The first Halloween fabric arrived in my shop last week. I got Spooky Delights by Bunny Hill Designs for Moda. Along with the fabric I got a couple of patterns. This adorable kitty is one of them.
She was fun to make and not very hard. I tried out cotton stuffing from Quilter's Dream inside her along with some crushed walnuts shells for weight. Both worked great! I've only used polyester stuffing previously. The cotton stuffing is similar, but I found it easier to manipulate. Usually my stuffed items are pretty lumpy, but this project turned out much smoother. I don't know if I'm just getting better at stuffing things or if the cotton stuffing helped, probably both. I want to make the pumpkin too, but didn't get around to it yet.
I recently completed a Professional Tote as a store sample.
I used two of the Art Gallery denims I purchased for my shop. These are really nice fabrics to work with! I wish I took more photos of this bag! I've taught this bag numerous times, but this is the first one I actually made. The pattern is really nice. It is well-written with plenty of diagrams. The bag finishes at 18" wide by 15" tall by 5" deep and has lots of pockets both inside and out. The only thing I'm not happy with is the fusible interfacing I used. I used Decor Bond which is what the pattern calls for, but it is really stiff. It's too stiff for my tastes. I will be making a Mini Professional Tote soon and plan to use my favorite Shape Flex interfacing in it for comparison. I'll try to remember to take more pictures of this one when I post about the Mini Professional Tote.
The placemats I made for our dining room table really needed to be replaced. I looked up when I made them, September 2009! I finally got around to replacing them.
They are simply quilted and reversible.
I cut out six but only have three made so far. I'll get the other ones made soon.
We recently got in some of Moda's new line, Coral of the Sea. One of the fabrics is a doll.
She was really fun to make and didn't take very long. One yard of fabric includes all the pattern pieces shown here: the doll, her toy sea horse, her blanket, her pillow, a skirt and a mermaid tail. The directions are also printed on the fabric and were pretty clear. I only had trouble with the mermaid tail. I'm not sure I made it the way the directions said to, but I did what made sense to me. And it works just fine.
Just like the other blocks, it should measure 12" square finished, which means 12.5" square unfinished. This block is made from three units - (4) half square triangles (HST), (8) flying geese, and (1) square in a square. For the flying geese, I used my Wing Clipper ruler. The finished size of the flying geese units is 4" by 2" (or 4.5" by 2.5" unfinished). To use the Wing Clipper to make these units you need (2) 5.5" squares of medium/dark fabrics for your "geese" triangles (the larger triangle) and (8) 3" squares of light fabrics for your smaller "sky" triangles. If you don't know what a Wing Clipper ruler is then click here to go to my previous post for this quilt along. There is a video imbedded in the post that demonstrates this ruler. If you would prefer to use a different method to make your flying geese units you can click here to read about other ways to make these units. For the traditional method you will need (2) 5.25" squares of medium/dark fabric for your "geese" and (8) 2 7/8" squares of light fabrics for your smaller "sky" triangles. For the Flip, Flip, Finish method you will need (8) 2.5" by 4.5" rectangles of medium/dark fabric for your "geese" and (16) 2.5" squares of light fabrics for your smaller "sky" triangles. For the Fast and Furious method you will need (2) 5.25" squares of medium/dark fabric for your "geese" and (8) 2 7/8" squares of light fabrics for your smaller "sky" triangles. For the half square triangles, you will need (2) 5" squares of medium/dark fabric and (2) 5" squares of light fabric. Draw a diagonal line on the back of each of the light squares. Pair a light square with a medium/dark square and sew a 1/4" seam on either side of the drawn line. Cut them apart on the drawn line. Press them and then trim them down to 4.5" by 4.5". If you need a tutorial for this method, click here to see the one I did several years ago. For the square in a square (center unit), I used the Square Squared ruler by Deb Tucker. Again, she has a video demonstrating how to use the ruler.
If you can't see the embedded video above or it won't play for you, click here to go directly to Deb's online store listing for the ruler. A link to the video is on this page in the bottom of the green box along the right hand side of the page. To make this unit using the ruler you will need a 4" square of medium/dark fabric for the center. Then use the ruler to trim it to the correct size. You will also need (2) 3.25" squares of light fabric cut in half on the diagonal for the setting triangles. Then square it up using the ruler for a 4" finished size square. There is another easy method for making this unit that doesn't require any special tools. For it you will need a 4.5" square of medium/dark fabric for the center and (4) 2.5" squares of light fabric for the setting triangles. Draw a diagonal line on the back of each of the (4) 2.5" squares. Place one of them on a corner of your center 4.5" square. Sew on the diagonal. Press it back and trim away the bottom two layers, if you want, or not. Repeat for the other three corners of your 4.5" base square. I found a tutorial for this method if you need it. Click here for the tutorial. Now that you have all your units made, lay them out like in the photo below.
Sew the flying geese units together in pairs.
You should have nine squares at this point, all measuring 4.5" by 4.5". Sew them together in rows.
Then sew the rows together and you are done!
Again, the block should measure 12.5" by 12.5", unfinished. Please ask any questions in the comments section. If I can, I will respond to you personally with an answer. If you are "no-reply" then I will leave a response in the comments section and you will have to check back for the answer.
As it turns out, I wasn't the only one to have size issues with their piece. We decided to just cut them a bit smaller. So now mine is done!
Cutting a 1/4" off two sides made all the difference! When they are all finished we will mount all six of them on a black quilted background. Click the following links to read part 1, part 2 and part 3 of this project.
I made a quarter of one of the quilts from the book Scraps Inc. Volume 2.
I used a batik jelly roll instead of scraps. The quilt is made up of four of these blocks. The block measures 36" square, finished, so the finished size of the quilt is 72" square. The block went together really fast! It will be a shop sample for a while but would make a nice baby quilt if I get a chance to finish it. There is good negative space for fancy quilting.
I changed my fabrics since the last time I posted about these blocks.
I'm using some Kaffe Fassett scraps I was given plus the Kaffe prints I have in my shop. For the backgrounds I'm using some Modern Background Paper prints from my shop. The link to the quilt along is here: The Splendid Sampler
I've been working on it for a couple of weeks now in between customers, teaching classes and other stuff. It is a shop/class sample. This is another really nice pattern by Sew Kind of Wonderful. It is essentially a mini version of their Metro Rings pattern and uses the Mini Quick Curve Ruler.
I got tired of waiting for inspiration and went with my first instinct.
I pebbled the white with white thread. It adds nice texture without overwhelming the appliqued circles. Lines would have also been good, but I just didn't feel like doing lines. Also, a couple others in my group quilted lines on their backgrounds. I thought I would do something else and pebbles was the next easiest for me. You'll notice it isn't bound yet. I have a small problem. My piece shrank up more than I expected with the quilting. I square it up to 18.5" by 18.5" as we agreed. But look closely in the photo above at the blue circle exiting the piece on the top left. It is more than 1/4" away from the edge! Before I appliqued any of the circles down I drew an 18.5" by 18.5" square on my white background. I made sure to extend the edges of the appliques to or past my lines. I think this one moved and I didn't realize it until now. The higher, right-hand edge is on the drawn line, but the lower, left-hand edge is well below 1/4" away. Sheesh! So ... I either need to figure out how to fix it so that the circle is closer to the edge or convince the rest of my group to cut their pieces down to 18.25" by 18.25" or better yet, 18" by 18". Our next meeting coming up. I'll just wait and see what they want to do. Click the following links to read part 1 and part 2 of this project.
I wish I had more to share with you. I was sick last week and still worked 6 days. The life of a quilt shop owner is not glamorous! I sewed yesterday and hope to be able to get it photographed today so I can show you a finish later this week. Dad, the bed covers you made us work great!
