Block Party

A block party?  Yes, but not what you're thinking about!  There's no food, no dancing, and certainly no chatting going around.  But there's plenty of lovely fabrics to be petted , cut, and sewn!



I've been making blocks for my 2nd sampler quilt.  This sampler quilt is all about perfecting my rotary cutting and precision sewing skills.  Of course don't forget about math.  I had to come up with the block size and from there determined the size of the triangles, squares, or rectangles to be cut for each block.

Churn Dash: Amy Butler and Rowan fabric. 

Hour Glass Block:  going for a black and white look here. 

Buckeye Beauty Block :  Rowan fabric

                                                                  

Breaking Out - Flying Geese Block : Rowan fabric.  Adpated from a pattern by Jennie of Sunflower Quilts for Fat Quarterly. 

All blocks measured 24cm x 24cm (25.5 with SA).  The first two blocks I sew with a generous 0.75 cm SA (seam allowance) For Bernina 640 that's moving the needle position 2 dots from the center point.  This shrank the block after all the quadrants were sewn together.  So for the next 2 blocks I moved the needle position 3 dots from the center point, making it a 0.6 cm SA.  This worked out better because after I ironed the blocks, they came out at the correct measurement!  Yeah!!


Two more blocks to sew, and then on to finding fabric for the border.  That's another project by itself - designing the border for this sampler quilt!


Happy Sewing!



Christmas Present

Haven't been blogging lately because most of my free time was devoted to...

reading on my Kindle.  It's a K3 with wireless and Wi-Fi.  I love it.  I did purchase a lighted book cover to go with it, but I'll probably make a cover anyway because my Kindle deserves a quilted cover of its own!

Thank you, Mom!

Machine Quilting Class

October marked the startup of my advanced level machine quilting certification class!  We started off the class by practicing rotary cutting and piecing to make hour glass, half triangles, flying geese, and others.  For my block I used mostly Rowan fabric, and I was happy with the result!

The second project was to use the stack and shuffle technique with 4 fabrics to make a pillowcase.  For this , my color inspiration came from some projects I saw in Flickr!  

Here's my interpretation of black and white with a touch of red!

It's raining today!  So it'll be a great day to stay indoors and sew!


                             

My First Mini Quilt

It's been over 2 weeks since my last post!  What have I been up to?  I was busy making this...

My first mini quilt!  The quilt was made using a combination of linen, calicos, and Japanese yarn dyed fabric.  I was trying to for a French country look with this quilt.  As this was my first attempt at freezer paper piecing, I think I did OK.  Hmm...still need to think through how to sew the seams together!  I added some embroidery to give the quilt some dimension.  Didn't try free motion on this because it was for a swap and I was nervous about messing it up!

Here's the backing of the mini quilt.  The reason you can't seen any quilting on the back is because the backing was layered on after I completed the quilting.   I dressed up the quilt label with blanket stitches all the way around. 

*********************************

So after 12 days of journey across the Pacific Ocean,  my Mini QT Quilt swap partner sent me this...

I just adore this "Home Tweet Home" mini quilt from my swap partner!  Wouldn't it be fun to live in this cheerful house?  Thank you, Ruth!

Check this out!

There's an awesome giveaway at freshly pieced .  Besides the giveaway, check out her Kissy Fish Baby Quilt tutorial, too!  You'll love it!

FMQA - pebbles

It's almost the end of the month and I've been MIA :)  After entering the Purse Week contest I've been fabric shopping - trying to collect more 30's prints and solids.  Though haven't done much quilting, I've been practicing drawing pebbles.  The pebbles design is quite a challenge to me because I can't meander that well.  So, this is what I have so far! 

I think I've finally got the rhythm and can move on to the practice pad!

Happy Quilting!

The Getaway Quilted Bag

Here's the bag I'm entering in the Purse Week contest hosted by A Lemon Squeezy Home. 

The inspiration behind this bag was to transform a quilting technique into something of beauty and function.


I took 11 pieces of fabric and used the stack and shuffle technique to make this bag.  Six blocks formed the front panel of this quilted bag.  Free motion quilted with metallic thread.

Three stack and shuffle blocks made up the three open pockets on the back panel.  As the name implies, the entire bag was quilted to give it shape while maintaining a degree of softness that's gentle to touch!

The side-views here show two additional open pockets.  They are great for storing your cellphone and car keys.  Notice the pocket in the left photo.  The pocket opening is asymmetrical.  It was designed especially this way to reduce bulk on the seam allowance when all the panels are sewn together. 

Here's the view of the zipper treatment for the bag opening! 

Another reason that I love making my own bag is that I can customize the lining to my specification.  There are three open pockets plus a zipper compartment to store my personal items. 

Bag measurement:  15.5" x 10.5" x 4"

Fabric used:  Japanese and Rowan cotton fabric, Japanese yarn dyed fabric

Leather straps:  24" long

Last but not least..... Special thanks to my quilting teacher, Ms. Wu, for teaching me the stack and shuffle technique and guiding me through the completion of this bag.