Saturday, November 15, 2008

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night!!!

I suppose seeing/hearing this dates me....


My sister used to have a Bay City Rollers album! Those were the days!!!

Well, it is a S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night and many of you may be out doing something exciting on the town!!! My favorite Saturday nights these days are spent in my pajamas (or other comfy clothing), sewing/knitting/watching a movie/playing a game with the kids. I still go to bed fairly early on Saturday nights so that I can go to the gym on Sunday mornings (the gym doesn't open until 7:30 AM on the weekend... so late for me!!!

Well, on this Saturday night, amongst the many activities possible, I am blogging (a little tute for you)!!

Firstly, Mr. U found this badly bruised camera of mine on the side of a nearby road on his run yesterday...the memory card and batteries are gone..


and so are some of the parts...Mr. U was so wonderful to buy me a new camera!!!!


On this Saturday night, I am also sewing. The top to this doll quilt is done, so it is time for the quilting...and I have decided on the stitch-in-the-ditch in the house blocks but the white blocks were a little tricky to figure out....

My plan is to quilt houses in these blank blocks too. The dilemma for me was that the quilt is mainly white (I have only ever used pure white fabric once before... in my very first quilt) and I wasn't sure I wanted to mark the fabric, so I will show you how I decided to do these...

This is the reduced pattern that I used for paper piecing the house blocks...
I taped the pieces together to make the house...
and then, I traced the essential lines (that I quilted in the house blocks!) onto the opposite side (when you paper piece, the finished block is the reverse of the pattern)...


I, then, took out my handy-dandy roll of freezer paper (an essential tool for any quilter!)...
and I traced the lines onto the flat side (as opposed to the shiny side) of the freezer paper...
I also traced these lines for a separate template...
as well as some of the pieces (I guess I didn't photograph all of them but hope you get the idea)...

This is the full house template cut out. I also cut out the windows as they are quilted too!I, then, pressed the full template to the blank, white block and straight stitched around the edges and inside the three windows...
Here is the first areas stitched (I cut the threads off a little on the long side, about 3-4 inches long)...
When I finish that stitching, I peel off the freezer paper template carefully and set aside...
I like to weave in all my loose threads (by making a small knot in the thread and set into the middle layer) - I guess I am a little anal about these threads (but not about much else, I fear!)...
using an easy threading needle (I have mentioned their invaluable function in my quilting before)...
My second template has been cut into two pieces so I can quilt the channel up the center of the house...
Here is a (brilliantly out-of-focus) shot of the walking foot following the edge of the freezer paper template...
And after I have peeled off the freezer paper, woven in the loose threads, I will press on the three smaller pieced templates so that I can sew the line under the triangle and the channel between the roof and the two windows...

I will do the same with these little templates and the mounds of threads (on both sides of this wee quilt).

And voila....
a quilted house in the white, previously blank block!!!
And here are a couple of shots from the back of the quilt...with a glimpse of the three simple log cabins pieced on the quilt back...
And when I am not sewing on a Saturday night, I may be found knitting...
Hope you had a great S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night!!!

13 comments:

  1. i want this quilt, but i have learned not to get my hopes up. so i will silently wish....

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  2. I love houses. Your little quilt is turning out great! You are really working hard on it with all those freezer paper templates and burying of the the threads! I bet your hubby was surprised to find your camera on the side of the road. How wonderful of him to get you a new one!

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  3. Love the quilted houses. Thanks for the tutorial.
    Andi :-)

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  4. such a good idea to quilt the houses in the squares. it's going to be soo cool! you knit too...i'm in awe.

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  5. Great tutorial on planning out the quilting.....thanks! BTW, I've also had great success with using Glad Press 'n Seal. I draw on it with a permanent pen, sew right on the drawn lines, and the product pulls right away when you are finished.
    Just a thought.....:-)

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  6. what a great idea! Thanks for sharing.

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  7. good idea to do little houses in the white squares - I remember coming in from Brownies with my 5p bag of chipsnand watching Bay City Rollers on Top Of The Pops .
    Lisa x

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  8. I love the cheerfulness of your house quilt. Great job quilting it, too. Arm warmers! I love those! I've been looking everywhere for the perfect pair.

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  9. LOL! I am home every saturday night too.
    Thanks for the tutorial, that is a really great way to do the quilting!

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  10. This little house quilt is so pretty! I love how you are quilting the houses in the white too.

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  11. Wow-the Bay City Rollers! That brings back memories. I had all of their albums and got all of the fan magazines of the day so I could keep up on the heartthrobs! Like you, I can be found on Saturday night snuggled on the couch with my husband watching a movie or sewing or knitting. I love your houses quilt by the way.

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  12. You have come such a long way from just a few years ago when you didn't even want to show your quilts because you were afraid they weren't good enough (but of course that was all just your imagination). You are definitely in a groove lately. You must have a hard time finishing your workout before having to write down all these creative ideas. At least, that's when I get all my ideas (when I obviously don't have a pencil or paper in hand).

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  13. The Bay City Rollers!! HA!
    I used to sit in the library at school and play their record, using earphones (the BIG earphones with the twisted curly wires). I never had the album, but listened to it all the time!

    poor camera... :( Weird how the batteries and card were gone, huh? So, someone has your pictures?

    and I LOVE the fingerless gloves (what do you call them?) I WANT those! hehe

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