Showing posts with label hst. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hst. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

January Guild Meeting

Last month I joined my local modern quilt guild and have two sewing projects in progress for the upcoming January meeting this week. The first is our January block for block lotto. I'm not exactly sure how block lotto goes but I gather we bring blocks (or a block) using a specified quilt block and color palette. A winner is selected and then the person gets to keep all the blocks to make something. Sounds like fun! This month we kept the block simple doing HSTs in red, aqua and tan with white. I'm not too sure how many we are to bring so I just did a few until I got bored...


Pretty! I had not thought of bringing in tan with red and aqua before. Learning already!


Some time ago (last year?) the guild did name badges. The group was 'warned' to wear them to upcoming meetings - I hope the warning meant something good is going to happen! Since I'm new I didn't make one with the group but figured I better go ahead and have one... plus no one knows my name so probably a good idea.


Mine is kind of an eclectic mix of my favorites. Lots of cute fabric scraps in solids, polka dots, birds and whimsy prints from some of my favorite designers like Dear Stella and Art Gallery, plus others. Mustard, teal and pink of course! I even broke out the fancy stitches using my Pfaff, haven't put that on a quilt before! Pow!

Link Parti's 

Take a look at the linki parti's I get down with here or by clicking on the Linki Parti's link above. Linking up to  Sew Fresh Quilts and Freshly Pieced 

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Vertical Chevron Crib Quilt Tutorial

One of my goals in 2015 is to write more tutorials. I just as well get the year off to a good start! This tute is for a 32x48 crib size vertical chevron quilt and includes measurements and yardage requirements.


This is my fabric pull for the vertical chevron quilt plus solid white, fabric requirements below.


After selecting the fabrics, I grabbed my graph paper and sketched out the pattern. I guess I'm old school that way


For the 32x48 finished quilt you'll need 96 - 4 inch finished half square triangle (HST) blocks. I used this handy chart from Alyce at Blossom Heart Quilts. Alyce highly recommends adding a full inch to the Finished HST Size to get your Beginning Square Size. Totally agree, I much rather measure a full or half inch instead of 7/8 or 3/8. It's simpler and takes less time - I'm a fan of both of those things. There are several methods for making HST's I tend to use the Traditional Method even though it involves marking, which takes a little extra time. There is no waste and no sewing on the bias.


Now that we've got the the HST discussion out of the way...  We're needing 4 inch finished squares - so using the chart and a word from Alyce, we know that our Beginning Square Size is 5 inches. If you would like your quilt to look like mine with 2 aqua rows, 1 row of orange and grey and white rows between, you'll need the following number of 5 inch squares and yardage
48 White squares - 7/8 yard
24 Aqua squares - 1/2 yard
12 Grey squares - 1/3 yard
12 Orange squares - 1/3 yard


Once we have all of our squares nice and tidy, we can move onto getting the pieces ready for sewing. First we need to mark ALL of the white squares with a diagonal line using a ruler like so. Just take our pencil or marker and draw from corner to corner using a ruler! Don't skip this, it will save you time later. It's very easy to get 'off track' if you try to 'eye-ball it' without the line.


Now we have a line on each white square. This is NOT our sewing line. Instead grab a colored square and place it right side together with the white square so that you can see the line you have drawn.


Great, now we are going to sew a 1/4 inch seam on each side of the drawn lines. In other words each square will get the 1/4 inch treatment twice just like this


Using your ruler and rotary cutter, cut on the drawn line in the center.


You now have two individual blocks with 1/4 inch seams!

 

Now we need to iron them, you could iron them to one side or the other, but for this pattern I like to iron the seams open


Once we have our blocks with seams pressed it's important to go back and 'square up.' Remember when we added a little extra 'just in case' - this is the place we square up our blocks to 4 1/2 inches. Squaring up makes everything going forward a little easier by keeping the blocks all the same size.


If you have a square ruler this is a good time to use it, if not a regular ruler works just fine. Do this for every single block, all 96 of them at precisely 4.5 inch square.

