Inset Corners- A Quilting Tutorial

One more post about my Raindrops on Wildflowers Quilt! I’ll show you how I made all those inset corners!

I made the block up to start with, but then I had to figure out how to actually put it together. I thought about more piecing, but I had to make a lot and that would have been too many steps per block. So I had to figure out how to make with as few pieces as possible. I made a little video of how many steps there still are in the block!

Anyway… I digress… Back to the corners… Maybe everyone else knows how to do this. I did a lot of inset corners on the Weight of Love quilt I made, but for some reason it took me a little while to get it to make these blocks! I kept forgetting which way to sew them together… Finally it stuck and I was on a roll!

First up, stack the two fabrics on top of each other so that they overlap.

Then trim the two pieces of fabric. And you end up with the pieces above.

Mark one piece, on the right side, 1/4″ down from your corner.

Mark your second piece, on the wrong side, 1/4″ down from the corner.

Stack your dots! I’m using solids, so it doesn’t really matter for me, but you’ll want these to be right sides together!

Then sew, using a 1/4″ seam along the edge and stop at your dot.

When you stop at the dot, leave your needle down, but raise your foot. Then pull your top fabric around to align with the bottom piece. Sometimes the fabric wants to bunch under the needle, sometimes it doesn’t. Not sure why… But when it does, I just go in with my tiny scissors and move the fabrics behind the needle so they aren’t bunching. If you watch the ‘video’ above, you’ll see these steps in action!

Then continue sewing out to the other end!

Here’s the kicker! Iron into the V. If you iron the other way, you’ll get bumps.

Then you have this!

Some pretty awesome looking inset corners! Oh, yea!

Honestly, I kinda hated cutting the second one off to add the half circles. But it had to be done. I thought about not using the half circles on the back blocks, but I really like the half circles, too. Big Dilemma I had! I used the inset circle tutorial to add the circles.

Hope this helps in your sewing fun!

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!

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!

Checkers Quilt with Busy Being Jennifer

Today’s guest is Jennifer, from Busy Being Jennifer! And she is one busy lady! You’ll have to check out her blog to see all the fun things she’s up to! She has so many fun things, I wasn’t sure what to expect from her for the series. We met through our do.Good Stitches Circle, so to see a quilty project is no surprise! I love it! Take a look…..

Helloooooo Sew Ready to Play Friends! I’m Jennifer, the crafty, sometimes blonde mind behind BusyBeingJennifer.com and I’m so happy to be here today!

Sewing is pretty much my favorite thing! Well right after coffee, my puppy and the husband (in no particular order of course 😉 )

When Louise asked me to be a part of her Sew Ready to Play series, I jumped at the chance… and then had the hardest darn time coming up with an idea! I was too busy reading and crafting as a kid to really be interested in many games. I remember playing card games with my grandparents, and then I remembered how much I loved to play checkers with my Nana! And then I knew exactly what I wanted to make!

This Quilted Fabric Checkerboard project came to me in an instant! And playing with large buttons just seemed to be the perfect touch!

Here’s what you need to make your own Quilted Fabric and Button Checkers Game!

8 low volume fabrics

8 contrasting color fabrics (I went with my fav Teals & Aquas)
Quilt Batting

Backing fabric

Rulers, cutting mat & rotary cutter

Sewing Machine and coordinating thread
Pinking shears

12 Large Buttons in 2 different colors.

Step 1: Cut 1 8.5 x 2 inch strip from each of the 16 fabrics. Sew 4 strips together, alternating LV and Colors (as shown). Iron seams flat.

Step 2: Cut the sew together strips into 4  2 inch wide sections. Mix and match and sew the strips together in groups of 4 to make squares. Press the seams open.

Step 3: Sew the 4 squares together to make 1 large square. (for a total of 64 “checker” squares)
Step 4: Square up your large block. Add some 1.5 inch sashing around the edge. Layer your checkerboard top over a piece of quilt batting (slightly bigger than the “board” piece) and add your backing piece (Slightly bigger than the batting piece). Quilt all three layers together.

Step 5: Square up the whole quilted piece and trim with pinking shears.

All that’s left to do is set up your buttons and get to playing! Have fun!!

I hope y’all liked this quick and simple sewing tutorial! I’d love it if you’d drop by BusyBeingJennifer.com and said hello!

When I’m not sewing, I’m probably blogging, chilling on Facebook, wasting time on Pinterest or sharing pics on Instagram!

 

Thanks Jennifer!!

Be sure to stop back by for more!

