My day on the Hop

Hi, I'm Beth.  Welcome to my day on the Blog Hop!  I can't remember exactly when I started quilting - it was in the past two years - but I didn't get "addicted" to it until last summer and now I'm at my sewing machine most every day.  

Favorite Quilting Tip:  Enjoy the process AND what I hear myself telling my daughters when they are sewing - take it slow and steady.  Oh, and try new things - you never know what you are going to like until you try it!

Favorite Blogging Tip:  Blog because it is fun and don't be afraid!  I started my blog in late February and I really didn't realize what an awesome experience it would be.  I have made so many great blogging friends and am so happy to be part of such a fun and supportive community.  And just like in quilting, don't be afraid to try new things with your blog.  When I thought about organizing a blog hop for new bloggers, I was hesitant to put it out there - thinking no one would be interested - especially since I had only been blogging for about two months.  But as you can tell, the response was amazing!  Same with the advice series - my email to the guest bloggers bordered on being apologetic for even asking but as you can see, I got a very positive response to that as well.  So, my tip is just go for it!  

Book I am currently reading:  The Invisible Bridge  (I love giving and receiving good book suggestions so I try to keep my reading list up to date on goodreads.)  

Favorite children's book:  Too many to list but the first to come to mind:  The Phantom Tollbooth, From the Mixed-Up Files of Basil E. Frankweiler, Harry Potter, and anything by Mo Willems and Oliver Jeffers.

Favorite music to listen to while quilting:  I usually just put on Pandora - the station I have on right now is Josh Radin (but like some other bloggers I follow, I've also been known to listen to Glee.)  And I listen to audiobooks.  

Favorite TV show to watch while hand stitching: Like so many other blog hoppers, I love the Big Bang Theory.  I also like Modern Family, Parenthood, Downton Abbey - oh, and The Walking Dead (seriously - LOVE that show!)

One more thing about me?  I'm married to a supportive man who is like an enabler to my fabric buying habits - as he often can be heard saying "Yes, honey, you should take advantage of that sale and order another 10 yards of fabric - you've only received three fabric packages in the mail so far this week!" (Um - yes, he proofread this post for me and wanted to know why I didn't mention him so I'm adding this in last minute but really, he doesn't even say that sarcastically!)  Oh, and we have three daughters - ages 9, 7, and 9 months.  And, actually, they encourage my fabric habit as well.  Hm . . .  

Okay, onto the tutorial.

Supplies:

16 5in square charms (including a few novelty prints fussy cut to 5")
20"x 20" piece of white fabric (middle fabric)
24" x 24" piece of batting (I used warm and natural)
26" x 26" piece of fabric for backing
fabric for binding (120" x 2.5")
thread in pink, blue, and neutral
stamps, fabric markers, or fabric paint

Start by laying out your charm squares and middle fabric on the batting to determine your preferred layout.  Trim your middle fabric so that it just slightly overlaps the charm squares on all sides.  I knew that I wanted to use the stamps to add some words near the typewriter so I added a plain aqua charm under the typewriters (not shown here) and I added some light fabric to make the little clock measure 5".

Piece together the following into strips:  5 charms for the top row, 5 charms for the bottom row, and 3 charms for each of the side columns.  

Take your top strip and place it on the batting right sides together, stitch using a 1/4in seam, flip, and press.  Do the same for the bottom strip.

Place your middle fabric on top of the batting and strips (baste if preferred.)  I angled mine slightly.  Note - now that I am looking at all the photos I took, I notice that the bottom fabrics really show through.  I don't think it looks so glaring offline but if you would rather not have this happen, I would suggest either using  a darker fabric for the middle (maybe a linen color), using two pieces of fabric for the middle - either both white or a darker piece underneath, or covering the batting entirely in patchwork and placing the white piece on top of that.  Or, you could just cut the top and bottom patchwork squares to allow for them to go around the middle fabric.

Using the pink thread, stitch a vertical line on the white fabric.  Switch to the blue fabric and stitch horizontal lines.  Since I was going for a scrappy look, I just stitched random lines but if you want more precision, you can mark them first.  Also, since I am still using my old sewing machine that does not have an auto-thread cutter, when I get to the end of a line, I lift my pressure foot and my needle and rotate the fabric around to sew the next line (not sure if this is a common or even a proper technique but it works for me.)

