And So the Crochet Begins

2017 The Year of the Hook

2017 The Year of the  Hook. And no, I haven't given up Patchwork and Quilting. In fact there is plenty coming up on that front this year.
BUT
I have decided that now is the time to share my Joy of Crochet. And so in January I opened the doors on my Once a Month Crochet Group, open to all levels from beginner up.
We kicked off last month with a Basic Granny Square.
And this month having made five Granny Squares we have progressed to a bag/box.

To view my Beginner Crochet Videos (UK Treble Stitch and making a Basic Granny Square Left and Right Handed) Click on the link at the bottom of the page.

Fast Forward Four Years to 2021

Wow! The last five years have flown by. We had so much fun in Crochet Class. We learnt new Stitches and Patterns. Stretched ourselves. Inspired and helped each other.  So much new Crochet has been worked. I also put a few How to Crochet Videos up on my YouTube Channel. But that was the last four years.

Time Now For A Change

Time now for me to play. 

More of My Crochet

Back Now to Our Crochet Bag/Box/Container

For those of you who want to see how I make my Crochet Granny Squares see my Crochet Corner Post

As you can see these can be made up in different sizes.

The Small one was made using a Cotton Yarn

And Four Granny Square Rounds.

The Large one was made using an Chunky weight Yarn

And Ten Granny Square Rounds.

I used a cotton yarn called Paint Box

For the small bag and a Chunky acrylic yarn for the large one.

I've made two little videos.

One showing the UK Double Crochet I used to edge each square and also join the squares together.

And

A second one showing how I made the lining insert.

For more HowTo Videos vist my YouTube channel

And

My Social Media Links

Binding Matters

OK my Quilty Friends, as some of you are ready for binding your quilts, today I give you my How to cut/make quilt binding video

Nothing more to say about that really, except if you have a any questions please feel free to ask them in the comments section.

And now hopefully, you'll want to find out how to Attach your Binding to your Quilt.  Well - Just click here. to find out.

Yours in Stitches, Joy 

Spool Block

Here is how I put together the spool Block we are making from The Beginners Guide to Quilting book we are using at the moment.
SCROLL to the bottom of the page for my Top Stitching Tip AND Today's musical interlude.

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Here are all the pieces for one block

Below they are laid out as per the finished block

 Take the centre square and stitch on the two sides

 

 And Press

 Take the four small squares and place them on either end of spool top and bottom

Mark a diagonal line with your fabric marker of choice 

 Stitch along the marked lines

Trim off excess fabric

 Quarter of an inch is good

 

   Press open

Line up and stitch to middle section

One at the top and one at the bottom

 And hey presto

You have a spool block

Here is the book we are working from.

It's proved rather elusive.

The book of the same name on Amazon is not the same book.

This book is actually classed as a bookazine - not quite a book, not quite a magazine.

It was published last year (2014) through Future Publishing

Although no longer in stock on line with them. 

It is often available in W.H. Smith in the UK

Usually amongst the magazines. 

Almost everyone in actual class now have a copy.

But if I'd realised how difficult it would be to get hold of.....well...

Top Tip

To avoid your machine chewing up the beginning of blocks sewn on point.

 

Start your stitching onto a piece of spare fabric (make sure it's two layers of fabric)

 and continue without stopping onto your actual block - see pic below - green fabric is the spare piece.

You simply snip the spare fabric off once you've completed your stitching.

 

Yours in Stitches, Joy

Meanwhile

Somewhere over the Rainbow - with the lovely mellow voiced

Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole

Click on the link

Relax and EnJoy

 

Christmas Star

This year I give you my Christmas Star Tree ornament

And another....

You can easily make one of these yourself.

Using two star templates - one large, one small.

 

With just these simple ingredients.....

Sew

Lets get stitching!

Cut two pieces of fabric (one piece will be your star front, the other will be the back of the star) roughly about half an inch larger than your large star shape.

&

Draw around the large star shape on one of the fabric pieces

On a contrasting piece of fabric

Draw around the small star template 

(I've used cookie cutters - and as you can see I'm making lots of Christmas Star ornaments)

Cut out small star and place onto centre of your drawn star .

Stitch in place using a contrasting thread.

(note you are stitching onto the front fabric only at this point)

Place front onto back fabric

 and stitch around outer star.

Cut out your star

Attach a ribbon for hanging

 And there you have it

Your very own Christmas Star Tree Ornament
The cookie cutters I bought came in a set of three - you only need two, but having these three gives me options to make different sized stars.

The original was made in felt.

But they work just as well using cotton fabrics,

or woolen ones.

Below are stars I've made from,

felt, cotton, brushed cotton and wool fabrics.

Experiment and have fun making your own Christmas Stars.

A little test for you now.

I machine stitched one of the hearts

and it worked out well

see if you can spot which one is the

Machine Stitched one.

As there is no padding/stuffing these little beauties will fit nicely inside Christmas cards.

Making a special little gift for your close friends and family.

And of course you might like to see how to make last Christmas's Hand Stitched Hearts

Or even the Machine Stitched Hearts

Enough information for one post!

Yours in Stitches, Joy

Spotlight Wednesday - Pulling up your bobbin thread

This weeks Spotlight Wednesday is about pulling up you bobbin thread to the top of your work.

It's not something we've need to use yet. But I thought I show it to you ready for when you do.

This is a little technique you can use whenever you want to start your machine stitching not at the edge of your work.

I learnt this when doing machine applique but it's just as useful for machine quilting.

Sew,
if I wanted to start my machine quilting on the beige strip of the logcabin below

This is what I would do
Click on this pink link to watch my video - pulling up your bobbin thread.

So now your work will 'always' be as tidy on the back as it is on the front.

I'm going to go and get my things ready for tomorrow now.

Goody list - money -  camera -  glasses -  sweets and drinks - painkillers - a bus full of quilty friends and a large dose of laughter at the ready.

My D.H. says that when us quilters get together we sound like a gaggle of geese!

We are going (a bus full so probably 50 of us) to the Quilt Show in Malvern - we'll be crossing the border into the English countryside and the land of free bags - you have to pay for grocery bags in Wales and we Welsh get a bit overexcited at the prospect of having our purchases put into free bags.

I'll be taking pictures, making notes, having more than my fair share of fun, and reporting back to you all on Kickback Friday.

Yours in Stitches, Joy

Monday Group – Machine Quilting

Good Monday morning quilty friends.
Today I’m going to talk about machine quilting using your Walking Foot.

Last week I put together my Half Logcabin quilt top, and now it’s time to quilt it.

Sew, let’s talk about quilting.

As I said, I’m machine quilting this quilt. I’ll be using straight line quilting, some what I call ‘three step zig-zag stitch quilting’ and just a little machine decorative stitch quilting.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

This first one is machine quilted in the ditch. You can’t really notice the quilting.

This second logcabin block is machine quilted using a zig zag stitch – so the quilting stands out.

   This flower is straight line quilted diagonally.

Below, I’ve used straight line quilting either side of the ‘free motion’ quilted leaves.
  And finally this block has been ‘crosshatch’ quilted with additional vertical lines.

Now don’t worry if I’ve used some quilting terms your not familiar with. I’ll be showing you each one in more detail over the next few weeks.

I just wanted to give you a taster of what you can do with ‘straight line’ machine quilting.

And now for something completely (well slightly) different.
In todays video I’ll show you how I get ready for straight line machine quilting.

Hope you enjoy,

That's all from me today folks,

But why not Check out 

My Social Media Links

Yours in Stitches, Joy