Using your design wall (or the floor!) lay out the blocks in rows of 8 by 12 - if you made a graph for color placement, now's the time to use it! Here's a look at rows one and two of my finished quilt. Repeat this pattern 6 more times.


Using a 1/4 inch seam, piece together each row of 8. I use a scant 1/4 inch and trim the rows if necessary before attaching the next row until you have all 12 rows. Quilt and bind! You can see my finished vertical chevron crib quilt and coordinating pillow sham here. I used a charcoal minky backing. I'd love to see your finished vertical chevron quilt!

Link Parti's 

Take a look at the linki parti's I get down with here or by clicking on the Linki Parti's link above. Linking up to Show off Saturday 

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Well that's it then

The sun has finally came out here in Wisconsin and with it frigid temperatures... that's ok, I'm staying inside sewing! I took out a few bonus HSTs from a chevron project earlier this year and whipped up this orange and grey pinwheel pillow


The HSTs were already assembled from the chevron pillow which was made flying geese style, perfect for bonus projects! I just ironed and squared them, and played with them on my design wall for a little while until I had something I liked. I was three HSTs short.... rather than take some out I added the fun low volume pinwheel in the center! I kept the quilting simple and did straight line quilting on each diagonal which created a diamond pattern on the front.


I had just the thing for the backing, I picked up this great bicycle fabric from Erin McMorris by Free Spirit at a lqs during the summer quilt shop hop and had to use it here. Those little baskets carrying flowers are so cute! The orange comes from High Street by Lily Ashubry for Moda.


And of course I just had to install an invisible zipper... how could I not? The pull matched just perfectly with the little bikes... It's like I had to!


This pillow is small just 16 inch square and has been added to my etsy shop which is in need of some new things after a holiday of custom orders!

Link Parti's 

Take a look at the link parti's I get down with here or by clicking on the Linki Parti's link above. Linking up to Richard and Tanya Quilt crazy mom quilts Quilt Story My Quilt Infatuation and Quokka Quilts 

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Throwback Thursday #1

I’m still struggling with selecting the base for my current dog quilt… Thanks so much for all the help! I finally decided on the coral solid, cut a strip and put them up on the design wall. And then I wasn’t WOWed. I cut a string of the teal solid. I liked the teal a little better but not enough to actually attach them. Sooo more pondering and less sewing. Boo. On the plus side I now have all of the dog blocks finished! Since there isn’t much to share on my current wip I thought I’d do my first Throwback Thursday post, yay, another first! I finished this red and tan HST quilt earlier this year


I was inspired by a quilt over at cluck cluck sew. I wanted to do something similar as a gift to our friends for their upcoming wedding that my hubby and I could make together. I thought it might be best to practice first! This is the practice quilt. We used Kona Khaki for the tan and various red fabrics. It had to be red for Wisconsin Badgers of course. I started with 4.5 inch squares, drew a line down the center of the tan squares, right sides together and stitched on each side resulting in two HST blocks for each set of squares.


I realized that I had absolutely no red fabric in my stash before I started making this. That was sort of an eye opener, jeez, how did that happen?! Oh well, more shopping!! I kept the quilting simple with straight lines outlining one side going in each direction. The balloon fabric is one of my favorites in this quilt!


I loved the idea of a black and white binding along with a black and white backing. This little quilt measured 37x41 and is available in my etsy shop.


Here’s a picture of the wedding quilt that my hubby and I made for our friends. Hubby marked all of the squares, did some rotary cutting, drew the applique and snipped all of the thread from the chain piecing. Serious. I sewed, quilted and supervised!


Link Parti's 

Take a look at the linki parti's I get down with here or by clicking on the Linki Parti's link above. Linking up to crazy mom quilts What a Hoot Quilts Whoop Whoop Friday and My Quilt Infatuation 

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Two Finishes and a Viewers Choice Nod

It has been quite a day! I finished Limeade and the bonus project I made to go along with it. It's 16 inch square using a few of the bonus pieces I shared in my last post and a little butterfly from my scrap bin. It will make a good doll quilt or wall hanging for a special little girl who is set to graduate from a crib to a toddler bed!


