Printing A5 pages for your planner - Farm Girl Vintage

I hadn't planned to write this blog post, but yesterday I received a lovely e-mail from Stacey, asking if I'd sell her a set of the planner pages I printed of the Farm Girl Vintage schedule. As it's someone else's content, I'm not sure it would be ethical to do so, so I said I'd write a blog post about how I did it. If you know a quicker and better way, do share. Next I'd like to work out how to do personal size pages too and double sided would be great too.

 

 

I have also used this method to add the instructions for my bee commitments to my planner so that they're all in one place.

 

But before I get ahead of myself, perhaps I should mention that this is a Paperchase planner - A5 in size (so half of A4). And I can't see it on the website.

 

I have only had the planner a short while so it is in the process of developing but one useful element is that A5 patterns such as this Amy Butler pattern from my friend Jane fits beautifully into the planner with a strip of Time Manager holes which I'm sure could be emulated with some card cut into thin strips with some double sided tape. Perhaps that's a tutorial for another day.

 

 

 First I go to the page I want to take the information from, which in this case is at The Jolly Jabber. Select the pictures and text that I want to copy and copy them. I open Word. My page set up is automatically set to A4, if necessary, go into settings and change to A4. Then I paste the details into Word.

 

 

 In this case, the pages split very nicely into nine blocks per page, otherwise, I go in and add page breaks where necessary.

 

 

Then I go to Print the pages. And for my printer I click properties in the top right hand corner.

 

I then change pages per sheet to 2 and deselect the Draw Borders box. Perhaps I should have mentioned that I use an HP Photosmart 7510, but check the help file for your printer and you should find something similar. Click okay. Then click print. If it's a large document you might just want to print pages 1-2 to test out what you've set up.

 

You'll now have an A4 page with two pages printed on it. Trim it down the middle and you have two pages.

 

 

I then apply half inch wide washi tape to the left hand side before punching the pages. I don't apply the washi if the pages are going to be temporary, for  example the instructions for bee blocks. I will remove the pages from the binder once the blocks have been made, blogged and posted.

 

 

 

I then use my Rapesco hole punch which is marked 82mm from one side. Punch one side - lining up the bottom edge with the tape which I've used to mark the 82mm point. This is explained on the Amazon listing.

 

 

Then turn the page over and repeat for the other side.

 

 

I hope this has been useful to you and let me know if there's anything else about your planner that's been puzzling you, next I will try and print A5 doublesided, and in the right order and then perhaps personal size. You can also use this for a document that you want printed A5 single sided.

CQ Jersey Bee - June / July

This block is for Judy who requested shades of purple. Hmm, not many of those in my stash which I will have to remedy. The pattern is from McCalls Quilting and can be found here.

My Small World

 

I made the time today to get part one of this mini quilt completed. It measures 6" by 33", I think. That gives you some idea of how small some of the pieces are. The instructions are written in the main for hand piecers but I have machine pieced all of the parts apart from three blocks where I did the applique by hand.

The house block is pieced in two pieces in the pattern but I pieced the orange fabric and then reverse applique it to the house.

 

I also reverse appliqued the orange door in the striped block. I'm pleased with how both blocks turned out.

 

My next job (tomorrow) is to cut my strips for the low volume swap and get the packages swapped out ready to post when we're in London on Saturday. Unfortunately one packet was delayed as it had excess postage to pay. Never mind no one was in so we didn't have to pay. I had to pay on something last month too. I almost always take my envelopes to the Post Office to have them weighed as paying the extra £1 processing fee is very annoying for the recipient. I also used a Tim Holtz fabric for one of the buildings which has come out well. Cut up it looks like bricks.



 

Bumbling honeys bee block June 2015

As two members of our bee have dropped out, June will be the last block for this current year. I met with some of the bumbling honeys at the Alexander Macqueen exhibition a week ago and we discussed how to move forward and change it up. That is now being discussed, ready to start again in September.

 

Helen asked us to make two 12" sprout blocks using the instructions by TraceyJay Quilts.

 

I dipped into my box of 2.5" squares as well as my scrap bags which are sorted by colour. Some of the low volume fabrics are a bit louder than I had thought, but overall I think the blocks work.

 

 

They are now ready to post along with Jane's blocks.

ALYoF - Ex Libris

Having just returned from a five day trip to London, including a Buckingham Palace Garden Party and a trip to the Albert Hall for the centenary AGM of the WI in the presence of the Queen, the start of June has shot past. and we are heading back to London on Saturday for an appointment at GOSH for Lizzie. Here we are waiting to go into the Palace in a very long queue.

 

 

I am off to the Simply Solids retreat in September and have signed up for the secret sewer swap, so my goal this month is to get ahead at use my Ex Libris panels to make the Clover & Violet planner case. The challenge is the pattern hasn't been released yet. I am however seeing lots of photos on Instagram from testers so it's release must be imminent.

 

I'm thinking of the panel for the outside and the co-ordinating fabric for the inside.

 

Sunday stash - Massdrop

I think it was one of my stitching friends Mary, who alerted me to a Massdrop deal a couple of months ago when this fabric wasn't yet available in the UK.

