I May Have A Scrap Problem... But These Will Help!

 

Hi, all!

It's been a while since I've had the time (or the energy!) to post on a Wednesday, but don't think that means I have given up on my scraps!  Now that Hands2Help is in the books for this year, I should have more time to work on them.

And this week I'm very pleased to share something really special!  A while back I was contacted by the wonderful people at Felicia's World about their paper piecing templates. They asked if I would be willing to give them a try and post about it on my blog.  Now, if you've followed me for long you'll know that I have never really been able to wrap my head around the concept of paper piecing - but I decided that since I could make log cabin blocks by traditional piecing, I should be able to manage paper piecing.  So I said yes, and they sent me some samples to try!

After cutting out my vacation project, I took the leftover fabrics and cut them into 1.5" strips, then added some white strips and solid teal 2" squares.  

The instructions are clearly printed on the cover of the pad of templates, which was helpful!  I took my handy glue stick and put a dab on the center square, then placed a teal square right on top.  With that stuck on, it went pretty quickly!  For the first few blocks I made, I marked which ones were to have white strips (don't ask me how I know that might be a problem...) but after I had made three or four, they went together pretty easily!  

Stitching on the lines is easier than you might think!  But it's important to remember to use a shorter stitch - that makes it easier to take the papers off after the blocks are finished.

And as with all quilt blocks, squaring up is important!  It's easy to align your ruler with the dotted lines on the template that indicate the outer edges.

Et voila!  Look how pretty and perfect all those seams are!  I will say that paper piecing these blocks makes it easier to get a beautiful square block, even with narrow pieces.

And once the blocks are finished, it's time to play with how to lay them out!  This is just one of the designs I considered using for my blocks.

Once the design was decided on and the piecing done, it was time for quilting!  I decided to use a simple cross-hatch design that I marked on the piece with my hera marker.

And look! I may not have a summer quilt for my bed yet, but I've got a summer pillow!  (And hopefully after vacation I'll have a summer quilt top ready for quilting, too!)  I do love the colors in this piece - so light and cheerful.  The fabrics are a mix of Kate Spain fabrics from several different collections, and are the same that I will be using in my quilt top.

Be sure to pop over to Felicia's World and check out her line of paper piecing templates!  She's also got some great videos that will actually show you how to do it (if you're paper piecing challenged, like I was) and some really good tips, too.  And I can guarantee you that while the first few may be challenging, they DO get easier!  And they're a great way to use up some of those skinny scraps (and a little addictive, too).

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Some "Me" Sewing!

 

Hi, all!

Another beautiful spring week has gone by, and it's Friday again!!  That means it's time for us to get our whoop whoop on - are you ready?  Let's go!

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This week I finished up the last binding on the last graduation quilt, which meant that I got to do some "me" sewing!  

My "Me Sew Happy" quilt, which I started as part of a quilt-along, had been languishing away on the design wall, because I had not had any time to work on the large and small hourglass blocks.  So it was the first thing I tackled!  I pulled some honest to gosh scraps out of my bins....

...which I used to make the four small and four large hourglass blocks required to finish the quilt!

Isn't it pretty?  I love all the bright saturated colors...

...and even more, the fun of finding pretty pieces from past projects!  There's even a piece in this quilt from the very first quilt requested by our pastor for a sick church member.  I was surprised to see that piece in my scrap bin - I would have thought it would be gone long ago - but then I started looking at other pieces and remembering the quilts they came from.  So much fun!

And once I got that top sewn together, I decided I'd better start pulling my next vacation quilt together - we go back to the beach in less than a month!  

So yesterday I broke into the Kate Spain fat quarter stash, pulled a bunch of beautiful teals, blues, and light greens, and cut them into strips.  I've already started sewing together strip sets which will be cross-cut to make 5-square strips for another postage stamp quilt.  This will become a new king-size summer quilt for my own bed (which means I'll be able to take the Christmas quilt off finally!)

So - - - can I get a whoop whoop?

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And now it's your turn!

What's got you whooping it up this week?

In recognition of National Talk Like Yoda Day!

What's making you do a little happy dance?

Share! We want to dance right along with you,

And it's always more fun to dance with friends.

The party will stay open until Sunday midnight.

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Beach Quilt!

 

Hi, all!

Friday is here again, and hopefully we all survived April Fool's Day!  I did see a few Instagram posts of people who were surprised by snow - quite a wicked April Fool's joke from God, I must say.  We woke up to a beautiful day, but twenty degrees colder than we had been the rest of the week - and so windy you could hear the wind whistle through the bathroom vents.  So we didn't have a beach day today, but we did play putt putt and watched four - count 'em, four! - Godzilla movies!  A good day was had by all.

So Friday means it's time for us to get our whoop whoop on - I hope you're ready, because I sure am!  Let's go!

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When I was planning for this vacation, I knew I would bring my sewing machine, even if I only got to sew the three days that we were here before the grandkids showed up.  I also brought twenty five block kits for a quilt I needed to make, in hopes that I would get at least some of them made and have a head-start on that quilt.

Well, I got a GREAT start on that quilt, because by Thursday afternoon I had finished all 25 blocks I brought with me!   You can see them all here...

This probably isn't the final layout - I just wanted to get a quick pic before we ate dinner - but I love the colors in this!  All the print pieces are Kate Spain fabrics, and the solids are Kona Snow and a pretty spring green that I can't remember the name of.  

I think I'll take these home and fiddle with the layout on my "design floor" so for now I'll just do my happy dance that the blocks are done!

So - - - can I get a whoop whoop?

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And now it's your turn!  

What's got you whooping it up this week?

What's making you do a little happy dance?

Share!  We want to dance right along with you,

And it's always more fun to dance with friends!

The party will stay open until Sunday midnight.

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah

String Therapy Draws To A Close With Unity.....

 

Hi, all!

It's finally arrived - our last session of String Therapy.  I thought a good topic for today might be unity - how we can all get along even if we don't think or act exactly the same way.  Seems like we've lost a lot of that in the world today, but it doesn't mean we can't strive to get it back.  Wouldn't everyone be a lot happier if we were united?

I guess you're wondering how that can pertain to a quilt design?  Well, in today's quilt I've united warm colors and cool colors, darks and lights, wide and narrow strips, for a quilt that feels like a personification of Unity.

Above you can see the quilt that was my inspiration.  I believe this picture came from Bonnie Hunter's blog, as she was sharing some quilts from a museum exhibit of string quilts.  This one has quite a primitive feel to it, a little Gees Bend-y, and is very scrappy.  Looking at it, it took me a while to analyze the thing that I thought made it work, but finally I saw it - all of the corners on each round are made of the same fabric.  In other words, the quilter never changed fabrics at the corner, she continued around.  It gives the eye a  place to rest and enjoy the surrounding fabrics, I think.  And that was the starting point for my own version.

Since I still had quite a bit of the beautiful Kate Spain Latitude batiks on hand, and much of it trimmed to 2.5" wide already, I started with those and added some 1.5" wide strips from the remainder of my Latitude scraps.

I chose a center piece, in this case a 2.5" wide strip of pink that was about 4.5" long.  Next I picked two of the teal pieces and seamed them together, sewing them to the pink block along the long side.  

I trimmed the ends even with the center piece and set those pieces to one side so I could use them to complete my corners.  This beginning is so small it will only take two fabrics to go all the way around.

Here you can see the block after I sewed the strips all the way around, but before the final trimming.  

Once you have sewn your first round, square up the block so that all the corners are square and the opposing sides are equal in length.

And yes, there's a reason for this.  As we go forward, you will be measuring the length for your strips rather than just applying them and trimming the ends.  Have you ever worked with a quilt that had "waving borders"?  There's a reason for that.  We all have a tendency to make our seams just a little bit narrower as we get to the end of the seam, which means that the end of your piece is a little wider than the top of it.  Over the course of a quilt, that little bit can make a big difference!  

So when you are adding borders, you should measure across the center of your quilt and make your borders that length, rather than measuring the edge you are applying the border to.  It might not make a huge difference if you are just adding one border, but in a quilt like this, which is essentially all border, it will help you keep it square and flat.  

So now start building your quilt, border by border.  

Alternate using wide strips and using narrow ones.  

Throw in a block of the opposite color family (or two) as you go for interest.  

Just remember to go around the corner with the same print to give your eye a place to rest.

The length of your strips can vary from 1" to 10" or more - whatever makes you happy and works with the strips you have!

I know it's hard to believe, but I actually ran out of strips in the right colors and widths before my quilt was as large as I wanted it to be...

