Dear Jane, what did I do wrong?

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Dear Jane, quilting

What did I do wrong? That is a rhetorical question. I know what I did, and I know how I fixed it. Here are a few of my Dear Jane lessons learned. Samplers are all about learning (right?), and Dear Jane is a sampler quilt.

Not enough contrast

This was one of my early blocks, when I still thought I could use everything in my French General fat-eighth bundle. I now know that a little bit of contrast is a good idea. (This should have been obvious, I know!) I have now set aside the cream fabrics that are too similar to the background cream fabric; they will come in handy for some other project, I am sure. A few blocks were a bit borderline, but I decided that just this one had to be remade. The others were at least pale grey and cream rather than cream and cream. Luckily, it was a dead-easy nine-patch.

The version on the left had no contrast between cream and cream, so I remade the block.

Copy-cat blocks

These easy blocks were made very early on. I made two in the same red fabric as doing so was economical on fabric, and it was easy to strip-piece the small nine-patches. Then, every time I looked at the blocks laid out, my eyes were drawn to the only two blocks that at first glance looked identical. Because it is a simple block to redo, I did so, but this time in a different fabric to make the similarities less obvious.

They were just too much alike when both were made in the same fabric.

I can do better

This block was a challenge, but it is one of my favourites. I am sure I could have lived with it as is, but part of the reason I am enjoying making this quilt is that I learn as I go. I felt I could do better, and I wanted to try again to see if I could improve. The first version was made just by careful measuring, rotary cutting and piecing. The second used foundation-paper piecing, and I am happier with the result. My first attempt reminded me of myself after a big dinner: a bit rounded and bulging in the middle.

I cannot decide which I love more: foundation-paper piecing for machine sewing or silk thread for hand sewing.

It is difficult to see in this photo, but the earlier version on the left is slightly bowl shaped. The revised version on the right is much better.

I just wasn’t a fan

I don’t know why I didn’t like the first version. I could not identify one sensible reason. I just didn’t, and it kept bugging me and drawing my eye. I would not have remade it if it were not another easy and quick block.

I have no logical reason for redoing this block. I just didn’t like the one on the left.

Yes, I know Brenda Papadakis’s fourth Dear Jane rule: finished is better than perfect. I also learned another new quilting ‘rule’ at the WAQA retreat at Swanleigh in May: the four-foot rule. If you cannot see a problem with your sewing from four feet away, there is no problem. I agree with both of these rules, and we all have a degree of tolerance for errors in our work. I only allowed myself to revisit these four blocks because this week I hit the 100 blocks mark. Hurrah!

Fear not. Nothing will be wasted. All the rejected blocks have already been set aside to be made into pincushions (especially the one that is slightly bowl shaped as it will wrap around some pincushion stuffing nicely). I needed some new pincushions, really.

Dear Jane, why so many melons?

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Dear Jane, design boards, design wall, quilting

My Dear Jane quilt is very much like the story of the tortoise and the hare. I am the tortoise, slowly plodding along, but I will finish … eventually.

So far, I have just over ninety Dear Jane blocks finished.

I have sewn ninety-three tiny blocks, including a few I am not altogether happy with and plan to redo, and I have a few more cut and ready to go or partly made. I am finding ziplock sandwich bags just the right size to store the incomplete blocks, including a few that I have pieced and now just need to appliqué the melons onto.

After experimenting with silk thread and English paper piecing of hexagons, I am unashamedly in love with silk thread. I now plan to use it for all my appliqué. I also plan to try it for sewing hand-pieced blocks as I suspect the finer thread will result in a neater finish. (I don’t like the ‘toothy’ edges on some hand-pieced seams if I don’t press them very carefully.)

Three Dear Jane blocks are cut out and being constructed. My two small design boards are coming in handy for the pieced blocks.

I am now more than halfway through the 169 squares. Ninety-three blocks and thirty-four appliquéd melons. It feels like I have sewn many more melons, but perhaps this is just because I have just cut out another sixteen in preparation for other incomplete blocks.

Dear Jane, why so many appliquéd melons?

Growing tree wall-hanging

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free-motion quilting, quilting, sewing for children, stash busting

This project was a special commission, requested by my husband for one of his cycling buddies, who is expecting a baby. My husband asked me to make a ‘bunny rug’, meaning something like the humidicrib covers I have made and donated to the hospital. As the baby is already almost full term and unlikely to be premature and need a humidicrib cover for anything but a wall-hanging, I negotiated a different kind of wall-hanging: a growth chart.

