Fabric Stash

When I started working on quilts for a possible quilting book, I gave up on keeping track of my fabric stash in and out. I  have a feeling that in spite of making 13 quilts in the past couple months, that the "in" stash still outnumbers the "out" stash.

Here are my latest stash acquisitions. I'm eager to turn them into quilts!

Fuschia and Lime:

Pink and Gray:

Red and Aqua:

Yellow and Black (whatever quilt I make just might be called  "Big Yellow Taxi"):

And this darling fabric called "Early Bird" by Cosmo Cricket:

And guess what I happily discovered this week?  Collecting fabrics and sewing quilts are two separate hobbies!  Who knew?

Fabric Basting Glue Tips

I just have to share my latest discoveries about fabric basting glue.

When I began appliqueing about 12 or so years ago, I discovered Roxanne's Glue-Baste-It. And I absolutely fell in love with the fast-drying glue for adhering applique pieces to my projects. They stuck no matter how rough I was on the project. However, I wasn't so in love with the glue tip that always seemed to be clogged.

Then when I took some classes from Kim Diehl, she shared the basting glue she was using -- Quilter's Choice. No problems with dispensing the glue -- but I found that if I didn't use the glue for a few months, it got really thick and started to dry out. Ugh!

This past January I learned that Jill Finley of Jillily Studio Quilting had repackaged the Glue-Baste-It as Appli-Glue and it had a much improved tip. In fact, when I first bought it it was in a very small little bottle (which I couldn't find in order to photograph). It worked great -- although a little on the expensive side. My only complaint was that the bottle didn't have a removeable tip -- so I couldn't re-fill  it with my two bottles of Glue-Baste-It with clogged tips. Jillily Studios now has Appli-Glue with what appears to be a much better tip (and a bigger bottle than what I bought in January). But I haven't used it because I'm now using something different.

Here's the great news! First, I've found the perfect tip and re-fillable bottle. The bottle is identical to the original Glue-Baste-It bottle. Plus, the metal tips screw on to the top of the plastic nozzle for precise, thin drops or lines of glue.  The lid fits perfectly on my Glue-Baste-It bottles that have perfectly good glue in them. Eureka! No more clogged tips.

But guess what else I just learned? You can use Elmer's Washable No-Run School Glue for fabric basting.

Note that the other Elmer's glues won't work. The School Glue is non-toxic and washes out, although it's not clear whether it is pH neutral. I did a fabric basting test comparing the Elmer's School Glue to Roxanne's Glue-Baste-It and the results were identical.  Considering it is less than $3 for 4 ounces, compared to nearly $10 for 2 ounces of the quilt-branded glue, I'll probably use the School Glue once my Glue-Baste-It runs out.

But even if you stick with the proven Glue-Baste-It, I highly recommend getting the metal tips. You'll need to get the plastic bottle too in order to have the lid that the tips fit on. Here's where I got mine online. (Unfortunately the shipping was outrageous -- but I figured it was worth it since I had about $20 worth of basting glue that was going to waste.)

The Most Useless Sewing Tool?

I’m a gadget junkie. I tend to buy cool tools that are supposed to help with quilting / sewing projects. Some of them actually live up to the hype.

But this is one gizmo that makes no sense – especially for $59.99! It is the Pintastic™ Automatic Pin Dispenser from June Tailor.

You can watch a video of how the Pintastic works here. 

Now I absolutely love some of the other June Tailor tools (such as my pressing board and Shape Cut ruler). What I’m wondering is whether this is something you would ever invest in? Or, if you have it, please share why it is a “must have” sewing tool!

I picked up the first retirement quilt from the quilter a few weeks ago.

I haven’t yet sent it to my boss who retired in January since I had received e-mail from him saying he was visiting Barcelona, Spain. But I’m going to assume he’s now home and I’ll be sending it to him this week.

Lastly, a quick update on how my efforts towards a quilting book are proceeding. I’ve completed eleven quilt tops since I began this project. I want to do a few more before finalizing my book proposal – although I’ve designed about 30 overall for the book.

