This is the cover that wooed me:

Aren’t those mice just super adorable? In another time I would have eagerly gotten down to making up some mice but these days it is extremely hard to turn my head from quilting.

You can click here to listen. Have an awesome day!

You can check out my Fat Quarterly contribution in the previous post.

Hey, guess what. I am a contributor to issue 8 of Fat Quarterly!!!

Remember that quilt I loved too much to give away? Well I decided maybe it was time I start trying to publish a thing or two. So I queried FQ and they accepted. And now you can have the pattern too if you purchase issue 8 or subscribe to the magazine in general.

This issue happens to feature paper piecing but ‘Spin it Like You Mean it’ is regular ol’ piecing. Check it out!!

This quilt is made with dresden plates which of course inspired the name “Hot Plate.” The plates were fun to make and I am excited to try something else along those lines – but it was a lot of work. Cutting out the pieces is really tedious. I did buy a special ruler for this purpose and it helped quite a bit.

The plate fabric is Kaffe Fasset – I bought it in a jelly roll (which probably didn’t exactly improve the tedious nature of the cutting) and loved the outer pieces…but when I unrolled it and looked at all the fabrics it was terribly disappointing. I didn’t like the fabrics together at all – it just looked like a bunch of junk! I removed the most offending pieces but there are still a few fabrics in there that I look at and think – pardon my French here, but honestly – WTF? I guess I didn’t have to use the fabrics together but my goal was completion and at the time I was just too lazy to rethink it.

I can’t remember what the background fabric is. I’ve seen the honeycomb fabric out and about so it must be from a popular line. The plaid is a homespun that I picked up at the LQS for some other purpose that I’ve managed to forget. The loud KF fabrics begged me for a subdued touch so that is why I mixed it in.

Anyway – I should call this quilt “Hot Plate Mess” because to me the colors and prints are pretty crazy. I do like the overall effect but I think it could have been better with other fabrics. The Husband thinks it looks graphic and bold and he is the artist around here so I guess I will be deferring to his opinion. It is more flattering than my own opinion, so…ya, I think I’ll go with it!

So here’s the current stack:

Whew!

Here is the couch carcass in it’s current state:

And The Husband showing off his handiwork in our Bonus Room:

So what do you think about swapping out one of the charity quilts (replacing it with a quilt I would make from blocks I already have) so that I can keep it?  Does that break the spirit of the challenge?  Leave me a comment to tell me what you think!

You can listen by clicking here.  Thanks for stopping by!

This quilt was made as part of my 2011 charity challenge. I had a set of Kaffe Fassett fat quarters and some leftover jelly roll strips and this is what came out of it. I love the bright happy colors and I hope it cheers a child who needs it!

You can find the tutorial for the top here.

The challenge was to complete 5 child-sized quilts to be donated to a woman in my guild who was collecting them for a local charity. This is the second quilt – I have since finished the top of the third and am working on the top of the fourth. I am holding off on quilting them because I’m hoping to soon be buying an extension arm for my machine.  That should make quilting them much easier.  A girl can dream, right?

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Once again I was inspired to use the pinwheel technique that I learned from a Missouri Star Quilt company youTube video.  I also mixed in a more traditional method (though also a quickie two-fer technique) to make pinwheels that I have known forever so I’m not sure who to credit for it. I thought it would be fun if the pinwheels were varying in size. The entire quilt was made from one Moda ten inch layer cake from the Fresh Squeezed collection and some white muslin.  I loved this fabric collection and it was hard to cut into it but I’m glad to have put it to good use.

Unfortunately I did not get to see my own quilts undergo her scrutiny. I entered two quilts – the Pinwheels Aplenty quilt and also a challenge quilt I made for my other guild some time ago.  (Sorry, I couldn’t find a picture of it.)  They both ended up in the same category and I had to leave to meet the school bus right as my category was coming out for judging. Sigh.  I’d say I wasted a vacation day except that her comments were useful reminders of the basics.

