Sunshower Quilts

My Latest Rag Quilt!

2012-01-10T15:10:00.000-05:00

I just finished this the other night but I had to wait for good weather to photograph this. This is my latest rag quilt and I just love it! I've had these flannel-tiks in my stash for YEARS now and I was so happy to turn them into something so cuddly! This quilt has already been claimed by my youngest son he slept with it last night.

This quilt was all cut with my Accuquilt Go! 8.5" rag die so the fringe is cut before you even piece it together - yey!! I love this die - it is one of the reasons I bought the Go! Some people tell me that they don't like rag quilts - and frankly - I just don't get that. Here in Canada we can have some fairly cold winters and there is nothing better than a rag quilt to snuggle with. This one is very warm since I used 6.5" squares of batting in the middle instead of an extra layer of flannel. I love the heaviness of it. So cuddly.

I did something a little bit different in this quilt. I free-motion quilted it in a meander pattern. Why? Well, two reasons. One, I am tired of the X! Two, sometimes the batting will sag in the middle of the blocks if you don't catch it into the fringe so by doing a meander the batting will stay put. Plus, if you are new to free-motion quilting these are excellent little squares to practice on!! Flannel is so forgiving and helps hide uneven stitches ;-)

Isn't the back cool??

This was my husband's suggestion. I was going to do a very geometric trip around the world sort of pattern; but, he suggested a gradient and I LOVE it! I love how the red/orange is slowly progressing into the green. It's like a fire spreading. Now go back and look at the first picture again and you can see how the reds and oranges come through to the front. I really like the effect.

All these fabrics were in my stash for so many years it is just so good to see them turn into something. All the batting squares were left-overs off the sides of projects and when I was finished I didn't have any batting left in the house! Rag quilts have to be my favorite use for batting left-overs.

Now where did that rag quilt go? Oh there it is - my son came home from school and snapped it up!

Using the Scraps From the Lil' Twister Ruler

2012-01-05T17:45:00.000-05:00

Hi all!

I teach how to use the Lil' Twister ruler frequently (because I seriously <3 this ruler) and the most frequent question I get is - what do I do with the waste? So, since I was piecing a new store sample yesterday I thought that I would share with you all what I do with mine.

The Twister ruler is really cool - you can make interlocking pin-wheels easily from a straight set of blocks with a border. You can see the twister ruler on the bottom with a couple of cut blocks.

Once the twister is cut and re-pieced there is waste from the sides and from the center of each block. Luckily I have my Accuquilt Go! cutter - but you can do this with a rotary cutter as well - don't worry!

The waste from the center of each block fits wonderfully on my 2" square die (you all know how I love my 2" squares). So, I just load up the die with over-lapping scrap squares.

And, run it through my cutter.

After that, I sort out the little bits of scraps and toss them. What's left is a bunch of 2" squares - yey!

Next I take the border scrap pieces and use my 1.5" finished half square triangle (HST) die. These pieces won't fit on the 2" square die so the HST die comes in very handy. I think these might also fit on the 2" finished HST die too; but, the 1.5" HST die and the 2" square die work perfectly together.

Once you have a bunch of these scraps, you ca,n either save them for a leaders and enders project, or, just start piecing away! I am going to do a scrap split nine-patch project with mine. Here are the scraps laid out and ready to be pieced.

And here they all are sewn together. I think that maybe a couple hundred or so more of these and I would have a really neat quilt! Obviously there is a lot of different things you could do with squares and HST but I've always been so attracted to the split nine-patch.

I thought that I might share this tip here since so many people wonder what to do with the scraps from the Lil' Twister ruler. Do you have any other suggestions for things to do with these scraps? I'd love to hear them.

Happy Quilting!

Hurry Up and Wait!

2012-01-03T12:41:00.000-05:00

Happy New Years Everyone!

Well I did something New Years Day that I've wanted to do for years but kept forgetting to do!

Every year Planet Patchwork hosts a new years day mystery quilt and I've been wanting to do it for years now - but, somehow I would usually forget. Well, this New years morning I woke up, and, since I "like" Planet Patchwork on Facebook the start of the mystery quilt came up on my Facebook feed. I thought that it was an omen or something like that and I immediately started hunting through my stash to find the fabrics for the yardage requirements.

Since one of my New Years resolutions is to use my stash as much as possible, I dug into my Asian prints bin and found the 23 fabrics required and set to work! I made my choices quickly since I was already a bit behind in the pre-cutting - I just went with my gut and initial impressions.

I followed along with the clues and worked for most of the day and voila! I had a finished quilt top! It was really fun to follow along with the other quilters on The Planet Patchwork facebook page. I also LOVE that this quilt is completely from my stash using up some fabrics I bought for the stash and also some scraps - it's a mix of collections and designers but I think that it all works well.

I pulled the orange Asian print from my stash - it was on the 50% off table and I couldn't resist! It has sat in my stash for about 6 years so it's time to use about 4 meters of it for the back I think ;-)

Next, I pulled out my scrappy chimneys and corner-stones quilt and got to work on a piano key border. Once again I used my 1.5" Accuquilt Go! strip die and cut all the strips for the border from scraps and from some random green and blue fat quarters in my stash. At first I thought that the final border was too wide for the quilt; but, once I got all 4 borders on the quilt I started to really like the impact! And, once I laid the top out over our bed, I really liked the way that the piano-keyfell over the edges of the bed. The wide border is staying ;-)

One thing I did, before adding these borders to the quilt, is sew along the edges at about 1/8" in so that they don't stretch out or warp when the quilt is one the frame. This only took a few minutes but I think I'm going to be really happy I did this while I'm quilting it.

If you can believe it I also have a navy backing fabric in my stash that I am going to use for the back of this quilt too! It was also on the 50% off table so I snapped it up and there it sat - well, it will work perfectly for the back of this quilt. So far so good with keeping my resolution!

So, why haven't I loaded either one of these quilt tops onto my frame to start quilting? Well, in a couple days my LQS is having a sale and I think that batting will be 25% off; so, since I will need about 6 or 7 meters of batting for both quilts, I'm going to wait a bit and save a few $$$! Oh well, I can use that time to actually decide how I'm going to quilt them!

So - did anyone make and quilty resolutions?

A Retreat at Home!

2011-12-30T11:23:00.000-05:00

Have you ever done this? Had your own quilting "retreat" in your own home?

Well, I decided to do just that this past couple of days. I decided, after doing so much sewing for dead-lines, to just work on some loose-ends and do some of my own "stuff." I have to say it felt wonderful! I stayed in my PJ's and sewed on what-ever I felt like working on and did I ever get a lot done!

First I decided to put together those little postage stamp baskets that I made a long time ago for my Postage Stamp Basket video tutorial into a nice little wall quilt. I just love vintage blocks in 30's prints! I plan on hand-quilting this so I've layered it and will hand-quilt at my leisure now ;-)

Next I was a couple months behind on Accuquilt's BOM so I decided to get caught up on that. The block on the left I am less than thrilled about - I had altered their piecing method to make the blue one solid strip but I think that it is just way too much blue! I think I am going to rip that off and alter the block so there is less blue and maybe a couple more leaves. It just doesn't seem to fit to me. Or, maybe I'll just sub out the entire block with something else. I haven't decided yet.

I found this panel in my stash with co-ordinating fabrics and thought that I could whip up 4 preemie quilts for our local NICU. I try to make several of these every year. Sometimes I make just 4 or 5 but other years I have made 20 or so :-D I love the safari fabrics and I think that they might appeal to new parent who have been to Africa. When I look at these I think about a couple of our friends who have spent time living in Africa and how they would be perfect for them!

Our NICU likes our preemie quilts to be about 22" square to 24" square. If you are interested in making some of these for your local NICU make sure that you check to see what they would like first - since I have been told that other hospitals like other sizes. If you would like to see a tutorial on how I do the "inside-out" method to make these so that you don't need to do a binding you can find one here.

I used the same fabrics and another jungle print for the backs. I love how they turned out! Now I have 4 little quilts for 4 little babies ready to be turned in. Wait! I'm the one collecting the preemie quilts for our guild LOL! Looks like I'll just go put them with the others ;-)

After I had finished trimming allllllllllll those HST I decided to get those pin-wheels finished and ready for my next leaders and enders quilt. This was a picture I had found on the web and really liked it so I adapted it for my 2" squares. I love the optical illusion it creates. When I showed my husband and Mother the blocks I needed they argued with me for a couple of minutes telling me that I was wrong! So, finally I had to cover up all but one row of the quilt and show them the blocks - pine-wheel, 16-patch - etc - and then they could see it.

I needed 15 pinwheels going one way and 16 of the mirror image. That is all finished now and I am happy with the way that they turned out. Now I just have all those 16-patches to finish. I feel a little guilty working on this leaders and enders quilt when the one I am working on is not finished yet. But, I've found that when I feel like working on something I should strike while the iron is hot!

Next I pulled out all those rag squares I cut with my 8.5" rag die when I was demoing the Accuquilt Go! for a local quilt shop and for my rag die video tutorial and had set aside to work on later - sigh. These are ready to be quilted now but I am debating on how I want to quilt them - just the large X or free motion?

I pulled out all my long pieces of batting scraps and was able to cut enough squares of batting (6.5" square) to line the entire quilt! This will be a 7 x 9 setting 63 squares all together all from scrap batting! Yey I love using up scraps of batting for rag quilts! I remember years ago I worked for a quilt shop and people would come in and say - I need 3 meters of batting for this rag quilt. I would always ask them if they had any batting scraps, cut from the edges of finished quilts, sitting around? Usually, unless they were a newbie, they would say YES! I would then suggest that they use those up and then come back and buy what they needed to finish. People would be thrilled I had made the suggestion. I'm not sure that the quilt shop was thrilled LOL! But, people were happy to find a use for those bits.

Sometimes I/we can get bogged down by stuff; UFO's, WIP's, stash, scraps, batting bits, to do lists etc. The last couple days I gave myself permission to get some of those things done and out of the way or at least make some progress on them. I used only what I had on hand and what I had already started. I have to say - I feel great! I was able to bust some stash and de-clutter my mind and sewing area and now I feel like working on these projects more now and getting more things out of the way. YEY!

Wow that was a long post LOL! Are any of you working on UFO's or WIP's?

Merry Christmas and My Next leaders and Enders Quilt

2011-12-26T09:38:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas ~ Happy Holidays everyone!!

I hope that you all are having an amazing holiday!

Since I had some time yesterday I decided to pull out my next leaders and enders project and do a couple of test blocks ~ just to make sure that everything was going to work!

This leaders and enders is completely from scraps - I love using my scraps up and making something useful from them. The white fabric is actually left-overs trimmed from the back of a quilt if you can believe it. But by cutting tight I should have enough to make the center of a lap quilt. It's great because these were pieces that were destined for the garbage bin.

These are the blocks. A simple 16-patch and a pin-wheel. Nice and simple and traditional. And, a great way to use up some scraps! The half-square triangles (HST) are 3.5" unfinished and the small squares are 2" unfinished. If you want to see what this quilt looks like put together you can see it here. I'll need two sets of pin-wheels - one going one direction and the other going the other direction (if that makes any sense).

This should be a fun project - maybe I'll just sew it - I'll wait and see what I feel like doing. It's just a small lap quilt so it might be a nice one just to work on. I think I can officially count this as a UFO since I had cut it out a few years ago too! Hmmm . . . . first UFO finish of 2012 maybe??

I cut all the white fabrics before I got my Accuquilt Go! die cutter so all of those 2" square were cut by hand and the half-square triangles started off as 4" squares to be trimmed down later. So that work was all done already.

I chain-pieced the HST and cut them apart but then I had to trim all those little guys. Since these were not cut with the 3" finished HST die so I had to pull out my Eleanor Burns Triangle Square Up ruler and get trimming. Keep in mind I have not had to do work like this since I got my Go! I forgot how much work that is when you have lots of HST to deal with! It took me about 1 1/2 hours to trim all of them while we were watching a movie. Oh well at least it is done.

Don't get me wrong there are pluses and minuses to cutting this way or using the die cuts. If you are an accurate piecer using the die-cut HST is much faster and much easier. However, with the Triangle Square Up ruler you can accommodate any inaccuracies in your 1/4" seam. It is a very forgiving way to piece - it just takes a lot more time to do all the trimming! The other nice thing about the ruler is that it has multiple sizes right on the ruler so one tool will do the job. If I am only cutting a few (and I didn't have the die) this is the way that I would cut; but, if I had to do this amount again I would get the die!

Before I got my Go! this was my favorite way to make HST. I NEVER thought that I would like using the HST dies - I was POSITIVE that I would just trim and be happy but I think I might be a little bit spoiled now LOL!

Anyone else find a it of time to do some quilting?

I Made MYSELF a Stocking - and I bought a little something

2011-12-20T16:13:00.000-05:00

Ok - how cool is this - I made myself a stocking!

Yes you read that correctly - I made MYSELF a stocking! It's not for someone else, it's not a gift. This is for me!!!!

I've only had the pattern for a few years now LOL! What gave me the kick in the pants is that our quilting guild was having a stocking challenge for our Christmas party. I decided that this was an excellent opportunity, not only to participate, but, also to actually MAKE this stocking for myself that I have wanted for years now. The pattern is called "Steppin' Out" by Lorraine Designs and I just love how fierce this boot looks.

Of course after I finished this my boys decided that this could easily become a pirate boot/stocking - sigh - so much for a funky, cool stocking all for myself LOL! BTW I did hang my stocking by the pirate nutcracker on purpose.

Just to let you know our guild had a voters choice in 4 different categories for our stocking challenge and I won "Most Unique" - yey! I was very happy!

Next I bought myself a little something-something that I have been wanting/needing for a while. I bought the 1.5" finished half-square triangle die. Why did I buy this? Well, if you have been reading my blog for a while you know that I love my 2" squares a lot for busting scraps and making projects out of nothing. This die works really well with my 2" square die in that I can make half square triangles that will finish at the same size as my 2" squares. This die will allow me to use up even more scraps and have even less waste; and, it will allow me more freedom in patterns I choose for leaders and enders! For instance the Split Nine-Patch! I am very happy to add this to my die collection.

So there you go! I made myself something and bought myself something! Are you doing anything for yourself this holiday season?

WINNERS!

2011-12-19T12:51:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone!

Sorry this post is a day late but time just got away from me yesterday! Ok let's get to it! We have two drawings.

The first draw is for the die-cut applique shapes from SewCalGal's Christmas blog hop. There were 186 valid entries into the draw. the rest were anonymous or no-reply - sorry guys! And the winner, drawn from a random number generator is (if you can believe it) comment #1!!!

sosarahsew has left a new comment on your post "A Christmas Tree-Skirt and GIVEAWAY!":

I made a tree skirt 18 years ago from some fabric my parents brought back from Norway. It had 8 scenes of Norwegian Christmas that I fashioned into an octogon tree skirt. I accidentlally left it in the bag with the old fake tree I gave to my son since he is in his first home, so now I need something new!

Congrats Sosarahsew!!! you will receive all the die-cut applique shapes to make your own tree skirt!

Next is the drawing for a Lapel Stick - the best fabric glue stick! There were 18 valid entries into this give-away and the number drawn by random.org random number generator is #11!

Gene Black has left a new comment on your post "Review of the Slice Fabrique and a Fabric Postcard...":

The Slice Fabrique is certainly interesting. I would like to try one.

I would also love to try the Lapel Stick. I have seen a few people using it online and I love trying new products.

Congrats to both of you as soon as I get your address your prizes will be sent out!

Review of the Slice Fabrique and a Fabric Postcard Tutorial!

2011-12-17T15:24:00.001-05:00

Hi all!

I was lucky enough to be given the chance to review the Slice Fabrique fabric cutter. If you have been reading my blog for a while - you know that I love to use my die-cutters to create projects quickly, easily and with great precision.

The Slice has been around for a while for scrapbookers but now they have come out with one for us quilters! The Slice Fabrique is a different from my other die-cutters. For one it is electronic and it is computerized. This means that we can re-size the images!!! Yes, you read that correctly - you can re-size the images from 1" to 4" big. It also primarily focuses on applique images - not piecing - although there are a few piecing images on the Applique Basics card that comes with the machine - but here I am getting ahead of myself.

First let's open up the box:

Inside you will find everything you need to get Slicing right away. The roll of fusible on the right is extra fusible that the good people at Making Memories sent me :-D I think they knew I wouldn't be able to stop once I started LOL! The Slice uses SD cards, like they type in cameras, instead of dies so the storage of your designs is very minimal.

