I Have a New Pattern....and My Own Show!!!!

Sooooooo, in case you haven't heard, I have my own show! A webseries on QNNtv!  It's a FREE show, you just have to sign up for a FREE QNN account.  (You can click the link on the upper left part of my blog to go to the site.)  The concept of the show is pretty simple: I use a more traditional/vintage pattern featured in an upcoming magazine issue and remix it to make it my own, slightly more modern version!  That's not all, we also have a guest every episode showign their remix so you'll get even more inspiration!!! 

The first episode has already been released and a new segment will follow every week!  First up is my pattern, Following!  Don't you just love a rainbow?!?!?!?  You can find the pattern in my Etsy or Craftsy shop!!!  Squeee!!!  I'm so excited for all the cool quilts to come!  There will be a new one every month ALL YEAR so stay tuned!!!!

Starry-Eyed Quilt and My Favorite Ruler

It's no secret that I REALLY love designer Anna Maria Horner's fabric.  What I love most is that when you look at some of the prints individually you may think, "meh".  However, when you put them all together, what should be a hot mess ends up being an explosion of colorful awesomeness......in my opinion at least!  I love to hoard my AMH, but sometimes I get really annoyed at myself for NOT using precious fabric.  I decided to go all out on this quilt!  I was using as much AMH as I could find in my stash--hard to find prints and all!  

I wanted to keep the pattern simple, but not as basic as square patchwork.  I decided on the Sawtooth Star mainly because I had a new ruler I wanted to try.  

This is my new favorite ruler!  The Flying Geese ruler!  Seriously, so freaking in love with this thing! It made putting this quilt together so easy, so fast, and with virtually perfect results.  I didn't have to trim one single block! I thought I'd give a brief overview on how this little guy works.  I got mine at JoAnn's and they carried two sizes, 3"x6" (what I have) and 4"x8".  Each ruler makes two sizes of geese.  Mine will make 1.5"x3" and 3"x6".  

Cut two squares according to the package direction for the size geese you want to make.  Place the squares rights sides together and center the smaller square on the larger one (I just folded creases in the squares to find the middle)  I ended up cutting my larger square .5" larger than they suggested because it gave me more wiggle room when I went to trim the blocks at the end.  

Draw a diagonal line through the smaller square and sew 1/4" on either side of the line, just like when you make HSTs.

Cut along the line you drew.

Open the resulting units and press toward the larger square.  Then place the squares right sides together matching the corners, NOT THE SEAMS IN THE MIDDLE.

The corners should be opposite fabrics.

Draw another diagonal line and sew 1/4" on either side, then cut on the line you drew.

This is the strangest step, but it's important! make a tiny snip in between the seams of each resulting unit.  Don't clip through the stitches holding it together! Then, you can press the seam allowance toward the larger square fabric on each side of the unit.  Trust me, this will make sense once you do it!

You end up with two weird looking blocks like this.  For reference, if you looked on the back of this block, my seam allowance would be clipped in the area where the tops of the red triangles meet.  All seam allowances are pressed to the red fabric.

Now it's time to break out the best ruler ever! This would also be a good time to bust out your rotating cutting mat if you have one.  Line up the ruler to the geese on your block and trim all the way around.

Ta-da! FOUR amazingly perfect geese!!!!  I know these seems like a bunch of steps, but the results are perfect and you get 4 units for your effort!  Seriously, I love this freaking ruler! For these blocks, I used (4) geese, (4) 3.5"squares, and (1) 6.5" square.  The block is 12.5" unfinished.

Made on my BabyLock Symphony

I love how wild and crazy this quilt turned out! It wasn't planned (a real challenge for me) and I didn't edit myself much in my fabric selection or pairing.  It's my stream-of-consciousness quilt!  Maybe I should rename it The Sound and the Fury quilt.  Jeez, I think my nerd is showing.  That high school term paper is still haunting me!  Hopefully some of you got that reference!

Customs and Lost and Found

I've been getting a LOT of custom requests lately!  Here's a peek at some of the things keeping me busy!

An Amy Butler baby quilt for a new little girl due this fall

A farm-themed baby quilt with cow minky backing for another little one due soon!

A fall-hued Liberty quilt for my sweet friend Sara Rose, the photographer with a quilt addiction! :)

A queen size patchwork quilt with over 30 fabrics!  This one was so much fun to lay out!

I also found a "lost" project!  This one has been done for about 2 years and was put away in my closet.  I recently had to pull it out because I needed all the pins I used to baste it.  I guess I should quilt it one of these days.....

Here's a less wrinkled view of the finished top.

Gifts, Leftovers, Requests, and Progress

I decided at the last minute to make a teacher's gift for my son's Kindergarten teacher.  

I finished it in two days!  I used (42) 10" print squares and (84) 4.5" white squares.  Place the white squares on opposite sides of the print square and sew corner to corner.  Trim, leaving 1/4" seam allowance. 

 Ta-da! Insta-quilt!  I love that it's really simple to put together, but still looks like I put some effort forth!

