Sister's Choice Quilts

ModaBlockheads Block 6

I managed to put my book down and go sew last week's Block 6 of the ModaBlockheads Sew Along.  This one was designed by Lisa Bongean, who is known for her multitudes of teeny tiny pieces in her blocks.  I decided to go with the 8 1/2 inch size for this one, which I hoped might be a bit more forgiving.  The half square triangles in this block finish at 1 inch.  I did use triangle papers to help with the accuracy.

I had some issues with my block coming together perfectly in the center, but you can't really see it due to the busy medium value fabric in the pinwheel.  I can live with it.

I do have a tip regarding triangle papers to share with you.  

Some of you may avoid using triangle papers because it is such a pain to rip those darn papers off.  It is so annoying to rip away and still be left with bits of paper stuck in the threads that you have to take the time to pick away at.  I learned this great idea from Carrie Nelson in either a YouTube video or one of her Moda blog posts, I can't recall which.  At any rate, here is what you can do to make the paper ripping process a breeze. Instructions are for right-handed people.  Just reverse if you are a lefty.

First off, when you stitch through your triangle paper, do shorten up your stitch length.  This makes the tear away process easier as well as the following technique.

Hold your triangle as shown, with your left thumbnail pinching along the seam line (through all layers), your right thumb and fingers holding just the paper.  Notice thumb/finger placement is in the middle of the triangle, not on the ends. Grippping firmly with your left thumb and fingers, pull the paper sharply away with your right hand.  It will come cleanly away along the stitched line.  That remaining strip of paper under your left thumb comes away easily.  No fussy paper bits left behind to pick off.

Again, you are not ripping the paper from top to bottom, you are giving it one sharp tug right from the middle.

Do try this.  It makes tearing those papers away pretty painless.

Hope your week is off to a good start.  Husband, daughter, son in law, grandchild all recovering well from the flu, albeit with lingering coughs.  I am still standing and symptom-free.

 

 

 

Flu

Sorry for the radio silence around here.  Some of us have been down with the flu.  Actually pretty much everyone in the family has been down with the flu.  Except for me.

Eva's daddy had it, Sara had it, Eva had it, then my husband got it.  It's been quite the infirmary in our little part of the world.  So far I have remained unscathed.  And I am the only one who had a flu shot.  Go figure.

That being said, I have been just a bit busy in the sick room.  Hope to be back with some quilty posts this week.  Unless the virus catches up with me that is.

It's Spring Here

All my Valentine's decor has been put away.  You won't find much red around here.  Well, there is always some red, but you know what I mean.  I re-did my little tiered tray for March and it makes me happy.  The St. Patrick's themed items were mostly from Hobby Lobby.  Most of the other items are things that I just had around and worked in.  That is the front side in the photo above.

And since you can see it from all sides, here is the back.

Here is the hall table, with my shamrock runner from a couple of years ago.  The pattern is by Fons and Porter and is called "Luck of the Irish".  Here is a link to the pattern and a tutorial on making one yourself.  You have plenty of time.  Just raid your scrap bins for some nice greens and you can have one too.

Hope your week is going great!

Almost There

Oh gosh, I am almost finished with my Moda BlockHeads 1 sew-along quilt and I am sorry to see it come to an end.  As you see, I have completed the central appliqued block and have about two-thirds of the rows sewn together with lattices.  I am thinking the quilt needs a border, and am trying to find some of Kansas Troubles larger prints to audition.  Kansas troubles mostly does small prints though, so my choices are kind of limited. 

I also have some flying geese cruising around in the back of my mind that could figure in somewhere.  Clearly this is going to need more thought.  Maybe I am not so close to being finished as I first imagined....

All in all, so far, I am pretty pleased with the results.

 

Long Weekend Puttering

It is a long weekend here in the US, which means that I get extra time to play in the sewing room.  I made another 12 inch block for the current Moda BlockHeads sew along.  This block is Barrister's Puzzle. I don't have that many 12 inch blocks to make for the layout I am doing, and I want them to have an impact.  I have always liked that block.

I also re-did my house block and got rid of that darn gingham.  And I am much happier.  I realize I reversed the position of the door, but I think I like it better on the left.  Ok, I am done fiddling around with that silly block.

I went through my fabric stash to find more reds and blues for the quilt blocks and really hit the jackpot.  I have so many fabrics to work with now.  Lots of choices and no worries about running out of anything.  Just about everything I pulled was a Moda fabric, from various designers and collections.  Moda has a certain red that I think of as "Moda red", which is such a perfect shade.   And the company is very consistent with using it amongst several different designers.  Minick and Simpson, 3 Sisters, Jan Patek, Chez Moi--I found pieces from all those designers in my stash and the reds are all the same.  I love Moda.

If you are enjoying a three day weekend, hope it is going well for you!

Well, That Was Interesting

Now I remember why I don't do paper piecing.  I am terrible at it.  I just have the hardest time wrapping my head around the fact that I am sewing upside down on a reversed image.  It makes me crazy.  How I struggled with this LOVE block at first! 

The hardest thing for me was figuring out how large a scrap of fabric to use for each step.  I was consistently, reliably short most of the time.  I would think I had it right then after sewing and flipping, my scrap didn't cover the entire area it needed to.  Then I started using huge scraps where I couldn't possibly be short.  And then I fretted about how much fabric I was wasting.

And then I would do something like this:

A couple of times instead of trimming my seam allowance, I cut off the piece of fabric I had just sewn on.

I am happy to say I finally got the universe to line up and got my four letters together.

And my block measured 8 1/4" rather than 8 1/2'.

All was not lost, however.  I made my too-small block into a mug rug for Sara for Valentine's Day!  Heaven knows I needed more practice with the paper piecing, so I made four more letters for another block, which came out just the right size.  And you know something?  By the time I had made the eighth letter, I was pretty darn good at it, was having fun, and starting thinking about doing more paper piecing.

I told you these sew alongs were skill builders!  Thanks Moda.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.

Center Medallion Coming Along

The center medallion is coming along for my BlockHeads 1 quilt setting.  I wanted to do something that had a "primitive" feel and reflected the other appliqué blocks in the quilt top.  I ended up with a pattern by Buttermilk Basin, that I have had around forever.  I love the pumpkin, sunflower, acorn, and little crow.  It was meant to fill an 8 1/2 inch square and was clearly too small for my 13 1/2" block, so I had to add in something to take up some of the extra space.  Is it weird to have a big sunflower looming over everything?

I decided on making some bias stems with my Celtic Bars (also called Bias Bars) and ended up with a rogue sunflower.  I am auditioning it on my design wall for a few days and then I will make a final decision whether or not it is what I want.  It is very "harvesty", which was what I had in mind.  Obviously the leaves would be the same green as the stems.  I just didn't want to waste fabric cutting them out if I wasn't going to use them.

How is your week going?  Did you see the BlockHeads 3 block for this week?  It is paper-pieced letters that spell out "LOVE".  Typically I studiously avoid paper piecing, but this sew along is all about challenges, so I am up for it.

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I have to say this block wins the prize for the cutest BlockHeads block so far.  Maybe cutest block ever.  

I can't take all the credit for the applique, as my Bernina 740 is amazing at it.  I just set up the machine to do the blanket stitch and go slow and steady and get great results.  I do use Heat and Bond Lite fusible web to fix my applique pieces down on the background.  That is another great product.  I do raw edge applique with fusible web and find the process easy and the results pleasing.  I have never had any issues with the edges fraying.

My Bernina 740 is back from being serviced.  The thread clipping feature was not working reliably, but otherwise, all was good with it.  So I was surprised to get a call from the serviceman telling me that the stitch length regulator knob was broken.  Hmmm.  It always worked fine.  It must have gotten damaged when we were transporting the machine in the car to the sewing machine repair shop for servicing.  How ironic is that?  $200.  Honestly, I should have kept it home and just used scissors to clip my threads.

Hope your week is going great!

Moda BlockHeads 3 Layouts

So you've got a pile of blocks you made in the latest sew-along, and you have no clue what to do with them, right?  How in the world are you going to lay them out in an appealing way that brings them all together most effectively?  It's a challenge for sure.  It is also handy to have a plan in advance so that you can plan on having enough fabric for whatever your layout calls for.

Luckily for us mortals, the folks at Moda have come up with several very interesting layouts for the current Moda BlockHeads 3 Sew Along.  The blocks for this sew-along come in four different sizes (4,6,8 and 12 inch).  You can make your blocks all one size, or you can make them in all sizes, and the designers have some creative ideas on how to set them in your quilt top.

Here are some links to four different Moda designer layouts:
Layout One:  https://my.modafabrics.com/inspiration-resources/bh3-layout-option-1
Layout Two:  https://my.modafabrics.com/inspiration-resources/bh3-layout-option-2
Layouts 3 & 4:  https://my.modafabrics.com/inspiration-resources/bh3-answers-layouts

and if that isn't enough, here is a Layout 5, designed by Vanessa of Lella Boutique:
https://lellaboutique.blogspot.com/2020/01/moda-blockheads-3-layout.html

Moda, the Cutting Table Blog has combined with the Moda Bakeshop Blog, and is a fantastic site.  I highly recommend you check it out.  https://my.modafabrics.com/inspiration-resources

Thanks so much to Lorraine, for raising the question in a comment to yesterday's post.

Fish or Cut Bait

I am almost caught up with my current Blockheads 3 blocks.  For the setting I have chosen I need 84 blocks total.  Clearly I will need to make more than one block per week.  I need to end up with 12 twelve-inch blocks, 28 eight-inch blocks, 28 six-inch blocks, and 16 four-inch blocks.

Those little four-inch blocks are sure cute.  One thing I noticed when I made the twelve-inch block was that holey moley, it took a lot of fabric!  I cannot recall the last time I made such a big block!  It was a shock after making so many six-inch blocks lately.  I am going through my background fabric like crazy at this rate, and there isn't any more to be found for love or money.  I am trying to make the four-inch blocks out of little leftover scraps to avoid cutting into bigger pieces.

The house block is an alternate offering from Joanna Figueroa for those who don't care for applique.  The third week's block is an appliqued birdhouse by Jan Patek, which I fully intend to make once I get my main machine back from being serviced.  I went ahead and made the house block because it is so cute.  Gingham is problematic for me.  No matter how careful I am, when I piece with it, it never seems to sit straight.

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For Moda BlockHeads 1, I decided it was time to fish or cut bait.  No more re-doing those blocks.  It is what it is.  As you see, I have actually sewed the vertical lattices on my eight rows! Thanks for your suggestions on applique designs for that center section.  Most of the applique blocks in the quilt top were designed by Jan Patek, so I have in mind that I should incorporate one of her designs for the center to be in keeping with the other applique blocks in the quilt.  Although, some of you shared such beautiful floral medallions with me, that I may change my mind.

Ozzie says "Enough already with this endless block discussion".  He looks bored senseless.  He can't be comfortable in that position on my favorite chair, but he laid like that for quite a while.  His head is half off the seat and he has one leg up as if he is airing out his nether regions.