Peas In A Pod

Happy Scrappers' Log Cabin Blocks

Instead of showing some of my work today, I want to show you some of the stuff the Happy Scrappers were working on at the Attic Window on Saturday....'cause it is soooo cute!

(First, an apology...I took all my photos with my cell phone because I was too lazy to bring my good camera!  Sorry for the not-so-great quality of the photos.)  Several people at Happy Scrappers were working on these wonderful little paper pieced log cabin blocks that Buffie had taught us how to make a while back.  Everyone is putting really cute novelty fabrics in the centers of the blocks and then surrounding them with little logs of scrap fabrics.  Such a great way to use up scraps, and how totally cute are these?

You might remember that when I learned how to make these, I had brought Sweet Pea to Happy Scrappers with me.  I did not even sew that day.  I just helped Sweet Pea sew that day.  She made her own block like this, and I learned that a simple paper piecing block like a log cabin block can be a wonderful way to teach a child to sew.  To see Sweet Pea's awesome block, click here.  She made it completely from scraps in her own stash of fabrics she's asked me to buy her over the years.  I loved it.  You can also see Caroll's sweet post about Sweet Pea and her sewing machine here.

Here is one of Buffie's completed quilts using these blocks.  (Hello again, shoes!  haha)  I think it is so stinking adorable.  I've seen several of these from Buffie, and the are all just as wonderful.  I think the white sashing on the blocks really makes it...it brightens the quilt up so nicely!  The riot of colors is just spectacular.  (She was working on the binding while we were there.  You can see that it's only half sewn down.  But the blue is perfect, I think.)

What's that?  You want some close up photos of those blocks so you can get a better look at them?  I knew you would.  So, how about this one?  How do you like the kid in the inner tube?  Or Raggedy Anne?  (Click on the photo to make it larger.)

I heard you!  I know you want to see more!  Here are some more blocks in the quilt.  Too cute!

If you want to see another version of this same design that Buffie made, click here.  Caroll did a nice blog post on her quilts, too.

I don't know if you can see it in these photos, but Buffie usually quilts these with white thread, using a nice serpentine stitch her Bernina has built into it.  You can kind of see it going through the baby's purple outfit in the photo above, if you look really close.  I think it's incredibly effective on this quilt.

I knew you'd want to see the back of this quilt, too.  Check out the Dr. Suess fabric.  What a great use for it.  I covet this little quilt, I tell ya'.

Me?  I didn't work on the log cabin blocks.  Sweet Pea and I have still only done the one block.  I'd really like to get back to it.  First, I need to get better organized.  I need to get a bunch of center squares cut and ready to go, so I don't have to rifle through my fabrics each time I want to work on it.  Too much hassle.  Maybe this summer I'll get that organized.

Instead, I worked on the tea leaves I started with Buffie at another Happy Scrappers day.  I blogged about that project here.  You can check out Buffie's organization in that post.  If I could be like that, I might actually get somewhere with my scraps.  Maybe I'll get it going on this summer.

Anyway, I made a bunch more leaves.  Still haven't sewn a stitch on them yet, though.  Maybe soon.  I did that, goofed off, talked, messed around with the SNS and half-square triangle rulers I talked about yesterday, and that's about it!  But it was an excellent day.  I had a lot of fun.

So, whatcha working on yourself with your scraps these days?  My scrap pile never seems to get smaller.  I think they multiply at night.

Weather update:  I wore sandals on Monday because it was to be 60 degrees.  I didn't regret it.  I'm sort of at the point where I'm saying, "Damn you, spring.  If you won't come to me, I'll come to you!"  LOL.  It started pouring off and on at about 7 pm.  At least our lake is starting to come back.  Parts of the state have flood warnings.  I'm thinkint if this keeps up, we might have a good lake behind us again in no time.  That would be okay with me.  If it would just stay in the 60s, I could deal with it a little better, though.

Until next time,

 

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Square in a Square and Half-Square Triangle Ruler Reviews

This weekend, I got to have a sew day with Caroll and the Happy Scrappers at the Attic Window Quilt Shop.  It's always a delight to sew with Caroll, Buffie, LeAnn, Rosa, Peggy, and all the other gals.

Now, I know I've been whining about the weather some lately, but I thought I should show you why.  This was what whas happening when Caroll and I went to lunch on Saturday.  Yes, snow.  It has not only been rainy here (which I could tolerate), it has been COLD.  We did see the sun for a bit yesterday, but the rain is starting again now.  At least it is supposed to be in the 60s today.  It will be the first day we've hit the 60s yet this year.  By the end of the week, we are supposed to be back down into the 40s--and it's supposed to rain for the next 8 days.  So, rest assured, my whining will probably continue.  I hope you agree it's warranted at this point.  ;-)

Jodi Barrows came to the Attic Window quilt shop and to my local quilt shop, too.  But I couldn't go to either event.  Jodi has a ruler called the Square in a Square (SNS) ruler.  Caroll was kind enough to bring hers for me to try so that I didn't feel completely left out.   Thanks, Caroll!  I thought I'd share with you what I thought about the ruler.  I brought some scraps and followed the instructions that come with the ruler.  You can start with any size of square you want.  I fussy cut that medallion.  Then, the instructions give you a formula for determining how wide your strips need to be, and you sew those onto the square (start with top and bottom, then the sides).  You then use the ruler to line up the 90-degree mark with the corer and trim the fabric off.  You get a perfect square-in-a-square block.  You can add as many rounds of strips as you want.  Here, you can see I've started with the center medallion, added the pink, and now I'm about to trim the red round.

Here it is all trimmed. You can see the waste that was cut off above.

I decided to add another round.  (hee hee, got my feet in this photo, but decided not to crop them out!).  You can see that as you go out, the width of your strips needs to be much wider each time.  Again, Jodi gives you a pretty easy and clear formula for figuring this out.

Here it is trimmed, and you can see the size of the waste increases each time you cut.  On this one, the strips were so wide, that the ruler wasn't even wide enough to go all the way across.  I had to abut another ruler up against it to cut.  You can see ths block is about 7.5" square--and it's already too big for the ruler to handle.  So, just keep that in mind...You can't go much bigger that 6" square, I think, if you want the ruler to completely cover your fabric.

(Can you see now the ends of the triangles are cut off on the polka dot scraps?  That's important for below.)

I was a little concerned with all that waste.  So, I took the two smaller sets of triangles and sewed them together.  I thought I would make half-square triangle units out of them

I tried another ruler everyone at bee was raving about.  This is a half-square triangle ruler from Eleanor Burns.  It can cut half-square triangles up to 6.5" square.  Here I've sewn together a red and pink square.  Before I press it open, I line up the ruler with the marked line on the seam line for how big I want my finished square to be.  I then trim around the ruler.  Then, press the block open.

I made four of these blocks and put them together in a pinwheel.  You know I love pinwheel blocks.  My half-square triangles came out perfect, and the pinwheel is looking good!  This block is about 4.5" square.

Next, I cut some more of the red fabric to match up with the large polka-dot scraps.  I had to cut those triangles down a little, because the points were all chopped off as a part of the trimming.  You might be able to see that in the photo above, where the polkadot scraps were sitting on the table with the square-in-a-square block.  I used the Eleanor Burns ruler to make these half-square triangles, too.  They were much larger than the first ones, finishing at 4.5" square.  This entire block finished at 9" square.  And look at my center!  Perfect!  (I attribute that to starting with perfect half-square traingles!)

Here are all the blocks I made.  I made them all in about an hour or so.  It was pretty fun.  I have no plan for them.  I'll throw them in my orphan block drawer and someday do something with them.  I just wanted to try things out.  I had fun doing so and thank Caroll for the opportunity!

(I'm counting these as three blocks completed for Shelly's 350-block challenge, even though I have no plan for them!  What?!  I did finish three blocks.  It's fair!  Right, Shelly?!)