Sept 7th- Debbie from A Quilter’s Table

Sept 9th- Jennifer from Busy Being Jennifer

Sept 11th- Ari from Max California

Sept 16th- Stacey from Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy Crafts

Sept 18th- Karly from Paisley Roots

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

Sept 23rd- Narelle from Cook, Clean, Craft

Sept 25th- Al from Shaffer Sisters

Sept 28th- Rachel from Let’s Begin Sewing

Sept 30th- Marci from Marci Girl Designs

Candy Land Quilt with A Quilter’s Table

Here we go. Season 5 of Sew Ready to Play starts today! And a big thank you to my quilty friend, Debbie, from A Quilter’s Table! Debbie and I met years ago at our Seattle Modern Quilt Guild meeting. And we’ve been friends ever since that first meeting. She’s one of the most creative and inspiring people I know. I can’t wait for you to see what she has for us today! Welcome Debbie!

It’s been a couple of years since I sewed along with Louise/I’m Feelin’ Crafty on her annual Sew Ready to Play blog hop. She’s celebrating 5 years this year, so how could I resist? I knew right off I wanted to make something based on the first board game we played with our children when they were small, and years later, the first we brought out for grandgirl – Candy Land! Couldn’t resist making a small quilted play mat reminiscent of the game board.

Supplies needed for quilt top (40″x38″):
2 yards background fabric
solid scraps

Directions:
Cut 2″ squares from your colored scraps. I chose the colors of every third or so square on my game board, but feel free to personalize by adding more or less. I used: 7 red, 7 orange, 1 pink, 5 green, 4 blue, 6 yellow, 4 purple – 34 total.

Trim squares on both sides to make them ‘tumbler’ shapes. I didn’t measure, as I wanted more of an improv look. I also stacked several squares before cutting, which made quick work of it.

Cut a few strips of background fabric, 1 1/2″ wide, then into 3″ and 4 1/2″ sections, cutting more strips as you need them. Sew 3″ pieces to each side of a tumbler and press. You could easily strip piece if you prefer.

Trim top and bottom even with tumbler.

Sew 4 1/2″ strips to top and bottom, and press. Repeat for remaining tumblers.

Trim each block to 2 1/2″, being sure to leave at least 1/4″ on all sides of the colored tumbler. I trimmed some ‘straight.’

And I angled some to match the curves on the game board.

Now cut 355 – 2 1/2″ squares from your background fabric.

Piece your blocks into rows, then your rows into a quilt top!

 

Now it’s time to baste and quilt as desired! I followed the path from the Candy Land board, then filled in around it, finishing my quilt mat off with a sweet candy cane-edged border.

Thanks, Louise, for inviting me to sew and play again! I’ve had fun reminiscing and grandgirl even enjoyed playing a round of Candy Land on the play mat! Tomorrow I’ll post about all the fabric and technique details over at A Quilter’s Table. Join me there then, or any time, if you enjoy quilting, other random sewing, and a bit of table talk. If you’re on Instagram, you can find me at #aquilterstable. Hope to see you around!

Thanks Debbie!!

Be sure to stop back by for more!

Sept 7th- Debbie from A Quilter’s Table

Sept 9th- Jennifer from Busy Being Jennifer

Sept 11th- Ari from Max California

Sept 16th- Stacey from Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy Crafts

Sept 18th- Karly from Paisley Roots

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

Sept 23rd- Narelle from Cook, Clean, Craft

Sept 25th- Al from Shaffer Sisters

Sept 28th- Rachel from Let’s Begin Sewing

Sept 30th- Marci from Marci Girl Designs

A Wonky Block with a Tutorial

I usually don’t post my picks for my do.Good Stitches quilting months, but I posted a picture of the block coming together and I learned that some of my circle friends aren’t excited about wonky! And I learned a little something about wonky while I was making these, so I thought I’d share!

The block we’re doing for the February Nurture Circle of do.Good Stitches is made up of 5 blocks and 2 solid pieces. And once you put them all together you end up with 1 12.5 x 24.5 inch block.

I’m loving the look of these blocks. Log cabin wonky, my friend! Love it! For this large block you’ll need:

(1) 12.5 inch wonky log cabin block

(1) 8.5 inch wonky log cabin block

(3) 4.5 inch wonky log cabin blocks

(2) 4.5 inch solid back ground blocks, these can be pieced or just a simple cut piece of fabric. However you do it, it need to be all background color.

You’ll need some fabric, of course! Ha! For the center piece you’ll need scraps. Any scraps. I’d prefer mostly solids, but…  And an array of whites and/or creams for the outside. For mine I used, Kona Snow, Kona White and Kona Oyster. I also added in a few white pattern on white fabric scraps.

Here’s what I learned. When I start with a square, the wonky log cabins always turn out looking nicer.

This is a big ole oops that didn’t make it into my block!  First off, I started with a wonky shaped center and tried to make it work. Secondly, I was using all scraps. So I sewed on this triangle. When I think wonky, I also think I can use odd shaped pieces. But, um, no. I mean I guess if you’re really good at it you can…. But mine always turn out nicer starting with a square.

Then make your little log cabin. Mine stayed between 4 inches to 2 inches, approximately.

Here’s the key to wonky (at least for me)- The wonky part of the whole thing comes in the cutting, not the piecing! After piecing I ended up with a traditional square. After cutting, I ended up with a wonky block! Just rotate that cutting square!

Next you keep building on the center piece just like you would any log cabin. This one just happens to not be a square! For the do. Good quilt, I’d like these to have the colored center off center. The off center thing seems to go along with the whole wonky thing, don’t you think!

I use scraps, not straight pieces for the side of the log cabin. Different widths, some are pieced, most aren’t straight. This also helps add to the wonkiness!

Just like you did with the center, you use the cutting square to cut your SQUARE off kilter from the middle. This is where you do want to cut a real square!

Like I mentioned before, here are the blocks you need:

(1) 12.5 inch wonky log cabin block

(1) 8.5 inch wonky log cabin block

(3) 4.5 inch wonky log cabin blocks

(2) 4.5 inch solid back ground blocks, these can be pieced or just a simple cut piece of fabric. However you do it, it need to be all background color.

The fun part… Arranging the ‘mini’ blocks to make the overall block.

Then back to the sewing machine! Sew the pieces together so that you end up with a 12.5 x 24.5 inch block.

I’m so exicted to see how this comes together for the quilt circle!!! Yea!!!

A Quilting Tutorial- Paper Piecing

The ‘Gator Quilt is a paper piecing pattern. Do you have to have experience? Nope! I’m sure it will make it easier if you do have experience, but it’s a pretty easy technique to pick up! And I’ll show ya how!

Are you wondering what paper piecing even is?? I wondered the same thing once before! I remember seeing a really old quilt top one time and this lady talking to me about it and was marveling at the fact that it still had the paper piecing on it. It was a newspaper from near the 1930’s. But I was like, why in the world would anyone sew paper to thier quilt! I will say I just nodded and smiled during my conversation with this woman. I did not admit I had no idea of the signifigance other than it dating the quilt top!

And even when I first started paper piecing, I would cut out every single piece  and then cut a million little pieces of fabric. I didn’t get it, but I knew there had to be an easier way! And there is! The real way to paper piece! Wanna learn?

Paper piecing is basically a way to piece almost perfect quilt blocks! Without having to measure everything out!

So here we go! First you need a pattern (I recommend my ‘Gator Quilt, of course! HA!), fabric, a rotary cutter works best for me and a cutting surface. For the purpose of this quilt tutorial I am going to use a quick little pattern I love! This is the Mini Trajectory pattern from Simply Cotton and it’s only 3 pieces.

I’m using scraps for this one. So I trim my scrap close to the right size. Some people cut it more precise, but to me the beauty of paper piecing is that I don’t have to be precise on cutting my pieces and still end up with a beautiful block!

Fold your pattern along the line you are going to sew. The pieces are mubered, so you go numerically. Sew piece 1 to piece 2 and so on. Here I’m folding the line between 1 and 2. Then use your ruler to line up a 1/4 over the paper. and trim your fabric, creating your seam allowance.

Place you fabric for pieces 1 and 2 right sides together. Again, leave the 1/4 inch seam allowance past the fold.

Go to your machine and sew along the line between pieces 1 and 2. You’ll notice that the beginning of my stitch line has normal stitch lengths, but the end of the line has a tiny stitch length. Go TINY! I use about a 1 or 1.5 stitch length on my machine. It’s much easier to tear the paper off without pulling on your stitching once you are done with the block.

Here’s another thing I do. If my stitch line runs to the edge of the block, I take it all the way. This this pattern it’s easy. There are some other pattern that you’ll need to think through and see if this is right. Typically you only want to sew on the stitch line shown in the pattern. But I’ve found that if I take the lines that extend all the to the edge of the block, it helps with pieces multiple blocks together. Your seam allowances won’t be floppy! 🙂 Does that make sense? Let me know if it doesn’t!

I’m one of those that irons every piece. Some don’t… I do. I feel like it sews together better if you do. Therefore, this step is to iron over the fabric.

And start again. Fold the pattern over at the line between piece 2 and 3.

Trim the pieces with your 1/4 inch seam allowance.

And fabric piece 3. Right sides together. Line up along the seam allowance edge. Again, I’m using pretty big piece here for a tiny little block to help illustrate the process. You can use smaller piece. But you want to make sure that it’s big enough to be covered fully by the pattern once the piece are sewn together and ironed out flat!

Sew along the line between piece 2 and 3.

Iron it all open!

Trim all the excess off along the outside of the block. The outside lines typically are including the 1/4 seam allowance.

Remove the paper.

And you’ve got a cute little quilt block!  Really, if you can sew a straight line over a line on the paper, you can do paper piecing. You just take the steps and repeat and repeat until it’s all done, depending on how many pieces there are to a block!

This is the pattern I used for one of my do. Good Stitches quilt blocks. See how close to perfect each little block is? I couldn’t have done that without the paper piecing, I don’t think!

OK, you ready to wrestle the ‘Gator? Sure you are!

Buy the pattern here!

June 10th- I’m Feelin’ Crafty

June 11th- A Quilter’s Table

June 13th- Marci Girl Designs

June 14th- I’m Feelin’ Crafty– showing off other Testers work!

June 15th- Made By Amanda Rose

June 16th- Wombat Quilts

June 17th- Wips and Tuts

June 18th- Shaffer Sisters

June 19th- Crafty Shenanigans

June 20th- I’m Feelin’ Crafty

do. Good Stitches September Quilt

It’s been a while since I shared much about quilting with all this Project Run and Play and then Kids Clothes Week! Wow! I’m still working on my last week of Project Run and Play, so it might be a while before I share it…

image via Stef’s Flickr

So while we’re waiting for that, what about a beautiful quilt??? Check out this one from our group quilter Stephanie Cole! This one we did way back in 2013! This is our September quilt.

Stephanie picked the design and we all made 2 blocks. The Stashbuster Blocks we made followed tutorials from Little Miss Shabby’s blog!

These blocks took a BUCNH of scraps, because we tired not to use the same fabric more than once!! For this one we used the Stashbuster Block number 1!

And then for the one with even MORE teeny tiny pieces, we used the Stashbuster Block number 2 tutorial!

image via Stef’s Flickr

The background was to be grey. And of course, when people are sending from all over, each grey is going to be a little different! I love how all the blocks came together! In all honesty, the blocks were pretty simple and fun to make. They look a bit time consuming, but once you get the pieces cut out, they go together quite quickly! Go ahead and give it a try!

 

A Wonky Star Quilt Block Tutorial

Like I mentioned on Monday, I’m LOVING the stars right now! And I’m loving them with a little ‘wonkiness’ added in!

The straight up and down ones are cool too, but I’m loving adding them in at a slant! And today I’ll show you how I make them.

Materials. Materials are um, simple… fabric, your cutting tools and thread (not pictured)

Step 1: Cut your fabrics! You’re going to make the quilt block much bigger than you actually want it to be. For this one I wanted about a 9 inch block with a 6 inch star. (plus or minus…)

You’ll need four corner squares. To make my 6 inch star, I started with (1) 3×3 inch center. I also needed (4) outer corner squares measuring 6×6 inches and (4) middle rectangles that measure 3×6 inches, both out of the background fabric. And you’ll need a pile of scraps about 2×4 inches or so. These star corners I don’t really measure!

Step 2: Putting all the stars points together!

Put the two fabrics right side together and fold over.

Although it doesn’t matter what the size of the star point fabric is, it does matter that it covers the 3×6 rectangle. Like so.

Sew the two pieces together once you get the star point laid out how you like it.

Then iron it flat.

Step 3: Trim!

I love using my little quilting square! You want to trim it so that you again have a 3×6 inch rectangle.

And then trim below to get a straight seam allowance.

Step 4: Repeat. Repeat.

You want to repeat Steps 2 and 3 on the other side of the rectangle for the other star point. And often you can use a scrap from the other side!

Then repeat and repeat and repeat for each side of the star!

Step 5: Sew the squares and rectangles together.

Sew two rectangles to the center square.

Sew one rectangle to two background squares. And repeat with the last three pieces.

Then sew all three pieces together.

And you have a block!

But you have a block that looks like the one above….

And we really want a block that looks like this one (above).

Step 7: Trim!

Rotate the block to the position you want it to be. Then trim off each side. You’ll end up with 4 triangles and one square block!

A wonky star block!

And then you can repeat and repeat and repeat until you’re hearts content! Enjoy!

 

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