How things work...

Today was supposed to be a day in the garden, dividing some overcrowded perennials. But the rain came and I'm stuck in the sewing room with a cup of coffee, playing with fabric! The Secret Garden quilt is looking good, but I'm at a standstill waiting for more fabric. I have 2 additional gorgeous lines staring at me that I've been afraid to cut. So here's how my mind is working this morning...

I love my Zig Zags! You may remember my Zig Zag quilt, but you may not know it was inspired by a Massoni pillow. So when Target came out with it's Massoni line this week I was able to snag a storage box to match my quilt. I feel pretty lucky after hearing that the Massoni line flew out the doors!
I've been itching to do another Zig Zag that flows diagonally on the quilt. It's a super easy design made entirely of rectangles. Seeing the Massoni ads made me think of my Heirloom stash ~ maybe it might make a nice diagonal Zig Zag? I need a project for next week's STLMQG Sew-In. This might be it!
I also got out my favorite piece in the Loulouthi line. After browsing through some quilt books, I pulled some coordinates...
I think it's looking pretty good...
And I found a great pattern in this book that will really show off that gorgeous print.
Things are working pretty well today...

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Secret Garden Sewing...

I bravely cut into my Sandi Henderson fabric. The feel of this fabric is amazing. It's soft and silky. I may have to even splurge on a silk or bamboo batting for this one!

My original plan was to use 4 quarter-square triangles in the center, but I tried that and it looked like a jumbled mess. So I ended up cutting it as one square and, wow, it looks much better (Nicky, I think you suggested that!). The block is simple, but will truly show off the beautiful, big prints.
Four done...



Here they are on the design wall (with a little sneak peek at my circling geese). Now I'm ready to order the hyacinth blue for the sashing. To be continued...

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Rotary Rules

I guess I should call them "Rotary Things You Might Want to Try" because the great thing about quilting is there are no rules!

1 - When you're cutting strips, the first thing you have to do is straighten the edge of your fabric. This evens up the edges and gives you a cut perpendicular to the fold - and you'll never have a "V" in your strip.

Here's how I do it - Fold your fabric as it comes off the bolt. You can only have one fold - if you fold it again you're actually dealing with 3 folds and trying to cut perpendicularly to all - impossible!

Place a small ruler on the right, lining up one of the horizontal lines with the fold. Butt your long ruler up to it on the left.
Remove the small ruler and you're ready to cut! (Reverse everything if you're a lefty)
2 - When I'm cutting long strips parallel to the selvedge, I trim about 1/2" from the selvedge and cut as many strips as I need the length of the ruler. Then I scoot the fabric towards me and continue to cut the length of all the strips. I've cut strips across the whole width of the fabric this way!
3 - Do you need to cut a strip wider than your ruler? Just butt up two rulers next to each other to get the width you need. Add carefully!
4 - How about some "Power Cutting". If you need to cut lots of strips one size, instead of picking up the ruler after each cut, just keep adding your strips together. For example - if I'm cutting 2" strips, I can cut at 2", 4" and 6" before removing the ruler and strips. Quick!

5 - You can do the same thing when you're subcutting your strips. Even more powerful is lining up 2 or 3 strips together and cutting them all at once.
Voila! 12 squares in no time!
Thanks for coming to school today!

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Secret Garden...

I've been waiting and waiting ~ finally Secret Garden by Sandi Henderson is out. Isn't it gorgeous? I chose the navy and berry color way ~ a bit different than anything I've done lately.So as I've been drooling over the fabric ~ I'm wondering what quilt pattern to make with it. Do you ever worry you'll choose the wrong pattern and cut up fabric you absolutely love and then end up not liking what you did with it?? I do it all the time!

