Mini-Goals-2

.My mini-goals for the week are:
1)Quilt the charity quilt
2)Sandwich a small quilt
3)Millefiore rosette #8- Plan & cut out pattern
4) Create a simple patter as a bag-gift for a home-care

1.Charity Quilt- Done!

Charity quilts are great for a beginner or advanced quilter for developing their skills in a new design. This quilt was entirely done with a Walking Foot. I drew curve-8 lines and echoed them without a guide-foot.

The design for this quilt was taken from Explore Walking Foot Quilting with Leah Day.

2. Sandwich Quilt

This quilt took about 3 hrs to quilt and binding is done on it too. I traced continuous lines and I had very little breaks between each section. I stitched in the ditch in the grey area and free-motioned on the lines.

3.Millefiore Rosette #9

Yep, you read right. I'm not working on rosette 8, but #9. Changing my mind on mini-goals for this week is not going to affect my overall purpose in completing this long-term project. Why did I change my course of action, you would ask curiously. It's because I've started to sew together the larger pieces and it's so encouraging to see the project as a whole. And for this reason, I'm working on Rosette #9 that fits the left top corner. Rosette 8 is centred. 

4. Bag Simpler

After a few trials and errors, I figured out the size of the bag that would fit our needs as a gift-bag. For this one, I use old jeans and scraps Batiks. Instead of using interfacing, I used small scraps of batting. All this will keep the cost down for that bag.  We need to make 60.

                                            It took 30 minutes to make this bag.

Same bag in its original size.  For this one I used interfacing and it didn't really stiffen the bag as I would like it to be.

True Woman 

Have you wondered during those long hours sitting at your machine that it is a great opportunity to listen to a podcast?  For my part, I enjoy listening to women and men of faith. It is always a blessing.

Quilt Simpler

 One of my mini-goal for this week, a quilt sampler I started in 2017 with the quilter's guild in Prince George. I'm so glad it's done and I will work on another smaller top quilt next week. Maybe the charity quilt that has been on my cutting table for the entire month of September.

 Simpler Quil

 Lazy Little Hands

The free-motion stitches on this quilt are in many spot irregular, crooked, and ugly.  Even in some areas on the front and back of the quilt, there are buckling. What happened to my nice stitches? Lack of practice just does that. I had no control over my pulling-pushing and my hands were trying too hard to stay where my eyes were telling them to go. Have you ever dealt with those issues? Well, you know what they say

Practice. Practice. Practice.

 First-time free-motion feathers in the border. Not perfect.

Which I haven't done since last June. In fact, I've done much quilting at all since 2017. Yes, a little here and there, but not continually have I should have.  And it okay. Sometimes I have to go back to the basic and retrained my brain and my eyes. It's not easy when I introduce a new design to the whole ordeal. But what would be the fun with the same-o-same-o?

    Backing

Thankgiving

Thanksgiving is a time to spend with family and friends.  Time for the plentiful harvest from our garden or from our grocery stores. And the beautiful varieties of colourful from the leaves. Weather is getting colder and colder and it's almost time to get ourselves ready inside with our hand-sewing with a hot chocolate. My millefiore stalled for most of last year, but after I figured another way to sew my pieces together, I was on a roll. Also to keep myself at a good pace, I've written down on a simple line of paper, mini-goals for the next two rosettes. Even if this Millefiore is a long-term project, I want to be going forward with it.

Rosette #7

Flat-Back-Stitch

 The Flat-Back-Stitch works great for me.  Each individual piece is paired and tapped together with Scotaped to hold them together. You can also use that quilter-clip, but I prefer tapping them together. Instead of folding the piece and stitching it, I laid it flat and stitched from that position.                              

       I've sewed this block into smaller segments of 2s, then 4s.  My pieces are held by Scotch tape.

                  I'm using the same thread and you cannot see my stitches. What a success!

  There wasn't much planning for this rosette and it turned out quite nicely.  Six more hexes to make for this rosette and it will be completed.

                                

                                              Not bad. Not perfect. It will do *smile*

Knock-Offs- Blue Dress

Here is my first 'knock-offs' dress I made this week. The dress was slightly modified. Higher V neck enclosure and waist. I haven't sewed apparel for women in years. This dress has many errors I'm not proud of, but it's still very cute. 

                                                                            FRONT

                                                               BACK

CopyRights for Utilitarian Clothing

I've learned fashion has no limit on what you can copy or modified to make it your own because clothing is utilitarian. You are not allowed to copy logos or used fabric that has a designer logos on it.

So Sew Easy has made a very good article on the subject. 

Lining to Bodice

After you sewed your lining on your bodice, trim the excess of fabric from 5/8" to 3/8". Then sew a  near the edge of the lining. This will help the lining to stay inside the apparel. Press, making sure the lining is inside the apparel. Tack the lining in the side allowances.

Rosette #6

                                                                        Rosette #6

As I listened to one of  Leah Day's podcasts about Ten steps to Finishing Your UFOs;   I became very aware of why certain projects got unfished or set aside for a long period of I particularly my. Millefiore Quilt Along

I started the millefiore with a great passion for a hand-sewing project I could to during my evening park in front of my TV.  Since 2017 I've learned much about fabric selection for that type of project. And just like that, my millefiore was left in a box untouched for months.

 Ugly Stitches

                                            You shouldn't see any stitches if it's done right.

At first, I thought it was the lack of motivation or interest for the EPP  but that wasn't it! As I progress with each rosette, the hand-stitches got uglier and uglier. The stitches appeared on the right side of the fabric in big loops. After that, I got very discouraged because I had spent hours on that project and wanted it to be beautiful as a wall hanging, maybe put it in a quilt show.  It was then that I left rosette #6 in its box. Until podcast #115!

The main reason the millefiore wasn't moving forward to completion was that I didn't know if there was another technique for sewing the hexagons pieces by hand-stitches. I wasn't interested in doing it by machine. With a bit of searching on Youtube, I find another lady, which I don't remember her name as I wrote this, but she called this the flat-back-stitch and it worked. Just after a few tries, I got nicer finishes on the right side.

                                 Can you tell which one is the flat-back-stitch on this piece?

This project is a self-taught and would have stayed in its bin if it wouldn't have been for quilters who are so passionate about sharing their techniques with other people. I'm greatly thankful for that. I encourage you to listen to Leah Day's Postcast #115