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! :)

It's getting there...

I'm making progress on this little low-volume baby quilt!!

I've decided it needs white borders, even though I'm not a huge fan of borders.  BUT, that will make it a little bit larger.  I'm so pleased with the color combo and all the white.  And it needs rick rack, so stay tuned...

I'm sensing a theme...

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

Christmas Quilt...

I'm making a quilt for a Christmas present, and I'm loving how it is turning out!!  I've combined two ideas from Pinterest, and one idea from Sunday Morning Quilts (again, with my favorite book!  I know I know, I may have an addition...), and created this pattern.

  First, I made some 'slabs' like they make in Sunday Morning Quilts. 

 I made them 15" square, because that was the largest ruler I had to square them up.

 Then, I found this technique on Pinterest, and used it to make 4 HST at one time.

AND THEN, I used this picture and drafted two versions of this green and red quilt...

I'm loving how it looks so far, even with only two rows sewn together...

Here's where I'm headed.

And Gracie even "helped" by covering the blocks with cat hair...She's so funny!

I'll post pictures when I get it done!  :)

Updating Updating Updating...

I am busy updating a pattern that I wrote a few years ago, and trying to make it more of a Modern Quilt.  Then I can take a new picture for the front, and hopefully sell these remaining patterns I have.  It seems that I am forever trying to take the fabric I already have in my stash, and use it in updated ways.  Why is this so often my challenge?  It's so hard to grow and evolve as a quilter when I'm trying to use up fabric that I bought as a teenager...I mean, it's honestly like a whole other person bought some of this stuff.  Hopefully others have this challenge, too...

I must admit I bought some new fabric from Ruby Street Quiltworks to make a sample, and I'm excited to cut into them.  The pattern will very soon be for sale in my etsy shop in both paper form, and digital form...again, I gotta get the sample done, and pictures taken...I mean this black and white picture will NOT cut it in my opinion...

Low-volume quilt

So for 20 years or so, I've been a pretty excellent quilt TOP maker, but I've kinda been behind in the actual QUILTING part of things.  So about 2 years ago, I bought myself a machine JUST for quilting, and I've been having a really good time!  Except for the fact that things keep popping of the machine and hitting me in the forehead, which is problematic.  But, don't worry -- I always wear glasses, so they'll act as protective eye gear if I need it.  Who knew quilting could be so hazardous?

Anyway, I have my poor, friendly sewing machine repairman stumped, because apparently he's never seen this issue in any machine but mine.  So pretty much its the lottery you DON'T want to win.  The fact that it's happened twice now definitely indicates operator error in my opinion, but F.S.M. Repairman has been too kind to say this kind of thing out loud, or even agree with me when I suggested it as an option.  I should probably thank him for that...

But this means that the stack of pinned quilts are still not quilted, because my quilting machine is in the shop again.  So, I've dug out my back-up piecing machine (the one with the REALLY GOOD 1/4" foot), and I'm cutting and sewing up fabric and projects for quilt tops that have been on hold.  For example:

Years ago, while working in a quilt shop, I ended up with a sample pack from a fabric rep of these woven baby plaids.  There wasn't a huge amount of any of them, and they were all weird sizes, so I squared them up, added a white square, sewed corner to corner, and turned them into half square triangles....

I found some polka dots on a white background, and a seersucker plaid with all the same colors, so I made some of those blocks as unifying triangles.   Then, I mapped them out with my trusty graph paper, so they would be evenly distributed over the whole quilt top.

I have them all pinned and ready to sew up into rows.  I'm thinking I'll add a white border, I have a flannel from my stash for the back, and I have enough of the dots for binding...Then to quilt it up, and I can send it to my friend who has a new baby!

I really didn't have a pattern for this one.  So, I was afraid at first that this would be a somewhat boring layout, but I'm really liking it so far.  It's such a nice low-volume quilt.  


Hopefully, my quilting machine will be well soon, and home from Sewing Machine Hospital, and I can get back to all those pinned quilt tops...especially since I'm making more! :)