I Made a Rug!

This afternoon I sat down at the ol' Bernina and started sewing the long strips of fabric and batting together. The pattern has very good instructions on how to do this. I used the walking foot and a denim needle and had 5 bobbins of thread ready.

It took a couple of hours. Once I had all 140ft done, I wound it into a big ball.

then put the ball into a bowl under my sewing table so it wouldn't roll around the room while I was sewing the rug together.

I switched to the regular zig-zag foot as the walking foot wasn't quite wide enough for my widest zig-zag setting. I stitched the whole thing together. I did a pretty good job on the ends, easing the outer strip around the bend but eased too much on the straightaway. The result was a ripply rug which wouldn't lie flat even with a good pressing with Flatter.

So I picked out the last few rounds and re-stitched it, still easing the ends but holding the strip quite firmly on the straight parts. With a good pressing, it solved most of the rippling.

It lies pretty flat now.

Daytime shot.

It was pretty easy. I'd even consider doing another one using batting strips that I've cut myself. I think it's a bit more economical that way.

The rug is washable on delicate and can be hung to dry. It will need to be pressed flat after that.

The white thread was so neutral, it blended right in.

There were times I missed getting the zig-zagging over both strips so simply raised the needle and presser foot and re-stitched. When I was pressing it, I made note of some other gaps and just restitched them.

Before starting the project I watched several YouTube videos on the subject. I gleaned several good ideas from them. Again, the pattern had some good tips as well. One thing that helped me was a way to create a surface to the left of the machine so the rug wouldn't hang off the extender. I put the machine on a table with adjustable height and sat beside the dining room table. I lowered the adjustable table so my extender was as the same height as the table. As the rug grew to the left of the machine, it could rest on the table without drooping and hanging down, bending it out of shape. Another tip was to reserve the darkest colour for the outside. To make it all the way around the rug on the last round, you will need 4 dark strips to make it all the way around.

With that done, I have a real urge to do more sewing. On my wish list is a Bionic Gear Bag, some more project bags, a couple of zipped bags, and some placemats.

Starting My Jelly Roll Rug

I got my jelly roll strips sewn end to end - all 40 strips @ 42" each. That's a 140 foot 2 1/2" wide strip of fabric. - 46.7 yd.

I'm using Fabulous Forties "Jolly Spring' fabrics. As much as I hate what rabbits do to my garden, they're really cute on this fabric.

There are also gnomes with ears

and gnomes riding rabbits.

When joining the strips, I lay them right sides together at 90 degrees to each other.

The green masking tape is making a straight line from the needle to the edge of the extender.

That way, I don't need to pin the pieces. I simply put the needle at the top edge where the two fabrics cross and the lower crossing along the tape.

After all the strips were joined, I trimmed the triangles to about 3/8". I started trying to trim with a rotary cutter but all the aligning was fiddly so I just cut the excess and ears with scissors. Then I opened the diagonal seams and pressed them open.

I then folded the strip back and forth onto itself, securing each end with rubber bands, and have it ready to sew with the pre-cut batting which I bought in a 50 yd wheel.  (pictured is a 25yd wheel but they also come in 50yd wheels).

You can also cut your own batting into strips and join them end to end with either batting tape or zig-zag stitches. With 96" wide batting 1.5 yards of batting are required. It's much easier to just use the pre-cut batting. I have noted that the pictured batting wheel is 2 1/2" wide. The 50yd wheel that I have is only 2 1/4" wide. This should make it a bit easier to fold it inside the fabric strip.

to be continued...

Cinnamon Stars (cont'd) and a New Cross-stitcher

I picked up the Cinnamon Stars project again and started stitching some of the pumpkins and corn stalks, etc.

There's not too much left to stitch on this one.

Today a few of us went over to Jeanette's to stitch and gab. Diane got her first cross-stitch lesson and started in on her "Waiting for Santa" piece. Jeanette got her going on 32ct linen fabric.

Diane was very proud about completing her first sheep.

Knowing Diane, she'll be stitching like a fiend very soon.

Road Trip!

Yesterday 7 of us headed out on a stitching/quilting road trip to celebrate Marilyn's and my April birthdays. This was organized and executed by Jen1 - owner of a 7 passenger/3 row mini-van.

Jen had prepared goodie bags for each one of us. There was also a mini Mars bar but I ate it.

Our first stop was Cindy's Needleart in Richmond Hill. It was a very impressive shop with very expensive needlepoint canvases, threads, and many, many samples.

Most of the patterns are designed by local artists. Anyone who likes canvaswork in addition to needlepoint would love this shop. I bought a skein of pumpkin-coloured hand dyed floss for my Cinnamon Stars project.

We then moved on to The Enchanted Needle in Woodbridge.  There was a wide variety of books, kits, threads, patterns and fabrics.

We then headed to Port Credit to have lunch and go to Gitta's. I've only ever been to this shop's booth at the CreativFestival (back when I used to attend). We spent quite a bit of time looking at all the lovely things. Here, we finally got a shot with Jen1 in it.

Behind me: Marilyn, Sue, Barb, Jen1, Jeanette, and Poppy in the back.

This shop carries almost anything one could want and if they don't have it, they can certainly order it.

Since we were so close, we walked down the street to Linda's Craftique - a yarn shop. The salesperson was very apologetic that the store seemed emptied out because most of their stock was being set up in Toronto for the Knitter's Frolic. Some of us chose to explore the basement for discounted items and (ahem) the restroom.

This was another shop whose booth I've only attended at the Frolic. It was here I found a bottle of Flatter smoothing spray that I was looking for in anticipation of making my jelly roll rug. I had purchased and downloaded the .pdf of the pattern the previous evening.

