New Project, A Handy Tip and a Blog Hop Update

As I hate to be behind or late with anything,  I have started on my November Island batik project. I am making a blue and yellow quilt using the SunnySide Up collection along with some of the basics and foundations fabrics. I have made a lot of half square triangle blocks.  The stack below is forty of them.

I made these using Triangles on a Roll. When you are making lots of the same unit this is really fast.

Here is my handy tip: When I am working on a project and making pieces to put into blocks later, I use these cheap inexpensive plastic envelopes from the Dollar store.

It keeps all of my pieces together so they don't get lost in the clutter.  They will hold a lot more than you realize.  This one has 96 half square triangle blocks as well as 48 border sections.

The Blog Hop:

Here is Island Batik blog hop schedule for this week . A different Island Batik Spring 2019 collection is being featured each day. You should visit my fellow Ambassador’s blog hop stops every day to see what beauties have been created with this wonderful fabric.

Monday, August 19th - Petal Pushers

Joanne @ Unicornharts

Carla @ Creatin’ in the Sticks

Tuesday, August 20th - Quiet Shades

Connie @ Kauffman Designs

Vasudha @ Storied Quilts

Wednesday, August 21st - Seedlings

Vicki @ Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting

Mania @ Mania for Quilts

Thursday, August 22nd - Soil & Seeds

Gail @ Quilting Gail

Also you can go to the Island Batik blog post for the end of week two and register for this weeks prize, a bundle of the lovely collection, Quiet Shades.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Two Blocks -LHQSQ 2.0

For the Left-Handed Quilter Sampler quilt along,  I have made my first two blocks.  Since there are 99 blocks to choose from and we are only making 25 of them, we can choose which ones we want to make.
My fabrics for this will be mostly Kaffe Fassett by Free Spirit.  The 10" squares and some charm packs were on sale and I couldn't resist the colorful delights.

The pieces were cut with my Accuquilt Go! cutter using the 8" Qube set.  These are 6 inch finished blocks, but the 2" square and 2" half-square triangles from that set were perfect for cutting these.

The Contrary Wife is the first block I chose to make.

These two blocks are in the "not too hard" category, in my opinion.  They are simple half square triangles and simple square fabric units.

For the second block, I chose an old favorite - the Friendship Star.

This block can be arranged to rotate either direction.   These fabrics certainly change the look of the blocks.  One of those yellow HSTs has blue right along the edge of the star point which seems to change the shape just a bit.  The center square has a pink burst that is seven pointed.  It is actually the veins of a leaf, but it has a nice "starburst" feel in the middle of my star block.  This was completely serendipitous - but I love it.

Only 23 more blocks to go...but I will be taking this one slow and easy.

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Two More

Two more quilt along blocks finished and photographed.

And there are only two more block designs to be made. Yipee!

Quilt Along -So Far

The Beginner's Quilt Along on the Quilting Gallery site (button on the left sidebar!) is already through block ten and I think block eleven posts tomorrow.  Soon I will have to decide on sashing fabrics and bindings.
For now, I have did a quick layout with each group of blocks I made.  I didn't do very good layouts.  I noticed that when I looked at the pictures.  Did you know that taking a picture of your layout really helps you spot things you could make better?  Well if you didn't "ya heard it here!"

Pictures!!!

On the second set (brown, gold, green and red) there are four blocks with embroidered applique and two blocks with fussy cut centers. The three blocks with solid centers are just begging to be blinged up with some  embroidered applique.  So I just have to decide "what" and do it.  I will say that it is easier to add it BEFORE making the block and then just cutting out the square to put in the center.  Oh well, I didn't decide until it was too late for that.  It sounds like a good time to use the sticky backed stabilizer.

There will be twelve blocks total...and one extra for an on point setting.  I will use ONE extra block on the backing.  I am thinking the rail fence type block will be the one for that.

Drawing Up Blocks

Last week, I was in a class for work.  The instructors throughly enjoyed hearing themselves speak.  More than I did apparently. Ha ha.  So during some of the lecture, I drafted a couple of blocks in my notebook. This morning I opened my trusty old EQ5  and digitized them.

The second one is simply a variation on the first one. I played a lot with colorations. I am not yet happy with my color layouts on the blocks.  So for the quilt they are changed. (This quilt is just digital, I have not made it, and may never make it.)

I think it makes an interesting quilt. I am pretty sure it would be awesome if it were done all scrappy too.
If anyone wants the EQ5 project file, just let me know.  I will be happy to share it with you. However, if you write up a pattern to sell, I want credit and perhaps a few dollars!  Fair enough?  Yeah, I think so.

Five Strip Slash Block

If you are looking for the book giveaway go here. 
I had a few 2.5" strips left over and decided to play with them.  As you may guess this will probably end up on the back of one of my quilts.  Hey, it is the perfect place to use up experimental or orphan blocks. No need to waste them is there? 


Here is my real result:

It is actually a half block.  So I used some digital magic to make an entire block because I didn't have any more matching fabric. 

No, the points are not perfect -live with it!

I am calling this a Five Strip Slash Block.  Here is how to make it.


I took the strips (which were actually only partial strips) and sewed a set of five.  I then cut the unit into squares.  (using digital mockups since I was in the zone and didn't take pictures along the way)

Take two of the squares, rotate one of them 90 degrees, then layer them right sides together.

Two units -one rotated 90 degrees

Line them up as neatly as possible - pin if desired.  On the back of the top block draw a diagonal line corner to corner. (you can use a pencil or ink pen, it will not show in the finished product!)

Sew a quarter inch seam on both sides of that line (you are sewing through both units) Once both seams are sewn, cut (slash) down the drawn line to make two 5-strip half square triangles.

Real picture this time!

