When I was at Fall Quilt Market I bought a set of quilting rulers to try out. I'm just now getting around to playing with them.
These blocks are only 6" which is a nice size to practice with. Right now I'm just playing. Eventually I will develop a project or use the one that comes with the rulers and teach this as a class in my shop.
These are done on a domestic machine, not a long arm. They intrigued me for this reason. Not many of my customers have a long arm, but they all have a regular sewing machine. You don't need any fancy equipment to be successful with these rulers!
My scrap group meets today. We are winding down one project so I'm thinking ahead to the next one. This is what I've been working on.
The pinwheel blocks are made from 5" squares and the sixteen patches are made from 2.5" by 11" strips.
I have enough fabric to make another quilt this size (30 blocks) plus a third quilt that would use only 20 blocks and a border. Or I could sew all 80 blocks together to make a 64" by 80" quilt. I'm not sure exactly what I will do at this point. I'm still in the "just making blocks" phase of this project.
My mom made one of these for me and took one as a door prize to my guild meeting. The lady that won it at the guild meeting asked for the pattern, but Mom didn't use a pattern. This weekend I made one and took pictures so I could write a little tutorial.
The one on the left is the one I made. The one on the right is the one my mom made. For the purposes of this tutorial I made mine a little smaller. You can easily adjust the pattern to add more (or less) clip strips. The finished size of mine is 4.5" by 6".
I used scraps to make mine and it took less than a fat quarter worth of fabric. You'll also need some sand or crushed walnut shells for the filling.
Here is what you need to cut:
(4) 2" by 4.5" rectangle for the clip strips
(3) 1.25" by 5" rectangles for the spacers between the clip strips
(2) 2.5" by 5" rectangles for the end pieces
(2) 4.5" by 5" rectangles for the back
To make the inner bag that you will fill with sand or crushed walnut shells you need (2) 4.75" by 6.25" rectangles of scrap fabric.
Step 1: Fold the 2" by 4.5" rectangles in half lengthwise, wrong sides together. Sew both short ends. Clip the seam allowance a bit to reduce the bulk at the corner. Turn right side out and press.
Step 2: Layout your base pieces and put the clip strips on top of the appropriate pieces, aligning raw edges. Your base pieces are the (3) 1.25" by 5" rectangles and the (2) 2.5" by 5" rectangles. Notice that the clip strips are shorter than the base pieces. Just center them on the base piece as best you can.
Step 3: Sew the clip strips to their base pieces using and 1/8" seam allowance to hold them in place before sewing the pieces all together.
Step 4: Sew the pieces together using a 1/4" seam allowance. You will need to make sure you keep the unbasted edge of the clip strips out of the way.
Step 5: Press all your seams in one direction.
Step 6: Press one of the 5" sides of your back pieces over 1/4" twice, then topstitch the hem down. The piece on the left below is only pressed while the right hand piece is pressed and sewn. Notice that my fabric is directional. I made sure that the two edges I was working with in this step align the pattern on the fabric properly.
Step 7: Pin the two back pieces to the completed top piece, right sides together. The back pieces should overlap 1" to 1.5" along the hemmed edges.
Step 8: Sew all the way around the outer edge with a 1/4" seam allowance. I usually backstitch over the overlap section since this area will get some extra stress on it when it's time to put the inner bag inside.
Step 9: Turn it right side out through the opening in the back.
Step 10: To make the inner bag, place your (2) 4.75" by 6.25" pieces right sides together and sew all the way around the outer edge with a 1/4" seam leaving about a 2" opening in one of the shorter sides. You may want to shorten your seam allowance for this step since you will be filling this little bag with sand or crushed walnut shells. Clip the corners and turn it right side out then fill. I used crushed walnut shells for mine.
Step 11: Hand sew the opening closed. This does not have to be invisible since no one will ever see it once inside the cushion, but it does need to be securely sewn.
Step 12: Insert the inner bag into the cushion through the opening in the back. It may take some finessing to get the filler bag inside if you have filled it really full like I did. Just take your time.
That's it! Enjoy your Wonder Clip Pin Cushion!
Sorry I haven't been able to post for a while. The holidays and taking inventory of my store have taken up a lot of my time lately. I am still making progress with my On Ringo Lake quilt though, just slowly.
All of clues one, two, and three are done.
Clue four is done too even though they aren't all shown in the photo below.
I'm working on clue five now.
I'm still making progress on my On Ringo Lake project.
The photo above is of my progress on Clue 3. I have some of Clue 4 made too. I had planned to use my Deb Tucker Corner Pop ruler for clue 3, but I wasn't thinking and cut out my neutral squares for a different method! Oh well, it will work. I did use the Essential Triangle Tool ruler for clue 4. I must say that I am impressed. It was easy to use and my units are coming out great!
I'm surprised that I've been able to keep up somewhat.
This photo was take a few days ago but I'm just now able to write something to go with it. I now have all of my flying geese sewn, but only three are trimmed to size. I've got a lot of trimming to do! I hope to be able to get at least some of clue 3 cut out today. I plan to use the Corner Pop ruler method for it.
The reason I have been unable to post much here lately is that my shop is in the midst of Stuff My Stocking (also known as 12 Days of Christmas in other areas). It's one of those promotions where the shop offers a deal on one item a day for 12 days. It takes a lot of time (before, during and after) to do it well. If you are interested we do ship. You have to be signed up for our newsletter to participate. Go to our website, click here - Alamosa Quilt Company, and click on the "subscribe to our newsletter" button located on the header image below our logo. Today is the ninth day of the event but on the 12th I will be allowing folks to go back and take advantage of previous days. So if you sign up now you can still get in on all of the deals, provided we still have items left, which at this point we have at least a few of every item.
I've been making some gifts for Christmas this year.
26 napkins and 2 pillowcases!
