Patchwork of Crosses

Here is my first block in the Patchwork of Crosses pattern. I am making mine with English Paper Piecing, and following the pattern as presented in Linda Franz book. It's available on Amazon, selling new for $19.98 and used in good condition starting at $111.98......and that is not a typo! What is up with that???

I purchased my first batch of paper pieces from paperpeices.com but quickly realized I was going to need a lot more pieces...close to $1,400! So out came the graph paper and I drew my own. If you would like a copy of my template I will be happy to send it to you via email. ( I could not find a template on line.)

I am excited about this quilt, especially since two of my good quilting buddies are working on one too. We are meeting once a month to keep us on track....hmmmm..wonder if they have their first block done? We need 56 for a queen size quilt.

I completed my quilt top using Val Laird's Gifts of Grace blocks. These blocks are based on Galations 5: 22-23. Val offered the patterns as a free block of the month a couple of years ago, and now you can purchase the pattern on her site . My setting is very different from hers. I have always wanted to make a quilt using neutrals for a background and this just seemed to work for me.

Val Laird is so generous to share her talents with us and normally has a free block of the month every year. Check out her beautiful blog!

It was shady where I took the picture, so here is a close up of one block so that you can see the colors better

 

I plan to hand quilt this one, so it may be awhile before you see it completed.

And one last picture of my Chubby Chicks quilt, pattern by Black Mountain Quilts.

This was a fun quilt to make and I quilted it on my Janome with daisies and loops. I modified the pattern just a little, making it a baby quilt size and leaving off the final border.

Now to get a label on it and its all set for Tori's arrival next month. This will be the first one I have finished before the baby arrived!

Thanks for stopping by,

Teresa

 

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Blanket Stitch Appliqué Process

I have been working on a quilt for my granddaughter to be born in July. The pattern I am using is Chubby Chicks by Black Mountain Quilts.
These are cute little appliqué blocks and I thought I would share with you how I am doing the appliqué. The pattern calls for fusible appliqué, but since this will hopefully be a much loved baby quilt, I have chosen to turn the edges under and do blanket stitchI









I begin tracing the appliqué pattern on freezer paper, cutting the pattern out on the traced line and then placing the freezer paper pattern on the back side of the fabric, shiny side of paper facing up.

Trim away excess fabric leaving approximately 1/4" fabric to fold over around the pattern.
Using a mini iron, fold the fabric over, pressing until the fabric adheres to the paper. You can do this with a regular iron, but the iron must be hot enough to cause the fabric to stick to the paper, just be careful you don't burn your fingers!
Once all edges are turned under, flip you appliqué over and give it a good press on all the edges.

My next step was to prepare the background fabric. I am using a Kona solid that has the look of unable ached muslin, but the wonderful feel of Kona fabrics. The only problem is that it ravels like crazy. My finished block size is 6", so normally would cut my squares at 6 1/2"' but since this is raveling and I have a good bit of handwork to do, I cut the squares at 7".
Using the placement guide in the pattern, I lightly traced the appliqué placement into the right side of the fabric, using a regular pencil. You will have to look closely to see the lines, but they are there. I used a brown micro01 pig a pen to trace the legs as these will be embroiderd after the appliqué is finished.

Remove the paper from the back of the appliqué piece, and pin in place on the background.
I simply love the small appliqué pins for this process. The white heads make the pin easier to pick up and I find that they do not get in my way when sewing.
Now the next step is something my Mom always did and I find it a big help, plus it adds strength to your appliqué. Using a thread that matches your appliqué (I am using black so you can see the stitches), sew the appliqué folded edges under, very close to the folded edge. Do this with a running stitch and a single thread of 40 or 50 wt thread of your choice. I use Coats & Clark Dual Duty, mainly because of all the colors I can easily find it in.
These stitches will remain in your appliqué, so keep them neat. The blanket stitch will cover them up so they are not noticeable, but they can be seen if you look closely and you want them to be neat.


I recorded a video of how I do the blanket stitch. This is a video of just a couple of the stitches but easier to show than to explain in writing.

I have used two strains of embroidery floss and chose to mach my thread to the applique. 

The finishing touches to the chick are embroidered eye and legs.
I used a plastic washer from the hardware store as my template for the eye. Embroidery is the satin stitch with two strains of embroidery floss. Once the satin stitch is completed, I do a stem stitch around the outer edge to give it a smooth finish.

The legs are back stitched using three strains of embroidery floss.

And now my little chick is ready to join the flock. I hope you enjoyed the dscription on how I did this little chick.
Teresa

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Twilling

I finished my twilled table runner just in time for Spring. This was so much fun to do, and thank you Cyndi over at BeetreeDesigns.blogspot.com for designing this cute pattern.

I am teaching a class on Twilling in May at a guild meeting and all in attendance will receive a kit to "twill" a red basket - that's 130 kits I have to get assembled...YIKES! It will be fun though and will be great to have others enjoying this technique along with me.

 

 

 

I had a run in with a coffee cup this month and ended up with a cut tendon in one finger and stitches in two fingers. I could show you pictures, but they really are rather gross. This has limited my sewing a good bit (right hand) but I have managed to do a little appliqué in addition to hemming the binding on the table runner.

 

I have made some progress on the appliqué border of my klosje quilt. This one makes me smile as I think of giving it to my yet-to-be-born granddaughter as her "big girl" quilt.

I have lots of time to finish the appliqué and get it hand quilted, but doesn't it look so sweet -just like I know she will be.

I have started a baby quilt for her using the Chubby Chicks pattern. Got as far as cutting out the chicks for appliqué when that darn coffee cup attacked me. Hopefully my hand will be well enough this weekend to finish cutting out the blocks and I can start on the appliqué.

 

 

 

Before the coffee cup attack, I finished house two of the Cottage Grove pattern. I still want to add a little embroidery - maybe some daisies along the sidewalk, but that will have to wait until the bandages come off. I also need to add something in that center gable, but I just can't make up my mind as to what. Maybe a round window? What do you think?

 

Thanks for stopping by,

Teresa

 

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Pipestem Resort State Park

Isn't this a beautiful view? Fred and I have escaped for the weekend to Pipestem in West Virginia. This is the view from outside our balcony this morning. The weather is mild and there is a fog rising from a stream in the gorge below us. A flock os Canadian geese flew over and I do love the sound of their "honking" in early morning and at dusk.

We did a little site seeing yesterday with me getting pictures of numerous quilt barns in the area, and Fred getting pictures o

 

...well....cemeteries. His genealogy hobby follow us everywhere, kind of like me looking for quilt shops. I have not found any quilt shops yet....but we have two more cemeteries to check out today.

 

This is my first post with my iPad, a learning curve needed for sure.

I hate to see google reader is shutting down. Have any of you found a replacement yet?

 

 

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Klosjes

I finally finished all the klosjes I need for my quilt and it really helped that I decided to make a much smaller quilt.  I thought I would show you the progress . 

Toby thought they were his personal play blocks - he is going to be so sad when he sees an empty basket.  I know the pictures are blurry...but he is  a blue in motion most of the time.

 

So here they are all neat, squared and pressed. Don't you just love the look of neatly pressed blocks.

The little square are then sewn into half of the four patch blocks...but not with out a few gliches. Looks simple enough don't you think?

 

Not so....I manage to sew two blocks together wrong (and I repeated this mistake many times over)!  Fortunately I had a new tool to play with, a "Seam Fix" seam ripper that a good friend gave me.  I learned the value of this seam ripper many times over - you see it had these rubber tips that just pull out the little threads with very little effort.

See the little tip on the end?  That was totally gone by the time I finished sewing all these little blocks together.  I lost count of how many times I had to use it.

Moving on....I finished all the four patches.  I do love the look of these cute little blocks - especially when they are all done!  I won't say that all the corners made it out alive - a few went missing, but I am not going to point them out.  Give the quilt judges something to criticize (not like there are enough things to critique.)

And then finally all the blocks sewn together and I am starting now to design a border.  This is where a normally get stumped.  I think I have a plan that works.

 Now the only problem - I don't have a hand sewing project!  Of course, as soon as I get the borders on, I can start the applique and then the hand quilting.

I have had a couple people ask me who this quilt is for.  I have an answer now - I have a new granddaughter on the way.  Its a little big for a baby quilt, but just right for a toddler, and that is what she will be by the time I finish it.

Happy Stitchin'
Teresa

Do-si-Do and Twill Around

Yeehaw - I finshed the snail trail borders and corners and sewed them on to my Do-si-Do quilt tonight.    This has been a long time coming.  I pinned it to my design wall to get a picture but it's a little too long. 

The snail trail borders have 3,520 pieces in them, the corners have 108 pieces and the quilt center has 672 pieces, for a total of 4,300 pieces in this quilt - now that is a lot of cutting, pressing and seaming. 

And now to get it quillted!  The quilt finished at 84 x 96 and that is a lot of handquilting!  This will definitely be "big stitch" quilting.   I want to get my good friend Donna to baste it for me on her long arm - pretty please with chocolate pound cake on top?

I ran out of my brown for the background and decided to just use the 2" squares of the various fabrics in each corner.  Going with the Fall theme, I like to think this looks a little like maize corn.  I literally had maybe 5 strips of the brown left over - about 1 1/2" wide by 8" long.

I also completed my small twilling project. This is the first project that I quilting on my Jasmine frame and was so much fun to do.  I added a few more beads just cause I thought it needed it.  Maybe if you enlarge it you can see the beading and quilting.

Not sure what to do with it now that it is done.  I did put a sleeve on it so that I could easily hang it up, but it is not very big at 10" square. 

Even so...it is a finish and one more item I can check off on my UFO list.

Happy stitching to you all and thanks for stopping by,
Teresa

Jasmine Quilt Frame

Yea...we finally got some snow - and to top that it was Thunder Snow!  I didn't realize how dangerous thunder snow is until they were talking about it on the news this morning.  My husband and I were babysitting with the grandkids when the snow came - Mom and Dad has gone out for a late Valentine Day Celebration.  We had so much fun watching the kids playing in the snow.

 I have an absolutely adorable picture of Toby (1 year old) holding his first snowball but I cannot get blogspot to rotate it to portrait.   Makes no sense...it is portrait in my folder, but when I import it, comes out landscape. 

Can anyone tell me how to fix this?

 



 

 Yesterday morning my Jasmine quilt frame arrived.  It is just beautiful.  I am showing you the back view here - it will adjust to several different angles - this one just happens to be perfect when I am sitting and quilting. 

I purchased mine on EBAY, but there is a site where you can find them - http://www.hellotrade.com/jasmine-heirlooms/hoops-and-stands.html .  I could not find a price chart anywhere on the site.

 Here is a view of the hoop.  Notice the nice thingie used to tighten the hoop - so easy to turn rather than one of those wing nuts that my regular hoop has.  The wood is very smooth and pretty - a very nice finish.

The hoop will rotate 360 degrees !



And here is where I will be spending a lot of time today - in my comfy chair quilting and watching the Hallmark Movie Channel.  Husband has made a big pot of  vegetable beef soup  - woohoo, gonna be a good day!  Oh hon,.....put some coffee on.

And finally, an update on my klosje progress - well somewhat of an update.  Toby discovered my basket of blocks. 

I think he was sorting them for me, or maybe un-sorting them.  Whatever, he got a lot of enjoyment out of those blocks.

Hope you all have a good day,
Teresa