Pippin Sequim

Single Paper Piecing Fun - Doves in the Window

2016-07-04T13:20:00.001-07:00

I tried something new! Jamie Swanson posted a tutorial on Instagram for "Single Paper Piecing", where she puts multiple sections of a paper pieced pattern on a single page, and uses fold lines as an aid to assemble the sections. I'm not sure I explained that well, but the tutorial is super clear, so check it out!

I needed to make some 10" Doves in the Window blocks, and I really didn't want to use traditional templates for something so small. I think that could easily become a mess. I couldn't find that particular size anywhere so I made my own paper piecing pattern.

You can grab the paper piecing pattern that I made here. This is for a 10" block.

Happy sewing!

Dandelions

2014-09-11T12:56:00.003-07:00

Scrappy background and a suggestion of flowers created with straight lines.

Quilted using a serpentine stitch (walking foot) for a soft texture.

And the binding that happens when nothing that's "right" is also big enough.

Restyling for dummies (and you)

2014-09-03T10:14:00.000-07:00

Note to the reader: I had this sitting around in my queue and decided to post it because it's kinda fun. The shirt actually was not improved by my "restyling" so I didn't take a photo at the time, and now I don't even know where it is. Please don't actually follow this tutorial.

Last night I restyled an old shirt into a fabulous creation. Now once upon a time, in the early days of my clothing sewing, I used to see clothes restyles around the internet and I was like "omg, that is so AMAZING! I wish that I had the skills to do that." Gonna let you in on a little secret folks. It is DEAD EASY. First of all, you are starting with something that you don't give 2 #2's about. Big deal if you mess that up, right? No. Restyling knits is for those days when you have lots of swears built up in your system and you don't want to do something fiddly. I'm determined to prove to you guys how easy this is, so I'm gonna walk you through a restyle. Soon, you will all be believers.

Ok, GO!

Step 1: Put on the subject. This is so that you can examine it for flaws.
Step 2: Go to the fridge and eat a spoonful of bumbleberry jam (another kind is ok). This is because jam is good.
Step 3: OPTIONAL: Turn on the tablet so that you can take a picture of the shirt's flaws in order to put them in an internet tutorial.
Step 4: OPTIONAL: Discover that the tablet is out of batteries. Plug it in and go empty the dishwasher.
Step 5: OPTIONAL: Come back and take pictures of yourself showing the shirt's flaws.

EXAMPLES:

Sleeves that do not extend to the wrist make my face look like this.

Step 6: Create your game plan. In this case, we are going to make this shirt short sleeved.
Step 7: Execute!
Shortening sleeves on a knit (Use your own judgment in deciding when to implement this unsophisticated method. Ugly brown/grey shirts are a good choice.)
Step 1: Draw a line on each sleeve at the length you want.
Step 2: Halfway through, decide that the light in the bedroom is not bright enough for this. Wonder why you always try things first in the bedroom mirror when the light in there sucks. Move to the bathroom. Try to make the sleeve lengths even.
Step 3: Take off the shirt and cut the sleeves off at the lines you drew.
Step 3.5: Put the shirt back on and double check in the (bathroom) mirror that the sleeves are mostly even.
Step 4: Cut 1" off of the ends of the cut off sleeves, at the wrist. Or the "partway-up-your-forearm" if your surgical patient resembles mine.
Step 5: Put on your original shirt (the one you were wearing before you started this) because it is cold in the house.
Step 6: Change your sewing machine needle to one of the following:
Jersey Ball Point 70/10
Jersey Ball Point 80/12
Stretch 75/11
If you have a needle that says the right words but is the wrong size, load 'er up anyway. Whatever. The shirt is brown/grey. If you have NO needles that say Jersey, Jersey Ball Point, or Stretch on the package, go to the store and get one (OR throw the shirt across the room and get yourself some wine).
Step 7: Set your sewing machine to zig-zag stitch. Make sure you have a foot on the machine that has a wide opening to accommodate the zig-zag. Sewing into his own foot makes your machine just as unhappy as it would make you. Sometimes sewing machines can die from it. RIP, Brother XL2600I. *sniff*
Step 8: With your shirt right-side out, your 1" cuff piece wrong side out, and your cut edges together, pin the cuff onto the outside of the cut sleeve, stretching as you go. Start by pinning opposite points, then split the distance between each pin until you have pins spaced ~1-2" apart.
Step 9: Change your sewing machine thread to something that sorta matches because earlier you forgot that thread existed and didn't change it. Use nice thread because remember those swears are still in you and if anything goes wrong with the thread they will probably start trying to come out.
Step 10: If possible, adjust how hard your presser foot pushes down. You might have a dial and an indicator float that goes from 0-3. If you do, try setting it to 1. If not, good luck with guess & check. With knits it is better if your presser foot doesn't go all crazy on them, because they are thicker and stretchy and won't always want to move through the machine.
Step 11: Sew the cuff to the sleeve, then repeat with the other side. Stretch as you sew so that the sleeve part is flat.
CAUTION: At this point, do not look at your shirt and freak out thinking "omg I have ruined my favorite ugly brown/grey shirt and I am never going to be able to do this!" That is, unless you REALLY hate the shirt and you are planning to show it to your husband while crying about how your sewing project went wrong and telling him that you need to go shopping for a new shirt. If you are not planning to do that, don't freak out. It is normal for your shirt to look like it was sewn by a dog. That's because it is a knit.

