Free Motion Quilting Meets Recycling

Can you see where the original stitching ends and mine starts?  My old skirt is now well and truly unrecognisable, and well on its way to becoming a cushion cover.  I have enjoyed making it up as I go along.  The original stitching has had some stitching here and there, just a bit of outlining to batten it down, and now I am off on a frolic of my own to fill up all the blank space.  Doing all the fat fancy paisley-like leaves has been an absolute joy.  However, it has been heavy going in parts because I have had to contend with seams in the skirt fabric, and have ended up with a few rumples.  Also, because the backing fabric is a synthetic mix, it has a tendency to resist, and refuses to glide as easily as pure cotton.  Of course, as soon as I type this, I realise I have forgotten to put clingfilm on the bed of the machine, which is my tried and tested trick to help the work glide more freely.

It is ages since I did a free motion project.  What better way to start again than with an old skirt backed with offcuts of curtain lining?  Shopping isn't easy at the moment, so I am taking the opportunity to use up items that are cluttering up the house. 

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 307 - Picking Up The Threads

At last, I am getting back to a neglected project.  This is my old skirt, which I cut up and prepared for quilting.  Actually, I'm not sure about the quilting part.  I think it might not need wadding, being a fairly thick woollen fabric, but it certainly needs to be attached to a backing fabric, so that means plenty of free motion designs to fill the gaps.

I have always used Gutermann's Sulky Cotton 30 for free motion quilting, but I have got two or three reels of Cotton 12 in my box.  When I did my last landscape I bought a supply of stout needles, and it occurred to me that they might be ideal for the thicker thread.  The two reels on the right of the photo are Cotton 12, and just from the photo you can see how much better they show up against the background.  It's raining (again!), so today is a good day to stay in and start experimenting.

It's time I started some serious sewing again after all that knitting.

Here goes for Week 307 :-

Many thanks to Deana for linking up with her wonderful scrappy Trail Mix quilt last time.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

 

 

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The 

first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

A Picture for Sunday - Grazing in Gossamer

 Really magical gossamer appears occasionally in autumn.  One afternoon earlier this month it carpeted every field for miles around, and shone against the sun.

Odd Jobs

Irritating odd jobs tend to get put off, sometimes indefinitely, or forgotten.  This week I decided to clear three out of the way.  First, a transformation, of a denim skirt that my daughter grew out of years ago.  All it needed was a length of old picture cord, a seam across the bottom...

... and now I have a brand new peg bag.

Next came a repair job to a cardigan.  The petersham inside the front edges was disintegrating, so I had a rummage through my bag of green scraps and found two strips of cut off selvedge in exactly the right shade.  This was a minor miracle in itself.  It is years since I kept strips of selvedge.  These days they go straight in the bin.  The strips were long enough to bind the front edges and make the cardigan wearable again.  It had got to the stage where I was nervous about putting it in the washing machine in case the buttonholes came out ruined, but now it is repaired it can have its long overdue wash.

And finally, a tie-back for a curtain.  This curtain hangs between the kitchen and the dining room, and is only closed in the winter when it gets draughty in the evenings.  We don't want to put a hook in the wall because the plaster is a bit old and fragile, so I have made a strip to wrap around the curtain.  At one end there is a buttonhole and a button, and at the other end, two buttonholes.  

I sewed a button to the curtain...

... buttoned the tie-back onto it, wrapped it round, and the two buttonholes at the other end go over the two buttons.  Easy.  Why didn't I think of this when I made the curtain ten years ago?

Seamless Cardigan

My first seamless cardigan is finished!  I used my usual cardigan pattern in fisherman's rib, and added an extra stitch where the sleeve and side seams would usually be.  Knitting the sleeves on three needles and the whole cardigan on four was pretty hair raising at times.  By the time I put the whole thing onto two needles, once I was approaching the neck, it was getting quite heavy, but very entertaining with the sleeves dangling down.  It was all worth it for the rapid finish once the button band was knitted - no seams, just a little gap to stitch up under each arm and a few tails to weave in.  

It was fun using spotty buttons again, and this time I used orange thread to match the orange streaks in the yarn.  It should fit my granddaughter Emilia when she is about 12 to 18 months.

xxx

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 305 - A Weighted Blanket

Stretched out on my daughter's bed in all its lumpy glory, the weighted blanket looks colourful but slightly odd.  Because it is so thick and heavy it can't be folded, so it has to be stored rolled up.  It ends up creased and lacks the soft and cosy visual appeal of a quilt.    

Every pocket contains a weighted pad, and the total weight is approximately 9 kilograms.  Being of a certain age, I had to convert all the measurements to imperial, which conveniently worked out as approximately 20lbs.  With the blanket measuring 6ft 6in x 4ft 6in, I calculated that it needed about 2 and a half ounces for every 6 inch square.  A single pad doesn't feel particularly heavy, but once the whole blanket is rolled up it is like carrying a small sack of coal.  I tried it out, just lying under it for a couple of minutes, and felt as though I was being crushed under a board, thinking that if I slept under it it would give me nightmares.

Last Friday we visited my nephew and his family in Berkshire to deliver the blanket to them, so they could arrange for it to be passed on to my niece and her husband, who live in Surrey.  It reached its destination on Sunday.  Yesterday my niece gave me the first progress report on how her husband's night had been - 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep, the best he had managed for ages.  Of course I was pleased that the blanket seemed to be having the desired effect, but also aghast at hearing how badly he has been sleeping.  As expected, the request has now been made for another pocketed cover, but in a more manly colour scheme. 

Meanwhile, all the nursery prints have been a great hit with the family.  My niece is on a nostalgic roll, remembering all the pyjamas and nighties her granny used to make.  Altogether, I used seven fabrics left by my sister in law's mother, and two left by my mum.  The blue flowers on a white background made up most of the back...

... but I needed a large piece of a different floral fabric for one corner.  When we were at my nephew's house on Friday, his 7 year old daughter immediately recognised these flowers, and produced a doll's coat made by her great granny with this fabric for the lining.  It was wonderful using up all these scraps and keeping them in the family.

Here goes for Week 305 :-

Many thanks to Chris for linking up with her flower appliqué mini quilt.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

 

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The 

first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Out For A Walk

Doesn't she look snug!   Meet Emilia, all wrapped up in the blanket from very proud granny.  She is now just over three weeks old, and looking at the photos and mini videos that we have received, she is making wonderful progress - taking in the world with wide-open eyes, smiling and chatting.

The parcel that I sent contained three items; the elephant quilt, the cardigan with spotty buttons, and this blanket.  

It was a great way of using up left over oddments, not only from babies' garments, but also from cardigans I have made for myself.  The overall effect is fairly riotous, and should keep Emilia busy when she is learning her colours.

Many of the baby yarns were in random colours.  I really like the shades of blue in this photo.

The pink in this photo is definitely Emilia's colour.  We have received lots of photos of her looking delightful in pink.

I am hoping that we can visit in The New Year, as soon as travel restrictions are lifted.  I have already got two cardigans, in the the next two sizes up, set aside for her.  I am looking forward to life returning to normal, not new normal, but normal normal, and actually kissing and cuddling our first grandchild.  It can't come soon enough.