Friday, March 9, 2012

IMQG March Challenge

Snippets & Threads Catcher

Here are the rules for the IMQG March Challenge: 

1.Use ONLY two Fat Quarters, of which one should be solid, and one print.
2.Repeat - The ENTIRE project should be made from JUST these two fat quarters. And threads, of course!


 I found this adorable project on http://robinquiltsetc.com/files/Snippets_and_Threads_Tutorial_1_.pdf.

Snippets and Threads (A Foldable/Portable Catcher)
Following Robin's instructions, I made myself a plastic template of an equilateral triangle.  In order to get more than one catcher out of the two fat quarters, I reduced the size of the triangle from 12 inches to 10 inches on all three sides.

Plastic Template of a 10-inch equilateral triangle
I then picked out my two fat quarters, one solid and the other a print.  I pinned them together and traced the template three times.  Twice with the base of the triangle along the bottom edge, and once in between the two with the base on the top edge.  The markings are barely visible, but they're there.

Two fat quarters RSF (right sides facing)
All four sides were pinned and transferred to the sewing machine.
All four sides are pinned
The three triangles were sewn, leaving a gap at the base of each triangle.

The three triangles are sewn
The triangles were segmented and the corners were snipped away.

Segmented with corners snipped
Each triangle was turned inside out and the corners brought to a point with the aid of a 'gizmo'.  It was pressed along each seam and sewn all the way around with a 1/8 seam allowance. 

Turned inside out
This was the most challenging part of the project - turning the corners down .  My first attempt was to fold the triangle in half, turn the corner down and measure 2-1/2 inches from point to fold.  Oops, I did that on the wrong side.
Measuring a turned-down corner of 2-1/2"
 So I tried it on the folded side.  I then pressed the fold, opened it up and folded it down, but it wasn't the right measurement.  It just didn't look right :(

Second attempt at turning down a corner
 If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!  The third time worked like a charm.  I measured down on both sides of each corner and inserted a pin.

The third attempt worked its magic :)
 The triangle was turned over with the inside facing up.
Triangle was turned over
  Each side was folded in half and sewn from the fold to the pin.

Left fold is sewn to the pin
The other two sides were sewn down in the same way.
Other two sides were sewn
 The corners were turned down and attached.

Placed a catcher on my ironing table
Placed one on my cutting table
And the third on my sewing table
They lend a personal touch to my sewing room
And they're useful too!
Thank you, Robin C. Gallagher of Seal Beach, California!

Cheers, everyone!


7 comments:

  1. wow...that's a lovely finish...and beautiful sewing room

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is so beautiful. Loved your sewing room too:-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you, Nima and Veena. This project has such an interesting concept and it was great to see how well it turned out. My sewing room actually serves three purposes. It's a sewing room for me, a guitar room for DH and a guest room when we have visitors. The set-up forces me to get up from the sewing machine every time I have to cut or press anything. And it's nice to listen to live music while I sew :) DH plays classical and folk music on a spanish guitar.

    ReplyDelete
  4. nice project! lovely thread catcher...maybe I have to try to make one :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice idea. It saves one bending down to dump the threads in the bin.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Before these thread catchers were made, I used a piece of batting (ugh)! These are so much more attractive:)

      Delete

Thanks for stopping by. I love to hear from all of you, so please feel free to leave a comment.

If you have a question I'll reply to your comment. If you prefer an email response, please mention that and make sure your blogger profile is linked to your e-mail, otherwise I won't be able to e-mail you back.

Please note that any and all comments posted by 'Anonymous' persons are deleted without exception as a means of nuisance abatement.

Thanks so much for reading and commenting on this post.

Chumkie.