Busy like a bee..

I signed up for two sewing bees this year. My first Bees ever, sew exciting to be asked! The Must.Stash Bee is run by Amy and it’s a nice small Australian bee. These folks have awesome stashes! The premise is that the Queen bee chooses a block for the month and the hive all pull fabrics from their stash to create a couple of blocks for her. It has been a wonderful and eye opening experience. I think we’re going for round two. The benefit of running a bee this way is the postage costs are kept down and I’m challenged to make something that someone else will love from my fabrics.

Here are some blocks I’ve made for the Must.Stash girls so far.

I’m still receiving the Jacobs Ladder blocks from my month and love them. It’s going to be a spectacular quilt. I’ll have to remember to take a photo of the blocks together to post here. Thank you Must.Stash girls!

The second Bee I’ve been in is the AusMod Bee organised by Jeannette. This is a much larger Australian bee with 15 members and each Queen bee sends out her fabrics and chooses a pattern. I only knew a couple of the members before I joined this bee and It’s been wonderful to get to know everyone over the past 4 months. I’ve made blocks for Jane, Charlotte and Bronwyn so far. The great thing about a big bee is the sheer number of blocks you get back, perfect for a big quilt. And I LOVE big quilts.

Jane designed her own paper pieced pattern Refractatorium, isn’t it awesome?

Charlotte sent out three solids Snow, Pink and Grey for modern 12” blocks. It was hard to send these away!

Bronwyn sent out a variety of blue and aqua fabrics for some 12” modern blocks. I’m loving these stars. I think I see stars in my future…

I was lucky to be first cab off the rank and have 60 gorgeous AMH Feather blocks to show for it. I’m thrilled with the experience so far. Postage was a little expensive sending out the 14 parcels especially given how big the templates were. I’m very happy that my long hoarded stash of Anna Maria Horner fabrics is finally being put to good use! Now I need to find some time to sew them all together.

Luckily one of the Bee members recommended Lisa at Sunset Seams to make the templates too, they really helped with making the feathers and we’re using them again this month for Kirsten’s blocks so it was a good investment.

There’s only 13 cause I hand delivered Jane’s and Catherine's in January!

Will post photos of my gorgeous feather quilt when I have the top together, but here are some of the blocks. I have to say it felt like Christmas receiving all the gorgeous parcels in the mail!

Phew! Today I’m making some Granny Square blocks for Belinda, I’m really excited about using some of my new stash that I know she’ll love!

More sewing with templates…

I am the worst blogger EVER! I hate to just post pictures without some explanation and then convince myself I haven’t got the time. But this post should be short and sweet. I’m hoping to explain how to use the Marti Michell templates to machine piece hexagons. This will save you heaps of time rather than hand piecing over papers…

I gave the Marti Michell 2 1/2” Stripper Set a go to make this iPad case for Justine. She loves the Anna Maria Horner Loulouthi range and had a FQ bundle she hadn’t got around to using yet.

I cut a 2 1/2” strip from every piece and chose one of the larger scale prints to line the case.

Cutting the hexagons from the strip was really easy, perfect for using up those favourite jelly rolls!

Place the 2a hexagon template on the strip and use a sharp 28mm rotary cutter to cut the hexagon. You can stack the fabric strips and cut multiple pieces, this makes the cutting go real quick. Isn’t that fabric pretty!!

Unfortunately I haven’t got a fast way to mark the dots. Use a sharp pencil, I use a regular HB pencil, anything too soft may spread and mark lighter colours. This is a little tedious but unless you can eyeball the 1/4” seam allowance where it meets at each point of the hexagon (perfectly) I wouldn’t skip this step. It really helps when you’ve got the fabric bunched under the presser foot and can’t work out where to stop sewing.

Next it’s time to take your hexies over to the machine. You can pick up pieces randomly or play around till you like how they look together. I felt they needed a little resting spot every now and again so added a few grey hexies.

Sewing the hexies… Set your stitch length to slightly smaller than usual, I use a 2mm length stitch. It gives you more control when it comes to stopping on the dot and the seams are tighter. You don’t want these gaping apart!

