Slow Sewing - working on my hexy quilt

I woke up on Thursday night [well technically early hours Friday morning] to the sounds of Lil man crying that he'd be sick and well that been my past two days looking after a poorly child. 

As it turns out this bug has actually taken out a good half of his class and well a good half of the school really. So we spent the day on the sofa and watched movies and I added row after row to my hexy quilt and tried not to panic about the fact there is a sickness bug in my house. 

Sickness is something I don't "deal" with very well. Historically any time I've caught a sickness bug as a child I've ended up really really poorly. So frankly it terrifies me. 

Luckily making the hexy quilt keeps both my hands and my mind busy. 

So far its actually growing quite quickly. I've even started removing the papers from the centre hexagons. [Top tip the centres are reusable however its not as nice to sew with them as "fresh" ones so I like to iron mine after I've taken them out. It helps to flatten them out and makes for more accurate sewing.]

  

All the fabrics are from my stash and I'm finding it interesting looking at all of the fabrics I've collected over the years. Especially looking at some of the fabrics from when I first started sewing.

I've also been adding rows to to my miette cardigan which I started last time he was really poorly. Funnily enough I had joked a few weeks ago that for me to have any chance of getting it finished I would need for him to have a week off school. 

Apparently I should have touched some wood when I said it!!!! 

And yeah that's pretty much my last few days to be honest. I had planned on finishing a big project on Friday but didn't get the chance due to playing nursemaid. So now I'm going to have to do that next week! Provided lil man is well enough to go back into school.

Hopefully I'll be able to schedule some blog posts whilst I'm on nurse duty!

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx

Ashmead Designs Paperless English Paper Piecing

Do you ever have a moment where you think now why the hell didn't I think if that? 

I do it all the time! 

I had that exact thought when I was talking to the owner of Ashmead Designs at the CHSI Stitches show. 

The idea behind their Paperless English paper piecing is that instead of using card or paper as a template and then removing it you use their templates and leave them in. 

 I was pretty sceptical about the whole no paper thing so they were kind enough to give me a coaster sample kit to try. 

Instead of paper you use a product called Hexiform which is a fully washable template. You can buy it in a sheet or as pre-cut templates. I personally am fully on board with the whole pre-cuts idea because it saves a lot of time faffing about.  

Price wise these are more expensive than a pack of card templates on amazon. For example 60 1.5inch Hexiform templates will cost you £9.00 but 100 card ones will cost you £5.02 on amazon. 

So I guess you'd have to weigh up the pros and cons of if it would be worth paying the extra for the particular project your doing. So for a coaster its well worth being able to leave the templates in and not faff around taking them out. However for a large quilt made of hexagons it would hike up the cost quite a lot because you can't re use the templates and you'd need a lot.

I dunno if you can tell because but I'm pretty conflicted over these! I mean on the one hand I love the idea and think its brilliant! But on the other hand I'm not too keen on the extra cost [What can I say Frankie Baldwin bringing you 100% honest reviews since 2013]

I am pretty tight with money though. I mean about 4 years ago I thought buying card board templates instead of making them from old Xmas cards was a HUGE extravagance!!! But now after using some free ones from magazines I'd rather bite my own arm off than spend hours tracing!! 

So pros of hexiform! 

- You don't have to remove papers

- easy to sew

- machine washable

- holds shape of patchwork even after lots of washing [like a 3d item like a cushion]

- doesn't blunt sewing needles [like sewing through paper templates]

- Prevents shadowing [that's when you can see your seam allowance showing through under the fabric, this happens with pale fabrics and ones that are thinner]

cons of hexiform

- More expensive

- Can't reuse papers

- Needs neat stitches because its not as stiff as card

I did also wonder if it might make quilting a bit more difficult as well because the machine would have to go through a layer of batting and a layer of hexiform. But don't take my word on it because it I haven't tried quilting it. 

All in all I really enjoyed the product and I can definitely see how it would be useful! I love anything that saves time and this definitely would. 

The kit I used was for a coaster and the instructions were really clear and I;m chuffed with the finished result. I had a look at some of the other kits at the show and they all seem to have the same high standard of instructions. 

