Sew Very Smooth Blog
Whirlwind Week
by Steve Tippets on 11/24/17What a crazy week. The holidays are officially upon us!
It's Black Friday and bed time for my kids after a very busy Thanksgiving yesterday and day full of shopping (and a visit to see Santa) today. I almost missed posting this week which would have completely upset my schedule for the next week, so I apologize if this isn't as detailed or long as my usual posts.
We had both my parents and my husbands parents coming in for the holiday so I spent a lot of time cleaning and prepping food, but I did manage to find time to add a border to the five rows, baste, and then sew the quilting stitches along the whole quilt.
It was easier to quilt it this time because the angles were so much straighter and I knew after my experience with the last quilt that I needed to try and keep the stitches on the lighter side, if I could, to help blend them in so your eye isn't drawn to the weird angles.
What other quilting techniques do you use that help you hide the imperfections in quilts, assuming you have any? Is it easier to hide them with swirls and circles as opposed to lines?
I have so much more I want to say, but bed time is calling. I'll touch back on the subject next week. In the meantime enjoy the picture of my two year olds feet on the quilt. He wouldn't get off of it so I could take a picture. The best I could do was get him to move to the very edge. I guess he thinks it's pretty cozy.
And of course I had to include a more detailed shot.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
You Miss It When It's Gone
by Steve Tippets on 11/17/17
I have spent the majority of this last week out of town which meant I didn't have access to my sewing machine. I thought it would be a nice break from the responsibilities of every day life, but I was surprised that not sewing didn't feel like a great thing. I missed it.
Because I didn't have much time this week I was only able to complete one step, but it was an important one.
I had to sew together the five rows I created last week. This was tricky because I really wanted the corners to create an exact point. My last quilt only had a few proper points and I wanted to improve on that.
I took my time and so I was able to do a pretty accurate job if I do say so myself. Out of the 50 points that are in the center of the quilt only 3 are noticeably blunted. I'd say that is a drastic improvement.
It's hard to see the details with the view of the whole quilt so I have a closeup to show the details along with a view of the last quilt so that you can see how much I have improved.
A huge part of why I improved so much was because I utilized my Ideal Seam Guide, and this time I made sure to keep it set at 1/4" without switching back and forth from that to a scant 1/4."
The rest of my improvement was just practice. I know as I continue to work on these half triangle squares I will continue to improve.
I am expecting the delivery of my sewing table at some point today. I am looking forward to being able to set that up and see how much it helps. I'm really glad I will have it when I start quilt sewing this new project. I won't have to fight gravity that pulls the length of the quilt away from the guide I'll be using.
Does anyone else miss sewing when they are away from home? Have you found anything that you can do while traveling that helps you continue to feel creative and like you can still progress with the projects you're working on? I would have loved to have had something that I could have done while sitting in the car for twelve hours but I couldn't think of a way to bring sewing into the car. Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated.
Staying Organized Is Hard
by Steve Tippets on 11/10/17It's a new week and I've made more progress with my second mini quilt. I was able to practice my half triangles with a larger square of fabric, which was fun.
These squares are twice the size of the previous ones I've been working with. I definitely think working with larger squares is easier than working with smaller ones. That is the downside to working on such a small project. I'm looking forward to upgrading to a larger project once I'm done with this.
The next step was to start to assemble the five different rows that make up the center of the quilt.
Normally I would sew two pieces together and then press immediately before moving on to the second piece. This time, however, I decided to sit and sew each pair together and then press them all at the same time. It helped me keep them divided into their two separate groups (they angled in two separate directions) and I feel like it was faster than stopping after completing each one. Plus, I used my Ideal Seam Guide again so I was able to achieve the perfect 1/4" seam quickly and efficiently.
There are only two squares joined together, but I can tell they are going to line up so much better than the other quilt did.
Because I was dealing with two different groups of grey and white squares I decided to lay out the quilt so I could keep track of where each group went. I'm a visual person so it helped to be able to just grab each new piece and sew it together without overthinking about what needed to go next.
There were five rows when I was done, but I only snapped a picture of one of them.
I'd just like to point out the points on the grey section in the middle of the row. They are perfect! I'm feeling much more confident this week as I'm building up to assembling these five rows together. I have high hopes that this quilt will show the improvements that I'm hoping for.
This week I'm hoping I can get some tips on keeping your pieces organized. I only had two groups to keep track of and I was so worried I'd get them mixed up I laid them all out. Then, because I didn't want those to get messed up I was forced to make sure I sewed them all together before I could finish for the day. What happens when I have a more complicated pattern? How will I keep them straight? What are some of your tips and tricks to staying organized while you sew?
