Soldering

I was lucky enough to get a soldering iron for Christmas. It's a Weller W101 Line Soldering Iron 230v if you're interested in that kind of thing. It's ideal for lead work as it has a thermostat that stops it from getting too hot and burning through the lead cames. Which would be a bummer!

I have been waiting for my stained glass class to restart as I was a little nervous to try soldering on my own. I needn't have worried, it's pretty straight forward. You just need to rub tallow onto any joins in the lead, which acts as a flux. Then its just a matter of putting the tip of the soldering iron on the end of the solder and melting it onto the joins. It took about 2 hours to solder both sides of my window, but there are lots of joins. It's best to rub the excess tallow off whilst its still warm with a natural fibre brush.

Next week - cementing!

Sewing Strips

I've been really busy with the sewing machine creating a massive pile of paired strips of fabric. Oh I have so much still to do!

It's Freezing!

It is so cold tonight. York looked pretty eerie this evening as it was veiled in freezing fog. Brrr. Its definitely a night for knitting under a quilt. So that's what I'm doing!

Sewing Machine Cover

I have finished my sewing machine cover and it looks so pretty! I used all of the Oh Deer! layer cake I'd received as a Christmas present.

I made up the design as I went along. First I sewed the squares into pairs, then cut them in half to make rectangles. By sheer luck four rectangles was the same width as my machine, so it was just a matter of adding more rows. I created a large rectangle -  large enough to wrap right around the sewing machine, with a notch for the handle. Here  it is unwrapped, measuring approximately 40cm x 100cm.

The backing fabric is one I bought a while ago, it's a beautiful green - but I can't remember the brand! The binding is a red and white spot, leftover from Emma's cot quilt.

The ties are just a lovely green ribbon to hold it together at the top which I sewed to the quilted cover. Ta dah!

My Sister Came to Visit

My younger sister Anna came to visit me in York today, we had a lovely day of crafting activities. She has finished her first ever quilt top and needed a bit of help choosing some backing fabrics and binding. I'm always happy to do a bit of fabric shopping so we ended up going to every fabric shop in York. Viking Loom, Gillies Fabrics, Grace and Jacob and Fletchers Fabrics - Phew! We got the binding from Grace and Jacob and a lovely spotty backing fabric (extra wide at 140cm) and batting from Fletchers Fabrics.

As she has never basted a quilt before, we also did that together. My goodness, it is so much easier with two people helping. Anna did manage to safety pin her quilt to my lounge carpet a few times, but otherwise it was plain sailing!

She even got to start the machine quilting. She's just stitching in the ditch at the moment, but plans to do some infilling. Keep your eyes peeled over at my sister's blog, Minnie Loves, for the finished product. I'm so excited to see it.

Thank You Kaffe!

I love Kaffe Fassett's work, his use of colour is really beautiful and unusual. This has been causing me some difficulties though as each time I go to Grace and Jacob my eye has been drawn to some gorgeous fabrics by him. Today I found I could resist no more and picked out six different fabrics from his range.

I had thought I'd go for the full range of colours, but actually I've limited the palette to just reds and pinks. The colours are so deep and vibrant, unlike anything else. I can always add in another fabric at a later date if I think it needs more contrast.

As for what quilt I will make with these fabrics - I have no idea! I suspect it will be simple squares. Perhaps even the #scrappytripalong which every quilter in the world appears to be undertaking at the moment. Actually, my favorite of the scrappy trip quilts is this one by Red Pepper Quilts, love those colours.

I can't wait to get started.

Layer Cake

I got the most gorgeous layer cake for Christmas from my lovely sister.

It's Oh Deer! by Momo for Moda. There are 42 gorgeous prints - a quirky mix of birds, deer, spots and stripes, very Japanese in style. Super cute.

I've been unsure what to make with them, but am tempted to try a soft cover for my new sewing machine. I think I'll just go for a really simple quilted cover with ribbon ties at the side. As it is such a small project it will be ideal for getting to grips with the settings on my machine, which I admit, is defying me at the moment!!

Yippee I've Finished a Quilt!

Emma's quilt was finished (just!) before Christmas, but as it was a present I couldn’t do the grand reveal on the blog until after she’d unwrapped it again. I realise that it's unlikely that a 7 month old is reading my blog, but you can never be too careful.

It was Emma's first Christmas so I wanted to give her something special that she could keep. I think she liked it, actually her favourite bit was when I wafted her with it (we're odd). Here she is snuggling - what a cutie. 

 

I’d shown you the initial quilting before when I’d first decided to go for a zig-zag but before I'd infilled. Oh why did I ever think that the ziz-zag was a good idea? It pushed Mum’s old Frister Rossman and my sanity to the limits. As soon as I turned any corners, the thread would start looping at the back. So annoying. It was worth the challenge though because the quilting really adds to the impact of the design, bringing out the chevrons.

Here's the quilt from the back. I am in love with the gorgeous backing fabric and binding.

 

I hope it will bring Emma many years of cuddles and warmth.

I'm a Lucky Girl

Happy New Year! I have had a wonderful Christmas holiday this year, I really enjoyed spending time with my family. New Years was less exciting, it was spent on the sofa ill, which really has become an annual tradition. That has meant I'd delayed playing with my new toy until tonight - a new sewing machine!!!

It's a Brother Innovis 55. It is a thing of beauty. I love the self threading facility and the fact that you don't have to use a foot pedal (I know!). It does far more stitches than I know what to do with. Oh it is so good.

I also got the Brother Creative Quilting kit as a freebie. It includes a quilting table, free motion quilting accessories, a quarter inch foot (I couldn't do a quarter inch seam with old borrowed machine) and best of all a WALKING FOOT! Yippee, no more forcing fabric through! Do you want to see it? Of course you do!

 Right enough practise - I need to start my next quilty project.