Hand Pieced QAL Block 2

Block 2 for the Hand Pieced QAL came out on Monday. This week's block was all about the half square triangle (HST). 

I've always enjoyed machine sewing HSTs so I was looking forward to learning how to hand stitch them also. Yes, they are a bit fiddly with all the seams but the seams are easily manipulated.

I haven't pressed these seams either. lol  Well, I did finger press them but it didn't "stick". You're supposed to be able to spin these seams and get everything to lay nice and flat. I'll probably order the little hand roller for the seams next week. That should make pressing the seams much easier.

Due to appointments and stuff I didn't get to sit and sew this block start to finish but I don't think it took me too long to stitch. I stitched in three sessions and I'm sure it took less than 3 hours for the actual stitching. Of course it takes a bit more time to prep these blocks but once they are prepped it becomes a portable project.

I've enjoyed hand stitching both blocks and I'm looking forward to next week's block. My guess is that it will either be the flying geese block or the hour glass block. We'll get to all of them eventually ;) 

Hand Pieced QAL Block 1

When I heard that there was going to be a Hand Pieced QAL this year I knew that I wanted to participate. There are only 9 blocks so I'm hoping I can keep up (fingers crossed).

When I first found out about this QAL I couldn't wait to get started and I decided to make a little test block to see if my eyes and fingers could coordinate and actually do a little hand sewing. My little 4 patch turned out pretty good.

Then we waited....and waited... but while we waited our wonderful hostesses gave us some helpful tips that would help us in our journey. If you're interested in joining us you can find all the information at either Simple Handmade Everyday or Elm Street Quilts.

I'm going to make my little wall hanging using white as my background and these Bali 6" charms as my main color. 

I made my first block. I gave my desk lamp to my husband for his room and I think these old eyes need some more light to work on projects like this. I ordered myself a new desk lamp and it should be here in plenty of time for next week's block. A couple of my seams are slightly off but I'm okay with that. This is a learning process and I'm interested in seeing the difference between my first block and my last. 

I haven't pressed my seams yet. I need to pick up one of those rollers for hand pressing seams. For now, I will finger press them the best I can and worry about the seams later. 

Are you hand piecing with all of us? I've always wanted to hand sew a quilt from start to finish so I was very happy to see this QAL.

Quilts for Babies and Giants

I finished Rob's Giants lap quilt. Sometimes I have to wonder if a quilt was meant to be made. For instance, this quilt fought me every step of the way.  Cutting the squares were a breeze and sewing them into 9 patch blocks went smoothly as well. Everything after that was a struggle.

After I cut the 9 patches I was supposed to turn, flip, and otherwise switch up the 4 smaller blocks and stitch them together. I chose to stitch them back together as a 9 patch. THE ORIGINAL 9 PATCH DESIGN!!!   UGH!!  So out comes the seam ripper and I get it all figured out and sewn together the way I wanted.

Then I chose a basic red thread to do a little free motion quilting. I've heard time and time again that instead of always dropping the feed dogs that you can just shorten your stitch length to zero. Cool. I do just that. Well let me tell you my Juki did not like that at all. I stitched an area probably 18" long and about 12" deep. Pulled the quilt out of the machine to check the back and....... eyelashes!! Yes Ma'am/Sir that little trick did not work for me. I picked out all the stitches, dropped the feed dogs, and tried again. Wonderful! It really is a dream to quilt on my Juki HZL-F600.

Did I have problems with the binding? Sure, but just the normal kind. I did a serpentine stitch down the "center" of the binding and a few times here and there I ran off the binding on the back. A little white thread on the backing fabric won't be noticed after it's been washed a few times.

No matter how nice the thread, red thread also seems to be extra lint-y.

There, that's better. Now, She's ready to start another quilt. I wonder what quilt will pop out next??

Disappearing Baby Quilt

After making Hubby's D9P quilt top I decided that I wanted to make another version. A couple of months ago I made a bunch of bibs and burp cloths for a friend/customer. She always sends extra fabric so I don't have to worry about running out. Then she tells me to keep the fabric :)  I made many, many bibs and burps but there was still a decent amount of fabric leftover so I set it aside to make a baby quilt.  I cut the smaller scraps into 4.5" squares and set the larger pieces aside for the backing.  Because I was working with a set amount of scraps some of the original 9 patches had repeat fabrics in the block. Since I knew I was cutting the 9 patches I was just careful and kept the repeats in the corners. That way each section wouldn't have any repeat fabrics.  I really like how it is turning out.

