Monday, August 31, 2020

The Economy Quilt


When I was making my Snails Squared quilt, I made some boo boo's and cut the wrong color fabric for the wrong sections. This left me with some extra triangles just floating around. 


Well, I didn't want these triangles to get lost in the scrap pile so I decided to make a baby sized quilt using 6 inch economy blocks and the rest of the 10 inch precut of William's Garden, an Island Batik signature collection by Kathy Engle for Deb Tucker of Studio 180 Design.  Precuts are available now, yardage is coming September/October.
I wanted at least 30 blocks, 5 across and 6 down, to get a usable sized quilt, so I had to get a little creative with my piecing Since I had used some parts of several squares from the precut in my previous quilt. I ended up sewing two smaller pieces together to get all the triangles I needed.






Some went together perfect...Have to be really searching to find them.







others ... You can definitely see the two pieces if your looking close.





Once all the squares and triangles were cut it was time for chain piecing. 




By chain piecing and using the Square Squared ruler from Studio 180 Design  I was able to sew these thirty blocks together in one evening.  The Technique Sheet for the Square Squared ruler shows you how to easily make Economy Blocks.






I originally wanted to butt all the blocks next to each other, I love that look, but then the quilt would have been super small at 30 in x 36 in. 



So I sampled some sashing and took a vote with family and friends. 
To Sash or not to Sash? That was the question.
Sashing won, 100%.




The Sashing finished at 1 1/2 inches making the quilt 39 in x 46.5 inches.
This was a nice size as I didn't have to piece the backing and could use a 45 inch wide piece of fabric.

Another good thing about this one being so small is that it quilted up super fast. It was getting close to bedtime and I had just thrown in a load of laundry and needed something to do while I waited, so I put this one on the quilt frame and it was done before the laundry. 


I quilted and an allover design of swirls and curves using 50 wt Aurifil Thread number 1148 Light Jade.  The Light Jade looks perfect over the green, blue, and purple fabrics.

I had the perfect size scrap of Hobbs Heirloom Natural Cotton Batting for this one. I am telling you the stars aligned perfect for me to finish this one up so quick.





And as always, I used a Schmetz Needle. The Microtex needles that came in my latest Ambassador box have been wonderful with the Island Batik fabric.













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Sunday, August 30, 2020

Snails Squared - August Island Batik Ambassador Challenge



I was super excited for this month's Island Batik Ambassador challenge. For August, we all got to play with specialty rulers by Deb Tucker of 180 Studio Designs. I was sent the Square Squared ruler to play with and I couldn't have been happier!




The Square Squared ruler lets you make a basic Square in a Square block with the same precision as paper piecing, but without all hassle of the extra paper. I made 12 of these for the cornerstones in my sashing. 

The inner blue fabric comes from part of the new fabric line William's Garden by Island Batik created by Kathy Engle for Deb Tucker of 180 Studio Designs. You can get precuts of this line now. Yardage will be available around September. The outer triangles is from Island Batik Blenders and is called Cherio - Bermuda


It was super nice to use this ruler instead of paper piecing, which is my usual method for these blocks.  The ruler helps you cut the perfect center square and triangles for sewing and then helps you trim it down for an accurate precise block. And one of the best parts is that I did not have to mess with any paper for these! Such a time saver and I still have perfect units!




If you get the Technique Sheet that goes along with it the Square Squared ruler, it gives you all the math to make the Economy Block, and even the Snails Trail (aka Monkey Wrench) block. I used the Technique sheet to make the 13 Economy Blocks I needed for the alternating cornerstones. For these I pulled some fabulous prints from the William's Garden precut I was sent.


I used the Technique Sheet and the Ruler to also make 16 Snails Trail Blocks. 


The Technique Sheet lets you know what size square to start with, so I made my 4 patches the size needed for the center square. From there on it was easy peasy cutting triangles sizes from the technique sheet, sewing them on, and trimming down.  

Notice the blue triangle in the picture above is not the same as the one below. The blues in the block were supposed to go from dark to light, and I started out light to dark instead.  Had to fix that.  Best to always look at your pattern, even if you made it yourself.  Haha!



I had to add a wee bit of blue from the Tweet collection to go in these because I botched up the color placement, but it fits in perfeclty. 





The Square Squared ruler lets you make blocks up to 6 inches. Well, my snail trail blocks were 8 inches. What's a quilter to do. I thought about re-designing the quilt to have 6 inch snail trail blocks with 3 inch cornerstones, but I wanted a bigger quilt this time.


I sat for a while thinking how I wanted to tackle my 8 inch blocks. I knew I could start out using the Square Squared ruler for the centers, but that would leave me to use my own basic rulers and trial and error to  trim the right triangle sizes for the next rows. That did not sound fun since I knew how easy it was to use the Square Squared ruler because I had already used it to make 25 blocks so easily. 

I decided my best solution was to go out and purchased the next size up Square Squared ruler. It makes blocks up to 12 inches and is called Large Square Squared.  




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Once I got that ruler I finished up my Snails Trail blocks.  



While I was buying rulers, I remembered 180 Studio designs has a Diamond Rects Ruler. I have 40 Diamond Rectangles in this quilt. After seeing how nice it was to make the Square in a Square, I did not want to paper piece these 40 units, so another ruler arrived on my doorstep.



 What can I say, the rulers are so nice. It makes quilting and trimming up so easy and all the pieces fit together perfect, and no paper to remove afterwards. If you want accurate piecing and don't want to mess with paper piecing, these rulers are the way to go.



