Happy Valentine's Day!

Sew Cal Gal is doing a Valentine's blog hop featuring quilters that use Accuquilt products and I thought up this cute little Valentine's wall hanging that I wanted to share with you all!  It is a Valentine's snow-globe with confetti that moves around inside.  I hope that you enjoy my little project!

You will need the 2 1/2" strip die, the circle die and the large tumbler die.  You will also need various heart or Valentine's fabrics and some vinyl for the snow globe.  You will need a selection of beads and confetti that will look good inside your snow-globe.  I used some read beads and cupid and heart confetti.  Cut a 9 1/2" square of white fabric that will be your background fabric.  If you don't have these dies you can cut all the shapes by hand or rotary cutter.

First using the large circle on the die cut one circle of vinyl.  This is a little bit slippery since the vinyl is so slick.  The vinyl can be found at fabric stores and is used to make coverings for things.

 Using the small heart die cut three hearts.  I used three different heart fabrics but you could use just one if you wanted.  I didn't use fusible on the hearts for this project; but, you could back these with fusible before you cut them out if you wish.  Also cut 4 hearts from the same red fabric.

 Use your 2 1/2" strip die to cut a strip of fabric for your snow-globe base.  I used red fabric.  Next put your vinyl circle on the small edge of the large tumbler die until you find a place where the bottom edges intersect with the circle in a pleasing manner.  I put mine a couple of inches down.  Remove the vinyl and use your tumbler die to cut your base.

Center your three hearts under your vinyl for placement, using a fabric glue, I used Lapel Stick, and applique them down.  I used a red thread and the blanket stitch for this.  Next put your vinyl over the top and and applique the circle down but leave a open spot on the bottom of the circle.  You will need this spot to put your confetti in.  Don't worry this will get covered up later.  make sure that you don't use a satin stitch to applique down the vinyl or it will cut the vinyl.

 Put some beads into the circle.  The beads will allow the confetti to move around.  If you don't put any beads in the confetti won't move around at all.  I used red glass beads for my project.

 Next add some confetti.  I used hearts and cupids as well as an opaque round confetti.  You can get the confetti at dollar stores seasonally or in party stores.  I have quite a collection of seasonal confetti now!

Keeping the confetti at the top of the globe place the base on and applique it down.  I used a red thread and the blanket stitch again.  The appliqued base will seal off the bottom of the snow globe so that the confetti won't fall out.  I squared my fabric down to 8 1/2" at this point.

Cut 2 strips of red fabric at 1 1/2" for your first boarder.  And, cut 2 strips of your background fabric at 2 1/2" for your second boarder using the 2 1/2" strip die.  Place the 4 matching hearts in the corners over your first boarder and glue down.  Applique the hearts down - I again used the blanket stitch using red thread.

Layer your quilt and quilt as desired.  I decided to quilt this really densely and I like the effect on this little wall-hanging.  I decided that my globe base was a little too plain so I free-motion wrote Love on it using a zig-zag stitch and my wide darning foot.

I hope that you enjoyed my little Valentine's Day project!!  If you have any questions please feel free to post them here.

And, don't forget to enter my GIVEAWAY!!  You can find all the information here!

Review of Lapel Stick and a GIVE-AWAY!! (now closed)

 Hello quilters!

The GIVE-AWAY is now closed!  Thank you to all who entered and congratulations to the lucky winners!

I was lucky enough to be asked to do a review of a fabric glue stick called Lapel Stick.  I have mentioned this product in my Valentines Fabric Postcard blog post to lightly fuse the hearts down and I really liked using it for that purpose; but, I thought that I would try Lapel Stick in a couple of less obvious applications.

First I thought that I would really challenge test this product to see how strong it was by using it to hold my binding down when I bring it to the front to machine sew on the binding.  I was very skeptical that this glue stick would be able to hold the binding down since you really have to hold it with pins or clips.  I applied the Lapel Stick to the binding and then folded it to the front and pressed it down with my hand.

I removed my hands from the quilt and guess what??

 

The Lapel Stick fabric glue was strong enough to hold the binding to the front!!!  I couldn't believe that this glue was this strong!  I then took the quilt to the machine and used a decorative stitch to hold the binding down.  I expected the needle to become gummed up a bit like it does with other fabric glue sticks.  Well, guess what?  The needle was not gummed up at all even after all four sides were stitched down!  I was so pleasantly surprised with this.  The binding remained soft and very nice.  Since this product is water-soluble it will come out in the first washing.  I think I am in love!

