Verom Veroom

Get it??? Chevrons!!

Anyway, I feel like I'm getting so much better at this, last month late this month early...woo woo...I loved making these and I think I may just keep the pattern to make my own, or for someone else

I do have some bad news...because of the fact that none of my fabrics were 44-45in I had to cut them individually so the cute triangles aren't so cute sorry love I tried

More Chevrons for Amy!

Feeling the crunch of Christmas being only 13 days away I was beginning to panic! I was delighted when I received this block and realized this would be an easy set of blocks to whip out.   I did it!  It was fun!  I can't wait to see this one completed!  Merry Christmas to all block members!

Chevrons for Amy

Can I say that I totally love this one? And I think I may have found a use for the fabric sitting on my sewing table, the fabric that's already conveniently cut into long strips? So thanks for that, Amy! :)

Here's my "squares"







One word of caution if you haven't already started- watch your directional patterns and make sure they're going the same way on all three of your strips. Otherwise you'll have to break out your seam ripper. (Only for you, Amy. Only for you. Stupid sneaky houndstooth...)

I can't wait to see this one all finished!

Chevron Quilt question #2

Maryanne has brought to my attention that the template pieces I sent you are bigger than the template pieces that I used/measured. Tape the 2 angled end pieces together so the top and bottom edges are 14" long. You most likely will not need the rectangle piece.

Sorry. My bad.

Chevron Quilt question

Maryanne had a good question.... You do not need to cut any of the template pieces to create your paper pattern. Simply tape the 2 end pieces onto the rectangular piece with 2" between the 2 end pieces. Make sure that the ends form a parallelogram not a trapezoid (as pictured). The red square represents your uncut rectangular piece of paper. my diagram is not to scale. sorry.

I'm sorry I was so tardy mailing these to everyone. if you haven't received your package in the mail yet it should arrive on Monday!

L is for Lace...S is for Silk

I like everyone else am sorry for the late post, and send! Eek!!! I actually finished my squares weeks ago but have spaced on mailing them...#fail

Can't wait to see the end product so far all the squares are so different, this is going to be a fun one!!!

So as you ladies might know I just got married and used the scraps from my top of my scrap jar. Long story short you got the ones I just used...i.e. Wedding scraps

Q and D blocks

Since posting about our blocks seems the activity of the day... :) Here are my blocks, just finished today. (I'll admit it!)

I wanted to use this fun batik material, but didn't want the letters to get lost, so I kept my designs pretty simple. But I like how they turned out! I'm loving everyone else's blocks, and can't wait to see the whole quilt all together!

November Blocks - i and T

I have been super slow over these past few months but finally have finished my blocks for Cheryse and managed to take a couple of pictures to post. Now if only I can remember to send or drop them off before December is over.

These two blocks went through a number of revisions before I managed to put together what I am posting. I too decided I wanted the challenge of piecing rather than applique which was fun with the circles to make up the ice cream and dot of the lowercase "i".


This was a fun stretch to be able to do anything to represent the letters we were assigned. Thanks Cheryse! I am looking forward to see what the rest of the letters look like! (Don't feel guilty if you feel like you are slow to get them done...just post them when you do get them finished.)

belated November blocks

Sorry these are late, Cheryse! My daughter was eager to offer ideas for the blocks (and some very good ideas, at that). I used her idea for Clothes hanging on a Clothesline, and I came up with a Writing desk set against Wallpaper.

The letter C gave me fits as I tried to piece it into the quilt instead of appliqueing it on. The W is embroidered on.

December: The Chevron Quilt

I. am. obsessed. with chevrons. The way they zig and zag just so. The pointy little joints where they switch directions. Everything about them makes me happy. Also high on the list of things that make me happy? Vintage fabrics. And color gradients. And ice cream cake. This quilt is the perfect joining of those things.

I apologize that my quilt is not going to be super exciting on the construction end of things. It was my original plan that everyone would sew a horizontal strip of the quilt but as I constructed my sample parallelograms (yep) the other day, I realized that that plan wasn't going to work out. So, everyone will be assembling 6 blocks (3 left sloping and 3 right sloping) that I will assemble to create a horizontal strip of the quilt.

The kit you will receive in the mail has 7 different fabrics. You will most likely not use all of them. Your finished blocks will need to be no taller than 8.5" high. They can be a little shorter if you wish but if they are taller than that then the template won't fit (learned that the hard way). Some of the fabrics are vintage (yay!) and aren't 44-45" wide. I cut extra strips of those fabrics so you can piece them together to match the width of the newer fabrics (44-45" wide). The strips have to be this wide so the template will fit (learned that the hard way). There is one fabric snuggly tucked in it's own ziploc baggy. I ask that you please use this fabric in your block. I want to make sure that everyone uses at least one of my vintage fabrics. As for the other 6 fabrics, you may use as many or as few as you would like. Depending on the width that you decide to make each strip you may have enough strips to make more than one set of blocks. I cut the strips in varying widths based on how much fabric I had. You may cut them narrower if you would like. The strips can be whatever width you want them to be and in whatever order you want them to be in.

