Many Hands

 Another thing I worked on at Super Sew Day was putting together the quilt we're making for one of our relatives. This is a non-official Quilt of Valor for a veteran. As you can see, our design wall was the floor. I took a picture of the row I was sewing together with the sashing in between so that I'd get the blocks in the correct order and orientation.

The work went by so quickly with four of us working on it at once. The sashing had been pre-cut which was very helpful. And the majority of the blocks were actually 12.5" which always makes these group quilts go together more easily.

I think these blocks all turned out beautifully, and I love the range of prints and solids that we all chose.

There was some rearranging happening when we did the horizontal white sashing + red solid cornerstones. Unfortunately I neglected to get a final form picture of the finished quilt top. The binding and backing got made as well, so that one of our members can do the long-arming this week. It will be a very quick turnaround which is great news.

More Kitty Ears

 

On the second day of Sew Day, I made more "kitty ears". (sung to the tune of "On The First Day of Christmas") for the Lupine Mystery Quilt. I'm of course, ending up with a whole lot of teeny tiny hsts™

Are my blues arctic blues as they're meant to be? I'd say that some of them get fairly close, but many are way off. I hope it ends up working out. I'm completely using up some of these blues, so this will be the last time they appear in one of my quilts.  

It wasn't all strip cutting, there was some fussy fiddly cutting happening. But at the end, I ended up with nine sets of four (out of the required 24 sets) done. I also cut out the rest of the blue squares that will be needed. Pshew, that was a lot. What a super fun, Super Sew Day(s) it was!

Time for Kitty Ears

Time for a Super Sew Day, so I brought along my stacks of "ice blue" and "white/cream" fabrics and cut out a bunch of the next clue I'm working on for the Lupine Mystery quilt. This block unit is called "Kitty Ears."

Well, at least two sets got done!

Mosaic Back

The first thing I worked on at Sew Day was making a back for my Mosaic table runner. I had two pieces with the smaller piecing to start with. 

I used more of the fabrics that I'd used on the front. They look so different when seen in the larger chunks of them. Now to figure out how to quilt this piece.

 

Community Giving Binding and Tutorial

 

This is a combination of a post about getting the quilt binding done for the BAMQ Community Giving quilt AND a tutorial on how to join the ends of the binding using the The Binding Tool by TQM. This is mostly for me, so that I don't have to go watch the instruction video each time. I'm pretty sure I picked this tool up on the Free Table at a BAMQ Sew Day.

You sew on a 2.5" wide quilt binding leaving a 12" gap between your starting and ending points. And I mean as close to exactly 12" as possible. (this is one point I wasn't always the best at). If you don't measure this, it's hit or miss on whether the binding will end up being the right length.

The printing on the tool is ALWAYS face-up. The square end of the tool butts up against the spot where the stitching ends on the left, and you mark the binding with the "MARK HERE" line on the tool.

Unfold and open up the binding flat, right-side up, place the tool on the binding and align the "MARK HERE" line with the line you've marked. The binding fabric they use in the tutorial is a solid, so it's a little hard to tell which side is up so I wanted to note that mainly for myself.

Trim the binding using the angled side of the ruler. Okay, that's the left-hand side of the binding cut and ready to sew together, now moving on to the right-hand side.

Turn the ruler around, but don't turn it over, **Remember it stays Printed Side up**. Butt up the square end of the ruler to the stitching ending point. Mark the binding using the "Mark Here" line.

Spread open the binding, right side up. This is the point I've messed up so pay attention: Align the small angled edge of the ruler with the line you've marked.

Trim off using the angle of the ruler. 

It's pretty standard from here out, pin the two ends together, aligning the snub nosed ends.

Sew with a 1/4" seam. Press open.

Sew down the binding over the 12" gap you had left. You're done/

And then, when you flip over the binding, if you've got a label, don't forget to add it in. For a quilt that's going to be used and washed a lot, I don't hand-sew the binding.

There it is, all done! No gaps, no lumps, no tears or un-sewing.

I made the binding out of some of the quilt's own excess backing fabric (the green one) and a piece of fabric left from the backing of one of my quilts (the yellow one).

I hope that tutorial helps me in the future, and maybe you too if you happen to have this tool in your ruler stash.

