Miss Behaving or Misbehaving in March

It was a pretty good week of sewing for me: something I needed to do, I done did; I'm current with two QAL projects, I got to DREAMi! and still found some time and a way to start on two more projects.

The table topper for Micah's First Birthday party is on the way to be ready for the big celebration at the end of month.  The theme of her party will be Bees and I found the sweetest fabric by Timeless Treasures "You are My Sunshine."  The topper measures 27" x 39" and I just used a simple nine-patch pattern to showcase the fabrics and also because I didn't want to put in too time on something which may be on the receiving end of some party spills and crumbs.

My March blocks for the Classic Meet Modern Block of the Month Quilt Along hosted by My Quilt Infatuation are finished.  This month's blocks were the 10" Propeller block (left) and two 6" Sawtooth blocks and sewed together very easy.

All of the half-square triangles have been cut, sewn and arranged for the Postcards from Sweden from MMM quilts.  Since I used my stash of Kaffe Fassett Shot Cottons with some Peppered Cottons, my quilt doesn't look at bright as some of the other Postcard quilts so I may be calling mine Postcards from Kaffe.  We have two weeks to sew the rows together and I'm hoping Sandra will change it to three weeks since we'll be spending some time with the darling granddaughter at the end of the month.

This is my DREAMi! project which is  another quilt from Christa Watson's Piece and Quilt from Precut book, Dot 'N Dash which I happen upon quite innocently (wink).  I was putting away some fabric and came upon the wonderful Robert Kaufmann's Quilters Linen in a color I call Steel Teal which I forgot I had bought less than six months ago.  I knew it would work well with some 2-1/2" strips I already had cut in shades of grays, teals, pinks, etc. to make the Dot 'N Dash quilt.  Since Sandra is the host for both the Postcards from Sweden QAL and the monthly DREAMi linky party, it's going to be pretty okay if I take a little time away from the Postcard Quilt to spend a little time working on the Dot 'N Dash quilt, right Sandra?

In my never-ending quest to carve out more sewing time during the day, I thought a new portable sewing machine, a Juki HZL 70HW-A to use either in the dining room or kitchen would help.  I already own a Janome Gold which is a sweet little machine but the only drawback is that it does not have a needle up and down feature which I kick myself for not wanting to spend the extra $100 for it.  I sew in my studio which is in the basement or lower level of my house and too often I am drawn to the laptop which is sitting on the kitchen desk and I find myself spending way too much time on Social Media, Blogs, computer games, etc. which could be better spent on sewing.  I thought maybe having a sewing machine upstairs would distract me from the computer.  Also, since there are the TV shows I want to watch in the evenings, I also can also sew then as long as I have Closed Caption on. Really, it's not because the sewing machine is noisy, it's just that Hubby likes to play his guitar while watching TV.

I'm thinking my idea is working out quite well.  Since the arrival of the new Juki, I sewed sixty-four 8"x 12" strip blocks made from 2-1/2" strips of Kaffe Fassett stripes and shot cottons which have been waiting to be made for awhile so I'm considering it to be an unidentified UFO project.  And yes, I'm still spending more time with Kaffe and am pretty sure this is going to be my last project for the year using his fabrics, maybe.

And I sewed a mega strip for a future Staggered Strips and Squares quilt using low volume fabrics with some black and white Cotton + Steel fabrics. Once the strip sets and blocks are cut, I can finish sewing the top upstairs.  

I think my Juki Jr. and kitchen table sewing is just what I needed to get more of my projects done.  And as for my Janome Gold, I'll be saving it for Micah, she doesn't need to know about the wonders of needle up and down until later. Hopefully, whatever March Mode I'm on, either Miss Behaving by staying on task or Misbehaving where the fun is, it continues.  I'm happy with doing both.

Linking up with:  My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday,  MMM Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday, Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday

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Sharing and Merrily QAL-ing This Week

It's been a busy and productive week for me which should be expected when you promise to write a tutorial and also are participating in three QALs.