And I'm especially unsure about this one!
So last night I worked on a design inspired by Cara's (Me? A Mom?) Urban Lattice Quilt. I thought I'd use the prints that are primarily blue in the centers and the green around the center separated by a 1/2" berry strip.
Then I'd use a solid periwinkle blue for the sashing. When I checked my Kona Color Card, the closest match was Hyacinth Blue. Is that a sign?
I know it will look a lot different than the original Urban Lattice ~ maybe a Suburban Lattice. Help! I'd love to know what you think ~ positive or negative!

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Habitat Challenge

When our St Louis MQG announced a challenge using Jay McCarroll's fabric line "Habitat" from Free Spirit, I knew I had to participate. You see Jay and I are close, BFF's. Okay, this is him posing with me at Quilt Market in 2008. I'm just one of the multitudes he posed with that day.

But that trip to Quilt Market really got me interested in working with modern designer fabrics. I came home enamored with Jay, Amy Butler, Anna Maria Horner, Patty Young and more. And as a big fan of Project Runway - I took this challenge.
We were only allowed to use "Habitat" fabric and solids. I was inspired by this quilt on Flickr and used Elizabeth Hartman's pattern Rain or Shine.
I did tons of quilting like the inspiration quilt and that took a bit of time!
I'm pretty pleased and I think Jay would be proud!

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No-Wave Borders

It's the first day of school here! Today's topic - How to add borders without any waves.

Have you ever made a quilt that wouldn't lie flat? Or maybe the borders were a little wavy? In order for your quilt to be perfectly square (or perfectly rectangular), the opposite sides of the quilt must be exactly the same size. Chances are when you finished the pieced center, the edges may be off by 1/4 - 1/2". If you just sew your borders on and trim - they will also be off by 1/4 - 1/2". You end up with a quilt that's not square (or rectangular).

Many books and patterns will tell you to measure your quilt with a tape measure and cut your borders to that size. Man, I must be a bad measurer because I tried that for a while and made tons of mistakes!

Here's what I do now - no measuring!

Cut 2 borders a few inches longer than the side of your quilt. Press them wrong sides together.
Lets pretend this block is my quilt. Lay both borders along one edge of the quilt. If your quilt is longer than the table, just put a few pins in and slide it across the table.
Use a ruler and rotary cutter to trim both borders the same size as your quilt. Use the lines on your ruler to make sure you're trimming the corner absolutely square.The bottom strip fits perfectly and is ready to be pinned. Flip the border strip from the top and pin it to the opposite side. It may not fit exactly! Pin all along the edge, easing in either the quilt or the border. It's really easy to ease in a bit along a long border.
Sew; press and repeat the same process on the opposite 2 sides.
Ta da! A perfect square!
I like to use the same technique to cut long horizontal sashing strips to length. I pile up all the sashing strips, lay them along one row of blocks and trim them all at once. Then each row may need to be eased to fit the sashing strip - but in the end I have a nice square quilt!

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Summer's End...

With Labor Day weekend here, I think it's officially the end of Summer. I may get started on the machine quilting of this, then again I may kick back and relax for the last few days of Summer.I've been teaching basic quilting for years and since September means back to school, I'll be sharing some of the techniques that I use this month. Every Tuesday in September will be Quilting School here:

September 6 - Borders That Don't Wave

September 13 - Rotary Rules

September 20 - The Perfect Quarter Inch

September 27 - Fearless Free Motion Quilting

Hope you'll join me!

I mentioned these Pilot Frixion pens a month or so ago. Since then I've learned a bit more about them. You'll find a discussion board here. Seems the markings come back when frozen. So I decided to do a little experiment.

Here are 2 pieces of white cotton marked with every color in the set.

One piece was ironed and the markings disappeared immediately. The second piece was hand washed. The markings faded but are still lightly visible.

Then I put both pieces in the freezer. The markings on the ironed piece returned clearly. The washed piece was fainter, but the markings were visible.

My conclusion - use these cautiously! Most people don't freeze their quilts, but obviously the chemical from the ink is still in the fabric.

If only I could invent the perfect marking pen. I'd be set for life!!!

Have a great weekend!

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