The Slice Fabrique comes with the Applique Basics SD card which contains ALL of these re-sizable shapes! And yes that is an upper and lower case alphabet and set of numbers there. this is a major plus to the Slice Fabric in my eyes! The cost of the alphabet and numbers dies for the Accuquilt Go! or for the Sizzix are quite costly. To give you an idea - the cost of the one alphabet available for the Go! is MORE expensive than buying the Slice Fabrique which comes with this alphabet! The SD cards are about $60.00 CND regular price and many come with additional alphabets on them. Plus, these alphabets are re-sizable to give us even greater freedom. I absolutely love that.

Ok let's get to slicing! First you need to prepare the 6" square glass mat but spreading the adhesive over the mat.

And let it dry for a couple of minutes.

Next we need to prepare our fabric. The Slice Fabrique requires that you put fusible on the back of your fabric before you use it. This is a necessary step since it stabilizes the fabric during the cutting process. Some of the designs like the hexagons would be great for piecing and we wouldn't want fusible on them. I am told that you can spray baste paper onto the back and then cut and peel the paper off if you want them for piecing. I haven't tried this though - just passing it on ;-)

Now let's turn to the machine. The Slice Fabrique is cordless so I let it charge for about an hour before I used it. You can also use it while it is plugged in and charging. First it takes us to the home screen.

Then we press Select and choose settings.

Then it asked me to home the cutter - which I did because the instructions told me to ;-) I guess this centers the blade.

Back to the menu now and I chose Applique.

I chose this pretty snowflake.

The snowflake could be as small as 2" or as large as 4"

For this project I chose 3.5" to work with my fabric postcards.

Another couple of cool functions the Slice Fabrique can do are Shadow - which is when you would want to give your applique 3D shadowing. You would put the shadow behind the applique. Really neat! The other thing is mirror - but since the snowflake is already it's own mirror image that was unnecessary here.

After I had chosen my design and the size it was time to load the fabric.

You NEED to make sure that the prepared fabric is firmly adhered to the glass mat. If you don't smooth it out and make sure that it is sticking your design will completely mess up. This happened to me the first time and it was completely user error.

Next place the Slice on top of the fabric and glass mat. Hold the sides firmly and press the button on the back right to start cutting. You really do need to hold the Slice down here since it will want to move a bit as the blade drops down and starts to rotate around and cut the fabric. Can you see the white part on the right of the slice? That is the mechanism and the blade is in there.

The Slice will tell you when it is finished. Then you lift off the Slice and it will look a little like this - huh??!! Did it do anything?

It sure did! Look at that!! Cool huh? Beautiful and intricate.

We now have a positive and a negative design. I love it! Look at how pretty they both are.

Let's talk a bit about the Slice Fabrique now.

I really like this little machine. There are lots of positives:

I think that for the alphabets alone it is a great idea.
Even if you're not interested in the alphabets the ability to re-size designs will give quilters an affordable way to die-cut applique shapes and lots of options!
By using SD cards instead of dies the cards are less expensive than dies. The Applique Basics card alone is filled with many wonderful shapes that I think would make any quilter happy.
If you read the instructions it is user-friendly.
It is cordless so you can charge it and take it with you.
There is a hands free attachment that you can purchase if you don't like holding onto the machine.
Frankly, this machine is another option for quilters - it won't replace the other machines but it does give us more flexibility in out applique designs. It is a great addition to any sewing room.

Now, there are s few negatives to this machine.

There is a learing curve to using it. I did mess up my first cut because I didn't ready the instructions clearly enough - but after that I was fine.
There is a bit more fabric waste than with other die-cutters. Now that said Making Memories has an excellent blog with video tutorials which are extremely well done and really helped decrease fabric waste.
The glue needed for the glass mat could get seriously expensive - however - they have a spray adhesive that you can get and I am told that it works better than the glue.
The size limitations on the applique - 4" is as large as you can go. However, I think that the ability to re-size out-weighs this negative for me.
They recommend using the Slice fusible webbing but I am told that other brands like Steam A Seam 2 and Wonder Under will also work.
The blades do wear out but they are not expensive and I have still not worn one out yet.

I am really happy with this machine. It has honestly filled a gap for me with my die-cutters. It allows us to re-size designs and give us an affordable source for multiple alphabets. I really, really like those options. I think that the Slice Fabrique would be great for ANY quilter would does applique - especially if they don't like cutting those shapes out like me! I think it would be a great present under the tree this Christmas ;-)

Ok since I was cutting up some fabric I decided to work on a project while I was trying out this machine. Every year I make fabric post-cards for my Christmas cards and the Slice is PERFECT for this! You probably noticed that I started off with a rectangle of fabric that I cut into with the slice. This was a 4" x 6" rectangle that is the size of a postcard. As you saw int he review I pre-fused it and then cut out the shape.

I also cut a 4" x 6" piece of timtex - available at lots of quilt shops or fabric stores. I grabbed my Lapel Stick - my absolute favorite fabric glue and started gluing.

I glued a 4" square of silver fabric to one piece of timtex and a 4" x 6" piece to another.

Then I very carefully ironed everything down. The silver will melt if your iron is too hot. At this stage you can do some machine quilting on these if you wish but I decided not to.

Then I used my Lapel Stick again to glue my postcard back onto the other side. I have a stamp for this but you can draw this by hand.

Next zig zag around the outside - I love my uneven zig zag stitch for this since it is so forgiving - and if you use white thread it really looks like icicles! So simple - so pretty!

So there you go! I used both the applique shape and the background fabric to create these very pretty fabric post cards! What do you think? If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them here! Will you be asking for a Slice Fabrique for Christmas?

Whew that was a long one! I feel like you deserve a prize if you made it to the end LOL! Well how about this - our friends at Lapel Stick would like to offer one of my readers the chance to try Lapel Stick out! If you would like the chance to win a Lapel Stick fabric glue stick just leave a comment here saying that you would like to be entered - I'll pick a winner on Sunday right after I pick a winner for the die-cut applique shapes from my other give-away! There is still time to enter if you haven't yet!

A Christmas Tree-Skirt and GIVEAWAY!

2011-12-15T07:02:00.001-05:00

Hi all!

Welcome to all of my existing readers and new readers alike! Today is my day in SewCalGal's Christmas blog hop! You have to hop on over to SewCalGal's blog and check out the list of all the other hoppers - there are some great tips and tutorials and a great give-away so run on over and check it all out!

I hope that you like my tutorial using the Accuquilt Go! Sleigh and Snowflakes die. I have been wanting to make a new tree-skirt for our tree for a while and this blog hop gave me the perfect excuse. I love this die since it makes cutting reindeer and the sleigh so quick and easy - not to mention the snowflake (but I don't use that shape today).

First let's start with the background for the tree-skirt. I decided to do a non-round tree-skirt so we are going to need to peice it. Now if you feel comfortable making an octagon without peicing feel free!

You will need:
2 x 12.5" squares
1 x 12.5" by 36" rectangle
1 x 18.5" square

Cross-cut the 18.5" square on each diagonal to make 4 triangles.

Piece two of the triangles to each side of the 12.5" squares as shown.

Piece these two units to either side of the long rectangle as shown. Now we have our center. Trim off the excess from the setting triangles

Now cut 4 strips 3.5" by the width of fabric for the borders. You can either use your 3.5" strip die or rotary cut these.

Add these onto the sides first to the shorter 12.5" sides and trim to the correct angle to match up with the longer sides.

Add the longer sides.

And trim off the excess. Whew, the hard work is now finished!!

Ok now onto the fun and easy part!

Press fusible onto the back of some brown fabric and cut 8 reindeer (9 if you want Rudolph!). Press some fusible onto the back of some red fabric and cut the sleigh. Choose some various Christmas prints and put some fusible on the back of those to make 4 presents using your 2" square die (or you can rotary cut these as well). The presents in the sleigh make it look like Santa is completely enveloped and covered in presents!

Lay out your top and draw a circle in the middle - mine was about 7" square or the size of my side plate. Then draw a line from the circle to the end - you will be cutting on these lines later. Lay out your applique shapes until you are happy with them and press.

I debated adding some snowflakes around the reindeer but every time I placed them I didn't like the effect - maybe if I used a blue snowflake print as my background fabric I would have liked it better with the snowflakes. But, against the white background I just didn't like it as much so I left them out. I really like the simplicity of this design.

Layer your quilt top, batting and backing and applique and quilt as desired. I used Sliver metallic thread by Sulky to machine quilt and to applique.

After I finished all of that my kids started to ask where Santa was in the sleigh! So I grabbed the Holiday Accessories die and cut out the mitt and the small circle. I placed the mitt and the circle on the presents to look like Santa was completely engulfed in the presents on the sleigh with only the top of his hat one one mitt sticking out. This is optional but I think it gives a little more action to the tree-skirt. You could also use the bow on the Holiday Accessories die to add a bow to the present heap but again I thought that it got a bit fussy for my taste and i really like how this one is simple and flowing.

Next I free-motion quilted the reins using black thread and a very fine zig-zag stitch to join the reindeer and the sleigh together. I love the movement the reins give to the piece. It makes the whole thing flow. I thought about adding cording but I figured that with the hustle and bustle of Christmas morning that cording might not last too long before it was pulled off.

You will need to cut bias binding for this since because of the circle in the middle. If you need a tutorial on cutting bias binding you can find one here.

Well there it is! I hope that you have enjoyed my tutorial to make this tree-skirt. You could easily embellish this more that I have - with bells and ribbons etc - it is all up to you!

Ok now onto the GIVE-AWAY!!!

How would you like to win all the applique shapes needed for this tree-skirt? The sleigh, the reindeer and presents all pre-fused and die-cut? I debated doing the background fabric as well but since I started thinking about a blue sky or a night sky instead of the white I thought that I would leave that up to you! LOL

Ok here's the fine print!

For one chance to win you can comment on this post. Tell me anything about Christmas past or present. Do you have a tree-skirt? Did you make it - or are you thinking about making this one?

For a second chance to win, become a follower and leave another comment here for a second entry. If you already follow my blog that's fine just leave a comment here telling me that you do.

For a third chance to win like me on Facebook and leave another comment here. Again, if you already like me on Facebook just tell me so in a comment.

Every comment is your entry - 1 comment one entry ;-)

Please, please make sure your blogger is not set to no-reply!!!! Please see my previous post here on how to make sure that you are not a no-reply blogger! If a no-reply blogger is chosen then I will be forced to draw another name and I really don't want to do that!

The winner will be chosen on Sunday to give everyone a chance to enter! Good luck everyone!

Don't forget to visit all the other blogs on the hop! There are some great tutorials offered.

Here is the line up for this blog hop:

Monday, December 12th

SewCalGal

Tuesday, December 13th

Leona's Quilting Adventure
Cherry (Cherry Bossoms)

Wednesday, December 14th

Terrie (Bits & Pieces)
Nancy (Tattered Garden)

Thursday, December 15th

Katrina (Sunshower Quilts)
Jacque (Lily Pad Quilting)

Friday, December 16th

SewCalGal
Paulette (Sweet P Quilting and Creations)

A Christmas Tumbler

2011-12-08T12:46:00.000-05:00

Ta da! Another tumbler quilt!

I sure do love the tumbler die! This is the large tumbler die for my Accuquilt Go! once again. I love, love, love it for doing seasonal quilts. It is so fast to put together, uses up odd pieces of fabric and it showcases larger prints without cutting them up too small. I thought about saving this for SewCalGal's Christmas Theme Blog Hop (which i am participating in) but there were a couple of tumbler quilts on her Halloween Hop so I thought that I would just show you this one and offer a different tutorial on my day.

This quilt will be a gift in a yearly drawing I do so hopefully who ever wins will like it!

I love this quilt because it is completely from my stash - top, backing, binding - everything - yey! I love using my stash!

I found that about 10 years ago, maybe less, it was all about building a stash and accumulating fabric for your stash. I read articles in quilting magazines about how to build a stash; and, many of us, me included, did just that - we built a mighty stash! Sigh!

Now, the big trend in articles and books and quilt shop clubs seems to be busting your stash, scrap quilts - and using pre-cuts like jelly rolls - but that's a whole different story LOL!

Why did this new trend start do you think? Is it the down-turn in the economy? Hmmm. . . maybe. Or, maybe, a lot of us looked at the hundreds, if not thousands, of yards of fabric that we have and realized that we would HAVE to make A LOT of quilts to use up our stash! I am seriously amazed, every time I pull a complete quilt completely out of my stash, at how little difference it seems to make. It seems like I own a nearly bottomless supply of fabric that I might never get through - odd predicament don't you think?

Don't get me wrong I get so happy when I pull a quilt completely out of my stash - but I feel like I should ALWAYS be pulling quilts out of my stash instead of buying some new and yummy fabrics. So, now when people ask me about building a stash, I tell them not to. I advise new quilters to buy for the project and not for the stash; because, at some point you will have to bust that stash. Thank goodness for things like the tumbler block to make it all come together!

So what do you do? Buy for the stash or bust the stash?

In the Dye Pot!

2011-12-05T15:44:00.000-05:00

I spent a portion of yesterday doing this - dying up some wool for the background of the rug that I want to start soon. it is a pattern by Gene Shepherd called Pickering Oak.

There's the wool all simmering on the stove. Unlike cotton fabric we have to heat wool on the stove to get it to absorb the dyes. Imagine my whole house smelling like wet mittens over the heater. At least it was nice out and I could open up the windows for a bit to air everything out.

It wasn't going as dark as I wanted so I added more black dye. Uh oh it went a little too dark I think!

Well at least there is the other pot that I didn't add too much dye to. Whew!

I guess I'll just have to wait until it all dries before I make up my mind. Wool always looks so much darker when it is wet.

Hey not bad at all!! It is a little bit darker and more blue than I wanted but I really like it! I think I'll keep it as is and go with it. Since the leaves will have so much orange in them this will be a nice compliment to the orange.

Dying is always such an adventure for me since I am so new to it - I really like to dye wool but I would just have a fit if someone asked me to replicate a recipe! I know I know - I should start taking notes for my own sake at least.

Ok now that that is finished I have to dye for the leaves - more adventures!

I "Fixed" it!

2011-11-28T14:19:00.001-05:00

I fixed it - and I am much happier!

What do you think? I must admit I was really lucky and I found a whole bunch of extra first border pieces and there were enough for me to piece an additional 10 X-Blocks with only a bit more work. That really cut down on the time I spent yesterday and I didn't need to cut an additional white squares! Yey!

So, I spent the afternoon yesterday, in my PJ's (because I could), working on this quilt and getting not only the additional blocks on but also the first pieced border. I love how it is turning out - but I am not finished yet!

If you would like to see how I made the X-Blocks as a leaders and enders project and how I made the first border you can see the video I made here.

Now I need a whole bunch more 16-patch blocks because I am going to add an additional pieced border on. I know - crazy right!? I set the challenge to myself to do a 100% pieced quilt ie no long inner or outer borders - ALL piecing. It would be so, very, very easy right now to just add some straight borders - and believe me I can't help but be tempted to do just that - but - I am going to stick with my challenge to myself.

Since this is (or was to be) completely a leaders and enders quilt (until I decided to add more blocks and kind of cheated on the additional X-Blocks) I am going to piece those 16-patches as leaders and enders; so, the quilt top will not be finished for a while now. Oh well! Back into the quilt closet for a while again.

Now, I just need to decide if I want to do a 6" final border or a 12" - hmmm. Right now the quilt top is 72" x 72" - so the possibilities are an 84" square quilt or a 96" square quilt. I'm kind of leaving towards 96" but not sure if I want 12" borders. Oh well - that decision will wait for another day!

What do you think? Did I "fix" it?

What Would You Do?

2011-11-27T10:04:00.000-05:00

Remember this quilt?

This is my current, in process leaders and enders quilt. Well, I have been piecing the first border, leaders and enders style, and I was about ready to put it on. I decided to hang up the quilt center and see what I thought about it from a few steps back. In the first picture I liked what I saw - at first. Then, I started really looking at my quilt. I DON'T like how I have used an even number of blocks across the top and sides - this means that I have a 16-patch on the top left and an X-block top right. Hmmm, maybe it will be ok.

Let's audition the first border.

YUCK!!!

Nope, I don't like how that X-block looks in the corner! I do like how the 16-patch looks as a corner though. So, now what to do?? I think that if this bothers me this much now it will always bother me in the future. Since I like this quilt top a lot so far, and I have spent a lot of time on it, I think that the only thing to do, for me, is try to make this more visually appealing.

As I see it I have two options.

Rip off one side border and add it to the bottom of the quilt - yuck frog stitching :-(
Start piecing more X-Blocks to add to one side and the bottom of the quilt to make the quilt an 11 x 11 block setting instead of 10 x 10.

Sigh - what would you do?

