When a quilt top talks....and your husband understands what it is saying...

I'm glad my husband is a visual person. He designs kitchens and his design expertise comes in handy when it comes to quilts as well.

I've been working on this quilt that will be auctioned off a a charity quilt auction in April. Sixteen large blocks. The blocks were completed on Friday night and it was time for the sashing. Done. (Please excuse the table--this thing is huge and I have no place for proper photography...). I love the "breathing room" that the Kona snow gives the blocks but it needed something to frame in all that snow around the outside of the blocks. And something that wouldn't take a lot of time.

I make one of these donation quilts every other year, and reach a point about this time that a couple of things happen.

Elation: "I can't believe I have made all these gorgeous blocks. I love this quilt!"

Impatience: "I'm so ready to be done and move on to another project."

Complacency: "It's a charitable donation. It's already 'good enough.'"

Self-admonishment: "This is for a cause near and dear to my heart. This needs to be my very best effort."

So Mark and I discussed border options. My first thought was to make a border using strips of the colors in the 12 outside blocks, making the strips a little longer than the block and just butting them up against each other. Mark's idea was to continue the Kona snow sashing in the border as well.

I'm so glad he made that suggestion. And that I listened to him.

 Funny guy. He took this picture of me while I was trying to take pictures of the quilt.

All these little threads were trimmed from the back of the quilt, so they won't show through on the front. I could have kept trimming. I finally stopped... Today it goes in the mail to Mark's cousin, Ione, who will work magic with her machine quilting.

My sewing room looks like this.

 

But it's time to say I'm done.

And amen!

Tuesday Odd-Angle Paper-Piecing Tutorial...and a Giveaway!!

I'm not going to give you a tutorial on how to paper piece. There are lots of them, and Kerry has a very helpful  list here. This is the great thing about paper piecing--aside from its accuracy. There are several different methods, all of which will get you from Point A to Point B, so you are sure to find one that is most comfortable for you.

Since I have been working on my donation quilt, I'm going to show you how I started cutting my fabric for those really odd angles.

At first I wasn't really paying attention so much. I would just cut a bit hunk of fabric and then trim it down later.

The largest scraps went into a special box for Amanda Jean, who makes fabulous quilts out of teensy pieces.

But after awhile, even I, who has no shortage of fabric, was feeling the need to be more frugal. Part of my problem was that the pattern has been enlarged by 133 percent, to make a 16" block.So because some of  the pieces were quite large, no matter how careful I was, pinning my fabric down, invariably it would flip and I would sew it. Grrr.

If you have paper pieced before, then you know that sometimes it seems  you are sewing upside down and backwards. Because, in a sense, that is exactly what you are doing! I don't know about you, but just when I think I have the right amount of fabric for the next piece, after I sew the seam I realize that it doesn't fit at all because the angle is all wrong. And then I have to do what I just read somewhere is called "froggy" sewing: rip it, rip it, rip it. Finally  I remembered how I handled that problem when I was in a block exchange involving paper-pieced birds. I chose to make the scissor-tailed flycatcher. When I was little we lived in Oklahoma and that is the state bird. But mostly I chose it because it is fun to say. Go ahead. Say it out loud. Scissor-tailed flycatcher.

Enter the paper piecer's friend, freezer paper. And being super organized, of course it took me awhile to locate where I had stored it.  Kerry uses freezer paper when she paper pieces as well, but we have slightly different techniques. This link gives the basics of how I learned to paper piece and it is the most comfortable process for me.

I use freezer paper just for those pieces of the pattern that have the odd angles.In fact, I don't even use this method for all the pieces--you can pick and choose where you need it.

The first thing I do is make a quick sketch of the pattern on the non-shiny side.. Really. The lines don't even have to be perfectly straight, just close. Then cut them apart on the lines. No need to add seam allowance.

We'll use example of pieces #1 and #2. #1 will be pinned to the back side of your paper pattern (if you are following the method that I use...)

The next thing is to iron the freezer paper template to the wrong side of the fabric and cut a generous 1/2 inch around each side.

Now on the back side of your pattern, (the one without the lines), you can line it up with piece #1, right sides together, removing the freezer paper template, and pin if you want to. Carefully turn it back to the front side, the side with the sewing lines.

Stitch on this side on the line between #1 and #2.

Then flip it back to the fabric side, and start the process over for piece #3.

This method was really helpful when I got to #7 in this particular pattern, which was a large piece with odd angles.

Before I started with the freezer paper templates I would just have cut a big piece of fabric and hoped for the best. This works SO much better. And the extra time it takes is really miniscule. My pattern happens to be constructed in four quadrants and the freezer paper templates are easily reusable at least four times, if not more.

Pile of scraps before freezer paper templates:

Pile of scraps after using the freezer paper templates:

So while Amanda Jean is probably sobbing now because these scraps are too small even for her, at the same time, through her tears, she is probably applauding my fabric frugality.

If I have just confused you beyond belief, please email me (liveacolorfullife@comcast.net)and I'll try to do a better job of clarifying things.

And guess what? It's giveaway day. Again! Kerry designed the most awesome  paper pieced pattern, Winter Woolies. So cute.

Here is my version (I still have to do the mittens).   But I couldn't wait to post a picture because of the fabric that looks like actual knitting is just too fabulous! (It looks kinda stiff because the paper it still attached...)

The pattern is available in her etsy shop.

OR you could win a pattern here. All you have to do is leave a comment. So tell me: are you a "summer" person or a "winter" person? Personally I'm kind of a "rainy day" person. You know. The kind who loves rain for days on end...So I should actually be paper piecing an umbrella!

Just leave a comment and Random Number Generator will choose a winner on Thursday, October 27, at noon PDT.

WIP Wednesday

It's Wednesday again. Already. And we are half-way through October. Already!

I have spent most of my sewing time working on my donation quilt. I finished the first block. Love it. Until I can figure out a better name, it will remain the same as the pattern, Crazy Traditions. 

I can feel myself getting attached to a quilt that will belong to someone else. So here is how I am solving the problem: Ticker Tape Parade (color palette borders based on Bottled Rainbows, but see the original Ticker Tape quilt here).

I made myself some rules.
*There has to be a piece of every single fabric included in Crazy Traditions.

 *I can expand the color palette and include some other favorite fabrics, and I'm okay with white space.

 (See the tiny houses and the Sandi Henderson Henna Garden?)

*And at least one selvage has to be included in every block.

That should do the trick and it will be easier to let go of Crazy Traditions
.
Four blocks were completed for Farmer's Wife Friday.

 That makes 46 blocks so far.

And I started this today, when I took my granddaughter to her piano lesson, the beginning of a knitted log cabin block.

Be sure to see what everyone else has done in the past week. Thanks, Lee, as always, for hosting this.

But wait. There is more. Unbelievably this is my 500th blog post! Even I can't believe I have had that much to say! So how about a little giveaway to celebrate? The winner can choose a charm pack--either Dream On or City Weekend. Random Number Generator will work its magic on Thursday, the 20th, at noon PDT. I'm super close to 500 colorful friends too. But you don't have to jump through hoops to get a chance to win. You just have to leave one comment, and make sure I can contact you.

Let's see. How about this: Are you happy with where you live, in the city or in the country? Or do you dream on about living somewhere else?