It's Been A Slow Week

Due to the school holidays and having my two fantastic kids at home, I have had an extremely slow week quilting.


I have managed to get one Farmer's Wife Block done.

FWS #42 Fruit Basket

I have also managed to cut out the pieces for a few more blocks but I am not sure when I will be able to do them. Another week and a half of school holidays and I can get back to my sewing! 


I am enjoying having the kids at home, we are watching movies, playing outside when the weather permits and just relaxing. The kids love staying at home as much as I do, bumming around and doing whatever without any time pressures, it has been great.


Even though there has not been much sewing going on, I have managed to do some embroidery for my Birdie BOM.

It has been good to do some embroidery and I am loving my Perle Cotton. I think it is my new thread of choice.

Birdie BOM

Earlier this year I jumped on the bandwagon (who me!) to do a BOM quilt featuring embroidery of Birdie in each block. 


I very quickly put together the blocks and they were ready to go before the first stitchery was blogged.

Birdie BOM Blocks

Of course I then sat on this project for a long, long time. Well, truth be told I did try to do the first stitchery which was a Christmas one and I was really unhappy with the way it turned out both colour wise and craftsmanship wise so I unpicked it all and then left it for a really long time.

Recently I have been perusing some embroidery sites and came across a post where they substituted DMC Pearl Cotton No 5 for stranded embroidery floss. Now I have never used Pearl Cotton before and thought this might be a good idea, it certainly seemed to be an easier option. I also remembered that a lot of my stranded cotton was el cheapo stuff I bought at $2 shops and the like as well as DMC and I really didn’t know which was which and I didn’t have a lot of the nicer colours that I seem to prefer these days so a shopping trip was in order. I drove off to my nearest Spotlight and bought me some DMC Pearl Cotton No 5 in some really lovely colours as well as some embroidery/crewel needles to accommodate the thicker thread and a small embroidery hoop.


I got all excited about embroidery again. I remember as a teenager and doing Textiles and Design in High School whenever we had a free project I always picked an embroidery project while everyone else picked sewing clothes. I still would make that choice now!


I had seven months worth of designs to pick from (yes I am very behind) and chose the easiest one to start off with. I can't believe how much fun I had doing it. It also helps to have great lighting and the family all around yelling and screaming at the wii having fun.

My First Birdie BOM Block

I am currently working on my second block but the problem with me is that I have quite a few projects going on at the moment and I am hooked on my Farmer's Wife blocks and everything else seems to be on the back burner. At least with these embroidery's I can sit on the lounge after dinner and sew while the kids watch TV or play wii with Dad. I have until December to get the embroidery done for the next step so I am not panicking just yet.

Clearly Perfect Angles

In a previous post on Clearly Perfect Angles, I was having trouble with the vinyl not sticking to my plastic expansion table on my Janome MC6600P. This was causing me a little grief. Occasionally when I was sewing either my arm or the fabric would  catch the unstuck template and then slowly roll it up. I have been lucky each time to catch it before a permanent fold or any damage happened. I had to think about how to make it stay and fairly quickly.


 I didn’t like the idea of sticking the template down with masking tape as I was worried when I wanted to remove it at some stage it would damage it. So I had to find something to put under the vinyl so the it could stick to that. After thinking long and hard I came up with a fairly easy solution.


I had some plastic tablecloth 'stuff' left over from a project that I did on my longarm and I thought that might work. I tested it first to see if the vinyl would actually stick to it and it did. So now I had to find a way for the plastic tablecloth to stick to the expansion table and then the Clearly Perfect Angles could stick to that.

cut the tablecloth plastic to what I needed and placed it underneath the Clearly Perfect Angles vinyl and knew whatever I used should be clear so it does not distract me from the template itself. After looking through my stash of sticky stuff I found some 3M Clear Mounting Squares. They are clear and repositionable - perfect. I stuck them on put the plastic into place and lo and behold, it solved my problem. 


I am a happy little camper, I think I have my perfect 1/4" seam foot system happening.

Farmer's Wife Tuesday

What can I say - any day of the week can be a Farmer's Wife day as far as I am concerned!

I have only managed to do one block since my last lot and boy this one really had me working hard.

FWS#38 Four Winds

I am not sure if I like this block and I think maybe I should have used a blue for the main fan in the centre. I don't know if it is the way I took the photo but the main brown in the middle seems to really pop out.

I am really enjoying my Little Foot and the Clearly Perfect Angles, they work so well together and I am finally getting used to sewing without a fabric guide.

New Additions to My Studio

In a previous post, I told you about how I made my mini design boards and where you could get instructions to make your own.

