Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I put together the latest door prize. It was given away at the meeting last week and Alison won. I need to send it off, which means, finding a box, addressing it…. You know, the usual mailing tasks.
I really like the tote bag, which is from a pattern by Aneela Hoey, the Kit Supply Tote. It was made by Angela.
Last year, I made a plaid donation top and back with the leftovers from my cousin’s quilt. As you might remember, I was glad to be done with all the plaids.
Wednesday, I helped Tim put the piece on his longarm and he started to quilt it.
He is quilting a combination of squares/rectangles and swirls. He is not doing an all over pattern, but is quilting in the piecing, which I like.
He and I have talked a lot about our tastes in quilting, so he knows I like my piecing to shine. He does all over patterns for some community quilts, but he often does custom for the quilts I have made.
For donation quilts I do not tell him how to quilt them. I let them go after I am done piecing and let him decide the best design. Like Colleen, longarming is really his jam and he is good at it. It is also something he enjoys. I leave him to it. In this case, he focused on the blocks and did a couple of different motifs in the various patches. He combined spirals and rectangles, which I thought looked really good.
I went to have lunch with Tim. I ended up helping him put two small baby quilts on his longarm. One of these was picked up from the guild community quilt project dropoff/pickup time the other day. He thought since the quilts were the same size they could be loaded on the machine and quilted at the same time.
It didn’t quite work out. We still got both quilts on the machine and he was able to finish quilting Patti S’s quilt. The plaid donation top I made was half quilted when I left.
I was impressed with his work on one quilt. I thought he might get two done, but quilting is tiring.
Patti S’s quilt was made from Kaffe Fassett fabrics, perhaps a jelly roll (or Free Spirit equivalent). I know she is trying to clear out her fabric closet, so this might be an older group of fabrics. It is a fun quilt and I thought the quilting would just sink right into it, but the quilting sparked up the top even more.
I like the swirls that Tim used to quilt the piece. I always enjoy watching him work on the longarm. He is so careful and knows so much about how the machine works. It makes me want to try it out, under his guidance, sometime. Shocking after my bad experiences longarming before.
Yes, we wore masks the whole time we were together and both of us are really careful otherwise. We are about the same age so we have awhile to wait for our vaccines. We have, however, kind of ended up in the same bubble and it has helped to relieve the tedium.
I am working on the X quilt and the HSTs at the same time. My iron is acting up so some of my lack of progress has been because of not having a working iron. I have a makeshift solution in place and am making progress again.
I have pressed all of the large HSTS and have a few more small HSTs to press. Since there are only 3 large X blocks, that limits the number of large HSTs with which I have to work. As I said before, I am thinking about adding sashing. Some of my final decision requires looking at all of the HSTs in one place. I have to see them all together and decide if I have enough for a donation quilt or if I need it to be bigger. This current layout is about 49wx35h. Kind of a weird shape, but we will see.
I am also not sure if I want to mix up the large and small HSTs in the same column.
I laid some out together just to see what I thought. Again, I have to see what I think. Also, the layout depends on the sizes I have to work with and I haven’t delved into that problem yet. They all look like they will fit now, but the current layout doesn’t take seam allowance into consideration.
I was thinking that I don’t often write about my dream projects. The last time was in June of last year. This time, I put in photos, not of finished projects, but notes and ideas so you can understand what I am talking about.
Art Institute of Chicago Fusible Applique’ (Ticker Tape Style) Quilt
Art Institute of Chicago Fusible Applique’ (one sheet of fabric) Quilt
Blue Rectangles Gradation Quilt
Blue Lemonade
Easy Street
En Provence #2
Feathered Star Block (or quilt?)
Good Night Irene Quilt
Interlocking Triangles Quilt(s)
Jack’s Chain Quilt
Music Quilt
Pineapple (Hunting and Gathering)
Silk Colorblock quilt
Spin Wheel
Out of the Dream State: Below is a list of projects that were on this list at some point that I actually made or am working on:
I didn’t get a lot of sewing done last week as I was preparing new material for my class. I have always had a great deal of respect for teachers, but I have even more now. Preparing new material for my students takes a lot of time.
The stack of these HSTs, which are being created from cutting the lozenge blocks using the Simple Folded Corner ruler** continues to grow. I didn’t think I would be able to make any kind of good sized quilt, but I think I will be able to make at least a baby quilt. I don’t plan to lay it out like you see above. Depending on how many HSTs there are, I may add sashing between the columns.
I still have a lot of HSTs to iron, so this design will grow based on the number of pieces.
This is definitely not the final design.
