Dumpster Diving

Ok - confession time.

Hands up everyone who has picked something out of the garbage or dumpster dived?!!

Come on be honest.

I'll start - me - I did.  Yesterday in fact.

After I finished my class yesterday I was walking around emptying all of the garbage bins in the classroom (as I always do after I finish as class).  And, in the last bin there were these lovely fabric scraps.  I stopped and thought - now who would throw those away!?  They are lovely!

So, yes, I scooped them up and put them in my bag and brought them home.  They were clean and undamaged so why not!?

 

I brought them home and layered them onto my 1.5" finished half square triangle (HST) die (Studio 50771, Go! 55319) and in no time I had all these lovely HSTs!!!  Aren't they yummy!?

These will work so well with my 2" leaders and enders squares.  I just couldn't resist.

Maybe I am just frugal; but, I always think that that scrap of fabric cost just as much off the bolt or in the garbage and the more fabric I can save from the landfill the better!

So, let's hear the truth - would you have saved these or tossed them?

More Stockings!

I can't seem to stop making these!

My LQS had the Grinch fabrics in and I HAD to make some stocking in it!

 

 

I just love these!  Don't you just love those fabrics?  And, since my wrist is still sore these are a perfect, quick, little project for me to die-cut and then sew - easy peesy with my inside-out stocking method.  Don't know what I am talking about?  You can see my stocking video here!

Happy Quilting!

Candy Corn Quilt!

Hey all!

Halloween is coming and I LOVE Halloween!  I had this idea to make a candy corn quilt for a long time now but I never feel like working on Halloween stuff after Halloween so needless to say I always end up running around in October making my Halloween projects.

 Well since I have the large tumbler die I decided that now was the time to jump on this and make a candy corn quilt!

 

I'm sorry, but, I wasn't going to do any type of a tutorial on this quilt until I was close to being finished so I will just have to explain:

•  cut strips 2 1/2" wide of each; white, orange and yellow - cut as many as you like for the quilt size you want.
• sew strips together and pick a side to press towards
• use your large tumbler die (or rotary cut) to cut out your candy corns.  Always have the yellow at the wide end and the white end at the smaller side.  There will be some waste here - but - hey - candy corn in a quilt!
• lay them out in an order that is pleasing to you.

 Note:  You could also make candy corns with the baby tumbler die - just cut your strips at 1 1/2" and then re-cut on the tumbler die - that would be sooo cute!

 

Cut 1 1/2" strips of a blackish fabric (mine is a black batik with some blue tones).  I think I had to cut about 14'ish of these.  Sew a sashing strip to every right side of your candy corns - except for the the right-most row - leave that alone.  When you are chain piecing these leave some space between your yellow edges or you will have to trim these apart at a wrong angle - try it once and you'll see why!  you need to be able to trim the tops and bottoms evenly and we are sewing them together at an angle - so we need to leave some space to accommodate that angle.

This is a great video on Tumblers http://video.wpt2.org/video/2111523197/ 

Add 3" strips to the outside edges of your rows - we will trim these later.  Yes, I could have been more efficient with my fabrics here but the waste was sooo small that I didn't mind.   Add 1 1/2" horizontal sashing.  Trim this off so that you have 1 1/4" after the wide points of your candy corns.  This way your outer sashing will be equal to your inner sashing.

 

I decided to add an outer border to this because I had this amazing Halloween print in my stash!  yey!  The moons are just perfect with the oranges and yellows.   Also, the outer border will help stabilize the bias edges on the vertical inner borders - remember the trimming?  We trimmed the fabrics so that they were now on the bias.  Bias = stretch!  So I wanted borders so that I didn't end up with a rippling quilt.

 

I like to cut my border fabrics on the length-wise grain - so - I cut my binding at the same time so that it is done.  Then I make my binding and wrap it around a ruler so it is neat.  Slide the binding off the ruler and put it into a zip-lock bag so that it is ready to go for later.  I just thought I might share that for you :-D

So there you have it!  A candy corn quilt!  Sorry the tutorial is not as full of pictures as usual but I think it might be ok??  If you have questions feel free to leave them here and ask and I will try my very best to answer them here.

