Binding Update

Hello my friend!

I'm motoring right along with my St. Patrick's Day T-Shirt quilt.  I took it off the frame a couple days ago and started to think about a binding.  Luckily I remembered that I way over-cut this Kona Parrot green fabric into 2 1/2" strips.  I don't bind at  2 1/2" - I prefer a 2 1/4" - but I really didn't relish the idea of cutting 1/4" off all the strips!

Luckily I have the 2 1/4" strip die for my AccuQuilt cutter.  I just laid them out, stacked a few strips high, and ran it through.

Perfect and so fast!  So little waste.  Someone actually seemed surprised to find out I still die-cut a while back LOL!  I asked them - still rotary cut?  They rolled their eyes at me - but seriously?  Why would I pick up a rotary cutter when I own the die and I have a bunch of strips to cut?

After cutting and preparing the binding I love using my Binding Babies to wind it and dispense the binding.  My favourites are always the limited edition ones that I get directly from the company - like my cute little vampire.  I have a bunch of these so I can leave my favourite colours prewound and beautifully displayed ;-)

Next up - I think I'll start a new Leaders and Enders project that I've been thinking about for a while - orange and grey.

I know - not everyone's cup of tea but I adore orange and grey together.  I'm thinking of an alternating orange and grey 16-patch and maybe a snowball or a star sashing with black points to make it into a fall sort of Halloween quilt.  

I'm honestly looking forward to getting back to straight up good-old 2" squares and no HSTs!

What do you think?  Grey and orange - yes or nay?

 

The Split 9-Patch Centre is Complete!!

Hello my friend!

Thank you all to warm welcome back to blogging.  It feels good to be sharing in this format again. For a while I thought that social media would completely replace a blog - nope!  I was wrong.  There's something beautiful about this longer form of communication.  I know another that contributed to my lack of blogging was that I was trying to blog from my iPad - huge mistake!  It takes way too long.  I have a new Apple laptop and wow what a difference!

Yesterday we took my son to Trent University - and left him there!  :-o

That was hard and nerve wracking if I can be honest.  I had great plans to come home and get the final row done but it didn't happen.  Instead, we came home and chilled.  The campus is beautiful, right on the water and his housemates seem nice - so he's in good hands.

Instead I got up this morning and finished the last row in this Split 9-Patch quilt.  I went outside and sat at the water to pin the row.  This is always a big job in a Leaders and Enders quilt like this because there are so many points and seams.  This was a nice way to do the pinning ;-)

After sewing the last row on I had to see it out and wow!  I'm in love!  All this from the humble Split 9-Patch.

Look at how all the colours look like sparkles in the dappled light.  So many colours, and they all come together in the end.

With all of my L&E quilts I go through a hate stage.  I get to the point where I just want to throw it all in the garbage, donate it or just get rid of it somehow.  This job just seemed too big, too drawn out and, frankly, taking way too long.

Started in 2011 (when I purchased the 1.5" finished HST die) to having the centre finished in 2023.  This is actually a pretty big quilt.  I had to lay it out on a Queen sized bed to see how it lays and I'm so surprised to say it's actually dropping over the edge a few inches.

I was going to do a more elaborate border, but, now, I'm thinking a smaller first and a wider second border - simple.  No idea of the colour yet but I will be pulling from my stash.  Thoughts?

 

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!

Valentine's Heart Snow-Globe Fabric Postcards

I thought that I would share a cute little Valentine's Day project for you all.  I use my Accuquilt Go! fabric cutter for this but you could easily draw a hear template and use that instead.  These are my snow-globe fabric postcards with Valentine's confetti encased in a plastic covering.  When you shake the post-cards the confetti actually moves around!  I hope that you enjoy my little tutorial and consider sending some of these extra special cards out to your loved ones!  I was going to save this post for Valentine's Day but if you want to make a few of these to send out you'll need it ahead of time - so here it is!