Place two hexies right sides together and lower your needle exactly on the top dot. Give your machine a little kiss if it has an automatic knotting function now! Otherwise you will need to make a couple of zero length stitches before continuing. Sew right up to the next dot and again make a knot (zero stitches) before cutting your thread. It’s best to sew just short of the dot rather than go past it and sew into the seam allowance.

To make a pieced section of hexagons like I did for J’s iPad case I sewed rows of hexies together end to end. Then I sewed the rows together in pairs, fours etc.

The next step is a little tricky to get your head around so it helps to lay the rows out and match the first seam you will sew. You are sewing between the dots, make sure to keep all extra fabric out of the way. Tie off at each seam and then pivot to sew the next one and so on until you are done.

There’s no need to press till you finish sewing your rows together. Then you need to pay a little bit of attention to the seams. Alternate the direction each seam is pressed so that you end up with “swirled” seams where the y seams meet. This will reduce the bulk at the seam and help you achieve a nice flat piece of patchwork.

I know, it’s a little slow and hardly seems worth the bother the first few times but really keep going, imagine how long it would take to sew all these hexies together by hand?

Once I had enough pieced fabric to make the case I used a few tutorials to construct the case.

The Sometimes Crafter  : kindle case tutorial

Greenleaf Goods : Quilted iPad Cover

You Sew Girl : Magnetic clasp instructions

Since then I’ve also made myself a Kindle Case, using the triangle template in the 2 1/2” Strippers set. This was a very quick project and I love having something I’ve made to protect and distinguish my e-reader from all the others.

Sewing with templates

This post has been a long time coming. How to break down and describe the process of designing, fussy cutting and sewing a block using Marti Michelle’s Set H.

I first purchased a set of these in a quilt shop but felt too intimidated to use them. Then I bought the accompanying book but it still wasn't making much sense. It wasn’t till I attended a class with Catherine Butterworth that it all gelled and made sense, she’s a wonderful teacher.  Now I’m enjoying arranging the shapes with different prints and colours to create unique blocks and looking forward to creating more quilts using some of the other template sets.

Prior to this the only way I’ve tackled hexagons and inset seams was using English Paper Piecing. Now that I’ve used the Perfect Patchwork templates it’ll be pretty hard to go back to that method for a large quilt. Sewing hexagons and inset “y seams” with your sewing machine is much faster and almost fool proof. The template set comes with 3 acrylic templates to create 11 shapes.

By taking the focus away from the construction I’ve found I am playing more with the designs and having lots of fun with all the different tessellations that fit inside the finished 6” sided hexagon. (Marti Michelle templates are measured by the length of a hexagon’s side)

So how do you start?

Firstly, pick some fabric you can play with. There are lots of wonderful prints that start to take on a life of their own once you’re armed with a tessellating shape and Marti Michelle’s Magic Mirrors.

Make a cardboard window of the finished size of your diamond by using the markings on the acrylic template. Move the window over your fabric and use the “magic mirrors” to help you find a placement that works.

it’s all done with mirrors! VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Once you’ve selected the area you want to use, mark the corners so you can align the acrylic template and cut the precise shape. Cut using a small or medium rotary cutter, make sure you clip the engineered corners off. They really make a difference when you are sewing the seams together!

Use this shape to help you with placing the other 5 diamonds.

A warning: make sure you’ve got enough of the fabric to yield 6 repeats, I’ve been caught out more than once! Generally speaking fabric repeats every 24” so you will need 1.5 yards of fabric to get 6 exact large diamond pieces across the length of the fabric. Be aware that you will need a lot more fabric than if you are cutting shapes from a strip.

 

To piece the diamonds into the star shape you will need to mark the starting and stopping points of the seams on your diamond shapes. Mark them on the back of your diamonds with a pencil. I’ve found chalk rubs off and makes piecing the blocks together difficult.

Align two diamond shapes together, face to face.

Starting at the first dot, tie a knot (or make a couple of “zero stitches”) and stitch along the 1/4” seam till you approach the end dot. Tie off and cut the thread. Repeat with the other diamonds. Join the first and the last diamonds together in exactly the same way. Make sure you keep the seam allowances out of the way.

