Sneaky Stitches

I've been doing a little bit of sleuthing and some secret stitching for my FQR Name Tag Swap Partner.  I have finished the pin tag now but this progress shot is all I can show you in case my partner susses it out.  Hope it'll do the job!

Quick Tip for New Cutting Mat

I actually think it looks better in this pic than it really is.

My cutting mat has been used and abused for the last two and a half years and is beginning to rebel.   It was getting a bit ropey and frankly, starting to cut right through in some places.  Look at that black scorch mark on the 12.5" line where I've clearly been very busy!  (Kidding - no idea what actually caused that.)  The lines I cut on most frequently are starting to grab hold of the fabric and fight back but the mats are pricey, as you know, so I'm not keen to fork out my pennies for a new one just yet.

Then I had a tiny brainwave and on Wednesday I 'made' myself a new mat.

I just turned it upside down so that the top right corner is now my new bottom left cutting corner.  A few numbers added by Sharpie marker and bob's your uncle - a perfectly lovely new cutting mat.  Check out your own mat, I'll bet the top right corner is in lovely condition compared to the bottom left!

Happy me, nice new cutting surface and all the pennies still in my purse!

Making Me Smile - 20/52

We all love good post and I've had lots this week.  All these little packages are starting to arrive home from the hipBee worker bees out there. My red and cream bee blocks are in those!  How exciting!  (I promise to show you them when they're all back.)

Le Challenge # 2 - Wings

I've taken up Le Challenge again this month with a little bit more notice to myself than last month's eleventh hour decision!  So here's what I made for "wings" -

Little crochet butterfly magnets for my sewing room noticeboard.  They were stitched from this lovely tutorial if you are interested.

My sewing room is being prettified a little bit at a time with these challenges!

It's a Circle!

As I approached those final teeny slivers of the outer circle I must admit I wondered if this hexie globe would actually defeat me, but taking it one very careful step at a time I now have a circular piece of stitching!  Wayhay!  For some reason I am very taken by this design (which is from Geta Grama), I think I just think it's really clever.

Anyway, off now to work out how to keep the circular shape when I take out the border papers!

Churn Dash Tutorial

I've put this little tutorial together for my Siblings Together Quilt Block Drive.  You folks are amazing, thank you so much for your response so far!!  If anyone else is interested, there is still space for a few more takers - details here.

There are other useful Churn Dash tutorials out there and I tried a few of them to make my blocks, but doing it this way was the way that I got the most accurate results.  I seem to manage HSTs better if I make them a little bigger and then trim them to the required size but the other tutes I used didn't approach them this way. So here's my take on the churn dash, but feel free to use any tutorial you like as long as you end up with a 12.5" unfinished block based on 9 units cut at 4.5".





Churn Dash Block

Fabric A (background) -

Cut 1: 4.5" square
Cut 2: 5" squares
Cut 4: 2.5" x 4.5"

Fabric B -

Cut 2: 5" squares

Cut 4: 2.5" x 4.5"

Use scant 0.25" seams throughout.

1.  Leave your 5" squares to the side for now and lay out all of the remaining pieces as above.

2.  Pair up the 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles of Fabric A with the rectangles of Fabric B, right sides together and chain stitch all four pairs.

 3.  Press the seams towards the darker fabric.

4.  Now let's make those corner HSTs.  Take the 5" squares and pair them up right sides together as shown (pair Fabric A with Fabric B).  Draw a diagonal line across the wrong side of each pair.

5.  Stitch a seam 0.25" on each side of the diagonal pencil line.

6.  Using your rotary cutter cut along the pencil line to separate your HSTs.

7.  As before, press seams towards the darker fabric.

8.  Now trim the HSTs to 4.5" square, taking care to line up the diagonal seam with the diagonal line on your ruler.

9.  Lay out all your 4.5" units in the correct order ready to sew together.

10.  Stitch the units into rows and then take the rows to your ironing board.

11.  Take the middle row first and press the seams towards the darker fabric (that might be different from my photo depending on your fabric choices).  Then, press the top and bottom rows in the opposite direction.  In my sample block, the middle row seams were pressed outwards and the top and bottom rows were pressed in towards the centre.  This alternate pressing of seams will help you to nest your seams together nicely in the next step.

11. Placing rows 1 and 2 right side together, butt the seams and pin in place to hold while you stitch the row together.  Repeat to join rows 2 and 3.

12.  Press the final two seams of the rows open to reduce the bulk in your block.

13.  Trim to 12.5" square.  Stand back and smile because you've just made great looking block!!


Don't forget if you are making this block for my Siblings Together Quilt Block Drive all the other details are on this post.  And, thanks a million!!

Siblings Together Quilt Block Drive

Towards the end of last week you may have noticed that Lynne invited folks to join a Siblings Together Quilting Bee making twelve quilts over the course of a year for donating to the 2014 Siblings Together programme.  With a keen response oversubscribing her Bee, Lynne suggested that folks consider the possibility of starting up further Bees for themselves via the flickr group.  (There are a couple starting up so do pop over there if you're interested.) I thought this over for a few days and popped in to the flickr group now and again to see what kind of vibes there were for this.  And then, I had an idea (dangerous, I know)!

Reading the comments on the flickr group it seems that some folks might be willing to make a block or two but perhaps just don't have the time or resources to commit to a full Siblings Together monthly Bee.  So, rather than waste your willingness to contribute, here's what I'm thinking...

Siblings Together Quilt Block Drive!  You get to make as many blocks as you think you can manage for me to gather together and make up into a Siblings Together Quilt for 2014!  Want to join me?

My Siblings Together Churn Dash blocks for 2014 boy quilt.

Here's the info:

I plan to make a 6x5 block churn dash quilt for a boy (think age 10+ rather than tiny boy) and I will need 25 more blocks to complete a top.

If you would be interested in joining my block drive, please let me know in a comment below, or via flickr mail, how many blocks you want to contribute to the quilt.  Then, you make the blocks any time you like over the next 5 months (nice and slow) and post them back to me by the 31 October 2013 deadline.  I will then piece the blocks into a top and finish it off before donating it to Siblings Together as our collective effort.

I will post a 12.5" churn dash block tutorial in a few days time that you can use to make up the blocks from your own stash in a colour palette of blue, grey, red, orange and green in fabrics suitable for boys (no white, no insipid shades and no florals please).  Here are the type of fabrics I pulled just to give you an idea of the palette I had in mind.

Please use good quality quilting cottons, just two fabrics per block and stitch with a quarter inch seam to help ensure consistency among blocks being contributed by lots of different folks.

I think that about covers all the details except to say that if you want to join in I will need to be able to contact you, so please make sure to leave an email address in your comment if you are a no reply blogger.

I know lots of you folks that I know well are really heavily committed to all sorts of other Bees and charities, not least our own Bee Blessed, so please, please do not feel obliged to add to the pressures you may already feel under.  I am "advertising" this block drive on the flickr group for Siblings Together just to see if there are folks who want a low commitment kind of contribution to a quilt for such a worthy cause.  (If you haven't heard of Siblings Together, please check out Lynne's post which tells you all you will need to know.)

If any of you want to spread the news for me with a teeny mention to your readers, that would be a great help too.

So that's it!  Anyone in?