Put your foot down #9

Welcome to another week of Put your foot down. It’s been a busy week so far. I’ve finished new leaders for my quilt frame, finished my November Island Batik Challenge quilt (except for the quilting). Then wrote a test pattern for said quilt and presented it to testers.  The 2nd and final Island Batik Ambassador box of the year  arrived and this time I made an unpacking video. It seems like something else that eludes me at the moment.

What’s under my foot?

My longarm leaders had seen better days and I could not bring myself to pay $300 for new ones. Especially since I had about 7 yards of heavy canvas sitting in my closet. So I decided to make my own. I’m certain the process would have benefited someone however a tutorial never occurred to me until they were almost complete. So I will try my best to explain the process.

First I measured the length of the existing leaders, 134″.  Because the ends of the new canvas were not cut exactly straight I measured roughly 145″ and cut. Normally I don’t use water in my iron but canvas can be difficult to remove wrinkles from so I steamed the entire piece. The crease lines did not completely disappear but I was satisfied I could get a square cut now.

The canvas was  now 60″ by roughly 145″. I refolded and hand smoothed until the selvage  and fold was even the entire length. Steam press the fold.

Fold the canvas again lengthwise and square up the ends.

Unfold and cut the canvas in half lengthwise, you now have 2 pieces at 30″ x 134″ (or your length). Set one to the side for the top leader. Fold the other in half and steam pressed the fold then cut it in half on the fold. Now I have 2 pieces at 15″ and one at 30″. Depending on your frame, you may need wider leaders. The 30″ is for my Top leader, the 15″ are for the Take Up and Belly Bar. Make sure all 3 leaders are square.

Zigzag or serge down both ends, twice. Insert zipper and install following this video here.

You can find the canvas I used at Big Duck Canvas, no affiliation.

Use heavy gauge pins to hold the layers together while cutting. Use caution when using the rotary cutter and heavy pins, no I didn’t cut myself with the rotary cutter. But I did rip my finger open as I rolled past one of those pins.   The canvas I have is semi water resistant and I was able to wipe the red off before it was permanently signed in blood.

Share’s from last week .

There were so many great shares it was difficult to choose which 2 to feature. Gail over at Quilting Gail  shared a quilt she  finished using a technique she called “Webbing a Quilt” and she also made a great video, you should go check it out. I told her it looked too dangerous for me and I would have blood everywhere if I tried it.  Before I made friends with Elmer, glue that is,  I never failed to stab myself with a pin, multiple times on every project. My favorite saying was, “if it doesn’t have blood on it I didn’t make it”.

Time to get that visual outta your mind and please do go visit Gail.

Dione shared this self portrait of Clever from Clever Chameleon. His canvas wasn’t fabric, well it was before he got a hold of her thread collection.

“Sew She Did” is the name of this quilt by Touch of Grey. I LOVE this quilt and the story of where the name comes.

What’s under your foot?

The rules are simple. Any current fiber art project is welcome, just please link back to my page (or grab the html code below) somewhere in your post.

Visit as many links as time allows. Most of all, have fun and make new friends. Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom for linkies I participate in.