So what do you think?  Yummy?

Thanksgiving Sewing!

Happy Thanksgiving my fellow Canadians!

This year we are doing a small family get together only - ie just the 4 of us - so I had lots of time this long weekend to get some sewing done!  Yey!

Unfortunately, I have really hurt my right wrist - and I am right handed :-(  Yep :-(  Rotary cutting is impossible right now - it sends absolutely sharp pain spikes through my wrist.  Fortunately, I have a fabric die-cutter!  I can turn the crank - just not apply the pressure necessary to rotary cut.

So, I grabbed a fat quarter bundle gifted by a dear friend - thank you!  And cut out a Take 5 - type quilt ala the Cherry Bomb Quilts tutorial that I have used before - I love it!!

 

These are some Christmas Thimbleberries prints that I liked when they came out but I didn't buy any of.  When they were given to me I thought - wow - those colours would look good in my green living room!  So, I was able to cut and piece this top.  That is as far as I am going until my wrist is better - I don't think that it could stand the vibration of machine quilting and maneuvering the machine.  Oh well!  Christmas isn't for a while.

 

Next, well, really first LOL, I pulled out the Halloween chisels I had cut last year and then put away, since I didn't feel like working on them, and made another one of my table-runners.  I love it!  But, yet again, I don't think my wrist can take the quilting - darn it!  I would love to get working on this one but I need my wrist to get better first :-(  If you want to check out the complete tutorial on how to make this table-runner you can find it here.  And, if you do make one, please post a picture to our Facebook group!

And, last but not least, I am working on a new tumbler quilt - if you belong to my Facebook group, you have seen a little preview, but, I will post more later!

BTW aren't the leaves in the pictures amazing?!  They were so bright and wonderful I just had to take pictures with them!

Happy Thanksgiving all!  I wish you all a safe and blessed weekend.

Stockings!

Hey all!

I have been having so much fun the last few days with my Stocking die - I just had to share!

 

So far I have cut well over 50 complete kits - outside, liner and tab from fabric donated by a dear friend!  Our guild is going to make these and donate them to a local charity that provides Christmas gifts to needy children in our community.

Since the pattern on the Accuquilt site leaves the seam allowances exposed I came up with a different way to make the stockings and I decided to make a video about it so that I could easily share.

I hope that you all like it - if you have any questions please feel free to let me know!  Ok now to get back to making more stocking kits!

Bright Strata Star

Hi all!

Yesterday was a meet the teacher day at my LQS so I was there answering questions about the classes that I was teaching.  While I was walking around carrying my Christmas Strata Star I saw these beautiful bright batiks and wanted to turn them into a Strata Star too!

 

 

Aren't they yummy!!??  I cut them up and worked on my table topper this morning.

 

 

Ahhh what a sizzling table topper!  Because this is a no-bind project it is ready to go - even without the quilting being finished yet.  I will decide how I want to quilt it tomorrow I think.  For now, I think I'll just enjoy the colours!  Hmmm, this one is a little summery - I think a fall one might be in order ;-)

Don't you love batiks!

Scrap Quilt Challenge

Hi all!

I did something I've never done before!  I entered an online quilt competition.  I hope that you will take a minute to check out the quilts, maybe draw some inspiration for your next scrap quilt, and, take a minute to vote!  You can see the quilts and vote at http://www.fabricsnquilts.com/ - Mine is the SunShowerQuilts-Scrappy Spool Illusions - the first entry. You don't need to sign up or enter you email - just one click I promise!

You can see the entries on the Flickr group http://www.flickr.com/groups/fnqscrapqc2012/pool/with/7900432960/#photo_7900432960

Ok so hop on over and vote! http://www.fabricsnquilts.com/

I Made a Bag

Happy Septemeber!

Remember in July when I found a bunch of scraps from a quilt for 2008?   I knew I wanted to do something with them but I couldn't decide what.  I thought that I would use them on the back of a quilt but I didn't.  I looked at them yesterday and decided I would sew them together to make a bag.  I had an idea that I thought might make a cool bag pattern and a little tutorial for you all.