Since that post I have discovered a fantastic substitute for the foam core boards! Luckily for Lori of Bee in My Bonnet  and I suppose everyone that lives in the US, foam core board is relatively cheap and readily available. Unfortunately for those of us (or maybe it is just me) in Australia, I could only find foam core board in art supply stores and it was not cheap. I paid $17 for an A3 size. 

As I was perusing the isles at my local Bunnings (I love that store) I came across this:

Plastic Core Boards

I was really surprised, I didn’t even think to look in my local hardware store for this. It is made from plastic and instead of having foam in the centre it has more plastic but it is in rows like corrugated cardboard, so it is very light and sturdy and the best thing about it is that I got a very large piece for $7! It comes in both white and black and it also comes in a bigger piece than the one I bought. I will definitely be using these to make my mini design boards in future.

All my pieces from one board

The biggest piece above is 15"x15" and the smallest piece was 10"x10" and I had some smaller (unusable for mini design boards) pieces left over for 'other' stuff. I have to now make them up into pretty boards for my future projects.

Denise Schmidt Fabric

I made a trip into Spotlight because I needed to get some DMC Peal cotton and a few other bits and pieces and I came across this really gorgeous fabric designed by Denise Schmidt. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it and decided that I just had to have some and that I was going to make a few ironing board/s with it. I also picked up some insul-bright  batting and some plywood for the project.


To make a long story short, I followed the tutorial by Jodi from Pleasant Home and came up with three different sized boards. I decided to use a different fabric for the large board just to mix it up a bit. I made one that was 18"x18", 18"x8" and 8"x8". I am not sure if they are going to be the best sizes for me but I will give them a go and see if I need to make more. I will be using the little 8"x8" next to my sewing machine with my mini-iron when I am sewing small pieces together saving me from continuously getting up to iron them. Well, that is the plan.

I also picked up some more Denise Schmidt fabric and some canvas to make an extension cord cover for the floor. 

I have never made an extension cord cover but I have seen one before so basically I thought I would wing it and see what happened. I used the loop velcro to sew onto either side of the strip I had cut to the length (with hemming to make it look neat) I needed and then just popped it onto the floor - worked like a charm!

In hindsight I might have bought the darker beige or even the grey so it would show up less, but it works which is the main thing.

There is a nice little space between the two strips of loop velcro for the extension cord to fit nicely into. Nice and neat - no need to trip over the cord constantly. I need to always be careful because if it is on the floor (no matter what it is) I will trip over it. Not maybe or sometimes but each and every time! I am so lucky that way. I might need to make a few more of these to save myself the constant fear of tripping over.

In My Search For the Perfect 1/4" Seam Foot

I have been disappointed in my search for the Perfect 1/4" seam foot it seems until possibly, maybe now. 


In the past I have used the Janome O foot and compared the new O2 foot and the clear View foot and the Accufeed Foot in a previous post. Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing actually wrong with these feet, they all work and they all give 1/4" seams on my sewing machine AS LONG AS I adjust the needle position to the right spot for each foot  because each and every one of these feet has a different needle position setting. What I want is a foot that snaps on and gives a perfect 1/4" seam without having to move the needle position from the default middle (which on my machine is 3.5)


Why Is This Important To Me?

1. I am forgetful and I forget to adjust the machine and only realise after I have sewn a  a few seams - then I have to unpick
2. If I want to do normal sewing I have to put it back to the middle and I forget
3. The markings on my machine bed have to be colour coded for each different foot and that is a pain
4. I have to post a note above my machine with all the adjustments for each foot and if I lose that I have to start testing them all over again because I forget that they are
5. I am lazy and forgetful (see a trend here)
6. I just want to start sewing and not worry about if I have the right setting for the right foot
7. And most importantly why should I have to?? Why can't they make a foot that actually does what it says without additional adjustment.

After posting my last rant about 1/4" Seam feet, Linda from Stray Stitches suggested that I try the Little Foot! So I hopped over to Sewing Machines Plus and thought why not, why not try one more foot so, I ordered it. 


It arrived on Monday and I had a little time to play around with it on my machine over the last two days.

Little Foot

It is a little hard to see but there is a little round thing I would call a washer that slides along the metal bar that snaps onto your foot adapter. This 'washer' is there to help you adjust the foot to be exactly 1/4". For my Janome the washer had to be on the left hand side of the snap on foot.

On The Machine

Just looking at it, you can see that it actually looks like it would be a proper 1/4" seam. At this point I was starting to get a little excited, but I was holding myself back.

