Quilting Classes

The quilting classes are going fabulously!  We’re ALL learning a lot about quilting and each other.  I told the ladies that are in the two classes going on right now that it was VERY entertaining discovering what they’re “quilting ticks” were.  I know that I am picky about ironing and my squares lining up, but apparently not everyone is like me.  What’s up with that???

We’ve gone over sewing with a 1/4″ seam… GO SAM!

Missi is showing us how to cut ACCURATELY!  HA HA HA! Alright.  Inside joke.  She is cutting that strip for the second time.  We’ll call it a mis-communication. Just those two instructions play a major role in whether you project is going to turn out good or turn out…. eh… not so good.

And the most recent class we were pinning and quilting our projects.  Karen (above) and I LOOOOOOOVE that fabric!  Its called Diggers and Dozzers and I’m about to order a bunch.  What will I do with it you ask?  Who knows.  But more importantly WHO CARES!  Its CUTE!

For me I think the best part about these classes is the girl time we get!  I love meeting new people, but don’t get me wrong – we stay focused on getting through the days class.  What better way to get through it then with a bunch of women who want to Quilt???  Come on people, this is the cream of life! 

Keep it short and… crazy.

SO!  I’ve decided as soon as my order from Fabric.com (I am loving that place more and more!) arrives I’m going to take this:

and MAKE IT HUGE!   Oh my gosh can you all gasp with excitement with me!?!?!?  I’m just going to keep putting layers on until I feel its big enough to cover myself with on the couch or drape OVER the couch during the wonderful Halloween months.  Is there anything better then the Holidays???

Couple new things…

So if you’ve read my blog up till now you’ve discovered I have a “thing” for hexagons.  LOVE THEM. You can build so many different things with them!  Case in point?  I thought of and built these two things over a couple hours I had free this weekend!  For my September Quilting classes I wanted to do something for Halloween and/or Thanksgiving because we’re going to be gone the month of October, and this was the perfect solution!

And here is the center up close.  I can tell what it is because I did it, hopefully its not THAT hard to figure out.

I love how the Harvest/Thanksgiving one turned out…. so then I made THIS:

OH OH OH I KNOW!  Halloween fabric.  Christmas fabric.  HOLIDAY fabric = LOVE FEST!  My friend and I went to the mall over the weekend (by “mall” I mean Japanese version of mall, so don’t get all jealous or excited!  LOL) where I found the scraps to make the harvest quit.  Then almost as if we were in a movie we both saw the Halloween fabric at the same time, FREAKED OUT, then ran over to it..  We each got one of each fat quarter, of which we then paid to much for, but come on!  Isn’t it SOOOO cute?!?!?!

Wonky Star Wall Hanging Tutorial

How is THAT for a long title!  The next couple days I will be posting these tutorials for the small projects I made for the Quilting classes I’m teaching.

This is my Wonky Star Wall Hanging Tutorial!

This is my first tutorial, so please let me know if you find major errors…..  I’m to tired to re-read it again tonight!

Start out by making a Wonky Star which will be a 12.5″ square when you are finished.  You can use this tutorial or just continue with mine.

Here are the fabric and cut out requirements:

• 29, 4.5″ squares all together (13 for center squares, 16 total for outside corners)
• 2, 1.5″ x 12.5″ strips (inside border)
• 2, 1.5″ x 14.5″ strips (inside border)
• 2, 1.5″ x 22.5″ strips (outside border)
• 2, 1.5″ x 24.5 strips (outside border)
• 4, 4.5″ x 6.5″ blocks
• any extra fabric for outside corners
• 26″ square for background fabric
• About 100″ of binding

Start out with 13 of your 4.5″ squares.  1 for the center, 4 for the star’s points, and 8 for the back ground (I’ve also made a couple with the points and center of the star being the same fabric – love them both!  Mix it up.)

Cut the 4 squares for the star’s points into half, cutting diagonally.  You can choose whether to cut from corner to corner exactly or make it slightly off…

Take one of the halves from each cut square and sew it to the right side (or left – you pick, but be consistent!) at an angle.  Just make sure when it’s folded over  you can’t see any of the background fabric poking out.  Even though only one square is pictures in the following steps, sewing all four squares (which make up the star’s points) at the same time saves time.

Sew along the stars point leaving a nice 1/4″ seam.  Cut the the left over background fabric away.

Iron the seam toward the star’s point fabric.  Easiest way for me is to lay the square right side facing up, slide the iron under the point fabric and push out.  WAH LAH!

Repeat these steps to attach the other point:

Line up, seam seam, cut extra background fabric off…

Iron out.

Now you will have four funky looking shapes that need to be squared back up to 4.5″.  I have a 4.5″ squares (by Creative Grids – I’m pretty sure I own almost every size ruler they make.  Three words:  WORTH EVERY PENNY!)

Lay out the 9, 4.5″ squares that will make up the Wonky Square Wall Hanging Center.

Sew together the rows, remember to iron the seams towards the points (making the star itself stand out from the background).

Next sew the rows together, pinning at the seams so the squares line up juuuuuuuuust right.  Ask anyone – I’m crazy anal about lining squares up!

Next you need to cut 4 strips for the borders.  Cut 2, 1.5″ x 12.5″ and 2, 1.5″ x 14.5″ strips.  Sew on the 2, 12.5″ strips to the outer sides.

Iron the seams towards the star square.  Sew on the last two sides using the 14.5″ strips, iron seams.

