Get to know your patchwork foot

Flora and Fauna, Parts of the Garden close-up

I recently took a workshop and mentioned to my neighbour a precise way of starting/stopping 1/4" from the edge without marking the patch. I was surprised to find out that many weren't aware of what their 1/4" patchwork foot could do for them! I wrote about this before but thought that this would be a good time to repeat what I figured out about my foot.

This is the 1/4" patchwork foot off my Janome. If you look closely you will see some little markers along the edge. Believe it or not these markings serve a purpose!

This shot is taken from the above the foot and I've place three pins so you can see the markers more clearly.

The blue pin indicates where the sewing machine needle will pierce the fabric. The needle will be 1/4" away from the right edge of the fabric.  If you want to start sewing 1/4" in from the top edge of your fabric, line up the marker at the white pin with the top edge of the patch and your needle will pierce the fabric 1/4" in from the top. If you want to stop 1/4" before the bottom edge of your fabric, when the marker at the orange pin is lined up with the bottom edge of the fabric your needle will be 1/4" in from the edge!  I think you'll agree that these are very helpful little features!

Work continues on my Love Entwined quilt albeit slowly! I'm now on to Part 3. I've stitched down the gold oak leaves (well that's what they look like to me). Between the oak leaves are "plumes" with six tiny circles appliquéd on each. I had thought I would use a taupe fabric but decided it was too drab so I've decided to go with red. I think this is a better option. I'll stitch them down and then I'll have to make and appliqué 48 little orange circles. You can see two of the orange circles on the bottom right plume. They are rough cut just to give me an idea as to how the orange would look and I am happy with it!

Well that's it for today. It is too cold to go outside to take pictures so I'll leave you with a picture of some mushrooms from my quilt Flora and Fauna, Parts of the Garden!

Until I blog again, how about we warm up with a hot pot of mushroom and onion soup and a crust of bread. Then we can settle down and sew to our heart's content! Bliss!