A Fresh New Start

 These are not my usual colours!  I am in love with these fresh Kate Spain fabrics.  So today I decided to get cutting.

 

I love it!  5 fabrics go in - 10 seconds later 25 perfect strips come out!

 

So fresh - so vintage sheet looking - so not wintery!

Now to sew!

Mincraft Creeper Rag Quilt!

Hi all!

We are birthday central in this house right now as my two boys have their birthdays on the 15th and the 16th!  They are 2 years minus a day apart.

My youngest came zipping through my quilting room a bit ago and said - Mommy we could make a Creeper rag quilt!  I let it go thinking this was a passing fancy.  A week or so he came into my sewing room again and said - when are we going to work on my Creeper rag quilt?  So I started buying some green flannels - they were a challenge to get!  And I needed a solidish black flannel - luckily my LQS had one!!  I was floored - I thought that I was going to have to dye it.

What in the world is a Creeper you ask?  He's a character from the online game Minecraft - want to see a picture of one?  Here you go! 

I honestly didn't want to make this quilt - first I have made 3 rag quilts this year alone so far and second I thought that it would be the UGLIEST rag quilt ever!  But what's a Mom to do when her child is so excited about something that was so within my power to do.

As you can see from previous blog posts I have been slowly plugging away at what I was calling - in my head - the ugliest rag quilt ever.  Then a couple of days ago my youngest asked if he could have his quilt for his birthday party - so I got to work!

 

Voila!  The world's ugliest rag quilt that is the most loved one in this house!  I brought it to him at his birthday party today and you should have heard those boys!  Everyone was yelling -  Wow!  I want one!  You made that?  That's amazing!  You're so lucky!  Etc It was so gratifying!  My youngest said - Mommy that's EPIC!  It really made it all worth-while!  Yey!  

And yes - I ran out of green flannel squares so I grabbed a couple of the sashing pieces from my Christmas rag quit and threw them in!  Hey - this quilt is never going to win any awards but it is very loved!

 A couple people asked me some questions about sewing the pre-cut rag squares together so I am going to do the world's shortest tut!

These were all cut on my Accuquilt Studio machine with the fringe pre-cut.  Layer your batting in the middle and sew a simple X through it using your walking foot.

Layer two rag sandwiches wrong sides together and sew from the corner to the corner just inside the fringe.  I like to move my needle to the left a little bit to help me here.

 

 There you go!  Easy peesey!

Sew the horizontal rows together.

Sew the vertical rows together butting your seams like you do in a 4 patch.  Don't over-think it.  It is honestly easier than people think.   You can use pins here if you like - I do!

Get some support on the left hand side of your sewing machine.  Use a table or something to support the weight of the quilt because these can get heavy!  If your sewing machine is sunk into a table you will find it a little easier to manage as well.

Finish it off by sewing around the entire quilt just inside the fringe two times.

The first rag quilt I made seemed much harder than my latest one.  

Ok now I am done with rag quilts for a while I think!

A New Quilt Along!

Hi all!

Ebony has started a new quilt along and I think that it sounds great!

 

Basically she is going to go over all the tips and tricks to cutting a 1000 Pyramid quilt using different dies and different brands of machines and different brands of dies.  She will discuss fabric preparation and all the things we need to get good cuts.    

The difference in this QAL is that we won't be sewing together - just cutting so that we can work together at a later date!!  Neat huh?

I have made one of these quilts before - you can see it here and here - but - I know that I will want to join in again.  Actually - I think I have a bin already started!  Hmm? 

What have I been working on?

 

Making my youngest very happy with all those green prints I showed you!  These are all cut layered and quilted!

Scrappy Christmas QAL is Completely Finished!

Done!

I know it's February and this is a Christmas quilt but I am so thrilled that this is completely finished!

 

This will be the last installment of the Scrappy Christmas Quilt-A-Long and it has been quite a journey for me.  This was my first ever QAL and I had a lot of fun and I used up a lot of scraps.  I hope that you had fun too - even if it was just reading along - I hope that you had fun!

 

I quilted the quilt very simply in a free-hand loose meander loop with holly leaves in the mix in a 40 weight cotton thread top and bobbin.  Since the quilt is already so busy I didn't want to overwhelm it with too much quilting.  Plus this quilt is going to be used on a bed so I like less quilting to keep them soft and cuddly and to keep the flannel backing soft too.

Don't you just love the little Grinch popping up!?  He makes me smile :-D

 

In the border I used a gold 36 weight Aurifil thread and quilted a free-hand holly leaf vine in a gentle wave.  I love gold thread on a Christmas quilt!

So did you follow along?  Is your quilt in process or finished??  If you have made one or are making one please share a link  to your blog or share a picture on the Facebook page so that we can all admire it - I know that I would love to see your quilt!!

Time to come up with another leaders and enders project!

A New Start

Wow what a lot of snow we had yesterday!  

I was scheduled to do a trunk show presentation at a local quilt shop (LQS) today and with all of the snow we got yesterday I was afraid that I might not be able to get there - or - that no one would show up!  I shouldn't have been worried though - this morning was clear and so sunny and the roads were all plowed and clear.  I still worried that some people might have been snowed in but I shouldn't have worried - we were a very full house!  There was no way we could have fit even one more person in there since we were out of space and chairs!

The presentation I call "Something From Nothing" quilts to make with 2" squares leaders and enders style.  You know how I love my 2" squares and have done so many projects from them so I like to try and spread the 2" square love!  I think I did since the ladies all left smiling and happy - yey!  It's so fun to spend time with such nice people.

While at the shop I bought a few more things for my next rag quilt.  Yep - you read that correctly - another rag quilt.  Only this one is not for me - promise!

 

This one is for my youngest and he is very specific with the colours and fabrics for this one.  Any guesses what I am making?

Cog and Gear Rag Quilt

I couldn't help myself!

I have loved this cog and gear flannel print since I first saw it in my LQS and have wanted to make a rag quilt out of it since then.  Sigh - how I love a cozy rag quilt!

 

I used my Studio rags to riches set to create this cozy quilt - there are also identical dies for the Go!  so everyone can make this quilt!  The rag dies were some of the big reasons I bought my die cutter to start off with - I love a cozy rag quilt in the winter but I hate hand-cutting that fringe!

I have no idea why the raggy rectangle is STILL a "die to try" since it really should be part of the regular release.   You can't create a sashed rag quilt without the rectangle and having it having it an accuquilt.com exclusive makes it difficult for people to get.  Or should I say non-USA people to get.  Bringing things across the boarder gets very pricey for Canadians I can tell you!  So many Canadians just won't purchase it at all.

When we had our last Go! Club meeting I featured the rag dies and my LQS was able to bring in the "die to try" rag dies as a special for the club meeting.  Those raggy rectangles were scooped up!  If you want the rectangle as part of the regular release go on the site and leave a review saying how you would purchase it if it was ;-)  Enough about the rectangle LOL!

 

Back to the quilt!  I used a machine embroidery design of a gear from Urban Threads - it's subtle but I really like the effect and it holds the batting in place nicely.  You can see my mini tute on adding ME to rag blocks here.   In the rectangle and small squares I just quilted and X to hold everything together.  I was very pleased with how the design stitched out - it was well digitized and very nice with no unnecessary jump stitches.  Now I have to find something steampunk to stitch this on too!

 

Here's what it looks like outside my sewing room today.  Hmmm maybe it's a good day to curl up with my new rag quilt and a book!