 

 

Along with a number of other parcels, it arrived last week and is seen here in my brand new Ikea box.

 

Perhaps this will give you a better idea of what I bought, yes mini pearl bracelets. Delicious and a good addition to any stash. Sixteen fat quarters in all.

 



And no, I don't have a plan for them, but I know they will be very useful for scrap quilts and bee blocks. I was particularly surprised that the postage for this bundle from the US was only $5.69, when I clicked through to Massdrop, I was expecting to pay a lot more and have to pass on the deal.

Linking to:

Farm Girl Vintage - Corn & Tomatoes and Country crossroads

I may still be in London today, but I have made my farm girl vintage for this week which is week 6. I have a few more that I've made but I now need to tackle some of the farm buildings which have more pieces to cut.

Corn and tomatoes is made in red and yellow, no surprise there using my favrouite low volume of frankings - no idea what the official name is but I bought it from The Running Chicken at Knit & Stitch, a year ago.

 

Country crossroads uses the same red dot as corn and tomatoes (why put fabric away) as well as a busy floral print I received in a kit from Australia and some pearl bracelet in orange. My Massdrop purchase of the mini pearl bracelets should have arrived whilst I'm away.

 

And here are the two blocks together.

 

 

 

And the 11 blocks so far, with one 18" star, six 12" blocks and five 6" blocks. And I know that doesn't add up as I made two canning blocks.

 

WIP Wednesday - the London edition

 

 

 These are the projects I was working on up to Sunday as this week I have been in London. Yesterday we were at a Garden party at Buckingham Palace and I hope to have some pictures to share with you on my return.

 

Firstly my cosy blanket  - pattern from Attic 24 is about two thirds complete and then will need borders. I need to order two extra balls for the border. So I'm waiting for a free post offer or similar over at woolwarehouse.co.uk I have sewn most of the ends in now which makes the project look so much better.

 

 

Then there's part one of the My Small World sew along. I have quite a bit to do to get this part finished, so will focus on it on my return. I will also sort out the low volume swap on my return as one packet has got caught up in the postal service and although it was posted on Tuesday, it hadn't reached me by Friday.

ALYoF - Kaffe Fassett June 2015

Just finished the binding on this quilt before I head off to London. This is my first attempt at ruler work on my long arm. I found that I needed to replace the open toed foot with the closed toe foot so work stalled for a few weeks. I wasn't even sure where the foot was. However once I'd found it, it was a simple job to replace it. I did find the machine skipped stitches periodically when moving from the front to the back, so I will check all of the wires and clean the wheels on my return from London next weekend.

 

I am pleased with the piano key border and the orange peel design in the centre. Fortunately I had the right size half circle ruler so no marking or fluffing was required.  The Kaffe Fassett fabric was from a friend's destash and the backing I had already. A simple pattern which will be donated to Siblings Together. Another quilt which needs a label adding in the next two weeks so it can be posted with others to the charity.

 

Linking to:

 

 

Sunday Stash - Low volume

 

I saw a fabric bundle pop up on Instagram two weeks ago. A quick message to Simply Solids and then to Kim who was at the Malvern quilt show and it was purchased. Imagine my surprise when it came in its own little bag.

 

 

A lovely fat quarter bundle of low value creams and whites. Bought with the My Small world quiltalong in mind. I asked Kim to buy it for me so I would save the postage charge and then they had a free post weekend. Sigh, never mind. I swapped Kim some Kaffe fabric scraps for my bundle, sow e were both delighted.

And here's a close up of spots, hounds tooth, cotton and steel and more. Theya re already put away in my low volume basket IN THE CUPBOARD.


Linking to:

Farm Girl Friday - Churn Dash and Cool threads

Week 5 already and I now have ten blocks as I made two can blocks last week. This week is the traditional churn dash as well as cotton reels. I made the cotton reels as a 12" block but I've just realised that I can unpick them into four 6" blocks if I end up with too few smaller blocks.

The cotton reels is a mix of some of my favourite prints - Pearl bracelets, bike tracks, flurry and others I don't know the names of by Katy Jones and V & Co.

This is a 6" block on a Carolyn Freidlander background with some Moda dots and Cotton & Steel. I really like this block, it's turned out well.

And my blocks so far. I think I've got a good spread of colours so far, but need to make another 6" block next week.

A productive bank holiday weekend

Two customer quilts finished, trimmed and ready for collection. Today I plan to get my Siblings Together quilt back on the machine and install the closed foot so that I can use rulers more accurately. I have asked my husband to spare me an hour to help as there are 16 steps to be followed. I bet I'll be the one shimmying under the machine to turn the hand wheel. At least I'm out of reach there if it goes wrong.

 

I used a pantograph by Anne Bright called Hickory Park to quilt this using a white thread so that the quilting doesn't dominate the pretty quilt.

This is the Fat Quarter Shop BOM for 2014 called Wishes. Val has used Ruby by Bonnie & Camille for the most part. So fresh and I love the grass green essential dot that she used for the backing.