I have also tried using Lapel Stick to hold down the sashing strips in my Crazy Short Cut Quilts before I machine sew them down with a decorative stitch.  It worked amazingly well and, again, it didn't gum up the needle at all!  I'll be showing this product to my students in my Crazy Short Cut quilts class for sure!!

 

I next decided to using Lapel Stick to help me miter this border print on my son's quilt top.  I will provide a bit of a mitered border tutorial for you now so keep on reading!!  I sew my borders together - here I am using two borders.  Then I pin them onto the quilt body and sew all 4 sides on stopping 1/4" before the end of the quilt body.  I don't press at this point but I do take the quilt over to my ironing board and tackle each corner one at a time.  Lay out the quilt on the ironing board with the right boarder flat and fold the top boarder up on the diagonal - it will be a 45 degree angle.  Take your time with this step - it will be worth it!

You might want to increase the size of this photo to see the pins in this step.  Since this border print has lots of lines to match up I take my time and line up each of those lines and make sure that they are intersecting properly.  The pins are standing straight up and sticking right into the ironing board.  I do the same thing with the first boarder to make sure that the corners are all lined up.  This step takes a few minutes but it is sooooo worth it to make a spectacular miter.  When the lines are all matched up it really looks like you have multiple borders and it will really enhance your quilt.  Now I know that some of you are probably saying - umm Katrina that's not how you put pins in a quilt!  Don't worry the pins are just holding the position right now and are sticking into my ironing board.

Use your iron and give the areas between the pins a quick press so that you will have a sharp crease in your top fabric.  This step will be important a bit later.

Are you seeing why using your ironing board is so important to the way I miter my boarders?

This is where the Lapel Stick comes in!  I have used other fabric glues at this point that are heat activated and I was never very pleased with how they got really hard and were difficult to sew through.  I was very excited to try the Lapel Stick here.  I use my finger to lift the top fabric up between the pins and dab a bit of the fabric glue in the areas between the pins.  The Lapel Stick really holds the fabric in place.

 

Next remove the pins and take the quilt top to your sewing machine.  There are now no pins in the quilt top at all.  Starting at your stitching line where you stopped 1/4" before the end of your quilt sew directly on the crease that you pressed in earlier.  You may need to increase the size of the photo here to be able to really see the crease.  It is very visible while you're stitching it and the fabric glue is holding the layers together without shifting at all.  Lapel Stick didn't make the fabric hard at all and it was very easy to sew through.  I was extremely pleased!

 

And Voila!  We have a perfect miter!  The miter is still soft and not hard at all.  This will be easy to quilt through!

You will now miter the remaining three corners one at a time.  Once all the miters are done you can press your borders.

I've been doing my mitered borders this way and have always been pleased with the result - I am even more pleased now that my corners are not hard!  Lapel Stick gets two thumbs up from me!

If you have any questions about this little tutorial feel free to post them here and I will do my best to answer them!

Now for the GIVE-AWAY!!! (now closed)

Lapel Stick gave me two tubes to give-away to readers of my blog!!  This is a great product that I really think every quilter should try.

So now how to enter to win one of these tubes - I think that having two lucky winners will be the most fun here:

For one chance to win comment on this post!  Tell us how you would like to use Lapel Stick.  Please make sure that you are not a no-reply or anonymous poster - I need to have some way to contact you!!

For a second chance to win FOLLOW my blog and add another comment.  If you're already a follower just tell me that you are in the comments and you're entered!!!

For a third chance to win blog about my give-away and come back here and leave another comment telling me where I can find your post.

We'll draw on Friday so get entering and Good Luck!!

Also, come on back tomorrow for my special Valentine's Day Accuquilt Go project post!!!  I love the little project I made for Valentine's Day!!

Another Great Quilty Day!

Oh I had a wonderful day today!  I got to teach sweatshirt jackets this morning and I had a great group of women taking the class.  The jackets are all going to be so different and so lovely - I can't wait to see them in a few weeks.  I promise to take my camera and show some pictures next time.  I just love teaching this class because there is no set pattern for the class it is just the method.  And, teaching the method allows people to see that they can do any jacket that they want - the sky is the limit!  I like to teach classes that allow people room for creativity instead of just teaching a pattern.  I think that may be one of the reasons that I am so attracted to teaching Crazy Short Cut Quilts.  there is so much room for individual expression and creativity.

