.: Farmer's Wife tutorial of sorts - block 87 Prudence :.

'Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play?' - so sang the Beatles.  Well, that's all very nice for the Beatles' Prudence.  Farmer's Wife Prudence, on the other hand, was not playing, smiling or looking beautiful when I sewed her up.  Prudence and I are not now, nor ever will be, friends. In the spirit of keeping things real, I am sharing my sewing struggles with you today, in the hope that you will have a much smoother piecing experience, and that Prudence does indeed come out to play, smile and look beautiful for you.

I foundation paper-pieced Prudence.  If you would like a FPP-tutorial, starting right at the beginning with printing out the paper templates, please take a look back at my tutorial for block 1, Addie (I was friends with Addie.  She was nice). I won't give particular FPP-how-to's here - but rather a 'things to watch out for with Prudence' guide - consequently, I'd suggest reading through all my post before you start, so you know what to watch out for, and where I digressed from the block's piecing order.

OK, let's get to it, Prudence.

1. First up is to choose your fabrics and colour in your block diagram.  So far, so easy.



2.  If you are so inclined, use the FPP templates to make plastic templates - they make fussy-cutting and directional-cutting much easier.




3. Work through all your template pieces and glue down the first fabric piece on each template, and then pin the second piece.  Digression from the template-order alert - if you are foundation paper-piecing, for E1/E2 and G1/G2, glue your outer-cross (blue) piece down as the first piece, then add the inner-cross (orange) piece.  Take care with seam-trimming - with FPP, you always fold the bigger number down onto the smaller number to trim your seams - but, if you follow my suggestion for this step, please be sure to fold the smaller number down onto the bigger number to trim your seam. In the pic below, you would fold G1 down onto G2 to trim, because you went backwards and started with G2 and then added G1.



4. Be aware that trimming the outer seams for some sections is a little annoying - you may need to use scissors to snip into the corners, if you don't trust your rotary-cutting accuracy/ability to stop in time.  See what I mean?



5. Digression from the template-order alert - if you are fussy-cutting the centre square A2, glue your A2 piece first (in the pic below, see how I've so-helpfully written '1' in pencil?), then sew A1 and then A3.  Be sure to trim your seams, folding A1 down onto A2 and then A3 down onto A2 - again, this is different from the usual seam-trimming process for FPP, where the bigger number is always folded down onto the smaller number.  Go carefully, as you don't want to trim off the fabric you just sewed on - that would be upsetting.



6. Y-seams.  There are several.  Just take a look at the pic below, for starters - what even is that!?  I am not skilled at sewing y-seams, so would like to draw your attention at this point to two very excellent Farmer's Wife y-seams tutorials. Melissa from Ms Midge did a great y-seam tutorial for block 13 Belle - please take a read - and Angie from GnomeAngel did an excellent y-seam tutorial - including a video! - for block 61 May.  It's definitely worth clicking through, as Melissa + Angie's tips are way better and ultimately more y-seam successful than mine.



As for my own y-seam thoughts - always sew the long seam first, from the outer edge to the inside.  When you get to your y-junction, put your needle down, pivot your block and keep going, slowly and as best you can.   I tend to only sew a few stitches, then remove the block from under the needle, and come in again towards the y-junction from the other outer edge. It's fiddly and slow, and your fingers can feel like huge cucumbers when you are manipulating such little pieces.



To be completely honest, I had a true shocker joining section I to section E - it's a very gradual y-seam.  It was at this point in the Prudence-piecing-process that I realised she has not been designed as a true FPP block.  There is no extra instruction given in the book, about the trickiness of joining these sections, other than "join I to E".  When pinning your sections together, be aware that the tip of the A4 triangle meets the very slight bend in F1 (see pics below).







When it comes to joining ABEFHI to ACDGJK, take your time.  Make a cup of tea. Read Melissa's + Angie's y-seams posts again. Start at the outer edges and sew towards the y-junctions.   Pivot.  Take your block out from under the needle and sew in again from the other outer edge. By the time you are done, you will have earned a Y-Seam Medal.

And that's Prudence.

I try to be positive and helpful in this space, but I also have to be honest.  Prudence was a really unenjoyable block to piece.  I have a lot of FPP experience, but I do tend to avoid y-seams when I can.  I had to unpick every section-joining seam at least once with Prudence, and still ended up with more wonk than I am happy with.  The bottom right square below the centre-rabbit isn't square, there's plenty of triangle-rippliness going on, and there are puckers-aplenty - but after two unpicks and re-sews of most section-joins, I was done.  Prudence is looking as good as she's going to - and I AM very happy with my fabric choices for her (I'm taking that as a win).

Another upside - who could even have guessed what a perfect choice that little centre rabbit was when I started - the expression on her face is perfect - she's totally saying "WHAT are you doing, I'm utterly dismayed by your inadequate Prudence-piecing, but I must endure in dignified silence. I will not smile or play".

Please, please do not be deterred by my experience - I shared my thoughts to try and help point out the tricky bits, rather than scare you off.  Take Prudence slowly, step by step, and you will end up with a very sweet block indeed and a Y-Seams Medal.  She will be worth it.

We have now finished the September Farmer's Wife blocks - there is just Kitty @ Night Quilter to go, on Thursday.  And Marti Michell will definitely have lots of tips for a happier Prudence-experience, using her wonderful templates as much as is possible. Be sure to check in again with Angie next Tuesday for the October Farmer's Wife block + blogger line-up.  

And last but not least, the book details - The Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt: Inspiring Letters from Farm Women of the Great Depression and the 99 Quilt Blocks that Honour Them by Laurie Aaron Hird for Fons & Porter/F+W.

Happy sewing to you, whatever you are making today.  xoxo cat

.: giraffe + cat + orange cushion :.

One giraffe + cat + orange cushion finished and ready to be gifted!  I really hope it will bring a little orange-y sunshine to my friend's daughter - click here for more about that. 

The giraffe is a paper-piecing pattern by Kristy from Quiet Play, and the cat is by Elizabeth Hartman. I really love it, but wish I had a one-size bigger cushion insert, so it would plump out just a little more.  The cushion front was 20 inches unfinished, and I used a size 20 insert - I'm thinking I need to pop out and get a size 22 if I can swing it in time. 

I'm really happy with the mix of oranges and blues.  I think if the giraffe was for me to keep, I'd have gone all-scrappy, including her face.  Or maybe that would be a little too scrappy, even for me!

For the back, I used big Spotlight spots, to keep with the orange colour-theme, sliced through with a navy zipper.

Hope you have all had a happy weekend.  Here's to a good week.  xoxo cat

.: My QuiltCon finish! - the Love Machine Sewing Organiser :.

So I went to QuiltCon last month - there are five posts in our March archives if you'd like to go take a look.  :-) There's one last post I've still to write - about all the people I met - I have high hopes for that to happen during the school hols.

But for today! - today, with much excitement, I'm sharing the Sewing Machine Organiser I started during Penny Layman's wonderful workshop - the only workshop I took while in Austin.

How fun is it!?  I had such trouble choosing fabrics for it - since I had to choose them and actually commit to them, then pack them in my suitcase and stay committed to them!  Usually when I'm sewing, I'm constantly back and forth to my fabric cupboard, swapping and changing as I keep thinking of 'just the right fabric'.  But - I wouldn't have changed a single fabric for my organiser, I can't tell you how much I love love love it!

I'm calling it the 'Love Machine' - since I've used Amy's 'Letters of L-O-V-E' fabric for the machine itself.  The pink is a Timeless Treasures sketch, and the grey is from Emma Jean Jansen's 'Terra Australis'.  The orange and white control panels are from Carolyn Friedlander's 'Botanics'.  The background is Pam Kitty Morning's white on white 'Picnic'. And the spool?

The spool would be a fussy-cut from Monica Solorio-Snow's 'Sew Yummy' - I took a big piece with me, so I could fussy-cut just the right spool.  I met fabulous Monica in the lift at our hotel in Austin, and saw her a few times at QuiltCon - and so wish I had more time to talk with her and take a pic too, but it didn't happen!

The pockets are Aunty Cookie - I am going to be so very sad when my stash of Aunty Cookie finally runs out!  Penny's pattern calls for a 'scissor plaque', where I've instead made a little pocket for teeny things (with the Clover clip up there) - and I also didn't do the sweet sashiko-stitching to label all the little pockets - but I figured the busyness of the Cookies meant I didn't need to do any extra stitching.  The little scissor-strip is Prints Charming - a print I picked up from Danielle in a destash.   The binding is also Prints Charming - lime starburst - and the blue/white background is a Lu Summers cross-hatch from her 'Summersville' line with Moda.

For the back I used a selvedge print from Spotlight.

Here is Penny's organiser from her book - she had it hanging in the class, and it was awesome to see it in person.

And here is Penny's book - it's truly wonderful- there are so many cute and fun projects in it.

And oh! - here are me and Penny!  I can't tell you what a treat it was to meet Penny. I've long admired her paper-piecing patterns and blog, and through our little chats on instagram and email, thought she seemed like a really lovely person.  Well, let me tell you, she's absolutely gorgeous in person - it was such a huge treat to met her and get to chat with her a bit.  Her husband Lenny was at QuiltCon too, so it was lovely to meet him too.

Looking at that photo makes me a little teary, as it reminds me of just how amazing QuiltCon was.  It also reminds me that I was sewing that sewing-machine block right up til the very last second of the workshop - I was so determined to get it finished!  Penny's class was really awesome - she is a fantastic teacher and made sure each person knew what they were doing and stayed on track - there were a few ladies who had never paper-pieced before, and I think each of them finished their sewing-machine block during the class - amazing!  Here's a pic of our class (that I took from Penny's blog post).

It was so fun.  Hope you all have a great weekend.  xoxo cat

.: Teeny Weeny Swap :.

A few of the Brisbane MQG girls were lucky enough to score a spot in the Teeny Weeny Swap, which was originally just between Vancouver MQG and Greater Western Sydney MQG.

The main requirement for the swap was teeny weeny piecing - we could make tiny mini's, a spectacle case, needle book, or a collapsible thread-catcher.  My partner was Samantha and I was really happy  to sew with her preferences for a mini with plums, greens, teals, text prints, Amy Butler and AMH.  From memory (as this was before Christmas!) - Samantha also specifically mentioned that she liked Sew-Ichigo's strawberry - so my decision was very easy, as I love the strawberry too! 

The mini measures about 8 1/2 inches square, and is bound in an AMH print, with an Amy Butler butterfly on the back. 

I even made a little label, out of Terra Australis prints.

And this piece of gorgeous is what Samantha made for me!  Isn't it fabulous?!

I just LOVE it and couldn't believe it was mine, when the Teeny Weeny goodie box was opened up at our MQG end-of-year lunch in December.  It truly is a gorgeous mini, in my favourite colours + text prints, and is something I would have chosen to make for myself.  Just perfect.  Do you spy the teeny heart in the centre?  Thank you Samantha! 

And I thought I would share how I made the strawberry panel - since I never ever actually remember to take process-pics, but for some reason managed to take them this time.  The strawberry-body had to be made from teeny weeny pieces, and so I followed the Stamp Collection block tutorial on Elizabeth Hartman's Oh Fransson blog.

I made a templastic template for the 'body' of the strawberry - and you can see I've marked on the template, where the 'complete' squares would be, so I could double-check I wasn't cutting any particular fussy-cuts in half - because half-bodies and half-heads just drive me crazy!  Each square was cut *I think* 1 1/2 inches - maybe only 1 inch.  I laid them onto a piece of interfacing in a 6 x 5 grid, and slowly ironed them on. 