Last week, I posted my Hinto Minto Baby Quilt (you can read about it here) and mentioned that the next time I made this pattern I would write a tutorial.  I thought the better of myself so I did a sort of tutorial now than later while the pattern was still fresh in my mind and I had some leftover fabrics to recreate part of the tutorial.  I wanted to share this pattern so you can see how easy and fun it was to make this quilt. (you can see it here, The Staggered Strips & Squares Sort Of Tutorial)

And here are some updates for my QAL-ings:

My Whitewater River Rafting Quilt, a.k.a. the Regatta Quilt Along, (you can read about it here), top is finished and I hope to quilt it next month.  It was nice to make this quilt with Amy Ellis' Modern Neutral fabrics leftover from another quilt and with Marcus Bros Aged Muslin in denim blue.

The Classic Meets Modern QAL hosted by My Quilt Infatuation, (you can read about it here) started this week and I completed the first two blocks, the 24" Bethlehem Star and the 12" Antique Tile using Zen Chic's Figures fabric. Knowing that I'm a strips and squares kind of quilter, I bet you can guess which one of these two blocks was my favorite to make and took less than an hour while the other one took me over three hours and gave me the angle-challenged quilter an exercise on staying focus.  I only had to use the seam ripper three times.  I'm looking forward to making the other blocks and it's going to be an interesting quilt.

The Squiggles QAL hosted by Christa Watson also started this week, (you can read about it here)  and fabric choosing and preparation was the goal. I've chosen to use my stash of Blueberry Park fabrics and you can see I already started making some of the blocks.

So far in January, I'm doing well on my project list but not for long since I'll be traveling starting next week, hopefully to a warm spot.  I'm going to try to tackle one more project on my list and then  decide on a hand project for the road before we leave.  I don't know why I always wait until the last moment to decide this when this trip has been planned for awhile.  I should have put it on my project list.

I hope you're having a great January and are staying warm.  I will say this cold weather we're experiencing in the Midwest is great for staying home to sew.

Staggered Strips and Squares Quilt, A Sort-of Tutorial

Last week I posted my Hinto Minto baby quilt made for parents-to-be who wanted a gray and white quilt with a hint of mint (you can read about it here).  This quilt was so fun and easy to make that I mentioned in this post that I planned to made another version of this quilt in black and white Cotton + Steel fabrics and when I do, I would write a tutorial.  Since this may not be for awhile, I decided with the fabric leftover from the Hinto Minto Quilt, I would do a sort-of tutorial meaning that it's not a step by step tutorial with photos of how to make this quilt but more of how I came up with this pattern and how easy it would be to make it your own.

The concept for making a modern baby quilt was to use various shades of gray and low volume lights from my stash and to showcase a large type print by Art Gallery's Pastel Thrift Shop accented with Cotton + Steel Basic mint print.  

The inspiration for the Staggered Strips and Squares pattern is a variation of a jelly roll quilt which I did with my Hometown Girl Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilt (left) and my Blue Ernie Dash Quilt (right) and you can see that I really like making quilts with 2-1/2" strips.  What's nice about this pattern  is that you can cut 2-1/2" strips and squares from your stash.

Before I started making the Hinto Minto quilt, I first planned it out by drafting it first on graph paper  (each square represents 2") so I could determine the number of rectangles, squares and strip set blocks I would need.  For the Staggered Strips and Squares Quilt tutorial, the pattern is for a 40" square. (As a side note, I know the pattern name doesn't include rectangles but I only used rectangles for this quilt because I wanted to showcase the gray type print and if you don't want to use rectangles they can be replaced with squares or strip set blocks.)  Here is a suggested layout/pattern and I apologize for not being computer savvy to generate a separate document but I really like doodling on graph paper.  As you can see, each row consists of four blocks with dimensions adding up to 40" finished.  

Here are the fabric requirements and cutting details for making this top:

• Five 4-1/2" x 12-1/2" Rectangles  (Focus Print)
• Nine 4-1/2" Squares (Accent Color)
• Thirty-five to forty strips (20"+, does not need to be exact, cut either strips from WOF or WOFQ) to make the following strip set blocks (instructions to follow)
• Ten 4-1/2" x 8-1/2" Strip Set Blocks
• Eight 4-1/2" x 12-1/2" Strip Set Blocks
• Eight 4-1/2" x 16-1/2" Strip Set Blocks

Note:  you can cut more than the necessary Strip Set Blocks to allow for wiggle room if you have leftover after cutting.  

I love the look of staggered strips and my favorite way to achieve this improv look is by doing the first two laps of a jelly roll race quilt which is first sewing the strips together to make one super long strip and then finding the two ends and then sewing two strips together.  If you're unfamiliar with this technique, you can check out one of the many Jelly Roll Race Quilt videos on YouTube.  Before starting to sew the strips together, first:

• remove all selvedges and straighten the strips, if necessary
• for half of the 20"+ strips, cut them in half to 10" -11"

Once you are ready to sew the strips together, start with either a short or long strip and to ensure the staggered-ness, the last strip sewn should be either a short or long strip, whatever you didn't start with--be sure you don't use the same size strips for the beginning and the end. Also, I sewed the strips together with a shorter stitch length.

Once this very long strip  was sewn, I took it to my ironing board and pressed each seam open.  This is a cumbersome and a little time consuming step but I find it makes the sewing and cutting the strip sets easier.

After you finished ironing and taken a much needed break, find the beginning and the end and line it up for sewing.  I have to mention that this is my favorite part of the jelly roll race quilt, this stretch of mindless sewing. There will be times when seams actually match up between the two rows and that's okay. When you are near the end of sewing the strips together, around 8" to 10", check to see if the ends are twisted, and if they are, then cut at the fold, straighten the strips and resume sewing to the end.  I find that after sewing several race quilts that this sometimes happens.

Again, you will take this lovely pile to the ironing board to press the seam either up or down, your preference, because you want to cut your strip sets when the strips laying nice and flat and so you can see the seam lines when you are cutting the strip set blocks.

When cutting your strip sets blocks to the desired width, be sure you are at least 1" away from a vertical seam line; if you are too close, then adjust by either making a smaller or larger strip set block or move the ruler over enough to be away from the seam line and then cut the desired width.  

Once you have cut the required number and sizes of the strip set blocks you are ready to layout the quilt with the squares and rectangles using the pattern/layout provided above.  Note:  this photo is not the first Hinto Minto Quilt layout but is the layout of the second quilt.  When laying out your blocks, and two strip set blocks are next to each other, be sure the horizontal seams are opposite to each other so they will nest once they are sewn together; i.e., if one block's seam is up, then the block next to it should have the seam going down. (If you don't like the way it looks, then re-press the seam.) Once each row of blocks are sewn together, they should measure 40-1/2" wide. After each row of blocks are sewn, the seams of the blocks should be pressed in alternative directions so seams from the next row of blocks will nest, which we already do when making other quilts, right?

What I like about the Staggered Strips and Squares pattern is that unlike a jelly roll race quilt, where you don't know what the quilt is going to look like until the end,  you can control the look or random-ness by placing the blocks where you want them.  You can place the strip set blocks with other ones with the same fabrics to create what I call "globs" or you can make sure the same fabrics or colors are distributed evenly throughout the quilt. And it's so much easier to sew a quilt row by row rather than having to cut thirty-two rows apart and making the sides even when you do a jelly roll race quilt--for those of us who have made one, you know what I mean.

As mentioned before, the pattern/layout provided was to show how this quilt was made.  You can easily make the quilt larger by adding more squares and strip set blocks.  I highly recommend that you draw your quilt out on graph paper like I did after you determine first what size you want your quilt to be. After that, draw in the squares and strip set blocks to give you an idea of what is needed.  To calculate how many strips you need to sew to make the strip set blocks, this is how I came up with my number for the Hinto Minto:

• separate the strip set blocks by size and count each size separately
• # of blocks x the width x two
• add these figures together and then divide by 20

Example: for this 40" square quilt, the calculations were as follows:

• 10 strips 8.5" wide = 85" x 2 (because there are two strips) = 170"
• 8 strips 12.5" wide = 100" x 2 = 200"
• 8 strips 16.5" wide = 132" x 2 = 264"
• Add these three totals together = 634" divided by 20" strips = 32.  I sewed 35 strips to allow for fudge room or miscuts. And truth be told, when I made the Hinto Minto Quilt, I used 50 strips and the leftovers are being used for the second quilt.

The flexibility of this pattern is you can change your mind as the blocks are laid out --what you drew is not what you have to do.  You can always make adjustments which is why I always cut more squares and sew more strips sets than needed.

