Hexagon- Rosette 4 Part 2

Rosette 4 took me longer to complete, because  many events just happens in my short boring life *laugh*. But now I rejoiced in my little heart, because it's completed and beautiful.  I cannot wait to start planning rosette 5, but that will have to wait until moved to our next home.Meantime, I finished other projects.

 

Merry Christmas!

Quilt 6 -Grape Crush

With the selling market rocking up high in British Columbia, we decided to sell our house up north and moved southern of British Columbia. A temporary moved as we're planning to return east, next spring and live somewhere we can afford a home.

So with that in mind, I planned ahead, knowing I would moved not once, but twice in a very short period. Sometime our best intention to complete our quilting projects just gets out of the window, when faced with situations like this. Our quilting is just put on a long-term-break.

Again?! *rolled-eyes*

Do you pout and cried when something cannot be avoided or do you rolled-up your sleeves and plan ahead? That's exactly what I did. Rolled-up my sleeves and give myself a real Grinch smile.

This is where my Quilting Planner became super handy in determining what to pack before I moved and after we moved, I was able to go right back to my sewing without being confused at all where I left it. That's all because I wrote everything down in my Quilting Planner.  My planner has a copy of each projects with their fabric information. Anything that could help me remember what that quilt was all about.

When you're moving for a short period, or have to bring only a few projects, consider what you need with you for that time. Planning ahead shouldn't be a chore or a complicated, but fun and encouraging that you can continue your hobby wherever you go.

Here are a few things I did myself, knowing we are moving not once, but twice this year.

1.Bring what project you can finish or start.
2.Select fabrics you need for those projects.
3. Label all project and put a copy of the pattern with it.
4. Use only one sewing machine. At less try. lol REALLY!!!
5. Don't panic if you don't have enough fabric or the fabric with you, there is always a quilt store nearby.
6. Have few project at hands. Not a dozen.

Since we moved here, I sewed little, but I enjoyed it greatly when I can . That's the idea too. No stress, just fun.

Designer: Janice Prytz

 This quilt is so simple. Started with four squares to make a four-patch.

 After that, you cut a 2" from the middle seam with all side..

 That is what it look like. Now you have different pieces to play with.

           Et Voila!!

 My bed has become my design wall...for now it works. I laid all my four-patches blocks on the bed, so I can visual the whole effect. Then I squared the one that were not to be cut into pieces. I did that one row after another one. This quilt was fast and easy.


You can found her at: http://www.jansquilts.com/
Pattern download at: https://www.quiltingcompany.com/store/grape-crush-digital-pattern

Be My Neighboor - Part 1

 Our guild started another great project by Moda called Be My Neighbor.
 You can use your large scraps of fabric or colour themes. At first, you may think it's a paper piecing project, but it's not. It's very simple and used simple techniques.

  I'm doing two. One in the rainbow colours and one in the black/whites. The blocks are quite large facilitating the piecing.

Moda provides free patterns of each house. Also their layout pattern and colour of your house.

It's interesting and fun to see the different effects both colour theme bringing with each block. I cannot wait to see the whole top quilt done.

Crazy Curves Templates

Some of you may remember my old beige-stripped cushions, which I turned into a beautiful pillow that would nicely with my winter quilt.  I've my summer quilt on my bed now and the beige-stripped cushions are back with their ugliness. 

 

So why not make another set that goes would go nicely with my summer quilt.  Digging into my left-over scraps, I was so happy to found I had a few large pieces available for this project, but not enough for two. With a bit of playing around with my statch, I blended a few additional fabric that will go along with them. 

Now that about the pattern? Flipping over PillowPOP by Heather Bostic; 25 quick-sew projects to brighten your space. I found an interesting pattern for this project. It had curves. Yikes!! I never sew curved, oh well, time to learn.

The book compiled by Heather Bostic provided the paper templates pattern at the back of her book. At first, I thought no way, I'm not doing that and was blessed when I found the 7" Crazy Curves Temples by  Elisa's Backporch in our guild room and the templates were bigger.

 The 7" Crazy Curves Templates are easily cut using a rotary cutter. 

 After I sewed the curves together by putting the concave at the bottom and pulling gently on the top as I sew-along. No pinning, no gluing either. That's entirely my avenue is sewing thing. Fast and easy is my motto *laugh*

  Play. Play.Play. Isn't fun:)

Love the modern-look it gives my quilt. Fresh and new. 

Quilt 4: Homestead

 With quilt #4, I opted for print fabric, instead of the solid fabrics suggested by the designer. Also the overall of the pattern didn't really caught my eyes and almost  skipped the pattern all together. Another reason I wanted passed over this pattern, is it require alot of fabrics for one colour, but in the end I pulled what I had and make the best for it. Isn't what challenges are there for, the take us out of our comfort quilting and creative zone.

Step 1: The rusty/aqua print is what guide my choices. Eight strips by the WOF were sewn together, then cut into squares.

                               
Steps 2: Two strips of 2 1/2" and one of 9" were sewn together then cut into strips.

Step 3:  After that making blocks was easy.

 Spring is here! I have to go outside and bath in the sun. Ahhhh feel so good. Back to sewing:(

 Step 4: It's time to lay our my blocks.

 Step 5: I used the same technique to align my shashing with a chalk marker. Even if I don't pinned, it easier when I sewed the two parts together by aligning those markers together.

A complete different outlook. Not my favorite quilt pattern and color, but I've keep do my challenge and I'm happy about it.

Now that SPRING is here and SUMMER around the corner, it will be harder for me to continue my challenges. Summer is soooo short. This is why I started my blog a few years ago, to keep sewing in and out of season. To bring new ideas, creativity, and challenges into my quilting world.

Hope you enjoy your spring walks as much as I do. 

Homestead is designed by  Cori Derkensen and Myra Harder. You can also found this pattern in the Quilty: Easy Modern Quilts 2016 magazine or purchase the pattern at Fon's and Porter.

Creation: Day 1 & 2

A real sign of spring has arrived to stay is when you hear the robins singing. Spring is a great time for cleaning, dusting and decluttering our house of things we don't need anymore. I have done that with my sewing room already, but I had filtered through my children's homeschooling boxes and keep only the good memories and throw the rest away. My mind bogged downs after going through only four or five boxes. What to keep. What to throw away. Are you like that when you've to declutter your sewing room? What difficult choices when you want to keep everything, but you just can't.  *Big sigh*

Last month I asked my youngest son to help me set my signature logo on my Blog.  It make it look so easy. A click here and there and it's done.

For once I started my own design for a quilt I had dreamed for many years. Creating a project from scratch is fun, that is if you're a natural at designer and drawing. As quilters, it's easy to just pick a pattern, cut and sew it, but to design and sew our own pattern takes a bit more ingenuity.

DAY 1 

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

 How do you quilt a "beginning"? I'll try to keep my design very simple and cut my blocks into 15" x 15" for a starter.  I divided the block into sections and started quilting from the center out.

 In each section was marked with lines, so I wouldn't quilt crooked or waving lines. The black fabric picked up the batting flimsy stuff. Not too happy about that.

 One quart completed. Simple enough.

What happened! It's wavy and it won't lay flat.  I've learned from other quilters that if you quilted intensely in a small area as I did, it can pucker-up and I forgot all about it. Grrrr. It didn't seem a problem until I quilted the last quarter.

 After ironing it real good, it flattens a bit, but I wasn't entirely satisfied with the final look.

 When back and quilting more lines and filled the spaces.

DAY 2:  

"The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters."

 By using two different colour threads, it added effect to the water and sky.

This project will be done entirely with a silhouette design - I think- and only will add a thread for the colour.  I'm not overly planning it.. Trials and errors as I learn and quilt.

Arcadia Avenue: Fly Away

Paper piecing is a great way to learn how to sew an accurate 1/4" seams. If you failed to do so, then your design will not align at all in the end.  You'll pulled your hair and asked yourself, "What did I do wrong?"

For my first  paper piecing project, I fall in love with this beautiful pattern by Sassafras Lane Design called Arcadia Avenue. It's definitely not a pattern for beginners and didn't shied away from this frigthening adventure and with each block, I'll share my errors, tips, and frustrations along the way.

Before you start anything new, it would be a good idea to take a class to familiarize yourself with  a new technique and terms. For my part, I watched a class on Crafsy: Start Foundation Paper Piecing by Elizabeth Dackson . It was very informative and give me confidence that I could do this on my own and found tutoring on website helpful too.  Sassafras Lane Designs  has tutorial for each blocks  for the Arcadia Avenue quilt. You've the purchases the book and it provided an cutting overview for each blocks.

After I completed Fly Away block #1, I found a tutorial on Sassafras Lane Designs. It was an  helpful as I was a bit confused with the paper foundation at first. You can watch it for yourself:Fly Away

My first section went well and was surprised I didn't make any mistakes. So far so good. After trimming it, it look rather nice. Eleven more to go!

 Your trimmed each pieces with the Add-A- Quarter ruler. The ruler tucked nicely against the foundation paper nicely and doesn't move.

A tip: Stapled all the paper foundation together (if they are the same) and perforated on the lines with a pin. It's easier to fold the paper and you can also see it on the reverse.

Tip: Baste first with a longer stitch, check if everything aligns, then sew it again with a regular stitch. After each sections were sewed nicely, I paired them up.

After each sections are paired, then I sewed three section together, making two halves.

All the sections are sewn making two halves and sadly noticed something troublesome. My halves didn't butted together.  I tried to fix it three times, but it still buckled. The hexagon did NOT laid flat.

 If you noticed in the photo above the halves are curved and after verifying it with my ruler, they both didn't have straight edges and that when I said, "What did I do wrong?" I couldn't just start all over, not when I passed hours of sewing, trimming, pressing. *sad face*.

To retract my steps, I cut six pieces on the pattern on muslin fabric and sew them the same way I did  and guessed what? The halve section was slightly curved too!  For sure, I thought, my problem had to be the 1/4" seams. It always the 1/4".  So, using the muslin sampler, I took a bit more unto the seams to test my theory and the problem was solved. I had  straight edges on the muslin half section. Now that I knew what the problem was, I checked every single seams.

Because I was so careful not to sew the points, I slightly sew toward the outside of the 1/4" seams, not on the line, but just beside it. You wouldn't believed by doing so, the problem it created. A little 1/8" here and there can added much at the end.

 Here you can see clearly an example.

 Another example were I sew slightly toward the edge and not on the line.

 When I aligned my ruler over it, that's how much extra there were and you just cannot trimmed it off; otherwise, the section will be off balance with the rest of the design.

 After going over each seams, right on the line this time, it help fixed the problem. Look the result. A straight edge and I didn't trimmed anything or cut the points in the design.

 I'm so happy my block #1 laid flat. It's not perfect, but I'm very happy with it.

WHAT I LEARNED:

• Take a class or watch  tutorial, before starting your own paper piecing.
• Precut strips of fabric for each section.
• Get a Add-A-Quarter ruler.
• Set the stitch length at 1.5.
• Trim each section leaving approximately a 1/4"  on all sides.
• Do not removed foundation paper until all blocks are sewn together.
• There is a sequence in which to sew each pieces.
• Place the fabric on right side up of the pattern.
• Asked for help, if you're in a pickle. Quilters love helping each others.

TO WATCH FOR:

• An accurate 1/4" seams.
• Match each section by basting it first together, check, then sew again with a regular stitch. 
• Removed the paper, at the seams, where all the points meet.

 Sassafras Lane Designs has  wonderful tutorials for each of the blocks for Arcadia Avenue.