Loving Hands Quilt Guild

Our church in New Berlin, WI, has a quilt mission as part of the Women's Mission groups.  As my co-leaders Suzi always says, we're "small but mighty".  We have about six or seven core members, and sometimes we pull in other people for a project here or there.

We always have a bag of quilt kits in our resource center, but sometimes our 'parts department' gets a little low.  We love making string blocks, and putting them into quilts, but we stopped making them for a while so we ran out.

This year we wanted to spend a day sewing together, and it seemed like getting some string blocks done would be a good project for all skill levels. You know what string blocks are I'm sure... but here's a sample just in case:

I made these 3 1/2 inch blocks of leftover pieces a while back. 
Our blocks at church are usually 9 1/2 inches. 

We had a whole bag of 'strings', which are the cuts that are left over when you make a project.  Sometimes they're large and can be used again in a quilt, and sometimes the pieces are short but can be sewn together and used, and sometimes you wonder why you didn't throw them away to begin with!

Suzi brought her bucket of strings too, and that turned out to be a BIG pile of goodness! We ended up with a crew of nine or ten, including one teenager and my own Miss A, who is almost 9.  So we went all the way from 9 to 90+!

We work on foundation blocks, pieces of fabric too light to use in an actual quilt; we had a ton of those precut.  Several of the ladies and the two youngsters had never made a string block before.  It's a good block for beginners to start with because it's so forgiving.  A demo of the process was made and we were off to the races!

At various points during the day we ate, played bingo with quilt words and gave away prizes, then returned to sewing.  By the end of the afternoon we had over 30 blocks, 9 1/2 inches square, sewn, pressed and trimmed to size.  Next time someone is looking for a project, this could be the one they pick up!

Sadly I took almost NO pictures during this wonderful day.  Next time, for sure...  A good time was had by all.  I hope we made some new friends, and that they come back again next month.  Our 'parts department' is full again!

Sew on...

Three Days To Go!

It's almost here!!  That's right, Sewing Weekend starts this Thursday!  Can you tell I'm excited!!??

My favorite time of the year is nearly upon us.  Well, upon me anyway, I don't know about you.  I've signed up for some awesome classes at Sewing Weekend in Beaver Dam.  Of course I'm going to Nancy's class, and then my second favorite teacher Mary Mulari.  It doesn't matter how many times I see these ladies, they always have something new to say.

I also signed up with three people whose names I know but I've not seen them before... Deborah Jones' Letter Perfect Monograms & Lettering (I assume for machine embroiderers), Gail Patrice Yellin's It's All About Embellishment, and Pamela Leggett's Knits and Fits.

My suitcase is in the hall ready for packing and my tickets are in a safe place.

Here's what I've been working on while I'm waiting for Thursday:

This is a scarf, well actually a cowl, that I'm knitting from some of the hand-dyed yarn I picked up a the Loopy Ewe website.  It's teal and green with pale blue and some brown tossed in.  It probably will go with my gray winter coat but I bought it specifically for the brown color.  Once I've knitted the required length, it gets seemed together in a big loop, then folded in half and draped around neck and shoulders.  I have brown and teal in my wardrobe a lot so it should go with a few different outfits and match my turquoise bracelets.

Just for fun, I'm making a striped doll sweater for 'Audrey Anne', our American-Girl-From-Target.  I usually knit front and back at the same time to make them even and symmetrical, but with two colors sometimes this results in a tangled mess.  I'm trying to remember to turn back and forth at the end of each row instead of around and around.  Old habits die hard, I'm afraid...

Never being one to be happy with just one project in the works, I recently purchased this book with the idea of maybe making each block once to see if I'd enjoy making the whole quilt.  So far all I've done is pour over the book for a couple of days and think about fabric.

Maybe I'll see some I'd like to use while I'm at Sewing Weekend!

Sew on...

Friday Night Sewing

The aunties and cousins and I get together almost every Friday night for sewing night.  If you visit me often you probably already read about Becca's project.  She's nine, and she does a bang-up job!

Last Friday there was no sewing, and it was kind of a mystery as to why for a while.  But our hostess was off doing some other stuff.  I had taken off early in the afternoon because I knew I was hosting the two next door grands until later in the evening.  So we had our own sewing night.

Of course Miss A organized us all and laid out the dolls who were also attending.  She set up her 'desk' with doctor's office things and took care of several broken appendages with colorful bandages.  She had us all read our contracts and sign them to admit our injured babies.  Boy, does that girl's mind go a million miles an hour!  She's like a Philadelphia lawyer...

The babies with their leg injuries...

I have a system with scraps that provides instant materials for times such as this.  Face it, with two adolescents in the sewing room, I'm not actually going to get any serious work done!  But I have my two inch strip drawer and my 2 1/2 inch drawer and my 'scraps to cut into usable pieces' basket, so I was all set.

Previously I had assembled some quilt blocks using the 2 inch strips.  I made the block that is sometimes called Jacks in various kiddie prints and whites.  Miss A decided that she was going to do the sorting and snipping of threads and Miss E would do the pressing.

Surprisingly, well actually surprising to no one BUT me, Miss E decided that she would press, and she wasn't one bit afraid of the iron.  Her mom later said that in her Girl Scout group she was the only one who knew how to use the iron.  Goes to show they're growing up while I'm not looking again.

Anyway, Miss E pressed all the blocks I had done, then was looking for more.  So I started sewing my 'sorted' two inch strips together with the whites, and made more sets, which then turned into more blocks.  Miss A reacted in amazement when the blocks were pressed open -- where did that pattern come from??!!  Really, those strips turned into that pretty design??  WOW!

This is how so many new quilters react when those intricate patterns turn out to be nothing more than strips and squares when you break them down.  I have a pretty large pile now, I should be able to put some flimsies together this weekend.

Unless, of course, the girls decide we need another 'sewing night'!!  Then I'll have to wait for direction from Miss A.  :-)

Sew on...

Catching Up on the Sow Along

Finally I got situated to sew some more Phone Guy's Wife blocks!  Three hours in the sewing studio yielded a number of new blocks.

I think I'll take the corners off the block on the left and
replace the outer triangle with white.

 This is a new attempt at Churn Dash, along with the one I sewed in February (?)... neither makes me particularly pleased.  It's amazing how different they look in the photos.

 This block is called Calico Puzzle.  I should have made more contrast between the two darks. Honestly, the leaf pattern looked more medium in person. 

Maybe it will grow on me...  I love all three fabrics.

 The block - Butterflies at the Crossroads -- caused me untold stress.  The book we're not talking about doesn't give measurements.  I did the math -- a 6 inch finished block divided by five elements equals 1.2 inches per element.  Add .5 for seam allowance and you get slightly less than an inch and 3/4 cut.  Allows for inexact seam allowances, right?  Except for some reason I could not get the size right!! 

I finally resorted to half square triangle paper and threw away all of my unsuccessful pieces.

I'll tell you about the triangle paper later in this post.


Four Winds.  56 HST and 8 1-inch finished squares!!  Oh yeah!

This Four Winds block was actually pretty much fun to sew, believe it or not!  It has a crazy number of pieces altogether -- 64 total.  The HSTs finish at one inch.  I cut out all of the pieces so carefully, counting the number I needed of each and checking them off.  Then when I was sewing them together, I discovered that I had miscounted the green/light green HSTs and I had to make two more.  Plus I sewed one quadrant together with one square upside down.  Twice!



Friendship Star.  A sewist-friendly block if there ever was one!   Except that I ran out of the light green background so the corner squares are a slightly different fabric.  Hardly noticeable in real life but it shows up pretty well in the photo.

There are lots of ways to make a HST, but my favorite has become using triangle paper.  You can use Thangles or Triangle Paper or you can find various directions for doing them without paper.  I just bought software that makes about three dozen sizes and prints on whatever kind of paper you can put into your printer.  It's called Print and Sew from 1-2-3 Quilt at  http://www.quiltpro.com/.  I'm not endorsing it and I haven't been paid any money to say this so take it with a grain of salt.  But I like it.

I get nice crisp squares with hst paper... and once I cut off the dog ears my pieces fit together well!

These are some of the 64 pieces of the Four Winds block.



Next I hope to be finishing up the raffle quilt for the preschool class.  I also have to get back to my DD's blue and brown quilt one of these days.

Happy sewing!

SOW Along -- The Phone Guy's Wife Quilt Squares

I previously posted about doing the SOW Along with Randy in California's Barrister's Block blog,  http://barristersblock.blogspot.com/

Since my DH used to work for Ma Bell, I'm calling mine "The Phone Guy's Wife".

Since then, the author of the book Randy was basing the Sow Along on asked her to remove all references to the book due to possible copyright infringement.  Now I understand copyright infringement, have been a supporter of enforcement of rules all of my life, and I understand from whence this lady may be coming.  But many, many quilting teachers teach classes based on books and patterns by others.  They either include the price of the purchase of the book in their class price or require to book (or pattern) to be purchased by each student.

Hard to do on the Internet...

All of the patterns used in the book are in public domain.  I know because I bought the book.  Yep, my interest in the project made me go out to Amazon.com and buy a copy.  Because, you know, I love books, and I love sewing, so books about sewing are like a little piece of heaven!

The book contains a CD with templates, but beware -- depending upon what printer you use, you may have to adjust the size of the templates slightly.  I made the first block exactly as my little Canon printer showed them, and the finished block was a little on the small side.  There are no construction directions either, so you have to look for directions elsewhere.  That's why Randy's cutting and sewing directions would be so helpful.

I decided to go into my bin of green fabric, and toss in some light neutrals.  Last night I finished up my six blocks for the month of February.  I started at the back of the book with the first pattern, and they're in alphabetical order.  So this month I did these blocks.  Sorry about the photos, some of them are a little crooked and the flash was too close. 

