Sister's Choice Quilts

Design Wall Cleared for Action

 
I got the rows of Message in a Bottle all connected and got it off the design wall.  I will show you a picture of that once I get the borders on.

When you take a project down from your design wall, does it drive you crazy that there are a gazillion little threads stuck to it?  Makes me twitchy.  Sometimes I take the lint roller to it, and go through three or four sticky rounds before the wall looks halfway clean.

Added later:  Jane told me about this interesting technique to clean a design wall using freezer paper and an iron!  Check out this link to see how:  http://www.thequiltshow.com/os/blog.php/blog_id/5433

What you see there on it is Long Road Home, in the process of being arranged.  I had so many fabrics in this kit, I haven't run into having the same two fabric touch yet!

I am enjoying the dark red setting triangles.  When I sew my diagonal quilt rows together I tend to sew four or so rows together at a time, and connect the sections later.  I really like how fast this quilt comes together.  A quick sew once you get it cut out.

Be sure to check in tomorrow for the third block of the Blogger Girls Block of the Month.  Super cute blocks, and such fun to see what everyone else is doing.

 

Long Road Home Blocks All Done

A free day equals lots of sewing time, and I made the most of it.  What you see in the photo above are 90 Long Road Home blocks.  Nine stacks of ten blocks each.  This quilt is a diagonal set, and I plan to get it on the design wall some time today.  I need to cut out the setting triangles, but that won't take long.

I always have a few minor complaints about Bonnie Blue quilt patterns (much as I adore their designs).  They never tell you how many units or even how many blocks you will end up with.  I find that annoying.  Yes, I can do the math, or count the blocks on my fingers, but how much trouble or room would it take to just say "Make 90 blocks" or "You should have 180 strip set units".  I know, I am being petty, but I like things to be comprehensive.

One surprising thing, that I really did like, was the lack of waste in this quilt.  Want to see what I had leftover after making the 90 blocks?

That's it. Now that's economical.

Some of the French General fat quarters I ordered arrived yesterday, so I plan to cut more strips today.  These fabrics are mostly from the La Belle Fleur and French General Favorites collections.

I hadn't purchased either one of those groups, so I am happy to have at least gotten some of the reds for my stash.  Isn't that little fleur de lis print adorable?  Should have gotten a half yard of that!

In other news, have you heard about the Moda Friendship Quilt Along?  It is a program sponsored by Moda where 27 designers share a free downloadable 9 inch friendship quilt block.  I have been visiting daily and printing out the block patterns for myself.  It would be a fun sampler quilt to make, or even a one block quilt (if you could chose a favorite block!).  At any rate the block patterns may come in handy some day, and it has been fun visiting the blogs of the various designers I was not so familiar with.  Let me just say Edyta Sitar (Laundry Basket Quilts) is incredible.  If you aren't familiar with her, check out her blog.  Her quilts are A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

Added later:  Hmmm.  Remember when I was cutting out the strips for the Long Road Home project?  I was complaining that after cutting out the required number of strips I had a ton of fabric left over?  I had forgotten about that.  So, what the pattern said to cut out was dead on, but what they said to buy was an over estimate.   Unless the kit makers included more fabric....Not sure since I didn't measure the cuts in the kit.

Sewing, Interrupted

I tried.  I really tried.  Sewing with a toddler under foot just isn't easy.  I brought out the Janome, and trotted my Long Road Home project box up from the studio.   My plan was to sew in the kitchen while I watched Eva play.  She just wanted to climb up on my lap whenever I sat down at the machine. 

Up to yesterday, I had made 30 nine patch surrounded blocks.  And I couldn't even finish 10 more. 

I'll try again today.  No baby today, so with luck I may make a bit more progress.

In addition, for some reason I was just so exhausted from the weekend.  I worked on Saturday and on Sunday I hosted a little family Oscar party.  Fun, but for some reason it all just wiped me out. 

Weren't those Oscars something?  I love seeing all the glamour and glitz.  Could you believe Charlize Theron?  How many women could make that hair style work?  I think it helps that she is six feel tall.  And Jennifer Lawrence?  I have had my eye on her since I first saw her.  Incredible talent.  Congratulations to all the winners and nominees for awesome performances.

 

Drowning in Strips

I feel as if I am drowning in strips for my pineapple blocks!  I did get the lights all cut out and organized into labeled baggies over the weekend.  After cutting for hours, I still do not have enough French General reds.  I ordered 13 more fat quarters and that is just going to have to be enough.  If not, I will dig around and pull non French General reds and add them into the mix.  So, for now, I am on hold until the fabric reinforcements arrive.

It was a great feeling to be able to really dig into my stash of lights and use up many many bits and pieces that were leftover from other projects.  I am so glad I hung onto all these smallish pieces as they did come into play very handily.  My lights come from all sorts of fabric collections, not just French General, so maybe I should lighten up on the self imposed rule that all my reds be FG.

Today I will be working on my Long Road Home blocks, which you can see in the upper left of the photo, next to my sewing lamp base.  It is a big old mess in the sewing studio right now, with three different projects being worked on at once, plus my student's two projects.  Must. Create. Some. Order.

 

Red Pineapple

This must be my week to try out new rulers.

It all started with Cathy over at Quilting on Main Street.  Cathy just finished a gorgeous quilt she calls Rendevous, which is a Pineapple Block quilt.  She did hers all in French General reds, with glorious results.  Go have a look at her quilt, so you know what I am talking about.  Go ahead, I'll wait.

Fabulous, huh?

Heaven knows I have a lot of reds in my stash, and am always up for ideas on how to use leftover fabrics.  I was so excited for Cathy's quilt, I had to email her for more details.  She kindly answered all my questions, and told me she had used Possibilities Pineapple Ruler to make her blocks. The Possibilites Pineapple Ruler was designed by Lynda Milligan and Nancy Smith, and is available on Amazon and from other on line sites.  The ruler originally was a companion to a book Milligan and Smith wrote called Positively Pineapple.  You can still get the book as well, but it will take some searching.

Cathy has a demo on her blog on how she constructed her blocks, which helped me so much.  I always need a visual.  http://quiltingonmainstreet.blogspot.com/2012/10/using-pineapple-rule.html

Also, the good news is that there is a free pdf available to download and print out that gives you all the information on how to construct the block with that exact ruler.  Here is the link for that:  http://www.heirloomcreations.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/pineapplerule.pdf

So, as I often do, I went off half cocked and decided today was my day to make a Pineapple block.   I vaguely recalled seeing a Pineapple ruler in my drawer full of miscellaneous tools, and sure enough, I actually had the ruler already!  Probably the thing has been in there since the 90s.  I Googled "how to use Pineapple Ruler" and found the link to the pdf.

When the baby napped, I hustled down to the studio and got cracking.  I pulled out my reds and neutrals and started cutting out 1 1/2 inch strips.  There was definitely a learning curve connected with understanding how to use the ruler, but I prevailed despite some initial head scratching.

My finished block came out a perfect 12 1/2 inches square.  I did not experience any distortion, and was super careful with my pressing, as you must when you are working with bias edges.  To me, this method of making the block is preferable to messing about with foundation papers.  I have heard that the foundation papers give you absolute perfection in your results, but for me, the ruler is just fine.  Good grief, it took me two hours to make this one block and if I had been using foundation papers I would probably still be on row five.  Let's get 'er done, don't you know?

I am going to cut out loads more strips and start chain piecing the blocks as Cathy shows in this post:  http://quiltingonmainstreet.blogspot.com/2012/10/pineapple-quilt-block-foundation-paper.html  Things will go a lot faster now that I have made a practice block.  Now I just need to figure out how big I want the quilt to be and how many blocks to make.

 

 

 

Cool Rulers

I took advantage of some free time over the weekend to work on my Blogger Girls BOM blocks for February.

The instructions for this block called for a couple of specialty rulers that I am excited about.  These rulers were given to me by the inventor, Monique Dillard of Open Gate Quilts, I know that I would have purchased them myself, as any ruler designed by Monique is terrific.  These will get lots of use by me in the future.  The rulers are called the Fit to be Quarter Companion and the Fit to be Quarter 6.5.

Without giving away the whole block just yet, let me show you a few pictures of how the rulers are used to make the Square in a Square block shown above.  This block has given me fits in the past, but now that I have some rulers to trim them to the right size, it comes out perfect every time.

You start with a square, which you line up with the markings on the ruler.  My square happens to be 4 1/2 inches.  Using the Fit to be Quarter Companion ruler, line things up at the 4 1/2 inch marks, trim the upper corners away, and sew on the triangles you cut out per the block instructions.  When you line the fabric square up just right with the markings, you cannot go wrong with your cutting.

After sewing on two triangles, flip the block and trim away the upper corners, lining the square up with the markings on the ruler.  Sew two more triangles on.

Now take the Fit to be Quarter ruler and line it up with your square, again on the 4 1/2 inch markings for my block.  Trim away the excess at the top and right side.  Turn the block to the right, and trim away that left hand side.

Do this on all four sides, and you have yourself one perfect square in a square block.

Can't wait to show you my two blocks for February, but we have to wait until next week!

 

 

Row Row Row Your Boat

Still working on sewing all those diagonal rows together for Message in a Bottle.  I have two sections sewn together, and will get the five rows of the third section together this week.  It is coming along!

As I look at this quilt top, I am thinking what a great Friendship quilt it would make.  You know, one of those quilts for some special occasion (anniversary, wedding, 75th birthday), where friends and family  members sign a square that is part of a larger quilt block.  These quilts were very popular in the days when young women would pack their worldly goods into a covered wagon, hit the trail Westward, and very possibly never see their loved ones again.

I made one of these Friendship/Autograph quilts for Sara's bridal shower (different block, same concept) and had all her girlfriends sign a fabric square, which I then incorporated into a quilt block.  I used an April Cornell fabric collection, and the quilt was as feminine and sweet as can be.  The quilt lives at Sara's house, but I will see if I can get a picture of it and share it later this week. It really is super cute.

What I remember most about making that quilt is that it was like herding cats to get people to sign the squares and mail them back to me.  I sent the fabric square, a micron pen, and a self addressed stamped envelope to everyone.  All they had to do was sign their name on the damn square and mail it back to me.  How long could that take?  I was hounding at least four girls down to the very last minute to get them to mail me back their squares.  I finally told them they would end up on the back of the quilt if they didn't get their squares to me within a week.  I tell you I burned the midnight oil getting that quilt finished for the shower because of those lazy girls!

The first Friendship quilt I was ever involved with was maybe 40 years ago.  Some dear friends of the family were relocating to Argentina, and it was felt that the occasion warranted one of these Friendship quilts.  Back then, you couldn't really get decent quilting fabric, so the quilt blocks were just big plain squares that were signed or decorated with drawings or poems and sewn together.  We backed it with a bed sheet.  It was actaully rather dreadful, but our effort truly came from the heart.  Ultimately, these friends ended up moving back to California a few years later!  I wonder whatever happened to that pitiful quilt?

One of my cousins organized a similar project to celebrate my Grandma Agnes' 80th birthday.  Everyone she ever knew or was related to signed a fabric square and it got made into a quilt.  Funny, now I can't remember if I made the quilt or if my cousin did.  I believe my cousin must have.  The gift was a huge success, and my Grandma lived another 19 years, enjoying that quilt.  And you know what?  She was buried in it!  No kidding.  Wrapped in the signatures of everyone she loved.

Have any of you been involved in making a Friendship quilt?  How did yours turn out?

 

 

Mini Cherry Baskets

This is my little homage to Thelma's Door County Cherry Basket Quilt.  I used some of her leftover black and brown triangles, and some of my beautiful red charm squares from Primitive Gatherings.  The patterns for the basket blocks came from Miss Rosie's "Picnic" Schnibbles pattern.  The blocks are 6 inch finished. 

My offering is a far cry from the masterpiece Thelma's original is, but in two afternoons, I think I  managed to at least capture the feeling of her beautiful quilt.  I will enjoy this little table topper (about 25 inches square) for years to come.

And you know something?  Everytime I finish one of these mini projects, I can see that my machine quilting is improving!

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day.  I was in the company of my dear little Eva, and we celebrated the lovely day by getting a certain someone new shoes.  With polkadots and owls on them.   If I am able to teach this child anything, it will be to love pretty shoes.

Doing It My Way

You will be seeing this quilt on a couple of blogs today.  This is Thelma's (Cupcakes 'n' Daisies) Door County Cherry Baskets quilt.  It was a pattern designed by Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings.  Ever since Thelma started this quilt I have wanted one too.  Primitive Gatherings was offering the quilt as a kit, which I had in my imaginary shopping cart on and off until it was no longer available.  The $225 price tag was making me hesitate, and then it was too late.  Thelma did not use a kit, she used fabrics from her stash.  Thelma's quilt was masterfully quilted by Linda Hrcka of The Quilted Pineapple.  Check out both Linda and Thelma's blogs for more pictures!

So.  How am I going to get a quilt like this one?

Being the fine friend that she is, Thelma sent me her leftover black and brown triangles for the basket blocks.  She did this ages ago and the pieces have been sitting around in my cupboard until yesterday.

That's a lot of brown and black triangles.  Enough for lots of baskets.

When I was at Road to California, I purchased two of these gorgeous charm packs from The Primitive Gatherings booth.  Each pack has 30 pairs of red prints--60 pieces in all.  And I have two packs.  Plenty for lots of baskets!

Now, I did not think I would be able to replicate the exact pattern that Lisa designed and that Thelma executed.  But I was determined to use the leftover dark triangles and these gorgeous red charms to make some basket blocks and see what I might come up with.  So I started playing around.

In Carrie Nelson's Picnic Schnibbles pattern, she shows how she made eight half square triangles out of two five inch charm squares.  I remembered that, and pulled out the Picnic pattern, which as you can see is a basket quilt with four or five variations of basket blocks.

I did have to trim down the smaller dark triangle units to 2 inches, but every one of them is going to be usable.  And the large triangles are exactly the right size, at 3 1/2 inches.

At this point, I have not decided if I am going to go with Carrie's basket blocks set on the diagonal with alternate red blocks, or if I am going to try for a smaller version of Lisa Bongean's Cherry Basket quilt.  Today I am going to play around and see if I actually can make a version of the block in Thelma's quilt. Either way, I think I can replicate the feel of the original Door County Cherry Baskets quilt.  You will have to stay tuned for this one!

 

 

Learn What Your Machine Can Do

I learn stuff all the time from other bloggers.  The most recent awesome and truly useful tip came from a post by Camille Roskelley of Simplify.  This tip has to do with a stitch many of you  may have on your sewing machines that can be very effectively used in  machine quilting.

This is the stitch.  It is a wavy stitch that is positively brilliant for machine quilting.  I was just practicing it on a scrap of fabric and batting I had on hand, this isn't a real project.  Here, don't look at my crummy photo, go check out Camille's post (which is full of fabulous information):  http://camilleroskelley.typepad.com/simplify/2013/01/things.html

Can't you just imagine all sorts of ways you could use this in your small machine quilted projects?  I am so excited to use it next time I make a Schnibbles quilt.

Here's how I did it.

Use your walking foot.

On my Bernina, this is the stitch button I chose.  The tip of my scissors is pointing to it--"4".

My control panel then shows the following information.

VERY IMPORTANT:  You must fiddle around with lengthening the stitch length.  It will be way too short at first.  I increased my stitch length to about 2.5

You will need to practice a bit, but I found it super easy to do and loved the results.  I used it in the lattice of my student's charity baby quilt. 

Sorry for the poor picture quality.  One of these days I am going to get a decent camera.