I give you my How to Attach your Binding to your Quilt Video
I'm thinking it would be a good idea for those of you new to this technique to make up a sample piece. What do you think? I could talk you through that if you wanted. Let me know.
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
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
When I gave my Welsh Quilting talk to a local ladies group 'Positive Thinkers', they asked me to return to do a mini stitching workshop - Any project I though suitable.
Realizing the restrictions of having one hour to complete a workshop I decided to make an Applique Felt Heart Hanging.
You may remember the red and white felt ones we made last Christmas.
Anyway, these hearts are Aqua Blue
The Kits
I wanted to make sure the ladies had the best chance of making these up within the hour,
So
I've cut out, drawn out stitching lines and made up 30 kits
Begged borrowed, bought and stolen about 70 needles.
Cut threads to length and threaded said 70 odd needles
(cutting thread and threading the needles would take valuable time out of their hour)
Cut out ribbons for hanging the Hearts
Made up a number of example pieces
At different stages
And rather ignored the dogs pleas to be taken out for a walk.
