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

Frivols Pillow & Zip It Up Class

I shared my Moda Frivols tin in THIS POST and here is the finished project. I wasn't happy with how the Album blocks were finishing up for the whole Kindred quilt so I turned the 4 I had finished into a pillow instead. I adore the hello darling fabric from Bonnie & Camille so I certainly wasn't about to waste the completed blocks. Now I have a sweet pillow for my bed and a bunch of extra fabric to use in a quilt somewhere.

Once the album blocks were joined and sashed I layered them with some batting and scrap backing. I quilted the pillow sandwich using my Sweet 16 and Aurifil thread. I just did a simple loop-de-loop all-over pattern; the curves of the free-motion quilting balance all those straight lines in the piecing design. It was absolutely blissful getting back on my Sweet; free motion quilting while some music is playing is probably the most relaxing thing I can do for myself. I love it!

The Aurifil thread looks amazing for the quilting and my machines just love it. While I was quilting away I had to stop and place an order for a few more spools to add to my display. I bought some purples and pinks, which were glaringly missing, an orange, and another black so I never run out! Mari Lyn at ByTowne Threads always answers so quickly and indulges me by sending out my order right away. I may not need those colours imminently but I'm happy knowing I will have them there should they be required and in the meantime, they'll look so beautiful added to my stand. I love that Aurifil works on all my babies - from the vintage old gals to my uber modern Sweet 16!

After the pillow was quilted I added the back panels (which I already had ready to go, thank goodness), and stitched around the perimeter. For good measure, I also serged the edges for a nice, clean finish. I added the 20" pillow form and voila! The pillow is done and on my bed. I wish I had remembered to round out the corners to avoid that pointy-corner look but it's ok, I'll do it next time.

That's one more UFO off my counter. I only have the quilt to sandwich and spray baste when the weather is warmer and the garage is cleaner. I have to set my tables out there with the doors open to spray the 505. I'll work on some more piecing until then and I want to start some cute bags using zippers from the incredible Craftsy class Zip It Up: Easy Techniques for Zippered Bags. Joan Hawley is an awesome instructor and she has great techniques for working with scary zippers. I already bought a bunch of 12" zippers in every colour (because I wasn't yet sure what fabric I'd be using) and some fusible fleece to stabilize the bags and give them some structure (which was lacking a bit in my Serger Exposed Zipper Bag). I can't wait to make Joan's version!

Here are some close-ups of the pretty fabric and my free-motion stitches...

Sweet 16 Dust Cover - Part 3

To finish off my Sweet 16 dust cover I decided to make a name label and add it to the side panel. I named my machine Rosebud so I chose a pretty arc of roses from the built-in designs on my 350e embroidery machine. I used the on-screen editing feature to add the lettering under the arch and make sure it all looked the way I wanted it to before pressing start.

Choosing the thread colours was challenging since I only had a small picture of the design to go by. The machine lists Janome thread shades (which I don't have) so I wasn't sure whether 'meadow green', etc. was light or dark. There are 12 colour changes in the design and I wanted my roses to be shades of orange so I just did the best I could with what I have. Some of the shading is off and some colours are so close you can't even tell I changed threads, but overall I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

It took about 46 minutes to stitch out the whole design, which is very nerve wracking! You don't want any thread breakage or tangles at minute 38! I didn't run out of bobbin thread and the machine didn't stop for any errors so I was happy about that. It stitched out beautifully!

One thing that I wish I hadn't done was trim away the cut-away stabilizer from around the stitching. It shows through now on my background fabric and I can see the shadow of where I cut. I used a machine blanket stitch to attach the label and now my dust cover is complete.

I'd like to extend a big THANK YOU to Jasmine at Quilt Kisses for the tutorial, all the helpful emails, and her patience with me as I worked through the pattern. Please check out her wonderful blog and if you have a sit-down mid-arm that is getting dusty I highly recommend you make a cover for it using Jasmine's design. I am very satisfied with how mine turned out and I think it looks awesome.

Craftsy BLACK FRIDAY SALE!

From Friday through Sunday MONDAY*, Craftsy is hosting their Black Friday Sale! All Classes $19.99 or less! Now is a great time to get the classes you've been eyeing all year! Craftsy classes also make a great gift, so do some holiday shopping for the crafter in your life. If you have a free-motion quilter on your list I can highly recommend The Secrets of Free-Motion Quilting, the new class packed with modern, easy, free-motion quilting designs taught by Christina Cameli. By the way, you don't even have to pick the class for the gift certificate - the recipient gets to choose whichever one they want (but you can always suggest it!!)

*Craftsy extended their Black Friday Sale one more day! Through Monday, December 1st, All Classes $19.99 or less!

NEW Craftsy Classes!!!

I signed up for three NEW Craftsy classes. All are under the Sewing & Quilting tab but they've actually released a whole bunch of new courses from Miniature French Desserts to The Extended Harvest: Vegetables for Every Season to Crochet Mittens & Fingerless Gloves! You really can learn just about anything over there!

Of course, my passion goes straight to anything to do with quilting or sewing and I was so excited to see so many tantalizing classes available.  I had to pick Start Foundation Paper Piecing because not only is it the newest class from Elizabeth Dackson (who also teaches Start Free-Motion Quilting, with Elizabeth Dackson) but since I can now create and produce my own paper-piecing designs using EQ7, I really want to learn how to be comfortable piecing using this technique. Elizabeth paper-pieces almost exclusively and she is passionate about making blocks with intricate points and beautifully complicated-looking designs. She is an excellent instructor who clearly communicates the methods, design process, and tips during her lessons. Five different blocks are made in the class and you build upon skills learned as you make each one.

I also couldn't resist two more new classes that feature machines in I have in my sewing room that I still need inspiration to use: the embroidery machine and the serger I got last year.  The Machine Embroidery Inspired Quilt uses gorgeous embroidery (multi-format files provided free as part of the class) step-by-step to complete a beautiful 50-1/2" square quilt. This one will take me some time to get to actually making the class project but I definitely want to! I love combining embroidery with quilting and the class breaks the process down into very manageable steps, from choosing fabrics and threads to putting it all together and adding the quilting.

Finally, Angela Wolf is back with another great serger class, Sew With Your Serger: Quick & Easy Projects. I am determined to not let this machine intimidate me and to do more with it than just finish seams (although it did come in very handy to do just that on the flannel backing fabric for the Frozen quilts!). Angela walks you through quick and easy, 'couple hour' projects - like various scarves, pillows, and several pretty zippered bags. One of the pouches has piping as well and I am very interested in learning how to make those.

It's a busy time of year coming up but I still love to relax and watch my Craftsy classes. I may not start the creating right away but I still love learning from these great teachers and tucking away the info and inspiration for later. I might even try to make a couple of the super fast Simple Bias Scarves Angela whips up - there's a sale at my fabric store on Saturday so I might have to get some chiffon or charmeuse to experiment with.

You can use any of the links above to go check out ALL the new classes available...

FLASH SALE at CRAFTSY!

Ooooooh!!  Great FLASH SALE at Craftsy this weekend!  Today and tomorrow you can get up to 50% off classes.  There are so many good ones to choose from and at half price they are totally worth adding to your 'homeroom' list.  You can use the sale link to the right to go straight to Craftsy and see all the sale classes.  Don't forget you own the class for life so if you can't watch it straight away, get it cheap and save it for when you can.  (I do that all the time and it's great to be able to come back to the lessons any time I need to get a refresher or I get interested in starting a new project.)  Have fun (and scroll down for today's other post!)

CRAFTSY SALE! Up to 50% OFF CLASSES!

There are SO many amazing classes at Craftsy and they are having their BIG SUMMER SALE now until Monday.  This is the best time to get the classes you want and save (there is no need to ever pay full price!!!).  Craftsy has added a bunch of great new selections, including the one I picked: Cut to It: Strategies for Smarter Quilting (w/ Debbie Caffrey).  Learning to cut your fabric accurately is one of the most important parts of quilting.  While it may not be the most exciting aspect of the craft, it's critical to achieving good results and if you're going to the trouble and expense, you might as well do it right!

The class covers rotary cutting skills, how to cut strips, shapes, deal with fat quarters, squares, bias edges, and so much more.  It can be a little hypnotizing watching Debbie cut away and I sure wish I had this class available to me when I started quilting almost three years ago - probably would have saved a lot of fabric by preventing the mistakes I've made!!!  She has so many tricks and time-saving techniques - it's quite impressive how she's taken this skill to a whole new level!

I already wrote about the other class I just got, Machine Quilting: Small Changes, Big Variety (w/ Angela Walters) and I love it!  I always learn so much from Angela and she certainly gives me the confidence (and inspiration) to quilt new designs.  Her small changes to simple motifs help expand your quilting design repertoire with little effort.  (I've already pre-ordered her new book coming out in September!).

Have fun checking out the new classes and the awesome ones already available.  Of course, I gravitate to all the quilting and embroidery classes first but there are new cooking, photography, painting, and sewing classes too!

Chaco Liner Pen Style

I've had the Clover Chaco Liner pen style marking tool for a while and have used it quite a bit lately.  It is the same powdered ink as in other dispensers but in an easy-to-hold and use shape.  It has a tapered point for 'easy markings', but as I wrote in my Baptist Fan post, it isn't fine enough to get in short stencil grooves.  It's excellent for straight lines and freehand curves and is easy to refill with the Refill Cartridge when the powder runs out.  As usual, you must test the product on scrap fabric to make sure the marks can be removed.  I thought it was simply chalk but it is called "powdered ink" (talc & pigment) on the packaging so maybe that's why it can be difficult (and sometimes impossible) to remove completely.  Also, ironing or dry-cleaning may make the marks permanent so I will be very careful when I use the Chaco Liner to make sure I won't be pressing seams - I can get caught up in the process and totally forget that the iron is Chaco's enemy!

I've used it with a ruler to mark the wrong side of my fabric for a cutting line and it was perfect to mark the stitching line on my Exposed Zipper Bag when I boxed out the corners.  I also used the Chaco Liner to mark my HST when I made the Swoon blocks.  It is comfortable to hold and the powdered line comes out quite finely.  I like it much better than a more square or stubby chalk dispenser - but I wouldn't mark the right side of fabric with it for fear the ink line couldn't be removed.

Exposed Zipper Bag

With all my duties done and my scrapbooking up to date, I was determined to do something in the sewing room today!  I left early for the fabric store to buy a zipper - the last thing I needed to make Amy Alan's Exposed Zipper Bag from her Beginner Serging Craftsy class.  I had already picked out two fat quarters from my stash and I had exactly the right sized piece of fusible fleece left over from the Leah Day wholecloth project.

It's pretty simple to assemble and serge the bag but since this was the first thing I ever sewed 'for real' on my serger, it took me a long time.  I only had a bit of trouble getting the stitches to lie on the fabric - the loops went off the edge and it felt like I couldn't get the zipper tape closer to the needles.  The pouch turned out really cute anyway and I managed to at least make the same mistake on both sides, leading to a very evenly stitched zipper, with maybe too much zipper tape exposed.

I wonder if I could use an extra layer of interfacing between the outer and lining fabric as I find the bag not very sturdy.  Perhaps that would make the layers too thick to go through the serger blade.  It does work perfectly to hold all my hand-binding supplies and I'm pretty happy with my first project from the class.  I will definitely try making another one - maybe with some corrections from Amy.  Still, I'm impressed that the zipper zips and the bag is actually a box shape!

 

Serge it!

I finally was able to order this book, Serge it!, which was a pre-release when I first found it.  I've had it sitting in my 'shopping basket' waiting forever!  I have several 'learn to serge' books but this one goes beyond the "how to" with 24 cute projects.  Usually, sergers are used to finish edges, prepare garment seams, or perhaps create a home dec item like napkins.  Jenny Doh and Cynthia Shaffer share ideas for things you'll actually use, with stitches you'll actually see!

From fabric gift wrap to bags, scarves, pillows, and even shoes (!), a belt, and a clock, most of the items are made from start to finish on the serger.  Of course, I still haven't made anything functional with my serger but this book inspires me.  I have my serger supplies to help: a needle threader,
looper threader,
and scary surgical seam ripper.

I may not have made anything pretty yet but I have been using my serger.  I fixed my son's pants' pocket, seamed some fabric, and I tightened up the corners on my very worn out mop covers!  It worked like a charm and now they no longer fall off the mop base.  The blade chugged a bit to get through the very thick terry cloth (hopefully I didn't dull them too much!) but still managed to finish off the edges nicely.

In addition to the fun ideas in the book, I also still really want to make the exposed zipper bag from Amy Alan's Beginner Serging class so I can use it for my binding kit - the other one I made is a bit small for all those needle packages I bought!  I think I will start there and see how it goes.

Beginner Serging Homework

I was on a roll with my Beginner Serging Craftsy class homework.  I bought some samples of various types of fabrics, from linen to fleece to slippery polyester.  Testing the serger stitches on different textiles helps you to figure out the proper settings for each.  Once each sample has been successfully sewn, into the serger book it goes with notations on how the stitches were achieved.

It was really fun to just play with the machine and it certainly isn't as intimidating as it once was.  I feel more confident adjusting the tensions and using the cutting blade, taking out the needles, and knowing what the stitches should look like.

The stitch that took the most effort for me to get right was the rolled hem.  I tried and tried to get it to work and I had to keep sending pictures to (instructor) Amy for advice.  Then all of a sudden, it worked!  I was so excited and happy - realizing that the hem rolls UNDER and not OVER and having the right adjustments for that to happen.  The stitches look great and it's a really cool result.  I can't wait to make some napkins or something.

The flatlock stitch also took a bit of trial and error but I think I got it pretty well figured out too.  I'm not sure I would use it all that often but I will add the sample to the book for future reference.

One awesome thing I figured out while doing all this homework is that the waste basket on the serger station my son gave me just slides out from the base so you can easily empty the trimmings.
I want to finish up my samples and get started on some real projects.  I have used the serger to finish off the edges of fabric before washing but so far haven't made anything.