My dog actually does like to sew. He's just not very good.

Step 11: Press your seam so that it will hopefully be obedient and stay to the inside.
Step 12: Try it on. Marvel.

Reader note continued: The best I can recall is that I did not get the sleeves the same length in step 2 so I needed to take off one side and redo it. Then... I didn't. Because that shirt was ugly anyway.

Off the UFO wagon

2014-08-29T11:37:00.002-07:00

I was doing so well.

In early 2012 I had 14 UFO projects - and last month I had 5 left, with 3 of them being group quilts (like round robin, etc) that were currently in someone else's hands. In my mind, that means two, TWO projects left to knock off the list. My giraffe blocks are ready for the two-side low volume borders that I have planned, and my medallion quilt is getting bigger and bigger:

But then I went crazy and started 4 new projects within about a month. The good thing about starting so many new things is that I have lots to show you!

I offered to design and piece an opportunity quilt for my guild. The fabric kits are ready for that (blocks will be done by guild members and then I'll put it together) and I'm super excited about the colors:

I took back-to-back workshops from Jacquie Gering (uh... no regrets there, though. She is such an awesome teacher) and I started a new quilt in each one. My quilt from the first class is still just a start, but hopefully it won't be sitting that way for too long:

The second class I went for simpler design in baby quilt size and I finished that top in one more sewing session after the class was over. I'm thinking I might quilt this one with squiggly lines to soften it up a little:

A Happy Scrappy Giveaway!

2014-05-12T11:16:00.001-07:00

Edit: The giveaway is now closed! I'll be contacting the winner by email.

I'm sure you guys know this already, but it bears repeating... the online quilting community is so, so nice! When I was making this quilt:

I really wanted it to have lots and lots of different fabrics, but also be very color coordinated. I got tons of help from friends and strangers to collect scraps in my colors, including people who just shipped stuff to me without asking anything in exchange. So as a thank you to all of those kind folks, today I'm paying it forward and giving away some of the extra scrappy bits from this quilt.

This is a photo showing the scrap colors. You may receive some of these fabrics and you will definitely receive a lot of others.

I will ship domestically in the US, one small flat rate box stuffed to the brim with scraps in rainbow colors. To enter, leave me a comment to say what you're working on OR post a link to your favorite thing that you have ever made.

My oldest UFO

2014-04-05T19:50:00.000-07:00

This month I finished up my oldest UFO. I'm happy to have it completed... it is 1/3 as old as I am! Don't get the wrong idea here - this poor guy has spent most of his life in a drawer. I busted him out recently and got to work so that I could start a new knitting project. When it comes to yarn, I'm committed 100% to just one project at a time and no stash. After all, I've got plenty of stash and UFOs around from my sewing projects without adding more crafts to the bins.

Pattern from the book Color-Bright Creatures by Anne Halliday.

I started crocheting when I was a kid, and by the time I graduated high school I had made a crocheted blanket for each of my sisters. I never got to making one for myself, so I guess this little guy is mine!

