Quilting is in my Blood

January ’17 OMG Finished

Posted on January 30, 2017 by Quilting is in my Blood

My January 2017 One Monthly Goal was to finish my modified Fancy Forest quilt top. This quilt is for a birthday present for my sister-in-law, Sharon, who will celebrate her 65th birthday in April. Sharon truly is a kid at heart, and she fell in love with the four fancy foxes I made last year, so I decided to add three Hazel Hedgehogs and two thistle blocks to make her a small custom quilt.

The quilt top measures 33″ x 43″, and after it is quilted and I square it up, the finished quilt will measure about 32″ x 42″. I thought about putting one or more borders to increase the size but decided I’d rather sacrifice size for a cleaner aesthetic. Because it is a smaller size quilt, I thought about quilting it myself with straight lines, but I’m going to let Michael at ThreadBear work his magic. Below is the fabric for the back which I think is perfect for Sharon especially since she loves bears.

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: Jan ’17 OMG Finishes and Cooking Up Quilts: Main Crush Monday.

Posted in Quilting | Tagged OMG | 6 Comments

Table Runner, Placemats, and Napkins for my Sister

Posted on January 23, 2017 by Quilting is in my Blood

For my sister Jackie’s birthday this year I made her a table runner, eight placemats, and eight napkins using charm packs and yardage from Brigitte Heitland’s Zen Chic Reel Time fabric collection and adaptations of two of her patterns designed for this collection. I made the Tea Time table runner a little smaller than specified on the pattern, so it could fit if Jackie only used six of the placemats plus the table runner. Below is a photo my sister took after receiving her birthday present.

The placemats for my sister are a modification of Brigitte’s Little Break placemat pattern. Each placemat has a different configuration of 2 1/2″ squares cut from 5″ charm squares. I then sewed a thin inner border of solid grey fabric and the same outer border of Reel Time Metro Dots Black on each placemat. The backing for each placemat is Lenses in Slate.

I wasn’t sure how I wanted to bind these placemats. I thought about using the cheater binding I use for mug rugs (using the backing as the binding), but I decided I wanted to the back and the binding to be different, so I read a lot of online tutorials and emailed Yvonne@Quilting Jetgirl several times asking her questions about binding placemats since she’s made so many cool ones. Search for placemats on her blog, and you will be amazed at all the different ones she has created. I was going to cut my binding strips the usual way selvage-to-selvage and use one and a half binding strips for each 11″ x 17″ placemat using single-fold binding to reduce the fabric bulk. Then I decided to use my AccuQuilt machine to cut 67″ long strips using the lengthwise grain for 1.5″ wide strips of binding which meant that I only needed to have one binding join for each placemat. I had planned to use a decorative stitch to sew the binding down on the front of the placemats and table runner, but I didn’t like how it looked, so I ended up hand-stitching the binding down.

There are many mitered corner napkin tutorials available online. For the napkins I made for Jackie with Reel Time The End fabric, I used a tutorial from Splendorfallsmc.blogspot.com that I saw on Pinterest, but when I tried to go into the original post on Bloglovin’, I discovered that this post had been removed. I’d like to make some more napkins sometime but may try a different method next time. If you know of a good mitered corner napkin tutorial, please share.

This is my first finish of my 2017 Finish-A-Long Quarter 1 Goals.

Linking up to Cooking Up Quilts: Main Crush Monday.

Posted in Quilting | Tagged 2017 Finish-A-Long, Placemats, Reel Time Placemats | 12 Comments

2017 Finish-A-Long Qtr 1 Goals

Posted on January 12, 2017 by Quilting is in my Blood

I just have three goals for the first quarter of 2017. I am carrying over one of my 2016 Finish-A-Long 4th Quarter Goals and plan to get my Quatrefoil Bee Block quilt sewn together and have it quilted. I’m thinking of trying the Susie’s Magic Binding method of binding with this project.

I am also working on a modified Fancy Forest small quilt for my sister-in-law’s 65th birthday in April. It is actually my January 2017 OMG Goal to make three Hazel Hedgehog blocks and two thistle blocks to add to my four Fancy Foxes and get a 48″ square quilt top done by the end of this month.