The first thing I did was check to see if I had any more of the off-white background fabric - yes I do! And I think I might have just enough! So, since the thought of ripping all of that off the side (and potentially damaging all the piecing) just makes me cringe, I got out my tools and I am about to start cutting up more background squares.

Just when I thought I was done with the center - here I am cutting for more! Luckily I have some bits left and I always have lots of 16-patch blocks sitting around. I'm going to look at this as being half-done the work I need to do LOL!!

If you would like to see how I do my leaders and enders and/or how to construct the X-block you can click on the videos tab at the top and check out my YouTube videos.

So what would you have done? Ripped or cut more?

Another Finish and Another Start

2011-11-18T12:03:00.001-05:00

Isn't he cute??!!!

Mr Iggy is finished!

This is a free pattern that was an insert in Rug Hooking Magazine that I just fell in love with! It is a pattern by Star Rug Company. She has a way with whimsical designs like this and she loves Halloween as much as I do! I know that this is another Halloween finish after Halloween but hey - it is finished!

After I finished this rug I decided that I would start another one. I thought that it might be fun to hook a larger rug that is intended for the floor in my bedroom.

This is a pattern by Gene Shepherd called Pickering Oak and I just love it! This will be about 26" x 38" when completed so this will be the largest rug that I have hooked. I am going to hook it in a #8 cut (or 8/32 of an inch wide cuts) and I am going to die my own wool for it. I am very excited to take this on and push myself a bit more. In the picture you can see that I have transferred the pattern onto the tracing fabric so that it is ready to transfer onto the linen I'll be using as a backing. The picture of the backing didn't work out very well so this one will have to do! The little yellow circles are pattern weights by Olfa that I got in a prize basket and I use them a lot for rug hooking since they have little pointed feet that really stick to the backings.

Have you started anything new lately? Or, picked up an old project?

A Start and a Couple Finishes

2011-11-10T13:50:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone!

I decided to do something I haven't done in a long time - I decided to do a Block of the Month (BOM). You see, I have a lot of the Accuquilt Go! geometric set and they are mostly still in their packages! So, when Accuquilt started their new BOM I thought it would be the perfect way to crack open those geometric dies.

I downloaded the first two months of blocks from the site. If you're interested in checking this out you can get started here. It might be fun to work on this as a group project!

I picked my colours and theme and set to work. I chose to do my sampler in 30's prints because I LOVE them so much and have built up a bit of a stash ;-) I finished the first two blocks in the sampler and I can't wait until next month when the next block comes out! They went together so easily and precisely - it was a pleasure to do the blocks. What do you think? Do you like my fabrics?

Well that was my start - now on to a couple of finishes! I finished two baby quilts. They are machine quilted, bound and labeled! Yey! The quilt on the left is my die cut tumbler quilt and the quilt on the right is all flying geese cut with the Eleanor Burns flying geese ruler. I love to make flying geese using that method. If you have never seen that method before there is a video right on the page I linked to that shows her rulers in use. I tried to be a bit more modern with these quilts and I like the way that they turned out - but - honestly I think that my heart lies in using a bit more colour.

I hope that the babies who receive these quilts love them to death! Or, maybe that they add their own bit of colour to them LOL! I love to make baby quilts!

So, what are you all up to so far this November? Any finishes? Any starts?

Review of the Sizzix Big Shot Die Cutter

2011-11-04T16:34:00.001-04:00

Hi all!

As you all know - or if you've been reading my blog for a while you'll know - I love my Accuquilt Go! fabric cutter. I have really enjoyed using it and creating quilts with it. I don't know how I quilted without it!

Recently I started hearing about the Sizzix cutter and how they have partnered with Westminster fabrics to make a quilting machine; so, I thought that it would be interesting to see what all the buzz was about. When I was given the opportunity by Sizzix to try their machine and a few dies out I jumped at the chance.

Now let me first explain my ignorance concerning Sizzix and their cutting machines. I am a quilter - not a scrap-booker at all so I had no idea what they were all about or their scrap-booking products. I know that a lot of you are scrap-bookers so you're probably ahead of me here ;-) I wasn't aware of their machines until they put out a quilting edition. So, naturally, my review is going to focus on quilting.

I also want to clarify that I have not tried the Accquilt Studio machine yet so I can't compare that one - sorry.

My machine came in the mail and I gleefully unpacked it. I had to put the handle on the machine - but that was all the assembly required. My initial reaction was - look at the little purple jewels!!!! LOL I kid you not I love those little guys. My next reaction is - wow is this ever heavy!

I grabbed the small Dresden plate die and cutting mats. The Big Shot uses two Plexiglas sheets to sandwich the die. I layered just 4 layers of quilter's cotton over the die and ran it through. the Sizzix can cut up to 10 layers of fabric!

I have to be completely honest here - I was shocked at how easy and smooth the die rolled through the machine! Really and truly it was effortless to put the die through the rollers. No strength was required at all. The little rubber feet on the bottom of the machine kept the cutter very still and stable - I think the weight of the machine also helped with that.

I had perfect shapes in seconds - I did have to trim a couple threads but nothing big.

Look at how cute those little Dresden petals are! I will be honest - I was going to make small project using this die but I am so in love with those petals that I want to make many more; so, I figured that instead of holding this review up that I would do the review and then do the project.

Next I grabbed the 2.5" strip die and gave that a whirl. I thought that the this die would be challenging to use because of the length of the die and the shortness of the bed on the Big Shot - I was completely wrong! It was once again effortless to run this through and I got a perfect 2.5" strip.

When I was looking at the strip die I thought that it looked a little longer than the Accuquilt ones so I layed them side by side.

Guess what? The Sizzix strip die IS a little bit longer than the Accuquilt die! I have often wished that the Accuquilt dies were just about an inch longer and the Sizzix one is! Remember that I put the silver Sharpie lines on my dies so that I know where the blades are when I cut - they didn't come with the lines on them.

I took a trip into Michael's craft store and was in the scrap booking isle area and I found these so I grabbed them to try out as well. Even though they are not "quilting" dies they will cut fabric so I figured I'd better try them out - I am excited to do something with these.

I am truly impressed with how the Sizzix works - I think it is a great machine! I was told that there is a shim available so that the Sizzix machine can take the Accquilt dies - I think this is a an amazing thing since quilters can have all the Accuquilt dies available to them as well as the Sizzix ones.

Now for the pros and cons. I still love my Accuquilt machine! I think that both manufacturers have pluses and minuses.

Pros for Sizzix

-the machine is sooooo smooth and easy to opperate. It was effortless to put the die through the machine

-the easy crank deserves at least two points! LOL!

-the ability to cut MORE layers all at the same time.

-the little purple jewels are too cute!

-the ability to use the Accquilt dies in the Sizzix machine. Accuquilt can only take Accuquilt dies

-huge selection of dies available if you take into consideration the scrap booking dies.

-I love the longer strip dies!!!

Cons for Sizzix

-there are not many quilting dies made by Sizzix yet. I know that they are releasing more but right now there are not very many. You can also use the scrap booking dies though, however, looking through the dies many of them just don't seem to be conducive to quilting - the appliques are too skinny or would not be easy to applique. So right now there is a limited selection.

-the bed is very narrow so the dies must be less than 6" wide. The Baby Go is a little wider so there are more dies that can be used on the smaller of the Accuquilt machines.

-the space needed to store the machine. The Go folds up smaller and can be stored more easily. This can be a huge issue if your space is limited and I know that it is for many people.

-not a lot of supporting materials. For example on the Dresden plate die there is just the three petals and that it makes a 6.5" block. There is no direction as to the size of the center circle needed or a pattern or piecing directions. This could be confusing to a lot of quilters. There are only a few patterns on the web site, at present, I am SURE they are working on this LOL!

So what should you buy? That is a huge question. Both Sizzix and Accuquilt have good and bad points.

I love the way the Sizzix machine operates. Sincerely, it is so smooth and easy to operate. But, it doesn't fold down so the storage space needed is much larger. This is a huge issue for some quilters so I would say look at your sewing area. If space is at a premium you have to go with Accuquilt. The Accuquilt is much more portable so if you are traveling or want to take it to bees the Accuquilt is the way to go. However, Accuquilt Go machines can only take Go! dies. However, if you have shoulder problems or anything like that the Sizzix is the way to go! It is extremely easy to crank and requires no effort at all.

There are two sizes to both machines so look at the dies you like before you decide.

Right now Accquilt definitely has far more supporting materials available for customers. There is a free pattern in every die and multiple patterns and videos available on their web site. The Accuquilt dies have everything that you need for the block on the die. For example the Dresden plate die has all the petals and the circle. This is a good and bad thing in my opinion. I like having everything I need on the die - it's easier. But sometimes you get repeated shapes. It's a toss up! Accuquilt has gone heavy into quilting and has partnered with Electric Quilt and has embroidery designs available too. This is a huge plus for many of us! However, with a shim you can use Accuquilt dies in your Sizzix machine; so, you are not limited there at all!

So, which machine is better? Which should you buy? Honestly I have no firm answer for you. Sorry. They are both good machines and I will enjoy using both of them. I am looking forward to getting a shim to try my Accuquilt dies out on the Big Shot next! The Big Shot is approximately the same price as the Baby Go! And the Big Shot pro is a bit more than the full sized Go!

Thank you to the kind people at Sizzix for this opportunity to try their great little machine out!

Wowzers that was a LONG one!!!

Halloween Tumbler

2011-11-03T12:14:00.001-04:00

I know that it is after Halloween but I finished my Halloween tumbler quilt! I love how it turned out and it was so fast and easy to put together.

It was also so great to use my stash completely for this project and finally use some of those Halloween prints that have been sitting for years in my stash. Even the batting was one that I had purchased years ago when it was on sale. I find it very freeing to use what I have - it frees up space for new fabrics ;-)

I machine quilted this quilt using WonderFil Tutti variegated thread in a 50 weight. It quilted like a dream! The thread is so soft and smooth and it didn't break once while I was quilting. I will definately use this thread again in the future!

From the left-overs I grabbed my chisel die and my 2" square die and cut them up! I used the 2" squares as leaders and enders while I was piecing other things. But, now that Halloween is over I honestly don't feel like doing anything with them right now. So, I bundled them up and put these away - probably until next Halloween; but, once next Halloween is here I will have these ready to go!

Now on to other things!

Heat Press Batting Together

2011-10-18T16:01:00.000-04:00

Hi all!

I was recently asked to try out and review Heat Press Batting Together a fusible cloth tape for fusing your batting pieces together. I have to admit at first I was quite skeptical since I can easily sew together batting pieces using a multi-stitch zig-zag on my sewing machine. However, looking at my sewing job using my sewing machine I always seem to stretch out the batting a bit while I sew it and I have to fan-dangle the batting, after it is sewn, to get it to lay flat again. So since I had a baby quilt I want to load onto my frame I decided to give the Heat Press Batting Together a try.

I first trimmed up my batting pieces so that they were even instead of jagged edges and laid it on my ironing board.

Lay the tape down across the cut rough side down and quickly press it into place. This was honestly very fast and very easy. I used a cotton batting here.

Once you have pressed it down you are ready to go! So fast - so easy!!

The little blip in the seam was my fault since I didn't push the edges up against each other well enough at first - I thought that I would still show this picture though to show that this can happen if you're not careful ;-) The seam is smooth and flat and is NOT stretched out at all - like when I stitch mine together using a sewing machine.

So final verdict - this is a great product! I am definately going to use this product instead of sewing my batting together from now on. It is much easier, does a better job, is faster and does not put excess lint into my bobbin area of my sewing machine. Win - win - win!

The only negative I see is that it comes on a small roll with 10 yards of tape on a roll - I would love to see a larger roll of the tape so that I won't have to buy as many ;-)

Have any of you tried Heat Press Batting Together before?

On the Design Wall

2011-10-12T15:12:00.000-04:00

I have finally finished sewing the blocks! It feels like I have been working on these for a long time now - well I did sort the scraps back in 2008 ;-) But, piecing these blocks took me a while. Probably because the pieces were quite small - but wow - am I glad the quilt top is coming together!

Now I am just finalizing the layout before I put the little place tags on the blocks and start to sew the rows together. I keep seeing blocks that need to be switched around so I think I'll sit on this for a day before I finalize anything else.

I am really enjoying this quilt. I am enjoying watching it come together and I am really liking how all those little pieces are going into a quilt instead of the garbage bin! This quilt has been quite a journey for me and I am really enjoying that as well. I've been posting along with the journey - so I hope that you're not getting tired of this quilt! But, if you haven't seen this quilt before you can take a look at some of my previous posts about it here, here and here.

The only thing is now I think it needs to be larger - it needs a pieced border I think! Any thoughts? Or should I take one step at a time and cross that bridge when I come to it?

Another Finish and A Publication!

2011-10-07T17:13:00.000-04:00

Hey all!

I thought that I would share with you some news - Accuquilt featured an article I wrote for them entitle "The 13 Cent Quilt Block using the GO! Bountiful Baskets" which you can view on their website if you'd like to take a look! The article focuses on the Postage Stamp Basket block - which you know I love! Writing the article was a new experience for me and I learned a lot - namely how much time something like that takes to put together LOL! I hope that you'll take a couple of minutes to give the article a read and let me know what you think!

I've also been able to finish anther quilt. This is my scrappy "Jelly Roll Race" quilt that I did out of my 2.5" strip bin. It was so great to use some of those scraps and make a quilt completely from scraps and stash! It was great to get this finished even though the top was only completed in August.

I quilted it using a 50 weight cotton thread top and bobbin in an all over wave pattern that really gives some texture to the quilt.

I also used up some of those Halloween 2" squares, as leaders and enders, making a couple of little fabric baskets and a zippered case while I was working on my Chimneys and Cornerstones blocks. It's great to be making progress on this quilt after all that cutting and cutting!

I am almost finished all 80 of the blocks needed for the center of the quilt - yep -80! It seems like such a big number doesn't it? Then I am thinking about one or two borders - and maybe piecing one of those borders from more scraps. Lots of work still to do! But, it is so nice to use up these bits and pieces.

But, you know what? I don't even remember buying a few of those fabrics! I'm sure they aren't mine so where did they come from?? So, either scraps have babies, or, someone came over and dumped some fabric in my scrap heap when I wasn't looking! Was it you??!!

Another Skeleton Finished!! And a Winner!!!!

2011-10-02T12:31:00.001-04:00

Yey!! I have completely finished another skeleton!!

My son's quilt is completely finished - binding label and everything! I ran outside, while the rain had stopped, to take some pictures of the quilt when the light was so nice. I threw the quilt over my flowers and snapped away! Towards the end of the pictures it started sprinkling again so I ran inside.

This is the quilt that I started a long long time ago. When my oldest son was 8 he picked out the fabrics from my stash and he chose the pattern. He was very specific in what he wanted. He wanted green, yellow and blue bars in that order and he didn't want prints - he wanted almost solid fabrics. I cut the strips and he sewed them together on my sewing machine. He did a great job! We made this top right around the same time that I was working on my younger son's pumpkin quilt back in 2007!! Needless to say he is a little older now ;-)

When I asked him what fabric he wanted for the border he chose the print - but it was one that would really have to be mitered so I put it on a hanger and let it sit for a while. When I was asked to review Lapel Stick I thought that it would be a great chance to try it out while mitering the borders so I did a tutorial and review and mitered the borders. Then, guess what? I put it back onto the hanger and let it sit until I had time to do the quilting.

Don't those borders look great though? The miters worked out really well.

Now that I have my new frame I loaded the quilt onto the frame and asked my son how he wanted it quilted. I asked if he wanted big squiggles or loops? He said - NO! Straight lines LOL!

So straight lines it is! I used a 30 weight Sulky Blendable cotton thread top and bobbin and machine quilted crossing straight lines. Some stars just magically appeared and added to the fun. He is really happy with it - and really happy that it is finally finished!!

This quilt took me a few years to finish - mostly because I allowed myself to get side-tracked and work on other things instead of sticking to it and finishing. But, honestly, I like that I've had a bit of a back-log of quilts to get through once I got my frame. It gave me some instant practice quilts AND it kind of justified the purchase of the frame. Part of me wants to rummage through my closet and see if there are any more tops ready to quilt hiding in there. And part of me doesn't want to LOL!! I know I have a couple of WIP's in there (works in progress) so I don't count those. One is my rework quilt that will be hand-quilted and one is the Dessert Nine-Patch that I am still trying to decide if I want to put a border on. I just can't decide yet for that one. I still have a couple of baby quilts to load on though so maybe the rummaging will wait for another day ;-)

So what do you think? Have I spawned another generation of quilters in my house?

