Class Samples

Every year I make myself the same promise - I will get my class samples done, for the fall, in the summer!  And, regrettably every year I cram at the end - last minute LOL!  I am almost finished and I will have more blog posts for you; but, I thought that I would share a quick post to let you know what I have been doing.

Sorry the pictures are dark but you'll get the idea I am sure!

This fall I will be teaching several classes using the Accuquilt dies as well as the regular Accuquilt Go! Club that I teach and I needed to get my samples finished.

I had been making great progress with lots of them and then I remembered that I needed to get another one finished.  I already had the fabric washed and prepared I just needed to cut.

So cut I did and of course that went quickly

 

All the lovely little triangles, perfectly cut and ready to go!

Several hours later I had all the units ready to go together into the blocks.

 

I am making the Storm at Sea pattern that comes with the 1.5" Finished HST die.  I thought that it would be nice for the participants if they didn't have to purchase a pattern for the class as well as the dies.  So far I am very happy with how it is turning out!  I love green and blue colour combinations and the Kona solids are so nice to work with!  Now to pin these rows together.

Once I finish this top I will be loading 3 different tops onto my frame and quilting up a storm!

I have more pictures to share with you once I get access to my husband's phone - he took pictures of me quilting on my travel machine while we were at a lodge on vacation - LOL!   I know, I know - but I honestly got a lot done and it didn't take up that much room once I packed everything correctly; and, believe it or not - I got a lot done!

What do you think?  Do you like my idea for a class?  Are you interested in die cutting classes or are you content to work from home?

Chinese Coins

Hi all!

I finished a UFO from my quilt closet the other day and I am fairly happy with how it turned out.  The biggest thing I am happy about is that it is finished more than anything.

This is a traditional "Chinese Coins" quilt - very simple pattern.  I completely cut this using my Accquilt strip dies.  The strip sets and sashing were made with the 2.5" strip die and then sub-cut with the 4.5" strip die.  It was a very easy pattern for a lap quilt.

 

What got me to finish this quilt was that I purchased another groove board from Loricles called "The Egyptian Eye" and it is the perfect quilting motif for the simple lines of this quilt.   I absolutely love the texture it creates!  I know that I will be using this board over and over again - I think it's my new favorite.

 

You can see the quilting a little better in this photo - so cool!  This will be a great quilt for summer :-)

I used 40 wt Fil-Tech Glide thread top and bobbin in white and I love the subtle shine of the thread.   It is my new go-to thread.  I have very few problems with it and the pre-wound bobbins last forever.  When I have to wind a bobbin myself now I realize how spoiled I am with the pre-wounds.

Yard Sale Find of the week!

The quilting yard sale gods must really like me!  I went to some yard sales again this morning and I came away with this!

 

It is a rolling stool!  I have wanted one for a long time to use in front of my longarm for doing detail work.  But I just couldn't justify the large price tag for a saddle stool.  well today was my lucky day.  I was able to get this dental stool at a yard sale for  - wait for it - $2.00!! I couldn't say no to that for sure!  I just saved myself a couple hundred dollars - and if I am not nuts about it eventually - hey it was only $2!

Night Sky Tablerunner is Finished!

Hi all!

I am so happy to report that my Night Sky test-run table-runner is finished!  t was a sucess in that i got to test the quilting that i was thinking of doing.  And it was a failure in that  really don't like how  quilted it LOL!  Since my Bridal Wreath Spireas are in full bloom I thought that I would try to capture them in the shots.

 

I do like the table-runner over-all.  I mean it will work - it will sit on a table perfectly well -I just have no desire to quilt the whole quilt like this.  I think it is too fussy without enough differentiation between the size of the quilting elements.

 

This is a better shot so that you can see the quilting in the stars - I like that part very much.  It was inspired by the quilting that Angela Walters did.

 

In this shot you can see the background fills more if you zoom in.  Not crazy about the pebbling (and I love pebbling!) but not in this case.   Time to re-think and try something smaller ;-)  All in all its is a nice runner and a great test piece!

A Yard Sale Buy!

Hi all!

I hope that you are all enjoying the nice weather and spending a bit of time outside!  This morning my Mother and I decided to go yardsaling and we had a blast!  It's always fun to see what is out there and we get to spend some time together sans kids!

