Another Scrappy Quilt for my FAVOURITE customer!

I never know how my week will shape up.  I am scheduled to work in the WonderFil Threaducation Centre & Longarm Studio on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and the first 2 Saturdays of each month. This past Tuesday was a very quiet day and I was able to get a whole cloth quilt planned out and marked on the fabric.  I've committed to participating in the Calgary Longarm Quilt Group display at Heritage Park Festival of Quilts in May.  

My favourite customer (my mum) brought out another quilt top for me to quilt for her. We had the same backing issue as before....plenty long enough, but not wide enough.  So, I simply did the diagonal seam as per John Flynn instructions.  The backing ended up just wide enough and just long enough for the top.  My Dad helped me load the quilt and we were up and running.

Mum's usual comment is "Just do something simple and quick".  I like working on her quilts because no matter what I do it's always "WONDERFUL!".  So, I get to play and try out new quilting ideas without any worries.

Mum and Dad are visiting and going home tomorrow (Tuesday).  I knew I didn't have a lot of time to work on this quilt, so I did keep it simple.  I quilted large feathers in the border and the pieced blocks and I quilted a large ribbon meander in the background.  

This quilt was fun to stitch.  If I had planned out my stitching path, I may be been able to quilt without cutting the thread, but I was eager to get going and as a result did quilt myself into a few corners.

I love quilting with solid backs.  The quilting really shows and creates an almost reversible quilt.

The binding is machine stitched on and Mum will get the hand stitching finished when she get home.

She is stitching feverishly to finish the borders on another scrap quilt.  We won't get it done before she leaves tomorrow, but I'll quilt it for her and either mail it or hand deliver it when I am next in Winnipeg!

Finish 2016 - #3, #4 and #5

It's called use it up and get it done!

I am teaching a Panto Basics class this week at the WonderFil Threaducation Centre and I needed to round up some quilts to be quilted by the class participants.  In this class we load up a quilt and have the students quilt a "real" quilt using a selection of Paper Pantograph patterns. 

FINISH #3
In my attempt to FINISH in 2016, I wanted to use up some of my scraps.  I am moving towards batiks and hand dyed fabrics rather than prints.  So, the prints are getting used, one way or another.

I started by sorting out my printed scraps.  Some were narrow strips and some were 1/2 meter or more.  I got out 4 bins and threw everything that had a blue, blue/purple or black into one tub. Everything red-pink and a bit of orange went into the 2nd tub.  Everything yellow-brown went into the 3rd tub and all the greens into tub #4.

I started with the green tub.  

I grabbed a couple of strips of fabric and started sewing them together. The great thing here is that seam allowance doesn't really matter as long as it is consistent.

I kept sewing strips together and when I got to the end of one piece, would just cut off the remainder.

 Chain sewing works well.

Here is where I got excited about the process, I just kept sewing and forgot to take pictures!  I added fabric until the piece measured more than my desired block size...in this case I wanted 12 1/2" blocks.

If you are interested in this technique, it goes by a couple of names.  Check out the links for more information.  Mile a Minute and Crumb Piecing

Anything that I cut off the block, was the start of another block.  You'll notice that some of the blocks are very simple strips and others include more involved piecing.  

Once the blocks were all sewn, I laid them out on the floor and rearranged them until nothing really jumped out at me!  I then used a 1/4" seam allowance and sewed them together.  This quilt is 48" x 60" which is a nice size for a cuddle quilt.

I always cut my binding as soon as the quilt top is done.  I have many horror stories of no binding fabric for finished quilts.  So, now I cut my binding strips as soon as the top is done and sew them together and pin them to the quilt top.  They don't get lost that way!

Next up was the backing.  As I was using up my scraps, I pulled the biggest piece of green fabric from the bin.  Not much in that department, so I grabbed the brown from the yellow-brown bin.  I sewed the brown and the green strips together with seams down both sides and split the brown in half.  The backing wasn't big enough....so, I had to scrounge more.  

My daughter gave me the green dotted fabric last night when I told her my problem.  So now the backing is way too big, but I'll have plenty to add to my scrap bin when I trim everything up.

FINISH #4 

The red quilt is much the same thing....way too much backing now, but once it's trimmed I have more to add to my scrap bin!  This quilt measures 45 x 50".  I simply cut 5 1/2" strips.  Sewed them all together (most were not width of fabric cuts) and then cut into 45" lengths.  I arranged them (sort of) into a pleasing arrangement and sewed the strips together.  Super easy.

FINISH #5

The Bright Striped quilt measures 48" x 48".  I've had this striped fabric hanging around for a long time.  I cut it into squares and sewed them back together for a simple yet striking quilt.  I had sewn this top a while ago and I think I planned to add a border.  But since I needed something for Thursday, the top is done!  Backing and binding are ready to go.

I plan to add a few photos of the finished quilts later (check back next week or after Easter).

Many Trips Around the World (MTAW) - part 1

When I first started quilting, I made a large Trip Around the World quilt for my parents. Now, as part of my challenge to deal with fabric, projects and stuff in my studio, I have decided to use up my 2 1/2" strips and make a Many Trips Around the World quilt.  I first found this project on Quiltville last year.  

I made a single block with 2" wide strips and thought....too much trouble.  Pieces too small and would take too long.  Fast forward to today.

I have been cutting my print fabrics into 2 1/2" strips.  I have a basket full.  

To make this quilt block I'm using the 2 1/2" cut strips.  They need to be approximately 16" long.  

I am choosing fabrics that have either a value (light and dark) contrast or a print (solid and print) contrast.  I sew strips into pairs of two.

It was head down and sew, sew sew as I chain sewed the 16" lengths together.

Once the strip pairs were sewn I stacked them up and starting sewing pairs into sets of 6 (3 sets of pairs).  I tried to match either a dark with a light or a print with a solid.

I like the 2nd set better.....will use the dark blue and floral print pair elsewhere.

 I sewed pairs....

 Then added a 3rd pair.

That's a lot of block sets.

Fold the strip set in half with 3 strips on each side and sew the set into a tube.

I haven't pressed anything yet, partly because I am lazy and partly because every time I press, I press the wrong direction.  Cross cut the strip tubes into 2 1/2" sections.  The section on the far left gets thrown out.

Now comes the hardest part.....one seam on each tube needs to be frogged (stitches picked out).  I make a mistake every time, so this is how I have solved this problem.  I move the units so that the seams I will frog (unpick) are at the top (furthest away from me) to the set. 

I take a few minutes and use my seam ripper, not my rotary cutter, to unpick the stitches. And Voila!  my block is ready to sew.

Because I don't press the seams, I can easily flip the seams in the needed direction so I can nest the seams.

Once I have sewn a set together, I don't want to stop and cut the thread, so I chain piece. I grab another 16" strip set and sew them. 

At the end, clip the block pair from the end of the strip, bring it to the front and add another block set. 

Ta Da!  Block is done......I think I have 19 blocks ready to cut and sew.  Not bad for a couple of hours work this morning.  I only have 91 to make in total!

Watch for Part 2 - the Quilt Top and Part 3 - Quilting for the complete story on this quilt. 

Dancing and Disappearing 9 patch quilts

Life changes quickly.  Just when I was thinking that it would be really nice not to have to get up each morning and go to work, my position at work disappeared and I was terminated.  I truly believe that God has a plan and I can't wait for the next chapter in the book of my life.

I've had some time lately to work on a few projects and get some sewing done.  This week's project has been 3 quilts for a family of boys in our church.  I wanted to make it easy on me, so I used the same block - a disappearing 9 patch block using 5 1/2" cut squares.  I had planned for a regular sashing and a border.  I found this dancing arrangement while surfing and decided to go this route.

Why I started with 5 1/2" squares, I have no idea....but they did make nice big blocks and they sewed up quickly.  The math may have been a bit easier if I had cut them at 6", but too late now.  The tops are done!

I started by cutting my fabrics into 5 1/2" strips, then each strip into 5 1/2" squares.   Now, I don't have, and never really had a lot of scraps in my stash.  So, yes, I did go out and buy fabrics for these "scrappy" quilts!  Now, I do have a stash and will probably make more blocks/quilts for future give aways.

I didn't pay attention, just sewed groups of 3 units together. Then I sewed 3 sets of 3 together.  The only rule was that adjoining squares could not be the same fabric.

Once the block was sewn, I cut the block in half horizontally and vertically.

Then I took the top left and the bottom right and rotated them 180 degrees.  The block looks good....but, if I took 4 units from different blocks, I get a really great scrappy arrangements

 

 
All the units were sewn into pairs.  The pairs were sewn into blocks.  Again, the only rule was that I didn't want 2 adjoining pieces the same fabric.

I added sashing to two sides of the blocks as per the info on the Quiltville blog.  I added the sashing to the same two sides of the blocks.  Once the blocks were together in the quilt, the blocks were rotated....look at the little squares in the corners of the blocks.  They aren't all in the same position. The quilt does "Dance" a little more.
 

I wasn't sure if I liked it that way, so on the 2nd quilt, I took my time and made sure the blocks were the same way round once the sashing was sewn on.  I am not sure that it makes that much difference.  In the future, I will probably not worry and do the first arrangement as it is faster and there is less chanc of me making a mistake!

I needed to do 3 quilts for 3 little boys.  The youngest is a new born, so his quilt is smaller with only 6 blocks.  As I had made enough quilts for 3 quilts with 12 blocks each, I now have two smaller quilts with 6 blocks.  Woot, Woot!  I have an extra quilt ready to finish and give away.

 

I have  more 5 1/2" squares cut, not too many.  I have scraps left over from cutting the squares from the strips.  I need to find a project that I can sew to use up these scraps.  Maybe I should have cut 6" squares, so they can be cut down into 2" or 3" squares. ....hind sight is 20/20!   I'll come across something perfect one day.  For now, they'll go in a clear plastic tub and be put on the "TO DO" shelf.