Make-A-List Monday - Taking a Short (slightly warmer) Break...

Hi, all!

I'm interrupting our regularly scheduled program, because I am really enjoying my vacation and don't really want to think about what I should be doing!  I'm having a lot of fun playing with fabric, and today I even went and petted a lot of it...

...and even brought some of it home!  Pensacola has a great fabric store called A & E Fabrics.  It used to be part of a pharmacy, but now it's just a fabric store.  Lots of wonderful fabrics, great customer service and friendly people, and they give a discount to any and all guild members!   (You do have to show them your guild membership card...)  I spent a wonderful morning browsing through their fabrics, then adding to my Essex linen collection (the white and that beautiful orange), picking up that great brown cross hatch for backgrounds, the black and white diagonal print for bindings, and that awesome seam ripper print for a special project!  

And speaking of seam rippers, I spent some quality time on the drive down here with my friend Jack (the Ripper) as I rescued these adorable turtle blocks from their not so wonderful settings.  I'll be putting them back together into a quilt for a friend.  Her grandmother made it many years ago, and the old settings were showing their age, with lots of fading, fraying, and just general unhappiness.  Hopefully I can bring it back to where it can be used and loved by many more generations!

This is the view I've been enjoying for the past couple of days!  It really is beautiful, but unfortunately it's been pretty cool - low 40's to low 60's, and really windy - so we've spent most of our time indoors.  We did go out for walks on the beach yesterday and today, and saw this guy...

Isn't he gorgeous? He knew it, too!  He walked along with us for quite a ways, and it was pretty fascinating to observe him close up.  

I did have quite a bit of time for sewing the past two days, and had a lot of fun using Jamie's tutorial for the Have Faith block!  I'm hoping to get better pictures on the beach tomorrow, but here's a teaser of the finished top...

This should finish out at about 60" square (I didn't bring anything with me to measure, unfortunately) and is made up of 25 Have Faith blocks.  I used 50 10" squares and 25 fat quarters (a few were fat eighths) to make this, so it made a great big dent in my scrap stash!  I had all the pieces cut and matched up for each block when I got here, and once I got the rhythm down, I was making a block in about 10 minutes.  I love the happy mix of colors in this!  

It's supposed to be warmer tomorrow, and I've learned that the Blue Angels will be practicing tomorrow at lunchtime right in front of our beach, so I'm planning to have a beachside seat for that!  I'm looking forward to baking in the sun a bit - I'm tired of cold weather, as I'm sure all of you are too.  But at least it's warmer here than at home - they had snow in Mt. Juliet today!!  There's something really wrong about that...

Next week we'll get back to lists and accountability, but for now I'm just going to enjoy working on fun stuff when I want to!

But I'd really love to know - - - what are YOU working on this week?

Hugs!

Sarah

Hands2Help - Kate's Color Wheel - A Scrappy Quilt (Or Not!)

Hi, all!

Y'all, our guest bloggers are really outdoing themselves this year! This week Kate, who blogs over at Katie Mae Quilts, is sharing her wonderful talents with us. I love her blog bio, so I'm going to share it word for word: "I'm an Air Force wife and mom to two kids who are obsessed with minky quilt backs. I've let robots take over my housekeeping so I have more time to sew. I run half marathons (because full marathons are too long)." All I can say is I want some of those robots, Kate! You are going to love the quilt she's created for us today, and if you're like me, by the end of the post, you'll be mentally pulling fabrics out of your stash!

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When I told Sarah I could write a guest post for Hands2Help, I actually had no idea what I was going to do it on. I started doodling tesselating shapes on graph paper and ended up with this pattern - it’s not the one I thought I was going to get, but I really love it!

I thought they would nest more, like a non-hand-pieced Grandmother's Flower Garden. Turns out those are hexagons...not octagons! You'd think with a kindergartner hanging around, I'd know my shapes better.

This version has that fantastic star in the middle, which I like even better than nesting shapes. And it's deceptively easy to put together - as long as you’re not afraid of bias edges. And you shouldn’t be! Just handle them carefully and everything will be fine.

The best part is how easily it can be customized, since the center portion is 10x10 blocks. So, the quilt will be your block size x 10.

I designed this tutorial to finish at 52” because it fits perfectly on a minky back. (I try to donate quilts with minky backs to kids’ charities because my kids are total minky snobs and think all child-size things should involve minky. This one is the correct size for Little Lambs Foundation and Happy Chemo.) 4” finished block x 10 = 40” + 2” stop border + 4” border = 52” square.

I considered doing this two different ways - scrappy and not - but ultimately decided on scrappy to keep with Sarah’s theme. (Even though I had a FQ bundle of Marvel superhero fabrics begging to be used.) Then it went together so quickly that I had plenty of time to make the alternate version! So you get both - aren’t you lucky?

SUPPLIES

• Neutral - 1 yard
• Eight octagon fabrics - either cut from scraps, one 5" strip width of fabric (WOF), or one half of a fat quarter (cut from the 18" side, so not a fat eighth)
• Border - 2/3 yard
• Binding - 1/2 yard (cut at 2.5")
• Backing - 1-2/3 yards minky or 3-1/3 yard regular fabric

NEUTRAL CUTTING DIAGRAM

(Selvages are at the top and bottom of this diagram)

• Note A: check your WOF before cutting the border strips. One of mine was long enough to cut four strips; the other needed a bit more, so it would be cut from one of the scrap pieces.
• Note B: you can make the neutral scrappy with (32) 4.5" squares and (12) 5" squares, and (4-5) 2.5" WOF strips for the inner border

OCTAGON CUTTING

Here’s where the fun is! You can:

• From the same fabric, cut (1) 12.5x4.5” strip, (2) 4.5” squares, and (2) 5” squares
• From scraps, cut (5) 4.5” squares and (2) 5” squares (Want it to be scrappier? Piece each 4.5” squares out of four 2.5” scraps.)

• From FQs, cut according to chart. (You can get two octagons out of one FQ if you want less variety. Or cut (12) 2.5” strips from the leftover to make scrappy binding. Or set it aside and totally promise yourself you’ll make another quilt out of the scraps. Someday!

PIECING

• For the neutral/print half square triangles, draw a diagonal line on eight of the neutral squares. Pair with one of each color of the print squares. Stitch 1/4" on each side of the line. Cut on the line. Trim to 4.5" square. (I use the Quilt in a Day triangle ruler, so I trim before pressing.) Press open.

• For the other HSTs, take a deep breath, say a quick prayer, pet the cat for luck, and cut the second print square and four neutral squares in half on the diagonal. Pair one of each print triangles with a neutral. Pair the other print triangle with its counterpoint in the design. (For my exact color wheel, it’s green/yellow, red/purple, teal/blue, pink/orange. If you’re using your own layout...lay it out first!) Stitch using a 1/4" seam. Trim to 4.5" square. Press open.  Sarah's note:  If you starch your squares before cutting on the diagonal, they'll be less likely to stretch - although you should still handle them carefully!

LAYOUT

This is pieced a little different than the usual rows, so make sure to lay it out on a design wall (or floor!) first to check the pattern.

• Piece the blocks in rows A/B and K/L, then piece the rows together, adding the 8.5” neutral blocks to each end
• Piece the blocks in columns D/E/F and G/H/I, then piece the columns together, adding the 16.5” neutral square to the middle
• Piece the blocks in rows C and J
• Piece A/B to C, and K/L to J
• Piece ABC to DEFGHI, then to JKL

If you are using the 12.5" strips for the non-scrappy version, piecing is the same - you just have a little less piecing. 

BORDERS

Piece the neutral 2.5” WOF strips together, then cut (2) 40.5” strips and (2) 44.5” strips. Sew to the vertical, then horizontal sides of the top. Piece the border print 4.5” strips together, then cut (2) 44.5” strips and (2) 52.5” strips. Sew to the vertical, then horizontal sides of the top.

Quilt as desired. Cut and attach six 2.5" binding strips.

Sit back and admire your work!

I'll have my finished versions of Color Wheel on my blog next week, and stick around for my weekly linky party, BOMs Away Mondays, hosted with Lyn from What a Hoot. We highlight the minuscule weekly accomplishments on Block of the Month projects!

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What a fabulous tutorial! My only complaint is that I'm not at home this week, and can't pull fabrics and make one right away - - - and I know just the perfect fabrics for this quilt!  I'm also thinking that a Christmas version would be so pretty, especially if the star in the middle was made with some sparkly or metallic fabric scraps!  Oh, the possibilities.....

Just a reminder - you can print out this post as a PDF by clicking on the green PDF button under the signature on this post.  If you don't see a green button, go up to the title of the post and click on that, then check in the window that opens.  You should see the green button under the signature!

And with that being said, this is also a check-in day, so feel free to link up below and share your progress!  Don't worry if you haven't finished yet, or if you haven't even started sewing yet - maybe you've only got your fabrics pulled, or a great idea (or today's tutorial has inspired you!)  There's no requirement to link up, but it is a good opportunity to cheer each other on - so join in the fun and show us what you've been doing for H2H this year!

There'll be another great guest blogger next week - don't miss it!!

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Hugs and Kisses...

Hi, all!

Wow, it's Friday again!  And not only Friday, but the beginning of a week at the beach for me - definitely whoop-worthy!  I'm sure you've got things to whoop about too, so let's get right down to it!

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A few years ago, my friend contacted me about making a quilt for her first granddaughter, and we had a lot of fun creating a special quilt for Sadie.  I was overjoyed when she contacted me recently to make a quilt for her second granddaughter!  She picked out a great kit from Hawthorne Threads, using Maureen Cracknell's Love Story collection.  The pattern is called X's and O's, and is available for free on the Art Gallery Fabric website - although there are mistakes in the pattern, so if you choose to download it, check with me for the corrections!

These fabrics are so sweet - sort of old fashioned, but with a modern twist.  The colors are soft and saturated, and they make me smile!

I used a random meander to quilt this up so it would be soft and cuddly...

...and finished it up with a label as requested by my friend - to commemorate this special gift to her granddaughter, Millie.   

My friend has a grandson now, and another grandbaby on the way - looks like there will be a couple more "nana" quilts in my future!!

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And here's another HUGE thing worth whooping over - Take a look at the bottom of this post, right under my name.  See that green button?  You can now print out this post as a PDF file if you want!  NOTE:  If you don't see the green button, go up to the top of the post and click on the title - it will open the post as an individual item instead of one of a list of posts, and the button will be at the bottom of the post.  Woohoo!!!!!

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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