If you’re looking for an extra touch of luxury in your bathroom, a sauna is an excellent choice. But adding one in means taking care to ensure the layout works. And it’s just as important to get the overall feel of your room just right. If you’re thinking about how to achieve just that, you’ve
I'm teaching a Free Motion Quilting class starting in April at my LQS, Heartstrings and Heirlooms. I finished up the class sample over the weekend. In the class the students will do larger samples, but I needed a small book of designs to advertise the class. As you can see in the above end view, I used three different types of batting for my sample book - Quilter's Dream 100% Cotton, Hobbs 80/20 (80% cotton and 20% polyester), and a 100% wool. I used a tutorial from a recent Quilting Arts Magazine issue (the February/March 2014 issue) to make my little book. The instructions involved drawing some lines on a piece of fabric, then sewing on the lines with a walking foot to make a larger sheet and baste the layers together. Then you quilt your designs and cut the "pages" apart. The tutorial in the magazine was very good. If you are interested in making a book like mine, I suggest you get a copy of the magazine. Below is a collage of designs I plan to cover in the class. Along the top of each page I wrote the name of the design, the batting type and page number from the book I will be using for the class. In case you are interested, I'm using the book Free Motion Quilting with Angela Waters. It has become my go-to book for quilting ideas as of late.
A dramatic sunrise above the Great Sand Dunes in southeastern Colorado. A late November date accounts for the snow on the peaks of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. TITLE: Sunrise Sand Dunes Please choose your size and material (canvas, canvas in wood frame or print) from the drop-down menu above at the top right ►Canvas gallery wraps are printed onto artist grade canvas. Can be hung directly on a wall ►Unframed Prints are archival and shipped flat, or rolled in a tube for larger sizes ►Canvas in Wood Floater Frames are ready to hang. Black frame is default. If you want white or brown, please add note at checkout. ►I have a calibrated monitor. Your monitor may display colors slightly differently ►If your product arrives damaged, notify me as soon as possible. I will need photos of damage ► CUSTOM ORDERS are welcome. Please feel free to contact me. My Etsy Shop: https://etsy.me/2IVnceI Thank you for visiting!
A look at the dining scene in Alamosa, Colorado, reveals tacos galore and a James Beard nominated restaurant.
Our Alamosa log cabin home kit is 1,694 sq ft and features 3 bedrooms, 2 baths including 1.5 stories, cathedral ceiling, spacious open kitchen, dining room, great room and deck areas. View pricing.
Earlier this week I pulled out my solids scraps for some play time. I'm experimenting with some color palates. (Click on the images to see them larger.) gray and orange gray and green white and green These are each very small, about 4" square. When quilted they will become pin cushions. Editted to add: I almost forgot to remind you that today is the last day to enter my third giveaway. Go here to do that. I will draw a winner using random.org first thing tomorrow morning and then notify the winner via email and everyone else via tomorrow's blog post.