First you will need a stiff product like Timtex or Stiffy for the middle of your cards.  This stabilizes the cards and it is easy to stitch through.  It's the same product that we used for the fabric bowls that were so popular a while ago.  Check your local quilt shop they will probably have it.  Some people I know have used Duck Cloth for the center but I haven't.

Cut a 6" x 4" piece of white fabric for the front and one for the back of the card.  Also, cut a 6" x 4" piece of Timtex or Stiffy for the middle of your card.

I used the small and medium hearts from my Go heart die for the cards.  The large is just too big for the 4" x 6" card.   I cut a few hearts from some heart fabrics I had in my stash.  If you want to put a fusible on the back you can do that before you run the fabrics through your die.  I used a product called Lapel Stick hat worked really well to stick the fabrics down to the back ground fabric.

Note if you would like to read my review of Lapel Stick you can see it here!

 Next I used a clear vinyl and cut a heart using the medium sized heart only.  Again, if you don't have a Go or the Heart die you can make a template and cut this out with scissors.  The vinyl I purchased in a regular fabric store in a medium weight.  the vinyl went through the die without any problems at all - I did one layer at a time since it was so slippery!

I used my Lapel Stick again to arrange the hearts on the cards in a pleasing order.

Then I got out my stock of beads and confetti!  Here is were the fun really starts since you really get to play arts and crafts.

I buy my confetti at Dollar Stores where they stock it seasonally; or, you can get it at a Party store pretty much year round.  I just love all the little hearts and cupids that you can get.  Too sweet!

First you need to put down a few beads.  You need to put a few beads in the mix or the plastic will stick to the fabric and your confetti won't move around - and you want it to move - that's the fun part ;-)  I've used a medium sized red bead and put down about 6.

 Carefully put some of your confetti on the heart.  I used different colour and sizes of hearts and cupids.  If you miss the heart use tweezers or a stiletto to put it back onto your heart.  The confetti really seems to stick to my fingers so tweezers work best for me.

Push the confetti to the center of the heart.  This is very important because you don't want that confetti falling into your sewing machine!  Don't worry it will spread out when we are finished.

Next carefully place the vinyl over the confetti and beads.  It will be puffy in the center but don't worry this will all work out!  Carefully move this over to your sewing machine.  I usually do this step right next to my sewing machine on my sewing machine cabinet.  It's just too easy to spill all of this if you do this step on a different table.

You may need to use your stiletto in this step to help keep the vinyl down.

Using a stitch like the blanket stitch on your sewing machine carefully applique everything down.  you want to make sure that some of the stitches are off the vinyl and some are on the vinyl.  A satin stitch will not work here as it will cut the vinyl and you'll have a mess on your hands.  If you don't have the blanket stitch on your sewing machine a loose zigzag would work too but just make sure that you are on and off your vinyl.  This will help seal everything in.  I used a 30 wt Sulky thread to do the applique and a 90 Topstitch needle.

 Finish up the applique around the second heart.

I wish I could show you a picture of me shaking the card LOL the confetti really moves around inside the heart.  I guess you'll just have to trust me.  But, you can see that the confetti has spread out around the heart now.

 Since I also used a red thread in the bobbin if I just fused a white piece of fabric to the back it would show the red thread right through the backing - yuck.  So, I decided to take a second piece of the Stiffy and glued it and the backing fabric to the back of the card.  Easy-peasy.

 I have a Postcard stamp I got off Ebay a few years ago and I use it to stamp the back of my postcards.  If you don't have a stamp you can draw the lines on by hand with a fine-tip Sharpie pen.  I did that for a while then invested in a stamp.

After the backing is fused on take your cards back to your sewing machine and do some type of stitching around the outside to seal all the layers together.  I love this uneven zig-zag stitch.  It really hides and inconsistencies and I think it looks amazing!

Use a Sharpie to address your cards right on the fabric and put on a stamp.  Take them to your post office to be hand canceled.

