Strip-Easy: Quilt Challenge ~ a future WiP. :o)

I need another project like I need a hole in my head, but Denise at Pieced Brain liked this Shape Shifter block, and suggested I look at her upcoming Strip Challenge.

She's calling it Strip-Easy (like "strip tease", but different) (except I'll be teasing you with my design until the big reveal...) ;) and the idea is to use up the 2 1/2" strips that you already have. No cutting open a new jelly roll, no cutting fabric, unless it's for sashing or background.


                                         

So, in reality, my Shape Shifter blocks won't work since I don't have a pile of those strips, but I do have a pile of leftovers from the roll-up of Kona solids from my Love Letters quilt.

                                       

I'm not sure if I'm going to make a baby quilt with some of the letters, or if I'm going to make a special quilt that my little girlie requested...both would be awesome, I just need to decide. :o)

But, again. I need another project like I need a hole in my head! :o(

If you want to participate in the Strip Easy Quilt Challenge, go to Pieced Brain's blog, and check it out! There will be some fabulous prizes for the winner!

Other than that, I'm still working on the t-shirt quilt, but I'm waiting on some flannel for the border and backing. So far, so good, though! :o)

                                  

Then my Colorado MQG Challenge quilt needs to get to the top of the list. I've got a very short amount of time to complete this, and I have to do it because this all-guild challenge was my dumb idea!

Then there's the matter of quilting  everything I have touched since January...(sigh)

I hope you're all having a great week!

(I'm linking up with Lee of Freshly Pieced for her {WiP}Wednesday post)

{WiP} Wednesday ~ And a PATTERN!!

So many WiPs! :o)

Oh, so many.

My first is very exciting. I finally finished and listed this pattern for sale on Etsy!  And it's for sale on Craftsy, too! :)


It's called Love Letters, and it's a pattern for all 26 letters (plus a heart), and each letter is made from squares and pieced quarter circles! Oh, be still my beating heart! :o)

Here's a close-up of the P:


I was inspired by the cover of the ESPN Magazine when Le Bron James was on the cover. See, inspiration is everywhere! ;o)  My hope is that people will use the letters and make personalized quilts. That's expected, right?

I give instructions in the pattern for how to piece quarter circles, but there are loads of tutorials online. I don't use pins or glue. Shocking, I know. ;o)  I just found that the glue made it too difficult, and I found it took a lot more time to use pins, but did not improve accuracy.  Seriously!



Here's my sweet girl playing on the quilt top...which is why this is still a WiP, and not a finish! I'm stumped on how to quilt it!!


(Plus I have 3 other quilt tops that need quilting...shame on me!)

Here's my other gotta-finish-soon WiP -- a t-shirt quilt for Dave's cousin as she graduates from high school.


It's actually a really good project for me right now. I feel like I've only done stressful sewing for so long -- two patterns and quilts for Robert Kaufman at Christmas, a super secret project I can't tell anyone about, and now the alphabet quilt. Sometimes you just need to SEW!!!! I'm not usually a fan of mindless sewing for the sake of finishing another mindless quilt (I like meaning behind my quilts. And patterns.), but it just feels good to sew simple lines and make a simple (yet, meaningful...) quilt. :o) 

I just hope the purple sashing isn't a mistake!

Lots of other stuff on the near horizon. Hopefully I can finish this and start my next must-do-now project and show you some progress next week!

I hope you have a wonderful, and crafty, week!

Linking up with Lee of Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday. :)

Shape Shifters ~ A Tutorial

Have you ever come across a quilt block and thought, "Man! I wish I had thought of that!" 

Well that happened to me last week when I saw blocks that my friend, Liberty, is making for a charity bee.  I knew my turn with the {Faith Circle} of the Do. Good Stitches bee was coming up, and I needed something quick and easy. (I'm all about quick and easy for these quilts. We give our quilts to Restore Innocence, and these girls wouldn't know a Swoon block from a butcher block, so as long as it's beautiful, why complicate it, right?)

Anyway, Liberty pointed me to this tutorial, and I started to play. Man, I wish I had thought of that!  So, giving credit where credit is due, there are 3 Dudes in Arizona that came up with this method of making a quilt block. I, however, tweaked it a smidge to make my vision come to fruition. :o)

After playing around with color options, I decided to go fresh and nautical with a yellow, white, navy combination. Delicious! Since yellows are tricky to match, to say the least, I decided to send half of the yellow that all of my bee mates will need, and they can match the other half from their stash.  Hopefully that will allow for some cohesion among the scrappiness of the quilt.

You will not believe how utterly simple this is. Prepare to be shocked. :o)

Note: This tutorial is for each member of the Faith Circle to create 8 blocks for April's quilt, not for the entire quilt. :o)

Fabric Requirements (for 8 blocks) 

• 1 strip mid-to-dark blue (but not navy!) 2 1/2" by WOF
• 2 strips Kona White (mailed to you with the yellow) 2 1/2" by WOF
• 2 strips yellow (please use the yellow I'm mailing to you as a guide, please choose a warm yellow (no green tones) 2 1/2" by WOF 

Sewing Instructions

1. Sew the strips together along the long edge as follows: yellow to white to blue to white to yellow. Use a scant 1/4" seam, and try to sew the strips so that they don't warp or bow.
2. Press the seams to the darker fabrics
3. Square off the left side of the strip set, then measure 10 1/2" over, and cut perpendicular to your seams to make a 10 1/2" square. Repeat 3 more times to make 4 squares.

     4. Rotate two of the squares so the stripes are vertical, leaving two with horizontal stripes (as above)

     5. Place the vertical blocks on top of the horizontal blocks, and secure around all four sides using pins

         or glue. You know how I feel about my glue basting! :o)

     6. Sew around all 4 sides using a scant 1/4" seam, as seen below.

     7. Take your two sewn-on-all-sides blocks to the cutting mat and get a long ruler and your rotary
         cutter.
     8. Placing the ruler across the diagonal from one corner to the opposite corner, cut through both
         layers.

     9. Rotate your ruler to the opposite set of corners, and cut across the other diagonal from corner to
         corner again. Open up the cuts and find beautiful, triangular blocks! Voila!
    10. Press the seams to the yellow (center strip), and you are finished!

I see you!

Thank you, Faith Circle, for always being willing to make beautiful quilts for the girls rescued from human trafficking and supported by Restore Innocence.

Again, this method was devised by the guys in Arizona, I just played with the colors so it would look like eyeballs...just kidding. :o)  If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! And if you make a quilt using this technique, let me know!