Join these along the edges with the small triangles to make half of the finished square:

Join those to make the finished block

Not hard to do and it really pops. 
Here are a couple of EQ samples I prepared to give you an idea of a full quilt made from these. I did layouts in both rotations for you. 

Alternating blocks -joining non-matching colors.

Joining Similar Colors

If you make this quilt I would love to see a picture of it. 
You could alternately make the units with an even number of strips and there would be no solid interior square. 


I am considering new videos to make.  What would you like to see demonstrated?

Quilt Alongs - Update

I am caught up on Quilt Alongs this week.  


I did my blocks for the GO! Quilt Along by Quilt Possible .  This is really  a full block in the center with half blocks on each side. I like the way it looks laid together this way. 

And I did my block for the Layer Cake Quilt Along (Link on the button in the sidebar)

I am not totally happy with this block.  The seams  didn't match up as well as I like. C'est la vie! 

Scrappy HST become Stars

I have been having some fun today.  We started off with a trip to the grocery store. Since I am at a friend's house, it is a store I don't always get to shop at - it was fun.  I got a few things I can't get at my store. 


Then  we went to the Guatemalan store for a couple of items. I love shopping there. The store has no pretense and the staff is so friendly.  Then we had lunch at a Mexican restaurant that is always good. Items on the menu are not interpreted so it is always fun to go "I wonder what that is?"  The waitress is Latina but she was clearly raised in the USA.  I had to ask about a couple of items.  I got the Huarache. It was a plateful.   YUM!


Then back to the house for some real fun.  I got my plastic box of scraps from scrapbusting with my AccuQuilt GO! cutter(this was round two of scrapbusting.)  
I sewed all of these half-square triangles (HSTs) together. 

Then I sat down and used some of my scrappy HSTs and some 4 1/2" squares and made a scrappy star.  It looks wonky, not because it is, but rather because of the two green points that are medium value rather than dark.  

Won't these make a fun quilt?  I am loving it.  

Curvy and Fun

Folks, I don't normally do product reviews.  Fact is, I bought this Curve Master foot for my sewing machine because I hate  strongly dislike pinning. It is rare that I pin pieces to sew them together.  
Fact two is that I really like the Drunkard's Path, AND I have the small AccuQuilt die for making it.  That was my incentive. 


So I got this foot:

It looks fairly plain. Honestly I saw it and said "How can that thing make any difference?"  (fact: I still don't know "how")  
So after it sat in the package a few days, I decided to pull it out and put it on the machine.  I sat and sewed the first block:

Oops! that is as off as when I did it "my way." 

So I re-read the package. (Ah, light bulb!)  A while back I had bought a pair of long, curved tip tweezers because they were a great deal at two dollars. (Surely they will come in handy!) 

I took out those tweezers, took another block and tried again.  This time I got about an inch from the end (where your fingers start to get in the way) and used the tweezers to hold that final bit.  

BINGO!  it worked. 

The edges lined up nicely, the curves are curvy, and the blocks ironed out well. And it was easy.  

One of my dear friends said she couldn't get it to work out just right. I typed up what I did in an email and sent it to her.  I hope she tries it this weekend to GREAT success. 

Finally Feeling Better - So I made some Quilt Blocks

After a couple of days feeling blah and wishing I felt better, I have finally rounded a corner.  I am doing the AccuQuilt GO! Quilt Along hosted by Ebony at Quilt Possible. The first block was posted back of February 17th.  Yikes!  I am late. At least block two hasn't been posted yet. 
For block one we were to make eight of the Whirlwind blocks.  Here are four of my completed blocks laid together so I could see this secondary design. I love it, I could make an entire quilt of this block. 

Since I cut the pieces for this block with the AccuQuilt Go! cutter, all the pieces fit together wonderfully and the cutting was fast. My points are near perfect and I am happy. (Disclaimer: I don't stress over perfect points; but I do like them.)  

For this quilt along, we were to pick two neutrals and six other fabrics. The other fabrics are 3 sets of two in light and dark, as are the neutrals. My light neutral is a natural muslin, the dark is a tan. 

The fabrics in the dark triangles are a bit confusing as they did not photograph well. The triangles that form the center pinwheel are a hand dyed fabric that is burgundy with a bit of green in it. The light that goes with that is the mottled light burgundy/pink.  

The dark outer triangles are a mottled purple that goes with the light purple/white floral. 

There are two colors that are NOT shown, as they didn't come into play this round.  I have a solid light green and this green with purple and yellow in the foreground:

I think the purple in this will play nicely with the other fabrics. 

If you are on FaceBook you may want to "like" AccuQuilt.  It will let you see what other people are making with the GO! cutter and occasionally they give away some great prizes. Tell them "Gene Black sent me over here" if you want to.  And you might mention that I should be on their "Blog Friends" wall, too. (Yes that is shameless self-promotion) 

I just spotted this: If you sign up for email updates at the AccuQuilt website they have a $100 monthly gift certificate giveaway.  I am glad I am signed up. I would love to win one of those! 

Thanks for all the 'get well' wished over the past couple of days. You have really made me feel loved. 

Sick but not totally out of it.

I am just a bit under the weather with a sinus-y cold.  So I have been less productive.  I didn't make the Layer Cake Quilt Along Block 8 on the day it was released like I usually do.  I made it this afternoon and even though it was easy, I am tired already. 
Here is the block:

And just for fun, I am entering my Kaleidoscope block in the Quilt Story Block Party.  

Now I am going either to bed or to my recliner.  I hate having a cold.  But at least I am better today than I was yesterday.  Tomorrow I plan to be back at work. (and I need to remember to take the soft facial tissue with me, just sayin')  Wish me well.  
Thanks!