One Piece at a Time

Mimi’s Bloomers Block 2

Happy Friday everyone! Here it is Mimi’s Bloomers Block 2:

Download Block 2

You can still find links to the Miss Kyra page by clicking on the “Help Miss Kyra” button on the left side of the blog.

Mimi’s Bloomers Block 1

Here is the first of the non-corner blocks for Mimi’s Bloomers. Have fun!!!

Download Block 1

Mimi’s Bloomers….the corner blocks

Hurray Hurray….This is the launch of Mimi’s Bloomers!

It was really great to read everyone’s comments last weekend. I’m glad you guys like the on-point setting because I am really digging it right now. So, here’s the deal. There will be 14 blocks. For the corners blocks you can make two of each or if you only want one, make 4 of those. The drawing above is just the preliminary layout…I’m waiting to see how things evolve before I commit to small inner borders. There will be directions for finishing both ways.

So, without further ado…here are the corner blocks:

Download Corner blocks

AND here is the General Information Sheet:

Download General Instructions

Enjoy!

Remember: Center blocks can be purchased in my shop. Click on the "Visit my Shop" button on the left side of the blog to get there.

Mimi’s Bloomers…the Preliminary Layout?

So I am busy planning this year’s Block of the Month and I had a little brainstorm. The last two years the BOM has had pretty much the same layout plus or minus and appliqué border. This year I thought I might try an on-point layout. The pictures are preliminary photoshop examples. The one at the top has no small border. The one below does. Any thoughts?

In this layout there are 16 blocks, all 9” x 9”. I think that I will only do 12 so some will have to be repeated...BUT just look at all that lovely room for pretty quilting!

As most of you know, this blog is very “real time”, which means that things evolve. Right now I’m kinda digging the on-point layout. Look for more info next week!

My Tweets ….a few more bits and pieces

Here are just a few more details to wrap up My Tweets.

I have added a button to the LEFT side of the blog. This links to the page where you can download all the small patterns. Remember, these will only be up until the end of January. After that they go into my shop and will be available for a small fee.

Also, I am getting some questions about the center block. This block is for sale in my shop. You can get there by clicking on the “Visit my Shop” button on the left side of the blog.

As far as background fabric goes, for the appliqué border version you will need at least 6 1/2 yards. If you want to do something fancy with your sashing strips I would suggest more…maybe 8 yards.

OK, so now I am off to work on Mimi’s Bloomers…next years Block of the Month. How do you guys fell about an on-point setting this time around?

Be sure to check out Judy's Blog for some serious inspiration.

Sawtooth Border Finish

Here are the directions for finishing My Tweets with a sawtooth border for the blocks. Be sure to check my sawtooth border tutorials for tips on making these. You can find them in the categories section under Sawtooth Borders.

Download Sawtooth finish

Happy Holidays to All…and a little gift

Thanks to 16 inches of snow and the photoshop fairies I can give you your present on time! Here it is…ta da…the appliqué border for My Tweets for those of you who are really truly hooked.

You can download it here. Just tape the pieces together and off you go…

 

All next week I will be wrapping up My Tweets and posting all the finishing directions. Remember, these patterns will be up until the end of January and then they go into the shop so make sure you have them all saved if you haven’t started.

I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday Season…Hugs from me

 

My Tweets Block 12…sigh

Happy Friday Everyone.

I can hardly believe this is the last Tweet of 2011. It’s making me kinda sad here I have to tell you…well sad until I realize that there is still an appliqué border to do (which I am working on and hope to have up really soon). I’m still in love with these little birds.

Anyway, here is the full sized block:

And here are the printer sized downloads:

 

 

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.

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!

P.S. For those of you who notice these things I did decide to leave one of the pink flowers off...I found it looked better with an odd number of flowers. If you really want that flower, by all means put it back on!

Mimi’s Bloomers Fabric

For next year’s BOM I decided that, since I am truly crazy, I would attempt doing it in two colorways. The first colorway is shown here.

When I first started brainstorming about the BOM I was going to use really really bright colors and call it Bossy Bloomers. Every time I started working on it, however, the color really started to bug me because they were clashing…getting bossy with each other. So I finally had to put them away. As I sat in front of my stash these colors just kept jumping out at me. This is one of my favorite combinations of colors and I just needed to work with them this year because they make me really happy.

Here is the colorway I am using for the smaller quilt (no center block). This is what color people call an analogous grouping since all these colors are next to each other on the color wheel. I find it very soothing and think it would make a really pretty summer quilt for my bed.

Here are my recommendations for fabric for YOUR versions of Mimi’s Bloomers. First off, work from your stash if you have one. You can do this whole quilt from scraps since the pieces are pretty small. You will need ½ yard for stems, so pick your color scheme and then choose a good all purpose green and buy ½ yard of that. For backgrounds, if you don’t want to go scrappy, buy 4 yards of what suites your color scheme. There will be sashing and a border but you can wait to buy that until you have some blocks done to see what will work. I cannot tell you how many times I have invested in border fabric only to find it doesn’t suite the quilt when I am done. The colors for my Miss Mimi quilt are very close to some of the solid-ish fabrics in the Pam Kitty Morning line from Lakehouse Fabrics. If you really need to buy fabric you can find them here:

http://www.fatquartershop.com/Pam-Kitty-Morning-Lakehouse-Dry-Goods.asp?Store_Id=499&T=1

I have started a new tab in the categories section called Mimi’s Bloomers where I will link all the posts for this quilt for easy finding.

Introducing 2012 Block of the Month…Mimi’s Bloomers

Phew! Nothing like a speed appliqué job to make your fingers really sore!

Here it is, the center block for my 2012 BLOM, Mimi’s Bloomers. This BOM is going to run just like My Tweets did this year. There will be free patterns, one per month. If you want to make the large quilt I ask that you purchase the center block, Miss Mimi. At the end of the year there will be finishing directions for a quilt with the center block and a smaller one without the center block. The small patterns for this one are going to be 12” x 12” and the center block will be 26” x 26”. The blocks will be really fun floral sprays. I am, hopefully, going to be doing this in two color ways: the one shown and another in soothing blues, greens and yellows…more on this latter.

Miss Mimi, the center block, is up in the shop and the patterns will be shipping out later this week so everyone can put it on their Christmas and Holiday lists.

I hope you all join me for this…I am BEYOND excited!!!!