Some of the blocks are traditional – but I’ve done them in a unique way, say with a different setting or pieced sashing or borders. Some of the blocks are a twist on a traditional block – where I switched up the values, making the block look very different. And even some of the blocks are original.

I’d love to show you what I’ve been working on, but alas, I think it’s best to keep them a secret for now.

Some of my quilts have been totally scrappy. Some have used fabrics from popular fabric lines. I’ve been challenging myself to go outside my comfort zone and use fabrics in colors and values that I love, but that aren’t what I naturally gravitate to.

For example, one of my favorite original quilt designs was a combination of piecing and simple applique using Amy Butler’s Soul Blossoms fabric mixed with some of her solids and Full Moon polka dot fabrics from the Lotus line.

I’ve also done a quilt using Sandy Gervais’ Lollipop (Moda)

one using American Jane’s Breath of Avignon (Moda)

and one using French General’s Maison de Garance (Moda).

It has been great fun doing my own quilt designs rather than taking advantage of the creativity of others.

Bye for now – and thanks for stopping by.

What have I been working on?

Wow the past couple weeks have flown by. But they have been productive.

I decided that since I'm not working (and not looking for a job yet), maybe I should see if I could figure out a way to make money from this crazy quilting obsession. Could I design quilts that other equally obsessed fabric-aholics might want to make?

So I decided to begin designing and sewing quilt tops in order to put together a book proposal for one of the quilting book publishers. They have a preferred format for the proposal and like to have samples/drawings, etc. that show what the intended book would include.

So I've designed 5 quilts so far, finished two tops and have two more tops nearly finished.

Of course this could all be an exercise in futility. But even so, there will be finished quilts at the end of the process and the designing efforts have been a fun challenge.

I'll be keeping the quilts a surprise -- as well as the overall premise of the book -- until I know whether my book idea is accepted (or not).

Wish me luck!

No Fat Quarters Were Harmed In the Making of This Quilt

This was a total scrap quilt. All 930 pieces!

Every fabric came from miscellaneous strips, squares, triangles and scraps from recent quilts I’ve worked on.

The brown inner border was left over from an old Thimbleberries quilt, and most of the blacks in the outer border were left over from the Gathering Baskets quilt (Primitive Pieces by Lynda) that I finished a few weeks ago.

This is my 9th quilt top finish this year – adding to my list of tops ready to quilt.

Using Up My Scraps

I'm working a fun quilt. It is Lori Smith’s “Pinwheels for Caroline”.

I have finished all of the blocks for the center and am in the process of sewing the blocks into rows.

It hasn’t been a “stash reduction” quilt, but definitely a “scrap reduction” quilt. The pinwheel blocks finish 3 inches, so each of the half-square triangles (HST) are 2 inches before sewing into the pinwheel. The HST alternate blocks also finish 3 inches.

I began by pouring through my scraps looking for strips – 2-1/2 inches to 3-1/2 inches for the pinwheel HSTs and 3-1/2 inches and wider for the alternate HSTs, 3 to 4 inch squares, and miscellaneous triangles.

Then, depending on the size of the strip I used one of three methods to make the HSTs:

Squares with line drawn corner to corner, then stitched scant ¼ inch on each side of the line:

Triangles cut using an Easy Angle ruler:

Or Thangles papers (for the 2-inch HSTs

If you haven’t used Thangles, they are a fast, very accurate way to make HSTs. I typically don’t use them on HSTs that are larger than 3 inches, but if you need a lot of HSTs and don’t want to have to square them up, Thangles are a great tool.

Here’s a link to the Thangles website with detailed instructions.

I ended up using three different sewing machine feet while sewing all these HSTs, and then assembling them into pinwheel blocks. When sewing the Thangles, I used an open-toe zig-zag foot so I could more easily see the lines to sew on.

When sewing the triangles cut with the Easy Angle ruler, I used my ¼-inch quilting foot with the fabric guide.

And when I was sewing the HSTs using the “squares” method, I used my regular ¼-inch quilting foot.

