Corner Fix

Recently I was finishing the edges of a small quilt.  I was using the facing technique instead of binding because there was not enough of my border fabric to make binding strips.  

As I was inspecting the edges of the quilt, I saw that one corner antique block had a slit along an edge.  I thought that my walking foot took a wide enough seam allowance that the slit would be enclosed.  All would be okay.

 

But it was not okay.  It wasn't until I had all of the facing turned to the back side that I discovered the batting poking out of that corner.  Now what?  This project was set aside as I pondered how to fix this problem.

Several other quilts were waiting for bindings, so I set to work on one of them.  I chose a tan fabric with which to bind a charity lap quilt.  The binding strips were joined in the usual way--perpendicular to one another--so there were small triangle pieces to cut away from the seam allowances. 

 

Hmmm...could one of these triangles be used to fix the problem with the other quilt?  The fabric was a good color, but would the size work?

The facing was undone in that corner area and a triangle basted in place.  There was enough seam allowance along the diagonal edge to turn under.  That allowed me to applique the triangle in place, over the damaged original corner of the block.  

 The facing was reworked in that area, and one would never know that a repair had been made! 

 

 

 

Another use for a cut-away triangle.  :)

Brown Goose

A year or so ago, in with my collection of fabric scraps and projects that had been started, I found a box of small triangle cut-aways---in pairs!  LOTS of them!!! 

 

I cannot recall where they came from, but I had obviously looked at working with them sometime in the past.  In with them was a pieced block--"Brown Goose".  Plus, being somewhat of an amateur poet, in the box was a poem** that I had written about Brown Goose.  It was time to continue this project.

I set the box of cut aways next to my sewing machine and used the pairs as my thread savers ("leaders and enders") as I was sewing other projects.  As the pairs were sewn, they were set aside.  

It took me several months to sew all of the pairs.  Once all were pieced, they were pressed and trimmed to 1 3/4" square.  

Sixteen squares were needed for one Brown Goose block.  I ended up with enough squares to make 14 blocks!  The blocks finished 5" square. 

I re-read and tweaked my poem to ponder how to use the 14 blocks. 

**Little Brown Goose was waddling along,

   Enjoying the day,

  Singing a song.

Out jumped her buddy, Bright Green Frog.

  They stopped to chat

  On a nearby log.

Miss Blue Bird was flying by.

  When she saw her friends,

  She stopped to say “Hi”.

All their noise woke Furry Gray Mouse.

  She peered out, saying

 “Who's on my house?”

Seeing her pals, she cried “It's you three!”

 “Stay right there.

  I'll put on some tea!”

She brought out the tea, a cookie plate too.

  They talked and they laughed

  Like good friends do.

Chatting with friends over cookies and tea

  Is the best kind of day!

  Don't you agree?

I looked through several pattern books for blocks to represent the characters and other elements in the poem.  I even found a block called "Tea for Four"!  The challenge, then, was to draft them to finish 5".   

Thank goodness for a stash of scraps!  Bits of the brown fabric were needed to make the fourth "T" in the "Tea for Four" block.  I just happened to find some squares of the brown fabric there!  

 

 

Sashing and cornerstones completed this small quilt.  It was just a fun little project (that took over a year to complete!).

 

 

Waste Not

I get excited when I see the possibilities in fabric bits that others might consider waste.  

Depending on their size, I like to play with triangle cut-offs.

At a fall retreat, we were given kits to make blocks for the Cluck Cluck Sew pattern, "No-point Stars".  In this pattern, the stars in the blocks are created using "Triangle Corners" or "Diagonal Corners" (A small square is placed in the corner of a larger square.  After you sew on the diagonal of the small square, the corner is trimmed away and the remaining small triangle is pressed to the outside.)

For these stars, 3" squares were placed on top of 4" squares.  The leftover trimmed corner was large enough to sew a 1/4" seam and finish with a decent size half square triangle square. 

Because 3" squares were placed on adjoining corners of the 4" squares, there was an unexpected result using some of the half square triangle squares to make pinwheel blocks!  (See the small pinwheel in the center of the square on the left?)

The binding for one of my prayer quilts was made from striped fabric.  I joined strips of the fabric using  diagonal seams.  Instead of throwing away the seam trimmings, I decided to stitch them to scrap squares of white fabric.  Pinwheels from these triangle trimmings turned out fun, too!

 

Often I will find random triangles in scrap bags that are given to me.  As I did with the striped triangles, I will stitch these to scraps of background fabric, then cut them out and trim to size.  

What will I do with these little blocks?  Right now I have a basket in which I put little blocks that I have either made or inherited.  My vision is that someday, they will be made into a sampler quilt.  TBD  :)  In the meantime, it is definitely fun to play! 

Seam Great!

Ever since I learned how to make pillowcases using the "30 Minute Pillowcase" pattern (where you stitch the trim and main pillowcase fabric inside the tube formed by wrapping the cuff fabric around all of it), I have enjoyed finding unique fabric from which to make pillowcases for the grandkids.  

On the give-away table at a fall quilt retreat, I spotted some fabric that "celebrated" Lionel trains.  My youngest grandson loves trains, so I claimed it.  There were 4 pieces, two of which were just the right size for the main pillowcase fabric; the other two were smaller and could be used for the cuff.  The trim fabric would come from my stash.  

The "tube" process of constructing the pillowcases goes quite quickly.  Once the fabric is pulled out of the tube, it is pressed and squared up.  Then it's time to finish the side and bottom seams. 

