I love to sew, mainly quilts and bags. I am 66, married to Fred and have one son, Matthew, who is 27. I enjoy embroidery and applique and prefer to machine piece and quilt my projects. I love my vintage Singer sewing machines especially my Featherweight 222K. I’m enjoying treadling on my 201K Singer and I collect Miniature Sewing Machines and currently have three Essex , one Singer 20, one Singer 40, two Vulcan Miniatures and my latest, a Grain. My love of sewing I believe comes from my Grandmother - I still have the drawings she made for me to embroider on tea towels many many years ago!

Tuesday 20 August 2013

FINALLY SOME SQUARES.....

LESSON # 8 A4A QUILT-ALONG 
LESSON # 8 ATTACHED TO LESSON # 5
I think everyone in the Aiming For Accuracy Quilt-Along breathed a sigh of relief when we saw that Lesson # 8 did not have any Quarter Square Triangles in it !   This block went together very easily although I do not enjoy working with 2" squares or strips and when I came to cut out my Batik version of this block, I cut larger and then trimmed down.



I also discovered that I can use my new June Tailor Perfect Half Square and Quarter Square Triangle ruler to accurately trim the four patch units in this block.  I just put the X of the ruler on the centre + of the four patch unit and trimmed each side - voila! perfect little four patch block (I had cut my squares slightly larger than 2" to allow for trimming.
You will have to imagine a four patch unit here instead
of the HST.  See the X in the centre, I just positioned that
over the + of the four patch unit.
This ruler will allow you to trim anything up to 6-1/2"

The more I sew on my Singer 201K Knee-shift machine, the more I love it!  There is something about sewing on such an old machine that just makes you relax and enjoy the process!  I find myself wanting to sew on it more and more, so will plan another project to fill in the days between the A4A block postings.

Today I am quilting the baby quilt, and should get that done fairly quickly as I'm only doing diagonal lines through the plain blocks and some box quilting around the toy loops.  I decided to use up the leftover fabrics from making this quilt for the backing (it is a floor quilt, so the backing didn't need to be anything fancy!)
Playtime quilt

I have joined the Swoon craze!   Here is my first 'test' block.....

I started this block a few weeks ago and then put it aside - big mistake!  there is a lot of cutting, pressing and sewing with this very large block (24-1/2" Square) and trust me, you can get yourself lost!  I can see that I pieced one corner in the wrong order (only the seam pressing gives this away).  I also found out that I am not that great at making flying geese blocks so of course, what's a girl to do?  of course !  buy a ruler that will help with that :-)     I have ordered the 'WingClipper' ruler by Deb Tucker - it sounds like just what I need!  I do like the method of making larger and then trimming down and this ruler does just that!  I plan to make my 'real' SWOON blocks out of my stash of Flea Market Fancy fabrics, just hope I have enough in each piece as I think I've taken a little bit off some of the fat quarters and you really do need every bit of a fat quarter for this block.  The SWOON block also gives me another opportunity to use the June Tailor ruler - lots of HST's.

Happy Sewing!!
Helen

FABRICS USED IN LESSON 8:-

BROWN CONTRAST FABRIC -  "MONOCHROMATIX" BY PATRICK LOSE FOR ROBERT KAUFMAN
GREEN  -  "FUNKY FLOWERS" BY LINDA LUM DEBONO FOR HENRY GLASS FABRICS
WHITE FLORAL  - BROOK  BY CP DESIGNS FOR STUDIO e  FLORAL TURQUOISE
MOCHA/GREY -  RILEY BLAKE DESIGNS  Andrea Victoria Grey Essential Dots

5 comments :

  1. Sew many beautiful blocks Helen.
    Love the Swoon but won't be joining in......have enough to do....
    Oh where can I buy the HST ruler??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've already emailed Maria but for those quilters in Australia who want to purchase this ruler, I sourced it from OzQuilts. Wonderful service!

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  2. Your test Swoon block turned out beautifully! I absolutely love it!

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  3. I'd like to see a photo of your famous SINGER, Helen, please make a picture of her!

    It seems as June Taylor ruler is going to be very useful!

    I love that big block and the fabrics you used but it seems very difficult to do...

    ReplyDelete