Day 1

Yesterday I decided it was time to do a 25 day challenge and get all these UFO's finished!  I will try to post my progress each day.

Day 1:  I finished sewing the blocks, sashed it all, sewed the blocks together, and added the border.

I also got the back all sewn together and used the scraps to make modern strip across the middle.

I will apologize for this being a little shorter, but the main detail was in the prior post for making this quilt top. You can see the prior instruction post here

To put the top together I made vertical strips: 2 strips were 5: 3x3 blocks and 2 strips were 1: 3x2 then 1: 3x3 block repeated twice.  Each of the blocks had 2 1/2" strips of sashing between them.  When the strips were made, the strips with only 3x3 blocks is 2" shorter than the other strips.  Because of this, I added a strip of sashing to the bottom of those two strips.  

Next, put sashing on the sides of the long strips you just made and sew them together.

Last, add 5 1/2" border around the outside edge.

Now your top is finished.

I'm linking up to:

Freshly Pieced // MyQuiltInfatuation  // Quilt Story // Free Motion By The River // Blossom Heart Quilts // Sew Fresh Quilts

Sassy!

About a year ago, my daughter and I found a fun jelly roll of Moda Sassy fabric at our favorite store, Cotton Shop on a great clearance price!  I quickly drew up a pattern and planned a quilt to make.  

Problem was, clearance fabric is hard to find.  Finally a few months later I found the perfect fabrics at a long forgotten store (the mending shed) not far from my home.  They were just what I wanted from this Sassy line for the binding, border and backing. 

To make this quilt I needed:

1 Jellyroll

4 yards backing fabric (pink)

1 1/4 yrd border fabric (green stripe)

1/2 yrd binding fabric (blue)

Cream fabric for sashing and inner border

My first step was to stitch 2 jelly roll strips together, repeat this until you have 20: 2 strip sets.  Next, cut each of these strips into 4 1/2" squares.

Each strip will make 9 squares and so after cutting the 20 strips, you should have 180 squares.

Now we put the blocks together!  We will want to make 16: 3x3 blocks and 6: 3x2 blocks

Chain stitching really comes in handy putting these blocks together, it will save lots of time and keep your blocks organized.

If you keep them in order and get your rows together correctly (as pictured above) you can just fold one row over another to sew the rows together.

 When you get these all sewn together, iron, starch & square up the blocks to be 12 1/2" 

Because of the way the quilt flows, we will sew our blocks together in columns.  Next sash top and bottom of block with cream fabric.

Sew them together into long strips.  I have 5: 3x3 blocks in one column strip (Make 2 of these) and then 1: 3x2, 1: 3x3, 1: 3x2, 1: 3x3, 1: 3x2 & 1: 3x3 for the other column strip (make two of these)

Hope you are enjoying this, I will continue on with this quilt in the next few days.  Check back soon :)

Alyssa Quilt: part 3 (finishing it up)

Today it's time to finish up this quilt!

You can check out Step 1 and Step 2 in prior blog posts

Step 1:

 Last time we pieced the blocks together so the first step today is add your border.  On this quilt I added a 3 1/2" border of a coordinating Miss Kate fabric.  On the twin Alyssa quilt I will be adding two borders, the inner border will be a 2 1/2" white border (my light color will be white on that quilt) and the outer will be a 4" colorful border.

Step 2:

Baste your quilt.  (I duck tape my individual pieces to the concrete floor in my basement and then pin them together.)

Step 3: 

Quilt your quilt.  

Step 4:

Bind your quilt (sorry on this post I'm not going into much detail on this)

Most quilts I stitch the binding to the front and then hand stitch the binding to the back, but baby quilts get washed more and need more strength so I stitch the binding to the back first and the stitch it to the front like this:

There you have it, these quilts are so easy to make!  

I made two of these Alyssa style baby quilts (and I still have fabric to make another quilt for a cousin having their first baby):

One had one floralish back and one has a polka dot back so they can be used for twins. They are both available in shop on etsy

I have linked up to:  Freshly Pieced // MyQuiltInfatuation  // Quilt Story // Free Motion By The River // Blossom Heart Quilts // Sew Fresh Quilts

Broken Herringbone Finished At Last!

I started this quilt in August of 2013.  I never dreamed that it would take me a whole 14 months to finish this, after all Molly Sparkles had this as a 12 week QAL.  I kept up with the QAL for about 9 weeks and then put the project aside for 9 months!  I do not want my quilts to turn out like all my scrapbooks!!!

I have posted before about the baptist fan and quilting it.  Honestly I do t know that I will ever quilt this pattern again.  It's beautiful but takes a long time to mark and quilt.  Great to have done but not good enough to entice me to do it again.  

I'm sorry that you can see the markings on the quilt still, My last step is washing off all the markings.  I do love this quilt and am going to put it on my guest bedroom bed.

The fabric is a Robert Kaufmann jelly roll and a Kona cotton grey.  The back really does match the front even though my nighttime lights are crazy wierd tonight.

I have linked up to:  Freshly Pieced // MyQuiltInfatuation  // Quilt Story // Free Motion By The River // Blossom Heart Quilts // Sew Fresh Quilts

Alyssa: part 2

Click here to get to Alyssa: Part 1

Click here to get to Alyssa: finishing it up

With the Miss Kate line, setting aside 8 strips of light fabric (I'm only using the brighter fabrics for this quilt) I created 72 strip blocks 4 1/2" x 8 1/2".  The current quilt I am making only needs 20 blocks, leaving me plenty for future projects.

Now on to our next steps

Step 6:

Our blocks are going to go together like this, one neutral strip sewn to each side of a strip block, making it a 8 1/2" square block.

 It will work much faster if you will chain piece them together.

 We create this by first sewing a neutral strips onto the edge of a  strip block.

After sewing one neutral piece onto each block, iron that side with the seam towards to neutral strip.  I left my blocks linked together until after I had ironed the.  It makes the process much faster and more organized.

Next, stitch in the other side and iron it just as you did the first side.

Step 7:

Square up your blocks to all be 8 1/2" square

Step 8: 

Lay your blocks out into the desired pattern

Step 9:

As you complete this step, you will have to iron as you go.  This will keep your seems laying flat and not making bulk behind your quilt.

Sew your quilt together in rows, 1 at a time.  Iron towards the neutral strip.  

Now you get to do the fun part :). 

Sew two rows together!

Here is my tips:  1: make sure the seams kiss when they meet 2.  When ironing I used the Eleanor Burns method, for the seam shown see how they are going counter clockwise, iron your row joining seam that way. Then 3: pop the seam and flatten it so that it will lay completely flat leaving no bulk and allowing you front to lay perfectly.

This is what the quilt looks like until Part 3, which is to come soon!

I have linked up to:  Freshly Pieced // MyQuiltInfatuation  // Quilt Story // Free Motion By The River // Blossom Heart Quilts // Sew Fresh Quilts

Alyssa quilt: part 1

Everyday I get an email from the Missouri quilt company, showing their deal of the day.  A few weeks ago, the deal was a jelly roll line made by Moda, Miss Kate.  Of coarse it was designed by Bonnie and Camelle and so I had to look into it, them being some of my favorite designers. 

Guess what I did, I had to order it!  The colors and patterns are so much fun!

I also knew the perfect pattern to make this quilt into.  I drew up a pattern in July to make with Riley Blake, it's a Beautiful Thing line, and called it my 'Alyssa quilt' as it's for my daughter Alyssa.  This Miss Kate fabric and my Alyssa pattern, will make a fun baby quilt for an upcoming baby girl in my family.  

 (Like how I'm using my old scrapbooking paper to design quilts on?)

Supplies for Alyssa quilt:

1 Jelly Roll

Neutral Fabric (need 5" for every 5 blocks) Baby quilt: 2/3 yd, Twin quilt: 2 1/2  yds

Border fabric: Baby quilt:1/2 yd;Twin quilt 1 1/2 yds

Background fabric:  Baby quilt 1 1/2 yds; Twin 4 1/2-5 1/2 yds 

Binding: Baby 1/4 yd; Twin 1/2 yd

Sewing Maching

Aurifil Thread

Batting

You can get to part 2 here

Step 1: 

Sort your jelly roll fabric into groups of 4 fabric that will go together.  Try to mix your colors up so for example green won't be on the outside edge of each strip.

Step 2: 

Chain stitch each group of 4 together

One of my favorite tools it The Cutting Gizmo by www.thegypsyquilter.com, that I found at a local quilt store.  It's a great way to cut all those chained pieces apart quickly.

Step 3:

Iron hour strips, I prefer to iron all seams in one direction

Step 4:

Cut your pieced strips into 4 1/2" strips

  

Each combined strip of 4 jelly roll strips sewn together, will give you 9 block pieces to work with.

Step 5:

First, cut your neautral fabric into 2 1/2" strips, so that they will be fabric with @ 44" long by 2 1/2" wide.

Second cut those 44" x 2 1/2" strips into 8 1/2" long strips, one of these strips will make 5:  8 1/2" x 2 1/2" strips

I'm linking this to Needle and Thread Thursday and Let's BEE Social

Sneak Peak of Alyssa Quilt Part 2:

Baptist Fan

I'm working on a broken herringbone quilt that I started 13 months ago, with Molli Sparkles in a QAL.  Of coarse I set my vision to big and eventually decided to put the quilt on hold and just made this Christmas table runner.

Well, 13 months after starting this broken herringbone quilt,  I have finally finished the quilt top and am ready to put this quilt together.  

I have decided for this quilt I want to quilt a baptist fan pattern but I have never done this.  I know I'm a little crazy to quilt a pattern like this on a home machine, a 72"x85" quilt, and never having tried the pattern before.  

My first issue is I  don't have a circular template to create the fan.  I looked at my local quilting store and they have 1" half circle patterns.    I really want the fans to be farther apart than 1" but not so far as 2", meaning they won't work.  Many tutorials out there show how you can freehand your circle, but that does not work for me!  Other blogs show how some used lids or other circular shapes.... Not what I want.

I decided to create a template for me.  After digging around in my untouched scrapbooking closet I found some thin plastic and a hole punch.  

At first I thought I would want my fans quilting with circles 1 1/2" apart so I marked and punched my template ever 1 1/2".

After drawing the circles and seeing how far apart they looked, I re-marked (notice the black dots) my template at every 1 1/4".

Here is my sample drawings to see how big my fans will be.

Before I quilt anything I have to draw it!  If I can draw something on paper I can learn to quilt it on fabric,  if I can't draw on paper then I'm crazy to think I can make it quilt perfectly on fabric. It's not perfect, but it works and I found how I wanted my baptist fans quilted.  I will be quilting from right to left so I drew my fans from left to right.  Make sure you know the direction you will be quilting before you draw fans on your quilt!  

Next I practiced quilting on scrap fabric, but you aren't going to see how that turned out ;).

Next I marked my quilt's lower half and started quilting it using Arofill, 50wt light grey thread.

Here is where I am to.

Buggy barn stars on the board

I have never made a buggy barn quilt before.  I'm not sure what has always attracted me to them, whether it is that they have such clean cut lines or such fun designs.  All I do know is that I have been wanting to make one for sometime and I finally bit the dust and began.  My first buggy barn quilt will be from the star crossing book.  I began with it because it seemed to be easier for a beginner.

My fabric choice is from the floral gathering Moda line.

There will be 12 stars blocks with double sashing, the gold around the star blocks and then bright colors between the blocks.  

The original star blocks are 12 1/2" and with the 2 1/2" sashing, the blocks are cut to be 16 1/4".  They should be 16 1/2" but due to me being an 1/8" off here or there they will be a 1/4" smaller.  No big deal!

This fabric line draws me in.  It's not a favorite, but I do love this line.  Moda really knows how to create beautiful color combinations.

These fabrics will be the outside border, binding and backing.  The green fabric will be the backing.  I'm not quite sure whether the red or tan should be the binding or sashing.  Any input?  My guess is red for border, because it borders the gold  and will have more contrast.

I've been looking at another buggy barn quilt, with the flowers.  Has anyone tried these, I really think my daughter would like one of these quilts.

I'm linking to Sew Much Ado