outhouse for blogger's quilt festival

Welcome to the Quilter's Blog Festival hosted by Amy's Creative Side.  I hope you enjoy viewing all the amazing quilts from such talented quilters.

Last fall while at quilt market in Houston, Carolyn Friedlander had this pattern hanging in her booth, and I fell fast!  (don't you love all the pictures coming out of IG after fall market?)

 detailed, yet simple.

I had been collecting my favorites of Carolyn's fabrics (except for that black and white stripped and checked). 

I procrastinated starting for a while when I realized that this pattern was that "paper piecing" thing that has been so popular recently.  I'm not really into difficult quilts, or directions for that matter . . .



But a nice friend walked me through it.  These blocks are 5 inches square!!!

 I convinced myself that a wall hanging of 4 houses would be sufficient.  But there were so many fabrics I still wanted to use, so I continued.

 Carolyn was an architect in her previous life, that's what makes her fabric designs so unique.

 Cross Hatch quilting seemed appropriate.

I'm entering this piece in the modern quilt category.  I'm so thankful I became a quilter at the start of the whole modern quilting age, because it just speaks to me!!

Now, I'm excited to see what you've quilted . . .

gardenvale circles for blogger's quilt festival

My internal clock tells me it's time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  The festival starts the beginning of the fall quilting events, with market, festival and retreats soon to follow.   I love seeing what my talented blogging friends have been up to.  And as always, a big thanks to Amy for hostessing.

Since this quilt was going to be donated to charity, I found some nice scraps. 

I got this wild vision in the middle of the night with the image of this quilt, and didn't want to wait to find a drunkard's path ruler (they're hard to find), so I used the lid to a pot.  

I was pretty disappointed at first to see that my points weren't matching up (should have waited for the ruler).  But as it started going together, it grew on me . . . you know, the whole "new age movement",  no quilt police here.

 My favorite part of this quilt is the scrappy binding.

It has ended being one of my favorite quilts.  A couple of our adult kids were disappointed when they learned that it was being donated.

I'm linking up to the Scrappy Quilt Category in the blog festival.  I hope you enjoy seeing all the entries.  Don't forget to come back and vote next week!

value quilt

This value quilt went very fast.  The squares are 8 inches.  It's a great scrap project, even the whites are scraps from my "whites drawer" (it was nice to get rid of those random unlabeled whites).    This was a great option for a charity quilt.

The HST are made by paring a print square with a white square.  With right sides together, draw a line from one corner diagonally to the other corner.  Sew 1/4 inch seam on both sides of the line.  Cut along the drawn line, down the middle of both seams.  You will now have 2 HST.  Open and press.

stats:
68 x 85 washed
val and co fabrics (and a few others thrown in)
cut 8 1/2 inch squares

Design shamelessly copied from Confessions of a serial quilter.

linked:
finish it up Friday

confessions . . .

emily's trunk show

Don't you love to see your past projects at other people's houses?  This is some of what I found at my daughter's house, made from my sewing machine:





On the top right we have what I call a summer blanket, or basically when your toddler wants something cool to the touch against his/her skin to nap with during the hot summer months.  Use your favorite fabric on the top (heather ross, princess and the pea).   I like to back them with that "satin backed flannel" you can get at Joann's.  It measures about the size of a fat quarter.  Perfect for carting around or transitioning into a doll quilt.  You can read about it here.

Next on the top is a doll quilt I made from left overs and a cool binding made with chenille.  You can read about it here.

This boat quilt was made for child #1 in this house hold where I'm visiting:




She is quickly adjusting to her new big sister duties. (that's a breast pump . . . she came and asked me if I would turn it on for her. #wantstobejustlikehermomma)

This one is a "play quilt".  I started making this quick project when I couldn't keep up with pieced baby quilts for gifts.  It's basically 2 pieces of the cutest fabric available, quilted, and bound with a ruffle binding.  You can learn about that here.

We just had grandbaby #8, so I've been busy making crib sheets and other baby stuff . . . nothing really excited to share, except this cute little one:

#lovethenightshift 

Linked:
whoop whoop

chenille binding tutorial

Chenille makes a fun binding for smaller projects like these play quilts

or this doll quilt, blogged about here.

There are 2 sizes available in the quilt stores in a range of colors, I use the larger size, 5/8ths for binding.  I've seen the smaller size sewn into the pieced side of a quilt to add depth and texture.

Don't you hate it when you drop your roll of chenille or binding and it goes rolling across the floor?  Problem solved.

2  VERY important things to remember:

1.  Before sewing the chenille onto the edge of your quilt, you need to trim the edge precisely, and finish it off with a zig zag all the way around.  This will help give the chenille something to anchor to.

2.  When sewing your chenille onto your quilt, use a small stitch to minimize loss of threads in the washing/drying.   I use a 1.5 stitch size when sewing on chenille.

There are 2 strips of chenille sewn all around the way around this quilt.  I sew the first one on to the underside, so that I can see where I'm sewing.  Place the chenille tape so that 2/5th's are showing.  You will sew 1/5th inside the edge of your quilt.  DON'T FORGET TO SHORTEN YOUR STITCH.

The second strip is sewn directly on top of the first, sandwiching the edge of the quilt, and sewing down the middle of the strip.

Corners are much like sewing a regular binding on a quilt.  Stop just before the end, stop put your needle down and pivot around the corner.

Wash and dry.  I was surprised that there was not much in the lint catcher.  

Linked:
sew fresh quilts: Let's Bee social

hello darling doll quilt

Last fall I went to a quilt retreat, and my friend sitting across from me was making this beautiful quilt (added to my bucket list)

I watched as stacks and stacks of little triangles were being disposed of (I think it was the other 1/2 of the corners sewed into the white squares)

well, I grabbed all those triangles, and bartered for some of the other left-overs and started sewing till I came up with . . .

THIS!!

It's not the fastest way to put together a quilt, but there's something about using free scraps and creating something pretty with it that someone will adore that is very therapeutic to me.

stats:

21 x 28 washed

fabric is hello darling by bonnie and camille

binding is chenille

Tutorial on the chenille border found here.

Delivered. Loved.

(perfect gift with cradle for a 2 year old grand daughter . . . guaranteed to put you on top :)

linked:

sew fresh quilts

whoop whoop

quilt doctor

Remember this quilt with the mold stains?  we talked about it back here.

I ran down the fabrics for the squares that needed replacing.

and carefully unstitched those bad squares.  

 I made a replica of what I took out

 and carefully hand sewed it in place with a blind stitch, then re-quilted those squares.   I did go back and machine stitch very close to the edge of the new piece for strength.

DONE!

I just love this quilt

outhouse finish w/ sleeve - giveaway

Oh my goodness, is it already Friday?  I've got plenty to show you, but I always forget how long the blogging takes. 

I've been collecting my favorite Carolyn Friedlander fabrics for a special project (a couple of these aren't her's) 

and when I saw this pattern come out last fall, I just had to have it!  

So, when I was ready for a new start, I pulled out the pattern and  . . . . . . NO!!!!  It's that "paper piecing" that everyone keeps talking about that I have steered far away from.  

So, I found a friend who has paper pieced before and I parked myself, (sewing machine included) in her sewing room for a few days,  (bringing snacks always help with that)

It was a bit slow going at first, and there were some lessons to learn along the way.  

1.  always mark your little papers

2.  it pays to invest $10 in a package of Carol Doak's Foundation Paper, 100 sheets.  It's just like that thin paper we wrote on as kids a gazillion years ago.  

3.  keep your seam ripper close by.

4.  press to the dark side (learned this one when it was too late :(

These houses took me about an hour each, they're only 5" square, yikes!  I hope you're impressed. 

 Slowly, they started to stack up.  At this point, I was seriously considering a "4 outhouse wall hanging".

then an 8 house wall hanging . . .

 I have a few favorites:

and a few more:

 Ok, I mostly love them all.

I even took the time to make a sleeve for hanging purposes.



I've tried using the clear thumb tacks, that works for a while, but not long-term.  I tried sewing the triangles into the corners, that didn't work (it sagged in the middle).

This has turned out to be a great system for hanging a quilt, my favorite tutorial is here  (she learned this system from a quilt museum).   I found some good instructions for making the sleeve here and here.

It was an investment of time (3 trips to Home Depo), but now that I've made a few and corrected my mistakes, I've got it down and find that it's a secure way to hang a quilt.  

I'm so proud of myself!!!   ok.  seriously, if I can do this paper piecing thing, surely you can!  I think my next one will be that circle of geese I keep seeing.

GIVEAWAY:  winner is MichelleT


I'd love to give away my little outhouse scraps to someone that appreciates them.  If you'd like them, tell me which 2 fabrics in that stack at the beginning of the post aren't Carolyn Friedlander's.

linked:
whoop whoop
finish it Friday