First up a big Thank You to Vicki Welsh and Judy Laquidara for hosting the monthly Color Palette Challenge! I won the random drawing for participating for the month of July! That meant I got to go to Vicki’s Etsy Shop and pick out one of her gorgeous packs of hand dyed fabric! Here is what came in the mail. Sooooo pretty!
Here is July’s Color Palette
And my basket block using the colors
First up – I’m working on catching up with my Block of the Month using Vicki’s monthly Color Palette Challenge. Here is my block for June. I did say ‘catching up’ remember! Yep, I’m behind!
The pattern is from Joined at the Hip 2000 Block of the Month Baskets & Blooms series. I’m using Misty Fuse and fabrics from my stash.
Next up is a 34 1/2″ square applique quilt. Could be a wall hanging or a baby quilt. It is a demo model for Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe in Roanoke, IN. Tomorrow I will be doing a demo on fusible machine applique. The quilt shop will have kits available with fused Accuquilt die cuts in owls, kittens, flowers, and puppies. Steam-a-Seam was the fusible used for the kits. We will have several sewing machines set up for anyone who would like to try machine applique. Should be a fun time! OH, and did I mention donuts!
Smokey River by Whirligig Designs using Stonehenge fabrics by Northcott. Uses Easy Angle Rulers, II and companion ruler.
Fusible machine applique is on my work table today.
This little owl will be joined by a few buddies for a baby quilt.
These kittens belong to another baby quilt in progress.
Flowers are for a pocket cover for Jelly Roll Season Bag.
Here is the bag – I used Quick Cuts Stripz.
Finished projects are for Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe, Roanoke, IN. Demo this Saturday, August 11th. Kits available.
30″ blocks make up a quick quilt top!
I demonstrated some tips for making large blocks Saturday, July 14th, at Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe, Roanoke, Indiana.
Tip #1: To mark the diagonal line on the half-square triangles (HST) use your iron. Fabrics right sides together, carefully fold one corner of your square to the opposite corner, press the diagonal fold. You will sew a scant 1/4″ seam on both sides of the marked diagonal line.
Tip #2: Once you have sewn a scant 1/4″ seam on both sides of your marked diagonal line, notch out the corners before cutting on the diagonal line.
Cut on the diagonal marked line. Press seam towards darker fabric.
Cutting out the notch will eliminate the ‘dog ears’ that most quilters trim off later. (Thanks to my friend Bev Gunn for showing this trick to me years ago!) Note: no ‘dog ear’ on above sample, while there still is a ‘dog ear’ on the sample below.
Tip #3: Use the 7/8″ rule to determine the size you will need to cut your HST pieces. The formula is add 7/8″ to the finished size of the piece. I wanted a 30″ finished block. Each of the 9 pieces for the block would need to measure 10″ when finished. 10″ (finished size) + 7/8″ = 10 7/8″. Two 10 7/8″ pieces matched with two 10 7/8″ background pieces will yield the four HST pieces I needed for the blocks shown.
(And don’t forget to add 1/2″ to the finished size of the other pieces you will need to cut for your blocks.)
Graduation party gift. Guests signed the top before it was quilted.
Note the yardstick and corner tabs for hanging the quilt.
Recently, I was asked to make a quilt out of mens trousers. Once I had the pants in hand, looking through them, I tried to picture just how I would use them to construct quilt blocks. Then I remembered this quilt -
- which I received from my mom when she moved into a retirement community. It was in the bottom of a cedar chest in her attic. She could not remember who in our family had made it. It is made of shirt cottons, wool, and flannel. And it has now become the inspiration for the pants quilt -
The fabrics are wool, poly, and corduroy.
Graduation time brings the request for t-shirt memory quilts. Here is one made for a Cross Country and Track & Field high school graduate.
About 27 t-shirts used. Quilt is 64″ x 82″.
I’ve never worked with a laser cut kit before for applique. Recently a friend asked if I would put together a Toni Whitney Design kit – The Guardian for her. What I did was fuse it together, and then sent it back to her for the quilting. I have not seen the finished quilt. Here is the applique all fused together:
I liked the process. The fabric comes with fusible webbing already attached. The laser cut pieces come still attached within the fabric sheets, just snip a few threads and the applique pieces are ready for placement. This kit is much like a ‘paint by number’ but you are using the applique pieces instead of paint. The only complaint I have is that some of the fusible did not fuse. I had to go back and dab fabric paint on all the pieces of several of the fabrics. What I liked best about the process was using a teflon sheet over the pattern. I could see through the teflon to follow the placement of the fabric pieces over the pattern. Then peel off the sections built on the teflon sheet and place on the background.