Thoughts about our garden. “We desire,” the Emporer dictated, “that in the garden there should be all kinds of plants.” Charlemagne the Great I do a lot of writing about gardens, but our own personal garden has never been the subject of this blog. Our garden is always a backdrop to my thinking about gardens and gardening—a sort of character in my story whose face is never revealed. There are many reasons for this: first, our garden is just in the process of being established; I’m a terrible photographer and our garden is surrounded on three sides by unattractive roads and on one side by our unattractive house; and mostly because the act of gardening feels profoundly personal to me. It was designed for us, for our own pleasure, so the idea of opening for public consumption is a bit terrifying to me. BEFORE: The garden area when we bought the house. But I love other blogs that openly share their own gardens. James Golden’s View from Federal Twist is a brilliant blog about two wonderful gardens. That James bears his own soul through the garden is a source of endless inspiration to me. I’m just not that brave. And Scott Weber’s Rhone Street Garden is another fantastic blog. Scott transforms his small garden into and endless expanse through the lens of his camera. Through his images, I see and enjoy Scott’s garden much in the way he probably does. Nasella tenuissima and Salvia 'Caradonna' So in homage to other bloggers who bravely open their own gardens to public scrutiny, I am adding a few images of our own “in-process” garden. This spring marks two full years since I began smothering a triangular wedge of lawn in our sunny side yard. This area was too small to be a usable lawn, and too close to the road to be an enjoyable outdoor use area, so it seemed like a practical area for a garden. The sipping terrace which my brother-in-law calls the "duck blind" in late summer The house we bought was a neglected mid-century ranch which we essentially gutted, so my wife and I have poured our resources and time into renovating the house room by room. The only way to afford the renovation was to do everything ourselves, so that has left little time and money for the garden. The assembly of plants—and assembly is a much more accurate term than design—is a result of what we could get cheaply, what we could divide, what was available, and what would survive the mid-summer heat and humidity. This approach is probably entirely familiar to most gardeners, yet entirely problematic from my point of view as a designer. The garden becomes a product of impulse purchases and ad hoc decisions, not careful planning. Kniphofia 'Salley's Comet' with Pleioblastus viridistriatus, Nepeta "Walker's Low' and Eschscholzia californica But I’ve decided to embrace this non-designed approach. Design has its limitations, too. Any designer who has ever installed a garden, walked away, and then visited that garden five years later learns that design is not a singular vision set to paper; design is a thousand of little decisions and actions made through the life of the garden. Iris 'Persian Berry', one of the most exquisite colors I've ever seen With no real design to speak of, the garden has only a sort of guiding philosophy: plant only that which gives us pleasure. To use an admittedly pretentious term, our garden is a sort of “pleasaunce” by default, an archaic term for pleasure-garden. The concept of a pleasure garden is a bit antiquated these days. We are now much more likely to call non-food bearing gardens ornamental gardens. But “ornamental” is such a poor descriptive phrase. Who picks plants like they would pick wallpaper? To match their exterior trim? The worst gardens are those that aim to be merely decorative. No, we pick plants to live with us because they give us pleasure. I was recently re-acquainted with the idea of pleasure gardens when I re-read one of my favorite garden books, Rose Standish Nichols’ English Pleasure Gardens. It is a book I often pick up, read a chapter, and then put it away for a while. This century-old book is a compelling story of the English garden as viewed through three centuries of garden history. Throughout the book, one theme keeps emerging throughout the millennia: gardens exist for our pleasure. Christopher Lloyd’s writings have also been an inspiration of late. Perhaps I’ve spent too many years designing gardens, too many years of balancing client’s desires with safe plant selections. I love the almost garish quality of Dixter’s Long Border. The way it thumbs its nose at “tasteful” gray, pink, and blue color harmonies. The way it mixes tropicals, shrubs, perennials into one boisterous expression. Like Dixter, I would love a garden dedicated to nothing but horticultural craftsmanship. ''Beware of harboring too many plants in your garden of which the adjectives graceful and charming perpetually spring to your besotted lips,'' Lloyd warns as he clutches a black-leafed Canna. I love that. Dixter’s great triumph (and perhaps its downfall) is that it employs every tool in the planter’s toolkit all at once. The result is a hot mess, but one of the purest expressions of horticultural exuberance I’ve ever known. And what a joy that is. Cotinus 'Royal Purple' center (coppiced yearly), Savlia sclarea, Miscanthus 'Morning Light' and Alliums Perhaps all gardening is an attempt to re-create Eden, but our garden has absolutely no paradisiacal qualities. As a result of its placement next to an ugly house and an ugly road, we’ve adopted a more postlapsarian style. In the border, we have an ecumenical selection of wetland plants, desert grasses, South African bulbs, native forbs, and color foliage shrubs. Anything goes as long as it goes. The other side of our yard, we are beginning another more restrained garden evocative of a woodland edge. But in the border, there is no room for restraint, only more and more plants. Nasella tenuissima, Salvia 'Caradonna' and Allium 'Purple Sensation' In this blog, I am often guilty of heaping too much meaning on gardens, burying a simple act under too many metaphors. Perhaps it is an effort to justify my own profession, to add more significance to my calling than actually exists. If a garden exists simply for our own pleasure, what then? Perhaps that is enough. All I know is that gardening is hard work that reveals many agonies and few ecstasies. So despite the garden’s many flaws and failings, when the afternoon sun hits a patch of Feather grass and silhouettes the violet stems of Salvia ‘Caradonna’, it is enough for me. For now, I am pleased. Phlomis tuberosa and Hibiscus 'Fantasia' The ever ubiquitious, but entirely useful Spiraea 'Goldflamme' with Zahara Zinnias Our native-ish garden, planted this srping.
While piecing my two Yellow Brick Road quilts recently I also pieced blocks for a charity quilt. Yesterday I played with the layout of the blocks. Layout #1 Layout #2 Layout #3 Layout #4 Layout #5 Layout #4 is how I usually sew these blocks together. I've never really played with their layout before, even though I've done this pattern several times. I'm not sure how these will get sewn together. Do you have a favorite layout?
I finished making the four wonky New York Beauty blocks for my homework project. I did not enjoy piecing these as much as I enjoyed the other wonky blocks I've made. The only real difference is that these are foundation pieced and the others were not. So maybe that is why I didn't enjoy these as much. I have put my blocks together. I am thinking about what kind of border this needs, if any. So I haven't squared this up yet because I don't know what my next step will be. My sewing time is up for today so that will have to wait for another day. I also cut up some of the fabric I was given recently. I have two charity quilts cut out that will be Leader and Ender projects. The Clifford quilt. Just from today's sewing session, I pieced about two-thirds of the Clifford squares to short red rectangles. At this rate I will have the top done in no time! The Winnie the Pooh quilt. And a Goldie picture. A cats favorite place to lay is on whatever quilt you are working on! These are the fabrics for my Wonky NY Beauty blocks.
This one has been in progress for quite some time. The last time I showed it to you was in November 2014! Click here to read that post. Recently I put the final quilting stitches in! I'm not sure if I want to put binding on this or a facing or something else. I'll think about it for a bit. Obviously I'm in no hurry to get this finished!
Jenifer didn't post a block for last week which allowed me to get caught up. Blocks 39, 40 & 41: Caroll won't have a new Modern Monday block posted since she wasn't behind, but go visit her any way at Attic Window Quilt Shop to see what she's up to. Then make a quick stop at 42 Quilts to see if the next block is ready.
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As promised yesterday, here is the tutorial for how I made my drunkard path blocks used in my Circle Play quilt. First cut some squares. I cut 5" squares. Cut your squares at least an inch larger than you want to end up with. You will need two squares per block. I cut 8 squares, 4 neutral and 4 colored, and this yields 8 drunkard path blocks. Second, stack your squares. They need to all be right side up or wrong side up. I prefer to do right side up because that way the curve you cut is the curve you end up with. If they are stacked wrong side up, you will get the reverse of your cut curve. Third, be really brave and cut a curve! I do this free hand. The fabrics may shift a bit, especially if you cut lots of layers like I did. I cut 8 squares at once. As long as you get a smooth curve, don't worry about any shifting. You will square things up later. Fourth, match up some pairs. For this I just put them in pairs, but you can mix them up more for a scrappier look. Fifth, pick up two pieces and prepare to sew them together. I like to lay the quarter circle piece on top of the other piece. I just find it easiest to sew them together this way. Try it both ways to see what works best for you. Also, don't worry about putting these point to point at the starting point of your seam. The quarter circle piece will end up being a little shorter than the other piece. So you may want to shift the quarter circle piece down a bit. Again, you are going to have to square these up later so just try different things to see what works best for you. Sixth, sew your pieces together. You only need to worry about the part an inch or less from the needle. I place my left hand on the top piece and my right hand on the bottom piece, then sew a few stitches and stop with the needle down. Move your hands together and the raw edges will align for the next inch or so. Sew this part. Stop. Realign. Sew. Repeat. Just go slowly, stopping every inch or so to readjust your pieces. Pinning isn't necessary. These are never going to line up when you put the blocks together. If you want your pieces to line up properly you would be much better off using templates and pinning. This is not a technique for the perfectionist! Once you have all your pieces sewn you will have blocks that should look like this. Notice how the quarter circle pieces are smaller. The curved seam allowance causes this. Now if you want to, you can cut another curve. I chose to do this for only two of my pairs. I just stacked my pairs, right side up, and free hand cut another curve. Sew this new curve just as before. This gives you the inset curved arc like I did on my Circle Play quilt. Time to square up your blocks. I chose to cut all my blocks the same size. I just measured each block to figure out that 4" squares was the largest square I could cut from all of the blocks. Then play with arrangements of your blocks. When you are happy with them, sew them together as four patches. And there you have it. Wonky Drunkards Path blocks and Curved Arc blocks. Have fun with them! If you make any please send me a picture or a link to your blog where you posted about them.
