New Quilt Design: Use Fusible Interfacing to get those PERFECT POINTS!

Hello Quilters-

I'm excited to share with you a big quilt block pattern that I designed. The finished product is 32X32.  I hope you enjoy!

Fabric: 

Dark: 4 fat quarters

Lights: 4 fat quarters

White: 2 fat quarters

2 1/4 yds ultralight weight fusible web 

21”X 21” light solid- muslin, flannel, cotton- We are going to 

mark a grid on this

*Because of the scrappy nature of the quilt block, you will have leftover fabric.

Cutting instructions:

From the Dark fat quarters:

Cut 100- 2.5” inch squares- Be sure to cut from a variety of fabrics. 

Cut 3- 6 inch squares- Be sure to cut from a variety of fabrics

From the Light fat quarters:

Cut 23- 6” squares

From the White: 

Cut 52 -white 2.5” squares

Cut 2- 6” squares

From the Fusible Web cut 4- 20X20 inch squares

Half Square Triangle Sewing Instructions:

This method of creating Half Square Triangles yields 8 Half Square Triangles per square combination.

1)Pair up the 6 inch square fabrics right sides together in the following combinations:   

3 sets of dark/light 

2 sets of white/light

9 sets of light/light

2)Mark an X going from corner to corner on one side of each 6” square pair. 

3)Sew 1/4” seam on either side of both diagonal lines.

4)Cut on the horizontal and vertical axis. DO NOT MOVE BETWEEN CUTS. 

  

5)Now cut on the diagonals in both directions. You can use the chalk marks as a guide for cutting.  Again DO NOT MOVE PIECES BETWEEN CUTS

6)Press Half Square Triangles Open and trim down to 2.5” square.

You should have: 

24 Dark/Light Combo

16 White/Light Combo

72 Light/Light Combo 

With your solid light muslin create a grid using a framing square or your long quilting ruler. Measure and draw a 20 X20 inch square. Then mark every 2.5 inches along the vertical and horizontal lines. Connect the marks to create an grid. 

Perfect Piecing with Fusible Interfacing

Step One:

Lay your fusible piece bumpy side up on the grid. Be sure to line up your edges to the outer lines of your grid. 

Step Two:

Arrange your half square triangles and squares on the grid according to the block arrangement diagram. They do not need to be perfectly aligned with the grid lines. Be sure that the fabrics don’t overlap- a little space between the squares is ideal. 

Step Three:

DOUBLE CHECK your fabric arrangement!!! You can’t go back once you’ve ironed them in place. 

Step 4:

Iron your pieces in place. Be sure to press your iron and hold for a few seconds. Then pick it up and move it to the next spot. DO NOT SLIDE the iron around because your pieces will move. Once you’ve set the fabrics then go back and iron once more to make sure that everything is held in place. 

Step 5:

Move over to your sewing machine. Fold the first row over and sew a 1/4 seam along the length.   Repeat with the remaining rows. Repeat for all blocks.

Step 6: 

Cut the fold off of each seam using your rotary cutter or scissors. Then press open the seams. 

Step 7:

Return to your sewing machine and fold over the first row going the opposite direction and sew a 1/4 seam along the length. Repeat with remaining rows. Repeat for all blocks.

Step 8: Again cut off the fold of each seam using your rotary cutter or scissors. Press seams open. 

Step 9: Arrange your blocks. Pin two together checking for seam alignment. Then sew 1/4 along the length. Repeat for the second set. Iron seams in opposite directions. 

Step10: Pin the two rows together. (I like to pin from the middle out to) Check to make sure your seams align. Iron open and ADMIRE your gorgeous block!

Off Set Blocks- 5 full and 2 halves

Finishing your block- There are several ways that you could finish your block off. You could simply sandwich and quilt to create a beautiful wall hanging. Or you could create some more blocks and end up with a gorgeous throw or twin quilt. I am going to go the wall hanging route, but I've put together some images of what the block would look like if you expanded the design. 

Single Block with borders

Four Block Pattern

DIY Utility Tote

Dear Readers-

I am in love with the large utility totes that are popping up everywhere. I have two of them, but I felt like I needed more...you know the feeling...it is apparent in your  my stash. Anyway, I use my utility totes for EVERYTHING- grocery shopping, Costco, swimming bag, winter stuff bag, hauling around Christmas presents etc. They are amazing...but commercially made bags are expensive. I thought there had to be a cheaper option...so I went searching.

I made two frames. Each frame was about 10inches wide. 

I found a great tutorial by Jill Cataldo, but I couldn't find the metal U-shaped frames that she used locally. When I went to order them online, they were inexpensive (~ $.70/per unit), but when I got to the checkout shipping was around $15. Taking that into account with the cost of the home decor fabric and the webbing strap, it would have been cheaper to just purchase one from Thrity-One.

So out I went to Lowes to see what I could find to make a frame for the bag. My husband has a pipe bender so I purchase a 6ft length of 1/4 inch steel for around $5.50 thinking that I could bend. It was a little heavier than I would have liked, but I gave it a go.

It wasn't difficult to bend the rod into shape, but I had to play with it a bit. I learned that I had to bend it past 90 degrees to get it to actually be 90 degrees. After I had each of the corners, I made sure that there was some overlap on one of the long sides so I could join the two ends. I used duct tape to wrap the joint tightly and cover the ends to help project the fabric from wear.

The bag itself was very easy to make. It went together easily and it was simple enough to change the size of the bag. I think that I will make a few more using Cataldo's pattern, but try to make a different lighter frame...perhaps I'll use the wire hangers that are just taking up space in my closet =)

QAYG 2: Working with Spray Baste

Dear Quilters-

Week 2 of the QAYG is here! If you are like me, then the least favorite part of whole quilting process is the sandwiching quilt together. I hate pinning...the pokes and pricks, the sore callus you get from opening and closing the pins (though my father-in-law made an awesome tool which has helped incredibly) not to mention the pins become a hassle when you are quilting because you constantly have to stop to take them out. I've heard some other quilters talk about using spray basting to speed up the process, so this week I decided to give the 505 Spray Baste a go. 

It went okay. I wouldn't say that it eliminated the hassle, it just changed it. I struggled to get the right amount of spray evenly across the batting. I wouldn't get enough and the backing wouldn't stick to the batting or I would get too much and it was difficult to reposition and smooth out. I also still pinned around the outer edge of the quilt sandwich. 

I would probably use it it again, but am not sure how it would work on larger pieces. 

Anyway- down to the quilting. I picked a curvy overall quilting motif for this block. I was searching through different quilting books I got for Christmas and found that I really liked the Fandangle motif in Christina Cameli's book Step-by-step Free Motion Quilting.  It was pretty similar to the orange peel I did on the last one, so the U shape was familiar, but the addition of the swirl within the U shape was new to me. 

I used the clear vinyl to audition the motif and thought it would work. I tried it different sizes and variations and settled on two passes across the row. One was too big and three was too small. (Just like the three bears right?)

I wanted to practice drawing out the pattern, so I found this great tool called Sketch Toy. It is a free online drawing app...check it out! I played with it for a bit practicing the design I'd chosen. (Click on the pictures to view the methods for each)

My quilting is improving with each little bit of practice...hopefully I can get to the point where it isn't SO nerve racking to start. With each little trick I learn, I know I am one step closer to making that a reality!

Hope you find these tools as useful as I do!!

J

QAYG 1: Trouble choosing a quilting motif? I've got a fast easy solution!

Alright Quilters-

I started working on my 36" QAYG blocks. For these blocks I am focusing on the quilting. I thought they would be perfect for working on my Free Motion Quilting proficiency. But I have found that before I could work on the proficiency side of the FMQ, I actually had to make a decision regarding the quilting itself.

I find myself experiencing a kind of paralysis when it comes to completing a project. I work frantically to complete a quilt top, but then once the top is pieced I seem to freeze. I fear ruining a beautiful quilt top. I agonize over choosing just the right quilting design for the quilt I'm already in love with. How can I best enhance the blocks and fabrics? What if I choose a design that detracts from the block or clashes with the fabric prints?? All those hours spent picking fabric, cutting, and piecing would go down the drain. This last step....becomes frustrating.

I know that I am not alone. I have heard many of the women in my quilting group say they experience this same frustration. I am happy to say that I think that I might have found a solution to our problem. At least, I have found a way to audition quilting motifs and practice on my quilts in a meaningful way that is also cost effective!

I had purchased the vinyl before Christmas for making Eye Spy bags for the littles in my family, and had a lot left over. I was racking my brain for something to do with it when it hit me. It is so simple that when I thought of it, I kicked myself for not thinking of it sooner. I could use the vinyl to audition quilting motifs.

You will need a large piece of clear vinyl, expo marker or vis-a-vis, quilt top, quilting design inspiration (I am currently reading Shape by Shape by Angela Walters) and camera.

My piece of vinyl is 36"X36". I am planning on binding it using some of my leftover binding materials to keep myself from drawing off the edge. I haven't yet, because the pieces I am working with are smaller than the vinyl, so I am not concerned about drawing off the edge. If you are working with a smaller piece of vinyl or larger quilt top, then I would bind my vinyl before I tried auditioning any quilt motifs.