**I use affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item
when you click on an item link in my post. There is no additional cost
to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your
clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
Last year at the guild Lynette and I started leading a sew-along with the Ultimate Carryall Bag pattern from Natalie Patton. The pandemic kind of blew the idea out of the water in the sense that we had thought about it. I decided that we needed to get back on track, because people had bought the pattern and cut out the pieces. On Sew Day earlier this month, I went into a Zoom breakout room and gave people a tutorial on making one of the large pockets.
In order to sew along, you will need:
You can find more information at the following links:
Today we are starting to make one of the large pockets. We will work on the front pocket.
Tutorial:
First, mark all of your pieces using the tags that Lynette made.
Next, go through your pattern and mark all references to cut pieces with the numbers Lynette created. If you don’t do this, you will have no idea which pieces I am talking about.
N.B. I am using two different pockets, which use different fabrics, to illustrate this tutorial.
Supplies for this step:
Note: I am just calling out a few supplies. You will need to check the pattern for a full list of supplies
With everything assembled, you should be ready to sew.
N.B.: instead of twill tape, I use ByAnnie’s double fold elastic (AKA fold over elastic). I like the way it matches the mesh and I like the way it folds over exactly in half so I can machine stitch it. If you are using Twill Tape, you will have to bind the mesh in best way you know.
Mesh Pocket
The first step is to bind the top of the mesh pocket. Take the fold over elastic and fold it in half. Use WonderClips to hold the elastic in place.
Using matching thread, sew along the edge of the binding closest to the mesh. I used a straight stitch.
Once that is done, mark the pocket in half and in quarters. I used pins.
N.B.: In the picture on the left, I have marked the mesh pocket in halves and quarters with pins, but I have not yet bound the mesh with the fold over elastic. Ignore the clips in this photo.
Add Mesh Pocket to P2
Clip the bound mesh pocket to the bottom of P2.
You will need to ease the excess mesh fabric into pleats at the bottom of P2.
I used as many WonderClips as I needed to keep the mesh in place. It is a little bit challenging to keep in place. It isn’t exactly slippery, but it doesn’t stick to the quilting cotton like another quilting cotton would. Sew the bottom of the mesh pocket to P2, sewing the pleats you clipped in place as you remove the clips.
After you sew the bottom of the mesh pocket to P2, you will notice that the mesh will look like the picture on the left on the bottom where you have pleated the mesh. This was a little bit of a challenging concept for me to understand. I don’t make many garments, as you know, which may be the reason. Also I had to figure out why to pleat. The pleats give the pocket dimension so you can use it for things that are not flat. You could also make this pocket with vinyl instead of mesh, if you want. I don’t really talk about that in this tutorial, but make the pocket the same width as P2 as bind it with quilting cotton rather than fold over elastic.
Fold P2 down towards the bottom RST. The top of P2 will cover the mesh pocket.
Clip or pin the sides in place to secure. Watch out for the other Wonder clips that you used for the mesh pocket. It would probably be bad if you sewed over them.
Sew down sides of P2 only. The orange lines in the image on the right indicate where to sew.
Backstitch at the top and bottom to secure.
Before turning, I pressed the seams on the sides open, being careful about the mesh. I was also careful not to press the top fold yet.
Turn P2 right sides out.
Press again, watching out for the mesh. ByAnnies mesh doesn’t seem to melt when pressed, but I was still careful.
Also, now press the top fold.
I pressed the bottom seam allowance inside the P2 pocket and sewed it closed when I sewed P2 to P1, which I will talk about in the next tutorial.
P2 is now finished. In the photo, I have already sewn it to P1, but I will talk about that next time.
Use the seam allowance indicated in the pattern. Tip: Natalie, the designer, sometimes switches seam allowance sizes so pay attention to those directions.
I made two of the P2 pockets and put them on both sides of this large pocket, using the same directions. In the next tutorial, we will sew the P2 pocket to P1 and add the zipper.
I was looking at this photo again and kind of wishing I had bought this set of dishes.
I like the shape of the gravy boat.
I originally wrote this to support Bay Area Modern‘s various swaps and activities. Once their new website was live, the blog was discontinued. I think this is a useful post (and not just because I wrote it!), so I decided to rewrite it, update it and post it here.
Please note:
Apron
Backpack
Bath bombs tutorial
Bionic Gear Bag
Board/ruler bag
Boxy bag
Bunting
Camera case wristlet – pattern
Camera pouch – pattern
Camera strap – tutorial by ikatbags.com
Catch All Caddy by ByAnnie
Car trash bag – pattern
Car ditty bag – tutorial
Cargo Duffel 2 – Noodlehead revised tutorial on the Robert Kaufman site
Casserole carrier- Sew Sweetness pattern
Cell phone sling
Changing pad – pattern (make sure your giftee has a baby!) Might be useful to look at my vinyl tips and tricks page.
Checkbook cover tutorial from SewVery
Clipboard (fabric covered) – tutorial from SewVery
Clutch bag – pattern from Clover & Violet
Coasters
Coin purse
Cold pack tutorial from SewVery
Composition book cover tutorial from Hip to Be a Square
Craft organizer tutorial
Cup holder/ coffee cozy
Cushions / Throw pillows
EPP Travel Kit
eReader /Tablet bags and cozies
Eye pillow / Eye mask
Fabric basket (One Hour Basket)
Fabric boxes
Floor pillow – tutorial from SewVery
Garment bag tutorial from Sew4Home
Gift card holder -Little Wallet pattern from Valori Wells
Glasses case
Grocery bag
Hanging toiletry Basket (pattern found in In Stitches book)
Happy Birthday banner
Heating pad/ rice pack
Holiday banner
Idea pouch (pattern by Michelle Patterns) – holds notebooks, pens, pencils, etc
Iron Caddy
Ironing Board Thread Catcher + Tool Caddy tutorial
Jewelry
Jewelry roll
Journal cover
Keychain
Lanyard (tutorial)
Light switch plates (covered) – tutorial from Craft Buds
Luggage tag tutorial from Clover & Violet
Manicure roll-up bag tutorial from Hip to Be a Square
Mask
Mini ironing table (pattern/tutorial)
Mini quilt / wall hanging
Mug rug
Name tag
Napkins
Needle safe
One Hour Basket (One Hour Basket pattern)
Pattern weights (tutorial/pattern)
Pencil case
Pencil roll (The Pink Chalk version is an excellent pattern)
Pencil pouch – tutorial from Craft Buds
Pillowcase
Phone sleeve
Pincushion
Placemats
Potholders
Project bag
Purse
Purse organizer
Remote control organizer
Sash with Beaded Fringe (pattern found in In Stitches book)
Scissor Sheath (tutorial)
Sew Together Bag pattern
Sewing machine cover
Sewing Organizer Bag – handwork tutorial
Sketchbook cover tutorial
Sleeping mask (pattern found in In Stitches book)
Softies
Stitching folder
Table runner
Tablet cover/stand
Tea cozy
Tissue box cover tutorial from Craft Buds (you might want to include a box of tissues so the giftee knows the size)
Tissue holder
Tote bag
Wallet
Water bottle strap
Wrist pin cushion
Zipper bag
Zipper pouch
There are numerous other resources with multiple projects, including:
**I use affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
I made good progress on Sunday after getting a good selection of squares cut late Saturday.
Although everything went along very well, I finished up sewing on Sunday somewhat dissatisfied. I think I felt like I figured out the sewing and was done, but here was a bunch of pieces on my design wall that were not a quilt top.
I turned off the sewing machine and lights and left the room. I ate dinner, worked on my puzzle and thought about this quilt.
I decided that one issue is that I don’t want to keep it. I am making it because I wanted to use the Pop Parade by Metro for P&B Textiles fabrics. I also think the design is clever. Still, I don’t want to keep it and didn’t know who should receive it. I have four-ish more quilts to make in the Niece-phews series. None of the people who will be getting a quilt seemed right for this one. I thought about giving it the YM. He is always up for a new quilt. Finally, I received an email from a friend. She is going through a tough time and needs a quilt. Voila!
This quilt is also a cautionary tale about saving fabrics for the perfect project. When I bought Pop Parade, I was pretty excited about them. Now, not so much. The dots are great, the other motifs are great, but the colors are somewhat dull. I see it especially in the pinks. I prefer bright clear colors.
I didn’t have enough of the Pop Parade to make this quilt, so I added in some other fabrics and that makes the overall look better. I love the text and low volume fabrics I am using for the background. I was kind of upset I had chosen those if the quilt wasn’t going to someone I like as I am using up large pieces of them. Now I am excited that my friend will receive it. I am sure she will like it.
As you probably guessed from the Folded Corners Ruler tutorial, I am generating a lot of triangles. As the triangles are cut off the squares, they are ready to sew into Half Square Triangles.
So, I sewed them into HSTs. I couldn’t think of a design, so I put some of them up on the design wall so I could look at them. Now I have an idea of what I might do with them. I don’t think they will fit together as is, so I have to add some sashing or something.
The picture shows only a small fraction of what I have sewn so far. Depending on how large the final piece is, I may donate it to the guild. However, I might make it a Niece-phews quilt.
I have rummaged through my dots drawers numerous times since I bought Pop Parade by Metro for P&B Textiles. Recently, the collection caught my eye and that is what I am using for my latest quilt.
This quilt is from the book Quilt Big** by Jemima Flendt. I tried to borrow it, but nobody had it, so I ended up getting a deal on it in Kindle format.
This quilt had a rocky start. The Kindle format didn’t make for easy reference to the pattern. I finally figure that out and started cutting, but got confused by the directions, so I pulled all the fabrics I planned to use, then started cutting again. That made more sense, but not a lot. My confusion continue. Finally, I printed out a copy of the layout, looked up the sizes of squares I needed and cut using those two aids. After figuring out the folded corners ruler, I sped along.
I made good progress on Saturday. I thought I might finish cutting and sewing the blocks together. HAHAHAHA!!! There was a lot more cutting than I anticipated. I guess I got oriented to the pattern on Saturday.
I bought Doug Leko’s Folded Corners Ruler** awhile ago but didn’t have a reason to use it until Saturday. I started working on the X Quilt last week. I was really struggling with the way the pattern was written. After reading a Bonnie Hunter post about Valentine’s Day where she mentioned this ruler**, I dug it out. I watched a video, started using it which resulted in the X quilt process moving along. I also felt happier.
Folded corners are often referred to as “flippy corners”. This ruler makes them easy. I was amazed to find that they sew up perfectly. I watched the Fat Quarter Shop video demo to get me started.
First you need the two squares indicated in your pattern. I used a 6.5 inch square and a 3.5 inch square. These sizes came straight from the pattern. These sizes were one of three pairs of sizes I needed to make the quilt. I used the same process on all the sizes and it worked perfectly regardless of size.
My smallest sizes were 3.5 inch square and 1.5 inch square (for the corner). I was concerned that the 1.5 incher would be too small, but it worked just as well as the others. N.B. I did have to make sure that the small pieces did not get caught in my machine, but it was made easier because there were no dog ears. Doug Leko does have a mini version of the ruler** I mentioned, but I don’t have it and didn’t’ investigate the differences. I also noticed that Creative Grids has a ruler that purports to do the same thing**.
Make sure right sides are together. Line up your squares so the corners are straight. You do not want to see the bottom square on the top or right when the pieces are lined up.
The above step requires fairly accurate cutting. By that I mean your square should be square.
Place the ruler** on the two squares. Line up the solid line on the left and the XX line on the bottom with your top square.
When you line up the ruler, there is a solid line on the left. It is the first solid line on the left and connects with the diagonal line. This is the line you place on the left side of the smaller square. The diagonal line should be corner to corner.
Cut on the diagonal. The ruler includes the diagonal seam allowance. This is a great feature of the ruler so you don’t have to guess where to sew like you do when drawing a diagonal line. Also! No drawing of diagonal lines. I have a lot of corners to add for the X quilt so this is a bonus. It saves me a little time.
I like to pin, then I sewed along the diagonal.
Press.
Perfect! You might think that I picked the most perfect one, but I didn’t. First, I didn’t know what was going to happen when I started taking photos for the tutorial. With very few exceptions all the corners came out lined up perfectly. Where they didn’t (1 or 2 only), I think it was because I didn’t press the fabric properly or didn’t cut accurately.
The whole block came out really well, too.
I love the idea of specialty rulers. I often buy them with hope and don’t take the time to learn to use them. Or they turn out to be not as promised- not as helpful, hard to use, etc. This ruler works really well. I am super pleased not to have to draw 2 zillion diagonal lines!
**I use affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item
when you click on an item link in my post. There is no additional cost
to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your
clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
Alison also quilted Ends n.9. It is an appropriate quilt to post on Valentine’s Day because of the colors.
Like Blue Strips n.2, this will be donated to the Project Linus project near where Alison lives.
I forgot about this one even though it was the last one that I made. It makes me think that I need to look and see if I have some more ends that need making into a quilt.
Alison sent me some photos of Blue Strips #2 after she finished quilting it. Since Alison is in Oregon now and the guild doesn’t want to incur the costs of shipping the quilts back for donation. Alison found a good Project Linus group who is getting the quilts she quilts. I am pretty pleased that she was able to quilt this one. I’d like it to be used as soon as possible. She was kind enough to send a bunch of detail shots as well.
