Thursday 16 August 2012

Seeing spots..

I had a lovely day on Monday, meeting up with some fellow N.Ireland bloggers - 
Fiona @SewFi, Judith @JustJude and Tina @Secret Ingredient:Love
Unfortunately none of us remembered to take any photos!
Anyway we had a lovely morning, and I'm looking forward to the next meetup :)
I'm getting ready to go to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham tomorrow,
meanwhile here's a taster of a new project I'm starting
with Riley Blake's Cotton Dots and solids. 
and here's a random photo of some blooms in our garden, that have 
survived the torrential rain this week!

Tuesday 14 August 2012

August Bee blocks

 Just popping in to show my August blocks for Modern Irish Bee
Modern Irish August
Scrappy wonky houses and wonky blocks!
Modern Irish August
and also Hipbees August block - more wonky houses!
Hipbees August block
This time made with Summersville fabrics.
I'm getting ready to go to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham on Friday,
anybody else heading that way?

Thursday 9 August 2012

Janome Binding Finish!

I have just finished a new quilt design, made using these fantastic fabrics
Perfectly Perched by Laurie Wisbrun from Robert Kaufaman fabrics.
Fun, fun, fun :)
Unfortunately, all I can show you is the back of the quilt,
the front will follow at a later date!
What I really wanted to tell you about is a new addition to my Janome Horizon - 
A Quilt Binding Set - yes a speedy way to attach the binding, 
front and back sewn at the same time!
Now when I first opened the packaging, I was totally daunted 
by all the bits and pieces that made up the set.
It's a substantial add on to the machine - my first fear was that I would
end up breaking something on my new machine, just by trying to get it to work!
But my fears were unfounded - I just followed the instructions!
here's how it works:
Firstly attach the binder foot, which comes in the set. 
 Next, remove the bobbin cover plate - nothing painful so far :)
This is the underside of the base plate -  notice the metal rectangle (support plate)
- this fits in, where the bobbin cover plate came off.
 Place the base plate on top of the needle plate,the metal rectangle should fit in neatly.
 Take the specified screw and secure tightly.
This bit of kit is what the fabric is fed through.
Fold out the wiggly wire bit (The tape guide!)
Feed the binding through the wiggly wire, wrong side facing you.
(Binding cut at 2" and end cut diagonally)
Then insert the binding into the guide tube, and use a pin or tweezers to
slide it on into the tube.
Place the binder on the base plate and secure in place with the
two screws supplied.
Pull about 2" of the binding out of the tube and pull at a right angle
to the binder, under the binder foot.
Place the edge of the quilt into the fold of the binding and start sewing!
Keep the edge of the quilt in the binding fold as you sew.
Keep an eye on how the tape is being fed in to the tape guide, 
it is important that the tape doesn't get stuck or distorted.
There it is - finished 1/2" binding in a fraction of the time it normally takes!
I must emphasize that I did practice on a few samples before I actually started on my quilt, but I did find this attachment very useful and certainly time saving!
I know a lot of people still prefer to hand sew the binding in place, 
and I guess if I were making an 'heirloom' I would too! 
But I think this is a great solution to speeding up the binding process on quilts.
Janome have some great tutorials on using the binding set, on You Tube.
The question is, do you machine or hand sew your binding?

Monday 6 August 2012

Anya Buckle Bag

At last - I've finally got round to blogging about my new pattern!
This is my Anya Buckle Bag 
It's made from some fabric from the Loulouthi range 
by Anna Marie Horner.
It is worn across the body, it leaves both hands free -
great for shopping! 
In fact, I'm going to wear it to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham,
later on this month!
The pattern was featured in a special issue magazine called
'Bags, Beads and Brooches', which can be found here.
I'm in the process of setting up a new website,
so as soon as its sorted, I'll have this pattern for sale on it.
In the meantime, if you're interested in buying this pattern (pdf is available!) 
please drop me an email - patchworkbarn@hotmail.co.uk