

So 138 (perimeter total) divided by 45 (width of fabric) = 3.06. So I would need three strips, plus a bit more, so cutting four strips would provide enough.

Tips

Many tips and tricks are available and today I tried this one and love it! I rolled my binding on an empty paper-roll and set in a little basket by my machine. For once, I didn’t have to fight with the binding length being caught between my feet.

In the Beginning

I’ve started sewing my binding in any area of my quilt. My preference, in the end, it’s to start on one of the lengthy sides, almost in the middle. Do not start near the corner. Beside that spot anywhere is good. Also leave about 4” of loose binding, because you need to sew that part to the other end part.

Turning Corners

When coming near the corner of the quilt, stop. At this point, you can mark a 1/4” from the edge, if that would help you visualise where to anchor your needle. I ball-eyed it. (picture a)

a. Stop near the corner and mark.                                        b. Angle and sew away from the quilt

With my needle anchored in a down position, I shifted the corner of my quit in a diagonal position and sewed off the edge. (picture b)

And folded the binding to form a perfect 90-degree angle.  Then flipped the binding over again forming a straight line with the edge of my quilt                                                                  

Continued sewing binding from the folded edge.

Trimming

I’m leaving at least four inches to lose of binding because I’ll need to trim the end and sew it the other part. Leaving 2” each end it to tight when it came to sewing the edges of the binding together.

If you noticed, there is a seam on the left-binding near the opening. It's not pretty when two seams are very close together, so I sewed more of the left-binging session and part and undid about 6-8" of the right-binding.

 Marking

Mark a spot with your pencil

The binding ends were laid overlapped and flatten before I marked it with a pencil. Add and additional 1/2” for seam allowance.                    

 After I sewed the four corners and binding, I went to the cutting board to trim and mark the ends of the binding. Before I trimmed off with my rotary cutter, I angled my ruler at 45 degrees, I made sure it was set on the right side. Yes, I have cut off the wrong side before. Not fun at all.

Sewed binding edges together, making sure they were not twisted. 

Pressing

 You can finger-press and continued sewing the rest of the binding to your quilt. Or press with an iron. 

You can barely see my seam. Love it!

Securing binding

After all that is completed, the binding is ready to be hand-sewed. My preferred way to secure the binding are with mini-clips. I’ve used regular pins when I started on a low budget and prickled myself so many times. Not fun.

                                                   Wonder Clips for Quilters. Many brands are available.

                                           I used those too. They look like little girl's barrette.