I am very happy to report that I managed to put together the remaining 16 blocks of my Hash Tag quilt on Sunday.
It was quite a bit of work and seemed to take a very long time, but they are assembled!
It really helped that I finally calculated the length of the strips I would need and went from there. You know, instead of cutting a bit, sewing a bit, and then needing to cut some more and some more and... Rather tough going.
I didn't sew all the blocks to the very same stage, I did some quicker than others so it didn't feel like too much of a dreary and routine job.
The blocks are quite easy in that I put together a very long strip of grey, blue, wider grey, blue and grey again - then I sliced those into one wider and two standard cuts and inserted my 'across' lines of blue fabric by placing all units along a long blue strip that I then cut after pressing seams open. That seemed to be the most efficient way. I'm sure I could have cut the blue strips to the right length first - I have to weigh up which method is quicker next time.
What is left to do for the quilt top is to connect the blocks with grey sashing. I uploaded a photo of my sample four block unit a couple of posts ago if you want to have a look.
I am hoping that I can post another update soon and that time I'll make sure to include a photo!
I love it when something comes together.
Monday, 16 September 2013
Tuesday, 10 September 2013
Time for a new blog template
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| Follow me on Twitter: @GiselleKnits |
I've been staring at the pinkish twirly design a bit too long: it is time for a new background. And while I'm at it: an overhaul of the overall blog design is not a bad idea.
So far this isn't the exact thing I had in mind, so I will be tweaking this a bit more.
Still the same crafts obsessed blog as it was before though! All about my projects in knitting, sewing, quilting and anything else crafts related that takes my fancy.
I must say that I like a white background: it looks all shiny and new. Sparkling.
Sunday, 8 September 2013
My new sewing machine
I am so happy: I have a new sewing machine.
Getting it set up is a story and a half. I blithely assumed that I would be able to strap the box onto my little trolley (I use it to take my other sewing machines to be repaired, so the assumption was a natural one) - but didn't expect this one to be too big so trolleying it around on the tube was a no-no.
Chastised I patiently wait for one and off in a cab I went. I was in luck: there was no rush hour stop-and-go traffic and we got through very nicely. Thanks so much driver! Great job. (Although to be truthful the guy did a few things I wasn't expecting someone to do, only while at a stand-still but still: he put in eye drops a couple of times, and then he was reading something? Most odd. But all was well that ends well.)
Then it turned into quite an adventure. I felt a bit like St George and the dragon. I had to wrestle this monster of a machine out of its box while the accessories kept dropping on my feet (they weren't taped down in their molded compartments in the polystyrene). I couldn't pull the machine up and out of the box, too heavy, and I couldn't pull the box off the machine either: too unwieldy.
I had the clever idea to put it onto its side, exerted a vice-like death grip on the machine handle and tried shoving the box out of the way. Didn't work too well: it kept banging into the wall while the machine threatened to slide off the table. You would have heard some cursing if you had happened to be passing.
I finally got the two separated by pulling the box towards me and making sure the machine stayed on the table. It nearly didn't, but it all had a fortuitous end after all. Phew.
Then in the days following, I developed a cold where reading the instructions just didn't make any sense and absolutely nothing sunk in. After that I went on holidays (honestly, I never had a holiday that was so inconveniently timed!) and then, all of last week, I was just knackered from my time away (don't ask, there was lots going on).
So it was really only yesterday, Saturday, that I had a chance to set it up.
So obviously the thing that I did do, was this:
Right? That's not quilting? What happened there? (I didn't knit all of this, just some, during the morning. Not too long)
Honestly, what am I like. I must be scared of success. All the potential of my new toy must be having a terrifying effect on me. That's ridiculous.
At least I managed to finally set the machine up, with some virtual help from friends (thank you Shevvy and Pennie! Just the sort of push that I needed). Completely knackered afterwards of course. So I left the actual sewing to the following day.
Which is today!
I woke up feeling like a kid at Christmas: I get to use my new machine today, yay, yay, yay, happy dance!
And this is what I did:
A hash tag quilt! Heh-heh. Well, you know, the start of one.
I wanted to make this kind of criss-crossed motif in blue and grey for ages. Very simple: just the two colours. Very simple motif: two lines each crossing. It did dawn on me that this would look like hash tags but I happen to even like that about this quilt. There might just be a certain amount of geek in me.
The plan is to make four motifs across and goodness only knows how many for the length. It's supposed to go onto my bed, so we'll see when I get a bit further.
What I am quite excited about: the machine does indeed sew relatively quietly (unless you put your foot down at the highest speed, then it produces quite a whine), at least when you use the slowest speed. But I think I'll get away with slightly more noise and that means: I could, if I really, really wanted to and happened to wake up very early... I could even sew a bit in the morning!
Not that I actually think I will, but the thing is: I could. That's quite something.
I'm thinking a black binding for this quilt. What do you think?
Getting it set up is a story and a half. I blithely assumed that I would be able to strap the box onto my little trolley (I use it to take my other sewing machines to be repaired, so the assumption was a natural one) - but didn't expect this one to be too big so trolleying it around on the tube was a no-no.
Chastised I patiently wait for one and off in a cab I went. I was in luck: there was no rush hour stop-and-go traffic and we got through very nicely. Thanks so much driver! Great job. (Although to be truthful the guy did a few things I wasn't expecting someone to do, only while at a stand-still but still: he put in eye drops a couple of times, and then he was reading something? Most odd. But all was well that ends well.)
Then it turned into quite an adventure. I felt a bit like St George and the dragon. I had to wrestle this monster of a machine out of its box while the accessories kept dropping on my feet (they weren't taped down in their molded compartments in the polystyrene). I couldn't pull the machine up and out of the box, too heavy, and I couldn't pull the box off the machine either: too unwieldy.
I had the clever idea to put it onto its side, exerted a vice-like death grip on the machine handle and tried shoving the box out of the way. Didn't work too well: it kept banging into the wall while the machine threatened to slide off the table. You would have heard some cursing if you had happened to be passing.
I finally got the two separated by pulling the box towards me and making sure the machine stayed on the table. It nearly didn't, but it all had a fortuitous end after all. Phew.
Then in the days following, I developed a cold where reading the instructions just didn't make any sense and absolutely nothing sunk in. After that I went on holidays (honestly, I never had a holiday that was so inconveniently timed!) and then, all of last week, I was just knackered from my time away (don't ask, there was lots going on).
So it was really only yesterday, Saturday, that I had a chance to set it up.
So obviously the thing that I did do, was this:
Right? That's not quilting? What happened there? (I didn't knit all of this, just some, during the morning. Not too long)
Honestly, what am I like. I must be scared of success. All the potential of my new toy must be having a terrifying effect on me. That's ridiculous.
At least I managed to finally set the machine up, with some virtual help from friends (thank you Shevvy and Pennie! Just the sort of push that I needed). Completely knackered afterwards of course. So I left the actual sewing to the following day.
Which is today!
I woke up feeling like a kid at Christmas: I get to use my new machine today, yay, yay, yay, happy dance!
And this is what I did:
A hash tag quilt! Heh-heh. Well, you know, the start of one.
I wanted to make this kind of criss-crossed motif in blue and grey for ages. Very simple: just the two colours. Very simple motif: two lines each crossing. It did dawn on me that this would look like hash tags but I happen to even like that about this quilt. There might just be a certain amount of geek in me.
The plan is to make four motifs across and goodness only knows how many for the length. It's supposed to go onto my bed, so we'll see when I get a bit further.
What I am quite excited about: the machine does indeed sew relatively quietly (unless you put your foot down at the highest speed, then it produces quite a whine), at least when you use the slowest speed. But I think I'll get away with slightly more noise and that means: I could, if I really, really wanted to and happened to wake up very early... I could even sew a bit in the morning!
Not that I actually think I will, but the thing is: I could. That's quite something.
I'm thinking a black binding for this quilt. What do you think?
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