There are a lot of fun tools out there for quilters--and they aren't in quilt shops

    I was in the sewing room the other day and looked around and saw several things I use a lot that aren't even "quilting tools". Thought I'd share a few---

2 sizes of clamps

****Clamps from the hardware store to clamp down the fabric for layering. I also have smaller butterfly clamps from Staples to use on thin tables.

****Ziploc bags in all sizes to hold pieces or whole projects. (I get these really big ones from work sometimes and they're really great)

****Skirt hangers to hang giant ziploc bags full of stuff

Giant ziploc bag hung from
skirt hanger

****Hangers to hang binding to keep it from wrinkling until I need it

****Masking tape. I have it in every width and use it for quilting parallel lines. Just stick it down and sew along the edge and you're all set.

Masking tape in 3 sizes

Contact paper stars placed
then quilted around

****Contact paper. I use it to cut out shapes to quilt around. Just stick it down and sew around. No marking necessary!  The stick-um lasts for a lot of uses.

Peanut jar full of ribbon, Cool
Whip garbage bowl, magazine
rack for rulers

****My Sizzix die cut machine that I use for scrapbooking. I have a great star die and use it with the Contact paper to make stars. I can stick them around the quilt and get the placement just right and then just quilt around them.

****Cool Whip containers to hold pieces for the current project (sure beats piles all over the counter!). They are also my "garbage bowls".

****A magazine holder holds my rulers

****An old peanut jar holds ribbon scraps

Lots of plastic shoe boxes hold
squares,strips, triangles, projects

****A desk caddy holds scissors, pencils, markers.

****Plastic shoe boxes hold my strips, squares, triangles, and UFO projects.

So next time you're at the dollar store, hardware store, Staples, the grocery store, or in your kitchen look at things with a quilter's eye and see if you can use anything!

I've Embraced the Jelly Roll

      One of the big trends in quilt shops for a few years has been the jelly roll. I see them and walk by because the quilts I see made with them are really not my usual style. I'd see the selection of fabrics from a line of fabric and I'd like them but hadn't jumped in.

AC Moore Birthday jelly roll

      Well, last week I took the plunge. I had a $10 gift certificate from AC Moore for my birthday and instead of buying scrapbook stuff I found myself in their little fabric section. They had 5 or 6 sets of jelly rolls. One sort of called my name so I bought it with no idea what to do with it. So I Googled images of jelly roll quilts and scrolled through hundreds of images until one quilt jumped out at me because the fabrics were so similar to the ones I had. I confess I printed up the picture and went with it (please don't tell the creator!). This is one quilt my daughter likes because she likes things realistic and graphic, and this one looks like a stained glass window. I haven't done a border yet because I used all the fabric. Emma thinks it just needs a black border and she is probably right.She is the art major after all!

JoAnn JellyRoll

Not really a jelly roll but is made with
2 1/2" strips left over from another project

      Then the other day I was in JoAnn Fabrics looking for red,red-violet,purple fabric and ran into a bargain bin.There I found this sad, bedraggled jelly roll for $6. The fabrics were fun and wild and nothing I would ordinarily buy so I went for it. Then I went to the pattern books and found a couple jelly roll books and browsed for ideas. The one I came up with is sort of done like a huge log cabin and I have been doing a round of this in between the steps of the 4-patch blocks. It is fun and bright and won't even need a border when it is done.

 This last picture is a quilt I just finished quilting. It is made from 2 1/2" strips left over from another project and the border is the end of the triangles and border fabric. (Recognize it, Cindy?) I kind of like the way I separated the strips randomly with pieces of the pinks.

I apologize for the quality of these pictures. Took them with my camera and it is too much trouble to do them over with the camera right now. Next time..... Oh, just remembered the incandescent setting on the camera and was able to retake the blue one. The other are too much trouble.

Red to Purple- a different color triad

     A few years ago I did a quilt using just the colors from green to purple on the color wheel. That included green, turquoise, blue, blue-violet, and purples. I went through my entire stash and cut strips off each piece of fabric in these colors. For this project I cut 2", and 3 1/2" strips. I used this basic block and did 4 quilts in different layouts. One of them was even a maze with a mouse hunting for cheese at the end. After I cut a couple ziploc bags full of strips I was surprised to see that the level of fabrics in the totes didn't even go down! After a couple years using these pieces they finally were used up.
       Now I have decided to do this challenge again with red, red-violet, purples with light pinks and lavenders. I found a pattern that I love so went through the totes again and pulled out every piece. For this project I cut 1 1/2", 2", and 3 1/2" strips. I had piles of fabric all over the room for about a week!
       This quilt will take me forever to finish--no kidding. The 1 1/2" strips are cut into squares and made into 4-patches. I need hundreds of these 4-patches. Then they go with the 2" squares to make a double 4-patch, and then these blocks make a triple 4-patch. I love this kind of challenge with lots of scraps because it is fun to combine all the different fabrics. I always make myself a rule with scrappy quilts and this time the rule is the same as usual--don't repeat a fabric in a block and use each color in each block. To be honest, the triple 4-patch blocks by themselves aren't too pretty, but put them all together and it is beautiful. I can't wait to do this pattern.

I found a border fabric but can't decide
on the inner border. I kind of like the stripe. 

       I do have a problem though. I didn't think about a border fabric to tie it all together. I have perfect fabrics in the stash but they are years old, and about the size of a fat quarter. WHY didn't I think of this in Spokane while I was visiting 8 shops?!
       If anyone knows of a great fabric, please post a picture or send a link. I did find one fabric and and am using it right now but I would like another, since I will probably end up with several quilts from this pile.

Well, it is less than a month since I started this project (and this blog page) and the top is finished! It is bed size and I thought I would never finish squaring up those 4 patches but I did it! Now it needs a border. During the cutting process I found this border fabric in the local fabric store and it is scattered throughout the quilt  and I like it. I didn't find a single other fabric in this color combination in the 4 stores I visited!  Now I can't decide on the inner border. I think I like the stripe but there is not really any white in the quilt. Actually considering dying it a pale pink. What do you think? It just seems fun and less boring than a red or burgundy. So for the moment it is hanging on the wall waiting for a final decision.
    I actually didn't have all that much fabric left over. Probably enough for a small quilt but I want to find another border fabric to finish that one. You know what that means--FIELD TRIP!

Shop-Hopping is FUN--especially with friends!

We started out here. This is the only
shop I had ever visited, but not in this
location. 

    This post is dedicated to my longtime friend Susie Long in Spokane, Washington. A couple weeks ago while I was on vacation she took a personal day from work to take me shop-hopping all over Spokane. We visited 7 different shops and bought something in each one! I haven't done this in years and it was a lot of fun. Each shop was very different and had its own personality. They had different lines of fabrics and each one had a different way of bagging up your purchases, which was fun. The one way they were alike, however, was that each one welcomed us with a big smile and friendly conversation! We took pictures at each one so please indulge me. We even had to hide out in one while a massive storm came through. We learned later on the news of the huge amount of damage the storm caused in some areas.

                                                                     

This is my vacation stash. Lots of novelty
prints with words and lots of reds.

      I learned a little something about the latest trends in fabric. Big right now are big, bold, geometric prints, which I have a hard time with because they really have to be used in BIG pieces. Another trend
continues to be batiks, which I am not really into. The big surprise to me was the trend of OWLS. Really? I thought we let them go back in the 70's.Another big trend is flannels, which I have also not gotten into.
      I was looking for any fabrics with words on them. That was fun because Susie had never even noticed these types of fabrics and was just as excited as I was to find one. I was also looking for REDS. True red, like the color of a red crayon. Believe me they are very rare! I also found a couple retro novelty prints that I couldn't resist. They were in a shop that had that retro vibe and we loved it. I also was looking for red-violets and purples for my next project which is scrappy in the color range from red to purple. (More about this in my next post.) Now that I have started this project I realize I missed a HUGE opportunity. I need a border fabric in just those colors to tie it all together and I didn't think to look for one. Now I am frustrated! If anyone sees something with red, red-violet, purples and not much of any other color please let me know. Another fabric I found was one I was looking for several years ago to finish a quilt. I didn't buy it because I ended up using something else and to this day it bugs me. (The quilt was made with reproduction fabrics from Olde Sturbridge Village, which I had bought there and had given up my online search for them.)

