Strings--Save Our Scraps!

Recently. I taught a stings class at a local quilt shop. There were piles of strings to play with and lots of fun was had as small amounts of our precious stash was turned into something useful. The class sample was a suggestion:

I have written about Strings several times before, String Blocks and String Block Swap Tutorial are just a few posts about this fast and fun method. When you just want to sew and you don't want to think too hard, this is perfect. AND you can use a FREE QUILT NOTION you probably already have:  telephone books, the paper is perfect for this.

First I showed the students lots of design ideas for how to use scrap strings. Most of them decided to go with the class sample for their project.

One of the employees brought a huge bag of her strings to donate--the students could have whatever they wanted from the pile:

After lunch I put those away and dumped the large tote bag full of my strings I brought to share:

Since this bag is not nearly as heaped full as when I brought it, looks like they got some good stuff. Why are other people's scraps more exciting than our own?

A few class photos:

Marje working with Christmas fabrics

Donna making a pillow to match her bedroom

Anne also worked in Christmas fabrics

Pam had fun playing with cheerful fabrics

Marje's Christmas Star is coming together

Donna--Center Option 1?

Or Center Option 2?

 I had a pile of blocks I received in a swap years ago. This seemed a good time to sew them together. Here it is quilted and bound and washed, I will donate it to our guild's "Comfy Quilt" program. It's only 30" x 50" but that's OK, good for a small child as a floor quilt:

 Detail of the simple quilting, great for practice:

Sewing strings is also a great way to sew with a child--they can easily sew strings you cut for them, and if you have a Featherweight or other small, fairly simple machine, they will quickly get into this and have fun.

Let's quilt.

Barbara

Veterans Day

This is Veteran's Day weekend in the US. We salute and honor those who are currently serving in our Armed Forces and those who have gone before them. It's a time to remember the sacrifice of veterans and their families. We fly the flag on our porch this weekend.

My husband and I are both United States Marine Corps veterans. He served 23 years, the first 10 as an enlisted man and the last 13 as an officer. I served 4 years as an officer. We met during officer training a long time ago. There are very few photos of us in uniform:

The day I was commissioned a 2nd Lt in the USMC

A few months later at our wedding, he is in his Dress Blues

We loved our time in the Marines. It wasn't always easy, but we felt a part of something much greater than ourselves and are honored to have served our country in this way. We both feel a little odd, these many years later, when someone says "Thank you for your service". We didn't do it for the "thanks", it was our honor and our calling to serve. We would both do it again in a heartbeat, if we could be 21 years old again.

Semper Fi to all Marines everywhere and a salute to other Veterans today, and always.

Barbara

Circa 2016

I am a huge fan of Temecula Quilt Company's Sew-a-Longs and have made several of them. This is one of my favorites, Circa 2016, on the design wall more than a year ago. The pattern is still available  here:

The outer border stripe is wider on the top border, I just didn't cut it down, it was the last strip of border stripe I had left--once the quilt is finished all four borders will be trimmed to the same size.

The other day I finally started quilting this--it has been basted and waiting for me to get to it for about a year:

 It took about two and a half hours to stitch in the ditch along every construction seam. It was easy work using my favorite tool, the Line Tamer Ruler or "template". It allows me to quilt very straight lines quickly with the Bernina Q20 sit down longarm machine--it has no feed dogs so no walking foot would work.

The back shows the simple lines currently quilted. I will quilt in free motion curvy designs in each square created by the stitch-in-the-ditch grid. One advantage to doing all the stitch-in-the-ditch first is, all the pins are being removed as I quilt--now there are no pins to get in the way as I do the free motion designs:

The biggest challenge will be that 3.5" finished size border. I really want to quilt a curvy, flowing large feather design so am currently drawing that on paper a lot to establish "muscle memory". I am also taking a Free Motion Quilting class with my friend Jenny Lyon, Quiltskipper, in Houston, that will help too. When I come home I'll draw some 3.5" wide lines on practice fabric and work on this design until I am comfortable going to the real quilt or just get tired of practicing and decide to jump in! 

With any luck, this one will be done before the year is over and the label I printed last year will still be correct.

Let's quilt,

Barbara

Secret Stars

In March I will be teaching "Secret Stars" to the Lakeview Quilters Guild in the Houston area. This is a great block and my samples show two completely different settings, a simple On-Point setting and a more complex setting that has BOTH on-point and straight set blocks:

A simple On-Point set

The more complex set I designed years ago

To prepare the Supply List I first like to write the handout so I don't forget anything students should bring. Because I made these quilts quite some time ago, I found it prudent to make a small sample of the complex set so I could double-check all the math--and there was a lot of math in that setting.