Lay the quilt top down and place the vinyl overtop. Now comes the fun part. I auditioned many different quilting patterns- both overall and custom. It was amazing to me that designs that I thought I'd love, I couldn't stand. I made sure to take pictures before I erased a design, so that I could compare them to each other before I made a final decision.

Once you have made a decision of the motif you are going to be using, then sandwich your quilt and pick your thread. I love contrasting threads on my fabrics, because the quilting really stands out. I typically like to use a variegated thread because it can pick up all of the different colors in the fabrics that I use.  I do have to admit that recently I have become a fan of the blended threads used in negative space quilting.

I started quilting my design using the larger quilting foot. I call it the "Starship Enterprise". I have used this quilting foot for a bit now, and I've really liked it, but I was struggling to quilt smoothly. So I changed quilting feet to a closed free motion foot- I think that it is also called a darning foot- and my quilting became so much smoother. I think that I will continue to practice quilting with this foot for the time being and let the "Enterprise" take a much needed break =).

I am pleased with the quilting motif that I choose, and I am going to be auditioning my quilting motifs from now on. I will be confident that I am no longer going to ruin my quilt top. I am hoping that this little change will help my UFO pile decrease =)

I hope you have found this tip to be helpful. What are some other methods you have found to get past the paralysis?

Happy Quilting-
J

New Year...New Projects

Happy New Year Quilters!

As the new year begins... my goal setting and list making starts in earnest. Let me be clear- I AM A TO DO LIST JUNKIE. I thrive on making to do lists. It is such a thrill to cross something off the list that sometimes I will add an extra to the list just so I can cross it off or break down a larger item so I have more to cross off!

This year I have a "To Do List" of quilts. I want to make 12 different quilts this year. Each quilt will fall in a focus group: color, quilting, design, or technique. 

-Color- Color plays a huge role in how a pattern plays out in a quilt. It amazes me how a quilt can change simply based on the different colors chosen. Besides playing with the different colors, you also have to take in to consideration the values of those fabrics. So in the Twister quilt, I'll be playing with colors and in the Neutral Quilt, I'm going to play with values. 

Twister Quilt- Color Play

Neutral Quilt

-Quilting- I have many quilt tops that are in limbo. I get the top pieced, but then can't decide how to quilt the top. It is almost as if I am paralyzed with the fear of ruining a quilt top. I want to be comfortable with quilting designs that this is no longer a huge struggle.

As I peruse Pinterest, I'm drawn to the beautiful quilts quilted by Angela Walters and Judi Madsen. Their designs are not only beautiful, but I'd say make the quilts stand out. I aspire to quilt as beautifully as either of these women. Of course, in order to do that one must practice, practice, practice. But on these quilts I'll pay special attention to the quilting.

I am most excited about the QAYG quilting sampler. For the Saturday Sampler at Glenwood Sew this year, they've been teaching big blocks. I've decided to take each of those blocks and focus on quilting using different designs in a few new books that I got for Christmas. The idea is that each block being 36" square will be the perfect size to focus on quilting and overall design. Then I'll connect them to make one beautiful quilt. 

QAYG- Quilting Sampler

Hexagon Quilt- Halloween

Saturday Sampler- Green and Purple

Quilt Blue Scrappy

-Design- I want to stretch my imagination and design two original quilts. It may not seem like much to only design two quilts, but for me it will be a challenge. I find so many beautiful patterns out there that I think that my originality and creativity are stifled because it is far easier for me to buy a pattern than to sit down and create. 

Original Design Quilt

Monster Quilt 

-Technique- Every quilter has a desire to get better, to broaden their horizons and find new or different ways to create the same block. I'd like to explore some of these different techniques and find one or maybe a few that I like enough to be my go to techniques. 

Flying Geese

Double Disappearing Nine Patch

Drunkard’s Path Baby Quilt

-Seasonal- I want to make quilts for each season, starting with Winter. 

Snowman Quilt

I look forward to sharing with you my progress for the year. I hope you join me in creating a "To Do List" of Quilts to complete this year as well. 

Can't wait to see the creative juices flow!!
Until next time-

Jesslyn

Scrappy Happy Speed Quilting

"Go Big Block 13"- Pieced using this AWESOME technique!

Hey There Fellow Quilters-

I hope you've had a wonderful Christmas and are gearing up for the New Year! I hope that you've kept all of your scraps left over from the Christmas rush because I've discovered a wonderful way to bust through them. This technique isn't limited to just scraps- I've used it on various different blocks and it works like a dream.






About a year ago, I decided that my scraps were out of control and I needed to organize my studio and make my fabric more accessible. I ended up going through ALL of my fabric and cutting it down into pre-cuts.  2 1/2 in, 5 in, and 10 inch squares, Fat Quarters, and 2 1/2 inch X WOF strips. I also left yardages of over a yard untouched. That left me with TONS of little squares.

Ahh! So embarrassed to even show
this. It is so poorly pieced! But at least it
gives you an idea of how incredible this
technique is!

Now my fabric was usable and I knew what I had, but I was overwhelmed by the little squares. How on earth was I going to get through them all? I found several quilt tops that I liked a lot, but my piecing left a lot to be desired.

I also couldn't imagine how long it would take me to get a top pieced. Those two problems combined stalled out my productivity.





I found the answer to my problem here. Elizabeth Hartman walks you through a great tutorial. It is crazy how fast the piecing goes using this tutorial. The quilt pictured below took only a few days to put together and it is an oversized queen! (I didn't sew all day either! I just sewed in the evenings or when my little was napping.)

I applied Elizabeth Hartman's technique
to "Growing up Odd" by Wedding Dress Blue. 

After I completed this quilt using Hartman's technique, it got me thinking. Could I use this same technique to piece HST and maintain perfect points? I gave it a go using the Saturday Sampler pattern I had to complete for December "Go Big Block 13".  I was blown away with the results! I couldn't believe how fast the block went together and how perfectly it was pieced!

 First you need to determine the size of the block you are going to make- in my case 9"X 13 1/2". Lay out your HST in the
pattern desired.

Then iron your blocks in place. It is imperative that you PRESS your iron without moving it to set your blocks in place.

Fold your block along the longest side and sew a 1/4" seam. Press. (Hartman's tutorial instructs you to trim off the seam and press seam open. I didn't find that necessary.) Sewing the long seam first leaves you with a perfect 1/4" seam allowance between each row.

Folded along longest side

1/4" seam allowance. 

Now fold the along the short side and sew the length using a 1/4" seam . Repeat until all rows are sewn. Press open.

Ta-Da! Perfect Points !

I loved using this technique and hope you find it as useful as I did! Happy quilting!!

Colorado Row By Row

Completed Row by Row quilt

Hey All-

I had the best time participating in the Row by Row Challenge. I hadn't heard about it until my local Quilt Shop, Glenwood Sewing Center, decided to participate and showed off their row at the Saturday Sampler class. It was an interesting idea, and I've been wanting to get to some of the other quilt shops in the area (and the state).

For those of you who don't know about the Row by Row challenge, it is very similar to a Shop Hop. Participating quilt/fabric shops design their own row pattern around a theme. 2015's theme was Water. From June 21-Sep 7, 2015 quilters went from shop to shop and to get a copy of the row pattern for FREE. If you wanted to you could then PURCHASE a kit that is specific to their row. The first person to turn in a completed a quilt of at least 7 rows before October 31, 2015- (pieced, quilted, bound, and labeled) at any participating shop received 25 fat quarters! (you could only win once, but there were a lot of winners) If your interested in participating this coming year, check it out here.

My Fabulous Prize!

Some of my fellow quilters and I had looked on Facebook to see what shops had designed, and kinda mapped out the shops we wanted to visit. There were so many great looking ones around Colorado that it was very difficult to decide where to go. ( My mother-in-law ended up completing two Row by Row quilts.)  

I started out not thinking that I had a remote chance at winning because we got a little bit of a late start. Some quilters had theirs completed BEFORE July. (I have a toddler...we all know how productivity declines with a rampaging two year old in your sewing studio.) Anyway- I completed my first row and became addicted!! I finished 3 more that day! I sent a photo of the completed rows to my mother-in-law. This row by row brought out a new competitive side I'd never seen in her before! She sent me a photo of her completed rows the next day.

Quilt hanging in the Window

We continued sending photos of our progress. My husband watched the little while I frantically tried to beat my MIL, but alas- no such luck. Even with my UBER helpful better half, a retired competitive MIL will win. She turned her quilt into  Harriets in Denver. I finished my quilt a few days later and turned it into the Glenwood Sewing Center. I was surprised that I was the first to finish and honored to have my quilt hang in their store window.

Elizabeth, the shop owner, was very generous and let me choose the fat quarters for my prize. She also gave me a bonus prize for completing the Glenwood Row and including it in my quilt.

I used my prize to create this Tula Pink Quilt- more on that in another post

The rows I completed were from the following shops:

 Jukebox Quilts

Fort Collins, CO

Glenwood Sewing Center

Glenwood Springs, CO

Nana’s Quilt Cottage

Colorado Springs, CO

Ladybugz Quilt & Company LLC

Montrose, CO

Stitch

Durango, CO

Fabric Expressions

Littleton, CO

Bold Line Quilts & Crafts

Delta, CO

Quilter’s Stash

Windsor, CO