Thursday, May 17, 2012

Quarter Reunion





Thank you Amy for sharing your talents with us, enabling us to share ours.  I first stumbled onto your festival in the fall of 2009,  just as I was starting to quilt.  The festival had just occurred.  I was so moved by it, that I quickly decided that I wanted to be a part of it.  It became my motivation as an early quilter.






I've come a long way since that first quilt.  I'm so glad that I started quilting in this extraordinary age of electronics, I would not have had the patience to lug a machine around for classes.  Google blogs from the comfort of my own home have been my classroom.  My home has become a quilter's haven, with rooms and closets adapting to my new found addiction.  My good husband thought that after the experience of that first quilt, that we were going to have our house back again, that everything was going to be put away . . . poor thing.  He has learned much patience :)




I'm so excited to share "Quarter Reunion" with you.  Thoughts of this quilt have been rolling around in my head since last summer.  I started it in the fall, but other quilts seemed to push their way to the front of the line.  The size even changed at one point. 

Measuring at 84" square, this quilt fits a double or queen bed as a comforter.


Surprise!  For my fabric I chose Reunion by Sweetwater for Moda.


Stats:
84" x 84"  - washed
25 - 8.5" blocks sashed with 4" kona bone.
Fabric is 1 Reunion jellyroll and 5 yds kona bone for sashing.
Back is 6 yds kona bone and left-overs.
Batting is Fairfield Nature-Fil, 50% bamboo 50% cotton.
Quilting is organic straight line.
1.25 yds fabric for bias binding.



Quarter Log Cabin Tutorial:

Cut 7 - 4" squares for block center.

Follow the instructions from this blog post to create a scrappy log cabin block.  Basically you just keep adding another random strip onto the next side.   Sometimes I carried the fabric on to the next side for a nice affect.



Continue adding logs until you have added 4 logs past the center square, per side.



Quarter the log cabin block.  You should now have 28 new blocks.



Add 4 inch sashing on each side of 25 blocks with kona bone.  (Keep the 3 extra blocks for your backing).
Lay out blocks and arrange randomly.  Sew blocks together, 5 across, 5 down. 




Create backing.
Quilt as desired.



Tallgrass Prairie Studio has a nice organic line quilting tutorial in this post.



I've had some questions about the HQ Sweet sixteen.  I'll write up a post on it soon.













At the bottom, I quilted:  

"A pebble held close to the eye appears to be a gigantic obstacle.  Cast on the ground, it is seen in perspective."

Unfortunately, it takes us years of painful experiences to learn this concept.  The trick is to learn patience, and not act irrationally until we are ready to cast our trial down, and see it with life's big picture.







Circle back around to the Blog Festival to see the other entries.




Monday, May 14, 2012

binding reunion

Tuesday - binding
Wednesday - pictures
Thursday - blogging
Friday - AMY'S QUILT FESTIVAL!!!




Linking up to Manic Monday.

Friday, May 11, 2012

quilting today



I'm quilting today !!!  It's so fun on my HQ Sweet 16.  The last time I used my little Pfaff to quilt a large quilt like this, I broke the threader on it.  



It took me a long time to clean up the back of the top.  When you're working with a lot of a light color, you want to make sure it's clean before quilting, or it will show up on your finished product.  



I'm being featured today:

Thank you, Quilt Story!!




YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN:


Wednesday, May 9, 2012

quarter reunion back


 WiP Wednesday - working on the back to "quarter reunion".  Hope to be quilting in a day or so.






My friend has been wondering what to do with her Reunion scraps.  I'm getting a nice container of them myself.  Here's an option . . .




Join my Pity Party:

We're counting down the days in our home . . . our baby, Connor, leaves in less than a month.  With a week of Prom events now in the past, the LONG "senior year check list" is quickly slipping away.



I find myself in any of the following states of emotion at any given time . . .  denial, outbursts of tears, feelings of fulfillment and joy, emptiness, getting lost for hours on the internet planning trips to foreign lands with hubby, thoughts of running around the house in my under clothing . . .

I learned not too long ago, that there is one BIG dis-advantage to having 5 children in a short amount of time, one day you blink, and they're all gone.

I recently heard a friend say, "I need to find a hobby . . . mine is soon leaving home."  I'm glad I already figured that one out!

Any thoughts on empty nesting???


Linking up to WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

and Needle and Thread Network




YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN:



Sunday, May 6, 2012

play quilts w/ raggy binding tutorial

Play quilts are a great option for a gift if you don't have the time for a "pieced quilt".  

Pick some cute fabric, I use 1 1/4 yards for each the top and bottom.  



I didn't have enough girl fabric for a top of this one, so I pieced it with large 8 inch squares.


Baste your top, batting and bottom as you normally would and practice your "new found free-motion quilt design".

I got this these raggy binding instructions from "Elaine's Quilt Block".

Raggy Binding Tutorial:
Cut your binding strips the width of fabric 4" wide. 

Sew strips together and press in half lengthwise.  When done, you will have one long strip, folded in half and pressed.



Sew raw edge of binding to raw edge of quilt on the back of the quilt.  REPEAT:  SEW ONTO THE BACK OF YOUR QUILT,  opposite of the way you usually do.  I do not recommend doing this past 10 pm. when you're tired, or you will learn that lesson from experience.

Turn or flip binding to top side of quilt and pin down (you can press if you like) or just wing it and sew a bit at a time with no pinning (that's what I do).  Stitch in the ditch on the back side.




Turn over and cut open the fold.  Clip your raw edges every 1/2" to rag.   (Go to this post to learn about "rag sheers" . . . they'll save your fingers.)



Wash several times to rag, cleaning out your lint screen.










It's so cute and fun!!  and best of all  . . . FAST!  No hand stitching.

Click here to learn about Rag Sheers.  They will save your hands.  Now available at your LQS.


Linked to MANIC MONDAY


YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN:




Wednesday, May 2, 2012

WiP - quarter reunion

Been working some on "Reunion Quartered", getting ready for Amy's Blogger Quilt Festival in 2 weeks . . . YIKES!


But what I've really gotten lost in today was my new toy from the mailman  (bless that soul!  He walks up to my door, rain or shine, 95% humidity, most days)  . . . .

. . . a Singer Featherweight, built in 1940. . . happy day!!  

I actually never thought I'd have one.  But you know when you're messing around on ebay, and you start playing with the other bidders, never intending to purchase the item you're bidding on, you just want to see how far they'll go?   Then, all of a sudden the numbers stop escalating and you read, "YOU'VE JUST WON!"  I guess that's why they say, "bid with confidence" ha ha.
Fortunately, I've always wanted one, and got it for a great price.  I'll tell you about it soon.  It's an awesome machine!!





YOU MAY LIKE: