Halloween Hexi Gems Modern Wall Hanging

Missouri Star Quilt Company just keeps putting out great new YouTube Tutorials! This past weekend I took the time to use the Hexi Gems tutorial to make my first "modern" quilt, and I did it Halloween themed. 

The original quilt featured in MSQC's tutorial was done with an all white background. White isn't going to stay white in my house, so I wanted to do black, and utilize fabrics and notions from my stash to make this a Halloween Wall Hanging. 

To create the quilt I cut 16, 10 inch by 10 inch black background squares. Then I cut out half hexagons in different Halloween fabrics, my main scheme was purples, greens, oranges, and black fabrics. Over the past two years I've made some really fun Halloween quilts and each of those had left over fabrics, so creating this quilt directly from my stash was actually pretty easy. I almost didn't have enough backing fabric, but by piecing three fabrics together I was able to make the backing fit perfectly and also be able to wrap it forward to create the binding for the quilt. 

Here are two photos of the quilt making process:

My original plan was to do a 3 by 4 layout, once I started laying out my half hexi's
though I soon realized a 4 by 4 layout would work best. 

When I worked on my layout I forgot that I would need to put Heat N Bond Light on the back of each Hexi to applique it to the background square. It took me two hours to get my pieces cut and my layout determined. Once I got to this point I pinned my Hexi's to the background squares and packed up all the squares to move to the ironing board.

The completed quilt came together pretty quickly. After I adhered each half hexi to the background square using Heat N Bond I then pieced the quilt top together. After the quilt top was pieced I created my quilt sandwich and spray basted it together. I then appliqued the half hexi's by using the quilt-as-you-go method. 

The finished quilt was 40 inches by 40 inches. 

Here are photos of the finished quilt:

Front:

Back:

After completing the quilt and photographing it I posted it to Instagram where MSQC then reposted and shared to their 17,000 followers! 

So proud of this quilt, especially being my first "modern" style quilt, and having completed it all with materials from my stash! 

Black Bag Saturday August 2014

This weekend was Black Bag Saturday! And by now I hope that you understand my love of this monthly event (if not read this post). The free notion of the month was a Dritz wrist pin cushion and the coupons which I'll talk about below were right on for what I ended up "needing". 

This month I did not go in with specific items in mind except for batting. I had no trouble finding batting (which was on an exclusive BOGO coupon), and I also found 2 great single patterns and a pattern book, which of course then lead to great fabric purchases. 

PATTERN PURCHASES

The first single pattern I picked up was from Trouble and Boo, it's a penguin table topper. It is the perfect size for me to use my bring the back to the front as binding/border trick, and it's a quick applique project. I think it will end up being a holiday present for some people in my life. This pattern was a great deal too because with the purchase of the $8.00 pattern you received a half yard of fabric free, can't beat that. 

The second single pattern I purchased was Trim the Tree III by Cindi Edgerton. This is a paper piecing pattern that includes what you need (minus fabric/thread) to create 2 small, 2 medium, and 2 large paper pieced Christmas trees. I have not paper pieced before, other than one 15 minute lesson at my very first sewing class about 2 years ago so I will be sure to document my adventure well and share it with everyone. If you have tips or links to tutorials you think I should check out please comment below!! 

Finally the pattern book, HAPPY HAUNTERS BOOK by Kelly Mueller of the Wooden Bear. This book contains a good grouping of Halloween projects. From wall hangings, to aprons, to desktop candy corn, and a quilted game table with bats and frogs as game pieces.

FABRIC PURCHASES

When I purchase a book or a pattern I try to make sure I pick up fabric for it in the same trip if at all possible and cost effective. I have a great stash at home to pull from when it comes to solid colors thanks to my Black Friday splurge at connectingthreads.com last year where I picked up about 100 fat quarters in a variety of colors. 

The penguin table topper was easy to purchase fabric for, I just needed the border/backing fabric and the background fabric. I had the black, red, and white on hand needed to make the applique penguins. For the border/backing fabric I chose the same shown in the pattern, and then a simple snowflake for the background. 

When I picked up the Happy Haunters Book the cover photo featuring the "What did you call me?" Witch Wall Hanging made me instantly need the book. The great thing about pattern books at 35th Ave Sew and Vac is they are always 20% off. In order to make the wall hanging I needed to get background fabric, border fabric, backing fabric, black fabric for the hat and boots, and a coordinating fabric for the witches accessories. 

I found some pretty amazing fabrics for the wall hanging I must say. The black cats on black fabric are hands down my favorite and were a lucky find. All of the color on color fabrics are kept in one spot near the cutting line, and had I not been waiting in line I would have missed this gem. 