As far as a review of the rulers...The jury is still out for me on the SNS ruler.  It made fast work of the square-in-a-square block, that is true!  And they turned out really nice.  Jodi has several books that go with the ruler, and I think you can use the ruler to make something like 30 different blocks, including perfect flying geese.  So, it may be well worth the money.  I have very limited experience with the ruler, so this really can't be considered a thorough review...take it for what it's worth.  I would have to play with it more.  And I may.  Caroll said I could borrow it any time.  I may try it again.  I will say, I was a little concerned that I couldn't make a very big block with it and that the larger the block got, the more waste there was.  (Maybe that's all the more reason to stay with small blocks.)  So, check it out.  If you are making small square-in-a-square blocks, this may be a really useful tool for you.  I do like how you could start with any size center you wanted and build out from there.

On the other hand, I loved Eleanor Burns' half-square triangle ruler.  That one came home with me.  I really like tools that help me get perfect half-square triangles.  When your half-square triangles are dead on, it is so much easier to get a good point in your project.  There are many methods for getting good half-square triangles.  I like to have lots of tools in my toolbelt for that so I can use the one that makes sense for my project.  Sometimes I just don't feel like sewing on the some of the triangle papers that are out there....or I don't have the right size of triangle papers handy.  So, this is a good tool.  She gives you the size you cut your squares/triangles, and there is minimal waste.  I highly recommend this ruler if you make lots of half-square triangles.  I am happy I have it now!

Hope these thoughts were helpful.  Tomorrow, I'll show you some of the scrappy happiness that was going on at our bee.  It was a delightful day.  You might want to check out Caroll's blog this week.  She took a lot more photos at the bee than I did.  You can see all the wonderful things people were working on.  It was a lot of fun.

Until next time,

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I'm playing a little catch up here!  I finished my June block for the Two's Company Quilt Bee while I was on retreat at Gruber's.  This "block" is a strip that's probably about 40" long.  The little block below is a signature block (before I signed it) that Andrea asked us to make.  What a great idea.  I wish I had thought to do that with my blocks so I could add them to the back of the quilt.  You can read my post about it on the Two's Company Quilt Bee blog by clicking here.  You can read Andrea's post, where she described what she wanted us to do here.  She wrote a nice tutorial for how to make this block on her blog.  If you'd like to access the tutorial, click here.

I've had these blocks done for a while, too.  I just haven't blogged them.  I blogged them over at Two's Company.  These were half-square triangles for Nifty.  This is going to be an amazing quilt.  Go look at her blog post about it on the Two's Company Bee blog to see what she's going to do.  I love it.  I seriously might have to make one of these, because I loved the color combination, and I love the look of the quilt.

I put in one little green triangle of my silk/cotton blend that my friend Jackie hand dyed for me.  I only had enough to do one triangle.  I love that fabric and I can't get more, because Jackie has decided not to work with it anymore.  She said it was just too expensive to get the fabric, and she had to sell it for basically what she as in it.  It wasn't worth it to her.  Bummer!

One more eye candy for you:

I meant to show you a sneak peek at Doris' quilt from our retreat.  I don't know how I missed it last time, but it was just amazing!  Each block was made from different food fabric.  And she used Eric Carle's Hungry Caterpillar fabric all around the borders.  It was very cool.  So bright and colorful!  All her food fabrics coordinated so nicely with the border fabrics.  I told her she better watch out, or I might steal this one from her.  Really awesome!

Okay, next time, I hope to show you my goodies that I got on retreat.  I photographed them today.  We'll see if I can get them downloaded now for you!

Until next time,

Attic Window Quilt Shop: YOU'RE NEVER TO YOUNG TO START QUILTING

via westmichquilter.blogspot.com

Last weekend, Sweet Pea and I traveled up to Grand Rapids to see Caroll and to have lunch with her. The Scrappy Quilt Bee was meeting, and I had been wanting to get in on this bee for a while. So, we brought Sweet Pea's machine with us, and she did some sewing. I just helped.

Caroll caught some photos that I did not get. She blogged the day very nicely. If you'd like to read more about it, go check out her post. You can see Sweet Pea's machine and what we worked on. Love these scrappy blocks with a fussy-cut center. It's all paper pieced, and she was completely independent at it by the last round and a half of logs!

It was a very memorable day. Sweet Pea is still talking about it.

Thanks, Caroll, for a wonderful day! And Buffie, too, for setting up the bee!

