Monday, August 20, 2012

Practising

...really didn't like to go back to work today.Could you tell? The weekend here was really REALLY hot with temps over 35 C and today it was 28C. Not the best conditions to work in an overheated school kitchen!

But i survived and even did some sewing.
I usually start a project with the idea to do it perfect. It never is and lots of times I end up frustrated. This time I sat behind the machine with a different attitude: I'm going to LEARN (here: machine-piecing) and the outcome is not important. I've decided to sew small blocks to practice and plan to machineQUILT them in order to master the technique. Omg. Me and my Husq.
I found this block on pinterest.
It's a paperpieced chevron.
This is what I got :)
(uhm, I took a pic up side down)
What did I learn?
- with the tiny white strips, it is VERY important to sew exactly on the line of your paper. Even a wee bit off, shows immediatly.
- When you paperpiece in rows, you should start the first strip on top and the second on the bottom. That way you can "snuggle" the seams together when sewing the strips together.
- I tried to flip seams over and press them in another direction. Not a good plan. The block got all out of shape and I had to square it again,loosing points and corners.

Next project was going to be this block (same website)
The theory of sewing in a way the seams would be able to 'snuggle" together went down the drain. The block has a specific sewing order and the seams all went the same way. How do you sew the parts together succesfully? You can't flip the seams with paperpiecing! So this one needs further study and it was just waaaay to hot.
I ordered a better open toe foot and will attempt to machinequilt the chevron first.
How do you paperpiece???


5 comments:

  1. Ooh that last one is on my wish-to-do list! Never thought about the seams/sewing order. Just fell in love with it haha.
    Great seams/points in that chevron, wow! (I only keep thinking the outside row should have been a tad higher and lower, because of the green...

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  2. Is het echt zo moeilijk? Dat heb ik me nooit gerealiseerd. Maar ik ben dan ook een echt machinemens. Weet je dat ik (bijna) alles op papier naai? Als ik gewoon patch klopt er geen steek van en eindig ik altijd met lengte- en breedteverschil omdat ik dan vooral op de puntjes let. Gisteren ook een blok met naadjes op elkaar gemaakt. Gewoon goed plat drukken en stevig vastspelden.
    (Ooook die vreselijke letterverificatie is vandaag onleesbaar; nog 1 poging anders....)

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  3. Hi Annemiek,

    Veel spelden dwars of het werk... en bij de ster kun je de naden tussen de paperpiece delen het beste openstrijken!

    Succes

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  4. those tiny white stripes will get you every time ... i can't ever get paper-pieced seams to snuggle, either - and, after spending HOURS trying to re-engineer the drawing, i pretty much gave up on precision

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  5. What was the site? Might like to give those a try!

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