Tag: Piecing

Sampler Quilt: Basket pt.1

Frances finally let me know she was ready to move on with her sampler quilt. We decided to make the Flower Basket Block, so I sent her the pattern, promised the tutorial and did nothing.

Christmas got in the way.

I wasn’t in the mood.

I had to finish another tutorial.

I have a lot of projects on which to work.

My muse was on vacation.

Finally!

Christmas was over.

I was in the mood.

The other tutorial was finished.

The projects will wait and my muse was back.

I was shocked to find that the last tutorial I did for this project was last year! I really should do them in advance. Perhaps for the next block?

Regardless, I am now ready to show you how to make the Flower Basket block, the next block in our Sampler Quilt Class.

Flower Basket
Flower Basket

These directions are for machine sewing your Flower Basket and include a little applique’, which can be done by machine or hand.

Will you play along?

Complete Supply List

  • Flower Basket Directions & Templates
  • paper scissors
  • mechanical pencil
  • thin Pigma pen (or similar)
  • template plastic
  • glue stick
  • 2 (or more) foreground fabrics
  • 12.5″ x 12.5″ piece of background fabric, which you will cut in half
  • FQ of same background fabric
  • Rotary ruler, including a long one, such as Creative Grids 4.5″x18.5″
  • Rotary cutter
  • Fabric scissors
  • thread
  • pins
  • Stiletto
  • Design wall or sandpaper board
  • sewing machine

Optional

Important information:

  • Block is 12.5″ unfinished, 12″ finished
  • These directions use a quarter inch seam allowance. Check your seam allowance before you begin. If you don’t know how to do that, there are resources available, including one from Connecting Threads and another from Craftsy. You can search the web for others if you don’t like these.
  • You will be directed to use the Triangle Technique. Make sure you have the chart as well as the instructions handy.
  • Respect the bias.

Templates

You really only a need a template for the basket handle. If you are using templates for all of your pieces, then prepare all the templates for pieces in the patterns as directed below.

Prepare pattern for your basket handle template by printing two copies of the pattern. I am telling you to do this first so when you get into the throes of sewing you won’t have to stop and fiddle around with templates.

You will eventually place one copy of the pattern in your binder, but keep it handy so you can use it as reference.

Nota bene: You probably know how to make templates. However, I am including a quick refresher. Look for a comprehensive tutorial soon. (I’ll update this post and link it from here)

  • Rough cut* the handle pattern out of the second printout.
Rough Cut Pattern
Rough Cut Pattern
    • Glue the paper pattern (with seam allowances) using the glue stick (or other suitable adhesive) to the template plastic.
Ok to use scraps of template plastic
Ok to use scraps of template plastic

It is okay to use scraps of template plastic. Put a piece of tape on seam lines to keep the joins stiff.

Fine cut templates
Fine cut templates
  • Fine cut** the paper pattern and template plastic you have adhered so you have an accurate template, cutting off any seam allowance that may have printed.

DSCN0125smIf you plan to machine sew the handle at all, you will want to prepare another basket handle template, in the same manner, without seam allowance.

Fabric

Gather your fabric and press it all. You can rough cut some pieces and press it with Mary Ellen’s Best Press to help deal with the bias. Consider this step for the large background triangle and the basket handle.

Cutting

Flower Basket
Flower Basket

Basket Handle
In my example basket, above (same as at the beginning of the post), this fabric is the medium blue.

Lay out template piece
Lay out template piece

Draw around the template with your black fine tip marker. Rough cut a piece of fabric large enough for your basket handle.

Place template face down on fabric
Place template face down on fabric

Place your handle template right side down on the wrong side of the fabric. Trace around the template carefully with your Pigma pen. Trace carefully without pulling or tugging at the fabric. You will be dealing with some bias on the curves. You will need to carefully move your hand along the template to keep it in place while you trace. Use the Pigma pen with a light touch.

Cut out handle
Cut out handle

Using your fabric scissors, cut around the traced image, cutting the drawn line off. If you are using a template with no seam allowance, leave approximately a quarter inch seam allowance on all sides.

Background:
In my example, above, this fabric is the blue Michael Miller Ta Dot with white dots.

Measure background
Measure background

Measure the template for the large triangle of background fabric. It should be 10″ on each of the outside edges WITH seam allowance. Cut a square 10.5″ x 10.5″. You can trim it later. Better safe than sorry. Press the square with Mary Ellen’s Best Press.