I purchased just over 2 yards of my backing fabric because it was the end of the bolt and I knew I could use it for other Halloween items. I then also picked up coordinating green, orange, and purple cobweb fabric. 

This trip made me super excited to get started on these projects but we have some family commitments this weekend so my quilting time will be limited to the evenings after C has gone to bed. Hopefully I can still get started on at least a little something, Halloween is going to be here before we know it! 

What Did You Call Me? Holiday Fun

Festive holiday quilting is one of my favorite things to do. I love to create new wall hangings and quilts that can be displayed each year for others to enjoy. I can't lie, I'm a bit selfish with my quilting and find it very hard to give away anything I've made. When I make items other people get to enjoy but I get to keep it's like the best of both worlds for me. 

My days quilting have been greatly modified into minutes or hours of quilting now that I'm a parent. Don't get me wrong I LOVE being a parent and could play with C all day, but when I want to quilt it happens in about 2 hour blocks while he's napping or after he's gone to bed. 

Last night I decided to just go for it and take on the "What did you call me?" Witch Wall Hanging pattern from Happy Haunters by Kelly Mueller. My husband, C and I spent the afternoon at a pool party with family, so when we got home everyone was exhausted-- except the baby! Even for skipping his nap he just wasn't ready to sleep. 

At about 5pm my husband made us dinner. While he was working on that and C was in his high chair I started on the applique tracing to the heat n bond, precutting, and ironing. Before dinner was ready I had all my shapes ironed on. 

About 7pm we put C in bed and he finally caught on that it was time to sleep. At that point I was ready to pass out, however quilting tends to give me a second wind so I headed back to my quilting room. I cut out all my appliqué pieces, which for this pattern was actually a lot. This was one of the first patterns I've done that has required a lot of layering of the appliqué.

 I was able to use my appliqué pressing sheet which was a life saver. I placed it on my ironing board and then layered my appliquéd witch on top.  Once I was happy with the placement of all the pieces I ironed the witch down. Then I was able to pull her up in on piece for easy placement on the backing fabric. 

I had already added my preliminary border to the quilt background fabric so next I started placing the witch and the letters for "what did you call me?". Then I added the batting and went to town sewing down the appliqué. I was able to get this all complete by 11pm!! Including about a 15 minute break where I seam ripped an entire section of sitching I had done on the witches head but also caught whole other part of the quilt top. WHOOPS! 

In the morning C got up at 7am so we played in his room for an hour and then I took him to the quilting room where he listened to Old McDonald on Baby Einstien and watched my quilt while playing with toys in his high chair. 

I had a short timeline to get the wall hanging finished as we were leaving the house at 9:30am to head to breakfast with family. 

MISTAKE ALERT: 

I always buy extra fabric thinking I'll need it for additional projects. Really my brain must just think it's for backup because without fail I almost always cut at least one piece completly the wrong size. And well this wall hanging was no different. 

I cut my background and borders perfectly, however my backing fabric I cut too short the first time, grr! I had decided to increase the backing measurements from the pattern so I could bring the backing to the front and have a built in extra border and mitered corners. Well my first cut I cut at the shorter of the two lengths I needed. Thankfully though I had bought almost an entire extra yard of fabric. So I did my second cut, success--- or at least I thought. 

I ironed the lines I needed so I'd know where to sew and create the borders/mitered corners but there was about an inch extra lengthwise so I had to readjust placement of the quilt top and re iron. Then I sewed the first corner. It seemed really off so I didn't cut it, I just flipped it to take a look. Sure enough it wasn't going to work. The side borders were an inch wider than the top and bottom and it wasn't making the corners got correctly. So I had to take an inch off the sides. :( Scraps for the future I guess. 

With that in order I sewed all my corners, clipped them, and turned them... To find that my magic border/mitered binding trick covered the border I already sewed onto the quilt top! Oh my.  

This would not have been a problem if the hat for the witch didn't go into the border for the quilt top. So I took out my trusty seam ripper. 

This was my first time undoing appliqué and I wasn't sure how it would go because of the heat 'n bond. However it came up fine and I was able to applique it on the new border. Woo!! Finally success. 

After that dibacle I was able to wavy stitch the border/backing down and add a hanging sleeve.

Even with all of those snafus before my morning coffee I was able to complete my wall hanging by 9am. 

I am so happy with the finished product and want to make another one which I can send to my Grandma Y. 

Since I was young Grandma Y has had a sign in her garage that says something to the effect of "this isn't Burger King, so you'll have it my way" which makes me think she will think this is pretty funny too. 

