Marianne - I love your blocks! The colors are so bright and cheerful. And I adore scrappy quilts! I just think they sparkle so much and are so interesting! I love seeing where everyone is going with this.

Nancy

As Renata says, skipped stitches is most likely to be a blunt needle & it is time to change it. If it is still skipping I would suggest totally rethreading the machine top & bottom. I doubt it is the starch (unless it is thick enough to stand up by itself )

The most usual time I have trouble with skipped stitches is when hemming jeans and I am going over the really thick side seams, so that the pressure foot isn't on a level amount of cloth.

By the way, if you haven't looked before, over at Superior Threads website I am pretty sure that there are lots of useful tips about threads & needles and what might be causing problems to what.

Very pretty scrappy blocks, Marianne! Love the fact that you are experimenting with all sorts of ways of handling fabric and assembling blocks. It's a great time to do this. As for the skipped stitches, my experience has been that stitches start skipping when my needle gets dull. In my case, I hear a light popping sound as the needle penetrates the fabric. Then I know for sure that I need to change the needle. Not sure what else can cause stitches to skip but I cannot imagine it being the starch, it's never happened to me. I'm sure you'll hear from others with a better answer than mine and I look forward to reading those posts too!

I have now finished my Pin-Wheel blocks and what a mixed bag they are. I have used different fabrics to keep track of how I have made them. The fabrics are from the same fat quarter pack that the 9 Patch fabrics are so they all go together more or less except I have included a Kaffe Fasset remnant as well as some solids obviously. Scrappy springs to mind. I have used 5 different methods included one using starched fabric. I tried the corn flour recipe and I am much happier with that than the ready made from M&S. BTW is it common to get skipped stitches when using starched fabrics?

Rosemary, your machine looks very happy with her extension table! I must admit that my dressmaking skills is to Saville Row standards what MacDonald's is to 5 star Michelin restaurants' standards but I prefer clothes that fit 90% to RTW that only fit 50%
I really look forward to watching the video tomorrow and continue exploring. I did cheat a bit and sneaked a peak in the pdf file so I knew a bit about what strips will be needed to make sure I have some of all the fabrics left for the rest of the blocks. I will also do a bit searching around to see if there are different ways of making the hour glass blocks so I can find what works best for me. I also look forward to watching the show released today. There may be even more tips and tricks for the "TOP" (terrified of points) people within the patchwork community
Here's a picture of my blushing sewing machine. I will give it some oil, a new needle and a hoovering so it can start to feel like its old self.
{!-- ia0 -->2012-08-12 12.37.45.jpg{!-- ia0 -->
Marianne

When my lads got a little too old for Dangermouse and Count Duckula, McGyver and The A-Team were the favourites in this house. My older son wanted to be like 'the Faceman', my younger son thought 'Howling Mad Murdock' was the best and I wouldn't have turned down a date with Hannibal Smith. The perfect series for the whole family.

Oh I loved McGyver! Wish they would show repeats of that here. Sigh!

PosyP wrote:
Glad your back! Welcome home! Love your machine quilting surface. Shall we call you Posey McGyver? I like your ingenuity.

Phew, that was some marathon of catching up

Wendy - Happy Birthday hope it was a good one, and you didn't get too sunburned (or soaked, this is UK after all )

Marianne, it looks like you are getting along fine - by the way this is what I bodged up to give my machine a larger flat surface
the joints are all re-inforced with newsprint and pva glue (watered down wood glue actually) and it has a complete 'bottom' that the machine sits on, and there are extra support 'beams' inside - it might not be very pretty, but it works just fine. By the way sometimes I press seams open and other times I press both to one side - I too have a dressmaking/tailoring background (Savile Row included) and so totally understand your dilemma about seams. However a bed quilt will just not get the same stresses on the seams as a garment, because apart form anything else, it is reinforced by 2 other layers of fabric/wadding, but I wouldn't trim the seams to less than 1/4" (unless I am having to fudge the seam allowance a bit smaller, to make the front to measure right )

Better try and get caught up this week, cheerio for now

idaho wrote: My Gran always used to say "A blind man on a galloping horse would be pleased to see it"

and My Mum say's "keep moving, and no one will notice"

loise98 wrote: As long as you are not drinking coffee at the same time! Now where was I in trying to catch up?

Reetzbobeetz wrote:
Hi Rita,
Duckduck'ed "invisigrip" and found several UK suppliers. Great. Thank you; sounds like another great helping hand and, believe me, I need all the hands I can get
Marianne

Marianne, there is also 'Invisigrip' which comes in a roll of clear plastic. You cut it approximately 1/4" smaller than your ruler and put it on the back. It works best of all I think for cutting down on the slippage.

twiglet wrote:
Thank you for the links, Wendy - I have bookmarked them and now I will have to see what else I can buy so I can get free postage - that way I save money, don't I
Marianne

These or these ones are the sort of thing I meant.