This morning I was at the yard sale of a quilting friend of mine and she happened to be selling this!

 

The Elna Press Alize! 

 

Here it is open.  I have wanted one of these for a while to press out my finished rug hooked pieces.  Even though it was a reasonable price I at first hesitated.  But, after I got home I thought - why not!  So, I went back and grabbed it..

I had a spot in my sewing studio that was pretty much just covered in what ever I needed to throw somewhere that turns out to be the perfect spot for it; so, I cleared it off and it fits perfectly.

I switched it on and wow does it do a great job of quickly pressing those blocks and units.  I know that I will be very happy with this addition :-)  My husband is also happy b/c he will be able to iron his work shirts LOL!!

I love yard sales :-D

Scrappy Trips is Finished!

Done and done!  Quilted and bound!

  

Scrappy Trips is finished and ready to be donated.  I am very happy with how this turned out.  I am extremely thrilled with how many scraps this used up.  My 2.5" strip bin is nearly empty after my New Years mystery quilt and this one.  I backed this with a large piece of flannelette I have had forever and didn't really have any use for but didn't want to get rid of.  Even the binding was EXACTLY the right amount to bind the quilt with very little left-over.  Awesome!  I think that I will try to keep one of these on the go to be donated.

 

Here's a close-up of the quilting I used my loricles swirls grooved board and  a 40 weight variegated cotton thread top and bobbin.  I have to say - after working with Glide thread so much I forgot how temperamental and linty cotton thread can be!  Don't get me wrong I still like it but you definitely cannot move the machine as fast as with the Glide thread. 

I am really enjoying doing these charity quilts again.  I feel like it is a win-win situation.  I use up scraps, get to quilt; and, I am not storing yet another lap quilt that I honestly don't need.  I mean really - how many quilts does a girl need?!

Sick Day Sewing

Hey all!

I have a wicked spring cold and it has really taken me down.  I can't do anything requiring strength or deep thought  and that has resulted in me being extremely bored!  I wanted to do some sewing but I don't feel up to doing too strenuous.  I remembered my Scrappy Trip Blocks (Bonnie Hunter inspired!) and thought that I would sew some together of them for a charity quilt.

You wouldn't believe how long this took me to do LOL!  It was like I was sewing in slow motion.  It is a little bit big for a Victoria's Quilts but I think they will still accept it. 

Hmm now to find something else to do.  Are you able to sew while you're not feeling well?  Any suggestions?

Testing the Quilting

Hi all!

What a fine, rainy day it is today!  It is the perfect day to stay in your pajamas and play if you ask me!

I have been wanting to get quilting on Night Sky but I was a little apprehensive because what I want to do is a bunch of techniques that I haven't done a lot of before.  Then I remembered the left-over blocks from the quilt!

I grabbed the blocks and pieced them together into a runner so that I could test-quilt without the pressure ;-)  These are the less than perfect blocks so if it's not perfect I won't be too upset at myself.

I decided to double layer the batting as well; cotton on the bottom and silk on the top to see how I like quilting with a double layer - might as well try it out here and not on the quilt!

 

Now I am just laying out a few different threads to see what colours I like and then I can get to work.  I think I have everything I was needing for this quilt, sigh, I was really hoping that I could justify some thread purchasing LOL!! Maybe next time.

So any thoughts about the threads?  I am envisioning some pretty heavy quilting on this one so it should be fun to see where it all goes!  Time to bring over some more light so I can see on the black.

Snack Time - Converting a Pattern to Die-Cutting

Hi all!

Ever since I finished the Night Sky top I felt like making another one of Julie Herman's patterns; so, while I was at my LQS I picked up Snack Time.

 

Isn't it cute!?  I started to really look at it and thought - hmm that looks like it is put together the same way that Accuquilt uses the equilateral triangles to piece hexagons into horizontal rows!  That got me to thinking about this quilt.  

I am often asked by newer die-cutters how to know when they can die cut a project and how to know which die to use.  I will explain my process of how I converted this pattern from rotary cutting to die-cutting.  It is much easier than you think!