I do not have a serger, so I have used a couple of different techniques for finishing these seams.  In the past I have stitched a 5/8" seam allowance, then either made flat-felled seams or turned the seam allowances in on each other and top stitched the edge.  Flat-felled seams are a bit tricky, trying to stitch all areas without a free-arm sewing machine.   Turning the seam allowances in on each other works okay.  But with each of those techniques, I always run into trouble in the area of the trim--lots of bulk there that doesn't want to turn under nicely.  

Another idea came to me when thinking about finishing my grandson's pillowcases:  with wrong sides together, I stitched a 1/8" seam allowance down the side edge.  I then turned the pillowcase inside out so right sides were together.  After the seam was pressed, I sewed 1/4" away from the seamed edge, enclosing the raw edge of the pillowcase.  The bulkiness of the trim area was not a big problem when the seams were stitched this way.

The bottom seam of the pillowcase was finished using the same technique.

In just a couple of hours, I made two pillowcases that will be part of my grandson's Xmas gift.  

My daughter can let me know if these pillowcases wash up and hold together as well as others I've made for him.  So far, they seam great!  :)

 

 

 

 

 

From the Heart

The prayer quilt ministry at my church was begun last Sunday with 3 quilts.  The congregation was very receptive to this new ministry and willingly participated in the tying of them and praying over them.  After the service, I received requests for prayer quilts for other congregation members.  So I am busy making more. 

I have several fat quarter packs that have been waiting to be made into quilts so I chose to use the Yellow Brick Road pattern.  The pattern's 4 block x 5 block quilt requires 6 fat quarters--perfect, for that's what my fat quarter packs contain!

The pattern is quite simple...one is directed to cut the fat quarters into strips of 2 different sizes.  These strips are then sewn together "in a variety of combinations", cut apart and then sewn again "in a variety of combinations".  With only 6 fabrics, there is a limit to the "variety of combinations" one can make.  :)

When the blocks are all created (3 different designs), one is told to "arrange the blocks in a random order, turning the blocks as needed so that color placement is pleasing and seams are offset (if possible)."  The main thing I try to accomplish when laying out the blocks is to avoid having the same fabric next to itself--not always possible!  And after trying several different layouts with this first group of blocks, I found that it was impossible to have all of the seams offset, so I stopped worrying about that, too!  

Many of my quilting friends make quilts for charity.  I've heard some of them comment that one doesn't really have to be so fussy with charity quilts--the recipients will love them no matter the size, design, etc.  I, for one, certainly hope so.  And I hope that they can feel that these quilts are made from the ❤.  :) 

Windmills to the Rescue

What fun to find these blocks and coordinated fabrics among all of the leftovers from other quilters that I collected this summer. 

There were 14 of the strip-pieced blocks which measured approximately 6" x 6".  I challenged myself to use these blocks and coordinated fabrics to make a lap quilt that was at least 36" square.  

The blocks were not all exactly the same width, but were 6" long.  Because of this, I cut the blocks in half across the strips.  White rectangles, measuring 4" x 6" were pieced to each of the half blocks.  The resulting blocks were trimmed so that there was 2 1/2" of strip piecing remaining--I now had 6" blocks.  

Four of these, set together, created a Windmill block.  This design seemed to camouflage the irregularity of the "leftover" blocks.

 

Once I had my design figured out for these leftovers, I was excited to keep going.  I needed to make more blocks for a 9-block lap quilt.  The strips in the original blocks measured ~ 1 5/8" wide.  So strips were cut from the coordinating fabric, then pieced in the same order as the original blocks.  The new strip-pieced sections were cut in half and pieced to white rectangles, then trimmed into the units necessary for the Windmill blocks.  

Sashings  and cornerstones were cut from the remaining coordinating fabric (2 1/2" wide).  The quilt top went together very quickly!

 

When layered, tied and bound, this little quilt will be the first one in our church's new prayer quilt ministry. 
 

Road Construction

Some chunks and strips of fabrics featuring roads, road signs, and vehicles were in a bag of scraps that I brought home from a retreat that I attended a year ago.  These were leftovers from a fellow quilter who was making a quilt for her grandson.

 

Since a number of the pieces were fairly long strips, I planned that this lap quilt would be made from horizontal "stripes".  I began by piecing together chunks or adding chunks to strips to make stripes approaching the width needed for a lap quilt.  In my stash, I found coordinating fabrics from which I cut more long strips.  Now I needed to map out the details of how all of these stripes would go together.

At one of this year's summer retreats, I took advantage of a large work space to lay out the stripes.  (While doing so, a retreat friend contributed some "truck" fabric leftovers to add to my quilt!)  I was able to determine the best order of the stripes, then cut them all to the size of the shortest one. 

 

When pieced together, the quilt top measured ~31" x 34".  I wanted to add a 3" border to make it bigger.  I did not have enough of any of the fabrics that I had used to construct the basic quilt top, so had to go shopping. 

 

I purchased a gray fabric that blended with the gray in the fabrics of the quilt top.  But when I laid that out next to the quilt top, it just seemed kind of "blah".  I went "shopping" in my stash and found a black fabric with a subtle gray print.  This did a better job of framing the quilt top. 

 

 

Corner squares were cut from some of the leftover vehicle fabrics. 

 

Construction complete with no major road blocks!  When it is tied up and bound, this lap quilt will be ready to be used and enjoyed.