General chat thread for BB girls who like sewing

[maz]

there must eb one of those quilters for dummies book, like the internet for dummies book.

google wil be your friend maz

yes found the dummies book....thinking of getting it and google..OMG Ive benenon here for 2 hours tonight and my head is SPINNING

Maz - whats sort of quilt? patchwork or applique?

Spotlight have easy quilt patterns - and classes - usually for both patchwork and applique.

Sampler quilts are good for learning patchwork basics as you get lots of different blocks and learn different techniques.

However they tend to be large (the finished quilts)

I reckon your best bet would be to get a kit thats easy for beginners. You can either get just a pattern and instructions or you can get all the fabric as well.
Let me know if you want the names of some specific quilting places, but if your spotlight has a craft section then they will likley have staff who know most of the local quilters anyway.

oh hon...you have taught me so much
Id love to make and start something basic. I have questions

do I back each piece of 'patch' that I sew together?
Do I need to use wadding?
how the hell do you get all the sewn edges straight and in line???

[Fleur]

I'm putting photos in an album of stuff I have done, sewing & other stuff I played around with.

The quilts are HERE ; I did the pink & green one first & it turned out ok, a bit rough, I just figured it out as I went but I learned from it & the second was much better.

When I finally get around to doing Panda's patchwork quilt top I'll put some of those pics up too

[kawazuki]

how the hell do you get all the sewn edges straight and in line???

patients and luck, i find..

i only hadn quilt for this reason, but will be going to machine quilting soon sooo much quicker


i dont know if i do it right but i dont back every piece. i back in larger blocks adn find once i have then tacked the wadding on and gone over with teh machine for the over stitch it all meshes in nicely.


i dont have any i had previously made as they were gifts and an exs mum helped me..

[Fleur]

I have questions

do I back each piece of 'patch' that I sew together?
Do I need to use wadding?
how the hell do you get all the sewn edges straight and in line???

Maz, I started with a ruler & rotary cutter. I cut squares of equal size & joined them in strips, so for example I would join 6 squares in a row, then join the rows together so I had one big square.
Wadding I found the thinner the better, as I was quilting it myself....
the back was one single piece uct to fit. Make the wadding a bit bigger than your top & back (my mistake with my first quilt )
edges... just make sure the seam allowance is exactly the same each time you join a square.

I fluked it I think

ETA - there is a quilting method, I think it's called puff quilting? where you can wad & back each individual square as you do it, then join all of those together. It looks really effective but I haven't tried it - I can't get my head around all getting those puffy squares joined

[Pandora]

I piece the whole quilt top first, cut the backing piece to the same size, and the batting to the same size.
Then I lays the three together like a sandwich with the batting in the middle.
Then I baste it toget her about 10cms apart, both vertical and horizonal.
Then quilt it and last off do the binding on the edge.

I've only done machine piecing, stitch in the ditch machine quilting and hand quilting for the other quilting stitches.

[Nelle]

Okay - I am absolutely NOT kicking you quilters out of the treehouse I promise! I just wondered - would it work to have a Quilting chatter thread? If I am being over-tidy then throw something at me that's okay.

[Ryatha]

Nelle... I'm with you I have no idea what they are talking about, but I am slowly learning... let them stay... they might teach us something

[Pandora]

I'm not fussed, but I don't know much about dressmaking or other stuff and would like to learn about that too

[Astrid]

Tough one. Part of me would prefer the quilting specific chatter to be in its own thread, but then there is some cross over with everyday sewing and I can see that people may write about both in the one post.

[Fleur]

I'm not fussed, but I don't know much about dressmaking or other stuff and would like to learn about that too

:yeahthat: I would love to be making pants & dresses for Pie.
Also I need to learn how to sew a zip, so that the cushion covers I make actually close

[Arcadia]

You could use press studs or buttons for the cushions fleur.

Zippers are easy, bu need to be done first (before you sew any seams).

You need a zipper foot on your machine also.

Line up one side of the zipper and one piece of fabric, so right sides are facing each other and sew as close to the zipper as you can without catching the teeth (which is why a zipper foot helps, becaus it only has one side to it iykwim)

Now repeat for the other side. Then all you have to do is sew the seams at either end of the zipper - between the zipper and the side of the fabric.

Hmm...maybe google a tutorial. That explanation sounds cr@p!

[Astrid]

I found my instruction manual for the sewing machine had the best instructions for sewing a zipper. Found it worked better than the method often given with sewing patterns.

[Nelle]

Oh Fleur those quilts are so cool. Maybe...don't go away quilters....is it really hard? Or should I learn to sew in a straight line first....

I'm confused. How do you put a new foot on your machine? How do they work?

[Arcadia]

Nelle there should be a release button to take off the current foot, then you just attach another foot.

Machines have different 'feet' to help sew different things- did you get any others with your machine?

[Pandora]

Nelle, what brand machine do you have?
I have a bernina and mine have a lever mechanism that you lift up, take off the foot and put on the new one.

I find zips the easier part to do, its button holes that scare me!

[ss_storm]

Yep my feet are so easy to change, I have a Bernina too. I think mine came with about 5 or 6 different ones and there are heaps more you can get.

Pandora- do you have a button hole foot? That's one of the ones I got, I haven't used it yet, but you don't really have to do anything, just change the foot and let it go!

I'm thinking I might make something special for DD's first birthday...I have about 3 months to get it done (including procrastination time..lol). Any ideas what I could do? Quilting is probably out as I think that would take a lot longer than 3 months for me, and I don't really have the money to spend on a lot of fabric.

[Nelle]

Ah okay, thanks for the lesson! I have the world's cheapest machine so maybe it didn't come with anything...maybe one actually...I'll go have a look. It doesn't matter, if I get good at this sewing thing and need to upgrade then I will (I start out with cheap stuff in case it's a phase), and I'm not really at 'different foot' standard yet anyway I don't think!

[maz]

Im miffed
I went to my sewing shop and they have classes....all on a weekday or saturday mornings....grrrr....I cant do any of them NOT HAPPY!!!!

Okay - I am absolutely NOT kicking you quilters out of the treehouse I promise! I just wondered - would it work to have a Quilting chatter thread? If I am being over-tidy then throw something at me that's okay.

Why? Isnt the idea of this thread so we can all learn from each other? it is general isnt it

Im hanging to get our new bed now so I can make the top rail valance and see what fabric ive got left to make the foot end blanket.

OH how 'thick' do you overlock stuff together...eg how many layers???? will I be able to overlock wadding inbetween 2 or 3 layers of cotton fabric?