Hive 9 - July Block Tutorial

What is your name? Where do you live?

Hello all! My name is Deborah and I live on the north shore of Long Island about 60 miles from New York City.

Tell us about your family (Spouse, kids, grandkids, pets, etc.)

My husband, Andrew, and I have been married for 19 years and we have 2 girls, age 6 and 10. Both of my girls love to make things and my older daughter has her own sewing machine. Our marmalade cat, Mordy, loves to nap in my scrap bins.

Tell us about how you got interested in quilting.

My mother taught me how to sew when I was young and I grew up watching her make quilts. She cut her patterns from sand paper, traced around them, and then cut the pieces out with scissors. I can’t imagine that now! But with all that, I didn’t make my first quilt until 11 years ago. I was a fine artist using textiles and mixed media. I decided I needed something more and wanted to use my maker powers for good. My mother and I started the Bright Hopes Collaborative Quilt Project. Now we have 3 programs, over 20 volunteers, have donated over 500 one of a kind quilts, worked with community groups, and helped over 50 children in a local children’s residence make their own quilt. I still don’t know much about the technical parts of quilting, but I am learning all the time.

How do you organize your fabric stash? (Picture appreciated)

I usually have 2 fabric stashes. One for Bright Hopes and a much smaller one of my own. Now I even have a third stash for the new book I am currently working on. I try to organize by color. The Bright Hopes stash is in bins by color and I can usually keep that straight although kind of a mess within each bin. 

My own stash is by color on shelves in a pantry that my father made. 

The book stash is by color on a sheet on the floor so I can see everything at once. Here is our cat, Mordy, making sure the stash doesn’t float away.

Who is/are your favorite fabric designers?

I don’t have any absolute favorites. There are specific fabrics in certain lines that I love. I love rich colors, bold prints, lots of polka dots, geometrics, textures. 

What is one thing you have learned that you wish you knew when you first started quilting?

I wish I knew about the online community and how much everyone shares and is so generous. Coming from a more fine art world this was very unexpected and I didn’t really get involved in the online sewing and quilting community until very recently.

What is your favorite sewing/quilting tool and why should we all go out and buy it?

Confidence! Well I wish we could go out and buy it because then maybe I would have more of it. Besides that,  not too long ago someone gave me a huge 33”x 58” white cutting mat. I love it because it is so big but also because it is just off white. I can lay out fabric right on it and see how it will look even as I am cutting. The person who came up with that awful dark green color of most mats should be banned from quilting forever.  

Who is your favorite fictional character and why? (Could be from a book, movie, TV show, etc.)

The rabbit, Hazel, from the book Watership Down. A boat load of integrity in one little rabbit. I even named my older daughter after him.

The tutorial:

Danny and Lynn have very graciously allowed me to do something a little different. I am writing a new book that will be released by F+W/Interweave in Fall 2015. I would love for you all to help me with one of the projects but the publisher likes to keep everything tightly under wraps. So, I am emailing the information to just our hive. Please check your email for the tutorial and further information. Thanks so much!

Hive 12 May Blocks

Look at the lovely blocks Heather has received:



Such a great start to her quilt!

Hive 7 May Blocks

Sylvia picked a super sweet block, and I love the spread of colors! The finished quilt is going to be amazing!

1. Emma   2. Audrey   3. Carly

4. Andi   5. Jenn   6. Maureen

7. Sylvia

April Hive Five 5 FINAL !!!!

Well, I must thank you all for a great first time Stash Bee experience!!  It was terrific!!!!

From the beginning months when I poured over so many options for a block, to the last visit to the mail box, it was exciting!!  Now of course, I couldn't wait to get them all together.  Pictures of the finished quilt to come in about a week, I hope.

Here are all the blocks:

Thank you all so much!!!

Bonnie

Hive #5 June Block Tutorial

My name is Anne Trudel, my husband and I live in Potomac Maryland 16 miles northeast of Washington D.C.   We just celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary.  We met on a blind date through college friends. Our two sons are married, and  have two grandsons. 

I began sewing with my Nana when I was 12.  I started making patchwork articles, starting with tennis racket covers and moving up to quilts. The quilts I do now are just for family, QOV and Children's Hospital.   My other hobbies are jewelry making, stained glass, swimming, golfing, and reading.  At the moment the sewing group The Mixed Pickles, is reading Outland by Diana Gabaldon, and we are anticipating the cable tv series in August, Outlander.   My mini-group worked on the Flag Project in Baltimore MD, as part of the Anniversary celebration of the first flag stitched.  That was really fun. 

My favorite fabrics are from Jane Sassaman, Kaffe Fassett, Stonehenge, Fossil Ferns, Moda Dimples, and Robert Kaufman.

Some of the best quilting tools I use on a daily basis are Best Press Spray, Chatelaine that holds scissors, glasses, needles, thread heaven, thread cutter, and my thimbles.  Creative Grids 8 x 24 inch ruler, the revolving cutting mats from Fiskars, and the add a quarter ruler were helpful with the paper piecing last month's Stash Bee block.

Tips I wish I knew when I started was to press as you go along, and the importance of accuracy in cutting and sewing.

 

My studio is large and bright, but not organized yet.   I have cubbies from Lowes for sorting the fat quarters, yardage is stored in plastic drawers, I have bookshelves for lots of quilting books and my dvd's.   I have more fabric that I could ever use in my lifetime, and some I will never use, as it is too pretty to cut into, but I love to look at it.   Ikea shelving with fabric cubes store my scraps and strip sets. 

My favorite author is Jane Austen.  Even 200 years after her death, I still read her books each year.  I would choose to be one of her heroines, and like to think of the English Garden where Elizabeth Bennett would sit with Mr. Darcy.

The tutorial is from http://www.freshlemonsquilts.com/?p=2000 under Patterns & Tutorials- Butterfly Strands.   I would love bright colors for the strip sets, as this block will be mixed with a variation of Gwen Marstons Liberated Star block.  Please use a white or white on white for the background and you can leave the locks untrimmed.

April Recap Hive Five #5

Thank you all so much for the beautiful blocks.  It know it was a little out of the comfort zone for some, but I hope it was fun.  I had friends here try it in color and they are hooked!

Thanks again!

Hive 11 - June Block Tutorial

Hive 11 – June Block Tutorial

 

Who are you?

Hi, I’m Bonnie Randell, and I live in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, which is an island province on the east coast of Canada.  I was born in Corner Brook, and have lived most of my life here, except for a few university years and early work years.  I am an Executive Director for a not for profit organization that offers programs and services to families. 

Tell us about your family

I live with my husband, Dave, of almost 23 years and a beautiful dog named Lacey.  I have a daughter, Rebecca,  who is 20, I still think of her as living at home, but she is usually away at university, and this summer she is doing a school work term in Belize, volunteering at an animal sanctuary with manatees and monkeys!  We all miss her this summer, but Skype is making it easier!

Tell us about how you got interested in quilting

I have always been a crafty person, I remember making Barbie a new dress from an old tube sock, she was very stylish!  I learned to knit from my grandmother, and that was probably the start of serious crafting.  When I started to date you husband, his mother was doing a quilting class, and she taught me the basics, which included making templates, tracing them and cutting them out.  I was hooked.  That was about 30 years ago.  I stopped quilting for a number of years, and picked up other hobbies, cross stitch, tole painting, knitting.  I became interested again about 10 years ago, and it has been my main obsession since!

How do you organize your stash?

I have tried lots of things.  At this time I am using totes for smaller pieces of fabrics and boards for larger cuts.  I absolutely love fabric, but my organization is terrible!

 

Who is/are your favourite fabric designers?

I love all fabric, and tend to buy what I like when I look at it.  I really love Camille Roskelley fabric and patterns.  I love bright colours; aqua, teal, red…….

 

What is one thing you have learned that you wish you knew when you first started quilting?

That would definitely be ¼ inch seams.  As we all know it is very important to make sure your seams are accurate.  I probably did not always pay as much attention to this as I should have.  I am much happier with the outcome when my seams are accurate.

 

What is your favourite sewing/quilting tool and why should we all go out and buy it?

I would say my rotary cutter and rulers, but I think those are fairly basic for everyone now.  I love sewing gadgets and buy lots, not all are worth the money.  I love the June Taylor  Half Square and Quarter Square ruler.  I use this ruler for squaring up ½ and ¼ square triangles.  I used this ruler in my tutorial to make the block I have chosen.

 

 

Who is your favourite fictional character and why?

I had a hard time with this question, but the more I thought about it, I am having difficulty narrowing down my answer.  I love Harry Potter, I read them aloud with my daughter, watched all the movies and even visited the theme park in Florida.  I am also a big fan of Matlock, but I think my favourite would be Columbo (do you remember the rumpled looking detective?).  I love how he always solves the mystery and how everyone underestimates him.

 Tutorial

For my tutorial I have chosen the block called Star Value.   I found this tutorial on Happy Quilting Melissa, and she also has it posted on Craftsy as a free pattern.

 

 

 http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/quilting/home-decor/star-value-quilt-block---5-sizes-options/53745  

 

There are a number of options listed for the block sizes, but I would like to have the 16 inch block.  I want scrappy blocks, with grey(for the diamonds) and low volume fabrics (white, beige).  A ¼” seam allowance is used in all of the seams for this block!

 This is what you will need:

FABRIC	QUANTITY	SIZE
Low volume squares for HST	16	3”x3”
Grey squares for HST	12	3”x3”
Colour squares for star HST	8	3”x3”
Colour squares for diamond HST	4	3”x3”
Low volume squares	16	2 ½”x 2 ½”
Colour squares for star	8	2 ½”x 2 ½”

 

 

This is what I ended up with! (I have cut out enough to do 2-3 blocks)

 

Lets start with the Half Square Triangles (HST).  Match up the blocks you have cut into the following sets:

8 – colour/white sets

8 – grey/ white sets

4 – colour/ grey sets

 

To make the HST, use a ruler to draw a diagonal line from the top left corner to the bottom right corner, of one of the fabrics from each pair. 

 Place a pin on both sides of the line.  Stitch a ¼” seam on each side of your drawn line.  This would be a good time to stitch them in an assembly line. 

 

When they are all complete, take a ruler and your rotary cutter, and cut on the line to separate the triangles.  Press your triangles open with the seam towards the darker fabric. 

 

You need to trim each HST triangle to 2 ½” squares.  (I used my June Taylor ruler here, but it can be completed with a ruler).

You will end up with 40 Half Square triangle units.

 

 

This block was easier to assemble in sections.  The first section I completed was the star center.  Lay out your star as shown with 4 sets of colour/white HST, 4 colour squares and 4 white squares.

 

Sew your squares into 2X2 blocks.

 

Then sew the 2x2 units into rows.

 

Then join both halves together to make the star center unit.

 

Next for the diamond units.  You will need 4 grey/white HST units and 2 grey/colour units.  Lay them out as follows.

 

 

Sew them together to make the diamond unit.  There are 4 diamond units to make this block.

 

Next will be the corner units.  Gather your remaining 4 coloured squares, 8 colour/white HT’s and 4 white squares.  Lay them out into 4 sets as follows.

 

Sew the block together as before, sewing the squares into rows, and then sew the rows together.

 

Now you have 4 corner blocks.

 

 

You are now ready to sew the entire block together.  Lay out the pieces as follows.

 

 

Sew units together into rows, and then sew the rows together to complete the block.  I used pins to make sure that my seams matched.

 

Finished block!  This block was fairly easy to sew, the most time consuming part would be cutting the fabric and the squaring up the HST’s.

I hope you all enjoy this block!  I hope my tutorial is clear, this was a first for me!

Bonnie

 

Hive 7 June Block Tutorial

Happy June, bee mates!

I'm Carly (also known as CitricSugar) and I will be your queen for this month, which is a really odd thing to type...  I am a teacher, a member of Saskatoon Quilters' Guild and co-chair of Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild. I use quilting to relax, though it seems to keep me awfully busy!  I'm also a rabid hockey fan. Everyone in both my guilds would probably mention that since I've been caught streaming games at meetings on more than one occasion...

Where do you live?   I live in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - the prettiest city on the Canadian prairies, hometown of Joni Mitchell. Home of the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve. If you look up Saskatoon on a map of Canada, you'll see why that's funny.

Tell us about your family.  They're wonderful - mum, dad, my sister and her husband, and my best bud in the whole world, my 3-year-old nephew. They all live in the city here so we spend a lot of time together.  My nephew frequently sits on my lap to "sew" with me - he picks out scraps and then we whack 'em together improv-style.

This is my first bee quilt - made last year in Simply Solids.

Tell us about how you got interested in quilting. I found an old quilting magazine/book when I was about ten and decided I wanted to make one. It turned out terribly because I cut my pieces all wonky (before rotary cutters and my sense of accuracy) but I was proud anyway.  Didn't make another until I discovered a machine quilting book at 19 and realized we already had a mat and cutter! Woot, woot! I made one or two over the years after that, not really get heavy into until about 5 years ago when I discovered the blog realm and new fabrics started popping up in my local shop. There's no stopping me now!

How do you organize your fabric stash?  My sewing space gets upset frequently (especially when facing renos this past year) and therefore, my stash has to be fairly portable and protected from dust, leaving me little alternative to plastic bins. Beyond that, I have it parcelled out so that I can find just what I need.

Yardage (FQ and larger) is on mini-bolts (com in book boards) and separated into prints and solids, then loosely arranged by type, then colour.  Then large scraps are folded and sorted by colour.  Strings have they're own box and then all my little(r) scraps are in hanging file folders.

My blue bin runneth over!

I love  them!  I keep them all in the same boxes but the colours stay separate. I can remove a whole colour at once just by taking out the "file" and easily see through the box sides to find what I'm looking for.

Please don't worry about all that fabric sitting in the sunlight! Photo was taken before the blinds arrived. :-)  (and spring, for that matter....)

Who is/are your favourite fabric designers? Hmmm. I tend to gravitate more to the designs themselves rather than the designers, who rotate through my list of loves quite frequently. However, Carolyn Friedlander seems to be rocking my socks lately so...

What is one thing you have learned that you wish you knew when you first started quilting? The importance of and how to get an accurate 1/4" seam (on a machine with a fixed needle position), and that it should be scant. Or that fabrics feed differently top and bottom and how to deal with that (before walking feet). Those things I learned the hard way.

What is your favourite sewing/quilting tool and why should we all go out and buy it?   Honestly, the camera on my phone has been invaluable.  I take pictures of inspiration, possible block layouts, reference photos (in case I accidentally rotate a pile when moving from design wall (floor) to sewing table - or worse - drop it!), and even checking value and contrast by snapping a photo in black and white.  It's always in my pocket, too.

Who is my favourite fictional character and why?  This is an impossible question for me.  I have a degree in theatre, a degree in education, a dvd collection that is too big for my space, and I cannot leave a bookstore empty handed.  So. All of them?  Does that count?  No? Okay. Cumberbatch's Sherlock, then.

Onto the block!  After consulting with our hive mama, I've chosen improv blocks for this month. Please don't panic.

IMPROV BLOCKS

Colour palate and fabrics:

• One medium or dark value coral pink or salmon square anywhere between 3 and 6 inches. (I used a shot cotton, pink shot with orange from Robert Kaufmann, I think). A print is fine as long as it reads strongly as salmony pink.
• Scraps or small yardage in low-volume taupes, greys, pinks, whites, creams. The scrappier the better.

Guidelines:

• Use strips, rectangles and squares.  Wonky WORKS so don't stress about having squared angles, but no strong curves or triangle shapes please.
• If you have a mix of fabrics, rock on!  I've got linen, cotton, voile, batik, shots and a little bit of canvas in my block. It will all work.  If you don't have any, don't worry - that's okay, too! I"m also cool if you have a pretty little selvedge you want to throw in.  
• Novelty prints are allowed - just use them sparingly as opposed to a giant chunk.
• Blocks can be trimmed to either 12.5" or 15.5" square.  It will help with making the quilt cohesive if I have a mix of sizes so go with what's working for you!
• Don't be too precious or fussy with it - have fun!  Some people are really intimidated by improv but rest assured, I've done all the hard part with choosing the palate and the guidelines. Your block will be beautiful and I can't wait to see it!

Tutorial:

This block is improv-pieced, meaning you will make it up as you go along.  This also means you don't have to worry about squared corners, a perfect 1/4" seam, measuring (until you trim up) or misreading a pattern!  It is easier to start with pressing seams open for the most part but as the block ends up with more seams, you can press to the side of least resistance.

Start with your pink square and grab your scraps.  Whack some pieces together and play until you have fabric chunks.

Then add more scraps to your chunks and start fitting them together like puzzle pieces.

I used mostly scraps but some yardage in my blocks.  To get "scraps" from the yardage, I just hacked off a strip or chunk from the fat quarter and then trimmed it roughly to fit my pieces.

Once you've got a big enough piece of combined scraps, trim it to block size!  Either 12.5" or 15.5" - it doesn't matter to me which one you choose; it will all work out in the end!

Thanks so much,  folks!  I hope you enjoy putting these together, especially if it's a little out of your comfort zone. Let me know if you have any questions or issues!