Beautiful gender neutral nursery ideas. With colorful baby rooms, eclectic nurseries and neutral nursery ideas. To design your dream nursery
My boys (husband and son) took a quick trip last week which gave me a little time to sew in the evenings. I took the opportunity to finish a couple things. My first finish is the first Puzzle Quilt I made. The link will take you to the tutorial I did for this quilt. I just happened to have the perfect backing fabric in my stash. It's done and labeled and ready to donate to my guild's oncology quilt project.
Audrey Sprinkle and her husband, Dustin, combined tons of DIY projects with vintage furniture finds to create a space for their family, which includes five kids and two dogs.
Are you ready for the final block? It's another paper pieced block. Here is what you will need: (4) copies of the pattern - download that here from Piece by Number and print them out making sure your printer is set to print full size - no scaling or "fit to page". (12) 3" by 4" rectangles of scrap fabric for the geese [label these "#1,4,7"] (4) 3" by 4" rectangles of background fabric [label these "#2"] (4) 2" by 5.5" rectangles of background fabric [label these "#3"] (4) 4" by 4.5" rectangles of background fabric [label these "#5"] (4) 2" by 6" rectangles of background fabric [label these "#6"] (4) 2" by 7" rectangles of background fabric [label these "#8"] (4) 3" by 7" rectangles of background fabric [label these "#9"] The numbers I'm telling you to label your pieces with are the ones used on the pattern. You should have 7 labeled stacks - one for the geese and six for the background pieces. An Add-a-Quarter ruler is optional but very helpful. You can paper piece the block using any method. There are at least two that I am aware of: (1) sew through the paper (which is what I did) and (2) use freezer paper and don't sew through the paper. I did a tutorial on the second method a few years ago. Click here to go to my tutorial. As I said, I used the first method for this project. I printed out the patterns onto Carol Doak's foundation paper, cut out the patterns and sewed directly to the paper with a shortened stitch length. I used a 2.0 stitch length on my BERNINA 380. When it comes time to tear off the paper, gently run a pin along the seams lines to score the paper and it pulls off fairly easily. Note: Knowledge of paper piecing is assumed. If you need assistance with the "sew through the paper" method I recommend you refer to Carol Doak's tutorial. Click here to go to her tutorial. The pattern is for a quarter of the block. You will need to make four of them. And then sew them together. Here are all of my blocks. I'm trying to decide how to sew them together. I know that I want to sash them in some way. Originally I had planned to add a flying geese border but now I am rethinking that. Because I am planning to donate this one to charity I'm not sure I want to spend the time to make a pieced border. More importantly, a pieced border would make this one too large for the charity I have in mind. Check back in on March 15th. I'll make a decision soon and have it finished by then. Well ... I'll have the top finished by then. Not sure when I'll get it completely finished.
