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One lonely block
I was asked to make a block which will later be added with into assortment of other blocks. As with these kinds of collections, the blocks will be sewn together and given as a gift to someone. I wanted to slip a little military fabric (USAF) into my block. It is a wonky log cabin. If you haven’ tried those yet- I highly recommend it. Use this tutorial. The block will blow through your scraps and it is super fast to make. Right now, it appears that I have a lonely little block- but after a short ride with the USPS, soon he’ll have some friends.
The black is just from the computer so you could see the block a bit better. It isn’t really sewn in there.
Quilting the Orange Sun
This quilt ended up being small-ish. It is about 19″ square and is finished. I’ll probably hang it on the wall in the studio for a bit. (At this rate, I might have to start hanging these small projects on the ceiling too!!!)
I wanted to show you how I ended up quilting it.
I had this page from my sketchbook as inspiration. It is zentangle-esque, though I doubt I’m doing the zentangle part right. I wanted the work to be divided diagonally and then filled in with different quilting motifs. I think diagonal would be a very hard way to work on a longarm type machine. We’ll cross that bridge on another day. I have it on good authority that it CAN be done…. For now, quilting these small things are still done on my Elna 3007 home sewing machine.
Anywhoo. With all the different motifs to be showcased, visible thread was in order! This is a grey sulky blendable variegated thread. It turned out much darker than I anticipated, but at the end of the project- I’m not too worried about it.
If you ever want to give free-motion quilting (FMQ) a try, I highly recommend doing it on a small-ish piece. It finishes quickly and still lets you try all the different styles that you’ve been pinning over on pinterest. =) And you don’t use up alot of fabric for the experiment.
Orange Sun Block
I started out wanting to make one of those blocks with all the points. I’m not sure if it’d be a Mariner’s Compass or New York Beauty type block. Mostly, I knew I wanted the block to be radial with points. Thanks to Adobe Illustrator, I was able to make my own paper template and generate a design.
Sewing using the paper piecing method will yield some seriously accurate points, but after rotating that “outside” row, it looked WAY too intimidating for me.
After printing off the design in panels and then taping it back together, I started work on the inner row of points. I saved the inner circle shape to use as a template for an appliqued circle.
You would not believe how quick I bailed out on those super sharp points! I made a reverse applique* circle on the white background and placed the orange pointy sun behind it. The block is squared-up to 12 1/2″ and the star is off-center. I thought off-center might be more fun and give a more modern look to the block.
The border fabric is from ((gasp)) Hancock Fabrics. It is a 2 1/2″ strip fabric collection left over from another project. The oranges match great, although they look a bit red in the above picture. AND the best part- I’m using up scraps & stash fabrics.
I put this big big block, which is now about 20″ square, on my design wall. We’ll see if I grow it much bigger or finish it off as a doll quilt. Either way- I’ll have to do something if I want to have it finished in time to take to the Wichita Modern Quilt Guild’s February meeting. 
*My reverse applique is done by machine, not by hand as show in the linked tutorial.
Jelly Roll Race Quilt
I’m using up the stash to make another 1600 quilt! It is a jelly roll race style quilt with strips sewn end to end. I’ll give you a link.
Fabric in the studio is arranged by color. (Take the studio tour, here.) I have 18 cubbies all sorted by ROY G BIV + solids. On the other hand, I only own 3 total jelly rolls. At the suggestion of my mother-in-law, I decided to grab a couple cubbies and cut off rows of fabric to create my own jelly roll.
I cut the strips 3″ wide instead of the standard 2 1/2″. I also went with orange and green. Why orange and green??? Who knows. I also don’t know how many strips I used or if the length was really 1600″, as the original quilt is. Since I was using folded pieces and previously used fabrics, each strip was not 42″ long either. It was a bit here, and a bit there and a real hodge-podge mess of strips.
The quilt top is finished and is a good lap size. I have plenty of fabric to make a border around pieced strips. I’ll have to search the internet to get border ideas, though.
Hooray for using up some stash! Now, if I make about 50 more, I might be close to using up all my fabric. HAHAHAHA!
PATTERN SALE!
Pattern sale announced over on the ReannaLily Designs Facebook page. If you haven’t “liked” the page yet, what are you waiting for??? Click on over to see which popular pattern is currently for sale at 50% off. Feel free to share the blog post or FB post- the sale is open to everyone. We’re celebrating the over 700 fans on FB. Thank you so much for liking!
New Fabrics from Exclusively Quilters
RD2025 The Flapper - Urban Blooms Fabric
Here’s a quick peek at a couple new fabric lines from Exclusively Quilters. I was contacted by a sales rep from Exclusively Quilters to make digital mock-ups of my patterns in their fabric. I thought that would be an excellent way to cross-promote both patterns and fabric. We had actually met at a trade show a couple seasons ago, so this works out great!
I sat down at Illustrator/Photoshop and got to work.
Although EQ7 lets you quickly change fabrics and colors on digital quilt designs, I haven’t found a program that will let you do that as easily with other sewn projects. Through a bit of resourcefulness, I was able to make “templates” of my designs. Now I can drop any fabrics in, any time. It is neat to see the design in all sorts of different pallets.
RD2015 Adjustable Aprons - Cupcake Cuties Fabric
Look for these two fabric lines, Cupcake Cuties and Urban Bloom in stores later this spring. (2012) *These fabric lines are not designed by me.
And you can see & shop the original patterns here: The Flapper Purse and The Adjustable Aprons
Thrift Store Inspiration
I love going to the thrift store. Recently I picked up a little black purse for about $2.00. I really liked the shape and really liked how it was constructed. I decided it would be something I’d have to try to remake.
inspiration bag
I carried the bag around for a day only to find out that it was WAY too small for my purse loot. I liked the shape. I liked that it was vinyl. I like that it had a “binding” around the edges.
