A Day Without Sewing

With the completion of the tree skirt, I needed to take some time today to explore what would be my next project. Instead of working on putting together a few random blocks for practice I went to the Internet to explore patterns. I found a bunch of fun patterns through www.craftsy.com, as well as McCall's, and www.free-quilting.com. I saved them on my computer and my pinterest to help me keep track of ideas. 

By the end of the night I decided my project for tomorrow will be to make Candle Mats. I saw a few on Craftsy as well as pinterest and they are really cute and they'd make the perfect secret santa project for my office. My inspiration candle mat was this from Pinterest via Etsy.

I loved the pinwheels and that they quilted each individual wheel. 

Day Five

This morning I decided to wake up at a decent hour (about 9am) and pick out a block to quilt and try to complete it by the afternoon. The reason for this is I know I won't have a chance to quilt tomorrow, so I wanted to be sure to get at least a little practice in before I started the day. 

I went to McCall's website and found the Chinese Coin Block. I decided do try my hand at this because it was similar to the Bridle Block (day 3), but it had a fun outside border, and only used three colors which was a perfect way to start using my peacock fabric! 

Because the pattern called for me to cut squares and strips I had to start with my large pieces of fabric and get them broken down into something I could cut on my 18 by 24" cutting mat. Once I had the fabrics broken down and ironed I set to cutting my squares out. There were quite a few smaller pieces for this one so I ended doing a lot of sewing. I've really gotten much better at matching my seams when adding rows together, makes me happy! The only part I struggled with on this one was my Half Square Triangles (HST). The HST in the pattern were 3 7/8" by 3 7/8", I knew from my 101 class that I should give myself that extra 1/8th inch and just go 4 by 4. This was helpful but I didn't cut my material as straight as I thought because when I was squaring up (cutting the HST's down to the required 3.5" size post sew), my edges weren't straight. This meant that when I finally combined everything together my 1/4" seam allowance on the HST triangle that connects to the Pastel in Row 2 on the Left side, the fabrics meet but aren't actually sown together for about 1/2 an inch. Oops! I didn't want to make a new HST, so I just went with it. If I decide someday to use this in a quilt or make something out of it I will rip the seams and fix it, but until that day-- this is practice. :) 

Completed Chinese Coin-- What do you think of the Peacock Fabric? I love it!!

Trying Out New Blocks

Day Three:

Today started with work and a family get together so when I got home I didn't think I'd spend too much time working on quilting. Let's just say I was wrong--- I realized once I start something I enjoy I do not want to stop. I got home about 8pm and ended up working on a few blocks until 2am. 

To start the evening I knew I needed to work on my rotary cutting skills as I had a few pieces of fabric I've had to set aside for later already because for one reason or another I didn't cut it to the proper size. To practice I cut small squares some 2.5" by 2.5" and others 2" by 2" and then made this 9 Square block. I think it turned out pretty well. I'm certainly getting better at watching my 1/4 inch seam allowance. And that maybe because I did get my new 1/4 inch quilting foot for the sewing machine and have been using it as my guide. 

Quick and Easy Xmas Nine-Square Block

Once I had this block down and felt better about cutting I decided to make another panel of fabric that I could use to make a 9-Square block later on. I chose the pastel fabric I got from Goodwill as the base, and then the White Fabric Fat Square from Joann's as the middle strip. I did 2" strips. Which is why the white looks like 1.5" in comparison to both pastels (that lovely 1/4 inch seam allowance!). Once I got the fabric cut this was very quick to put together.

Loving the colors just need to find something to use for opposites on block.

The first real block for the evening that I attempted was from a website called Craftsy which has great quilting patterns and tutorials. I subscribed to the Block of the Month class, which teaches you two new blocks that you can do each month of the year and then at the end of the year you'll have created a full quilt. I had watched the January block video over the weekend, and thought it seemed easy enough. So I choose two fabrics, one red Christmas fabric from Savers, and the the white Fat Quarter from Joann's. The block I was being taught to make as a Slash and Strip, where you start with a large red square of fabric, and then cut it in half on the diagonal, then sew in a white strip. After that is complete you slash the square again in the opposite direction and add in another stripping, doing this two more times down the diagonals. In the end you should have a 12.5" by 12.5" square. Because my white fabric strips weren't long enough I ended up squaring up my fabric and making the block a 9.5" by 9.5" so if in the future I decided to use it I could. While this block didn't come out the size I was planning it was fun to make and present a bit of a challenge which was nice. 

Slash and Strip Block Completed

After creating all of those I wanted to find a pattern to follow. I figured out the McCall's has an amazing list of FREE Quilt Block Patterns  from there I used the Bridle Path Block Pattern. I didn't have enough types of fabric that would work together to create the center the way the pattern showed so I decided to just use my variety of Christmas patterns and then adjust the middle of the block to match the outside squares. When I was finishing up this block it was 2am, so as I was determining the layout of the final two blue/white blocks in the last row (see below) you'll see that I chose to have the 1/2 snow men facing upward.. when I showed this block as the completed project to my husband he pointed out it looked a little wonky with the blocks being placed that way instead of matching the other three blue/white blocks. I told him he was being picky and it was fine and decided to go to bed. (Flash forward to 9 a.m. on Day 4--- I look at the photo I took of the block and realize I need to go downstairs and use my seam ripper to fix the last row). 

I am not going for perfect, just practice!