Thursday, July 9, 2015

Zoey Strips -- Part 2

This is what has happened with some more of the strips from Zoey, an Eleonor Burns line for Benartex:

A light violet strip was paired with a medium violet strip and pinned every few inches.  Without pins these strips would not come out even because the feed dogs would move the bottom fabric through the machine faster than the top fabric.  I'm treadling a Necchi BU Supernova manufactured in Italy some time between 1950 and 1952.  The little stack of post it notes are to help maintain a scant 1/4 inch seam allowance.   I'm using the zigzag plate but sewing a straight line with the needle in the middle position.  The default position for these old Necchis is to the left.

The fabrics were pressed as they came from the machine to set them and then opened so that the seam allowance is pressed toward the medium violet fabric.

Here's what the back side looked like.

The next step was to layer two pieced strips together with the medium and pale strips opposing each other so the seams would "lock" while they were being cut into 2-1/2 inch strips.

When ready to sew, check to see that the seam allowances are aligned,

and then chain feed them through the machine.  It was at this point that I couldn't help but note how quiet the treadle is and what a peaceful task this is.

After stitching all the units, it's time to clip the threads between them and stack them for pressing.

 I'm sure lots of people are happy with finger pressing, but I want them really flat so I use my little iron with just a bit of steam.


Then they were pressed open.

And here is the little pile of softly whispering four patches with their pretty little intersections in the center.
Does anyone care to guess what comes next?

I apologize for the shadows in these photos, but I was sewing after dark.

We're up to three inches of rain for the month.  Doppler radar reported that it was raining here much of the afternoon, but it wasn't.  I'm wondering if it just got confused by the altitude.  We could get more rain tonight and tomorrow, but there is still a lot of recovery to be done from yesterday's hail and rain.  There is standing water in almost every ditch, and there are lots and lots of huge puddles.
I've decided not to post photos of my badly damaged fuchsia colored geraniums.  I may be able to salvage enough to get them to grow back.  If they had been petunias, they would have been a total loss.

Happy quiltmaking,....

1 comment:

Doreen said...

So lovely!!! The perfect color palette with your treadle!!! The phrase that comes to my mind is "old timey" (in a very good way!)....a quilt that goes in a room with voile curtains and a soft summer breeze blowing in the window.

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