Making tuffets

If you've ever made a tuffet you know that there is a LOT of prework. Assembling the supplies which isn't so bad, but can still be tricky. But the amount of tools - well a lot of tools is required for this somewhat simple project. No, not a lot of tools - having the right tools is what's important.

Before we get into the tuffets, I thought I would share two links with you. One is the link to my new PROFILE picture. Hate having my picture taken, but I'm happy with this one.

The second link is to the Brampton Guardian where you will find a couple of unusual quilters. The first one is Paul (yes that is PAUL, not Paula). Paul is the president of our guild. He's a very resourceful person and he is also a contractor.  Just the sort of person you need when making tuffets.

I was to bring some tools and supplies and Paul was going to bring more tools. The day started off a bit weird as we both thought the class started at 9:30, but in fact the time had been changed to 9!  A bit of a scramble to get started, but then we were good to go.

I took tons of pictures and so I'll keep the writing short and you can browse how the day when. Let's just say that there was a TON of laughter, a LOT of sharing, much comeraderie. This workshop was a great example of how quilters pull together to help each other.  It was a super fun day and wait until you see the results.

Sit back and enjoy!

The car was jammed with supplies

Literally no room except for me to drive

 There are several patterns to make tuffets and I started off by explaining the process and the various methods. Then the group went into a frenzy!

Marking the foam pieces

More marking

Cutting a bevel on the top with the electric knife

Prepping the wooden bases

Stapling the batting around the foam

More stapling

 We had electric staplers, a pneumatic stapler and hand staplers. Of course the two teeniest women were using the hand staplers!!!

That's my little blue air compressor

The air compressor worked fine, but what a NOISE. And according to Paul, the tank is way too small. But for me - it works just fine.  Now I'll be able to borrow his stapler and finish some more tuffets!

Stapling some part of the base

I do believe this was because of the kind of legs that they had used which were embedded into the base, not screwed on afterwards.

Pulling on the tops 

More pulling

 Do I dare say what Zilda called this process?  It wasn't clean and poor Paul was blushing.

At last a look at what the tuffets will look like.

One covered tuffet

 Next up was the hardest part - putting a tuft in that darn tuffet. This required a long needle (or several long needles), cording and several people.

Discussing the tufting process

Making the tuft

 I love this picture. The smallest lady is pushing against the table while the other two push towards her.  I think I spent more time running around with the camera than actually helping people!!!

Brace that table!!!!

Do you need help???

More tufting

The beauty of this class was that everyone pitched in to help each other which made the process go very quickly, although we had a LOT of tuffets to do.


The button went on next and now we have legless tufted tuffets!!!!

Tuffet with a modern flair

Excited!

Super excited!!!!

 Time for the legs.  We were making progress in leaps and bounds. I did not think it would go so quickly. Not everyone had brought legs and brackets but for those that did - let's move on to legs and brackets.

Auditioning legs

More auditioning

 Then the process of attaching legs............

Attaching legs

I'm stapling the fabric base to cover the bottom

God I was so focused, I didn't even know they were taking pictures of me!!!!   That Heather!!!!

A serious consultation

And then they called my name - oh those tricksters!!!!

Having fun with the staple gun

We had a photo shoot............

Tuffet photo shoot

Paul's wasn't done yet, neither was mine and Tish had already gone home.

Here are some of the finished tuffets.

Very soft and pretty

Bright and bold with finials for legs

These legs were a perfect match for that fabric

A holiday one with very cute little legs

Zildi (the over achiever) made two tuffets

Another soft and pretty tuffet

Beaufiul legs that suit the fabric beautifully

Same style of legs - different fabric

Modern look with chrome legs

Shoot - I didn't get a picture of everyone's tuffet.  I know Marlene went home with hers almost done. She needed to get different brackets, but all the holes were drilled.

Paul had brought one to work on and so while he was madly sewing up the last seam,

Paul sewing up the last seam

Heather and Eva were stapling and cutting the batting for him

Zildi graciously stapled my batting for me - thanks so much Zildi!!!!

 I believe Heather was the last one to get her legs on. Or at least the brackets as I don't think she had legs. Towards the end of the day, those of us left were getting silly. Heather got Paul to sign the base of her tuffet.

Signing the tuffet

Heather with her signed tuffet and Paul

 Did we have any accidents???  Those upholstery needles are darn sharp.

Oopsie!!!!

A more serious injury caused by a hammer I believe

 And there you have it - a super fun day.   I believe in total that 18 tuffets were completely assembled or a good portion thereof. Mine was the least worked on. No worries - I'll get it done. I have three more to do as well. But I ended up selling some of my supplies so I couldn't do more than I did.

I believe we're going to do another day.  I have a list of supplies, our workshop coordinator was going to book the date and well - if you want to get a tuffet made, this is the PERFECT opportunity to do it. And to go home with the thing completed!!!!

A HUGE HUGE thank you to everyone yesterday who pitched in to help.  The sharing of hands worked beautifully and I was absolutely amazed at the results!!!

Today is going to be a crazy day - I've blog posts to work on today. So sewing, photographer and editing will be the order of the day!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!!

