Tag Archives: quilt

Mum’s First Quilt

Posted on by

So this quilt-along will be a little different to your usual type of quilting instructions. Mainly because I’m letting Mum take the lead on this one. It’s her quilt and her learning pace, so there’s no rushing and no set timeframe.

Mum works from home for the most part of the week, working in our shared space, the craft room/office. As it’s on the top floor of the house it does get a bit warm but when the sun is around the back of the house first thing in the morning it is quite chilly. Mum decided she wanted to try and make a quilt for herself. Something small enough that she can give it a go without being too overwhelmed with its size, but big enough to drape over her legs while she works on the computer.

So the other night while we watched CSI (Saturday Crime Night) we pulled out every piece of fabric that Mum owns. Which was not a lot as she’s not really a sewer  to the extent I am (read craft hoarder), she used to dabble when my sister and I were little but she mainly painted ceramics and now does cake decorating and some knitting.

Having helped quilters choose fabrics for almost a decade I have created my own process when working with customers who struggle with fabric choice – getting them to tell me little things about the fabrics they’ve chosen so I can work my way through their selections and help nudge them in the right direction – whether that direction be a complete selection or a partial one with more things to find later – and then get the fabrics to speak its design to us.

So Mum’s fabrics were a bit random to say the least. She had a few themes which she’s picked up on but generally it wasn’t a cohesive group of fabrics. We started by dividing them into what groups we could see – blenders, black and whites, brights, small prints (mainly tone-on-tones) and miscellaneous. We also matched up fabrics that worked together, hoping that as we worked through the pile we would find something or enough little somethings that would spark an idea.

Once everything was sorted we stepped back and looked at what we’d done. Mum couldn’t quite see where I was going, she wasn’t really even clear with herself about what she wanted and was concerned that her random fabric purchases and mini raids on my stash had left her with a pile that couldn’t be used.

rsz_20140516_092938

Which is never the case. Because stash diving gives you the opportunity to see what you have (and how much of it), which means you can then either use what you have buying only a few bits to add in or you can see you have nothing that works and buy from scratch. Both are equally good but it all boils down to the timing, the project and your budget.

So I made her pick up the two fabrics that spoke to her the most and explain why they spoke to her.

20140516_025124 20140516_025246

The first one she finds calming, the softer colour palette is peaceful and contains her favourite colours. It’s not too bold but it’s still an interesting print.

The second one reminds her of a storm – the turbulent nature of it, the depth of colours in it and the movement in the print. She loves the strength in the colours but was concerned about matching them.

So we went through the shop’s stock, our local Spotlight and my stash. After trying to match the storm print and coming up with very little that Mum felt matched the vibrancy of the fabric, we ended up with the batik fat quarter and a handful of soft homespuns in matching tones.

Storm FQ and stash matching fabrics Floral FQ and matching homespuns

The design of the quilt also went through several permutations. Starting with the fact that Mum didn’t want to chop up the fat quarter too much and lose the impact of it. We sketched a few ideas, thinking that we were using the storm print. Mum thought about creating a window effect so that we’d be looking out the window at the storm – cutting it up into four squares to make the window panes – but then we were a tad trapped with that design, not having fabric to see how we could expand on the quilt into the border made it difficult. We thought about doing a colour wash – pulling the four main colours from the storm FQ and working with colour gradation, piecing blocks to surround the FQ, possibly edging it with a narrow border of black to frame it and contrast with it, but it all felt a little off so we changed plans. Again.

Because homespuns are a flat, solid colour you don’t want to use them as a large expanse (unless you plan on machine quilting it with detail, like many Modern quilters do), so for Mum’s quilt we decided on strip piecing blocks and as yet we have yet to decide on the width of the strips and in what direction they will go for each block.

Mum’s quilt is a simple layout. The FQ in the centre, trimmed to a square, with a narrow sashing, the 12 pieced blocks surrounding it, a second sashing and then a border.