(all of the different fabrics. everyone will get a different combo)

The kit also has a template for you to cut your finished blocks with (so you don't have to do math or anything tricky to get the angle right). The template is in 3 pieces so it would fit into the envelope. Tape the 2 angled end pieces onto the rectangle with 2" separating them in the middle (see below). Be sure the angles are the same on either end. Again, we want a parallelogram NOT a trapezoid.


step 1.) Sew 3 sets of identical strips. The sets of strips should be approximately 44-45" long by 8.5" wide finished. They need to be the same so the chevron pattern is continuous.

step 2.) press all of your seams open and flat

step 3.) fold each strip in half lengthwise wrong sides together (folded approx. 22"L x 8.5"W). I lined up my seams so the 2 blocks would be even.



step 4.) position your template so the bottom left corner of the template meets the bottom left folded corner of the strip. Trim off the ends so the strip matches the shape of the template. You now have 1 left sloping block and 1 right sloping block.



repeat the cutting process for the other 2 sets of strips.

step 5.) lay your 6 blocks out in a pretty chevron pattern and take a picture for us/me to get excited about.

(2 sets of blocks)

These blocks are so simple. What they make up for in difficulty you gain in experience. One of the wonderful side effects of strip quilting (sewing strips of fabric together to cut them apart and sew them back together) is that it helps us to all practice sewing long straight seams. I know there are several people in the group that have said they are new to sewing and quilting. This is the best way to practice!

Please send me back any strips you don't use or any scraps AND the amazing triangles you are going to cut off of the ends of your strips (I think I want to use them on the back of the quilt).

It's my birthday at the end of this month and I am excited to lay out everyone's vintage fabric color gradient chevrons whilst eating ice cream cake and bask in the happiness these things will create in my life.

Happy Sewing!
Amy B.

Cheryse's Blocks

I knew when I saw Cheryse's quilt for November that I wanted to piece something rather than applique. So armed with some scraps, my rotary cutter and a piece of paper & pen to scribble out my ideas, I put together my lowercase k and a capital F.

Heidi's Block

I told Heidi when she gave me my block fabric for October 2 weeks late that she would get the finished block back from me also 2 weeks late. It ended up being 2 weeks later than 2 weeks late, but here is my finished cross block.

It was fun! Just an 8x8 grid, right?

Alphabet soup...

What fun I had making these two blocks.  Bright happy fabric always makes me smile.  Getting to use some of my stash was a real treat for me.  This will be a fun quilt to wrap up in and also learn from.   Thanks Cheryse, for trusting us to just let our creative juices take over on this one!  Can’t wait to see how you finish this quilt!

October block

 

 

 Even though I loved the free form nature of last month's block, I enjoyed having a bit more structure this month. Structure is my friend when it comes to accomplishing things efficiently.

The big kid is holding the big block (based on a 2" square), the little kid is holding the little one (based on a 1" square).

NOVEMBER QUILTING BLOCK

So i'm super excited to be hosting this months block. As you know from our "get to know you" posts, I have two young children (2mo & 17mo) so most of my days are spent juggling the two and trying to keep them busy and happy (and to just survive through the day). We have started teaching my oldest, Jayden her ABC's and to count. So as I was looking through trying to decide what to do for this month when I came across a picture of an ABC quilt and thought that might be a fun way for her to become more familiar with them.

I want the quilt to be fun, crazy and full of color. I do want some color flow so I have chosen a simple grey which I would like everyone to use as a background material in some way. Use as much or as little of it as you would like but please be sure to use at least a little. I will need everyone to sew two blocks each so that I can get the whole alphabet sewn for the quilt. Above are the examples of what I came up with, be sure to let your creative side run wild. I want the quilt to be crazy fun, a good kids quilt:) As you will soon see (sending out martial tomorrow 11/2) I have only sent an 15"x15" inch square, I would like everyone to pull from their own scrap fabric to come up with and make their letter blocks (I have a list of who is to do what letter below) and/or to create their background. Get the letters on however you want, I used the iron on stuff (can you tell I haven't been quilting long....I have no idea what they call the stuff). Make them big or small, crazy fonts or whatever. This I am hoping will ensure unusual, colorful, creative, fun blocks for each individual letter for the kids to have a great time learning their alphabet. The finished sown block should be 11"x11".

I pulled letters out of a hat and assigned them to your names so that none would be next to each other in case the two blocks were sown in a similar fashion.

SO....I need an 11"x11" finished block with your assigned letters done anyway you want. Just be sure to use some of the material I sent. Can't wait to see what you all come up with!! Let me know if you've got questions.