Snowflake Things

2014-03-18T17:23:00.000-07:00

Inspiration on a walk

Plans and sketches

Make for a new quilt design

The fabric is from the Color Me Happy line, which I love because I adore those beautiful sketchy flowers and so many low volume prints. I backed it with a lightweight Japanese print that I bought several years ago at a local shop and pieced a binding from little pink dots and my favorite aqua floral print. I wrote up a tutorial for this quilt design, and you can find it on The Intrepid Thread's blog. Happy quilting everybody!

Charity quilting, 2014

2014-03-08T18:54:00.000-08:00

I decided to make it my goal this year to finish at least 10 charity quilts. This is my third charity quilt for the year (I don't always show them when it's not a new pattern - I always have postage stamp quilt just like this one going on that I use as leaders and enders).

Happy prints in pinwheels.

Backed with a Jenean Morrison print that I've been hoarding, quilted vertical straight lines, and bound in a teal solid.

7 to go!

Improv, Baby!

2014-02-25T18:25:00.000-08:00

When we came up with the idea to do an all-day improv quilting event in my local guild, I'll admit that I had some mixed feelings about it. People were pretty excited about the idea, and a day of sewing sounded fun. Buuuut... improvising means working spontaneously and/or without preparation. I have the impression that with true improv you kind of go about willy-nilly sewing things, and there is a very real chance of creating something that doesn't appeal to you in the slightest. Kind of like what happened with this improv quilt. I'm trying to clear out old UFOs that got derailed along the way, so the thought of creating another quilt top that would just be a problem child was no bueno.

Besides that... I really love planning! If I head into sewing without a plan or goal, I'm just pushing fabric through my machine. Good for therapy, maybe, but who needs therapy when you're spending the whole day hanging out with your quilty buddies?

In the end I came up with a plan, which was to have a plan. At least, a loose plan. I love the design of this rug, so I decided to make a few square-in-square blocks and few stripey blocks and then add some solid pieces to create a similar look. I was pretty confident that if I kept it simple and used a color palette that really grabbed me, I would be happy with the end result. While I don't feel like I went "aggressively improv," I assembled my blocks with no pre-determined pattern, block size, or quantity, and then worked through arranging them and putting together the top.

I love how it turned out. I did re-discover something that irks me a little about improv piecing. It really is more work to get everything fitting together when you don't plan it from the beginning. Curvy, wonky improv takes doubly long because you have to custom cut every piece to match what's already been added. Ah well.

I free motion quilted the top with Leah Day's pipe maze pattern. She has it marked for beginners, and it's true that it was really easy - plus it has amazing texture. Free motion hasn't been my favorite in the past, but I think as I improve my skill I will also like it more. It's a little easier on your body than straight line since you don't have to haul the quilt around as much. So, I'm working on it.

This was *ahem* supposed to be a donation quilt for charity, but I fell in love with it and ended up making a different quilt to donate in its place. This guy is going to hang on the wall in my sewing room - I've just finished painting in there and am waiting for the fumes to clear. I'll keep you posted!

Marci's round robin quilt

2014-01-13T11:42:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe it, but my guild round robin group has only one round left. I'm a little sad because I have really enjoyed these challenges - but on the other hand I couldn't be more excited about the quilt top they have been creating for me. I believe that I will have that back sometime around April, and I can't wait to show it off here.

Marci's round robin quilt is one of my favorite in our little group - with some stringy lines running around, bursting stars and an asymmetrical layout. I was really digging the 50's style diner kind of groove that it has going on. So, I was pretty eager to get my hands on it! It came to me like this:

I love how all of the initial rounds blend together so that it's difficult to determine where they start and stop. In case you are wondering about it, I believe this is how the previous rounds were added:

I definitely wanted to extend the seamless look into my round, so I drew out what was already present and then planned my round to continue the lines and themes that were already there. I also wanted to refer back to the center block, so I incorporated more larger blocks along with more strings and tiny blocks. I had initially planned on adding equally to all sides, but Marci saw it partway through and was excited about it becoming rectangular, so I added a little extra on the top and bottom.

In the end, it really got huge. There is another round to go on this quilt, plus Marci wants to add some borders, so the amount of fabric that this took turned out to be quite an issue. I didn't recognize the problem until I was deep into construction. I actually eliminated some of the design that I had been planning to do, and it still took nearly all of the fabric that was provided. Thankfully, Marci was able to find most of the fabrics on a local shop-hop, so it turned out ok in the end. Still, a lesson learned for sure - make sure you have enough fabric before you jump in!

Color group quilt

2014-01-02T15:27:00.001-08:00

Happy new year! Since I just did a UFO update, I'll refrain from a looking-back-over-2013 post but I do feel like I got a lot done in the end. I think I might have "finishing moods" where I start finishing up projects like wild. It catches hold of me and then I come out the other side exhausted and holding a stack of finished quilts.

I think the stress of closing on our house brought on one of those "finishing moods," and the result is that I have a backlog of quilts to show off. Like this one that I whipped up from teeny tiny blocks that my BAMQG small group made (we interpreted the term small group very literally...):

I sashed all the blocks unevenly in teal and grey, then sewed it into a top and free motion quilted it. The last (and only!) time I free motion quilted a project was back in 2010... and at one point I literally threw that quilt across the room. So, I am happy to say that it went much better this time. This little guy (36" square) has already been passed off to the guild to be donated to the NICU.

UFO update

2013-12-17T16:33:00.000-08:00

We moved nearly all of our stuff to the new house last weekend. So happy to be in the new space! We originally selected our rental house for the price and location - NOT the condition, so there are a lot of upgrades and amenities that we loving about the new house. My fabric hasn't made the move yet - I know that is usually the first thing people move, but the new house still has some lingering smell from floor refinishing, so I'm waiting for that to clear up some more before I bring my fabric over.

I do have everything packed up, though. Going through my UFO drawers reminded me that it's probably about time for an update. Errr.... make that past time! When I went to pull in the previous list, I discovered that I made it in May of last year. At the time, I had 8 WIPs. I finished four of them but added four more in the same period, so I'm still at 8. The projects are definitely getting more current, though, which is a good thing.

~~Linen Stripes Quilt~~ Finished in August 2012!

~~Sewing Machine Cover~~ Finished it, decided I didn't need a sewing machine cover, and then turned it into a tote bag in mid-2013.

~~Bed Quilt~~ Finished in November 2012!

This quilt is double-sided and so large that I have never gotten around to taking proper pictures and blogging it.

~~Embroidered Kitties Quilt~~ Finished in August 2012!

My niece is using this quilt on her bed!

1. Wedding Quilt

I have decided that I will probably use this as one side of a double-sided quilt.

2. Queen of Embarrassing Toasts' Quilt (Modern Quilting Bee) - This quilt is basted and ready for quilting!

My sister has spoken for this quilt.

3. Giraffe Quilt (Tethered Threads 2 Bee)

This is one of those times when cutting a precious fabric turned out to be the best choice. This quilt is definitely staying with me. The block/fabric combination is straight copied from Film in the Fridge. Sometimes you see something and you just gotta have it.

4. Secret project

What? It's a secret. No pictures!

5 (NEW). Round Boo Bee

My round robin quilt is still going! We are filling in the four corners to bring this out to square.

6 (NEW). Other secret project

What? It's a secret. No pictures!

7 (NEW). BAM-BOM Quilt (more like an ongoing project than a UFO)

Photo from the design wall - I need to sew these blocks together and then I have four borders planned..

8 (NEW). BAM Round Robin (more like an ongoing project than a UFO)

I wish I had a more recent photo! This quilt is going to be epic.

My new (as of this year) approach is to slow down on starting new projects to keep from getting bogged down with new starts, and meanwhile chip away at the older projects in between. With that in mind, I'm setting my new year's resolution early: Whether I start new projects or not, I want to get my UFO&WIPs list down below five by the end of 2014.

Excited, exhausted, and confused

2013-12-05T16:00:00.000-08:00

I have been in such a state lately. We spent the last two months shopping for and then buying a house (I know, it was so fast!!) I'm still in shock about it, and at the same time so excited that sometimes I feel a little ill. In addition to the happy transition from renting to owning, I'm thrilled that my sewing area will be moving from the dining room table to my very own sewing room.

It's not much to look at yet, but hopefully it will be!

Because of some work that needs to be done at the new place, we won't be moving our furniture until mid-December. In the meantime, I have plunged enthusiastically into getting ready to move. I have to say, the logic element doesn't factor very strongly into the tasks that I've been completing in "preparation" for moving. For example, I had some thread spools sitting on top of my fabric drawers, so I decided to put them away. There wasn't room in the thread bin, so I ended up on the floor surrounded by a hundred spools of thread, winding loose thread and picking out ones that could go in the trash bin. Oh wait, actually that does make sense. Clearly, organizing my thread = critical pre-move preparatory step.

I said in the title that I was confused, but actually has to do with the blog, not the move or the new house. I thought that I had already posted something from a few months ago, but now I don't see it! Since that apparently happened only in my mind, here is what was passed to me for Kelly's round robin (with my local MQG):

And here's where I ended up:

I planned the outline for my additions on graph paper, with the hope of echoing and emphasizing the partial star shape. Once I started sewing, I added in a little bit of improvisation with details like the geese and the nine patches. I just love this quilt, and I'm totally jealous that Kelly gets to keep it. I can't steal it 'cause Kelly would just track me down... but maybe I'll duplicate it when some more of my UFOs are cleared out.

Rhonda's Round Robin, UFOs, and my neck

2013-08-18T22:49:00.002-07:00

It has been pretty slow on the blog lately - and for good (bad?) reason.

Apparently the cumulative affects of years of bad posture and too many looking-down-at-things activities (oh hai sewing) made some discs in my neck go all bulgy and smush into my spinal cord. WHICH, as it turns out, makes you hurt all kinds of places other than your neck.

The good news is that they finally got from me saying "under my shoulder blade and also near my elbow hurt really bad and I can't lay down without wanting to cry so I don't get any sleep at all" to the doctor saying "lay on this thing for a few minutes a day and cut back on sewing and looking through microscopes."

Nowadays the only pain I get is in my actual neck, when I've done too many looky-downy things. I am not able to spend a lot of time sewing yet, but I have been able to get some in. First on my list is for my guild round robin. Rhonda asked for people to add pieces to her quilt in a log-cabin fashion, i.e. add to only one side, going in a spiral pattern from one person to the next.

This is the piece that I received, with Rhonda's start on the upper right, Kelly's addition below that, and Jen's piece on the left.

I took inspiration from the fabric down the left side and decided to make some diamond & chevron shapes (on the dark purple background). After adding that, I felt that my part stood out too boldly, so I put on an additional section that incorporated the stripes, chevrons, and multiple backgrounds that other people had used. Then I did raw edge applique and added flowers to blend the two sections a little and tie in with Jen's contribution.

I know I've said it already, but it bears repeating - I love the challenge of this round robin! It is certainly a welcome change of pace... I have been working for nearly 2 years now on clearing out my UFOs. Since January 2012 when I declared my goal of living a UFO-free life, I have finished 7 of the 10 quilts that were in progress at the time, and 9 smaller projects that were languishing in my sewing room. Since the Great Declaration, I started an additional 12 quilts and finished 7 of them, leaving me with 5 new projects in progress. Even though my number of quilt UFOs has only gone down by 2, it's a big success for me considering that before 2012 I generated new UFOs at a rate of about 3 per year. Also, my UFO's are getting "newer", which means that they are a better match to my current taste.

Still, these round robin quilts are a welcome break and a chance to get inspired & creative. Jen passes to me in this round robin, and her great sense for simple & effective design puts the pressure on! I just saw what she did for Marci's piece and my mind is already rolling thinking of what I will add.

Tutorial - More Birds in the Air

2013-08-08T14:39:00.001-07:00

This month I am hosting the Block of the Month tutorial again for Bay Area Modern. You can see the rest of the blocks on the BAM blog.

This block is a variation on the traditional Birds in the Air quilt block, translated to a 16-patch rather than 9. This tutorial makes two blocks at a time. One option for a 12" finished block is to make two sets of the 6" block and then arrange them in a four-patch.

The final look of the block will be like this if you chose to cut your 4 rectangles from background fabric:

Or like this if you chose to cut them from print fabric:

Starch all your fabric pieces before you begin because there is a lot of bias sewing in this block. I use Best Press and press all seams open.
Sew and trim up the half square triangles using your preferred method. If you are going for a scrappy look, you may want to sew in pairs. If you are sticking with just 2 fabrics for the block, you can use this method to make 8 HSTs at once.

All your pieces should look like this:

Lay out the pieces as shown below, then sew together in rows:

Sew the rows together (it's supposed to be a rectangle right now... don't worry!) Turn the block over to mark the back. Draw a line on either side of the center diagonal, just touching the points of your print triangles:

Lay the pieced rectangle centered over the large rectangle (right sides together) and sew down each of the drawn lines. Cut the in half between the sewn lines.

Press the seams, and trim off the extra background fabric to get a perfect 6.5" or 12.5".

Done!

Tutorial - Cropped pinwheel block

2013-06-17T12:58:00.000-07:00

Today I am hosting the Block of the Month tutorial for Bay Area Modern. You can see the rest of the blocks on the BAM blog.

This block is an easy twist on the traditional pinwheel block (also called turnstile). The asymmetrical cropped point is super simple to implement, making this a quick block to sew.

Starch your fabric pieces before you begin because there is a lot of bias sewing in this block. I use Best Press and press all seams open.

Stack the two middle size background fabrics together and cut once on the diagonal. Cut the other three squares in half twice on the diagonal to get four triangles. All your pieces should look like this:

Fold the smallest triangles in half and use your fingers to make a crease mark. If you are using a print fabric for the background, fold it with the right sides together.

Place the creased triangles on top of the foreground triangles, aligned at the corner. With the 90° corner toward you, the triangles should be aligned on the right (as shown).

Sew the triangles together just to the right of the crease line. If you are making a 12" block, you may wish to sew a second line 1/2" to the left. That second line sews your trimmings together into half of a 3" quarter square triangle. The 6" block trimmings are kind of small to bother sewing up.

Trim off the excess at the corners with a 1/4" allowance and press the seam.

Sew a medium triangle of background fabric to each triangle, along the short pieced edge. Press.

Sew a larger triangle of background fabric to each piece, along the long edge. If your triangles are not exactly the same size, that's fine. Make sure that they line up at the inside point and everything will be good. Press.

Sew your squares together in twos. Trim the inside corner seam allowance before pressing the seam open to avoid bulk at the center point. I aim for an approximate 60° angle.

Sew the two block halves together. This is the part where I use pins. Double pin the center for the best possible point. Go slow along the center section and make sure your needle goes down just the smiiiidgiest smidge to the right of where the points meet. Press.

You should have a bit of extra fabric to trim off to get a perfect 6.5" or 12.5".

'tites and 'mites

2013-06-12T11:01:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I had a run where my sewing mojo was seriously messed up... it seemed like every time I worked on something I made mistakes left and right. One of those mistakes was seriously over cutting triangles for this quilt. I used a 2" strip off of each triangle to sew a cute scrappy binding, but that still left me a lot of extra, smaller triangles to deal with.

I played around with them for a while and came up with the idea for this quilt:

I'm calling it 'tites and 'mites because it reminds me of stalactites and stalagmites. The back... surprise, surprise, it's the Ikea duvet that just keeps on giving (plus a hanging sleeve for the SCVQA show last month - that is off now):

There was some leftover scrappy binding goodness from the other quilt, and I strategically placed it to give a bit more balance to the quilt. This quilt is going to my newborn nephew - he's the first boy born in my family after a run of 10 girls in a row.

Spinning stars QAL Finished

2013-06-07T11:51:00.000-07:00

Last September, my friend Adrianne linked this Spinning Stars quiltalong on her Facebook page. I definitely didn't need another project (I'm trying to clear up UFOs) but somehow I found myself replying with "I'm in if you are!" Well, she was, so off we went.

I knew that I wanted to emphasize something other than the ring in each block, so I played around with paper and highlighter until I came up with this for color placement:

Originally I did just teal and plum blocks (with white/cream background prints), but I decided that the quilt needed a little more energy, so I added in some pea-soup greens.

8 months later, thanks to a lot of quilting time at the BAM retreat (omg it was awesome!!) a few weeks ago, it's finally done:

I quilted diagonal lines and around the rings. Thanks to Anne @ playcrafts for the tip on photographing in direct sunlight to show quilting better:

Binding and backing both from Bella by Lotta Jansdotter - one of my favorite lines. This quilt is a lap quilt for meeeee and you can find it on my couch - ready for snuggling.

p.s. machine binding... sewn first to the back, then wrapped around to the front. I prefer that whenever I don't think the extra stitching line will blend with the quilting or the front piecing.

I am happily linking up for for the second week in a row to the crazy mom quilts finish it up Friday.

R-burst Quiltalong: Finished quilt

2013-05-31T12:48:00.000-07:00

My R-burst quilt is done! This is a "family quilt" - meaning that members of my family contributed pieces that were incorporated into the final quilt. Each of my sisters did small embroidery squares that are sprinkled throughout the quilt. It's headed to my 3-year old niece for her big girl bed. This is the third family quilt that I've made, each for one of my nieces. You can see the other two here and here.

This quilt was designed by me and the instructions are available for free here (scroll to the bottom for links to the assembly steps).

The back is the last big piece of an Ikea duvet cover that I bought in the children's section. It made backs for two baby quilts and this twin used up some of the last of it. So easy (no piecing) and economical ($40 total compared to $60 to do the same thing with yardage). The binding is medium navy chevron from Riley Blake, cut extra skinny (1 7/8"). I love the binding. Love love love.

But my favorite part is the embroidery squares hidden around the quilt. I am smitten with the idea of my niece sitting on her bed and looking for all of her favorite ones. There are 35 of them to share, so that's for yet another post, sorry guys!

This is the first of two quilts that I finished at the BAM quilting retreat earlier this month. Soo much fun hanging out with everyone and so proud of what I got done while I was there. It has been a long ride with this quilt (a little over a year ago I was trading scraps to get ready for it) and I am excited to send it along to my niece, who has been waiting patiently the whole time.

I'm celebrating this finish by linking up today to crazy mom quilts' finish it up Friday. Wahoo!

R-burst quiltalong: The end!

2013-05-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

This post is a part of the R-Burst Quiltalong.

Finishing time! I chose to quilt my top with a 2" grid that passes through the center of each small square. If you want to do the same, place your basting pins in the center of every other small square.

That makes it easy to quilt and avoid pins. First make a pass over the whole quilt in the vertical direction, quilting the line of squares that doesn't have any pins.

With half the vertical lines done, the quilt is held together plenty well and all of the pins can be removed. I recommend quilting all of the horizontal lines next, then going back to quilt the rest of the vertical lines.

I like a couple of different binding methods, and I chose between them according to the quilt and how it will be used. On quilts that are in for a lot of use and washing, I feel most comfortable doing a machine binding - especially if I am giving them away to someone who is not going to know how to repair the binding if hand stitching starts to come apart.

This is my favorite machine binding method.

The only thing I would add to that tutorial is to iron! First iron the binding up off the edge of your quilt, then fold it over and iron again from the other side to keep it folded down. It really helps when you get to sewing so that your binding and stitch line don't wander all over the place.

I took tons of pictures of the finished quilt, but I am still going through those so you will have to wait until tomorrow to see it. Sorry guys!

R-burst Quiltalong: Top assembly by chunking

2013-05-19T21:47:00.003-07:00

This post is a part of the R-Burst Quiltalong.

You guys ready for block assembly? I am a big fan of assembling by chunking instead of in strips. The assembly instructions below are for a 3x4 layout, so if you are using more blocks you will need to tailor to your layout. You will need approximately 15 WOF strips of 2.5" sashing to complete the quilt.

So, to start with, sew a sashing strip on the bottom edge of each of the blocks that will land in the 1st and 3rd rows. Remember that when you sew sashing to blocks, use pins! I place a pin about every 4" and make sure that both the block and sashing are relaxed while I pin them - never stretched. Also, when you go to sew the sashing should always go on the bottom against the feed dogs. That way you can see your seam allowances and keep them going the right way, plus the feed dogs help the sashing move through without stretching.

Next sew on the block that attaches from the 2nd or 4th row:

Set aside the rightmost blocks and sew a sashing piece to the right edge of each of the other pieces:

Next sew up the vertical seams to assemble the top and bottom halves of the quilt:

Sew sashing to the bottom of one piece and to the top and bottom of the other, then sew the two quilt halves together:

Two more sashing bits on the sides an you are done:

Speaking of done, I'm ready to wrap this QAL up! I'll be back next week with info on finishing up your quilt and to share how my quilt turned out.

Oh wait, did you want to see a peek of the real thing??

SMS Giveaway Day

2013-05-06T10:41:00.001-07:00

Edit: This giveaway is now closed and the winner should have heard from me by email.

Oh happy day! This is my third or fourth time participating in the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway day, and it has always been an awesome experience.

Jumping right in, today I am giving away 2 fat quarters hand printed with my sprouts design:

To enter, please leave a comment that answers the following:
1) What two colors* would you like (if you prefer a single half yard piece, just chose one color)
*To clarify - I will be custom printing for you! You can pick any color you want, not just want is shown above.
2) Your base fabric preference: Kona cotton or essex cotton/linen blend.

This giveaway is open to international participants.

Followers of my blog get an extra entry, so leave a second comment if you do. :)

If you have some time to browse around, my Quilts page is a great place to start. :)

Boo Bee Round 3 - Sheetal's quilt

2013-04-13T17:00:00.000-07:00

I just could not for the life of me get a grip on Sheetal's Boo Bee (tehehehehe).

But seriously, where to start? After Mallory's round, the top was here:

I threw around a few ideas, but nothing really inspired me. I almost started on a round of zig-zags, like the red ones in this beautiful quilt. Before I got around it starting, Sheetal told me that she was planning to add more rounds to make the quilt as big as possible after she got it back. Her tall hubby requires a lot of lap quilt. BIG? I can go big. Ohhh yeah I can go big. :)

Knowing that she wanted to greatly increase the size of the quilt gave me the idea to put what was already made on point and build it back out to a square, as if my rounds were "behind" the center portion. I whipped up this awesome sauce plan and got the go-ahead from Sheetal:

I was just borrowing cornerstone placeholders from the lone-star center for my mock-up, but I ended up really liking the repeated motif so I decided to use them.

Due to Reasons*, I made the outer cornerstones, then the outermost row, then the inner cornerstones, then the middle row, then the inner row, then outer rows assembly, then inner triangle assembly, then full assembly. Lots of taping things up on the wall (my design wall is baby quilt size, so this was too big for it). Uh, do not recommend.

And a little closer in:

Happy to report that Sheetal is pleased.

*It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Anything goes

2013-04-03T14:14:00.000-07:00

I joined another round robin. No, technically my previous round robin is not quite finished - I still get do to one more round (we had a quilt that got a little delayed when it ran low on fabric). For the new RR, my guild buddy Jen handed me a package with the rules "anything goes." Way to be awesome, Jen.

Her 12" starting piece was an improv-ish log cabin-ish frame around a piece of gorgeous upholstery weight fabric. Along with it, she sent a hand-dyed blue stripe fabric.

Around that I added a wonky churn dash round and some triangles, then finished it off with a border of the blue stripe. I hope she meant it when she said anything goes... because I mixed in some of my own upholstery weight fabric and made the call to add another color to her quilt (yeep - I would probably not be ok with that, but I would also not have "anything goes" as the instructions for my quilt, so on the balance of things...) I really hope she likes it.

Have you tried doing a round robin yet? I think I am sold on this type of collaborative quilt making. It is much more my scene than quilt bees. There is more opportunity to own your part of the creative process. It can be challenging, but it's the good kind of challenging - gets the creative juices flowing.

Handprinting

2013-03-18T16:33:00.000-07:00

Doodled

Sampled paints and shapes

Drew and cut paper stencil

Hacked up an old picture frame (instructions)

Printed a sample (instructions)

Loved it.

Digitized design and ordered silkscreen (it was only $7).

Handprinted:

This was my first time screen printing, although I already had the paints from my previous foray into stenciling. I improved a ton between my first sample and my last ones, but I still find it tricky and time consuming to print these. My silkscreen is only 4" by 6", so there are 24 repeats in a fat quarter. Next time I will definitely use a bigger screen!