Start with simple diamond shapes till you’ve mastered the cutting and piecing techniques. Press the seams to face one way and “swirl” the centre seam to reduce the bulk at the middle.

By using 6 more diamonds, we can fill in the spaces between out star “arms” to make a hexagon.

That’s all for today, will put some more information together to post here soon… Please let me know if you have any questions.

have fun xx

Fine fabric, friends and food = FUN!

This weekend I attended the Quilters Gathering at Ulladulla. I first went to one a few years ago and had such a wonderful time I was keen to go again. Life often gets in the way of doing what we really want to do and then there’s the guilt of starting yet another patchwork project.

But an important lesson I took way from this weekend (apart from all the fabulous construction techniques) was that I enjoy focusing on the journey not the destination! I love learning new ways of doing things, playing with new fabric and making new friends. If I have a finished quilt at the end it’s a bonus that my family appreciates.

My workshop was the Hexagon Stars with Catherine Butterworth, a Marti Michelle educator. Catherine is a great teacher and lots of fun. Her instructions are clear and she’s so generous with all her tips and hints. I feel that after 2 days I have all the knowledge necessary to explore and construct my own beautiful blocks using the template set. As an aside I had purchased the book (Six is for Hexagons by Marti Michelle) and templates last summer but was a little overwhelmed to try it, the workshop definitely helped but I’m sure you could work it out if you can read the instructions from cover to cover. That’s all I needed to do - RTFM!

Her teaching quilt was gorgeous, full of fussy cut treasures, interlocked and leading the eye over the quilt surface, like a tapestry.

This is just a quick snapshot I took showing the different fabrics she chose to fussy cut.

Whilst the heavy dark tones didn’t really do it for me I could see that this technique leads to wonderful results. And it’s all machine pieced!! No piecing over papers, stitches all neatly tucked away. It’s pretty cool.

 

Here are my blocks:

I kept my first block simple, a big hexagon and radiating triangles set in with diamonds.

I used the Little Apples Layer Cake by Moda. I picked it up because it was such a bargain but had no idea what to do with it… the fabrics are so stinking CUTE!

I followed instructions and the whole block came together beautifully.

 

This is the second one I did using the more complex construction technique of “inset Y seams”. Usually these would send chills down my spine and I’d revert to hand sewing but with accurate pieces and “engineered corners” it also went together beautifully.

Except for my picking up one Hula Hoop girl and stitching her in upside down, OOPS!

 

I was getting pretty confident by block number 3.

I played around with different points on the radiating triangles.

Loving the Little Apples fabric by now… not loving the fabric stash I picked to coordinate.

Did I mention there’s a quilt shop down the road? 30% discount for attendants? Handy!

 

Ok, this one was a bit of a stretch. Diamonds made from 4 pieces of fabric means I had to really look at the grain lines carefully. Lots of cutting, simple edge to edge sewing and carefully pressing.

I don’t want this quilt to be too cute so just used the Dotted Lines from the Little Apples fabric. I think it looks like stitching…

 

 

This isn’t saying table runner or wall quilt to me… I think it’s gotta be another bed quilt.

Looking forward to receiving a little bit of yardage to play some more.

 

 

Other workshops were being taught by Beth and Trevor Reid, Lessa Siegele, Jane MacDonald, Michele Hill, Jenny Bowker, Gail Simpson and Bernie Varkevisser. At show and tell after dinner on Friday we saw all the stunning teaching quilts and last year’s finished projects. Very inspiring.

If you’d like to go to the Gathering next year, put it in your diary for August 17/ 18! If you love patchwork and quilting you wont regret it. The venue was outstanding, they kept us well fed and watered. The company was entertaining and the workshops all looked amazing. Can’t wait to go back!

Week 5, English Paper Piecing

This image of an antique quilt is from www.snippetsnscraps.blogspot.com/2010/07/peeling-back-layers-2.html
English Paper Piecing is a patchwork technique steeped in history and is still used extensively by modern quilters. It's a particularly useful technique for creating one patch quilts (quilt tops made from one tessellating shape) and blocks with many inset or “y” seams.

This is part of a corner block from the Jane Stickle quilt.

