Tag Archives: sewing

I’ve been sewing…

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I’ve been working this week on a quilt (in 2 sizes) for the revised edition of the Piecing book. I do wish I could show you what’s on my wall, but all I can show is a little bitty teaser…
BlueTeaser

Actually this quilt is not little. It’s going to be 90″ x 90″ and I am both looking forward to/and not looking forward to quilting it. I have high hopes that, once finished, it will look good on my guest bed. After I set it together tomorrow I’ll know for sure.

I don’t know about you, but I have a really hard time making a quilt that looks good in a particular space. I start with that intention, but then as I make the quilt, the quilt takes over. Colors and values can change. The finished quilts always look good but they may, or may not, look good where I expected to use them. Such is life.

In the construction of this quilt, I used an HST (half square triangle) method that is very accurate. This is the one where if you want a finished size 6″ square, you cut squares 6 1/2″, and trace across them on the diagonal, then sew on that line.

When you use this method, there is some waste… unless you sew together the triangles that you cut away. Which I did!

LeftOverTriangles

I’m not entirely sure what will happen with these HSTs (that need their dog-ears trimmed and then need to be pressed open). I might use them on the back of the quilt. Or not. Tonight, I’m too tired to think about it :-).

 

Notebook cover…

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A lady in my class had this cute notebook cover, with a pocket on the cover…

NotebookCover-Pocket-1

It was simple to make—so simple you don’t really need a pattern. She made it so that the ends of the cover slipped into pockets. This would be really cute to give kids who are their way back to school. I suppose Elanor might want one!

NotebookCover-Pocket-2

Chirping pillows…

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Susan (a blog reader) sent me this photo and I thought you all would enjoy seeing her first applique project!

SusansChirpPillows

Susan wrote: “I took parts of your blocks (from Applique With Attitude) and arranged them to suit the shapes of my pillows. I began quilting about a year and a half ago and came across your website quite by accident…..a lucky accident for me! I like applique better than any handwork I have ever done. Thank you for inspiring me…..wish I had your eye for color.

Your work is amazingly bright and beautiful and cheerful, and your website is so easy to navigate and packed with helpful information.  Your tutorials got me off to a good start for the basics of needle turn applique (I “cheat” and use a toothpick.) [FYI—as I wrote to Susan, toothpicks are a great tool and it’s not cheating to use them. It’s just smart :-).]

The buttons on my pillows came from my grandmother’s button boxes,which were an old snuff can and an old baking powder can.  She’s been gone for many years, but she is still with me.  🙂

Thank you for your long-distance help, Susan”

I have to say that I do enjoy getting emails like this. Seriously, who wouldn’t? I’m not saying that to get you all to write to me. No, it’s more of a reminder that we should all, me included, send notes of gratitude. That said, here’s one from me, to you:

Thank you all for taking the time to read what I post. Honestly, it makes my day to know that you all actually do that. I work from home most of the time and our online community is a very nice part of my life. I’ll do my best to not get boring :-).

Have a lovely day…

A wonky house show and tell…

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house 15

Gail from Ontario sent me a photo of the little quilt she finished from a block started in my class at the London Friendship Quilter’s Guild in Sept 2013. She added some button flowers and embroidery and hand quilted the block into a little wall hanging. It’s way cute!

I am always happy to see the projects that you all make from our patterns. Happy stitching!

Summer time is flying by…

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Although my husband tells me that time passes by exactly the same way, minute by minute, day by day, I swear that time moves faster as I get older. It makes him sigh, deeply. At any rate, I can hardly believe it has been a week since I last wrote. (FYI: the new bras are amazing! I hope you found time to shop as well.)

I’ve been working on a new quilt for the revised edition of our Piecing book. I can only show you a snippet of it, otherwise it would spoil the surprise for when the book comes out…

NewProject-Blog

This is the pile of scraps that were left from cutting strips. It’s a very happy quilt!

Scraps-02 copy

I enjoy piecing and am finding it fun to crank out some quilts… as long as I still have applique to do at night :-).

Seven Starry Sisters…

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If you receive my newsletter, you have already seen this quilt and read at least part of the story behind it. (FYI: I posted the Seven Starry Sisters ePattern today.)

7Sisters-18

I started this quilt in the early days of Piece O’ Cake… back in the 1990s. In fact, it was so long ago that I drew the pattern by hand!

7Sis-Drawing

My Mom wanted to make a quilt and she offered to applique blocks. I gathered fabric, made the overlay and templates and she got started. And, as sometimes happens, years passed by :-). Every now and then she’d sew on the blocks and then move on to something else that interested her more.

When Mom moved to Texas a few years ago, she gave me the blocks. Most of them were finished, but some were not. Interestingly, she hadn’t appliqued the pieced stars.

7Sis-PiecedStars

My tastes in color and fabric have changed over the years which is not at all surprising. I chose the clearest red and white blocks for the quilt I made and set these aside…

7Sis-QuietStars

And these two blocks have also been set aside. Honestly, I’m not sure what I was thinking when I chose these fabrics!

7Sis-BrightStars

The Seven Sisters is a traditional quilt pattern based on legends that relate to a distinctive star cluster, the Pleiades. The traditional quilt block can be pieced, although it’s a complicated block. There are probably English paper pieces that you can use to hand piece it. I have always thought that it is an easier block to applique.

I cut my blocks in a non-traditional way, with star points hitting the edges of the hexagon on all sides. I added sashing because these blocks were not all exactly the same size, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The sashing adds a terrific spark of color and sets this quilt apart.

I’m sure that I chose blue for my sashing because I found the blocks on the 4th of July. But If I had run across them at Christmas, I might have used green sashing and this quilt would be different but still great fun. Click here if you’d like more info on the Downloadable ePattern.

And, in case you were wondering, Mom was very happy to see this quilt! In fact, the top is now in her living room, waiting for me to find a little time to get it quilted!

7Sisters-18