I love how the grey blocks almost disappear; I must be thinking of my upcoming low volume quilt. I did some free motion swirling since its been awhile since I've used that pattern. I love the texture it give the mini quilt. Is it ok to say that I like the bonus project just as much as the actual quilt!?!


Gosh I love this pink polka dot binding. The fabrics are by Dear Stella from the Confetti Dots selection, the pink is really called peony. Rounded out with Confetti Dots in white, lime and stone. Whatever it will be used for it will go great with the toddler bed quilt I just finished.

Limeade 



I used a similar quilting pattern using great big swirls so the quilt wasn't overly dense. There was some serious crinkly-ness going on with this quilt after it was washed and dried. Amazing!


Lime green polka dots was the requested backing; doesn't it look awesome right up against the hot pink?!


I have made this quilt several times before and I can say for sure that it shrinks big time! Before washing it was 47.5 x 66; after washing it is just the right size for a toddler bed, 44 x 61. Whew, I always worry if I make a quilt too big it might not shrink, it did! life. is. good.

Viewer's Choice

Today the Blogger's Quilt Festival Viewers Choice selections were announced. I'm really proud to be a part of the crowd for my scattered rainbow Herringbone quilt. You can vote for your favorite at Viewer's Choice


Link Parti's 

Take a look at the linki parti's I get down with here or by clicking on the Linki Parti's link above. Linking up to Show Off Saturday Till We Quilt Again Quilt Story Blossom Heart Quilts Sew Fresh Quilts Richard and Tanya Quilts crazy mom quilts and Sew Many Ways 

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Limeade Chevron Quilt and Bonus Projects

What I really wanted to call this quilt was Margarita... the bright pink and lime colors, yummy! But this quilt is for a toddler soooo I think I better save that for another day! I've been working on the limeade chevron quilt since my Gumballs and Elephants post. The top is done, backing is pieced, and quilt has been basted. Just waiting for some inspiration for the quilting.


Bonus Pieces 


While I'm waiting for the inspiration arrow to strike I'll share a little more about bonus projects. This is one of of those quilts with tons and tons of leftover bonus pieces to make bonus projects. Here's how I make bonus pieces for this particular quilt:

This chevron pattern is made up of flying geese blocks using rectangles and squares. My rectangles were 6.5x3.5 and squares measured 3.5. Two squares for each rectangle. I mark the center of the square pieces as normal for this block, on the wrong side of the fabric. Then using a 1/2 inch ruler I mark a second line off to the side. If you don't have a 1/2 inch ruler, just move your ruler over half an inch and mark the second line.


Do this for all of your square pieces.  


Align your square and rectangles, right sides together. Stitch on the center line as usual to make your flying geese block. Chain piecing is a big help here! Once you've finished with your chain, remove the entire chain and feed it through again this time stitching on the second line you drew. You don't need to snip in between pieces until both lines have been stitched. 


Now cut right down the center of your two lines. You will have your flying geese block and your HST bonus piece! Repeat with another square to complete your flying geese block. The great thing about using this method for flying geese is two bonus pieces for each block, yay!


And each quilt will make mounds of bonus pieces! All ready to go just need ironing and squaring up! These HST measured 2.5 inches after squaring up.


Bonus pieces aren't limited to flying geese blocks. You can use this method anytime that you're cutting away a corner. I use it often when making star blocks. It's easier to piece HSTs while they are still part of the square. Once you cut the corner away if you want to put the two triangles back together again you'll end up sewing on the bias which is tricky since the bias is stretchy and the corners always seem to get sucked into the sewing machine while trying to piece them.

A few projects I've made with bonus pieces when making this quilt

Chevron Doll Quilt


HST Pillow Sham


My argyle pinwheel pillow was also created using bonus pieces from a star quilt. There are about a bazillion things to do with HSTs!

Link Parti's 

Take a look at the linki parti's I get down with here or by clicking on the Linki Parti's link above. Linking up to Freshly Pieced My Quilt Infatuation Whoop Whoop Friday i have to say and Pretty Bobbins 

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Orange You Glad It's Finished?

