The Needles Excellency: Hattie

Showing posts with label Hattie. Show all posts

4 December 2013

Still Alive and Kicking

Wednesday, December 04, 2013 aussieheroquilts, cats, Cleo, donation, Hattie, quilt No comments

I've been absent from the blogosphere for about a month. I stopped sewing as I was trying to get some of my handmade leather journals done for a craft fair. Turned out to be a bit of a waste of time as I only sold one book!! Anyway, here is a picture of what I made.

This is the furbabies helping me with some cutting out. I've been quilting for a while but you never stop working out better ways to do things. I've been using a big folding table for my quilting. I can set it up and take it down quickly and lets me work in the room with the best light.

However, it's quite low. So when cutting it can get quite tiring. I had visitors last week and put my normal table away. Once they were gone and I wanted to do some cutting, I put up another folding table I have, this one is smaller, but it is height adjustable. I put it up to the maximum height, and boy what a difference!! Sooo much easier to cut and no more sore neck or shoulders. I will definately be using this one from now on. I am thinking of getting another one, to be set up at a lower height for sewing. It will be a better set up as it will take up less room, as I can slip one under the other but still have a cutting space and a sewing space.

This is the kitties helping me use my Westalee rulers. I've had them for ages but not used them. They've been great for cutting out so far. I like the idea of sewing the bias before cutting the triangles. These will be for donation quilts.

I just wanted to sew!! Lots of HST in progress and some green and yellow pinwheels for another donation quilt.

Omigosh Redux Quilt Finished

Wednesday, May 01, 2013 finished, Hattie, omgredux, quilt, scrapquilt 14 comments

My Omigosh Redux quilt is finished!!

I started and finished the quilting on ANZAC Day and then bound the next day. A simple cross hatch based on the blocks. I stuffed it up a bit. I was going to do quilt big gap quilting but miscalculated. And it was easier to add more quilting than to take out what I'd already done. But I still looks good. There are a couple of bumps from where I went back and there were movement.

Here I am squaring up the quilt. I always really enjoy this step. Makes the reality of finishing immediate. I also really enjoy binding the quilts. Although that is a bit of a struggle at the moment with the vision problems I am having.

Here is a close up of the finished product.

Here the quilt is finished being quilted, but not squared up yet. Miss Hattle says it's very comfortable!!

Pink and Green Twister Baby Quilt Finished

Monday, March 04, 2013 baby, finished, Hattie, quilt, twister No comments

And another one done!! This one is for my about to be grand neice. I love the Twister templates for quilts like this. Just very basic but sturdy quilting for something which will get a lot of wear (hopefully!).

If you'd like to see how the Twister template was used with this quilt, check out my previous Pink and Green Twister post.

Below is Hattie helping me with the binding. Which reminds me, this was my first attempt at mitred corners. Why have I not been doing this the whole time??? So much easier. And I found a great tutorial for doing the final join when putting the binding on - Bumpless Binding Finishing Trick:

Cat Quilt - First Finish for 2013

Wednesday, January 09, 2013 Cleo, finished, Hattie, ninepatch, quilt No comments

So I had my first finish for 2013 yesterday. It is a very small quilt, made for my cats!! Yeah, yeah I know, but better they get their furry fur on this one that I can chuck in the was, than other things which are a much bigger pain to wash! And I figure I put this near the sewing machine and they sleep on that rather than what I am trying to work on. I also chose this one as I am really trying to finish off some of my UFO's especially the smaller ones, now that I am giving machine quilting a go.

This is Miss Cleopatra (Cleo) using the finished product.

Below is Miss Hatshepsut (Hattie) helping me with blocking the quilt. Normally, I don't block my quilts, but this one uses blocks which were my very first attempt at machine piecing, so there was some interesting results. Also, this has been sitting in the UFO pile for so long it was pretty dusty and stinky (as was the batting off cuts used) that it was gonna get a wash anyway.

So, after washing, I pinned it to my cardboard cutting mat, which is actually perfect for this, since it has the grids for aligning and gives me something to push the pins into! I would worry about the damp damaging it, but after spin drying and the hot temperature, it didn't stay wet for long.

So here is the finished product. The quilting is a bit dodgy, I was in a rush and the blocks weren't exactly in perfect alignment (although blocking it did the world of good in getting it squared up). It is actually alot squarer than it looks, it was given a good test drive before I could get a photo, so a few creases. The similar blocks are ones I made and the alternate ones are some that I received in various 9 Patch swaps, 6" blocks.

Repro Fabric Swap Siggy Square

Wednesday, August 29, 2012 Hattie, quilt, reproduction 3 comments

I am doing a fabric swap with a few ladies in the USA. We are swapping 1800's Repro fabrics. As part of the swap we are doing siggy squares as well. It was my first go at doing Flying Geese. I think they turned out OK. The swap block is 6" finished.

Here are most of the fabrics I am sending. We are swapping 16 Fat 1/8's. I already had some, so this is the rest.

I tried to get a variety of colours and patterns. Can't wait to see what I get in return!
And while I was working on the above blocks, I had some other ironing to do. I picked up some really cheap, good quality fabrics. Bit of a bargain. And Miss Hattie decided they looked very comfy!

My First Quilt

Friday, June 29, 2012 Hattie, quilt 2 comments

On one of the Quilting email lists I'm on (ReproFabricLovers) someone asked what quilt we currently have on our beds. As it happens, the very first quilt I ever made is currently gracing that position.

It's made from 3 small scraps of fabric I bought at a church fete. It is a medium twill/drill fabric, as is the white.I made it using diamonds, the coloured fabric made into stars (using six diamonds) and the gaps filled with hegagons (made using 3 diamonds and y-seams). It was filled with thick poly batting and hand quilted. Bound using pink twill. All hand pieced and hand quilted. So I made it about as hard for myself as possible. But it was made using scraps of fabric and what I could get for free. So proud in the tradition of quilting!

But even after a hard life (always machine washed and tumble dryed), it is still going. The batting has completely flattened and I noticed last week that some of the binding is starting to fray. I will have to rebind at some stage. But I still love it and it's got many good years left in it.

BTW, the white fluffy bed doll is Hattie!!

BBTW, I am currently re-organising my quilting space, so no new sewing to report. But I hope to have it sorted out this weekend.