Dancing Butterflies

The coolest thing happened yesterday.  I opened my email to discover that because I had linked my finished quilt (http://www.quiltsbylisa.blogspot.ca/2014/10/leah-days-building-blocks.html) to her gallery, I had won a random draw for her next tutorial.

I was going to pass on the 2015 class (even though it looked so pretty) because I thought I should take classes in more than just FMQ - I may or may not have purchased two classes on Craftsy.  For half price of course.

This year for Christmas, my husband is giving me the best thing ever- a shopping spree on Connecting Threads. He feels like he is copping out a bit by letting me choose my own present, but I absolutely love taking my time, buying things I would never otherwise (like fun rulers) and perusing the precuts.  Oh joy!  I graciously offered to share the experience with him so he could feel more involved in the process, but he gave me a very expressive look and didn't bother to answer.

Anyway - the reason I mention my husband's gift is because I thought it would be fun to shop for the tutorial with it so I emailed Leah  - who is still putting the finishing touches on her book - and asked if she had a materials list ready.  Within hours she emailed a jpg of the back cover of the book.  I love this girl.  She doesn't stand apart or act like a celebrity and she talks about real life on her blog - her struggles and joys.

It looks like I'll be appliqueing butterflies next year.  Is anyone planning on having a girl in the fall?

A Blessing for Ruth

Date:  July / August 2014

Pattern:  From my head:

Block A:
~  Make crazy quilt blocks and cut them to 6.5".
~  Sew 2.5" strips of white to the crazy blocks
~  Sew 2.5" strips of a colour that matches the crazy block to the white
~  Square block to 10.5"

Block B:
~  Make crazy quilt blocks and cut them to 8.5"
~ Sew 2.5" strips of white around the crazy block
~ Square block to 10.5"

Size:  37 x 47

Reason:  A new baby in our church

Fabric / Best Buys:  All the fabric used was scraps and gifts except for the borders - I took those from my stash.  The binding was a pre-ironed binding given to me by my Aunt.

Thoughts:  I love this pattern  I used it for the first time here.  I've been wanting to use it again ever since.

Lessons Learned:  I finally got up the courage to stitch text into the quilting.  It went really well and fit perfectly  (Numbers 6:24-26)  I'm so excited that it worked.  I'll do it again on my next baby quilt.  It worked really well to run through the motions in my head that my hands needed to make word by word.  It kept me from getting overwhelmed and allowed me to keep calm and not rush.  Winner!

Easy Placemats

This was my prototype.

Then I had some fun.

Start with strips of fabric that are about 4½" x 11½".  They're placemats.  The size isn't critical.  Sew the strips together with a quarter inch seam.

Cut backing fabric to be slightly larger than the front.  That'll make it maybe 18 x 12 or so.

Cut binding and bias strips.  The bias strips should be approximately 1¼" wide.  You'll need a strip about 40" wide (the length of your fabric) for one placemat.  I cut my binding at 2½"  Each placemat used about a 60" long strip.

Piece your binding strips together and iron them in half.  Create bias tape by ironing your edges under.

Fast bias - just pull it under your iron.

Lay your backing fabric pretty side down and smooth out.

Layer fill and your topside down, smoothing everything out.

Pin your bias down.  Do straight lines, curvy, whatever, but try to keep the bias over your seam lines.

Choose a stitch and sew down your bias.  The beauty of this project is - you just quilted it too!

Square up the mat.

If you plan to hand bind the mats, go ahead and attach your binding on the front as usual.  Because I'm going to machine stitch mine down, I'm going to attach it from the back so the pretty stitching is perfect on the front.

Voila.  I did my placemats individually when I had minutes and found they took about 35 minutes each.  If you had the time to do each step once for the entire quantity of mats you need, I bet the time per each would be cut down substantially.

  

God's Promise: The Rainbow Effect

This quilt is made up of 121 4½ inch blocks, one 1½" black border and one 5" border.

Each block is made up of (4) 4½ x 1½ strips for a finished block size of 4".  This is a total of 484 strips.  Strips are put together within the block from dark to light.

You will need the following quantities of blocks:

1-  Black or very dark violet block
2-  Dark Purple Blue
3-  Purple
4-  Lighter purple
5-  Light purple with blue tones
6-  Medium/Dark Blue
7-  Blue
8-  Light Blue
9-  Medium greeny-blues
10- Dark Green with blue tones
11- Dark Green with yellow tones
10- Medium Green with yellow tones
9-  Light yellowy greens (army tones)
8-  Light yellows (perhaps with a little green)
7-  Strong yellows
6-  Golds
5-  Orange
4-  Pumpkin
3-  Reds w/ orange tones
2-  Deep reds
1-  Burgundy

Sew your strips together dark to light, four strip to one block.  I found it necessary to lay all the blocks out so I could arrange and rearrange until I was happy with how they looked.

Cut your black strips:  2 at 44½, 2 at 46½ and attach.

I used two different batiques for my outer borders to mimic the rainbow and I mitred them to continue the diagonal feel of the quilt.

Since this is the first time I've ever mitred a corner, I'm not going to try to tell you how to do that.  This is the video I used to learn the technique.  After that all that's left is to quilt and bind the quilt as you see fit.

Best Buys:  My Aunt chose the backing fabric, a cute purple wavy stripe with a gold tinge.  It was on sale at Fabricland for $5/meter!  The rest of the fabric was gifted to me.  Yay for shoeboxes full of scraps!

Lessons Learned / To Learn:  My edges are wavy and I'm not sure why.  I'd love to figure out what went wrong so I can avoid this for the future.  I haven't decided if I am going to wash this quilt.  I'm planning to hang it.