Hole in One!!

I had the privilege of attending a class taught by Bettye Sheppard yesterday.  Her pattern was called Hole in One.  It's a four-patch posie style design, a sort of stack'n'whack style quilt but done in squares which is much easier.

Here's some photos of the pattern and my quilt under construction:

I love my fabric!

After ripping our fabric to find true grain we looked for repeats and sliced strips!

Sub cut into 3.5" squares (strip set is 4 deep identical)

Stacks of four squares ready for twirling into kaleidoscopes

Sample block

 

Making progress

All 48 blocks done.

What I noticed from the first block is that they remind me of Italian tiles.  I love it!

I will likely set my blocks 6 rows and 8 rows.  There is still the sashing to be added and the corner blocks.  I've not yet decided on my sashing fabrics.  The ones I initially chose may not do the quilt justice and I want it to really pop!

Not yet sure how I will finish this quilt.  Stay tuned for future posts!

It is a quick and easy quilt.  All the blocks were done in class between 10 am and 4 pm without breaking a sweat.  And there was plenty of gab time with the girls, and lunchtime when we sat and enjoyed some of Bettye's life stories.  If you ever get a chance to take one of Bettye's classes, do.  She's a great teacher!!

Until next time,
Mavis

Impromptu Quilt Show & Sale

Before summer leaves us and before our house is sold, I've always wanted to do a quilt show on our farm.  I've decided to do a small, impromptu Quilt Show & Sale this Saturday, Sept. 3, from 3 pm til 5 pm.   I hope to be able to upload some pictures but if you're in Victoria this weekend, why not drop around and say hi and view my quilts in a lovely garden setting.

Hope to see you there.

Mavis

Jelly Roll Toss quick quilt - tutorial

Ingredients:  1 jelly roll (I used a Moda jelly roll that had 3 repeats of each fabric in it).

First I divided the jelly roll into three piles with one of each fabric in each pile.

Next, about 4 at a time, I line up the 4 strips and cut off the selvage.

Now cut 5 2 1/2" squares from the end.

Straighten up the remainder of the strip set and do a random cut of the stack (vertical) into 2 remaining strips.  NOTE:  If you are a `matchy-matchy`quilter, the random cut of the stack may not appeal to you because when you get the strips in rows, not everything will line up.  If that`s important to you then you will want to measure out your staggered cuts by an amount divisible by 2 1/2".

When you have done this to the whole jelly roll, toss the 2 1/2" squares into a box, basket or bag to randomize them.  Stack the remaining sliced jelly rolls into two piles in the same order.

Sew the 2 1/2" squares into sets of 5 2 1/2" squares.  Press seams in one direction and set them aside.  When all of the 2 1/2" squares have been sewn into units of 5 per unit, take one 5 square unit and sew match them with a set of remaining strips with the remaining strips on either side of the 5 square units.   Here they are in a pile ready for pressing:

Now comes the layout.  Try to liberate your thinking and not force yourself to be matchy matchy and just enjoy the colour flow and balance.  Here`s what mine looks like almost done:

This quilt is too big for a baby quilt so I may just add some nice dark brown borders and call it a twin!  Or maybe a girl quilt for a girl`s toddler bed...you know, a big girl bed!  Anyway, I have started praying about who this one is for and it is yet unknown.  We`ll see!

Until next time,

Mavis

PS - Warning!  The jelly rolls must not be cut properly on the grain.  The quilt top bows.  When I tried to square it up it was off by about 4 inches (determined by folding it in half as you would fabric that has been washed and going with the natural grain).  I was most disappointed.  So, since it was too big for a baby quilt and not behaving, I chopped it into 2 to make 2 baby quilts.

A new quilt pattern is born

It is BC Day today so this means a long weekend.  The weather is glorious.  My DH was at a music festival with his band on the mainland so this meant some guilt-free quilting time for me!

Friday night I was playing in EQ7 and drew this pattern:

 I'm calling the pattern "Around the Block" and my version will be called "Coffee Shop Around the Block" because I am using coffee fabrics.

Here are some pictures of the quilt in 'cloth' which will become the sample to go to a store that will carry the pattern:

Focus fabric in the middle of the square framed! 

Now the strata units frame the first frame.  I don't like the corners though.  It doesn't work.  Idea!  Turquoise cornerstones!  Then some unsewing.  Yes, that's better.  I don't think I snapped a picture of the 'fixed' block but here's the rows all together.  Likin' it!

Now to construct the sashing:

And create the sashing rows before assembling the quilt:

Now to put the rows together and audition the border:

Much better than the first fabric which was just too busy.  Yes, I like the neutral.  It picks up the light fabrics in the strata units.

Now the finale:

I like it!  Now to quilt it, then create the instructions, drawings and staged photo before packaging it up for sale.


It was a fun experience to cram a quilt design and construction into the same weekend.

Until next time my quilty friends!
Mavis

Serendipity!

Do you ever have days when everything just seems to work better than the day before?  You know, when the brain is firing, you solve a problem or pull something together that was unravelling, or throw ingredients together for dinner from the fridge and it just works??  Serendipity!!  Today was like that.  It was a productive day at work with some energy left at the end of the day to play with EQ7 and design a pattern.  I love when that happens, and it's infrequent, so I'm going for it!

Tonight I started designing a quilt using my coffee fabrics.  I'm going to call it "Around the Block" .  With my coffee fabrics, the quilt label will  likely say  "Coffee Shop Around the Block".  But I am creating this pattern to sell so I want to give it a generic enough name to apply to different focus fabrics and colourways.


The first block came together great!  There are a total of 30 blocks, 5 x 6.  When the quilt top is done I'll post a picture here.  I want to get the sample made because one of the local quilt shops said she would carry my patterns if I brought in a sample quilt to show.  I can do that!! Maybe not tonight but I got a good start on it.  As soon as I finish the first part of the 30 blocks I'll call it a night.

My friend Terry is coming for breakfast and a sewing date tomorrow (the hubster is out of town and we really need some play time!).  You never know what we'll be working on.  We'll see where the wind blows us tomorrow.  I think my friend will be surprised that I have started yet another new project.  It's obvious that the wind blew in some new creativity tonight so I'm just going to enjoy it and show her what I accomplished tonight.

I am hoping for a good night's sleep tonight and I hope you have one too!

Until next time,

Mavis

Drat, Drat and Double Drat!!!

Yesterday I was sharing about putting the backing together for my Irish Chain quilt.  Today, after it was hanging out on the clothesline overnight, the wrinkles were still there.  I touched the fabric to make sure it was dry.  It felt like a high-quality chintz fabric, complete with the sound of high quality cotton, but I decided I  wanted to be sure.  I am thinking about hand quilting the Irish Chain quilt and I want to make sure I'm not fighting polyester fibres.  So I conducted the famous 'burn' test.  If you google it you will find articles about the different ways fibres behave when a flame hits them.

Well, the long and short of it is that one of my fabrics was 100% cotton and the two side panels (which I used to make the quilt backing wide enough...you know...a pieced back) is Poly/Cotton.  It melted!  Can't bring myself to use it.  So back to the drawing board.

Thankfully I was able to find something nice and soft at Fabricland for 55% off so now I have ample fabric for the back of this quilt.  Now I just need some energy to baste it together so that it can be quilted.  I'm still not sure if I'll machine quilt it or hand quilt it.  I already have one quilt underway in the hoop and I'm a long way off having it done.

Decisions, decisions.

What do you think?  Here's the picture of the quilt again:

I'd love to do some quilting in the blank squares.  I bought a circular wreath stencil today.  It would be perfect in those blank spots.  But whether or not I should do it by hand or machine is the question.  I'm a bit of a puritan.  I'd like to do either 100% hand or 100% machine ~ not both in the same quilt.

So...what do you think my quilty friends?  Hand or machine?  What does quilt beg for?

Until next time,

Mavis

Celtic Knot Mystery Quilt ~ Another Finish!

One of the ladies in my satellite group finished her Celtic Knot quilt.  I've been waiting for this one because I absolutely loved her colours ~ hot pink/light pink, black and white.  Take a look!  It's gorgeous!