Holiday Surprise!

What a fun holiday surprise!  Without me knowing it, Craftsy featured one of my Stop 'N Go quilt pattern on their quilting blog.  Angela did a blog tutorial showing how to create the classic Snowball block and linked several of their online independent designer's patterns featuring the pattern.

Here's the link to view the article:  http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2013/12/snowball-quilt-block-tutorial/.

Thanks Craftsy!

Moda Bake Shop: Candy Squares Table Runner

I am so excited!  I'm honored to be the guest blogger on Moda Bake Shop today.  The post tells how to make this cute table runner from pre-cut 2 1/2 inch squares called Moda Candy Squares.

Go check it out!

Also, for those of you visiting from Moda Bake Shop--a hearty WELCOME!  I'd love to have your comments and even join as a follower.  I have written several patterns which can be viewed and downloaded (some are even FREE) on my left-hand side bar.  Also, I write a weekly post about free-motion quilting thread-paths called KISMIF (Keep it simple, make it fun)!  Feel free to browse around a while!  :)

Since it's so close to the big Christmas day, and I've got too much stuff to finish, this tutorial will have to count as my post for the week (since it really was quite a bit of work).  I'll be sharing this post with :http://conniekresin.com/, Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, and Needle & Thread Thursday's Linky Partys.  These blogs all have buttons on my RHS button bar.

Happy Quilting!--Shannon

BTW, Diana at Sew Crafty Chick just made this table runner following my Moda post.  Check her verion out here:  http://sewcraftychick.blogspot.com/2013/12/something-to-share.html!

Flying To Paradise QAL Part 4

It's time to finish up that quilt top for the Flying To Paradise QAL.  All of the diagrams and instructions are shared previously.  Today is a WiP Wednesday which I'm sharing with Freshly Pieced,  My Quilt Infatuation  and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Without further delay, here's some action photos of piecing together all of those flying geese units.

It is important not to blunt the tops of the triangles.  To accomplish this, sew with the point on top and try to get your sewing machine needle down into the X where the previous threads have crossed.  In the photo, look for the yellow-head pin as it is jammed into the exact point we're trying for.  This will ensure a perfect seam.

Here's another photo of the alignment going into the sewing machine.

Once these are sewn, the left and right hand sides used 11 flying geese blocks while the top and bottom required 15 blocks.  After I ironed on this border, I became really excited.  Just look how well those colors pop and play with one another!  BTW, many thanks to the folks at Connecting Threads for sponsoring this QAL.  You can purchase the batiks used in this project HERE.Light & Bright Batik Fat Quarter Sampler.

My ironing board never looked so good!

Once I reached this point, I was so happy with this quilt that I considered just quilting this much and binding it.  However, Connecting Threads was so generous to me that I had plenty of the white to add the outer borders.

The Flying To Paradise quilt top without the outer white border--draped on my quilting frame.

The completed Flying To Paradise quilt top.

I love to convert pictures to gray-scale.  Here is the same quilt with the yellow filter on.  It shows lights and darks and helps you choose different fabric lines to create the Flying To Paradise quilt top from.

If you would like to purchase a down-loadable PDF of this quilt pattern in its entirety instead of scrolling through all of the posts, click HERE.

Thanks for visiting!  I hope you have enjoyed this QAL project as much as I have!  BTW, there's only two more days to enter my fabric give-away so leave me a comment HERE.



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Flying To Paradise QAL Part 3

Hello!  It's time for another installment of my Flying To Paradise Quilt-A-Long.  After much debate, I decided to skip the applique on this project.  It just seems unnecessary.  Sometimes it adds to the project and sometimes it detracts.  When I sent the fabric proposal to the folks at Connecting Threads (Batik Sampler Link) they liked it without the applique, so I think I'm going to go that route.  To purchase a printable PDF of this quilt pattern, click HERE.

This looks cleaner to me.  What do you think?

That also makes this the final instructions of this project too!  That's exciting!  To celebrate, I'm sharing this with Freshly Pieced, Needle 'N Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation, and Thursday Threads @ 627 Handworks.  Hopefully, I'll have a finished quilt top to share with Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts--but we'll see.  I also have a lot of machine quilting for customers to get done.  It's the busy season.

Here we go!  First things first, we need to add the border to the center patchwork section we've made before.  To do this, we're going to cut from the ecru colored batik fabric along the lengthwise grain.

