Black Friday Starts Today!

Hey Quilters!

Just a quick note to share some amazing deals at Accuquilt!  They have started their Black Friday promotions and they look great!

I know that I will be taking advantage of at least one of these deals!  Hello rags to Riches die set :-D

But seriously the Go! and Baby Go! cutter are on sale for a seriously low price - and I know that many of you have been wanting to get one.  This is also a great time to get that special gift for under the tree!

Ok - time to shop!

Let's Sew!

What do you say?  Is it time to sew yet?

I say yes!

Let's get sewing  for our scrappy Christmas QAL - we'll start with the HST triangles.

You can use any method that you like to make 240 @ 3" finished HST (3.5" unfinished HST) - anything!  You can rotary cut them or die cut them - which ever method you would like.

 

I chose to die cut mine but use what ever method you would like.  In a nut-shell we need 240 HST.  

So this is the first sewing bite.

Any questions - feel free to leave them here.

Do you need the previous clues please look here.  Or look on the tabs section.

Ready - set - sew!!!

Scrappy Christmas Quilt-a-Long - cutting

Ok it is time to get started!  Or, maybe you already have started ;-)  I know that a few of you are still waiting for your dies to come in but I thought that I would go ahead and post the cutting directions so that you can get started with your cutting and/or sorting.  Remember this quilt can be die cut or rotary cut.

Let's get to the cutting directions

For my quilt we will be making 30 of this scrappy block - I love the chains that run through it! 

Each block required 16 square cut 2" of the background and 16 squares cut 2" of your Christmas prints.  So, for the entire quilt you will need a total of:

• 480 squares cut 2" square of your background - this can be scrappy!
• 480 squares cut 2" square of your Christmas prints - this should be scrappy - again I am sticking to the darker Christmas prints and leaving out the lights.

Each block also has a total of 8 half square triangles (HST).  There are soooooo many different ways to make HST out there (and I went over a few in my last post) so you choose your favorite and cut according to the directions.  I am going to die cut so I needed:

• 240 @ 3" finished HST (3.5" unfinished) of the background fabric - this can be scrappy
• 240 @ 3" finished HST (3.5" unfinished) of scrappy Christmas prints

If you are rotary cutting to get your HST you would need to cut squares, drawing the line, and sewing up each side of the line, and cutting in half on the diagonal etc, you would need:

• 120 squares cut 3 7/8" square of the background fabric - this can be scrappy
• 120 squares cut 3 7/8" square of the scrappy Christmas prints

To make it easier to find all the posts I have created a tab in my top bar where I will list all of the step - so if you need to find a previous post it will be easier for you.

If you have any questions please feel free to post them here and don't forget to share your progress on my facebook page!

Ok - ready - set - cut!

Our Scrappy Christmas Quilt!

Here it is!

What do you think?!

I love the way that this quilt looks so much more complicated than it is!  And the secondary stars really pop out once you see the blocks together.

This quilt is a 5 x 6 set and will finish at about 60" x 72" so it would be very easy to make it smaller or larger by adding or taking away blocks - you can choose. 

Are you in for our scrappy Christmas quilt-a-long?  You can see my previous post for the start-up details.  Let's get going and use up lots of scraps!

Scrappy Christmas Quilt-A-Long! Week 1

Ok who is in!???

I had an idea for a scrappy Christmas quilt that I think is going to be beautiful - and - use up lots and lots of scraps!  What could be better?

I thought that we might do this in the quilt-a-long style where anyone that wants to work along side me can so that at the end you will have a lovely scrappy top in time for Christmas.  I have planned this to be approximately 60 " x 72" but you could easily make this larger or smaller depending on the amount of blocks you want.

What do you think?  Sound interesting?

If so let's get going!

Scrappy Christmas Quilt-A-Long - Week 1

 Getting our supplies together!

First let's assemble what we need.  You can rotary cut this or die cut this.  If you are die-cutting this can be cut on the Go!  Baby Go! and Studio machines as well as Sizzix but I couldn't seem to find the Sizzix dies to match what I wanted so you can use Go! or Studio dies instead.

Die Cutting - you will need the 2" square die (Go! 55022, Studio 50602) - or an alternate version) and you will need the 3" finished HST die (Go! 55009, Studio 50163).  You only need 2 dies for this entire quilt!  Yey!

