Sister's Choice Quilts

What Was I Going To Do With All These Nine Patches?

I must have made all these 9 patch blocks for a reason, right?  Then I took a blogging/sewing break, spent hours with Eva at the pool, and went to Ireland and England to visit my son, and completely forgot what the heck the point of these blocks was.  Do you ever do that?  Well, I'm not as young as I used to be, and sometimes my memory isn't what it should be.  Thank goodness for this blog however.  I was able to go back through a couple months of posts and refresh that foggy memory.

I had purchased this book not too long ago, and there is such a pretty quilt in it, designed by Kim Diehl, called "Oak Patch".  I didn't want a quilt as large as hers was, so I made some alterations.  Basically I just made one 12 inch appliquéd block for the center and surrounded it with a lot of nine patches.  Her quilt has four appliquéd blocks, some sashing and a border of nine patch blocks.

This book is full of great patterns, some designed by Kim and other designed by Jo Morton.  If you enjoy their style of design, you cannot go wrong.  The patterns have some simple appliqué, but by no means do all of them include it.  I highly recommend the book, and think it is worth purchasing, and I don't buy many quilting books anymore.

I ended up not going to Lake Tahoe with my husband this weekend.  Last week I had some place I had to go every day, which resulted in no sewing for me.  I was desperate to just stay home and recharge in my sewing room on Saturday, so I begged off going on the day trip up to the mountains.  I was intending to get back to my Triangle Gatherings blocks, but when I opened up my closet in the sewing room and saw all those lovely fall colored nine patch blocks, I thought I might make them my project for the day.

Once I figured out what I had meant to do with them, I began making the center appliqué block.

The block finishes at 12 inches, so those center black and cream nine patch blocks are super tiny.  They are 1 1/2 inches finished! But you know what?  I used my new Block Loc Strip Set ruler and those tiny little checkerboard strips came out straight as an arrow.

The block above is of my appliqué pieces all prepped and ready to sew.  My machine appliqué technique is a combination of Kim Diehl's Invisible Machine Applique method, and Edyta Sitar's technique.  I do raw edge appliqué, with an invisible thread and blind hem stitch.  I use Heat and Bond double sided interfacing to hold my pieces in place before and during stitching.

One more tool that was super useful was this:

My Ott Light magnifying light was so great for being able to see where every stitch of the needle was going.  If you have trouble seeing close work on your machine or when hand sewing, this magnifying light was invaluable.  It has a flexible "neck" which you can bend around to just the right position to peer through while sewing.

Check back tomorrow and see my finished little quilt!

Stars and Baskets Progress

My Stars and Baskets quilt is starting to take shape on the design wall.  The star blocks are all finished and trimmed, and I have nearly half the basket blocks completed.  A few more sessions of piecing the basket blocks and these blocks will be ready to be sewn together.  Breaking the components of the blocks into small manageable units really has made the project go smoothly.  

I prepped all the appliqué pieces first, then stitched all the appliqués in place.  Then I did all the block trimming in one session.  The stars were made oversized, which I have no clue why.  They were all done on an 11 inch square, which had to be trimmed down to 10 1/2 inches.  The appliqué did not distort the size of the blocks at all, so I am sure they could have been done right on the 10 1/2 inch squares and I could have saved myself the extra step of trimming.

The basket blocks are another story.  There are so many bias edges with those blocks, it is a miracle they come out square at all!  Luckily there is some leeway with the blocks being slightly oversized, so they can mostly be trimmed down to a nice square 10 1/2 inches. Except for a couple of rebels, which I hope won't fight me too much when I sew the blocks all together.

Thanks for the suggestions on how to deal with a person you know who is going through a serious health issue.  Not wanting to pry, but desiring to be supportive and caring, I have been at a loss how to interact with my cleaning lady.  Who knows, she may be bored staying home and "resting", and would welcome an invitation to meet up for coffee or be treated to lunch.  Asking her how her day is going, rather than the much more loaded question "How are you doing" was such a good idea.  She doesn't have to share any personal details of what she is going through, but she may value knowing that someone cares regardless.  Great ideas guys, thank you!

Baskets!

I had a tremendously productive weekend!  I completed the appliqué on all my star blocks, and completed all the prep and appliqué on my basket handles.  This would be for the Collection for a Cause Stars and Baskets quilt I am working on.  I have started sewing the basket blocks, and for the most part they have been successfully trimmed down to 10 1/2 inches square.  

Except for one contrary little guy, which insists on being wonky, and is in grave danger of being taken apart and re-made.  It just will not cooperate, and I can't figure out where I went wrong.  There are a lot of bias edges in these basket blocks, so the potential for wonkiness is definitely there.

Another task that had me occupied for a number of hours yesterday was cleaning my house.  I worked on it for a couple of hours and got the downstairs done except for the bathrooms.  Today I need to tackle the upstairs and the bathrooms.  I am exhausted and not even half way done.

I have a cleaning lady, or to be more accurate, until recently, I had a cleaning lady.  She is such an attractive, gracious, pizzazzy woman.  I just loved it when she came to clean.  We would visit and catch up on the doings of her kids and mine, vacation plans etc etc.  I have become very attached to her and think of her as a friend, as well as being so grateful that every two weeks she makes my house shine.  In early March, she told me she was having a mammogram. It was the same week I was having my colonoscopy, and we commiserated on the unpleasantness of both those procedures.  Well, the next I heard, the results of her mammogram were not good.  She took a week or so off to schedule medical appointments and so on, and then told me her doctor had advised her not to work for a month.  I have texted her a couple of times because I am thinking of her and hoping she is doing all right.  Not to pry, and certainly not to find out when the heck she will be coming back to clean my house.

It is such a dilemma.  I want her to know I care, but am afraid when I ask how she is doing, she is thinking I am frustrated that my house isn't getting cleaned.  She has responded to me when I have contacted her, but is full of apologies and seems stressed that she is letting me down.  How would you handle such a situation?  I want to respect her privacy, yet show her I care.  My instincts tell me to stay in contact with her, just by sending supportive good wishes.  

I sure appreciate how great she keeps my house, now that I have had to do the cleaning job myself!

Moda Blockheads #7

I have mixed feelings about the Moda BlockHeads block #7.  I love the end look of the block, but I did not care for the construction method.  I actually ended up remaking the block.  Lynn Hagmeier of Kansas Troubles is promoting a "layered piecing" technique for her blocks, and I find it to be not my cup of tea.  I re-did the block using traditional piecing rather than the layered method she advocates in the pattern instructions.

The other thing that is bothering me is that this block is clearly on the diagonal.  If you recall, the other appliqué block we did was very much a straight up design.

So how are these blocks going to work in a quilt layout?  Is the basket block going to be all tipped over on its side if the blocks are straight set?   If the blocks are set diagonally, I will have to re-make the bee hive block because I sure am not having that cute block set on its side.

If, like me, you are troubled by the diagonal/straight set question, Lisa Bongean has once again offered an alternate pieced block for this #7 ModaBlockheads selection.  It is good to have options!  

Have a great weekend everyone.

 

Juggling Projects

Last Wednesday's Moda BlockHeads block was a super cute design by Carrie Nelson.  It even had a bit of appliqué, so I am happy that I am on board with that.  It's a little sunflower.  Adorable addition to the other blocks.

I got all caught up with my 2017 Triangle Gatherings Sew Along, finishing blocks 27, 28, 29 and 30.  You can see both my sew along projects up on my small design wall.

And last, but not least, I got my 24 star blocks all prepped for appliqué. My next sewing day will be Thursday, so we shall see how many of them I can appliqué into place.

Hope your week got off to a good start!

And Then This Happened.

This is Jan Patek's block number 4 for the Moda BlockHeads Sew Along.  I had decided I didn't want to do it because it is appliqué, and made an alternate pieced block instead.

