Progress of a Challenge Quilt

I attend a sewing group at my LQS, and we just participated in a challenge.  We were to use at least 80% of this fat quarter (in a visible location) and make something.  It could be a bag, quilt apron, whatever.  The perimeter of the finish project couldn't be larger  than 210 inches.

It is from the Country Girls line by Tasha Noel for Riley Blake.  At first I was going to make a bag, but it was just too cute not to fussy cut the shapes.  I started out by cutting 3.5 inch strips.  (The red is just so you can see where I cut the fabric.)

Luckily there was very little waste, but I did lose the cute girl with the knapsack.

Then I cut the strips into squares and rectangles.  I knew I had to piece some ends together to make them big enough to finish at 3 x 3 and 3 x 6.

Then I added fifteen fabrics cut into 3.5 inch squares and put them on the design wall.

I added some Riley Blake Basics, one from Tasha Noel's Little Red line, a couple from Lori Holt's Vintage Happy line, a couple Robert Kaufman quilter's linen fabrics, and some Moda Daysail fabrics by Camille Roskelley.  I am very happy with how well all the different fabrics played together.

I pieced the quilt is a new way.  After chain sewing some pieces together, I didn't snip the threads.  I just continued chain sewing pieces in the row together.  There is a tutorial for this method here.  It looks really neat hanging from my ironing board.

Then I clipped some of the threads so that all the rows were in pairs.  I pressed all the odd rows to the left and even rows to the right.

Then I folded it over and sewed the rows together.

  No pins and my points looked pretty good.  :)

Have you ever tried that method before?

Pretty soon I had a finished quilt top which used 92% of the fat quarter and had a perimeter of less than 200 inches.

I actually finished this quilt in May, but waited to blog about it.  I had fun enjoying it in my kitchen until it was time to turn it in.

I will share more of the finished quilt later this week.

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I will be linking up with some of the fun parties on my sidebar.  Check them out to see what other quilts have been doing.

Finishing My Sister's Third Quilt

My sister wanted to make a table runner to give as a gift, so I went fabric shopping with her.  She fell in love with a Jinny Beyer jelly roll.  We did add three different fabrics to it so there would be fifteen different batiks for the quilt.

She wondered what to do with the rest of the strips, and decided to make a quilt as well.

This is only her third quilt.  Her first quilt took her ten years to finish.  It is a beautiful lattice quilt.

She quilted it at my house with my Pfaff twelve years ago.  Her second quilt is a baby quilt which was a hand quilted panel.  It took her fifteen years to finish.  We finished her third quilt together in one week.

She bought the fabric on Monday.  Sewed the strips together for the Strip and Flip quilt and the table runner on Tuesday.  Added borders at my house on Wednesday.  Quilted her table runner on her own machine on Thursday.  Helped me quilt the quilt on my mom's Fusion on Friday.  Watched me sew the binding on the quilt, then sewed the binding on the table runner on Saturday.  It was exhausting!
But we were so amazed that her third quilt was finished in less than a week.

She chose the field of flowers digital pantograph which came with the Fusion for the quilting design.

I got the biggest kick out of the fact that she matched her quilt when we were quilting it.

Once we finished the quilt and runner, they had to have a photo shoot at my house.  :D

First, here's the table runner.

I will admit that the binding is only glued down in these pictures.  She will use the ladder stitch to sew it down to the back by hand.

It looked so pretty outside.

And I really loved the quilt.  It finishes about 55 x 70 inches and used the Strip and Flip Tutorial at Cluck Cluck Sew.  I like using the full width of the fabric and adding a 5 inch border.

We quilted it in a light gray thread which looked great on the front.

And perfect on the back.

The binding is the same as the backing and adds such a great frame to the quilt.

My mom thinks she should start making more quilts now.

 I really am so proud of my (older) sister.

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I will be linking up with some of the fun parties on my sidebar for this fun joint finish.

Side-by-Side Quilt Ladder Tutorial

My boys recently made me this wonderful quilt ladder, and I took pictures along the way in case anyone else would like to make one.  I will warn you and say that this was not a cheap project.  My husband bought really nice oak boards to make it strong and beautiful.

Supplies:
Four 1 inch x 4 inch x 7 foot oak boards
Eight 1 inch x 3 foot oak dowels
Four hinges
Sixteen 2 inch screws

Tools Used:
Miter Saw
Drill Press with 1 inch forstner bit
Drill
Rubber Mallet
Large Glue Clamps
Safety Goggles

1.  Determine the how tall you want your ladder to be.  I wanted my ladder to be 79 inches tall so that it would fit in a corner of my basement with a lower ceiling.  For a nicer look shave off a little on one end before measuring to the height you want.  Cut all four boards at desired height.

2.  Determine the width you want each side to be.  I wanted to have 24 inches of the rod showing, so we cut my dowels at 26 inches long.  Again he cut a little off one end before measuring the 26 inches for a cleaner look.  (Be sure to cut off the painted side as the end of the dowel will show.)