Sometimes, it is easy to convert a pattern because it is all in strips and you can figure it out easily; but, sometimes a quilt is made with different shapes, like Snack Time, and you are uncertain how to proceed.  Sometimes you just need to follow the directions and cut one of the shapes and then see if you have the corresponding dies.  Sometimes, it is easier than that!

 

This pattern uses either the templates provided or the Hex N More ruler.  I LOVE it when patterns provide templates!  Look at those shapes - they look an awful lot like some die shapes I own! I used my dies and cut paper shapes and compared them to the template shapes.

 

So I grabbed some of the new Go! die release and the old hexagon die and compared them.  I used my dies and cut paper shapes and compared them to the template shapes.  They were not exactly the same size but close enough that it would still work and because all of these dies work together I knew that the blocks would go together!

The dies I used are:

The Go! Hexagon die

The Go! Half Hexagon die

The Go!  Equilateral Triangle 4.5"

Again, these are not exactly the same size but they work in the end!  When you first start converting patterns you have to sometimes take a leap of faith and try one block - it gets easier with practice.

 

See how pretty they are turning out!  This will be a nice, cheerful quilt when it is finished I think!

Night Sky

Hi all!

It is finally starting to look like spring here!  I can't even tell you how excited this makes me!  I think everyone has had a long hard winter and we're all anxious for some heat.

I have been busy sewing away on my Night Sky Quilt - the pattern is by Jaybird Quilts and uses her Sidekick ruler.  Well, finally the top is finished!!

What do you think?  I am really pleased with the way that it turned out!   I loved the colours in the pattern so we stuck pretty much to them for this quilt and I love the way that the colours sizzle.  It makes me think that spring is indeed coming - someday.

You know that I love to die cut; so, I figured out a way to die cut a pretty fair amount of the project so that I would have to rotary cut!  I was able to use my 3.5" strip die for all of the initial cuts - yey! - and use the same strip die for the diamonds by marking the 60 degree lines - big yey!  However, I couldn't figure out a way to cut the star points without quite a bit of waste :-(  So, for those, I had to use the sidekick ruler.  But, the blocks are framed in 1.5" strips so I was able to cut all of those without and problems. 

I really enjoyed this quilt and the challenge of putting it together.  I love that Julie writes he patterns for the more experienced quilter as well - not everything is spelled out in minute detail - she assumes that we do indeed know a few tricks and that really makes me happy. 

I was so happy with this quilt that i dropped it off at my LQS today, to be a store sample, and, I purchased another one of her patterns called Snack Time.  I think I might be able to die-cut the entire thing!!!  I will keep you posted ;-)

Cutting

Cutting, cutting and more cutting!

This is what I have been doing when I can.  Life has been crazy busy and I haven't had as much time as I have wanted to sew.

I am working on Jaybird Quilts' quilt Night Sky and loving all the solids!  The quilt uses her Sidekick ruler; but, I figured out a way to cut quite a bit of it using my Studio cutter!  I was able to cut all of the 3.5" strips, using my strip cutter; and, using the strip cutter again cut all the parallelograms on the right.  That was easy peasy!  I could figure out how to cut the triangles using the die cutter without quite a bit of waste so I used the ruler.

 

Sigh, when you are accustomed to die-cutting - rotary cutting takes forever and the rulers are so slippery!  I used True Grips on the bottom of the ruler and that helped but wow cutting those triangles took forever and a day :-)  And, I had to re-cut a couple of pieces because the ruler slipped and they were inaccurate.  I know - I am spoiled by my Studio cutter ;-)

Oh well, now the cutting is complete and I can get to the sewing!  I can't wait to see these colours come together!

Raggy Rectangle Trick!

Hi all!

I know I haven't blogged for a while!  I caught the virus that has been going around here and frankly I haven't felt like doing anything much or that I could do much :-P

I had my Accuquilt Go! Club yesterday and we featured the rag dies.  I pulled out my bin of orphan rag blocks to take with me and saw just how many of them I have and thought - I wonder if there is enough of like colours for a little quilt?  So, last night I made this.

