Pippin Sequim

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!

Curves class and the Drunken Star block

2013-03-15T12:47:00.001-07:00

I mentioned before that I have been taking Rachel's Curves Class . I just finished my last "homework" for the class. At 18", this block is the start of a round robin that I'm doing in my local quilt guild:

I love this quilt on Flickr and I have been dying to make that block, so this seemed like the perfect time. Also, since the curves class pace was super fast for me, the final posts were coming out while I was still on the week 2 homework. Eeep! I jumped ahead a bit and combined the homework for weeks 3 and 4 by using the week 4 lesson to draft a drunkard's path template in just the size I needed. The template that I drafted is available here - feel free to use it. It makes a 4.5" finished drunkard's path block where the concave section is smaller than normal.

I wanted to share some general thoughts about the Curves Class. If you are thinking about taking it, read on. If not, feel free to skip past the wall o' words and tell me if you've ever done a round robin. This is going to be my second one and I'm pretty excited about it! It is a much better fit for me than bees.

So - Curves Class. The class starts with really basic curves and moves through improv curved piecing, precise curves, and drafting curved templates. Before the class, I had previously done improv curved piecing and set-in sleeves. There is a lot of fear in the quilting community around piecing curves, and I guess I caught some of that without even thinking about it. Setting in a sleeve is at least 5 times harder than a drunkard's path block. Basically, I found out that I had already learned more than half of the material presented in this class. I just picked it up here and there without realizing how much I knew about sewing curves.

One of the best things about the class is the variety of small projects. I love creating things. More than the act of pushing fabric through a sewing machine, or cutting, or ironing, I like the aspect of coming up with an idea and turning it into an object. So, I don't want to sew a throw-away block just to learn a technique - I want to make something useful. The projects for the Curves class include a table runner, rug, journal cover, bib, bunting, and notecard in addition to pillows and quilts. You can try out the techniques and make an actual product without spending a huge amount of time. There were 14 projects for the class, all with patterns and tutorials - three per week! I only managed to complete three projects total. I got the Premium class, though, so I have all the templates and instructions so that I can do the remaining projects anytime that I'm ready.

I am finding out that I might not be much of a "class person." I like to learn things on my own, when I want to know them. However, all told I definitely don't regret taking this class. I finished up a quilt that had been a UFO for several months, and I gained confidence at drafting and sewing curved blocks. I could have roamed the internet for curved piecing tutorials and eventually learned the same stuff for free, but thanks to the class I did it now. So, if you think you might also be the sort of person who doesn't love sewing classes - don't take it. If you like classes and you have never sewn any sort of curve, it would be a great idea to sign up. Another good reason to take the class is the projects - they are pretty cool and very plentiful, so you might find it to be a good value just for that part.

Smaller sewing projects

2013-03-05T14:01:00.001-08:00

I have done a lot of little quilting projects lately, and it's so much fun! Generally by the time I have pieced an entire quilt, I'm tired of a particular block or color combo. The little guys are perfect for a fun piecing session and for quilting or other techniques that would be killer to do on a whole quilt.

The typewriter pouch...a staple. I think it is practically mandatory now to make one of these.

A cushioned iPad case:

Can I just say... I love Anna Maria's feather pattern. LOVE it. Preferably small and super scrappy. I have an informal formula when it comes to saving scraps - the more I love the fabric, the smaller the pieces that I save. So when I find a use for teeeny tiny pieces, that means I get to use my most favorite fabrics. Which is awesome.

The pattern/tutorial is by one shabby chick, and it's perfect. Velcro or loop & button closure, double batting for protection, and the tutorial has a million pictures so it's really easy to follow. Recommended!

And a composition notebook cover:

I was shooting for the midwinter morning color scheme that Adrianne posted back in February, but it was quite difficult - I was lacking in olive-y yellows. Don't worry folks. I went fabric shopping later and fixed the problem right up.

Anybody have suggestions for more little projects? (Besides pillows. Husband does not think that we need any more of those.)

Patterns and tutorials:
gathered pouch by Noodlehead (minus the gathering)
iPad cover by one shabby chick
Free feather pattern by Anna Maria Horner
notebook cover by Rachel at Stitched in Color

Quilt for Baby Boy

2013-02-09T21:30:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited for my bff from college, who just this week had her first baby - a boy! Of course, that means she needs a boy baby quilt. I've been wanting to use the Kaleidoscope block for a while, so the pattern was an easy pick.

