Sewing a Motorhome Awning on a Singer 201K

Hello

Mavis the Singer 201K had an outing as she is the machine housed in a nifty sewing table.  She had a challenge to do.

Please note this is not where I normally sew, we had put her in the garage so we had plenty of room.

She was sewing a Motohome Awning which was big and cumbersome.  The fabric (if you could call it fabric) is rubberised/vinyl stuff.  As the surface was on the slippy side, used a handy roller foot.  The only other time I have used this foot is when I made a cover for a wool carding machine with Oilcloth.

We were adding a beaded edge to the awning panels and making some alterations by adding fabric panels.  Used a size 16 needle and extra strong thread.

The machine coped with the tough fabric really well, not sure that I was so laid back.  The size of the panels caused problems, his nibs (aka Glock) had to lift the them and help guide them through the machine while I concentrated on keeping the seams straight.

I haven't used this machine for about year, she lives in the Summerhouse, when I first got her I put her in the conservatory where I sew but the heat of the summer sun melted the glue that holds the  oak veneer surface on the table and it lifted up so I had to move her.

I had forgotten how well she sewed, really good stitches.  Might have to rethink where I keep her so that I can use her more.  I am really lucky to have these wonderful vintage machines (Mavis was found on Freecyle)

My quilts will seem so easy after sewing this beast.

Cheers
Sharon

Laura Ashley/Liberty Print Quilt

Hello

Quite a while ago I bought 2 packs of Laura Ashley fat quarters in one of their sales.  As usual it hung around my fabric cupboard until I decided what to do with it.

Unfortunately, it wasn't quilting weight fabric, more like curtain fabric but I was determined to make a pretty quilt out of it.  Seeing that I  have not made many quilts with half square triangles, made a load up and had a play laying them out into patterns.  I eventually came up with this design.  Planning ahead is not my forte!

The heavier fabric was a bit of a pain, all the seams were pressed open to cut down on the bulk.

I used some Liberty Lawn fabric for the back which is the complete opposite to the heavy weight L Ashley fabric, its really fine.  This is the second quilt that I have backed with the Liberty, it feels so soft and silky so makes the quilt feel really cozy.  It's a bit tricky to get smooth when making up the quilt but using a good quality cotton wadding makes the Lawn sort of cling to it.  After laying the wadding on the fabric I flipped the layers over and smoothed out the Lawn then carefully turned it over, added the pieced top out, carefully smoothing it out, then tacked all the layers together.

I did quilt it on the Singer 222K, this was the tricky part not because the machine wasn't powerful enough to get through the layers, I was using the walking foot which sometimes got grounded where the thick seams joined together pushing the foot slightly off the straight line. It was finished with a narrow binding which picked out the green colour from the print fabric.

This quilt will not win any prices for accurate top quilting but its pretty.

Another unfinished project completed, that's nearly all of them.  Well perhaps, I might have a couple of more halfway done and what seems like a zillion planned in my head!

Cheers
Sharon

Baby Quilt and a New Label Design

Hello

I think that this is my 10th baby quilt but starting to loose count.

The fabric is from Makower which I bought from Leven Crafts in Guisborough.  I had an appointment at the Guisborough Hospital and at first, I was peeved to have to travel 3 times further than my normal appointment at Northallerton.  Until my sister pointed out that there was a fabric shop we could visit.  So we made an outing of it, browsing the lovely fabric, then in the bistro opposite for morning  coffee with teacakes.  The extra bonus was there was no waiting time at the hospital I was seen as soon as we set foot through the door, yeah.

I didn't want to cut the farm animal fabric up too much so not to chop the animals in half used 6.5 inch squares, any smaller would have meant no whole piggies.

Dani's baby is due in March, she lives on a farm, the fabric design seemed to fit.

Instead of my normal heart shaped quilt label

I went off piste, using a Xmas tree ginger bread decoration as inspiration.

I just loved the shape of this little birdie, at Xmas I made a hanging for my front door but that got packed away with the decorations, I missed it so made another door hanging.  Unfortunately, my cottage interior is a little dark today so couldn't get usable photo of it hanging on the door.

As its snowing and being horrid today, I am catching up on my unfinished projects.  The quilt below breaks all my records.  It was hand pieced in the early 80's for my first house, it was a kit for a floor cushion which never actually became a cushion.  I used to use it as a table cloth for a little while, then it got put away in a cupboard when I moved into this house, and there it stayed until late last year.  I couldn't bring myself to chuck it out so made it up into a quilt for the sofa adding a border to front and back to make it a larger.  Luckily, I had some vintage unused quilting fabric from the 80s that Anita gave me which contrasts nicely.  The prints of the 80s and 90s were so ditsy, I still prefer them to today's fabrics.  Today's job was to sew the label on, its about 33/34 years start to finish!  Oh dear, better late than never

Sharon x