Piping..pfffff!

What to do on a rainy sunday afternoon? Well, how about a bit of relaxing in your sewingroom? That sounded like a good idea and i still had the paperpieced Featherweight block lying around.
Decided it had to become a tote. Not for grocery shopping but for the FW.
The pattern required ready-bought piping. Not going to happen. the only thing I could get here was  "yuk" polyester/shiny/pastel coloured stuff. So instead i bought cord and ready made bias strips and made myself some piping. So far so good.
Getting the piping on the pattern pieces was another story! What a struggle to get it as tight as i wanted it to be.
Wááááyyyy past dinnertime I had a headache and this:

I lined it with fusible fleece and wanted it INSIDE the case to protect the FW from bumping. It's a bit taller than the original pattern so I can fold it over the machine, just in case the footpedal drops from the cases lid.

..and i can safely lift it in ánd out the case. Although I made many mistakes, putting the block upside down is NOT one of it.

It's a dustcover as well. How clever! (not my idea..)
Some more pics to show that wretched piping

Tutorial is to be found here
Now I can relax and to some handquilting on the couch...

Last days of summer...

Now summer is slowly fading, I've started to handquilt my latest top. No real name popped up yet for this one; perhaps it'll come to me later on.
It's nice to have a new project on your lap now evenings are getting colder..

I started with circles and filled in the blanks later on.

 Had to make several quilt shapes last sunday. I made them out of (thin) cardboard and glued those onto sandboard to prevent slippering. I also had C's ready bought circles that fitted perfectly.
To hold on to the summer feeling as long as I can , I treat myself to a fresh bunch of sunflowers every week.

Transforming my dinnertable to a colourfull spot in the house:)

Don't want to bore everyone with endless Featherweight stories, but i do want to say that i'm up to my neck in restoring. The more I unscrew and clean/oil/lube, the better she starts to sound and stitch. When i came across this pattern, i couldn't resist!

I love how the letters form the machine! I think I'll turn it into a dustcover or something like that.  The paperpiece pattern can be found here.
Enjoy the last days of summer!

Deep cleanse...

To be frank, I was a tiny bit dissapointed about the state my Feather was in. I assumed the seller, who stated it was checked and oiled, would have done a better job. Seller is well known among Feather owners here and offers Feathers frequently.
A friend who specializes in restoring oldtimer motorcycles,  is enthousiastic about ANY old machine, regardless what it does (ride, sew, saw...) He took a good look and told me it was just wiped of, oiled and that was about it.

When I first plugged her in and tried to sew she rattled. And I mean RATTLED. Ough!
The bobbin/bobbincase as far as i could tell, made that noise.
So! time for research and elbowgrease!

 It even took some heavy machinery to blow a cloud of dust out. (no worry, it can blow gently!)

I replaced the smelly oil and grease soaked drip pad (grrr flipped pic ofcourse)

and gave her a good rub. There was also a 56 year old feltpack beneath the stitchplate and couple of old threads on the back of the bobbin housing.

NOW she's shiny! (and clean) And she started to hum instead of rattle and moan. Now we're talking!

Next problem is her stitching. Afterall, that's why she's here. She makes a bit of a zigzaggy stitch instead of a straight one and loops on top and sometimes below.
Checked the bobbin tension and it seemed okay. The problem is probably in the uppertension and more specific the tension nob, but I won't dismantle that untill my maintenance/manual book arrives.
Now got to find a place/website where i can order lubricant, oil and more much wanted items.
Last pic (can anyone please tell me WHY blogger flips perfectly straight pictures??)
A "certificate" the Singer Company mailed. How fun! I might even consider framing it *lol*

Oh my....

A story in pictures.....

She's from 1956 like me. I know nothing about her and she came with a lot of mysterious items. Now there's a whole weekend of getting to know her.

As you can see, Blogger gives up and start to flip pics. So, more next time:)

 

 

Happy happy Joy joy

Seems like the new trendy thing in quilting is the "low-noise" quilt. Patches from soft pastels with hardly any contrast.

Guess I should re-name my "Happy happy Joy joy" quilt in PUMP UP THE VOLUME

Now low noise in my quiltroom :)

It's finished!



 Too bad daylight was allready fading

 ..and indoors the light wasn't any better...

 But here it is: proudly hanging in front off the rack!
Sadly the border quiltpattern turned out a bit too wide and i lost some stitches in the binding. Perhaps, one day, I'll rip it out and quilt another (better) pattern. One day..
For now, I like it!

I did hurt myself while sewing the binding on. I managed to move my thumb exactly on the spot where my machine could slam it. Hard. Luckily I have matching bandaids:)
(blurry pic, but I was in pain..)

Another finish is my practise block. Got a bit sloppy in the end, but it's good enough to brighten up a dark corner somewhere.

In one of my quilt books it says that you should quilt with a plan. I had none, ofcourse, only to find out that the book was right. At least I tried my walking foot and stitch-in-the-ditch foot..Next time i'll try the freemotion thingy. Oh my..hot flashes from just thinking of that.

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???

Quilting makes the quilt

After the hassle of choosing and cutting fabrics and the sometimes painstaking process of piecing all the scraps together, comes the relaxing part of QUILTING!
It's such a rewarding thing to see a bunch of patches sewn together transform from a piece of fabric into a real quilt.
Hard to capture in a picture, but I tried to make some "before and after" shots.

I like how a block changes after it's quilted and i LOVE to see a quilt emerge. Every now and then I spread the whole piece on the floor to see the difference between unquilted parts and finished blocks.

Happy Joy quilt is almost done: one border piece left to quilt and then, my least fav, the binding. Hopefully I can show it all done by the end of the week, just before a full workweek starts again..

Finished top!

Last weeks of my summerbreak and sewing almost every afternoon makes a finished top..Struggling to get the ever growing top under the machine, struggling to match points and...

 ...it turned out to be the biggest quilt i made so far, approx. 2.30mx1.67m (90"x66")
This one bit me over and over again!
First time I tried making points by machine (ough!) Still got a lot to learn and need much more practice! It took some effort to get a full pic but tadaa: here it is!

Now I have to dig in the cupboard to see if there's a batting there big enough and, more important, piece a backing!
When googling "patches and pinwheels" you'll find lots of patterns and tutorials. Mine is made after a pattern by Maybeth Oxenreider (book: Scrap-lover's quilts by better home &gardens)

So far, so good....

....this week I'm going to add another small strip to complete the houndstooth border. Then sew a gazillion 2' squares together for border 2...

DD and i got mail last week! Fav quiltshop has closed the brick&mortar shop (I'm still trying to get to terms with that!) and continued as a webshop (with a possibility to visit, take lessons or participate in a bee). We wanted to order a fq as soon as the webshop was opened. I tried when things weren't working just right, but soon after DD was the very first online customer.

DD was so happy with the fun mail, that she took pics:)

Green for me, squares for DD and a free yellow fq, for being the first online order!

How nice is that!