Quilting by YouTube

Like many quilters, I’m often asked “where did you learn to quilt?” Unlike many quilters, I wasn’t taught by a wise matriarch in the family. My nan knitted a lot, and sometimes embroidered, while my mum made clothes for me and my sister when we were young, and then later on knocked up the odd pair of curtains… both miles away from quilting! They did however teach me the basics in sewing, from hand-embroidered tapestries to sewing dolls clothes on mum’s old and extremely heavy Jones sewing machine.

I was introduced to quilting in my teens by a friend, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that this new addiction took hold, the more fabric I saw, the more I wanted for my stash, the more techniques I heard about, the more I wanted to learn – hence the size of my book collection! 

However, after all a while, buying a book for every new idea soon becomes expensive, so where else could I go? Then I discovered YouTube!

Now for the uninitiated, rest assured YouTube is not just videos of kids being drunk, or nutters doing strange stunts of their bikes, or weird music videos by performing arts students. Yes, there are plenty of those, but YouTube really has developed into an amazing teaching vehicle, and what’s more, it’s totally free! So these days you can learn anything, from how to apply your make-up, and get into (and out of) a million yoga poses, to how to play a musical instrument - and even how to make enough handmade quilts to keep you stitching for a lifetime.

If you visit YouTube.com and enter ‘quilting’ into the search box, you will come up with nearly 200,000 videos - that should keep you busy! Let’s face it, no quilter has the time to trawl through all these, so try entering ‘quilting tutorials’, or ‘quilting for beginners’. With still so many to choose from, I thought I would share some of my favourites, starting with the Missouri Quilt Company.

Those of you familiar with Twitter or Facebook may have come across these short and concise films already, click here to view their YouTube home page. Owner and master quilter Jenny takes us through all kinds of quilting projects, including beginners’ classes, simple quilt blocks, tutorials on different skills and techniques, and features on the latest tools and gadgets. These mini-lessons are well filmed, easy to hear and understand, and are the perfect length for a coffee break!

Another company that produces similar film tutorials is the Fat Quarter Shop.

Again, there are so many tutorials to choose from, including using short-cuts to create beautiful quilt blocks, and how to use new notions on the market. Quilting expert and presenter Kimberly is often joined by guests from the quilting world to show off their patterns, techniques or to just chat about their creative lives, so if you’re looking for some inspiration from the experts, this is the place.

Another of my favourites is Cozy Quilt Designs, in particular their monthly ‘Strip Club’ . Addicted quilter Daniela Stout owns the Cozy Quilt Shop in San Diego (where I plan to visit one day) where she developed this great idea of making up strip packs from her bolts, and then designing patterns to go with them. Once a month she presents her latest pattern to her group and films the demonstration. Not only is Daniela pretty inspiring, but she’s also entertaining to watch!

So if you have exhausted your book collection, and that of the local library, why not have a browse on YouTube, you may be pleasantly surprised at what you find!

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If you're up for even more quilt inspiration pop over to Sew Fresh Quilt's Let's Be Social and Linky Tuesday over on Freemotion by the River and say hello.

 

My Christmas Project

I started working for myself over a year ago now, and while I’m loving every minute of it, I still can’t get used to when the holidays come round. With Christmas just over a week away I know many people are counting down the days until they ‘break up’ – obviously not everyone is lucky enough to have the week off, I used to work in publishing AND retail! Never again! And this may well be the reason why I feel guilty giving myself time off, am I an awful boss??

I know my body seems to be slowing down and not stressing as much as it usually does, so after a year of learning everything I know (up to now) about blogging, social media, designing and writing patterns, writing tutorials, designing a website and doing some actual quilting, I think I deserve a few days off…

Of course, when I say ‘off’, what I actually mean is finding something to do in front of the Christmas films on the TV! At this year’s Festival of Quilts, my treat to myself was Willyne Hammerstein’s wonderful Millefiori Quilts 2 book, which I bought along with the papers I need for the first project, from Lina’s Patchwork.  This young and growing business produces paper pieces in every shape you can imagine for English Paper Piecing. The paper is a slightly heavier weight so you can get those nice sharp points in your shapes. I was lucky enough to pick up the book and the papers set in one go, but since then it has sat on my shelf begging to be opened and tried - this is the plan for the next couple of weeks. 

