Angry Birds with Shaffer Sisters

Welcome back to another fun day of Sew Ready to Play! Today’s guest is another one of my favorite online friends, Al, from the Shaffer Sisters! Al has been awesome to also be a returning Sew Ready to Play guest for a few years now! I always love seeing what she sends over!

And this year it’s Angry Birds! Come On!! Let’s head over to the Shaffer Sisters blog and learn more about what she did to make these guys! I love it!

 

Sept 9th- Liz and LiZ  from Simple Simon and Co

Sept 14th- Stacey from Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy Crafts

Sept 16th- Narelle from Threadistry

Sept 19th- Debbie from A Quilter’s Table

Sept 21st- Louise from I’m Feelin’ Crafty

Sept 23rd- Al from Shaffer Sisters

Sept 26th- Michelle from Factotum of Arts

Sept 28th- Ashley and Emily from Frances Suzanne

Sept 30th- The Recap!

Zeus on the Loose with Me!

It’s my turn!! Yeah!! Have you ever played Zeus on the Loose?? We love it! It’s basically a counting strategy game. That description doesn’t do much for it, but take my word for it. It’s fun!

Originally I wanted to make a notebook cover for my son, but my Improv Lightening Bolts kept being too big, so it turned into a pillow! It was really hard to get it as small as I wanted it to be!

I went through a few plans of projects to make this year. Usually I know exactly what I want to make. Not this year. Then I remembered our new favorite game. But what to make?? At first I got my Greek Gods confused and for a minute I was designing something with a trident… Um, hello, my to ‘I minored in Ancient History’ self…. Zeus and tridents do not go together. Lightening Bolt my friend!!!  Then I was all over it!

I’ll give you a super quick idea of how I made it! Since it’s improv, there are no dimensions or anything to go with! To make the Improv Lightening bolt is simple!

First, cut out a ‘leaning’ triangle, then sew on a thin layer of the ‘bright light’ fabric and then a thicker layer of the background fabric. So that you end up with two ‘leaning’ triangles. And you want them to both be leaning in the same direction!

Next, I folded over the top of the triangle to get an overlap. Once I liked where the overlap was, I ironed it flat. This ironed line is where I sew-ed it together.

And then I trimmed a quarter inch seam. Repeat these last two steps over and over until you have each side of the lightening bolt how you like them. then sew the two halves together!

Add in the rest of the background fabric for the shape you need for either a notebook cover, a pillow top or quilt blocks…. And quilt away!

I thought it turned out pretty cool. And once I got my husbands seal of approval, I knew it was pretty cool! (yes, he’s very honest and has no qualms telling the truth about his feelings on my work! Usually he likes it, but not all the time!) I think it’s going to be loved, along with it’s inspiring game!

 

 

Sept 9th- Liz and LiZ  from Simple Simon and Co

Sept 14th- Stacey from Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy Crafts

Sept 16th- Narelle from Threadistry

Sept 19th- Debbie from A Quilter’s Table

Sept 21st- Louise from I’m Feelin’ Crafty

Sept 23rd- Al from Shaffer Sisters

Sept 26th- Michelle from Factotum of Arts

Sept 28th- Ashley and Emily from Frances Suzanne

Sept 30th- The Recap!

 

 

 

Ultimate Frisbee with A Quilters Table

Let’s kick off another week of Sew Ready to Play with my quilty friend, Debbie, from A Quilter’s Table!

Debbie and I have become great friends over the years participating in Seattle Modern Quilt Guild activities. And just recently we were roommates again at our retreat. I can’t wait to show you more about that weekend. Debbie came to retreat with a bunch of triangles and left with a finished quilt top! She’s speedy! And I’m so glad she decided to play along again this year!

Be sure to go to her blog to learn more about it!

 

Sept 9th- Liz and LiZ  from Simple Simon and Co

Sept 14th- Stacey from Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy Crafts

Sept 16th- Narelle from Threadistry

Sept 19th- Debbie from A Quilter’s Table

Sept 21st- Louise from I’m Feelin’ Crafty

Sept 23rd- Al from Shaffer Sisters

Sept 26th- Michelle from Factotum of Arts

Sept 28th- Ashley and Emily from Frances Suzanne

Sept 30th- The Recap!

Snakes and Ladders with Threadistry

Yeah! Another Day of Sew Ready to Play!

Today we have a long term Sew Ready to Play player! She’s played along every year! Yea! Today is my blogger friend Narelle. She was originally from Cook, Clean Craft, but now blogs over at Threadistry.

She has a tutorial today for making a Snakes and Ladders game board. I’m used to Chutes and Ladders, so I had to google Snakes and Ladders! All sorts of interesting articles! What did we do before Google?? Sounds like it’s what Milton Bradley based Chutes and Ladders on! Head on over to her blog, Threadistry, to learn more!!!

 

Sept 9th- Liz and LiZ  from Simple Simon and Co

Sept 14th- Stacey from Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy Crafts

Sept 16th- Narelle from Threadistry

Sept 19th- Debbie from A Quilter’s Table

Sept 21st- Louise from I’m Feelin’ Crafty

Sept 23rd- Al from Shaffer Sisters

Sept 26th- Michelle from Factotum of Arts

Sept 28th- Ashley and Emily from Frances Suzanne

Sept 30th- The Recap!

Pokemon Go with Simple Simon and Co

It’s time to really kick off this season of Sew Ready to Play! And to start us off right, our first guests are the ladies behind Simple Simon and Co!

Simple Simon and Co have a lovely blog chock full of fun inspiration! They are the ones behind the Skirting the Issue series I participated in earlier this year. The series collects skirts for foster kids. But not only skirts, blankets too!

Head on over to their blog to learn more about their Pokemon Go inspired project!

This year the ‘rules’ to game are a little different. Traditionally, the guest posted all the details on my blog. This year, I’m posting the teaser and sending you to their blog for more details! Enjoy!

 

Skirting the Issue with a QAYG Row by Row Tutorial

I’m honored to have been invited by Simple Simon to participate in their yearly series, Skirting The Issue! Skirting the Issue is a  month long event every July where you are invited to sew along with us to make skirts (and quilts)  to donate to local Foster Care centers for the girls to receive just in time for back to school.

Of course, I was excited that quilts are now included in their series. As most of you know that I also participate in a quilting bee that used to donate our quilts to a foster child organization. We no longer do, which is another reason I was excited to make another quilt for foster kids. Can you imagine not having anything? Not even a blanket? That’s what so many of these foster kids move from house to house with. Nothing. I’m hoping I can change that for at least one kiddo! And hoping I’ll inspire others to also participate and help another kiddo!

This quilt started as a office meeting doodle. I doodle so that I don’t day dream in meetings! I think some people think I’m not paying attention, but really the doodling helps me focus on the meeting…. So I doodled this and a co-worker asked if it was going to be another quilt design. No…. I mean YES! That would make a cool quilt! I had grand plans of piecing each block with strips of fabric… Then I came to my senses and realized, they make striped fabric! Hello!

I wanted to make an easy quilt for new quilters to be able to make and share with the kids! This quilt uses blocks cut from striped fabric using a modified Quilt As You Go method. There are many QAYG tutorials out there. But my biggest thing with QAYG is the bulk at the seam allowance. I found a way to get around that and I’ll show you how I do it. So here’s how I do QAYG….

First, I cut all the pieces. This fabric has 1″ stripes. And a shout out to It’s Just Sewing for the awesome fabric! I want 8″ blocks for this quilt to really show off the stripes. So cute your blocks to be 8 3/4″ blocks. Here’s my biggest QAYG secret…. I don’t use 1/4″ seam allowances. I use 3/8″ seam allowances! Why? I’ll tell you… It’s hard to iron flat 1/4″ seams when you have both the fabric and the batting to be ironing open. And if it’s not ironed flat, it’s hard to catch the seam allowance when you’re quilting….

Next I quilt the batting to the fabric, but not a full QAYG style! I chain pieced each row with just one row of quilting. Just enough to hold the fabric to the batting. I’ll tell you why later!

Combine the blocks into rows. Are you wondering why I have quilted yet??? Hold on… Keep with me!

Then combine the first two rows….

NOW QUILT the top row only! I know it’s hard to see in this picture, but the top row is actually quilted.

Now here’s the thing. You could combine all the rows and then quilt the whole thing. But… For me, with all the quilting in this quilt and all the moving around of the quilt, it is easier to me to quilt a row, then another row, etc…. I’m avoiding stuffing my whole quilt through the machine over and over and over each time I change directions.

I’m doing this same technique with my SMQG BOM quilt. So this may look familiar to you… (Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the backside of this blue and green quilt once I started quilting it!) So this is what the back will look like.

As you are quilting the lines, you will be stitching in the ditch between each quilt line and then quilting over the seam allowance as you continue quilting the stripes.

Now we continue on. Top row is quilted and combined with the second row. Then add another row. Quilt the second row. And on and on.

This quilt has 8 rows. So again to eliminate a lot of quilt being moved around and stuffed through my sewing machine, I did four rows. Then started again with the bottom row and worked my way up. Then I combined the two pieces and quilted down the middle.

And you end up with this! Yea!

Add your back and quilt in the ditch. and you don’t have the bulk of the seam allowances!

Another way to do it would be to quilt all the lines on your blocks. Combine them all and then not quilt in the ditch, but do your quilting over the seam allowances. Easy Peasy…

So why didn’t I do it this way? The plain and simple reason…. Aesthetics. I didn’t want the straight lines at the seam allowance to be quilted over the quilting of each stripe. Make sense?

My son asked why I take pictures of the labels… Because I do! ha!

Recap:

So the two things I do a little different with quilt as you go.

1. 3/8 seam allowances.

2. I don’t ‘quilt as you go’ prior to combining blocks. I quilt as I go, row by row. (or as with the SMQG BOM, block by block.) I don’t do the quilting until at least a couple of the blocks are joined  so that I can quilt over the seam allowance.

Where is this quilt going? I haven’t figured that out yet. There’s a great organization, My Very Own Blanket, in Ohio that organizing matching quilts with foster kids. I’m looking for a local group here in Seattle that does the same thing.

Here’s another secret… I got the fabric for this quilt Friday night. Then I marathon quilted all weekend to get it done by Sunday night. I thought I had until August 26th to share my project with the Skirting the Issue series…. So I’m a bit behind on finding the right home for this quilt….

 

And this is also a finish on my Quarter 3 Finish Along!

April do Good Stitches Block

This month is my month to pick the quilt for our Nurture Circle of do.Good Stitches. The last one I did was the inside out pineapple block. It was fantastic! But it was time consuming… And since yesterday was April Fools Day, I pulled a little prank on my group and told them I had decided to do that quilt again! I thought it was too funny!

But we’re not doing that one! We’re doing a way easier one! This striped block. It has no name. I came up with it. And when we’re done with it, I’ll tell you more about my inspiration. You’ll have to let me know if you see a resemblance to my inspiration!

We’re going to be doing two blocks. A cool, blue one and a warm, red/orange/yellow one. Here’s a hint of my inspiration…Beach! I don’t have a particular length in mind, but I’d like them to be a minimum of 21″ long. I’d love some of them to be longer!

For the red, yellow and orange one, we’re looking at the sunset. Please use all solids if possible. If you can’t use solids, please use a print that reads as a solid. With white as the neutral. I always stick with Kona White.

For the warm block, you’ll need:

(4) 1″ strips of White

(3) 1″ strips of a dark red, red, orange or yellow

(1) 1.5″ strip of a dark red, red, orange or yellow

Please follow the design above for stacking the strips. The shaded area represents the dark red, red, orange or yellow strips.

And for the cool one, let’s go back to the nice blue beach on a sunny day! We’re looking for blues from the teal end to blue, based on the blues shown above. Please use all solids if possible. If you can’t use solids, please use a print that reads as a solid. With white as the neutral. I always stick with Kona White.

For the cool block, you’ll need:

(3) 1″ strips of White

(1) 2″ strip of a teal to blue as shown above

(1) 1.5″ strip of a teal to blue as shown above

(1) 1″ strip of a teal to blue as shown above

Please follow the design above for stacking the strips. The shaded area represents the teal to blue as shown above.

Please keep your seam allowance at 1/4″ and iron the seam allowances toward the colored fabrics. And you’ll end up with skinny long blocks like these!

Thanks!!!

 

Junior Ranger Badge Banner Tutorial

Since Spring Break is coming up for us and is happening around the states, I thought I’d share something we like to do on our vacations! We love to visit State and National Parks and do their Junior Ranger Programs!

Do you like to do this? I love it because the kiddo will put down that silly tablet and actually take the time to enjoy where we are. You have to actually look at where you are and draw pictures of what you see. Sit and listen and draw what you hear. Some have scavenger hunt type activities. Each place has different requirements for getting a badge, but they are all pretty easy and fun!

And you get to collect cool badges! We’ve gotten all sorts of kinds. Fabric ones, buttons and the more traditional versions… But then they come home and get stashed somewhere with the other souveniers…. So I knew I could make a little something to display the badges!

And after we started collecting, my husband found this vintage badge at his Dad’s house!

So, I’ll show you how I made it! You’ll need felt- tan, dark brown and green. You’ll also need some fusible interfacing, a little bit of ribbon and some sticky back felt letters. Ignore the wooden dowel. I thought I would use it, but decided against it. And I used a picture of a ranger hat to get the right shape.

I printed the hat that I found online here, on 11×17 paper. Then cut it out!

Next, let’s cut out the pieces you’ll need. Cut the main hat pieces from the tan (2) and the heavyweight fusible interfacing (1). Cut down the pattern to the band and then cut it out of the brown felt. Lastly, cut out the green banner, 10×22, and angle one end.

Trim the interfacing down about an 1/8″ all the way around and iron it to one side of the hat piece.

Use a bit of glue to just secure the band and then topstitch it in place.

Stack the front and back of the hat with the banner in the middle. Then sew all the pieces together.

Add the letters.

Center the ribbon and sew in place.

Then hand in place and start collecting (and finding…) those Junior Ranger Badges!

Enjoy Spring Break!! I can’t wait!

 

 

 

 

The Making of a Nursery- Part 2 A Rag Quilt Tutorial

Welcome to Part 2 of my 3 part mini-series!

Today it’s the Rag Quilt! And how I made it! These things are super simple. Before this one I had never made one, so when tasked with making one I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. This was probably the easiest project for the whole nursery!

And I love the fabrics and colors (enough those these things weren’t totally picked by me… Actually I had nothing to do with the color, but I did get to choose some of the fabrics!). And it’s so soft!

Here’s how I made it! First to cut the squares. I made squares 7″. So the top cottons (and a little fleece) and the back minki fabrics were cut to be 7″ squares. But I cut the batting to be 6″ squares.

Then stack the three pieces. Minki on the bottom, batting in the middle and cotton on the top. Wrong sides together!

Chain piece all the quilt sandwiches! Quilt the pieces from corner to corner and corner to corner. You’ll end up with a big X  across each piece.

Then start sewing blocks together to make rows and rows! But use a half inch seam allowance rather than the 1/2″ seam allowance, quilts usually use.

Then sew the rows together. I pinned my rows, so that I was sure the the seams would match up.

And your left with this….

But you still want to trim all those seam allowances! This part took longer than any of the other steps….

And this is what you get! Nice and cuddly!!!

I kinda want one for me…. Have you ever made a rag quilt? Did you know they were this easy? I think picking the fabric and laying out the blocks and trimming the ‘fringe’ took longer than actually making the quilt! Let me know if you try it!

 

 

 

Bama Pillow and How to Quilt with Old Clothes!

Roll Tide Roll! I thought it would be fitting to post this on the night of another National Championship game for ‘Bama! Whether we win or loose, Roll Tide Roll!

My mom moved recently and as we were cleaning the house ot put it on the market, we came across this old sweatshirt from the 1985 50th Iron Bowl. She wasn’t ready to let it go, so we decided to make it new again! And she just happened to leave this houndstooth fabric at my house on one of her visits!

So we’ve got some fabric, an old sweatshirt (this works with t-shirts too) and some featherweight fusible interfacing.

Iron on the interfacing and it then cut it down to the right size. The interfacing gives the sweatshirt or t-shirt a stability that knit doesn’t have on it’s own. It makes it much easier to sew without distortion.

Then I pieced the top and quilted in the the shape of a football! After I was loving along, I realized my football started to tilt and got off. So don’t look too closely at that detail…

Then I started to wonder, what’s the big deal about this 50th Iron Bowl anyway…. Just in case you aren’t from the South and don’t know what the Iron Bowl is… It’s the biggest state rivalry there is! Well, that is coming from a ‘Bama fan, anyway! It is the biggest anticipated game in the state of Alabama between Alabama and Auburn. And this particular game in 1985, seems to have been an awesome game!

‘Imagine how lucky you’d be to get introduced to the greatest rivalry in the country at the height of its unparalleled powers.

Alf Van Hoose, longtime Birmingham News sports editor, called it “Legion Field’s greatest game,” and no one would know better.

Alabama 25, Auburn 23 on Nov. 30, 1985, will always be the greatest Iron Bowl to me. It was two heavyweight champions taking the other’s best punch and refusing to stay down, getting up and punching back until the Crimson Tide landed the final, crushing blow at the bell of the 15th and final round.’

-from Kevin Scarbinsky, My First Iron Bowl

The article lays it all out and is a fun read!

The pillow was supposed to be a Christmas gift, and it was, just a little late! But just in time to help cheer them on tonight!