I think my takeaway would be, if you've got the extra money to spend then its definitely worth spending the extra and saving yourself the time of removing papers etc. Plus I have a sneaking suspicion that with the hexiform as base your project will say nicer for longer and last more washes! And as you can tell the pros really do out weigh the cons!

Much Love 

Frankie 

p.s I have some clothes to photograph but there's currently a washing machine in the space where I take my pictures so your gonna have to wait for those!

Top Tips For English Paper Piecing

I know I know. Really I should be blogging my next instalment of the #ettaquiltproject but I've been really off my game recently what with Rikki being off so much and the passing of my friend [I really want to write a whole post about him but 1. I can't start writing it without crying and 2. I'm not sure you guys would want to read it? Maybe I'll just write it for me when I'm ready and you guys can skip it if you want]

Anyhoo with the #ettaquiltproject I'm pretty sure the only person playing along is my big sis so I figured I'd slow down the pace a bit because she doesn't have a lot of time to sew! 

But here's some English paper piecing tips of you are looking to start or your finding it hard! 

1. Use Card [cereal packet / Xmas cards] as your templates instead of using paper. Its a lot more durable so you get more wear out of them and they are easier to fold fabric over accurately so you end up with neater corners etc.

2. Use bulldog clips. This is one I recently discovered, I used to use pins but I just kept stabbing myself as I tried to tack bulldog clips are a much easier and safer way!

3. Woven Fabrics. I'm not saying you need to go all out and buy expensive quilting cottons I mean after all these quilts were typically made out of scraps and old clothes. But using a woven fabric over a stretch fabric is definitely the way to go.

4. Use at least 1cm seam allowance. Believe it or not but too much seam allowance can actually make piecing more of a faff! a 1cm seam allowance gives you enough to work with without swamping you in fabric. 

5. Use different colored threads for tacking and sewing! Mainly this just makes it easier to remove your tacking stitches because you just remove all the ******* coloured threads!

6. Good lighting. Did anyone else Mum used to tell them off for doing things in the dark and tell them they'd go blind? Just mine? Okay.... But in all seriousness threading a needle in poor lighting is enough to have you reaching for the wine, threading it in good light is a more more pleasant experience but you'll probably still want the wine!

7. And speaking of needles! Keep them sharp! For both tacking and piecing, the whole process is just a lot quicker with a sharp needle!

8. Make a vague plan. Think about what sort of style you want? Will it be scrappy? Are you doing a pattern repeat? Do you want to use a colour story? A lil bit of planning in the short term can save a lot of aggro in the long term!

9. Buy extra fabric! Not because your going to mess up [although that might happen] But because your going to love and cherish your quilt and hopefully use it lots which means holes or stains may happen and its always useful to have some extra fabric for repair work! 

10. Try and use plastic template for making your card templates. Basically I make my templates I draw around 1 "master" shape. In theory this means that every single card template will be the same size, however if you use a card template as your master the repeated drawing can actually make the sides wear down and you end up with a smaller template! I tend to use either plastic templates or metal ones! 

11. Iron fabric before cutting out. Mainly this just helps you to be more accurate and to limit fabric waste. Its also a huge help if your using recycled clothes to make your quilt. And be sure to iron your finished blocks so they sit flat! 

Hope these help! Do you have any top EPP tips?

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx

#ettaquiltproject - Square in a Square Block

So here's the latest installment of the #ettaquiltproject. 

Now my Grandma had this labeled as an "all american star" [Luckily she had labeled all of her templates which made this project a bunch easier, it also showed me where my big sister gets her organisational skills from!] But looking on the internet I could only see one example that looked this this under the title of "all american star" [Lets all just give a minutes thanks to the google gods who put all of the knowledge of the world at our finger tips!] 

Anyway after struggling to find a template for you guys to use, I asked on a Facebook quilting group what they thought this might be called and the general consensus seemed to be that its actually called a square in a square quilt block! althought the 

Because I still thought it was called a all american star when I made this up I thought it was only fitting to go for the good old red white and blue! The red plaid is from the lady at the car boot and the blue is an off cut from one of my Aunty Shelias table cloths. 

You can find a template here!  [the template has one less square than I used but if your good at maths you could probably sort that out]

History wise I couldn't find much information apart from it's generally featured in lots of quilts to add interest to patterns, and that its sort of a go to block in a quilters arsenal! I also saw mentioned that it can look really cool when alternated with a basic nice patch for a simple quilt that looks really cool!

And speaking of cool!

How AWESOME is my sister doing with this! Shes just finished her first block and I couldn't be more proud of her! I also love that shes used tartan to commemorate our Scottish born Grandma!

Shes also just picked out the fabric for her shoo fly block!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

#ettaquiltproject

Okay so this is a new lil blog thing that I'm launching.

Basically my Grandma Etta is where I got my love for sewing and a good portion of my fabric stash. She was a very talented quilter who did a lot of English Paper Piecing and recently I found a big bag of her cardboard templates. 

And well it made me a bit emotional to be honest, because I was holding my grandmas templates that she had held and made from old cards we sent her. Also in the bag were her notes and some small pieces of fabric. And the whole time I was sorting them into their piles and working out with quilt pattern they belonged to I couldn't help thinking that it would be so nice to use them to make some quilts. But their was so many! And I knew I would never make that many quilts.

And this happened..... 

So here's the plan! I'm going to use my grandmas templates to make 1 sample block of each pattern she had in the bag! I will be sewing all of them by hand either my Applique [which quite frankly terrifies me!] or by English Paper Piecing! And I'll only be using my fabric scraps! 

But here's the fun part! I was wondering if you guys wanted to join in? Ya know keep me company when I'm drowning in pieces of cardboard and I'm cursing the fact that I hate sewing with a thimble because my hands are sore! 

 and if keeping me company hasn't convinced you here's some other reasons you should join in!

 - Hand sewing is relaxing!

- You can use up all of those pesky scraps!

-you can make a family heirloom 

-Or you can gift it to a family member or friend if quilts aren't your jam! 

Now it's gonna be pretty informal because I'm an informal girl! I'm going to post my latest block every two ish weeks until I've run out of templates and them I'm somehow going to throw them all together! [All my blocks are different sizes because of the templates but you can do yours a uniform size if you want!] And if you don't like a block or your busy then skip it! But if you do decide to join in you can tweet me @knitwitsowls or instagram me knitwitsowls and you can use the hashtag #ettaquiltproject. 

Its kind of a go at your own pace sort of sew along? But if you do want to sew with me then I'll be posting the blocks on instagram and you can always follow me on bloglovin so you don't miss a post! And I'll try and post a link/picture to a template you can use at the ends of the blog post, that you can print off to whatever size you want!

Which brings me to the best bit! 

Block #1 - Nine patch

I started with the most simple first! [mine measures roughly 9 inches] 

 

Template can be found here 

So will you be joining in? 

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

P.s if your unsure of how to English paper piece theirs some great tutorials online or you can watch my video! 

Sad News

Okay so I had some pretty jolly Christmas/gift giving posts ready to be written but things sort of took a downturn with me feeling a bit miserable towards the end of last week and then on Saturday morning my Grandad died.  Which to be quite frank thoroughly sucks. 

Anyway as it goes Rikki was working nights that night and he's just started a new job so him staying home wasn't an option so I just sat and finished projects really.  

This was the first one I finished its another English paper pieced floor cushion but this one is for Rikkis Nan, She really liked mine and thought it might be nice to have something for the kids to sit on at her house. 

Its made the same way as the other but this one has the added bonus of being filled with fabric scraps. Yerp I took all my scrap fabric and then cut them into little tiny pieces and rammed them into a cushion, Actually the mindless cutting was pretty good for keeping my head sort of busy? And making sure I didn't think to much.

I did however end up with a blister on my finger from the continuous cutting....which I'm pretty sure is infected now and looks pretty gross.

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Patchwork Hexagon Floor Cushion

Yes this was going to be a quilt, but I don't need another quilt. At least not at the moment, I do have an idea that when we have a new house and I've chosen the decor I'm going to make a quilt for each room. But so far that's just a dream!

So instead I put all my hard work to good use and made myself a big ole floor cushion. Luckily its an actual useful thing that I've made, I've been wanting something to sit on when I'm chilling out after yoga, [technically its meditating, but using to word meditating makes me feel like I'm posing in the body of some awfully zen and put together person. When really I do yoga in holey maternity leggings and watch the Kardashians whilst I do it]  

And also because when we have guest over I usually end up sat on the floor, not because or guest are awful and inconsiderate, but mainly because I'm a big fan of personal space.

So yeah anyway construction wise I just cut a back and then stuffed it but first I had to remove the hundreds of paper hexagons and that was an absolute hoot! Who knew how annoying removing so many bits of paper could be!

I did get some cute posing pictures of little man with it though.

Not gonna lie, I did bribe him with a sweet. Yep in the morning after breakfast I'm that sort of mum!

Here he is enjoying the fruits of his labour. well the sweet of his labour. Funnily enough it took about 10 minutes to get him on the bloody thing and then he wouldn't get off it.

And he says its very comfortable, and I agree!

So im calling this a huge success!

one question though, 

now what an I going to use for my English paper piecing needs?

Much Love

Frankie

xxx 

English paper piecing

I'm currently English paper piecing or EPP as the blog going world sometimes calls it, is the first type of patchwork I was ever taught. Back then I used my momma bears method but since then I've tweaked it to suit my lazy ways ! 

Note : please don't see this as a tutorial, it's more just a "this is how I find it easiest" sort of thing! 

First of all you need your supplies, needle and thread, pin, fabric square and your shape (I'm using hexagons). I make my shapes from card or thick paper, because I think they last longer and give a crisper edge. As you can tell I've cut up ukips pamphlet here..... Ahem says everything really. 

Pin shape to fabric square (your fabric should be bigger than your shape, I tend to go for 1cm as a rule but have been known to go smaller for really nice fabric scraps!

Fold your first two sides in! 

And secure with a couple of stitches. Do NOT sew through the card! 

Fold your next edge, and do a quick running stitch to it then secure with a few stitches. 

Keep going and voila! 

This method differs from how I was taught because we used to see through the card, however the beauty of this method is that you can reuse you card shapes, and leave you tacking stitches in because they are not visible from the front. 

Then typically I like to stick them up in groups

Here I've opted for a three colours and a white one sort of pattern. 

Then I slot them in and whip stick them in place. 

I'm blaming my sister for this new project, she kept posting photos of her EPP on Instagram and it made my fingers itch! 

I'm not sure what size it's going to be yet , but I do like the idea of going for an unusual shape! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

English paper pieced needle books!

You may remember me saying yesterday that the issue of love patchwork and quilting magazine my sister gave me came with a free project! 

And how excited I was that the kit included everything I needed baring scissors? 

Well here it is completed! 

Isn't it adorable! I can't believe it all came out of a tiny packet! 

Or how quick it was to do!!! In fact it was so quick to do that this happened today! 

Yerp I raided my stash and made ANOTHER one! And it was purely a coincidence that I picked the same colour felts! 

I love them! And two needle books in two days isn't bad at all! 

I'm going to keep the original one, and I was going to give the second on to my sister but durr she has the kit herself! So I think I'm going to give it to my mummy, she's been doing some patchwork of her own recently and It will be nice for her to have somewhere to keep pins and needles! 

I do have a major problem though! Whilst sewing those tiny hexies I couldn't help but think about how quick and adorable they are..... And how nice a whole quilt might look! 

Someone save me! 

Much love 

Frankie

Xxx

Comfort

It never rains but it pours, I've had some bad news today about a family member, and needed something simple to seek comfort in. And to take my mind off things. So in a moment of madness I added the last two triangles to the quilt I've been doing for the past three years. 

It maybe took me 15-20 minutes to add those last two triangles?

The entire quilt top is done using English paper piecing, and guys I know it ain't pretty. In fact I'd probably go as far as to say it's the most hideous quilt top I've ever seen, but it is full of memories. 

Work shirts 

Party dresses

Baby shirts

Grown up shirts

Its going to be the official poorly quilt, and will be perfect for telling stories to little Knitwit for when he isn't feeling his best. 

I even got round to sandwiching it today, which I did in my usual slapdash manner. 

Either way some simple sewing definitely helped today. 

And me and little Knitwit did some baking today! 

Here he is stirring flapjack mixture

And licking the bowl 

With enthusiasm 

And washing up! Stood on a bucket! 

This little guy makes every day special! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx