Jewel Top

Here are a couple of photos of the progress on my Jewel quilt top.  

Isn't it hard to find just the right placement for a scrappy quilt.  I also need a design wall.

The lighting inside is much different than the outside lighting.

Here is the borderless top.  I'm still thinking about the border.  It will most likely be a strip of the background fabric.  I think 'Jewel' is the perfect name for this quilt.  Now, I am going to attempt to write a publishable pattern for this.  Thank you to Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for giving me tips and sharing a link to Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs for pattern publishing.  Stay tuned!

Linking to:  Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers, NTT, Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop, Show Off Saturday

OMG September Spring Robin Top Finish

I just love OMG!  I am the kind of person that needs a little extra push to put things on the top burner.  I finished the top of my Spring Robin quilt.  I wasn't sure if I should sell the top or quilt the thing and give it away.  I decided to quilt and finish it.  That will be my next OMG. 

I chose the lighter fabric with flowers and the blue tree branch fabric for the border.  All of these fabrics are from the Spring Robin collection by Clothworks.  

 This purple is what I've chosen for the binding.  

Linking to: OMG, Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop, NTT, 

OMG September

Last week I posted a tutorial for this quilt using fabrics from the Spring Robins Collection by Clothworks.  My quilt is off to a good start.  I have a couple more rows to sew.  I need to put a border on and it will be ready to sell in my Etsy shop or I will quilt it and give it away.  I have a month to decide which.  

Find the tutorial for this pattern HERE

Find the fabrics for this quilt HERE

Linking to:  OMG September

OMG October

For my October OMG, I think I will try to finish this quilt top.  It seems a shame to spend so much time cutting around all of the little templates and attempting to sew all of the points together if I'm just going to stuff this project in a bag and hide it in a pile of unfinished quilt tops. 

Nearly 10 years ago, John Flynn came to our little town and taught a Storm At Sea class.  I made a lot of headway during the class and maybe even a few days after the class, but I guess I must have lost steam, and it looks like I lost interest in the home run stretch.  It's time to finish this!  Wish me luck!

Linking to:  OMG, MCM, Monday Making, Moving It Forward Monday, Sew Cute Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Linky Tuesday,  NTT,

What? When Did I Make This?

I started my blog 3 years ago in October.  The challenge of learning how to operate the blogger program along with the fun of crafting and cooking and taking pictures of things I love kept me motivated for almost 2 years.  Then I stopped, almost cold turkey.  I'm not quite sure why, but maybe life just got in the way.  Last month, I decided to start blogging again but this time rather than 3 posts a week about all kinds of things, I am only posting once a week and all of my posts will be related to sewing.  For the past 5 weeks, this schedule has been manageable and fun.

The best thing about this posting strategy is that I am able to spend more time visiting quilt blogs and learning about the amazing things quilters are doing.  I recently stumbled on the blog, Red Letter Quilts.  Heidi's blog has a monthly link  One Monthly Goal (OMG) that inspires quilters to finish their projects by encouraging them to set a goal for the month and follow through.    She even offers a chance for a prize to people who meet their goals.

I thought I'd give OMG a try.  I pulled out my cob-web covered UFO tub; seriously, totally untouched for years, to look for a UFO to compete.  I did a little digging and pulled out this little bag of goodies.

When I looked at it, I could not remember ever working on this quilt project, I could not recall when I did it or what it was.  About 10 years ago I was developing mystery quilts for monthly classes and maybe this was one of the patterns I was working on; or  it could be that I saw a pattern and liked it and wanted to try it.  Since I put the time in to cut out all of the pieces, I thought it would be a good idea to put a little more time into it and finish the top.  I'm sure glad I did one block so I know what to do with all of these pieces because there is no pattern in the bag.

I have a good friend who loves pansies and her birthday is in May...is it possible?  Wish me luck.

Linking to: OMG, MCM, Monday Making, Handmade Monday, Sew Cute Tuesday, Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, NTT, Midweek Makers, Finished or not Friday, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop, Show Off Saturday

The Splendid Sampler-Block 3

I thought I'd do a post about my progress with the Splendid Sampler Quilt Along.  Block 3 has lots and lots of little triangles.  Melissa Corry developed this block and she gives great sewing tips on her blog about how to put together all of the itty-bitty triangles.    You can find her blog post HERE.  

I think this would be a very hard pattern to do on a sewing machine.  I am glad I did it by hand.  It took a really long time but I was able to make most of my points match because I was sewing it by hand.

Melissa's suggestion that you iron all seams open is a very good one.  This 2-1/2 inch block would be very bulky if the seams were ironed to one side or the other. In addition, it allowed for accurate placement of the needle when joining points.  Having the needle go in through the seam at the 1/4" line and come out the seam on the other side, helped keep those points together. 

I pushed my needle through a this point and did a stitch to secure the thread.  I then sewed to the upper edge of the block and secured the thread.

Next, I did the same thing at the bottom of the heart and stitched to the starting point of my last seam.  I'm just not a good enough quilter to start at one end of the block and go to the other and get all of my points right. 

The finished (really little) block

 I did all of my blocks this way.  Starting my stitching where the points met.  There was a lot of starting and stopping!

 Melissa recommends using pins when you put the block together.  I don't think you could really put the block together without pins.  Having the open seams really helps place the pins at the points.  There is no bulkiness, which helps your sewing needle stay in place as it stitches along the line.  

 This is my final block.  The fabric combination makes it a little muddy, but I like it because the muddiness hides the little imperfections.  

This block was challenging, and I feel very good about the way it turned out.  The Splendid Sampler Quilt Along is really stretching my skills.  

Linking to:
BOM's Away, Show Off Saturday, Sunday Stash, Oh Scrap,

14 Steps to Hand Sew Block 1 from The Splendid Sampler Sew Along

The other day while I was pinning away, adding pins to my Run'n Stitch board,  I found this wonderful mystery block sampler called 'The Splendid Sampler Sew Along,' by Pat and Jane.  I had to investigate.  This sew along was starting that day and I wanted to join so badly.  I am nearing the end of my 2 month camping trip and don't have my sewing machine with me so I thought I would have to wait until I return home in March to start the blocks.  What was I thinking, right?  How were quilts made in those dark days on the prairie?  Women were quilting long before sewing machines were readily available.  With renewed enthusiasm, I decided to use '30's reproduction fabrics and hand sew all of the blocks in this sampler.  Let's see how that goes.  I went to The Cotton Ball fabric shop in Morro Bay and picked up a spool of thread, an envelope of needles and 3 chubby eights to start my project.  This post is a step-by-step for hand sewing the first block in the Splendid Sampler Sew Along.

Click HERE to join the Splendid Sampler Sew Along fun. 

Steps 1-4

1.  Pick out your fabrics-easy so far, right.

2.  Cut your fabrics.  Again, easy.

3.  Draw a 1/4 inch line on two of your blocks.

4.  Place your blocks together, just as you would for machine sewing, and sew together using a running stitch.  I secure the beginning and end of the stitching by making 2 stitches in one spot.

5.   Press the raw edge toward the darker fabric. Draw a 1/4" line on the back of one of the two block strips.

6.  Put these two strips together.  I start my running stitch for this section with a couple of stitches at the point where the seams meet.  I start from the middle and work my way to the end.  I like my corners to match.  

 Steps 7-9
7.  Draw a line on the diagonal of all of your small squares.
8.  Use a running stitch to attach the squares to each corner of the block.
9.  Trim the excess and press in place.



Step 10-12-The appliqué-yikes!

 I have always used Kim Diehl's method for appliqué.  I don't know any other method, except raw edge.  I was in a pickle because I didn't have any freezer paper or glue and didn't want to buy any for this small project.  I also don't have my machine. I had to mimic Kim Deihl's process without the important ingredients. I did have paper, a needle and thread, so this is what I did. 

10.  Cut out the heart you printed from the pattern.  I cut the fabric to be sure there would be enough to cover the paper and then some. 

11.  Carefully turn the fabric over the edge of the paper and tack it down with a little basting stitches and then pressed it to make the edges crisp.

12.  Center the heart on the 4 patch block.  Measure to be sure it's right.  Baste the heart to the 4 patch block.

13.  Using an applique stitch, sew the heart to the block.  When you are finished, pull out all of the basting stitches.  But wait, this isn't the final step.

14.  Cut a small hole in the back of the block and pull out the paper heart.  

This may be the way hand appliqué is done, I don't know.  It was fun to figure it out though.  I look forward to the challenge of doing 100 blocks without a sewing machine.

(You might be wondering why I have a printer and cutting tools and not a sewing machine.  I have a fabric shop on Etsy and I take some of my fabrics to sell while I'm on the road.  I also bring printing labels and shipping stuff.)

Linking to:  Handmade Tuesday's,  Show and Tell Link Party,  Tutorial Tuesdays,  Linky Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday, Creative Spark Link Party,  Let's Bee Social, Needle and Thread Thursday, Create It Thursday, Fabric Frenzy Friday, 

  

John Flynn Quilt Frame

Our local quilt guild, The Rain Country Quilters, used to bring nationally known quilt instructors to our little town once a year.  They opened up the classes to everyone, quilt guild members and non-quilt guild members alike.  The Rain Country Quilters hosted many wonderful quilters, Kim Dihl, Carol Doak, Elenore Burns and John Flynn to name a few.  I attended a quilt class with instructor John Flynn.  I am still working on the 'Storm At Sea' quilt we did in the class.  It is a UFO I must finish. 

It was at this class that I learned about the quilt frame John Flynn had recently developed.  One of the class members had purchased one and hadn't had a chance to use it because she wasn't quite sure how to put it together.  She brought hers in and John gave us all a little instruction.  

For the past several years, I have been thinking about purchasing a John Flynn Quilt frame.  This winter, at the Road To California quilt show,  I bit the bullet and bought the frame.  I walked by the box for 6 months before I could muster up the courage to take it out and put it together.  There is a DVD and alsobpaper instructions for setting up the frame.  I chose to go to the website to get my instructions.  The instructions on the website are easy to follow and you can stop and replay them over and over. (John Flynn Website-CLICK HERE)

I've accomplished step 1 of the process, the frame is put together and the quilt is on the frame.  Now to figure out what to quilt.  

Linking To:

A Round Tuit, Craftastic Monday, Sew Cute Tuesday, Linky Tuesday,  Home Work, Fabric Tuesday,   Treasure Box Tuesday, WIP Wednesday, Let's Bee Social, Show and Tell, A Little Bird Told Me, 

Alaska Wild Berries Wall Hanging

It's time to pick cranberries, which means it's near the end of berry picking season in Petersburg, Alaska.  To celebrate, I finished my Alaska berries wall hanging and put it up on the wall.  I had thought I'd put a border on it, but I like the way it turned out with just a binding. 

Blueberries

Cranberries

Salmon Berries

Watermelon Berries

Wild Raspberries

CLICK HERE to see my first post about this wall hanging and to learn about the pattern.

Linking To:  

Linky Tuesday Fabric Tuesday The Inspiration Board Anything Goes Mondays Craftastic Monday Link Party Take A Look Tuesday Let's Bee Social I Quilt My Quilt Infatuation  Inspire Us Thursday Can I Get A Whoop Whoop Link A Finish Friday Fabric Frenzy Friday Say G'Day Saturday Handmade Hangout #15

Strip Your Stash Quilt

Last week in a moment of boredom, I went to Craftsy , to see if there was a quilting class that might interest me.  I ended up on the 'Sale' page and found the perfect class, Strip Your Stash with Nancy Smith.  I have so many scraps, and many I've already cut into 2-1/2" strips.  I generally do the 1600' technique to make sheets of fabric to use as backing for wall hangings or backgrounds for appliqué quilts.  I've also made aprons out of pretty batik strip sheets.  Nancy Smith's class offered a different technique for making sheets of fabric from strips.

I thought it would be fun and it was.  Nancy is very thorough in her explanation of the techniques she teaches.  She also explained one interesting strategy for picking out fabrics for strips.

Her strip technique uses 2-1/2" strips, and it also uses 3-1/2" and 1-1/2" strips.  I had some fat 8th's left over from a quilt I made a couple of years ago.  Rather than use Nancy's strategy for picking out strip fabric, I decided to try to match these focal fabrics.  I found these fabrics at Kapaia Stitchery in Lihue on the island of Kauai about 5 years ago.  If you ever go to Lihue, you must stop in this shop.  There are lots and lots of fun Hawaiian fabrics.

I rummaged through my scrap fabrics and found some fabrics to use with the Hawaiian prints.

 I ended up with this long sheet of fabric.  It's pretty lopsided isn't it.  I think next time I will use my walking foot for the entire process.

 I cut the sheet into strips and auditioned them on background fabrics.  I liked this tan color the best.

I sewed the strips to the background strips. 

And put a border around it.  

 Again, I will use my walking foot next time.  I think this top is a little dull yet but I bet with quilting, this could be a nice looking quilt.  Nancy Smith gives great directions for 4 different quilts made from these strips.  This is not one of them.  The class was really fun and I recommend it for anyone who has scraps to burn....and what quilter doesn't.

Linking To:
Fabric Tuesday Linky Tuesday WIP Wednesday Let's Bee Social I Quilt Needle and Thread Thursday  Can I Get A Whoop Whoop No Rules Weekend Blog Party Fabric Frenzy Friday #28 Sew Darn Crafty Scraptastic Tuesday