Sunday, September 23, 2012

September Bee Block

Today I made the block for September for Sew.Bee.Create.

It's a spiderweb block and the tutorial is here.

I loved it, and it is quick to make, and uses lots of scraps. Perfect!






My Bee friend sent the fabric, it is the cutest Halloween fabric I've ever seen! There were strips of about 25 fabrics, all different! I don't have any, and probably not this year, but next year I'm going to get some of these : the flying cats, the eyes in the dark, oh my!

Till next time,
Sue

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Neapolitan Finish

It's the most beautiful fall day today, very warm, but cooling off in  the evening. I'm determined to enjoy eating my lunch and supper on the deck while it is still possible!

I've got a finish today! Neapolitan is bound, labelled, and washed. It's ready for the use of our guests arriving next week.

I'm very satisfied with the way it turned out. It's got just the random look I was trying for. I learned a lot along the way: from calculating the sizes of the blocks so that they would fit together, to learning a new FMQ pattern for it. (See my last post for the tutorial.)

I'm waiting for more fabric for my spinning stars quilt along baby quilt, so I've pulled out all my strings and started work on a scrap quilt. It will be mine, all mine, to snuggle under on the couch.
I'm using the pattern in Sunday Morning Quilts, Candy Coated, as a guide. I already see some changes coming!

Till next time,

Sue

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Orange Peel FMQ Tutorial

 This blog is about how I learned to do a free motion quilting pattern called Orange Peel. My Neapolitan quilt needed quilting, and I decided to do a very curvy all over pattern to contrast with all the boxes and straight lines that make up the quilt top.

I found a pattern I liked on Elizabeth Hartman's great blog, Oh Fransson. Elizabeth makes wonderful quilts and does beautiful quilting. She is also teaching a class on the Craftsy site, if you haven't seen it, check it out. I'm a student!

Back to the quilting pattern, called Orange Peel. I used Elizabeth's pattern, but I just could not make the design in the order that she did it. I kept getting it wrong and taking it out, and saying to myself, 'I can't have got it wrong again!' But I had. Over and over. Finally I decided it must be a left brain/right brain thing, and I should construct the same shape, but my way.


First, draw a grid, 2" squares. I used a Clover marker with powdered yellow chalk.

It's a big quilt, 90 x 100", so I worked on a quarter at a time, and I found it easiest to draw 4 lines vertically, and then mark horizontally using my basting stitches as alternate horizontal lines.

Now start sewing at the border and sew away from you, moving the quilt toward you. Start at the end of a vertical line, sew a quarter circle to the left, an arc, meeting at the widest point with the intersection of a vertical and horizontal line.






Now sew another quarter circle, this time going to the right, ending at the next intersection of horizontal and vertical lines. Now you have a half circle.





Keep sewing like this, making a line of left side half circles until you reach the end of your vertical line at about the middle of your quilt.

Now we're going to come back, sewing toward you, and pushing the quilt away from you.

Here we are at the center of the quilt, and making our change in direction.

Reach the intersection at the arrow, now do a quarter circle to the left to the next intersection.

From this point we will go all the way back to the outer edge of the quilt, making half circles with the mid point at the next intersection.




So here's where we are, with the line in black stitching toward the middle of the quilt, and the line in green coming toward us from the center to the edge. See what I mean, it's intersecting semicircles!

Now we work on the next vertical row. Start again at the spot where you finished the last row. This time I found it helpful to think of the Cathedral Windows block. We're making that shape. After we reach the intersection, it's back to semi circles again. We're following the blue line now.


 
When we reach the center of the quilt we reverse as before and arrive back at our starting point on the edge of the quilt. This is the yellow line.





And that's it! Four lines of stitching creates the motif. To start the next motif move over to the second marked vertical line from where you ended, think Cathedral Window, and make your left hand quarter circle. Then continue as before. I found it smoothest to aim for the widest part of the circle to my left, and to work in half circle arcs as much as possible.

Here's the start of the next row to get you going!



This is Neapolitan, quilted and ready for its binding. Nearly done!






Linking to WIP Wednesday, lots of great projects. Check it out!

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Till next time,

Sue

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Oh Quiltalongs, I love you!

I just can't resist a quiltalong, can you? Spellcheck doesn't like the word, but it makes perfect sense to me, and it sounds like one word, not two.

I joined one for my Swoon blocks, I'm still working on them (slowly!). Lots of people joined that group, some of the fabric choices were just stunning!

Then I joined one called Oh My Stars, and learned more than I really wanted to know about Sawtooth stars. The quilt is finished, and it was lots of fun seeing how everyone else's colour choices worked out. We traded tips on making flying geese and admired everyone's efforts. That's the thing about a quiltalong, it comes with tips, advice, and a cheering section. Those are all things that motivate me!
There's a picture of that quilt under the tab above for 2012 quilts. I must get a better picture.

So when I saw that Katy of I'm a Ginger Monkey was having a quiltalong with a pattern by Anna Maria Horner, I couldn't resist! It kicked off today, but being a keener I had already started. I thought I'd make a baby quilt, so I'm using Little Apples by Anneela Hoey. Today I find I need more, so on to another favourite activity, fabric shopping. Did I really need an excuse?

Here are my blocks so far, big guys, 18", so I only need six for my quilt.



Linking to WIP Wednesday, I can't wait to see what everyone else is doing!


WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

 Till next time

Sue

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

A New Look

Good morning everyone! Today is the first day of school after the summer holidays,and my granddaughters went out the door looking scrubbed, in their new clothes, and excited to see their friends again. One is in Grade 3, and her sister is in Grade 1. How did they get so big? It seems not long ago that their Dad was a little boy! I know, I know, everyone says this, but it's so true!

I've had a break from sewing while I've been here, so my son and I gave my blog a facelift. Doesn't it look nice? Much more what I was hoping for!

Here are pictures of my blocks for the 3x6 Sampler Bee ,it was a real learning experience!
The tutorial is here:
at Mad Quilters Disease


3x6 Bee 3rd Qtr 2012 for Karin 3x6 Bee 3rd Qtr 2012 for Krista 3x6 Bee 3rd Qtr 2012 for Peggy3x6 Bee 3rd Qtr 2012 for Jana 3 x 6 Bee 3rd Qtr 2012 my block 3x6 Bee 3rd Qtr 2012 for Courtney 3X6 Bee 3rd Qtr 2012 for Cynthia

As I made each block I liked it the best. Now, I like them all. Mine is red and aqua.

Hope you are having a great summer.

Till next time,

Sue