Summer In England....

Summer in England has derailed my sewing and my blogging. It is too nice to spend time with Son and Daughter -In -Law Mum Dad, Sister,  Brother, Nephews and Nieces, Garden and Cats not to mention the old sewing machines.

Lunch should always be at a good garden Centre or Nursery! Can you see how they planted the lettuce?

Time to check on my vintage machines, yes they look good and are sewing well. It is amazing and aren't they cute?

Making petticoats for bridesmaids on the Singer 404 (not my machine...it belongs to ADIL now! (Adorable Daughter In Law)

I did have some time for Patchwork. The wonderful and unique Helen Howes ran a class in Wickham Market which I was lucky enough to be able to attend. She is an excellent teacher. Unfortunately the Wickham Market Store has relocated to Colchester. Helen is going to be at the River Rat TOGA this weekend but I will be at the Cranky Retreat in Lone Oak.

Every Tuesday and Saturday there is a market in  Framingham.  Jayne of Magpie and Me is a fibre artist and produces the loveliest weaving and felting.  On Tuesdays she takes a stall at the market.
She also creates beautiful hand dyed wool. Hmmm who do I know who knits and has a birthday?

Pilot's Wheel and the Green Elna

I have made a few more blocks and I like the way they are looking. I have decided to have just red and navy because the aqua looked wrong

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What to do with the corner squares?

or

I think the white background has a cleaner more modern look while still having the adorable sailboats!  I also like the floral circle at the centre. There are so many possibilities with this block and just when I think that I have found a brilliant idea I get another one. However this is a lot of fun.



My friend Janet has just bought an Elna Grasshopper. A super cute machine. These come with a free arm and are made of aluminium so pretty lightweight. 

This is not Janet, this is an advertising card.  You can find out all about the Elnas on the Needlebar website. http://needlebar.org/main/elna/ 

These old  Elnas are unusual in that they don't have a belt or gears instead they have a friction wheel. These machines have likely sat unused for years and because the wheel is made of rubber they develop a flatspot which makes them growl.

This is the replaced friction wheel can you see how flat it is, sadly I think that the new one may be flattened too and in need of replacement.

Ray White is the acknowledged expert on all things Elna and pretty much all things vintage sewing machine too. You need to go to his website to get parts for the Elna.  http://www.whitesewingcenter.com/

Now of course because Janet has an Elna I am reminded of just how cute they are and feel it is time to get mine out and address the friction wheel issue. Where is it hiding?...in its strange aluminium case! 


There are some accessories (including what I believe to be a cover) plate, a foot controller rather than a knee controller, a manual and some cams.

The machine itself is super cute.

Gorgeous isn't it and I think exactly like Janet's except mine has a foot controller rather than the knee controller.

The model number can be found at the side and look Janet's and mine ARE the same although my case is much rougher and looks as though it has been in a war zone!! 

 I think I need to start using her! We can become the Elna Girls!

Glue Basting

I am sure that I have mentioned before my love of glue basting (while my laughing friends decry it)

It does mean that your quilt has to be washed to remove the glue but I like to wash all my quilts anyway to puff up the batting.

We use Elmer's washable school glue with Sharon Scamber's glue tips

 The glue is very cheap but the tips are quite expensive ($5 each) and fragile so take care of them!

Step 1 glue

Step 2 stick

Step 3 adjust

Step 4- press

Step 5- Sew your perfect scant 1/4 inch seam

... on your current favourite sewing machine!

LBOW (Light Beige Oyster White) Singer 301. Only made in the US out of aluminum. It makes a perfect straight stitch, is slant shank, gear driven and the feed dogs lower for free motion quilting. It is the perfect portable quilters machine.

Once everything is glued, chain sewing is incredibly fast because you are not aligning the patches and can focus on your accurate scant 1/4 inch seam allowance and there are no pointy things to hurt yourself with!

SHORTCUTS A CONCISE GUIDE TO ROTARY CUTTING BY DONNA LYNN THOMAS

This is one of the best books ever. My darling husband bought it for me in 1991, I was in England and he made frequent business trips to the US.

This book revolutionized quilting for me. Sadly I lost my original copy in a Melbourne flood but by the miracle of ebay I was able to replace it. It lives in the conservatory in England along with Judy Martin's Ultimate Rotary Cutting Reference. 

This is the book that taught me about the magic 7/8s of an inch. even more importantly it showed how to cut unusual shapes at a time when the only templates available were rectangles. 

Paper Pieced Pilots Wheel

QuiltPro to the rescue again, a mix of Dresden Plate and Mariners compass blocks plus some folded squares to finish off. I was quite impressed with myself.

This has potential but looks too messy and too complicated, I like the octagonal effect,Can you spot the mistake? I needed to simplify this further

Much simpler and cleaner but it needs more variety in the fabric which is where the layer cake comes in useful, lots of variety. The Day Sail line must have been very popular because I have never found much of it even online! Whenever I see it I buy it but I will probably need to add in more solids (Bella Betty's Red and Bella Aqua), some of Bonnie & Camilles recent range, Vintage Picnic and some other fabrics ... the ship's dog?

Kona Snow will be the  background although I was tempted by an aqua background


I thought I would paper piece the block

I usually paper piece on newsprint  (Blick All Purpose Newsprint) because it is cheap, you can almost see the lines from the back and it tears very easily.
I precut the fabric over size  but because I was using Kona Snow as the background I really needed to press away from the white so I decided that I didn't need to paper piece if I could stick a trimming template onto my ruler to cut the wedges.

I stuck it onto the Companion Angle and was able to get very accurate patches which were as good as the paper pieced version. I learned this trick from a brilliant book from years ago when rulers and rotary cutters were just becoming available. I need to find the book. It was where I first learned about the magic 7/8s and 1 1/4 and my quilting life changed forever.  I am starting to get excited about this quilt!

Curved Piecing & Glue Basting

Elmers Glue and Sharon Schamber's glue tips are one of the great combinations of the 21st century. If its good enough for Sharon Schamber it must be good enough for me!Her daughter Christy Fincher has information on her web page. 

https://purpledaisiesquilting.com/blogs/sewmuchlikemom/tagged/glue-basting

My friends are horrified but glue is much more difficult to lose than pins are and glue doesn't hurt you.

I still like the Pilot's Wheel block but it requires a high degree of execution  so I thought about something simpler but still using curves






How about a lifebuoy (life preserver in the US?)

curved piecing or Dresden plate?

Double wedding ring with interlinked lifebuoys?

I made one block using the Dresden Plate method, I like it ( it isn't really crooked) but I am not sure how it would be in a quilt too simple and modern for me I think. Also it looks too much like a polo mint.

Mmmm what next? Revisit the Pilot's Wheel I think.

Day Sail and Quilt Pro

Ever since this fabric line came out I have been playing with the idea of a making a nautical quilt. 

I love vintage designs and patterns, browsing ebay is especially productive and I thought this was lovely

Vintage (1930's?) Pilot's Wheel Quilt

This is a vintage pattern from the Kansas City Star although I can't make out the designer's name

Note the warning...this is for experts!

I have been using Quilt Pro since the mid 90s when it first came out and my very generous husband bought it for me. I know that it has changed a lot since then but I still find it easy to use for designing my quilts and I don't even think about making a quilt without it.

I did try EQ in several versions but I prefer the simplicity and versatility of Quiltpro.

I drafted this block

Will it become a quilt? I wonder! Probably not because it might be a little too complicated even making giant blocks but it feels like a starting point.