Using 8 of the 16 squares (I used a lot of scraps for this project so all the squares are a great mix – use at your own discretion!) you are going to make the corners.  Take two squares and lay them right sides together.  If you were to draw a diagonal line from corner to corner, you will need to cut a 1/4″ seam from this line.

Save the cut corners for the next step.

Sew from corner to corner creating a half and half square.  I used my 4.5″ square ruler again to make sure I was right on.  Do this with for each of the 4 corners.  Next I laid the corners out so I could see the big picture.  In this picture I laid out the last 8 squares also with the “points” I was going to attach next.  For each of the last 8 squares attach one point, making the pattern below:

Use the corner scraps from the corners for any other extra fabric.

Sew two squares and one 4.5″ x 6.5″ block together, iron, and attach to the center square.

Next sew the last of the two sides together (2 corners, 2 side squares and 1 block).  Iron then attach to the center square.  Using the last four strips attach the 1.5″ x 22.5″ to the sides, iron.  Attach the last two strips, iron and YOU’RE DONE!  Well… done with the top!

Finish like a normal quilt:

Pin the backing, batting, and top together.

Quilt the top, attach binding, then hang it on your wall where EVERYONE can see it!

Enjoy!

Holy crap, right?

I’ve been needing a new cricut machine… I’ve had mine for 5 years and want to do so much more.  But then HOLY CRAP – I discovered THIS:

http://vandcogiveaways.blogspot.com/

Um – HELLO????  How is it I’ve never heard of that before??  OYE!  Good luck to me, right???

Quilting the King

As proof that I’m actually quilting this bad boy by myself on my Viking, I took this….

You know its not as bad (or scary) as some people say (or imagine) it is.  Its actually gone by quite fast, as well.  I quilted the entire center part during Biggest Loser, which included me stopping to get drinks and watch the show!  HA HA!  I love that show – seriously.  So tomorrow I’ll finish up the outsides real quick and slap on that sweet green poka dot binding!  I can’t wait to get it on our bed!!!!  I want to make a few pillows also, but lets not get to far ahead of ourselves, shall we?

Third finished…

Yep.  Definitely – LOVE the little projects!  This mini quilt was so fun!  I was thinking about using this pattern to do Porter’s Quilt, and this just reaffirmed it!  Fabulous!  He picked all space fabrics: Stars, Rockets, Planets, etc.  This pattern will be perfect!  For now the mini quilt will be a sample for my classes and a wonderful new toy for our little girl.

Enjoy, I sure am!

Finished Samples

I wanted to have finished samples for my Quilting classes, so here are two of them!

Here is the pattern I made for the table runner.  With different fabrics this could really pop, also.  This was using the left over squares from my king size Hunky Dory Quilt.

This is the wall hanging.  I used the Wonky Square for the center and kind of threw together the borders.

I didn’t ever think I would like making these little projects but they are definitely addicting.  Its like a big ‘ol pat on the back.  “HECK YA – you just finished another project!”  I highly recommend doing something on a smaller scale at least once!

Could life get ANY better???

Oh yes.  Today I got the rest of the Christmas fabric I order in the mail!!!!  Oooooooo… Christmas fabric – how could it get any better?  I’ve been commissioned by my best friend to build a Christmas Quilt using The Wonky Star pattern – WHICH I LOVE!  So I figured I should be making myself one of these quilts at the same time.  SO – between me finding way to many fun fabrics and my friends finding a couple and sending them my way, I ended up with 24 different patterns.  HA HA HA!  I’m hoping the little saying “less is more” doesn’t apply in this case.

Last night I couldn’t help myself and cut a couple of the designs to make a couple stars….  I made this first:

Which made me giggle so why not?  I made another one!

… and it didn’t turn out quite as cute.  I stopped paying attention and just grabbed three fabrics… which I discovered I can’t do because these fabrics don’t mesh well with each other!  So that’s another memo to me…

Last, but not least, we FINALLY got to take a picture of Elly’s completed quilt top!

I’m loving the purple.  I can’t wait to finish it!  GEEZ!

Hunky Dory FINALLY pinned… freak.

I finally got to pin our king size quilt!  Once again – this house is no where NEAR large enough to lay out a king size.  I don’t think I could do a queen, either.  The twins were pushing it!  So I went down to my sons school, which we are fabulously close to, and the lady in the office let me into their MPR room.  I’m going to have to frequent that room in the upcoming months!  I’ve got two Christmas quilts I’ve just started, too!  YIPPEEEEEE!

I didn’t crop that picture because I wanted you to see just how big that dang room is.   NOW look…  LOL

Yes.  That backing was WAY to big, which I knew – I didn’t cut it.  Keep in mind that the quilt top is 94″ x 103″.  HUGE.  It doesn’t look it laying on that floor, does it?  HA!

So now I get to start quilting it, which is very exciting.  I just haven’t figured out what to do.  Perhaps big wave-type swirls?  We’ll see!

MEMO TO ME:

Next time I do this I need to remember the following things:

1. A freaking mop.  One of the swifter wet jets?  That floor was DIRTY!  I’m just going to need to wash the quilt when its done.  Which I’ve been doing anyway.
2. Remember to iron the back!  I forgot because everything was folded ready to go over to the school.
3. Bring more snacks for the kids.  I brought two big baggies then realized Indy had stolen Charlotte’s and had almost finished off hers, too.
4. Go earlier in the summer time.  There is no freaking A/C in there and it was HOT!  I was sweating crazy so I was being careful not to completely drench my pretty quilt!  LOL
5. Music?  Good grief – I wasn’t there that long but its SO QUIET!  A summer school class came in and played a game the last half so it was pretty entertaining.