ozcountryquiltingmum

The best laid plans of mice and me

Shouldn't be posting right now, about to watch the red carpet arrivals at Australian Football's night of nights, the Brownlow medal for best player in the league. Well, that is obstensibly what it is about, but it is really all about what the wives and girlfriends wear!

But shouldn't even be planning on watching that! It is meant to be hot date night!!! I took the kids down to Mum's this morning and basically the day went pear shaped from there!!

Dh suggested a week ago that after all our illnesses etc, it would be good to have a night kid free! I immediately got onto Mum who usually has the kids for a night in the holidays and organized it. Knew I was in trouble from the time Ds got up this morning. He walked up the middle of the bed far too early, wrapped his arms around me and told me I was beautiful and the best mum in the world! That's how I knew we were in trouble...no-one would say that to me without some ulterior motive at 5.45am!!!

Sure enough..."I don't want to go to Ma's, I will miss you too much, I will be too sad"....you get the picture! We skirted around the issue all morning, managed to get him in the car..albeit with a quilt over his head......but by the end of the hour drive he was not staying!!! I was to go and shop while he had a picnic, then I was not to ring and check on him...I was to come back to the farm and get him...he was going home!!!!

So much for a big afternoon of indulgent sewing!! Instead I headed to the local town where I made a big dent on the credit card and the Christmas shopping. Just when i am about to head back out to their farm I get a message, "DS says go home!! He is having more fun than a school excursion so don't pick him up!!"

Would have been lovely to get that message 5 hours sooner but I headed home...to date night? No, to a quick tea before DH went off to a Church meeting that he had forgotten!

So, here I am blogging and watching the football telecast! At least it is peaceful. Regular readers know by now that I should NEVER make plans of any sort!

To the instructions for the basting frame!!! And about time too, you say!

The frame "legs" and the posts that fit across into the slots. The frame legs are made from the same width timber that is described below. The timber piece that is attached to the base is exactly a metre long. The base can be made from whatever you have around that is sturdy. If you are shorter ot taller you can alter there heights, I'm tall and it was great.

There are two different lengths here for the long pieces, one for a standard quilt, and then 2 extra large beams to a king size. They are over in the sewing room, yell out if you want their measurements. The quilt group has used wide cotton tape and attached it with a staple gun, very easy and easy to pin too. You need to have a lot of pins.

The instructions are from an absolutely fabulous book that i am also hiring from Mum's craft group for the princely fee of 20 cents per month!! It is called, The Complete book of Machine quilting, byRobbie and Tony Fanning. My copy says 1980 but there are copies around when you put it in Google and some have a much newer looking cover. It looks a really good one to own.

Instructions from here on the frame are:

At a hardware/lumber store, ask for 2 straight-grained fir 1x2s (2.5x5 cm), each a foot (30 cm) longer than the long side of your quilt. and two more lengths of straight grain fir 1x2s, a foot longer than the short side of your quilt; and four 2 1/2 inch (6.35 cm) C clamps. You can see more pictures of how the frame went together by going back a few posts.

Staple denim, pillow ticking or canvas tape to each wide edge of the four frame pieces. If you are really a perfectionist you will mark the centre of each board on the tape. When you clamp the pieces together, always make sure that the pinning fabrics face each other.

When basting: the ironed backing should be placed topside down: if you pieced it together you will be looking at the seams. Using straight pins, pin one long side of the backing to the tape that you have stapled to the frame. Repeat for the opposite long side. Then use the clamps to fasten the short sides of the frame to the long sides. I fhtere is canvas tape, put the short frames, (tape side down) on tops of the long frames (tape side up) Check where the two boards meet with a right angle to be sure the boards form a 90 degree angle. Now pin the short sides of the backing to the short sides of the quilt frame. Don't overstretch the backing. BNow the backing is entirely attached to the frame.

Now you layer and pin the batting and quilt top. repinning until you have it smooth and just how you like it. Then you are ready to baste it in whichever way you prefer, thread, safety pins or pins.

I am going to do another in a few days so I will take pics of each step. Off now to watch the Brownlow and then back in the car in the morning to go back and get the kids!! Have a great day, tracey