Ok ok I have kept you waiting long enough - or did you skip to the end??

I used the random number generator at random.org to choose between 1 and 195 VALID entries. The rest of the entries were no-reply blogger - sigh - this means I had no way to contact these people - sorry guys! I had a lot of interest in the give-away for the kit so I might just do more give-aways like this - what do you think?

And the winner was comment #60!!!

Mommarock has left a new comment on your post "Fall Chisel Table-Runner":

This is the greatest idea! I would make this :)

Congratulations Mammarock you are the winner of my fabric kit! I hope that you like it!

Cut - Sew - Cut - Sew

2011-09-30T19:27:00.000-04:00

I hope that you all enjoyed my fall table-runner tutorial and I hope that if you make one you'll post it to my Facebook page so we can all see it! There are still a couple days left to enter my give-away so if you haven't yet go and enter!

I got so inspired by the other tutorials on the hop that I decided to pull out my Halloween fabrics and cut up a tumbler quilt with my tumbler die. Well - I was shocked at how many Halloween fabrics I had! I pulled them out of my drawer and I swear they just kept coming and coming LOL! Some of these fabrics were 7 or 8 years old and there were a few that were huge amounts! The purple one is about 5 or 6 meters of fabric and I remember purchasing it off the 50% off table.

Well, I sorted through the pieces - some were left-overs and some were untouched pieces so I pressed and stacked them all up!

Then I got out my large tumbler die and started cutting. I lay the fabric on top of the die so that the lengthwise grain is going perpendicular to the roller.

Run it though the cutter.

Then flip around and line up the strip to reduce waste and cut again. The part hanging off the right side doesn't interfere with anything at all. This is how I cut all my tumblers.

Once I had finished cutting the tumblers I grabbed my 2" square die.

I cut all those scraps into two inch squares for my leaders and enders.

And I ended up with this! About 180 tumbler blocks and who knows how many 2" squares to make something out of. I'm not sure what I'll make yet - but I WILL make something ;-) I'm thinking of this great fabric basket.

I was all set to sew when I saw a cut out tumbler baby quilt that I really NEED to get finished sitting in pieces on my cutting table.

So instead of piecing the Halloween tumbler I pieced this baby quilt top. I really like how it is not symmetrical. I decided to go this way just for some visual interest.

Once I got that finished I found ANOTHER baby quilt that I had started - hmmm.

So I spread it out and I think I will just add some white sashing and them a first and second border. I haven't really decided yet. So much for the Halloween tumbler quilt today!

And last but not least!

I finished whipping the edges of my pumpkin house chair pad rug! The binding tape is all sewn to the back and it is finished! I really like how it turned out - not to finish the other little rug I've been working on.

So what are you all up to today?

Fall Chisel Table-Runner - NOW CLOSED

2011-09-28T07:06:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone!

Welcome to all the new viewers who are blog-hopping along with SewCalGal's Fall Themed Accuquilt Blog Hop!!! Thanks SewCalGal for another great hop! I hope that you like my project and Give-Away! But, you'll have to wait until the end to get to the give-away ;-) I hope that I can keep you entertained until then.

For my project I decided to do a simple Fall table-runner featuring a few Accuquilt Go! dies; but, if you don't yet have a die cutter this can still be cut out with a rotary cutter.

Ok - let's get Going!!

Approimate Fabric Amounts

4 x 0.25 meter of fabric for the chisels
0.20 meter of a neutral fabric
0.15 meter of fabric for the first border
0.70 meter of the pumpkin fabric for the second border and binding

First let's start off with 4 x 0.25 meter cuts that will form your chisels. Place your fabrics right sides together (to get mirror image shapes) and cut two thicknesses of fabrics to get 4 chisels total - 2 of each mirror image. To cut, place the selvage edge along the outside of the long edge of the chisel die so that the length-wise grain runs perpendicular to the rollers.

Next grab your 3.5" square die - or cut these with a rotary cutter - and cut 8 x 3.5" squares of a neutral fabric. Also cut one square 6.5" of your neutral fabric using either your 6.5" square die or your rotary cutter.

Grab your new pumpkin die - or the Fall Medley die if you prefer something else - and cut 4 of the small pumpkins. I layered 4 layers all right sides up so that all of my pumpkin tops would be the same way.

Applique the pumpkins onto the 6.5" square in the layout shown - or choose your own layout. I used a 40 weight rayon thread in orange and used a blanket stitch to applique mine down.

Lay out your pieces as show on both sides of the applique. See how the mirror image chisels make a really nice braid effect?

Sew one square end of the chisels to the 3.5" squares. And, sew the other end of the chisels to the 6.5" square. Then, starting with a chisel without a 3.5" square attached, working outward, sew the chisels onto the 6.5" square one at a time, butting seams, until you get to the last of the 4 layers.

Using your 1.5" strip die cut 4 strips 1.5" by the width of fabric and add on the first border - start with the two long sides first and then add the points.

Cut 4 strips 3.5" by the width of fabric for the outer border and add those on in the same method as the first border .

Quilt as desired. I quilted a 1/4" in on the chisels, using a 40 weight rayon thread, top and bobbin, and then I quilted a dense pebble design in the cream squares for some dimension. I looked at my border fabric and tried to emulate the swirling pumpkin vine with my quilting in the border. I hope this close-up gives you a better idea of my quilting.

I bound the table-runner using the same fabric as my border print since I just loved it so much!

So what do you think? I think this is a quick and easy table-runner that would look good in any season of fabrics - Halloween, Christmas, Easter etc.

Now onto the GIVEAWAY!! How would you like to win a die-cut FABRIC kit for everything for the top and binding of this table-runner? NOW CLOSED

Yes, everything you see pictured there - ok NOT the Go! cutter - just the fabric LOL! All the fabric you'll need for your own fall table-runner. You just need to supply the sewing, thread, backing and batting.

Ok here's the fine print!

For one chance to win you can comment on this post. Tell me why you would love to win the kit or what you would do with the finished product.

For a second chance to win, become a follower and leave another comment here for a second entry. If you already follow my blog that's fine just leave a comment here telling me that you do.

Every comment is your entry - 1 comment one entry ;-) You have a total of two chances to win.

Please, please make sure your blogger is not set to no-reply!!!! Please see a previous post here on how to make sure that you are not a no-reply blogger! If a no-reply blogger is chosen then I will be forced to draw another name and I really don't want to do that! GOOD LUCK!!

I will draw a winner, using a random number generator on Sunday - after the hop is all finished.

If you have any questions you can also leave them here and I will do my best to answer them!

Want to keep hopping? Please see my last post for the other blog-hoppers participating.

Good Luck! NOW CLOSED

Fall Themed Accuquilt Blog Hop!

2011-09-26T08:20:00.003-04:00

I just wanted to share with you all that SewCalGal and several quilters with Modern Quilting Tools are hosting a Fall Theme AccuQuilt Blog Hop the week of September 26th. Yes this starts today!!!

We will be celebrating the arrival of Fall, share some tips, tutorials and inspiration with you on how we use our Accuquilt products, and they will be a few giveaways in this blog hop too. But most importantly, we want you to come join our blog hop and have fun. So you'll need to hop to each blog on their day to see what they are offering up!

Here is our schedule:

Monday, September 26th

Darlene (SewCalGal) - www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com

Tuesday, September 27th

Terrie (Bits & Pieces) www.terriesandelin.blogspot.com
Sharon (Craizee Corners) www.craizeecorner.blogspot.com

Wednesday, September 28th

Katrina (Sunshower Quilts) www.sunshowerquilts.blogspot.com pssst that's me!!

Thursday, September 29th

Connie (Quilting by the River) www.conniekresin.blogspot.com
Mary (the Tulip Patch) http://www.tulip-patch.blogspot.com/

Friday, September 30th

Polly (Polly's Porch) www.auntpollysporch.blogspot.com

I hope that you will come and see me Wednesday to see what I have prepared for the hop AND to enter my GIVEAWAY!! I think you'll like it!!

Ok start hopping!!

I Finally Finished the Tumbler!

2011-09-23T16:44:00.002-04:00

I told you all that you were going to get sick of me posting finishes eventually LOL! Well, here is another quilting skeleton done and bound and already wrapped around one of my children - yey!!

Here is the tumbler quilt that I cut out almost a year ago! I cut the tumblers out, using my Accuquilt Go! in October of 2010 but then I got a little side-lined ;-) I put the top together in February but then it just stayed as it was until now.

I pulled out the top and loaded it onto my frame and it was quilted in no time!

I used a 30 weight cotton Sulky Blendable thread in a variegated colour range top and bobbin and quilted the quilt quite loosely so that the brushed cottons would remain soft and cuddly. It is a simple meander with loops added in for a bit of variety. Again, since this is a throw I didn't want heavy quilting - I wanted this quilt soft.

What is absolutely great is that it is already being used - even as I write this and one of my sons has asked that it be on his bed tonight. I don't know what better validation there can be for a new quilted project than someone laying claim to it right away. It's just really nice!

Tomorrow I teach an Intro to Machine Quilting and that is always lots of fun!

Any quilty plans for the weekend?

If you would like 22 free patterns from Accuquilt you can sign up using this link! You won't regret it!

Even More Quilting!!!

2011-09-17T16:54:00.000-04:00

You guys are going to get sick of me showing the quilts after I finish the quilting aren't you??!!! Oh no!! But really - I am just having such a great time finishing up these project that have been sitting around in my quilt closet. Some people have skeletons in their closet - I have quilts LOL!

You might remember this quilt from a loooong time ago now. You can see me working on it back in May if you like. I started this quilt, for a friend, quilting it table top; and, since the summer was just so hot and humid, I let it sit there for a long time. Did I mention this is a queen sized quilt?

Well, after I took the last quilt off the frame, I thought that I might try loading this one onto my frame and finishing up the boarders. Keep in mind that I had had to finish was the outer section of the boarder and the inside of the circles. That's all I had left to do but I just needed the kick in the behind to get me going. So load it on I did and I finished it!

What do you think? I think this is a spectacular quilt!

Here are a few close-ups of the quilting

I quilted this quilt using a 50 weight cotton Guetermann thread top and bobbin in a pattern, that I was taught, is called 1-2-3. I love how this turned out. The Dresden Plates, appliqued swags and the sashing all pop out and take center stage. The quilting on this quilt took well over 20 hours to complete but I think it was well worth it! Most of the quilting was completed table-top but that last little bit around the outside was done on the frame.

I really hope she likes it when she sees it tomorrow!!!!!

Ok, now to get another skeleton/quilt out of the closet and onto my frame so that it can see daylight!!!

Yey to finishes!

Twisting Around the World

2011-09-16T17:55:00.000-04:00

Hey all!!

If you are a member of my Facebook Page you might remember a while ago when I posted the layout to this little quilt. Well, I finally finished it! It is quilted, bound, labeled and everything!

Some of you, on my Facebook page, guessed correcty ~ it is a Twister Quilt, using the 'Lil Twister ruler set in an around the world quilt setting. I absolutely love how this turned out! What do you think? Of course, I always like the way that the Twister quilts turn out don't you??

I had to get this finished, well I didn't have to, I just really wanted to get it finished, for an open house at my local quilt shop tomorrow. I am teaching the Twister ruler again and I thought people might like to see this option so I worked to finish this up today. I quilted it using a 40 weight gold rayon thread top and bobbin in a swirl pattern. I always like gold rayon thread ;-)

So, what are you all working on today? Any quilty plans for the weekend?

Another Quilt Off the Frame!

2011-09-13T15:59:00.000-04:00

Tada!!!

I just took this off the frame and squared it up! It is another quilt that my friend gave my to quilt on my new frame!

Isn't it great??!!! It is a court-house steps quilt that she set on point and I just love it! Sorry for the picture inside and hanging over the quilt frame but it is just pouring outside and I am giving the quilts back tonight when I go hand-quilting.

I quilted it using a large meander again, since it is scrappy flannels and brushed cottons on the top and flannel on the back, using a 50 weight cotton thread top and bobbin, and I didn't want it to become stiff since it is soooo soft and cuddly. I wanted the quilt to maintain it's drape even after quilting.

I really hope that she's happy with the quilts!! Well, I guess I will find out tonight!

A Quilt is Off the Frame!!

2011-09-11T13:32:00.004-04:00

Yey! I took the plunge and loaded a quilt top onto the frame, this morning, and, I finished it!

This isn't my work actually - a friend gave this to me to quilt since she had it for a while now. It is a big block quilt made of brushed cottons. Since they are so cuddly anything heavy in the quilting would completely take away from both the simplicity of the quilt and how nicely it would feel - so I used a brown 50 wt cotton thread, top and bobbin, and quilted a large meander across the quilt. Nice and simple but very soft and effective.

Here's the really cool part!

This is the back!!!

She used up her scraps and pieced the back of the quilt so that it is completely reversible! Neat idea huh? I love it - I have to remember that piecing the back doesn't have to be simple or obvious - it can be more random and free.

It was great to be able to use my new frame to quilt something - anything - just something to give me a shove to get going. I really enjoyed using my new frame and I think that it will really help me get some of those UFO's out of the quilt closet and onto beds or wall!

So what do you think? Good frame project? I should mention - she gave me two brushed cotton quilts to quilt for her so I'll have another one coming up soon!!

Working on a Roly Poly Owl Quilt and Mr Iggy

2011-09-09T19:13:00.000-04:00

Have you seen the great Roly Poly Owl Tutorial over at the Tulip Patch Blog? Well if you haven't seen her blog yet you should run over now and check it out! She has some great tutorials and lots of inspiring projects. When she did a cute little owl quilt using the 3.5" Accuquilt Go! Drunkard's Path die I knew I just had to pull out my large DP die and get Go!ing on this project!

Here is what I accomplished today! Aren't they cute? The four owls together measure 14" square so it is the perfect size for the center of a baby quilt. I just ordered the smaller DP die because I was thinking about doing 4 smaller owl for the corners but now I think it might be too busy - hmmm - thoughts? We'll see what happens - maybe I will find just the perfect owl print for the boarders and use that instead.

I am in love with this die! It cuts really well and makes beautiful curved blocks. The only thing I will say about this block is that you MUST pay attention to the grain when you are running the die through the cutter. My first cuts I didn't do this and I didn't get accurate cuts. The next time through I paid attention to the grain and they were PERFECT!! Joy!! Yes, I guess I am gushing.

Oh well, I need to set this aside until I decide what I want to do with the boarders.

I have also been working on Mr Iggy and I am almost completely finished with the hooking! I just have the ground under his feet, and the eye on the crow, to complete and then he is ready to hang for Halloween. What do you think of the background? Isn't it a cool wool? I just love the spot died wools and will have to do some of my own soon. I am sooo enjoying hooking again now that I have found my hook again! It's amazing the progress you can make in just over a week when you're enjoying yourself! Maybe I will get onto that last bit now.

The Finished Go! Pumpkin Quilt

2011-09-06T14:20:00.000-04:00

Hey all! The fall weather seems to be here - at least right now - and with the return of fall comes the return of quilting weather yey!!

I decided to finish up the machine quilting on my Accuquilt Go! Pumpkin wall hanging I started a little while ago in the middle of August. this was the free pattern that came with the pumpkin die and I thought it was really cute! I had decided to have a bit of fun with the machine quilting so it took a little longer to finish than you'd think - being a smaller wall hanging. Are you wondering what I mean? Take a look at the second picture - a close-up.

Here is a close-up of the machine quilting. you might want to click on the picture to enlarge it.

I used a 60 weight cotton thread in the background areas using a tight pebble design that makes the pumpkins and the half-square triangles really POP! Then I used a 40 weight rayon thread, top and bobbin, to quilt a free-hand leaf vine motif. Before you ask, no I didn't do this on my new frame - it was all table top. The pebbling is very small and I wanted lots of control over the quilting.

If you like this pattern, and would like some more free patterns, you can sign up for the accuquilt newsletter by using the following link:

I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome the followers of Sweet P Quilting and Creations to Sunshower Quilts! Paulette kindly featured my blog on her amazing blog today showing my love for my Go! My regular readers know how much I love my Go! and I love to spread the word. Well Paulette kindly helped to spread the love today so I would like to say a HUGE THANK YOU and I hope that you will enjoy reading my blog.

Paulette has an amazing blog that is absolutely full of inspiration, ideas, tutorials and a taste of her life. Paulette also owns her own Go! so you'll find lots of inspiration there. I know that you will want to grab a cup of tea and just over there now - you will be happy you did!

My New Addition!!

2011-09-05T09:20:00.002-04:00

I am so excited! I have a new addition to my sewing room and it is finally ready to unveil!!!

Drum roll please!!!!

Ta Da!

