Sewline

In my last post I showed you the top I pieced in the English Paper Pieced style.  EPP, as it is commonly known, is made easier with a few handy tools.

Sewline makes quite a few of them......... this is an item available from them - The Quilter's Starter Kit.  

Included in the Quilter's Starter Kit are:  : 5-1/2" Snippet scissors, Fabric Glue Pen, Duo Fine Fabric Marker & Eraser, Styla Fabric Marker with water erasable ink, Aqua Eraser, Stayer permanent marker, Sewline Fabric Pencil in white, and Fabric Eraser.

I used the glue pen (and a couple glue refills) glue basting every piece of this quilt.

Sewline Glue pen is fast and easy.  Once every paper shape was glue basted with fabric - then I could sew at my leisure to make all the blocks.  

The papers stay in place until you lift the fabric edge and peel it away from the paper.  All of these steps are easy to do on the road (summer trips!) or in front of the tv or watching a sporting event.  My kind of quilting!

The Sewline mechanical pencils are always in use here too.  They come with several colors of lead refills - and I have a mechanical pencil ready in every color. You never know what color will show up best on a particular fabric.  What do I use them for?  Mostly for hand piecing, but I mark quilting lines occasionally with them too. 

I often have a hand pieced project in the works here.  Many of the recent ones have been done using acrylic templates like this one.  I rotary cut the fabric needed - then mark my hand sewing lines with the pencil.  In this case - just the corner dots - and I hand sew dot - to - dot. 

While Moda Fabrics + Supplies asked me to write about these tools - I wouldn't do it if they weren't a tool I loved.  Here is a picture of my sewing notions ready to be used next to my stitching chair - there are quite a few Sewline tools in use.

Hope you have a hand work/travel project ready to go for this summer.

Laters,

Laurie

English Paper Pieced 6 Pointed Star Quilt

There were some scraps left of Northport prints and wovens after I made my 3 quilts for International Quilt Market.  I decided to make an EPP (English Paper Pieced) quilt with them.

 The picture isn't very good. I JUST got the border sewn on and since thunderstorms are threatening here - I quickly took a picture before it was pressed.  Thunderstorms. Again. Poor Gibby doesn't like them at all.

 The quilt has 9 stars and 3 half stars in this setting.  The border is 7" wide and it finishes at 67" x 78"

This is how the pieces are arranged to make the star block.   

 And this is how they are set....

The hexagon is 1" size and each block uses 1 hexagon.  The half-hexagon is a 1" half hexagon and you will need 16 for each block.  The 3" equilateral triangle is next and you need 6 for each block.  The 3" diamond (60 degree) will call for 6 in each block.  The 6" equilateral triangle is the 6 blue triangles that surround each block.  Finally - you need 6" diamonds (60 degree) for the setting - the red large diamonds.  It all depends on how you set the block together as to how many of these large 6" diamonds you need.  For this quilt I needed 35 - plus 3 half diamonds. 

All the paper templates and the acrylic templates to cut the fabric came from Paper Pieces. 

I'll be posting more on techniques later this week.

Laters,

Laurie

Spring Quilt Market

I'm packing today for a flight tomorrow to Kansas City.  There will be friends to see, BBQ to eat, and lots and lots of quilts and fabrics.  Even for an introvert like me, these trips are looked forward to. These quilts made with Northport will be on hand....

Seaside 

Leo

6 Mini's from Our Best Friends, Forest Fete, and Live Your Life all put together into one full size quilt.

Close-up of Forest Fete

 

 There is another quilt made with Northport that is still in progress..... it's made by English Paper Piecing and I'll be posting more photos in as I go along.

There are more things ......... a whole cloth quilt has been on my bucket list for quite awhile.  Finally, I got down to actually putting pencil to paper.  This is a partial sketch of my plans.

A great many erasers gave their life to this project.  The basic bones of the design are drawn onto lawn fabric and it is being basted right now. When I get home from Kansas City - the first stitches will take place. I am very excited by this.

There was even an attempt at improvisational piecing.  This was made with a rotary cutter, ruler and a photograph of a industrial garage door as inspiration. That was a fun experiment.

Laters,

Laurie

BLOCKHEADS 2 - Finished!

The quilting was done by Maggi Honeyman. Thanks, Maggi!  

And in other news, Leo is finished also!

Laters,

Laurie

BLOCKHEADS 2 - Week 52!!!

We are down to the last block.  It is certainly not least......It is courtesy of Corey Yoder and you can get the directions HERE

Check back next week for the finished quilt.  

 The Good Boy Quilt Pattern is here!  Thanks to Quiltmania for getting this baby produced and printed.

 It has full size applique templates.

 Just tackle this one border at a time and it will be done......

Laters,

Laurie

BLOCKHEADS 2 - Week 51

This week's block is courtesy of Lisa Bongean and you can get the pattern HERE.

Only 1 more block to go!  I just got my quilt back from Maggi and I'm sewing on the binding - all getting ready for the big reveal!

The quilting on the Leo quilt is going swimmingly.  I hardly ever use variegated thread, but I really like it on Leo.

The Live Your Life and Forest Fete patterns are being bound here. 

 Forest Fete are 2 mini quilts - a bunny and a deer...... and Live Your Life is also 2 mini quilts - a flower and the Eiffel tower.  Forest Fete uses a charm pack of Northport and 1 yard to make 2 mini's and Live Your Life uses a charm pack of Northport wovens and 1 yard to make another 2 mini's.

As you can see from the the binding photo above...... I didn't EXACTLY make mini quilts..... I put them together into 1 quilt along with the Our Best Friends mini quilts.

The binding isn't quite finished, but will be soon.

 The deer and the bunny are Forest Fete.  Don't you love the quilting Maggi Honeyman did?  Oh, and look what will be available soon - Northport twill tape.  I LOVE twill tape.  Look for some quilts to be bound in it very soon.

The Eiffel Tower and the flower are the 2 mini's of Live Your Life. They are made using the Northport wovens. These wovens work so beautifully with the prints in Northport and well.... all of our collections.  There are directions with both patterns on how to put 6 together into the full size quilt. 

All 3 of these new patterns are available as downloads in our Etsy shop. 

Laters,

Laurie

BLOCKHEADS 2 - Week 50

It's a classic for a reason. The Vintage block! (or Broken Dishes). This week's block is brought to you by Sherri McConnell and you can find it HERE.  It's the perfect block to use up scraps, and you know how I love that.

What else is going on here? I tried to make some Hot Cross Buns last weekend.

Sadly, they were a big miss. There wasn't just one issue - there were three. First of all you can see the recommended size pan was too small and the center wasn't cooked.  Second, they were "cakey" instead of a bread texture.  Not good.  Lastly, the recipe called for 1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves. That's what I put in, but it was way too much. All you could taste was the cloves.  I hope the birds and raccoons enjoyed them (they got tossed into the back bushes). I am having a real losing streak with yeast breads lately.

I'm still working on my Northport quilts getting them ready for Quilt Market in Kansas City in a few weeks.  In the meantime, the hard working Moda Sales reps are showing samples to quilt shops all over the world right now. 

Laters,

Laurie