Hexagon- Rosette 2 & 3

It took me just over a year to finish hand-sewing three English Paper piecing rosettes. For that ambitious one or if that's the only project you're working on, it can be done in one year. For my part, I worked on my rosettes at my own pace.

My confidence build-up with rosette #1 when it was done (see March 2016). The rosette looked great! Then I started rosette #2 and for some reason, I struggled with the stitches. They showed in the front of the fabric seamed spaced out. I didn't like it one bit and quitting wasn't an option.

So what now.  Was my needle to short or too long? Or was it my thread too thin or too thick.  Questions after question pile up with each hexagon I hand-sewed together to the point not that my confidence plundered and searched for the answer to my problems. What was doing wrong?

Fortunately, these days, we've access to tons of videos on the internet. Found good ones that can help you with what you struggled the most or join the group that goes along with The New Hexagon Millefiore Quilt-Along. There are many gifted ladies, that are hand-sewing beautiful nontraditional hexagons. Their valuable expertise and encouragements to all beginners, like me, were very helpful. Never do a project alone, seek help when it's needed.

ROSETTE #2

 After I hand-sewed the individual hexes, I liked to lay them out for an overall view.

Another good idea, it's to take a picture of your rosette, if your fabric differs from the pattern.

  Love the results, even if my stitches aren't to my liking. Something to work on I'm guessing.

ROSETTE #3

The purple center isn't exactly what I had in mind or planned. The mirrors helped to visualize a complex design. Something I'm not familiar with just yet and will continue to work on with
Rosette # 4.

  My invisible stitching in from the front is coming along.

  Close whip-stitch or flat stitches, about 12 stitches per inch, will give you great results.

 Each rosette has a weird shape, but they all fit together into a quilt at the end. They are twelve in total.

What I learned:

The thicker cotton thread may show in the front.
-Using a  polyester thread or other light thread help
-Stitches close
-Whipstitched on the 'surface' do not 'dive' into the seam.
 -Keep a finger flat with the edges as I sew.
-Don't quit!

IDEAS

I used an eyeglasses case to store my hand-sewing kit.

If you're interested in this project go to Katja Marek website

The New Hexagon Millefiore Quilt-Along

Together Forever

 Last week during our share-workshop, we sewed together our final block. A simple pattern we started in September together as a group. Unfortunately, I missed too many meetings and no longer care to finish it. My interests were elsewhere. Has this never happen to you?

So you think, there are other UFOs to the list. Nope!  I decided to combine this project with another one. One project had seven blocks in green/sand Batik, the other four blocks were in the aqua colours.

My blocks are not of the same selection of fabric and blended the fabrics. I sewed my last two blocks in that combination of fabric.

It helps me to rearrange the fabrics from both projects into one happy family and eliminated the ones I wouldn't use anymore.

I sew slightly on the outside of the line I traced ( the part you cut off), instead of right over it. When I turned over the half-square it's not shortened by my seams.

I got into the habit of checking the back of my blocks when it's finished, just before I pressed it nicely flat because even if I was careful, some seams flipped over. Real betrayers!!

 It can be rectified by simply ripping one-two stitches.

Then sew over that little spot again.

I took a picture of the blocks set on my design wall, then used my EQ6 to design a quilt with sashing and borders. So next month when at the share-workshop, when everyone will be working on their shashing, I will be starting to put mine together.

I look forward to seeing this UFOs project in its completion this coming year. *laugh* Hope so.

Quilt 1- Connections

When you hear someone said, they will make a quilt entirely from their own stash, you right away assumed right they must have a large selection of colours or a pile and pile of fabrics scattered around their quilting room.  A dream world for any quilters. But if you're like me, your selection of fabric is small. Mine can be store in about three to four bins. It never stopped me to beco me creative with what I had at hand. My frustration came to an end when I realized that my stash supplies only had the medium and dark fabric of the same tones. Very little of light or accents. With that in mind, I need to purchase only fabrics that will accent my stash.

 Connections are a good example of how you can play with your fabric. Laura Gilvin designed this easy pattern called Connection. You can purchase the digital pattern from Fons & Porter

For this project, I selected dotted fabrics. It will give my top a whimsical effect. The designer suggested solid fabric. It's your personal choice. In the past,  the more I played with print fabrics, the more visionary I became. Few friends asked if my quilt was from a kit when I told them I put that fabric together myself, they are impressed. That really boosted my confidence as a quilter and want to explore more colours combination with print fabric I already have. How about you. Do you find it hard to use only your stash as a starting point?