Lay your backing fabric wrong side up and center the batting/quilt top on it right side up - thus, making a quilt sandwich.  Take each of your side strips and place them so they overlap the middle fabric and the previously placed strips (make sure no batting is showing around the middle piece.)

 Using a zig zag and neutral thread, stitch all the seams and the edges of the middle piece.

Add in the hanging corners (Nicole from Mama Loves Quilts did a great tutorial on this for her blog hop day) and bind the quilt (I attached the binding to the back of the quilt first, pressed it to the front and then used a zig zag to attach by machine.)  And seeing this photo, I realized I missed a bit with the  zig zag on the edge under the clock - fortunately, with this type of style and quilting, I was able to go back and stitch over that line - my kind of fix - no seam ripper!

If you are making this for a gift, you can stop here and gift it with a set of fabric markers and stamps.  However, for this tutorial, I went ahead and wrote in some school rules/sayings.  I just used a fabric marker to color in stamps but you can also use stencils, fabric paint, or even handwriting with the fabric markers. Of course, if you are feeling very ambitious, I think the rules would look great embroidered!  I think another great alternative would be to use fabric for the words "school" and "rules" - either applique or pieced.  

And that's that.  Thanks for stopping by.  Be sure to check out what Svetlana from Sotak Handmade made today for her blog hop day.  And be sure to visit both Julie from Jolie Maxtin and Lori from Adventures in Fabric on Thursday.  And if you haven't already, stop by last Thursday's bloggers:      Suzanne from SuzClaas and Mina from Kindaquilty.  Actually, I highly recommend catching up on all the great posts and tutorials from the past 6 weeks.  Here is the list.

And, also click here to read my post yesterday that included an interview for the Advice for New Bloggers Series with Angela from Cut to Pieces and a fabric giveaway.

Linking up to Fresh Sewing Day at Lily's Quilts (pretty much all my favorite recent projects are in the mosaic), Quilt Story, and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

The First Blog Hop News and a Simple Patchwork Quilt

Wow - it is finally here - the first week of the summer long Let's Get Acquainted! Blog Hop.  Over 60 new bloggers have signed up for the hop!  All the information for the hop can be found here including the buttons.  Skip to the bottom of this post for the Blog Hop News and the Link Up.

As I am writing this post, I realize I should have made a project from novelty fabrics in honor of the hop  - um, well, too late now but here is the quilt I finished this weekend.  I love the look of simple patchwork squares so I decided to cut 5" squares from most of the fabrics in my current stash including my precious fabric again.

I tried to spread out the colors and the mix of dark and light - does it have that vintage-y quality to it despite some of the modern fabrics included?  I quilted it with double diagonal lines going both directions and used Kona coal for the binding  I used a neutral grayish blue for the quilting lines but I used a pink thread to zig zag lines when I machine stitched the binding.

For the backing, I just cut large pieces from some of the pinks and reds used on the quilt top.  And the finished quilt is about 40x40 inches.

As soon as my daughters saw the quilt, they asked if they could use it as picnic blanket.  I said they could but that I would be out shortly to take pics of it for my blog post.  Well, I guess I should have taken the photos first - lesson learned - letting your kids eat chocolate on your quilt before taking pictures is not the best idea.  But a quick trip through the wash and it came out good as new (well, actually better since I like the crinkly look!)

My 7 year old was out helping me take the pics of the newly washed quilt (probably staking her claim again) and we tried to recreate the "flying in the air" look like some of the quilts in the festival - um, here was our best try (we'll have to work on it):

Blog Hop News
So as for the Blog Hop News:  every Monday, I'll be posting the week's calendar, any blog hop updates, and highlights and events from the participating bloggers.  So, be sure to check back here every Monday.  My Monday posts will also include an opportunity for all the participating bloggers as well as our readers to link up their projects made from or inspired by the presented tutorials.  See below for the special link up for this week.

And I'm very excited to let you all know that my Monday posts will also sometimes include interviews with or guest posts by some of my favorite quilting bloggers and some Monday posts will also include fun giveaways.

