Pixel Mario Blanket

Okay so I'm pretty sure my new neighbours think I'm nuts. My old neighbours had got fairly used to me taking a quilt outside hanging it on the line, taking pictures and then taking it back in. These new neighbours however...... They curtain twitched. Yes the curtains actually twitched.

But anyway curtain twitching aside I managed to take the pictures! This is my finished backed, bound and quilted mario quilt!

After the quilt top sat basted for about two weeks I finally sat down and busted out all the quilting in one evening! Each colour section is quilted In a spiral in the corresponding colour. For example all of the red sections are quilted in red and all the blue are quilted in blue!

That meant I had to change my bobbin about 1 million times but I really think it worth it! I love how the quilting makes each section stand out! I even quilted the background with crosses so that Mario would really stand out.

The Binding is some embroidered white floral stuff that I was given, I think it looks kind of like computer code! And I added a coloured triangle to each of the corners because I might have screwed up on the binding a little bit and had to hack away at it. I'm blaming this on tiredness and lack of playing attention. But you know what they say, they are not mistakes, they are lessons! 

There's no batting in this quilt just the quilt top and then its backed with a fleecy blanket. It's currently my preferred method of finishing a quilt. It means you can layer the quilt on top of a duvet without actually sweating your bum off. Plus *whispers* its cheaper! I do want to do a few quilts with cotton backs and actual batting but for the moment the cheaper option is much better!!!! The "perfect quilts" will have to wait until I have a new house and I've redecorated and made a quilt for every room. Yes I have big plans for when I get to decorate my perfect house!!!!! 

And that's it really, I finished it really late at night so I could wrap it and have it waiting for Rikki when he finished work after a night shift. Like a little treat pressie!!!!!

So yeah we are both very happy with how it turned out and I almost can't wait until Rikki gets the flu so I can snuggle him up in it!!!

Well almost! that man is a baby when he's sick!

Much Love

Frankie

xxxx 

Technique Tuesday : finishing seams

I'd like to introduce you to a new feature on my blog! 

Hopefully this will give me an opportunity to try some new sewing techniques and expand my knowledge! 

So without further ado here's my first feature : finishing seams 

I confess , finishing seams is a bug bear of mine, probably because without purchasing an overlocker my seams will never look like the ones inside ready to wear clothing! 

By the way these are not the only ways of finishing seams these are just in my opinion the four simplest and quickest! I'll be covering the other types in other posts! 

So....... 

Zig zag finished seams, you can either zig zag the seam allowance together like this or you can zig zag each side separately.  

The turn under method, here you add a small hem to each side of you Seam allowance, this is a very neat way of finishing seams, especially if your making an item where the inside might be seen for example on a coat or jacket. It's also a similar idea to Hong Kong seams which I'll be covering at a later date.

Pinked seams! I love this method and it's probably the quickest! Quite simply you use pinking shears (zig zag scissors) to trim the seam allowance. This works beautifully for lots of projects and all you need is scissors! (I got mine from Amazon and they were the cheapest option) 

Faux overlock, here I used a zig zag stitch right on the edge of my seam allowance (you can also used a special faux overlock foot that has a little brush on one side)

This is by far my favourite way of finishing seams, mainly because it gives you the security of another row of stitching and because it looks so neat! 

Another simple way of finishing seams is to run a parallel line of stitching next to your seam stitching, and then trimming the rest of the allowance away! 

And that's it! 

So what do you think of my new blog feature? Is there anything you can think of that might be worth learning to do? 

In other news! 

I've made another dress and I'm really pleased with it, I've started knitting another bear (sadly this means my miette has been neglected again) and I have plans to make some more clothes next week. Including some warmer things now the chill is setting in! 

I've also been catching up on all the housework that builds up when lil knitwit is off nursery! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx