Finally a Finsh - Quick Baby Quilt

Well the pieced top went together in no time. This Strip and Flip design by Cluck Cluck sew really is a very quick quilt top to put together.  I bought gorgeous purple Moda fabric for the backing, basted it and then procrastinated on the quilting.

I originally had in mind a swirly pattern but then changed my mind to straight line quilting. When I first decided to make this quilt from the tutorial on Cluck cluck sew I had friends in mind expecting in the summer but as I was piecing it I was thinking of a different friend the whole time. So maybe that change of mind influenced the finish. I am very pleased with it and just happy to finally have a finish under my belt!

If only the Irish weather would co-operate I'd have better photos.  Supposedly going to be good this weekend.  Here's hoping.

Linking up to


and Finish it up Friday

Swoon 2013

Swoon was one of those Quilt a longs that passed me by last year though I've always liked the look of the block and totally love some of the versions I've seen posted especially  Live a Colourful Life's quilt made from Oakshott cottons against a dark background.

Sarah at FairyFace Designs has started Swoon 2013 and set up a Flickr page for all of us who missed out on last years Swoon-a-long and want to make some this year. There is a good bit of interest and this has been on my mind to do for a while so I'm joining in.

I bought these FQB in Quiltology in Chicago when I was visiting family last May. There were two bundles of Crazy Daisy each with 9 FQ's so perfect for Swoon (18 FQ's +BGF). I have some lovley Kona midnight I bought from Cindy at FluffySheepQuilting a few weeks ago - so I'm all set.

Hope you can join us!

Half Rectangle Triangles

Half Rectangles are tricky. They are very similar to Half Square Triangles but there is a little trick to making them. I needed a roof for a pieced house I was designing and it took three attempts to get these right.

Of course I could have paper pieced them but I got stubborn after attempt number 2 and was determined to figure it out. I thought I'd share with you what I did wrong and how I finally got what I wanted.

For the house above I wanted to use a layer cake, so I was working with a maximum size of 10". I came up with the bright idea of piecing it using Half rectangle Triangles and sewing them together. The size I needed for the roof wasn't a nice 2:1 like a flying goose but 10" wide by 4" high finished dimensions.

Well, on the first attempt the mistake I made was to treat the rectangle like a square and forget that rectangles are not symmetrical. I started with 5.5" x 6.5" rectancles, deciding to go big and trim down later.

Placing the fabric right sides together and using the HST method of drawing the diagonal then sewing 1/4" either side gives a very wonky result like this:

Oops!  I have no excuse, I knew it wasn't going to work as I was cutting it, but I figured keep going and I'll discover where I went wrong.  The trick is to rotate one of the rectangles and lay them out long edges across each other.  Here's the layout using the triangles I finally used in the roof:

This gives two identical half square triangles which will give me the left roof. You need to do another with the diagonal line going in the opposite direction to get the right hand part of the roof because half rectangle triangles aren't symmetrical.  That is well stick in my head now!

I did this and got 4 Half Rectangle Triangles and then I trimmed two of them down to the dimensions I wanted for my roof. To make up 10.5 x 4.5 I trimmed them to 4.5 x 5.5 as I will lose 1/4" in the middle when I join them.

On attempt number 2 I didn't pay enough attention trimming and ended up with rectangles with seam allowance for the bottom of the roof but clipped the top off the house!

Of course I only noticed this when I had sewn it to the base of my house. Not the end of the world, I could probably live with it in the project I'm making for myself but I had hoped to put this up on my blog as my first ever pattern so it's got to be right.

At this point I figured I'd take a break and go check out blogland - yes I really should have done this earlier!

 I found these three tutorials on Half Rectangle Triangles confirming for me that my starting dimensions were ok, my layout of fabric right sides together was on the right track but what I had not done was to take my 1/4" seam allowance into consideration when aligning the fabric or drawing my diagonal.  Oops again!

The modern quilt guild

Wayne Kollinger's Quilt Blog

The Busy Bee Quilt Shop

So third time around, I decided to try Wayne Kollinger's method and started my diagonal 1/4" up the rectangle both sides.

Ta-dah!!! Success at last.

On this final attempt, I decided if it wasn't going to work out I would just paper piece it . Well it did work out but now that I have the idea of paper piecing in my head of course I'm going to have to try that too! So I've downloaded the free software Quilt Assistant and once I practice with it a bit more I'll tell you all about it.

For now I'm just happy to have the test piece for my cushion/pillow project pieced and measuring the right dimensions!

Sew-A-Long Catch up's

There are a couple of sew-a-longs I joined in on this year and this weekend I had a marathon sewing session and managed to catch up with my two favourites.  First I completed my K-9 block for the Doctor Who-A-Long.  I just love this design and the doggy themed fabric "Puppy Park" by Riley Blake really suits him.  I love Puppy Park.  I bought a FQB and 2 layer cakes of this collection and have made one quilt with designs for two more (plus I was able to spare a little for K-9).

The City Sampler sew-a-long over at Sew Sweetness started last month.  These mini blocks are really tons of fun.  I can't believe how quickly they come together.  I was way behind and caught up in no time really so join in if you can.  There are 100 blocks from Tula Pink's book "100 Modern Quilt Blocks".

A lot of people are using Tula Pink fabrics.  I must confess I doon't have any so I'm using Boho by Annete  Tatum and so far so good.  (I do have 2 Tula Pink Books so I think I'm forgiven!).  Mixing in a few solids from my stash and following the colour guidelines from Tula's book not exactly but as close as I can as in the picture gives really nice results. 

I have yet to see a block that doesn't look good and some of these would look great a little larger on a pillow or cushion or even stick to the 6.5" mini size and make mug rugs!  I'm  so happy with this project and I'm all caught up at block 15!

Linking up to

WIP Wednesday - House Block Design & Half Rectangle Triangles

My favourite project that I have made so far is a Scnibbles pattern from Miss Rosie's quilt company called Full House.  It's neat little pattern that uses two charm packs to make a baby quilt.  I've seen some traditional house blocks like schoolhouse and decided to have a go making my own on Threadbias.

On the Threadbias website there is a quilt design tool that you can use for free as long as you are happy with a 9" workspace.  If you want to use the full tool and workspace you can by taking part in the design challenges Threadbias hosts or paying a monthly subscription.  I played around with it and managed to come up with the house above using Cocquette Fabric by Chez Moi for Moda.  It was great fun.  I liked my house so much I made four of them and put them together to make a pieced front for a 24" cushion I want to cover. 

To make this involves a bit of piecing so I worked out how to put it together and the fabric requirement to make this and had great fun playing with Maths.  Adding borders would get me to my needed size

.

So far so good.  Realising the roof of the house could be a bit tricky I decided to test my design yesterday evening.  I now understand the importance of pattern testing.  I'd forgotten there is a knack to Half Rectangle Triangles and that I would need a right one and a left one. 

So this is where I am with this project, pattern mostly written, cutting and piecing all ok except the roof!  Going to have another go at this again tonight!

Linking up to

June's to do!

I don't know about you guys but I have more projects on the go than is practical and this week I added some more!

I got my print copy of Tula Pink's new book and have pulled my Boho FQB to make these blocks and join in the City Sampler Sew-A-Long hosted by Sew Sweetness.  I'm a little behind but am hoping to catch up this week.

I finally chose my fabrics for the next two blocks of the Doctor Who paper piecing QAL.  I was torn between going all metallic and using greys for the K9 block or going all out doggy and using my stash of Puppy Park by Riley Blake.  A tin dog could go either way but I figured given this blog is named for two dogs going all out dog themed really was the correct choice.  So K9 will be blue and the BGF will be the dog bones which he deserves being the best dog a TimeLord could have!

As I'm a little behind I also have the spaceship SS Madame de Pompadour to do as well.  It's a lovely graphic design so I'm taking a chance using brighter colours than normal for a space ship against the dark blue.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

As Gordon was ordering stuff from amazon he asked if I wanted anything to get the value up to free postage I jumped at the chance to get Sarah Fielke's new book.  I love this medallion quilt and am adding it to my ever increasing to do list!

Finally I've been playing with Quilt Math for an article I'm writing and a cushion I'm designing and hope to have that to share soon.  So no blogging this past week but lots of activity.  Feels good to be getting on with things.  A couple of finishes under my belt now would be even nicer!

Solar Stars Mini Quilt

So it started with the idea of stars while taking the Craftsy course "Designing Modern Quilts" with Weeks Ringle.  One of the ideas was Beyond The Block, looking at a design concept as a whole.  I came up with this idea really from playing with curves and gradient colours on Photoshop Elements while thinking of giant red stars but I had no idea how to make it.

 So I decided to procrastinate as you do and go shopping.  I bought a fat eight bundle of Kona solids in sunny colours and Kona Midnight from Fluffy Sheep Quilting and I just love these colours together.  Totally gorgeous.  One of Week's lessons was to make a mini-quilt and test the idea out so a fat eight was perfect.

Even in mini size I didn't know how to go about getting the exact curve of the large sun and I pondered this for a while.  Eventually I figured out I needed a pattern so I printed my original design in black and white and enlarged it by just over 200%.

I was fairly sure I wanted inset circles but some of the circles would be small in mini so I decided to try inset and needle turn applique and test out which suited the design best.  So I inset the large star and appliqued the smaller two.

I love the inset - it is so clean and crisp and perfect.  And I found them easier than the needle turn applique which I definitely need to practice.

I had the idea of small stars in the background so I decided to hand tie my mini-quilt (never tied a quilt before-really great fun!). I put in the constellation the Plough in the blue pearl cotton and a few white stars surrounding but it was too much so I took a few out.  All ready to be washed and take out my markings and hopefully get a nice finish.

When I eventually get around to making this in large size I think I'd hand embroider stars in the background fabric and do concentric rings in the stars.  Still I'm very pleased with my first attempt at design and I learned a lot from making this mini.  Espeially how important it is to match the binding to the star colours which was a little tricky but well worth it.

Linking up to Ellison Lane Quilt's Modern Mini Challenge