So basically this entire quilt, was cut out and pieced using Deb Tucker 180 Studio design rulers.



The fabric for the purple diamonds is an Island Batik Blender called Dandelion - Wisteria.
The triangle corners are the Cherio - Bermuda and a deep Purple

Block sizes are:
Snails Trail = 8 inch finished
Diamond Rectangles  = 8 in x 4 in finished
Economy blocks and Square in Square blocks = 4 in finished

If you notice above, the Snail Trail block has a dark purple triangle in the bottom corner, but not in the finished quilt. When I started putting all the pieces together  the dark purple in the Snail's Trail block was too dark next to the purple in my diamond rectangle and I lost the look of the star points I was going for.  So I swapped it out to match the Wisteria in the Purple diamond rectangle.



Simple Square in a Square, Economy Blocks, Diamond Rectangles, and Snail Trails blocks make quite an intricate pattern when all put together.



I quilted it using Hobbs Silk Blend Batting from their Tuscany Collection.  
This quilt measures 57 x 57 so this package was the perfect size! 




As always Hobbs batting quilts like a dream.







For the quilting, I used two different colors of Aurifil 50wt threadThread.
1148  Light Jade and 2420 Fleshy Pink




And of course I used Schemtz Needles.  The Microtex Needles are perfect for quilting Batiks.






Looks great on the porch swing.



The cream colored fabric comes from Island Batik Foundations.  It is called Cake Batter.
I had fun playing with the rulers from Studio 180 Design this month.  I can't say enough good stuff about them. I was generously given the Squared Squared and loved it so much I purchased two more rulers to finish the quilt and I will definitely use them again for other projects!




Some weird lighting in the backyard, gives the colors a whole new look.




Make sure to stop by the other Ambassadors websites this month to see what Ruler they got to play with and what they created!




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Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Baby Blue Dutchman's Puzzle



My latest July Finish a Baby Blue Dutchman's Puzzle.


This one started as a quilt top in January for the Winter Blues Blog Hop.



I quilted it in May. 
I  was having issues with my long arm when I quilted my May Ambassador project and wanted something small to quilt to see if I had fixed the issue.



Turns out the issue was the quilt was pulled too tight on the frame.  
Once I loosened it, no more skipped stitches.


I put the binding on this morning before work and now I have another finish for the month.  Yay!


Happy Quilting!

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Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Christmas Then and Now Blog Hop


Welcome to day two of the Christmas in July - Then and Now - Blog Hop hosted by Carol of Just Let Me Quilt  This is a fun hop to show off some Christmas creations we made either in the past or something made recently or both!

Today I am going to show off a few of my favorite Christmas Quilts, and my newest finish.

Let's start with my newest finish!  My Christmas Dresden Quilt!  Quilted and bound!


Finally!!


This is an old UFO I started in 2012 and used lots of different greens and reds prints.  some were Christmasy, some were just red or green.


I started with strips  of alternating red and green and cut all my dresden fans from those.


I made 20 Desdens, but only ended up using 12 in the quilt.  


Once I added the sashing and Cornerstones the quilt was getting really big!  
So now I have 8 more Dresden blocks that I need to put into new projects.


I finished the top in January 2015 and then it sat patiently in his labeled box  while I worked other projects and deadlines.



This blog hop got me inspired to finally give this quilt a deadline so it would get finished!  



It has been on the UFO list for a long time and I am so happy to have it complete and just in time for Christmas in July!





Now lets check out some of my older projects, made way back when... 
First up is the very first Christmas quilt I made.  



It was created in 2007, using all sorts of holiday novelty prints and the Split Nine Patch Block.
I still pull this one out and drape it over the couch every Christmas.




This next one was finished in 2012.  It is a Schnibbles pattern by Miss Rosie's Quilt Company called Spot.  This was the first time I bought a pre-cut and have never turned back.  I used to think precuts were a waste of money because they cost more than yardage when you added it up, but I soon realized sometimes being able to get a whole fabric line was worth the little extra dollars.

Like buying grated cheese.  The block is cheaper, but pre-graded saves so much time.

I loved this fabric line so much I made another lager quilt out of it called Starry Eyed.  I copied the pattern right down to the fabric choice. This one was finished in 2013.




This next one is another one of my favorites.  I finished this one in 2014. It was my own design and I just love all the red and white pinwheels.  Reminds me of Christmas Candy.  I gifted it to my sister and have always thought in the back of my mind I will make one just like it for myself one day.







This round table topper was a small project that I love.  I made two of these, one for my good friend in Tennessee in 2011 and one for me in 2014. It fits perfect on my round side table.  I had fun playing with the 10 degree ruler from Phillips Fiber Arts to make these.







This next one was my second One Block Wonder Quilt and made in 2017.  I had fun making this one from start to finish.  Other than when I played along with Project Quilting, this was probably the fasted I have made a quilt without putting it aside to work on other projects.   I bought the fabric November 28th and had it ready to gift on Christmas Eve.  I gave this one to my Aunt, she absolutely loved it!





The last one I want to show off is the one I made last year for my other Sister.  She was long overdue for a Christmas quilt.  I finished these festive trees last year and shipped it out to her just in time for Christmas.



I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my favorite Christmas Quilts I made over the years.  Make sure to check out the other Blog Hoppers and see what they have made, then and now.


July 28



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