Before I make a bag like this little bag, I’d have to do some re-design work. That totally works out because for me, it’s like solving a puzzle. Ok, solving a puzzle backwards…. But still.
Once I started sketching, lots of bag variations emerged. I think that is a normal part of the process. But now, I’ve got these mystery bags that I’d like to make, bigger, vinyl, and finished in binding. I must edit and pick just one for the “test run”.
Hooray for the discount fabric store for having a grey vinyl remnant. I took a picture of the back of the vinyl, so you can see the “fabric” side as well as the vinyl side. And of course, there’s some bright crazy Sugar Snap fabric for the lining.
I sketched. I drafted. I stitched. I pinned. I ironed (the cotton only*). I basted and finally I made a big bag.
*Turns out the vinyl MELTS! -which I knew, but wasn’t thinking about… then the kids came into the studio telling me it smelled horrible in there… which it totally did!!!
It is about 14″ across and much wider than the inspiration bag. I even added little petal details along the front, top edge.
The lining turned out great. It was supposed to be the lining only… but as I was going along, I realized that my vinyl remnant wasn’t going to be enough fabric to bind the edges, as I had planned.
I had to improvise. Honestly, I have to file this in the “oh, I guess that’s neat” section, because I wouldn’t think of doing a quilt binding on fabric that doesn’t fray, and yet- it totally worked out. And a binding in such a high contrast is kinda cool, too. I love approaching a project in a “who knows how this will turn out?!” way. =)
All in all I think the experiment turned out pretty well. My bag is a little more funky-fresh than the classic small black bag. My bag fits over the shoulder and makes up very quickly. I didn’t add any extra pockets- since I really just wanted to test the concept. It totally works for me though. Here’s a last photo for the whole story- from inspiration to finished project.
I suppose the only question left is – will I go back and make the other sketched designs on the page? We shall see….
Quilting the 1600
In August, I got a small mid-arm quilt frame. It is actually my mom’s “old frame” and quite frankly, one of the best new-to-me presents of all time. I don’t think I’ve blogged about it yet though. I got quite busy with preparing for Quilt Market right around Aug/Sept, and I’ve really only quilted 4-5 small quilts on the frame. Oh but that is all about to change friends.
The 1600 quilt is the first quilt on the frame for the new year. My frame bars are short and can only quilt up to 72″ wide. That is fine with me, I still have quite a steep learning curve to tackle. I visited a longarm workshop in December and learned tons about thread, needles, tension, rulers and all sorts of machine quilting details.
I hopped out to my favorite local quilt shop, Material Girls, over the weekend to buy some variegated YLI thread and binding fabric for the 1600. (Turns out, if you make a 1600 quilt from a jelly roll- and all the strips match perfectly- ya might want to plan ahead to have fabric for the binding.)
{{Side note: I had to buy that Karavan Elephant fat quarter. I just think it is wonderful.}}
So the quilt’s loaded. I planned on a simple meander, since the family, who was home this Sunday afternoon, wouldn’t have to hear the whole range of cuss words. Although I really like the free motion quilting with planned designs, I’m kinda re-learning how to quilt on this frame. I also learned at the longarm workshop that it is smart to use the same thread in the top and bobbin for better tension results. Oh- I’m soooo doing that.
I’m quilting along… feeling pretty good… then the machine made a sort of jerking motion with only 4 linear inches left to quilt.
Oh hells bells! (do people say that?) I was out of thread. Not the usual “bobbin ran out with 5 inches left in the seam. ” I mean I was OUT out of thread, and on my last bobbin. I fumbled around the studio and found a different variegated thread to use, and hope no one will notice. That new therad was a nightmare. I must have needed a different / larger needle or something.
It turned out. (though a couple cuss words might have danced around the room) I even added a couple USAF fabric squares in the quilt top, and managed to quilt those just fine too. Hooray hooray. Victory is mine. High fives for everyone!
I just have to add the brand new binding fabric on the brand new quilt.
Machine binding all the way, peeps. This quilt started out Saturday morning and finished up in about 36 total hours later. I think I’ll definitely make this again. I still own a total of 3 more jelly rolls. (yep, only 3.)
The Ole Miss Military Monster
Just a quick little blog post to show you the giant finished bag. …and all its many many pockets.
And the new bag’s owner picked a red plaid for the lining and contrast fabrics. It looks great with the college print.
And of course, I should probably tell you- the pattern for this bag is available in the book Deploy That Fabric.
1600 Quilt
Have you seen the 1600 quilts? Not 1600 Quilts, exactly, but rather the 1600 inch strip used to make a lap quilt? I think it is also called a spaghetti quilt. Here, let me get this video link for ya before we go any farther….
{Let’s see if WP likes that youtube code.}
First you need to pick out a jelly roll. This one is Kiwiberry by Hoffman. It is from there Bali Pops collection and is a couple years old.
So you join a jelly roll’s worth of fabric strips (40 strips) together end to end to make one long strip roughly 1600 inches long.
Then fold that strip in half and sew an 800 inch long seam. Cool. Cut the fold at the end.
Fold it again and sew a 400″ seam…. I think you see how this is going. The lap quilt makes up really really fast. I went even faster by using my serger. I don’t know what the exact stitch-per-minute is on the serger, but it is somewhere around a ba’zillion.
I opted not to miter each end of the fabric strips. I just jumped in an started sewing. And can we talk about chaos for second? This quilt is made quite haphazardly, but yet I have a clump of greens together and the darks seem to be all on one side. Strange right?
~Sorry about the picture sizes. I’m trying to get everything compressed and the way I’d like to use it, but my “real” computer is on the fritz, so I’m having to blog from the back-up for a short while.
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Seamingly Accurate™ Seam Guide
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