Little Foot

I did a trial run on some scraps and realised almost at once that I have been very, very dependent on the fabric guides on all my other 1/4" seam feet. This foot does not have one, at this point I am not sure if it is a problem. I was a little nervous about this and realised that the best way was to mark the green painters tape I usually use when sewing with a 1/4" mark and have the left hand side line up with the needle. It took me a few goes to get the marking in the right place (as you can see multiple purple lines) user error completely! I then did a few sample pieces and they all came out at 1/4". Okay, well some of my stitching was a little wavy in a few places but I think once I get the hang of the foot without a fabric guide it will work as naturally as with the fabric guide. 

After getting very excited about this new foot that actually sews a 1/4" seam with the needle in the default middle position (wow that  sounds great doesn’t it?) I decided that my home made painters tape guide might need an upgrade too. I went in search of something and found a few interesting things that I bought and received (next business day!) was the Westalee 1/4" Seam Gauge and the Machine Sewing Guide. 

Westalee 1/4" Seam Gauge

The 1/4" gauge I found very useful, I tested all my feet out on it and it made it much easier to get the right setting when having to adjust and preposition your needle and I guess it is a great way to make sure you have the same seam allowance on your projects if you move from one machine to another.

Machine Sewing Guide

I loved the idea of this, but realised a bit to late (like after I ordered and paid for it) that it would not really work on my machine as I have a top loading bobbin. I don't know how many times you can remove and replace the guide before the sticky dots that keep it in place don't stick anymore. It does come with a few refills and you can order then separately as well. Still, it might come in handy one day.


On my 'specialty tools' journey I did come across something that would now work on my machine. Clearly Perfect Angles!

I always liked the idea of this tool but since my needle was not in the middle position on my machine, I was not sure how well this would have worked for me. I am thinking that with the new Little Foot this tool could be extremely useful especially with my new method of making HST triangles the easy way with squares. I have ordered it and I am waiting for it to arrive. I am looking forward to testing this out. I have my fingers crossed that this might be the solution to my "1/4" Foot Problem". 


Would you believe that as I am writing this post the mailman came and dropped of a parcel and yes it is my Clearly Perfect Angles!

Instruction sheet

It was very easy to centre and I did it exactly as the video suggested.

Trimming

Trimming around the bobbin and dog feeds was not as simple and easy as the video suggests. It is actually hard to get around under there to make it perfect and it is easy to overshoot the runway and also to veer of course. I ended up using a ruler and placing something as a stopper to make sure that I didn’t cut off too much. I also ended up using an exacto knife as I think the unpicker would have been even less accurate. I also managed to trim half of one side that I should have not. If I find this very useful I might have to get another one and do it properly.

Not So Sticky

The vinyl stuck perfectly to the machine bed and it is great, my issue is that my expansion table is made of plastic and not acrylic/perspex so the bottom half of the vinyl does not stick to the table. I will have to have a think on this and how to resolve this issue.

I also tried it out and yes I got a very nice 1/4" seam. I will still need to get used to having no fabric guard, but other than that I am happy at the moment.

Farmer's Wife Wednesday

I have to admit that I have slowed down a bit on my Farmer's Wife blocks as I have been trying to do 'other stuff' as well. That's not to say I still don't want to do them at every possible opportunity cause I do...


Here are my next blocks  and I have only managed to to three.  I have skipped FWS#37 Flower Pot as it needs to be paper pieced and FWS#38 is cut up and ready to go but I wanted to start with the easier ones I had already cut out first.

FWS#39 Friendship

Really quick and easy especially using the Easy Corner Triangles method.

FWS#40 Friendship Block

I really didn’t like this one at all. I used the rotary cutting instructions from the CD but it was to big. I had to trim two sides down to make the rest of the pieces fit and I think it is a little noticeable. I tried drafting this one myself, but I must admit that trying to work out sizes of on-point squares is a little hard. In the end after careful trimming it measures 6.5" but the four points of the diamond are not 1/4" away from the edge! Not sure what I am going to do with this one yet. Possibly a redo.

FWS#41 Friendship Star

Simple, quick easy! Just the way I like them.


I have done 39 blocks so far - I didn’t think I would  get this far so quickly. Just goes to show if you really love doing something you find the time to do it - often.

Farmer's Wife - Friday. I Just Can't Seem to Stop Myself

It seems like it is Farmer's Wife day everyday. I just can't seem to stop making these blocks, they are so addictive, I mean really addictive. I am coming up with any excuse possible to work on my blocks. I even told Hubby to pick up dinner on the way home tonight cause I was too busy to cook. I have the best Hubby ever as he is perfectly aware of my latest obsession and is willing to let me have it until it is over! Luckily for him I only have about 76 blocks to go.