This tutorial makes a 45" by 54" finished quilt. It uses 30 blocks in a 5 blocks across by 6 blocks down layout. The finished block size is 9" by 9" square. You will need: 1 yard of star fabric (this is the black in my quilt) (720) 1.5" by 3.5" scrap rectangles. I cut my scraps 1.5" by 3.75" because I often have difficulty with strips lining up once sewn. This adds an extra step to the process and wastes a little bit of fabric, but increases my accuracy. You cut your pieces however you want. Another option would be to cut longer 1.5" strips and sew these together into threes then cut your strip set units from this. Most of my scraps were not long enough to do this and I wanted the freedom to get more variety so I just cut the rectangles. From the star fabric cut (3) 3.5" by WOF (width of fabric) strips; then subcut these into (30) 3.5" by 3.5" squares. For reference, you should be able to get (11) 3.5" squares from one WOF strip. From the star fabric cut (12) 2" by WOF strips; then subcut these into (240) 2" by 2" squares. For reference, you should be able to get (20) 2" squares from one WOF strip. I'm giving you the number of squares you can get from the WOF strips so that you can adjust the pattern to make more or fewer blocks if you desire. The (1) yard of star fabric required is sufficient for a 30 block (45" by 54" finished size) quilt. If you want to resize the quilt, adjust the star fabric required accordingly. Step 1: Pick three scrap rectangles and layout them out in a pleasing arrangement. Don't agonize over this! Three scrap rectangles Step 2: Sew them together. Really, just pick up two strips and sew them together! When it comes time to add the third, just make sure it isn't the same fabric as either of the first two. Agonizing over whether or not the three fabrics "go" together just wastes time and doesn't make a bit of difference in the finished quilt. One scrap unit Press this unit however you want. It won't matter in the end. I pressed all the seams in the same direction. Step 3: Trim the above unit into a 3.5" by 3.5" square. I looked through my units to find one that would photograph nicely for this step. Scrap unit needs squaring up Notice that my three rectangles are not all the same length. Remember I cut these at about 3.75" long, but obviously one of these was closer to 4" long. It doesn't matter. Trim off each of the pieced edges so that you end up with a 3.5" by 3.5" square. Note that the unit does measure 3.5" tall because my strips were accurately cut to 1.5" wide. Squaring up the scrap unit You will need (240) of these units to make a 30 block quilt. To make one block you will need (8) three strip scrap units (this unit is often called a Rail Fence Block), (1) 3.5" by 3.5" square of star fabric and (8) 2" by 2" squares of star fabric. Again, my star fabric is the black in these photographs. Pieces for one block Step 4: You will be sewing on the diagonal of the (8) 2" squares of star fabric. Since my star fabric is black, a drawn line is hard to see. I could use a white pencil to mark the diagonal. I could also press the square in half along the diagonal either by finger pressing or using an iron. However, I prefer to use my Clearly Perfect Angles tool instead. There are other similar products available that do the same thing. You can also just use a piece of masking or painters tape. I like the Clearly Perfect Angles tool because it is a vinyl cling. It is easy to remove when I'm not using it and it stays in place nicely on it's own when I need it. Clearly Perfect Angle Notice the gray bar and the green bar coming toward you (away from the needle) in the photo above. The line between these two bars is centered on the needle. (If you want to use tape, use a ruler to get a straight line coming from the needle. Place the tape right along the edge of the ruler. Use the edge of the tape the same way as the line between the two bars.) Place your 2" square in the corner of one of the scrap units. Then put the far corner of the 2" square right at the needle and run the opposite corner right along the line between the two bars as you sew, this gives you a perfectly sewn diagonal line with no marking. Sewing on the diagonal Choose four of your scrap units and attach one 2" square in this way to each of them. Notice that on two of the scrap units the 2" square is sewn with the strips laying horizontal (top row in photo below) and on the other two scrap units the strips are vertical (bottom row in photo below). This is very important! One star point attached At this point you need to decide if you want to cut off both layers 1/4" away from the sewn line, or just one layer or none. I'm living dangerously and cut them both off. Cut off corners Then press the star point over to complete the 3.5" square unit again. One star point completed Step 5: Attach the other star point. Be sure to attach it to the proper side. In the photograph above, the next star point will get added to the bottom right corner of each unit. Second star point attached. Again, cut off the excess (or not) then press the star point fabric over to complete the point. Star points completed Now layout your block units. You have (4) star point units, (4) scrap units without points, and (1) star center. All of your units should measure 3.5" by 3.5". They should be laid out as shown in the photograph below. Block units layout with pressing arrows You will sew the units together into rows and press the seams according the arrows on the photograph above. Once you have the rows together, you will have two more seams left to complete the block. The photograph below shows this layout with arrows indicating how these seams should be pressed. Sew block rows together with pressing arrows Your finished block should look similar to the one below. Completed block, 9.5" unfinished size I recommend that you construct all of your blocks with the same layout and press as directed so that all of the seams will be opposing when it comes time to put the blocks together. Below is what the back of the block looks like for you to use as a pressing reference. Back of the block The quilt layout is shown below. Quilt layout At this time the above are the only three blocks I have completed! For the quilt layout, look at the top left corner of each block. Notice that in the first block the strips are vertical in the corner unit. In the middle block, the strips in the top left corner unit are horizontal. In the third block, the strips in the top left corner are vertical. If you just alternate the blocks by turning them so that the strip orientation alternates in the top left corner all your seams will be opposing and all of your strips will alternate. When I get the top completed I will edit this post to add a photograph of the completed top. Edited to add a photo of the finished top (April 21, 2014) If you use this tutorial to make something, please send a picture. I'd love to see your work! If you have any questions, ask them in the comments but please be sure that I have a way to contact you to answer your question. If you are a "no-reply" blogger, leave your email address in your comment. If you don't know whether or not you are "no-reply" then google "no reply blogger." There are lots of tutorials explaining how to tell whether or not you are "no-reply" and how to fix this if you want to. Edited to add: A .pdf version of this pattern can be found by clicking this link.
I managed to get my Cake Mix Recipe 1 quilt I showed you in my previous post earlier this week finished. Well ... the top is finished. I love how it turned out! And it's big! The finished size is 64" by 80" which is a generous twin sized quilt. I could add a border or two, but I won't. It is already large enough for my purposes and I'm not really the border type. I don't mind a border on certain things, but I don't feel that every quilt requires a border.
Do you want to add curb appeal to your home and property and simplify yard maintenance? These front yard landscaping ideas add beauty and boost property value.
I have another shop/class sample to show you today. This one is called Circle Dance. It was made using 20 batik fat quarters and the templates shown below. This is not a beginner quilt. It requires precise cutting using the templates, which are fairly easy to use. And then precise sewing of the curves. These units are not cut to size after sewing like so many of the other projects I do. You must cut and sew accurately to achieve the circles. The instructions that come with the templates show you how to sew the curves both with and without pinning. I tried it both ways. No pinning worked best for me. The finished top is 63" by 70". The smaller circles are made from the waste created in cutting the pieces for the larger circles. The pattern is included with the larger templates.
As promised yesterday, here is the tutorial for how I made my drunkard path blocks used in my Circle Play quilt. First cut some squares. I cut 5" squares. Cut your squares at least an inch larger than you want to end up with. You will need two squares per block. I cut 8 squares, 4 neutral and 4 colored, and this yields 8 drunkard path blocks. Second, stack your squares. They need to all be right side up or wrong side up. I prefer to do right side up because that way the curve you cut is the curve you end up with. If they are stacked wrong side up, you will get the reverse of your cut curve. Third, be really brave and cut a curve! I do this free hand. The fabrics may shift a bit, especially if you cut lots of layers like I did. I cut 8 squares at once. As long as you get a smooth curve, don't worry about any shifting. You will square things up later. Fourth, match up some pairs. For this I just put them in pairs, but you can mix them up more for a scrappier look. Fifth, pick up two pieces and prepare to sew them together. I like to lay the quarter circle piece on top of the other piece. I just find it easiest to sew them together this way. Try it both ways to see what works best for you. Also, don't worry about putting these point to point at the starting point of your seam. The quarter circle piece will end up being a little shorter than the other piece. So you may want to shift the quarter circle piece down a bit. Again, you are going to have to square these up later so just try different things to see what works best for you. Sixth, sew your pieces together. You only need to worry about the part an inch or less from the needle. I place my left hand on the top piece and my right hand on the bottom piece, then sew a few stitches and stop with the needle down. Move your hands together and the raw edges will align for the next inch or so. Sew this part. Stop. Realign. Sew. Repeat. Just go slowly, stopping every inch or so to readjust your pieces. Pinning isn't necessary. These are never going to line up when you put the blocks together. If you want your pieces to line up properly you would be much better off using templates and pinning. This is not a technique for the perfectionist! Once you have all your pieces sewn you will have blocks that should look like this. Notice how the quarter circle pieces are smaller. The curved seam allowance causes this. Now if you want to, you can cut another curve. I chose to do this for only two of my pairs. I just stacked my pairs, right side up, and free hand cut another curve. Sew this new curve just as before. This gives you the inset curved arc like I did on my Circle Play quilt. Time to square up your blocks. I chose to cut all my blocks the same size. I just measured each block to figure out that 4" squares was the largest square I could cut from all of the blocks. Then play with arrangements of your blocks. When you are happy with them, sew them together as four patches. And there you have it. Wonky Drunkards Path blocks and Curved Arc blocks. Have fun with them! If you make any please send me a picture or a link to your blog where you posted about them.
My mom made one of these for me and took one as a door prize to my guild meeting. The lady that won it at the guild meeting asked for the pattern, but Mom didn't use a pattern. This weekend I made one and took pictures so I could write a little tutorial. The one on the left is the one I made. The one on the right is the one my mom made. For the purposes of this tutorial I made mine a little smaller. You can easily adjust the pattern to add more (or less) clip strips. The finished size of mine is 4.5" by 6". I used scraps to make mine and it took less than a fat quarter worth of fabric. You'll also need some sand or crushed walnut shells for the filling. Here is what you need to cut: (4) 2" by 4.5" rectangle for the clip strips (3) 1.25" by 5" rectangles for the spacers between the clip strips (2) 2.5" by 5" rectangles for the end pieces (2) 4.5" by 5" rectangles for the back To make the inner bag that you will fill with sand or crushed walnut shells you need (2) 4.75" by 6.25" rectangles of scrap fabric. Step 1: Fold the 2" by 4.5" rectangles in half lengthwise, wrong sides together. Sew both short ends. Clip the seam allowance a bit to reduce the bulk at the corner. Turn right side out and press. Step 2: Layout your base pieces and put the clip strips on top of the appropriate pieces, aligning raw edges. Your base pieces are the (3) 1.25" by 5" rectangles and the (2) 2.5" by 5" rectangles. Notice that the clip strips are shorter than the base pieces. Just center them on the base piece as best you can. Step 3: Sew the clip strips to their base pieces using and 1/8" seam allowance to hold them in place before sewing the pieces all together. Step 4: Sew the pieces together using a 1/4" seam allowance. You will need to make sure you keep the unbasted edge of the clip strips out of the way. Step 5: Press all your seams in one direction. Step 6: Press one of the 5" sides of your back pieces over 1/4" twice, then topstitch the hem down. The piece on the left below is only pressed while the right hand piece is pressed and sewn. Notice that my fabric is directional. I made sure that the two edges I was working with in this step align the pattern on the fabric properly. Step 7: Pin the two back pieces to the completed top piece, right sides together. The back pieces should overlap 1" to 1.5" along the hemmed edges. Step 8: Sew all the way around the outer edge with a 1/4" seam allowance. I usually backstitch over the overlap section since this area will get some extra stress on it when it's time to put the inner bag inside. Step 9: Turn it right side out through the opening in the back. Step 10: To make the inner bag, place your (2) 4.75" by 6.25" pieces right sides together and sew all the way around the outer edge with a 1/4" seam leaving about a 2" opening in one of the shorter sides. You may want to shorten your seam allowance for this step since you will be filling this little bag with sand or crushed walnut shells. Clip the corners and turn it right side out then fill. I used crushed walnut shells for mine. Step 11: Hand sew the opening closed. This does not have to be invisible since no one will ever see it once inside the cushion, but it does need to be securely sewn. Step 12: Insert the inner bag into the cushion through the opening in the back. It may take some finessing to get the filler bag inside if you have filled it really full like I did. Just take your time. That's it! Enjoy your Wonder Clip Pin Cushion!
I mentioned in an earlier post I was working on some greenhouses/cold frames. It took me a while to get the details worked out and I finally...
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Half way through my month of selfish sewing and I've completely finished one project, my Modern Monday quilt. I have also finished the applique and embroidery on my Sue Spargo 2014 BOM. Unfortunately, I'm still not permitted to show you any photos of it. The pattern is expected to be released in May. Once that happens I will be able to show pictures here. For now, let me just say I'm thrilled with it so far. I'm trying to decide how to quilt it and hope to start that soon. At the beginning of the month I made a list of things I wanted to do. New pillows for the living room was on the list. Here is the old pillow. And the new pillow. It's actually the same pillow inside, just with a fabulous new cover. Sure brightens up the room! The pillow cover is a left over block from this project. Originally I planned to make 12 blocks. After putting them up on my design wall and doing some measuring, I decided that nine blocks with a pieced border will better suit my needs for this quilt. So the extra block became a pillow. I will make another block next week at my scrap group when I teach them how to do this quilt. That block will become another cover for the second yucky gold pillow in our living room. Meanwhile I'm working on the borders for the above quilt. More on that later.
I used a combination of scraps and orphan blocks. I titled it "Tiger in the Scraps." It finishes at about 40" square. I find it interesting that it ended up square. This was not planned. Well, not much about this quilt was really what you'd call "planned." This was fun to do, sort of like a jigsaw puzzle with scraps. The binding is from my roll of scrap binding, left over bindings from other projects all sewn together. This QAL was hosted by Amanda of Crazy Mom Quilts. If you like working with scraps you should go check out her blog. She does beautiful work. I took lots of photos as I worked, mainly for myself to see if things were working. In looking through them it was fun to see the quilt come together so I thought I'd share them below. If you aren't interested in the process photos (there are quite a few) then stop reading now, you won't miss anything else. Here is how it looked on June 15th. These are the scraps I'd sewn together as Amanda instructed. Then I raided my orphan block basket and pulled out some improv economy blocks I made a few years ago. I put them up on the design wall and started filling in the white areas with scraps and more orphan blocks. Bits that were similar in size were sewn together. Things moved around a lot and not everything I put up on the design wall ended up being used in the quilt. For a while I had resigned myself to having to use at least one partial seam, but if you look closely at the above photo you can see that I managed to avoid partial seams in the end. Above is the finished top. I quilted it with straight-ish lines. I did the lines free motion as I find that to be faster for me than a walking foot. By doing them free motion I can use my HQ Sweet 16. And here it is again all finished.
I've been working on my Sue Spargo BOM this week. It is going well, but I'm still not suppose to post any photos of it. I'm not sure when the online photo ban will be lifted, but I will share photos as soon as I am permitted to do so. In lieu of photos of my own work, I'll show you a few more Quilts for Oncology that have been made and donated by guild members. Unfortunately, I do not know who made these. I'm pretty sure that all of these were in the batch of ten quilts in tote bags I took to the hospital last week. All of these range in size between 40" by 50" and 50" by 60".
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This is the second UFO finish for me for February. If you missed the first one, it was this one. This is a very simple quilt, just some 5 inch by width of fabric strips sewn together. I quilted it using my walking foot on my BERNINA. I used the serpentine stitch on my machine. I haven't quilted anything this large with a walking foot in a long time. I forgot how much shifting can happen. Also, when sewing lines, even wiggly lines, with a walking foot you need to sew them all in the same direction. If you know what to look for you can tell where the three or four lines are that I sewed the opposite direction from the rest. Hence the bowed look. I opted to square up the quilt rather than finishing it wonky. So some of the bottom stripe had to be sacrificed. Oh well. The back is cute! The serpentine stitch gives a nice texture but I will go back to free motion quilting for my next project.
Alamosa is located in central Colorado and is the gateway to Great Sand Dunes National Park. There are also many other things to do.
I'm hard at work on the next scrap group project. We meet next week. This is the block we will be making. This block is huge - 24" finished! It is made up of 2" squares and background fabric. The quilt consists of four of these blocks plus some sashing and a border. It uses an insane number of 2" squares - like 800! Which is good because my 2" squares are breeding. I am hoping this will get them under control. The quilt is from the book Cut The Scraps by Joan Ford.
Ингрид и Виктор много лет мечтали о доме в тихой провинции, который был бы окружен со всех сторон буйной зеленью. Но несколько лет назад они решили, что ✌PUFIK. Beautiful Interiors. Online Magazine