Post Sew Day

I brought a few things home with me from Sew Day yesterday. As we were cleaning up at the end, there were several items left on the Free Table. I chose to bring home this lovely half yard of tree peony fabric as well as an interesting piece of perforated "Stitchable Felt". Not sure what it's meant for, but I am definitely going to sew on it, and will likely use it in my ICAD pieces this week ahead. Two new Fudenosuke brush pens that I got in the mail. And in the back there, a Community Giving quilt that needs to be bound.

That was the first thing I did today, I unrolled it to measure the size to see how much binding I need to make. And also which color/type of fabric I should chose.I'm thinking green blue or orange, maybe prints? There's one of the great embroidered BayAreaModernQuilting.com quilt labels that one of our members machine embroiders for us to use on these Community Giving quilts.

First I stay-stitched around the outside of the already quilted quilt. And then I trimmed off the excess batting and backing. There was enough of the green print backing fabric left over to use for the binding, I just need to find another print to add in to the mix and cut it all down to size. This is a really happy bright quilt and I love the all-over quilting design that was used.
 
 

Pink Range

 

Switching back over to working on the Lupine Mystery quilt. It's been a while, I haven't worked on this since March! Concentrating on finishing quilts for deadlines and the UFO challenges. I started with cutting out a whole lot of strips yesterday. I brought the smaller pink and white strips with me to Sew Day today to get to work on one of the sizes of HSTs I'm supposed to make. 

Quite the range of pinks at work here. Hope it helps with the variation in the quilt overall.

These are all pressed and ready for trimming.

All trimmed up and ready to go home. Ten more sets of four, added to the two I'd already completed, that leaves ten more sets of four left to do of this size.

Mosaic Runner Blocks

 

At the Bay Area Modern Quilting Sew Day yesterday, I worked on making more mosaic blocks so I can put together this project and make a table runner. I was chatting and visiting and concentrating on my blocks so that I only took this picture at the end of the day as I was packing up. 

I haven't worked on this project since our last Sew Day, so I had to take a look at my notes to see what I was supposed to make. I found that I had to re-press the blocks that I made with some Best Press at home.

That's better. Well, flatter.

Here are the blocks I made (I think), I've kind of lost track, but I'm pretty sure these were it. I pushed myself to make those two that are quite a bit lighter.

Overall, I think it's going together pretty well. This is following the square quilt layout we got in our class notes. So I need to work on a layout for a rectangluar table runner size and shape.

At the end of the day, I sewed together a bunch of the smaller scraps and they'll probably end up in the remaining blocks I have yet to sew together.

More Mosaic

During Sew Day, I made some more blocks for my 1-2-3 Mosaic class project. I think it's heading towards being a table runner size project.

We got to have a little on-site field trip break to see inside the sanctuary at the church that we hold our Sew Days. The beautiful display of rainbow origami butterflies was being hung up.

And our guild member, Mary C. made this gorgeous banner that hangs in the entryway. 

BAMQ BOM: Flying Geese

At Sew Day yesterday I worked on making my BAMQ BOM blocks, which are as you can see: Flying Geese.

I like the variety that I made, but am considering also making another couple sets that have dark centers and lighter wings to balance them out.

Here's all of my blocks so far. I think I might need to make some gigantic Flying Geese as well. Well, maybe not exactly gigantic, but at least as big as the checkerboard.

 

B.O.M.-Friendship Stars

 Last Saturday's BAMQG Sew Day was lovely. A great time to catch up on the holidays everyone had and get some sewing done. I dove into making my BAMQ BOM blocks for the month: Friendship Star.

They went together pretty quickly, and I was really happy with the fabric choices I made.

I got so excited about it, I made two more for a total of four.

Here's how they look together with the other BOM blocks I've made so far.

And I got to see a great rainbow or two on the way.

Palooza Sashing

 

A great Bamq Sew Day, and I brought along all 42 of the Patchwork Palooza blocks and background fabric for the sashing. It took a while to cut out all the sashing pieces. I sewed one piece on the right hand side of each block, including the chain blocks.

Then I moved onto working with the cornerstones, the ones I'd cut out months ago were 2.5" but the pattern calls for 2". Just a little trimming.

I sewed one cornerstone to the end of a piece of sashing. Now to cut out some more cornerstone pieces.

This is the coloring page for the Patchwork Palooza quilt, and I dutifully colored mine in as I made the blocks over all the weeks. Which is pretty useless actually. This is more for when one is planning out the arrangement of colors in your quilt. I also could printed out by accident the quilt design plan, which I also didn't follow. It's going to be my own choices from here on out as far as where each block ends up.