Many quilters like sewing over paper or cardboard templates as the project can be carried along and sewn by hand. Piecing a complex shape with straight sides using the English Paper Piecing method is pretty easy and as long as your templates are cut to the right size, the pieces will always fit together. You don’t really need to worry about accurate ¼ “ seams either.

This block was made using The Sometimes Crafter excellent Tutorial, you can download templates there too.
Rather than reinvent the wheel and try to put everything in my own words I recommend you head over to www.lizardofoz.com.au/Free_Stuff/Pdfs/English_piecing.pdf for a definitive guide on English Paper Piecing. They sell pre made templates from lightweight card. These templates are also available from your local quilt store and online.

You can also print out your own templates by using websites such as http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/trianglehex.html Alternatively you can draft templates using graph paper and trace the shapes onto card. I've uploaded a couple of graph papers here to get you started:

60 degree diamond templates

1” hexagons templates

By fussy cutting the fabric for each shape you can create secondary patterns with just one piece of fabric. Be warned... This can be a lot of fun and very addictive!

The cardboard templates can be reused many times so don’t throw them away. Be sure to sort all your different sizes and label them as a slight change in length of a side means your shape will not tessellate properly. Take care when cutting out your templates too, try and cut in the middle of a printed line and allow for the extra bulk when you are tracing templates.

Once you've made your shape you can either applique it onto a square of your background material or keep adding hexagons, diamonds etc till you have enough to cover the area of your block. It is possible to create a square edge by trimming shapes around the edges, make sure you remember to leave a seam allowance!

Dresden Plate Circle

The middle of your Dresden Plate will have a hole that needs to be covered.
This is a nifty technique to make a tidy circle for this or any other block.

1. Draw a circle onto template plastic or cardboard that covers the whole by 1/2"
2. Using plastic allows you to fussy cut the fabric but you need to be careful ironing it
3. Sew a running stitch around the outside of the circle. I like to punch holes in my template so I can use a pin
4. Pull the thread to draw up the fabric around the template
5. Press the edges of the circle, careful not to touch the plastic with the iron
6. Flip out the template and press again with starch
7. Applique the circle on to the flower.

Hope that helps!

Week Three, Dresden Plate

Dresden Plate Template
This quilt block is a combination of patchwork and appliqué. It is a very striking block which is easy to make using this shortcut method.

You will need:

14” square of your background fabric
4.5"” x 10” strip of each of your other 4 fabrics for the petals
Sewing needle
Thread to combine with your fabrics
Pins
Pencil, manicure stick or knitting needle to poke out the point!

Using the template cut 4 tumbler shapes of each fabric. Trace template onto fabric and cut shapes out. You can flip the template along your piece of fabric to make the best use of it.

You can draw up your own template by drawing an angle of 22.5 degrees. Continue the lines up till you have a tall wedge. Cut the point off so that this bottom edge is around 1" wide. You want a template that's 4.5" tall through the centre of the template.

(Boring maths bit: a circle is 360 degrees so to get 16 petals we divided that by 16 = 22.5 degress. If you would like a 20 petal Dresden Plate you would divide 360 by 20 = 18 degrees)

1. Lay out your petals in a pleasing arrangement
2. Fold petals in half, right sides together, lengthwise.
3. Stitch across the top, leaving a ¼” seam
4. Press the tip into a triangle and the seam flat
5. Turn the point so the seam is inside and it forms a neat triangle point, use a pencil or knitting needle
6. Lay the petals out again in order
7. Sew into pairs, pinning them together so they don't get muddled
8. Sew the pairs into fours and the fours into eights
9. Finally sew the two halves into a whole circle
10. Press well
11. Fold your 14” square into quarters and finger press the seams to mark the centre
12. Open up the background and lay the flower on top, turn it to find the best position but keep it centred
13. Pin into place
14. With combining thread, appliqué the petals onto the background fabric
15. Finally, create a cardboard or template plastic circle big enough to cover your opening by at least ½”
16. Cut a piece of fabric at least ½” bigger and tack around the outside, leave a thread tail
17. Pull the thread to draw up the circle neatly around the template
18. Starch and press, remove the circle template from the pressed fabric
19. Appliqué the circle onto your flower to cover the hole.
20. Admire your beautiful block and give yourself a pat on the back!