 

A nice little lap quilt good for the Christmas season.  Needless to say this used quite a few of those orphan blocks and also some Minecraft Creeper Quilt scraps - yey!  This quilt uses the large and small rag squares and the now discontinued rag rectangle (the Go! is discontinued but the studio one still exists).  I have often thought that it was a real shame that the Go! rectangle was discontinued as it works so well with the other two dies and you can make so many different patterns with it.  This one is a sort of Take-5 Variation and it is wonderful for using up bits :-)

 

Here is the old rectangle next to the old large square.  One day I was looking at these and thought - hmmm, I wonder . . . . . 

 

If you cut a 5 1/4" strip from your flannel fabric (or whatever you are using) fold it in half lengthwise and then lay it across the LARGE rag die right next to the blades.

 

You only need to cover the are of the die that you are using with your cutting mat and run it through your cutter.

 

Unfold your fabric and there it is!

 

You have an exact replica of the raggy rectangle without the die!  If you are using the newer rag dies this would have the corners cut out but that's not what I have (so I would manually cut these out myself).

So there you go!  A little quilt and a new trick.  Enjoy!

Pattern Testing Pillow

Hi all!

I hope that you are all enjoying your winter, or, at the very least, getting some sewing done while spending time indoors - I know that I am!

I am trial testing a pattern to teach a class on it.  I was attempting to die cut some, if not all, of the pattern instead of doing it all with rulers and templates.  I can die cut some of it at least!  Yey!

I made one block and really liked it so I thought that I would make it into a pillow - just to do something with it.

 

I think this looks good on my sewing chair.  And, I think this might just be it's new home.  I like the hexagon shape instead of square and the size is nice and small so it's an accent.  

The pattern is Jaybird Quilts Night Sky pattern.  What do you think?

Unidentified Bag in the Closet

I was looking for something in my UFO closet today and found this in the far back corner.

 

A really small bag with some fabric in it.  Huh?!  When did I put that in there.  I don't remember any of it LOL!

 

I opened up the bag and found some all blue 16-patches.  I vaguely remember these . . . . and some other squares and a piece of paper.

 

There is a patter from the 2008-2009 guild year for snowballs along with squares to cut them out using the stitch and flip method.  Hmmm.  Starting to remember this more now.  I sort of remember thinking to match the 16-patches up with some snow-ball blocks to make a scrap quilt.  It must have seemed like a good idea at the time because I packaged it all up for another day.

But, I must have had this idea before I understood quilting math very well LOL!  You see, those white squares are 2.5" and they will not match up with the 2" cut squares in the 16-patches.  I will end up with the HST not aligning with the squares.  This wouldn't bother some people, and I don't think it would have bothered me 5-6 years ago when i put this leaders and enders project away; but, this would really bother me now - silly I know but it would!

 

I remembered the snowball die that Accuquilt sent me and pulled it out.  This is a cool die that cuts all the shapes so that you have no trimming to do after you piece.  I like that!  Maybe I will play with the large blue squares and this die and make a snowball project.

I like the concept I had for a 16-patch, snowball quilt but I really don't like the values I chose here.  I think this would be MUCH better if the snowballs were white and the tips were blues, and, the right size for me ;-)  I think that would make a cool secondary pattern with nice contrast.

So, I think what I found was in fact not one but two little projects in my UFO closet.  Sigh!  How can one little bag hold so much stuff!?

New Years Day Quilting

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope that you all had a great and safe New Years celebration and that, if you're in this area, kept warm!  It was -35 C today and that is COLD!

I spent New Years day as I did a couple of years ago making the Merry Mayhem's New Years Day Mystery quilt.  They gave us the first clue well ahead of time to do the prep work, and, when I saw that it was scrappy I JUMPED in with both feet to get rid of some scraps.  So, I spent New Years Day piecing this.

It used up so many small scraps out of my 2.5" strip bin and that made me very, very happy.  Between that and my other 2.5" strip project the bin is almost empty!! :-o  I know shocking.  Since I, frankly, had no need or place for this quilt I thought that it might be nice to donate it; so, now that the quilt is completely finished: it is quilted and bound and off to Victoria's Quilts to go to someone in need of comfort.  I know that the borders are uneven but I added them to bring the quilt up to the size that they like which, for this chapter is 50" x 70"

 

Here is a close-up of the quilting.  I used my Loricles Baptist Fan board again and I love the effect it gives - it makes the quilt look so vintage!  I backed it in a plaid homespun flannel out of my stash - yey!  It is quilted in 40 weight YLI cotton thread top and bobbin.  It went very smoothly and I think that the quilting really adds to the quilt.

So, what do you think?  Will this quilt make someone happy?

Do you plan on any charity quilting this year?

Fall Logs

Hi all!

On this the last day of 2013 I thought that I would share another almost finish.  I played with my new Babtist Fan  Loricles boards last night and completed the quilting on my Fall Log Cabin quilt.  This quilt was so easy to quilt since it was so flat; and, I would love to take all the credit but I have to credit the fact that this quilt was almost entirely die-cut and it is just so much easier to piece when the cutting is correct - funny that LOL!

 

I am quite happy with how it turned out and I love the texture the Baptist Fan quilting adds.  Since this will be a bed quilt I didn't want to add too much quilting to it which would stiffen it up.  Too bad it's not fall any longer or this would be going on the bed ASAP!

Here's a close-up of the quilting.  I finally got the spacing down by the end of the quilt and I know that this template will be used and used and used by me :-) 

I used 40 weight FilTec Glide thread top and bobbin in Warm Grey.  In retrospect I think a shade of darker grey thread would have been a better choice but hey!  This is a scrap quilt destined for the bed and not a show and done is better than perfect, right?

 

I pulled this beautiful batik wide-back out of my stash and I think it is a perfect fall-looking backing for this quilt.  I was also able to pull a Warm and Natural batting from my stash and it worked perfectly for this quilt.  I love it when I can pull from my stash :-)

Happy New Years Eve everyone!

Playing!

Hi all!

Last night I decided to play a bit with my swirls Loricle board and I have to say that I love the effect!

 

I pieced this baby quilt top ages ago but I could never decide how to quilt it.  I wanted to play with my strip dies but I didn't want to commit to a full quilt so I made a baby quilt top with no clear destination.  Since the piecing is so simple I didn't want to overwhelm the quilt with too much quilting and make a baby quilt stiff.  The Swirls template seemed like a great choice.  I love the texture it creates and I think I will enjoy using it.   I hope that you can see it in the picture?  What do you think?

Even More Scrap Quilting

Hi all!

I am seriously on a roll using up scraps lately and it really makes me happy :-) Maybe 2014 will be the year of de-stashing and using up for me.  Wishful thinking probably but I can always dream right?

I have been making great progress with my Scrappy Trips quilt blocks and it has made a serious impact on my 2.5" strip bin.  I am pretty happy with the way that it has been turning out.

 

What do you think?  I think it will make a great bed quilt that can get used and washed a million times.

I also plan on doing the Planet Patchwork New Years Day Mystery Quilt.  I did this a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it.  If you haven't heard of it before the clues are released every couple of hours and you sew along with them and by the end of New Years Day you have a quilt top!  This year the pattern is scrappy so I jumped at doing this one as well.  Here is the link if you're interested in sewing along with me :-D

The pattern is written for rotary cutting but I converted it to die-cutting.  The top required just 3 dies: the 2.5" square die, the 2" finished HST die and the 6" finished HST die if you're interested in die cutting the mystery quilt too.  I was absolutely thrilled that I was able to use even more of the strips in my 2.5" strip bin and some random large pieces of fabric for the larger HST.

 

Everything is sorted and ready to go for New Years Day!!

I also made another purchase for my quilting frame.  I have tried to do pantographs; but, frankly, they aren't very fun and every little slip means frog-stitching - yuck!  i really wanted to be able to do some patterns like Baptist Fans without marking (because I don't like marking).  So, I did some research and found the Circle Lord grooved board templates.  They were an affordable way to do all-over designs without splurging for robotics.

 

They sit on the back of the machine, on the pantograph shelf, and a stylus drops down into the groove.  I played with it yesterday and I really liked the way that it made these patterns easy and without marking.  Since I am making so many scrap quilts lately I wanted to be able to quilt them in an overall design that would enhance the quilt without making it too busy.  I also wanted the ability to quilt these utility quilts quickly and easily without spending a million hours custom quilting them.  I chose 2 boards the Fan Clam (in the picture) since it has two different designs on one board and Swirls since it is so functional.  Now I can get quilting a couple of my scrap quilt tops that are sitting in my quilting closet.  I plan on using the Baptist Fans on my fall log cabin and maybe Swirls on my leaders and enders project.  So, what do you think?

Are you making any scrap projects this year?

Minecraft Skeleton Rag Quilt - A Christmas Present

Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope that you all had a great holiday filled with family and love.  We had a wonderful holiday here with my Mother up and my Father in Law coming up in a couple of days.

I promised my oldest his own Minecraft rag quilt some time ago; but, finding the fabrics was a bit challenging since he was so very particular about exactly what fabrics he wanted.  Since I have made 3 different Minecraft Creeper quilts now I figured a skeleton wouldn't be a problem.

After I got all the fabrics:  3 shades of grey, 3 shades of white (yes really 3 different shades of white!) and two shades of black - easier said then done, I got to work on the quilt and set a goal to get it done for Christmas.  Christmas day came and we opened presents and the quilt was still not finished - it just needed the blocks and rows sewn together.

Christmas afternoon came and I said to myself - get it done Katrina!  So I set to work.

 

I sewed all afternoon and finally finished it.  Into the washer and drier it went and it was on his bed for bed-time.  I met my goal!

Today when his Grandmother asked him what his favorite gift was he said - my Minecraft skeleton quilt.  Ahhh!  I melted and knew that all the Christmas day sewing was absolutely worth it so that he could get a gift just from me for him - especially one that I promised him so long ago!

I actually like this quilt too - it's one of those "so ugly it's cute" sort of deals.

You might be wondering about the layout - this layout is not of my choosing - I let my oldest layout the blocks exactly like he wanted them.  He was very specific about how he wanted it and since this was his quilt I let him LOL!  I would have mixed up the blocks but he told me in no uncertain terms that mixing them up was NOT correct shading and would NOT create the right texture.  Ok, ok I said!  What's a Mother to do LOL!?

I have now made 4 Minecraft rag quilts!  Can you believe that LOL!

So, what about you?  Any Christmas sewing?

More Scrap Quilting

Hi all!

Every year I like to decide on how I will deal with the old to bring in the new!  Fabric that is.  I always seem to have this grand idea that IF I deal with all my scraps and stash that I will feel that I can bring in all new fabrics - ya right, I know.  My scraps seem to multiply over night - sigh.

Well, in the interest of dealing with  my scraps I have decided on a couple more scrap patterns that I will be working on over the next little while.  One I posted about yesterday - my Scrappy Trip Around the World.  I made 10 blocks yesterday to see how I like it overall and I really do!  What do you think?

 

I think this one is really going to use up a lot of my 2.5" strip bin - or at least the larger 16" chunks of fabric.  What to do with the smaller one?  I have a couple of ideas but nothing firm yet.  ;-)

 

I also really needed to come up with a new leaders and enders project for my 2" square bin because it is really starting to overflow again and I wanted to do something new to me.  This is what I came up with - a nice and simple hour-glass and 16-patch quilt.  Easy and creates a nice secondary star pattern.

As an added bonus, I am also able to use up two very large pieces of blue and green hand-dyed looking fabrics that have been in my stash forever.  I like the fabrics but they never seemed to play well with anything else - except as a backing fabric; but, I have always thought that they looked nice together.  Since blue and green is one of my favorite colour combinations this seemed like a great way to use up scraps and stash - win, win!

 

To create this I just used my 2" squares and die cut the 6" finished (6.5" unfinished) hour-glass units (Studio die 50034, Go die 55002).  You can use any technique you might want for the hour-glass units - you can die-cut, use rulers etc. in the end you will achieve the same result.

Why do I like to have my scrap projects decided and lined up?  I like to use up what I have and I like to know where I am going with my scraps.  Plus, I love having scrap quilts on the bed - somehow I feel better sitting on a scrap quilt rather than a planned quilt - silly I know - but hey!

So what about you?  Are you planning any scrap quilts for the New Year?