FWS#32 Farmer's Daughter

I really love using the gingham fabric for some of these blocks as it makes me think of the country and being the Farmer's Daughter I thought for sure she would wear some with some pretty flowers of course.

FWS#33 Farmer's Puzzle

I really love the ability to draft these blocks myself as I am finding with the most of the blocks that have a 5 patch grid to them, they are always about 1/4" - 1/2" to big. I have found that making the centre strips smaller makes the blocks the right size.

FWS#34 Flock

Can you spot the mistake in this block? Well the two large red triangles are meant to be facing the same way. I noticed after I had sewn it all together and thought too bad, it can just stay that way. Some of my points got cut off, this is because I didn’t square up each HST unit as I went and I know I should as spending a few extra minutes doing this really helps to make everything work out better in the end.

FWS#35 Flower Basket

A sweet simple block but again I have left the applique for a latter date. Can you see a trend here? I really don't like applique at the moment.

FWS#36 Flower Garden Path

This is really a very pretty block. I was not sure about it when I saw it in the book but once I picked my fabrics for it and started putting it together it really appealed to me. I re-gigged this block so I could use easy triangles to make this work. There are not meant to be any seam lines in the dark green but I reworked it so I can do it in smaller units with rotary cutting and it came out great. There were so many small pieces but I worked row by row and it all came together.

FWS#36 Flower Garden Path

To date I have done 36 blocks (minus applique) out of 111. That leaves only 75 to go. At this rate I would have them done in a few months. I have already lined up my next sampler quilt - Dear Jane. I am also looking at doing the Farmer's Wife Pony Club one as well. I think I will need to work out a suitable crafting arrangement so that these addictive sampler quilts don't take over my life. (Note to self) Yeah, good luck with that!

More Farmers Wife Blocks and a Tutorial

I had my gorgeous Little Miss home today, yet again with a cold. I can tell you that I am certainly looking forward to the warm weather and getting past all this sickness. Even though she was home I managed to get a few FW blocks done and I have a tutorial for you too!

FWS#3 Basket

I decided to go back and do all the ones that I had skipped so I was on track with order of the book. I thought I would leave the applique on this one for a latter time, but at least the block is done.

FWS#26 Cut Glass Dish

This one was so easy with the easy HST technique by Lori and I love how it came out at 6.5".

FWS#28 Duck and Ducklings

This block was a bit of a nightmare. Trying to split a 6" block into 5 equal parts was not easy. In the end I changed some of the measurements to make it fit. When I followed the rotary cutting instructions the block ended up at almost 7" so I had to make the square blocks through the middle into not quite square but not quite rectangle either. I think it turned out okay and I don't mind that it is a little less square than it should I am just glad it measure 6.5".

FWS#30 End of Day

FWS#30 End of Day Tutorial 

I thought I would give you a tutorial on how I did this block with rotary cutting the easy way. Actually I had to resort to rotary cutting as my printer and EQ5 didn’t want to talk to each other today so I couldn’t print out my paper piecing even if I wanted to.


It took some 'thinking outside the box' to work out an easy way to make this block, but the penny finally dropped.

Graph Drawing

I finally worked out that the block was broken into 4 units and each of the units was broken down into another two units that could be cut out identically. So basically each of the four units needs to have 4 (2 x 3.5") rectangles in your three selected fabrics.

Layout of pieces

Once I cut out all the rectangles I set them out on my mini design board ready for sewing.

First sections

I sewed together the first pair in each unit,

2nd Pair

and then the second pair and laid them out on the board. 

take one pair

I took the first pair and started to play around with how to sew them together to get the diagonal seam in the right place. 

match the seams

I paired them up by matching the seams making sure that the darker brown was on opposite sides, I then put a pin on each end to make sure that the seams stayed while I was sewing.

Desired outcome

I then chain pieced all the four units the same way.

Painters Tape Marks My Centre

I have a cheat with painters tape - it is lined up with my needle and helps me keep my sewing straight and even. As you can see my daughter likes to make her presence known.

Sewn Together

When I took it off the machine and folded it over, this is how it looks. Now this is where I really needed to make sure that I cut off the extra fabric in the right place. I made sure that I tested each unit before cutting the extra off because if I did it the wrong way the darker and lighter yellows would have been reversed.

Cutting the Extra

Iron seam open to minimise bulky seams

One Unit Completed

Once all the individual units were done, I just had to sew them together to finish the block.

Almost Done

It was actually easy and I was also really pleased that very little extra effort all the points came out great.

I hope this is helpful to someone.