Crazy Quilting and Table Runners

Hi! I'm back for now and I'm here with another tutorial. But first, let me thank all of you for your amazing comments. If you are one of the people who posted who wanted to send me scraps, the scraps only have to be around 2 inches square, but only that because I am doing English Paper Piecing. But that tutorial is for another day. Today I am going to be talking about creating crazy quilt squares.

First you need to gather some supplies. With crazy quilts you can use the tiniest of scraps. Here are mine:

You will also need a sewing machine and some foundation squares. I am making rather small squares (3.5") but the normal size is around 12" square.








The first step is to take 2 tiny scraps with just one side that is about the same length and place them right sides together on the base square.


Now you stitch them with a quarter inch seam allowance and press them open.




Now continue to add scraps until the entire base is covered. Then you trim it and press it flat.


And here is the beautiful finished block:


We'll work on the embroidery and embellishing another day! There's one last project I want to show you before I leave... it's a table runner that I created for a challenge.

I think the colors turned out gorgeous... what do you think?

Suggestions...

Sorry that I didn't get a chance to post yesterday, but coffee got in the keyboard. Thankfully it just needed to dry out and now it's working as if nothing had ever happened. So today I didn't get much of any quilting done today, but tomorrow I should have another tutorial for you. Thank you so much for all of the awesome comments on my posts and I really appreciate all of you encouraging me like that!

So my Mom's friend Leah, is going to adopt a little baby boy and is working at raising enough money to adopt him. His due date is on the 8th of September and they just found out on Wednesday that they were going to be allowed to adopt him. They are going to be selling T-shirts and accepting donations on their blog at http://hadrianswallofhope.blogspot.com/ so be sure to head on over there to become a follower of her blog!!!

Okay... now please please please give me an honest opinion on this, because I want this blog to be something for all of you to enjoy as well as something I enjoy creating. Tell me, honestly, what you want to see on this blog. All you people out there reading this but not wanting to post a comment... post away! Don't be embarrassed about saying what you want to see... I am now asking you to! I don't care if you follow my blog or not. Just DO IT!!! Tell me what kind of tutorials you want to see, give suggestions for patterns, talk about certain techniques... I REALLY want to know! If I don't know what it is, I'll find out and try it. I'm always looking for inspiration so please! Also, make sure to tell me what you are always looking for in quilting blogs. I will post something similar to this once a week, so you will be forced to get it all out! lol! Okay now just comment! Please!

Dear Jane and Hand Quilting...

Yesterday I made a promise to myself that every 30 minutes I spend working on piecing or applique, I owe myself 15 minutes working on hand quilting. This could actually work for anything you don't enjoy doing... quilting or maybe even hand stitching bindings to the backs of quilts. Here are a couple pictures of my quilt in the hoop.




And I'm not going to show you any more of that quilt! lol! I am going to finish quilting before I do that!

Now I want to show you Dear Jane Block #2:



I know that the making of this Dear Jane quilt is going to be very time consuming but knowing that all of you are looking forward to the finishing of it will keep me going!

The last thing I want to show all of you is a special work in progress that I have been working on for quite a while. It is a hexagon charm quilt where every piece is different. If any of you would like to help me out by sending scraps through the mail that would be very nice.



Something else, if you will please tell me in the comments what kind of tutorials you would like to see on my blog, I will try my best to get it on here!

ONE last thing... if you head on over to http://twiddletails.blogspot.com/2009/08/little-organizer-giveaway.html you can have a chance to win a little organizer!

String Blocks

Even though this is only my fourth post, I am posting a tutorial! Today's post is actually going to be about making a string block and then I will show you my progress on my string quilt. I think that you will have fun following the tutorial and I will have fun creating it! Please excuse my blurry pics... I will replace them later on if you can't follow easily! Here we go!

The first thing you are going to need are strings. Strings can be anything long and thin and as wide as only 1/2". Here is a picture of my strings.


You will also need some paper backings of any size you like, (I used 4"), a sewing machine, a rotary cutter and mat, an iron and ironing board and scissors.