If you'd like to see my other fabric postcard tutorial you can go to my Crazy Patch Fabric Postcards post.  There you can see the clear envelopes that I use and how I add a hanger onto the cards.  I thought that it might be repetitive if you have been reading my blog for a while.

I hope that you have enjoyed my Valentine's snow-globe cards!  If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them here!  I absolutely love to hear from you all and I try to answer every question.  If you enjoyed this tutorial I hope that you will take a second to click FOLLOW under my picture.  That would mean a lot to me - and you can also like me on Facebook.

If you make any of these cards I would absolutely love to see a picture!

Happy Quilting all!

Working on a Couple Christmas Table-Runners

Every year I run a promotion in my fitness classes to keep people coming for the month of December.  Too many people stop taking care of them selves over the busy holiday season and it takes a tole on their health.  Basically for every class they go to their name gets entered into a draw.

This year I decided to use my Accuquilt Go! star die to make a couple of quick and easy table runners!  I pulled most of these fabrics from my stash but I did buy a couple 6 inch strips of some gold and a silver fabric.  4 inches would have been just enough to do this.  I fused Steam a Seam 2  Lite on to the back of the fabrics using all of the prints.

Then I ran two layers of the fused fabric at a time through my Go! cutter to get all three of the different star sizes in all of the fabrics I used.

 I cut a strip of fabric about 18" wide by the width of fabric for my back ground.  I used a white fabric with metallic silver flecks all over it.  I just love metallic fabrics for the holidays!!  If you click on the picture you can see the fabric I used.  I then set myself up at my ironing board to peel the backing off the fabric and get ready to place the stars.  I didn't fused anything down at this point.

Do I have enough stars yet??  Naw - more is more so I better add several more ;-)  I love how the different shades of gold and the silver is interacting together.  This table runner could work for the whole holiday season - hmmm - maybe I should make one for myself??  It's very simple but very elegant - I think that the quilting is really going to bring these to life.

One table-runner top has more stars added and is now fused and guess what I ran out of fusible webbing!!!  I have to wait until tomorrow to go to the quilt shop to get more fusible.  I need to make more stars and I really don't want to do that without the fusible as I don't want the edges to fray.

Don't you just hate that when you run out of something and just can't proceed until you buy more?? 

Part 2 or this will hopefully come tomorrow!

Any questions or comments feel free to leave them here - and - I hope that you will take a second to follow my blog if you like what you see.

Yippie! My Pink Rag Quilt is Finished!

 Here it is all laid out and ready to go to the sewing machine!

Notice the rags already clipped??  I can't say that enough times LOL!  The ragging is already done and that is the part that I like the least.  The Accuquilt Go! cutter did an amazing job on this after I figured out the secret ~ cut your blocks a loose 8 3/4" first then run two or three layers through the die as a block not as a strip.  The blocks went through so much easier!

Of course my layout changed by the time I got it all together as I flipped a few blocks and had to compensate for that ;)

And here is the finished very pink rag quilt all washed and fresh out of the drier.  The ragging is absolutely lovely and much nicer than I have ever managed to do by hand.  My husband noticed this right away when he saw that quilt.

This quilt does not have batting in it as the pattern recommends.  I don't actually like batting in my rag quilts since I find that the batting eventually bows in towards the center ~ even with the X in the middle ~ unless you catch it in the seams ~ and I don't like the look of batting in the seams.  So, for this quilt, I added a layer of flannelet in the middle and I love the weight of the quilt.  Perfect for snuggling this winter.

Here's a closer shot of the rag quilt, sitting on my rocking chair, so that you can see the rag closer.  It is truly a cuddly quilt and I love it!  You can just see my rug hooking things on the left of this photo.  This is where I sit to hook and watch TV.  It's a nice little spot in my sewing room.

Is that cotton candy???  No!!   That's the lint I pulled out of my dryer half way through the drying cycle while my pink rag quilt was in there!  Can you believe that??!!  This is just to show how important it is to empty your lint catcher half-way through and not wait until the end.