I also had to keep switching my stitch length. When stitching on Thangles paper, I used a smaller stitch – 1.6 on my machine to make sure the HST didn't loosen while removing the paper.

I also found it useful to use a 3.5 basting stitch to make sure all of the points on my pinwheels were aligned, however, after the first several blocks I found that everything was aligned well and I didn’t need to take this extra step.

Once this quilt is quilted and bound, I’m going to overdye it with a tan Rit dye to tone down the lighter cream backgrounds. I want the quilt to have an overall darker look to it without the little pops of “light” from the lighter and brighter colors. (At least, that’s the plan right now. We’ll see what I end up doing when the time comes.)

All in all, I’m loving this scrappy quilt -- and enjoying using up a bunch of scraps..

Thanks for visiting, and have a great weekend!

So How Long Did That Quilt Take to Make?

I'm always fascinated when someone asks me how long a quilt or stitching project took to complete. I don't keep track of how long something takes -- although sometimes I have a pretty good idea if I made the quilt without switching to other projects or letting it become a UFO for a time. And, for the most part, I don't want to know how much time I spent on a quilt!

On Monday I started to gather up the fabrics and scraps for the pink, green and black "Round the Twist" Alex Anderson design (that I'm going to call "Twist and Shout"). (I showed it in an earlier post, but am including it here so you don't have to look for it.)

I realized that I had a lot of 2-inch strips and squares, plus plenty of partial fat quarters left over. Why not use them in a smaller quilt that could either accompany "Twist and Shout" when I give it to some lucky recipient, or save the smaller quilt for the next baby-girl quilt I need.

I decided one of Carrie Nelson's Schnibbles would be a good option -- and eventually settled on "Plan C", which uses 2-inch squares and strips. It is in her book called "Schnibbles Times Two". Although Carrie's pattern was designed for charm squares, I could just use what I had already pre-cut, plus cut some additional pieces as needed.

Here is the result -- which is about 32 inches square.

The funny thing is that it took LONGER to make the small quilt than it took to make the larger twin-sized quilt. Not a lot longer, but still I expected it to work up more quickly than it did. (It took about "a day" -- or rather one late night sewing and the better part of yesterday.)

Then there's my mom's flannel log cabin. What started out as a 20-block quilt (4 X 5) is now a 49-block quilt. Yep, it is now a king-sized quilt that is 98 inches by 98 inches. We laid it out on her bed and it’s going to look great. (This photo was taken before one more row was added at the right, which will be at the bottom of the bed. The stars will be centered on the bed.)

Now the problem is that we bought enough backing for a quilt that is 84 inches by 98 inches – and it just won’t “stretch” for the extra 7 14-inch blocks we added to the bottom. I thought I’d found an extra 3 yards (which is what it would take), but just got e-mail from the shop I ordered it from that indicated they really didn’t have the fabric in stock. I’m going to keep looking, but will probably end up having to piece something else into the backing.

I can’t believe it’s Wednesday already – not to mention the first day of June! This year is nearly half over! Have a great rest of the week.

The Last Full Measure of Devotion

I have much to be thankful for on this Memorial Day.

My father is a Korea War veteran. I have a 5th great grandfather (my mother's ancestry) who was at the Battle of Bunker Hill which took place early in the Revolutionary War and a 5th great grandfather (my father's ancestry) who fought in the southern theater of the Revolutionary War.

And I have two nephews and a nephew-in-law who are part of the US Military, not to mention several uncles and cousins who served.

Thank you!

If you haven't seen this tremendous performance, it's worth a look!

Quilt in a Day -- Almost!

On Thursday a good friend and I did our own "shop hop" to visit the many quilt shops from the south end of the Salt Lake Valley down to Springville, UT (about an hour south). We started at a darling shop called "Corn Wagon Quilts". It was a shop featured in Quilt Sampler about 6 or 7 years ago.

We then hit a couple shops in Orem, Utah -- including one I had heard about but never been to: American Quilting. They had some great quilt samples around the shop, with many from Edyta Sitar's book "Friendship Strips and Scraps". (Yes, I ended up buying the book because the shop's samples were so inspiring.)