3.  Mark the center of where you want each dowel to be on your boards.  I used one of my quilting rulers to do this.  My first mark was 22 inches up from the bottom, then the next three were spaced 18 inches apart.

4.  With some of your scrap wood, drill a practice hole to check the fit of your dowel in the hole.  We had a very nice tight fit.  (You may need to borrow the scraps from one of your helpers --Panda-- who has discovered how much he likes rhythm sticks.)

5.  Drill the four holes in each board.  Notice there is an extra board under the nice oak board.  It helps achieve a cleaner cut.  (Teenage helpers --Cheetah-- are great for drilling while you hold the board in place.)

5.  Carefully tap the dowels into place on one board.  A scrap board will help protect the wood.

6.  Carefully add another board to the other side.  (Quality control --Monkey-- doesn't like the noise.)

7.  Repeat for the other side of the ladder.

8.  Drill holes for the screws on the back side of the ladder.  You may need two drill bits.  One to countersink the screw, and another to drill deep enough.  Oak is a hard wood and screws can break, so this is an important step.  (You helper can blow the sawdust off for you.)

9.  Immediately add the screw after drilling the holes, so the boards don't shift.

10.  Repeat for all sixteen screws.

11.  Clamp both sides of the ladder together with the backside (showing the screws) facing out.  The smooth side will be facing each other as that is what will show.  Determine where you want your four hinges to go.

12.  Add hinges, pre-drilling the holes for the short screws.  The top and bottom hinges were four inches from the ends and the other two evenly spaced between them.

13.  Stand it up to see if quality control approves.  (He said it was good, and we said no climbing.)

14.  Oak has a nice natural finish, or you can stain the wood and add a polyurethane coating.  If you add a coating you should wait a couple weeks for it to cure before adding quilts.

15.  Add quilts to the ladder. (I plan on staining it darker a little bit later.)

16.  And ENJOY!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  If you have any questions, I will ask Mr. Quilt Kisses for you.

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I will be linking up with some of the fun linky parties on my sidebar.  Check them out to see what other quilters are up to.

Batik Dragons: A Custom Finish

I know I have mentioned this before, but my mom teaches the granddaughters to quilt when they turn 13 years old.  She always used the original Turning 20 pattern.  We watch for fabric sales at our LQS, and go buy kits for quilts that they can choose from.  We always buy half yard cuts instead of fat quarters and then buy two different borders and two different backings.  Right now my mom has about 5 different kits the girls can choose, which is really good because two more just turned 13 this year.  We have found it to be much easier to give them a few choices than to take them shopping for fabric when they are old enough.

The oldest granddaughter made a batik quilt which matches the one above (with a light teal border and backing.)  Hers was quilted on her aunt's longarm (my sister-in-law's sister).  One of the reasons why my mom bought her long arm was to make it easier to finish the granddaughter quilts.  Two years ago two granddaughters made their quilt tops, but neither one wanted theirs to be the first quilt quilted on the Fusion.  So I pieced this quilt top for my mom.

This quilt top has waited for two years for my mom and I to learn how to use her long arm.  Luckily my nieces didn't have to wait that long.  I quilted both of their quilts on my Tiara a year ago.  You can see R's quilt here and C's quilt here.

After successfully quilting three quilts on the Fusion, we were ready to quilt this one.

It went really well, and we are now both really excited about the long arm machine.  We used a loop and star digital pantograph which came with the machine.

 I call it "Batik Dragons" because there are dragons in the border and on the back.

Due to the nature of batiks, I wasn't able to match the design exactly when piecing the backing.  However, I was able to keep the dragons in rows.

The back is almost as much fun as the front.

I bound the quilt by machine for my mom with a navy blue batik.  It adds a nice finishing touch to this custom quilt I worked on with my mom.

It is really nice to exceed our goal of one quilt a month quilted on my mom's long arm.

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I will be linking up with some of the parties on my sidebar.  Check them out to see what other quilts are doing.

Variegated Thread Tip

When I first began machine quilting I loved variegated thread.  However, I stopped using it because I like to have matching thread in the needle and bobbin.  Or at least the same value.  Many variegated threads have a whole range of values from light to dark.  In the thread above (40 weight So Fine #703) you can see that the lime green is a lot lighter than the blues and purples.

I decided to try the variegated thread again, because this batik Turning 20 quilt really wanted some variegated thread.  (I pieced this for my mom to quilt on her machine a couple years ago.)

When quilting it on my mom's long arm, I had an "Aha" moment.  

While the bobbin thread and spool of thread are wound in different orders, you can still pull the bobbin thread up so the light areas match.  

I did that every time I started the quilting and pulled the bobbin thread up.  

That made it so that there weren't any dark spots from the bobbin showing in the light sections.  I was surprised with how well it worked.  I will definitely be using variegated threads a little more often now.  

Do you like using variegated thread for machine quilting?

XX,

Jasmine

P.S.  I will be linking up with some of the fun parties on my sidebar.  Check them out to see what other quilters are up to.  

P.P.S.  I am still working on the tutorial for the quilt ladder.  I am hoping to have it finished next week.