Member postings for Margaret S

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

Your quilt is my favourite colour palette, Steph. I can't get on with a hoop, my fingers are not agile enough. At present, the hot weather has made my arthritis flare up big time. My right hand is sore, but working, my left thumb hurts and my left foot has got gout, but at least I can keep on quilting - slowly.

Love your peg bag. I really want to make one of those.

Margaret

That was brave and to get it right, Eileen. I once ordered 3 shades of red for a PP swap, and they were all wrong. One of them is still in my stash.

I have quilted the 4 patch, double 4 patch and triple rail blocks. I am now on the hsts. I did use the brown perle #5 and it made my fingers sore and was difficult to get the knot to 'pop' when burying the threads.

Have you managed to find time to work on yours?

Margaret

Men are so observant! This morning dh asked me how long a quilt had been hanging on the wall. He thought I was joking when I told him it had been there since 14th December!

Margaret

I know your supplier never seems to hurry in despatching orders, but that is a huge wait, Eileen. I ordered a kit on 25 May from Euro Japan Links and it arrived today. On the 26th May I ordered some machine rulers from Silesian Quilts and they arrived from Poland today, admittedly by courier as the Polish mail will not handle parcels at present, but days before it was expected to arrive.

Hope your parcel arrives soon. I have been surprised at how quickly things have been getting through.

Margaret

That looks an interesting design, Eileen. Good stash busting.

Lovely green cushions, Sylvia. Well done.

NOT ALL MY WORK. Here is the final charity quilt made from the last 3 Stack & Whack blocks. Turned out better than I expected. The pale fabric is some vintage Jinny Beyer that I had in my stash. There was just enough of the turquoise floral that I was given to make the backing for this one too. Quickly quilted by elongating to max one of the quilting stitches on my machine.

Just 2 more donated quilt tops to go!

Margaret

Edited By Margaret S on 30/05/2020 12:12:08

Eileen, big stitches are up to 1/4" long and as evenly spaced as possible. With perle #8 my stitches are about that size. Very effective when used 1/8" or 1/4" from seam line in traditional quilting, 'modern' is often straight lines. Quicker than traditional hand quilting, but I find it makes my fingers sore.

My quilt is now sandwiched and I have started the quilting.

Perils of ordering thread on the internet - what I thought was scarlet red turns out to be dark orange and light brown turns out to be ochre! I have some brown in perle #5 so I will have to see if I can work with that.

Hope your backing fabric has arrived.

Margaret

Finished top.

Margaret

My top is finished. The 9 patch blocks are deep purple. I am not buying fabric for this project so I am going to use some Dear Stella from my stash which is not really appropriate, (period type design), but it has the same colours in it. I have some dmc cotton perle #8 on order from Love Crafts as I plan to do some big stitch quilting when it is sandwiched.

Will now go and load the photo into my album as I forgot to do it before I started this post!

Margaret

I have picture rails and in the spare (junk) room I have a piece of cheap fleece clipped to the rail. I just flat hand press the blocks to it and as long as they are not too heavy they stay in place, so there is no need to pin and they are easy to move around. At my group when I have demoed, seems so long ago now, I have used a fleece throw. Anything with a flannel type surface should work, paler the colour is best.

Margaret