I am using glue rather than thread basting, it's so much quicker, and I have checked that the glue does unstick! I’m also so glad to be finally using my Essex Linen from Robert Kaufman, so yummy, and what else to use with it but my Kona Solids… I still think it a little weird, if not magical, that I just happened to buy this Aurifil set in exactly the same colours as my Konas, how bizarre is that!?! These 50wt threads are absolutely perfect for English paper piecing. Will I ever get sick of these colours, I don’t think so!

During the last year I have met lots of lovely people both in person and online, and many have helped my on-going quilt and social media education, for which I am forever grateful. I did have big ideas of creating a lovely little stop-motion gif thing for my festive message, but sadly I think my efforts need a little work so I’ll leave you with the last pic in the stream… have a happy Christmas and a wonderfully crafty New Year. xx

Sewing an accurate scant quarter-inch seam allowance

It’s hard to believe (well for me anyway) that the world wide web, that we take so much for granted these days, wasn’t around when I first fell in love with quilting. When I first started in my teens, I taught myself the basics from books and magazines, using templates cut from cereal packets, and cutting everything with scissors!! It wasn’t until I came back to this wonderful craft in my twenties that I discovered the huge wealth of information, generously given for free, on the hundreds of quilting websites and blogs that now exist. I have learnt so much from these wonderful quilters, and continue to do so.

Many of these talented people write blogs where they share their latest creations as well as the latest tips and tricks to help us all in our projects. You can see some of them in the right-hand column in My Blog List. It is these people I would like to share with you in this series of how-to blogs. I already include links in the “I’m stuck, help!!” section on sewmotion, but I thought I would highlight some of the essentials to help those new to quilting.

This week we’re starting with the scant ¼” seam allowance. Now, I have to admit, I have learnt something new today… I like learning new things, but this was a bit of a surprise… my ¼” stitch on my machine is actually not a ¼”!! I know, shocking! Well in fact, it is a ¼”, but not a scant ¼”. You will come across the term scant in most quilt patterns, and it means that you need to sew about a thread’s width shy of ¼” to give room for the thread and the fold in the seam. 

So, for the purposes of this blog, I followed a couple of online tutorials to check my own seams. The first is from the lovely Amy Ellis at Amy’s Creative Side. She uses a ¼” foot on her machine, whereas I use my standard foot with the needle moved to the right (the ¼” stitch setting on my Janome). 

If your machine doesn't have this setting, most machines allow you to move the needle to the required position. To set this up for a ¼” seam, place a quilter's ruler on top of the lowered feed dogs so the ruler lies nice and flat (above left). Align the right edge of the ruler with the right edge of your presser foot. Slowly lower your needle so that it's not quite touching the ruler, then move the needle until it lines up with the first ¼” line on the ruler. Now you can use the edge of your normal presser foot as a guide to run the edge of your fabric against. If you would like a clearer mark, you can stick a thick piece of tape onto to your machine to give you more of a run up - The Fat Quarter Shop has a great video showing more about this guide here.

So back to checking for scantness...

Following Amy’s tutorial I cut a few 2½” fabric strips, then used the first two to sew a ¼” seam as normal. However, when I came to check my block size, I was out! This explains so much! It may seem to you that this tiny amount wouldn’t matter, hey, its only a smidgen out right? Wrong! If you imagine this amount out on say 20 blocks… that smidgen soon adds up to more than an inch and will cause problems if you're following a pattern.

Now, I probably haven’t noticed this before as I’ve used the same stitch consistently throughout my sewing, so I wouldn’t have been out when matching seams and rows to each other. However, when I’ve come to measure the whole quilt I do sometimes come up short. As I am normally following my own pattern, I've just gone with it, but if this is your first quilt, or if you're enjoying some complicated piecing, you'll want to get it right.

So, following Amy again, I went back to the machine and moved my needle .8mm to the right, setting it from 8.3 to 9, and tried again.

And what do you know, it worked perfectly! I’ll just have to now remember change this setting every time I sew.

If you don’t have a ¼” foot or stitch on your machine, this tutorial from Connecting Threads explains how to place tape down on the front of your machine to use as a guide for your fabric. Once you have tried this method, I suggest you then do as Amy did and press your seams open to measure your block, just to make sure your seam is a scant one.

Today I'm linking up with Tip & Tutorials Tuesday over at Late Night Quilter, and Sew Fresh Quilt's Let's Bee Social - come and join in the fun!

Festival of Quilts 2015

Well, that's the Festival of Quilts over for another year, and I'm devastated to say I only managed to take one quilt picture, this beauty by Philippa Naylor. I've been to one of her talks at Leominster Quilters before, so recognise her work instantly. She's also very entertaining, if you get a chance I recommend going to see her talk about her life and her stunning quilts.

I didn't even get a chance to see the quilt category winners this year, so really don't have much to report. Hence I thought I would write a bit about what goes into doing a show like this from the perspective of one of the many businesses there. I wasn't working as Sewmotion, (maybe next year) but instead I did my yearly stint for Doughty's, possibly the one company there with the most stalls... Five in all! We had the Colourwall, the Clearance, Batik & Riley Blake, Wadding and the Cut Pieces stands, some customers commented that our section should be called Doughty Village!
Preparations start much earlier in the year with cutting and folding half metres and fat quarters. As Doughty's now have a fabulous new warehouse open to the public, this is actually a daily routine now, which lessens the pressure a lot. There are then many discussions of what to take, what to leave behind, what to put on each stand, what would look good together, what would attract people to the stands, and so on, and this is all before a van is loaded!

This year we took up seven loaded vans in all. As Doughty's are based in Hereford, we're able to drive back and forth to the NEC everyday, I wouldn't want to think how we would manage with that amount of stock if we couldn't come back of a night! Setup starts Tuesday morning, when we arrive the electricians and exhibition fitters are already there building the stands, painting the walls, laying new carpet and setting up lighting fixtures. We begin by building all the shelving for each stand, something we've all got faster at over the years. Then it's time to unload the first couple of vans of fabric, sort it into colour and stock up the shelves. By Tuesday evening our awesome team of eight has got all the stands built, and about two and a half stocked. Off home to load three more vans and to bed.

Wednesday is a mad day as every other stand holder is in the hall, it's lovely to see some familiar faces, and to catch up. As I don't work for Doughty's anymore, I only see some of these people once a year now. By the end of Wednesday all five stands are stocked, tweaked and titivated to look amazing for tomorrow.

After a good night's sleep, we're up early and rearing to go. There's Mrs D finishing off some pricing. It takes on average 19 people on each of the four days to staff the stands - as well as current employees, there are a few ex-staff like myself, then there are family friends and quilting friends who come and join the fun, we have a great team, and the morale was spot on, it's great when you can have a good laugh and enjoy what you do! I miss this sometimes working on my own at home.

The stream of customers was quite steady over the four days, though to me Friday and Saturday seemed a little quieter than normal - you can always tell when you can get to and back from the loo in five minutes! Having said that, Sunday was a lot busier than past years, so maybe people were staggering their visits.

On Sunday I did get a chance to have a quick rush around stalls I had spotted, one of which was of course lovely Aurifil, where I treated myself to this lush box of threads, I also met the handsome Alex Veronelli with his beaming smile! Talking of quilt celebs... I was over the moon to meet one of my idols from QuiltCon, the very talented and very sweet Angela Walters. She was there holding classes for Cotton Patch's Sweet Sixteen quilting machine, and I managed to catch her in a break. We had a great chat about Austin and Texas and also how much I love her quilting mantra, "finished is better than perfect" - she gave me one of her wrist bands! I then got really cheesy and took a rare selfie... :)

The last thing on my to do list was to get the amazing Millefiori book that everyone is raving about, and I came across Lina Patchwork, not only do they have every die-cut paper shape known to man, but also sell the books, so I bought the papers too, can't wait to get stuck into some fussy cutting and hand sewing.

I obviously couldn't work for Doughty's without buying some fabric, so my last treat of the week were these cute Riley Blake prints and a couple others I thought would make great make-up pouches.

5pm, Sunday afternoon, and the Festival of Quilts is over, the halls now become a building site once again, on come the hi-viz tops, and the madness begins. Here's the long queue of vans waiting to get loaded.

It does amaze me that it takes two whole days to set up, and four and half hours to break down! Again, we were joined by a couple of extra helpers/drivers, including my husband :) to load up six vans this time. We are usually the last to leave the NEC, and travel in a Doughty convoy back to Hereford, to then unload the three hire vans, and finally get back to a cold beer around 12.30am to celebrate the end of a very long week!

So if you were one our lovely customers who were empathising at how shattered I looked, now you know why! :) It is a great event and good fun with the Doughty's, but boy, is my body hurting now! We're now off for a couple weeks driving around Europe to see friends, and hopefully to sit and relax in the sunshine.

Posted with Blogsy

Sunday Stash #11 – Cider & Fabric

This weekend Hereford held its annual Beer on the Wye Festival, and of course we just had to go, even though its now over 200miles away! As well as some gorgeous beers, particularly an American Pale Ale… there were over 100 ciders and Perrys, most of them made locally. I didn’t manage all of them, but I had a good try! My favourite had to be Weston’s Rhubarb cider, amazing!

Before all this drinking fun however, I indulged in a little fabric fun at Doughty’s – I’d seen these greys online a while ago, and managed to stop myself buying the lot from the website, but when I saw them in person the battle was lost and I gave in. These beauties are from the Flitsy range from John Louden (surprise surprise!) – there are more in the range which I’m sure I’ll end up buying at the Festival of Quilts next month. I’m sure Doughty’s only ask me to work for them knowing I’m going to spend most of my wages on their fabric! 

Mind you, they’re not wrong, and I have a feeling I will be adding to my next purchase quite soon. I have a new love… Riley Blake. These bicycles are so sweet, and with a whole range of co-ordinates and other super cute ranges, there’s no point in even trying to resist!

Now a quick shop update… I have released my sixth quilt pattern, Side to Side, a clever little pattern that will have your friends guessing for ages, it certainly took me a while to work it out! This design uses just two templates, a jewel and a triangle, which with clever placement, creates this zigzag pattern across the quilt. I used some fabrics in my stash from the Je Ne Sais Quoi range, but I think this quilt would also look equally as effective in solid colours.

This pattern, together with five more, is available in both PDF format (£5.95, Etsy) and in Paper format (£6.95, Folksy).

Thank you for stopping by, your comments are always welcome. If you're looking for more fun and inspiration, why not pop over to Molli Sparkles' Sunday Stash link-up? 

Sunday Stash #10 - Thread

I thought I’d talk about another kind of stash this week… thread. As sewers we all know how sometimes our collection of spools can get nearly as silly as our fabrics! But how should we store them? Like many I would love a wall of wooden pins sticking out for each reel to sit on, then I could easily find the right colour for my project. However, lack of space means I’ve had to find an alternative.

I used to have them in a wicker basket, which worked for a while, but I would have to turf them all out to find a colour, and then they soon became unwound and tied up with each other – a right mess!

On a recent visit to my mum’s, I ventured into the cellar, my late dad’s domain. Now, dad was a bit of a hoarder to say the least. Not like useless stuff no one would want, but intriguing stuff that made you wonder “where on earth did he find that?” Dad was amazing, he could turn his hand to anything, the ultimate DIYer, from re-wiring the whole house, to building a veranda, to keeping his trusty old Renault 12 going for 21 years – myth has it that there’s a ‘spare’ Renault engine in the cellar somewhere, just in case he needed it…

Anyway, I digress… on my rummaging, I came across these two large glass jars, and immediately thought “threads!!” Covered in dust and the odd spider, we gave them a good clean and they now sit on my windowsill full of my colourful gems, next to my button jars. They also remind me of my dad, which is nice… until I then remember he was a science teacher – and these large specimen jars may have held something altogether more yucky…  urgh!

How do you store your threads?

On another note, now my nephew has received his quilt (I think he liked it), I can release my latest pattern, Cross My Heart. I mentioned this quilt last week in my tutorial on speedy chain-piecing – this pattern includes fabric requirements, full colour cutting and piecing instructions and a colour layout plan. The PDF is available from my Etsy shop, while the Paper pattern is available in my Folksy shop.

For more quilting love and inspiration, pop over to Molli Sparkles’ Sunday Stash link-up. Or some mid-week fun, why not visit Let's Bee Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts.

Super speedy chain-piecing tutorial

I have just been writing up my latest pattern, Cross My Heart, which is made up of rows of 5” squares - a super easy quilt, and so quick to put together, thanks to some speedy chain-piecing. 

Now, I’m not just talking about chain-piecing the squares here, one row at a time, I’m talking about chain-piecing the whole piece! You really could have this and many other quilts done in a day using this method!

I have tried explaining this method verbally, and got a little tongue-tied, so I thought I would write a tutorial, pics an' all.

Lay out your quilt blocks as the your pattern shows, in this case I’m using the Cross My Heart quilt as an example.

Working from the right-hand side towards the left of each row, place each square on top of it’s neighbour, so in the case of the Row 1, place orange on top of dark blue, then grey on top of this, then yellow on top, then yellow again, yellow, dark blue, turquoise, white, and finally white again.

Do this with all of your rows, then label each one with their number, Row 1, Row 2, and so on. I use scraps of paper for this. Place each pile next to your sewing machine, being sure to keep them separate. If I have a lot of rows, I bring my ironing board to the table and use that. 

So we’re going to sew all these rows together at the same time. Starting with Row 1, take your first two squares, in this case the two white squares, lay the second square on top of the first and sew down the right hand side. This placement is very important, particularly when you have two different coloured squares, as in Row 2 below. Do not break thread.

Now move on to Row 2, and do the same, in this case turquoise onto white, then again, without breaking thread, Row 3 – dark blue onto yellow – and so one until you have attached the first two squares of every row.

Now break your last thread. 

Pull your chained pieces back through the machine so you can start again at the top. Open out your first two sewn squares of Row 1, take the next square from the Row 1 pile (turquoise) and place on top of your second square  (white), sew down the right-hand side as before. Don’t break thread.

Now do the same with Row 2 (turquoise onto turquoise) and so on. To keep track of which row I’m on, I turn over my numbered scrap of paper on the row I’m working on, then when I go back, I know where to go next.

When you’ve attached the third squares to all of their rows, break your last thread, pull your sewing back to the top and carry on with the rest of your rows. 

Once your rows are all sewn together, you should have a unit looking something like this with your rows attached to each other by strands of thread.

Carefully place onto your ironing board, and press your seams in opposite directions, so for the even rows, press seams towards the right, and for the odd rows, press seams towards the left. Now pin the first two rows together - as you have pressed your seams in opposite directions, they should lock into each other, matching up your seams nicely! Pin and sew all your rows together, press from the front and attach any borders. You now have a complete quilt top, how quick was that!?!

I made this quilt for my nephew's 18th birthday, he's a design student (no pressure then!) off to uni in the autumn, hopefully this will keep him warm in his student digs!

I pulled the solids from my stash, and then decided to add this orange print from Carolyn Friedlander's Botanics collection, I love how it just blends in with the solids.
When it came to the quilting, I chose to use wonderful Auriful threads in six different colours, and a couple in a heavier weight, which just added to the quilt's texture.

The Cross My Heart pattern is now on sale click here for more details and for so much more quilting fun!

I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts, for more inpsiration and new projects, come and visit.