ScrapLab goes BIG TIME!

I have a feature wall at Running Stitch Fabrics in Kent, WA!!  I'm so excited!  ScrapLab has been such a success, and we've made so many cool projects, they're now all hanging on the wall!  I'm so proud of my ScrapLab Experimenters for making this such a great class!  Come play with us sometime, and experiment with all those leftover pieces we ALL have!

Busy Week!

Why is the last week of the quarter always so busy?  All those 'pesky' grades to get turned in for students... No, just kidding -- geesh, I hope my boss doesn't see this.  Grades are important, but arduous to be sure.

But now that's done, and today I taught a quilting class!  So much fun!  5 wonderful ladies and I made my Quick & Easy, Comfy Cozy Tree Skirt pattern in a last-minute rush to decorate for Christmas.  We weren't quite done with it after 4 hours, so I didn't get pictures of their completed tops, but they promised to email them.

This is Loris' -- she works at the quilt shop and made it using my pattern -- isn't it gorgeous???

And of course, since I feel like a better teacher demo-ing how to do things instead of trying to find words to describe what I'm doing, I made one, too.

 I cut all the pieces before class so if I wanted to show a step in the process they'd be RIGHT THERE for me to use to demonstrate.  Hmmm, blue, green and white --  I wonder who I should give this to for Christmas?? ;)

Happy last minute sewing!

Blue Quilt Tutorial

I had fun this summer making this really fast and super cute baby quilt!  Here is how I did it!

First, I went through my scraps, and cut 5 inch squares of lots of different blues and then lights (or fabrics that read light).  Well, actually, I had my mom cut them.  She was down visiting, and needed a project.  I was afraid if I didn't giver her a project, like cutting  these squares, then she'd find HER OWN project, and rearrange my kitchen or something...this was a good project, because then we got to chat while we played with fabric -- perfect!  

Anyways, then I paired up a light with a dark, and on the back of the light, I marked a line from corner to corner.  I sewed 1/4" to each side of that line.

 I had some leftover triangles from another project, and I used those, too -- I overlapped them just a smidgen along the line that I'd drawn on the back of the light square, and then stitched them, too!

 Then, I cut them down the drawn line, making a whole stack of a bunch of half-square triangles, which I then pressed really good.
 Then I began the somewhat long process of squaring them up.  This is the beauty of making HST this way, I think -- I can square them up and make the perfect.  I squared them up to 4.5 inches...

 Then, I put them up on my design wall.  I LOVED the stars that were created in this arrangement, but it was still kind of small, I felt, and I wanted to it be a good baby quilt size.

  

So, I just happened to have some blue fabric in my stash that went pretty well with all the scrappy HST, so I put that in between as sashing to see if I'd like it.  I did -- but I decided to do only in one direction, so I still had these long strips of triangles.  

But of course I only had enough of the sashing blue for the sashing, and not for the top and bottom borders, so I found ANOTHER piece from my stash for the top and bottom borders. Murphy's law, right?  This is what comes of not having a real pattern and just making stuff up on the fly...

 I like it so well, I made a pink version, too -- just to keep with those traditional baby colors, you know...apparently I'm all about perpetuating stereotypes...but it's a fun, FAST quilt, and a great way to use up scraps.  I plan to do more in other colors -- when I'll do, I'll post pictures here.

Tree skirts tree skirts tree skirts...

I'm liking how my two new tree skirt pattern samples are coming.

Loving the colors, too!!
This one is pinned and ready to go...

This one I still have a couple rows to go...


I will quilt them, photograph them, and get the pattern up onto my etsy site -- it will be available for digital download soon! :)

I'm sensing a theme...

Apparently I'm in a half-square-triangle kind of mood...three different projects, all HST.  How funny!!