My DIY  Quilting Planner is at work! All that preparation wasn't in vain for once. Yeah! First I used it for the quilt diagram,  to help me choose my fabric and colours for this project. Then I leaned the binder against the wall, this time with the page referring to the fabric cutting. When it came to sewing, I removed the page for the assembling and brought it to my sewing machine area. So worth planning ahead.

My fabric was already washed and starched and was able to precut all my squares, strips, and white pieces for this project.  One thing I changed my mind is the medium grey fabric wasn't working for me and opted for a lighter blue Batik. Last-minute change does happen.

It's a good idea to always put aside the remaining pieces of fabrics; whatever you store them in a Ziplock bag or in a small box, at less until your quilt is completely finished. You never know if you'll need it.

 Before you sew or press your strip-set together, I would highly recommend you watch a video on YouTube or tutorial on that subject as a reminder or if you never did that technique before. McCall's Quilting Blog as a good video available, check it out.

 After your strip-sets are sewn together, you'll most likely have to cut them again.

Sewing your strip-sets all at once according to the diagram pattern is easy and efficient. Make sure you follow the direction.

 In this pattern, you learned how to align rows. With that in mind, I marked the center of my blocks with a Fons &Porter white chalk marker.

 Very important that your seams are all pressed in the same direction. Not just to the right or all to the left, but in a way that it lays flat or pressed toward the darker side of your fabric. Do it the same way throughout the back of your quilt. I have pressed all my seamed toward the blocks and not toward the white sashing. It's consistent and that's what you're looking for.

 When all my rows were done, I laid them on the floor to see the outcome. If you have a design wall that would be better, then the floor.  If you noticed, on the left of my quilt, there are green- paint on my blocks which I marked from #1-8 because when I sew, I can easily mix my row arrangement. This way, I know where they go. Even with my rows marked, I changed a few around.

 

Using the remaining fabric and my handy Quilter's Reference Tool, I'll prepare ahead of time the binder for that top quilt.

  Time to sew all those pieces together!

 This binder is going to look so nice on my quilt.

 What do you do with the rest of your strip-sets and fabrics? Use your imagination and make a smaller quilt.

Okay, this might work.

 Hum..not exactly what I had in mind, but it's still cute. Maybe a doll quilt.

And of course, I still have scraps! The orphan block will be donated to my guild, the rest is tossed in my scarps bin.

                                                                       All done. Checked!!

DIY Quilting Planner

In the last two previous years, I made a list of projects I wanted finish before moving unto new ones. My planning was simple. A list of 12 projects; whatever new or UFOs.  All that changed last year when I joined  two wonderful blogs and it kept my busy during the long cold winter for sure.  Also if that wasn't enough business in my quilting life,  I ran the workshops for our community quilts guild.

The year flew by and many projects never got done  or started. My list simply was left forgotten in a drawer somewhere in sewing room,  never once I bothered to look at it for inspiration or what else I wanted to do.  As I thought about  this, it made me realized  that I needed to plan differently or what's the point of making a list at all. If you're like me, quilting isn't your only hobby or activity, so a bit a planning ahead made sure some goals are met.

A note here. If your family is a priority in your life and quilting is the last things on your mind, then bravo and good for you. I've been there myself for many years, because I homeschooled my children. Those years were  a blessing as I met wonderful moms and valued their support, encouragement, and tips. A big thanks to those moms that made a difference in my life.  Now  that my children are all adults and I can enjoy quilting, I'm back with a relentless heart to sew...sew.. beautiful quilts. So if you have to put your sewing  aside, don't be dishearten, your love for quilting will return with a more creative ways then you thought you had.

Now lets see how I planned my quilting for this year:)

From one of my previous posts, I mentioned that I wrote a list of things I wanted to be done; whatsoever it was an unfinished quilt or new pattern I wanted to try. My list was simple with only twelve projects in mind. It was inefficient because I didn't look at my list until my year was over, which I realized not much was done from it. *big sigh*

This January 2017, I decided it would be extravagant the have a quilting planner. After searching on the web, I found this wonderful and well put together Quilting Planner I'm sure it's worth spending the money and it tugged at my mind for a few days. Should I buy it or not? Why not as a Christmas gift to myself. *A Grinch evil laugh*

Would it be cheap to make my own DIY Quilting Planning? Why would you want to plan a year of quilting anyway? Will I even use it as a reference book after all that effort into it? All those questions ran wild in my mind. Then it happens!!

While I waited in a store for my daughter to post her parcel to a friend,  I browsed the magazine section and after flipping through a few magazines, I purchased two that seemed interesting enough. My daughter was still not done, and believed it or not, I had time to flip through the pages of one of the magazine. The more I flipped through the pages of the Easy Modern Quilts the more I fell in love with it and an ingenious idea popped in my mind right there in the store and I couldn't wait to put it to plan. It was so amazing. So thrilling.  Okay, you got the idea. *laugh*

What if I made every single quilt in that magazine in a period? What if I only used my stash. No cheating this time. What if I skip the free-motion quilting entirely for those 18 quilts and focus on the sewing tops only? My mind brainstormed over all the possibilities and even kept me awake during the night.  It was insane!

 Use with permission January 2017

This is the magazine that inspired me to make my own  DIY Quilting Planner. There are 18 easy to make quilts. All the patterns in the book used squares, rectangles, or strips.

 My goal will be to make one top quilt a month. Yes, it sounds crazy but doable. My big challenge is the summer months when I love being outside. Just a few rules I set myself because I'm giving myself to finish all those 18 tops by spring 2018. And because of that short time, I will not worry about quilting them. It all in the fun of playing with my stash and sewing this year.

 Most of the quilts in the magazine are made with solid colour fabrics, which I don't have in quantity, so I'll have to improvise. It sure will be interesting to see what comes out. Oh, but look at the fun that is awaiting me:)

Step one: To Cut or Not to Cut?

 

Can you imagine pulling apart your brand new magazine? I just did that so with mine. The reason for doing it was to be able to store the pages in a binder. It wasn't easy and certainly struggled that thought for a whole day, before I considered buying another if it really...really bothered my conscience. Just that thought helped me to move on with my DIY Quilting Planner. 

Step 2: Free Supplies

My only expenses for this project were a sheet protector, less then$20. If you already have plenty of school supplies at home, like binders, graph paper, pencil, glue, used it before you go crazy on shopping for everything new. Or if you have scrapbooking stuff,  you can use that too. Creativity isn't required for this DIY Quilting Planner.

 Step 3: Binder Cover

 

 Make it simple, but interesting enough that you want to use it throughout the entire year.  After I finished my cover for my binder, I realized it may take me more than one year to completed. Writing the year on it may not have be a good idea, but that's okay.

Step 4: Dividers

If you have more then one project on the go, then you probably need to separated each project with a divider of some short for quick referral. My DIY Quilting Planner will be divided into five sections, each section with its own goals for each month in its entire year.

 

Here are two simple examples how I personalized my dividers. I used  five paper of the same color  and type the title of the book, what it's about, and the designer's name.  Any form of  divider you choice will be fine too. What I like about a binder it you can add  additional information to your section as you go or add pictures of your progress each month.

Step 5: Planning Goals

 

 With so many line-paper sheets left from my homeschooling supplies, I decided to use some for printing my goals of the months for each section. Now, I have some quilts already started from last year and will take a bit longer to complete, so I'm given myself two months to complete apart.

My DIY Quilting Planner is personalized to my goals and interests. You certainly do not need to stress yourself with a load of projects that you cannot possibly finish in the year to come. Be kind to yourself and mal it fun and realistic.

And of course we always...always have UFO with us. So why not put it in there and work on them too.  This is one of my last section in my binder and has no definite goals when it needs to be done. If I have time...then I'll work on it. Or better bring them all at the retreat in April.

Note: If you're interested 2017 UFO Challenge  they have a printable sheet for that purpose and a blog you can follow other quilters with that same goals. To work on their UFOs. Check it out!

Step 6: Repeats Perhaps?

             

Sometimes a pattern from one magazine has similarities from another one. In such a case why not simply replaced it with a project already precut. A very good opportunity to work on it.

Step 7: Use Your Stash

 Orange Fabric? Are you serious! One of my fewer favourite colours. What to do with it? For myself, I'll use one of that beautiful pattern and rid of it. Yeah.

I hope I have inspired you in many ways to start a quilt with your own stash or to make your DIY quilting planner.  For now, let's cut some of our stashes away. Please share your pictures or thought on how you planned yours.

Happy New Year!