Sister's Choice Quilts

Making Lemonade

Well, due to my injury, typing is a bit of a struggle, still.  Thank you for your expressions of sympathy, I appreciate it so much.  Because of my bum finger I haven't been able to respond to each comment--it takes forever!  It is such an ordeal to type.

My husband took pity on me and took me away to Lake Tahoe for the weekend, which was a lovely as I have ever seen it.  We had a relaxing weekend, with me either reading, or staring at my finger, willing it to heal.

 

I have tried to sew a bit with my Quick Curve Ruler project, Metro Hoops, and am still sweating it a bit.  I guess it is going better.  Maybe I am over thinking things too much.  Hopefully, I can show some pictures tomorrow. 

Happy Monday!  Happy 4th of July week!

Industrial Accident

This will be brief, as you can see my finger isn't up to typing so well.

This may be the first on record curved piecing related injury.  I actually got my finger under the needle trying to manuever the fabric.  Don't ask.  They told me at Urgent Care that I won the prize for weirdest accident of the day.

I won't give up. I won't give up.

 

Hiding Fabric

 No, I don't mean hiding fabric, as in hiding it from your family so they don't do a hoarder intervention.  I mean fabric that is hiding from YOU.  Look at that fold of fabric in the photo above.  I had purchased it maybe five years ago, and it has been sitting in a bin labelled "William Morris" through two house moves.  For my latest project, I dipped into the bin and pulled out what I thought were several half yard cuts of fabric.  Evidently when I bought them, the person who cut the fabric stacked five pieces, cut them all together, and folded the pieces together.  What I thought was a half yard of a rather boring print was actually five fat quarters of some very nice stuff.

Has that happened to you?  It is a good lesson to unfold that stack of fabrics when you get home, before storing away in your stash.  Otherwise, it is the old "out of sight out of mind" adage again.  If you are like me, you will completely forget about what you have.

And look, it wasn't just the one stack of fabrics, there were SIX of them like that!  I ended up with a whole bunch of great fat quarters that I didn't even remember I had.

I even had two stacks of blues, light and medium, in addition to the taupes, greens, pinks and reds.

Just look at all that!  What I thought was six half yard pieces turned out to be thirty fat quarters.  Good heavens.  I find the most amazing things when I shop at home.

Quick Curve Ruler Project Update

Hey there, I wanted to give an update on my progress with my Quick Curve Ruler project. 

First of all, I have changed my mind on fabric three times and on the pattern once.  I had originally planned to do the project in the fabric you see above, Oh My! by Sanae.  I changed my mind and decided to switch to William Morris fabrics, since I had a good amount in my stash and it goes so well with my home decor.  I ordered additional fabric from Keepsake Quilting on June 15, which to date has not yet arrived.  Shame on you Keepsake Quilting.  Nobody else I have ever ordered fabric from has taken this long to mail out a precut jellyroll.  Ten days and I still don't have it.  Boo. 

The Sew Along began this Monday and I didn't want to fall too far behind, so I decided to use what William Morris fabric I had on hand and not wait any longer for slow poke Keepsake Fabrics to get me my order.  So, I cut it up and started making my blocks.

Another mind change was to switch from Metro Rings to Metro Hoops for my pattern, because I thought maybe Metro Hoops was a bit less complex.  I am just starting out as a novice with this tool, so why make it hard?  I ordered the pdf pattern from Sew Kind of Wonderful and got started yesterday.

Aren't those William Morris fabrics pretty?  I thought so too.

And here are five botched blocks that I had to discard.  I do not know what the heck I was doing wrong.  I checked and double checked my measurements, and they were all correct.  My stitching was a good quarter inch seam.  The curved piecing was pretty easy.  But they were off, and I mean "OFF".

However...should the pieces be that much off?  Have any of you who have made these blocks had that huge amount hanging off the end?  You are supposed to trim up the block, but still.

I think my issues must lie in the instructions for squaring up the blocks, which I am finding rather unfathomable.   "Line this mark up to the 3" line, and that mark up to the 5" mark, but leave a half to a quarter inch for seam allowance.."  Huh?

I gave up on using my good William Morris fabric, and went back to my original choice of "Oh My!", which I didn't love as much.  I got pretty tired of wasting all that nice William Morris collection, which was vintage and very pretty.  I practiced and practiced making blocks with the more colorful collection and some cheap muslin for the background.  Finally I ended up with the four blocks shown at the top of this post, which aren't too bad, but those intersections where the brown triangles come together are not perfect by any means.

Can anyone suggest where I might be going wrong?  Or is this just the nature of working with curved piecing and this ruler?

Out of the Blue Quilt Graveyard...

I know.  Just reflect on that for a moment.

When I was reminded that I had made a blue and white Winding Ways quilt awhile back, I decided to see if I could dig it out of the flimsy bin.  Well, bless my heart, it wasn't the only blue quilt waiting to be quilted in there.  Three really nice blue quilts, just needing that final touch of completion.  It just goes to show you "out of sight, out of mind" is quite true.  I really do need to figure out how to decorate with more blue.  That is an entire color opportunity being wasted.

The blue and white Winding Ways wasn't even technically finished.  I had planned on making a checkerboard border for it, but didn't think I had enough fabric scraps left over.  Turns out I was wrong.  I got busy and got that border on, and this quilt will now go next up in the queue for quilting!

 I love the visual play of motion in this quilt.  Circles seem to be dancing everywhere.  I used a book called Winding Ways Quilts, by Nancy MacDonald, which uses templates and a cool method of stitching that uses very few pins. I enjoyed the curved piecing, and after the first few blocks, found the method easy and fun to do.  I used Perfect Patchwork (Marti Michell) templates ini the 8 1/2" finished block size.

 

New Sew Along with the Quick Curve Ruler

Hey everyone!  Hope you all had a splendid weekend.  Now that summer has officially arrived, I am going to be doing a sew along with two friends, using the Quick Curve Ruler designed by Jenny Pedigo of Sew Kind of Wonderful.  I hope you will check out Jenny's blog, where she has tutorials on how to use the ruler, photos of her projects, and patterns and tools for sale in her shop.

Sewing along with me are my friends Lisa of Stashmaster and Thelma of Cupcakes 'n' Daisies.  We are all using the Quick Curve Ruler and a different Sew Kind of Wonderful pattern.  Jenny is not sponsoring this sew along.  I purchased my own ruler and pattern.  Thelma, Lisa and I don't have any particular deadline in mind for this project--it is just meant to be a fun summer sew along.  If you would like to join in with us, let one of us know so we can share your progress over the next couple of months.

This is my pattern of choice, Metro Rings, which I think has a Double Wedding Ring sort of vibe.  I thought I had my fabric all picked out and ready to go, but at the last minute I changed my mind.  I have ordered a jelly roll of Morris Modernized by Barbara Brackman, and am still waiting for it to arrive before I can begin.  Isn't it great that this pattern is jelly roll friendly?  I love getting a full size quilt out of just a jelly roll and some background fabric.

 I have a bit of a stash bin full of other Morris fabrics by Barbara, and will incorporate them into the mix.  I especially like the greens and the rusts. (No surprise there).

Winding Ways Dupe with No Curves

 I knew this red and white quilt block reminded me of something.  A couple of years ago I made a blue and white quilt called Winding Ways that called for using a template and doing curved piecing.  I really enjoyed making the quilt, and found the curved piecing not difficult at all. 

 

This red and white quilt, called "Give It Your Best Dot", in the latest issue of APQ magazine, has the same visual effect  without the curved piecing. I think I might actually prefer the look of the blue quilt that was made with the curved templates, but I think the red and white version is a great option!

You may be wondering what happened to my blue and white Winding Ways quilt--well, I  started piecing that wonderful checkerboard border, and ran out of blue and white scraps!  So I packed it up, thinking I would acquire some more blues and creams and finish things up eventually.  Of course I forgot about it, until Jennifer G. reminded me that this red and white block is so much like the blue and white Winding Ways quilt from a couple of years ago...Maybe it is time to dig it out and finish it.  It is a great quilt.

So, easy as these Tri Recs Ruler red and white blocks are to construct, here's what NOT to do:

 

Tri Recs Rulers

The new red and white project I started last weekend has a very interesting tool that makes constructing the blocks quite easy.  The toosl I am using are called the Tri Recs rulers, designed by Darlene Zimmerman and Joy Hoffman for EZ Tools.  They are sold together as a set, and both shapes are required to make the blocks.

There are some great instructional videos on YouTube that you can watch to see how the tools are used.  Click on this link to view.  This Fons and Porter online post is a great instructional as well.

Basically, what you do is cut strips of fabric to the finished height of the triangle units you need for the blocks.  Mine are each 3 1/2 inches tall.   The Tri triangles are Isololes triangles (remember those from Geometry class?), and the Recs triangles are Right triangles.  When you cut those with your fabric doubled you get one Right triangle, and one Right triangle, reversed.  Sew the three units together and you have a square.

Four of these finshed units are required for each quilt block.

The block is comprised of four Tri Recs units, four half square triangles and one center four patch block. A simple nine patch really!

 

 

 

 

Give It Your Best Dot

The new project I started came from this hot-off-the-press American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine.  The pattern is called Give It Your Best Dot, for the fun polka dot fabric used in the sample quilt.

I don't really care about all those polka dot fabrics, but I do love the block that is featured in the pattern.  No curves are involved in the piecing, but you do end up with a secondary circular design, which as you know, I am fond of.

I had a lovely stack of Civil War inspired red prints, which I thought would be perfect for my scrappy verison of this pattern.  My reds will be scrappy, but I am using just one cream off white print for the alternate color in the blocks.  I will do a narrower black containment border than shown in the example, and will do a red border.  This will be a fun quilt to have on hand during the holidays and will coordinate nicely with a few other red and white quilts you might remember me making.

Red and White Snowball Quilt

Gentle Arts

In Honor of Cherry Baskets

Drop

Red Letter Day

Ok, enough of the pastels already.  I can't stand another minute of their sweet overload.  Give me some RED.

Whew.  That's better.

More on this new project to come!