A Whole New World!

I'm very excited about my most recent quilt finish. It's been a long time in the making because I was waiting for a few key elements for quilting: 1. Inspiration, and 2. A ruler base for my long arm. ;)

In late June I had the very unique opportunity to spend the day with Angela Walters and a few other VERY exceptionally talented long armers in Denver. The airlines almost didn't let it happen, but Angela persevered, and made it to Denver, and we just really tried to suck as much information out of Angela's brain as conceivably possible in a 6 hour span of time. ;o)

 (Susan (front right) made each of us these little placemats, it wasn't part of our class)

One of the take-aways for me (of MANY) was how to use a ruler for quilting. I have a few quilt tops that are awaiting quilting inspiration, but I only really have one that was right for using the ruler base. (It's basically an acrylic add-on, similar to an acrylic extension table for your domestic sewing machine.)

(this isn't me practicing with a ruler, obviously, but it's the best picture of me and my BFF, Angela!) ;o)

So after that amazing "mountain top" experience, I seriously debated buying a ruler base for my long arm. It was $100, and I just wasn't sure it would be worth it, you know? I spend SO much money on stuff that I don't need or end up using (Hello, Accuquilt Go cutter!), but I decided to take the plunge on this one.

The Shape Shifters quilt that the {Faith Circle} of the Do. Good Stitches bee made in April was perfect for ruler-guided quilting. The problem? I needed to piece the top!! There were a few blocks that I had to re-make because they were trimmed wrong, but it really is an amazingly easy set of blocks to make. (You can find the tutorial HERE) Once I got the top pieced and the backing selected, it was time to get to work!

And WORK it was!! Man alive. Practicing on Susan's long arm for a few minutes was NOTHING like actually doing the quilting on my own quilt, on my own machine. The first block took for. eh. ver. Forever. Or at least four hours, which felt like forever! 

                                           

But then I figured out how to stream-line the process a bit, and eventually got to where each block was taking me about 30 minutes. All in all, though, I believe I spent about 20 hours quilting this quilt.

Totally worth it, yes, but goodness gracious! My arms ached, my legs ached, my back ached...Ruler-guided quilting is not for the weak, that's for sure!

                                                   

Now it's bound, and I'm going to put on the label, and take it to Restore Innocence so they can give it to a girl rescued from sex trafficking.

Here are a couple of pictures of the secondary design of the blocks, and the quilting in each.

  

And one more glamour shot for good measure. ;o)

                                                

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!