Cut square on diagonal
Cut square on diagonal

Cut the square in half along the diagonal.

Cut the following additional pieces according to the measurements given:

Background fabric:

    • 2 patches: 2.5″x8.5″
Nip off Bunny Ears
Nip off Bunny Ears
  • 1 patch: square 4 7/8″x 4 7/8″. Cut in half. Nip off the bunny ears with the Judy Martin Point Trimmer
  • 1 square: 5″ x 5″. Cut in half on the diagonal and set your second triangle aside
  • Remember: you have already cut the large background triangle
Cut some pieces from extra background triangle
Cut some pieces from extra background triangle

You can cut some of the background pieces out of the leftover triangle.

Foreground fabric:

The foreground fabric is used for the basket. You will need at least two fabrics for this part. In my example I am using a scarlet red and a medium blue. See picture above for placement of foreground fabrics.

    • 1 square: 2.5″ square
    • For the HSTs, you will need 2 squares, according to the Triangle Technique Chart, 6.25″ x 6.25″. Each square should be from a different foreground fabric. See the picture above.
      • Nota bene: The above Triangle Technique only yields 8 HSTs. You can make another set using the Triangle Technique directions and have some extras, or you can cut the triangles themselves
    • 1 square 2.5″ x 2.5″
Cut triangles
Cut triangles
Cut squares in half
Cut squares in half
  • Cut 4 squares 2 7/8 in by 2 7/8 in the second background fabric (red in my project). Cut in half. These are the base and top line of your flower basket.
Cut Pieces
Cut Pieces

You should now have all of your pieces cut. Look for the next part of the tutorial on sewing the block together.

 

 

* Rough cut means that you cut around the outside line and a little away from it, leaving some extra paper. This helps to position the template properly and eventually cut it accurately.

** Fine cut means that you cut the template out very exactly and carefully getting rid of any extra paper and template material used when you rough cut. This is the shape you will use to cut your fabric so prepare this step with care.

Black & Grey Finished!

Black & Grey Donation Top Complete
Black & Grey Donation Top Complete

I finally finished the top and back of the Black & Grey Teenaged Boy Donation Quilt. Whew! I am very pleased and while I was anxious to get it done I never got to the point where I disliked the piece. I am glad, because I want all of my donation quilts to have good energy in them not “get this done, stupid quilt!” energy. I don’t know if it makes a difference, but better safe than sorry.

I checked back and the first post about this quilt was back in January of last year. I know I started making it using these colors, because I was grieving for my grandmother. I think I became anxious to get it finished, because the grief, while not gone, is much better. I think she would be pleased to know that I did something good with the grief. Perhaps not as she didn’t think too deeply about feelings, but I like to think it.

The quilt is approximately 65.5″ square.

Black & Grey Donation Back Complete
Black & Grey Donation Back Complete

I also made the back, which I think came out pretty well. Sort of symmetrical, which is different for me. It is a touch small, so I may have to add something to the side, but I am hoping the quilter can deal with it.

I am not sure how I am going to convince someone to quilt it for the guild. I am nervous because there were a lot of quilts waiting to be quilted at the last meeting.

I still have to make the binding, but I picked some fabric to use and will get that done soon.

Field Day Zipper

Field Day Zipper
Field Day Zipper

I haven’t fully committed to this quilt by not really sewing on it very regulary. Part of my ambivalence was that I hadn’t looked at it on the design wall, because I wasn’t really able to find a spare spot on the design wall for it. The other thing I have to admit to is not liking the colors very much. I don’t hate them and they look much better all together than one at a time. I have to admit that I succumbed to a whim and the result was some fabrics whose colors I don’t like much. I am not saying I don’t plan on NOT committing; I just haven’t done it yet.

As part of the process, I put it up on the design wall once I took the Russian Rubix off . I had a nice blank space to put something on, so I split it between the Zipper and the Teenaged Boy Black & Grey Donation Quilt. I had some space leftover so I put up the Zipper to see what I had.Clearly this piece needs some room to breath, so I will do it as a kind of Chinese Coins layout and make sure I put something in between. Perhaps the Goldenrod (gold/sunshiney yellow) I bought with the Sangria.

The other thing that worries me is that I sewed a bunch of pieces and now I don’t know where they are. They could be included in the pieces I have in the photo, but it seems like so much more I’ll have to look around.

Russian Rubix Big Steps

I was making a trip to see my quilter yesterday so all week I made a huge effort to get the piece done. I had to put on the last border, make a binding, and make the back. I slowly made may way through all the steps a few seams at a time and was able to get the quilt to a place where it was ready to quilt.

Final Corner, Final Border
Final Corner, Final Border

The first thing I accomplished was the final border. I am pretty proud of these borders. I did have put a spacer in on two sides to make two sides fit, but I really feel like, as April Rosenthal said, I have mad math skills. Really, I don’t but it was nice of her to say and it is a nice thought to consider since nobody who knows me would say math is a strong point for me. 😉

In the process of the last border, I did have to make more blocks. I forgot to make the last two corner blocks when I was making the last border blocks last weekend (I think??). I think I was distracted by the Black Friday Sew-in Google Hangout. I was trying to do something rather rote so I could pay attention to what the others were doing, but apparently I can’t count, sew and Hang Out all at once.

Russian Rubix Top Finished
Russian Rubix Top Finished

The back and top are too large for me to photograph on my design wall, so Friend Julie and Colleen were kind enough to hold both up when we brought it over to Colleen’s to be quilted.

I was really pleased with the photo (despite being taken on my phone), but also with the way the quilt came out. The spacers don’t really show up much and I think the top looks really great.

We talked a lot about the quilting. It will be quilted in Signature Thread in the Cotton Candy colorway, which is a variegated that gets used on my quilts a lot, because it blends with my fabric color palette pretty well. I also chose bamboo batting this time, because Colleen said regardless of the density of the quilting, the quilt will still be drapable. This might be a bed quilt, so drapability is good. Also, I have been wanting to try bamboo.

Russian Rubix Back Finished
Russian Rubix Back Finished

The back went really well. I used a big piece of IKEA fabric that Kelly got for me. I thought I had 6 yards, but think I ended up with three, thus the piecing of the other part of the back. I used up the background fabric and most of a half yard of the barcode fabric, plus the stitch purple to add a little width and provide some distinction between the two halves of the quilt.

The stitch purple is a bit of a precious fabric and I was reluctant to use it lest I need it for a ‘better’ project, but I decided I didn’t want to use ‘bad’ or ‘ugly’ fabrics for the back because I still have to look at the back and I want the back to be nice, too. And, of course, there is always more fabric.

This is a big project and it is finally finished. WHEW!

Russian Rubix Continues

Friday was the Black Friday Sew-in. I didn’t do anything in terms of giveaways or prizes. No time this year and no prizes.  I don’t seem to be a reviewer for Lark  any more since they closed their NC office and my contact was laid off. C’est la vie.

Russian Rubix with 3 Borders
Russian Rubix with 3 Borders

I worked on the Russian Rubix for the amount of time I had to sew. I wasn’t able to sew all day on Friday, but I am pleased with the progress I made. My progress:

  • I finished all but two blocks for the borders. I thought I made all the blocks I needed, but realized, after putting the last border together, that I had forgotten about the corners.
  • I sewed another border on. Before I actually sewed the border and kept it there, I sewed it on, ripped it off and sewed it on again, but there are now three borders on the RR quilt.

As you can see from above, the top is starting to look like something other than a floppy mess. I am thinking of using Kelly’s letter fabric as the back. I have fabric I may as well use it. I have a nice large chunk and that might make the back easier than piecing a back. Right now I need some easy.

Russian Rubix Returns

Did you read the UFO post? I was really thinking about this project when I wrote it. This project is becoming painful. However, I refuse to let it beat me. After talking with Friend Julie a week or so ago, I was ready to dive back in. It is often easier to move on with a project after getting someone’s perspective.

Corner Detail
Corner Detail

I made the top border including the corners, which fit over the side borders. This was not helpful, as they had nothing on which to rest since I hadn’t made the side borders yet. Thus, I decided I needed to make the side borders as I thought it would be easier to put on the top and bottom borders which had the corners if there was enough fabric on the sides to accommodate the corners.

I decided I want this design for the border on this quilt. This decision means that I have to be ok with the idea that two of the borders may have to have a spacer to make them fit. I am not 100% sure the sizing won’t work, but it looks like it won’t. We’ll see as I make more parts of the border, sew bits together, trim other bits and the seam allowances are taken up.

Russian Rubix with borders in process
Russian Rubix with borders in process

I had a few hours on Sunday and spent the time making a side border. It was really nice to just be sewing. I feel like I haven’t had much time to sew lately, so that was part of the reason I enjoyed it so much.

I have a bit left to do, but essentially I finished the side border.

 

 

P.S. The piece, as usual, is too large for my design wall, so I had to use tape to keep the border up on the wall. that is the first time I have done that, but I doubt it will be the last because of the size of the pieces I seem to make.

 

Russian Rubix Border Marches On

TFQ said the nicest thing to me on Sunday. It went something like “you should sew. I will press for you” And we did. I worked on the Russian Rubix border and finished the Church Ladies Apron that was making me crazy. More on that later.

Russian Rubix Top Border
Russian Rubix Top Border

I tried to get the whole top border pieced, but couldn’t quite make it. I made good progress and am pleased.

I was worried that the math wouldn’t work out, but I think it will. I wish I had made the sides first so I could sew one on and make sure that it worked. Instead I have to wait until I make both sides and sew them on. Oh well. I’ll plan better next time.

No, I probably won’t. 😉

Corner detail
Corner detail

Regardless, I think that it will work and it will take some time for me to get the border made. In the meantime, it looks nice and I am pleased.

More Border on the Russian Rubix

Russian Rubix Top
Russian Rubix Top

I made some progress over the weekend and it felt good. The whole top is sewn together and I have started work on the border. I didn’t have enough time to do as much I as I would have liked, but I have to be happy with what I was able to do. I really wanted to keep working on the border and will again this weekend or next.

Upper Right Hand Corner, Russian Rubix
Upper Right Hand Corner, Russian Rubix

I am not the sort of person who measures out every little piece, so I can just hope that the border works out. I will know when I get to the end of the top row. I know all you math people are screaming about how crazy that would make you, but that is the way I work. It could be that I am making trouble for myself to allow myself the opportunity to fix it. I don’t think so, but you never know.

I will talk about them more, but I have to say that I really like the Fons & Porter Setting Triangles Ruler. I could not figure out the Marti Michell version of the same tool. The F&P ruler is really making setting those border blocks together easy.

Previous Posts:

Progress on the Russian Rubix

Early October Progress
Early October Progress

I did some sewing on the Russian Rubix, but not enough to call the top finished yet. I don’t have dates for finishing the top planned. It will get done when it get done.

I moved around some of the blocks with the blanks, because there were too many blank blocks next to each other. I am making progress. I have 16 blocks together and am sewing two to three together as I have a moment.

Previous Posts:

Dropping Out of the Russian Rubix

Russian Rubix top in process
Russian Rubix top in process

Lots of stuff is about process with me lately. That includes the Russian Rubix. I worked on it, finally, over the weekend and came up with, what I think, is a good idea: Dropping out.

By dropping out, I mean that I replaced some of the quarter squares with blank pieces of the background fabric and allowed the pieces to float. There wasn’t much else I could do with this very distinctive pattern and it seemed like the best solution after not really liking the idea I floated last time.

Dropping out chart
Dropping out chart

I made a chart of where the blank areas were when I took the last photos. I have moved things around a bit again, though.

 

 

Previous Posts:

Field Day. Hm.

Field Day September 2014
Field Day September 2014

After I took FOTY 2013 off the wall and before I put the Russian Rubix up on the wall, I put the very few Field Day blocks up to see what I had.

Well, it isn’t looking exactly as I expected or anticipated, though there are also not very many pieces yet.

The pattern calls for 5″x2.5″ strips sewn to 2.5″ squares. The top center (2d column) piece is that shape and the correct size. I thought I would make the piece more interesting and vary the sizes of the non-Sangria background and the Field Day fabric. The top left hand piece in the first column is what I came up with.

Hhmm. Clearly I had trouble with the math, even though I measured everything, took the seam allowance into consideration, etc. I am going to use those pieces, but I am not going to make any more of them. I am going to stick with the boring 5″x2.5″ strips sewn to 2.5″ squares.

I also think I will put the Goldenrod in between the columns. I think that would add interest.

This is definitely a dark piece and I wasn’t anticipating that. I’ll have to get it done soon, so that it isn’t on the design wall in the winter when it is dark and cold.

Russian Rubix Potential Layout

You might think that I did a lot of amazing work between Monday and now, but really I made the blocks I showed Monday over the Labor Day weekend and the most recent work, which I will tell you about in this post, was done this past Sunday. It just so happens that I have a lot to say on the blog and haven’t been able to keep up. I could double up topics on posts, but it makes everything so messy in terms of tagging and categorizing and finding posts later. Some of my earlier posts include multiple topics and I don’t like linking to them as I don’t know if you, dear reader, will feel like wading through a long post to find a specific topic I meant you to find. It’s all about you, you know. 😉

Russian Rubix Test Layout
Russian Rubix Test Layout

So, I got an idea in my mind and as soon as I did the Hell Binding for the FOTY 2013, I put the Russian Rubix blocks up on the design wall to see what my idea would look like.

The idea is to break up one row of blocks and make them look a bit off from the other blocks so the quilt is not as boring. I would put some of the grey in between the full ring rows in order to highlight the difference.

I put the separated blocks off center from the full blocks. I don’t think there is much differentiation and the parts still look like blocks and the blocks still look like rings.

Seeing it all up on the wall like this makes me think that I should just put the whole thing together and be done with it. I have already done a lot of work on this project and I don’t want to ruin it. I am also ready to be done with it.

Russian Rubix Pieces & Parts
Russian Rubix Pieces & Parts

Alas, I have a ton of pieces and parts that which have not yet been made into blocks. What would I do? Make a second one? Cut squares out of all those octagons? Donate to charity?

 

Previous Posts:

Nota bene: I was kind of shocked that there was a dearth of posts at hte beginning of August. I feel like I have been working on this project all the time. I realized that I had been making parts with leaders and enders and not really making discernible progress until I put a bunch of blocks together.

Additional Russian Rubix

Russian Rubix - Sept 2014
Russian Rubix – Sept 2014

Another project I advanced was the Russian Rubix project. I made the six blocks you see on the left, but I also made parts for other blocks.

In the course of making the parts, I got an idea to make the quilt more than just a bunch of blocks. As soon as I get the FOTY 2013 top off the wall, I will try it out and take a photo.

Possible Border?
Possible Border?

The above is just a Photoshopped version of what I am talking about, but I think that adding in a couple of rows like the above, perhaps spaced with a  thin piece of background in the middle of the blocks will make the quilt a lot more interesting. We’ll have to see.

Making Progress Again on the Russian Rubix

August 2014 Blocks
August 2014 Blocks

These blocks had been sewing into quarters and placed on my design wall, where they stayed like that for weeks. I think I had some sort of grand illusions of adding in different colors or something. Last weekend, I just sewed them together, photographed them and put them in the pile with the other blocks.

There will be other opportunities for messing with color on this project and I was sick of looking at these blocks. I also wanted to make progress on shuffling around the stuff on my design wall.

Weekend RR Blocks
Weekend RR Blocks

I sewed a lot of triangles to octagons, but many of them are not finished. For the ones that were finished, I started to put them together into quarter blocks and hang them on the design wall. I thought I might be able to sew a few more blocks, but the quarters were just about all I could manage.

As you could see from my Design Wall post last week, I worked a lot with cool colors, which meant that the quarters had a lot of cool colors. I tried to keep the cool colors in each block to a minimum, but still have some arranging to do.

I am still wondering about the ratios of colors in blocks. I have a lot more warm colors to work with. Intuitively that seems to mean that I should put more warm fabrics in each block. Practically, I don’t know.

 

 

 

Black & Grey Donation Blocks

Black/Grey Donation Blocks
Black/Grey Donation Blocks

I think I am back in the saddle with the Black & Grey donation blocks. I haven’t really worked on the piece since February 8 of this year. I feel bad about that, but I can only do what I can do. I figure that doing something slowly is better than doing nothing.

I have about 15 blocks now and am still thinking of making a teenaged boy donation quilt. It feels dauntingly large, though and I don’t know if I can make all of those blocks. Again, I have run out of a lot of choices of different fabrics, which I know won’t matter in 6 months, but now feels constraining.

I’ll just keep plugging away as best I can and see how it comes out. Kelly offered to help and I am hoping she has made some blocks to add to mine to spice up what I have made.