After my class I drove over to my Accuquilt dealer and grabbed the 2 dies I had ordered.  I ordered the 2" square die and the 5" square die.  I wasn't going to order these but after cutting down so many scraps using the rotary cutter I thought - why not - it is sew much easier!  I came home, marked the dies, and started cutting.  What a joy!  So much easier, faster and more accurate.  I love them and am so happy I got them!  I will be demoing the Accuquilt Go! at my next quilt guild meeting and I am looking forward to it - so many of the guild members had never even heard of the Go! before so I think that this will be a great demo for them all - and me!

Another Twister and More Red-work!

 I found a neat pattern online for a Twister Wreath quilt and just had to try it ;-)  The pattern comes out in how the blocks are laid out and it actually not difficult at all!  You can see the lay-out here.  I know that it is well after Christmas; but, there is always next year - and, I figure, it's better to be late/early for next year rather than not doing the pattern at all.  I am going to be teaching the Twister rulers at my LQS and I think that this will be a great shop display for my fall/winter classes this year.  I always get so busy come September that I know I never would have made this if I didn't do the project when the inclination struck!  I quilted this in feathers using Yenmet metallic thread and I just love the effect.  The quilting was the first thing a couple of my friends noticed when they saw the quilt.  I just love metallic thread - it's sew yummy.

I'm still slowly working away on my Granny's Stars quilt blocks.  Because this is a "planned scrappy" quilt, I am laying out each block to make sure that the fabrics are not replicated anywhere they shouldn't be, and, to make sure that nothing gets flipped.  Consequently, each block is getting worked up one at a time.  It's a slower process but I think that it will be worth it in the end.  I have 5 of the 12 blocks pieced and squared up. 

I love the bright red, saturated fabrics in this quilt.  It's really making me happy and working on a red and white quilt in February just feels so right.  I've had these fabrics in my stash for a while (pre-washed and pressed even) but I just wasn't in that place to get going on it.  I think it's because when I re-sized this pattern a lot of the measurements ended up being odd - like 3 3/16" types of things - so I put it off for a long time.  All of a sudden I felt like working on it.  Maybe it's because I've been pulling so many projects out of my quilt closet and making great progress on them?  I don't know why really - but - all of a sudden I really wanted to get to work on it.  So, once again, I decided to strike while the iron was hot and got to work.

Are you like that as well quilters?  Do you have to be in the right place mentally to pick up a project?  Do you stick to one project at a time?  Or, do you work on whatever strikes your fancy?

Lots of Quilting!

Hello quilters!
I can't tell you all how happy I am to report that I can honestly say that I quilted all weekend and i wasn't even on a retreat!!  How cool is that?!

First of all I pulled out my Dessert Nine-Patch quilt that I put away back in November.   I started this way back in August!  You know how it is ~ Christmas projects take precedence at that time of year and I had to put this one aside.  Well I got it out and just couldn't stop working on it.  I finished piecing the rest of the nine-patches and then laid it all out on the floor to arrange it into something pleasing.  I got the lay-out done on Friday night.

Saturday came and I continued to pin the rows together and sew - and pin - and sew.  And yes, once again, I was in my pajamas while sewing.  That's probably one of my favorite things - sewing in my PJ's!

I worked on this until the top was together.  It was a nice relaxing day!

At this point the pattern finishes but I thought that the quilt looks unfinished.  I started going through my stash and found that orangey-yellowy batik that is in some of the nine-patches; but, I don't have enough to do long boarders. So, now I'm toying with the idea of doing pieced boarders.  Maybe a square in a square boarder with the rust in the center.  I do have enough of the darker background batik but I don't think that will be enough of an impact for me.  So I hung this quilt up while I pondered my options.

 Next, I pulled out my red and white quilt.  This quilt has been put away for a while (yes, yes in the closet) with all the fabric washed and pressed and the red-work embroideries finished.  I finally pulled it out and pieced 3 of the 15 blocks.  These blocks are really big! 20.5" unfinished!  I found the pattern in a 2009 Love of Quilting magazine but the blocks weren't big enough to incorporate the embroideries so I re-drafted it in EQ and came up with these blocks.  They are large but I think that that quilt is going to be really nice.