The first step is to lay down a base strip across the paper on the diagonal right side up and another on top of it right side down like this:



Then seam through the paper and the fabric layers like this:


Then finger press it open so that it looks like this:


Continue adding strings until you get to a corner and then instead of a strip use a chunk of fabric as shown here:


Here is a general idea of what your block should look like before trimming:


And here it is after trimming with your rotary cutter:


The next step is to pick the paper off the back of the block:


I like to have at least 4 block quarters before actually pulling out the paper so that I can make a whole block but you can do whatever you want to.

Now to iron it:


And here is the finished block quarter! You made it this far so let's continue...


Now we need to arrange 4 of these block quarters into a finished block, and then sew them together! Here are the pictures:





And last but not least, here is how my progress on my actual quilt is going!




I'm really enjoying making this quilt and I can only hope you do too!

Dear Jane Quilt-Block 1!!!

I've been oohing and ahhing over Dear Jane Quilts for a while now and finally decided to take the plunge... here is block number 1!!!



The polka dot material is the fabric from my stash that I said was my favorite. The white is also from my stash. It was fun to do but does use quite a few tiny pieces. It finishes at about 4 1/2"
and I think that it looks like some type of pinwheel. Sometimes it's just nice to grab some fabric from your stash and just sew a block. The reason I like Dear Jane so much is because it is like a sampler and if I have to make the same block with the same fabrics over and over again I think that I would be bored out of my skull! This block I would like to make a full sized quilt out of it but they would all have to have different main fabrics or I would still get bored. That's why I like scrap quilts so much, as you will soon find out!

Stashbusting...

Today I have been working on a certain mini quilt that uses scraps and stash. I can't quite remember the name right now, but I do know that I got the pattern from an issue of Better Homes and Gardens Quilting magazine. It's been fun working on it and eventually I will post a picture of it in progress. In the border there will be applique so I'm really looking forward to that part! As you read my blog more you will see how much I am enjoying hand applique. It is so fun and relaxing. The problem is that it is TIME CONSUMING! That's why I like it so much on mini quilts. I am also experimenting with machine quilting. I have a darning foot but I can't for the life of me figure out how to lower the feed dogs! Any suggestions would be very helpful. Another thing that I need to post a picture of is my current quilting project... a quilt that I like to call Jacob's Coat. It uses appliqued flowers. What I am working on is hand quilting baptist fans in an all-over pattern. It's going slowly but I'm getting somewhere! Guess I'll have more to say tomorrow. Bye!

Hi!

Hi there! This is going to be my quilting blog... someday I might actually find some time to work on sewing of any kind though. Well, I actually found some time to post and I found this survey on Sew Mama Sew's Blog so I thought it a good way to get started up...

What do you usually sew?
Quilts are my specialty...

When you shop for fabric, what size cuts do you usually buy? (i.e. If you see something beautiful, but you don’t have a use for it right away, how much do you buy?)
Ummmm, normally I try to limit myself to 1/2 yard cuts...

Do you buy on impulse or do you go out looking for something you need?
I normally go out looking for something I need but am known for impulse buying at good sales...

Are you a pre-washer? If you are, do you wash your fabric before you need it, or only when you’re ready to use it?
I do try to pre-wash but sometimes it's hard to wait for it to finish!

Do you iron it?
I do but I hate it!

How do you sort it? (color, print size, collection, etc.)
I don't actually have enough to even sort it yet. (At least that's my excuse! lol!)

Do you have any special folding techniques?
Not really, just if it's small I sometimes fold it like a hand towel...

How do you store your fabric?
I have it in stacks by my sewing machine!

What tips do you have for building up a well-rounded stash?
What I just started doing is when I go out to buy something for a project I'll buy a little extra. (i.e. If I need 2 1/2 yards I'll buy 3)

When do you say enough is enough?
Ummmm... I DON'T!!! LOL!

What are some of your favorite stash-busting projects?
I love scrap quilts of any kind.

Do you have a current favorite print in your stash? Let’s see it!
There's this brown with white polka dots... can't have enough dots!

What’s your definition of the perfect stash?
Whatever I could ever use in a lifetime! lol!

That was fun! See you tomorrow!