Until next time,

Two's Company Quilt Bee

As you know, I've been participating in the Two's Company Quilt Bee.  It has been so much fun.  Each month, one of the 12 of us is in "charge."  When it's your month, your job is to (a) select a block you want everyone to make for you, (b) send instructions and fabrics to each participant, and (c) wait for the blocks to be returned to you so you can put them together for a quilt.  You have been seeing the blocks I've made for others.

Well, April is my month.  So, tomorrow, my packets are going out to everyone.  I just made a blog post over at the Two's Company Quilt Bee blog, telling the group what we are working on in April.  You can hop on over to see my post about it if you want.

Spoiler alert!  We are going to be making this Secret Garden block.   I wanted to do a Cathedral Window block, but I couldn't figure out how to make it in a bee, because you have to make four blocks that are joined together to make the Cathedral Window block.

(Image from Amazon.com)

But I bought this book from Amazon.com (Cathedral Window Quilts by Lynne Edwards) when I was thinking about the Cathedral Window block (LOVE this book, by the way!).  And in it were instructions on making a variation of the Cathedral Window called the Secret Garden (my block pictured above).  I tried making a few and LOVED  making  it.  So, I chose this as my block for the month.

This block combines some machine and hand sewing.  First, you have to prepare the "foundation," which is the white fabric in my case.  You do some machine seams, then some folding and pressing, as you see above.  Then, you insert the colored fabric inside the folds and do some hand sewing to form the block.  There is no batting, and the front and back of the block are the FINISHED blocks.  You whip stitch them together when done, and the quilt is finished.  No need for backing or binding. 

On the Two's Company Quilt Bee blog, I mentioned that I really love this as a travel project.  It is PERFECT for some take-along hand work.  It is very compact and fun to work on while traveling (which, as you know, I've done a lot of, lately).  I thought you might like to see my travel kit for this.  I pack a small, plastic zipper bag with all my supplies.  This fits very easily into my carry-on bag.  It's very easy to get out, work on, and put away.  Not too much stuff, and it doesn't take up too much space.

Here is what's in my bag.  I take along a little stack of foundations and a little stack of red squares.  (In this photo, I only have one.  I need to make more.  But I usually try to carry up to about 10 of these.  They stack and carry very nicely and neatly.)  I have a spool of Aurifil thread, my scissors (yes, you can carry them on a plane, as long as your blades are shorter than 4" from the hinge), and my needle case. 

Inside my needle case are my thimble, a needle threader, a little package of my favorite needles, two applique pins, and some other needles that are stuck to the magnet inside.  I also have a really neat needle minder I just got, but it's not in the bag yet.  I'm going to add it.  It's something you pin to your shirt and when you need to "park your needle" you can just adhere the needle to a magnet on it.

I absolutely love this little needle case.  My friend, Michelle, gave it to me.  Thank you, Michelle!  I use it all the time!

Anyway, this is such a nice, compact project to carry along.  Doesn't require too much "stuff."  Easy to get out, sew, and put away.

I'm traveling again in about another week.  So, I'm going to prepare another stack of foundations and reds to load up my kit again.  I'll also be taking some of my embroidery work.  (But, you see, that's not as compact, because I have to carry a bunch of skeins of floss, an embroidery hoop, etc.  So, this is by far my preferred travel project.)

I'm also going to start an English paper piecing project (see A Few Scraps blog for Christina's Sprocket quilt-along) that I think will be a great handwork project.  Yes, I know....I shouldn't be starting ANOTHER project.  But, I like to have a few handwork projects going at any given time so that I can just pick one up and work on it.  For example, if I don't have any foudnations made for this project, or I finish those on my trip, I like to have another project as back up.  God forbid my fingers should be idle.  Plus, I have always wanted to give English paper piecing a try.

Also, I'm excited.  On Saturday I'm going to take a class up in Grand Rapids to learn to make this bag that Caroll blogged about.  (C'mon.  You KNOW I'm running short on bags!)  Caroll's going to be taking a class at the same shop on the same day.  So, we get to see each other, hang out together, and have lunch together.  I'm really looking forward to it.

Hope you all have a great weekend!  I may not have another blog post before the weekend, so I thought I better wish you well now.

Until next time,

Mama Pea