Member postings for Margaret S

Not doing major quilting at the moment. Bought an incredibly cheap notebook laptop. Quickly made a slip case for it - 2 x dog fabrics, 80/20 wadding, hair tie and one of my vintage mother of pearl buttons for fastening.

Rosemary, love your underwear/ mask rules! Commando ha, ha!

Margaret

Well done Rosemary. It is lovely. The striped fabric is a great choice. It keeps turning up in newsletters that I receive so I think it is going to be very popular this year. Too technical for me.

Brenda, it is certainly scary to be in the at risk age group. I have become a bit of a hermit. Also clearing out the spare room. Found things I have lost for years, culling the magazines and filling the bins. Managed to give away 2 large bags of 4ply machine knitting yarn. Hurray. Suspect there will be a lot of yarn bombing going on around here! Major problem at the moment is the quilts that I have made for charity and no where to take them.

So hoping that we will see light at the end of the tunnel soon.

Take care all.

Margaret

I have been very tardy in replying on machine quilt rulers. Because of arthritis in my hands I find them easier than fmq unaided, particularly the ones with a channel that the foot slots down into, but I find them nowhere near as easy to use as suggested by the demos you see, but I am a complete novice and the demonstrators can already fmq well. I think it would be easier with 80/20 wadding, but I have got a big roll of Hobbs poly to use up, and it does drag a bit on poly. Even my amateurish efforts are much quicker than walking foot quilting. Like everything it seems that practice is the key.

Margaret

Never tried it Eileen, cos to be honest I'm not a fan. The dressmaker in me sees flattened tailor tacks! Vintage quilts seem to use a thicker, strong thread and you need one that will hold a double knot. Knot ends are on the top of the quilt and don't cut the ends too short. It would be pretty to knot in the middle of the blocks, particularly if you used different colour threads, but would this make the block joins poke up?

Can't you make it in units and quilt as you go?

Many years ago a member of our group who is American made a huge quilt for her sil, it was well over 9ft square and beautiful. She used 80/20 wadding and it weighed a ton! I often wondered how it was received when shipped to Hawaii, and how much it cost to ship!

Margaret

Hooray! Last of the 4 quilt tops that I was given turned into a quilt. Kept this one at it's original size, added wadding, floral backing and binding. Quilted with walking foot and Silesian Quilt machine ruler. I don't usually make 'pretty' quilts, but this one has turned out pretty. My stack of charity quilts is growing.

Margarer

Eileen, I am 'mathematically minded' too. My 'random' is usually balanced. I can't help it. It would indeed be a dull world if we were all the same and then we would have no need to bounce ideas off each other. I am of the school that if you like it and it pleases you then blow what others think.

Margaret

That's lovely Rosemary. It is hard to finish things for people who are no longer with us, but it will bring pleasure to her family for years to come.

I had to go through my albums to see if I made a block for this one and I did - second row, second from the left.

Margaret

Love the flower pin cushion, Rosemary.

Take it easy when recuperating, Maria and get well soon.

Margaret

Still don't know how this will pan out, but I'm catching up on my 2020 Temperature Quilt. Done Jan to April so far.

Margaret

Many thanks, Rosemary, for the lovely scissor keeper. I've never seen cork fabric before so I was surprised at the thickness of it. Well done you for working with it. Well done Sylvia too for your finishes.

I had forgotten that this challenge was ending. I know I've gone a bit ott, but it is a coping mechanism. Today I have finished another ufo! No photos yet.

Margaret

Not fusible, but I always use Thermore for thin wadding jobs.

Good to have you back Fiona. Hope you are well.

Margaret

Umi, The Sea, Sashiko kit by Euro Japan Links. I twice tried to order this kit from The Quilters Guild but it was sold out, so I ordered it direct from Euro Japan Links. The Steam a Seam fusible carried on being a pain, having gummed up my fingers and hand sewing needle, it also gummed up my machine needle when sewing on the backing.

Think I'm done with Sashiko for a while now.

Margaret

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That's a great quilt, Eileen. I love the red backing.

Here is mine. You wouldn't believe they were the same instructions, would you? I cut points off too when I brought the binding over from the back to machine down on the front. The Dear Stella fabric that I used on the back is printed over 1" off the straight grain and is probably why it was sold cheap in 5m lengths!

Margaret

Another donated top made into a charity quilt. This top came with problems. I thought I had sorted them all and then I found it measured 38" across the top and 40" across the bottom. Whilst I am happy to make tops into quilts, I will not remake a top. I cut the excess off and used the quilt as a practice piece for my Silesian Quilt Meander machine ruler. It's not a great quilt, but better than I thought it would be.

Margaret

Lovely, Steph. As I said before, it's my favourite colour combination. It always 'pops'. Well done.

Margaret

There you go Sylvia. Well done!

That is lovely, Eileen. It has a 'vintage' feel about it. Since discovering self threading needles I don't mind sewing in ends. Does your machine have a wider space to get the quilt through?

I do like quilts to have lots of traditional quilting, and I love the secondary patterns on yours. Conversely, my mystery quilt has very little! Mine is finished but I haven't got round to taking photos yet.

Margaret

Thanks, Eileen. Very observant, but you missed the ornate chop sticks that I am using as the hanging rod, small peep on left of hanging! Going through a japanese phase at the moment.

Margaret

I have bought a Sashiko applique kit. It uses 'Steam a Seam' as the fusible. Has anyone else used this and had better results than me? It's foul. It completely gummed up my scissors, makes my fingers dirty and sticky, and I have to clean the needle after very short amounts of stitching. It certainly doesn't allow me to do 'mindful' sewing. I usually use 'Bondaweb' or 'Mistyfuse' and don't have this problem. It may be repositionable, but I think in future I'll use what I know.

Margaret

Susan Briscoe Sashiko Koi Carp. Got this kit from one of our members who brought it in as a raffle prize and I asked her if I could buy it. Started it back in the autumn and got round to finishing it this week.

Margaret

Edited By Margaret S on 15/06/2020 14:15:22