This is my new frame for my mid-arm sewing machine!! It is the Imperial frame by the Grace Frame company that I bought through my local Pfaff dealer. I might eventually get a longer harp machine but for now my Hobby Grand Quilter is working just fine as I am practicing. It is gliding so smoothly and moves at a nice light touch - yey!! I bought the frame for doing all over designs on quilts (like my Jelly Roll Race quilt) - I'll still take the machine off the frame and use my table-top set-up for detailed work. Maybe this will eventually change, but, for now, I have more control, and, finer motor patterns, table-top.

It took a couple days to put together - hence the wait time since I announced it on my Facebook group LOL! My kids, husband and my Mother all helped in putting this frame together so it truly took a village to build this baby! After it was finished I couldn't wait to load some muslin onto the frame to start stitching!!

Now what to name my frame???? Hmmm - any ideas?

I Found It!!!!

2011-08-29T13:53:00.000-04:00

I finally found it!!! *Pumps fist into the air* I found my rug hooking hook!

I know I haven't said anything but I have been looking for my favorite hook for over a month now!! Crazy I know - I didn't even mention this to my husband because it is so silly. I was even about to order a new hook from Gene Shepherd since I love his hooks - but stubborn me - I kept looking and looking every so often hoping it would turn up. I did try to use a different hook for a bit but I really like my hook and wanted it :-(

Well my bad little hook rolled under my cutter and until I got down on my hands and knees to search through a bin, and happened to look up at the cutter, it was completely hidden from my view. Can you see the hook in the photo? Sigh - so there is sat until last night when I finally found it.

Well, needless to say, I hooked for a few hours last night on a pattern I had started a loooong time ago. It is a Star Rug Hooking Company pattern that was a free pattern in Rug Hooking Magazine a while back. I don't know why I love her patterns so much - maybe it is that they have such a sense of whimsy to them and are just so primitive and CUTE!

Isn't he a cutie?? It's Mr Iggy going out Trick or Treating. I had Mr Iggy's head and the crow hooked but that was about it until last night and then I couldn't stop hooking - yey!! My youngest son - the one who loves pumpkins, said; "Mommy that's a silly pumpkin!" I asked why he was silly and he said, very matter of factly, "Silly pumpkins have a mouth that go up and down, Happy pumpkins have a smile, angry pumpkins have a frowny mouth and scary pumpkins have a mouth like this" (makes a wide-mouthed circle with his mouth). I had to laugh! So apparently Mr Iggy has a silly pumpkin treat holder LOL!

Oh it is so wonderful to actually find something that I have been looking for for so long now (ok only about a month but it felt a lot longer)! it is so nice to get back to hooking too - the cooler weather always makes me want to get back into hooking again.

So what would you have done? Keep looking or buy a new hook?

A Busy Couple of Days!

2011-08-17T14:46:00.000-04:00

Now that the weather has cooled down a little bit I decided to spend some time in my swing room and have some fun! I have to say I actually got quite a bit of sewing done - yey!

Have you seen those Jelly Roll Race Quilts yet? Well I think that they are a pretty cool idea so I thought that I would try one out (you can find the instructions here). But, no Jelly Rolls at home - woops! But, what I DO have is a great big bin of various 2.5" strips that I cut a while ago using my Accuquilt Go!! Want to see that mess that I transformed into useful strips? Here it is! So I pulled that bin out and selected a blue/green/brown/burgundy sort of pallet and eye-balled what I thought looked like approximately a Jelly Roll amount and then followed the method. Mine ended up a bit on the skinny side, I guess I needed a few more scraps ;-) , but, considering that this was all just scraps and left-overs, I am really happy with how this turned out!! I might add some boarders - or I might leave it as a lap quilt for the couch or car. I'm undecided - any thoughts?

Next I pulled out my new Accuquilt Go! Pumpkin die and decided to try out the free pattern that comes with the die. I had all the dies needed to make this completely with my Go! cutter so I thought that I would give it a try. I love pumpkins and so does my youngest son.

I am in LOVE with this wall-hanging! Once again this was completely out of my stash and I was able to use up some odd bits and, again, left-overs. This is the first time that I have almost completely die-cut a project like this (ok well except for the Jelly Roll Race quilt above - that was all cut with the 2.5" strip cutter) and I am amazed with how easily everything went together. I love those pumpkins and I think it will look nice hanging on a door - once I finish it!

Pretty great pattern for a free pattern that came with the die! If you would like more free Accuquilt patterns you can get 22 free patterns by signing up for the Accuquilt newsletter!

My youngest son, the one who loves pumpkins, came down-stairs and saw it and said "Ohhh can I have that to hang in my room when you finish it!!??" I laughed and said "Of course!" Talk about some validation - that really made my day!

Looking at these two quilts together I seem to be in an orange/tan/green/deep colour sort of phase. It must be because fall is approaching!

Now I just have to quilt these quilts!

Are you working on any fall projects? Or are you finding you colour palette changing now that summer is starting to ebb?

We Have A Couple Winners!

2011-08-15T17:16:00.000-04:00

Hey all!
It is time to draw for the ScrapmaBobs!!!

Using a Random Numer Generator I first drew #27:

Emma has left a new comment on your post "Review of The ScrapMaBob and GIVEAWAY!!":

I am a follower of your blog

and then I drew #35:

Nancy has left a new comment on your post "Review of The ScrapMaBob and GIVEAWAY!!":

I follow your blog.

Congrats to the winners I will contact you and get your mailing info! Woohooo you will LOVE this product a lot!

Not Quilty But This is What I Sewed Today!

2011-08-11T16:46:00.000-04:00

Not very exciting I know but this is what I worked on today. Can you guess what they are?

Some of you may know that in my other life I teach fitness classes and we use stretching straps periodically to add in a deep stretch. Well, if you can believe it, a stretching strap usually costs about $8 retail. When I was at Fabricland, a while back, they had this bright pink strap material on sale for about $0.25 a meter so I bought what they have and some buckles to fit so that I could make a bunch of these for my classes. The stuff all sat and sat for a LONG time until today.

I felt like sewing something today but I am so sick with a bad summer cold so I knew I couldn't do anything that required a brain. So, I decided to sew these up and Voila! A bunch of new stretching straps that didn't cost $8 each! I couldn't find the little metal clamp-type-of-things that go on the end of the straps usually so I just overcast the edge a few times and applied some fray check and I was done! Yey!

BTW have you entered my give-away for a ScrapMaBob yet? If not head to this post and enter because I am in love with this product!

Review of The ScrapMaBob and GIVEAWAY!!

2011-08-10T12:43:00.001-04:00

I am so excited about sharing this product review with you all today! As a quilting instructor, and home sewer, I find that I am always faced with how people can safely have a beverage in class without endangering your own sewing machine, or your neighbor's sewing machine, from accidental spillage. As we all know, our sewing tools are not cheap and we don't want any type of liquid to come into contact with anything.

Couple the beverage safety issue with the inevitable scrap/garbage issue and we have a couple of problems that I think most quilters/sewers/quilting instructors face on a regular basis.

I have been looking for a product that would help us all deal with these trials - and quilters - I think I may have found the answer!! *Insert drum-roll* The ScrapMaBob by The Original Scrap Box company is a truly amazing and well thought out design! This product is actually marketed to scrap-bookers but hey we quilters like a cup of tea while we generate scraps too!!

Here it is!! (Yes that is my Jane Austen tea mug)

The ScrapMaBob can hold a 32 oz drink - that's a Big Gulp if you like those! The frame is all steel so it is nice and strong and easy to clean. The scrap bag is a nice canvas that is large enough for lots of scraps (or snacks!). You can never have enough room for scraps in my house!

I absolutely love how well thought out the cup holder is - notice the open slot on the right side for a mug handle? My tea mug is easy to pick up but yet it still holds the mug safely in place and away from my sewing machine.

The scrap bag is easy to remove just by squeezing and lifting out. The bag is very large so you won't have to remove it very often - unless you are going on a scrap busting marathon!! the only assembly required is threading the bag onto the ring and attaching the bag to the cup holder - a nice quick set-up that allows more time for sewing.

The clamp, to attach the ScrapMaBob to your work area, is very large and can accommodate even a very thick table so this will easily fit most work areas (maximum table width 3.25”). If you don't want the scrap bag, but only the drink holder, you can just leave it off like in the picture.

Final verdict - I really love the ScrapMaBob and I am going to recommend that my local quilt shops carry this very well thought-out, well-built and useful product. I can see quilters wanting one by their sewing machines at the very least; but, if you're like me, you'll also want one by your cutting table and perhaps even on your ironing board.

This is a must have tool that every quilter should have!

Now on to the GIVE-AWAY!!

You have a chance to win one of two ScrapMaBobs generously provided by the Original Scrap Box Company.

Ok here's the fine print!

For one chance to win you can comment on this post. Tell me why you would love to win a ScrapMaBob.

For a second chance to win, become a follower and leave another comment here for a second entry. If you already follow my blog that's fine just leave a comment here telling me that you do.

Every comment is your entry - 1 comment one entry ;-)

Please, please make sure your blogger is not set to no-reply!!!! Please see my previous post here on how to make sure that you are not a no-reply blogger! If a no-reply blogger is chosen then I will be forced to draw another name and I really don't want to do that!

I will be holding 2 draws so get entering and good luck!! I will draw for the winner, using a random number generator on Sunday.

Good Luck everyone!

I Finally Hung the Rug!

2011-07-22T16:30:00.000-04:00

Well I finally did it! I finally hung my little alien rug that I finished, ohhhh, in November of 2009!! He is a Halloween stair kick (or riser) but it is still the only one I have made - sigh.

I had such big plans for these. This little guy only took me about a month to finish and I loved working on him. You can see his start here and his finish here. I had plans to make 5 stair risers for Halloween to go on the stairs in the foyer before the turn, and 5 Christmas ones, as well as everyday ones for all of my stairs, I think there are 25, but, sadly that has gone by the way-side for a bit. So, needless to say, I decided to hang this little guy on the very top stair as a daily reminder.

I love rug hooking, a lot, but, I have been taking a bit of a break from lately. However, with all this HOT weather it seems like the perfect thing to get back to since I have a floor frame, I don't have to have anything touching me, unlike quilting, so, it is pleasant to do in the hot weather. I know that sounds odd - working with wool in the hot weather; but, it really is!

So, what do you think? Should I pull out those projects again? What are you all working on in this HOT weather?

Bust My Stash Photo Challenge - by Accuquilt - US Residents Only

2011-07-12T07:11:00.001-04:00

Accuquilt is running another fun give-away! I always love their give-aways.

Have you stared at your fabric stash and wished that you had the time and energy to cut up your fabric for future projects? AccuQuilt has the answer! Click on the following link to participate: http://on.fb.me/qtyUoq or go to AccuQuilt’s Facebook page and click “Like”. Then go to the ‘Bust My Stash’ tab under their profile picture and upload a picture of your fabric stash. Submit your photo by Friday, July 22^nd and you’ll be eligible to win a GO! Mix and Match 12” Starter Set. The photo with the most votes by July 31^st wins! Photos will be voted on by viewers and fans of the AccuQuilt Facebook page using the following criteria: relevance, creativity, and originality. Share with your friends during the voting period to increase your odds of winning!

Good Luck!

And speaking of Accuquilt - I know I do that a lot LOL - did you know that you can get 22 free patterns by clicking this link and signing up for the newsletter? That's pretty good!

Where Am I?

2011-07-08T08:00:00.000-04:00

I bet a few of you have been wondering where I have been this past while? Well I know that some of you have because I have received a few messages ;-) Well, I am here I didn't run away and join the circus I swear ~ I just haven't been sewing as much lately. Why, you ask? Well, the kids are off school for the summer and the weather has been so wonderful and very hot so I've been trying to get outside as much as possible lately. I think living in Canada makes me really appreciate the few months of really nice weather we have and since we live in a town that is right on the water and within walking distance to a nice beach and park we've been spending a lot of time outdoors. If you would like to see some pictures of my town you can see them here. Needless to say, I haven't been sitting behind my sewing machine since I finished my rag bag ~ sigh.

I also wanted to hop on and tell you all about another Baby Go! cutter give-away over at The Vintage Sheet Blog! If you don't have one of these little beauties you have been missing out!

Happy Summer!

A Go! Baby Give-Away!

2011-06-24T13:08:00.000-04:00

Just a quick blog post today ~ Our Busy Little Bunch has a Baby Go! and three dies give-away! So hop on over for a chance to win one of these little cuties!

New Raggy Project Bag!

2011-06-21T18:05:00.001-04:00

Yeehaw a new project bag is finished! I made a raggy project bag several years ago that has seen A LOT of use so when I got some new rag dies for my Accuquilt Go! I decided to test them out! Aren't those rag appliques so cute?! I just love them. This is the front of the bag and it is large enough to carry your rotary cutting mat to class. My last bag was a little bit smaller than this and I frequently wished it was a bit bigger so when I was re-designing the bag I decided to do just that.

I also used the rectangular die to make the bag gusseted instead of flat. I frequently wish my original bag could hold more and the rectangular die was just the perfect width for the bag.

Here's the back of the bag and if you can enlarge the photo you can see the purposes for those pockets! The long pocket holds my 6" x 24" ruler and the other pockets hold other rulers, notions and my rotary cutter. These really allow me to be organized with my tools for classes. Aren't they cute?

See the fringe along the outside of the back? I also figured out how to cut that with my Go! rag dies - so no hand fringing! Yey! I am working on a video for this though so the tutorial will be video format instead of written here - so stayed tuned for that one!

I hope you like my bag! Any comments or questions please feel free to leave them here since I love to hear your thoughts!

Happy Quilting!

Can You Guess?

2011-06-16T17:15:00.000-04:00

Can you guess what I have been working on today from this photo? I bet you can't - well - maybe you can you never know!

I used my Accuquilt Go! large rag die and the NEW rag applique dies to piece together this little beauty. It will look so pretty once it is washed - but - I am not finished yet!!! There is more to come and more in the works. Aren't those rag appliques wonderful? I have done rag applique ONE other time and I swore I never would again but when Accuquilt came out with these I fell instantly in love.

Instead of batting in the middle, I am using a great tip from a friend, and, I am using Osnaburg which really adds to the fringe. You can usually find it at your fabric stores. I cut it with my Go! and layer it between the flannel. Easy peesy.

So can you guess what it is?

Did I Redeem Myself?

2011-06-13T13:01:00.001-04:00

So I decided to redeem myself with out quilt guild challenge! I grabbed my challenge package and decided to try out a new, to me, method - the half hexi method. This is a really neat method that allows you to make hexagons without any y-seams - cool huh?

Anyways, I grabbed my Go! cutter and my 2.5" strip die and cut all the fabrics into 2.5" strips.

Then I used a half hexi paper template and cut the 2.5" strips into half hexis. Sewed the pieces into strips and then sewed the rows together. Easy peesy!

The Missouri Star Quilt Co. does make nice Plexiglas ruler to make these that is inexpensive. You can see the ruler in action here. I did try to purchase this ruler, to make life easier, but, when I went to check out the shipping was $15.00 for a $5.00 ruler! Needless to say I canceled the order. I really feel that was just way too much in shipping - even by half ;-)

Here it is all together and quilted. I really like how this turned out and how the rayon thread looks across the fabrics. You can click on the photo to see it larger. All in all I am very happy with how this turned out and that I did go back and complete the challenge even after I plunged ahead without reading the instructions ;-)

In other news - this weekend I spent the whole weekend in a fitness studio doing my Zumba 1 and Zumba Gold certifications - fun stuff! Now to practice, practice, practice! I love Zumba and I can't wait to add this to the fitness classes I teach.

PST - there is a give-away for 3 Go! dies over at Talin's Corner!

Happy Quilting everyone!!

A Baby Go! Give-Away!

2011-06-10T07:33:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post to let you know about a great give-away of a Baby Go! and three dies of your choice over at Samelia's Mum blog! Run on over now and enter to win - I know I did! I absolutely love my Go! cutter and use it so much - actually much more than I thought I would when I bought it. It has rekindled my love for rag quilts and applique again.

I have a much longer blog post coming later but for now this give-away was too good not to share ;-)

I Really Need To Read the Directions!

2011-05-22T20:31:00.000-04:00

I really need to read the directions sometimes and just stop skimming!

We are having a Grandmother's Flower Garden Challenge at our guild and they gave out little fabric packages. I got an idea for the challenge and plunged on ahead without reading the instructions. I didn't want to use the fabric in the package so I bought my own - sigh!

If you enlarge the photo you can see the very first instruction "use all the colours in your fabric pack" - woops! I completely messed up! Grrr.

Then I pulled out my book More Elm Creek Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini since I thought that the quilt was completely cut out and ready to sew - well it wasn't. I was only about half finished the cutting. I had cut for Variation 1 and not for Variation 2. Woops! If you enlarge the photo you can see the cutting directions very clearly. I guess I just stopped reading - oh well! I pulled out my Go! cutter again and got to work with the remainder of the scraps I had set aside a long time ago.

It took a little while - but I just put on a TV show and away I went! This required that I cut 416 1.5" red squares but I had them cut in only a couple of minutes with my Go! I love that machine and never would have cut this quilt out if I didn't have it!

So note to self - read ALL of the instructions all the way through and stop just plunging in head-first without reading ALL of the instructions! Ok maybe most of the instructions first LOL!

So what do you all do? Read all of the instructions or read as you go along? let me know in the comments - I would love to hear from you!

Bright Twister

2011-05-17T15:16:00.000-04:00

A participant in my Twister class dropped by and brought her finished Twister top over the other day and she let me snap a picture! Thanks Missy V!

Isn't it great? She used a charm pack of some great bright fabrics and I just love it! It will make a nice little table topper that would brighten up any room.

I think that thing I love the most about the Twisters is that they all look so different and always amazing. I also love it when I get to see the results when people take my classes ;-)

Have you made a Twister yet? If so I would love to see it - you can share it on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/SunshowerQuilts

Extending the Life of Your Rag Die Mats

2011-05-15T12:25:00.000-04:00

Hi all!

Sorry for the small break between blog posts but the weather has been amazing and I wanted to get my gardening finished before we got all the rain they are calling for this week. I spent days in the garden getting all my seeds planted and everything cleaned up - yey! Now it's back to quilting! So today I have been machine quilting and shooting a video.

I've heard so many comments about how much the Accuquilt Go! chews up the rag die mats, and, they really do, but, you can really extend the life of your mats, and still get beautiful cuts, if you do a little shifting around. So, I decided to make a small video tutorial on how to extend the life of your rag die cutting mats.

I hope that you find it useful! This particular mat, as chewed up as it is, is now cutting it's fourth rag quilt and still cutting beautifully!

If you have any questions please feel free to leave them here; and, if you have any video ideas or suggestions please let me know.

Happy Quilting!

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T16:57:00.002-04:00

I hope that all the Mothers, Mothers- to be and want to be Mothers have an amazing day today. You all deserve it. Do something for yourself today!!!

xoxox

Shopping the Stash!

2011-05-06T13:11:00.000-04:00

Look what I found in my stash!! *ok well all except the red at the top left LOL*

Here's a little back-ground.

I am demonstrating the Go! tomorrow at the Ottawa Valley Quilters Guild show tomorrow and I thought to myself - you know I bet I'll be showing the rag die a lot since people seem to love it so much. Then I thought - wow I should cut out a rag quilt while I'm demoing so that I'm doing something useful. I went to my LQS today to see if I could find some flannel that was calling to me. I saw that lonely little piece of red on a bolt in the 50% off bin and thought - hang on!! I think I have a whole bunch of flannel-tiks in my stash in that drawer I hardly ever open!! So I grabbed the red and came home to see what I had. I pulled all the rest of these out of my drawer - how cool is that?? The ones on the bottom are fat quarters and the rest are some yardage.

These were the flannel-tiks from Princess Mira from several years ago - I bought them with no clear purpose, I just really liked them, and they got stored away. Now I think I have a project for them but I am thinking about taking out the orange and red fabrics (yes, the red I just purchased) so that I can have all just blues and greens. I think that a rag quilt - like my Pink Rag Quilt - might be really nice in these colours. And then maybe my boys would stop stealing mine ;-) And since I could cut while I work this might just be a win-win-win.

I get to use my stash
I get to cut while I demo the Go!
I get another fuzzy rag quilt

So, note to self, shop the stash before you shop at the shop!

What do you guys do? Shop the stash first or shop at the shops?

Speaking of shopping the shops - anyone in the Ottawa area going to the show this weekend?

Machine Quilting Today!

2011-05-04T17:57:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone!

I've been machine quilting the past few days and since a few people have asked to see my machine quilting area, while I am quilting, I thought that I would share that with you today. From the next picture you are seeing the back of my 9" harp machine with the quilt covering where my piecing machine is. You can see it just sunk down on the bottom right of the picture. I sink the machine using the air lift we installed.

Want to see more pictures of my sewing area without the quilt? You can find them here in a previous post. I show basically how we constructed the table and some links!

This is the other side of my sewing area. See the additional space on the left and how I put the bulk of the quilt on the left and behind the machine? This makes a huge difference on maneuvering the quilt without it hurting my back and shoulders. I try to never have any of the quilt on my body; but rather, have the whole of the quilt supported by the table.

I love my sewing area and how there is shared space between the machines that can be used easily.

What do you think? Does it make more sense now that you see a quilt on it?

Any questions feel free to ask them here!

Happy Quilting!

Leaders and Enders Video Part 2

2011-05-02T14:30:00.001-04:00

Here it is! Part 2 of my Leaders and Enders Video! This one covers the construction of the X-Block, or Crossroads Block, as a leaders and enders project I hope that you enjoy it :-D

If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them here and I will do my best to answer them! I love to hear from you all.

Happy Quilting!

Big Gulp!

2011-05-01T13:25:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I took a big gulp and plunged in head first!

I needed to cut 336 1.5" squares of red fabric, for the quilt I have been cutting, and I really really (emphasis on really) did NOT want to do that with a rotary cutter. I mean I could have I just didn't want to. I knew that I could cut those strips and then squares on my Go! cutter using the 1.5" strip die that I've been using. But, honestly, here's my confession, I hadn't cut yardage yet this way! So I thought I would give it a try.

I cut my strips and then loaded them onto the cutter folded so that they fit across the cutter. Yep, I loaded all my strips at once - might as well jump in head first right?

Then I took a big gulp of air and put the fabric through the cutter.

I took off the mat and wowzers! Look at all of the perfect 1.5" squares!!! I got all my 336 squares in seconds. I measured them and they are totally perfect!! So fast, so easy, so perfect! *insert happy dance here!*

I stacked up my little beauties in my plastic container and sat back to admire them - aren't they pretty?? Sorry for the gushing but I am just so happy with my Go! cutter and the 1.5" strip die. I honestly didn't think that it would:

a) be able to cut that many squares at the same time and

b) cut them so perfectly!

I am one happy quilter!

The quilt that I am making from the book More Elm Creek Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini is now completely cut out and ready to start being pieced. I am very excited since I have wanted to make this quilt for a few years now - but I really, really didn't want to cut those small pieces. Again, it's not that I can't cut them with a rotary cutter but that I didn't want to. Laziness? Maybe, but, I am ok with that ;-) I think I prefer to call it efficiency LOL!

I am now ready to start sewing the blocks together and truly - I am so excited to see this scrap quilt come together - I don't think I'll be able to save it for a leaders and enders project.

I love to read your comments so if you'd like to leave one here or on my Facebook page you are more than welcome!

So what is everyone working on today?

A Whole Lot of 1.5" Strips!

2011-04-29T14:03:00.000-04:00

Thank you all for your great comments about my first two videos! They were fun to make and I have a couple more in the planning stages to do so stay tuned! In the mean time you can subscribe to my YouTube channel if you like ;-)

Remember a while ago when I found that bag of scraps that I had set aside for a quilt project? If you don't remember you can see them here. Well after I found that bag of fabric I had pressed it all and stacked it in a container and put it away on a shelf. Well, that was in January. Yesterday we had huge winds here that knocked out power for over 7 hours. Without the distraction of the TV and internet etc I decided to pull out this bin and use my new 1.5" strip cutter for my Accuquilt Go! I just started laying the pieces on the strips and cut all the random pieces into 1.5" strips.

At first the strip cutter was very hard to get through the cutter and I had to push the mat down and through the cutter a bit. Not hard or anything - you should never force the cutter; but, the foam was very stiff at first. After a couple passes through the cutter the die broke in and it was effortless. Most people don't realize that the dies and the cutter both need to break in when you first start using them. This was the stiffest die that I have ever used but it broke in nicely and was a real time-saver - I couldn't imagine cutting all those 1.5" strips on my own! I also wish that the die blades were just a little bit longer - maybe 0.5 cm longer - or maybe that's just me.

You can see the picture of the quilt that I am making from the book More Elm Creek Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini. Do you like my little sorters? I love these little containers - they are the plastic containers I get fresh mushrooms in from the grocery store and they work so wonderfully! They nest in each other and are free - I like free - doesn't everyone?

After 1 was finished cutting the strips I needed to cut the strips down into rectangles. For the 1.5" squares I just sent the pieces through the cutter again the other way. For the 1.5" x 2.5" rectangles I used my 2.5" strip cutter - the rest I had to rotary cut since I don't have any of those dies - hmmmmm maybe a little shopping is in order? I did, however, use my Value Die for the 4.5" x 1.5" rectangles. It's amazing to me how much faster die cutting is than rotary cutting! Don't get me wrong I still rotary cut! But chopping down the scraps this way was very nice - with very little waste.

Now I need to do all this again with the off-whites and creams in the other half of the container. Should I wait for another power outage or get to it now? I still have over 300 1.5" red squares to cut as well - but I am cutting this from a solid red Kona fabric.

You know - now that I am looking at this again - it would make a good leaders and enders project I think! What do you think?

Leaders and Enders!

2011-04-24T09:46:00.001-04:00

Hi all!

I thought that I would share the video we did yesterday on leaders and enders. I have been using 2" squares for about 9 years or so as my leaders and enders and I have done so many projects with them. If you would like to see the method in a nutshell you can see it in this post from 2006. I absolutely love how you get a project from basically nothing with them! My video features the 2" square Accuquilt Go! die but you can definitely cut these by hand. I cut by hand for years before I got this die.

When I teach classes I frequently show my leaders and enders method so I thought that making a video would be a great idea since so many people have not yet heard of this great method. Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville has made this method pretty famous in the quilting world but believe it or not I heard about this method years before from a fellow quilter and just fell in love with it! Bonnie even has a book out on leaders and enders which is wonderful and well worth checking out if you're interested. She uses many different shapes and sizes as leaders and enders; but, I guess I just love my 2" squares!

So, have you made any leaders and enders projects? If you have I would love to see them - maybe you could share them on my Facebook page?

My First Video Featurng the Go! Bountiful Baskets Die

2011-04-22T18:36:00.001-04:00

I finally did it! I published a video on YouTube! it features the Bountiful Baskets die for the Accuquilt Go! I decided to do this video since so many quilters seem to have a hard time with the basket handle on this die. I discovered a few tricks that made this a lot easier and the handle smooth. I go over block assembly using my tricks that actually make this little block go together really well.

I hope that you will check out the video and let me know what you think! You can watch it here or click on this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGjV-TRuKkA

Happy Quilting!

We Have a Critter Winner!

2011-04-17T16:27:00.000-04:00

Congratulations we have a winner!

Using a rondom number generator from random.org I chose a winner from the 88 sucessful entries.

And our winner is!

Kathy H has left a new comment on your post "Spring Placemats and a GIVE-AWAY!!":

I haven't made any basket placemats or quilts yet and was holding off as they looked complicated. But with the basket die, it looks so much easier. The placemat is very cute, especially for Easter basket time.

Congratulations Kathy! I've sent an e-mail off to Kathy so I can send her the little critters! I hope that you enjoy them and will send a picture of what you do with them.

Thanks so much to everyone that entered - I hope you had fun on the Spring Blog Hop - I know that I had a lot of fun participating it it.

Happy Quilting all!!

Waste Not Want Not!

2011-04-15T18:33:00.000-04:00

Hi all! Have you entered my give-away yet? If not you still have time to enter to win some great die-cut critters! Read all about it here!

Well after I finished cutting those critters out I had a nice pile of scrap batiks with fusible on the back left-over. A really big hand-full of them that I just couldn't throw out! There was lots of good fabric in there and I wanted it!

So I had an a-ha moment and I grabbed my Rose of Sharon die for my Go!

I placed the bits of fabric and fusible over whatever shape they were large enough for and once I had a bunch of shapes covered I ran it through.

And this is what I ended up with! Lots and lots of little flowers, circles and leaves! How cool is that??!! Insta-project! I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet but believe me these little guys will find a home!

The blue container in the picture is actually the packaging from mushrooms from the grocery store LOL! I love these packages - I just wash them well and then use them as sorters. They nest into each other so they can stack really well. You can organize a lot of little bits really effectively this way. Waste not want not!

So what do you think - would you have thrown out the bits?

More Give-Aways!

2011-04-14T17:25:00.003-04:00

No it's not another one from me LOL! But I think that you are all enjoying a chance at those die-cut critters! Maybe I'll run more give-aways using die-cuts then for you guys that don't have a Go! . . . . . yet!

Accuquilt, The Quilt Show and Aurifil have teamed up for an absolutely amazing give-away! There is $1520.00 worth of prizes to be given away so enter!

Just Plain Laine is having a give-away to die for and I thought that I would share! She's on today for the Spring Themed Blog Hop!

Also P.S. I Quilt is having a great fat quarter give-away!

And Leedle Deedle Quilts is having a fat quarter give-away!

Spring Placemats and a GIVE-AWAY!! ~ Now CLOSED

2011-04-13T07:13:00.005-04:00

I'm lucky enough to be taking part in SewCalGal's Spring Themed Blog Hop! Follow the link to find the other blogs participating! Yey! and I am so happy to offer you this place-mat tutorial. I used 30's reproduction prints for my baskets and a white fabric for the background. So nice and spring-like! But, I also think these place-mats would look amazing in country fabrics or in bright fabrics on a black background. I also thought that the baskets were very appropriate since Easter is coming up and these would look just amazing on the table Easter morning.

This tutorial features the Accuquilt Go! Bountiful Baskets die by Alex Anderson. This is such a great die for cutting this cut little basket block. Because this block is copyrighted I can't give you the cutting directions here but don't worry!! Alex Anderson gives a video tutorial on constructing this block that you can access here. And, you can access the cutting instructions here if you don't have this amazing die! If you want another Basket tutorial you can click on my Wednesday Blog Hop buddy Bits and Pieces because she did the baskets die as well. Who would have thunk it LOL!

To compare and contrast the die cuts versus cutting by hand I cut one basket block completely according to Alex's directions and video and the rest with the Go! I can honestly say that not only is cutting easier on the Go! but it is less wasteful! I get that question all of the time - is the Go! wasteful? Nope not at all for this block! Alex's rotary cutting directions on the video ask you to start with 2 squares 5" x 7" and doing this wastes a lot of your feature fabric. With the Go! Bountiful Baskets die you can just cut your squares and lay them on with very little waste. I put the picture up of the cuts so that you could see how tight they are - yey!! I don't like wasting fabric. And with the price of fabric - here in Canada we pay about $16.00 a meter - less wasted fabric is great! And, having those dog ears cut off makes the piecing sooo easy!

Ok - so now that you have all made your postage stamp baskets (you will need 4 for each place-mat) you will also need 2 squares 5" x 5" - if you have the 5" square die you can use that and cut two for each place-mat. You will also need one rectangle 8.5" x 14.5" for each place-mat. Using the picture at the top lay out your place-mats and sew them together using a 1/4" seam.

Layer your place-mats with batting and backing and quilt as desired. Because I used some nice vintage fabrics I machine quilted them with a feather motif. If you don't want to bind your place-mats you can also do the inside out method. If you would like a tutorial on the inside out method I give one here. I chose to bind my place-mats to give them a more vintage look and because I had that nice print that I love! If you do choose to bind your place-mats you will need 2 strips, for each place-mat, 2' by the width of fabric. Need a binding tutorial? You can find one right here.

Now for a give-away! It's spring and I love that everything is coming back and is lovely so I am offering 10 die-cut Butterflies and Dragonflies (5 of each) that I featured back in this post. I have already put Steam a Seam fusible webbing on the backs so all you need to do is peel, stick and stitch! Sweet!

I'll send 5 whole dragonflies but 5 bodies separated from the butterfly bodies so you can mix and match. (Ok UPDATE! I'm sending you everything that you see in the above photo! It's more than I originally said - and it includes an extra set of dragon fly wings that you can attach to one of the extra bodies. I'm sending 9 bodies in total) You will absolutely love working with these little guys and they would look great on any quilt!

Ok here's the fine print!

For one chance to win you can comment on this post. Tell me why you would love to win these little cuties or what you would make with them.

For a second chance to win, become a follower and leave another comment here for a second entry. If you already follow my blog that's fine just leave a comment here telling me that you do.

For a third chance, blog about my giveaway and leave another comment here telling me where I can find your post!

