It's Like Magic!

I've teased you the last couple of days with some nine patch blocks made using a charm pack of the New Bella Solids by Moda and a bit of white fabric from my stash. 

Notice there is no rhyme or reason to the placement of the colored squares.

After they were sewn together, they looked like this.

I cut them in half, both directions, added a color square in the middle and more white squares and sewed them together to get new and bigger nine patch blocks. 

The only attention I gave to fabric placement was to be sure that the center square was not the same as any of the surrounding small squares. In retrospect, I guess it was a good thing that I also did not have any of the center squares the same color/fabric as the larger corner squares. I didn't do it, and it wouldn't be the end of the world if I did.

I cut these blocks in half, both directions and them sewed them into this little beauty!

It measures about 38" x 48" and I love it! I'm thinking about the quilting possibilities here and think that this may be my "go to" quilt for baby or quickly needed quilts.

A little while back, my brother sent sent me some information about a double disappearing nine patch and I think I've put this together the same way, but for the life of me I can't find what Jerry sent. So, if you know who is responsible for this block, please let me know so I can give proper credit.  :-)

Update: Thanks Jerry:

 knittingbrow said...

http://afewscraps.blogspot.com/2011/08/double-disappearing-nine-patch.html

it's from here!

Tuesday Archives Link Party

This week is all about  BOYS and BOM Finishes

If you are looking for Tip Tuesday!, 

click HERE

I participated in a For the Boys Blog Hop last year and that certainly fits today's theme.  :-)

Click HERE to go to my original post for the blog hop, but  in case you just want to see the projects, here they are.

I only have one grandson, but I have three granddaughters. The two older granddaughters love this quilt just as much as the grandson so I think I hit the jackpot when I used dinosaur fabric. 

And yes, I was right. This makes a great "sleepover at Grandma's house" quilt!

I have participated in a number of BOMs over the years, although it's been a while. Unfortunately I don't seem to have any pictures on this computer that would make it easy to post here.

Of course I have lots of quilts that aren't really BOMs, but it seems that I only make one block a month. Does that count?  :-)

Of course not being able to find the pictures now has me wondering where they are. Perhaps I'll send some time searching.

Check out other Tuesday Archive posts by going to 

Val's Quilting Studio.

Tip Tuesday! Efficiency

Welcome to

"Tip Tuesday!" - Piecing Two Quilts at the Same Time

I love learning new things and then sharing that knowledge with my quilting friends. So, every Tuesday I'll provide some tips, hints, tricks, tutorials, shortcuts, etc. that I've learned over the years and share them here on the blog. 

"Tip Tuesday" will be a collection of information about a wide variety of subjects garnered from a large variety of sources.  I am not an expert by any means and do not take credit for being the great wizard behind all of these hints and tips. I will gladly give due credit whenever possible.

These tips will be archived and accessible to you just by clicking on the "Tip Tuesday" tab above. 

Read, enjoy, and be inspired! 

Chain Piecing and Making Two Quilts at the Same Time

Remember yesterday when I showed you those solid nine patch blocks that I was making?

I was piecing those blocks at the same time I was sewing the rows together on this quilt.

It's really not that I'm that good, but that I try to be efficient while I'm piecing. I like to use Leaders and Enders. 

Many of you may be familiar with this concept because of the success Bonnie Hunter has had with this technique. She is a very prolific quilter who really popularized this technique a while back.

Like Bonnie, I like to chain piece because it's so much more efficient and economical. Not only does it save time and thread, but for me it is more accurate. I no longer have to contend with my sewing machine "eating" the tips of my fabric when I start sewing. Do you know what I mean? When the threads get tangled and your fabric ends up getting pulled down the needle hole only to be mangled beyond recognition. 

I used to simply use a piece of scrap fabric at the beginning and end of each "chain." This solved my problem and all was great.

Well, then I read about Leader and Ender projects and the light finally turned on and I was on a roll. 

Since that time, I'm almost always working on two quilts at the same time. Of course to avoid confusion, I try to make sure the two projects are very different so I don't mix the units. (Can you guess why I decided needed to do that!?!) I really don't think I could get much different than the two projects above.

Anyway, because she so often works with scrappy quilts, Bonnie often pieces various strips or units together that she throws into a tub to be used at a later date. I've done that too, but found that it is much easier for me to actually plan a second quilt and have it ready to go. As you can see in the following picture, I have my nine patch piecing units all lined up and ready to go.

Here I have the blocks for the first quilt ready to be sewn into rows and the bottom units of my nine patch blocks ready also.

I simply chain piece my blocks until they are all done.

And then I add a unit of my nine patch block to the chain.

I snip the pieces apart, leaving the nine patch unit in the machine with the needle in the down position...

And get ready to start with the row construction again.

I follow up with another nine patch component...

And before you know it, voila'! The quilt and nine patch blocks are both done.

 

I have found that many people find it confusing when they start using the Leader and Ender technique, but once they get going with with, I know they like it. If yo don't already do this, why not give it a try? I think you'll like it.  :-)

I've taken those nine patch blocks, cut them up, added some additional fabric and reconstructed them into something new. Check back tomorrow to see what they look like now!

I'm linking up to Show and Tell Tuesday at i have to say... as well as to Archive Tuesday at Val's Quilting Studio. Take a gander at these two blogs and I promise you won't be disappointed. 

Design Wall Monday

Remember when I said that I wanted to start piecing something and that I would do it after all my bindings were done? Well...I didn't wait. 

I did work on more bindings, but I couldn't wait to start this next project. The fabric had been sitting on the cutting table just waiting for me and my sketches were right next to the chair where I sit to bind. Both kept calling my name and I had no way to stop them, other than pick them up and start sewing. :-)

This started as two Mimi charm packs and a bunch of the green and cream fabric from my stash. The little brown squares were also from stash and for some reason it was out on the cutting table. So, rather than put less than 1/2 yard of fabric back into my stash I decided to use it. I soon realized that this was a binding possibility for one of those quilts I have in waiting. Well, I guess that decision's been made and I'm using the other brown!  :-)

This has a bit more muted look to it than the quilts I usually make, but I like it. I'm already playing with some fabric variations to make another one as a donation quilt. It's the ideal size for donating (60" x 72" without a border) to the group I'm thinking about. 

I don't feel too guilty about working on this rather than binding. This was so simple and quick that I won't have to spend but another hour or so to finish the top. All I have to do is sew the top four rows to each other and add it to the other eight rows. Yippie!! I may add a border, but I'd have to search for fabric to do that. Perhaps less is more and I'll just quilt and bind it. (More binding to add to the pile!)

While I was piecing this, I was doing a leaders and enders thing and this is the result of that.

Check back tomorrow to see how these have changed and more about how I've done them.

Want to be inspired? 

Check out Judy L's Patchwork Times to see what other quilters have on their design walls today. 

Busy Weekend - But Not Sewing

Jack has had a busy, singing-filled weekend which means I've had a busy music-listening weekend.:-)

Jack sings with the Terra Choral Society which is part of Terra State Community College in Fremont. This weekend's presentation is titled "An American Landscape" and it pays tribute to America's great choral music, including works by Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copeland Randall Thompson and many more. 

The first concert was Friday evening in Fremont, while last night they were performing in Sandusky. Later this afternoon they will be performing in Bellevue, so I think you can understand why I say it's a music-filled weekend, as opposed to a sewing-filled weekend.:-)

Here's a few pictures from last night's concert. 

As you can tell, I couldn't get a great picture. Other than the guys head in front of me, this is the best one I could get to show the majority of the group, which is about 125 members. 

They were pretty crowded up there on the risers, especially when the Terra Chamber Strings joined them for the last number.

Jack was really hungry after the performance so we stopped at Mekong for a bite to eat. I think he was a bit overdressed for the place, but the workers all had fun. It looks like Jack did too!

I even got our friend Eileen (who joined me for the concert) in a picture.  :-) 

Maybe I'll get to some sewing later today. Maybe, just maybe.

Friday Finishes

I finally have some Friday Finishes that I can share with you. YEAH!!

I've been binding - for myself and customers. Here's a pile of five of the quilts that I still have here at the house that I've bound the last couple of days. I still some more customer quilts to do and I hope to finish them all up today and tomorrow because I want to get some piecing done.

I love this quilt and it is so simple! It's a disappearing nine patch set on point. I used Little Black Dress charms packs, a single light fabric and a single black fabric. The black fabric is repeated in the binding. 

Simple, yet elegant and because of that, I'm call this Dressed to the Nines.  :-)  I'll be teaching this quilt at one of the local quilt shops soon. Yippee!!

I have finally bound my two versions of I Used To Be a Layer Cake. I love how these turned out. I'll also be teaching these at a local shop soon.

   

Last night I was wondering how I get so behind on my binding (which I love to do) and then I realized that I've had machine issues, been subbing a lot, and have had lots of evening meetings. That was a quick reminder that it sure doesn't take long before things begin to pile up in the "to do" bin.  

Today I'm linking up to Sarah's Confessions of a Fabric Addict for "Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?". 

If you have time, take a gander at some wonderful creations by lots of quilters. I promise that you'll be inspired and in awe.  :-)

Beautiful and Welcome Sight!

Remember last week when I posted this picture of our butterfly bush covered in snow?

Well, look what I saw yesterday!

And today...

I don't want to count my chickens tulips before their hatched  blossomed, but I think winter may be over.

I don't even mind seeing all the weeds and dead leaves that I need to take care of in the flower beds.

