Grandmother's Garden

Playtime

Hello again!

This last week or so I have had some fun playing with a few different things. I recently purchased a fun book by Lori Holt of Bee In My Bonnet, which I have wanted for some time, called “Farm Girl Vintage” with lots of cute country-themed pieced blocks. The book gives you two size options for every block — 6” and 12”.

As it was coming up to Halloween I decided to make the pumpkin block in the 12” size. After digging through my stash I found plenty of orange fabrics and away I went. The patterns are super simple to follow and the block was very quick to make. From go-to-whoa (including cutting) the block took me just over an hour to complete, and I’m very pleased with how it has turned out. I just love this book and now I have to decide which block to make next — maybe I will just make them all!

 

I then decided I wanted to stick with the Halloween theme. After writing the email newsletter and letting you all know about the Moda Bake Shop Free Patterns, I found one for Halloween that I thought was really fun.

It is the “Black and … Boo” table runner by Sterling LaBosky, except I have done mine as a wallhanging. Another super simple piecing project with good instructions. The most time-consuming part of the project was sorting through my stash and deciding what to use!

When preparing my half square triangles, I drew my line through the middle of the black fabric with a Roxanne’s white pencil and on the white with a Water Erasable Marker.

A little tip when sewing your triangles, sew just a smidgeon (like a hair’s width) to the right of your line. I find this makes your square more accurate when you iron the left side over to make your square.

The same goes when you are sewing your squares to the edges of your rectangle — sew a smidgeon towards the corner of the rectangle rather than the middle.

The instructions for making the letters were very simple to follow. I definitely think, I will be making more of these. A great idea for a wall hanging for a child’s room using their name.

And Ta-Da! Here it is finished.

My preference is always for bright fabrics but we have some gorgeous little packs of 2 ½ inch squares of Gratitude by Jo Morton which would work fabulously for this project.

In a change from Halloween, the last project I have been working on is a quilt using one of our Kiwiana Roll Ups. I am using a free Jelly Roll pattern we found on the internet — Google is our friend! The Kiwiana Roll-Ups have been cut with a serrated edge, which makes the strips slightly wider than 2 ½ inches. To make your strips the correct size, you will need to trim the serrated edge off each strip or make allowance for it by sewing them together with a slightly wider seam allowance than ¼ inch. I learned this the hard way! I would suggest you always measure your strips when you purchase a jelly roll, just to be on the safe side.

The blocks for this quilt are quick and easy to make up. There is a fiddly bit cutting the corners for each block but if you press your block in half well and accurately mark with a pencil where to cut, it is fairly straight forward. I used my trusty Roxanne’s white pencil again — it was quite visible on all the colours.

When sewing the black corners on to your blocks, make sure you leave a ¼ inch ‘tail’ hanging over the edge so that when you iron it over to make it square, it ‘fits’.

 

I haven’t finished this quilt top yet, but it is coming along nicely. I will show you a photo of it finished next time.

I hope this has given you some inspiration for new projects to sew. Hazel & Gayle have brought lots of new patterns back from Quilt Market, so no doubt I will have some fantastic new projects to show you next time.

Happy sewing,

Kim

Lucy Boston's Patchwork of the Crosses

Hello again!

First of all, as promised, here’s a picture of my Snow Globe Village quilt top for you — isn’t it cute! This is going to be offered as a Block of the Month project in our November newsletter and will  start early next year.

 

This week’s blog is about my version of Lucy Boston’s Patchwork of the Crosses. I do enjoy English Paper Piecing (EPP) and we have had lots of customers come into the shop looking for fabrics for their different blocks, so I thought I would give it a go but in “my colours”, as I like brights. 

 

I have done a variety of EPP shapes for a quilt I made last year. This one has a slightly different block layout with squares in the corners.

 

 

After some deliberation over fabrics, here are the ones I chose. I tried to pick the main fabric with a variety of pattern in it so that I could get different looks for each block.

 

The Acrylic template for the 1-inch Honeycomb is a great tool to “audition” your fabric and makes life very easy when you are cutting out your pieces.

 

I found that my Rotating Mat was fabulous for cutting out, along with a Mini Rotary Cutter rather than the standard size, as they are such small pieces.

 

Personally, I am a big fan of basting with a Glue Pen (e.g. Sewline) rather than stitch basting my EPP pieces. You just need a thin strip of glue on the edge of your template piece, then fold over the 1/4 inch seam allowance and press with your finger.

 

I like to use a pin to help pull the seam allowance over. Glue and press one edge at a time, and always go around each template the same way. I always go anti-clockwise but I don’t think it really matters.