We went to an old country store in Lehi, UT that also has a fabric store. I didn't buy much there, but my shop-hopping friend bought all of the fabrics she needed to make Bunny Hill Design's fabulous Yoyoville quilt.

After a stop for lunch at Thanksgiving Point, we went to four more shops in Salt Lake City. I had shown my friend the flannel log cabin I am making for my mom, and she decided that she also wanted to make that quilt. So we ended the day at Quilts, Etc. so she could buy the Woolies Flannel fabrics.

I had decided to buy fabrics for a quilt to "commemorate" our do-it-yourself shop hop. I bought coordinating fabrics at each of the shops we visited to assemble into a quilt that would become a memory of the great day we had.

I knew that I wanted to buy fabrics a bit outside my comfort zone. (I'm definitely a "Jo Morton -- Kansas Troubles -- Civil War reproductions" fabrics kind of gal.) I had originally thought I'd buy some Amy Butler fabrics, but I'm not quite there yet. I love her fabrics, but I haven't figured out how to make them work together in a quilt. Some day I will! Anyway, these are the fabrics I bought during our shop-hop adventure (plus the bolt of white that I have in my stash):

And after a busy day sewing yesterday (and about 90 minutes this morning to add the borders), here's my finished shop-hop quilt top:

The design is called "Round the Twist", by Alex Anderson. It appeared in the June 2003 American Patchwork & Quilting magazine. (Yes, I keep my old magazines for quilt inspiration!) This morning as I was adding the borders, I was kind of wishing I had used black rather than white as the centers of the blocks. But I do like the way it turned out. I will probably end up giving it away at some point in the future because although I love it, it doesn't fit with my style of decorating at all!

The quilt would be a great beginner project because it is just snowball blocks and the square "twist" block.

The only tricky part was laying out the blocks, because there isn't a method for setting them. You basically have to play with the blocks in order to create the interlocking color rings.

I have finished sewing all of the blocks for my mom's flannel log cabin. I'll start sewing them into rows today.  She thinks it still needs to be bigger, and wants me to add a border. The thing is, I don't think I've every seen borders on log cabin quilts. I'll have to do some investigating.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend and take advantage of every opportunity to honor those who have died in the service of our nation's freedom!

Go! Baby and the Flannel Log Cabin and Stars Quilt

In January, my mom and I stopped at one of the quilt shops in SLC. She found a kit for a quilt that she really liked – a flannel log cabin with secondary star pattern where the blocks meet. I finally began working on it for her over the weekend.

It turns out the kit uses the same flannel fabrics that were in the flannel lap quilt that I finished for her a couple months ago.Not only that, my mom had forgotten that she had purchased the kit – so when I told her I was finally working on her quilt, she couldn’t remember what the quilt even looked like.

Since the “logs” in the quilt are 2-1/2 inches wide, I decided to try out my new Accuquilt Go! Baby fabric cutter.

The fabrics were each 10-1/2 inches by width of fabric. So I began by trimming the selvages and pressing the fabrics and then folding to be 5-1/4 X 21 inches.

This fit perfectly on the 2-1/2 inch strip die.

In less than 30 minutes I had 8 perfect 2-1/2 inch strips of 20 fabrics.

And with no more fabric waste than if I had cut the strips with a rotary cutter.

For the block centers and star points, I used my June Tailor “ruler” to quickly subcut 2-1/2 inch squares.

Then I used traditional ruler and rotary cutting to cut the logs to the various lengths.

Here are the first 12 of 20 14-inch blocks in the quilt. The next 8 blocks are sewn except for the last round of logs. Because of the star points, it takes as long to do the last 4 logs on a block as it does to do the first 8 logs. But I’ll probably finish those sometime today.

My mom came over to look at the progress (and to remember what she had purchased). Unfortunately she didn’t pay attention to the size of quilt kit she had purchased – and she really wanted a quilt for her king-size bed. Oops. So, she’s calling the quilt shop today to find out if they have another kit. If so, I’ll be adding another 22 blocks to the quilt to increase it from 56X70 to 84X98.

Have a creative week!