I even had some backing fabric on hand that was from the same designer as the prints on the front!

The quilting went quickly since I got to use my baby (my Tiara).  I'm working on a video review of that by the way!  I've made the video, I just have to write the post! Is there anything stranger than listening to yourself on film?  I end up sounding like a Southern Elle Woods or something.  ha ha!

After trimming the corners from the quilt at the top, I had all these perfectly matched triangles of prints/neutral all ready to sew!  I whipped out this baby quilt in no time!

I'd been wondering what to do with that yard of Meadow Sweet 2! Perfect backing!

I opted for a coral linen binding for this one.  I like the added texture.

I also quilted more densely than I do on larger quilts.  Makes for an extra crinkly, cuddly quilt!  This one will go in my Etsy shop soon.

Last week I finished two custom quilts for the utterly adorable and completely sweet Kelle Boyd (designer Ann Kelle).  She lives really close to me so I'm a convient quilt monkey. :) 

I adore pixelated hearts!  This one has a completely different look than my last one, but I love it!  It's bright and fresh and summery! 

I used the Remix zig zag print and cut it on the bias for the binding.  I usually don't make bias binding, but I had a feeling this would turn out cool (and I was right!)  It sort of reminds me of a Greek key pattern.  Just love it!

I also designed and made this ballerina quilt for Kelle (Ann Kelle).  I based it off of THIS quilt by Kati.  I'm not sure if Kati used a pattern, but I designed one to fit the dimensions of the ballerinas.  Doesn't it look like candy?  I love all the solids!

And there are loads of ballerinas on the back too!  This fabric line is just too stinkin' cute!!!!

I'm also making some progress on my pillow for PTS10!  I just have to decide how I'm going to quilt it!  Decisions, decisions!

Basic Zipper Video

I made a few last minute gift pouches and I thought I'd share a quick little video tute on how I attach a zipper when I'm NOT using zipper tabs.  A few additional tips for how I make pouches

1.  I like to use a linen blend or home dec weight for the exterior.  It's not necessary, but they come out much nicer

2.  I use Shape Flex for interfacing on the EXTERIOR only.

3.  After the sides of the pouch are sewn together, I clip the corners if I'm making a square pouch and clip curves if I'm making rounded corners.

4.  I use a longer stich (3.0 setting on my BabyLock) to topstitch than I do to assemble the pouch.
5.  For this video and the pouches sewn, I used a 7" zipper, but the zipper tape was 8.5" long.  My fabric was cut 8.5"x6.5"
6.  Other than when I attach the zipper, I use a 3/8" seam allowance when assembling the pouch.
6.  I purchase all my zippers from ZipIt on Etsy

Here's the video!  If there is enough interest in a longer version, I could probably show one from start to finish, but I feel there are lots of great tutes out there already.  It's usually just the zipper attachment people struggle with or fear so that's what I focused on.

Oh Yeah, I Remember Sewing!

I feel like it's been forever since I finished something, much less posted on my blog!  I just finished this quilt today--I even used some precious fabric!  

This one is now listed in my etsy shop.

How are you all coming on the My Precious QAL?  Remember, there are more prizes to come next month, around June 15th!  I *may* have gotten some mail from Tula Pink.  Just sayin'

This Train is Slowing

As much as I'd love to show you a bunch of completed projects day after day, this train has to slow down!  I'm moving in two weeks.  Yikes!  So the blog may be a bit quiet here soon, but I'll still be checking in regularly on Flickr!  I'm going on a little girls-only vacation next weekend with a few quilting friends--you may have heard of them: Kaelin, Ali, Cherie, and Cara!  We're camping out in my empty house in Tennessee.  We're going to christen it with lots of new fabric after we explore the local stores--did you know Leah from Burgundy Buttons lives there?  Oh yeah!  I made this bag for my trip!  I was actually pattern testing for Michelle .  Check out the bags you'll be able to make with this pattern:

Hello!  Fabulous!  The pattern will be available for sale really soon.  Don't worry, I'll keep you posted!

I made this one too because it went so quickly!

I finally cut into my Recess layer cake and made this quilt top!  No more precious Recess!  The pattern is from Cluck Cluck Sew called Easy Bake.  I forgot there were only 40 pieces in that layer cake so instead of a 6x7 layout I had planned, I had to go with 6x6.  Yes, I could have done 5x8, but I don't like narrow quilts.  I'm not narrow so why would I make a narrow quilt? :)  I had thought about keeping this one, but my oldest kid told me it looked "crazy nuts" so I guess it will go in the shop when it's done.  I can make a matching pillow with my 4 left over blocks too!  I was thinking of making a custom appliquéd pillow for whoever bought the quilt.  The blocks that are left are the light colored ones so a bright red or navy monogram would look super cute. Ok, just thinking out loud there.

I hope you all are making progress on your precious QAL items!  Check out Darci's pillow

And Michelle's blocks:

Tanya's block

and I know we're all drooling over Amy's quilt!