My final Qtr One goal is to to finish a secret sewing project for my sister, Jackie, that I started almost a month ago. I’m in the process of finishing up eight placemats, a small table runner, and eight mitered-corner napkins for a birthday present for Jackie using charms cut into 2 1/2″ squares and yardage from Zen Chic’s Reel Time fabric collection. Last night I asked my sister to NOT read any of my new blog posts until after she receives her present (which she agreed to do). I do plan to get this project done this Martin Luther King holiday weekend, so it will definitely be my first Qtr One finish, and she should receive this birthday gift by the end of next week. Below is a pic of one placemat and the table runner that need the binding brought over from the back and hand sewn down on the front.

Linking up to Capitola Quilter: 2017 FAL Q1 Goal Setting.

Posted in Quilting | Tagged 2017 Finish-A-Long | 3 Comments

January 2017 OMG

Posted on January 6, 2017 by Quilting is in my Blood

I’m very excited about my January 2017 OMG. I hope by the end of this month to have the quilt top done for the small quilt I am making for my sister-in-law Sharon’s 65th birthday in April. She loves the four Fancy Foxes I made last year, and rather than using them in a wall-hanging for me, I am going to use them in the quilt for Sharon. This month I am planning to make three Hazel Hedgehog blocks and two Thistle blocks. All of these blocks are designed by Elizabeth Hartman for her Fancy Forest quilt. The quilt for Sharon will just have the foxes, hedgehogs, and thistles, and I am planning to make it 48″ square, possibly with a border around the edge.

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: January ’17 OMG Goal Setting.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged OMG | 7 Comments

Dec ’16 OMG Finish with Mystery Extras

Posted on December 31, 2016 by Quilting is in my Blood

I’m late joining the December 2016 OMG Finish Linky party, but I actually finished my block and the mystery extras I promised to share about in my December ’16 OMG post within the first week of December. Not everyone knows that prior to being bitten by the quilting bug two years ago, my main creative outlet was making mosaics from glass and tile. I shared about the different kinds of mosaics I’ve made in my Quilting in Glass post. The mystery extras I made for my Bee Hive swarm members and also for two other quilting/blogging friends who have been incredibly supportive of me (Sarah@Sarah Goer Quilts and Yvonne@Quilting Jetgirl) were simple ornaments replicating the Ohio Star block made from nipped pieces of mirror glass glued on top of 2″ wood squares then grouted with black sanded grout with the sides and back stained with wood stain. I have to tell you that photographing mosaic pieces makes taking pics of my quilts a super easy task (and yet I still complain about quilt photography and dream of sending my quilts to Kitty@Night Quilter to have her take gorgeous photographs of my quilts in beautiful nature scenes). Below is a pic of the 13 ornaments I made earlier this month:

And here is a pic of the last block I sewed this year for The Bee Hive:

I wrote a post earlier this month with pics and links to tutorials of all the blocks I made this year for Stash Bee and The Bee Hive for anyone interested–Quilting Bees 2016.

So this is my last post for 2016. Wishing everyone a happy 2017.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Best of 2016–Five Best Quilty Things I Learned

Posted on December 26, 2016 by Quilting is in my Blood

Cheryl@Meadow Mist Designs is hosting a second annual linky party for our best five posts in 2016, and we get to choose the criteria that defines our best five. I’m admittedly sick of writing and talking about my favorite finishes in 2016. I could choose posts with the most comments or page views, but I’m not one who focuses much on blog stats. Last year I blogged about Favorite Pics of Animals on My Quilts, but this year I decided to focus on the five best quilty things I learned in 2016.

One: In my 2016 Paintbrush Studio New Block Blog Hop-Midnight Starfish tutorial, I shared how to make eight half-square triangles (HSTs) at a time that I learned from Jeni Baker at QuiltCon in Pasadena. This year I have probably made at least 500 HSTs using this method. If only the 8-at-a-time would trim themselves, it would be perfect!

Eight-at-a-time HST Method

Two: Glamp Stitchalot in Ann Arbor was an amazing experience, but I have to say a couple of the most useful things I learned were simple things. The first was to use freezer paper to fussy cut (cutting the size I want on freezer paper minus seam allowances). This tip was from Elizabeth Hartman. And the other Aha moment for me was seeing with my own eyes how the right background for a block can make all the difference. I was taking Penny Layman’s paper piecing class, and I was trying to make a solid fabric work as the background of her mountain block, and it just looked blah. I decided to check out the Pink Castle pop-up shop and was much more pleased with the background fabric I found:

Paper-Pieced Mountain Block from Glamp Stitchalot

Three: Labeling–Low Tech: I can’t even say where I first saw this easy labeling technique, but it was somewhere on Pinterest or Bloglovin’. Like so many other quilters, labeling quilts is not one of my favorite tasks, but with my brother’s Meditation Quilt, I started using the simple method of folding a square diagonally to form a triangle, writing a few words about my quilt on the triangle with permanent fabric marker, machine stitching the raw sides of the triangle when sewing down my binding, and then hand-stitching the folded side down after I’ve finished the binding.

Label for Meditation Quilt by Mary Ringer@Quilting is in My Blood

Four: Labeling–High Tech: For my Terra Australis Quilt I used a label from StoryPatches and sewed a turquoise dot border around the label. This label has a little bar code on it that is linked to an app called stkr.it which can be easily downloaded to phones and tablets. I made an audio recording–something that I’m not too comfortable doing–but it was so cool to be able to include lots of info about my quilt including the fabrics I used, who designed the fabric, and the different blocks I chose.

Label for Terra Australis Quilt by Mary Ringer@Quilting is in My Blood

Five: Earlier this month I found out how easy it is to sew pillow covers using an envelope backing, though I found out when sewing my Christmas pillow that the direction of the fabric is important for the envelope backing!

Linking up to Meadow Mist Designs: Best of 2016 Linky Party.

Posted in Quilting | 8 Comments

2017 Quilting Goals

Posted on December 17, 2016 by Quilting is in my Blood

Recapping 2016

When I saw that Yvonne@Quilting Jetgirl was hosting a 2017 planning party, I felt compelled to go back and read my 2016 Goals for Quilting and Blogging and 2016 Mid Year Review posts. Overall, 2016 was a productive year. I met my Stash Bee and Bee Hive commitments (see my Quilting Bees 2016 post for pics of all my blocks with links to the tutorials), went to QuiltCon and Glamp Stitchalot 2016, made my Terra Australis quilt for my bed, a Meditation Quilt for my brother, a Breaking Bad Wall Hanging for my great nephew, the Diamond Stars Quilt for my best friend, and my Charming Plus Kitty Quilt. My longest UFO, my Birthday Gifts Wall Hanging, that was 18 months in the making, was finished in October. I also designed two new blocks, my Midnight Starfish block (included in Late Night Quilter’s The Quilter’s Planner 2017) and my Berry Blossom block. I participated in two mini mini swaps, improved my paper-piecing skills, made a few tote bags, sewed my first zipper pouch, and most recently sewed some pillow covers. My over-arching goal for 2016 was to feel by the end of the year that I was an intermediate quilter as far as my piecing skills go, and I do believe I’ve met that goal. But there’s still plenty of room for improvement 😊.

2017 Goals

Though I have a number of quilts that I want to make in 2017, I want to feel less busy and pressured than I did in 2016. That’s the main reason I did not sign up for any online bees for the coming year though I will most likely sew some blocks for the Honey Pot Bee organized by Molli Sparkles. No blocks will be swapped, no deadlines have to be met, and I get to keep any blocks I sew. Sounds good to me!!!

The first quilt I plan to make in 2017 is a lap quilt for my sister-in-law’s 65th birthday in April using blocks from Elizabeth Hartman’s Fancy Forest pattern. I’m leaning toward just using foxes, hedgehogs, and thistles, but that could change.

My great-nephew, Jimmy, and great-niece, Rachel, are graduating from high school in June, and I want to make a lap quilt for each of them to celebrate this milestone. For Jimmy, I’m leaning toward an ombre HST quilt in shades of blue, and for Rachel, I’m planning to use my hoarded Imprints fat quarters. I’m not sure what the pattern will be, maybe Thimble Blossoms’ Fireworks. I’m not planning to quilt any of these quilts myself, so I want the quilt top for my sister-in-law to be pieced by mid-February and the quilt tops for the twins by mid-April.

