Summer Fair Quilt Show!

I finished up the binding on this quilt the other day, and this morning I saw a post about the Summer Fair Quilt Show, hosted by Gen X Quilts, so I decided to join in the show!

I made this quilt top last year, I think in March, just for fun. Did the quilting over a few days during the last couple weeks, and finished it yesterday. It's 36" x 48", and it's just going to hang around at our house for now.

Go visit the fair, and see all the cool quilts! There are recipes, too!

****
I've been working on some more Farmer's Wife quiltalong blocks, and blocks for my doll quilt swap too. I guess I'll do a quilt block post soon here.

****
It has been super hot here for days, no, weeks. (I don't watch the weather, but other people in this house do, and they are saying we've had something like over 30 days with a heat index over 100 so far this summer). My 11 year old just got out his 5th grade solar cooker and I think he's making hot dogs for dinner tonight.

Go! Baby Winner

Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by to enter the Go! Baby fabric cutter giveaway. I really wish I had more than one to give away, but I don't.

Anyway, I'm happy to announce that the winner was commenter #37, Sharon, who said, "I would use the strip cutter to make a jelly roll race quilt." Congratulations, Sharon!

Here are some burp cloths I made after I got my Go! Baby; the pic is a bit dark but I think they turned out pretty cute! The circles are just raw edge appliqued on, and the tumbler strip has the edges all turned under, with a couple ribbon loops for added cuteness. The burp cloths are double thickness of prewashed white flannel, 10" x 15", and they are turned and topstitched.

Machine Quilting Sampler

I finished up the quilting on this quilt today. I decided to have it be kind of a machine quilting sampler. There are 12 blocks, and within each block, each strip of fabric is quilted with a different design. I did repeat designs in different quilt blocks, though. I still need to bind it but wanted to show you some of the quilting:

I really like how that feather turned out. I quilted it after watching some Karen McTavish videos.
The loopy zigzag (right below the feather) is repeated in probably every block in this quilt.

Echo quilting around a bird. It isn't perfect, but that's ok.

I am in love with this sort of fan quilting thing I did in the purple/pink strip above. I tried some loopy hearts up there too, should have done that one more than once.

I did a kind of carnation filler in the center square of this block.

This photo is a little more close up than the others, and you can see some less attractive quilting here too. That's ok... it's all part of the process. I learned a lot while quilting this quilt, my skills improved (you get better with every quilt you quilt, you know) and it was fun, too! I will probably do a sampler like this sometime again. 

Now I need to figure out what to do next. I will probably get going on some Farmer's Wife quilt blocks, and make the binding for this quilt. I have a baby quilt that I really ought to make soon as well. :) (My sister T is having her 2nd baby girl within the next month!)

p.s.... Don't forget to enter my giveaway for an Accuquilt Go, Baby! :)

Go! Baby Giveaway!

Hey there friends, I'm excited to let you all know that Accuquilt is going to give away a Go! Baby fabric cutter along with three dies and a cutting mat, to one of my readers.

To enter, leave one comment on this blog post (one entry per person, please). Let me know something you'd like to make using the Go! Baby, if you win, ok? I will choose the winner on Monday, May 25 (oops, I meant July 25! The summer has gone by so fast!). Make sure I have a way to contact you; if you're a no-reply blogger, include your email address in your comment. I will email the winner

Here's a link to my zigzag mug rug tutorial, made with my Go! baby triangle die, and if you're new here, I wanted to let you know I have lots of other free tutorials as well, for quilting as well as clothing sewing projects and techniques.

Have a great day, and good luck!

Zigzag Mug Rug Tutorial!

Today I have a fun little project to share, but first I want to tell you about my new toy.... I got an Accuquilt Go! baby fabric cutter a few weeks ago (right before my vacation). I picked three dies, and I decided to go with ones that aren't necessarily very easy to do with a regular ruler and rotary cutter. I got a circle die that has three sizes of circles, an equilateral triangle die that also has three sizes, and the 3 1/2" tumbler die. The Go! baby is really easy to use, and my kids were pretty much fighting for turns at cranking the handle.

I opened my Go! baby as soon as it arrived and started cutting triangles. I've been wanting to make a zigzag quilt for a while and that was what I had in mind as I cut pink, green, yellow, and white triangles from my scrap bags. (I am pretty sure that the idea of making zigzags from these kind of triangles came from my friend Lorilee, and I think it turned out pretty well!) I used the medium triangles and they finish really small (about 1" on each side) but that's ok because this is a small project.

