Our do Good Stitches July Quilt

Yes, the July quilt!

And yes, I know it’s November! It’s been done and wasn’t too far behind schedule! It’s just taken me a bit to get it photographed and put up on the blog….

Remember the ‘Low Volume with Bright Contrast Crosses Postage Stamp Quilt block’ I showed you a while back? Well, this is it done with all the blocks from all of our group members! I asked everyone to use low volume blocks for the back ground and bright colors for 3 to 5 crosses in each block. I love how the bright colors just pop!

Once I got all the blocks, there were all just a tad different sizes. So I got scared. I couldn’t figure out how I was going to put it together. One thought I had was to add fabric pieces between the blocks. But I didn’t like that idea either. So I sat on the pieces for too long. THen one day I pulled them out again and moved the blocks around until they all fit! Yea! It was like a puzzle. They just had to be rotated this way and that and then they fit! I got so frustrated with myself for being scared of it!

For the back I switched the color scheme!

A bright back ground and a low volume cross!

Another debate I had was the binding. Low Volume or Bright? Then I found a low volume grey fabric with white stripes and pops of bright! I think it works perfectly!

We’ll have a couple more quilts to show before we break for the holidays! Have you been working on anything besides Halloween over the last couple of weeks?

 

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Low Volume, Bright Contrast Crosses Postage Stamp Quilt Block Tutorial

Yep, more quilting! I’ve been debating and debating over what quilt design I wanted to do for my next do Good Stitches quilt. Then I figured it out! I love postage stamp quilts. This low volume thing is kinda cool. I’ve seen a lot of little cross quilts lately that I am loving. So why not combine all these?

Ta-da! This month’s block is going to be a ‘Low Volume with Bright Contrast Crosses Postage Stamp Quilt block’. How do ya like that title!?! Sounds complicated, doesn’t it? But it’s not! Seriously! Trust me!

First off the fabrics! And you’ll need a 20×20 inch piece of the thinnest fusible interfacing you can find, like featherweight or sheerweight.

For the bright crosses, I poured out my scrap bag and found the colors that I had enough to make 5 2×2 squares out of. It can be patterns, but please include an all solid cross (or two). (yellows are not good… You’ll see as you read along!)

The background is the low volume part. Use whites, light greys, small colored patterns with white backgrounds.

The amount of fabric you’ll need really depends on the amount of crosses you want to make. In total you’ll need 100 2×2 squares, the majority being low volume fabrics. Since each cross is made of 5 2×2 blocks, if you are doing 5 crosses you’d have 5 colors and then an assortment of 75 2×2 blocks. And etc, etc….

And then how to put it together? You can do it however you’d like, but this process makes it super easy! I can’t take credit for the process, by any means. I found the process tips from Oh, Fransson. I’m going to show you here because I also want to talk a little more about the low volume part! (bear with me, there’s a lot of pics!)

First, cut out all your pieces!

Ok, so I have to apologize for the pictures. I have a can light right over my work space and it doesn’t lend itself to very good photography!

OK, so back to your pieces. See how I lined up my low volume pieces. Don’t!

The low volume pieces are going to be as random as can be. And for me it’s easier to be random when I’m not picking them out of their special stacks. Hence the reason for the bowl. I mixed and mixed the squares in the bowl!

Then I remove my cutting mat to reveal my secret postage stamp quilt block work area!

Did you notice my owl picture? I love how this owl stares at me as I make things, like, ‘Um, what are you doing now?’

Ok, once the cutting mat is removed, you can see my set up. A bit of batting over the countertop for ironing. Then my grid. And notice the white over my grid? That’s where I accidently had my fusible interfacing facing the wrong way one time.

So be sure the fusible side of the interfacing is facing UP!

Lay out the crosses. Right sides UP!

Then infill with the low volume.

Then I take a quick pic, turn pic to black and white and see how it looks.

I felt like the yellow ended up being to low volume and these grey and blue squares were too high contrast. So I took them out.

And filled in with a different high contrast color and more low contrast background pieces.

Take another picture, turn it black and white and what do you think? I think it works much better!

Once you are happy with the lay out, iron. I lay a piece of thin fabric over it. Don’t pull the iron around. It works best if you iron a spot, pick it up, move it, iron a spot, over and over and over until it’s all ironed!

After it’s ironed together, it’s kinda like you have a new piece of fabric!

Next, fold between each row of pieces and sew with a 1/4″ seam.

Repeat for each row.

Trim the rows. You can snip the seam with scissors, but I find it easier to just trim off about 1/16th of an inch. barely anything!

Then iron each seam open.

And repeat the sewing, trimming and ironing in the opposite direction.

And viola, you’re block is done!

So for the do. Good Stitches group, please send me one block. I need 12 blocks for a 45×60 quilt. There are 10 of us and I made one extra, so I’d need one extra.  If anyone wants to do more than one, I’ll gladly take more. The more I get the bigger the quilt! But it’s totally up to you guys! One each is perfectly fine!

Thanks to all the do. Good Stitches Nurture Group! And to everyone else, enjoy the tutorial!