Here's a close-up of one of the blocks.  A couple of the patches look pink in this picture but rest assured they are not pink in real life.

Working with these vibrant fabrics and pure tones of reds and whites is really making me happy.  I love working with a white back-ground instead of cream lately.  For the longest time I worked almost entirely with cream back-grounds but lately I've wanted to lighten things up and work with whites instead.  It's really a nice change and I am enjoying it.

So quilters ~ what did you all work on this weekend??

We Have Winner!

Hello all!!
     I just got back from teaching part one of my Crazy Shortcut Quilts class and I can't wait until part two to see what these ladies create!  Sometimes I wonder who is more excited - them or me - to see their blocks ;-)

     Ok, ok we have a winner!  Thanks to everyone who entered!  We had 31 entries all together and I decided to use the highly technical way to pick one.  I shouted over to my kids "Pick a number between 1 and 31!" and my youngest yelled "11!"  So our winner is Dee!  Congratulations Dee!!  I hope that you will love your prize.

Last Chance to Get in on the Giveaway!

Last chance quilters!  I will be drawing later today for the winner of my Birthday Giveaway!!!  You can still get in the action by traveling here!

I'll draw a name after I get home from teaching my Crazy Shortcut Quilts class!!

Good Luck!

Another UFO Top Done!

I'm on a roll!  I pulled yet another UFO out of the closet today and got to work on it!  My oldest son chose all these fabrics, and the pattern, and pieced the center of this quilt top about 3 years ago.  He did an amazing job with his 1/4" seams and everything - I was so proud of him.  Then he chose a jungle boarder print from my stash and decided that he absolutely had to have it as a second boarder.  I thought - gack! - I have to miter those boarders and they have lots of points to match up.  Needless to say, it got put on a hanger and hung in my quilt closet for a few years.  Occasionally he would ask me about it and I would say that I still hadn't sewn on the boarders yet.

Well today was the day - I pulled it out and got those boarders on - 4 miters on the 2 boarders done at the same time.  It's not that I find miters hard - it's just that they are time consuming.  I am extremely fussy about my mitered boarders and this particular one had a lot of lines to match up and I wanted them to perfectly match up.  So I took my time and spent a couple hours getting the two mitered boarders on and they lay nice and flat now.  I think this quilt is calling out for a variegated thread!

When my son came in, from playing in our newly fallen snow, he was so happy to see his quilt!  I now feel silly for putting this off for sooo long when it honestly wasn't a hard job - just a fussy one.

Quilters do you ever do that?  Put a quilting job off just because you have reached a task you don't love?

Progress on the Plaid Tumbler Quilt

Well I seem to have caught whatever my son had last week.  I woke up at 3 am with a really sore throat and throughout the day I just felt worse and worse.  Just a bad cold ~ a classic cold really.  But, I feel yucky!

I was just out of sorts today so I pulled the plaid tumbler quilt out of my quilt closet.  Remember back in October in 2010 when I cut this out and worked on the lay-out??!!  Well, it has sat in a bag until then.  I needed something to keep my hands busy so I pulled this out and laid it out on the floor and slowly pieced the top together.  It was slow going, not because this is a difficult quilt, quite the contrary; it was slow because I was moving slow LOL!  It was the perfect piecing project for feeling under the weather.  No difficult points or intersections.  It went together quite nicely and I am glad to have the top finished.

Note:  I decided I didn't mind those two pink plaids being on top of each other ~ they are actually different plaids so I decided that since this is a throw I was fine with it!

Can you sew when you feel ill?  Or do you just lay in bed?  I was fidgety today so sewing was a good option  and big blocks were the answer!

Have you entered my Birthday Giveaway??  It ends on Friday so there is still time!  You can catch all the details in this post.

An Accuquilt Giveaway!!

Did that get your attention??!  If you haven't signed up for my GIVEAWAY yet you can do so at this post!  There's a few more days until Friday when it closes so get your entires in.  I'm giving away a great quilt kit and a pattern!

I also wanted to mention a great Accuquilt giveaway over at Sew Cal Gal's blog!!!  She's just finishing a great blog hop of the Accuquilt and EQ design contest and is giving away not only a Go! but also a few dies for other lucky winners who already have a Go!  What a great giveaway!  You should all hop on over there and check it out!  This is a great opportunity!

I also wanted to make sure that you stop on by on Valentine's Day as I will be posting a special Valentine's Day project tutorial for you all as part of the Bloggers Who Have Accuquilt Products Valentine's Day special!  I know that I just posted my Valentine's Snow Globe Fabric Postcards tutorial  but this is one that I will post on Valentine's Day and not before this time ;-)  Everyone seemed to enjoy that tutorial and I had another idea so why not!  I hope that you will join me for it!

Any guesses as to what it is?  Should I give a hint?

A Birthday Giveaway!!! Contest Closed

It's my birthday tomorrow and I thought that I would celebrate here in blog-land by hosting a GIVEAWAY!  Contest is now closed.  Thank you to everyone who entered!

Quilters like fabric and patterns and kits so I thought that I would combine all of these for my prize!  I am giving away a kit for "Daffodil Fairy" which includes all the yummy hand-died fabrics you will need and the pattern to make this beautiful little quilt.  And I am also including the pattern on the left for "Tapestry Quilt."  Both of these patterns are by Catharina Breedyk Law and are spectacular quilts!

Ok here's the fine print!

For one chance to win you can comment on this post.

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 or tweet 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, or leave an email address so I can contact you.

I will do the drawing on Friday February 4, 2011.

Good luck!!

More Scraps???!!! More UFO's???!!

 Maybe I should just stop looking in my quilt closet?  Maybe some skeletons should just stay in the closet?  Anyways, I was looking through my quilt closet a couple days ago and found a few more things I had forgotten about - sigh.

I found a pattern and the fabric to make a couple pillow cases/shams for my sons.  Pre-washed pirate fabric no less!  And a pattern for a very fierce and cool high-heeled stocking pattern.  I had such plans for that stocking pattern LOL!  Well there's always next Christmas right?

Well, it was a good day for me to find the stuff for these shams/cases because my oldest son was home sick with a fever and sore throat; so, I made the shams up and he was able to lay on pirate pillows for most of the day while he slowly started to feel better.  It was serendipity.

The pattern was a store pattern and not a published one and I found a fairly major flaw in the pattern while sewing it.  The pattern is completely directional and they don't mention it at all in the pattern!  Of course I didn't realize that until after everything had been cut and mostly sewn together.  So consequently the pirate map is side-ways.  It's not that noticeable, and my kids don't mind, but, imagine if I was doing a non-kid print?  As a customer I would have been heart broken!  Since doing the pattern I have written that the length-wise grain ends up being the bottom of the pattern.  I like the finished product of the pattern since the case opens up on the back instead of the end; but, wow I wish I knew that ahead of time LOL!  Ahh well the kids don't mind.  And I am sure if I hadn't left this pattern sitting there for 4 years I would have realized it and remembered the store sample better.

Note to self:  Do projects in a more timely manner!

I also found a bag with a book and a whole lot of fabric in it.  It's the book More Elm Creek Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini.  I submitted a couple blocks for the reader quilt that Jennifer does for all her pattern books in 2006.  So of course I bought the book and had great plans to make the quilt "Lucinda's Gift" from the book since my blocks were in the quilt.  I pulled out creams and blues and greens, from my scrap heap, and shoved them into a bag and there they sat since 2008 when the book came out.  I guess I sorted out the whites too because they were in another bag inside that bag LOL!  Now I am trying to decide if I still want to do the quilt or not?  Thoughts??  It's a pretty quilt I just can't decide if I want to actually make it or not.  If the bag has been there for almost 3 years I must not be very motivated.

How do you decide which of your UFO's to actually complete and which to forget about?  This would be a great scrap quilt but I am not sure that I am motivated to do it.  All the strips are cut at 1.5" and I can't help but thing hmmmmmm my Accuquilt Go has a 1.5" strip die available for it. . . . this quilt would be so easy to cut using the die . . . LOL!  Maybe I just want an excuse to buy another die.  So do I put the stuff back in the bag or leave it out for a bit until I make up my mind?  Decisions decisions.

BTW stay tuned - I am having a special give-away in a couple days so check back right here at Sunshower Quilts!