Step 1: Use the Go! baby to cut 14 medium triangles in each of 3 colors. Also, cut 45 white triangles. Sew the triangles into rows of 7 colored triangles alternating with white triangles, and make sure a white triangle is at each end of each row.

Step 2: Sew the rows together. I started by sewing the pairs of pink, green, and yellow rows together, making sure the triangles were offset to create the zigzag. Then I sewed the three sections together, this time making sure the white triangles were offset.

Step 3: Trim the sides of the mug rug top. Trim the longer edges too, if needed.

Step 4: Layer the top with batting and backing, and secure with a few pins. Choose thread for quilting.

Step 5: Quilt. I used my walking foot and matching thread to quilt down the middle of each zigzag row. Then I trimmed the excess batting and backing fabric.

Step 6: Bind. I found this single binding tutorial and changed it up a bit by machine sewing the binding first to the back and then machine sewing it down in the front. I think next time I use this technique I will go with a 1.5" binding strip instead of 1.25".

All done! (It finished up at 6 1/2" x 8" in case you were wondering.) Now I have a place to keep my big sweaty glass of ice water all summer long. You could use the larger triangle on this die to maybe make a mug rug with one zigzag stripe, or you could make a placemat or larger quilt easily with that larger triangle. If you make a project with this tutorial, please let me know--I'd love to see it! (Somebody needs to make a Charlie Brown placemat or mug rug...)

I will be giving away an Accuquilt Go! Baby along with the winner's choice of three dies to one of my readers very soon, stay tuned!

Featured at Amy's Creative Side

Hi everyone, how's your Friday going? It is super hot here. I spent a few minutes on the porch with my toddler earlier, painting on the concrete with water and paintbrushes. Other than that, I'm planning on staying in the rest of the day.

I wanted to let you know that today I'm featured over at Amy's Creative Side. Thanks so much for letting me share a bit about myself and my quilts, Amy!

Also, this was a couple weeks ago, but Penny at Sew Take a Hike posted about the cute chicken potholder she made using my pattern from 101 Patchwork Projects. I love it. I think I need to make some more of them.

And finally, you should know that I'm almost done with a new project and tutorial... using my new Accuquilt Go! Baby! fabric cutter. I will have a tutorial soon, and then I will get to give a Go! Baby away to one of my readers. Check back next week for that, but for now, here's a little sneak peek of my project:

Something a little zigzaggy....

peer pressure... I caved

Here are my first two blocks from the Farmer's Wife Sampler book.

For now I am planning on trying to include purple in as many blocks as possible.

I couldn't get my printer to work yesterday, so I used my brain and math to make these blocks. Block 1 on the left isn't exactly perfect... but I did my best and got tired of re-sewing. 

Back from vacation

Last night we got back from a week in Utah... back to the heat and humidity. We are under a heat advisory for the next couple of days at least, gotta keep the kids inside as much as possible and hydrated, too. We might need to go to the movies in the next couple days, and the library, and the pool too....

Here are some of the trip highlights--
*My flight out of KCI getting delayed and then being stuck in the Denver airport for over 6 hours, unsure if I would make it to my high school reunion. Living this day on 3 hours of sleep and with a 2-year-old, and her car seat, in tow.
*Flying standby for the first time, and making it to Utah in time (barely) to see my friends at the reunion. It was so much fun. And weird, but fun.
*Oh yeah, I would have had the privilege of flying into Provo if the standby thing hadn't worked out. Crazy, huh. (depends on how much you know about Provo, I guess.)
*Lots of family bonding.
*Reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for the second time. I had forgotten most of it. Ready to watch movie #7 (I think I'll buy the DVD) and maybe #8, soon.
*Meeting new friends from the quilt blog world. (This will be its own future blog post... but we had fun, and delicious cupcakes.)
*Getting into Doll Quilt Swap #11, yay! I am excited about whoooo I am sewing for, this time. I have a couple of ideas for this person, maybe I'll make a sample block or two in the next couple days. I made a mosaic of quilts/ideas I like, in case the person sewing for me is curious:

The missing photo up there is a zigzag quilt. I was feeling too lazy to go back and edit my mosaic. And yes, some of these have been in previous DQS mosaics I've made.

Last week I did some machine quilting for my mom (it's super secret, well one person can't know about it, but it is really cool, and I used disposable cleaning gloves for my quilting gloves), and this morning I took in the elastic in my skirt waistband, but other than that, I haven't sewn for like a week and a half! I've missed it and have a bunch of things I want to work on this summer.