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.

 

 

 

Quick Home Made Gift Idea- Microwave Bowl Cozies

This, for those of you who might not know, is a Bowl Cozy.  Specifically, a padded bowl surround that can be used in the microwave while heating up leftovers in a bowl.  You know how when you heat up your soup in a bowl in the microwave, it is too hot to handle when you take it out?  Well, this little item solves that problem.  Everyone loves them.

To make them, all you need is two 10 inch layer cake squares and two 10 inch squares of batting.  Be sure to use only 100% cotton fabric, batting and thread.  I have done a tutorial on how I make mine, and therein have linked to another tutorial I think is really good.  

I have been in full production mode, and made eight of them in a couple of hours earlier this week.  They make great teacher gifts, gifts for work buddies, and are quite perfect for your grown nieces and nephews who are setting up first apartments or dorm rooms.  You know they eat something from the microwave every day, so these are just what they need.  For couples, I like to give two in matching or coordinating fabrics.

They are a great way to use up those layer cake squares you have sitting around.  These cost me nothing, as I made them with materials I had on hand. I bet you have the makings for a slew of them too.  I like to choose fabric combinations that suit the individual.  The guys on my list are getting grey and black ones and the girls are getting girlier prints.  They are completely washable, so when you slop your soup over the side, it's no problem to wash it off.

So what are you waiting for?  You know someone who needs these.

 

 

S'Mores Update

This week I have been focusing on my S'Mores quilt.  S'Mores is a design by Jo Morton, which I first saw on Instagram.  I am switching up my version however.  I am making 4 inch finished square in a square blocks, and will separate them with a tan lattice.  My blocks are all red and brown, with scrappy cream and tan accents.  I will do plain setting triangles from the tan lattice material.

In the photo above, I was experimenting with some lattice fabric, which I really liked, but don't think I have enough of.  Fatquartershop to the rescue, and I am waiting on something pretty darn similar to arrive in the mail.

My blocks are turning out so perfectly, which I credit to the Square in a Square ruler by Creative Grids.

You make your triangles slightly larger than you need and trim after each round.  The ruler has marked squares that you line up with the units in your block before trimming down.  Honestly, they are all coming out great.  I have made 81 blocks so far, and think I will need about twice that.  151 I think.   Since the blocks are 4" finished, but will be set on the diagonal with a 1 1/2" finished lattice, the math is too much for me.  I'd like to end up with a quilt around 76" square.  I will get it up on the larger design wall in a week or so and get it figured out.

I made 40 blocks on Wednesday, which wasn't too bad actually.  Do you notice the little binding clips I have holding some of the blocks together?  I have ten blocks in each clip.  It makes it easy to eyeball how many blocks I have in each color, without having to stop and count the darn things all the time.

 I got that tip from Jayne at Jayne's Quilting Room blog.  Jayne has many very cool projects.  If you don't follow her blog, you might want to stop by, say hi and have a look.  She recently made a blue and white quilt she is calling Snow Shoo, which is awesome.  Two simple alternating blocks (Snowball and Shoo Fly) and you end up with such a beautiful pattern.  I've added it to my TBM (to be made) list.

Did you all have a good Valentine's Day?  We celebrated by having our carpets and sofas cleaned.  lol  So romantic, right?

 

Sewing on the Featherweight

Hope you all had a great weekend!  We launched our Christmas shopping and got a fair amount accomplished.  No waiting until the last minute this year.  

I started a new project on the Featherweight, and I have really been enjoying getting reacquainted with that little machine.  There are a few tips that I am discovering along the way that are giving my piecing much better results.

As you see in the photo above, I am holding onto the top and bobbin threads as I begin to sew.  I also will put the needle in the down position for that first stitch, and I am not getting any scrambled threads or having the needle become unthreaded as I start my stitching.  A reader mentioned a week or so ago that she learned that tip in Home Ec class ages ago, and I agree, it is a golden nugget of advice.  Hold those threads just when you start stitching.

I am making some little log cabin blocks (more on that tomorrow), and my first block came out a bit oversized.  I have a tip that I got from Kim Diehl, which is making all the difference.  Do you see in the photo above that my last pin is horizontal?  The is preventing the strip from flaring out or fishtailing.  It is holding the little strip exactly where it needs to be.  Pinning.  I love to pin.

A second thing I have been experimenting with is the seam allowance.  I was just going by the quarter inch foot on the Featherweight, and my strips were always just a skosh too short, which meant fudging with that bottom layer.  I didn't like that.  I tried making my seam allowance just a hair (and I do mean a hair) wider than the presser foot.  My goodness, once I did that consistently, each strip fit perfectly.  So check your seam allowance if your piecing isn't coming out perfectly accurate.  A tiny adjustment could make all the difference.

Here is a close up of the stitching I am getting on the Featherweight.  I think it is pretty darn good.  No skipped stitches ever since I put in a Singer brand needle.

See you tomorrow!

Sewing with Stripes

Do you avoid sewing with stripes?  If so, I want to encourage you to give it a try.  Many of us avoid using stripes because the direction of the stripe ends up not going in the same direction within a block.  For me there is nothing more annoying than having stripes going every which way, to my slightly OCD persona at any rate.  Some folks love the wonky look having directional fabrics going off in all directions.  It just isn't for me.

I love using stripes and directional fabrics in my blocks, but only if they all go in the same direction.  The green block above will not work for me.

The way to get your stripes straight is super simple.  It is all in the cutting.  This is what I am doing for my square in a square blocks.

Cut your squares.  You will need to cut these squares on the diagonal to end up with four triangles to make the block.

Cut the diagonal lines in opposite directions,  When you construct your blocks this is what you will end up with:

If you cut your squares in the same direction, which we are used to doing with non directional fabric, this is what you get:

I know which one I prefer!

My Next Iron

No, this isn't it.  But, seriously, thank you all so much for weighing in with your recommendations, comments and experiences.  That was so valuable to me.  My gosh, what a wealth of information.

My experience is that I am hard on irons.  I have had cheap ones and I have had good German made Rowentas.  None of them lasts more than two or three years for me because I treat them badly.  I leave them on, I always use as much heat and steam as they can put out, and I have been known to knock them onto the floor.  Heaven knows when Ozzie was younger, he put several irons to death by pulling them onto the floor and chewing through their cords.  I am not kidding. (Check out this old post from 2007).

The cheap ones last as long for me as do the more expensive Rowentas.  But here's the thing.  I like using the heavier weight Rowentas with their 400 steam holes more than I like using the lighter weight cheaper brands.  When the Rowentas go, they go pretty quickly.  They start to spit a bit when you first turn them on and then move on to full fledged peeing all over the ironing board.  They leak like nobody's business.  A big mess, and a bigger pain in the fanny.  I can accept that as long as I know I will get a good two plus years of service out of them before they are reduced to their particular form of geriatric demise.

I am so curious about the new Rowenta steam stations, but I just can't bring myself to pay the $225 for one.  I need to wait and see if they actually last longer than two or three years before I spring for one of them.

Of all the comments, I liked Robyn's suggestion (as it suits my modus operandi)  and think I will follow what she did.  She bought her German made Rowenta Focus at Kohl's when she had a 30% off coupon and a couple of $10 Kohl's Cash coupons.  So, for now I will use my cheap iron and wait for a good sale at Kohl's.  

Thanks again for all the comments.  I hope you all enjoyed reading them as much as I did!

Prepping Fabric

There is a new movement that is underway.  You may or may not be aware that a lot of fabric and pattern designers are practicing a technique that supposedly makes cutting, sewing, and fabric handling much nicer.  

I have never been a pre-washer.  Not at all.  Well, once when I made a red and white quilt I did pre-wash the reds, but that is it.  I love to use pre-cuts, and pre-washing those little pieces of fabric (that already come so nice and crisp and tidy) is insane.  They end up in a linty, tangled ball in the machine.  Don't do it, I am warning you.  It's a mess.

That being said, this new method I am referring to has completely gotten my attention.  It started with a Carrie Nelson post on "The Moda Cutting Table".  Go ahead, click on the link and go read the post, I will wait.....

So, what Carrie does is starch the dickens out of her precut pieces before cutting and sewing them.  She references Lisa Bonjean of Primitive Gatherings, who also recently posted on her starch habit.  Both these pros use spray starch or spray sizing before cutting and piecing.  They agree that it helps pre-shrink the fabric and most beneficially, aids in cutting and piecing as the fabric is crisper and has more body.

Since these two gals have a proven track record of knowing what they are doing, I decided to give their suggestion a try.  In the photo above, you can see my set up on my patio table.  I spread out some plastic to protect the table and got going with my spray starching.  One accessory Carrie recommends is a spray attachment you can put on any spray can to make the spraying go easier.

 

I got my spray nozzle at my local ACE hardware store for around $4.  It snaps on the top of any spray can (you can find it in the paint section).  I bought a new can of Faultless Spray starch at the grocery store and was good to go.  I went with the least expensive starch, because I was warned that I would go through A LOT of starch.

No kidding.  That full can of spray starch did not quite last through the full fat eighth bundle I was prepping.  If you were starching a fat quarter bundle, I swear you would need at least two cans of starch.   You want to completely saturate the fabric.  I had two fat eighths to go when I ran out of starch, so I switched to Magic Sizing.  I will be interested to see what if any difference there is between the two products.

I turned the tables on my crazy neighbor down the hill from us.  He is always doing bizarre things, and this time I trumped him with doing something wacky.  Hah.  Bet he is still guessing what the heck I was doing out there on my porch.

I will let you know what I think of this method when I start cutting and piecing my Gardenvale fabrics for the Crop Circles project!

Come On, Admit It

Let's be honest.  Is your ironing board cover disgusting?  I doubt it is as revolting a sight as mine, but I bet it  shows some signs of wear and tear.  Three years ago I made myself a new ironing board cover.  I used a tutorial by Sew Much Good, which was excellent, and had a new cover fairly painlessly in just a couple of hours.

It was about two years overdue, but I made myself a new one yesterday, using this fast and easy tutorial.  I really couldn't stand looking at that sad, stained cover for one more minute.

The first step is to cut a two yard long by 20 inches wide piece of fabric.  The great thing about this is that you and a friend could buy a two yard length of fabric, cut it in half lengthwise and each get a new ironing board cover out of it.  Or make one for now and one for later, or one for you and one for a gift.  Seriously?  My friend Lisa gave me a cute ironing board cover once, and I think it was one of the best presents I ever received.  I was thrilled.

So let me show you the process:

I flipped the ironing board on top of the wrong side of the fabric and traced around it about three inches out from the edge of the board.  I used a combination of pins, tailors chalk and a ruler.

Then I cut on my drawn line all around the piece of fabric.

The next step is to make a mile of bias tape.  Why is it I can never just do that without checking a reference book for the right technique?  I am always afraid I am doing something wrong.  After pressing the  bias tape in half, the next step is to attach it to the cover with some 1/4" wide elastic.

You carefully position the elastic on the inside fold of the bias tape and sew the raw edge of the bias tape all around the cover, being careful not to catch the elastic in your stitching.  (Check out the tutorial, the author's photos and instructions are way better than mine).

Fiddle around with the elastic until it is just right, and secure it with some stitches.  Now place your new ironing board cover on your board and fiddle a bit more until it is even and taut all around.

And there you go.  Now I just need to promise myself to do this every year instead of every three. So, how about it?  Want a new ironing board cover in a couple of hours?  Check out that tutorial and make yourself one!

And while you are here, notice in the background that all my Steampunk blocks are done!  Now I am appliquéing the center circles in place.   Lattices are next.  Ugh.  I hate making lattices.

 

A Great Tip!

Why, here is a nice roll of freezer paper.  Can you imagine what I am going to use it for?  Bet you can't!

No, I am not embarking on an applique project, but that is indeed what I originally purchased this roll of freezer paper for.  I can't remember where I got this tip, as it has been some time since I read about it, but it was in the post of a fellow blogger.  It is such a wonderful idea I have to share it with you all.  Let's give a moment of thanks to the blogger who first put the tip out there, whoever you are.  Merci beaucoup.

So here is what I am going to do:  I am going to use this freezer paper to clean all the little strings and hairs and fabric bits off my design wall!  Just how will I do that, you ask?

Pin the freezer paper (just to hold it down) and run your hot iron all over it.  Shiny side down.  Dull side to the outside where you place the iron.  You only need to pin it the first time, after you iron it the paper will lie flat.  When you peel back the paper after ironing, all the little thread bits will have stuck to the shiny side of the freezer paper!

How about that????   You can reuse each piece of freezer paper and just reposition it on the new area you are cleaning.  I used three good sized pieces for my entire design wall, and repositioned them three or four times until they were so full of threads they weren't working so well any more.

It really works great.  Now my design wall looks like it did on its first day, before I got threads stuck all over it.  I really do love this.