Thursday 16 February 2012

Fitting Things In

Between the bowling and the visit to Pizza Express (thanks Dad!), the riding lesson from my friend and dinner there too - I have managed a little sewing. Half term sends everything off track. Just the way it is.

I have pieced my blocks for the FTLOS swap cushion. I am rather pleased with the way it looks. I actually think it looks better pieced than it did in my mind's eye when I thought up this idea.

The best bit about sewing the DPs was that when I did my bee blocks back in September I got proficient at doing DP curves using just three pins to hold the two pieces of fabric together. At the same time someone (I think it might have been Cindy) put out a call for help sewing these little buggers. Leanne, from She Can Quilt, came to the rescue with this tutorial.

I read it at the time and then moved on because my blocks were already done. This week I remembered it. And I didn't go back and watch it. I just sewed my blocks knowing that if Leanne said you could do it with no pins then it had to be so. Lord love us, she is right!

I'm not going to show you how I did it, just a couple of photos to prove I did, because Leanne does the teaching better than I could. If you have any doubts about being able to sew curves then I highly recommend you go and have a listen and read of Leanne.

Start, keeping the needle in the down position if helps.

Sew to the middle, or just past if you have HSTs involved like me.
Turn and sew the other end, meeting the stitching in the middle.
Press.
Bob's Your Uncle, easy peasy.
The blocks go together super quick when you don't have to faff about with pins. I love doing it this way. Before I knew it I had my cushion cover pieced.


And now I am auditioning perle cottons. I've had to order a couple. (Yeah, twist my rubber arm!)



Hope you are having a good half term too, or just a good normal Thursday if you are not sat listening to the howls of laughter coming from the bedroom that you cleaned for the arrival of your best friend tomorrow - and those girls of mine just better pray that they haven't trashed the place or they will see their mother do an interesting impression of a mad woman!

Susan

30 comments:

  1. Beautiful!

    Have fun with the girls.

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  2. It's wonderful!!! Have fun with your best friend, I hope the girls weren't up to no good!!

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  3. I must say, I was here first, and should be at the top of the commenter list!
    LOL

    I really love your drunkards paths. I fear that if I tried them, they would look like a drunkard had made them!
    Your partner is a lucky duck :-)
    Mine are back to school today, can't wait for the weekend this week!
    Have fun with your friend x

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  4. I love your beautiful DP solids cushion! There are so many similarities between our 2 pieces, they would look so great together! You are a lot neater at doing your curves, I just piece in a haphazard fashion and then trim the blocks to size. I will check out Leanne's tute.

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  5. Been doing the 'mad woman' all day... 3 hours till their bedtime and counting!

    The cushion top looks superb x

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  6. Your cushion is totally wonderful Susan, it reminds me of something that I can't explain, a hologram I think, amazing concept.

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  7. Pretty! I love how the HST came out! Are you planning to use lots of the perle colors or pick just 1?

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  8. purple ... And yes I'm having a lovely half term time fighting my way through the crowds of kids on my way to work. Ohh you know we kids risk having fun - and we know 'mad women' will always turn back into lovely mums. (I still relay on that knowledge on visits, bad me)

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  9. love your cushion-the colours look fantastic.
    having a very relaxing half term: needed to recharge my batteries!

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  10. Oh wowy!! that looks fab. I have never had the confidence to try drunkards path - probably because years ago I cut some fabric up for a little attempt and the cutting was so wonky I scrapped it. Thankfully I'd only cut a few and it was scrappy fabric.

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  11. No half term here but I have been with Zaki for 7 out of the last 8 weeks and he`s back at school this week!! Still getting very little done. Your cushion cover is stunning Susan. Really. When I did my DPs, I didn`t use pins...I think I can do curves now. Yippee!

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  12. The drunkard's path looks fab! I will be using that techniques if I ever sew a drunkard of my own... I just commented on the flickr pool. Here's hoping it's coming to me! Heehee.

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  13. What, just an 'impression' of a mad woman? I bet you can do better than an impression! Love, love, love your DPs !!

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  14. It looks amazing pieced!! Thanks for the link o the tute, I was trying to remember where I had seen one as I hate pinning!

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  15. GORGEOUS! It's just spectacular. That is a great tute, isn't it?

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  16. It looks fabulous, your partner is very very lucky. Love your design. Have fun with your bestow!

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  17. awesome fruity colours and the perle cotton????? yummy x

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  18. This is so cool! I can't wait to see it all quilted up!

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  19. Love your cushion.It`s fabulous!

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  20. Oh brilliant, friend arrives tomorrow, how excited must you be?! Loving the DP solids...someone is very very lucky! x

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  21. Well this Susan girl can't do anything wrong - just loving all that colour ! Didn't you say you were a bit scared of just working with solids? Or did I just dream that? Doesn't look like it - another project aced!

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  22. Ooh, well done on getting that all stitched up so quickly! Hope the girls didn't trash anything...

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  23. beautiful really impressive love your colours !!!

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  24. Wow! I love this! You poor thing having your arm twisted like that ;)

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  25. I can't stress enough how much i LOVE the center being 4 different neutrals. brilliant! you will have one happy partner.

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  26. I really love your blocks and the pillow top! And thanks for mentioning my tutorial.

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  27. Your cushion cover is looking amazing S! And I love all those colours of perle! Yum! Hope you have a lovely time with your friend. Kids have been off this week, but no time off for me (boo!). Jxo

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  28. It's wonderful!! I love those bright colours and the picture of the threads is cute too!
    I was also surprised how easy it is to sew curves without pins, LOVE it!

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  29. I wish I was your partner. This is so pretty. I can hardly wait to see the hand quilting.

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