Here are the great bloggers we'll all be visiting this week.  And I want to say a special thank you to these bloggers for being the first!  Please be sure to visit their blogs on their hop day and please remember how much we all LOVE and appreciate comments.

Weekly Calendar

Tuesday, May 22
    Kelsey from Kelsey Sews

    Erin from Billy Button Designs

Thursday, May 24

    Nik from Bold Goods

    Alyssa from Pile O Fabric

Highlights
I'll start picking some blog posts from the participating bloggers to highlight next week (sorry, I've spent the weekend looking at all of your posts for the Blogger's Quilt Festival and I couldn't narrow it down from all the amazing quilts.)

Events
1.  Catherine from Knotted Cotton has come up with a cool idea for trading fabric - a great blog-based way to find the hard-to-find fabric you've been looking for as well as a way to destash.  Find more details on her blog post here.

2.  Em from Sewing by Moonlight is starting a Summer Road Trip Quilt Along on May 31st.  She has sketches of the blocks and they look fantastic.   The details are here.

*If you have an event on your blog that you want me to add to a Monday post, send me an email or leave a note in the comments.

Twitter
Also, because of the Blog Hop, I am going to make a point of becoming active on twitter (this week!) so follow me there if you are interested (and let me know if you have a twitter account and I'll follow you back.)  I have had the twitter link active since I started blogging but I haven't actually tweeted anything yet so . . .

Flickr
Anyone following along or participating in the hop can join in here.

Link Up
As for the link up, since this is the first week and we haven't seen any tutorials yet, I wanted to think of a way for us to start getting to know each other (um, in other words, "let's get acquainted") so for this week just add your favorite post from your blog using the link tool below.  I'm just using a text link up (for now) so where it asks for your name, put the name of your post (or a shortened version.)  And even if you are not participating in the hop as one of our stops, we still consider you to be participating just by following along and want to get to know you as well - which is just my way of saying that the link up is open for anyone with a quilting blog.






See you all at Erin's, Kelsey's, Nik's and Alyssa's this week!

Please visit my Links page to see where I like to link my posts.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

I've been debating all day which quilt I wanted to use for the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side.  I finally decided that since this is my first time entering, I would enter the first "real" quilt I made.

Sadly, I can't remember exactly when I made this quilt.  It was sometime in the last two years.  I blogged about a similar quilt here - that was my second quilt.

I had seen a photo of a patchwork log cabin "quilt as you go" quilt and was inspired to try it.  I especially liked how you didn't have to cut even strips or even precut strips at all.  The idea was to just choose fabrics as you went in varying widths.  At that point, I was just starting to sew but I still had a decent selections of scraps and small cuts of fabrics (some I wish I still had and some I'm glad I don't.)

I didn't have an actual tutorial or pattern but I had gathered enough information to know how to piece the fabrics onto the batting and how to quilt each piece as it was added.  I made a few blocks a week (as opposed to now when I would probably try to do a few a day) and when I had nine, I decided that was a good size and I pieced the blocks together.  They were varying sizes and I decided to keep them that way so I would keep the uneven look (which I would now describe as wonky.)

All was well but I didn't know what to do about the back.  I knew the back should be quilted but if I already quilted the top, then how would that work?  So, I'm not sure what I was thinking but I took a piece of fabric the size of my quilt top and quilted it to a piece of batting with several straight lines.  Then I made a quilt sandwich with just two thick pieces of bread!

I machine stitched the binding - this was my first time binding a quilt, let alone machine stitching the binding!  It did not go well.  I shared my botched binding that I replaced in my post about my 2nd Log Cabin - that was pretty awful but this was way worse - fortunately, I don't have any pictures (or do I?!?)  As you can see in the pictures, I have since redone the binding.

So, if you are still reading, you may be wondering why did I enter this quilt?  Well, not only was it my first quilt but it was the first step in my realizing my love for quilting.  Even with all its flaws, I loved looking at this thing that I created.  I loved everything about it.  And I had so much fun making it.  I couldn't wait to make more.

My daughters loved the quilt too and they loved this new skill I was acquiring.  Soon, every doll and stuffed animal in our house had their own little quilt (in addition to their own little crocheted blanket.)  And this small quilt took the back burner to the myriad of other bigger and better quilts "we" were making.  But this little quilt found its way back to the top of the quilt pile when the baby came.  The crazy "mistake" (yes, I realize I might be overusing quotation marks in this post) that I had made by using a double layer of batting which made the quilt so heavy and stiff made it the absolute perfect play mat.  Except for when it was in the wash, we used this quilt everyday.  It is in so many photos (and memories) from the baby's first 7 months.

Well, the baby is getting bigger and more mobile so she is not really staying in one place anymore, thus, this quilt has been hanging out on a chair instead of the floor.  I think I am going to fold it up and put it on the bookshelf in the baby's room and hope that one day she discovers it and loves it as much as her sisters do.  

Hm, I think I got a bit sappy there so I guess this is a good place to end.  If you are still with me, I encourage you to click over to the quilt festival to check out the amazing entries.  I spent way too much time over there myself and will be going back soon.

*I can't remember where I first found the inspiration to make the quilt as you go log cabins.  It might have been from Amanda on SouleMama who has used this method in many beautiful projects (hers was one of the first blogs I regularly read.)  I have also since read and learned a lot from the book that she used for her quilts - Patchwork Style by Suzuko Koseki.  And there are so many sources of information for this method online - not sure if they weren't there when I was making the quilt or if I just didn't know to look!

Little Houses, HSTs, and WIPs

If you have read any of my recent posts, you probably know that I am organizing a blog hop for new bloggers that begins next Tuesday, May 22nd!  All the information is here.  As part of the hop, I am going to be posting  the weekly calendar, updates, and highlights from the participating bloggers here in a Blog Hop post every Monday starting next week.  I am really looking forward to it and I hope you will join us either as a participant or a visitor!  

I just looked and even though I have been working on my blog everyday (updating the Blog Hop page, coordinating the calendar . . .), it has been almost a week since my last post so I actually have two finishes to share today.  Oh, and since one of the suggestions for the Hop participants is to create a collage/mosaic of their favorite projects, I decided to try making some for today's post.

Up first is a Little Houses Doll Quilt.  I'm linking this up with Amy's Creative Side One Thing, One Week Challenge as last week, I added my goal of piecing these little houses to her challenge.  I actually ended up finishing up the quilt last night.  The main fabric is Wildwood by Erin McMorris in fuschia and the binding is Dream Dot in Clementine from Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane collection.  


I used my walking foot to do the wavy lines and stamps with a fabric marker for the writing.  

To illustrate how I put together the houses, I made up two collages using Picasa.

My other finish from the past week was this baby quilt.

And here is it in a collage I made using Big Huge Labs.

The quilt is a combination of HSTs and 5" squares.  I used Kona Charcoal for the binding and a bright pink Aurifil thread to machine stitch the binding with a zig zag.  I don't think I've ever used a solid color before for binding but I think I will again (especially if it combined with contrasting thread.)  The backing is Kumari Garden by Dena Designs.

Lastly, I used photoshop to create a collage using some great photo templates from Pugly Pixel.  She also has a tutorial on how to use the templates.  I'm new to photoshop (I downloaded a free trial) so I'm still working on this one but I wanted to mention it here.

As for my WIPs:

I've been cutting out 5" charms to make a patchwork quilt (with a bit of I-spy in it.)

A few months ago, I made a patchwork quilt using a charm pack from Aneela Hoey's A Walk in the Woods and used Swirlybuds in Deep Pink from Heather Bailey's Bijoux for the binding.  (I can't seem to get a good picture of the red inside or outside - any suggestions???)  This is one of the many quilts I use for my 7 month old when she is in the stroller and the one I get, by far, the most oohs and aahs which is probably why those charms are on my sewing table.   (If you need one, here is a great tutorial from Oh, Fransson on how to cut charm squares from yardage.)

While I've been cutting the charms, I've also been cutting strips from the same fabrics for another Log Cabin - I want to make one with sashing this time.

I think this post ended up a bit long!!!  So, I'll end with this question - how do you create your collages/mosaics?

And, please check back here next Monday and join some fantastic new bloggers for the Let's Get Acquainted! Blog Hop - spread the word!  Or grab a button - from the post or my sidebar.

Please check out my Links page to see where I like to link my posts.