For a fourth chance to win like me on Facebook and leave another comment here. Again, if you already like me on Facebook just tell me so in a comment.

Every comment is your entry - 1 comment one entry ;-)

Please, please make sure your blogger is not set to no-reply!!!! Please see a previous post here on how to make sure that you are not a no-reply blogger! If a no-reply blogger is chosen then I will be forced to draw another name and I really don't want to do that!

So what do you think? Do you want to make some great basket place-mats? I hope that you will enter my give-away to win some great die-cut critters! And don't forget to visit the other bloggers!

We'll end the Give-Away Sunday so get entering and good luck! The give-away is now closed ~ thank you so much for all who entered!

Spring Theme Blog Hop

2011-04-12T13:00:00.000-04:00

Are you ready for a Spring Themed Blog Hop? Well SewCalGal sure is and she's hosting a great one! Each day she is featuring two bloggers and I'm on Wednesday! Yay!! For a complete listing of the blogs involved please check out SewCalGal's blog!

So check back tomorrow for my project! I think you're going to like it - or at least I do ;-)

My Sewing Table

2011-04-10T09:08:00.000-04:00

Hi all! I was so inspired after reading Marguerita's book, Sew and Quilt in Comfort, again yesterday that I wanted to make some changes to my sewing set-up. I thought that I might share with you what we did yesterday; but, first I need to give you a little bit of the back-story on my sewing machine table. When I first started quilting we were newly married and had a new born baby. I loved to quilt and was sewing on the dining room table - sound familiar? Since sending my quilts out to be machine quilted at that time simply wasn't a financial option I had to learn to quilt them myself. Well if any of you machine quilt on a table-top you know how hard this can be without a good set-up.

I went into a quilt store and looked at the Horn of America cabinets - they were beautiful and wonderful and very pretty - but also very expensive to this newly wed new Mom! Spending $1500 just wasn't feasible so my husband built me a very basic copy of the cabinet that I loved so that my sewing machine could be sunk down level with the bed. This made quilting easier but I still need support on the left hand side for the bulk of the quilt. I used my ironing board lowered down to support the bulk. Now an ironing board is NOT very stable so I would frequently knock it over. So the second incarnation of my sewing table was born - we took the main top off and added permanent support for the left side.

Then I got a new machine!! An embroidery machine!! Well the embroidery machine needed to be able to be level with the sewing table and on top of the sewing table easily so I purchased the Touch Release Air Lift from Horn of America and the Plexiglas insert that fit my machine. Most people don't know that you can purchase this on its own - but you can! We installed the lift onto my custom sewing table and I was extremely happy!

Then I got another machine with a large harp for machine quilting. It came with a large extension table and I quilted with it table-top for a couple years - not ideal but doable. After reading Marguerita's book through I realized that I was not doing myself any favours and I enlisted my husband to make more changes to my table.

First we decided where I wanted the sewing machine sunk - and I took Marguerita's advice and pushed it back several inches.

Then we cut a big hole in the table to fit the machine.

Then we adjusted the hole until the machine could go in it. This took some time LOL! After the hole was cut my husband added a shelf under the table so that the sewing machine wouldn't fall through the hole to the floor! And so that the bed of the sewing machine would be level with the table top.

Yey! A level quilting machine!

Here's a view of the table showing both my machines - I have shared space between them so I am not wasting. When I want to use my larger machine to machine quilt I use the air lift on my other machine to sink it down, so it sits under the cabinet, so that I have extended space.

Here is the large extension table that came with my machine. It works well but the machine is elevated just shy of 3.5" with it on! Not very ergonomic. You can also see how I have left hand support for both of my sewing machines as well. This is a must-have for me.

This is the removable left hand support that we made for my quilting machine - I can't have it as a permanent fixture because it is in a very busy area of the house and people would bang into it. It just slides off and folds up to store so that I can put it away when I am not machine quilting.

Here's the wooden shelf that now holds my machine. Nothing fancy but it works! I can now use my knee lift again since my machine is lower. I can slide my hand in on the left to change my bobbins.

One last thing. I used Marguerita's advise, again, and used clear vinyl over the bed and part of my table so that the surface is completely smooth and slippery. The area of the table right around the sewing machine was a little rough so this really helps to smooth it out.

So what do you think? It's not ready for a magazine photo shoot but it works for me and I love it! Although I love the Horn of America cabinets I wouldn't trade this one for the world since this one perfectly fits me and what I want. Besides - this cabinet has taken approximately 11 years to build so far! Who knows what we're going to do to it next ;-)

What do you think? If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them here! I love to hear from you.

Sew and Quilt in Comfort - A Book Review!

2011-04-09T15:03:00.000-04:00

I was lucky enough to be sent Marguerita McManus' new book Sew and Quilt in Comfort: How to Inexpensively Create and Customize Your Sewing and Quilting Area to Fit you Perfectly. She is the author of a book that I love Crazy Shortcut Quilts. This is a great book for quilters who are currently creating in a less than ideal setting. I know you're out there you quilters who have your sewing machine set up on the dining room table or a small card table. Most quilters don't have a dedicated space or a sewing studio that looks like it could be featured in a magazine. I wish we could all have a beautiful studio but often it just is not possible!

Am I speaking to you yet? If you do have a wonderful studio, and, are 100% happy with your set-up, than this book is not for you. But, if you're one of those quilters who doesn't have an ideal studio - this book is for you! Marguerita gives doable and inexpensive ways to set yourself up a sewing area that will allow you to sew in comfort! I absolutely love that her solutions can be taken down and stored easily as they are light-weight, flat and can be stored in a closet or under the bed. This book offers realistic advise that any quilter could implement.

Marguerita put a couple videos on YouTube showing her table and how she constructed that have got over 50 000 hits and have really helped a lot of qulters.

Here's part 1

And here's part 2
And part 3

Watching the videos will make you reconsider how you're currently quilting and how you can easily make your set-up work for you! The book goes into greater detail than the videos and is a great reference when you're actually changing your set-up. Several of the tips in the book made me change my set-up for machine quilting. Moving the sewing machine back a few inches really increased visibility and decreased shoulder strain. I also love the idea of the faux-long-arm set-up that several quilters use.

So if you want to easily create a more comfortable quilting area I would highly recommend this book!! You can get it here on Amazon or even a Kindle version for only $2.99!! You won't regret it!

So check out the videos Marguerita has a great YouTube channel!

What's your set-up like? Studio fit for a magazine shoot or the dinning room table?

You Get What You Pay For!

2011-04-06T17:03:00.000-04:00

Wowie sometimes a saying can be so true! A while back I found what I thought was an amazing deal on rotary cutter blades at a fabric store. They had Singer blades on sale for $0.99 each! Yey, I thought, I'd better stock up! Up here in Canada blades are around $8.00 each so I thought I was getting a real deal. How bad can they be I wondered? Singer is a good name isn't it? Well, was I ever wrong! The blades burred so fast! They got nicks in them and just never cut well. The metal must be very soft in these blades. But, hey, I bought about 30 of them so I wanted to use them up!! I've been putting up with these blades on projects for a while so I stopped noticing how horid they are to work with!

This weekend, while I was demoing, I caught the corner of my ruler with my rotary cutter and really nicked the blade. I couldn't cut with it anymore so I ran over to the notions wall and grabbed a new blade (don't worry I paid for it latter LOL). I quickly switched blades and started cutting with a new Olfa blade instead of the Singer blade. Wowie-zowie what a difference! It was night and day a better blade. The cutting was perfect and the rotary cutter rolled wonderfully! I had forgotten how much I had to work to cut with those Singer blades, how much pressure I had to put on the cutter and the re-cuts I had to do!

You can pick the saying that applies here:

penny wise pound foolish
you get what you pay for
if it seems to good to be true it probably is
etc

I don't want to go back to using those cheap blades now. I have about 9 of those blades left and I want to throw them out!

What would you guys do? Would you throw the blades away or save them for an easy to cut out, accuracy not so important project?

Go! Butterflies and Dragonflies

2011-04-05T17:57:00.000-04:00

Today I am doing a little mini tutorial on the Accuquilt Go! Critters die. I absolutely love this die since it is sooo cute! When I did my Go! Butterfly Garden quilt I really liked how the bodies and the wings were different colours on the butterflies and dragon flies. What I didn't like was I was going to have to hand cut those wings off to get a body and how I would have to try and shape it myself.

Then I had an ah ha moment! I could use my die!

First apply your favorite fusible webbing to the back of a smaller piece of fabric that will cover only the body of the dragon fly and a contrasting fabric over the who are of the wings of the butterfly. If you're doing a dragon-fly you can layer fabric over top of your body piece.

Cover this with your mat and run it through your cutter.

You'll have something that looks a little like this. I know the body isn't shapely yet but here it comes.

Turn the body piece around so that the head is at the tail and the tail at the head.

Make sure that you line it up properly so that the edges of the head and tail are right on the edges of the die. It is so much easier to do this if you have outlined your dies with your silver Sharpie.

Here's what it looks like after I have run it through the cutter. See how it has shaped the rest of the body for you? With absolutely no hand cutting you now have a very attractive looking body for your butterflies and dragonflies!

Peel the fusible webbing off the back of the body and adhere it to the wings. Voila! you now have a very shapely body for your dragonflies and butterflies. How fast and easy was that?

If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them here and I will do my best to answer them for you! And, if you liked this little mini-tute I hope that you will click follow so that you can find me easier.

Happy Quilting!

Exhaustion After Demoing!

2011-04-04T18:00:00.000-04:00

Ohhh so tired even the day after demonstrating all day at The Quilting Quarters. Demoing is so rewarding and so fun and we had an absolutely fabulous group of women - sorry guys - I know there are male quilters, don't worry, but, we were an all female group yesterday LOL!

Anyways, I was so brain-dead after it was all over, and everyone had left, that I forgot one of my biggest bags at the shop! This bag held ALL of my Accuquilt Go! dies and all of the rulers and books I demoed that day - that was an important bag! So, today I went back to the quilt shop (about a 25-30 minute drive) to grab my stuff. Not a big deal really; but, I felt the need to console myself with some fabric.

I got several meters of 30's prints that I think would go in very nicely with my stash to make a great double wedding ring quilt! I can see it so clearly in my head that it makes me smile. They are such happy, cheerful prints with such pure tones.

One down-side, I don't have enough variation in my 30's prints! Uh oh I see more fabric shopping in my future!

So what are you all working on today? Anything new? Anything you're thinking of? Or UFO's?

Happy Quilting!

Go! Butterfly Garden

2011-04-01T15:18:00.002-04:00

I finished it! I made the Accuquilt pattern Go! Butterfly Garden. Isn't it pretty!? The weather networks were calling for sun and warmth and well - we got neither so I decided to bring a little spring into the house! By the way sorry for the dark photo - I'll try to replace it on a brighter day - I told you we were having dull days! I made mine smaller than the pattern on the Accuquilt site so that I could get the boarders out of the width of fabric instead of cutting them on the length-wise grain. I had hand-dyed te green and blue fabrics and I was looking for a project to make with them for a while. I think they work well here and it is nice to use one of my hand-dyes instead of hoarding them!

I didn't have all of the dies that they used on the Accuquilt site. The dies I did use were:

Critters
Rose of Sharon
Feathers
Circle

I improvised by using these dies for all of the shapes - leaves can become flower petals easily! I found it very enjoyable to look at the flowers and see what I had. Now that said - I really want the round flower and funky flower dies now LOL! Notice I said want - not need ;-) That said I am sure I could think up another project that NEEDS the dies LOL!

BTW Accuquilt is having the most amazing promotion!! You have to check out what you get free with every order!! I've now placed an order just to get this item. You can check out the amazing promotion here!

What are you all working on? Any spring projects to share?

Also don't forget to stop by my facebook page and join in the conversation and fun! http://www.facebook.com/SunshowerQuilts

Happy Quilting!

Stems!

2011-03-30T19:42:00.000-04:00

I decided to work on this cute wall-hanging recently since it is so bright and spring-like. Now that we are finally losing our snow I wanted something bring. The pattern is a free pattern on the Accuquilt site if you want to make one for yourself. I'l post a picture when I get a little further along.

I had green and a blue hand-dyed fabrics that I dyed a couple years ago that I thought would be perfect for the boarders! It seemed like a great excuse to use up some of my fabrics.

I got the top two miters done on the quilt but before I could put the bottom boarder on I wanted to get those stems on so that the edges would be caught in the seam allowance.

I pulled out my Clover bias maker and made some stems from bias fabric. After I have pressed the bias stems I like to wrap them around a tube and pin them down so that they hold their shape. I love this method since it really holds the creases in the bias and prevents them from popping open. I don't do a lot with bias stems but this is what works for me.

So what are you all working on? Spring themed projects or UFO's?

Another Little Zippered Clutch!

2011-03-27T11:11:00.002-04:00

Hi all!

I did just a little bit of sewing yesterday. I had some scraps left-over from my Lazy Angle Sampler so I grabbed my Accuquilt Go! and the 2" square die and I cut them up in just a few seconds. I absolutely love that little die! I wasn't going to purchase that die when I first got my Go! but you all know how much I just love my 2" squares so I got it. I am so glad that I did now - it makes cutting my leaders and enders so much faster and easier.

Well after I cut all the scraps up I realized that I had about enough of the squares for some type of a project. I just love these little zippered totes from the Quilts and More magazine since they perfectly fit my Kindle. I made a couple more of these clutches a while ago but I thought that one would be pretty in these soft colours. What do I need with three Kindle clutches you might ask? No idea LOL! Do we ever really need a reason to make something pretty? I certainly hope not - or I will have to start thinking up reasons for what I make. Could you imagine that? Having to have a purpose for everything we make. I guess we could just say that the purpose is to be happy and enjoy the process. Maybe I'll just give this little cutie away - that would make me happy too!

Want to make one of these little clutches for yourself? The instructions are on the All People Quilt web site and you can find them here.

What are you all working on this fine spring day?

The Lazy Angle Sampler is Finished! And We Have A Winner!

2011-03-25T16:03:00.002-04:00

Yey I finished it! The Lazy Angle Sampler is completely finished and bound! I am so excited that I completely finished this project in less than a week LOL! I really like the way the quilt looks now that it is completely quilted. It gives the quilt a lot of texture and depth. I also love that this was all left-over fabric!!! It feels so good to shop in your stash instead of running to the store to buy fabric.

Like I said in my last post it was a real adventure learning this ruler and it was a little humbling to be forced to go back and do what I should have done in the first place - read the instructions!

Here's a close-up of some of the machine quilting. I love this pattern for a densely quilted back-ground. I think it really suits the paisleys in the fabric. Of course I always think that quilted feathers, and their siblings, look amazing on just about any quilt - so I am a little biased.

What do you think? Too much quilting or just enough for this wall-hanging? I tend to think that you can go as closely quilted as you want with a wall-hanging since it needs to lay flat on the wall and not drape over a person or bed.

Ok Ok have I made you wait long enough?? We have a winner for the Accuquilt Baby Go! fabric cutter! What I did was separate out all the valid entries/comment from the invalid ones. I really didn't want to have to re-draw the name so I did it this way. Invalid comments were either no-reply accounts or people that did not leave me an e-mail address. If you left me an e-mail address you got entered - don't worry. Out of all the comments left we had 411 valid comments and therefore valid entries. I checked and double-checked all the entries. If you're wondering if yours was valid - if you heard back from me via e-mail it was valid! I used the random number generator at http://www.random.org

Drum-Roll Please!!!

The Winner is valid entry 330

Sallie from Sallie's Sampler from Texas, United States! Congratulations Sallie!

Sallie has left a new comment on your post "Accuquilt Baby Go! Give-Away!!":

I would love to win! I would use it to make baby quilts for our church quilt ministry. Thanks for the chance!

Sallie has been notified and will soon have her amazing new die cutting system!

Thank you so much to everyone that entered! I hope that you had as much fun as I did!

If you haven't had enough of giveaways here's a great give-away for a jelly roll at the Pink Please blog! http://howaboutpinkplease.blogspot.com/2011/03/just-wing-it-jelly-roll-giveaway.html

Happy Quilting all!!

Lazy Angle Sampler

2011-03-21T18:32:00.000-04:00

Hmm I thought it was spring today? We had almost lost most of our snow and then today got a huge dump of snow again! Oh well, all the more reason to stay in and finish this little sample quilt top!

I pulled out some Sentimental Journey left-overs from a couple of other projects and played with the Lazy Angle Ruler by Lazy Girl Designs. This ruler is unlike any ruler I have ever used before - it uses all sides and both the front and the back of the ruler! That took a little while for me to get my head around I can tell you - but how smart is Joan Hawley for thinking about the ruler in this way?