This idea came from Sandi Henderson’s Sewing Bits & Pieces book, which I borrowed from my local library. Her book contains instructions for small and cute projects to use up your scraps. I often think that one of the best sewing tools I own is my library card.

This quilted wall-hanging can be used to record a child’s growth.

I made the following modifications to Sandi’s pattern:

• I added binding to the trunk and top of the tree as I didn’t like the wadding showing between the layers around the raw edges.
• I didn’t add scraps of brown fabric to create a textured bark on the trunk. Instead, I just free-motion quilted a bark-like design (very easy, even for a poor free-motion quilter like me).
• Using Vliesofix, I laminated rectangles of two different green fabrics together and then sewed four or five leaf outlines on each before cutting out the leaves.
• I added a piece of ribbon with centimetre markings on it to make the growth chart’s purpose obvious.
• I added a small pocket to the back of the trunk, at the bottom, in which to store name and age labels.
• I made some apples!

The most difficult part was finding a fabric measuring tape. I didn’t really succeed. The ribbon I used is wildly inaccurate and repeats the numbers one to twenty. Sadly, this growth chart will never accurately measure height and will probably produce results like eleventy-two!

I still have two small jobs to finish it off:

• When the baby is born and named, I will make tags with the baby’s name and different ages on them. These can be stored in the pocket in the back until required and then tacked onto the front to mark the child’s growth. So far, I have just made a few experimental prototypes using the leaf offcuts until I know what name to use.
• I need to sew on a hanging sleeve so it can be hung from a wall, but I am waiting for my husband to buy or find a suitable dowel. That will be his contribution to the project.

Christmas friendship block

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Christmas, cross-stitch, friendship quilts, quilting

My sewing group is making a friendship quilt for one of our members. The recipient has long wanted a Christmas quilt so, even though it is May, we are all making Christmassy blocks within these simple guidelines:

• finished size 8 inches (cut size 8½ inches )
• appliquéd not pieced blocks
• embellishments such as beads and embroidery welcome
• traditional Christmas colours.

For my contribution, I started with a cross-stitch design from the one-colour embroidery book Made in France. It is a little large (9 inches) as I have not yet trimmed off my safety margin.

The cross-stitch is sewn by hand but the appliqué was sewn by machine (but it does have the raw edges turned under).

My Christmas block includes hand and machine embroidery.

Where’s me shirt?

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buttons, op shops (thrift shops), quilting, recycling, shirt quilt

For as long as I can remember, my dad has been quoting British comedian Ken Dodd and his famous ‘Where’s me shirt?’ catchphrase. Because of that, somehow it seems appropriate that the first quilt I make for my dad is a shirt quilt.

Over the past few years, I have been squirreling away my husband’s cast-off business shirts: the ones with stains or rips or worn-out collars. Just recently, after his most recent shirt cull, I realised I had quite a collection piled in the back of my sewing cupboard. It was time for a shirt quilt!

A dozen shirts are folded and ready for recycling.

My husband threw out these shirts over several years, but a hunt through op shops (thrift shops) would find a similar collection. I was lucky that my husband has a fairly consistent preference for blue and cotton. (One or two polyester–cotton blends were allowed in. This quilt is about recycling, not about 100% cotton purism.)

To use up these shirts, I wanted a simple pattern. Anything too complex would be tricky with all the stripes. After some thought, I chose the classic hourglass block.

I was going to make the blocks the hard way by cutting up quarter-square triangles and sewing them back together. Luckily, I was on the WAQA retreat when I started making it, and a fellow quilter showed me a smarter way to tackle hourglass blocks. (Thanks, Shari!) An easy-to-follow tutorial of this method can be found at Red Pepper Quilts.

Whatever finished-sized block you want, add 1½ inches to determine the size you need to cut your fabric squares. I wanted an 8-inch finished block, so I cut 9½-inch squares. (You always need 1¼ inches extra as a bare minimum for quarter-square triangles; the extra ¼ inch is for trimming, a buffer to make sure your finished block is square.)

I cut up the shirts, separating the sleeves, front, back and body pieces. Then I ironed the pieces and cut out as many 9½-inch squares as I could, about 7 or 8 per shirt. I chose this size so I would end up with a neat 8-inch block (with a small amount of trimming and squaring up). Much smaller and the striped effect of the shirt fabric would have been lost. Any bigger was not possible as the shirt pieces would not allow it.

The quilt came together really easily. I made the whole top in the long weekend at the retreat. I don’t think I have ever before finished a quilt top this quickly.

This patchwork quilt, made from men’s shirts, uses the simple hourglass block.

After I had made the quilt top, I still had a lot of leftover fabric. Some pieces of the shirts were too narrow to cut 9½-inch squares. Initially, I considered adding a border of smaller pieces, such as flying geese, to my quilt to use up these scraps, but I liked its simplicity as it was. Instead, I decided to use some of the scraps in the quilt’s backing.

Even after I had made the quilt top, I still had a large pile of scrap fabric.

I cut lots of 4½-inch squares and joined them to make two rows for the back. For the ends of each row I cut a 4½ x 8½-inch rectangle. I am hoping the large pieces at the ends will allow for the extra needed in the back when sandwiching the quilt and avoid the problem of bulky seams right where the binding is attached.

I used some of the leftover shirt fabric in the back.

So, what did I learn from this project?

• Even the simplest block can have a clever shortcut method that can make piecing easier. It is worth investigating and asking other sewers before you begin.
• Check your measurements when buying fabric. I knew how much backing fabric I needed in inches, but here in Australia we buy fabric in metres. Something got lost in conversion at the shop and I ended up slightly short. Luckily, it was only a little bit, but it could have been worse as I really was not paying attention.
• When you cut up a lot of shirts, you end up with a lot of buttons!

When you cut up a lot of shirts, you end up with a lot of shirt buttons.

Even though it is a gift, I can safely post pictures of this quilt’s progress here as:

• my dad doesn’t know I have a craft blog
• if I told him I have a blog, he would only ask, ‘What’s a blog?’

Evolution of a scrap quilt (part two)

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crazy patchwork, friendship quilts, quilting, scrap quilts, stash busting

At the beginning of the year, during the crazy heatwave, I made a quilt top from a box of fat quarters given to me by my sewing group.

It looked like this.

The front of my triangle scrap quilt has been finished for months and waiting for a backing.

When I had finished the quilt top, I still had a lot of fabric left, so I wanted to use up some of it in the backing. The quilt top is large, and would have needed three lengths of fabric to make a large enough backing; two lengths were just a fraction not enough. I thought adding a pieced strip to the quilt’s back would use up some of the leftover fabric and avoid the need to buy three lengths instead of two.

After trawling about the internet looking for ideas for an easy but interesting idea for a quilt backing, I found inspiration in the form of a cushion tutorial at Elizabeth Hartman’s Oh, Fransson!

The result looks like this.

I am hoping the fancy quilt back will make this quilt reversible. The colourful strip is 12 inches wide and should sit slightly off centre.

I followed the tutorial on Oh, Fransson! and made blocks about 12½ inches square before trimming them down to size. My blocks varied from 12 to 13 inches across, but were always 12½ inches tall so the strip stayed an even width.

The crazy patchwork blocks are trimmed to size.

I used at least six fabrics in each block. To create the gradual colour change, I laid the remaining scraps in colour order. For each block, I added three new fabrics and left out three, slowly making my way through the colour order.

Quilt binding, top and backing all folded up and ready for the next stage: quilting.

All done! Next stage: quilting!

And I still have a heap of leftover fabric!

Dress bag tutorial

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small hand-made gifts, wardrobe organisation

Goodness! April has been busy. With work and visitors, I have barely had time to sew.

Earlier in the month, tradesmen installed new wardrobe fittings: shelves, cupboards and drawers. Before this, our wardrobe just had one shelf and a hanging rail. The shelf was high, and I needed a stepladder to reach it. I was always pulling things down on my head, and I had some of my clothes stashed in other rooms of the house as the space was not working.

To celebrate the new wardrobe, where everything now fits and can be reached, I decided to make some dress bags for my special-occasion dresses. These dresses need the most care (like expensive drycleaning), but they also collect dust because they are worn rarely. I thought some breathable dress bags would protect them from dust and grime in the long gaps between wears.

My dress bags are really simple, but I think a nice linen dress bag, perhaps with a little embroidery on the front and a matching draw-string bag for shoes, would make a useful gift for a new bride.

I used linen as I wanted a natural fabric that would breath, and the linen was on sale. A lightweight cotton would work just as well.

These dress bags are large and difficult to photograph! Here is one of the smaller bags, with my favourite knee-length red dress hidden inside.

Step 1

Cut a large rectangle of fabric for each bag you plan to make.

I made two sizes using rectangles 42 x 67 inches (long dresses) and 42 x 53 inches (short dresses).

As my coathangers are about 18 inches wide, and I wanted to allow a bit of extra space for dresses with full skirts, I cut the rectangles 42 inches wide.

For a long dress bag, you will probably need slightly less than 2 metres (or yards) of fabric, depending on how long you want to make it.

If you are using fabric that is about 44 inches wide, just trim off the selvedges and use the width as is. My linen was 54 inches across from selvedge to selvedge, so I was able to cut across the fabric to make the shorter bags.

I measured from the top of a coathanger to the wardrobe floor to decide the length of the longer dress bags.

Step 2

Overlock the two long edges on each rectangle.

Step 3

Pin the two long edges, right sides together.

Mark 7½ inches from the top and again 24 inches below that.

Sew, leaving a 24-inch opening and back-stitching on either side of the opening for strength. (This will be the opening used to put your clothes in the bag.)

Optional: using the longest stitch on your machine, tack the opening closed. This can be helpful to keep the line straight when you press and top-stitch.

I used a coathanger to measure where the top of the opening should be: just below the trouser bar (marked with two pins).
This photo also shows the curve in the coathanger (it is not a simple triangle), which is why an extra piece in the top worked for me.

I marked the opening 7½ inches from the top as this meant the opening started just below the coathanger’s trouser bar. You might need to adjust this depending on your coathangers.

Step 4

Press open the seam and top-stitch around the opening.

Unpick the long tacking stitches if you temporarily sewed the opening closed.

Top-stitching a large tube is a bit awkward, but it does give a neater finish.

Step 5

Press the bag so that it is inside-out with the opening centred on the front.

Use a coathanger as a template to shape the top. If you are making more than one bag, it can be helpful to make a paper template that you can reuse.

I made paper templates based on my coathanger to shape the top.

I added in an eye-shaped piece so that I could have a neat opening in the centre, which I made using my sewing machine’s eyelet stitch. This small piece was cut from the offcuts trimmed from the top. You can do this or you can simply trace around your coathanger and then sew across the top, leaving an opening in the centre.

Click here to open a printer-friendly PDF file.

Before sewing this piece to the rest of the bag, I sewed an eyelet in the centre.

This shows a close-up of the top of the dress bag.

Step 6

Sew the bottom of the bag closed, then overlock the seam to prevent fraying.

Optional: leave the bottom of the bag open and finish it with a narrow hem instead of sewing it closed.

Turn the bag right-side out and poke your coathanger hook through the hole in the top, and that’s it!

I have leftover linen that I am planning to use to make other things for the wardrobe, like scented shoe stuffers and sachets, covered padded coathangers, and lingerie bags.

The dress bags now protect my best clothes. The only downside is that I cannot admire the beading and pretty silks as they are hidden in the bags!

Design boards

Tags

Dear Jane, design wall, quilting, sewing accessories

One thing I realised while working on my Dear Jane quilt was that I needed a better way of laying out all of the many small pieces, especially for the complex hand-pieced blocks.

I have been following Lori Holt’s Bee in My Bonnet blog (her row-along is adorable) and noticed the mini design boards Lori uses. Using her tutorial as a starting point, I made my own.

Instead of using foam board as Lori does, I bought 6-millimetre foam (available from Clark Rubber in Australia). It is not as stiff as her foam board, but stiff enough for the job. I have used it in the past for making needlecases and block keepers.

For each board, I cut one 10-inch square of foam and two 10-inch squares from offcuts of quilt wadding.

To make a simple design board, you just need foam and quilt wadding offcuts.

I used a glue stick to hold the wadding in place on either side of the foam, and then I used my sewing machine’s walking foot and the longest stitch setting to tack the three layers together, close to the raw edges. I adjusted the foot pressure to allow for the thickness. My sewing was not too precise: I just needed the stitches to be close enough to the edge to be hidden by the binding.

From that point, I treated it as a rather fat quilt that needed binding. As the design boards will not have to withstand frequent washing, I just used 1½-inch single-thickness strips to bind them. Normally, I bind my quilts with 2½-inch strips cut on the bias.

Although I only used single-thickness binding, I mitred the joins as always to avoid bulk.

I ironed a rough ¼-inch hem on one long edge of the binding before sewing it on as I did not want the iron close to the foam later. I was worried the heat might make the foam melt!

I used a long machine stitch and my quarter-inch walking foot to sew the binding on. My machine did not like the thickness of the foam and skipped a few stitches. When that happened, I just sewed over the same spot again. Finally, I roughly hand-sewed the unfinished edge down.

I used my quarter-inch walking foot to tack the layers together and to sew on the binding.

The same method as binding a quilt was used, but with just a single-thickness.

Before I started, I had thought about adding a hinge and ties, and joining the two boards together as a folder, but I discarded that idea early on.

My favourite thing? The way they sit nicely on the tiny easel I recently was given. (It was a former store display, but the store closed.)

Here’s my finished design board, displaying the pieces of Dear Jane block M11 (wrong side facing). I made two the same, and the spare board sits to one side.

Falling in love with hexagons again

Tags

friendship quilts, hexagons, quilting

I am learning to love hexagons again.

There is something calming and soothing about cutting up cardboard (Dilmah and Twinings tea boxes, in my case) to make templates, fussy cutting little pictures from fabric and slowly tacking the fabric around the templates (while watching Downton Abbey).

My first quilt, which I started as a teenager, was an English paper-pieced hexagon quilt. It took forever, and I was over it by the time I finally finished. I didn’t even particularly like the fabric choices I had made many years earlier, before I could call myself a ‘quilter’, when I was just a nerd who liked to sew.

One member of our sewing group recently chose a fun project for her friendship quilt: she supplied a rectangle of plain fabric and group members were asked to sew any arrangement of hexagons onto it. She found the idea in the book Block Party: The Modern Quilting Bee. The colour brief was ‘red, yellow and blue, predominantly blue’. What fun!

I had extra cardboard, so I cut out far more tiny hexagons than I need.

I am not someone who naturally does ‘random’, so following the brief – place hexagons randomly on the background – did not come easily.

After struggling with the layout for a while, I made a decision and stuck with it long enough to finish the block. (I set myself a rule to avoid grandmother’s flower blocks.)

Ta da! The finished block. I hope I have met the brief.

As some of the pieces I was appliquéing down were large and oddly shaped, I used a spot of fabric glue here and there to hold them down. I had never used glue in my sewing before. Somehow it seemed like cheating. I now understand why people do it: everything stays exactly where it should.

The real discovery for me was the joy of sewing with silk thread. It made the whip stitching and appliquéing a dream! Why had I not learned this lesson before?

I can see more hexagon projects in my future, and I think I might make up a little hexagon travel kit.

The beginnings of my travelling hexagon kit.

Dear Jane, what were you thinking?!

Tags

Dear Jane, design wall, quilting

More importantly, dear Jane, what was I thinking when I decided to follow in your footsteps and make a quilt out of hundreds of tiny, complex blocks?

Last year at the local quilt show I was inspired by a Dear Jane on display. I particularly loved the way the quilt-maker had placed her blocks, gradually transitioning across the rainbow of Liberty fabric colours from corner to corner. (The photo does not do it justice.) In a self-indulgent and impulsive mood, I bought the Dear Jane book at the show and a fat-eighths bundle of French General’s Rouenneries fabric range.

Although I chose traditional fabrics, some of my favourite Dear Janes are beautifully modern and bright. (Click here for a gorgeous example that uses Kaffe Fassett fabrics.) I don’t remember why I chose traditional – perhaps because I like red and because among the bundles on sale that day the one I bought had a lot of red. I have since added another French General bundle, this time Maison de Garance, which introduced brown, even though I am not a fan of brown.

Progress has been slow, as I focused on other projects such as Christmas gifts, but I have not given up. It is one of those projects that I have to be prepared to take my time over, after all. So, here is my progress to date.

My progress to date on my Dear Jane quilt: sixty blocks! Hurrah! The blocks on the left need a bit more work – usually just trimming as I deliberately made them slightly too big to allow fudge room.

Very excitingly, I am able to display the blocks on my new design wall! I bought a curtain rod ages ago, meaning to hang it in one of the spare bedrooms. (When guests come, I’ll take the work-in-progress down and hang a completed quilt on the rail instead.) This week, I bought a big piece of wadding on sale, and my husband kindly helped me hang the rail.

A Dear Jane quilt is not for the fainthearted, but I am learning all sorts of new things. Each block is a puzzle to be solved. I had done heaps of hand embroidery, appliqué and English paper piecing, but I had always somehow figured out a way to sew quilt blocks together on my machine. I had never pieced a quilt block by hand before this week; now I have made two.  I never would have managed it without helpful posts from other bloggers (especially Hand Piecing with Crispy) and online videos (like Craft Lovers’s More Helpful Hand-Piecing Tips). I am also frequently referring to the block-by-block tips on the Dear Jane website.

I started with a simple nine-patch block and have been building up confidence to tackle the more complex blocks. I have found that, as I sew more and more, blocks that were previously frightening become less so. I start to see how I might eventually sew the more complicated ones.

I am not doing a lot of planning. I am just choosing a block and a fabric and putting them together as the whim takes me.

As I am using French General fabrics, perhaps this is Dear Jeanne?