I think that Cotton Candy might be a pretty good name for this quilt.  It certainly flows off the tongue easier than very pink rag quilt.  Thoughts?

I made this quilt just for me, not for a gift, and this is the very first quilt that I have made just for me.  I thought that as the Mother of two boys that they would say - ewww pink when they saw it and leave it just to me.  Actually I was hoping they would :-/  But immediately they both wanted to cuddle up in the rag quilt LOL!

Still Working on the Rag Quilt!

Just a little blog post today ~ Today I cut a few more squares for my pink rag quilt.  I thought that I would try something to make using the rag die for my Accuquilt Go! easier.  I pre-cut my squares to a rough 8 1/2" instead of leaving them as 8 1/2" strips.  What a huge difference!  It was so much easier to cut!  It only took a few more seconds for me since I have the 8 1/2" x 24" Omnigrid ruler and i just rough cut it anyways.  It was well worth this small extra step and I wouldn't hesitate to do this again.  Next time you're cutting your rag quilt give this a try ~ it made a huge difference for me ;)

Any thoughts?

Woohooo New Package in the Mail!

I just got this in the mail this morning from Stitch in the Ditch!  It's an online supplier of Accuquilt Go!!  products right here in Canada and I have to say I am really happy with their service ;)  I got in on their mat set sale, their star die sale and their Rose of Sharon die sale.  How great is that??  I also bought the 8.5" rag die and I'll see what I think of that.  I also followed the recommendations and got another mat to dedicate to the rag die alone - since it apparently really tears them up.  The mats are not expensive so I don't mind this - Anything to get out of snipping the fringe!  I love rag quilts but hate (and I mean really hate) all the snip, snip, snipping.  I have heard various reviews about the rag die so I'll be sure to give you my thoughts about it after I cut and sew with it.  I have some pretty pink flannels that have been sitting here for a year or so that have been begging to be ragged but the thought of cutting the fringe by hand makes me cringe.  I also thought that it would be fun to add appliques of the stars and hearts and circles I have to the blocks and let the edges of them rag as well.  It might be a fun effect.  Thoughts?

Do any of you own the rag die?  Any words of advise before I jump in head-first?

I also saw an amazing video on the Accuquilt Go! Rose of Sharon die on YouTube part 1 and part 2.  If you're interested follow the links.  Judy goes over a great way to get the most out of your die.  I have Sharon Pederson's Rose of Sharon DVD; but, I can honestly say I really can't see me following her freezer paper method and using contact cement.  I guess I should knock it until I try it but it looks so incredibly time consuming to turn the edges using that method.  For the larger pieces I think I would "face" them with pellon or something like that.  I do love all the designs that people sent in for her EQ6 Rose of Sharon Block Challenge and I think that the DVD is worth it for all those PDF pictures of the blocks alone.  All that said ~ I thought that the Rose of Sharon die was a great time saver and an amazing idea and I really look forward to playing with it a lot more ;)  I actually wouldn't mind seeing a die set with the larger flowers on it ~ I think a lot of people would invest in it as well.

Ok I should get going and start playing with my new stuff.  I may update this again later if I make some head-way.

Happy Creating all!

Accuquilt GO Cutter

Have you all seen this cutter? This is the Accuquilt Go Cutter and it is so cute! Anyone have it? It looks absolutely amazing to me and I have been really considering getting one ~ I'm not a huge fan of the cutting stage of quilting (especially applique) and I think this might just be an answer to my prayers!

Canton Village Quilt Works is giving away a GO cutter with multiple ways to win ~ so I thought that I would share it here with you all as well! The only thing I can think of that would be better than owning one of these is to get one for free!

We just got back from two weeks vacation in British Columbia and I put my SD card into the card reader but put the cord into the wrong port! I fried my new card reader I think :-( But I didn't fry the card which is great! i was going to post a bunch of pictures from things that I have been working on but that might have to wait for another day LOL! I do promise to be a better blogger ~ I do have finished projects I just haven't been blogging :-/