I did however get to see the quilt above judged. It was a round robin that I participated in, and I added the appliqued outer corners before handing it off to someone who created a pieced border. I was quite proud of how my addition to the quilt turned out because it was the first time I’d done so much applique. The quilt did not win a ribbon – darn! That was my best shot at being able to say I’d participated in an award-winning quilt this time. Oh well.  Such is life.  I didn’t make either of the quilts I entered with a show in mind and I know they have many of the flaws that the judge was not impressed with. I submitted them because I feel it is important for the guild members to participate and they were the quilts I had that were both finished and present.

Another great thing about going to the judging – I’m fired up to complete some quilts that have been languishing unfinished while I work on the charity challenge.  I’m working on the top of the third quilt – it is taking rapid shape!  Hopefully I’ll have an update and some pics of it for you soon .

Have you ever put a quilt in a show? What was your experience?

At last! I bring to you a tutorial for charity quilt number two: Pinwheels Aplenty! I would like to start out by giving credit where credit is due. I did not make up the technique I used to make the pinwheels. I first saw it in the below youtube video from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. If you are not aware, they have a number of tutorials available on youtube that you can find just by searching for “Missouri Star Quilt Company”.

This quilt is quilted in an all-over meander with white thread and finishes about 36 inches x 42 inches. I can officially call my version a frugal quilt since I spent about $18 for the fat quarters and $1 for the backing. I had the rest of the supplies from previous projects. Ok, I guess I did buy a couple spools of thread. So I spent maybe $25 to make this.

Supplies required:

• 6 Fat quarters – I used Kaffe Fasset fat quarters; unfortunately I don’t know what collection.
• 8 2.5 inch white strips for sashing; I used Moda Basics jelly rolls but you could just cut your own
• 168 inches of 2.25 inch binding, on the straight of grain or bias and folded in half (I prefer bias binding)
• 40 x 46 inch piece of batting
• 40 x 46 inch backing fabric
• A square up ruler that is large enough for a 6.5 inch block
• The usual quilting supplies: rotary cutter, mat, ruler, sewing machine, coordinating thread, etc.

Step 1) Cut 40 6 inch x 6 inch squares from your fat quarters. Also cut 30 2.5 inch x 2.5 inch squares from the fat quarters. Obviously 40 does not divide into 6 fat quarters evenly, so I made sure to cut the most pieces from my favorite quarters.

Step 2) Following the video tutorial, take 2 6×6 inch squares of two different fabrics and place them right sides together. Then sew a 1/4 inch seam all the way around the edge of the square. Using your ruler and rotary cutter, cut across the square in an “X” (two cuts, corner to corner…be careful not to shift the square during the second cut.) This produces 4 triangles. Open the triangles and gently press them towards the darker fabric creating a square. There are now exposed bias edges so you need to be careful not to distort the fabric. Trim the dog ears off of each square and arrange them into a pinwheel. Sew two squares together, then the other set. Press one pair towards the left and the other towards the right. Then when you sew the two sets together to form the entire pinwheel the seams should nestle together. If not then you might have pressed one of them the wrong way; just press in the opposite direction. The last seam can be pressed whichever direction you think creates the least amount of bulk.

Step 3) It is trimming time! Here is the ruler I used to trim mine:

You can find one at Quilt in A Day’s site. There are many sizes to choose from but mine is 9.5 inches. There are also many brands of square up rulers; consult the instructions for yours if it is different.

To trim your block: Lay the ruler over the block. The writing “Quilt in a Day” should be visible and readable (not upside down!) Line the diagonal line up with the diagonal of the block. Like so:

Then look for the 6.5 inch lines on the left and bottom of the ruler. Keeping the diagonal lined up, line the left and bottom edges up with the 6.5 inch line. Cut on the right side of the ruler. (note – these instructions assume you are a righty.) In my picture below you can see that my lines don’t match up totally along the left of the block. If you can’t get it to line up because the edge isn’t straight then err on the conservative side as I did in the pic. Don’t sweat it; we’ll fix it as we move around the block.

