Sentimental Stitches | Hand Quilting Advertisements: Hand Quilting I’m going to share with you some of my favorite tools to use and what techniques work for me. My father introduced the quilting world to the raised edge thimble in the 1980s and it’s changed the way many quilter’s quilt. Batting & Backing I love the look cotton batting give my quilts, especially after the quilts are washed. Place your quilt backing, right side down, on a large flat surface. The Stitch! The actual quilting stitch is really very simple. The “Quilt Police Rules” suggest you cut a length of thread about 18″ long.
DIY Advent, Day 8: No More Unemployed Neckerchiefs DIY Every time I see a pretty neckerchief, I’ll buy it, but hardly around my neck, I feel like an air hostess. Ergo, I have an incredible number of small towels, but which I never wear. On the other hand I can not throw them away. A solution had to be found and that came in the form of a belt buckle, which I have made from a piece of rubber and D-rings. The eighth Advent calendar door brings this very light, but all the greater effect Do It Yourself tutorial for all those, who have lying around many small neckerchiefs (I have, I have, I have!) Material And Tools – For This DIY Project You Need About 20 cm long and 3 cm wide rubber band4 D-ringsPinsSewing kit or sewing machine DIY Tutorial: The Step-By-Step Craft Instructions DIY Step 1 Draw the two ends of the rubber band through each 2 D-rings and fix them with pins. DIY Step 2 Before sewing verify that the rings are loose, and only then sew. Final DIY Result Buckle for a Cloth Belt Fold the cloth. Rear View A medium-sized cloth on the hip.
Emroidery Stitches for Finishing a Quilt Cretan Stitch The stitch shown in this diagram is known as plait or Cretan, it is commonly seen on Cretan and other Eastern embroideries. It can be used as a solid border stitch or as a filling, varying in width as required. To work it, bring the thread through on the lower central line, then insert the needle on the uppermost line and bring it through on the next below as in process in the diagram; then, still keeping the thread to the right, insert the needle immediately underneath on the lowest line and bring it through on the line next above, similar to the last stitch, but in reverse direction. To continue, work the stitch alternately on one side and the other, always keeping the thread to the right of the needle. In order to make the central plait broader take up rather less material with the needle; this will decrease the outer and increase the inner lines.
Installing and Configuring Arch Linux: Part 1 OTHERWISE ENTILED: Rob tries to install Arch Linux some of the time, but really spends most of the time drinking beer. Before I start: NO, UNLIKE EVERY OTHER ARTICLE ON THE WEB, PUBLISHED TODAY, THIS IS NOT A JOKE, K?!? I’ve been looking for a new distro recently. I do this from time to time, principally because I get bored of what I’m currently running. For those that don’t know, Arch Linux describes itself as: …a lightweight and flexible Linux® distribution that tries to Keep It Simple. I’d heard about Arch in the past from several sources and had heard that you basically have to install and configure everything yourself, but that the package manager (awesomely named Pacman!) The following series of posts will be a record of my experiences installing and configuring Arch on my home desktop machine. I’ve separated the post out into days. Day 1: Backing Up I’m not really going to go into how. This took a while, as I have quite a lot of data. $ pvresize --setphysicalvolumesize 500G /dev/sda1
Sewing Helpers: {Tips & Resources Home / Crafts / Sewing Helpers: {Tips & Resources} Here’s a page full of several basic but helpful tips and tutorials for beginner sewers (and some great resources for those more experienced too!). You’ll find zipper installation helpers, tips for making your own bias tape, hemming methods, how to make pockets and bound buttonholes plus a whole lot more. Zipper Installation *Published May 18, 2011 and moved to this page for better organization Does sewing with zippers terrify you? Learn How To Install A Zipper With These Handy Tutorials Basic Installation: Recommends using a zipper foot, this type of install is one of the most common methods and is suitable for many types of projects. Tips & Tricks Guide To Zippers: This is a great resource from Sew, Mama, Sew! Bias Tape *First published November 23, 2011 and moved to this page for better organization You can buy bias tape in a wide assortment of colors, but sometimes you want to use something a little more special for a project. sew4home.com
How to make sew-in magnets... (..when you've accidentally botched a large-ish and expensive import order). What I wanted was THESE - And what I got were THESE super-sticky non-pvc-coated magnet snaps. (Those are heavy 12-inch tailors shears they're holding up, folks!). My suppliers in Asia are not particularly interested in a return or swap arrangement, so I'm making the best of the situation and playing with my new friends, the magnets. Trying new things. Super-Sarah wants to make fridge-magnets out of them. In fabric heavier than quilting cotton, I reckon they'd be fine to be placed directy on the (wrong side of) fabric and "trapped" with a layer of fabric sewn over the back of them. On the fine cotton and silk that I was trying to sew, I thought they showed through a little too much without a bit of softening, so I made my own "sew-in" magnets! I laid the magnets on a scrap of light fusible interfacing. Folded it over. Pressed the interfacing to fuse it... ...to both sides of the magnets.