 

Here's the bag!  But, no tutorial.  My idea worked - sort of LOL!  In the end I got a bag but I had to really fight for it to work.  So, here's the finished bag, which used up all of those scraps, but, no tutorial because I didn't like the way that it went together.  :-(  I do like the finished bag though!

Best of all - this is all from my stash!

Disappearing Nine Patch

Hi all!

I hope that you are all enjoying this late August weather.  Here it is very nice but for others in the US - stay safe!

I have been playing with my new Studio cutter, as you know, and I got another great tip from my friend Sherry for making a Disappearing Nine Patch quilt (D9P) using my Studio dies.  However, this tutorial can also be applied to the Go! as well.

First start off with your Studio F die (50035).  For the Go! you would use your F die as well (55019).  This is the square 4 3/4" - you could also use your 5" square die as well if that is what you have but you will have a slightly larger block in the end - not 12" square.

 

Fold your fabric selvage to selvage, and then repeat twice more for the studio so that your selvage runs perpendicular to the rollers so that you are rolling your fabric through on the lengthwise grain.  Do the same thing for the Go! just decrease the layers to 4 or 6 instead of 8.  Repeat this for all of your fabrics you are using in your D9P.

Can you see the date on that selvage??  Yes, that fabric has been in my stash since 2002 - yikes!  Time to use it up!

 

Piece together your 9-patches.  I did a simple configuration with alternating cream blocks.  Easy peesy.

 

Grab your 6.5"  batting die (50070) and lay your 9-patches on this and run it through your cuter.  When I bought my Studio Bread and Butter set I initially thought that I would never use this die - right now it is the die I have used the most!  The nice thing about using this die is that it squares your blocks up to a perfect 6.5" square for you while it divides them -so fast!  You can layer this 3 blocks thick. If you are using the Go! you will have to rotary cut this in half in both directions.

 

There are many different lay-outs for the D9P - way too many for me to show here.  Just Google D9P and you will see many variations.  Here are the two that I played with.  I chose the one on the left.

 

This top went together so quickly and easily - this will not be my last D9P!  I found some backing fabric in my stash and quickly loaded this onto the frame.  I quilted it in a YLI 40 weight variegated  thread in a loose meander loop. 

 

Binding, label and sleeve are on and this quilt is ready to be given away as a late wedding gift!

 

All fabrics were pulled from my stash including the sage green backing fabric!  Woohoo - that is a lot of yardage, that has been sitting for years, finally made into a quilt to be given away.  I am actually getting wiggle room in my stash drawers!!  I haven't had that in years.

This will not be my last D9P!  I think this would be a great way to use up kiddie prints and make some scrappy baby quilts or preemie quilts.  Have you made a D9P before?  Was this tutorial useful for you?

I Might be Crazy

Hi all!

Well I think I might be a little crazy.  See, a friend of mine gave me this unfinished quilt top.  She tried to use on of those fabrics that come in stripes of say 10 different fabrics to make a lone star quilt by cutting strips to make it look like she had pieced them together.  Well, it worked ok  - see on the right that strip of white?  That and the fact that the top is a little wonky.  But, she was frustrated and about to throw this, and all the scraps, in the garbage.  Picture this - there were a tone of pieced panels that were going to go to waste with this method too.  So, I said, "Hey don't throw them out I'll take them!"

 

Famous last words!

 

I thought that I could process these panels (see the last couple top right?) with my die cutter - NOPE!  it just didn't work so I had to pull out my rotary cutter.  And I cut and trimmed and cut some more until I finally reached the end of the stack - why oh why did I say I'd take them?! 

 

At the end of all this cutting I had some nice stacks of fabrics: 2" squares, 1.5" finished HST and some already pieced HST - all ready to be used in a project! 

What am I going to do with the lone star top?  I think it might make a really nice back for whatever I choose to do with the other pieces.  I'm not sure what yet but I will do something with it!