 

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WIP’s This Wednesday

I was debating on what to chat about today… Since my surgery, I wasn’t getting a lot of sewing time in, until just the other day. I have finished a few projects, but I’m not ready to share. And then I remembered all those confusing WIP Wednesday posts I used to see on other quilting blogs. WHAT are they talking about??? I don’t know if I should even admit how long it took me to realize what WIP means…

Works in Progress!

Hello???

I’m super excited about how my project for the Modernista Homemade swap is coming along. My son, once again, helped lay out the pieces!

And I got a pile of fabric today! I was asked by my son’s preschool to help with a few auction items. One is the Decorations for the main event. But also my son’s class project is going to be a quilt this year. I got to design it! There are going to be a white block that the kids make with a Kaleidoscope like block between each white one. I think it’s going to be cool!

quilt by Ellen Luckett Baker, image via The Long Thread

 

Have you seen The Long Thread’s Kaleidoscope Quilt??? It totally inspired my idea! I think it’s just fantastic!! I’ve been watching the progress, but watched, not read, is key here. I mean it’s totally eye candy!  I just actually did read about it and it was for her child’s school auction too! How funny!!!

Project Quilting- Challenge 5- It’s Where I Live Castoff

Last week I showed you the Project Quilting Its Where I Live Challenge postage stamp quilt that I did. I called it ‘Rain’. This week, I made another one that I’m calling ‘Showers’. hehehe… get it? Rain Showers??? ha, I crack myself up!

Well, When I came up with that design, I also came up with this other design… My sidekicks (the husband and son) chose the umbrella one that I went with.

But I also really liked this other design…..

Then I saw Stitched In Color’s Scrap Attack Sew Along and my pile of scraps from the Rain quilt. And I thought about it and thought about it… And decided to make another little mini quilt from my scraps. I kinda miscalculated some of the colors for the rain quilt and cut a few extras…

Since I had some scraps and another design in mind, I thought why not?

Which one is your favorite? Rain or Showers?

Project Quilting- Challenge 5- It’s Where I Live

This week’s Project Quilting challenge was ‘It’s Where I Live’

Well, I live in Seattle in the Pacific Northwest that is known for the dreary wet weather. It’s also known as the Emerald City because of the lushness that we have (thanks to the rain..). And the Space Needle and the mountains and the water and all sorts of great things. But right now, I’m sick of the RAIN!! It’s also snowing like every other morning! Not much snow, but it’s still snow…. I’m ready for some warmth and real sun! My son keeps saying it is sunny. Poor kid! (He’s really a Seattle native) Yes, the snow is out, it’s just blocked by miles and miles of clouds. I want to see the actual sun! Ok, let me get on with it…

So obviously the rain is on my mind these days! So this week’s quilt is about the rain! I’m not such an umbrella kinda person. It rains too much here to deal with getting out an umbrella every time it starts raining! But my son LOVES umbrellas, so we’ve been using them a lot.

I’ve also been wanting to try a postage stamp quilt with all the little pieces, so I figured a small art quilt would be a good time to try it out. I used Oh Fransson’s tutorial on using the grid and interfacing to layout and sew together the pieces. If only I had kept reading past the part to cut open the seams…. Mine worked fine the way it was, but when I was quilting the needle didn’t run smoothly down the line. The only thing I can think of is that the fusible interfacing was kinda sticking to the needle. If I had ironed it flat like she did, I might not have had that problem… Anyway… I’m super excited about this technique. Such a time saver!

I was stressing for a few minutes about making my ironing/grid layout. But then I remembered my cutting area is actually a butcher board counter! It’s usually covered with my cutting board, so you have to forgive my bad memory! I just removed the cutting board and wahla, there’s the perfect spot for my grid and postage stamp ironing area. Yes, I did accidentally fuse a piece of interfacing to the grid! shhhh…..

The other rule for this week’s challenge was that you can only use 3 colors…

‘The color scheme for your project will be determined by where you live.  Take the first letter of your street, your city and your state.  I live on Bohling Rd, Poynette, Wisconsin.  So I have the letters B, P and W.  Now, choose colors starting with these 3 letters.  I could pick blue, pink and white.  Or boysenberry, persimmon, and wine. Or….  Choose whatever colors you like with these 3 letters.  You must use all 3 colors in your quilt.’

I live on 20th Ave S in Seattle, WA. My colors had to start with a T, S and W. I had to stretch the rules a bit on this one, so I headed over to the Crayola website and found their current color list….. The ones I choose were, Timberwolf Grey, Sky Blue and Wild Strawberry!

The other little thing I did on this one was make my own fabric design. I took pictures of my son with his umbrella and then edited them in Photoshop and printed on fabric!

It took me longer than planned, but all in all, I’m really excited about it!

Last night my son, keep in mind he’s three, was supposed to be in bed, but he came back in while I was finishing it and said, ‘I do like it, but there’s only one thing I don’t like. This right here (he was pointing to the handle of the umbrella) because the handle doesn’t really do that.’ That’s when I said, ‘Hmmm. Go back to bed!’ What a silly little stinker!

Although I didn’t quite finish this one on time, today is a very fitting day for this post. The weather outside was crazy! Woke up to snow on the ground and in the air, then rain, then sun, then dark dark clouds with hail, then snow, then sun, then dark dark clouds, then snow again (this time with accumulation), then rain. After that it was dark and I gave up on keeping up with the changes! Hope yall are having better weather than we are here!

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