Over the Kitchen Counter: Angie's Place for Cooking and Crafts

English Paper Piecing with English Needles

Here is another cute, antique, promotional needle holder. This time the souvenir 'needle card' is from Stratford-on-Avon and the home of William Shakespeare. I picked up this selection of vintage needles because they were made in England from Sheffield steel and the little card is so sweet. I love the interior sleeves holding the selection of various hand needles and the explanations of each variety.

I debated whether or not to actually use the needles for my English paper piecing but couldn't resist trying one. My usual needle is totally bent from stitching (are they more flimsy and weak now?) but when I tried a couple of these antique ones, there is no way they will bend! The first one I selected had two little circles of rust (?) where it sat in the foil and I could feel the resistance each time it reached that point as I sewed. I switched to one from the other side and while it glided through the fabric, the eye was larger and I had to push harder. I'm going to try each one until I find a suitable fit for my hand-piecing.

Regardless, I find these little books and tubes (see HERE) of needles absolutely charming and nostalgic and it just feels cool to be using vintage needles for hand-sewing. The EPP hexi work is so addictive I have barely come downstairs to my workshop... the improv quilt sits under the needle half quilted and the secret project I've been working on for my daughter has stalled. Ooops!

Clover Hot Hemmer

I tried out the Clover Hot Hemmer to press the edges of my quilt label to the back and it worked very well, providing a crisp, even finish. Usually I just eyeball my hems since the labels are so small but I always end up with them being crooked! This handy gadget took care of that problem and it was much easier to press this way rather than trying to fold by eye and hold the hems with my fingers.

The Hot Hemmer is made of heat resistant nylon material so you can measure a seam along its ruler guide and then press the hot iron right onto both the fabric and the tool.  It has a soft, felt-y feel to it which seems like it would melt but (obviously!) it worked perfectly with the heat (and I used steam), with no curling or negative effects on the hemmer.

The ruler is really thin and has a non-slip surface so the hem stays put, is accurate and consistent. You can also use it to measure your seams and it works for round or mitered corners as well (which, after watching the quick video below, I think would be super helpful!), with steam or without. The Hot Hemmer is made in Japan by Clover and labelled 'Press Perfect by Joan Hawley'. I bought this specifically for my labels so it's just the right size for my needs. I don't do any garment sewing so I'm not sure if it would be too small for that purpose (long hems?) but for corners, it's great!

Here's that quick video from Clover showing you how the Hot Hemmer works...

Hexi Design Board & Progress

I have been under the weather since the family gathering at Easter where a couple people were sick and passed it on to me. While it's a drag having a cold it means I've been taking things easier, catching up on Outlander, and working away on my English paper piecing.

My technique has become streamlined and routine and my stitches are 100% better looking already. I have got into a groove and am able to position the hexies to minimize travel stitching, have fewer tangles, and better, more evenly spaced 16th-of-an-inch whipstitches. It's a whole lot less frustrating! My quota is one rosette a day and I work through the colours of the rainbow in order. I'm randomly selecting the fabric and so far, no duplicates. Ok, I've only done two of each colour but it feels very productive and I am starting to see results. Once I have the 7 flowers complete I remove the centre paper template and store the finished hexagon unit in a craft tote. They look so pretty!

When I sit down to sew, the first step is arranging the 'petals'. I was alternating light and dark fabrics and then taking a photo in case I got mixed up, interrupted, knocked over or bumped my arrangement. Once I was sick in bed where things are tippy and easily shifted I decided to create a mini design board just for my hexies. I used a double layer of cardboard (a little thicker than a cereal box) and glued on some batting. I taped it on the back and then used a piece of tacky shelf liner to reduce any slipping or shifting.

I made it 8"x8" - just the right size for a completed flower. It works so well and I can even stand the board up vertically without the hexies falling off. It takes me the day to stitch the 7 together because I squeeze in a seam or two here and there when I sit down. I'm always getting up, getting interrupted, and taking breaks to rest my hands so being able to keep the remaining shapes in order is a must. Necessity is the mother of invention, right!?

  

I'm loving my custom wee design board, my Ott light magnifier, my Aurifil thread (both the 50 wt and 80 wt - I keep the small sets in my kit to have all the colours ready!) and I'm totally smitten with English paper piecing! There truly is something great about having a portable project to chip away at and keep busy and that is something I never thought I would say. Now it feels like I'm wasting good sewing time if I'm not stitchin' when I'm sittin' and I look forward to quiet times or waiting times (or play-off games!) so I can work on another hexie flower! 

Aurifil 80wt Cotton Thread

I'm a bit late to the English Paper Piecing game but now that I'm playing, I love it. There is often a lot of trial and error with a new technique and since I'm always interested in learning and experimenting, I'm open to trying new and different ways of doing things. I happened to see a tweet shared by Aurifil from a quilter who raved about using their new 80wt cotton thread for her hand-pieced hexies. In her blog post (which I'm sorry I can't find again) she wrote how the Aurifil 80wt absolutely disappeared into the fabric, was thin but strong, and a dream to stitch with. As I work to perfect my whipstitch I need as much help as I can get to hide those stitches so I knew this was the thread I needed to try a.s.a.p.!

If you've read my previous posts about my Aurifil devotion (and collection!), you'll know that I adore this gorgeous thread made in Italy. It is worth my money to use a cotton thread of the highest quality in my quilting projects. As soon as I first tried Aurifil I knew I could never go back to any other brand. The way the thread works with my machines (strong, doesn't break, no snarls, no shredding, little lint), makes my piecing so much more accurate (this was a big one!), looks amazing when I quilt, and feels luxurious, not to mention all the delicious colours and weights available, - these are the reasons I immediately fell in love with Aurifil thread. My go-to choice is the cotton 50wt because it is excellent for both hand and machine piecing and I have great success pairing it with all my machines. I love it for quilting because my stitches look beautiful. It's also what I used for my first few English paper pieced flowers with terrific results but I definitely wanted to give the 80wt a try.

You can read all the details about the new 80wt thread (and see all the colours available) HERE at Aurifil. Like the 50wt, it can also be used by hand and machine for appliqué, English paper piecing, machine quilting and embroidery. It comes on wonderfully charming wooden spools (300 yards) and is available in 88 colours. With my early hexies I quickly realized that matching thread is a must to help camouflage the whipstitch so having an array of thread shades to choose from is ideal.

As soon as I got my hands on some 80wt I couldn't wait to start stitching. It certainly is fine thread and it truly does melt into the fabric. I don't  have a lot of experience yet with EPP but to me, my stitches were virtually invisible. I will admit that on my very first stitch the thread broke and I was worried that it wouldn't stand up to the English paper piecing because I was using card stock templates, but I guess I just pulled that first whipstitch too aggressively in my excitement because after that, no problems at all. I used a gentler hand (and my Ott magnifier!) and had no further breakage.

I'm excited to grow my 80wt Aurifil collection and will pick up another stand (the next time they are on sale!) to co-ordinate with my 50wt display. As I continue with my English paper piecing (and I'm sure I will), I'll want to make sure I have matching thread to complete any future project. If you are a thread obsessed quilter like I am you'll want to give the 80wt a try. I'm looking forward to playing with it on my sewing machines as well to see how it looks and performs. I think there could be some fun design choices with free motion quilting using such fine thread. I'll have to experiment and let you know how it goes in a future post!

Craftsy April Supplies Event!!!

CRAFTSY got me again! They have an amazing April SUPPLIES SALE on right now and the first thing I HAD to buy is the kit for Angela Walter's Midnight Quilt Show's latest episode, the king size Color Crystals quilt! I do not really want to stitch another king-sized quilt but this one is just too gorgeous not to attempt. The piecing is extensive, yet simple, so it's something I can work away at almost mindlessly (as Angela says). I hope so!

The fabric is a stunning ombre (Boundless Blenders Ombre) and there are 16 yards of it in the kit. The price was really good and the shipping to Canada is great - I love that I can pre-pay the taxes so there is nothing else to deal with at the door. You can buy the kit with or without the backing fabric but I always choose to add it to my order so I don't have to go searching for some substitute later. The pattern is included so for a couple hundred bucks I have a king size quilt all ready to go.

The SALE is on until Sunday and this particular kit is 50% off!! That is just too good to miss in my book! You can watch Angela make the stunning quilt in her video below...I think these episodes are so cute and funny! 

LED Magnifier

I bought this OttLite 1.5x Optical Grade Magnifier with LED Illuminator because I thought it would really come in handy while sewing my hexies together. Since I plan to work on these while traveling, waiting, and when the power goes out (!), the LED battery operated light alone seemed like a really good idea. As I get older I also find that my vision is not as great as it used to be. Reading glasses help a lot but close, detailed work can still be a challenge.

The magnifier is on a neck cord and has no-slip rubberized feet to keep it in place on your chest in the correct position. The lens has a vanishing edge and a spot viewer to get even closer. It's really similar to the one attached to my Ott floor lamp. I really like it except that I can't seem to get used to the zoomed in view! I tried it out while I sewed the binding on my quilts and it brought the work so 'close' in my vision that I can't gauge the size of my stitches.

I'm sure if I persevere I can get the hang of using the magnifier. The reviews I read were so positive and many commented they couldn't live without it. This weekend will be a good chance to really test it out and hopefully adjust to the clear view! I have it tucked in my portable kit (safe from scratches in its soft pouch), where it fits perfectly. I'm glad to have it with me wherever I happen to be stitching so no matter what the light conditions I can see what I'm doing.

A Wrapped Up Weekend

It's that magical time of year...when professional hockey and baseball overlap! That means a lot of workshop time for me and I was able to wrap up two full projects and some prep this weekend.

The 'planets' circle quilt is now complete with binding, label and freshly washed. The opposite corner radiating lines quilting turned out so nicely after it was laundered and I love the texture. The densely quilted lines are really cool in the corners and then as the space between them widens, the quilt is soft and puffy. This small quilt is quite light with the Batik fabrics and it will be ideal for summer t.v. watching - just enough to keep the chill of the air conditioner at bay, covering bare, warm weather legs and feet. I chose a cute embellishment on my label; I think it looks like planets in the solar system!

The Piece of Cake {2} quilt was also done and dusted this weekend. I love the simple double cross-hatch quilting and even though it is nothing fancy, the 4" spacing resulted in awesome, puffy squares. This is the opposite of the circle quilt: big and snuggly! It was a fun quilt to piece and finish and I love the red print binding. I kept the label simple, adding a pink fancy bracket (similar to the one Camille uses in the pattern name) around the information - yet another Camille Roskelley design to check off the list.

Hand stitching the bindings on both of those quilts seemed to take forever and then I had to still sew on the labels. Those tasks definitely warmed up my hands to the large amount of hand work I'll have to do for my English Paper Piecing project. They are already cramped just from the prep work (especially gluing and folding) but now all my rainbow of hexies are cut and basted onto the paper templates. The plastic tote tower of colour is sooooo satisfying and I can't wait to get to the sewing. I think it will be a gorgeous scrap quilt when I'm all finished...which may just be in about ten years or so!

Time for a breather and some family stuff this week. I do have the improv Down the Fox Hole quilt under the needle of my 1600P as I use the walking foot to quilt the lime green gentle curves. I'm not sure yet if I'm loving it but since I have to add the baselines first and then subdivide, I'm not judging too critically just yet.

Charm School

I had to place a book order for hubs and couldn't resist adding one for me. Charm School by Vanessa Goertzen is a delightful book of 18 quilt patterns made from 5" squares (also known as charm squares). The fun doesn't end with simple squares of fabric though as Vanessa guides us chapter by chapter on how to shake things up and expand on creativity using the simple pre-cut as a starting point. (There are a few pages on supplies and finishing the quilts but they are brief. This book doesn't go in-depth with techniques so a beginner would probably need to refer elsewhere for more detailed explanations).

I chose this book because I am very familiar with Vanessa. I first discovered her talents when I made the Goody Goody Binding Kit. It remains one of my favourite creations and I use it finishing every single quilt. The chocolate bar is long gone but the kit still holds all my binding tools and supplies and that makes it super easy to grab and go when I have hand sewing to do. It happens to be something I'm very proud of making, too. Not only is it functional but I think it turned out beautifully! The zipper works, the pockets are perfect, the quilting is simple and the fabric is pretty.

Fabric is another way I know about Vanessa. She is a designer for Moda and I have a couple of her collections. She has very sweet designs and lovely colours in her collections and I enjoy working with them. I made her Social Butterfly Quilt (her design, her fabric) and was very pleased with the result. Hey, that quilt was gifted to my mother-in-law so it had to be spectacular! (By the way, there is a variation on the butterfly quilt in the book. I think I might just make that one for myself sometime!)

Back to Charm School...and the theme of the book is education: learning to work with pre-cut squares, from simple to expanded possibilities. Although this is a beginner's guide, the beautiful quilts (especially in later chapters where alterations are made to the squares to form more complex designs) can be made by seasoned quilters as well. The reviews of the book were excellent and many were indeed from more confident sewists with quite a bit of experience (such as myself) so I knew there would be patterns I would like. In fact, my first project is going to be 'Tipsy', a darling quilt with an unexpected twist created by using wonky cuts to add an illusion of movement with tilts and angles. I can't wait!

So there you have it. Another great book to add to my shelf (after I use it of course!). I think I have exhausted my current supply of Camille Roskelley patterns (she is my favourite) so it's really nice to have a fresh crop of ideas and inspiration to play with from Vanessa. I love to have ways to use up my pre-cuts and I have several charm packs in my stash. Not limited to just those smaller cuts, I can also make my own 5" squares from other pre-cuts, fat quarters, and yardage. I happen to have a fat quarter bundle of Gooseberry and a layer cake of Into the Woods so I'm well stocked now with Vanessa's fabric and patterns!

One last thing...the cover of Charm School is the coolest material! It feels so smooth and almost waterproof. I have no idea how the paper is coated but I love the feel of it!

More Walking Foot Quilting

I may have spoken too soon about my success with painter's tape. Although it performed perfectly with the Circle quilt, I didn't have any luck at all with the Piece of Cake II quilt. The whole exercise proved to be futile, including rearranging my workshop in order to use my small Bernina for the quilting as well as the painter's tape.

What went wrong? Well, I chose the Bernina because the guide bar attaches with a screw and is very secure in its place. While my Horizon 7700 has a guide bar it only slides into the walking foot and it's a loose fit. When I start to quilt and the fabric nudges the bar, the alignment is thrown off and my quilting isn't even. I'd love to use the 1600P but it doesn't come with a guide bar and there isn't even a place to attach one to the walking foot.

Perhaps the quilt was too large or the angle of feeding the quilt through the machine (which is not set into a table) was too much for the tape. As soon as I got in position the tape popped off the quilt. So frustrating! Also, the narrow harp space available in this particular machine is not adequate for my large quilt. The bulk got caught up and the stitches were not forming correctly since the feed dogs couldn't move the quilt forward. There is no sense in struggling to quilt on this otherwise gorgeous machine when I have other easier and more comfortable options.

So I once again shifted all the tables, prepared another machine (the 7700 with masking tape holding the guide bar in position) and tried again. Things are going smoothly now and I'm quilting a double cross hatch with vertical and horizontal lines (not diagonal). It looks pretty and will give a lovely, fluffy texture to the quilt. I think it's ideal for this particular project and it's going quite quickly since the space between the double lines is 4". Once I'm done I have decided to trim and bind the two finished quilts before starting the third. I need to have some hand stitching to do and securing the binding will be just the ticket.

Circle Quilt Quilting Done & My New Favourite Quilting Tool

I just finished the quilting on the Circle quilt. Not surprisingly, yet kind of cool, it turned out exactly like the mini mock up I made. It was quite fun to do the radiating lines with the walking foot, especially once I got the hang of lining up the painter's tape. I took things slowly (as recommended by Jacquie Gering) and each line came out with beautiful, even stitches in a nice straight line.

Painter's tape is probably my new favourite quilting tool. I never had much success with it before but now I realize it wasn't the tape per se, it was the width of the tape. I have used 1" tape before and I had a lot of trouble with it not sticking and peeling off mid-stitching line. That is totally frustrating and I gave up using it, choosing other designs to quilt instead. With this wider 1-38" tape there were no issues at all and it stuck to the quilt perfectly. I used a dry wall square extended with my quilting ruler to line up the radiating lines 6" apart from the focal point(s) in the corner. I did one side first and then the other. I used a lot of painter's tape but I didn't want to risk any shifting. I will definitely be using the tape for other designs in the future - I just have to buy more to keep in stock!

I'm fortunate to have a patch of floor where I could lay out the quilt after quilting each line in order to reposition the tape. It was a little hard on my knees but I got faster as I went along and although a little tedious, it wasn't so bad. Quilting the lines was easy but I wouldn't want to do it on a quilt too much larger. My 1600P has a pretty large harp space and I rearranged my folding tables so that the quilt had a lot of support on all sides. It worked really well and I'm so happy I can move things around to make the space work for each machine and project.

Now I only need to trim the edges and bind the quilt. Thinking ahead to the washing stage I figured with the Batik fabrics I should test for colour fastness. I have used the fabrics before but on the Lady Liberty Embroidered Quilt, a wall hanging that wasn't ever washed. I started to get out the bins to cut up some swatches when I realized that I had my mini mock up made of the exact fabrics (and white background) of the quilt. That little test piece has really proven to be a valuable project! I immersed it in water and Soak (my intended detergent) and let it sit for half an hour. I was thrilled to see that it didn't run or bleed at all and I'm confident there will be no problems with the real quilt. I'll definitely add some Color Catchers for insurance though.

Although my binding is ready and waiting I think I will go ahead and quilt the next two quilts first (that is, the Piece of Cake II and the Down the Foxhole improv). With the machine and tables set up for quilting it would be a shame to move it all to finish the Circle quilt and then have to put it all back.

It's a little difficult to see in the pictures but here are some photos of the finished walking foot quilting.