BABY QUILT PROJECT: LIZ’S HINTS & TIPS

Here goes with the hints & tips for making the Counting Sheep embroidered baby quilt featured in my previous blog post:

When using soft fabrics that have been pre-washed or soft flannel, I like to spray with starch to stiffen a little. This makes it easier to cut the fabric accurately as well as sew accurate seams, etc. Best Press is a very light and fragranced spray so is perfect for this task. Ask your local Janome or Elna dealer about Best Press.

Once you have cut your embroidered blocks and strips of sashing & borders to size, use your JANOME OR ELNA 1/4 inch foot to sew accurate 1/4 inch seams. I find a stiletto or sharp pointed “stick” works very well to guide the fabric under the foot. This is my rather special “stiletto” that my friend, Karen, brought back from a recent trip to Cuba as a gift for me. It is actually carved from a cow’s horn. She thinks it was supposed to be a hair ornament but, of course, us sewing girls had other ideas!! It worked PERFECTLY to guide my soft flannel baby quilt.

Notice how that stiletto really helps feed seams under the foot so they lie the way I had intended.

I chose to quilt in the ditch around all the blocks. I then used the quilting arm with my Acufeed built-in walking foot to sew mutiple rows of straight stitching on my quite wide borders ( This acufeed feeding system is available on selected JANOME & ELNA sewing machines – please ask your local JANOME or ELNA DEALER for details on what is the best sewing machine for your sewing and quilting needs)

When it came to finishing the edges, I had decided ahead of time that I would cut my fleece backing a little larger than my quilt top and then just wrap it over to the front and sew down. As fleece does not fray, it works well for this technique. Notice that I used the new Clover Clips instead of pins – oh my goodness – you need to ask your local JANOME OR ELNA dealer to sell you a box of these: I love them. No more leaving DNA on my projects from nasty pin pricks. Try them out.

Clover clips in action!

Decision time: what stitch to use to sew down the binding? I settled on the “serpentine” or elastic stitch. Always test sew until you have the stitch settings as you require. I changed mine to SW 6.0 and SL3.5

Once again, use that stiletto to assist you with sewing from clip to clip

My fancy new stiletto points to the guide on the JANOME or ELNA DITCH QUILTING FOOT for Acufeed machines. This foot is invaluable for doing things like this: sewing down binding and getting the stitching in just the right place.

How to deal with corners? As the fleece is quite thick & puffy, I chose not to fold mitered corners. I trimmed away some of the bulk and then just folded a corner as in the pic. Then stitched over & through each corner as I sewed the binding down.

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL ELNA DEALER FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT OUR EXCLUSIVE ACUFEED QUILTING SYSTEM  as well as feet such as the ELNA DITCH QUILTING FOOT. See the DEALER LOCATOR   on  our website for a dealer near you.

WHAT DID YOU SEW ON YOUR ELNA OVER THE EASTER WEEKEND???

Not sure about where you live, but the weather here in my corner of BC was rather untypical April weather……  it was glorious sunshine and quite warm. I had huge plans for a rainy weekend of sewing.  However Plan B came into effect as it was just too beautiful outside to stay indoors sewing. We went on a day trip down to Washington State to see the tulips ….well actually it was mostly daffodils as the tulips were not out yet. But very pretty nonetheless.

              

However, I did manage to complete a baby quilt + quite a bit of garment sewing for myself and a friend. I thought I would share the baby quilt with you today:

This is obviously for a little girl who will be arriving next month. Her Mommy is one of my daughter’s best friends and we are excited that this little one’s arrival is the same week as our second little grand-baby girl’s arrival date. So excitement in all the applicable families is building!

The 4 embroidered blocks are really cute. This embroidery design is a Stitchitize design and may be found on the CD of designs (the Stitchitize 1100 Collection).  However, I am sure this design would also be available for purchase on the Stitchitize website.

The body of the sheep are little appliques so you can pop fuzzy fleece or soft fuzzy towelling onto the design at that point of the embroidery stitch-out. I have made several similar quilts using this particular design and the babies just love touching the fuzzy texture of the sheep. I teamed these blocks up with soft, cuddly pink flannel with little white dots – so pretty for a little girl.

Did you know that if you want to make a really soft, cuddly baby quilt, you may omit the batting and backing and just sandwich the quilt top with a piece of fleece or minkee? This reduces bulk and stiffness and is lovely and soft. I did this here by backing the quilt with plain pink fleece. Babies just LOVE the texture of minkee and, if truth be told, I do not think it is only babies who like to touch it!

I also saved some time by making the fleece backing a little bigger than the quilt top and then I just rolled it to the front and stitched in the ditch with my DITCH QUILTING FOOT. Quick, easy & effective.

PLEASE SEE PART 2 OF THIS BLOG POST FOR HINTS & TIPS ON MAKING A SUPER QUICK & EASY BABY QUILT PROJECT WITH AN ELNA .

EXCITING EVENTS COMING UP SOON

Just a reminder about 2 exciting events coming up towards the end of MAY. I do not think it is too late to book to attend either of these so do check them out.

I will be attending both of the events below, so do come & say HI, bring me Show & Tell if you can (I have little gifts for any folk who bring me their actual Show & Tell items or good, clear pics of them (on your cell phone is just fine too!)

SASKATCHEWAN STITCHES CONFERENCE – this year is a real special year as it is the 10TH ANNIVERSARY. The Conference is held at St Peter’s Abbey (simply the MOST peaceful and tranquil venue: a monastery in beautiful, rural Saskatchewan) from May 24th to June 3rd. Check out their website. Haus of Stitches is one of our Elna Sewing machine dealers with many very happy Elna sewing machine owners……….come visit the store or the Conference and we can show you our sewing machines.  Wendy, Haus of Stitches owner, has a truly unique store with lots going on. The Stitches Conference is just one of the things she offers to her customers and friends from all over Canada and the US! It certainly is a major highlight for MANY sewers, knitters and crafters every year – including ME – I would hate to miss it!  I go there to teach classes; promote Elna sewing machines + meet with lots of wonderful, happy sewers. I have made friends with very special people which is a huge bonus. AND the conference is held at a monastery in Muenster, pretty close to the town of Humboldt where Wendy has her happy and “buzzing” store.  I will be at The Stitches Conference at the beginning of their May 24th – June 3rd run as I have to wing my way over to QUILT CANADA in Halifax on Monday 28th May.  Check out the 3 classes I will be teaching on 26th & 27th May – there just might be a few spots left for you to attend and have creative fun with us.

QUILT CANADA 2012: SEAMS LIKE HOME is taking place at Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS this year. It opens on Tues 29th May and runs through to Saturday 2nd June. There will, of course, be several exhibits  including the National Juried Show. Yours truly has a quilt in this year’s show!!! Yes, big excitement. I made a quilt specially for the NJS and it was accepted.  Sorry, can’t show you a pic yet but I will definitely do so after Quilt Canada – watch this spot in early June. But here is another quilt I recently completed  – seeing as I cannot show you my NJS entry yet:

HOOPSISTERS BLOCK OF THE MONTH QUILT 2011: GOOSE TRACKS. Everything is done IN THE HOOP: piecing, applique, quilting & then you just sew the blocks together. A real fun project!

In addition, Quilt Canada offers workshops from Wed 30th May to Sat 2nd June  as well as a bunch of special events. I would heartily recommend you check out the website……………it is not too late to decide to join us all in Halifax!!!

Come and visit us at the Janome Booth in the Merchant Mall. We are a major sponsor of Quilt Canada: we are supplying skid loads of sewing machines for the classrooms so that you do not have to drag your machine there. We are also sponsoring some of the quilt awards.

See you at the Stitches Conference in Muenster, Saskatchewan??

See you at Quilt Canada in Halifax??

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Our Vancouver classroom Christmas tree and wreath

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES THIS CHRISTMAS SEASON FROM ALL OF US IN THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT AS WELL AS LOOKING FORWARD WITH YOU TO A GREAT YEAR OF GOOD HEALTH AND HAPPY SEWING IN 2012.

HOOPSISTERS GOOSE TRACKS

HOOPSISTERS GOOSE TRACKS

This quilt was the Hoopsisters Goose Tracks Block of the month Program for 2011. My appreciation goes to one of my Janome & Elna dealers Tom’s Sewing Machines of Surrey, BC, Canada who graciously allowed me to purchase the program even though I could not attend the classes (seeing as I would miss so many classes when I am out of town traveling for work). Thanks Tom & Kerri! I was then able to work at my own pace as work commitments permitted so this project was started over the summer, then put aside  for work travel commitments, and I finally got back to it a week or 2 back. I completed it TODAY! I know you understand that great feeling……..the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction of having completed a large, somewhat complex project……… AND liking what you have completed is a big part of it too – WOOHOO!!

Would you believe it if I told you that I am crazy enough to have started TWO of these quilts: this one is for shows & events for Janome & Elna and another in completely different fabric colours choices is for me personally. That one, sadly, is far from complete as I just don’t have that much free time at home to work on this quilt. I do not believe that I have even reached the half way mark yet – sigh – maybe I’ll complete it during 2012?? It sure will be on my 2012 Goal Setting spreadsheet.

OK so what is so special about this quilt or wall hanging? Hoopsisters has become somewhat of a sensation with many sewing and embroidery stores offering classes and courses using their pretty unique embroidery designs. On my travels around Western Canada and checking things out online, I notice that many sewing and embroidery folk have turned to the Hoopsisters projects as it offers something a little different and fresh. Those of us who sew a LOT do tend to get a bit bored doing the same-old same-old. So when something innovative comes out, we sure check it out. Hoopsisters reckond they are taking quilting into the 21st century. I think I tend to agree. Pretty much everything is done in the embroidery hoop: that is the piecing, embellishing with decorative stitching AND the quilting. Once the blocks are trimmed they are ready to be sewn together. No further quilting is required. I used the 8 inch square hoop on the Elna 9500 simply because 5 inch or 8 inch design options were offered on this block of the month program. A friend made the 5 inch block size which is really just a smaller version of the 8 inch one I did. I added a 4 inch border around my blocks so my finished size is approx 52 inches square. The program also offers additional blocks for more complex borders as well as full instructions for expanding the quilt pattern to make it a queen sized quilt. Well, I quietly gave that the thumbs down as I knew it would probably become another of those perpetual PHD’s in my life (projects half done!).

I am happy to say that I used the Quilt Binder set to attach the binding to this wall hanging. I timed myself: it took less than an hour!

WHAT WILL YOU MAKE WITH YOUR ELNA SEWING & EMBROIDERY MACHINE IN 2012????????

CHRISTMAS PROJECT “STARS ON THE TABLE” courtesy of Elna USA

I found this great project today and can’t wait to try it out……..I’ll be sure to let you know how it turns out………………………..maybe you will beat me to it?!

http://www.sewing.org/files/project/stars_on_the_table.pdf

Click the link above and read or print off the full instructions.

CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS…..PROJECT IDEA.

Last week I realized my little grand-daughter did not have her very own monogrammed Christmas stocking (made by Granny, of course) so I set about correcting that!

My little one has a new Christmas stocking that I just know Grandpa is going to fill to the brim!

It only took a couple of hours to get this done: Cut up a selection of your Christmas scraps into 2 inch squares.

a great way to use up those ittie-bittie scraps

I used a piece of fusible interfacing that I drew a grid of 2 inch squares onto with a black sharpie marker. Place the interfacing glue side UP on your ironing board and lay out the 2 inch squares of Christmas fabric scraps – one in each block of your grid. You will need to figure out the area you need for the front of the stocking. Perhaps draw that onto the interfacing as well so that you cover enough & not too much area for the stocking.

Lay out all the little squares & then fuse to the interfacing: glue side up & right side of fabric up. Be sure to use an applique pressing sheet or sheet of parchment paper to protect your iron.

Now you need to cover those raw edges between all the squares: I used gold fusible bias tape. Peel the paper off the back, press down on all the diagonal lines to form a grid over the joins between the squares. Press carefully with your iron.

Gold bias tape (Clover) fused onto my stocking.......looking good so far!

For the back of the stocking, I just backed a piece of Christmas fabric with fusible batting and used my ELNA IAF foot and quilting guide bar for the diagonal stitching.

back of stocking – grid quilted

I then cut a lining for the stocking being sure that the 2 pieces were mirror imaged: ie don’t cut 2 left feet!

Join the top of one lining to the top of the front of the stocking & repeat for the back as well. Sew a 1/4 inch seam or serger across with wrong sides together.

lay out the 2 halves of the stocking + lining wrong sides together with stockings lined up the one end and linings the other end

Sew all the way around the stocking & lining leaving open a section shown here. The stocking has already been turned back to right side in this pic. REMEMBER to insert a little loop near the top of the back (just above the opening to flip) for hanging up.

stocking turned to right side. Sew the opening closed & push the lining down into the "boot". It is ready to hang up!

here is the one I made for ME - same construction method but different in that it is crazy-patched instead of 2 inch squares in a grid. Also I did loads of gold metallic dec. stitching on my EL7300 to embellish the crazypatch seams - instead of the gold bias tape on the other stocking.

close-up of decorative stitching

Monogram was embroidered with gold metallic thread on the EL9500 embroidery machine using Gothic font.

Back of my stocking - grid quilted using the EL7300 with Acufeed foot & quilting guide bar - same as my baby's stocking just a different fabric.