Mitered Corners - Memory Quilt - Crown Royal Quilt

While I was putting the binding on the Crown Royal Memory Quilt, I decided to snap some photos of how I do my mitered corners (so which I had a way to video this).  But here goes and hope it is helpful.

 

I use 1 1/2 inch strips for my bindings, all sewn together.  I cut them in straight strips (no bias cut) and then sew them together with the mitered technique (picture of that when I finish the binding below).  I start about half up on one side of the quilt, sewing the binging right sides together to the front of the quilt top, leaving a "tail" not sewn down.  I don't fold my binding in half, if I did, I would make it at least 2 inches wide.  I sew with a 1/4 inch seam.

 

When I get to the corner, I mark the end of the side at the 1/4 inch spot and sew to the pin, do a back-stitch and end my sewing. 

 



Then taking the quilt out from under the needle, I fold the binding strip at an angle from the corner.

Then holding that fold in place, I fold the strip back down over the fold.

Sewing from the edge, back-stitching to hold the thread, I simply continue sewing until the next corner and then do this process all over again.

When the corner is binding is turned to the back, the mitered corner appears.

Knowing how much continuous binding to have is sometimes the hardest part of the process.  Always have a little extra for these mitered corners since you will be folding some of the strips over itself.  When I get close to where I began, I end my sewing and then see where I need to add my finished mitered seam.

I leave a tail on both ends so that I have plenty of room to work with the pieces.

I lay one piece down at a angle, just like the corner, with a fold and then lay the other strip over that.  I finger press that fold to so it hold's it's fold better.

Where these two intersect is where I want to sew.  I place a pin to hold it in place on the side where I want my seam to be. 

Now, moving the quilt top out of the way, I lay these two pieces down to sew across the angle of the pin, keeping right sides together.

Trim away the "tails" leaving 1/4 inch seam and simply place back on the quilt top.  It should fit perfectly in the space you have left.  Sew it down and finish off.

Normally I hand stitch the binding down to the back, but this time, I folded up a bit of the strip and sewed it down on the previous stitching where I attached it to the front.  I used black thread and it worked perfectly and I have it done very quickly.

 

This is a queen size quilt, made from Crown Royal bags.  I purchased the yellow fabric and the purple fabric for the wide strip on the boarder.  All the other purple fabric came from the bags, even for the binding.  I used 32 bags for this quilt.  I posted about the process of preparing the bags and the pattern on A Purple Cloth.  It took a little over a month to make.

Technique Tutorial for Art Journaling or Bible Journaling

There are so many beautiful art journal pages out there and videos showing you "how-to" create or recreate techniques.  I'm still learning to do the layers of mixed media, but I am having fun with drawing and stamping.

I learned to do art while watching my mother and grandmother work with oils and with oils, you do a lot of blending, so I like to blend my colors to get just the right effect.  But with colored pencils and markers, even acrylic paints, that's hard to achieve sometimes.  I want my drawings in my bible journaling to be more than just coloring book pictures.  So I'm practicing and learning how to "blend" with colored pencils.  (My next project is to get colored watercolor pencils...but for now, I'm using what I have.)

Here's the page I was working on.  Below it is a video showing how I did this and even the problems I had doing it....trial and error are always the best teachers.

 

Link to Karla's Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/karladornacher

I thought I would show a picture of the wall in front of my work-space and would you believe, that I found a set of small alphabet gel stamps that would have been perfect, but I had forgotten I had them.  So they will be added to my wall!

Hope this helps and encourages you in your bible or art journaling.

Bullion Stitch in a Button & Needle Turn Applique Technique

I've created a couple of videos to share.  The first one shows how to add the bullion stitched on a button and how to do needle turn applique.  The second video is showing the quilt blocks I've already made for the Tumbling Baskets, Flower Pot quilt I'm making.  You can find a post with detailed pictures of the process of making the block by clicking this link.

Adding Paint to Art Journal Pages

I'm still new to the whole art journaling craze, but I love it...okay, I'm obsessed with it right now.

For my journal I wanted to add some keepsakes that I've been holding on to and yet do something a little different with them.  So to the journal I go:

Keeping in mind, that the I'm using a repurposed blank bible as my journal, the pages are very thin and need to be prepped before I can add acrylic paint to them.

Using Liquitex adhesive (sorry the picture is blurry) I spread a thin layer of glue between two pages using a large paint brush.  Protect the other pages by putting wax paper under the pages you are working on.

 This gives a textured feel to the pages which enhance the look of the page when paint is applied.

 Using small dots, I put the paint directly onto the page (no gesso applied this time).  Then I smear it with a plastic gift card...used of course...get the gift first!

I dry it with my heat gun so that I can continue working on the page. 

 

This little card started the idea for the page.  It's been a long time since someone sent me a Valentine's Day card and it meant so much to me to be remembered by such a sweet friend.  The card is 3-D and has three layers of this cute little girl.  I pealed off the top layer, along with the cushioned tape for my page.

Sorry, I didn't take picture of this process.

 

After applying the pink and white paint to both pages, I added some tiny pieces of netting that I received some chocolates in from a lady at church.  I wanted to use it to add texture in the paint, but it was too small, so I just glued pieces on the pages.  I have this little stone that I've had for years saying "You're Loved"  with Romans 8:39 on the back.  I wasn't sure if it would be too heavy for the page or not, but it's doing just fine.  I tore a portion from an old, falling apart bible, of the Scripture and added it to the page.

 

I stamped some hearts, added a pre-cut butterfly and a heart cut from cardstock.  I painted the heart first with a deeper pink acrylic, wiped off the paint with a baby wipe, drew some outlines of the flowers and glued tiny red beads on the heart.  I hade to put the glue on pretty heavy for the stone and the beads.





 Here's the back of the page (two pages glued together).  No bleed through.

 

I'm pleased with the outcome and now I have a memory of several things on one picture.

The love of friends and the love of God.

Romans 8:39

Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able

to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Repairing Backpacks

The plastic workings of a backpack and the door of a car do not make good friends.  I wish I had taken a before picture, but needless to say, after getting slammed in the door of the car, this was all that was left of the plastic adjustable buckle on the shoulder strap of my son's backpack.

A good backpack, one that is sturdy enough to carry all those college books and a laptop, are crazy expensive.  So Adam brought it to me to fix, much like he did the visors from his truck and other items that needed recovering or fixing, not to mention all his ripped jeans.

"Surely if you can sew, you can fix this stuff."

Maybe I can.  I had kept all those little belts of his with similar buckles.  We have a drawer of odds and ends such as these belts and other strange buckles and snaps.  The problem was, I did not want to put such strange fabrics through my sewing machine.  Whatever had to be done, had to be done by hand. 

Would it be sturdy enough to withstand the torture it's going to receive?  Time will tell.

I cut the ends of the belt and removed the two plastic pieces, doing the same on the backpack.  Adding the piece that will hold the adjustable strap to the backpack was fairly simple.  I used double threaded quilting thread and rolled the edge to hide the raw edges (which fray easily).

Adding the buckle side to the shoulder strap was a bit more challenging.  I cut the small strap as close as I could to the X-marked portion (see below).  There wasn't enough fabric to roll the raw edges, so I inserted the buckle and stitched through the strap several times.  To keep these raw edges from fraying, I burned the edges which melts the fabric.  I did this on both the cut edges.

 

It's not exactly like the other side, but it will work!  And I have more belts if the other breaks.

So he's good to go for his 2nd year in college and it only took about 30 minutes and saved

 $40 or more. 



Those Dratted Button Holes!

In my last post, I shared about the hemmer foot I used.  This week, I finally get the buttons put on my blouse, using another sewing machine attachment...the button hole foot.

I hate the final part of sewing a blouse...the hand work.  Which is odd since I love hand work.  But it's those button holes and buttons...makes me want to say bad words!

My previous machines have made me do the button hole in a 2-3 step procedure and I'll be honest...they didn't look all that great when I was done.  So after I finished sewing the blouse, It hung on the back of a chair for (dare I say it?) probably 2 weeks! 

Today I bit the bullet...or button in this case...and decided to finish it up.  I started hunting my sewing machine manual because I don't think I've done a button hole on this machine before...but I couldn't find it.

So I flipped up the panel showing all the possible stitches this Janome Professional Memory Craft 6600 can make...about 100 stitches and then the embroidery mode!  There were 5 stitches to make a button hole.

I started practicing with some, but it wasn't working for me.  Then I found a stitch that was basically hands off and within about 5 minutes I had all the button holes done.  I had so much fun, I did a video!


After getting such perfect button holes, I worked on the buttons.

My mother taught me this little trick of getting buttons to match up perfectly with the button holes (which is a problem I've had before, getting the blouse to lay smoothly and evenly after putting on the buttons).

First use some really sharp scissors to cut a pretty slice through your button hole, without cutting the thread (just ignore that little tuck in the collar you see in the picture, it's on the underside so no one will see that!).

 Then match up both sides of the front of your blouse, wrong side to wrong side, getting the edges even and the tops and the bottom of the blouse even.  Pin through from the left side to the right side, straight through the center of the button hole.  Where your pin is on the left side will be the center of where your button will go.

 Then I secure my pin and bringing my double threaded needle through from the right side to the left side, I come out right where the pin marked the center of the button hole.  See how I'm actually taking my first stitch through the slice of the button hole?

 

 At this point, I'm only working with the left side of the blouse (where the buttons are) and I sew my buttons on.

 By the time I was half way through my first episode of a McMillian & Wife marathon, I had the blouse finished.  I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out because it has fitted side panels, but I think it looks just fine!

The Hemmer Foot

My sewing machine, a Janoine professional quilter, came with a box full of attachments.  There are all these shiny sewing feet and finally last night, I decided to try one of them out.

The Hemmer Foot

I was wanting to put a small rolled hem on a sleeve for a blouse I am making.  Rolling it myself was making the hem too large, so I pulled out the hemmer foot.

 

The width of the hem is based on the back of the foot, that little grove, which I believe is a 1/8 inch.

 

So...here's how it works.

First you have to start a little roll and them manipulate the fabric into that twisted curvy thing on the top of the foot.  The fabric needs to "touch" both sides of the inside of the foot (see picture below).  Pulling the fabric across that opening allows for the fabric to be pulled into that curvy thing and then the magic starts to work.

 

 Then out the back of the foot comes this perfect tiny little hem.

I did find that if I put too much fabric into the foot that it did a twisted hem or if I had some fringe on the fabric, it showed in the hem (see photo above).  But overall....I loved this foot and will definitely be using it more often.

My favorite foot is still the 1/4 inch for piecing and the standard foot for general sewing.

So what is your favorite sewing foot?