# 57
Blue Crab Quilting who said I'd love to make some new Christmas stockings from the red and green colorway....
# 95
Jessica of Quilty Habit who said I would love to make a nice big quilt for the family couch, to put out for the winter - and some stockings, too! :) Thanks for the chance - I love this line!
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I was able to spend a bit of time today sewing, which was really wonderful. I'm working on a little girl's dress for a friend of mine from my new Olive the Ostrich line. The ruffles for the dress are giving me fits though so I've ordered a gathering foot for my machine. Can't wait for it to come this week so I can finish off the dress and the little bloomers. Every time I pulled the bottom threads to gather the stitches for the ruffle, the thread kept breaking. Any advice? The piece of fabric is 42" long so by the time I got the gather started, it would just break waaaay before I made it through the length of fabric. Any advice? Other than my current plan which was to abandon ship and wait for my gathering foot which is probably the least frustrating path. :)
So, since I had cleared some time for sewing today and had to step away from my original project, I started on a new quilt that I've been itching to try. Its the modern crosses pattern and I'm having such fun working through my stash.
I know the quilt will probably take me forever to make since I don't get to sew very frequently these days, but it's a super fun block and really easy to put together. I've been eyeing the quilt since I got a copy of the Modern Log Cabin Quilts book by Susan Beal so I was tickled to get started.
This little stack of lovelies has been in process for a while and I was able to get 6 blocks done today. Loads more to make!
And Fiona was a big help during today's sewing session of course. How funny to catch a shot of her mid-lick!! :)
13 comments:
Zigzag over a piece of string. When you pull the string, you'll get perfect ruffles and no broken thread!
Yay thank you! I emailed you back :) the quilt will look great and so will the dress - I have similar problems with ruffles and don't have any good advice to give, unfortunately!
For the long ruffle: divide the length into sections (like 10-12") and leave long tails at the end of each section. Do 2 rows of basting too. But I like Nouveau Stitch's idea too.
Beautiful blocks, by the way ;)
Well done winners, and loving the look of your quilt already x
I've been on vacation so I missed this, but congrats on this amazing line. I am still so grateful for the fabric you sent me and finished a teddy bear carrier in one of the polar bear prints just recently. I need to buy a polar bear teddy before I photograph and post it. It is adorable. xoxo molly
My Grandma taught me this trick: instead of sewing just one line of thread when you gather, sew at least two lines parallel to each other (maybe even three if it's an extra long length that you need to gather). It distributes the stress onto all the threads and they don't ever break when you pull them!
I do a lot of little girl dressses with ruffles and I have tried a couple of methods. The one that works best for me is to mark the fabric in fourths and then sew to the first mark, stop clip my threads and start again and do that all the way to the end. Then I gather each section separately. I only sew one line of stitches at my longest stitch length. I have never had a thread break yet. I also have tried using the plastic elastic that is like 1/4 inch wide and using a small zigzag stitch that works for small pieces but not for long ones.
The book looks lovely, and Flea Market Fancy is just gorgeous! Can't wait to see the finished quilt!
Like several others: was taught (48yrs ago) divide into 4 sections, then sew 2 rows of basting approx. 1/4 inch apart. Works everytime and you get the gathers distributed evenly. If using ZigZag stitch...dental floss works great also.
This will be a great quilt!
Yea!!! I've made my ruffles. Thanks for all the advice. I used the 'measure in 4 sections' and 'zig zag over a ribbon' (I used some of the striped baker's twine) method. Worked like a charm! I'll do a post with pictures of the dress when it's done. Thank you everyone for all the great tips!
The projects look great!
Is the Brr! line going to come out in flannel?
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