Materials list for those who’d like to quilt along:

One feature fat quarter – a print that you can pull the other fabrics from

50cm each of 5 co-ordinating fabrics

2.5m of your border fabric (50cm of this will potentially go with the other five 50cm pieces)

60cm of your binding fabric (we have 4 FQs of this colour for Mum’s quilt)

Backing: will be pieced from remaining fabrics with anything extra needed purchased when we get to that stage

Wadding: this quilt’s estimated size will finish at 1.5m square so you can either purchase a 1.7m square of backing (enough for professional quilting needs) or make up a piece using any scraps of wadding you have in your stash.

Tools:

Sewing machine with 1/4in and walking feet

Rotary cutter, ruler and cutting mat

Neutral thread for piecing

General sewing supplies: pins, scissors, marking pens etc

Note: Mum and I have over estimated on fabrics as I roughly calculated she needed about 30cm of each. As we were buying homespun which is generally anywhere from $5 – $10 per metre it was a more economical way to purchase for this particular quilt. If you would like more accurate quantities please hold off on your purchasing until the next post.

So now that we have all the fabrics and the design set what’s next?

Wash all your fabrics. I’ve discussed this before in this post and this is the only part of this whole process where it is up to you.

Then iron and if you like starch them to return them to pre-washed condition which makes for easier cutting. Purchase starch here.

Note: When you wash fabrics there will be fraying. You will lose some off your edges and be required to straighten them cutting into the amount of fabric needed for your quilt. BUY extra if you feel you will lose too much – 5cm extra purchased can save a whole heap of grief when cutting after washing. This is also spoken about in the washing blog post.

Once you have everything washed and ironed and ready to go meet back here for the second instalment of Quilting Along with Mum.

If you have any questions – such as fabrics choice issues – please feel free to post a photo or video of your dilemma and I’ll help you with that part of the process. You can also email me frankensteinsfabrics@hotmail.com.

Marni x

 

 

 

 

Creative musings…

Posted on by

I am not a morning person and will probably never be one. Ever.

Sure I can get into the routine of getting up and going to work, and maintain such a routine but I don’t like it and it has repercussions on my mind and body. When I’m up early (early for me anyway) I actually feel ill. Eating before 10am is a problem because my stomach hasn’t caught up with the rest of my body being awake and just can’t process anything. I’m no good mentally until midday without coffee or a can of some sticky stimulant drink (and that has its own issues). So I crave a life that lets me be free to wander nocturnally and still pay the bills.

I am at my most creative in the dark. In the middle of the night when the world is asleep, the cars have stopped rushing past my bedroom window and silence descends upon everything the darkness touches, I am awake and ready to design, create and make. I’ve never really understood why this is the way my brain works but have just accepted it and moved on. I have read a few things about creative types being more likely to be up all hours so there must be something scientific and chemical behind it.

I like being awake when no-one else is. It’s soothing to me for some reason, I get more done and there are no distractions. The down side for me is that I can’t run my machine at all hours of the night because it is noisy. So I spend the time drawing new designs, writing patterns and cutting up the next quilt. I love to do all the little ‘process’ jobs that come before the actually assembly of a quilt at night. These smaller steps are the ones that many struggle with – first concept through to execution – because getting started is hard. So for me its easier to do at the best time for me, at night, opening my mind to the quiet of the world and just let the inspiration pour through me.

Daylight hours are for work. The hard stuff, the physical, the things that need to be seen clearly and with lots of light shining on every detail. Night is for freedom of thought, dreaming and wondering what if.

The past couple of nights have been late ones for me going to bed well after 2am. I spend some time in my office, sketching and colouring in, dreaming up all sorts of things. Then I head to bed and read for a little while and then when the burn starts in my eyes I sleep.

I’m in the middle of lots of magazine commissions – quilts, wall hangings, table runners, softies and a bit of jewellery. So sketching is a great way for me to get the designs out of my head and tweak them as needed. Nothing works better than graph paper and a pencil, with a really good eraser and a ruler. I keep my set of colouring pencils handy for when I design things with lots of fabrics that way I can mark out each fabric with a colour and get a better view of what I’m thinking. Drawing these things helps me to clarify my design. Even though I have already visualised the finished project in my mind I work backwards deconstructing the piece into its components and then I can work out how to rebuild it and write notes for it so you can make your own versions.

My world is full of colour. I love it, dream it, mix it and match it. My bedroom and craft room are full of colourful clutter because that is what inspires me. I could never design in an office that was all white, with clean lines and everything in its place and so very neat. My design method is entropic. Chaos and colour all rolled into one brain. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Many people ask me how I come up with so many things all the time. My answer is because my brain never stops. I walk around like a normal person all the while my brain is chugging along at the back designing, calculating and dreaming up new things. I can be having a conversation with someone and can literally feel my brain working in the background. If I stopped I think my world would stop, my life would stop and I wouldn’t be me.

I wouldn’t have my creativity any other way. I enjoy what I do, it makes me who I am and it makes me happy. I am so grateful to have found my life’s passion at such an early stage in my life.

How do you create? Design? Are you a morning or night person

 

Not sleeping…

Posted on by

Before Christmas and at the moment I’m going through times where I just cannot sleep.

I’m not stressed or restless, occasionally I’m awake from the heat but most of the time its just an inability to fall asleep.

It takes a lot out of a person when you can’t sleep – as sleep deprivation is akin to being drunk – but in saying that I seem to have more motivation in the early hours of the morning more so than I do during the day.

Sleep normally comes naturally to me and I am a good sleeper – head hits the pillow and I’m out and nothing will wake me for 8-9 hours. I like sleep, I like my bed and my pillow and I enjoy the haven I’ve created in my room yet I have these batches of time where sleep eludes me. I’ve tried all sorts of remedies and short of taking heavy duty sleeping pills which I am not comfortable doing I really have no answer.

But when I do have these periods of non-sleep I get stuff done.

I built the 55 Fox Fiasco site one night, was up till 3am tweaking widgets and adjusting the colour scheme, building pages and creating the bios for the team, writing text for all the info pages. I’ve added things since but the bones of the site was easy for the girls and I almost straight away. It felt good to achieve something so tangible in one go.

The biggest problem with not sleeping is that the next day I feel terrible and it does take some time for my sewing mojo to get back into the swing of things. But once I’m moving things happen. I also get more headaches and generally feel pretty crazy.

When I do sleep in these sorts of times I have very vivid dreams and this is where I get a lot of my inspiration from. The almost hallucinatory state I’m in creates a world of colour and pattern that runs through my mind and allows me to draw upon in in my waking hours for matching and designing.

So in a way I’m thankful that I can’t sleep right now. That I know that I will be awake for another 2 hours at least before I drift off… because I get something useful out of it that makes the struggle to nod off worthwhile.

I know that I am not a true insomniac and I would never claim to be one (I’ve lived with one, I know how awful it can be) but I do believe that we all suffer it to some degree. Everyone will have an off night every now and then, maybe a few nights in a row. I have around 5-6 weeks. I think its a cycle of some kind that my body goes through – like a snake sheds its skin. I don’t know why it happens, it doesn’t change anything for me other than I’m tired (more than normal) and I get more stuff done. So I grin and bear it and know there is an end to it.

Do you suffer from something similar? Does it affect your creative skills in any way?

Leave a comment below 🙂

 

Marni x 

 

Happy New Year!

Posted on by

Welcome to 2014!

I cannot wait to reveal all the amazing things that I have in store for FF HQ this year.

It’s been 16 months since Dad became ill and the trauma threw our lives into disarray, but we coped, learned and are all the stronger for it. Yes things had to change in order for our lives to work on a daily basis, this included shutting the store front, but it has made life much more flexible and easier to manage all round for us all.

So to the new year and new things!

This year will be Year of the UFO –  I have a tub full of quilt tops that need to be finished. I will be keeping a list and I’d like to invite you all  to join me in this.

All you need to do is listed here.

And we’ll be keeping an eye on each other with this –

[show-rjqc id=”1″]

Let me know if you are ready to sew!

Marni x

 

Festive Sale and end of year happenings…

Posted on by

So it’s all over for another year…

Food and presents were great, a nice quiet day with family.

It’s Boxing Day now. Mum’s reading, Dad’s watching the cricket and I’m about to do some sewing.

Working on a few quilts that will be up for sale in the new year along with a few magazine pieces. I’m also getting a head start with the 55 Fox Fiasco projects. The girls and I are very excited about the launch.

If you head over to the STORE tab and do some shopping, when you get to the checkout make sure you enter FESTIVE2013 into the coupon code box to receive 25% off your purchases (excluding kits, patterns, sewing baskets and quilting hoops).

Make sure you don’t miss out on these bargains as I love to encourage you to create while you are on holidays – relaxation aids inspiration. 🙂

Any orders placed will be posted as soon as possible, as with all of the public holiday days dotted in amongst this time of year makes getting to the post office a little more tricky. So allow a few extra days delivery.

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas, are enjoying their Boxing Day and looking forward to the New Year.

Marni x

Hurtling…

Posted on by

And so here we stand a mere week out from Christmas 2013.

I’m not quite sure I believe we got here as fast as we did – it really does seem like a blur. Especially since we had so many big things happen in the last 12 months –

– The shop front closing and the restructuring of the business

– Dad being home for more than a year!

– New directions with the 55 Fox Fiasco

– And all the other random good stuff that happened.

Also in that time I started a new job… I’m doing some freelance work for the College of Law which is the complete opposite of the work I do in the shop. I’m working on word documents, behind a computer all day, not behind a sewing machine. My brain is finding the balance a little hard to come to terms with but the work is important as it is legal information for up and coming law students.

Nothing will take me away from the shop permanently, I’m just doing this job to help them through their busy time as I have the necessary skills and the flexibility with my time.  🙂

So to catch you all up with what’s happened since I last posted a blog entry (eep! the 21st of October) here’s a quick montage of pics –

I think that about covers the majority of what happened.

I’m not closing over the holidays – so if you need anything please feel free to ring, email or place your order through the shopping cart. I’ll only be going to the post office on non-public holiday days so please allow a couple of extra days for your deliveries.

 

Packing and an emotional tangent…

Posted on by

Out of all the things in life packing and moving has to be one of the most hated. Top 5 at least – after public speaking….

I don’t like moving – it’s time consuming and I usually end up lifting everything and moving the things myself to the point of exhaustion. Packing is good though because you can sort and discard, condense your belongings and ensure that when you unpack you are starting afresh.

This move has been one of mixed feelings.

Changing the shop to online and machine quilting only was a big decision but it was one made at a time when all the pieces fell into place (space to move into, lease ending, mum needing more help with dad, 2 years at the shopfront) so it was an easy decision to make because it was simplified. The time was right, so we took the chance.

I love change so this is good for me and my outlook on the business. It gives me flexibility and time to hone my machine quilting skills more, in turn providing a better service for you, less overheads means more savings – so more stock and time to hunt down new and exciting things and best of all I’m around for dad.

Many of you know dad – he was in the shop from the start – he built all the cupboards and the kitchen area, the benches and the classroom tables. He was there every day with me, working on some of his own things, or helping me with shop things. He was there at all those shows and markets, lugging and carting things around for me. The last twelve months (from the 19th of August when it all happened) has been hard for my family. Watching the trauma that he suffered, listening to doctors tell us he wasn’t going to wake up and hearing the horror stories and fatality percentages made us close ranks and shut out the world. Being in the shop and continuing to quilt saved my sanity and held me together. I was able to be strong for my family – we had to keep going, knowing that’s exactly what dad would have expected of us.

What happened to dad few survive. Most die within the first few hours. Dad was incredibly lucky. We don’t know why or even how because according to all of the medical team who looked after him during those 3 months said he ticked all the wrong boxes. He was, in their eyes, a write off.

I personally think dad was lucky for three reasons – 1. He is a stubborn man and a survivor. This isn’t the first traumatic thing he’s lived trough. 2. He had reserves to loose. The excess weight he had been carrying kept him alive while others wasted away to nothing in the bed beside him dad still had colour and looked reasonably healthy. 3. He had us. Even though we were prepared for the worst because that’s what we were led to believe was happening we still hoped.

I won’t go into all the details but after three months in hospital we got him home. The first few weeks were tough for mum and I – especially through the nights when dad was restless –  we were lifting him in and out of bed. But he got better. The physical stuff coming back quickly, his balance is still a little random but he’s doing well. The mental and emotional stuff – well that takes far longer to heal.

Dad and I are not the same. We’ve lost whatever bond we had. I lost my drinking buddy, my companion in mischief… but it’s weird because he’s still there.

And this is why the shop had to change.

My family comes first. The shop as much as I love it and all of my customers is second. You all know that and you all have expressed to me the same sentiment.

So from now on, we are all to live much happier streamlined lives. Mail orders are easy as pie to place. I love seeing orders come in and wonder what you are all up to.

I will be updating new stock and information as I unpack. There are some new products arriving at the end of the month. To stay in touch with all the details please sign up for our newsletter or find us on Facebook.

 

I will be around all over the place over the last few days of this move so if you need me please send through an email (frankensteinsfabrics@hotmail.com), ring/text 0416 023 637 or message me via Facebook. You can also leave comments on blog posts.

Have a great week!

Marni x

Last week at the shop front…

Posted on by

So this week is the last week with the doors open at the bricks and mortar version of Frankenstein’s Fabrics.

Unsure of what this week will bring as there is still so much happening outside of the packing, cleaning and moving.

We are open this week from Tuesday to Friday 9am -4pm and then on Saturday we will be at the Handmade Craft Market from 9:30am – 2:30pm.

Make sure you get in and grab some bargains as the sale will finish up at midnight on the 31st, with stock at the market on sale as well.

Some snippets of what’s available….

So now that I have my new video camera I’ve been planning what I will be doing for the first couple of tutorials.

Liz kindly requested a demo of French Knots and as I will be doing some of those on the project that I’m working on tomorrow I thought it was perfect timing. I will add in a few other stitches that also feature in the same project. In the video I will also talk about ways to make stitching easier on yourself – products I use and sell that aid in embroidery.

The second video will be on appliqué. The methods I use and how I approach it. Appliqué is a wonderful technique that can be used on pretty much anything you can imagine.

I’ve recently purchased some funky sewing baskets –

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Small baskets are $23 and the medium baskets are $27, plus postage.

I must admit I am addicted, like most craftspeople, to storage…. between my fabric and stationary addictions storage is right up there. Top 5. Wayyyyy up there.

I have boxes and bags, stackable containers, tubs on wheels, cupboards with little drawers and jars with lids that go ‘thonk’. You know the ones I mean…. Storage is something that I think calls to us, that makes us feel like we are achieving some glorious organisational utopia.

Being organised and creative don’t often go hand-in-hand. Due to the ‘creative process’ keeping things tidy and streamlined can be a struggle. I for one like to work in a neat workspace, so I tidy as I go, or do one project, tidy and move onto the next one.

If anyone has any storage tips feel free to leave a comment below. 🙂

Anyways, I’m off to bed shortly (after I get in a little more sewing), so I hope to see you all in store this week or online to celebrate the last four days in the shop.

Thank you all for your support and kind words along the way with this massive change.

Marni x

 

To pre-wash or not to pre-wash?

Posted on by

I get asked a lot about pre-washing fabrics. And my answer is…. yes and no…

And I do realise that is immensely confusing.

If you pre-wash fabrics (and in this post I’m talking 100% cotton fabrics used in patchwork) you lose the chemicals that the fabrics are treated with that make them look so lovely on a bolt. Those chemicals keep the fabrics from crushing badly as we all know cotton does, it makes the fabrics stay nice so that we are more likely to purchase them. BUT the thing with those chemicals is we don’t want them to remain on our fabrics, nor do we want the chemicals that fabrics are treated with when they enter the country – these chemicals are used to kill any potential nasties that might be hitching a ride across the border/across the seas.

So in that instance you wash everything right?

Well….

I don’t. Mainly because I like the feel of the fabric pre-washed and it certainly makes it easier to cut and piece. But that means that when my quilt is finished I run the risk of shrinkage and dyes leaking everywhere. But in the first instance (shrinkage) I don’t worry too much because cotton only shrinks 3-5% which I find an acceptable loss, other quilters don’t. Also by washing after you have made a quilt you may find the shrinkage makes your quilt look older than it really is – creating that vintage, loved look that older quilts have after many years. I have never had any trouble with excessive shrinkage.

Dyes on the other hand…

Some colours are more notorious than others for running, leaking and generally being a nuisance. In those cases I will wash the fabrics and if the project has other fabrics in it then I will wash the whole lot, so that if they do shrink they’ll all shrink at the same rate.

The colours that run – red, black and navy (and occasionally the variations of those), burgundy, maroon, charcoals and other dark greys, royal blues and denim blues.

Most other colours don’t tend to run or if they do they run so minutely you won’t notice and is not worth the hassle. But those listed above ^^^^ will run at varying degrees, and I find always at the most inconvenient of times (night before quilt given as gift for example). So don’t run the risk with them – plain and simple.

How to fix fabrics that run?

Wash fabrics that you think will run (or that you know will run from pre-testing it) by retarding the dye in the fabric with salt or other commercial dye retarders. Salt is cheaper and everyone has some at home. Wash it as you would normally wash your clothes in the machine, just adding the salt in instead of detergent. I tend to use about half a cup of salt per wash, more if there is more than 2m of fabric.

Wash as normal and check when the machine is spinning the second run of water through that the water is running clear. If it’s not repeat the whole process again. Line dry and then iron as the heat setting will also help with the retarding and stabilising of the dyes.

Another helpful product I’ve come across in my quilting travels is a product you can purchase from the supermarket called Colour Catcher.

Colour Catcher

Colour Catcher

Dylon’s Colour Catcher’s are around $6 for a box of 10 sheets. All you do is pop one sheet in with your wash and it collects all of the loose dye floating around in the water so it doesn’t re-enter your fabrics/clothes. This is very, very helpful when washing white fabrics to help stop that greying that happens to white clothes. Yes this product was originally intended for clothes but it works in the same way for fabric.

But now my fabrics don’t feel as nice as when I bought them?

Well there are two ways to deal with this problem –

1. Iron them well and just start cutting to make your quilt. In other words get on with it and just get used to working with softer fabrics.

2. Purchase some of Mary Ellen’s Best Press from me and starch your fabrics so that they are stiffer for you to work with. The starch will wash out and the best part is that your quilt will smell very nice while you are putting it all together.

Mary Ellen's Best Press Spray Starch $16.95 per bottle, refills available.

Mary Ellen’s Best Press Spray Starch $16.95 per bottle, refills available.

 

If you are like me and don’t wash fabrics as often as you should, you can try (no guarantees) what I do and wash a finished quilt with a colour catcher and a cup of salt. I have done it for most of my quilts and have never had fabrics run or too much noticeable (or worrying) shrinkage. HOWEVER – if you try this you do so at your own risk. I am not advising it as a sure fire option, just explaining what I do. I take the risk, but as I have worked with fabric for 13 or so years I have a knack of predicting when a fabric will try some nasty trick on me.

The only thing I find that drives me the most crazy with washing fabrics is the fraying. Now you can try washing in lingerie bags and pillowcases but the truth of the matter is if your fabric wasn’t cut properly at the shops or you’ve underestimated amounts, the fraying can lead you into all sorts of quilting disasters. My advice add extra to your purchase quantities to save grief in the long run. 5cm, 10cm whatever makes you happy and stress free. 🙂

If anyone has any Q&A type questions they would like answered as a blog post please post a comment below or email me frankensteinsfabrics@hotmail.com

Have a terrific stitching week!

Marni x

St Pius X continues….

Posted on by

So I’ve been stitching up a storm with the St Pius X quilt. At this stage it is in 4 sections. Top, middle, bottom and borders. I am slowly piecing the sections together to make sure every blocks points match. Hence why I spent two days trimming up the blocks to make them all the same size.

Due to the number of blocks there will be some in the border – maths dictates in this case. I’ve kept everything balanced as best I can. Colours were the most important thing to balance as when you look at a quilt your eyes move to track certain colours and shapes. So when placing the blocks I made sure that the colours were balanced in the most soothing way for everyone’s eyes as this quilt will be on display for many years to come. 🙂

I’ve actually never made a quilt quite this large (I’ve spread it out over the classroom table 6ft x 9ft and then also had to put up one of my market trestle tables!) so it’s a bit of a learning curve for me in terms of size.

The quilt will be all together by (hopefully tomorrow afternoon) but more likely early next week and on the long arm ASAP. I lost some time today due to a headache and a longer visit with dad at the hospital.

 

More progress notes to come.

Off to bed now. 🙂

Marni