What would you have done?  Chuck it or salvage it?

Quilt in a Day - no - ok 24 Hours

I have always wanted to see if I could do this!  I have always wanted to see if I could make a quilt in a day - meaning 24 hours - and - guess what?  I did!

 As you know I just got my Studio Bread and Butter set and with it came the 6.5" square, multiples, die.  A while ago I saw a great tutorial by Sherry at Cherry Bomb Quilts for making a Take 5 variation using this die and I decided that this should be my first Studio cut quilt!

 

 

What do you think?  Cool huh?  Now I am not going to re-invent the wheel.  Sherry's tutorial is great and you can find it here.  As a matter of fact Ebony Love did a video on this too - it probably would have helped me out to find it before-hand but oh well.  Did you know that Ebony is running a Kickstarter campaign to help fund her die cutting book?!  If you are a die-cutter you are going to want this book.  If you are someone who is comparing the different die-cutting machine - you will want this book!  All I can say is I have had a little preview and it is great!  My copy is on pre-order already.

 

Needless to say, I followed the tut and  cut some fat quarters that have been siting in my stash forever (are you seeing a trend with a lot of my latest quilts?  Pulling from the stash!).  I followed Sherry's tut and cut and got these stacks.  I did some shuffling and made these stacks into blocks - and then the blocks into a top.  So fast, so easy.  This can also be cut on the Go! using some of the mix-and-match set to cut 3.5" squares, 6.5" squares and 3.5 x 6.5" rectangles - or - of course rotary cut.

 

Next I loaded it onto my mid-arm frame and did an all-over meander loop fill using a 40 weight cotton YLI variegated thread top and bobbin - my machine loves this thread!

 

Next, because I was fully committed to getting his finished I machine sewed on the binding, sleeve and label and got to work machine turning it - this will just be a throw so I am not hand turning it!

 

Don't believe me that it is all done?  There is the sleeve nicely hand sewn down ;-)  BTW the backing is pulled from my stash too!  It is a fabric I bought that has 2007 on the selvage - time to use it up - yey.

All done!!  A quilt in 24 hours!

My New Addition!

Look at what I got yesterday!!!  I gave a little teaser on my Facebook page with this yesterday and a few of you guessed what was in the box correctly - well done!

 

Can you guess what's in the boxes yet?

 

Yes!  I got the Accuquilt Studio cutter! I am so excited to start using this.

 

And I didn't just get the Studio - I got the Bread and Butter set which includes multiples of the popular geometric dies.  yey!! Why did I get the Bread and Butter set?  I took the advise of a knowledgeable Studio owner and when I looked at the different starter sets I could see that this one would be the best for me.  Aren't all of those multiples just lovely?!  The Bread and Butter set also comes with all the cutting mats and trays so that I could get cutting right away.

I know that many of you will be wondering why I upgraded from the Go!  Well, when I bought my Go! I knew that I would enjoy die cutting; but, I had no idea how much I would LOVE it!  Soon after buying my Go! I started to regret not buying the Studio - keep in mind that I have a dedicated sewing room that is quite large 21' x 14' so I have the room for this cutter.  Not everyone has the space for a cutter like this or, frankly, the budget or desire for one.  Also, the dies are HEAVY!!  This is a good thing - much like a heavy sewing machine is good.  It means the dies are sturdy and will last a long time!  But, if you have strength issues or injuries you might not be able to lift the dies for long.

What cinched the deal for me was when Accuquilt introduced the Go! Adapter pads!!!

Now none of my Go! dies will go to waste - I can use them all on the Studio.  This is what made me make up my mind to upgrade.

Now before you ask - I am keeping my Go! and the dies for it.  The Go! is portable - the Studio is not.  The Go! dies are lighter and less expensive than the Studio dies - so buying an applique die, for the Go!, that I might only use a handful of times, is still feasible. 