Well I sure am!  The Vertical Chevron Quilt is finally finished. This quilt will be a crib quilt for a special addition coming later this fall/early winter. It measures right around 32x48.


The last time I mentioned this quilt it had been quilted and I was awaiting a binding selection. We decided on the Stitched Road Granite by Art Gallery - what a great binding this made!


This quilt is made up of fabrics from my stash. Since teal is one of my favorite colors and I am always drawn to teals when just browsing I had ample teals. I did have to purchase most of the bright orange fabrics as I didn't have many of my own although I knew I wanted to take a look at a few fabrics by Lily Ashbury, she has amazing selections when looking for fabrics saturated in colors especially pinks, orange and greens. The white paisley on orange is one of her fabrics from the Folklore line which I adore! I headed down to my lqs and found some great Botanics in tangerine that went great with this quilt as well.

This particular crib quilt was straight line quilted and lined with a super soft minky dot backing in Charcoal. Thankfully I did not experience the minky pulling through to the white front fabrics this time around! Remember the dog quilt with they navy minky - I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. Thankfully everything worked out just as it is supposed to.


Perfect for a winter baby! Since I enjoyed working with these fabrics so much and had a few scraps leftover, I went ahead and made a coordinating pillow using the fabrics from the quilt top. This pillow was featured at Quilt Story: Fabric Tuesday!!!


If you guessed this pillow had an invisible zipper you would be right on. Honestly I will use every opportunity to practice the invisible zipper! The backing of this pillow is coordinating charcoal minky dot. The pillow is a bit of a surprise so I hope it will go over well.


This was the first 60 degree triangle quilt I've done. This pillow was small - only 16 inch square. The triangles were '3 inch finished' - I'm still not really sure what that refers to but I saw it on the ruler I was using. I'm thinking it must be the horizontal top (or bottom) of the triangle as my math was way off and I ended up needing way more rows both horizontally and vertically to make up a usable pillow sham. I did straight line quilting across all the seams, which is a look I really like on this type of quilt.


Don't mind the lumps - I don't have a 16 inch pillow insert so its just some folded up towels in there!

Link Parti's 

Take a look at the linki parti's I get down with here or by clicking on the Linki Parti's link above. Linking up to Stitch by Stitch, Quilt Story My Quilt InfatuationRichard and Tanya Quilts, Whoop Whoop FridayQuokka Quilts and crazy mom quilts 

Best,
Heather

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Happy Birthday to Me and a Friday Finish

Hey it's my birthday!  September 11 that's my day! 

It’s my birthday and for me birthdays always mean cake and wine…. Also acceptable is wine and cake – either way. And just to clarify, not whining, but w-i-n-e! Cake demand request to my hubby went in earlier this week so we’ll see what he comes up with! I think there will even be dinner out included at an awesome Cajun restaurant nearby. Liliana’s can make any day feel special. Birthdays. Are. Good.

Also, in the theme of presents, gifts and good things, I was a WINNER this week (do you see the word w-i-n-e in there??). Pink Chalk Studios hosted a studio showcase this summer and I was one of 50 winners. Thanks to them for their generous giveaway! I love their What Goes With What series which shows off coordinating solids for different designer fabric lines.

Ok, last thing about presents… or gifts…. Last week I told you I was planning to attend the Madison Quilt Expo. It’s pretty much as close as you can get to quilt-y overload! I didn't get nearly as much stuff as I did last year. Here’s my haul from this year

