Second Post of 2016!

Eish, I'm really not a great blogger so it seems.  My excuse is that I am studying at the moment - doing the Quilt Teachers Accreditation Course - and writing assignments is really stretching my brain and my nerves!  I've now completed my second round of written assignments and am busy with the two practicals, machine applique and hand applique.

Apologies to my followers but will try and blog a little more often.  I'm preparing for a fabric postcard talk and demo for guild on Friday.  Here's what I made today.

 There is a tutorial for making Fabric Postcards under "Tutorials" on my blog. 

Happy quilting,

Renovations to Sewing Room

The weekend saw hubby in action making a few changes to my favourite room!  We removed the old shelves that held too much fabric of all sorts - dress material off-cuts as well as upholstery and curtaining fabric and cut the shelving into smaller pieces that would hold my quilting stash ONLY!

Shelving removed from wall on left

Adding the new shelves in the corner

Looking good!

 

The final clean-up!

How blessed I am to have such a handy husband who doesn't mind doing the dirty work as well.  Of course someone had to be in charge of the camera!!

Next we patched up the holes and moved the furniture back into place.   The rest was up to me to do the sorting out and putting in place.  The photo below shows part of my stash neatly folded on the shelves.  I made a curtain to hang over them to keep off the dust, of which there is plenty in the windy season on the farm, and I have also found that the light from the window is inclined to fade the fabric.  The drawers also contain charm packs, layer cakes and jelly rolls as well as threads and bits of lace etc.  The steel cupboard contains files with patterns, fancy quilting threads, quilt magazines and off-cuts of batting.   My aim was to have my sewing room completely clutter free in which to work and I think that I have achieved just that.

Curtain pulled aside to show fabric

Cupboard with files and quilting paraphanalia

The following are a few panoramas of the whole room put together.

 

Fabric postcards from swap on wall

 

When I am quilting a large quilt, I move the gate-legged table to the left of my sewing table onto which the bulk of the quilt will lie.

I am so thrilled with the layout now of my sewing room and sew much easier to work sew in!  Can you see my "work in progress" which lies on the top shelf of the chest of drawers.  It is waiting for its backing which will arrive tomorrow with Glenda from Amafu Fabrics.  Glenda is calling in at Harrismith on her way to Johannesburg/Pretoria where she will have a display of her lovely fabrics at one of the quilt guilds.  I can't wait to buy more of her Bottom Line threads and Superior needles.

Thank you for stopping by to see where I "do it"!!

Happy quilting,

Fabric Postcard Tutorial

I have done a quick tutorial on making fabric postcards.  There are a few of us who have joined a swap and each month we are given a partner to whom we must send a fabric postcard with free motion quilting on it that we learned from our FMQ Challenge in 2012.  It is so exciting to receive lovely fabric postcards from virtually all over the world!  So, let me show you how we make them.

Top and Batting

Firstly, decide what you would like to do for the postcard front.  It can either be pieced as I have done or an appliqued picture or even just a plain piece of fabric.  The stipulation we make in our swap group is that it must have some free motion quilting on it.  The finished size of a postcard is 6"x4" and I would suggest you add on about ½" all around.  Pin it onto a piece of batting roughly the same size.  You are now going to quilt it.  

Quilting the top

Attach your quilting/darning foot and lower your feed dogs.  Quilt a design removing the pins as you go.  (Good practice for your quilting)!

Buckram

I use Buckram as the stiffening layer as it is easily available in the small town where I live.   Timtex is a similar product.  Fast2Fuse and Pelon can also be used at this stage.  If using Buckram or Timtex, fusible web should be used to attach it to the batting.  I actually use some 505 adhesive spray, so either will work.  Press the stiff material well onto the batting side of your postcard or iron (without steam) if your product has adhesive.

Fusible Web

Next iron a piece of fusible web onto the Buckram, remembering to have the sticky side down (not like I have in the photo)!  Fortunately I didn't put my hot iron onto it before I noticed it!

Peeling off the paper

Peel off the paper backing exposing the second glue side of the fusible web.  You will then iron on your plain white or pale colour fabric which will be the back of your postcard where you will write the address.

Trim to size

We are almost done.  With ruler and rotary cutter, trim your postcard to the required size ie 6"x4" centering your quilted design.

Zigzag around edge

Now back to your machine, attach your walking foot, raise your feed dogs and in your chosen thread colour zigzag all around the edge.  I set my stitch width at 4 and length at about 1.5.  You will also notice that I have rounded the corners as I find it easier when I do the satin stitch edging, but they can be left square.  Once you have done this, take a sharp pair of embroidery scissors and trim off all the little fluffy edges - or as much as you can without snipping the zigzag stitches!

Here is a close-up of the fluffy edge against a dark background.

Satin stitch edging

Back to your machine for the satin stitching.  I set my stitch length at .25 and leave the stitch width at 4.  Sew all around the edge with a nice close satin stitch.  Sometimes it may be necessary to go around again to close up some little gaps especially on the corners.

I like to do another round in a gold or silver metalic thread.  You MUST use a topstitch 90/14 needle or the thread will shred.  Use a normal zigzag stitch, perhaps shortening the stitch length slightly.












It's not very clear in the photo as the light was very bright in my sewing room, but I used a pale green Colorful embroidery thread for the satin stitching and a gold metalic thread over the top.

Back of postcard

And there you have your finished postcard!  All that needs to be done now is using a fine permanent marker, write "POST CARD" on the back and it is ready to write your greeting and address.  After making this postcard, I realized that "POSTCARD" should be written across the top and not down the center as in the photo. 

It is great fun to send and receive a postcard "naked" (without being in an envelope) from all around the world.  I would be tickled if you would have a go at making one.  Please leave me a message if you have any questions and I will try to answer them; and I would love to see what you have made.

You are most welcome to join us in our swap.  We are a Facebook group and by clicking here you can see what others have made.  Leave a message for Tina Gilley and she will contact you. 



Happy postcard making,