You all know I have been playing around with a new machine appliqué project on my Bernina 740.  After making some stars and basket handles using Heat and Bond fusible interfacing, I thought to myself:  "Nicole.  Stop being such a wuss and make the darn appliqué block".  I also heard somewhere that Jan is going to come out with six more appliqué blocks for this project, which could be a super cute addition to the quilt. 

One of my hesitations about making this block is that it looked wonky in just about every version of it I had seen.  It is supposed to be part of its primitive charm I suppose.  Only I can't do wonky very well.  My mother would straighten crooked pictures when she was a guest in someone's home, so I guess I come by it honestly.  It was pretty simple to make the pattern pieces symmetrical.  I traced them as they were, folded them exactly in half and cut with my scissors on the drawn line.  Kind of like cutting hearts when you make valentines.  Voila, each piece was symmetrical.  

I cut my gold strips 1 1/4" and sewed them with a  quarter inch seam.  I pressed those seams open.  I layered my three cut out appliqué pieces and fused them to the 6 1/2" background square.  I used invisible thread to do the appliqué, because Heaven help me, I could not match that gold to save my life.  I really like how forgiving the invisible thread is and will use it on the future appliqué blocks in this sew along.

I am super happy with how this little bee skep block turned out.  I am also thinking that maybe machine appliqué will become more a part of my projects, now that I have a machine that knows how to do it.

Applique Prep

I am making a colossal mess in my sewing room getting my star blocks prepped to machine appliqué.  I have little snips of fusible paper everywhere, and all available surfaces are covered with fabric, scissors, and interfacing.  This is certainly an activity where you want to break things down into steps.  First I will prep the 24 star blocks, then the basket handles.  I will do batches of appliqués based on the color of my thread, to avoid changing things up on my machine too often.  After the appliqué is done, I will move on to making all the half square triangles for the basket blocks.  Then, make 25 basket blocks and I am done!

Somebody was sick this weekend.  Eva is feeling quite pitiful as she curled up in my brown chair.  She rarely is ill, so I was very surprised when I got a call from school to come pick her up on Friday.  She was pretty miserable for about 24 hours.  I am happy to say she is all better!

Stars and Baskets

I got to thinking about appliqué yesterday.  I had avoided doing an appliqué block for the Moda BlockHeads project, thinking I needed to "gear up" for appliqué.  I made a pieced block instead.  I was a wimp.  Can't you hear me whining?  "Applique is too haaaaard".

I have had the kit shown in the photo above for a couple of years.  It is so darn cute, but involves appliquéd stars and basket handles as you can see.  It has been a nice decoration/eye candy on my book shelf since I bought it.  Time to change that.

To "gear up" for doing appliqué, I have been watching YouTube videos.  Honestly, you can learn anything on YouTube.  First I watched Kimberly from Fatquartershop make Orange Peel appliqués with a product called Heat and Bond (another one of those mysterious interfacings).  Then I watched Edyta Sitar and Kimberly make some super cute umbrella appliqué blocks.  I went to JoAnns and bought myself some Heat and Bond, then went home and watched more YouTube videos on how to do appliqué on my new Bernina 740. The best Bernina videos are by Heirloom Creations.  I cannot recommend them highly enough.  I learned about what foot to use, what needle position to use and a whole slew of other tips on how to make the most of my gazillion dollar machine.  

I won't lie, there is a lot to doing appliqué.  A lot.  I had to make a plastic template for my star shapes.  I had to get out my light box and trace my shapes on the Heat and Bond.  I had scissors for paper, scissors for big shapes, scissors for small shapes.  I had to find a pencil for Heaven's sake.

This is my pattern instructions on the light box.  You can't see it, but there is a circular shape for the basket handles that I am tracing onto the Heat and Bond.  I really liked the Heat and Bond by the way.  It is similar to Steam a Seam 2 I think.  It worked really great.  Lots of waste though, because you end up cutting away that whole center of the oval as well as the center of the star!

The Heirloom Creations video was so helpful.  I learned to move my needle position over to the far right, and therefore was able to use the "toe" of my presser foot as a guide to do the blanket stitch!  Go ahead and enlarge that star photo.  Those stitches are great!

Heirloom Creations also showed me where to find the proper blanket stitch on my machine.  I used number 1329, which gave me perfect results.  I swear I would not have even known the machine had that stitch except for the video.

I did a star with good results.  I did the basket handle oval with good results.  This Bernina 740 is such a dream to sew on.

So, my final thoughts on appliqué is that it IS a huge production.  These two blocks took me the better part of a day.  But if you have the right materials and a sewing machine that does a good stitch, you can achieve really good results and even have fun while you are at it.  

I am working on some ideas as to how to streamline this process.  I am thinking I should paper piece all my half square triangles in advance.  Then, get all the appliqué stars and handles prepped and ready to sew.  I can do the same color appliqués all in one go (so I don't have to change out the thread in the machine too much).  Then assemble the basket blocks.  If you break a job into smaller tasks, it doesn't seem so formidable.  And you know what?  With all this rigamarole involved in doing machine appliqué, I'd prefer it any day to fussing with hand appliqué!!!  But that's just me.  

Viola Stems

These funny looking things are my Viola Stems.  The idea is, you cut them in half diagonally and have sections for two vase units.  

The appliqué part went pretty well.  I used regular neutral Aurofil thread in the bobbin and invisible poly thread on the top.  It is like sewing with a transparent hair, so yes, it is invisible.  

The part that didn't go so well is that those curvy bias stems, they, well....they want to curve.  I had a heck of a time getting that long center strip to lay flat and straight diagonal to diagonal.  I have some that are very wobbly, and I am thinking I may re-do them.  Corner to corner, the strips line up where they are supposed to (at the ends).  However, along the way to the corner there is some serpentine wiggling going on.  That is the nature of a bias strip I suppose, but in this case, I am pretty sure the intent is for them to lay arrow straight.

Bummer.  I wanted this step to be over with quickly, but it looks like I may have some fiddling to do.

Just a note, if any of you are following along and making this pattern with us:  There is an error where the pattern says the half flower units should measure 5 1/2 inches.  They do not.  The half flower units measure 8 inches square.  

Crop Circles: Step 783

Wedges done, edges pressed under, circles made:  Start your engines and let the appliquéing  begin!

The first order of business is to cut those perfect circles into quarters.  For some reason that was hard for me.  But I did it.

There are a couple of ways to proceed with the wedges and quarter circles.  You can appliqué the quarter circle to the wedge, then appliqué the whole wedge/circle unit onto the background.  Or, do as I preferred, which was to use the background square as a guide and position first the wedge, then the quarter circle.

I am using a new to me tool by Sewline.  That pink pen like thing in the photo above is a glue stick especially designed for appliqué.  It is blue, but dries clear.  I am applying it to the edge of the underside of the wedge and circle shapes to position them in place on my background square for appliquéing.  I really do like it.  I got mine on Amazon.com and it comes with one refill.

I am trying not to get the glue right at the very edge of the appliqué piece because I don't want to sew on it and get my needle all gunky.

I am appliquéing the four squares for each block in sets of five.  I managed to complete 10 blocks (40 segments) on Thursday afternoon.  The appliqué process is going great.  In a nutshell, here are my machine settings etc:

70/10 needle in machine (it is smaller and the holes aren't as big)
clear poly invisible thread on top, regular thread in bobbin
foot #20 for the Bernina (open appliqué foot)
stitch #7, the blind hem stitch
stitch length "1"
stitch width "1"
tension "1"

And I am here to tell you, that machine appliqué stitch is really invisible.  The blind hemstitch takes three or four tiny stitches in the ditch between the appliqué piece and the background, then takes a "bite" out of the appliqué piece to secure it.  Every one of them is coming out fantastic.  Go ahead, enlarge that photo.  See what I mean?  And that isn't my best effort, I just picked that example up randomly.  I think this method is better than hand appliqué because it doesn't show and it is fast.   

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend all of you!  I guess you know what I will be doing!