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Showing posts with label grad quilts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grad quilts. Show all posts

Monday, August 15, 2011

A Good Day for Chicken Tortilla Soup!

I have the day at home today so I am busy with all types of housewife-y things.  You’d think that I’d have a regular schedule for these activities but my work schedule varies so I end up catch as catch can.  As I rev up my machine quilting business I see the need for more deliberate scheduling on my part so I can get all my quilting done as well as my customers.  Thus, being home today meant cleaning, laundry, making homemade soup and banana bread; all things I could work on while I did a little sewing.  Throw the laundry in, get the bread in the oven, sew.  Start the soup, take the pictures, finish the last block, finish the soup.  And, so here I am, ready for dinner, and ready to post the August  block.  Yippee!   I think that means I’ll get to sew the borders on my Railroad Crossing quilt tonight. 

I thought I’d share a couple of other little things before I give out the instructions for the next block but, if you’re in a hurry, just scroll down and come back up here when you have a chance.  I took a workshop last Friday with Susan Cleveland called Piping Hot Binding.  It was wonderful!  Susan is the real deal.  She is the kind of person you’d want for a best friend.  Not only that, I think almost every single person in the class came really close to completing the project IN CLASS!  I’m about 90% done and that has never happened to me before.  I have about a dozen tubs of UFO’s from workshops I’ve taken.  But, this one I will finish, and soon.  Check her out.  And, if you get a chance to take one of her classes do so.

I also finished the graduation quilt for my niece and will bring it to her soon.  She starts college at the end of the month.  I’m glad I have some time to show it around a little bit before handing it off!  And, yes, those are super-sized Hexies.  I hope she loves it. 






Now for the August block.  It’s called Indian.  And, I also made a variation of it called Indian Star.  If you have in your layer cake a square with a motif you’d like to highlight then this block will do that for you.  There is a 4” finished square in the middle so you can fussy cut something for it if you want to.  I just used a pretty print.







Let's cut the pieces for it:

From the Light print cut
 (1) 4 1/2" square, fussy cut if desired
 (4)  2 7/8" squares
 (2)  2 1/2" squares
From the Dark print cut:
(4) 2 7/8" squares
(2) 2 1/2" squares








Next, using my Quick Quarter Tool by Quilter's Rule, I draw a diagonal cutting line and sewing lines on the wrong side of the 4 light squares.



 Pair each light square with a dark square of the same size and sew on the outside lines. Remember some of your pieces will have a pinked edge.  Here is how I line them up.  You can see the dark print showing beneath the pinked edge.
Here is a super close up of sewing just towards center of the drawn line.  If you have had trouble with your units coming out to small adjusting your seam allowance like this may help.  Doing this allows for the thickness of the thread.  Sometimes a tiny adjustment like this makes all the difference!

Cut them apart on the center line to yield 8 half square triangle units.  Open and press the seam allowance towards the darker fabric.  They should measure 2 1/2" square.  Trim, if needed. 
Lay out all the pieces like this:  Pay attention to the direction of the triangle units.  Dark is always next to light and vice versa. 

Sew the triangle units together in pairs.  They should each measure 4 1/2" by 2 1/2".  It's easy to let your seam allowance change and then you end up with your pieces ruffling or skewed.  Sew straight in and straight out of the seam. 

Add the squares to the top and bottom row pressing away from the center.  Sew triangle pairs on to the sides of the center square and press towards the center.   Three rows complete.   Now sew the top row onto the center row and press towards the center.  Repeat to sew the bottom row on.  Your block is complete!


Here are my other sizes and variations:             You can use a third print for the center square or, you can put a four-patch in the center and turn the triangle units to look like a star (you'll use the same number of triangles) or, you can make it scrappy and 4 different lights and 4 different darks for the triangles.  When I did this I cut the squares in half on the diagonal before sewing them so I could mix them up even more.  Just be gentle with the bias edge.
Four a 4" finished block:
The center square is cut at 2 1/2".  The corner squares (all dark this time) are cut at 1 1/2".  The squares for the triangle units are cut at 1 7/8".  If you want a four patch in the center instead of a plain square cut 2 light squares and 2 dark squares the same size as the corner squares 1 1/2". 

For a 2" finished block:
The center square is cut at 1 1/2".  The corner squares are cut at 1".  Cut the triangle squares (4) light and (4) dark at 1 1/2" and trim them up to 1".   (They're easier to work with if you start out a little bigger and trim them.)

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you enjoy the rest of your day!

Monday, April 18, 2011

All Kinds of Happenings!

How’s everybody doing? Has the spring weather arrived in your neighborhood? The tulips and pear trees are blooming as are the forsythia and redbuds. It makes going for a run almost a pleasure.

Just in time for Easter! I had a group of gals over the other day for a class on making this basket.  Isn’t it cute! It was fun to make and a really fun group to work with. They all did a great job. Each basket is unique and their fabric choices were so cute!



                                                       I served Peach Cobbler, too.




Here’s what I have on my design wall this week. It’s almost done. There’s a block or two I want to change and I think I'd like to lighten up a couple of the plain squares and then I have to choose an outer border and binding. The pattern is from Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville. It’s called Random Ohio Stars. It’s a graduation gift for my nephew who graduated this past December from Clemson. Clemson’s colors are purple and orange so I included those colors but I didn’t want them to be over-powering. So what do you think?

Hope you all had a great Monday!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

It's June Already!

Ok, so who switched the calendar on me? How did it become June already? I have way too much to do and can't figure out how to stay on top of it all. I am working on the graduation quilt for Mattie. The top should be completed over the next two-three days and then on to the frame it goes lickety-split! I have the choosen the panto I want to use on it. Dare I say that the quilt I ended up making for her is design idea #3? I've used some of the pieces I cut for #2 so some of the fabrics stayed but I had to change the overall look. I guess the wind was trying to tell me something....I had the whole thing up on my design wall one beautiful afternoon, window wide open enjoying the breeze when it kicked up quite a bit and blew off the pieces I hadn't yet pinned in place. Whooosh! Well, I wasn't in love with it anyway. So, back to the drawing board or, in my case, I peruse lots of magazines as well as they come through the shop...and this picture popped out at me. I didn't need a pattern for it. I just sketched out what I wanted to do for it and put together some numbers so I could make it the right size and voila! Design #3. I'll post a picture soon. Hopefully I'll get some pics of it before I give it away.

The Unofficial Stash Report: I know I used up a couple more yards in the process of making the above blocks but I had bought a couple yards for it while in Paducah in April. And, I haven't used some of the other fabulous stuff I bought there. That was supposed to be something I could dive into right away.....But, I have resisted bringing stuff home from work every day. I only bring stuff home every OTHER day!!! Hee, hee, hee. Oh well, I am trying to be more mindful even if I'm probably still bringing in more than I use up.

I also went to the Machine Quilter's Showcase in Kansas City last month. Fab-u-lous!! Loved my classes (most of them), loved the quilts (of course), loved getting away for a few days with S, even though we just spent the evenings together. And, we saw some very dear friends of ours as well. Kansas City also has some wonderful old architecture which we captured in photographs for me to use in machine quilting. I think I've found a new hobby!!

Happy quilting, y'all. And, happy summer, ready or not!