 

Once you have all your pieces prepared, then you can start hand sewing them together. I love the Aurifil thread for my hand sewing as it doesn’t twist and knot but a standard cotton thread with a little Thread Heaven on it is still pretty good. I also like to use a fairly small needle. 

With my thread knotted, and the two pieces right sides together, I bring my needle up under the top edge in the very corner, then I take a stitch through both pieces and back through the loop of the thread to make another little stay knot. You only need to stitch through the very edge of both pieces — lots of little stitches close together. Make sure you don’t catch the paper template otherwise it will be really hard to pull out when you are finished.

At the end of the row, I make another little stay knot. Then either fold your piece to go around the next side or back stitch a few stitches and then cut your thread.

 

 

I sew two pairs together for the middle, sew those together, then add the next four in the middle of the pairs, then the next round of colour in pairs, and finally the last colour in pairs. Of course — not all blocks are going to be in pairs of colours as there is a myriad of variations to be made, but that is how mine have ended up.

 

These are pretty quick to come together — the longest time is deciding how to cut your fabric!!! I made two different blocks with the yellow bird fabric and two different blocks with the iris fabric.

 

 

Here are some of the blocks Gayle has made up. You’ll find them displayed in the shop advertising our Patchwork of the Crosses classes with Ngaire Brooks next year.

If you are interested, please do contact us and enquire. As you can see, this gorgeous block can be made up in any colours and in any combination you like!

I hope you have enjoyed this little foray into English Paper Piecing (EPP). I would love some feedback from you on what other things you would like to read about.

I am looking into a block of reverse appliqué, sewing bindings, etc but am very open to suggestions! We are only an email or phone call away.

 

Until next time,

Kim

Kaleidoscope Blocks

Hello again!

This week I have had fun with a new project I haven’t tried before — making a Kaleidoscope block. Surfing the internet, there are a multitude of different things that can be made with this block. I have decided to make a table topper but with an extra border, it could make a cute cot quilt or small throw.

I used the Kaleidoscope templates we have in the shop from Fast Patch which contains two templates — one triangle for the main block and a smaller one for the corners.

I also played around with Marti Michell’s Magic Mirrors. These Mirrors are easy and fun to use to preview different looks for your blocks before cutting and sewing them. The only drawback is that your blocks won't be mirror image as you can only cut one way. I certainly wasted a bit of time playing!

Initially, I cut off one metre of a beautiful paisley & floral border print fabric with a gold overlay that I had been eyeing up since it came into the shop — it’s so yummy and it’s purple!

From that metre, I cut enough triangles for three full blocks and an extra block that was a bit smaller (by about 1/2 inch all round). The smaller triangles were shorter because of the other cuts. There was still most of two border strips left so I decided to cut another half metre and managed to get another three full blocks plus seven triangles for an extra block. I think if the initial fabric had been cut at 1 ½ metres I would have been able to cut the extra triangle. I will probably try joining some of the bits I have left for the extra triangle to make another block for a pillow perhaps. You do end up with very holey fabric at the end!!

When sewing your triangles together, make sure you match any stripes and pin well without stretching the fabric too much.

The triangles are almost bias cut so are very stretchy. I sewed four pairs of triangles together, pressed the seams to one side, then sewed two lots of pairs together, again pressing the seam to one side to make a half block.

Once the two half blocks were sewn together, I pressed that seam open to stop the bulk in the middle of the block. Each block measures 12 ½ inches.

Once all six of my blocks were made I chose a lovely denim blue fabric for the corner triangles and sashing. I cut off 60cm which was just enough. To make life easy, I measured the width of the smaller template and cut strips of that size across the width of my fabric. I then cut the corner triangles from the strips (thanks Marti for that tip!).  I pinned and sewed the corners to each block then joined the blocks with 2-inch sashing strips.

 

I am really happy with how this has turned out. It is certainly very easy to make — even a confident beginner could attempt this quite happily. The Fast Patch Kaleidoscope template set includes a neat pattern that you can follow.

You wouldn’t have to use a border print fabric either — the picture on the front uses a variety of different colours for a completely different look.

Thanks for joining in on my fun — I hope you enjoyed it!

Until next time,

Kim

Kim's New Block of the Month

I’m rather fond of appliqué, so when I spotted this Christmas pattern in the selection of projects to be trialled, I jumped at the chance to make it up. It is a very easy pattern to follow, with good instructions — great for a beginner, or a simple project for a more experienced crafter. Each block is on a separate sheet so you can work on it block by block without getting yourself confused.

I have chosen bright Christmassy (is that even a word??) colours for this one because I particularly like bright colours and Christmas is always fun.

I used Lite Steam-A-Seam to do the appliqué. I like it better than Vliesofix as the glue is a bit stickier, so when you are positioning your pieces before ironing, they hold together better and don’t accidentally move around like with Vliesofix. It has the backing paper on it too, so you’re less likely to loose the glue bit off the back!

I trace my shapes out with a pencil so that you can rub it out if you make a wee mistake. Don’t forget to label each piece! I try and group the shapes together that are going to be ironed onto the same fabric to make it simpler for cutting out. Here you can see I have cut out my shapes leaving about a ¼ inch margin around them and they are ready to iron onto the back of my selected fabrics.

Once the shapes are ironed on, I cut them out — just on or outside the drawn line. When all the shapes are cut out, you are ready to put the picture together on your pieced background. The piecing for these blocks is very straightforward — more simple instructions and not a lot of sewing. In the picture below is my pieced block with the snow globe added — which is an appliqué piece.

When I’m putting my picture together, life is made so much easier when I use the Appliqué Pressing Sheet. The drawn picture is clear to see underneath the sheet, and it helps get the pieces into the right position. Peel off the backing paper and the Steam-A-Seam sticks nicely to the plastic so when you gently iron it once you’re happy with the positioning, the whole piece comes off together — yippee!!

Position the finished appliqué onto the background, iron it down with a hot steamy iron and you are done!

This pattern is super cute with five different snow globe blocks and includes both a pieced and a simple appliqué border. There is also a sweet accessory pack you can get for the quilt which I am yet to see — it’s coming in the next shipment from America.

I think the appliqué could be done either by hand or machine quite easily. I’m going to do mine on the machine, but there is a little bit of embroidery to do on faces and things, which I will do by hand.

More photos when it's finished, I promise!

Kim

Meet the Team!

Welcome to the Grandmother’s Garden Blog. We will be sharing with you a few of the projects we are working on, what’s happening in the shop, and some of our Out’n’About visits, along with some tips and tricks and how-to’s.

Firstly, though, I would like to introduce you to the fabulous team here — it’s always nice to put a face to the name!

Lynda is our invoicing, packaging and debtors whizz. She scans the fabrics onto the website and keeps Jerry the cat company in the office, as well as working in the shop on occasion.

Embroidery is one of her passions and she is enjoying improving her quilting skills. The clubs Lynda looks after are the various Thread Clubs, the Fairy Club, and Hazel’s Stitcheries. 

Colleen has been quilting for 30 odd years and is our free-motion arty quilt & wallhanging specialist. She makes up the kits and Block of the Month projects for McKenna Ryan, Toni Whitney, etc.

Colleen also looks after the Floral Club. She works in the shop Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and does most of her sewing at home.

Annett oversees the running of the shop and the team here. She looks after the website maintenance and puts the newsletter together with John.

Annett goes on the occasional Out’n’About with Gayle and also organises the wonderful retreats we have each year. Annett looks after the Marti Club, the Bag Ladies Club, and the very new Mini Vintage Trucks.

Elvene dabbles in a bit of everything — piecing, appliqué, kids quilts, Marti quilts, etc. She provides the Long Arm Quilting machine service for the shop, so if you need something quilted — Elvene is your go to! She also looks after the new Grunge Club and maintains Hazel’s projects, like the table runner kitsets that are so popular.

Gayle has worked at Grandmother’s Garden for 17 years. She loves playing with wool and enjoys handwork. She assists in organising the workshops and retreats and does the shop Out’n’Abouts around the country. Gayle works closely together with one of our popular tutors, Ngaire Brooks who teaches here one weekend a month.

Gayle also looks after the Pack of the Month club. She has a wealth of quilting knowledge that we all tap into from time to time!

Hazel does our fabric purchasing — what a dream job choosing the new fabrics! She is also a wonderful cook and excellent baker, so the fabulous complimentary scones provided for all your bus tours are courtesy of her light hand.

The gorgeous cushions in the shop are made by Hazel, and table runners are her new passion! The boxer dogs, Mac & Angus follow her everywhere and are generally in the shop to greet you when you come to visit us.

John is our IT guy. He looks after the database and our in-house computer programme and supervises the bookkeeping.

John also does all our photography and assists in the production of the newsletter.

Hazel & John are the directors of the company, which has been here since 1983.

Lastly, there is me, Kim. I am the newbie and work in the shop two days a week. Quilting has been my hobby for the past 16 years so it is super exciting to now be on the other side of the counter! My passion is appliqué and I love brights. I will be travelling with Gayle on some of the Out'n'Abouts.

I hope you have enjoyed meeting everyone. Next time you give us a call or pop into the shop, you will have more of an idea of who you’re talking to.

Next week, I will share with you a little Christmas project I have been working on.

Until then,

Kim