The Sewing Annexe

miffy257

Hi there I love those newleaf i'm loving my machine but so far have only used it to quilt my DD's patchwork quilt I'm making for her. Not quite finished -I need to work out how to put a picture on here. I now have 2 weeks off school so am going to do a lot more sewing.
Happy sewing all.:)

ostaragirl

Hi, I wonder if you good people could tell me what sort of ruler you use when cutting material. I have a rotary cutting knife but up till now have been using a plastic ruler and often it makes my cutting wonky. What should I be using instead?

gibson123

ostaragirl wrote: »

Hi, I wonder if you good people could tell me what sort of ruler you use when cutting material. I have a rotary cutting knife but up till now have been using a plastic ruler and often it makes my cutting wonky. What should I be using instead?

is this a quilting question? I don't use a ruler at all but I do mostly dressmaking.

jpscloud

Hi ostaragirl, if you do a search for "quilting ruler" you will get a good range of options for specialist ones. I use a Sew Easy 6" x 12" one which I find really good with a rotary cutter. I think you can also get ones with a reinforced edge so the rotary cutter doesn't damage it, but I didn't bother with one of those and mine works fine. I got mine from Amazon.

Edit: Gibson, yep it is a quilting question I tried cutting out squares without a ruler and nearly went insane!

My thus far rather limited knowledge about this is that there are different methods for quilting... if you are doing the kind of quilting where you use your machine to piece the shapes together, you don't mark the shapes out, you just cut them to the right size and use (normally) a 1/4 inch seam allowance on the machine.

The quilting ruler does the measuring for you, if you see what I mean.

ostaragirl

Thanks I'll have a look for one. When I'm quilting I have used scissors at times but I prefer the rotary cutter so looking for a ruler so I can sut straight.

gibson123

Good luck, I am just about to put the sewing machine on, I have a dress to finish today. Need to get motivated.

jpscloud

Here's my second project... this one really was a learning exercise but I have a useful item out of scraps so I'm pleased with it! It's slightly larger than a normal pillow and overstuffed because I want to use it as a bolster pillow when I'm in bed with the laptop. The edges are meant to fray and go fluffy with a few washes, which I think looks nice.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/72244775@N06/7041404721/in/photostream/

miffy257

Lovely cushion jpscloud my friend has a bag made like that it is very effective. Just need to bind the edges of my quilt and it's done . Must work out how to put up pictures. Happy Sewing.:)

jpscloud

Thanks miffy - hope you can put a pic up too, I'd really love to see your quilt. If you make a flickr account, and add the photo to that, you can put the link to it in a post by clicking on the hyperlink (Insert Link) button on the message toolbar.

I don't know how people put pictures actually in their posts - if anyone can tell us I'd be grateful!

jpscloud

OK I've washed, opened the seams and pressed the old curtains which will be the focus colour in my next project... an irish chain quilt! Here are the fabrics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/72244775@N06/6895749984/in/photostream

The background fabric will be blue/grey lightweight denim (the curtains are 100% cotton and about the same weight as the denim). I hope the result will look a bit like this:

http://www.quiltingboard.com/pictures-f5/single-irish-chain-seminole-border-t117949.html

I really like the simplicity of Irish Chain patterns and love blue on blue tones.

Now to cut out some squares! I need 125 x 4 and a half inch squares in the focus fabric and 100 in the background fabric, plus 24 x 12 and a half inch squares in the background fabric. Just hope there's enough of the curtain fabric to get all the squares... about to find out now!