Pick up your ruler and rotate your block to the right so that the freshly cut side is closest to you. Place your ruler back on the block, line up the diagonal, line up the left and right edges with the 6.5 inch lines, then cut the right edge with your rotary cutter. Continue this way on the remaining two sides. Good work! A nice square 6.5 inch block.

Step 4) Take one of your white sashing strips and lay it flat. Pin your blocks to one edge of the strip with the right side of the pinwheel facing down. Leave a small margin between each block. It doesn’t have to be exact but about a 1/4 inch is enough. I have 5 blocks pinned to the strip in the picture below. (Sorry, the picture washed out a bit so it is a little hard to see the strip. Especially since the strip is on the bottom. Ya, good planning there, Kel!) Pin all 20 blocks to strips in this manner.

Step 5) Sew a continuous seam on a strip, attaching all of the blocks to the strip. Do this with all of the blocks.

Step 6) Cut the strips at the margins between the blocks. Trim back any excess strip to be in line with the top and bottom of the block. Press the seam towards the sashing. This is the left side of the sashing.

Step 7) Cut your remaining white strips into 6.5 inch x 2.5 inch rectangles. Sew a 2.5 x 2.5 inch square to the end of 20 of the rectangles. Press towards the white strip.

Step Now we’ll make the bottom side of the sashing for each block. Take a block from step 6 and lay it face up with the sashing that is already applied to the left. Now lay a unit from step 7 on it face down and pin as shown. Sew the two pieces together along the bottom. Repeat for the remaining blocks.

Step 9)  Arrange your blocks into five rows of four blocks each.  Sew each row together, alternating the direction of your press for each row.  (So, for row one press the seams to the left; row two press to the right, etc.)  Sew your five rows together.

Step 10) Almost done!  Now sew four 2.5 inch blocks and rectangles together and then sew those together to form the top row of the quilt.  Press towards the rectangles and sew it to the top, matching up the seams.  Then sew another row of 2.5 inch blocks and rectangles to form the right edge of the quilt top.  Attach the right edge and press towards the sashing.  Congratulations!  Your top is complete!

Step 11) Press & starch your backing, then lay it on a flat surface with the right side down.  Smooth your batting over that, then lay your top over the batting.  Center the top (doesn’t have to be exact, a good eye-balling will do) over the batting and smooth out the wrinkles.  Working from the center out, pin baste your quilt sandwich.  I pinned in the center of each pinwheel and also in the center of each of the 2 x 2 inch cornerstones.

Step 12) Quilt as desired, removing pins from the area to be quilted as you go.  I quilted mine in an all-over meander.  However there are lots of options that would be cute here…be creative!  A good place to find machine quilting ideas is Leah Day’s site, the Free Motion Quilting Project.

Step 13) Apply your binding.  I don’t have a tutorial for doing that but there are tons of them out there.

Label your quilt (if desired) and you are done!

Disclaimer: at the time of this posting, I have received no compensation of any sort from the brands, shops, and/or blogs mentioned.  They are referenced in this tutorial because they are the materials and inspirations that I used while making this quilt and I think they are worth checking out.  Enjoy!

The pinwheel quilt - complete!

So I finished it!  Actually I finished it three or four weeks ago.  I’ve been slow in getting pictures posted.  I have the tutorial mostly written up as well but I haven’t found the time yet to finish.  This quilt actually turned out very frugal for me – I spent less than $25 on new supplies and everything else used was left over from other projects.  Woot!  You can’t beat that.  It is Kaffe Fasset fabric and I love the colors.

Here are a few more pics:

We also just got back from the beach.  Here is The Husband and me living it up in the Outer Banks:

The children were there too, of course.  We had a blast…even when The Husband got the camera wet in the ocean.  Oops.  And when I lost the replacement camera.  Double oops.  But all ended well – the card from the first camera survived and we later found the new camera in the sand near a hamburger stand we went to.  Whew!