Quilting with rulers

A couple of years ago (at least) I treated myself to a Westerlee arc ruler and associated foot with the intention of using it on my quilts. 

Unfortunately the intention never became reality, I wasn't brave enough to try the ruler and was even considering getting rid of it. Then I saw some posts by Sue Moore (Sue's Stitch by Stitch) who is an accredited Westerlee tutor, so I bit the bullet and booked a course.

And I'm really glad I did. The ruler does take a bit of brain power to use but it's not impossible and I quickly learnt how to do some very pleasing quilting.

From this...

...which was useful for both learning the technique and setting my machine up.

Via this...

...to this...

All done using the one ruler and foot during a five hour course. I now need to continue practicing but there is no question of getting rid of the ruler, in fact I think I'll be buying more.

New sewing experience - curtains

I have watched my mum make several pairs of curtains over the years, but I never attempted to make them myself as I could always find what I needed (and was willing to pay for) in ready made curtains.

Being strictly truthful I have still not made a pair of curtains from scratch. But for our recently decorated dining room the only curtains we could find that we liked were as wide as we needed them long and vice versa ( in effect too long and too short but just right if rotated 90 degrees. They also had the wrong type of heading tape but this was a minor issue.  So I decided to take the plunge and modify the curtains to fit our window.

From this...

To this...

I would love to say it was a quick job, but there was a full day of head scratching to figure it out and then several days of hand sewing the sides. Sewing on pleated heading tape was easy - which was nice.

I'm pleased with the end result, a little extra pressing and some re-stock good may be needed but that's fine. I'm not entirely sure if modify curtains again (unless it was just swapping heading tape) but it hasn't put me off eventually making a set of curtains from scratch.

Little projects

After the epic knitting marathon which was the RBTL I have decided to focus on some smaller, quicker to finish knitting projects.

The first of these was another Aran square for my mum's blanket...

After which I started on a Xmas gift...

...can't really show much but the yarn is lovely to work with.

Each of these has taken no more than two weeks to finish (knitted mostly in the evenings watching TV) and I'm enjoying the much quicker gratification.

Of course I have the yarn for a number of larger projects stashed away once I feel in need of another epic knit.

And just to make sure I don't run out of big projects I've bought myself some yarn to make a Floozy cardigan by Libby Johnson.

I am intentionally delaying this one as I am in the process of losing weight and don't want the finished cardigan not to fit.  The fact that I have to hand wind all six skeins of yarn helps with the delay!

Success

After some serious unpicking and careful basting I've managed to finish the baby quilt which caused me problems.

This time it's just expectedly crinkly.

I tend to quilt my quilts with the same thread on top and bottom. This time my friend kindly lent me some orange thread which coordinated perfectly with the backing fabric. I really like how it looks and will definitely use different threads on top and bottom in future.

All in all I really like how this quilt has worked out and now it's ready to go to it's new owner.

West Country Quilting Show - it'd have been rude not to!

I know I've only just been to the Festival of Quilts, but what's a girl to do when there is a quilting show only a short walk from work?

Of course my friend and I paid it an afternoon visit. Though saying "of course" I have been working near it for the past three years and this is the first time either of us have been.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect but I was pleasantly pleased. Lots of artists and groups, international and local, exhibiting. A small (compared to the FoQ) quilt competition and several stalls.

Memories of New Zealand - Jo Gallaway

Cape Town and Sardines by Gillian Travis

Chinese Decorated Fabrics with close up

I also photographed a small sample of the competition quilts...

...unfortunately due to not understanding the linkage between Google photos and my camera gallery I have deleted the names of the quilts and their makers. If anyone can provide me with the details I will update the pictures.

I read the description for the zig zag quilt, which included (I thought) the statement that one of the stripes were green. Whilst having a close look at the quilting (each line is quilted individually) I tried to work out which stripe was green. Admitting defeat, and wondering whether green-grey colour blindness was a thing I stepped back and saw my mistake (and a laughing friend)!

I enjoyed this show on many levels - lots of exhibitors, the opportunity to meet local craft groups, a few of the big stalls and lots of more local stalls that you wouldn't see at FoQ.

And the added bonus was that I got a good deal on a sewing machine I had decided to buy prior to the show...more about that when it arrives.