Attic Window:  an easy block, kind of fun to do.  Not too challenging but I used a piece of fabric from my 'grass' fat quarter in the smallest triangle.

Autumn Tints:  Why is this called Autumn Tints??  The illustration shows the larger squares using a fussy cut, but I just used a fabric I liked.

Basket:  I put some floral fabric 'in the basket'.  Baskets are not empty at my house!

Basket Weave:  here I used almost the last piece of a fat quarter with apples on it.

Bat Wing:  Uh, I have to tell you I hate this square, and I will never make it again!  The odd angle had me ripping twice on each wing at least.

Big Dipper:  Quarter square triangles in a fabric I love so I used it again.  Once I knew the finished size I dug out my triangle paper and Thangles to see if I had the right size.  Eureka!  Saved by math!

Coming up for March -- more beeees! 

1. Birds in the Air - some large and lots of little triangles
2. Bouquet - kind of like a basket
3. Box --nearly all HSTs
4. Bow Tie - fun and easy
5. Broken Dishes -- Small (1.5" finished) HSTs
6. Broken Sugar Bowl -- four patch, HST

Keep on sewing!

What do I do with all these quilt blocks??

In my mailbox nearly every week there will be a new quilting or sewing magazine.  I haven't counted how many I get, but I know off the top of my head that I get Threads, Sew News, McCall's Quilting, Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting, Better Homes & Gardens Quilting, and maybe a few more.  The joy of opening those covers and checking out what someone else made knows no bounds!

When they first come I spend a few minutes rapidly paging through to look at all the articles and patterns.  Then I take them one by one and spend some time studying the patterns.  Are they based on 2 inch or 2 1/2 inch or some other size strips or squares?  Can you assembly-line sew parts, are there triangle units or geese units?  I love figuring that out, and I love it even more when the author or editor has good, clear directions.

Then I spend some time looking at the color combinations.  I especially like it when a second color scheme is included.  Sometimes I think I don't like a pattern just because it's not my favorite colors, or I DO like it because it is in my colors, so I like to see a second or third colorway to test the theory.

After I've been through the whole magazine I go back with sticky notes or flags and put them on the patterns I most want to try.  If there are three or more in one magazine, I will usually keep the whole magazine.  But if there are only one or two, I'll make photocopies of the pages I want and recycle the magazine to quilting friends or the local sewing guild free table.  This way I can pare down my collection and keep myself from starring in an episode of Hoarders!

A couple of times a month I'll sit down with my patterns and make up a test square.  Sometimes I make more than one in different colorways.  I test how long it takes to make one, and see the finished size.  Often I take these 'tests' to Friday night sewing for 'sew and tell'.  Sometimes we're inspired to make more and finish a top.  But sometimes the test is the only square that actually gets done.

If they were always the same size or colorway, they might be made into a sampler quilt.  But they're not, because, well, that would be boring.  So I end up with a box of various sizes and colors and patterns.  If I can make a 24 inch square or a 24x30 rectangle, they can become a doll quilt.  If the squares are smaller, say 8 inches, I've made them into eyeglass cases and pot holders.  That's also a good use for those bits and pieces of batting.

Other things you can use your leftover squares for are purses and bags, table runners, pillow cases, children's clothing (think a square in the middle of a small jacket back!) or cushion covers.  I've been wanting to turn some of my nicer squares into a seat cushion for my office chair.  It's a wonderful chair but it has a mesh seat and back, and in the winter it gets a bit chilly.

I've also seen very cool covers for the backs of those square-backed kitchen chairs.  You make a sleeve that fits over the top third of half of the chair, and it dresses up your kitchen.  I want to turn a set of bright colored squares into some valances for the spare bedroom, to dress up the plain white curtains that are in there now.

Lately I've seen those extra squares used very effectively with large chunks of fabric for quilt backs.  There's no reason why the backs can't be as lovely or interesting as the fronts, is there?

One other very interesting way I've seen these orphan squares used it for a kind of crazy quilt top.  Not 'crazy quilt' in the classical sense.  More like a wildly insane top made with bits and pieces.  I can't remember who did this, but the person cut the squares on the diagonal and sewed them to other squares, intentionally mis-matching.  But because each piece appears more than once in the top, it looks planned.  Then smaller squares were enlarged, or sewn together into groups to make a panel, and when the panels were the same size, those were sewn together until the top was large enough. 

I think that one will take more planning than I can devote to it right now.  Meanwhile, I'm still sewing some sample squares every week.  Last week's was Bonnie Hunt's Scrappy Sister's Choice , which you should go and view on her blog.  I made some with 2" strips because I already had a bunch of nine-patch squares done.   They're super cute!  They'll be a quilt for some lucky American Girl doll sometime soon.

Try something new.  If nothing else you'll end up with some jazzy pot holders!