Here is the small sample top  I created:

I will give it to my guild contact when I meet up with her in Houston in about two weeks. This gives potential students a chance to see the class project "in the cloth". I just hope they realize they can make the simpler setting and still have a beautiful quilt.

All of my current workshops are listed on the Workshops Tab at the top of this page. Perhaps you'll see a class you would like to take. My schedule has a few openings in it for 2020, I'd love to visit you. We really have a lot of fun and learn a lot in class.

Let's quilt.

Barbara

Month 11 The Patchwork Barn

This is the FREE Block of the Month pattern "Patchwork Barn", designed by Edyta Sitar exclusively for The Quilt Show. You must be a Star member of this world-wide quilt guild/show/Internet community to receive the free patterns each month, beginning January 1, 2018. Join today and get started on this journey.

Previous Months can be found here.

NOTE: This is being posted one day early as I am headed to Houston today. The instructions for Month 11 post on November 1, 2018 on The Quilt Show.

We are getting down to the end of this year's Block of the Month. Now you have the Quilt Assembly Instructions. You can put your blocks in the exact place the cover quilt uses or move them around. I started with the cover quilt, put my blocks on the wall, then rearranged them to suit my fabric choices. It's your quilt, make it as you like.

I also used a different center and added sashing between the blocks  to add length to the quilt. Here is mine, with the Rolling Star center block I used for my quilt. This block has set-in pieces and lots of fiddly cutting and piecing so I chose not to try to "teach" that block here: :

In September I provided instructions for this alternate block for those who did not want to do the Barn. Here is the Twinkling Star pinned on top of the center of my quilt: 

If you interested in my setting, send me an email and I'll send my detailed instructions.. The document is  very long as it goes step by step through the process.

Next month the instructions discuss the Quilting and the Binding. As I'll be at Quilt Market and Quilt Festival for almost two weeks, it is not likely mine will even get basted. But my goal is to complete this quilt in 2019 so it does not become another quilt top waiting to be quilted.

Let's quilt.

Barabara

Tiny Stars for Block Swap

I made it!  Thirty  5" unfinished Tiny Stars for the Heritage Quilters of Huntsville block swap:

Recently, I discovered the tutorial for this cute star on Instagram and put a swap together for my guild. Find that info here: Tiny Stars Block Swap

Fourteen people jumped on board so I know they are busy sewing right now too. I chose to only have a month for this swap--the holiday season is just around the corner and if you drag it out, the early birds are done and ready to swap and those who wait until the last minute haven't started yet. Set a short deadline, everyone agrees and the swap is over quickly.

Here is how they will turn in their blocks at our November guild meeting. all 30 in a quart-size ZipLoc bag with their name on it:

At the guild meeting, I will sort them out and return each person's bag with new blocks.

Then it will be fun to see what we got and decide how to use them. They can be cut down to 4.5" unfinished or kept at 5" unfinished. I plan to leave them at 5" so they "float" in the quilt.

Block swaps can be a challenge but this is a good one since points don't have to meet and the sizing is "forgiving".

Let's quilt.

Barbara

Giveaway Time!

UPDATE: We have WINNERS! Congratulations to Susan T. And Denise--emails coming to you. Thanks you so much to all who shared this blog with friends.

As a gift, the Sunflower Quilts company sent a supply of their nifty Thread Cutters to my taping of The Quilt Show in August. These were given out as prizes to some of the lucky audience participants.

They also sent me a couple to use as giveaways--that means YOU might win one:

I have written about these cuties before: here. They are handy-dandy for separating all those chain-pieced units we sew together in long strings, much faster than using scissors. Remember my motto:

                                "I want the fastest method that gives me the result I want."

They don't slide around and you can easily slice apart lots of units in record time.

"My" episode of 'The Quilt Show will air February 24, 2019--that's four months from today. To celebrate that information. I'm going to give these two away now. To be eligible, leave a Comment below, telling us why you NEED this, which color you prefer, blue or orange, AND that you have shared this blog with at least one friend. One entry per email address--be sure your address appears for me---Unknowns cannot win.

Two winners will be selected Saturday October 27, 2018 so you only have 3 days to act. They will be mailed out October 29, before I leave for Houston. AND if you will be attending Houston, I will hand-deliver yours personally.

Good luck and share away!

Let's quilt.

Barbara