We then piled back into the van and headed 1/2 hour northwest to The Hobby Horse Quilt Shoppe -  in a barn north of Georgetown.

There we oohed and aahed over many of the fabrics and patterns. I purchased a bunch of felted wool scraps

and a jelly roll for my first jelly roll rug.

These are the patterns in the roll of strips.

It's probably a good thing I don't live closer to this place as it could certainly be disastrous to my financial security. I also bought a couple of  fat quarters

to go with the lovely fabric Jen1 gave me for my birthday.

I'll be using them to make a Bionic Gear Bag in the very near future.

There were also 4 little pumpkin cross-stitch kits

and a sheep kit that were deeply discounted that made it home with me.

They're complete with fabric, full skeins of Presencia threads (new to me), pattern, instructions, and needle. For the pumpkins, I'll toss the Aida fabric and stitch them vertically on evenweave or linen as a bell pull. The fabric with the sheep kit is the aqua colour in the background so unless I can find evenweave this colour, I'll stitch it on the coloured Aida.

Two paper-pieced quilts on display that really caught my eye were the poinsettia quilt

 and the poppy quilt. They both measured about 2' x 3'. I'm very intrigued.

As none of us had any constraints on our time, we decided to go to Len's Mill Store on Orfus Rd behind Yorkdale on the way home. Thanks to Sue's Waze app on her phone, we managed to avoid standing still in Friday rush-hour traffic.

This store had been totally redone and most of the cheap junk has been moved out. Its primary stock now is sewing/quilting/upholstery/drapery fabrics , yarns and accessories. It is spread out more and well organized. Most of us augmented our fabric stash. I bought some evenweave fabric for stitching which I plan to tea and coffee dye, thread for my jelly roll rug, and some discounted fabrics.

We got out of there at about 7:45. By the time we got back to Jen's place it was 8:30 and most of us had been on the road at least 12 hours. What a wonderful way to spend a day - shopping with like-minded crafty friends. So much fun! And we're not done! Tomorrow several of us are going to Jeanette's for stitching most of the day.

April's Trillium Guild Meeting.

At our April meeting, Kim brought a guest, Doris Kidd. Doris is an avid knitter and embroiderer. She came to show us a special piece Kim had framed for her, and tell us the story of its inception.

She began it as an 11 year-old child in England in 1939, just as WWII was starting.

"This embroidery started as a linen tablecloth as a motif with Victorian ladies in a garden with over 50 coloured silks".

It was put away for decades and accompanied her and her husband when they immigrated to Canada in 1953. Recently, Doris gave each daughter a framed piece of the tablecloth.

For show and share, Jeanette showed us her red rose thread painting that was designed by Carol Arsenault.

Marion made this Hardanger square that had been designed by Judy Chen of the Toronto guild.

She also stitched this Trish Burr whitework design, modifying the colours to varying shades of taupe.

Sharon's stitched piece was mounted on a box that had been custom made by her friend, John.

Jeanette also showed us her finished whitework piece she had started last summer at the EAC Seminar in PEI. The class taught by Jenny Adin-Christie, a freelance specialist embroiderer who trained at the Royal School of Needlework in England where she resides.

"Jenny specializes in traditional whitework techniques and her latest commission included work as part of the RSN team, on the wedding dress for the marriage of Catherine Middle to Prince William."

This is one of Jenny's designs. Jeanette spent a lot of time at Elim and last week getting it finished up. She admitted that she did a significant amount of ripping out and re-stitching before it was completed.

Jeanette designed and stitched this canvaswork piece and mounted it on a pocket of a canvas tote bag. 

Meagan stitched this "Hen and her Llama".

She used variegated threads and a button on this cute, kitty cat sampler.

Sylvia showed us her completed miniature that she had started at last month's meeting.

She also showed us this 'windows' piece which had been a themed project with another guild a couple of years ago.

Shelley's daughter , Gillian, stitched this as a wedding gifts for friends for their upcoming wedding.

Jen got a shot of me in action while I was going over the steps to make needle minders.

After only a few minutes and a minimum of confusion, our little make-and-take project was completed.

Here are some of the finished needle minders.

Next month, Rosemary Oliver will bring in many of her fibre art pieces and talk to us about her process to create them.

Finally, some Elim photos

Several of us went up on the Thursday and we were joined by the rest the next day. We arrange tables in the centre of the big room and spread out to work on various projects.


The ice was just starting to melt and move out.

Yvonne perused Poppy's Kathy Wylie quilt pattern.

There were two other groups (quilters) at the retreat centre that weekend. We like to go and 'spy' on them. One of the quilters had this adorable teapot pincushion.

Under the lid is a measuring tape.

The other quilting group had a wool felt appliqué workshop.  We spied on them just as the workshop was getting started.

This was a block of the month quilt in progress.

These small pieces are called postcards.

Back at our lodge, Poppy posed with me for an action shot.

Carol joined us for one day and showed us her 'hexie' quilt that she was working on at our last Elim retreat.

Siobhain put the final stitches into her reproduction sampler.

Sylvia worked on a very small whitework piece without magnification.

Jen stitched on her Bumble Bee sampler.

Louise made progress on her Art Nouveau piece.

Barb stitched another area of her canvaswork project.

Jeanette started this whitework piece last year at EAC Seminar in PEI. She was very close to finishing it at this retreat.

Sylvia and Barb brought their walking poles and got up early one morning to go for a walk.

Sylvia stitched this miniature.

I brought the stuff to make the needle minders which all participants enjoyed. They thought it would be a fun activity at our April Trillium Guild meeting.

A lot of us got a lot of stitching done over the 4 days. Our fall retreat is booked for October 24 to 27.