Once the interfacing was ironed on, I sewed each row together, and snipped the seams open (remembering this is all according to Elizabeth's tutorial - click on the link above).

And then the rows are sewed together running the other way, and seams snipped open.  Here's the completed panel from the back, with all seams snipped and ironed open. 

Here's the completed panel - I then laid the plastic template on top and carefully cut around it to create the strawberry-body, and carried on with the piecing. 

I made the leaves and stalk out of low volume fabrics, so the leaves could say "teeny strawberry", but then forgot to sew the background in greens + teals and just carried on with the low volume ... so the leaves don't pop out as much as I'd hoped.  The "teeny" comes from HappySewLucky Berene's "Improv Adjectives" Spoonflower prints - I was very happy to find "teeny" in this awesome fabric, as Berene (who was then in Vancouver MQG but is now in Toronto) was the original co-ordinator of the swap (along with Lorena from GWSMQG). 

I added in a little HST border to bring in the greens + teals that I had forgotten in the background. 

This was a really fun swap to be a part of, and some wonderful things were made.  We hadn't all realised that it was a direct swap - until we all opened up our little packages at our Christmas lunch - and that was such a happy discovery for everyone.  Thanks to Lorena and Berene for coordinating it, as well as Kelly from Brisbane MQG, and of course to Samantha for the gorgeous mini! 

xoxo cat

.: teeny tiny Ohio Stars times two :.

Happy end-of-weekend to everyone.  I'm just popping in to share the second tiny Ohio Star for Elizabeth, for her month/s in The Wee Bee.  The first star is here. 

The stars measure around 4 1/2" square - here's a handy ruler for scale.  Gee I wish I could remember where I got the ruler ;-)

The teeny tiny stars are now packaged up with a few little goodies, ready to pop in the post - all the way to Florida! - tomorrow.

And in other weekend-news, Ted had a haircut and came away - as always - with a sequinned bow in his pom-pom hair.  Purple.  Not even a boy-colour.  Though as my husband did say - sequins tend to turn all the colours into girl-colours.  There's a thought to ponder.

Hope your weekend was a good one, whether it involved sewing, sequins or neither.  xoxo cat

.: the Wee Bee - house block for Elnora :.

The Wee Bee is rolling along - I'm super late with Elnora's block - and good grief, I am not a fan of being late for anything!  Lovely Elnora has been very patient and not hurrying-us-along at all.

Elnora asked for a house block - around 8 inches, I think - with bright colours and a low volume background.  I chose Kristy's Quilters' Cottage and reduced the size a little so it finished at around about the 8 1/2" mark.

I went for a whole lot of fussy cuts, and a mix of low volumes for the background.  And I couldn't resist the Terra Australis kangaroos for the grass.  It's a pretty busy-looking quilters' cottage - there's even a hexagon-quilt hanging on the line outside, though it's kind of hard to make it out amidst all the low-volume crazy!

Even though I was running very late, I really wanted to make Elnora a little house-pouch to send with her house-block.  So I grabbed the Cotton+Steel and Liberty sitting on my cutting table (thank you Pink Castle, TQES and PolkaDotTeaFabrics), and added in a little Terra Australis for the chimney, and some hoarded blue Kei Kerchief girls.  

For the back, I started with the gorgeous 'get a dog' from CeriGwen's awesome 'Good Intentions' design, then an American Jane 'E', and then a little more Liberty, Cotton+Steel, Amy's Risky Business glasses, some Yuwa, and Prints Charming paisley and rainbows from TQES that I pounced on very quickly when I was there earlier this week. 

Inside the pouch are Terra Australis kangaroos and spinning sticks in 'ocean'.

The house-a-thon goodies are now on their way to Elnora at last!

Have a lovely weekend everyone.  Vee and I are off to an indigo dye workshop tomorrow with Cath from Prints Charming! - we are so excited and will try and take a few pics.   xoxo cat