BORDERS:

• For the outer borders, cut four strips 6 1/2" wide by 2 1/4 yards long.
• For the inner border, cut four strips 6 1/2" wide by 2 1/8 yards long.  Sew this to the already completed center panel.  There will be excess fabric on the first two sides, trim it square using a rotary cutter.

PIECING THE FLYING GEESE BORDER:

• Sort the remaining fat quarters into piles of light and dark fabrics.  Tip: to ensure contrast between fabrics, simply squint at them (or take your glasses off).  If there's contrast, then you will see the blocks clearly int he finished  quilt.
• From the dark fat quarters, cut two squares measuring 10 1/4".  Then cut these into fourths digagonally.

• From the remaining light colored fat quarters, cut strips measuring 5 1/2".  Cut these into 5 1/2" squares and then across once diagonally to yield the remaining triangle pieces.

• Sew the flying geese units together by adding two 5 1/2" triangles to one 10 1/2" triangle, matching bias edges together.  Use caution not to stretch these edges.  There will be overlap at the top of the triangle to ensure a place for adjacent rows to connect without blunting the top of the flying geese triangle.

• Sew these blocks into rows.  Notice that on the top and bottom row, the far corners rotate to make the quilt blocks march around the quilt top.

• Quilt Top Assembly Diagram:

•  Add the flying geese border to your quilt followed by the outer fabric border.

Happy Quilting!  I hope you have enjoyed this project.

Work In Progress Wednesday 10-29-13

Greetings to all your WiP Wednesday readers--especially those from freshlypieced.com.

Today I am sharing my progress on my Flying to Paradise Quilt A Long.  Scroll to the previous two posts to get directions to begin your projects.

Here is a close-up of the center panel.  I think it would be cute as a baby quilt as well.

I just love how those goldenrod batiks look next to my golden Quaking  Aspen trees.

Some close-ups of the batik blocks in the fall leaves.

And...here's how I pieced those blocks.  For complete rotary cutting and piecing directions, read the previous post.  Thanks!

My husband brought home this Architect's square ruler from work.  They were going to throw it away and he thought it would be great to cut quilt blocks with.  I agree!  Because it doesn't have registration lines, I put masking tape on the bottom to check my alignment.

You can see how each fat quarter pair yields a dark block and a light block.  Simply rotate the striped half-square triangle units so the bias edge is facing out and you get this great spinning block!

I love this batik pairing and had to show it too.

Quilt-A-Long Part Two

Welcome back to my quilt along!  Today's post features the cutting and piecing directions for the center panel.  To purchase the batiks used in this quilt, visit the Connecting Threads website: Light & Bright Batik Fat Quarter Sampler (24 pieces),  http://www.connectingthreads.com/Kits/Light__Bright_Batik_Fat_Quarter_Sampler__D5182.HTML

If you would like to purchase a completed draft of this pattern without the applique shapes, it is available on Craftsy for download on this link: http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/quilting/home-decor/flying-to-paradise-quilt-along-draft/65553 .

Note: All seam allowances are ¼ inch unless otherwise indicated.

SORT FABRICS:

·         For the center Twin Sisters blocks, choose 8 of your favorite prints. 

·         Separate the piles into light and dark fabrics.

·         Pair one light fat quarter with one dark fat quarter.  To check for contrast, squint at your fabric choices to ensure fabrics do not bleed into one another.  You will need four pairs.

CUTTING INSTRUCTIONS:

·         Fat quarter cutting directions are listed in the areas of the blocks they will be cut into.

·         From the 2 1/8 yards fabric for the inner border, cut four 6 ½ inch wide strips along the length of grain.

·         From the 2 ¼ yards fabric for the outer border, cut four 6 ½ inch wide strips along the length of grain.

FOR THE TWIN SISTERS BLOCKS:

·         From the 8 fat quarters previously set aside, divide them into 4 contrasting pairs.  Each pair should yield 4 blocks, totaling 16 blocks.To ensure there is enough contrast between the prints, squint at them to ensure enough difference.   Rotary cut four inch wide strips along the width of the fabric.

·         Pair four-inch strips with the previously sorted coordinating fat quarter and sew these strips into pairs.  Press seams towards the darker fabric.

·  

            Cut these strips into triangles using a 45 degree ruler or 45 degree line on the rotary cutting mat.