If you are enjoying my blog I hope that you will click FOLLOW under my picture on the right.  I absolutely love chatting with you all so leave a comment or ask a question.

Happy Quilting!!

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!

Pinning the Night Away!

Just because it is a leaders and enders project doesn't mean it doesn't deserve to have a few pins!

Yes that is me sitting there in my pajamas pinning my leaders and enders (L&E) project while watching TV.  I have to admit that I am looking forward to finishing this project.  All those open points where you have to insert a pin to find the point and then pin on either side etc etc ~ well I am getting a little tired of it.  I have my next L&E all ready to go so that's probably a big part of it  LOL!  I honestly don't mind pinning in front of the TV though.  It's easy and relaxing and it really affects the end result of the project.  I think I treat pinning the way a lot of quilters I know treat hand turning the binding to the back.  It's a nice easy bit of hand-work.  Personally I've been doing as many bindings by machine as I possibly can now :-D

Doesn't my hand-full of pinned blocks look pretty?  They are all ready to go and will become L&E now that they are pinned.  It is amazing how many you can do in such a short period of time!  I do like working on another project while I am working on my main one.  Or, should I say, main one for the moment!  I have been working on a few projects at a time for a while now and loving it!  Maybe it's because I have been dealing with my scraps right away, instead of shoving them in a bin, or, maybe it's just that I am in the mood to quilt again.  I don't really know ~ but I can say that I enjoyed pinning tonight.  It made me see the progress that's been made and that the next step is coming up!

I worked on a few different things this weekend and had a great time spending the whole day in my PJ's today.  Decedent I know!

What did you all work on this weekend?  Accomplish anything?  I love to read your comments so don't be shy ~ reply!

Chat soon!

The Twister Baby Quilt is Finished!

 I finally finished the binding on my Twister baby quilt!  While waiting for my Large Twister Ruler to come in I decided to try a tutorial I found online to make your own Twister ruler.  I used 8.5" squares and used my 6.5" square ruler to cut it up again.  Honestly ~ the Twister rulers are much easier to use than the 6.5" square LOL!  The little grippy feet on the bottom of the ruler make life much easier when it comes to re-cutting the quilt top since it holds the ruler above the seams so it doesn't shake or rock.  I would buy a 6.5" Twister ruler if it became available though because I like the size of these blocks.

I used my Accuquilt Go! cutter to cut up some of the left-overs into stars to go in the boarder.  I think that it really high-lights the stars in the blue fabric, and, joy! it uses up some of the scraps!!  Gotta love those artistic opportunities that a quilt technique can present you with!  I used a button-hole stitch to machine applique the stars down and just love them!  My Go! is making me like applique again!!  This was one of the main reasons that I bought the Go!  To fall in love with applique again.

Here's a close-up of the machine quilting I did in the pin-wheels.  I pretty much just tried to emulate the quilting that they did in the book and I love it!  I love to quilt feathers and I love the way that they look so it seemed like a match made in heaven!  All-in-all, though, it makes for a pretty densly quilted baby quilt; but, the batting is so soft so it's not stiff and heavy.  This is just a bit more quilting than I usually do.

I plan to re-do this pattern and use the Large Twister Ruler to do a nine-patch of pin-wheels instead of a 16-patch and see how I like that.  I already have the fabrics pulled from my stash; and, I tell you, it was all I could do to force myself to sit down and finish this binding before I cut into the next fabrics!  Some days my self-restraint is better than others LOL!

So what are you all working on this weekend?

I Already Blew my Resolution!

I can't believe I already blew my resolution about not buying any new fabric unless I absolutely needed it!  I mean it's only January!!  *bows head in shame*  Oh well, I didn't blow it that badly ~ I only purchased 2 meters of Halloween prints and they were in the 50% off bin ;-)  Am I forgiven?

I actually went into the store to buy a bunch of batting today.  Since cotton prices are on the rise I was just recently told that batting would be doubling in price!  Doubling?  Seriously?!  Here in Canada we pay between $10.00 and $15.00 for a cotton blend batting already.  So, I bought 8 meters of cotton batting to compensate a bit.  When I heard that cotton prices were going up I thought ~ that's ok I guess I have a huge stash that I can still make quilts from.  Well duh I never even thought about the batting.  Batting is something that we need for every project and I figured I might as well stock up before the price goes up.  At least I am set for a little while.  Who knows I may go back and buy some of the cotton/bamboo batting.

I do wonder if the rise in cotton prices will make some of the newer batting from recycled materials more popular?  Have you seen these before?  There is the Quilter's Dream Green Batting made from recycled pop bottles.  Has anyone tried these?  I think that if prices continue to rise that natural fibers may be priced right out of the market.  The rise in cotton prices really shouldn't affect the price of this recycled batting.

Weekend Happenings

Hi all!
Here in the Ottawa Valley we got a lot of snow this weekend but that didn't stop us from playing with our new toy!  Yey an out-door fire-pit!  We played with our out-door cooking items; from left to right:  pop corn maker, sandwich maker and hot dog cooker.  Yum!  My youngest was obsessed with this thing all weekend and wanted to be constantly cooking on it LOL!  I love cooking out-doors as much as the next person but keeping an open fire going while the snow is coming down is challenging at the best of times!

I didn't manage to complete anything this weekend but I did putter a lot and do a lot of smaller jobs.; so, this post may ramble a bit.

I  got the chance to try a backing technique that I have never used before.  I was working on a baby quilt, from my stash, and I had this piece of yellow flannel that is perfect for the back except for one thing ~ it wasn't wide enough.  Luckily it was longer than I needed so I cut in on the diagonal and moved the right side down until it was wide enough to fit the quilt.  Pretty cool!  John Flynn came up with this method ~ and there is math involved if you want to do this on a larger quilt ~ but I just eye-balled it and gave it a whirl!  I would do the math if this was for a larger quilt.  I'll show pictures of the finished quilt once it is quilted.

 Here you can see a bit of the baby quilt.  Yes ~ it is another Twister LOL!  I love these guys!  I made my own twister ruler for this one since it doesn't, yet, come in the size that I wanted.  I wanted to start with a block between 5" and 10" so I used my 6 1/2" square to do this.  I can honestly say, though, that if they come out with one this size I would buy it.  I love the little gripper feet on the bottom of their rulers.  It makes life much easier.  I used the excess fabric that gets cut away to make some nice blue stars for the boarder.  Again, I will show a picture once it's all done.

 Next I played around with my 2 1/2" strip bin and used a You-tube video I found on using 2 1/2" strips to make Layered Pinwheels.  You get two mirror image blocks for every set of units so I was just playing with the 6 blocks I made here.  I'm not too crazy about this layout.  This lay-out uses both sides of the mirror image.  I think that if I was to do this I would need some sashing between the blocks.

I think I like the mirror image blocks separated better so that you get the effect of two pinwheels instead of it looking choppy.   These were just some trial blocks to see if I liked the technique.  I do!  The only thing that I will say is that I had a couple pieces of "cheaper" fabric in there aka not quilt shop quality but rather Fabricland quality.  Fabricland is like Joanne's in the USA I think - sorry but I've never been so I'm not really sure.  Anyways, those couple fabrics really stretched under the roller of my Accuquilt Go! machine!  Nothing else did - just those two fabrics.  When I was squaring up my blocks the fabric even shifted under my ruler so I know that it was in fact the fabric and not the cutter that did it.  Some people have commented about fabric stretching under the Go!  I'd have to say ~ check your thickness and quality; and, perhaps compensate with a nice dose of spray starch!  I <3 Mary Ellen's Best Press.

I'm working on the first boarder of my latest leaders and enders project and got 50 of these little guys trimmed and pressed.  just 150 more and the boarder will be ready to piece!

I plan on throwing all those little triangles out ~ I know!  Some of you are cringing at the sight of it LOL!  If you piece minis I would be happy to send them to you just leave me a comment here.  The are 1 1/4" from long flat end to point; so, much smaller than I am willing to do anything with ;-)  With my latest purge and cut phase going on I just can't keep saving things like that. 

And last but not least I cut another 154 3 1/2" square of the background fabric.  Yes, yes I checked and re-checked and checked again to make sure that it was the right fabric!  I actually had to make myself stop checking the fabric and just get cutting.  Once bitten twice shy I suppose?

Now I think I may baste the baby quilt that I am working on so that I can get ready to machine quilt it when the urge strikes!  I have a bit of time yet to complete it but I do want to finish it before the next guild meeting so that I can show all my Twister quilts together.

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What have you been working on this weekend?