Pleats, Patterns and Holes

Going through my stash last month I came across this piece of material, which has been sitting in the cupboard for a few years waiting for its time to come.  I used it as a test piece a few years ago to try out a gathering foot (which didn't work - the gathers were inconsistent) so I rammed it back in the cupboard and forgot about it.

Earlier this week I spent an afternoon carefully unpicking five lines of machined gathering so I could start a project.     

I have long wanted to make a little girl's dress with tucks, where the tucks are sewn first and then the pattern piece cut out afterwards.  However, the design of this material worked better with pleats, because I could keep the white grid, but hide the columns of empty squares in a pleat and end up with horizontal rows of cherries.

Once all the pleats were machine stitched into place, I sewed a piece of ribbon to give extra strength at the bottom on the lines of stitching, and a decorative touch for when the dress is finished.

The paper pattern is ready, prepared from this outrageously complicated sheet from a pattern book I bought in Spain.  

Having started this little dress, now I have to stop.

A fortnight ago we had an eventful morning.  A rather large patch of ceiling plaster fell down, landing on my husband's chair by the table.  He was in the adjacent room, and I was upstairs, so there was no blood, just dust.  Next week we are expecting the plasterer, and shall have to empty the whole room.  We are in for a chaotic few days.  So no sewing for a while.  I shall be in the front room with my knitting and surrounded by cardboard boxes.

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 277 - More Laundry Bags

Every bag is different...

After making an initial batch of 17 laundry bags, which have been now sent with a consignment to a hospital in the Midlands, I found out that a neighbour who works in a local hospital was looking for laundry bags for her colleagues.  Another neighbour had been busy making some for her, and I rustled up six more, three in pale lilac and three in deep mauve.

Since then I have made three more.  The pretty yellow floral striped one is for my sister in law, who works in a nursing home for the elderly, and the red stripey one is for my niece, who is a midwife.  I shall be posting them tomorrow.

So in about three weeks I have made 26 laundry bags.  It has been quite an epic!  Apart from the cord, which I ordered online, everything was in my stash.  I have used lots of pieces of material that I have had for years and never quite knew what to do with.  When I started all my bobbins were full with different coloured threads.  Now I have emptied about 19 bobbins, much of the thread being used for the buttonholes.  I have enjoyed using the buttonholer on my Singer 201K treadle, and I have been quite sobered by the thought that, apart from the buttonholes, these laundry bags were made on a machine that pre-dates the Spanish Flu epidemic, namely my 1916 Singer 99K.

Here goes for week 277:-

This week's featured project is Cindy's beautiful feather 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 and Brazil have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.

Rejoice, He is Risen

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 275 - Laundry Bags

Ready for action in the washing machine...

The latest newsletter from Midsomer Quilting included an appeal on behalf of a team of physiotherapists at a hospital in one of the areas worst affected by the corona virus.  The physios are involved in the care of patients being treated on ventilators, but their standard uniforms are neither safe nor practical when caring for highly infectious patients.  They have put out an appeal for sets of scrubs, and also laundry bags, so they can take the scrubs home to wash, and wash them in the bags to avoid unnecessary contact.  

There are plenty of volunteers who are now making scrubs because the suppliers have run out, and manufacturers can't keep up with demand.  I have volunteered to make bags, and have started a mini production line.  They are simple drawstring bags, about the size of a pillow case.  I had enough royal blue fabric to make eight bags, so I made each one different by adding a coloured patch at the top where I needed to give an extra layer for the buttonholes through which the cord feeds.

So far I have made nine bags, and have the fabric cut and measured for four more.  The fabric shops are shut at the moment, so everything I have used has come from the stash.  Some of these lengths have been waiting to see the light of day for years.  It is gratifying to be able to use them for such a worthwhile cause.

Here goes for week 275

This week's featured project is Frédérique's beautiful polar bear.  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 and Brazil have taken part.  The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.