Other projects that I would like to complete in 2017 (not in any particular order, and none of these HAVE to be done next year)

Make pillows for my office to replace the ratty Pier 1 pillows that have been there for almost seven years
Finish the Bow Tie quilt that my mom started in the 1990s for my sister
Make an HST quilt using a quilt kit of Moda flannel fabric
Finish my Berry Cross quilt
Sew my Quatrefoil bee blocks together and have it quilted by ThreadBear
Finish my Gratitude Lanterns Wall Hanging for my office by hand-quilting it
Make another Christmas pillow because I had fun making this Christmas pillow
Make a more complicated bag than a tote bag
Continue to improve my paper-piecing skills, perhaps by using Carolyn Friedlander’s Glamp Stitchalot paper-pieced pattern to make a wall-hanging or small quilt
And maybe, just maybe, buy a good sewing machine (I’m thinking about a Juki)

I’m not planning to go to any quilt conferences or workshops this coming year though I may fit in a nearby class or two. Participating in any swaps is a low priority, and I’m going to try to stay strong and not get enticed to participate in any Quilt-Alongs (but I’m not making any promises!).

Linking up to Quilting Jetgirl’s 2017 Planning Party.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Quilting Goals | 10 Comments

Japanese Prints Pillows

Posted on December 13, 2016 by Quilting is in my Blood

To go with the Japanese Quilt that I made for my stepson last Christmas, I made two pillow covers for him for his Christmas present this year (and sent the pillow forms to him from Joann’s). I’m fairly certain that he doesn’t read my blog with any regularity. He’s much more of an Instagram kind of guy! I used scraps from his quilt and at first made 4 1/2″ HSTs for the 16″ pillow cover but then decided they were too big so cut them down to 3 1/2″and made two 12 1/2″ unfinished blocks which required that I make a border to go around the blocks. I love the Japanese rabbit print I found on a Canadian Etsy shop (kallistiquilts) that I used for the borders and backing. It’s whimsical like Drew but still masculine.

I didn’t have quite enough of the rabbit print to make the backing, so I added a narrow grey strip that looks like I planned it!

Linking up to Cooking Up Quilts: Main Crush Monday and Young Texan Mama at Sew Cute Tuesday and Busy Hands Quilts: Finished or Not Friday and 2016 Finish-A-Long: Q4 Finishes.

Posted in Quilting | Tagged Pillows | 2 Comments

Practice Makes Better

Posted on December 9, 2016 by Quilting is in my Blood

I don’t really believe in the adage, “Practice makes perfect,” but I do believe that practice makes better. I decided awhile ago to make two pillow covers to go with my stepson’s Japanese Quilt for his Christmas present this year. I’ve made some HSTs to use for the pillow covers, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten. Yesterday I had the thought that I should make a practice Christmas pillow cover to work out the kinks since I’ve never made a pillow cover before, so I made up a simple pattern with nine 5″ Moda Jol charm squares and some white Grunge sashing strips (yes, I have a huge bin of Grunge fabric!). It went mostly as I thought it would, but then the outside sashing was going to be so narrow, that I chose to make it even narrower and added another narrow outer border strip in red to make it look a little like a flanged binding.

I followed Jeni Baker’s instructions in her Mystery Pillow pattern to finish this pillow cover with an envelope backing, which went fine EXCEPT my backing fabric is directional, and I should have made sure the deer were facing the right direction when I cut the fabric. Oh well, this pillow is for me, and I certainly learned an important lesson. And if the back of this pillow is showing for some reason, I just need to rotate it 90 degrees, and it will look just fine!

Linking up to My Quilt Infatuation: Needle and Thread Thursday and Confessions of a Fabric Addict: Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?

Posted in Quilting | Tagged Holidays, Pillows | 6 Comments

Quilting Bees 2016

Posted on December 7, 2016 by Quilting is in my Blood

A few days ago I sewed my last bee block for 2016. I participated in both The Bee Hive and Stash Bee in order to increase my piecing skills and to connect with other quilters who share my passion. Below I have photos of all the blocks I’ve sewn and the tutorials for each block underneath the photo. They are in reverse order from the last block I sewed in December to the first blocks I sewed in January. In the interest of full-disclosure, I did not actually sew the April ’16 Hidden Gems block. The queen bee, Linda Seltser, helped me out as I was experiencing debilitating shoulder pain at that time that resulted in severe sleep deprivation, and I just didn’t have it in me to sew that complicated paper-pieced block. A few months of PT and a couple cortisone injections, and I feel so much better. I have been able to sew two easier paper-pieced blocks, Wanta Fanta, and the Busy block.

I know for me (and hopefully for others) it will be useful to have this post available to reference because there are a few of these blocks I would like to sew enough of to make a quilt. I particularly like that all the Bee Hive blocks were designed to create a secondary pattern when sewn together, and they won’t require any sashing. I was the queen bee for both of my online bees in August, and am especially excited to sew the 21 Quatrefoil blocks in teal, navy, lime, and low volume fabrics that I received from my Bee Hive and Stash Bee hivemates (plus 2 example blocks I sewed and 2 surprise blocks from Sarah Goer) to make a 5 x 5 block quilt sometime in 2017.

December

Alpine Block Tutorial

November

Busy Block Nov ’16 for The Bee Hive by Mary Ringer@Quilting is in my Blood

Busy Block Tutorial

Plus Blocks Nov ’16 for Stash Bee by Mary Ringer@Quilting is in my Blood

Charming Plus Block Tutorial

October

Homebase Block Oct ’16 for The Bee Hive by Mary Ringer@Quilting is in my Blood

Homebase Block Tutorial

Which Way Block Oct ’16 for Stash Bee by Mary Ringer@Quilting is in My Blood

Which Way Block Tutorial

September

Jagged Little Pill Block Sept ’16 for The Bee Hive by Mary Ringer@Quilting is in my Blood

Jagged Little Pill Block Tutorial

Modern HST Block Sept ’16 for Stash Bee by Mary Ringer@Quilting is in my Blood

Modern Half Square Triangle Block Tutorial

August

Quatrefoil Block for The Bee Hive & Stash Bee Aug ’16 by Mary Ringer@Quilting is in my Blood

Quatrefoil Block Tutorial

July

Jagged Little Pill Block July ’16 for The Bee Hive by Mary Ringer@Quilting is my Blood

Jagged Little Pill Block Tutorial

X and +(Cross) Block July ’16 for Stash Bee by Mary Ringer@Quilting is in my Blood

X and + (Cross) Block Tutorial

June

Tic Tac Toe Block Jun ’16 for The Bee Hive by Mary Ringer@Quilting is in my Blood

Tic Tac Toe Block

Umbrella Block Jun’16 for Stash Bee by Mary Ringer@Quilting is my Blood

Umbrella Block Tutorial

May

Wanta Fanta Block May ’16 for The Bee Hive by Mary Ringer@Quilting is in my Blood

Wanta Fanta Block

Greek Cross Block May ’16 for Stash Bee by Mary Ringer@Quilting is in my Blood

Greek Cross Block

April

: Hidden Gems Block (Material cut using templates by Mary Ringer, block paper-pieced by Linda Seltser), Apr ’16 for The Bee Hive

Hidden Gems Block

Modern Pinwheel Block April ’16 for Stash Bee by Mary Ringer@Quilting is in my Blood

Modern Pinwheel Block Tutorial

March

Wanta Fanta Block March ’16 for The Bee Hive by Mary Ringer@Quilting is my Blood

Wanta Fanta Block

Scrappy Block Cross March ’16 for Stash Bee by Mary Ringer@Quilting is my Blood

Scrappy Block Cross

February

Spinwheel Block Feb’16 for The Bee Hive by Mary Ringer@Quilting is my Blood

Spinwheel Block Tutorial

Carpenter Star Block Feb ’16 for Stash Bee by Mary Ringer@Quilting is my Blood

Carpenter Star Block

January

Quatrefoil Block Jan ’16 for The Bee Hive by Mary Ringer@Quilting is my Blood

Quatrefoil Block

Scrappy Diamond Block Jan ’16 for Stash Bee by Mary Ringer@Quilting is my Blood

Scrappy Diamond Block

I will be taking 2017 off from participating in online quilting bees. I have several projects planned that I want to dedicate my time to, but I will continue to follow Stash Bee posts and certainly will be checking out Instagram posts from the immensely talented quilters I’ve gotten to know online this year whose work continually inspires me.

Linking up to Quilter in the Closet: Building Blocks Tuesday and Cooking Up Quilts: Main Crush Monday.

Posted in Quilting | Tagged Paper Piecing, Stash Bee, The Bee Hive | 4 Comments