...so I started auditioning borders.  Neither of these was right.  And as impossible as it seems, I didn't have any yardage stashed away that worked.  Time to regroup!  I dug through my remaining Latitude scraps and saw that I had quite a few that were 2.25", 2" or 1.25" wide - not quite large enough for the 2.5" or 1.5" I was using for the quilt, but I could use them for a piano key border.  

I sewed a few together, and really liked the look.  But what to do with the corners?  I really don't like to miter corners - I'm not a big one for fiddly sewing, but I wanted it to have a nice polished finish on those corners.  So I made some fan-like string blocks for each corner to allow the eye to travel around the outer border.

I played a lot of piano keys to make this one...

...but in the end, I had a top I really like!  And look at how nice and flat it lies!  Measuring for each of those borders pays off in the end.

And here's the finished quilt!  "Quilt as desired" in this case meant a quick loopy meander because I ran out of time for anything fancier...

...but I like the way it looks, and it will make a nice soft cuddly quilt!

And just look at those pretty corners!

Those very different colors came together nicely in Unity, I think!

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And now that we've completed our String Therapy, let's share a little love, shall we?  Come back next Sunday for the beginning of this year's Hands2Help Comfort Quilt Challenge, where I'm sure you'll find the perfect place to donate an expression of quilt-y comfort for someone in need.  I can't wait, can you?  See you there!

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? My Christmas Present to Me!

 

Hi, all!

Friday again - and not only Friday, but three-weeks-until-Christmas Friday!!  Oh my!  I'm sure most of you are working on things you can't share, but I hope you can join in the fun and whoop it up a little bit - so let's get started!

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I decided this year that I was finally going to use the three jelly rolls of Kate Spain's Solstice that I had been hoarding saving for the perfect quilt - and because it's Christmas fabric, I was compelled to finish it in time for this Christmas!  I wanted a king size quilt for our new bed, and not just a king size, but a huge one, with plenty of "drop" on three sides so that rolling over wouldn't leave anyone short of covers.

Because this quilt was going to be so big, it wouldn't fit on my quilt frame in one piece, so I quilted it in two long sections.  My original plan was to use a layer of wool batting and a layer of cotton batting, but when I started quilting it, I found it to be too puffy, so I took out the cotton batting.  The wool batt gave just the right amount of loft!

Here's the first half fresh off the frame!  Then, second verse, same as the first, I quilted the other half.

Then came the fun and adventurous part - joining the two halves!  I found a great tutorial that covered exactly what I wanted to do, and if you are interested in doing the same, I highly recommend that you check it out.  She did an excellent job of explaining how and I don't think I can add much here.  So - I trimmed one side through all the layers, then pinned it to the pieced top on the other side, folding back the batting and backing.

Once the two pieces were joined, I pressed the seam allowance towards the pieced side, trimmed the batting to meet the edge I just pressed over, and trimmed the backing to 1" beyond the seam allowance.  Then I folded the seam allowance on the backing under to just cover the seam stitching and pressed it down.  And this is the only thing I did differently than the tutorial - I hand stitched the seam down rather than stitching in the ditch as directed.  I did that because the wool batting has so much loft, I was afraid I would end up with a very visible line down my quilt that was quilted everywhere else with swirls.  Oh, and one last thing I did was lay the quilt across the rollers of my quilt frame, pin it to the leaders just to hold it in place, and quilt across the space that remained unquilted above the joining of the two halves.  I had to shift it down a little bit at each end to get all the way to the edges of the quilt, but it's all good - it worked!

Then I located in my stash enough of this red stripe to make binding!  Is there anything prettier than red stripe binding?  And, as a friend on Instagram said, shouldn't all Christmas quilts have red stripe binding?

Every journey begins with a single stitch, right?  More than four hundred inches around this quilt, so it took a while, but so worth it...

...because, isn't that the prettiest thing?  And even more so because it's all finished!

And here it is, in all its glory!  Notice the drop - plenty of roll-over room with this quilt.  And it's even prettier in person.  The camera doesn't do justice to the beautiful colors in this fabric line.  Of course, that could partly be that I didn't finish it until after the sun set, so I may be able to get a better picture by daylight.  We shall see!  I also have a long rectangular piece of the patchwork to make a bolster pillow, which hopefully will happen in the next few days.  It would be a shame to have to wait until next Christmas to use it!

So - - - can I get a whoop whoop?

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And now it's your turn!

What's got you whooping it up this week?

What's making you do a little happy dance?

Share! We want to dance right along with you,

And it's always more fun to dance with friends!

The party will stay open until Sunday midnight.

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah