One Piece at a Time

Design Wall Monday

I don’t know about you guys but fall is my favorite season of the year. Maybe it’s because the weather is finally cool enough for good sleeping or maybe it’s the riot of color I see every time I step outside but I just love it. This weekend we had the last farmers market of the year and there were piles of gorgeous vegetables at every stale. I saw the pile of pumpkins in the above picture and it got my creative juices flowing, big time. So, for the next few days, maybe even weeks, I’m going to work on this little project. It’s kinda hard to see in the drawing but there is a pumpkin in that basket. Stay tuned.

Head on over to Judy’s blog and soak up all the awesome inspiration.

My Tweets Block 10

Happy Friday Everyone.

As promised here is block 10 of the 2011 Block of the Month My Tweets.

Since these blocks finish at 14” and many of the blocks are asymmetrical I want to talk about printing your patterns. Each pattern has four downloads. Print each of these and tape them together to make your full sized pattern. Here is a diagram for doing this.

We will do this the same way for all the patterns since it allows the patterns to be easily printed on a home printer.

Here is the full sized pattern:

Here are the small printer sized patterns:

 

For those who like to share please go to the FLCKR group at

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1604241@N21/

or the yahoo group at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/erinsquilters/

and join the fun.

Enjoy!

Berries for My Tweets

So I am busy working on Block 10 here and I wanted to show you my process for getting these little berry clusters basted. On the pattern (coming tomorrow) you will notice that there are two berry clusters. For the sake of illustration I just drew a small group of circles on the pattern. When you go to make these I would suggest making a whole bunch of berries ( I made 15 I think) and then adding them in a way that is pleasing to you.

First I basted the leaves on.

Then I added glue to one berry.

And placed it.

(doofus alert...I guess I already had a berry on there)

Keep doing this until you have a cluster that you like.

See you tomorrow with Block 10!!!!!

Design Wall Monday

My design wall this Monday is actually my table since I am working on Block 10 for My Tweets...working very slowly I might add. When I got the drawing out I realized that I had 21 individual leaves and six complicated flowers. Plus, there are two different birds. I decided to simplify it a bit in the leaf department since I don't want you guys to HATE me.

Head on over to Judy's blog to see what others are up to, I'm sure it's lovely.

Think Different

Rest in peace Steve Jobs..and thank you.

 

Celebrate Christmas Quilt-A-Long

Welcome everyone to my little stop on the Celebrate Christmas Quilt-A-Long! I was so excited when Michele asked me to do this and it has been totally fun seeing all the blocks so far. It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that I just had to appliqué something for this. I decided to try something a little new here so I did an angel. If I could name an angel I would have to name her Miss Carol. My daughter had the most wonderful counselor in high school named Carol and she was an absolute angel to us! She even looks like that too!

You can download the directions and templates here:

Download Christmas Angel

Download Christmas Angel Applique

I had a lot of fun adding tiny bits of embroidery to this block. I’ve been a huge fan of Sandra Leichner ever since I saw her quilt Pharaoh. I have a long way to go before I can add the kind of embroidery details she does but this was a really fun place to start. Here are some up close shots of the embroidery.

I ordered this really great little embroidery hoop from Sandra that made my life much easier! You can find them here.

Oh Dear I just realized that it’s October! And next week Block 10 for My Tweets is coming out…how did that happen? Where did I put that fabric? Better go!

Large Scallop Border …part 2

Ok, everyone follow along from yesterday?...Next time I do a scalloped border tutorial I promise I won’t use white fabric…it’s kinda hard to see I know. So, now here’s how I added fabric…

After I measured the width of fabric that would make this border (in this case 7 ½” covers it nicely) I cut four strips of fabric at that width and at the length of the border plus a few inches. I then placed the fabric on the right side of the border with the right side also facing up as shown.

Now I pinned the edge of the fabric to the quilt.

Next I turned it over and made sure the there were no wrinkles in the green fabric. I then pinned so that the design was securely in place.

(sorry it's so hard to see)

After that I basted along the drawn line to attach the scallop fabric to the quilt.

It’s a little hard to see so here is the view from the scallop fabric.

After that is all basted I cut away the excess fabric.

Now, all I have to do is turn under and appliqué….which I’m hoping to do this week.

Check back tomorrow for my turn in the Celebrate Christmas Quilt-a –Long at

http://quiltinggallery.com/quilters-fun/celebrate-christmas

here’s a hint…it involves angels.

I couldn't resist

This is so funny....

 

Large Scallop Border…part 1

I had a lot of fun figuring out how to make this large scalloped border this past weekend so I thought I would share with you how I did it. I have a little disclaimer though, I am not actually done stitching it down. So, if I come back next week cussing mad, please disregard all of these directions.

Since there seemed to be no logical way to do this without there being mitered borders I broke down and added a white mitered border. It’s never pretty and should never be done in public. All I can say is, I always get this book out and follow the directions EXACTLY.

After that’s all done, I trimmed my quilt so that the border was the exact width of the template I am using, in this case 9”. When I got my giant square ruler out I found out it had a crack! Turns out it still works fine if I am careful…YIKES.

Here is a shot of the drawing for the scalloped border. To transfer this line to the quilt I am going to use a freezer paper template. To do this I cut a piece of freezer paper the length of the border. I then traced the template on the right half of the freezer paper, making sure that the edge of the freezer paper lined up with the edge of the drawing.

After I traced drawing, I folded the freezer paper in half and cut the design out.

Now I ironed the freezer paper template to the back side of the border, making sure that I lined up the edge of the template with the edge of the paper. I also had the diagonal miter lines on the template and could line them up with the seam.

That one is a little hard to see so here’s a different view.

Now it’s very easy to trace the design. After you have done this side you can re-use the template to mark the back of the whole border. In some places things won’t line up exactly but you can always fudge a little, after all this is quilting not rocket science.

Check back tomorrow for how I actually got the fabric on there.

and the other WINNER is...

OK OK I'm an idiot. Pat just told me I can pick 2 winners. So, the other winner is Lynn. Lynn also wants to be played by either Meryl Streep or Julia Roberts! Congratulations Lynn

and thank you again Pat.