More Give-Aways!

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

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

 

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

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!

 

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!

 

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

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!

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

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!

 

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!

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!

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

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

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!

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!

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

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!