A List Apart: Articles: Accessible Data Visualization with Web Standards We’ve been talking about Web 2.0 for so long now it’s already passé to argue about what it means and what it doesn’t. But one thing’s for sure, there’s a lot of data out there on the web these days. And as web designers, we’re designing a lot of data-driven sites. There are plenty of options out there for data visualization, too. There are also great standards-based techniques, such as Eric Meyer’s CSS bar graphs which transform good clean semantic table markup into charts. All of these options are extremely useful when your data is front and center, when all you’re after is a chart. We could build that type of navigation with Flash, or generate static images every time the data changes, but that can be a big tradeoff in terms of accessibility and maintainability. Even with standards-based markup, there are tradeoffs. I’m going to cover three basic techniques for incorporating some simple data visualization into standards-based navigation patterns. Horizontal bar charts#section1
The Final Word (for now) on Homemade Hard Cider There is no feeling in the world like popping open a batch of cider and realizing what you have created alcohol. It's really hard to describe. We've made all kinds of recipes before, including some meals that have taken days to prepare. But alcohol always seemed a little unreal, and dangerous. We have have been attempting to make our own cider using a what amounts to a jug of $7 organic juice from Whole Foods, a packet of yeast, and equipment we bought from the brewery store for a grand total of about $2. Yes, it got a bit serious when we realized that we actually had to drink the experiment. Brian from Daily Ikuru, a brew guru, gave me this bit of frank advice: "Drinking it today, a week from now, or even two weeks from now isn't going to kill you, you know." Yes, that was probably true. We have lots of tasting notes from various stages, but it's all a lot of information. Up until now, this whole cider making process has been rather reckless and carefree. Go forth and make cheap cider!
Dyed Buttons | Rit Dye Dyeing buttons and beads is fun and easy to do, enabling you to get the exact color you want whether using the buttons and beads on a coat, a pillow cover or in a necklace. They also look beautiful in a vase as part of a flower arrangement, helping the flowers to stand tall. Most buttons and beads are made out of nylon and Rit is one of the few dyes that will color these materials (it also dyes wood buttons!). That means you can transform plain buttons and beads into colorful accents that match or coordinate with whatever you are making. Prep, dye and rinse time: 30 minutes You’ll Need White nylon-based plastic buttons or beadsRit Dye, liquid or powderMeasuring cupMeasuring spoonsPlastic containersSpoonRubber glovesPlastic table coverPaper towels Step by Step Cover work surface with a plastic table cover.
How to Burn an OS X Lion Boot Disc When Apple’s OS X Lion debuts in July, it’ll only be available through Apple’s Mac App Store. No retail copies, no white-edged Apple-gray install DVDs—just an install file you’ll purchase and pull down by conjuring the App Store from your Mac’s dock and perusing “New and Noteworthy” for a picture of Apple’s new tawny-maned kitty. Oh, and you’ll need at least 2GB of memory, 4GB of install space and to be running the very latest version of OS X Snow Leopard in the bargain to make it all work. So what about performing a clean install? You know, where you don’t upgrade over your existing Snow Leopard one? (PHOTOS: 15 Fantastic Gadgets for Father’s Day) According to tech blog Egg Freckles, yes you can. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Of course you won’t be able to do any of that until July-something-or-other when Lion actually hits. MORE: An ‘Onlion’ Release for Apple’s Next OS