Super Quick Scarf

At the moment the mornings are cold, but the days warm up quickly.  I wanted an infinity scarf that I could wear on my way to work, but not a knitted one as I tend to wear long earrings, and they get caught up in the holes of a knitted scarf!

I had a loud t-shirt that I love but haven't worn for years that I thought would make a fun scarf.  So I cut off the hem and the arms & neck section

I cut the body section into two 

And now I have two very colourful infinity scarves!!!

Slik and Quick FQ bags - a tutorial

One of the nieces in America, Megan, is the founder of her High School's Cancer awareness committee. She has managed to get the soccer players playing in pink socks, and has all sorts of plans for raising money and awareness. I decided to make her some FQ bags to sell as I have some fab cancer themed fabrics.



As these lovely little bags are quick to make (*), and are really neat (and have no raw edges) and just take a Fat Quarter each, I thought I'd include a tutorial on how to make them

They just take 1/4 yard fabric and 20 inches of coordinating ribbon. (*They take about 15 minutes each, but with confidence, finger pressing instead of iron pressing, and sewing the channel with the ribbon in place, can be as quick as 10 minutes each)

Take a Fat Quarter of fabric (this is where a yard or metre of fabric is cut into 4 squarish quarters, as opposed to Long Quarters where the fabric is cut into long thin quarters)

If the fabric is directional, place the BOTTOM away from you, otherwise put the selvedge edge away from you. The fabric needs to be wrong side up. Fold down the top edge about 1/2 inch, 1cm, onto the back of the fabric

Press.












Fold the fabric in half, right sides together, so the folded edge remains at the top.

Stitch the bag into a tube shape, starting 1 inch/2cm from the top. (lock your stitches by stitching forwards a few stitches, then backwards the same number, then forwards again).















Move the tube so that the seam is now going down the centre of the tube, not the side. Press the seam open









Now fold up the bottom of the bag so it is line with the bottom of the fold (not quite in half) and press the fold. (We are still looking at the wrong side of the fabric)
















Open the fold, and stitch along the fold mark, locking stitches at both ends.

Now turn the bottom half of the tube inside-out, pulling it up over the top half. Now you can see the right side of the fabric inside and outside the bag.

Using your original top fold as a guide, fold fabric again and pin to make a channel for the ribbon. You will need to unfold the horizontal fold at the seam, and refold vertically first and then horizontally.

Stitch the channel and thread the ribbon through. Tie the ribbon.



Ta Daaaa!!!!!!!

Brilliant for make up, sewing supplies, ballet slippers, medication, kids toys, gift bags ...

(It is possible to make this into a boxy bag, but that introduces raw edges, so you are on your own if you want to do that!)

Slik and Quick Quilt as you go (Tutorial)

I was making patchwork quilts for many years before it occurred to me to get a book or attend a lesson. Instead I looked at quilts and thought about how it was probably made, and set off to do the same thing.It was only when I started to attend lessons that I discovered that my way wasn't the same as the taught way! However, I still use my way in a lot of cases - and my Quilt as I go is a case in point.

I have made all my blocks and have stitched them together in rows, and checked they are all still correct, and have numbered them. Now I can Quilt as I go. For this tutorial, I am working on a quilt with 6 panels. An odd number of panels is slightly different (*).

Prepare the other layers of the quilt. If this is backing fabric and wadding (batting) put the backing fabric face down on the table, smooth out any creases and put the wadding on top. (you can use spray adhesive to hold these together, pins, safety pins, tags, or trust) If you are using fleece, put the fleece on the table nice side down, and smooth the fabric.

Find and mark the middle of the backing. Place a pin at the middles of the edges. Take your two middle strips (numbered 3 and 4 in my example), and place the lower numbered one (ie 3 in my case) 1/4 inch past the middle.

Pin the next strip (number 4 here) to it, along the centre of the backing, matching the seams.


Open out the new strip and double check that the pattern is correct. Stitch, making sure you use locking stitches at either end


Press open, and now add strip 2 to strip 3 and strip 5 to strip 4 in the same way, finishing by adding strip 1 at the beginning and strip 6 at the end. Press open


The following photo shows the back. You can see the stitch lines running from left to right - well that is the first half of your in-the-ditch quilting done. All you now need to do is whizz along the other seams (perpendicular if we are being pedantic!) and the whole piece has been quilted in the ditch and you can now get on with adding your borders :-)

From mini jelly roll to this took me a morning - so quick and so satisfying

Enjoy!!!
(* for an odd number of strips, position the middle one down the middle of the backing, and pin the strip immediately before it and immediately after in into place. Stitch and continue as above)

Easy Zig Zag (tutorial)

I woke up this morning with an idea that I just HAD to try. I bought a small jelly roll last year and it's been sitting on the shelf, looking at me and I couldn't decide what to do with it, until today.I love zigzag quilts, but I think I'm allergic to triangles, so here is a lesson in a triangle free zigzag!

1. Assuming the mini jell roll has two of each colour, arrange the fabrics into two identical piles: light / dark / light / dark etc. (if there is just one of each fabric, cut each length into two shorter lengths.)2. Start to join the strips lengthwise: join fabric 1 to fabric 2, then from the other pile, join fabric 2 to fabric 3, then back to the first pile to join 3 to 4 etc, until you have the last fabric and the first one left: join these

3. Press all pairs towards the darker side. (I put the folded pair down, dark side up, seam away from me, and then lift the dark side like a page in a book, and use the tip of the iron to lift it further and press the seam)

4. Measure the height of your pressed two-colour strip. This is the measurement of your eventual square. Mine were 4.5 inches high, so I cut each strip into 4.5 inch squares


5. Lay out the squares so they start to build up the zigzag pattern. First I worked diagonally, which would give a straight zigzag,

but unless I wanted a zigzag edge to the quilt, I would have to trim off the triangles, and I didn't want to waste any fabric. Instead, I turned the squares so the zigzag runs diagonally, but the squares didn't need trimming (clear as mud? They say a picture is worth a thousand words)


6. Once you are happy with the arrangement, pin the squares in rows, each square to the one above and the one below. Put the strips back in the right order. Check and double check they are all correct (guess why I suggest this!)

7. Pin a number to each strip so you know its place for later


8. Stitch all the squares as pinned, and press to darker side

9. Pin all the strips together in the right order (unless you are using the Slik and Quick quilt as you go method)

10. Ta da - one pieced zigzag quilt, no triangles, and no fuss ;-)