      My favorite day of my vacation was definitely Shop Hop day. If anyone is in my area and wants to shop hop in southeast Massachusetts, let me know. We can do it!

Bits and Pieces

      Well, I finished the crazy quilt blocks finally. It is a fun project for the first week or so and then you just want to see the end of the last block. When I finished, I just had to count (I had no idea how many there were as I went along) and I made 75. That will make 3- 25 block quilts for charity or any new baby girls that may join my family.

      Speaking of new babies, we had 2 babies born less than 2 weeks apart in May--my great nephew Jackson, and great niece Natalie. I am in the process of finishing their quilts and thought of 3 things to share as I am putting on bindings.

      #!. Making the binding

When I make a crazy or scrappy quilt I like a pieced binding with lots of fabrics. The important thing about this is that the pieces MUST be sewn together diagonally on the bias. After making the strip, press all the seams open and fold the fabric in half with the seams inside. This spreads the extra fabric bulk over a couple inches and is really not noticeable. 

If making a one-color binding, you still piece diagonally for the same reason.
(Edited note: I cut my binding strips 2 1/2 inches wide)

       #2 Sewing down the binding. USE THE WALKING FOOT. This is something I wish someone had told me when I started quilting. I have several quilts with really bad ripply borders because I did not do this. It was really pointed out to me at a major quilt show when I saw a beautiful Baltimore Album Quilt with the worst border/binding I ever saw. If you do not use the walking foot, the border fabric slides and ripples and really looks BAD. 

        #3 BE THANKFUL FOR THE PEOPLE WHO TAUGHT AND MENTORED YOU!  Every time I sew by hand I say a thank you to the first lady who taught me quilting. I don't remember her name, the shop is no longer there, but she was a slave driver who taught hand piecing and quilting the right way. She taught how to choose the right needle for you, and how to use a thimble. I can not hand sew without a thimble to this day and really wish I had known this back in the Sandie's Specialties days! I had permanent callouses and pain in my fingers back then.  So thank you, quilting teacher in Waltham!

    

Pressing Matters-I remember what I forgot the first time I posted this!

Crazy blocks in pastels

I have been working on these blocks for well over a week, at least an hour a day and at this point I have finished a whole 12 blocks. Many of them are getting close to finished and to be honest, as it gets warmer it gets harder to sit under the hot lights sewing and pressing. So I am getting ready to be finished!!
Basically this project is just cut, sew, press, repeat. Last week a non-quilter friend came over and offered to help so I had her press. I didn't realize how much there is involved in pressing because after all this time I just do it without thinking so I thought I would share the important points in case anyone needs to teach someone how to be a "sous-presser:"
1. Press seams to one side. For people who come to quilting from garment making, this is hard to get used to because with garments we press seams open. Place the fabric that will flip up on the top and press toward the seam.
2. Press in the direction the fabric wants to go. In this project I am sewing one piece of fabric onto a piece that might have 3 or 4 seams on it. The fabric wants to go to the new piece so that the seamed areas are flat.
3. A general rule is to press to the dark piece when sewing two pieces together. The seam is less likely to be seen through the fabric. When I am chain piecing half-square triangles together I always put all the lights on the bottom and the darks on the top so when I chain press they are all the same and I can do one after the other. (This rule really doesn't apply to this project.)
4. Always set the seam before flipping the fabric and pressing the seam down. This really makes a difference. Any ripples will disappear at this point and you help avoid any stretching. You get a nice clean press if you do this.
5. Magic Sizing is your best friend. I really wish I had learned this earlier in my quilting. When you are using lots of different fabrics with different weights and textures the sizing really helps to unify the fabrics. It also really makes a difference with any fabrics that are cut on a bias. It keeps them from stretching and keeps them staying smooth and perfect. It is very important with this project because the fabrics are cut on every possible angle of the fabrics and there would be a lot of stretched, ripply seams without it. It is also great at keeping the pressed seams staying where you pressed them. Nothing is more annoying than to have a seam flip the wrong way when sewing 2 blocks together, and the sizing sort of "glues" them down.
6. Use a dry iron. Steam will cause fabric to stretch. Use the steam to press fabrics before they are sewn together. (it is also safer for your fingers--no surprise steam burns as you manipulate the fabric on the ironing board!)
Hopefully this will be helpful. I feel like I left out something important and if I did, please let me know.
Oh, if anyone wants a little tutorial on making crazy quilt blocks by machine, let me know.

OOPS- I remember what I forgot the first time. This should be #1! Anyway, when quilting using the iron is called PRESSING. That is because you PRESS  the iron down on the fabric, do not move back and forth like when ironing. Moving the iron a lot can stretch the fabric or make the block misshapen. Duh.. Sandie!

"Color, Pattern, Texture, Shine"

"Color, Pattern, Texture, Shine"
       
     Anyone who watches "What Not to Wear" regularly knows the "rules" Stacy and Clinton go by in putting together an outfit. I am a huge fan, and watch the reruns while eating lunch every day that I am home. (I am also a bit happy they are no longer on because I would definitely be a candidate for nomination!)
     Anyway, what does this have to do with quilting, you may ask? I am working on one of my favorite techniques, which is crazy quilting on machine.        

Crazy Quilt for Kids

I love to do this because it is fun to mix and match so many fabrics, and it just feels good to use up scraps!

Right now I am making blocks using pastels for girls' quilts. I have certain rules for making each block and recently realized that these rules are pretty much the same as Stacy and Clinton's rules and now I can't get the mantra out of my head as I work on the blocks! So let me break it down-------

1. Color

My Great Grandma's quilt

It is important that each individual block blends in with the others,. You don't want a "galloping horse" anywhere. So I have a rule that each block must contain at least one piece of each of the main colors. It is especially important if using yellow or orange that a bit is in each block  In the pastels I am making now, I am  trying to include yellow, pink, white, lavender, blue and turquoise in each piece.

2.Texture

This one seems a little more difficult for quilting. We tend to use only 100% cotton fabrics and they are all the same texture--smooth and flat. One day I was snuggled under Great Grandma's quilt and I found myself doing what I did as a kid--rubbing the pieces of flannel that are scattered in there. I realized that the flannel has lasted over 50 years and as a kid I used to rub those pieces so why not use the flannel? I have lots of scraps of cute flannels that were used to make pajamas so now I put them in also so some other kid might find them and rub them too. My Grandma quilt also has corduroy but my corduroy is pretty thick and too heavy to use, but a soft corduroy would be good too. 

3. Pattern

After color, pattern is probably the next important thing quilters look at when choosing fabrics. In the crazy quilt blocks my basic rule is to have a variety of patterns in each block. I have solids, plaids, stripes, dots, florals, and the very important novelty prints to add fun,. They need to be balanced in each block so all the blocks will blend. I also have an obsession with fabrics with words on them that I can sneak in there and I look for them in every shop I visit. 

4. Shine

I am not really a "shiny" person but I do appreciate a bit of "special" in each quilt. I throw in fabrics with some gold or silver if I have them. Also I have a few pieces of chintz which adds a shine. 

5.Shape

I am throwing this one in because it applies to clothes and crazy quilt blocks too. When I am making these blocks I look at the shapes of pieces-squares,triangles, rectangles, trapezoids, and try to blend them in each block.

If anyone is interested in learning how to make these machine made crazy quilt blocks, let me know and I will do a tutorial.