Before I realized that I had to flip over to the back-side of the ruler I was more than a little frustrated with the process. I was thinking - I've done so many of Joan's bag patterns before - why am I having so much trouble?? Then I picked up her companion book Lazy and Lovin' It again and actually did what Joan says to do in the book - which is read all the instructions first - duh!!! I had done a light skim of some of the instructions at this point. I'm usually able to dive right in but not this time - this time I had to do as I was told and read all of the instructions first LOL! Then the ruler made sense and I could proceed - yey me! I had to laugh at myself and it was a little humbling to have your frustrations be so completely of your own making LOL! Ah well - at least I figured it out!

Now I can see that the possibilities for this ruler are endless! The companion book Lazy and Lovin' It has 250 blocks in it! 250! That's a lot of blocks in one book - and a lot of blocks for one ruler. Very cool!

Now I just need to layer and quilt this Little Lazy Sampler!

Have you entered my give-away for a Baby Go! fabric cutter yet? If you want to enter please go and see all the details on this post. You have until Friday to enter so hop on over to this post and leave your comments! Good Luck!

What are you all working on today? Something new or a new finish?

Accuquilt Baby Go! Give-Away!! Now Closed

2011-03-19T09:09:00.003-04:00

It's GIVE-AWAY time!
Now Closed

To celebrate National Quilt Day I decided to hold a Give-Away!! I have the great pleasure to announce that I was chosen by Accuquilt to give away one of their amazing Baby Go! machines and 3 dies of your choice! This amazing little machine will cut 60% of the dies available for the Go! machine.

Isn't she cute??!!

If you have been reading my blog for a while you all know how much I love using my Accuquilt Go! machine and how easy and fun it is to get accurate cuts in so much less time than scissors or rotary cutters! So, I am thrilled to be able to offer an Accuquilt sponsored give-away to my readers! Thank you so much Accuquilt!

This is a must have tool that every quilter should have!

Ok here's the fine print!

For one chance to win you can comment on this post. Tell me why you would love to win this little cutie or what you would make with it.

For a second chance to win, become a follower and leave another comment here for a second entry. If you already follow my blog that's fine just leave a comment here telling me that you do.

For a third chance, blog about my giveaway and leave another comment here telling me where I can find your post!

For a fourth chance to win like me on Facebook and leave another comment here. Again, if you already like me on Facebook just tell me so in a comment.

Every comment is your entry - 1 comment one entry ;-)

Please, please make sure your blogger is not set to no-reply!!!! Please see my previous post here on how to make sure that you are not a no-reply blogger! If a no-reply blogger is chosen then I will be forced to draw another name and I really don't want to do that!

UPDATE!!!! Several of the entries so far are invalid because they are no-reply bloggers!!!!! If you don't receive a reply from me then your entry is invalid. You need to follow the link on the button bellow this and fix your settings. If your comment has not been answered by me then you are a no-reply blogger. Once you have fixed your settings you will need to re-enter!

The winner will be chosen on Friday! We have chosen a winner - thank you to everyone who entered.

God luck everyone!

Anticipation!

2011-03-18T14:17:00.000-04:00

Hello all! Well I am here to tease you a bit today LOL! Tomorrow is National Quilting Day and I am so very excited for the give-away that I am going to start - - - - - tomorrow! I know I am such a tease! Well I wanted to post about the giveaway early because I have a bit of homework for you to do. I promise it is just a little bit!

I want you all to make sure that you are NOT a no-reply blogger. Simply put - if you are a no-reply blogger - I have no way to contact you! If you win my give-away and you have your settings set to no-reply then I will have to draw another winner.

Don't get panicky or anything - this is a really easy fix. There is an amazing step by step tutorial at the Pleasant Home Blog.

This is a wonderfully clear and easy to follow explanation and I hope that you will take a minute to make sure that you have your blogger settings set to win!

An easy way to tell if you are a no reply blogger - have you ever had a reply from me to one of your comments on my blog? If so then you have your settings set correctly. If, however, you have posted a comment and I have never replied to you - you may be a no-reply blogger.

Ok so now you all have your homework I hope that you will swing by tomorrow and enter my give-away! Any guesses as to what it is???

Making Scrappy Preemie Quilt with the Accuquilt Go!

2011-03-16T13:12:00.000-04:00

Happy March Break everyone! I haven't had much time to quilt for the past few days since my kids are off for March Break right now. It's time to do fun stuff with the kids! I have had a bit of time though to make a few preemie quilts for my local NICU (Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit). A while ago I busted my scrap heap using my Accuquilt Go! cutter. You can see my scrap busting post here. I also used the Value Die to cut up all my kiddie prints into usable pieces. Well I decided that this was a great time to dig into those pieces and start making some preemie quilts! My local NICU likes the preemie quilts to be approximately 22" square to 24" square to fit into the incubators. Check with your local NICU to see what they prefer before you make these though since I know other places like other sizes.

I usually try to make several preemie quilts each year. If you'd like to see some of my past preemie quilts you can see them here and here. There's some more ideas for other quilts there if you're interested ;-)

I used the Value Die to cut 4.5" squares in the novelty prints and 2.5" squares in novelty prints and in white fabrics. I didn't cut any of the half-square triangle units for this project. This was such a quick and easy way to cut up lots and lots of scraps into usable pieces! Yey! Of course if you don't have a Go! you can cut these pieces with a rotary cutter.

Next I divided the novelty prints into a girl pile and a boy pile.

Using the 2.5" squares I chained pieced them into 4-patches. Then I joined a 4-patch to a 1-patch and pressed towards the 1-patch unit.

Arrange the blocks together in a pleasing manner. a 4-patch, 1-patch arrangement always looks nice to my eyes ;-) Add on a boarder of 4.5" cut. You should only need two strips of fabric to do the 4 boarders. You can of course add multiple boarders if you have smaller scrap strips. In the first picture you can see the green preemie quilt had two boarders - that's a great way to use up thinner strips. It's all up to you and what you have and what you like!

Now on to laying the quilt sandwich! I always like using the "inside-out" method for my preemie quilts so that I don't have to bind them. To do this layer your batting, then backing right side up and then your quilt top wrong side up. You can see that in the picture. Place a few straight pins around the outside of the quilt sandwich to hold it together - you really don't need to do more than this since the quilt is so small.

Sew all the way around the quilt 1/4" in leaving a small opening to turn the quilt. Back-stitch at each end of the opening - this will really help to keep the opening nice when we turn it.

Trim off the excess batting and backing 1/4" away from the sewing line.

Using hemostats (you can get quilters hemostats at most quilt stores) turn the quilt right side out. Just insert the hemostats into the opening and reach to the end of the quilt - your hand does not go into the quilt - just the hemostats. This is how we can keep that opening so small.

Pull the quilt all the way through and use the hemostats or a point turner to push the corners out.

Turn the opening under 1/4" - sometimes this can be finicky and take a bit or work.

Press this with your iron to get a nice finish.

I like to use a little Lapel Stick to seal this opening closed until it can be sewn. I used to use pins but Lapel stick is sew much easier!

Now quilt as desired. I usually just do a big meander so that the quilts are not stiff for the babies. To seal the opening closed I simply start my machine quilting along the edge with opening then continue meandering and finish off the quilting by over-lapping the end of my quilting with where I started this. You can also whip stitch the opening closed by hand. Many people prefer to do this if they are not as comfortable with their free-motion quilting skills. However, this is a great place to practice your quilting since the quilt is so small! I used variegated cotton threads to quilt and it gives the quilts some extra colour! Avoid using invisible or mono-filament threads to quilt preemie quilts since the preemie babies have such tiny toes and fingers and the invisible thread can cut them if they get their toes caught in them!

Here we are! 4 little quilts all in a row! Easily cut from scraps and ready to be enjoyed by some little babies and their families!

I hope that you enjoyed this little tutorial - if you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them here.

I also hope that you will consider making a few of these for your local NICU - just be sure to contact them to see what their requirements are since they might be different. This is a such a rewarding way to quilt!

Happy Quilting all!

Uninspired

2011-03-11T17:55:00.001-05:00

Ever have one of those days? Those days where you are just so very uninspired? Well that was me today. I actually stood at my cutting table looking at everything that I left there from my last post and I thought "mhe" I don't feel like it. I just didn't feel like quilting today. It was so odd! Usually I can persuade myself to piece some leaders and enders but today I just couldn't. So odd.

Does this ever happen to you? I am usually up for some chain-piecing but today was a no-go. What about you all? Ever have a low day? I think that we need to learn to listen to our bodies and minds and do what strikes us. So hey - no quilting for me today apparently!

A New Quilt on the Frame and a New Project Experiment

2011-03-09T14:44:00.000-05:00

Thank you all for your compliments to my 70's quilt! It was a lot of fun to work on and I enjoyed it very much.

We've recently put a new quilt on the hand quilting frame at the bee that I belong to ~ The Silver Thimbles. I know that this isn't a very good photo. The lighting was a little dim for the photo and I was standing on a chair with the camera at the ceiling to take this LOL! But, I thought that you might like to see what we are working on in the group. It's a very nice quilt using different blues, lavenders and greens on cream backgrounds. We're doing fairly simple quilting 1/4" inside each shape and a star in the middle square of each star. I think it will be very pretty - I just can't believe that she is giving it away as a gift! But that's what we quilters do isn't it? We give away so much of our work either as gifts or charity. It's so nice to share the love that way.

Today I pulled out the Lazy Angle ruler by Joan Hawley. I've had this ruler for a few years but have never even taken it out of the plastic! Woops! Well I got it out today and pulled out some Robyn Pandolph Sentimental Journey odds and ends and did a little cutting. I used the fabric in my very first Crazy Shortcut Quilt; but, I had pieces left that were just too big to throw out - the perfect size to play! Since these really aren't my colours I don't mind chopping into them at all ;-) Don't get me wrong - I like the fabrics but I'm just not in love with them. Why is it I need an emotional attachment to fabric to get really inspired? It's kind of odd maybe LOL!

I chopped and cut and flipped and rearranged and I think I have something kind of neat going on! That's the really neat thing about this ruler. You can get odd shapes with easy rotary cutting in multiple sizes. I'm pretty intrigued - but I'm not in love yet. Maybe if the colours were different? More vibrant perhaps? I just can't decide what my next step will be. Hmmm

That's okay! I have to go and teach a pilates class now so maybe when I get back inspiration will strike and I'll sew tonight. The weather networks are calling for yuck weather so it would be a good night to stay in and sew!

What are you all working on today?

That 70's Quilt

2011-03-08T14:18:00.000-05:00

Hi all! Are you all getting the amount of snow that we are? We got a huge dump of snow over the weekend so I decided to take these photos of my new quilt outside so I could share! This photo isn't the best to show the quilt (lighting) but it really shows the snow!

I received some really cool fat quarters for my birthday in January (thank you very much!) that were unlike anything that I have used before. There were some Tula Pink fabrics and some Michael Miller ones too. I grouped together these fabrics and thought that they would really suit a Crazy Shortcut quilt! So I looked through the book and found one of the patterns that I have never done before ~ Fast Friends. The long angular lines of the pattern really suited the lines of the fabrics I thought. While I was working on the quilt I kept thinking that it really looked 70'ish so the name "That 70's Quilt" came into being LOL! It has stuck with me since then. I did the decorative stitching in a chartreuse green colour that really grew on me while I was stitching.

I had to snap a picture of the back of this quilt since the colours just look so great together. You can also really see the decorative stitching. I just love this technique for quilt-as-you-go! It's so fun and getting to use your decorative stitches is just wonderful. So many of us have hundreds of stitches - that we paid for - and never use them! With the Crazy Shortcut Quilt method you can use all of your decorative stitches and have a lot of fun with them!

So what are you all working on today? Any quilting projects?

Banished to the Closet ~ For Now . . .

2011-03-03T19:51:00.000-05:00

Isn't this a great but sad photo? Great because I finished my red-work quilt! Yey! Sad because this quilt is destined to be hand quilted by the bee I belong to, The Silver Thimbles, and, it isn't my turn yet. My turn is not for several months yet - sigh. I've had the fabrics and pattern picked out for this quilt for quite a while, over a year to be exact, but, inspiration just never struck. Well, inspiration struck about a month ago and I got to work on the quilt top. Don't worry, I knew it wasn't even close to my turn; but, I felt like working on it - so I did! And I got the top finished. And there it is all finished and no place to go LOL! So into the quilt closet it goes. I am extremely relieved that it is finished though. I still have to mark the top but I don't want to do that until it gets a lot closer to the time it goes on the frame. Don't worry - you'll see this beauty again - just not for a while.

Now what to work on!??

SIngle Girl Quilt Using the Accuquilt Go!

2011-03-02T14:34:00.002-05:00

Are you as intrigued by the Single Girl Quilt pattern as I am? I just love the simplicity of the shapes in this pattern; but, it has a lot of hand cutting and template work - yuck! It's such a fresh approach to the Double Wedding Ring basic form though and I love that!

Ever since I got my Accuquilt Go! cutter I am constantly thinking about how I can modify patterns to use my die cutter.

I won the double wedding ring Go! dies in SewCalGal's give-away and started to think about how I could use the dies to simplify the process of creating the single ring. After playing a bit I realized that each quarter arch was just a quarter of the outer arches of the double wedding ring!

So I pulled out my die and used three of the pieced ring shapes to create a quarter ring. I loved how the little dog ears made piecing the arch so easy! This was much easier than cutting all those templates out and cutting this by hand.

Next I used the inside part to cut a paper arch so I could make myself a paper template. Yes, yes I know; but, I didn't have much of a choice if I wanted to try this experiment ;-)

Then I used the inner melon to get the arch for the inner arch. This was very easy to do though.

Next came transferring the arches to paper. This took a bit of time to do but that was ok. I added 1/2" to the outer arch to account for seam allowance.

Note: Next time I would add more on to give me more squaring up allowance. Meaning I would simply add more to the outer flat edges not to the rounded parts.

Cut out the paper templates and make sure that they fit. Yep, and there is extra added on the inner ring.

I then used the paper templates to mark and cut out the fabric. This part I didn't like LOL! I tried rotary cutting this and that didn't work so I ended up using scissors.

I'm not sure, but, I think if you had the Drunkard's Path die set you might be able to use that instead of cutting these parts by hand. As I don't have this die I couldn't test it sorry!

I pieced the outer parts to the ring and guess what? It worked! If my cuts had been smoother the rings would have been smoother too but not bad for my first attempt ;-) You can make rings using the Accuquilt Go! cutter but the inner parts would have to be cut the usual template way. That is unless Accuquilt comes out with a template set for this. Wouldn't that be great??! It could even just be an add on to the Double Wedding Ring die set to make the single ring.

I had a lot of fun this afternoon working out this pattern and making it fit the dies. I'm not going to finish this quilt (in these colours at least); but, I may consider piecing one out of scraps. I think that would be very pretty!

So what do you think? Good idea? Would you make one like this? Feel free to leave me a comment - I love to hear from you all!

In other news Pleasant Home is having a great give-away of and Accuquilt Baby Go! So hop on over and enter!

Happy Quilting!

The Red-Work is Finally Going Together!

2011-02-27T20:27:00.000-05:00

Hey all!

Yey it's Oscar night!! Anyone else watching tonight? We watch them every year and really enjoy them.

I worked on my red-work quilt today and made some progress on it. Every time I put a quilt top together I am struck over and over again with just how much time it takes to sew it together! The first photo shows the top coming together with the blocks in a layout (see my little marking tabs pinned on?) and the vertical sashing on. This took a couple hours all together. Hard to believe isn't it? I always think I'm in the home-stretch when I get to this point LOL!

No I didn't decide to tea-dye my quilt top! It's just much later and night had fallen hence the more yellow tones. Sorry! Maybe I'll replace this photo tomorrow - but probably not ;-) The horizontal sashing is now on and you can really see how the chain connects now. I really like it! This is going to be a big quilt!

Tomorrow I will hopefully attach the boarders. I made the boarder corner-stones today as well so they should go on tomorrow - baring any unseen events of course! I really like to set aside a chunk of time for doing the boarders so that I can take my time and do them properly. Anytime I have ever rushed my boarders they are wavy and yuck! So now - no way - I take my time with my boarders.

This quilt will unfortunately be hung on a hanger for a while once it is finished as it is my next quilt to go on the group hand-quilting frame and it's not close to my turn yet! SO, why did I choose to work on this like mad for the last little while? I just really felt like working on this to be honest. Working on a red and white quilt during the month of February just felt so right; and, since I have put this quilt off for a couple years, I really wanted to strike while the iron was hot!

What about you all? Did you do any red and white quilts this month?