UFO Madness!

I've been busy...what else is new? We've been getting 3 times the amount in deliveries as we stock for Christmas! I come home so tired! Friday our furnace at home went on the fritz! ugh, apparently it needs a new motor...the furnace is only 9 years old! The part won't be in until today (Monday)! So I have been living like a refugee from the war! Lots of quilts, sweaters and space heaters! My parents always the optimists, tell me "Now you know what it was like when we were kids in Holland!" My dad says they would leave the window open a bit "because it was healthier" and when they woke up the water in the basin would be frozen and they would use the water from their hot water bottles to wash up with! Yes Dad I am grateful for the what I have, although I wish I had heat!

I did get to spend Saturday at the UFO day with some of the guild and managed to complete the top for my Dutch Mini quilt (July 21st post) I was making. I am glad it is done! Please put mini paper piecing down as "Once is enough"!




Here is Christine at our very organized and tidy work station!

Mini Quilt

When my cousin from Holland came over last October she brought me some beautiful real Dutch fabric and I started my Echt Hollands quilt. She also brought me some mini quilt patterns. I thought I would give them a try. Holy Smokes! They're mini alright!

First I had to relearn my paper piecing. After not doing it for a long time I forget how to do it and I get everything backwards! Even after I get into the groove, I can still find myself having to redo the same seam over 2 or 3 times! I'll forget to press open the seams, or I'll accidentally trim the good part, or when the seams are open it doesn't fit the space! eeek! Here are a few of the things I learned:

1) I copy the pattern onto tracing paper or tissue paper. It is a lot thinner and easier to tear away as well as see through. Make 2 copies of each page in case, like me, you have to do it over due to excessive seam ripping. :P


2) I set my stitch length to 2 (very small) on my sewing machine, because it is easier to tear away the paper and the seams are not very long on this project.
3) Fabric pieces right sides together and paper on top of first fabric. On paper side, sew seam on line, starting a little before the line and ending a little beyond the line.
4) After my first seam I fold back the paper along the seam and cut a 1/8th inch seam allowance. This gets rid of excess bulk especially important in this mini quilt.




5) Finger press open, then fold paper along the next sewing line and again trim a 1/8th seam allowance. This will give you a guide to how to place your next piece of fabric. If I didn't do this, I was more likely to screw up the placement of fabric.
6) Place your next fabric right sides together and sew on the next seam line. Continue in this manner.

Here is how it looks in progress:

7) Once I've done to the outer seam, I will trim the excess from that side:



8) This boat is done in 2 separate pieces, then sewed together. I leave the paper on to match up the seams more accurately.



Here are the few I've done so far, each still take me an hour to do. I do one per night, to avoid frustration. It's kind of addictive but intense, when working with such small things! One night I ripped out the same seam 3 times...it was time to give it a rest!


Did I mention the instructions are in Dutch? I don't speak or read Dutch and I couldn't find many of these words in my small pocket dictionary!