Summer 2007 Journal Quilt

It was the intention to do a page a month, but time flies......... My Summer quilt covers June, July and August. I stripped pieced the fabric which was 'sun painted' and used this as a base for back and front - knew all those splodgy scraps would come in useful for something. On the quilt there is a scrap of foundation piecing, fancy stitchwork, hot fix crystals and the rest are photos of Mum and Dad's Golden Wedding, our holiday in the Forest of Dean and Billy the African Grey who stayed with us when his owners went on holiday. I printed and monogrammed some fabric for the back and put some notes on there too.

Fabric / Gem Master

My new toy arrived this afternoon - a Fabric Master and Gem Upgrade. Photo of initial attempts - some decorated denim, which will be a pouch for my mobile phone, and a leather wrist band - the blank was included with the kit. Clicking on the photo gets you a close-up picture. Actually these are my second and third attempts. The real first one sort of caught fire and melted - I machine embroidered various organzas and other 'brights' and then tried to cut and distress the top layer of organza to let the lower layers show through. Well, I'm not kidding when I say this tool gets HOT - very HOT!!!

Before I do anything else, I ought to find out how to remove burnt on fabric from the tips (anyone know how?). Think I will have to heat them up to soften it and wipe it off without setting anything else on fire - maybe wire wool might do.

A pleasant afternoon experimenting. Watch out for me - I'm the one wearing the Glittery Bling!!

Day out at Lord Sewing

I went to Oswaldtwistle Mill yesterday - saw advert for free demos at Lords Sewing Centre within the Mill a while back.

The first demo was the Fabric Master Heat Tool, cutting out fabrics, embroidered motifs etc - and also using it to melt hot fix crystals onto fabric, leather, wood amongst other things. It looks like a useful piece of equipment so I've ordered it direct from the makers today using Flair Magazine's special offer of a free gem upgrade to go with it. Click here to see a video For the things I want to try with this I need organza, Crystal Organza, is recommended. According to one of the ladies at the demo. the Sewing Centre at Scarborough have it, and possibly Boyes at Scarborough and Bridlington. They recommended No Show Mesh stabiliser for working motifs onto organza, so I bought a roll of that.

The second demo was Foundation Piecing - I didn't really know what this was, but as it is something to do with quilting, it seemed a shame to travel all that way and not attend. Very pleased I did - it's a great way to use up oddments of fabric, looks impressive and isn't difficult. I bought some Stitch and Wash stabiliser for this. It will go through the printer to produce the 'blocks' and come away when washed. It also tears away easily. I think stich and tear would do the same job - have a bit stock of this so need to experiment before buying any more Stitch and Wash. Made a start on some Christmas fabric pieced blocks - don't know what they will eventually become, will wait and see how many I get out of the available fabric.