I hope you find this "sort-of" tutorial helpful to see how easily this quilt can be made.  When I made the Hinto Minto quilt, I didn't have the foresight to envision this could be a tutorial until after it was done.  I wanted to share the fun, the easiness and the possibilities of this pattern.  Sometimes it's really hard for me to explain something easy. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have but if you're totally confused, which I hope you're not, then maybe I can explain it better if I use graph paper.

Enjoy and I would like to see photos of the quilts you may make.

First Finally Finished for 2018--The Hinto Minto Baby Quilt

Less than ten days into the new year and I have my first quilt finally finished for 2018 and what made it so easy to accomplish was that it was a baby quilt and a pattern that I just love.  As the way the quilt weather works, just when I 'm ready to take photos of this quilt, the sun goes away and foggy weather comes to visit, which means the photos had to be taken indoor.  It makes an otherwise happy quilt look rather gloomy.

This quilt was made for soon-to-be parents, the father being a son of someone I knew since fifth grade and my first memory of her was that she, being somewhat intimidating since she was way taller than me, jumped out of her seat to block me from going to the cloakroom and asked me where did I think I was going.  If I had the power to look into my quilt future I could have told her right then that she might want to rethink her actions because I would be making a baby quilt for her granddaughter in 50+ years.  Instead, as I would relay the story to her sons, I ran back screaming to my desk. Flash forward to almost 50 years later, I met up with my intimidator who was working at the quilt shop I happened to be visiting from out-of-town and as the story goes, she wouldn't leave me alone, kept asking me all of these questions and I was trying to shop. I gave her short and curt answers until I realized she and I went to the same high school and graduated the same year and when she told me her then name, it was reunion time.  It's sort of ironic she was preventing me from shopping, isn't it, but it was a good thing this time.  That was the start of our "being nice" friendship and even though she lives six hours away, we have included each other in our family celebrations over the past years.  I would like to mention that I am at least four inches taller than her now.

Enough of the background story which I had to share and now to this quilt which the parents-to-be requested a gray and white quilt with a hint of mint, thus the name Hinto Minto Quilt which I'm pretty sure it's going to be renamed. As mentioned previously, I just love this quilt and it came together so nicely since I had all of the fabric in my stash.  I wanted to showcase the gray large letter by Art Gallery and the mint green Cotton + Steel fabrics so I came up with a pattern inspired by two other quilts I've made:  Jelly Roll Charm Chase (you can see it here) and the Blue Ernie Stash Dash Quilt (you can see it here).  I love the look of staggered strips and my favorite way to achieve this look is doing the first two laps of a Jelly Roll Race Quilt.  I sewed approximately fifty 20" long strips, which is way more than enough,  in various lengths and once they were all sewn together, I then sew it together like you would for a jelly roll race quilt.  This where the similarities end because I then cut the strip set in various widths and when sewn with the squares and rectangles, it made a forty-inch wide row.  (I'm going to be making another quilt like this with black and white Cotton+Steel fabrics and will make sure I write a Staggered Squares and Strips tutorial so I can share this easy pattern).   A fun touch to this quilt is the father-to-be is an IT executive and I was glad to include a rectangle that had the word "user" while I think some of the other fabrics might appeal to the mother-to-be who works in the Arts.  As you can see by the photos above, there were some spots where the seams or the same fabrics just happened to meet like a jelly roll race.  Also, you will see that I quilted with soft wavy lines along the seams of the rows which added to the easiness of making this quilt.

I backed the quilt with a medium dark gray dot fabric and the binding is a light gray gingham check, all from my stash.  The Hinto Minto Quilt will soon be leaving for California and just in time for the February delivery.  I'll have to check with the Grandmother as to how it should be sent.

I must have been a really nice girl back in my school days seeing that I never received a baby quilt made by someone in the past when I became a Grandmother last year but then again I did win quite a few free quilt patterns and four fabric giveaways in 2017.  Just purely coincidental, I say.  I think there are those of us who wear their halos well.

Hope you're having a great week too and also since it's been snow long, you're enjoying some warm weather.

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation, Thursday Needle and Thread, Crazy Mom's Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop Friday, and Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday