The Sewing Room

keza

morning all

I LOVE my sewing machine :j this is the start of something very special i can feel it

last night i got myself up and running once william was in bed, threaded my machine then started sewing. i put together 5 rows of squares, messed one up (top row) as my iron was far too hot and melted the fabric - unpicking job later on! but the other 4 rows were all sewn together successfully and i am very impressed with myself.

My college work was all floding back to me and it didnt take me long to get back in the swing of things. all my squares meet up exactly.

another mistake i made though was my hems are all in cm (due to my ruler being in cm) but my machine measures in inches, so my hems are out slightly. few questions (already!)

1 ) my theory is that, as they are all the same (3/8th of an inch) it should all go together the same shouldnt it? as long as i carry on cutting my fabric with 1cm seam allowance so it is all the same - hope that makes sense!

2) if i wanted to do some embroidery on the flowers fabric, do i do this before i put the whole quilt together or do i do it after? I think i do it before but just want to check from you more experienced ladies!

thanks in advance (sorry for the long post!)

winniepooh

I would embroider before quilting but that's just my opinion

rufusdog52

If you are just doing squares then they would all fit together ok, you can usually move the postion of the needle so you could get it moved over to the correct place for 1cm in future, plus you could stick a piece of paper on the machine 1cm away from the stitch line. If you are using a smaller seam allowance than 1cm then the finished quilt will end up being a bit bigger than you planned, same as if you are doing them wider than 1cm it will be smaller.

When I did embroidery on one of my quilts I did it before I cut out the squares in case I ended up pulling the threads tight and putting the square out of shape but you can do it at anytime you like. If you do it before you put the wadding and back on then you wont have to worry about knotting the threads underneath, if you complete the quilt first you will have to make sure you fasten the threads well without the knots showing and make sure you dont go right through the thickness with any of your stitches. I have done both of these methods as well and both come out well.

Florenceem

rufusdog52 wrote: »

Yes, pics would be lovely and the colours sound lovely xx

I made some padded hearts and some fabric flowers and attached them to sticks.

Love these - how did you attach to the sticks please?

LV_Sue

Just made these for my sister-in-law's birthday. I bought 3 t-towels in Wilko's sale for £2 - very Cath Kidston lookalikes. Plenty more material to make lots more. I put some pot-pouri inside the two larger birds with the stuffing (from a cheapo pillow), but the last set of 3 I made for a friend had dried lavender in them. SIL doesn't like lavender so I couldn't use it for hers. I joined them together with rustic-type string with a hanging loop at the top.

Sorry the photo isn't very clear, I had to take a quick photo before I delivered them. She was very pleased with them and now her daughter wants some too!

Slightly better close up photo.

keza

they are beautiful sue! love the fabric!

hmo

LV_Sue wrote: »

Just made these for my sister-in-law's birthday. I bought 3 t-towels in Wilko's sale for £2 - very Cath Kidston lookalikes. Plenty more material to make lots more. I put some pot-pouri inside the two larger birds with the stuffing (from a cheapo pillow), but the last set of 3 I made for a friend had dried lavender in them. SIL doesn't like lavender so I couldn't use it for hers. I joined them together with rustic-type string with a hanging loop at the top.

Sorry the photo isn't very clear, I had to take a quick photo before I delivered them. She was very pleased with them and now her daughter wants some too!

Slightly better close up photo.

they are cute well done

hmo

keza wrote: »

morning all

I LOVE my sewing machine :j this is the start of something very special i can feel it

last night i got myself up and running once william was in bed, threaded my machine then started sewing. i put together 5 rows of squares, messed one up (top row) as my iron was far too hot and melted the fabric - unpicking job later on! but the other 4 rows were all sewn together successfully and i am very impressed with myself.

My college work was all floding back to me and it didnt take me long to get back in the swing of things. all my squares meet up exactly.

another mistake i made though was my hems are all in cm (due to my ruler being in cm) but my machine measures in inches, so my hems are out slightly. few questions (already!)

1 ) my theory is that, as they are all the same (3/8th of an inch) it should all go together the same shouldnt it? as long as i carry on cutting my fabric with 1cm seam allowance so it is all the same - hope that makes sense!

2) if i wanted to do some embroidery on the flowers fabric, do i do this before i put the whole quilt together or do i do it after? I think i do it before but just want to check from you more experienced ladies!

thanks in advance (sorry for the long post!)

so long as you are consistent in how you sew your squares and then rows it shouldn't matter what you 1/4 inch is what most quilts are sewn with but theres no reason why you can not sew with bigger

hmo

when i added some appliqu! to the quilt i made for my daughter i sewed it on just to the top layer before i put the quilt together, then when i came to quilt it i did that as normal through all three layers, hope that makes sense.

rufusdog52

Florenceem wrote: »

Love these - how did you attach to the sticks please?

On the back of the hearts I sewed a small triangle shaped piece of fabric like a tiny pocket but with the opening at the bottom, so like and upside down pocket, then glued the sticks into the pockets. For the flowers I did practically the same but I cut out a small circle first then sewed the pocket onto the circle and then sewed the whole thing onto the back of the flower, this hid all the rough bits at the back as well as having something for the stick xx