Scrabble Jack

At Black Bag Saturday (Aug. 2013) I picked up this awesome pattern by Happy Hollows Design for a pumpkin wall hanging, the pumpkins teeth read "Happy Fall Y'all". 

This project brought a new element into my quilting because it used fusible grid paper. And let me start off by saying how awesome this stuff is!! It makes your piecing look so precise when really you don't have to do much. 

For the pattern your working with 1 7/8th inch squares. Over 200 of them! So the start of this quilt for me was a huge cutting session. I had about 12 fat quarters in orange hues, 4 in black, 3 in brown, and one in green. After I cut what seemed like a billion squares I laid out my fusible grid and got to work.  

The great thing about the grid is you can lay everything out and play with placement to make sure where you like items before you commit to sewing or even fusing the items in place. For me once I laid everything out I actually did my first ironing on my dining room table (don't tell the husband please!). I did put batting under the grid to protect the table. This allowed me to move the whole piece to the ironing board for a true press. 

 

When pressing you're adhering 1 7/8th inch squares to 2 inch fusible grid so there is some exposed glue. Because of this the ladies at my new favorite quilting store introduced me to an appliqué pressing sheet. You place it over the quilt squares and iron right on top so it gets the glue, not your iron. 

Once all your squares are fused you fold the grid paper row by row and sew across horizontally. Then once all the horizontal rows are complete you move on to vertical rows. However there is a step in the middle. You need to go through and snip at the seam allowance between squares to help the grid paper fold and sew vertically. Once this is done you can move on to the vertical row sewing. 

Once your pieces are sewn to the fusible grid you cut out your shape and lay your backing on top, RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER-- I emphasis this because I did it wrong sides together and spent an hour seam ripping later. Once your pumpkin and backing are right sides together your batting is place over the backing. Then you sew your 1/4 inch seam around the outside of your pumpkin, leaving an area for turning it inside out at the bottom. 

Once sewn you cut off the excess backing and batting and clip the corners. Then turn inside out. Once inside out you will use a point turner to refine the corners and then finally see the bottom opening closed. 

The original pattern has a set of decorations that can be purchased including the scrabble teeth, raffia, and button eyes. It ran about $20 but I still bought it. Because I had so much fabric left I actually made a second Scrabble Jack and for it I found similar items to the buttons and raffia at Hobby Lobby and used them.

The end result was fantastic and those I know who quilt were impressed with my piecing accuracy! I let them in on the fusible grid secret and they loved it. I truly look forward to getting to hang these year after year now.

Bill's Black Bag Saturday August 2013

I was recently introduced to 35th Ave. Sew and Vac. Which is an incredible quilting store and vacuum/sewing machine repair shop here in the Phoenix area.  They have three locations across to Maricopa County. Well on their Facebook page I discovered an event they hold monthly called Bill's Black Bag Saturday.

On Black Bag Saturday, customers purchase a reusable bag (one time and then use it for the year) which gives them access to a set of exclusive Coupons to be used that day and a free select notion chosen by the store.  The free notion this month was a Dritz magnetic pin wand! 

The coupons vary monthly but you can always expect a 40% off one notion, anda 40% off one cut of fabric. They also have additional dollar off coupon you can win by playing games.There are always demonstrations going on too! 

This month there was even a table where you could make your own mummy out of batting, muslin, and flexible wire! With the mummy they held a Facebook contest and had people submit pictures all month of what there mummy helped them with! You'll see my mummy featured in some of the photos in my next post about Scrabble Jack. 

I should note this was my first true trip to a quilting store. I had no idea what to expect and boy was I blown away!! The selection was awesome, the people were great, and there was so much to see.

It was really hard to decide what to buy because truly I would have bought everything I touched if I had the budget!

In the end I picked one pattern, called Scrabble Jack by Happy Hollow designs. Then I needed to pick the fabric that the pattern called for. It called for almost 20 fat quarters. I had never really picked more than one or two fabrics that matched each other, so picking 20 fat quarters of different colors that match each other was something that I was a little nervous about.

 I should preface here that when I shop for clothes I only go to stores that put their collections on maniquines, so I can buy the entire outfit and make sure it matches based on what the maniquine was wearing. 

The best part I found about this quilting store was the willingness of the staff to help me in matching and picking out fabrics. With this pattern you use a fusible grid fabric to  ensure that all your patchwork matches up perfectly (since you have over 200 two inch squares to sew), without the help of the staff I wouldn't have thought to get the grid paper or known how to use it. 

Below is a picture of my total haul from the event. I won't lie I was probably there for at least 4 hours! Cannot wait to share how Scrabble Jack turns out.