My Perfect Sewing Set-Up

I have moved my sewing machine into my office area...much more comfortable to sew in the office than it was in the quilt studio I lovingly call my sweat shop, lol!  Here is a mini tutorial for a ironing station near your sewing machine, using an inexpensive TV table that I bought at Walmart for under $9.00.

 

I first  took a fat quarter that matched the colors of my Quilt Studio (even though I am currently sewing in the office) and pinked the edges to keep it from unraveling.

 

 Then I took 4 layers of scrap warm and natural batting 1 1/2" smaller than the fat quarter and centered it on 

top of the wrong side of the fat quarter.

 

 Place the TV Table upside down on top of the batting/fat quarter. While pulling the fat quarter edge over the edge of the TV table and to the underside of table use a stable gun to stable the fabric in place.

 

 

  See how we did the corners? place the staples about every 1/2"

 We used a stable gun that attaches to my air compressor (which I use to clean my long arm with instead of the canned air). This is much easier than using a traditional staple gun.

 

I purchased 2 of the TV tables from Walmart so I could have one on each side of my sewing machine...1 for pressing during block construction without having to have the bulky ironing board set up all of the time for smaller jobs. And the 2 one for trimming up blocks as I go. On this table I have a 12" sq. rotating cutting matt. Works out pretty well and keeps me from running back and forth so I can get more sewing done. Stay tuned for more updates as my office and my quilt studio evolve into my perfect creative space. 

4th of July is Just Around the Corner-

so why not make a 4th of July quilt!

I have been wanting to make "Glory in Scraps" from the Quilter's Cache for a few years now but didn't like the "star" fabric that was available so I kept putting it off. That is until now...yup, I finally found the perfect star fabric for this quilt... "Northcott's Stonehenge Stars and Stripes" 

 

Once I had the star fabric it was time to go digging through my stash for the reds and cream/off white fabrics for the 1/2 sq. triangles  

Let the cutting begin! I plan on making a lap size quilt just like the one at Quilter's Cache. I will need 20 (12 1/2") blocks so I can place it in a 4 X 5 layout.....which means I am going to need 200 (3 1/2") red and white 1/2 sq. triangle blocks, & 60 off white triangles. It was time to bring out my easy angle ruler to tackle this one. 

I stitched my 1/2 sq. triangle blocks together and played with placement a bit before I started sewing my rows together.

Time to add the star fabric...

And here is a finished block; only 19 more to go and a pieced border. I will post a pic of the quilt top when I get that finished and then another after I quilt it....hopefully all will be done by the 4th of July! 

 



Scrappy Hearts

I have had alot of questions asked about this quilt that is on my home page of my website. No it's not one of my quilts, it belongs to one of my customers and I quilted it last year for her. It is not a difficult quilt to make even though it looks like it. However there was alot of pieces to it. Each block was 14" sq finished and the whole quilt was constructed from 2 1/2" squares and 2 1/2" half sq triangles.

To make one of these Scrappy Heart blocks you would need 28 (2 1/2") neutrual squares, 17 (2 1/2") squares in a variety of bright fabrics (I used pinks, corals, reds, and purples) for mine, and 4 (1/2) square triangle units that are 1/2 neutrual and 1/2 bright fabrics.

Use your favorite method for constructing 1/2 sq triangle units...just make sure that they are 2 1/2" when squared up. 

I like to use the easy angle ruler to do mine...there is no waste and they don't need to be trimmed to size.

Arrange the squares and half sq triangles like above, in 7 rows of 7.

                       

Sew first together in rows...

Then sew the rows together to form a 14 1/2" unfinished block.

To make a quilt like the one on my website then you need to make more scrappy heart blocks and place them on-point (no need for sashing because the block provides its own) then for the scrappy setting triangles and corners just make a scrappy block with all brights and cut in half (for the sides) and into quarters (for the corners). Add borders if you want. The more blocks you make the larger the quilt will be.

I was going to post this closer to valentines day but decided that if I posted it earlier then it would give you something to work on for a Valentines Day project. :0)

Happy Halloween

 It never fails that when it's the week of a holiday I get the urge to make something for that holiday. Maybe it has to do with the trying to make the place look more festive or just to get me in the mood or psyche for it. Anyways this past week was no different, so this is what I have been doing in between customers quilts.

This is a candy corn table runner I threw together in a day using 2 1/2" jelly strips and my accuquilt go 6 1/2" tumbler die.

Then a customer brought in a quilt that used a technique that starts out with a 4-patch block using 5" charm sqs. So of course I had to try it too, and since it being Halloween week I dug into my Halloween charm sq stash. 

Decided to do 5 color combos. and do 2 blocks of each. Sew your 4 patch blocks together. 

Then you will take your ruler and line up the 1 1/4" line along one of the center seams and cut.

 On both sides of the seam in both directions.

until you get this.

Repeat for all blocks and seperate the pieces like above.Makes it easier to work with later. 

Now piece the pieces back together, mixin up the different combos to get a scrappy look.  

Now you can add sashing, cornerstones, borders or whatever to make it into what you want. I am making mine into a table runner. I still have to piece the other 5 blocks together, sash those 5 then sew them together with the above row and add borders. 

Of course my 2 table runners won't actually be quilted or bound until next year, that's because I never get the urge to do a holiday theme project until last minute, lol! Oh well ya think I would learn to get started on them earlier...not! ;0) 

Slice and Dice 9 Patch

I found this technique on You Tube awhile back (sorry can't remember where) but it is a quick an easy way to use up those 5" squares!

First decided on how many blocks you want to make, a baby quilt uses 12 blocks and a teen sz or lap quilt uses 20. You can make this totally scrappy or as I call it (and did) organized chaos and stick with a color scheme.

Layout the 5" squares in nine patch fashion to your liking ( I chose to do a teen/lap size quilt so I needed 20 blocks and I chose to use the pink sqs in the 4 corners and in 10 of the blocks use this green & pink print and in the other 10 use a green tonal for the center sq. Once you decide what your game plan is then get to sewing your 9 patches.

Here's block "A" after the 9 patch was sewn together I sliced it in half horizontal and vertical.

Her's my block "B" and it is also sliced and diced. Seperate your new smaller blocks into 2 piles,  pile "A" and pile "B". You will now take 2 small "A" blocks and 2 small "B" blocks to create your block for your quilt. Lay them out so that 2 same green centers are diagonal to each other, then going clockwise starting with the upper right block turn it 1/4 turn, bottom right, 1/4 turn, bottom left 1/4 turn, and finally upper left 1/4 turn. Resew these 4 small blocks together this new way. Then do the same for the remaining blocks.

Arrange the blocks in a 4X5 layout pleasing to your eye and stitch your quilt top together.

You will get this! At this point you can add borders or not...I choose not.

This is a baby quilt I did for one of my neighbors it had 12 blocks  and finished at around 48" X 60" 

I quilted it using the "Tickle" panto from Willows Leaf Studios