Tip Tuesday! Organized Cutting

Welcome to

"Tip Tuesday!" - Organized Cutting

I love learning new things and then sharing that knowledge with my quilting friends. So, every Tuesday I'll provide some tips, hints, tricks, tutorials, shortcuts, etc. that I've learned over the years and share them here on the blog. 

"Tip Tuesday" will be a collection of information about a wide variety of subjects garnered from a large variety of sources.  I am not an expert by any means and do not take credit for being the great wizard behind all of these hints and tips. I will gladly give due credit whenever possible.

These tips will be archived and accessible to you just by clicking on the "Tip Tuesday" tab above. 

Read, enjoy, and be inspired! 

Cut efficiently and with better organization. 

That is my goal!

Being organized while I'm cutting out a quilt project is sometimes challenging. I love it when I have the opportunity to cut the entire project out in one setting, but that doesn't always happen.

A long time ago, I started making a "working copy" of the cutting instructions for all of my patterns. What that means is I photocopy the cutting instructions so I can cut them apart and keep a set of cutting instructions with each fabric. I also make various notes on the copy, such as hash marks for keeping count of exactly how many pieces I've cut, dimensions of left over fabric pieces in case I can use that left over piece later, etc. 

I usually glue or tape a small piece of the fabric to the copy, just in case the paper gets separated from the fabric or life gets in the way and I don't get back to working on the project for quite a while. Doing this means that I don't have to spend time guessing which fabric was going to be used where in the quilt. (Ok, in reality, it's not that life gets in the way. More than likely it's that something else has come up and I start working on another quilt project before I get done with this one.) 

I've also been known to write out the cutting instructions on a dry erase board and as I cut, I erase that size and move on to the next one. There's something about writing things down that help me avoid cutting mistakes. I think that the larger print is helpful, and I think it helps me to simply have written it down. It's like when I had to study spelling words. If I wrote them down a couple of time, my mind remembered them better. :-)

And just because I need those frequent "rewards", seeing that I only have one more set of fabrics to cut is kind of fun. Maybe I just like the idea of a seeing a "clean slate." It makes me feel like I've accomplished something.

I also like to keep my cut pieces organized by using sticky notes.

I like to have the cut size of the fabric written on the sticky notes and then attach that to the stack of corresponding fabrics. If the quilt is one that I think I may make again, I put the used sticky notes in the bag with the pattern so I don't have to re-write them.  Yes, I know I could just use scrap paper, but I like all the colors.  :-)

I applaud you if you are one of those quilters who can just open a pattern and cut out all the pieces without having any worries that you'll stay organized. I admire you!! The rest of us have to figure out ways to help us stay on task and not make mistakes. 

What do you do to stay organized while cutting? 

Interesting!

This week has been very interesting.

Here's a picture of what we awakened to on Tuesday.

It was beautiful and we knew it was coming, but I still was so over snow that it didn't really make me very happy. That is until I took this cool picture, then I was glad to have the snow, even if just for a few minutes. Fortunately the roads were not bad when I had to drive to teach my quilting class.  :-)

I subbed at the high school Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and that was fun, especially when I approached the school yesterday morning and remembered that it was a special day. (It had nothing to do with Easter or the fact that there was a long weekend approaching.)

It was Drive Your Tractor to School Day!

I like subbing in a rural school.  :-)

Tip Tuesday!

Welcome to

"Tip Tuesday!" - Odd Bindings

I love learning new things and then sharing that knowledge with my quilting friends. So, every Tuesday I'll provide some tips, hints, tricks, tutorials, shortcuts, etc. that I've learned over the years and share them here on the blog. 

"Tip Tuesday" will be a collection of information about a wide variety of subjects garnered from a large variety of sources.  I am not an expert by any means and do not take credit for being the great wizard behind all of these hints and tips. I will gladly give due credit whenever possible.

These tips will be archived and accessible to you just by clicking on the "Tip Tuesday" tab above. 

Read, enjoy, and be inspired! 

I like to bind quilts! 

There, I said it. I know for many people, binding is boring, tedious work, but I have always liked to bind.

Although I had bound quilts with irregular shapes and odd angles, I never felt that I did them well. Recently I've been intrigued with triangle quilts and unless you trim off and even out the sides, you are going to have to deal with odd angles when it comes time to add the binding.

I am ready to quilt this quilt.

My plan was to take pictures of the binding process, especially the inside corners and post that "tutorial" here for Tip Tuesday! I was pleasantly surprised when Lorna over at Sew Fresh Quilts posted a tutorial on this exact topic. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I decided to add her link here for today's Tip Tuesday! 

http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.ca/2014/04/binding-inside-corners-tutorial.html

Now, please don't hold me to my plan to get this quilt quilted and bound. It will happen, but I'm not sure when. Of course maybe if I had not seen Lorna's post I would be more motivated to get this down, but who knows. T\I'm guessing that the chances of me finishing this are actually pretty good because  really like the quilt, so I guess you should check back often to see how well I've been able to stay on task. I would suggest though, that no money or bartering about this topic because although I really want to finish it, it may have to sit and mature a little bit longer.

If you've bound an irregular shaped quilt, I'd love to see it and hear your procedure for attaching the binding.

Have a great day and enjoy yourself!  :-)

Tuesday Archives - Bindings or Birds

This week is all about  BINDINGS and everything and anything BIRDS

If you are looking for Tip Tuesday!, 

click HERE

Well, I don't think I have anything bird related, so I guess it's all about bindings for me.

I looked at my quilt pictures and didn't find any that really featured the bindings, which is funny because I really like to do binding work. I machine stitch them down and hand stitch them to the back unless I've been requested to do it all by machine.

I don't think I machine bind very well, but I do try. I usually baste the binding in place and them use a decorative stitch to finish it off. These burp cloths I made for Avery are kind of like that. Lynn and I liked the look of the blanket stitch on the back when it didn't line up directly on the binding fabric. We both thought it looked like the lacing on baseballs and since we both like baseball, we did this on purpose.

I do like to use stripe fabric, cut on the bias for bindings, but I don't have any good pictures of that. :-(  I guess I need to be more mindful of my picture taking.

I have made a few bindings that were a bit challenging, mostly because they were an irregular shape or pieced while trying to match up things. Here are two examples of that. 

First is my Down the Rabbit Hole Hexagon quilt. This was one of the first (if not the first) quilt that I thought I figured out how to bind the irregular corners and actually liked how it turned out.

This Ohio Quilt (you've seen this before), has the specially pieced binding that was also very large and has odd angles. I like my concept, but in reality this binding is not constructed very well. I have often that that I should redo it and make it look better.

What bindings or birds would you like to feature? Maybe you just want to see some other wonderful creations. 

Check out Val's Quilting Studio!  

Tip Tuesday! - Label It

Welcome to

"Tip Tuesday!"

I love learning new things and then sharing that knowledge with my quilting friends. So, every Tuesday I'll provide some tips, hints, tricks, tutorials, shortcuts, etc. that I've learned over the years and share them here on the blog. 

"Tip Tuesday" will be a collection of information about a wide variety of subjects garnered from a large variety of sources.  I am not an expert by any means and do not take credit for being the great wizard behind all of these hints and tips. I will gladly give due credit whenever possible.

These tips will be archived and accessible to you just by clicking on the "Tip Tuesday" tab above. 

Read, enjoy, and be inspired! 

Tip Tuesday! - Quilt Labels

I know you've all heard that we need to label our quilts, but I'll be the first to admit that I don't always do it. I know! I really should do it, but honestly, sometimes I just forget. I've been known to write information about the quilt on the binding, so I'm kind of labeling it, but is that enough? I'm not sure.

If I've made a quilt for someone in particular or for a special event, I usually do put a label on it to commemorate the event. But, I make lots of class samples, "just because I like the pattern" quilts, and quilts because I want to try a new technique. A lot of these get donated or given away and I hate to admit it, but many of those don't get labeled or marked in any way. 

A few weeks back, I decided that I really need to make a concerted effort to label ALL of my quilts, at least with the date an pattern name.

I've been thinking about the best way to label quilts because I usually don't want a big label that draws a lot of attention. I want something small that kin of blends in with the rest of the quilt, yet has all the necessary information on it. 

Well, about a week ago, I was reading Pat Sloan's blog and she had a post about quilt labels. I really liked how her labels looked and how she presented the tutorial on how she makes them. So, rather than me trying to reinvent the wheel (quilt label in this case), here's the link to Pat's post.

http://blog.patsloan.com/2014/03/pat-sloan-triangle-label-tutorial.html

So, if you aren't labeling your quilts on a regular basis, maybe this will help you. I'm going to give it a try. Thanks Pat!

Design Wall Monday

Here's what's on the wall today. Another version of the I Used To Be A Layer Cake quilt. This time, I'm using a layer cake from the Wishes fabric line by Sweetwater for Moda

What you see is only a portion of Version 3 (see pattern cover below for a picture of the complete quilt). I have the strips set up in the order that they will be sewn for all the sections to the left of the first accent strip.

Here's what it looks like after sewing some of those bottom strips together. That big open section is there because of the seam allowance. Isn't it crazy when you actually see how much smaller a project is when you account for the seam allowance?  I'm using a chocolate brown fabric for the accent strip, even though it looks like it's black in the photo. My plan is to use that for the binding as well.

This version is a bit "softer" than my last version. (Version 1)

Check out what other quilters have on their design walls today!

Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times and be prepared to be awed and inspired.