Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Maple Leaf Table runner



Fall is here!

Cooler temperatures, walks in the woods and falling leaves are reasons to make a new table runner.  The free block pattern is from Fat Quarter Shop Jolly Jabber and shared again today as part of their Classic and Vintage series.  (Opps - looks like their post got delayed - I'll update my post once the pattern for the block is live!)

I used 3 blocks on my running and offset them to make it look like they were tumbling across my runner.  I quilted the runner with organic wavy lines.


But why stop with just 3 blocks when these are so much fun to make?  So I turned the 4th into a trivit / hot mat but adding a layer of Insulite with a layer of batting.


Check out today's Jolly Jabber post for more examples of this great block!

I'll be linking up at Brag about Your Beauties Freemotion by the River,   WIP Wednesday's,  Let's Bee SocialMidweek Makers.  Needle and Thread Thursdays, Finish it Up Friday and Finished or Not Friday.


Have a wonderful day! Patty

Monday, October 29, 2018

Hand Pieced QAL - What's in my Sewing Bag?




I've been hand-piecing up a storm and Kristin and I thought it would be fun to share the tools that we love to use everyday.  (Read more about the Hand Pieced QAL announcement which will start in January.  Want to make sure you don't miss it?  Join our Hand Pieced Quilt Along Facebook Group.  We'll remind you of new posts as they go live and you can share photos and chat about your experiences as we all build this quilt together.  Subscribe to our newsletter so you'll be among the first to know about the latest QAL news.)





The Basics


Lighting by Daylight, Thread by Aurifil, Needles by Clover, Snips by Famore

All you really need for hand piecing are the basics - needle, thread and snips - plus good lighting.

  • Your choice of a needle is really a personal one - I like a short needle while other quilters like to use longer needles.  The key thing to look for is a needle that you can thread without issue and one that feels comfortable in your hand.  Needles are inexpensive - experiment until you find one that feels right.   
  • Regular 50 wt quality quilting thread works well.  
  • Snips (or scissors) are also key - you want something smaller to trim any dog-ears and snip the thread.
  • I like to sit and stitch at a table where I can mark seams, finger press and sew with ease.  Great lighting and a quality lamp is critical.  I love, love my Daylight lamp.


Cutting and Marking Fabric


Perfect Piecer by Jinny Beyer, OLFA Cutting Mat, 28 mm Rotary Cutter & Ruler


For cutting fabric and marking seams, mats, rotary cutters and rulers are the key tools.

  • A small cutting mat can be very useful as a portable surface for marking seam lines.  It is easily rotated if you are, for example, cutting a piece of fabric in half on the diagonal to make  triangles.
  • I really love this smaller sized 28 mm rotary cutter for trimming up smaller blocks
  • Basic rulers are important for marking the 1/4'' sewing lines.  This specialty ruler - The Perfect Piecer -  makes marking sewing lines on triangles a breeze!

Making the Experience Enjoyable

Clover Leather Thimble & Metal Tip Thimble, Applique Pins, Clover Wonder Clips, & Robot Mom Sews Thread Conditioner

Finally, there are several notions that will make the task more enjoyable.
  • For some people, thimbles are critical while hand sewing.  I wear a thimble on the middle finger of my right hand while sewing.  I've tried all different thimbles and am enjoying the leather one pictured above.
  • Pinning seams is important.  The type of pin you use is one of personal preference but I love using short pins designed for applique because they don't get in my way while I am sewing.
  • Clips to keep pieces organized are wonderful - I just love these binding clips. (The mini ones work really well!)
  • Thread conditioner keeps your thread tangle free - I just love the conditioner from Robot Mom Sews - it does the job and smells so nice!
  • Listen to a favorite podcast or audio book.  I'm loving Friendship Album 1933 by Frances O'Roark Dowell


Sew Anywhere


Elm Street Quilts Travel Mesh Bag Tutorial


Perhaps one of the reasons I enjoy hand piecing so much is you can take it anywhere. 

  • My travel case (tutorial here) folds open to give me a work surface and the center serves as a mini pin cushion.
  • Travel with a bobbin wound with thread instead of a spool.  (A great way to use up those almost empty bobbins.) 
  • Small case which holds a few pins and needles.  I always worry about loosing needles so a piece of fusbile fleece taped to the top of my case holds the needles tight.  If I am traveling by airplane, I bring along a tiny cheap pair of snips just in case TSA decides to confiscate my scissors.
  • Pieces cut, marked and kitted together is the key
Most of the items featured can be purchased at Fat Quarter Shop, one of the awesome sponsors for the Hand Pieced QAL!

Please note this post contains affiliate links which means I will earn a small commission if you purchase an item.  This does not increase your costs in any way.  The Daylight Company, OLFA, Robot Mom Sews, Famore and Clover provided product for my personal use.  All opinions expressed are my own.



Have a wonderful day! Patty

Thursday, October 25, 2018

One Monthly Goal - October Finish Link-up


Ready to link up your October finishes?
Don't panic - this link-up is open until October 31 at 11:55 pm ET.



My goal for October was to FMQ my HRT quilt - all 720 of them!  I did a simple meander and tackled the quilting over several days.  Now to bind!


There will be three winners this month - Fat Quarter Shop is offering a $25 gift certificate, Make Modern Magazine is offering a 6 month subscription to their digital magazine and Natalia Bonner from Piece n Quilt is offering a PDF pattern from her shop.




Visit the One Monthly Goal event page for the specific requirements for links and social tags. 

And remember, to be eligible for the prize(s) by random drawing you must linkup at both the goal setting and the accomplishment linkup in a given month. (
October Goal Setting Link-up.)

Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can follow where you are linking.   Let's make that easy -  just paste this into your post:  


Sign up to receive email notifications when the One Monthly Goal linkup is open.  Think of it as a helpful reminder!  Joining the link-up from Instagram -see the tutorial.

Congratulations to Lisa, Laura & Dawn - our lucky randomly chosen winners for October.
Winners accepted their prizes via email.  (Updated 11/4)






Thanks for linking up!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Monday, October 22, 2018

Hand Pieced: A QAL Announcement



I am very excited to announce that Kristin Esser from Simply Everyday Handmade and I have been working on a brand new QAL which will start in January 2019!

Kristin and I have both fallen in love with hand piecing for many of the same reasons.  Hand piecing requires the simplest of supplies - fabric, thread and a needle - and you can carry it with you everywhere.  Find yourself waiting a bit for an appointment then you expected?  Make a 4 patch or flying geese block!


With this QAL, our not so secret goal is to create a community of quilters who love to hand piece.  We believe that once you try it, you will be hooked!

The QAL will start with the most basic of quilt blocks (4 patches, HST, flying geese and hour glass) to establish the basics of hand-pieced construction.  The blocks that follow will build on these skills.  We will teach you step by step how to make these units and then assemble them into blocks for our quilt.


Never hand pieced before?  No worries. We'll share step by step tutorials, hits and tips and tell you all about our favorite notions.

While, you will have to wait a little longer for the big quilt reveal, I can tell you there be nine blocks and we will share a couple of alternatives settings to create your own beautiful quilt top.

We will have weekly link-ups and chances to win some awesome prizes from our amazing sponsors!


Excited?

I hope so!

The Hand Pieced QAL will start in January.  Want to make sure you don't miss it?  Join our Hand Pieced Quilt Along Facebook Group.  We'll remind you of new posts as they go live and you can share photos and chat about your experiences as we all build this quilt together.

Subscribe to our newsletter so you'll be among the first to know about the latest QAL news.

I just can't wait to get started!



 Have a wonderful day! Patty

Friday, October 19, 2018

Works in progress I really want to finish

I organize my quilting to-do list into 4 categories (Must Do, Have to Do, Like to Do and Squirrel).  (Listen to me discuss this on Pat Sloan's podcast - I'm guest #2).   Here are the 4 projects on my Like to Do list that I've started and hope to get back to soon.

First up is a single block quilt (Endless summer block pattern from A Quilting Life) that I am going to hand quilt. 










Then, it will be onto my Stars Wars blocks - this will turn into a Christmas gift for my son.  Next block will be a Yoda block - you can find these block patterns from Kristy at Quiet Play in her Quiet Play pattern store.  These have been waiting for me to finish since January!


A year ago, I took an improv class from Michelle from Factotum of the Arts.  The blocks hung out on my design wall for awhile and now need to come back out and play.


Finally, I made these two blocks for a guild challenge - we had to make a deconstructed quilt block and I decided to see what a log cabin block could look like if you made it backwards (on left) and compared to it made traditional way (on right.) 


These are each so different from each other which makes them a lot of fun!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

My Fall Quilt mini

Sunday, the 23rd, was the first full day of fall.  But it took until last week - after Hurricane Michael blew through - for temperatures to drop and sweatshirt weather to arrive.

I've a bunch of fall themed fabric in my stash and when the season arrives, I have sudden desire to make pumpkin quilts or quilts with leaves.

No pumpkin quilt this year but I did make a mini fall quilt to celebrate.


The mini is 9'' square and I used Trip Around The World Mini Quilt  tutorial.

Have a wonderful day!

 Patty

Monday, October 15, 2018

Quilters Planner October block update

Happy October!


The October block joins my other 9 blocks.


My original thought was to make a pillow from the blocks - they are all 6'' finished - but I may actually make a small wall hanging.

Two more blocks to go.  The fabric is a Moda line by Amy Ellis.

One more thing ...  Fat Quarter Shop has a massive giveaway going on.  I've entered and hope you will too!  Contest is option through October 26.





Have a wonderful day! Patty

Friday, October 12, 2018

Adding a Facing

The hand quilting is done.  I finished it on Sunday, excited as I approached that last stitch.  Every single stitch in this quilt was done by hand, by me.

The blocks were hand pieced using my precious scraps of SunPrint 2018 fabric by Alison Glass.  I started in early May, finding great enjoyment in my very first hand pieced project and was excited to share my very first block.


Once the quilt top was completed in July, it was time to decide on how to quilt it. 


Since this was my very first hand pieced project, why not go for broke and make this my very first large hand quilted project.  So I took my first quilting stitches in early August and finished stitching in early October.


And now I'm done!  I love the back too!


Deciding to face the quilt instead of binding was an easy decision.  I've faced a few mini quilts before, but this was my first time facing a large quilt.  And, strangely enough, the first time I used my sewing machine for this quilt to attach the facing.  (And, yes, I do realize I could have attached that by hand.  But didn't even briefly consider this!)


The tutorial I used by EVQuilts is just awesome.


I love that I've captured all the milestones on making this quilt on my blog - from the very first post in May to today's post.

Can't wait to get the facing stitched down and take some glamour shots of the quilt.  Plus, I do need a name for the quilt.  I've got zero idea so far so if you have one, leave me a comment!


I'll be linking up at Brag about Your Beauties Freemotion by the River,   WIP Wednesday's,  Let's Bee SocialMidweek Makers.  Needle and Thread Thursdays, Finish it Up Friday and Finished or Not Friday.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Monday, October 8, 2018

My Rin Blocks

Summer of 2017, I participated in a  QAL for Carolyn Friedlander's Rin pattern.  The QAL was the first time I had tried needle turned applique.  I enjoyed the process although some of the part of the shapes were difficult to get into a smooth curve.

By the end of the QAL, I had finished 3 blocks and considered various layouts to a quilt with just three blocks.


Since I enjoyed the whole process of making the block, including the fancy fabric folding technique required to get the pieces, I started on a 4th block.


Saturday, I finally finished that 4th and final block!   I had left it in a almost done state for almost a year - somewhat unusual for me!  Other handwork projects were more important or interesting to me.

I had an opportunity on Saturday to sit and sell tickets to our raffle quilt so I grabbed my applique bag and went to work!  I had only that bumpy inner ring to finish.  It didn't take too long.


The fabric I used was Desert Bloom line by Sherri from A Quilting Life.   I will assemble the blocks into a 2 x 2 grid.   I am planning on straight line quilting this one although I was also thinking about concentric circles.....


Next step to trim and assemble my quilt top!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Friday, October 5, 2018

HRT logistics


My goal for October is quilt my HRT quilt, made with 720 HRTs of fabric all by Moda Sweetwater.


Typically, I baste a quilt on my kitchen table and use large binder clips to hold things flat.  This works fine for quilts that measure smaller than the length of my table (~ 60").   While I've had occasional success with quilts larger than 60" - including the one pictured below - it can be a real struggle.


My first attempt at basting my HRT quilt on my kitchen table did not go well.  And all the pins had to be removed when I discovered areas where the backing fabric had large wrinkles or gaps on the edges.

So I moved the quilt to the floor.  Since my son is away at school, I could spread the layers out on the floor of his room and not rush myself through the basting process.  The backing fabric was taped down using painters tape and the batting and quilt floated on top.


With the basting done, I've started FMQing.  My plan is to tackle the quilt by working on a small area at a time with the goal of avoiding needing to tie off thread by using something less than a bobbins worth of thread for each section.

Given each HRT measures 2" across, I am quilting a strip down the quilt which is three (3) HRTs wide aka 6''.  This means I will be moving the quilt through the machine 12 times (which seems like a lot!) but it minimizes the side to side movement which usually causes thread breaks.


I've been making great progress this week, just doing a section at a time with a simple meander.  You can see a bit of the quilting on the back.  I was lucky enough to find 4 yards of  a Sweetwater print I forgot I had in my stash and with a little bit more fabric (that fun house print) pieced together the back.


I'll be linking up at Brag about Your Beauties Freemotion by the River,   WIP Wednesday's,  Let's Bee SocialMidweek Makers.  Needle and Thread Thursdays, Finish it Up Friday and Finished or Not Friday.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

September Temperatures


North Carolina is slow to move away from summer.  Look at all those days in the 90s (i.e. red) and 80s (orange) that we had this month!  Temperatures dropped a little when Hurricane Florence came through and although parts of the state were hit extremely hard with flooding, we were lucky and did fine in that storm.


The first column (of color) on the left is January 1 through 15, next column January 16 through 31 etc which means the last column on the right is September 16-20.  I'm using a low volume fabric to fill in months that don't have 31 days plus surrounding the overall temperature quilt.

I did get myself a little twisted up this month when I added the hexie for the 16th at the end of one column instead of the beginning of the next.  That meant ripping out and reattaching a whole bunch of hexies!

The quilt measures roughly 32'' x 28''.   Here is the mapping of color to temperature range - 


I'll be linking my quilt up to a temperature quilt link-up plus I'll be linking up at Brag about Your Beauties Freemotion by the River,   WIP Wednesday's,  Let's Bee SocialMidweek Makers.  Needle and Thread Thursdays, Finish it Up Friday and Finished or Not Friday.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Monday, October 1, 2018

Check out today's Quilting Podcast with Pat Sloan


I'm quite excited to be a guest on American Patchwork and Quilting's podcast with hostess Pat Sloan today!  It will be fun to talk about all things quilting with Pat.

You can listen to episode 394 live at  4 pm today (Monday) or download it from iTunes  Find more information about today's episode and past episodes on Pat's site.


Looking for the October One Monthly Goal link-up?  You can find it here!


Thanks for listening!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

One Monthly Goal - October Goal Setting Link-up

Welcome to October!  We had 105 projects linked up in September - let's see what this month brings!



New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  To join, share a photo of your project, some words about what you want to accomplish in a blog post, an Instagram post (tutorial) or a post on Flickr and add that photo to the link-up.  Return at the end of the month and share your results.  You can read about the event and the rules on the main event page.

We have wonderful sponsors this month - three (3) winners will be randomly chosen from those that link up in both the goal and the finish event.  Plus anyone linking up will earn an entry for the bonus prize.  (Bonus prize to be awarded in January - you can earn up to 3 entries by joining the link-ups October through December.) 


Fat Quarter Shop offers a tremendous selection of fabric, notions, books and just about anything you will need for your project. Consider their Sew Sampler box to receive a monthly surprise delivery of fabric and fun.  Fat Quarter Shop is offering a $25 gift certificate to one lucky participant.

Make Modern is a digital magazine launched by a collaboration of quilters based in Australia. Their magazine is filled with modern quilt designs and a wonderful source of inspiration. Make Modern is offering a 6 month subscription to one lucky participant.


Aurifil is home to a beautiful rainbow of thread in all weights, perfect for any of your sewing and quilting needs.  My favorite product is the designer collection boxes which coordinate with various fabric lines.  Aurifil is offering a thread set for the fourth quarter bonus prize.


I'm very excited to introduce Natalia Bonner from Piece n Quilt as our featured designer for October!

Image credit - Natalia Bonner
Natalia is an award winner quilter, fabric designer, teacher, quilt designer, author and LAQ extraordinaire!  Natalia's online Beginner's Guide to Free Motion Quilting begins today, October 1 plus you can find her classes on Craftsy and her YouTube channel.  She also has a 4-1 ruler for use when quilting with many supporting videos on YouTube that each how to use this ruler.

Natalia partners with her mom, Kathleen Whiting, also an award winner quilting, for patterns and fabric designs.  (See a cute mom / daughter photo on their about us page.)  Together they have written five books and you will be inspired by her free motion quilting designs and tutorials.  Their two fabric lines - Thrive and Flourish - are just beautiful and coordinate well together.

Image credits: Natalia Bonner;  Top: Barn Star pattern, Stand Tall pattern
Bottom: Flourish fabric, Next Steps in Machine Quilting, Free Motion Quilting on-line class
Natalia is offering a pdf pattern of the winner's choice from her pattern shop.  You can find Natalia at Piece n Quilt plus on her blog, on Instagram, on Facebook, on YouTube, and in her Pattern store.  

My goal for October is to get the quilting done on my half-rectangle triangle (HRT) quilt.  There are 720 of these HRTs, all made with Moda Sweetwater fabric.  The quilt measures 72 x 80.


Now it is your turn to link up - what is your goal for October?  (A goal could be to finish a quilt but it could also be to attach a binding.  Whatever it takes to help you move forward and make progress on your projects!  And as long as the project involves making something with a needle and/or fabric, you can link up!)

Make sure you visit the One Monthly Goal event page for the specific requirements for links and social tags. 
 Your blog post (or Flickr post) must contain a photo of your project, a clearly stated goal and a link back to Elm Street Quilts.  Your Instagram post must include a photo of your project, a clearly stated goal and the tag #onemonthlygoal.  (Entries which don't contain the required information may be disqualified.)

And remember, to be eligible for the prize(s) by random drawing you must linkup at both the goal setting and the accomplishment linkup in a given month.   (The One Monthly Goal accomplishment linkup will be available on October 25.)

Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link-up from your blog.  Let's make that easy -  just paste this into your post: 
 











Have a wonderful day! Patty