Rotary cutting - you will need the ability to cut lots and lots of 2" squares ;-)  Hehe you know how I love them!  And, you will need to pick your favorite method to make 3.5" unfinished half square triangles (HST) or 3" finished HST.  You can use your Eleanor Burns Triangle Square Up ruler or the Fons and Porter ruler or Thangles - you choose your method and you will be following the directions for the method that you are using - if you are confused by this please let me know and I will try to clarify - basically pick your favorite method and use it ;-)

Fabrics

• Lots and Lots of Christmas scraps!!!  I am sticking to the darker Christmas prints: reds, greens, dark golds, blacks etc.  I want contrast between my background colours and my foreground.  So I am not using lighter beige or golds - just set them aside for a future project.  Think contrast ;-)   Some of these we will be cutting into 2" squares and some into our HST.
• approximately 3 meters/yards of an off white or cream colour - this can be a mix of prints or all one - I have used one solid off-white.  Again, some will be cut into 2" squares and some into HST.
• thread that will blend - I am piecing in an off-white for this project

If you want to get a bit ahead you can start cutting your 2" squares and HST prep.  I will let you know in a bit how many of each you will need.  Remember, this project is to help us use up our scraps so there are going to be lots of pieces!

If you don't want to do Christmas prints you can do a purely scrappy quilt and that will work nicely as well - me I want a Christmas scrappy quilt!

I will give you a bit of time to acquire your supplies - ie get your dies or your background fabric - and then we will proceed to the next step - cutting!

Any questions please leave them here!  Also, please leave me a comment and let me know if you are participating - and I hope that you are!!  You can also share your fabrics on my facebook page http://www.facebook.come/SunshowerQuilts

Happy sorting!

Making Kits!

Hi all!

Ahhh fall!  And, my quilting classes are in full swing and busy.  It's so much fun to have busy classes with fun people in them!  One thing I know from past experience is that I have to stay well on top of my class prep work or I will be frantic the night before I teach - and sometimes I teach 3-4 classes in a weekend!  So, I don't like to fall behind at all.

This weekend (coming) I teach the first of a 3 part Crazy Shortcut Quilts (CSCQ) class.  I have been teaching this class for about 3 years now and it is always fun!  You can see my very first CSCQ here.

I make a little practice kit for every student to take home after the class so that they always have a physical reference to go back to to remember the quilt as you go method from the book.  These little quilt samples take quite a bit of time to prepare as there is cutting and sewing and quilting involved with EACH one!  I love the looks on their faces when they get them though - it's so worth it!

3 years ago I did A LOT of prep for this - I mean A LOT!  Enough prep that I had little samples to give away for three years - and I taught a lot of people!  My sample stack was over 2 feet high!  But, I didn't finish it all - only a lot of it LOL - so I had some unfinished work that I could pick up and finish to make more samples - since I finally ran out.  There were a lot of the little pieced tops and even some battings, backings and sashings cut and prepped.

I spent time today making samples to get ready - and I decided to just finish up everything I had started so that I could have samples for more classes already complete.  But, of course, I looked for a way to stream-line it ;-)

 

After layering and quilting, each of the little quilt sandwiches gets squared up to 5" (for the samples) - and I thought - hmmm I have a 5" square die - I wonder . . . . .

 

I placed the little quilts on the die - these are all quilted with batting and backing - and ran it through my Studio cutter - the Studio can take up to 10 layers so the little quilts were under that.

 

I removed the excess and voila!  Perfect little quilts ready to kit up - and I didn't have to square them up with a ruler!  So much faster!

 

I bundles these into groups of two with the sashing and I am ready to go for 3 - 4 more classes!

I love finding new ways to use what I have to stream-line production like this - yey!

So what did you do with your extra daylight saving hour today?

Candy Corn is Complete!

Hi all!

I was so determined to get my Candy Corn Quilt finished before Halloween that I worked on it a lot!  You can see a short tutorial on the construction of this quilt here.

 

I also had my Go! Club on Saturday, and I was featuring the Tumbler dies so I really wanted to share this with the group.  So, to prevent myself from just showing the top - I loaded it onto my frame.

 

This is how my brain works LOL - I'd rather quilt it then load it again ;-)

 

I had this perfect 40 weight YLI variegated thread that I used for the middle - top and bobbin.  The spirals in the fabric became my inspiration for the quilting design.

 

I quilted the middle in an all-over spiral pattern and I quilted spider webs in the borders in a dark grey thread.  You can't really see the quilting in the borders all that well but it adds great texture - I hope that you can see the quilting!

 

I decided to use some left-over Halloween prints on the backs.  The two main prints have been borders and backs on a couple quilts so it seemed great to use them up on the back of this quilt!  A girl only needs so much Halloween yardage before you HAVE to do something or other with it! Anyways I like the effect of the fabrics on the back and it makes me feel good to use the stash.

I was able to show this at my Go! Club the morning after I finished it and everyone seemed to like it - yey!

So what do you think - are you going to make a Candy Corn quilt?  Or, maybe a table-runner?

Want to do me a favor?  I entered a Halloween quilt contest over at the Warm Company Facebook page and you can easily vote for my quilt by clicking on this picture http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151081917272385&set=o.261044530611534&type=1&theater and click like for me!!!   It will only take a second - I promise!

The Big Little Book of Fabric Die Cutting Blog Tour!

It's finally my day!

I am so excited to be a part of the blog tour for The Big Little Book of Fabric Die Cutting Tips, by Ebony Love, and today is finally my day on the tour!

Why am I so excited?  Because, frankly, we need this book.   It is not another project book - this is an information book!

When I first started even looking at fabric die cutting there was next to NO information out there other than the Accuquilt site itself - and, at that time, there was next to nothing on that site except a basically a catalog of the dies themselves and the two cutters - the Studio and the Go!  As a person interested in purchasing a die cutter I had to really search for information - I had to really try to find information.  I searched YouTube and blogs trying to find reviews and videos and it took a lot of effort.  I finally purchased my Go! from a local quilt shop and dived into die-cutting.  I made a lot of mistakes in the beginning.  I didn't pay attention to grain, I bought dies I still haven't used because I bought what I thought I would use and not what I actually would use.  I thought that I would use the machine primarily for applique - nope!  I use it primarily for piecing - funny huh?  I bought dies that I knew I would use and love (the tumbler, the rag die etc) as well; but, if The Big Little Book of Fabric Die Cutting Tips had been around when I was first purchasing I probably wouldn't have made these mistakes.  The section on which dies to buy is very honest and very helpful.

The Big Little Book of Fabric Die Cutting Tips contains a die-cutter comparison that is very frank and honest and not exclusive to one company.  Ebony focuses on Accuquilt and Sizzix since they are, currently, the two companies that have the most to offer for quilters.  I really like the open discussion of the merits of each brand and which brand and cutter would suit different quilters.  Let's face it - each quilter has a different situation and different needs.  Your quilting set-up, budget and needs will affect your decision as to which cutter to purchase.  Would Ebony's book have helped me here?  You betcha!  Honestly, I still would have made the same choice that I did - but - I wouldn't have waffled for months before I made it and I wouldn't have worried so much about making it.

As I read, The Big Little Book of Fabric Die Cutting Tips, I found myself nodding my head in agreement with many of Ebony's statements - especially her take on the strip cutters.  I laughed out-load when I read her statement that many quilters point to the strip cutters and say what a waste of money they are and that they can cut strips faster with a rotary cutter.  When I first purchased my Go! I was guilty of this myself!  Yes, I admit it, I said this myself.  Guess what?  I was completely wrong!  Strip cutters are so much more than strip cutters and are some of the very BEST and most necessary dies to get!  There is a reason there is a whole chapter devoted to them in the book - they are workhorse dies!

There are lots of great chapters in the book including storage, maintenance, applique, fabric preparation, the rag dies and piecing - just to name a few.  These sections are an indispensable resource for those people wanting to get the most out of their die-cutters!  The information has been compiled, by Ebony, based on experience and by other leaders in the fabric die-cutting community.  Basically with this book you will have the most common questions answered and more - this will save you the hours that I had to spend researching when I first started die-cutting.

Ebony also has a big section on her EDeN system.  I'm not going to re-invent the wheel here though - Marjorie at Marjorie's Quilting Bee has already done a fantastic review of this system that I know you'll want to check out!

You will want to check out the other stops along this tour!

Other book tour stops this month:

• October 16th – Ebony Love, LoveBug Studios
• October 17th – Jennifer Rodriguez, All Things Belle
• October 18th – Marjorie Busby, Marjorie’s Quilting Bee
• October 19th – Michelle Marr, Michelle’s Romantic Tangle
• October 20th – Tammy Tutterow, Sizzix Blog
• October 21st – Patsy Thompson, Patsy Thompson Designs
• October 22nd – Tracy Rampling, The Peony Teacup
• October 23rd – Mary Fons, Hey Quilty!
• October 24th – Barb Gaddy, Bejeweled Quilts
• October 25th – Katrina Chapman Kahn, Sunshower Quilts
• October 26th – SewCal Gal, Insights from SewCalGal
• October 27th – Vanessa Wilson, The Crafty Gemini
• October 28th – Kelly Jackson, I Have a Notion
• October 29th – Connie Campbell, Freemotion By the River
• October 30th – Gene Black, An Alabama Quilter
• October 31st – Ebony Love, LoveBug Studios
• November 1st – Book Launch on Amazon! (but you can pre-order anytime)

If you're on the fence about purchasing a die-cutting system or someone who has a die-cutting system and wants to learn more about it - this is the book for you.

And, if you want to know if you will use your fabric die-cutting system I wouldn't hesitate to say yes!!!  I love my system even more than I ever thought that I would and I love cutting projects i never thought that I would ever make easily.  I also absolutely love processing my scraps soooo fast and easily so that I can actually use my scraps and my stash to make projects - so in fact - die cutting fabric saves me $$$ ;-)

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?