i have to say...

sew-along with me!: whimsy quilt top done!

This was a fun quilt to put together!  

Jennifer's instructions are clear and the top comes together quickly!

Since I love the look of Jennifer's original quilt, I went with pink for the background and added some greens and greys and pinks from my fabric stash.  I like the happy look of this quilt top!

This evening I have a chat time scheduled for 7 PM (MST), and I would love to know if anyone is planning on joining us.  If no one responds, I will go ahead and cancel.

This is my last post about the Whimsy quilt until I finish it.  Hopefully that will be very soon, because the little one that will receive it is coming soon!  Must hurry!

If you want to know more about Jennifer and her work, visit her blog here.  You will be inspired!

Happy sewing, friends!

***More information on finishing your quilt can be found here:  sandwiching, machine-quilting, and binding.

"On the Road to Spring" quilt-along

It is such an exciting thing to sew the last couple feet of the binding on a quilt.  I have to hold myself back from rushing, rushing, rushing to the end.  The last stitch feels oh-so-good.

Finished.

Last night I read while snuggling under my new lovely and it was warm and comfortable, just like I knew it would be.  Of course, it was fun to glance up occasionally to remind myself of the colors and patterns that I picked.

So springy.  Just like I wanted it to be.

Our quilt-along consists of 6 lessons that you can access at any time.  You can go as slow or as quick as you like.

week one: choosing and preparing your fabrics

week two: cutting the pieces for the quilt (all squares and rectangles)

week three: sewing your quilt top together

week four: assembling your "quilt sandwich"

week five: machine quilting

week six: binding your quilt

This quilt is good for beginners or experienced sew-ers alike.  It is a great way to play with color.

Be sure to check out the Flickr group.  There are some wonderful quilts making an appearance there!

Happy sewing!

On the Road to Spring quilt-along (week six: binding your quilt)

I can't even believe that I am posting the last quilting tutorial! 

When we started it seemed so exciting that spring would be just around the corner when we completed this, and here we are!  When we were driving around town this weekend we noticed that the globe willows are starting to show a green blush, and that means that leaves are a comin' soon.  You will hear no complaints from me about this, that's for sure.

This week we will be binding our quilts.  This is the step that provides a clean edge for the entire quilt, as well as a frame for your creation.  The color you pick for the binding will highlight those same colors and tones within the quilt, so choose accordingly.

Your first step is to cut the excess batting and backing off of your quilt, even with the quilt top:

Cut seven 2-1/2" strips using this technique.  Seven strips will be a bit too much, but I always like to have too much than not enough.  Basically, you want to make sure that the total binding pieces measure longer than the outside measurement of your quilt:

Sew all the pieces together, end to end:

Open all of the seams and iron them flat:

Iron your binding piece in half along the entire length:

Personally, I find it more effective to pin and sew the edges of the binding on one at a time.  This way you don't end up with puckering at the end.

Start pinning the binding to the quilt edge in the middle of one of the sides:

When you get to the corner, lay out the binding like this and make a crease with your finger:

Now fold the corner like this:

Now fold the edge like this and pin in place:

You can now start sewing your binding on, but start approximately 6 inches away from the first pin (that six inch piece will be sewn down in a little bit):

When you get to your first corner, sew like this and backstitch:

Remove your pin and refold the edge:

Now start sewing approximately 1/4" from the corner of the quilt:

Keep sewing around the entire quilt, pinning and folding the edges in the manner shown above.  Stop approximately 6" from the end of the binding. 

When you come around to your starting point you will fold and iron your binding like so:

You will open the fold and pin the binding using the ironed fold as a guide:

Now sew along that ironed seam to connect the binding.  Pin the binding in place on your quilt and complete the sewing.  Your binding should be sewn around the entire quilt now.

Flip the binding to the back of the quilt and pin in place:

Once you have pinned the entire backing, you will hand-sew the binding in place:

Once the binding is completely sewn on, you are holding your finished quilt.  Some clipping of threads will be needed, but other than that it's done!

DONE!

I have to admit that I have not finished my hand-quilting, but as soon as I do I will post pictures and post links to all 6 quilting tutorials so they can be easily accessed for use at any time.

I hope you have had fun because I sure have!  Quilting is a rewarding, artistic endeavor that only gets easier and more perfect over time.  Never forget that practice makes perfect.

Happy sewing!

some more machine-quilting tutorials

I wanted to provide some more direction on the machine-quilting part of the quilt.  It seems that a number of people are stuck on this step. 

These tutorials are from other bloggers and I thought maybe seeing things from another view would be helpful.

Here you go:

Oh Fransson!

Freda's Hive

Anyone Can Quilt

Sew Inspired

My advice is keep practicing.  Work on a practice piece until you start liking what you see.  Since this is your first quilt, it will not be perfect.  My quilt is completely quilted and it is not perfect.  I do know, however, that my next quilt will be even better.

Hang in there!

Happy quilting!

On the Road to Spring quilt-along (week five: machine quilting)

 Are you ready to get started with machine-quilting?  If so, great!  If not, don't worry about getting behind.  A quilt is supposed to be a fun, relaxing project, not a chore.  Take your time and do it when you can.

This step will probably be your most time consuming.  If you get tired of machine-quilting, set the quilt aside for a while and come back later to work on it.  I have never quilted a piece in one sitting.  It is usually a 3-4 day project for me.

My plan was to have a cool little video for you to watch, but I couldn't figure out how to post it here on my blog.  That would have been ideal, but I think photographs will be OK too.

The first thing you need to do is to get your machine ready.

If you don't already have a free-motion quilting foot, you will need to buy one.  Mine cost about $10 at a sewing machine store.  You will need to get one that works on your particular machine.

First step, attach it to your machine:

Second step: Lower your feed dogs (check your sewing machine manual for the how-to on this).  Lowering these will allow you to be in control of moving the quilt under the needle, rather than the machine moving the quilt:

If you have never quilted before I suggest that you make a practice sandwich before starting on your actual quilt.  My piece is about 12" X 12" and it has a backing, batting and a top (the red fabric):

Your machine can be on automatic settings for machine-quilting.

Put your piece under the sewing machine, very close to the edge of the quilt ( on the fabric). 

If your machine has this feature, set your needle to the "down" position.  This will mean that every time you stop stitching, your needle will be down in the fabric, keeping it in place securely.

Now, take 4-5 stitches in one place, without moving the needle.  This makes a knot:

Now you will start "meandering".  You decide how big you want your design to be.  Simply go up, down, side to side, without crossing over a line.  When you are ready to stop, simply sew close to the edge and take 4-5 stitches in one place to create a knot.

It is OK to sew fairly quickly on this step since that will help to keep the stitches even and tight:

Now, let's move on to the real quilt-top.  Don't be scared.  :)

If your quilt hangs off on the left side of your machine, place a chair there so you can rest your quilt over the chair.  This will keep you from having to carry the weight of the quilt while you sew:

You can roll the excess on the right side of the quilt to keep it in place:

I generally work on a small area at one time.  Once I finish that area, I readjust my quilt and my hands and move on.  You can quilt all the way to the middle of the quilt, or even to the other side of the quilt by doing this:

This is what you want to see:

Be sure to check the backside of your quilt regularly to make sure your stitches look nice.  I did a huge area before realizing what was happening.  All I needed to do was re-thread my machine and remove the stitches and start over:

This is what you want to see on the backside of the quilt:

Now all you need to do is stitch the whole quilt.  Take your time.  Enjoy the process.  Don't expect perfection.

The first quilt that I stitched like this is TERRIBLE.  Really, it is.  But we use it all the time and I love it. I just don't look too closely at it.

Happy stitching!

On the Road to Spring quilt-along (week four: assembling your quilt sandwich)

I am behind on checking the flickr group and sending out addresses for the Sewing Seeds project.  By the end of today I will be caught up, I promise!

We are over halfway there! 

This is another easy and non-time consuming week.  If you are feeling behind, this is a great week to get caught up. 

First up, make sure you have all the supplies you need:  your quilt top, 3 yards backing fabric, 2 yards 90" wide Warm and Natural batting, quilter's safety pins, masking tape and some floor space.

The first thing you need to do is to lay out your backing fabric on the floor:

Then you will fold it lengthwise (the selvage edge is at the top of the photo) and lay your quilt top underneath the folded piece to make sure that it is smaller (there is no reason that the quilt top should be bigger than the backing piece, but I always like to check prior to cutting):

Now cut along the edge the scissors are pointing to in the above picture.  Your fabric will look like this now:

Cut your selvage edges off so they don't end up showing on your quilt backing:

Turn your right sides together (lining up the edges where you cut the selvages off) and sew the pieces together using a 1/4" seam:

This is what your backing piece should look like:

Iron your seam:

Lay your backing right-side down on the floor:

Start taping the backing fabric to the floor (this helps to avoid puckering when you add the batting and the quilt top):

This is what you should be looking at now:

This is the view from the top of my stairs:

Open up your quilt batting and lay it out even with the right edge and the bottom edge of your quilt backing (the extra should hang over the upper edge and the left edge).  Spend some time making sure your batting is straight and as flat as you can get it:

Now add your quilt top about 2-3 inches from the right edge and the bottom edge:

Here is a closer view:

Trim all the way around your quilt about 2-3 inches from the edge:

This is what you should see at this point:

You need to clip on your safety pins over the top of your quilt:

I usually put mine on about 6 inches apart.  Close up of pinned section:

That's it! 

Now you get to set your lovely quilt-sandwich aside and get ready for next week:  machine-quilting!  Today I am going to try to put together a video to demonstrate how it's done. Crossing my fingers that it works out!  :)

Happy sewing!

On the Road to Spring quilt-along (week three: sewing your quilt top together)

This is a big week!  Once you finish this lesson, you will have your entire quilt top sewn together.   And that is quite an accomplishment!

I suggest that if you do not have large chunks of free time, that you break this up in to a few days of sewing, unless you are one of those "get it done now" types who really likes to go for it.  In that case, charge through it until you are done.  Just don't forget to have fun while you do it.

Here's what we have done so far:

week one: choosing and preparing your fabrics

week two: cutting the pieces for the quilt

The first thing that I want you to do is to place all of your printed rectangles into a bag or a bowl next to your sewing machine.  This will help you to pick random pieces for your strips, rather than choosing according to color or print and then ending up with strips that are very similar.  You need this to be random.  You can set your pile of neutral squares next to the bag.

Now stick your hand into the bag (no peeking) and take one printed rectangle out.  You can also grab one neutral square from the pile.  Place the neutral square on top of the printed rectangle (right sides together), lining up the edges evenly.  Place these pieces on the sewing machine, right along the edge of the presser foot.  On my machine, this is a 1/4" seam.  You can check your own machine to determine that measurement.

***WHATEVER MEASUREMENT YOU CHOOSE, STICK WITH IT FOR THE ENTIRE QUILT TOP.  IF YOU DON'T YOU WILL END UP WITH SEAMS THAT DON'T MATCH UP--THIS IS NO FUN!

See the picture below for a better look at where to line up your pieces with the presser foot:

 

Now sew all along that edge:

At this point you will continue to add alternating pieces (square, rectangle, square, rectangle) until you form one entire strip.  Each strip will consist of ten pieces total, 5 squares, 5 rectangles.

When I pick the fabrics out of the bag, I always toss back a print if I already have it in that row.

Continue until you have 20 of these strips.  When you are getting close to being done with the strips, take a look to see which fabrics are left.  You may want to arrange these before sewing the last 4-5 strips to avoid having the same fabric in one row.

Now get to ironing:

I iron all of the strips the same way.  Starting at one end of each row(pick either square or rectangle) iron the seams in the same direction.  Do not iron the seams open.  Finish all of the strips in this manner.

We are halfway there!

You will want to find a large area of floor space at this point, and you probably won't want kids or dogs running around the house because you will have to lay out your entire quilt on the floor.  Let's not start your quilt's life by getting it trampled.

Begin by laying out your strips, alternating between a square and a rectangle beginning each row (just flip the strips over to alternate the pieces).

Ack!  A really skinny quilt already.  How fun!

Now simply keep adding the strips like so:

All of a sudden you will find yourself with this:

How awesome is that?

At this point you will want to take a  good look at your quilt to make sure that you like the arrangement.  If you find that one color or print dominates an area, just switch the strips around.  It took me about 30 minutes to fully arrange my strips the way I liked them.

Now we are going to step back to the sewing machine.  Grab two strips from one end of the quilt.

You will be pinning the strips together at the "blocks".  See the photos below to find your "blocks".

According to these strips:

These pieces are your "blocks":

On the left row, the block starts with the print and ends with the neutral.  On the right row, the block starts with the neutral and ends with the print.  This will progress all along each strip and you will use those markers for pinning.

"LET ME KNOW IF THIS "BLOCK" STEP DOESN'T MAKE SENSE.  YOU MAY BE ABLE TO FIGURE IT OUT JUST BY HOLDING TWO STRIPS TOGETHER AND LOOKING FOR THE OBVIOUS PLACES TO PIN.

Pin the "blocks" together as shown:

On seam will go one way, the other seam opposite.  The makes it so the pieces lie together nicely.

It is also helpful to place a pin on the edge of the 1st row so that you are always able to tell where you started (this helps when you get confused about which end of the quilt to sew the next strip into).  See the blue pin below.

***PLEASE NOTE THAT THE PHOTO BELOW SHOWS AN EXTRA ROW, RATHER THAN THE TWO YOU HAVE IN YOUR HAND RIGHT NOW.

Sew those two strips together using a 1/4 seam.

Now keep adding strips, one by one. Note how the blue pin helps you to find your place:

 

Now you will keep adding rows until all 20 are sewn together:

Wow!  I am sure your quilt looks fantastic at this point.  Be sure to pat yourself on the back!

Now you will iron the back (iron all seams in the same direction) and trim all of those pesky strings (the trimming step takes a while):

Now lay it out on the floor and gaze at your quilt's awesomeness:

 

You are done for this week!  Set your quilt-top aside for next week when we will turn it into a sandwich.  Seriously!

Please visit the Flickr group to join in the discussion.

Happy sewing!

a few things...

For some reason I can't access my email account, but I will send addresses to everyone ASAP.  It may be Sunday because my daughter and I get to go on a little trip this weekend!  Woohoo!

Also, in the Flickr group a couple of fantastic ladies posted information on how to enlarge the quilt dimensions and how to come up with yardage requirements.  Here are those links for those of you who have asked:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1339677@N23/discuss/72157623226233163/

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1339677@N23/discuss/72157623225832349/

I hope that is helpful!  Let's just say that math was not my best subject!  :)

I wish all a wonderful weekend!

On the Road to Spring quilt-along (week two: cutting the pieces for the quilt)

Week two already!   That means two things:

1. we are getting just a little closer to a finished quilt

2. we are getting just a little closer to spring!

I can feel good about both of those things!

Here's what we have done so far:

week one: choosing and preparing your fabrics

If you want more information about what is going on, please scroll through these posts.  Feel free to join in at any time!

Please remember to post your photos in the flickr group!

This week is the week to cut our fabrics.  If you are new to using a rotary cutter, take your time at first until you get the feel for it.  Once you get going on this step you will get done quickly.  If you are a beginner please read through this post thoroughly before you start.

We will be cutting 100 7-1/2"X 3-1/2" rectangles from the print fabrics and 100 3-1/2" X 3-1/2" squares from your neutral fabric.

Let's work with our print fabrics first (the 1/3 yard pieces).  In order to get a straight edge you will need to make tear down one side of each fabric piece. 

Make a small cut on one of the cut edges (a 1/4 inch cut about 1/2 inch into your fabric). Then start tearing. This sounds a bit scary, but it won't hurt anything:

After you tear all the way down the edge your fabric should look like this:

We need to trim that fluffy stuff off!  Take your fabric and fold it twice lengthwise.  In the photo the torn edge is under the ruler.  Now I want you to take your fabric and place it on the mat.  Place your ruler 1/4"-1/2" over the cut edge:

Now place firm pressure on your ruler with your left hand.  Using your rotary cutter, apply firm pressure and cut from the bottom to the top of the fabric.  Your cut should go through all of the layers.  If it doesn't, just try again with a little more pressure.

The left cut edge of your fabric should be nice and straight and free of fluff:

Now we are going to cut a 7-1/2 inch strip.  Place your cut fabric edge on the left side of your mat (even with the first line on the mat).  Make sure it is nice and straight.  Now place the left edge of your ruler on the 1-1/2 inch line of your mat.  The right edge of the ruler should be on the 7-1/2 inch line.  Take a moment to check that everything is in the right place and then make your cut on the 7-1/2" line:

Here is what you should have.  The piece on the left will be used for the rectangles and the piece on the right goes in your quilt stash:

Now you will need to unfold your 7-1/2" strip and lay it out along your mat.  Please note that the length of the fabric will be running left to right on your mat.  Lay the fabric even with one of the lines on your mat. In order to make a straight edge you will be to cut a 1/2" piece off of the left side:

For these 3-1/2" cuts you can use the ruler by itself for measuring.  Place the ruler over your fabric and measure 3-1/2":

Make your cut.  You should end up with a 7-1/2" X 3-1/2" rectangle:

All you need to do is to cut 100 more rectangles and you will be set with your prints.  This won't take as long is it sound like it will!

Now grab your neutral fabric piece.  You are going to make that same cut and tear all along one of the cut edges:

Fold your fabric and measure 1/4"-1/2" along one cut edge:

Now you want to measure 3-1/2" into the fabric:

Make your cut:

With your fabric straight along one of the lines on your mat, lay out your piece of fabric with the length running from left to right on your mat.  Cut a 1/2" piece off of the left edge to make a straight edge:

This is what you should be seeing:

Now measure 3-1/2" into your fabric piece:

Make your cut:

Do this until you have 100 squares. You should be feeling pretty confident by now with the rotary cutter!

When you are done you should have some lovely piles of fabric!

Next week these squares and rectangles are going to work their way into a gorgeous quilt top.  You will be surprised at how lovely they look when they gather together!

Happy sewing!

friday things...

Doesn't it make you happy to see the new growth on the trees just waiting to burst open in spring?  It does me!

Well, it seems that a Sewing Seeds project for Haiti is in order!   I will post more information next week once I talk to my friend and get a few more details.  Thanks for all of your support and helping hands that make this possible!

I don't know if I mentioned this, but I will answering all questions about the quilt-along in the comments section of those posts.  Everyone is invited to answer questions and encourage others, so don't feel like it has to be just me.  If you want to say something, go for it!  Also, you might want to check out the flickr group to see the progress of some of the quilters.  There are some lovely fabrics ready to be cut up next week!

Well, I am off to start my weekend.  We have never homeschooled on Fridays so we always have 3-day weekends. I am spoiled, I know!

Enjoy!