Patchwork Underground

Can you find my quilt?

I had so much fun at this year’s expo!  Unfortunately, I only have time to post these pictures right now.  Stay tuned for my write-up of the expo later this week…

<3 erin

And the winner for the Fall 2009 Vintage Magazine Giveaway is…….

Commenter number 19!!

That’s Melanie! She said:

“As much as I enjoy knitting.  I also use vintage to decorate, so I would have these framed! Don’t worry I wouldnt harm them in any way! haha.”

Congrats Melanie!  And a big thanks to everyone who participated.

I get so excited about having giveaways I might just have to arrange for another one real soon.  If you want to be alerted to my giveaways, feel free to join my little mailing list (there should be a form on the top right hand corner of this page).  Don’t have to worry about being drowned in emails - I send out no more than one e-mail a month.

Onwards to another crafty day!

P.S.  I’ll be going to the Northwest Quilting Expo tomorrow so keep an eye out for my report back over the few days.

Too many scraps of patchwork experiments + random vintage scraps = crazy quilt top?

I think I like it!  (Excuse the wrinkles.  I’ve had it folded up the last couple days.)

This old school car cross-stitch finding has never looked better…

All together now:

It’s a good lap sized quilt right now but I’m thinking that I might want to keep adding onto it as future scraps present themselves. Who knows what it’ll look like in the end? I think I like not knowing. My favorite part of this quilt is the awesome double-breasted button placket towards the bottom. I cut it out of a stained free box vintage dress I adopted a while ago. I had visions of embroidering over the whole dress with black and white floss in a random pattern but then decided that was insane and that I was never going to get around to it.

By the way, don’t forget that today is the last day to put your comment in for my vintage knitting magazine giveaway! I’ll be closing comments tonight and announcing the winner tomorrow! Many thanks to folks who have already entered. I’m excited to find a new home for these little gems. GOOD LUCK!!!

I’m going to be at the Northwest Quilting Expo tomorrow - probably all day. I’m so stoked to get to see this year’s quilts. There’s going to be a few patchwork celebrities I want to see in person and more than few vendors hawking all sorts of quilting-related stuff. I might even invest in a class or two and support fellow sewing instructors! Admission is $9/day or $25 for all three days. Seems like most classes are around $10. Keep an eye out for my pictures and report back….

My oh my have I found something awesome for this giveaway!!!!!! Clicky-clicky:

So you *could* make these projects but the crazy crafter in me wants to make them and then decoupage the pictures all over my craft room. Maybe as a wallpaper-esque border going all the way around the room?

What would you do with them?

Leave a comment explaining what you would do with these magazines and/or which of the projects/pictures is your favorite. One entry per comment, one comment per person. Extra entries for folks who link back to this post on their blog, message board, etc! Just let me know in your comment where you posted the link.

Comments will be closed on the night of Tuesday, September 22nd and the winner will be announced the following day.

Please note that this giveaway is only open to folks in the USA. (No offense to my international friends - international shipping is just sooo expensive right now!)

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!

Handmade bias tape (or bias binding, as I’ve also heard it called) can really dress up your sewing.  Yes, you can buy the pre-made stuff at the store but it’s expensive and very limited in terms of color.  When you make your own, you can match your tape to your project exactly.  Patterned bias tape pretty much always looks rad.

The good news is that it’s easy to make.  Let’s do it!

1. Start with a square or rectangle of your fabric.   I don’t like to use the entire width of the fabric for small projects because you end up with A LOT of bias tape that way.  A small starting square means less waste for smaller projects.

2.  Cut into your fabric along the diagonal using a ruler, a cutting mat and a rotary cutter.  If you don’t have a rotary cutter, use a piece of tailor’s chalk to mark out your lines and then cut along them with a pair of scissors.

3.  Turn all of your fabric into strips of the same width.  You can make tape of any size but be aware that the smaller your tape the harder it is to deal with.  Remember, your finished tape width will be one quarter the size of your starting width.

4.  Now, join all the strips together to form one continuous strip.  Some people like to square off the edges and join their strips together with a diagonal seam.  I like to leave the edges cut on the diagonal and join them as you see below:

5.  Iron your seam flat with lots of steam.

6.  Fold the edges of you tape inwards towards the middle of your tape.  Press.

7.  Fold your tape in half lengthwise so that the unfinished edges are on the inside.  Press.

8. You’re done!  Now it’s time to insert your bias tape.  There are several ways to do this.  I’ll show you my favorite.  First, I open up the tape.  I start on the *back* of the item in question.  With right sides facing, I sew along the first ironed fold.

9.  When I get to a corner, I stop at the place in the fabric where the two seam allowances should meet.  (In this case, I stopped 1/4″ short of the edge of the fabric.)  Then I fold the tape back on itself as seen below:

9.  I begin the intersecting seam at the same point that I left off the last one. (Again, this is the point in the fabric where the two seam allowances intersect.)

10.  Once you’ve gone all the way around the piece, Fold the free edge of the tape over the exposed edge and arrange the mitered corners so that they match up correctly.  Press with steam.  Pin if nessessary and top stitch your binding closed.

Hope this helps!  Let me know if you have any questions.