wheat bags - a tutorial of sorts

On 12th November, Caring Hearts Community Quilting group will have a stall at the Spring Fair in the village of Glenbrook (in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney).

DD and I are preparing items for sale. Our first thoughts were place-mats, coasters and wheat bags.

DD was most excited about the latter so that's where we started.

We viewed a few tutorials on the 'Net but then made our bags to suit the size we wanted and the fabric we had. We decided to make removable covers (after testing one with the outer cover and inner cover made in one piece).

So here is a tutorial (of sorts). I have written it primarily for us so that we can remember what we did next time we want to make some!

1. Decide what size you want your wheat bag to be. This could be determined by how much you have of your chosen fabric. Use only natural fibres; synthetic fibres and microwaves don't mix - synthetic fibres also tend to sweat, leaving a wet patch in your bed if you use it as a bed warmer - something your guests may not appreciate! LOL)
2.  Cut two pieces of your chosen fabric, half inch wider than your finished width. The first piece should be one inch longer than your desired finished length; the other piece should be 4 inches longer than your desired length (to fold over the end and keep the wheat bag inside).
3. Cut one piece of unbleached (prewashed) calico twice your finished width plus 1/2 inch. The length of this piece of calico should be 1/2 inch longer than your desired length.
4. Fold the shorter edge of your unbleached calico down 1/4 inch and press. Stitch this down to hold it in place.
5. Fold the calico in half lengthwise, right sides together, and sew a 1/4 inch seam across the short end (opposite your folded end), pivot at the corner, and sew 1/4 inch seam along the length.
6. Now sew the seam again, this time a scant 1/4 inch. This will reinforce the seam and keep the wheat seeds in place.
7. Turn the bag right side out. Don't fuss too much with the corners -- the wheat will sort them out for you!
8. Fill the calico sack with clean feed (hard) wheat, then carefully stitch the opening closed (if your needle hits the hard wheat seeds it might break - so be very careful). I think this is the most complicated part! If you have an extension table for your machine use it -- otherwise the weight of the wheat in a bag lower than your needle plate will make sewing very difficult!

 How much seed is up to you. We used approximately 900g for an 18" x 6" wheat bag.

Now to make the outer bag in your decorative fabric.

1. Fold one short end of each piece over to the wrong side 1/4 inch, then fold it over 1/4 inch again, press and stitch down (separately please!). This will give a neat edge to your finished bag.
2. Place the longer piece of fabric right side up. Place the shorter piece (face down) on top, matching the bottom (unhemmed) ends. Fold the longer side over the top so that it is the same length as the shorter piece: that is the hemmed end of the shorter piece is between two layers of the longer fabric (look at a pillow case if this doesn't make sense to you!!)
3. Stitch a 1/4 inch seam along the length from the folded end to the bottom, pivot at the corner, seam along the bottom, pivot again, and seam along the other long side. I always start with a few reverse or lock stitches and finish the same way.
4. Turn your bag right side out. Trim the corners across the diagonal if you want to (we don't!).
5. Press so that the seams are flat and everything is neat.
6. Insert the filled calico bag into the decorative cover. Try to match the bottom corners of the two bags inside each other.
7. Turn the whole lot upside down and match the two corners of both bags under the flap you have created on the decorative bag.
8. Ease everything into place.

our first four finished bags

1. Write or print the following instructions onto a tag:
   Microwave 1-2 minutes. Do not overheat.
2. Attach the tag using a ribbon or pretty raffia.

You could fill one third of the calico bag, seam across it, fill another third, seam across it and fill the rest of the bag but we prefer not to do that. This makes the bag more rigid and we prefer to have the bag more flexible than that.

If you find any errors or have a question, feel free to email me.

If you make some bags using this tutorial, please let us see how they turned out.

first of the Christmas presents done

Older Grandson loves books.

Older Grandson thinks it's fun to count.

Older Grandson's grandmother likes to sew.

Combine the three and you get a hand-made, cloth, pirate-themed counting book!

(panel bought at a craft show from Patchwork with Gail B)

Are you making gifts for Christmas?

What have we here?

This arrived at my place today. it has just been unpacked from the ute* (pick up truck).

Of course, it wouldn't be any use without this.

A semi-industrial, straight stitching machine!

The former owner has replaced it with a computerised twice-as-large version (she is a professional quilter) so this one has come to live with us (via an online auction site).

Now WM and I have to put it together (when we find a suitable home place for it).

And DD and I have to watch the DVD that goes with it.

Then it will be time for some fun practice!

*ute = abbreviated form of "utility vehicle"

accuracy required

Piecing patches of fabric together to make quilt blocks requires a great deal more accuracy than piecing the larger pieces of fabric used in garment assembly. Even 1/8 inch can be crucial.

That's why string blocks and improvised piecing can be very relaxing: there is no matching of seams or points, just sewing.

But, while blocks made this way can be quick and effective, they can also become monotonous and not very challenging.

Remember yesterday I quoted Bonnie Hunter on striving for excellence not perfection?

This just doesn't make the grade. It certainly isn't perfect or excellent!

So, with the aid of the "quilter's favourite tool", I turned it into this:

which became this (it is straight; I just didn't notice that the fabric had curved before I took the photo):

Much better, don't you think?

Actually, the problem was inaccurate cutting of the square (3 1/2 inches x 3 3/4 inches) but I didn't realise that until I had ripped all three seams! However, I have had the same problem with inaccurate machine-piecing, like this one:

There are 48 of these "half-blocks" in my Hunter's Cabin quilt. Here they are on my design wall. The first four "half-blocks" (top left) have been sewn into full blocks.

It's quite a dark quilt so I spaced the eight cream-based patches evenly across the quilt.

Since that photo was taken yesterday I have turned four more of the "half-block" into blocks. I became discouraged after ripping the same seams three times so thought it was time to take a break from that project. 

I knew there was a reason for having more than one work in progress!

string blocks in a quilt

Jan Mac, of Oz Comfort Quilts, has been very busy. Do you know that she has donated over 480 quilts so far this year? That's an amazing achievement and she deserves support and congratulations.

DD and I sent twenty-five string blocks a couple of weeks ago. Before we sent them, I forgot to take photos. Jan has now used some of them in two quilts and our blocks are playing nicely with the others.

Once again I have borrowed the photo from Jan's blog. If you imagine the quilts as a grid with the columns labelled A-E (from left to right), and the rows labelled 1-7 (from top to bottom), I will point out which blocks are ours!


A1, D1
A2, C2, E2
C3
A4, D4
B5
B7,D7



Now that you know what our blocks look like, you can see the second quilt on Jan's blog and find ours for yourself! LOL

And, let me finish with a quote from this post by Bonnie Hunter which is a great reminder to those of us who strive too hard for perfection:

Hand crafted does not, will not ever mean PERFECTION. The pursuit of excellence is worthy, the pursuit of perfection is INSANE. IMPOSSIBLE…..

eek! a steek!

Last Saturday, the Blue Mountains group of the Knitters' Guild of NSW held a steeking workshop. DD and I arrived very late but I caught the end of the workshop. Our guest tutor, Mary-Helen, was very gracious and showed me how to steek the tube I had prepared in advance.

Step 1
Knit your garment (or, in this case, a small tube 10cm - 4" - high)

Step 2
Using a hook a couple of sizes smaller than the needles used to knit the item and a contrasting yarn, crochet a column of stitches three stitches away from where the steek will be -- on both sides of the steek.

Step 3
Take a deep breath and remember to keep breathing! Cut the column of stitches along your steeking line.

It's all very well to be "gung-ho" about cutting a sample tube. I'm sure it would be quite a different matter to cut into a garment on which one had worked for many hours!

But at least I know how to do it and that can only be a good thing!

first anniversary

Twelve months ago today, DD and SIL left this:

They moved into the house they had just bought, with an eight month old son and too much stuff.

Today they have two sons - aged twenty months and four months (tomorrow) and even more stuff.

Due to a lot of hard work from WM (and regular mowing by SIL), the front of the block no longer looks like this!

Happy anniversary, kids!

imagine a cushion*

Finished at 51cm (20") square.

This fabric on the "envelope" back. Doesn't it look like the surface of water?

This hand-dyed fabric for a two inch border on the front.

And this as the feature fabric - a sixteen inch square. I bought this from Patchwork by Gail B when I went to Canberra for a craft show a couple of months ago.

I gave the cushion to my sister (for her birthday) on Friday night and she seemed well pleased. She told me she was taking it to the baseball to sit on it while her son tried out for the State team yesterday.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the finished item and she lives five hours away!

*In Australia, we use the term "cushion" for decorator items or for use on sofas/lounges/settees and even beds. Pillows are for sleeping on.

Scrappy Saturday on Sunday

It is early afternoon here in Sydney, Australia, but it's still Saturday in USA so I'm not too late. Angela, of So Scrappy blog, lives in USA. All year she has been running a Rainbow Scrap challenge and all year I've been watching others use their scraps. Today I realised that I have started a block with scraps of orange so "better late than never" - I've decided to join in!

There's still another Saturday in October so perhaps I will get the block finished before then. But here is my beginning - an orange heart from the fabric left from my Country Houses quilt, cut with my Accuquilt Go Baby! and fused onto a piece of white homespun. I plan to blanket stitch around the heart by hand then make an orange border for this piece, which currently measures 5 1/2 inches square.

one woman's trash is another woman's treasure

A few weeks ago, I won these two patterns from Kate's Arty Bits Blog when she was clearing out things she didn't think she would ever use.

DD loves bags and my sister likes penguins so I'm sure they'll be put to good use here.

Thanks Kate.

playing catch up

I am nearly a week behind with my blog reading because I was sick again last week. If I am a follower of your blog, I am trying to catch up. At the moment I have about 300 posts to read so I'm doing my best. I may not comment in my attempt to catch up -- I know I will fall behind again this weekend; I always do because DD and the Grandboys arrive on Friday mornings and stay till after dinner on Saturday nights which precludes spending time on the computer!

Last week I forgot to take photos before DD carefully rolled up twenty-five QAYG blocks and crammed them into a post bag.

They reached their destination last Friday. I have "borrowed" a photo from Jan's Oz Comfort Quilts blog to give you some idea of what we've been up to. The blocks are 10.5 inches square (unfinished) and I can't wait to see how they play with other donated blocks to make a quilt. They don't look so good after being rolled tightly but it was the most efficient way to fit blocks into the postbag!

adding to the fabric stash

Last week I took DD to the Big Box Craft Store; this was the result:


I think we begin to have a stash!

a new beginning

After the "insect attack" which was the subject of my last post, I realised that I had underestimated how many stitches I ripped out! I think it was more like 60,000!

Want to see what that looks like?

That, friends, is a solid, reasonably-tightly-wound ball, 15cm (6 inches) in diameter weighing nearly 300 grams (10.5 ounces).

Or 900 metres (984 yards).

But there is light at the end of the tunnel; some of it now looks like this:

200 stitches wide, 30 rows long on 3.5mm needles

Or, to give you a better idea, here is a close up of what I have been working on for three days (most of the ends are woven in during the knitting process - sometimes I forget!):

An intarsia rainbow at the end of the frogpond!

a warning to my knitting friends

We all know acrylic is a bi-product of the petroleum industry; that is: a form of spun and plied plastic. It melts when heated and become brittle when frozen.

And insects don't eat plastic, right?

Well then, can anyone explain these?

Which came from this?

The only explanation we can come up with is that Younger Grandson threw up on my knitting (which was packed away in a bag near where DD was feeding). DD cleaned it up but left a protein residue which was attractive to whatever chewing insect did this!

Moral of the story - make sure you wash you hands after handling food or other protein products (including some hand creams). If you spill something on your knitting, fix the stitches somehow and properly wash the knitting.

Otherwise you might find yourself ripping out hours of work (in my case 96 rows -- 18,720 stitches!)

progress on Hunter's Cabin quilt

In mid-August, I designed a quilt for the "men's fabric" I had been given. I cut the pieces and there it stopped. You can read about it on this post.

At the time, I was waiting for a design wall so I could plan my quilt.

Now I have a design wall but I have instead decided to make a random scrappy quilt. I often overthink things so I'll see how this goes!

I need to practise straight stitching and this quilt will be a great vehicle. If you look at the design again, you can see it is made of 48 rectangular blocks consisting of two shorter strips, one longer strip and a square. Perfect for practising straight, 1/4 inch piecing!

So, I finally stopped procrastinating and just did it!

I joined 96 short strips to make 48 units, then joined each unit to a fussy cut square to make a larger unit.

I then began to match the strip/square units with one long strip to make half a block.

This half block has not yet been trimmed to size.

I will then join two opposing half blocks to make one block.

Can anyone tell me how one can sew using a 1/4 inch foot and still not get a straight seam?

More practice needed.

high tea

On 30th September, WM (who had a rostered day off) and I took my mother to the nearby town of Windsor for a belated birthday surprise.

We took her to Mishy's for "lunch". Every table had a different setting - DD would have loved the table in the middle of the room; it had butterflies on the crockery.

This was our table. We had floral cups and saucers with striped plates. The tea pot had leaf tea inside (hence the strainer behind my cup of tea); the big white pot on my left was hot water. You can't see very well, but the water (from the pink bottle) and the freshly squeezed apple juice in the background was served in cut glass goblets. WM had the plunger of freshly brewed coffee which was replaced during the meal. And look at those tiny hand-made meringues on the plates!

I had pre-ordered the "elegant high tea" for three: mini pie, mini quiche, quarter sandwiches with the crusts cut off (egg, smoked salmon, ham and, of course, cucumber), scones with jam and cream, tiny cup cakes (one each of banana, carrot and chocolate) and tiny cream filled profiteroles.


Sadly, the cafe is in the back of an arcade with little passing foot traffic. Business is slow. We were there at 1pm and only one other person came in for a sandwich and a coup of coffee.

I don't know if this is the reason the business is on the market but I know I will be telling everyone to go there before it closes at the end of November. WM is going to take his mother and will mind the Grandboys while I take DD.

in which I speak of socks

Last month, I was supposed to teach a full day workshop on knitting socks from the toe up. Unfortunately, I became very ill with acute sinusitis and was unable to stand, let alone tutor all day.

In the weeks leading up to the sock workshop I had, of course, concentrated on sock knitting.

In a previous post, I showed you my sample sock (seen again at right with my 20cm long dpns).

Before I even designed the sample sock, there was the pair I started in April and finally finished last month for the Wonderful Man.

Next, I cast on another pair of self striping / "fake isle" socks. I thought I might wear them but they are way too big for me. I had become so used to knitting man-sized socks that I automatically made them 72 stitches - much too wide in the foot for me!

Moda Vera Noir colourway Merlot

So, two days later, I cast on yet another pair of socks -- I had to keep practising Judy's Magic Cast On. For me, it's the trickiest part of the sock. The cast on itself is easy but knitting those first two rows can be a little fiddly on 2.25mm (US 1) needles.

The socks I cast on are Ribbed Ribbon socks (Ravelry link) by Wendy Johnson from her book, Socks from the Toe Up. These socks don't have the short row heel we were going to do in the workshop. However, I decided it wouldn't hurt me to try something new so I did the heel exactly as the pattern stated.

I knitted the first sock on two circulars (according to the pattern). I find it cumbersome - sliding the stitches from the plastic cable (where they often catch) on to the needle; and the needle-not-in-use always seems to be in the way.Give me dpns any time!

The combination of circular needles and a lace pattern makes for very slow knitting. It took me three hours to complete one pattern repeat of 24 rounds! With dpns and "plain vanilla" socks, I could finish the whole foot or leg in that time!

I also can't decide whether I like the socks or not (for many reasons):

1. I think they may be a couple of rows too short in the foot. They are perhaps a little too snug!
2. I think I'd like the toe area to be a little longer; perhaps twenty four rounds instead of eighteen.
3. The yarn (Cleckheaton Cocoon 70% merino, 30% nylon) has gone fluffy already and they haven't been worn or washed. I know it's baby yarn but it has the same composition as sock yarn - obviously it is spun less tightly! Why did I choose to knit socks from it? I only have self striping yarn or variegated yarn in my stash and didn't think either would do this lace pattern justice! Mind you, I don't think this yarn is doing the pattern any favours either!
4. I have gauge but my pattern looks clunky rather than elegant like the photo of the sock in the book (which I can't show you here for copyright reasons) or the ones seen here.

In our house, we have a saying: "If in doubt, don't!"

Because I couldn't decide whether to continue or rip out the Ribbed Ribbon Socks, I cast on yet another pair of socks on the Monday afternoon. It would have been good to have gone to the workshop on Saturday wearing a pair of handknit socks!

This third pair is knitted from Patonyle (the old 50g balls) which I bought at the Australian Country Spinners Mill Shop in 2008 and had almost forgotten.

In fact, the yarn didn't have a label but a search on Ravelry confirmed my suspicions. The pattern is "plain vanilla" because the yarn is self striping. I used Judy's Magic Cast On (32 stitches) and increased in every second row until I had 64 stitches. I knit until the foot instep touched my leg then did an hourglass heel (which is what I would have been teaching the following Saturday). Because it was late at night and I was tired and not well, I made a mistake and had to rip out the whole heel again. I went to bed that night thinking about socks.

When I woke on Tuesday morning, I knew the answer! The increase in alternate rows creates a narrow toe which doesn't suit the shape of my foot. I need a completely different shape, one more like a commercial sock.

And so I did the only sensible thing -- I ripped out the whole sock! If I had continued and ignored the toe, I would have regretted it and probably never worn the socks.

I still have to bind off the first sock and cast on the second, so it's just as well I didn't want to wear them to the workshop-that-was-postponed, wasn't it?

As for the Ribbed Ribbon socks - what do you think? Should I finish the pair, or count my losses and rip this one out?

Wonky String quilt finished

Last Wednesday I wrangled this quilt through the sewing machine to complete the sashing on the back.

The quilt is made in a "quilt as you go" method. The blocks were originally made by (someone unknown to us)sewing strings to a calico foundation. DD and I then quilted them onto wool/polyester wadding and a backing made from hand-dyed fabric that had been donated to the quilting group.

The combination of the thicker backing fabric and the extra layer of fabric between the top and the batting made the quilt very stiff and heavy. When I tried to sew the sashing on, I really had to wrangle the quilt. When it hit the back edge of my sewing table, it was so stiff it didn't bend and go down the gap between the table and the wall, it just crashed into wall and sent my stitching way off (It's rarely straight at the best of times).

I finally got the machine work finished. I'm not at all happy with it but it's done. On Thursday I took the quilt to the Caring Hearts Community Quilt group monthly meeting to hand sew the binding down. I made the mistake of stitching every 1/4 inch or so - only to remember (too late) that binding a quilt is not the same as hemming a pair of trousers! Nevermind, more stitches is better than less (I guess).

I finished sewing the binding on Friday night and washed the quilt and put it in the dryer yesterday.

So here, for your viewing pleasure, Wonky Strings completed!

What's in a name?

Today I'm linking up with (fellow Aussie) Dawn's blog As Sweet As Cinnamon. Dawn is having a giveaway and asks the question: What's the reason behind your blog name?

I started this blog because a friend had a blog and it sounded like fun. We had met at the Knitters' Guild and we both had "knitting blogs". Sadly my friend no longer posts on her blog -- she has discovered Twitter! Because I like to knit all year round, not just in winter as my mother (who taught me to knit) does, I called my blog "Too Hot to Knit? Never!" The URL was the result of me thinking it was cool to use numerals in my address.

A couple of years ago I joined a site called ravelry.com, and my user-name there is never2hot2knit. For the sake of consistency, I changed my blog name to "Never Too Hot To Knit".

Last year, my DD and I discovered patchwork and quilting but we didn't take it too seriously until this year when we began classes with Elizabeth Wallace of Aussie Patches in May. I was hooked! And my knitting output decreased dramatically!

A couple of months ago, in acknowledgement that this is no longer a "knitting" blog yet reluctant to start another one, I changed the layout of my blog and the title to reflect who I am now: someone who makes stitches with knitting needles or a sewing machine (and occasionally even a crochet hook)!

Now, I'm off to my sewing machine and perhaps tonight, some knitting in front of the television!

Thanks, Dawn, for that bit of fun!

And since I still have a "small blog", I'm also linking up here at Lily's Quilts:

a brief summary of Camp

I arrived at the Knitters' Guild of NSW (Inc) Camp on Friday evening at 5:20, after an almost three hour trip - half an hour of which I spent travelling just four kilometres (2.5 miles). A police operation was underway in Castle Hill (a motorist been shot by the police the day before) so there were major roads closed in the area.

I was given a nice twin bed motel-style room with en-suite which I shared with a member of my own knitting group so the accommodation was much better than I was expecting. The word "camp" conjures up bunk beds and dormitory style rooms so it was a very pleasant surprise. The food was quite good and there seemed to be enough for everybody although those at the end of the queue missed out on pumpkin for dinner one night.

I took my camera, charged the batteries overnight and then was too busy to take any photos!

On Saturday I tutored an all day workshop on entrelac knitting. I am by no means an expert but I have knitted quite a few blankets in garter stitch entrelac so I am very familiar with the technique.

All the samples I prepared were knitted in acrylic (I don't like "wasting" wool for knitting samples and I hope they'll be protected from insect attack!) and unblocked: I wanted the participants to see what their work would look like on the needles - which is not always like a blocked piece; this is especially true of entrelac.

In the first session of the day, I taught the participants how the squares of entrelac are joined together. We worked in garter stitch: but some of those squares were knitted entirely in purl. The samples show the same square knitted in one handpainted yarn and in two contrasting yarns. The participants all made the sample with two yarns so that hey could see how it comes togehter.

After lunch came the harder session: not only did the participants learn how to knit traditional entrelac in stocking stitch, which meant making triangles at the base, sides and top of their sample, but I also taught them to knit backwards and asked them, if they could, to knit with the right side facing for the rest of the day. Knitting backwards is knitting the work from the right needle to the left needle; this saves turning the work around at the end of every eight stitch row which, with practice, is actually faster than knitting and purling.

Most of the participants got it and were happy to keep knitting that way (slowly) for the remainder of the afternoon. Some of them said they really enjoyed knitting backwards, which was a real bonus!

The sample shows the difference in size and finish knitting the same pattern in stocking stitch versus garter stitch - same needles, same yarn, same number of stitches, same knitter.

For the fast finishers, there was a bonus sample: lace entrelac. Well, a combination of lace and garter stitch as seen below.

I was given many thanks and compliments for the workshop which I really appreciated.

On Sunday I was exhausted. 8:30am-5:50pm was a long, long day for me! The weather was miserable, and got worse as the weekend progressed. I had planned to leave on Sunday afternoon after the intarsia workshop I was taking, but the combination of heavy rain and fatigue made me decide to leave at lunch time on Sunday.

I had a good drive home, despite the heavy rain at the beginning of the trip, and was home in about two and half hours. It was the first time in a very long while since I had driven that kind of distance (170km - 106.5 miles - each way) so I was quite pleased with myself.

I had a wonderful time (despite the weather and the exhaustion) and would encourage Guild members to start saving now for Camp 2013. And be sure to let the Committee know what workshops you would like to see at the next camp.