Tag Archives: sewing

Fabric has a mind of its own…

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I’ve been buying fabric lately – more than I normally do –
to use in the quilts for the Color book. I’ve shopped at quilt shops and online
without much thought about how these fabrics will be used together. I’m really
enjoying the quirky relationships that are happening between these different
fabrics.

For example, I bought this cute little floral print:

 Gray-GreenFlower-01

I bought it knowing that it was more gray than clear. I use clearer colors often, but not exclusively. That said, when I bought it I
thought this would be more of a filler fabric. But darned if the little floral didn’t want to
buddy-up with a variety of other fabrics in the stacks on my table.

It thas a great texture that plays well with a variety of prints. I love it with this puff-ball fabric…

Gray-GreenFlower-02

Because the puff-ball fabric is soft and gray, the little floral feels cleaner next to it.

I didn't particularly love the next print, but I bought because it was interesting. I like it a lot better when it is with the little floral print.


Gray-GreenFlower-03


When I put the little floral with this blue and white print, it both look brighter.


Gray-GreenFlower-04

You might be wondering where I will go from here. I'm not sure. I like each fabric pair, but I'm not sure that I have a quilt in mind in which I would use all of these together. It is more likely that I'll leave these pieces all together in a stack and watch them. In time I'll figure out which fabrics together make me smile more.

I only bought 1/2 yard of that little floral print… I wonder if that will be enough? I am resisting the urge to buy more. I know that if it turns out that I need more and can't get it, I will find something else and that choice will be more interesting in the long run. There. I decided – I'm not going to buy more!



Do you know how to miter a corner?

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I've been piecing more than usual lately. First it was the baby quilts, then it was the Big Fish quilt for Elanor. I needed to get the back made for the fish and I pulled some fabric I've been saving to use for a kid's quilt – from the Castle Peeps Collection by Lizzie House for Andover.

I got the center of the top (below) together before I decided that it really did not go with the fish at all. I added the dark strips top and bottom and am calling this yet another kid quilt (and I have just the child in mind for it – a nephew that never got a baby quilt!).


Castle-Top_01

Those 8" wide border strips around the center had to be mitered to look good. Mitered corners are easy to do if you know how and I do know how. I want to share what I know with you. 

I've made a new Piecing Lessons page. There are only two lessons on it for now; more will come in time. I'm hoping that if you click here the How-To Miter A Corner PDF will open. If not you can get to it from the Piecing Lessons page.

NOTE: In case you don't know, you can save a PDF to your computer from your internet browser. In mine, I go to 'save as' and save it to my computer.

There's a link on the Piecing Lessons to a video that shows how I make triangle squares. To spare you from having to click to get to it, here it is. I hope you find both of these piecing techniques useful. 

 

  

ANOTHER NOTE: We did write a book, Piecing the Piece O' Cake Way, that you may or may not have seen. It's on it's way out of print but it is available as an eBook.Click here to read more. You might find a copy in print if you hunt around the web a bit.

 


What’s behind Door #2?

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I think there is a happy family behind Door #2! I know the new block looks way too big to fit with Door #1, but it gets trimmed to size after the applique is complete. 

DoorNumberTwo-04

I've made some progress since I last showed you the doors. The panels in the yellow doors are reverse appliqued and the 'stained glass' window over the door is stitched off the block. I needed to get the whole door and trim appliqued so that I could set the rest of the block together. I've designed these blocks so that they can be set together in one quilt or stand alone as individual quilts.

Here's a tip for stitching something like the window. Cut the underneath fabric bigger than it needs to be (in this case it's the floral print). Trace around the template onto the underneath fabric. Trace and cut out the smaller pieces. Finger-press them and sew them to the fabric like this…

Window_OffBlock-1 copy

Once the 'spokes' are sewn to the underneath fabric you can treat this as one piece and sew it in place. 

As I type this I'm taking a break from cutting leaves for the plants that go next to the door. I'm going out of town tomorrow to visit the Mississippi Valley Quilt Guild in Iowa and I really want to have some stitching to take with me. So now I'm going to get back to it!

FYI – You can click here to read about my class for Adventures In Italy where I will be teaching from the door patterns. My class is called Open A Door To Adventure.


I’m working on the borders…

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AAQI-SamplerImage-06

I haven't trimmed the center block yet so it's a bit out of proportion, as is the border. There are two side borders, none top and bottom. This AAQI quilt will finish at 16" x 16" – a nice to hang, don't you think?

Notice that Nan has her purse now. I am tempted to tuck a hankie up her sleeve (that's where she always carried her hankie) but I think it would look like a 'mistake' rather than an intentional object. I'll just imagine that her hankie is there.

I had intended to use a ribbon or bias strip for the twisty vine in the borders but it just wasn't working out. So I broke the vine into overlapping pieces and that is working well.