The sewing room is a tip, and part of tidying up is working out what I should work on in the next few weeks to try and get some projects finished. I need encouragement, so I am joining in with the Finish Along 2014 at The Littlest Thistle.
This quilt top is lap size. I made it nearly three years ago, piecing it on my Frister and Rossmann transverse shuttle, using up lots of old Laura Ashley scraps that I had been saving for about thirty years. I needed to use a few other cottons from the cupboard, and only needed to buy one extra piece of fabric to make the colour scheme work better.
The deep rose pink was a handy little oddment in the bargains box at a sale I went to. Just the shade I wanted!
It is not a big quilt. Why can't I organise myself and just finish it?
There are two other projects I need to finish:-
The Free Motion Quilted Bedspread, which I have hardly touched since July. It is for my daughter, and it is her birthday in just over a fortnight...
and the Teapots Quilt, which is brewing so slowly it is embarrassing.
Back to tidying the sewing room...
All I did was stroll past the Salvation Army shop while out shopping, and this teapot was sitting in the window screaming at me to come in and buy it. How could I resist?
Whichever way you look at it, it is fascinating. And there isn't a single chip or crack on it anywhere. Neither is there a manufacturer's mark on the underneath, which is a bit puzzling. I am sure I have seen that lupin design somewhere before.
As if I really need an excuse to make another tea cosy... now I'm bursting to make one in a colour scheme to match this pot.
This is a project I have neglected - I haven't touched it since April last year because I started the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Quilt, which I was determined to have finished before the end of the jubilee year. This was my first bit of free motion quilting for a proper quilt. Each block has a cotton fabric with gold detail for the teapot, a pretty print for the tablecloth, and a plain neutral for the background. This is the same appliqué that I used for the tea cosy that I made a few weeks ago.
The tablecloths are quilted with straight line diagonals, done on the 1927 Singer 99K hand machine, and the backgrounds are free motion quilted with the 1945 Singer 15K treadle. When I got the blocks out today I was toying with the idea of doing a different free motion pattern on the blocks I have yet to quilt. Then I decided that I would prefer a bit of consistency, so I will probably quilt the remaining blocks in the same way. I realised that I have a load of material in a box that will be ideal for practising other patterns on.
Most of the pots have the handle on the right, which looks more natural to me because I am right handed, but I have a few with the handle on the left so left handers too can feel the urge to grab the pot and start pouring. I absolutely love the colours and the Tudor roses on this teapot.
On this teapot the shades of pink and orange with grey are exquisite.
It's time I started to work on this quilt again...
This post is being linked up Free Motion Friday on Leah Day's blog so you can visit lots of interesting blogs with some fantastic projects on show.
Finished! Thank you QuiltE for the lovely fabric!
And well done QuiltE and Gavin, both of whom spotted a tea cosy in the making.
Hiding underneath the cosy is a two and a half pint teapot...
... but the cosy can stand up on its own when there is nothing underneath it.
Here is the method:-
First, round off the top corners of the two quilted panels. Cutting round this 6 and a half inch plate gives a nice curve.
Make a loop and machine stitch it in place at the top centre of one on the panels, stitching about an eighth of an inch from the edge.
Stitch panels together a generous quarter of an inch from the edge. For the backing when quilting I used a lightweight cotton and synthetic mixed fabric that has been in the cupboard for years. Because I am lining this tea cosy this fabric is not going to show and I can happily leave the loose ends of thread hanging on the back.
When the seam is done, machine stitch an eighth of an inch from each side of the seam line.
These two extra lines of stitching keep the edges flat on the inside and the tea cosy will keep its shape once you turn it the right way out.
For the lining I used thermal curtain lining. I cut two pieces 12 and an eighth by 8 and three quarter inches, and rounded off the top corners with the plate..
This stuff is stiff, with one fluffy side, and is very fray resistant, so I can get away with sewing just over an eighth of an inch from the edge. I sewed them with the two smooth sides together. On the picture they are already sewn together, so it is the fluffy side that is showing.
I have used more yielding thermal curtain lining in the past that has a slight tendency to fray, but I prefer the stiff variety.
Next I slid the lining into the cosy. It was a good snug fit.
Now for the trickiest bit. The lining and the outer shell are never exactly the same size. The lining seemed a bit tight, so I hand sewed some running stitches at the edge of the quilted outer shell to gather it slightly. Then I did two parallel lines of machine stitching with a large stitch to tack the two edges together before adding the binding.
That gave a firm easy edge to work with when binding the bottom edge.
I dread to think how many gallons of tea I got through when working on this cosy.
This post is being linked up with the Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link Up at Plum and June, hosted this week by Nat at Made in Home, so you can visit lots of other blogs showing interesting projects.
Here is the panel with the quilting completed.
The teapots have an extra layer of wadding so they stand out in relief - this post shows the method.
To stitch around the edge of the appliqué I used the trusty Singer 99K hand machine and the hinged cording foot, as shown on this post here
Next I filled the background with free motion quilting on the Singer 15K treadle. It's a bit fiddly getting into the small spaces, but worth it for the finished effect.
Fortunately I had a variegated thread with shades of pink and green so it went perfectly on both colours of the background.
Once I had finished the quilting I cut the panel into two pieces, each measuring 13 x 9 inches.
I'm hoping to have this project finished by tomorrow so you can see the end result and perhaps make one of your own... the mystery will be over and this post will have a brand new title!
And again I am linking up with Leah Day's free motion quilting blog so you can visit other blogs showing some lovely projects... These Friday link ups are a brilliant idea, I really need the kick to make me practise!
Here is the pretty pink material sent to me from Canada by QuiltE transformed into two appliqué teapots. Just for the fun of it, I am not saying what this is going to be, but somebody is bound to work it out before I have finished.
To start I made a rectangle using sage green with polka dots, measuring 4 and a half inches by 13 and a half, and two pieces of cream measuring 8 inches by 13 and a half. The seams were pressed open.
Next I did the teapot appliqués using a paper stencil, following the method described in this previous post. The picture shows the pink material after being trimmed to just over half an inch of the machine stitching.
Next I turned the work over and worked from the back and did two more lines of stitching inside the first line, so there are now three lines of stitching side by side. I worked from the back because it is easier to follow the first line of stitching when you can see it against a plain colour. For me three lines of straight stitch are the equivalent of a line of zigzagging.
Then I trimmed the pink material away a fraction less than an eighth of an inch from the stitching. The raw edge will not fray enough for the appliqué to come apart from the backing, and this is not a mega posh project calling for blanket stitch. Of course, anyone with a fancy modern machine would have that raw edge covered, but I can live with it...
This was the next quilt I made for the Quilting Board doll quilt swap. I checked first whether my partner liked tea, because so many Americans just drink coffee and don't touch tea. Thank goodness she gave me the right answer, because I was dying to do a teapot.
This was the first appliqué shape I did using a paper stencil. Getting the angle of the handle and spout was tricky until I hit on the idea of drawing around the teapot.
All told, I was fairly pleased with the result. The quilting gave me grief, and I think it shows, but the less said about that the better. A doll quilt swap is all about taking part, trying things out and learning, and for your efforts your partner sends you a present in a big squashy envelope..