For colors, I wanted a combination that would be easy for my friend to love while still being great for a baby boy, so I used light blue, green, burnt orange, and a grey with red-ish blue undertones. (Red-ish blue is the boy-friendly term for purple. Similarly, pink is called "light red"). I double-checked the colors with my husband, and he said, after a short pause "It's masculine... for a baby." That means yes... right?

AGH, I have one big regret with this quilt. I really meant for the grey bits to pop as an orange peel-ish design element, but I messed up by using two grey fabrics that were too light in value and didn't match the third. Value is so tricky! It is easy to just focus on color and forget how value will effect which parts of the design stand out.

I knew about it when I put the cut fabrics up on my design wall, but I was in a rush to mail the quilt before baby arrived so I plunged ahead hoping that the greys would magically "blend" when sewn. Bad call, but I still love the quilt the way it turned out.

The back is fabric from an Ikea duvet cover (yay for cheap!), and I did organic straight line quilting. Actually, I made quite a few errors on this quilt. I overcut on my print triangles... by a lot. Really a lot. When I have my blocks sewn in quarters, I checked one with a ruler and decided that I was good to go and the blocks didn't need trimming before I continued. Wrong-o! Half of them needed trimming, and I just happened to pull one of the half that did not. I ended up with a bunch of wavy blocks, and I had to take them apart and trim them. Good thing it was just a baby size quilt!

My cutting error turned out well in the end. Since I had so many extra triangles cut, I was able to cut a strip from each one of them and make a super scrappy binding that I just looooove. Wait, here it is in full glory:

Scrappy bindiiiiiiiiing. :D

I'm practicing my "pretty quilt pictures." I always like to see a full-on straight view of a quilt, but especially if the quilt is big, sometimes that doesn't give you a very realistic picture of what the quilt is like. If anybody has suggestions, I'd love to hear 'em!

A Bend in the Road - Finished

2013-01-28T12:52:00.000-08:00

I signed up for Stitched In Color's Curves Class this month, and last week we covered improv curves. Actually, I've done some improv curves before, so for my practice this week, I worked on an improv curves WIP... the quilt that I started at Sherri Lynn Woods' Get Your Curve On Workshop.

To be honest, this poor fellow never got a lot of love from me. We had the option in the class to make "c" shapes or "s" shapes, and I thought "oh s's are pretty..." so I made those. Then I laid them out and was reminded of worms. Then I sewed them together and was reminded of brains. Then I made more, sewed them on, and was reminded of intestines. Aside from the slimy disgustingness of the squiggle shape, I really did not like how I distributed color in the piece. There were smaller moments in the quilt that I really loved, but they disappeared in the overall top.

I read in Rachel's class intro that she had been inspired by Sherri Lynn Woods' work, but when she really thought about it, she didn't want to do quite the same thing. When I brought this top out of hiding this week, I looked at it and decided that I felt the same way. So I chopped it to pieces! Don't worry... I sewed it back together after.

Cutting the piece into blocks allowed me to re-distribute color and get rid of the wormy-ness of the original work. I got my curves practice in for the week by piecing some new improv curves to get enough blocks for a 40" square top. Having finished this - now I really want to make a wonky rail fence quilt. Wouldn't that be so pretty?

I straight-line quilted an echoed X and backed it with a piece of fabric that I hand dyed using the shibori technique. I used a medium grey Kona for the binding to keep things calm and let the top be the star. I did put in a little stripe of dark plum anywhere that I joined strips, just for a bit of interest that's not too in-your-face.

I hadn't planned to finish any UFOs this month because I have a lot on my plate at the moment. I surprised myself and did one almost by accident. Maybe this is getting to be a habit?? That would be awesome if it were true. Who else has been hittin' the UFOs this year?

New year, new project

2013-01-03T23:12:00.000-08:00

It's resolution time again...

Last year, I made resolutions to take my machine for service, finish UFOs, limit my fabric purchases, and make clothing. In the end I rocked the first two, bombed the third one (fabric collection still growing by leaps and bounds) and almost completed the last one (I sewed 5.5 garments and my goal was 6). Thanks to my UFO-busting goal, I also finished 9 quilts in 2012, which is awesome compared with my previous average of two quilts per year.

My goal for this year is to get down to just 1 quilt-in-progress. It's gonna be a rough road, since thanks to a few new starts toward the end of the year, I currently have 9 quilts going. Yeep! To help me out with this goal, I've joined my friend Melissa's awesome group, A Lovely Year of Finishes. The plan is to finish one project, big or small, every month.

I'm excited! For the first month, I am actually taking a break from quilting for what should hopefully be a quick & fun project:

Yes, I am finally making a Renfrew! I have been eyeing this pattern almost since it came out, and I snatched it up a few months ago when it was on sale over at A Fashionable Stitch. This is going to be a bit of a practice go using some green stretch vellure (yum haha). But I do need a few warm & comfy shirts for slumming around the house this winter, and I think this guy will fit the bill.

What's your first project for the new year?

Stripping for charity

2012-12-15T13:00:00.000-08:00

I have a new quilt to share today, this one I made at the guild charity sew day. We all whipped up quilts using Cluck Cluck Sew's free Strip & Flip pattern/tutorial. This entire quilt (including binding) took 8 hours to sew... I know because I did it all at the event.

I believe that nearly all of the fabric for this quilt was donated to Bay Area Modern by Julie of the Intrepid Thread. Thank you, Julie! I opted for a hopefully boy-friendly selection of colors and fabrics and was definitely working outside of my comfort zone there, but I love the combination.

My takeaway from making this quilt is that the pattern shows best if you arrange your strips in a gradient of some sort. With a random placement, it's not immediately obvious that the center strip is intentionally flipped and some of the pattern's magic is lost.

I had a leftover stack of strips that made it onto the back of the quilt, and finished it all with evenly spaced vertical quilting and a pieced binding:

This quilt joined the guild charity pile for Project Night-Night. We had a goal for 2012 of (I believe) making 40 charity quilts, and we donated one hundred and one quilts this month. Whoa guys! That is crazy awesome and I hope that we can keep it up next year.

Pillow Talk

2012-12-03T13:04:00.003-08:00

The ninth round of Pillow Talk Swap is currently wrapping up, with packages still winging back and forth internationally. Luckily for me, both my send and receive packages have already arrived This round I made for Nannette, who likes birds, bright colors, and fabulous quilting. An awesome match for me, since I like... birds, bright colors, and fabulous quilting! Way to go, swap mamas - picking what to make for her was easy-peasy.

I made half-square triangles for one side and arranged them into a fancy star pattern that I drafted:

But a few bird fabrics isn't quite enough, so I drafted a paper pieced bird for the other side and framed it out into a pineapple block:

If anyone is interested, I can post the "pattern" for this bird, but let me warn you that it's not very professionally drafted! People who sell paper piecing patterns design carefully and smartly so that their block is easy to assemble. Mine has to be put together in several pieces and also requires that some areas be pre-sewn before adding them to the paper pattern.

And for me? I received a gorgeous pillow (on the right) from Lori H. Designs, which beautifully matches the pillow that I got from Julie a few months back (on the left) and is so exactly what I wanted. She even used a geometry print that I recently fell in love with for the background. Basically, it's perfect! Thank you so much, Lori.

So many pillows were lovely this round, so check out the Flickr group if you need some awesome pillowy inspiration.

R-burst Quiltalong - Embroidery

2012-10-19T09:59:00.001-07:00

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

Ok, it's been a while, but I'm back with a quiltalong update. Today we'll be covering the optional embroidery squares for the R-burst block. For my quilt, I am making little 2" embroideries on solid fabric and mixed them in with my print squares, like this:

As you can see, I'm chunking away! I haven't finished any complete blocks yet, eek!

I'm using 3 embroideries per block, so I picked out a total of 36 patterns (info on where I found them is at the bottom of the post). My theme is various animals, and I definitely went for cuteness! For these blocks, the finished squares are only 2", so most likely you will have to re-size and trace any design that you buy (since most are bigger than that). That means that it is just as easy to use trace a picture or a line drawing, or even use a part of a coloring book page as it is to use an actual embroidery pattern.

For example, some of the embroideries that I did are based on cute art by Celesse. I just dropped her a quick note and got her permission to use them for embroidery and post the results on my blog. I also used drawings from this Japanese stamp making booklet that I learned about via Flickr.

Finished bunny embroidery, based on Li'l Pun'kin art by Celesse
Backstitch and little filler stitches as grass

As far as transferring embroideries, to start with I mark off my fabric in 2" squares, with half inch gaps between them for the seam allowance. I like to leave a full inch at the edges so that there is room for my embroidery hoop. The boxes help center the designs to that they aren't too close together and so that if I make any on the fly changes, I know where they will end up compared to the final quilt square.

I prepare the images by tracing any drawings that were in color so that I had all line drawings to work with, then I resize all of them so that the longest side was less than 2". Then I print out all the pictures on a sheet of paper and trace them onto my fabric using the blue washable pens from Joann's that come out with cold water. Make sure that you use the washable kind and not the disappearing-over-time kind... you don't want your marks to fade away before you are finished embroidering. I tape my sheet of patterns up on one of my windows (as a light box - the sunlight behind the glass makes the paper and fabric more transparent and the design easy to see) and trace out each design into the marked squares in my fabric. After that, "embroider as you like." Haha

Embroidery progress

If you haven't done much embroidery before, just jump in! You really can do it. You'll be surprised by how fast these go, as little as half an hour per embroidery if you chose fast stitches (like chain stitch, see my bunny below). I like this site for learning new stitches, but getting a book would also be a good idea for learning how to pull out thread, tie off, work in a hoop, etc. I have and like Doodle Stitching by Aimee Ray, and Aneela Hoey's Little Stitches just came out and is totally cute. I recommend either of those because they both include a lot of modern patterns along with embroidery instructions.

Another finished bunny, this one from the Japanese stamping book
Used chain stitch, satin stitch, and running stitch

I wait until all of the embroideries on a particular fabric are done, then wash off all the pen with cold water. I heard that you should not iron your fabric or get hot water on it until the pen is gone, because otherwise it may become permanent. That has never happened to me, though. Let 'em dry and then iron them, then cut them into squares to add to your blocks.

Places to look for embroidery designs:
Flickr searches
Etsy (like Penguin and Fish and sewdeerlyloved)
Urban threads.

New Year's resolution update, grade: D

2012-10-18T09:49:00.000-07:00

So, back in January I posted these New Year's Resolutions:

1) Get my sewing machine serviced. I did that right away, and then just took it in again a few weeks ago.

2) Reduce my UFOs & WIPs by 5 by the end of the year. I have reduced my UFOs by 8, which puts the number of remaining WIP quilts at a quantity I can actually count reliably...8.

None of the remaining quilts are those really bad UFOs that you just wish would disappear... I love them all but I am going to continue working on them at a pace that also allows me to start (and finish, of course!) new projects. My goal in the next 2 months is to get my final count down to 5.

3) Buy less fabric than I use. I am instituting a 2 yards out, 1 yard in policy. Hahahahahahahaha. Hahahahaha. Pardon me, I need to take a laugh break.
...
...
Ok, um, no. This one did not, is not, will not be happening. Instead of reducing my stash, I have increased it by about 50% this year. I just seriously cannot. resist. Julie's. prices. Oh well! :)

On the good-girl side of things, I did finally wash, iron, fold, and sort all of the fabric that I've bought this year, along with organizing it and the rest of my stash. I have one bin of things that couldn't be fit into my fabric drawers, and I've made a deal with myself that if I still haven't used anything in the bin by January, I'm chucking the whole thing. Don't worry, guys. It's weird stuff like jeans & t-shirts that I saved for sewing into things. And stretch velour. So, nobody is gonna cry if it goes.

4) Sew 6 items of clothing, or 1 every 2 months. My count on clothes-sewn-this-year is 5, plus a shirt in progress. Assuming I manage to finish that in the next three months, I'll definitely hit this goal.

(Note that depending on your state, in the US, 75% is either a C or a D. I went to high school in North Carolina, so I'm sticking with the grading scale used there. Because, honestly, is 75% good enough to be called average??)

Boo Bee Round 2 - Kathleen's Quilt

2012-09-28T20:53:00.000-07:00

I'm back with another round robin update! This time I got Kathleen's quilt start, which looked like this after Mallory had done her magic:

I felt that the center needed a bit of breathing room, so I decided to incorporate a lot of white in my round. While I was pondering, I came across these images for Rita Hutchens' class on zig-zags and chevrons. Pretty, pretty! I haven't taken her class, so I'm not sure what her method is, but I just made strips and cut them on the bias. It worked out just fine, although my method wasted a lot of white fabric.

Even with the strip piecing, this took a loooong time. I calculated that there are more than 450 pieces of fabric in my round. Bee mates. I know I said one month for next round, but I forgot that the rounds are getting bigger & bigger. Let's go back to 2 months for the last round, k?

I hope you like it, Kathleen!

Orange Peel quilting with a walking foot

2012-09-10T17:36:00.000-07:00

This post explains how to do orange peel (also called cathedral window) quilting using your walking foot. I used this quilting on my Gingham Patchwork quilt:

I like using my walking foot because the result is a little smoother for me than using a free motion foot. I recommend using this method if your individual petals are going to be 1.5" or larger, i.e. one full motif is 3" or larger. For smaller designs, the curves are too tight to be done easily with a walking foot, but you can try Elizabeth Hartman's excellent tutorial for doing orange peel with a free motion foot instead.

Let's do this!

The first step is to mark your quilt with circles. I'm using a jar lid that happened to be a good size, but if you need a specific measurement, you can also create your own circle template in the side you need - just print a circle & transfer it to something you can trace around, like plastic or cardstock.

Measure the width of your circle and mark a line 1/2 of the circle width from the edge of your quilt. Draw circles in a grid, first tangent to the line and then to each other:

As you can see, I have good taste in tea...

Then, come back in the other direction and draw circles 1/2 width to the right and 1/2 width down:

Over a large area or if you have design elements in your quilt that you would like to line up precisely with the quilting, I draw additional grid lines every 3-4 sets of circles, to prevent them from migrating away from a straight and even grid.

For quilting, we'll work our way through the pattern on the diagonal. This minimizes the amount of turning that is required, definitely important when you are working with a walking foot! Head down one direction quilting waves (you could also do scallops, but the waves are easier because you don't have to stop to turn constantly):

At the far edge, continue off the edge of your quilt and then cut your threads before starting again at the starting point and filling in the other half of the diagonal. Now you have a 2D representation of a DNA strand:

Woops I forgot to take a picture before starting the next step... ignore that extra line to the upper right, please!

Now you are ready to get a little bit fancy. Head down the diagonal, and at the end, turn the quilt 90° and quilt down the diagonal again, then turn, quilt, turn, quilt twice more to get back to your starting point... then you are ready to travel that route again and fill in the second half of the "DNA strand".

Hey look, we made two flowers already! On my tiny "quilt" I just need one more round and then to fill in the last diagonal:

And we're done!

When you are feeling more lazy and don't want do to as much marking work, or when your quilt already has a grid, you can mark instead with a simple grid and judge by eye where to place your curve. Here's an example:

You can see that the result is (lots) less precise, but when the quilt is finished it won't be terribly obvious, especially if you are better than me at eyeballing. It just depends on how important the perfect circular look is to you, and how confident you feel about winging it.

Either way you wanna do it... go forth and quilt, my friends.

Gingham baby quilt

2012-09-10T00:15:00.000-07:00

I am very slowly working through using some fabric that I inherited from my mom & my grandma to make charity quilts. After I volunteered to do a quilting demo for my guild meeting this month, I decided to make a small donation quilt to demo on, instead of wasting batting on a quilt sandwich that I wouldn't be using afterward.

My mom had stashed a bunch of different shirting-weight gingham (about the weight of vintage sheets), so I pulled out a stack. Some were already cut in 4" squares, and I knew I would be demoing orange peel quilting, so simple square patchwork was the obvious choice for this quilt top:

Here's a closeup of the quilting on the front. It is the same finished pattern as the orange peel tutorial that Elizabeth Hartman shared on her blog, Oh Fransson!, however it was done using an entirely different method and uses a walking foot instead of a free motion foot. I'll be following up with a tutorial (tutorial is here!) for those of you who didn't make the guild meeting or who couldn't see everything (and for the like... 3 people who read my blog and aren't from my local guild - love to you guys, too!).

And the quilt is backed with a vintage small scale floral print. Little sister helped me pick out binding again. :)

The fabrics on both the front & back are very light weight, and with the relatively loose quilting this little guy turned out super light and summery. I'll be donating it via the guild to the Stanford NICU. In case you are wondering why I keep making quilts for the NICU, I really like what they are doing with them, and they accept donations as small as 30" square! The small size is awesome for testing out or working on a new technique without getting into a project that will be tiring by the time it's done.

Linen Quilt - another UFO put to bed

2012-09-04T17:22:00.000-07:00

My husband & I are celebrating our first wedding anniversary today. Steve, you are my rock and I love you with all my heart. Thank you for marrying me!

Ok, enough with the romance and on to the quilty business:

This quilt has been a flimsy for almost two and a half years. It started with linen upholstery samples that I picked up for free. I loved the fabrics that I started with, but to be perfectly honest, I think I made a mistake with the green sashing. Shoulda gone with cream, for a sweet low-contrast look, but I decided that after it was already quilted. And at that point... no. The only direction to go was forward, so I went ahead and put on the binding.

Besides the color (which I don't love), unfortunately the green linen is also pretty scratchy. The quilt is lap sized, so scratchy is not good, eh? Don't be sad though, guys. I am glad that this is finished, and even though I do wish some things were different, I still have happy feelings about it overall. I love the quilting, which I designed to mimic that white & brown fabric in the center.

I marked this by drawing double straight lines across the quilt, then coming back along with two octangular (octagon + rectangle, ftw! I thought that I invented that word, but then I looked it up and it's real). Er... where was I? Ah, I used octangular templates that I drew & cut by hand. I placed them purely by eye and traced around. Then I quilted with a walking foot, which took quite a long while because of all the turns I had to do. At the middle of the quilt, it took 15 minutes to do each line (yeah I timed it) - so 30 minutes for each set of chained octangles. The edge of the quilt was faster at about 4 minutes per line, since there was much less to work through the throat of my machine.

This quilting was sort of like a cocoon. I went into it an impatient quilter who always looks for the end of the project, and I baked in there for a while and came out the other side as a butterfly. Ok, so, not exactly a butterfly, but I did learn to enjoy the peaceful repetition of slowly quilting. When I was tired or bored, I just put it down. (Instead of swearing in my head and pushing sloppily toward the end like I usually do). And then one day it was just done.

The back is grey dots from the DS Quilts line for Joann's, and the binding is a pezzy print in blue.

Yeah, my cocoon didn't make me want to start hand sewing bindings again. I still love the binding, though, so how about another shot?

Ooooooh.
Ahhhhhh.

I cut the pezzy straight relative to the pattern before I started cutting the binding, but next time I might also cut in multiples of the pattern repeat so that it doesn't migrate around the quilt. Er... if that made any sense. I mean I might try to make it so that an on-edge picture like the one above shows a uniform pattern. Er... if that made any sense either. Well, if not, just hang around and maybe someday you will see.

Anybody else been feeling the tranquil quilty vibes lately?

Hello, Kitty Quilt!

2012-08-16T07:21:00.000-07:00

Bye-bye, UFO:

The blocks for this top were made for me (yikes, two years ago!) by my quilty friends in the Nittany Quilt Bee. Meanwhile, the embroidery squares were made by myself and my four sisters. This quilt will be going to niece, who loves kitties and pink, just turned 4, and also just moved into her big girl bed.

The back is a oh-so-soft pink and white stripe vintage sheet, so I kept the quilting lines wide to avoid stiffening up the quilt. It drapes beautifully, which matches just right with sweet colors and lovingly made embroideries. I incorporated a little hand-written label into the binding:

And I sent it off for her birthday.

It was well received:

Big Upside Down Squirrels

2012-08-11T21:40:00.002-07:00

If you understand that title, I love you. If you don't, you need to discover Eddie Izzard.

A few months back, I went on a mini retreat to Gold Country with some of my Bay Area Modern buddies... it was awesome. There was a lot of fabric shopping and a lot of getting to know four great ladies. Annnd we decided to start a bee. Well, a round robin, really, but we kept calling it a bee. We named it after our host's dog, Boo. Round Boo Bee. Yes, we are that mature.

Mature or not, we managed to get this thing off the ground. Mallory started her quilt with Elizabeth Hartman's Metropolis block:

I was really inspired by the black and white divide in the background, and I decided to play off of that in my round. Mallory mentioned that the elephant stripe was her favorite part (and it's mine too!), so I continued to feature the little guys:

Mallory, if it makes you too dizzy... I could keep it, I suppose...

Orphan Block quilts

2012-08-08T18:18:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, my local MQG had a sew day just for charity, complete with challenges, prizes, clippies... and tons of fun. Our charity group collects scraps and orphaned blocks from guild members, so one of the challenges that day was to take on some orphaned blocks and make them into quilt tops. I loved that idea so much that I ended up taking home two projects to finish up.

The first was a little stack of blocks that just needed a few friends, so I whipped up a couple of additional blocks and then sashed it all together. I quilted this one with close, wandering diagonal lines. So easy to do and it gives a bit of organic texture to the top. I don't even mark at all, just eyeball my basting pins in straight lines and then use them as a guide to keep me from getting too off-kilter as I move across the quilt.

The other project that I took on was a set of three coordinating star blocks. I put one in the center and cut the other two each into quarters (one on the bias and one on the straight). I love the overall design that resulted, although it's a little sad that most of the triangles lost their perfect points when I chopped the blocks up and added more seams.

I quilted the whole thing in close-spaced echos. I adore this quilting style, though it is so time consuming if your project is large since you have to constantly turn the quilt. In fact, this little guy is probably one of my all-time favorite quilts. The color combination is just lovely and the way it crinkled up in the wash is so perfect.

For the back, I cut strips of the two green solids used on the front, then cut the ends at 60° and sewed 'em up Jelly-Roll-Race style.

Pretty, pretty.

Both quilts will be donated through Bay Area MQG to the Stanford NICU program Blankets for Babies.

Henrietta is finished

2012-08-06T07:36:00.000-07:00

Poor Henrietta lived for about 6 weeks next to my sewing table, looking like this:

Which seems finished, until you remember those little things that animals sometimes have... ears. I cut them out and then when I was doing final assembly and decoration, I forgot them on my little side table. Which meant that I ended up putting her eyes where her ears were supposed to go. Woops. I say again - poor Henrietta.

I finally fixed her up last weekend. There, now she can see AND hear...

She has button joints

And the cutest little tail

And her face is a bit crooked. Just like mine.

I won this pattern in the Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway event. The only change that I made was to trim the ears into a rounded shape that is more authentically hippo. (They are still a bit big, though... I might have made an error cutting them out).

Overall the pattern was really easy and went together quickly. The only thing I will change next time is to add registration marks to the pattern (like used in garment sewing) so that I can match the sides better. That way Henrietta's little siblings will not have her crooked face.

You can get the pattern for yourself on etsy.

The R-burst block

2012-07-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

This post is a part of the R-Burst Quiltalong. This post covers the specific instructions for cutting and piecing the R-burst block.

Now that we've covered the techniques in general, let's get started on our R-burst quilt. We are going to divide up the block like this:

Taking out the center "plus" of piecing lets us build the block from 4 mini-blocks and 4 identical strips (plus one square for the middle). I love it when I can make my life easier.

Our first step is to make 2-square sets. For one blue-edge mini-block & accompanying strip, you need to make:

For one red-edge block, you need to make:

If you would prefer to work on all the blocks simultaneously, you need to make (upper number is for a 3x4 layout, and lower number is for 4x5):

Assemble your 2-square pieces into little 4-patches, and while you are at it, sew the strip, too :

Blue Edged Block

Red Edged Block

And then the little 4-patches into mini blocks:

You need 4 mini blocks plus 4 strips and a center square to make a block.

To assemble, sew the center square onto one of your strips, then sew remaining strips each to a side of 3 of your mini blocks. Sew each strip to the same edge of each mini block - otherwise your block may not go together. You can lay the block out first and check your orientation just to be sure you have things right. Sew the extra-long strip in place as shown above, then assemble the two sides and sew your center seam. If you are using a trim-as-you-go approach, now is the time to trim up your block edges.

Voilà!

If you plan to add the optional embroidery to your blocks, I'll be posting in a few days with instructions for that. You can still get started on sewing up mini-blocks, but don't make more than about half of them until you have your embroideries done.

Block assembly by "chunking"

2012-07-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

This post is a part of the R-Burst Quiltalong. After I get some technique explanations out of the way today, I'll be back tomorrow with the specific instructions for cutting and piecing the R-burst block.

Chunking
Let me start by saying, you don't need to necessarily assemble your R-burst blocks in the way that I'm about to share. The block is just a grid of 2" squares, and you can use whatever method makes you comfortable. You could sew squares to squares and assemble the block in strips, or you could even use fusible interfacing or wash-away interfacing to sew up the whole block in one go.

I do think chunking has some advantages. You don't have to buy supplies like wash-away interfacing (yikes, that stuff is a tad pricey, isn't it??), and you don't have the extra stiffness of fusible in your quilt. For me, I can get better accuracy this way than with row-style piecing.

So how does it work? The idea behind chunking is to assemble in quadrants or chunks rather than in rows. As an example, let's look at a 16-patch block. We could assemble in rows, and then sew the rows together into a block:

Row construction method:

12 seams between squares

3 seams between rows (matching 3 seams each)

Alternatively, we could assemble in chunks, then sew the chunks together into a block:

Chunking construction method:

8 seams between squares

6 seams between sets of 2 blocks (matching 1 seam each)

1 seam between rows (matching 3 seams)

The number of seams and the total length of stitching is the same for both methods, but chunking makes accuracy easier because you mostly match fewer seams at a time. The more pieces there are in your block, the larger the advantage. With our big 81-patch (yikes) block, you really see the difference.

Trim-as-you-go Scrap Piecing
When I'm working with scraps, I like to use a trim-as-you-go technique rather than cutting everything right at the start. It might seem like this would take a little more time since you trim repeatedly, but you only trim each edge one time. When you get further in the block, you are trimming multiple edges in one pass, which you can't do if you cut the pieces to size individually. Also, overall this technique gives better accuracy.

To trim-as-you-go, start by trimming one edge each of two scraps, along the grain. If you already have a grain-straight edge that is even, score! No need to trim. Sew the straightened edges together.

As you assemble, trim only the edge that is going to be put to work for the next seam. Use the previous seam as a guide for your ruler and cut the next edge perpendicular to the seam:

Working this way takes the pressure off when you sew because the edges of your block are always perfectly even (since you just trimmed them all in one cut!) You don't have to try to match the edges when you start and stop; you just match your seams. On the other hand, when you piece from perfect little squares, all of your seam allowance errors and original cutting errors add up as you go along. If you have to trim your block during assembly, your cut squares are no longer exactly the right size. On the other hand, when you trim as you go along, you hit the reset button each time you sew pieces together.

Once you have more than one seam, you need to make your cuts at the right position instead of just the correct angle. Trim 2.25" from the seam parallel to where you will sew, or 1/4" more than the finished size for each square.

Make sense?

Using Yardage
If you are assembling from strips (jelly roll or yardage) it makes more sense just to cut things to the right size from the get-go. You also get the benefit of being able to strip piece your blocks. If you don't want your blocks to all look identical, strip piece in sections and then mix the sections up so that each block looks different. When you assemble, put your blocks in different orientations as well. Once you finish, it's hard to tell that fabric A is always next to fabric B, especially if you have a lot of different fabrics in the quilt. The quilt below is 100% strip pieced and all the blocks have identical fabric placement, they were just rotated during assembly:

You don't notice unless you are looking for it, right?

My quilt is a mix of scraps and yardage, so I'll be combining trim-as-you-go (for scraps) and strip piecing (for the yardage) in my blocks. It's totally fine to do that and it all works out in the end.

I'll be back tomorrow with the specific cutting & piecing instructions for these blocks. In the meantime, any questions?

Let the Quiltalong Begin!

2012-07-25T12:21:00.003-07:00

Our first order of business... how about a blog button? Everybody knows that if you don't have a blog button, you aren't running a REAL quiltalong, so here we are:

Ah, so nice. Now that we have established our legitimacy, on to the fabric:

The quilt is made up of 2" finished squares (2.5" cut size), so the 3x4 block layout above comes out to a 60" x 80" finished size (after quilting & washing). That's a bit on the small size for a twin quilt, with about a 10" drop on each side of the bed and a 6" drop at the bottom. My natural tendency is to make bed quilts oversized, but this one will be going to my very young niece. She takes up about a tenth of her twin size bed. Her mom requested a smaller size because apparently it is hard for the little folks to manage a quilt that matches them by weight and has a lot of overhang - it keeps trying to slide off the bed. If you want your quilt a little bigger, two good options are:

Bump up to a 4x5 layout, for a finished size of 80" x 100" (generous quilt for up to a full size bed)
Increase your finished square size to 2.5" (cut size is 3"). This works if you are cutting from scraps & yardage, but you won't be able to work with jelly rolls. The finished size for this is about 72" x 98" (also good for a twin, XL twin, or full size).

For the 3x4 layout, you need just shy of 200 squares of each color. For the 4x5 layout, you need 335 squares of each color. That means that you will need:

On top of that, you will need a yard of white for sashing.

Note that you only need the total yardage in ONE of the cells above, depending on whether you are using scraps, jelly rolls, or yardage, and on the finished quilt size. If you are using a lot of different fabrics, bump up your yardage a little and purchase in multiples of your cut square size, i.e. 2.5" or 3".

Does that make sense? I don't mind answering fabric yardage questions related to your personal quilt plan, so ask away!

This quiltalong will be ~~somewhat~~ extremely leisurely, and I will be just checking in most weeks because the blocks are all the same pattern. Here is an outline of what we will be covering from here on out: