Indian Blanket

I finished my Indian Blanket which has become my new favorite fall couch quilt.

This was my first time using Kona Mushroom as a background, and I have to say I love it. It is the perfect mix of brown and gray. Although I love geometric quilts, I somehow have never found myself making a quilt out of triangles. I will definitely be using them more. I love the look, and it went together so smoothly!

The pattern is part of the "Angled" class recently offered by Stitched in Color.

My life has been crazy and my blogging erratic; however, I am headed into 2015 with no sewing commitments to anyone but myself. I feel that I have in some ways lost touch with why I started and have forgotten how to be creative for me. I am so excited to see what new things I get to make in 2015! Until then, I plan to knock out my WIP pile. It has gotten much too big. You know how that goes.

{Angled} Indian Blanket

As soon as I saw this quilt as one of the Angled patterns, I knew it would end up as my new fall couch quilt. I haven't worked with prints in a while, so the fabric pull was so fun and inspiring. I hope to finish piecing the top before the next pattern is available. Maybe I can even get some time on my mom's long arm!

I only have iphone photos of this quilt so far, but I was too excited to show you some progress to wait to photograph it with my good camera. 

I used Kona Mushroom as the background. It is one of my favorite colors. Only 6 more rows to piece! I can't want to use this one.

RJR Solids a Winner

Mr. Radom number generator picked comment number 2! Congrats Renee! Please email me your mailing info.

Thank you everyone for all the lovely comments!

Next up on my design wall is the first installment of Angled, a new Stitched In Color Class. The pattern is called Indian Blanket. I can't wait to get cutting!

                   

What Shade Am I?

I have been very quiet over the past few weeks because I have been working on my quilt for the RJR What Shade Are You? blog hop! I am so excited to finally debut it! This quilt features RJR's Cotton Supreme Solids.

When deciding what shade I was, I quickly came to the conclusion that I am no one shade (although I am rather partial to teal). I love color, all color, too much to describe myself as just one. So! They kindly gave me a spectrum of color to play with and this is what happened!

The solids I used were 311, 287, 280, 279, 292, 349, 348, 291, 209, 276, 326, 228, 32, and 33. I also used some Cotton and Steel Basics because they read so well as solids. As far as design goes, I tried to add in bits and pieces of my personality. While the construction is very uniform and linear, the placement of color creates a chaos that keeps it interesting.

I do love how it turned out! If you would like to see some other quilts from the blog hop, jump over to their Facebook Page.

As part of the RJR Blog Hop, they are kindly offering a bundle of the solids I used as a giveaway! Just leave a comment to win! (US and Canada only) I will pick the winner using the random number generator on Tuesday. Thanks again to RJR for having me on this fun blog hop!

Comfort Quilts

I got off track with my sewing after hearing that a colleague of mine had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. I offered to make comfort quilts for him, his wife, and his two young kids. Everyone on instagram stepped up and sent loads of lovely blocks that I paired with large pieces of fabric that I had in my stash.

They are all pieced at this point, and now I have to quilt them! I also just signed up for Angled. I am absolutely smitten with the projects! Get ready for some good stuff!

More Facing East

How is my Facing East Quilt coming? Gloriously. I am so in love with it. It is easy paper piecing and quite a well written pattern.

Happy happy colors. And I added some embellishment that you can only see close up!

Once I had pieced all of the templates, I had to begin applique! I don't have a lot of applique practice, so this was definitely new for me.

I am so excited to see it done and on the couch! At this point, I only have 5 circles left to applique. At the moment though, I am sitting in front of my computer trying to distract myself from my itchy, poison ivy covered arms. Have I mentioned that I hate my job? Haha.

Follow the Leader

Warm weather brings quite a bit of outdoor work at my job. We are outside all year round, but they schedule a substantial portion of that for the summer months. That means up at 5, out the door by 6, and working by 7. Sometimes until as late as 7. So I am rather tired. That is why this post is so delayed.

If you are part of the Quick-Sew Baby Quilt Club, you should have already received Follow the Leader! Inspired by a quilt my mom made, it is the second in the Quick-Sew Baby series.

I love how the gradient moves through the pattern of the triangles in this quilt!

I also am in quite a pickle because somehow the charger for my good camera broke. I have had to resort to using my iphone! Ugh. Hopefully I will be able to replace it soon.

Facing East QAL Paper Piecing Tutorial

Are you making the Facing East Quilt with us? Just in case you are nervous about paper piecing, I wanted to show you how easy it is! In fact, it is almost easier than regular piecing. Think of it as painting by number....but with fabric.

Some important tools include very thin paper (you can use normal paper, thin paper just comes off more easily), an iron, a nearby lamp/window is suggested, and a ruler. Because there is a lot of ironing, I definitely suggest having an ironing station near your machine. That way, you don't have to get up and sit down so much.

So, cut out your pattern pieces. Be sure to leave a 1/4" seam allowance. Not all patterns have them built in around the edge. Luckily, the Facing East Templates do!

When you paper piece, you apply the fabric to each number in numerical order. So, for this pattern, we want to cut fabric pieces 1 and 2 first. Be sure to cut pieces that are a little larger than the area that they go on. In the pattern, Carolyn has you cut strips at specific widths. I suggest doing this because you don't have to think about how wide the strips need to be to cover each area, and you'll be likely to get full coverage each time. When you paper piece for the first time, a common error is misjudging how big your fabric should be. I always cut my pieces much larger than they need to be so that I don't have to pick out any seams.  

Once you have pieces one and two cut, you are going to sew them to the template. Here is where a lot of people get hung up. You want to apply the pieces to the wrong side of the template so that you can sew along the lines on the right side. My tip is to use a light or a window to get your placement correct. Hold the template up to the light with the fabric behind it. Now you can see if your fabric is overhanging the line you are going to sew on and at the right angle.

Once you get that set, sew down the line using a small stitch length. Again, a small stitch length is suggested to help the paper come of easily. The more you perforate the paper, the less you have to tug at it to get it to come off. I usually set mine at 1.5.

Another tip is to make sure you take one or two stitches over the lines that the seam intersects. This will ensure that when you go over those lines later, you will lock those seams. 

Once you finish your seam, fold the paper back and trim the seam allowance to a 1/4". This reduces the bulk in your block. After that, iron the seam open and flat. 

Simple, right? Now repeat the process. Lay your fabric for segment 3 over the area and cut your over-sized piece. 

Again, sew it on to the wrong side of the template. Here you may notice the importance of the light more. Piece two is likely much larger than it needs to be. If you line up piece 3 with the edge of piece 2, you will have a lot of waste or it may not be at the correct angle for your seam. Hold the paper up to the light and use the shadow of the fabric to help line it up with the line you are planning to stitch. If I had more hands, I would have taken a picture of this step. Unfortunately, I only have the two. 

Same process here. Fold the paper back, trim the seam down to 1/4", and iron piece 3 flat.

Continue this process with all of the segments. Soon, your blocks will start to come together! Above, you can see I have added piece 4.

When I paper piece, I do 4 or 5 blocks at a time. Sew pieces 1 and 2 on all 5 blocks, then move on to piece 3, and so on. This speeds up the process quite a bit.

I can't wait to see this finished! This pattern is so fun to use your creativity with. It has so much potential. I hope you quilt along with us on instagram! I can't wait to see your quilts in progress.

In other news, this girl bought her first car! I finally traded in the 1997 4runner (225,000 miles, been driving it for 11 years) for a 2008 4runner. Doubt I'll ever get another kind of car.

Modern Hexies

I made some pretty little hexies!

Aren't they so saturated and lovely? I was so inspired by my Botanics coordinating Kona bundle that I needed to cut into it. My copy of Savor Each Stitch doesn't come for another week, so I decided to make something small to showcase the colors.

A wall hanging it is! I saw this lovely go by a few weeks ago and wanted to make it so badly. Luckily, she posted this tutorial, and talked me into it on Instagram. She is so nice!

Turns out, you should probably mark your grid before you attach your hexies. Oops, lesson learned. I still like the result though!

This is where I stopped last night. Hopefully I can get it bound and on the wall this week! I am soooo excited for some relaxing and sewing over the long weekend.