Those zippers were just 50c each – they are all long enough to use for quilted pillows. This year at the Expo I hardly bought any fabric, just 4 charm packs and 1 fat quarter… that’s hardly any right? My mom came down to attend and stay for a visit. She brought my dad and their cocker spaniel, Chloe, to visit too. Just to clarify neither of them (dog or dad) went to the quilt expo. It’s no wonder I didn't get much sewing done last week…. Lots of shopping, eating and touring the countryside while they were here. My mom and I did start a Halloween sewing project before they went home. I know, I already said that I was done with Halloween projects this year but what the heck I'm going for it. My mom came home from the Expo with a Quick Points scallop ruler. I pulled these cute Ghastlies fabrics so that we could try it out. Another WIP to add to 'the list.' We used the ruler to make some cute scallops from the pink fabric; it worked really well although I think I need some practice sewing curves. I'm not usually a 'frilly' person and don't do much - read never - with edging, piping, rickrack or whatnot. I'm not sure what the scallops and rest of the fabrics will be yet, I was thinking Halloween pillow cases for our bed maybe. I've never made pillow cases before, seems doable though. If you know of a tutorial for king size pillow cases, point me in the right direction!
Back to the Expo. I went to two modern quilt lectures, one of them hosted by Lee of Freshly Pieced! I got to see a bunch of her quilts from the new book she co-authored, Vintage Quilt Revival: 22 Modern Designs From Classic Blocks, in person. Oh yeah, I bought that too…. But that was it, I swear! I love that you can mingle traditional with modern and still consider yourself a modern quilter.

Now the Finish

My Finish Up Friday is a little early this week (did I mention the wine… I’m planning ahead here). I managed to finish quilting the Argyle Pinwheel Pillow, install an invisible zipper for the second time ever, (side note - I hope by this time next year I will be able to do this without reviewing each step because there are a lot of steps!), and put it all together for photographs. Yay! When quilting the bottom half of the pillow I mimicked the quilting on the top only the lines were going in the opposite direction. It looked better on top, there was a great big open space in the lower left that I didn't like. I added the three straight lines going in the opposite direction to fill the area. Much better! It actually ended up a better size for an 18 inch pillow insert instead of the 20 inch I thought would work. No matter. I’m happy with this little creation, I really like how the band wraps right around the pillow and disappears.



And

This pillow is available in my etsy shop.

Linking up this week with 

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Argyle Pinwheel Pillow

Pinwheel Progress

After a crazy week last week - house guests both human and dog, the Madison Quilt Expo and a short work week - I've made some progress on the orphaned HST blocks that I shared last week! I went ahead with the pinwheels I was considering since it has been awhile since the last time I did pinwheels. They were small, only 3 inches when finished and squared. How cute are these mini pins?


I had kind of an asymmetrical float-y mod pinwheel idea but not any real plan. I decided to put the pinwheel blocks on point surrounded by bright pink on a neutral background - it was the first time I've done a project with blocks on point. The oat-y solid is Linen by Timeless Treasures and the bright pink is called Cherry. The solid colored blocks are also 3 inch square.


Once I had all the blocks sewn together and had cut off the pointy tips all the way around my block I had a rectangle 8x19 in size. For the top and bottom of the pillow top, I cut a 19 inch WOF and then cut two strips the first around 4.5 inches and second around 8.5 inches. I attached the smaller strip to the top and the larger strip to the bottom and squared it up so that I had a 19 inch square. Perfect size for a 20 inch pillow insert! I like to make my pillows slightly smaller than the insert so that they have a nice pouf to them. When I stood back and looked at the finished top I realized it really had an argyle feel and reminded me of some of my old sweaters when I was a kid. I do love argyle! And with fall coming, it's no wonder I had sweaters on my mind.


Once I got it all basted and ready for quilting, I realized there was a lot of negative space to work with! I was thinking of something simple and straight... I just couldn't see a curve-y pattern working out very well even though curve-y patterns are more fun to quilt. I've finished quilting the part above the pinwheel block. The left most side has two more quilting lines. I liked it that way so I went with it. I'm top stitching the little pinwheel blocks. All of the quilting is done in a very light pink thread.


Now how to finish the quilting on the bottom half of the pillow... I'm still deciding on that! This entire project has been kind of a 'wing it' affair... and has been a lot of fun. I have been winging it more often and I like it!

Low Volume Swap

On a less bright - but happy - note, have you heard about the Tone It Down Low Volume Charm Swap over at Patch the Giraffe and From Bolt to Beauty blogs!?  If not, check it out and get ready for all kinds of low volume eye candy!

Low Volume

Linking Up with

Fresh Poppy Design WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced 
Sew Cute Tuesday