Have you  used the disappearing 9 patch block in a project? There are so many fun variations that you can make several quilts and they won't look like they came from the same pattern.

New Year - New Start

I received a wonderful package from a fellow crafter in December last year. She knew I loved to hand embroider and she had these designs that she wasn't going to make and she thought I might like them. There was a Santa and a Snowman in the package. I did a little poll and everyone decided that I should start the Snowman first.

It's a bluework design which is basically redwork but you use blue floss instead of red.

I chose to make mine using DMC floss instead of pearl cotton. I really like pearl cotton but when I use it for back stitching it tends to look chunky and choppy to me. I'm sure I'm just using the wrong weight floss but I actually like DMC floss so I don't mind switching. 

I traced Mr. Snowman on a piece of muslin that was included in the package. I managed to get his face done while chatting with a few friends over on my YouTube channel. He's so much fun to work on so I plan on adding him into my weekly rotation.

We're Stripping This Year

I love participating in swaps of all kinds but I don't always have the time. Each year the ladies over on the TTMT (Talk To Me Tuesday) blog do some type of swap. I haven't joined in yet until this year. This year's swap is more about your own creativity. We are cutting 2.5" WOF strips from some of our fabric fabrics from our own stash. Then we send them into our creative leader and she will mix them all up and send each of us our own TTMT jelly roll. It is going to be fun to see what each person makes with their fabric strips.

I don't always have yardage in my stash but I've recently struck up a barter agreement with someone who has inherited her mom's and another quilter's stash. My part of the barter is to knit several items that are going to be fun to knit.  In return I receive some fun fabrics. These fabrics will come in handy for my charity project this year.

I grabbed some of the brighter fabrics and added in a black and white fabric. I thought that maybe someone might need a contrasting fabric for their project. I chose 10 fabrics and then cut 4 strips from each fabric.

Rolling the fabric strips up neatly is near impossible.

While I had the fabrics out I decided to go ahead and cut 1 strip from each color for myself. That way I can add to the strips that I receive.  I haven't decided on a pattern yet but it has been fun looking at different designs. I might just go ahead and do the jelly roll race since I may be the only quilter who hasn't made one yet. 

Do you participate in swaps?  Have you made a jelly roll race quilt?

First Charity Quilt Flimsy of 2019

 

I stitched together my first flimsy of 2019. Following the suggested layout for The Road Trip Quilt  by Cluck Cluck Sew I randomly chose fabrics for my first charity quilt top of 2019. As I was choosing fabrics to use in this quilt top I noticed that I was choosing fabrics geared towards a younger boy so I tried to avoid the fabrics for the older boys. A five year old may not want skulls on his quilt. Or at least his parents might not appreciate the skulls. ;)

While cutting the fabrics I was too excited to get started that I didn't pay close attention to the directional fabrics. That's okay because this quilt finishes at 36" x 40" so it's not too big of a deal to just turn the quilt so the fabrics are pointing all the same way. Once I realized my little slip (there are no mistakes, just creative challenges right?) I just made sure I flip flopped some of the fabrics so they point in a variety of directions. 

I was chatting over on RsIslandCrafts, my YouTube channel, about binding. I would like to buy a yard or two of a couple different fabrics to use on as many quilts as I can. I know white is a good neutral but it isn't necessarily good for kids' quilts. Then I thought maybe grey? I had a couple suggestions to use some stripe fabric for the bindings. Brilliant! I think I'll do a little window shopping and see what I can find online. I have several yards of solid to semi-solid fabric in a couple different colors for the backs so I should be fine for a bit with backing fabrics. JoAnn's has batting on sale quite often so I'll just grab it as I go. I used to buy one of those giant rolls of batting every few years but I don't think that is in my budget this year. 

Now I just need to come up with a fun and simple hashtag for Instagram. While I'm the only crazy person who wants to make 50 quilts this year there are a few others who would like to join me in my charity sewing.  

Are you planning any charity quilts for 2019?