Why did I choose the Studio over the Sizzix Big Shot Pro you might ask?  Well frankly with the Studio I am not limited at all.  It has the largest opening and can take all manufacturers dies with the right adapters.  Also, Accuquilt has more variety of dies available than Sizzix - please keep in mind that I am not a scrap-booker and a lot of the scrap-booking dies are really not suitable for quilting so delving into that side of things didn't appeal to me.  Some dies that really appeal to me, like the new huge rag die, will not fit on the Sizzix machine.  So, my choice was clear to me.  I didn't want any limitation - this was a good choice for me.  That said I love my little Big Shot and do buy dies for it too!

I know that this is going to sound silly - but - I also love the way it looks!  It is slick!  I love the grey and black clean lines of it.  Since it is going to be out - I wanted to like the way it looks ;-)

Also, as a Canadian, we now have a Canadian Distributor Cherished Pieces who is in Southern Ontario so it will be easy for me to shop when I am down there visiting.  This will be easier than bringing it across the boarder.

Anyways that was quite a long ramble about my new addition - now to unpack everything and get it organized!

So, what do you think?  If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them here!

1000 Pyramids is Done!

Have you been wondering where I was?  Well, it's summer so we did a little camping and then I was at the Zumba Convention in Orlando Florida!  What's Zumba you might be asking?  Zumba Fitness is a dance based fitness class that is so fun and very effective.  It's based around Latin and international rhythms and very addictive.  I teach fitness classes so I really wanted to attend the convention - if you can believe it I booked my room a year ago to attend this!  Lots of fun.

After I got home I was very tired, happy, but tired; so, I needed something easy to do and I grabbed the 1000 Pyramids quilt I have been working on and I finally finished hand turning the binding!

 

It got a little cloudy out today so I ran outside and snapped a couple shots of the quilt.  I am really happy with how this turned out.  I don't know why I love one block quilts so much but I really do.  One block quilts like the 1000 Pyramids quilt or the Tumbler became really popular in the 30's and they hold a special place in my heart!  I cut this quilt using the Accuquilt Go! Isosceles 5" x 6" die.  This is another great die and perfect for using up scraps or fat quarters.  I had a bunch of FQ's that I had purchased on sale and were crying out to be included in a quilt so here they are!

 

Here is a close-up of the quilting.  I quilted this in 50 weight off white cotton thread top and bobbin in a sort of meandering wave.  I took inspiration from one of the fabrics I used.  See the greeny one second from the left at the top?  It has green scribbles that kind of looked like that to me so I went with it!  So often when I can't decide how to quilt something I look to my fabric for inspiration.  I wanted to keep this an all-over pattern and, since I think this quilt has a modern feel to it, even though it is a classic block, I wanted something a little funky in the quilting.

Well that's all for now!  Except to say - that I am expecting an addition to my sewing room and I am over the moon excited to get it!  Sorry for the tease but I will let you in on the secret soon :-D  Can you guess what it is?

Finally a Book on Die-Cutting!

I have some great news to share!

A book all about fabric die-cutting is finally being released by none other than  Ebony Love, of Love Bug Studios, herself!  I am so excited to see the release of this long needed book.  For those of us that die-cut we know that there is a need for information about die-cutting.  Many of us have released YouTube videos on this topic, like Ebony, but having this information in book format is going to be great for all those people who cannot access these videos - and I know that there are lots.  Or, for those of us that want to learn every tip and trick out there!.

You can pre-order Ebony's new book by simply pledging $30.00 for her Kickstarter campaign - I've already done this and I am sure you will want to too!  She's got lots of great rewards in her program that I am sure you will want to take advantage of.

I'm egerly looking forward to the October release!

To Border or Not To Border?

Hi all!

If you have been following my Facebook page you'll know that I've been playing with these fabrics for the past little bit!

 

These fat quarters have been in my stash for years!  So I decided to pull out my Accuquilt Go!  and cut them up :-D

 

I grabbed my Isosceles Triangle die and went to town

 

Soon I had two very nice stacks of perfectly cut triangles!  Yey!!  Can you imagine how long this would take by hand!

 

Without any really clear plan I began sewing them together into the print and an off-white; and, then I sewed them into rows etc.  I really didn't colour plan this I just wanted it random.

