Wednesday 9 December 2009

I finally found time to sew!

Monday was the first chance I had to get back to my sewing machine. Thank goodness fro pre printed panels! You get that sense of satisfaction from a finish sooooo quickly with those. LOL
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The first piece I tackled was an advent calendar I picked up in Birmingham earlier this year. It went together really quickly.
I even dug about in my ribbon tin and added some 3D extras. It's kind of hard to see here, but rather than quilt around the bows on the gifts I stitched on ribbons and tied them into bows. The only thing I find disappointing is the wavy edges! It was perfectly flat when I had finished quilting it and adding the bows. I used the backing fabric to bind the layers by turning it to the top and after I had finished that, the waves appeared. Did I do something wrong? I've had it hung since Monday night, just pinned to the bottom of another quilt, until I get out to get a rod and decide where to hang it for real, some of the waves have settled a little, but as you see, it's not all calm yet. Oh Yeah! I was out shopping yesterday and forgot to get lollies to fill the remaining pockets!
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The second piece I started is one of the kiwiana projects I bought on my holiday. (Waving to Lee and Debs, they are waiting for this stuff to appear).
This panel just needed borders adding and the instructions in the kit called for the layers to be bagged out, which is all done.
So now I just need to slip closed the bottom and quilt as desired! I think for now I'll pop some black thread onto the machine and quilt in the black areas around the individual elements, then later I can take more time to play about with the images and perhaps even have a go at hand quilting. For now though, the quick machine idea is what I'm going with as I want this one on the wall by Saturday night, when we're having a bit of a party to celebrate our wedding with just a few friends and family.
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Hmm, what else can I tell you? We had to purchase another set of drawers to contain all the extra fabrics I acquired in recent months! It's full already. I see some reshuffling in my future. LOL
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Gratitude's
1) More time off work.
2) Time to sew.
3) Christmas shopping is nearly finished.

7 comments:

Jane said...

It must feel really good to be back at the machine. Love the kiwiana quilt, just my sort of colours

abigail2 said...

I love the kiwiana quilt! The colors and images are beautiful!

I wouldn't worry about your Advent wall hanging. It looks fine.

Janice said...

It's good to see you back at your machine. Your latest work looks great. I love the kiwiana quilt. Enjoy your party on Saturday night.

Rose Marie said...

Here is how I fix my quilts so that they lay flat ......
http://appliqueandpatches.blogspot.com/2007/08/binding-fix.html

Go down to the end of the page and click onto OLDER POSTS to see the before and after.

This fix works for me all the time. Let me know if this worked for you.

AnnieO said...

Oh, goody, quilty stuff! Glad to see you're back to your machine and having fun. Too bad we have to work for a living, init?

Gina E. said...

I love the Kiwiana quilt too.

Lynda said...

The advent calendar looks fine to me, but I think it's the variable amounts of quilting which do it. If it was quilted consistently all over, it would be flat, but since you can't quilt over the pockets etc. it's not stable. Does that make any sense?