Displayed At Local Quilt Shop

I'm not accustomed to seeing my own quilts displayed anywhere except in my home so I was very excited to see them hanging at our local quilt shop.  I will be teaching a handful of classes from January through April, and these are samples for a couple of the upcoming classes.

The quilt above is my own design that I'm calling Concentric Illusion.  It is 70" x 70".  The walls at the shop are VERY tall.

Closer view....

The second quilt is called Mesmerize and will be nice for new quilters.  I didn't design it of course so students will need to purchase this pattern.

I also have a set of placemats on display for another class using a published pattern called Take Four.   I didn't take a picture of them. :)

Currently I'm hard at work trying to complete a new design of my own using the Learning Curve Ruler that I'm calling Serene Garden for a fourth class to be offered.  Once I have the quilt put together I'll share it with you.  The open house, meet the teachers/sign up for classes day will be in early January so I've got a deadline. The holidays have made it difficult to keep up with all I need to finish.

Last but not least, I've also designed a block of the month that will be demonstrated the first Saturday of each month beginning in February.  I think I will call it the Saturday Sawtooth Sampler since all the blocks will be a different variation of the sawtooth block.

Have you ever heard the saying "the faster I go, the behinder I get"?  Well, that's exactly how I'm feeling right now.

Thankfully we did get our little Christmas tree put up last week.  Here are a few pictures of my youngest and her best friend (her 11 year old Miniature Schnauzer) having fun posing....

Wishing you plenty of time to finish those Christmas gifts!  Some of mine are going to be late this year.  Some how I lost all track of time and December was here before I was ready.

Until next time....

Lazy Sunday and Other Things

Ta Da!  The quilting and binding is completely finished on my Mom's Lazy Sunday that she made for her granddaughter (my youngest).  Can you tell by the photo that Kirsten loves her new quilt?  :)

It really is adorable!  Lazy Sunday is a Bonnie Hunter design that was published as a mystery quilt in several editions of Quiltmaker magazine in 2013.

I'm happy to be able to finish it in time to take with us to Tennessee over Thanksgiving so Mama can see her own handiwork.  I'm certain Kirsten won't let us forget to bring it back home to go back on her bed.

I'll also be taking these Christmas ornaments to give to my oldest daughter, son-in-law, and 3 grandchildren.  Since I made each of them a quilt over the past year, I kept scraps from each quilt to fill up a clear ornament as a remembrance for years to come.

I was also able to load up one of my Dad's quilt tops this week and finish quilting it.  Isn't it precious?

Some close ups of the actual quilting.....

Would you like to guess what I will be doing on the 11 hour drive to Tennessee?  Hand sewing binding to the back of this quilt.  :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. I'm excited to see family I don't get to see often enough.

When I return, I plan to share another easy, extra nice gift idea with you.

Until then, keep sewing and stay warm!

Chenille Trivit Tutorial

So much fun was had this weekend as I played with my fabric and experimented with a new gift idea.  I recall seeing this idea months ago, maybe on the Moda website, and have been waiting for a good time to try it out....Chenille Trivits (aka hot pads).

So I pulled out a mixture of fun fat quarters and larger scrap pieces and let the fun begin.

Materials Needed:
5 - 10"squares using 5 different fabrics
1 - 10" square 100% Cotton batting
1 - 2 1/2" x width of coordinating fabric (approx. 43") for binding

Choose a piece for the back side of your trivit and place it face down on your work table...

Then place batting on top of backing fabric square.....

Next layer remaining 4 fabric squares face up.....

Draw a line diagonally in the center, from one corner to another.  Use a few pins to keep your 6 layer sandwich together. Because of the many layers, it will be best if your use a walking foot (or if you own a Pfaff, you already have the integrated walking foot feature built in).  Sew the first diagonal seam using the drawn line as your guide....

The next step will take a little time. Continue to sew diagonal lines approximately 3/8" apart, using the previous seam as your guide.  I was excited to have an opportunity to use a pressure foot called "adjustable guide foot" that I purchased years ago. Most machines come with a guide bar you can attach for this purpose, or you can just eyeball it if your pretty talented at sewing straight lines on your own. :)

The back of my Trivit......

Time to square it up....either to 9 or 9 1/2" square....your choice....

Now the fun, yet scary part.....cutting between the seams to make the chenille.  

IMPORTANT....MAKE SURE YOU ONLY CUT THROUGH THE TOP 3 LAYERS OF FABRIC! DON'T ACCIDENTALLY CUT THE 4TH LAYER THAT IS AGAINST THE BATTING!!!!!

You can use a Chenille cutter, or you can use sharp small scissors.  I did it both ways to make sure it could be done. :)  

In my case, I placed the lime green fabric on top of the batting, so it's my 4th layer and I don't want to cut through it....on this one I used my Olfa Chenille cutter....placing the plastic guard between the 3rd and 4th fabric layers....

Continue cutting between all diagonal seams....

For the second Trivit, I used a small, sharp pair of Fiskers scissors.....Again.....place blades between the 3rd and 4th fabric layers......

After cutting between all seams, it's time to bind your trivit.  I chose to machine sew binding to the BACK of the trivit first......

Then I machine sewed the front side of the binding.....

I'm certain you can attach the binding using your favorite method. :)

Since I was having fun, I cut more fabric and batting to make a couple more....

ALMOST finished...but still one more step required before my four trivits are completely done.

Time for the last and best part.......to get the full effect of the chenille process the trivits need to be thrown in the washing machine with a load of towels and machine dried.

Just look how they fluff up and the different colored fabrics create a unique design.  Aren't they just the cutest things? 

A view of the back....

Are you planning to make a few yourself now?  Make them in any size your choose, larger or smaller, you can't make a mistake.

I'm A Scrap Quilt Challenge Winner

Surprise, surprise....SCRAP QUILT CHALLENGE Winners were recently announced online - 107 quilts entered, 22 lovely prizes and I happen to be one of the 22 winners!  YIPPEE!

Many thanks to Shannon of Fabrics N Quilts for organizing and hosting this online scrap quilt contest.  I was blessed to win a quilt pattern designed by Michele Foster of Mishka's Playground called Aiming for Accuracy.  Ironically, I'm already a fan of this designer and already own this particular pattern.....which is wonderful by the way.  I offered to give up my prize to allow Shannon the opportunity to award it to someone else but instead she contacted the designer and I was offered the choice of ANY of her patterns.  I wasn't expecting that at all and am thrilled to get another pattern.  Now I just need my home computer fixed or replaced so I can download the prize pattern. (Life is never simple in this home!) :)

In the meantime, we have from now until October 2015 to complete more scrap quilts to enter in next year's contest.  I'm busy working on Bonnie Hunter's scrap quilt pattern called Celtic Solstice.  I'm ALMOST finished with step 4.  The first 3 steps have been finished for a few months but I was waiting on my second wind to continue.  This past weekend was the time to get back to that project.

I needed to pull out green scraps......

And orange scraps....would you believe one of these orange scraps is from 1997? Haha

Now I need them cut into strips.....

Out of respect for the designer, I can't give sizes, amounts, etc since the directions will be included in her next book and are no longer available for free on her website.

Then my strips in the two colors need to be sewn into more strips....

Pressed....

Subcut into 2-patch units.  I'm lazy so I thought I'd experiment by laying my sewn strips crossways on my Accuquilt die.....

Do I dare try it?  Why not....live dangerously....hold my breath....

Whoop Whoop!  It works....

And very little waste at all....

Let's just say hundreds of these are needed to then sew into 4-patches....

Can you guess what I plan to do today....yep, 4-patches....

This is just a drop in the bucket of the amount needed so I foresee a long day ahead. :)

Until next time....

Sew Sweet Simplicity Free BOM Block 1

I told myself I wouldn't start a new project the rest of the year....oops....I just couldn't help it. :)

This Block Of The Month only lasts 5 months and you have a choice of making a 4 block or 6 block total quilt. There are many other options involving this free BOM but you will need to check it out yourself for all the details.  LINK

Originally I planned to use my stash of 30's Repros and even make the option that includes some simple applique but then I remembered that I still didn't have my computer fixed which meant I couldn't print the applique patterns.  Time to rethink and shop my stash again.

New train of thought....sorry for the poor lighting....picture doesn't show true colors.

One option suggested by the designer was to use a large print in the center of each block rather than doing applique.  I've had the large red, black, white and grey floral piece in my stash for a little while and thought it would be perfect.

Although the designer shared excellent, detailed instructions for cutting and piecing the block, I decided I wanted to do ALL the cutting using my Accuquilt Go.  This meant I had to spend a few minutes figuring out the sizes needed and what dies to use.  If anyone wants to know the dies needed just leave a message in the comments section and I will ask permission from the designer to share that information.

Let the cutting begin..

Well, THAT'S not going to work.....the corners of the snowball blend in too much with the large floral I wanted to use....

I could rearrange the fabrics I planned to use and cut everything out again (all the small pieces) OR I could use everything that was already cut and just switch out the one large floral piece (much less time and work involved).....

Yes....I must admit that the solid black center looks much better than the large floral.  Of course I can always use the large floral fabric as a border....time will tell.

I can call it complete as it is now OR I could add a simple flower design applique in the center using a flower die and my Accuquilt cutter. I think I'm going to wait on making that decision.  It will be simple to add later if I choose to do so.  For now I consider myself finished until the next block pattern is released next month.  This Block only took one morning to start and finish so I don't really feel guilty in deciding to add this NEW project to my goal of finishing UFO's for the remainder of the year. :)

It's not too late to sign up for this free BOM if you would like to participate.  Let me know if you decide to do it along with me.