Thinking out of the box

It was a day for thinking outside the box. In case you don't know, there's a big event this week at Black Creek Pioneer Village.  It's called Quilts at the Creek.  I want to say this is the fifth or sixth? year for the event. There are a series of workshops in the days prior to the main event on the weekend, which is an outdoor quilt show.

Don't forget that there are several trunk shows on the weekend and I'll be doing a walking tour and talking about the challenge quilts.  Yes - it's going to be hot, wear a hat (I look hideous in hats!), slather on the sunscreen and bring a bottle (or two) of water. I promise we'll stand in the shade!   My walking tour is at 2:30 on both Saturday and Sunday.  It's going to be loads of fun!

I went to the workshop last year with Amy Garro on free motion quilting. Did I take a sewing machine?  Nope.  That was intentional. I have a very hard time adjusting in class.  Maybe there's too much pressure on myself to "perform" in front of a lot of people I know? Maybe the pressure is from them?  Or most likely, I'm just too lazy to prep for the class.

This year, the instructor is Kathy Doughty from Australia.

I was introduced to her work by Nancy several years ago. I do believe Nancy took a class from her somewhere.  Ah Nancy - is that quilt finished?  Not quite!   She owns a shop in Australia (Material Obsession) and has written five books.  A very wonderful lady. I thoroughly enjoyed her class and I think there is still room in Sunday's class on wedges!!!  I really should have taken that class, but I was too lazy to change and I had already committed to do the walk about tour.

Anyway - the class yesterday was called Out of Line. It's essentially a free form landscape type class.

Kathy's class sample

I was enthusiastic when I signed up but as the date got closer, I just didn't have the same excitement to prep. I decided to go anyway (and listen and observe) and I took a binding to hand stitch down.  Am I an idiot?  Not really - I'm a great observer and I learned a TON by watching what the other students did and what they didn't do.  Was it fair to the others?   the teacher?   Maybe not, but I didn't take any time away from the instructor or the students and I offered up some advice from time to time and helped out a lady that was having tension issues on her sewing machine.

What I found very interesting was that despite the fact that everyone saw the picture above BEFORE the class and got a list of the type of fabrics to bring, that almost 100% of the class brought monochromatic colors. Greens for the grass, blues for the sky, etc.  Only ONE person really went to town and brought the type of fabrics that Kathy was suggesting. And who would that be???   None other than NANCY!!!!

Nancy's fabrics

Don't get me wrong, many people had a wide variety of fabrics and from what I saw, their pieces were looking awesome.  Just a tad more realistic than was the intention of the class. But we're all our own artists, so what we create is PERFECT every time. And Kathy basically said that!

I could see that many people were struggling with the concept as they brought photos that they were emotionally attached to.  A beautiful holiday photo from England, or Greece or their cottage.  Many were very detailed and people were struggling to let the fabric do the work of the texture rather than account for each realistic detail.  That's what I wasn't prepared for and I wasn't in the frame of mind to let loose.  In other words, don't go down to the nitty gritty detail - use stripes for roofs, etc.

One lady who sat close to me, had a shot of three boys on a water feature. Lots of cubes, lots of angles. Very hard to figure out. Just before lunch, she starts up the sewing machine. And what I saw at the end of the day was spectacular.  She tossed making it realistic out the window and then she was racing through the piecing.  I didn't see the finished piece, but I think it'll be spectacular. Very abstract and she should be very proud of what she did.  I think a number of the others got going with the more abstract approach as well.

Did I learn something?  Yes - I learned the type of photo to look for, I learned the fabrics to look for, I learned her technique.   Now the big thing will be to put it into practice.  Oh yes - you see there is a hitch to all this.  When I went to say good-bye and thank you to Kathy, she asked me if I was coming to Market (I had told her where I worked).  YES - AH - then you can bring your quilt to show me as she will also be at Market!   OH MY!!!!   Well - I guess I had better get that photo out and start cutting!!   The finished projects don't have to be big so that is great and I do like the technique.

Here is another one of her quilts that follows this same style.

Kathy Doughty quilt

I love going to workshops and seeing what sewing machines people bring. Some only have one machine and that's what comes to class.  Some have smaller machines.  There were two friends and this is the sewing machine that they each had.  It was the cutest little thing!

ELNA portable sewing machine

I found someone's blog that talks about this little machine. It's very cute!!!!


The class went until four, but I managed to finish my hand stitching, despite the fact that I yakked to many people in the class - hey - quilting is a small world!   It's the veggie quilt - I'll take a picture of it tomorrow. Just needs a label and it's ready to go!   I decided to leave around 3 - might as well - I was just going to goof the next hour off.

I had seen something in the class that belonged to someone - OK it belonged to Nancy - that darn Nancy!  And I was going to buy it on my way home.  Ooops - got on the highway and there's no exit to that place.  Oh well, it's close to work, I'll go today. Then I decided to stop at Chapter's to see if they had Kathy's latest book - NOPE - and no new magazines. It was not in the cards for me to buy anything yesterday!


So got home earlier than usual and worked on that quilt repair.  I was going to show you my progress today, but I've already babbled on enough.  All the pictuers are edited - you'll see them tomorrow.

Have a great day!!!!


Ciao!!!!