More Fabric

I'm just back from a visit to Calico & Ivy Balmain,

Just Checking stuff for my one day workshop that starts next thursday.

 Room for one more! if your interested. 

We will be doing a zig zag quilt top.

whilst at Calico & Ivy I was looking for fabric to go around my lone star.

One of my fav fabrics designers Nani IRO is now being stocked at Calico & Ivy, I usually order it online through DuckCloth and even then I tend to miss out as it goes sooo fast!

I also got a chambray and pinkish shot cotton. Now to decide!

I also picked up the pre made binding :)

This Fabric (also Nani IRO) is destined to be a dress or skirt?

I bought this book a few weeks ago online at Tessuti 

I'm off to do some prep for my classes tonight & tomorrow morning at Hobby Sew Top Ryde

Has anyone seen the New Down Under Quilt's Magazine???

I'm in it!

Xx Siobhan

template making my way

Lone Star Quilt

lots of different ways to tackle this bit of the quilt - this is my way.

you need will need some baking/ tracing paper, sticky tape,your ruler and a maker.

with a ruler draw the lines to mark out your triangle space

add in a 1/4 inch seam allowance on the outside.

The template needs to be 1/4 inch bigger than the space don't forget the bottom as well! it also needs 1/4 for what ever is next -eg another boarder or even just binding

mark the middle and cut 

Voila! decide how long you want your template to be - I've made mine short in this picture(finishing at the end of the star - I will actually make it longer after thinking about it, I want more room for machine quilting)

next is your corner square - same process as above

auditioning fabrics

I've changed my mind about the fabric I had chosen 

- I'm off looking for a lighter fabric 

- maybe a chambray? or robert Kaufman shot cotton?? 

I will need around 1.5 - 2 meters of fabric, depends on the star size and how fussy you are at cutting etc.

I'm off!

Xx Siobhan

Tea Break

after all the cutting and sewing I think its time for food :) 

I made these little cheese cakes a few weeks ago for a school dinner and I was asked for the recipe, as usual its taken me a few weeks to get round to it....

This recipe is another one of my adapted over time ones, with changes and scrawls written all over the photocopy.

Baked Cheese Cake

this recipe is for a 20cm springform tin or you can make them in mini springform tins like I did

Base

125g sweet chocolate biscuit (tiny teddies) - crushed

125g Hazelnut meal

125g melted butter

combine biscuits, meal, butter and press mixture into a springform tin. Refrigerate.

Filling

300g sour cream

250g ricotta cheese

250g cream cheese - softened

3 eggs

1 cup raw caster sugar

1 tbs lemon rind

3 tbs lemon juice

1 tbs corn starch blended with

1 tbs water

handful of fresh or frozen raspberries

place cream cheese, ricotta,eggs , sugar, sour cream, lemon rind & juice & cornflour in a food processor and process until smooth. Pour mixture over base and sprinkle with raspberries.

Bake in a preheated oven at 150c oven for 40 minutes or until cheese cake is just set. Leave the cheese cake to cool completely then refrigerate till cheese cake is cold and firm.

enjoy!

more lone star instructions tomorrow :)

Xx Siobhan

Diamonds

Ok....

 so you should have all of your diamonds cut & ready to join them

lay out your Diamonds into the eight leaves (one leaf is four cut diamonds as above)

one leaf

sew two diamonds together 

when joining triangles and diamonds (or any shape that is angled)you need to give a 1/4 inch off set allowance, or bunny ears - thats my technical term :)

if you look at the image above the two diamonds don't join up, I have off set it (staggered).

and looking closely at the above image, my needle is starting exactly where the axis point is of the two off set diamonds (confused?)

the image above shows a little bit better what I'm explaining, see how the 1/4 inch seam sits perfectly at the axis?

and once ironed its all lined up and perfect, with one little bunny ear sticking out.

join your two sets of diamonds together, again it needs to be 1/4 inch off set as shown below

and if you look at the middle we have bunny ears!

one leaf complete! only seven more to go

keep going until all eight parts of your star are done!

but don't join them together yet!

we have to work out our fabric for the spaces first!

Thats coming next :)

don't forget to have a look at flickr and see what everyone else is doing

Xx Siobhan

Whats next?

I hear you ask....

In the next few posts

1 How to piece the diamonds together.

2 How to work out the material requirements of the spaces left surrounding your lone star.

 3 any extra fancy stuff you may want to add like a boarder of applique etc.

4 and then backing/ quilting and binding.

I've had a few questions about the text fabric I use, Its mine! its available on spoonflower if you would like to purchase it :)

and here is a quilt I made recently with some of it

Monday morning here in Sydney and another beautiful day is starting, we had a great weekend catching up with friends. 

here is Miss nearly 5 after eating some blue cup cakes

I'll post again by the end of today!

but before my sewing I need to get the house ready for an end of season Netball Party for my U10 team that we are having after school.

busy week ahead!

Dont forget to sign up for my Zig Zag day workshop at Calico & Ivy

and any of my classes at Hobby sew Top Ryde (Sydney)

Xx Siobhan

long line + short line = Diamond template

or something like that

I've used a rather large diamond for this Lone Star Quilt, and its actually really easy to draw up - even for the mathematically challenged like me (I am incredibly mathematically challenged)

It doesn't matter what size diamond you use in this quilt-along/ pattern. If you use a bigger diamond your lone star will be bigger and vis versa.

This is the size I will be using

draw a short line 6 1/4 inches long

one line 6 1/4 inches long

mark the middle of the short line, and draw a long line 14 1/2 inches long

now you have a t, fill in the sides and presto!

one perfect diamond

not so hard? 

any size diamond is fine - as long as all sides are equal. That way when you go joining everything all your seams match up.

In celebration of my Maths & my oldest Boy scoring a try in U11 Rugby and today also being the last game of U10 Netball for the year! 

(not my best idea to coach 12 young girls in netball......)

I'm cracking open my tea I bought in Paris last October and I found some dark chocolate hidden on top of the fridge. 

I was hoping to watch my Audrey Hepburn DVD's specifically Roman Holiday but alas Its no where to be found! 

I'm off to Rome in Sept!! & Florence & Venice & Paris & London

and yes I know - I'm having milk in my earl grey tea!! many a person has scorned me for such habits :)

Hope your weekend is looking as good as mine :)

Xx Siobhan




- After thought
remember with quilting especially this kind of large pieced lone star that any fabric is good. I love making quilts out of old sheets or special old kids clothes. 
Opportunity shops can be great for old dress fabric too.
Quilting doesn't have to always be new fabric. 
I like vintage :)

Lone Star

I've been promising a lone star for a while now..........

I have finally created my pattern and made my templates

I'm making this lone star a nice n simple one for starters.

The finished size will be 50 inch X 50 inch.

My Diamond is 8 inches on all sides.

I need to ask my IT whizz how to link my PDF file - if you want a template to print

. 

If you cant wait for my diamond - create your own in any size. 

I've gone for a large diamond because I want to do some hand quilting and I also like the look of the fabric - I wanted to show it off.

I'm using 8 different fabrics - you will need around 3.5 yards all up.

You will need to cut 32 Diamonds to make this lone star. lets deal with the edge bits and boarder later.......

Lots of people have different ways of cutting diamonds - I find it easiest to do as above & below

I'm playing around with the lay out at the moment

 Next post I'll show you how the lone star is pieced

Lone stars can be tricky - but only as tricky as a zig zag

This sized lone star will come together very quickly because of the large pieces.

 Which makes it a good quilt to try as a beginner.

I've started a flickr group for the lone star Quilt.

Please add pictures of anything to do with the process - from fabric your thinking of using to cutting technique. 

I'll be around if you have any Questions

Xx Siobhan