 

After a LOT of pinning the top went together and I really like the effect!  What do you think?

Now I need to decide if I want to put borders on this or not.  I can put on borders in the off white but I don't have yardage of any of the prints.  I knid of like the idea of a one-block quilts but I might add on to get the size a little bigger.  What do you think?

Psst I will square it all up either before I add borders or after the quilting is done - don't worry ;-)

So what do you think - to border or not to border?

Look What I Found!

I thought that I might squeeze a little sewing in before I had to cook tonight and while I was pulling out a current project  I found a bag with these in it!

 

I remember putting these scraps away years ago but they didn't end up in my scrap heap so they didn't get processed when I did my big purge.  These were scraps from a quilt I had made, called Eureka, as a wedding present and when my LQS-owner saw it she loved it and wanted me to teach a class - so - I made a twin to this quilt.  This was back in 2008!!!  These have been scraps for 4 years *blush* Since I made two identical quilts I had some scraps to work with on the next quilt and now I have these left.

Ok now what to do with this?  This is quite a bit of fabric - with curved piecing.  Should I just scrap process it into 2" squares and strips or do I make something from it?  Keep in mind I really don't need another table runner - sigh.  And, this doesn't look very baby-ish for a preemie quilt

What would you do with this?

Christmas in July!

Hi all!

I hope that you have been enjoying your summer so far.  Here is is HOT and very DRY!  We are crying for some rain and a break from the heat.

I decided to get a head start on some samples for my fall classes since it is too hot to do much at all.  I found this neat pattern online and decided to give it a whirl.

 

 

 This is the Sew Easy Strata Star by Ruth Eckersley and it is a really fun pattern to make!  It is all 1.5" strips - which - I of course cut all on my Accuquilt Go! cutter so the cutting was really quick and easy.  I love how this turned out I decided to do my first one in Christmas fabrics because I could just see it in Christmas fabrics.  Now I will have to make more!

 

The one negative about this pattern is the amount of waste.  This isn't even all of it - and it was just too much to throw away.  So, I started to think about what I could do with these strip sets.  I decided to re-cut them into 1.5" strips again

 

Then I randomly joined them back together to make a piece of fabric.   Doesn't that just look like a hat mess?!

 

Next, I trimmed them down (ahh that's better).

 

And, I added some borders so that this was just over 6" wide.  I layered it with some Timtex and did a little top-stitching to hold everything together.  Can you guess what I am making yet??

 

 Next, I cut them into 4 sections all 6" x 4" - now can you guess?

 

Yep!  Christmas fabric postcards!  I got out my plain fabric and my postcard stamp and made some backs.  Every year I do Christmas fabric postcards to send to friends and family.  If you'd like to see some of my previous years cards you can check them out here, here, here and here.

 

Last, but not least, I added my favorite uneven zig-zag stitch around the outside.  Since I usually need around 30 of these every year I was really happy to get a bit of a head start and use up what was going to end up in the garbage :-D

What do you think?  Am I crazy for starting my Christmas work in this July heat?

Machine Quilting Fun!

Hi all!

I hope that you are all enjoying this hot weather!  Here in the Ottawa Valley it is extremely humid and hot!  Too hot to want any fabric touching me.  So, when a friend asked if she could drop off a quilt with me to quilt for her I said sure!  I don't have to be touching the fabric to quilt it on the frame ;-)

 

Isn't it a beauty??!!  I absolutely love the fabrics - they really POP!

 

I spent a couple of days quilting this for her - not because it was difficult or anything - but because once I got to the black it was later in the day and harder to see; so, I finished it up the next day.  Isn't it beautiful!  I am really happy with how it turned out.

 

I quilted this in a  60 wt variegated red to white thread in an all over meander wave pattern in the center and then switched to a 50 wt black for the borders.  Here you can really see the quilting on the back.  The fabric is actually black but it didn't really photograph well :-(   I love how striking  the thread is on the back (in real life LOL).

I hope that you are all enjoying this summer weather!  Anything quilty in the works?