·         Sort the triangles into dark sets (darker color is the larger parallelogram) and light sets (lighter color is the parallelogram).  Coordinate four matching colored sets.  (See diagram.)

 

·          Rotate the triangles so the bias cut edge is on the outside of the block with the center points facing in.  Pin match the center of the block.  The seams will go in the opposite direction and allow the block to nest.  Tip!  To ensure all the blocks spin in the same direction, always piece with the same block on top.

·        

 Sew the four matching colored sets into 16 quilt blocks for the center panel.  Use caution when sewing the blocks together as the outer edge may stretch due to the bias edge being there.

Flying To Paradise Quilt A-Long: Part One

OKAY, LETS START THIS OVER!!!  I started this quilt a long and then broke my thumb--and many of you saw the picture of me in a cast.  I'm sorry for the delay....but now I'm back to 100% and can host this QAL project.  Thanks for your patience.  As a result, I am re-posting the first posts in the series to keep them all together.  I hope you enjoy your quilt.
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Welcome to the Flying to Paradise Quilt a-long.  This is the first post in this series.  Please feel free to take this blog icon and set up a link to this quilt a long.  As this is my first time hosting a quilt a-long, I would love to share photos of your progress.  We can do this by flicker or by my email.  If you'd like to share, email me at gsmower{at}netzero[dot]com or leave me a comment below.  Thanks!

This fabrics for this quilt a-long were from my blog sponsor, Connecting Threads.  To purchase the exact batiks shown--their Light & Bright Batik Fat Quarter Sampler (24 pieces), visit this link: http://www.connectingthreads.com/Kits/Light__Bright_Batik_Fat_Quarter_Sampler__D5182.HTML

Fabric Requirements:

•  25 Fat Quarters.
•  3 1/2 Yards white batik for the inner applique border and the outer border.
• 1 Yard fabric for binding.
• 5 Yards for backing.
• 1 Package fusible webbing for the appliques.
• 2 Packages double-fold 1/4 inch wide bias tape for the applique vine.

 Here is the quilt pattern diagram:

If you would like to purchase a completed draft of this pattern without the applique shapes, it is available on Craftsy for download on this link: http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/quilting/home-decor/flying-to-paradise-quilt-along-draft/65553 .  So...go get your fabrics ready, as we get this quilt along party started.  A special thanks goes out to Connecting Threads for being my fabric sponsor for this quilt.

Coming up next week, cutting your fat quarters to create the center patchwork.

Tutorial--Mitred Edge Receiving Blanket

We always seem to need a quick and easy gift for new babies, don't we?  My mother showed me how to make these simple receiving blankets when I was having my children.  They're great.  While normally they are sewn using  two pieces of flannel, it is easy and luxurious to substitute a piece of flannel-backed satin or minkee for the center fabric panel.  As I needed one for a baby shower last week, and yet another for this week, I thought I would make a tutorial for you.  After all, the completed blanket took less than 30 minutes to complete.

FABRIC REQUIREMENTS:

1 Yard of two coordinating prints.

CUTTING INSTRUCTIONS:

Cut the outer fabric square to measure 36 inches square.
Cut the inner fabric to measure 32 inches square.

Fold the outer fabric in half diagonally.

Measure down two inches from the outer corner, and pin perpendicular to the fold.  This creates a mitered corner.  Repeat with the other side.

Sew down both pinned corners, perpendicular to the fold.  Trim seam to measure 1/4 inch.  Repeat with the other side.  Unfold the outer fabric and repeat for the remaining two corners.

Open the outer fabric and place right-side down.  Turn the mitered corners out.  These will naturally turn the outer blanket to the front.  Set in the other fabric.  Turn the outer fabric under 1/4 inch and pin it so it overlaps the inner fabric about 1 1/2 inch (there is some "fudge" room here).  Pin it in place.

Top stitch  adjacent to the ditch and on the outer border, all the way around the border.

Cute blanket, eh?  These are so fun and so fast--multiples can be created at once by chain-piecing the mitered corners.

As an alternate version, I considered bringing the outer border to the front without rolling it under 1/4 inch.  Instead, it would be fun to leave it raw and snip with the scissors every 1/4 inch to make it a rag blanket border.  When I get that done, I'll have to show pictures of it as well.



I also thought the readers over at Crazy Mom Quilts would love this idea, so I'm sharing it with them too!

Until next time,

Happy Quilting!