Amy: F, K

Aynsley:S, L

Cheryse: AB, P
Heidi:T, I

Jennie:W, C

Katherine:X, H

Leah:N, G

Marryanne:Q, D

Rebecca:U, J

Tara:M, V

Terry:R, YZ (YZ need to be placed on the same block to fit the whole alphabet on the quilt)

Valerie:E, O

All done

started my square the day after I got the material from Heidi. I read her instructions about a dozen times and measured everything out twice, three time and even sometime a fourth. Amazingly both my babies went down for naps at the same time and so I thought I had it all figured out...WRONG. Once I was done with my FIRST square for some reason this...delightful block was not correct anywhere. It was too small and the crosses didn't match up properly. The horizontal pieces were way too long. Needless to say I dulled up my seem ripper on this one thats for sure...I must of pulled seems at least a dozen times on this one. It took me almost a half a day (hubby watched the kids) and all the the background fabric to make this thing work (sorry Heidi, no extras background material coming your way). I still had a good time doing it but if you look close there are a few things that I ended up categorizing as "good enough". I really can't wait to see how it turns out though, I really think this is a very fun quilt. Well I definitely learned a lot on this one. Going to be such a better sewer after this year is over:)

Presenting the Make it up Quilt!

Here it is! Following in the overall theme of improvisation, as I laid out the squares, I realized that it was just about the perfect size for my youngest girl's crib/soon to be toddler bed. So I scrapped my plan to make it twin size, and went the toddler route.

Since it was so small - 12 squares- it went together really quickly. As you can see, I added a row of 5 inch squares across the middle to give the eye a (somewhat busy) place to rest, and I think that really helped solidify the quilt. I used Warm and Natural batting, and I raided my stash and found a piece of the orange daisy fabric that was exactly the right size for the backing. It was meant to be! I quilted it with a simple square pattern, the batting I used only needed quilting every 10 inches, so I didn't have to do a lot. I will say that because of the wonky lines it was hard to quilt straight- so a lot of my quilting lines aren't. But my daughter won't care, and I can always claim I did it on purpose. :) And because there are so many seams in the blocks, it's hard to see the quilting lines anyway.

Here's a not so great picture of it in her bed (the light by her bed is no good!)



And one so you can see the backing.



This was a really fun project, and she loves her new quilt. Thanks so much everyone for making it with me!

So much fun!

I forgot how fun it is to get mail that is not a bill...the postal system seems to be underutilized for fun things these days. It is so much fun to receive these little packages of fabric goodness in the mail. Life has been crazy (I am sure everything is just super mellow for the rest of you, right?) and I haven't had a chance to check in on the blog to see how many of you have been sewing away...and then I received yet another surprise package in the mail. This is so much fun to see what everyone is coming up with for my quilt this month. I am super excited to see what happens when I can lay them all out together.

Two blocks in one post!

I'm posting Tara and my block, as we worked on them together. While I love the finished look of the blocks, I have to say that the gray fabric was not really our friend as we worked through the process. But I think they turned out pretty nice. Mine turned out a titch small, Tara's turned out a titch big, so it all equals out in the end. (Sorry, couldn't resist the pun.)

Mine is on the left, Tara's is on the right.

Measure 2x cut once!

Remember when your dad used to say "now honey you always want to measure twice so you only have to cute once"...I did not do that, ugh, sorry my measurements were a little off. I caught it quickly but sadly it means that my square isn't as perfect as I would like it to be. I did try to make a small one as well but again a ran out of the big pieces. Heidi you might not want to use that one, don't feel bad if you don't I wont take it personally.

Introduction and September Square

Hello fellow bee members, I'm Katherine. I'm not the best at posting things on blogs, but I am really excited to be a part of this quilting bee.

I started sewing about 3 years ago, and I learned most everything I know about sewing from Heidi and Amy. I have completed one quilt in my life, and am hoping to make many more in the future.

I enjoyed the challenge of sewing the confetti block. I was unable to wrap my head around how to create a "freestyle" block, so I ended up meticulously planning out my square with a scale model paper block. Then, after watching Heidi effortlessly whip up strips for her confetti square, I had a better understanding of the process described in the instructions. I was hoping to have another go at making a square, but the month flew by. I am looking forward to seeing the confetti quilt top in its entirety.

I am almost ready to begin working on my plus square, and I love the picture Terry posted of her finished block. However, I first have to finish up a colonial costume order placed by an eager and impatient six year old.

Figure it out as you go!

I've never made a modern cross or a not so modern cross for that matter. But I was intrigued when Heidi sent the fabric, the dimensions, and then said 'figure it out'. So instead of 'making it up as you go" I was left with 'figure it out as you go' as in figure it out with math!! Math-is not a word that leaves me with warm fuzzy feelings. With that, I took a deep deep breath, a pencil and paper and started 'figuring' it out! It wasn't that hard.  Why do I let that word scare me?  I'm a big girl with life experiences and I can do this! Then I DID IT! In less than 1 hour I had the block finished and felt a great sense of accomplishment! Never again, will that word 'math' intimidate me! Thanks Heidi, for taking me outside my life box! It was a fun block to do and I do love the vertical and horizontal lines that are all connected into straight lines!

Ideas ideas ideas

Heidi love the fabric so cute, just got it yesterday!

Is anyone else totally obsessed with finding the pattern for their quilt like I am? I found mine and if any of you ladies pick mine, to bad I'm going to do it was well, can't tell you now I'm gonna keep it a secret.

How's the quilt going Maryanne? Any tips for us less savvy quilters?

October's Block: plus (also known as a modern cross)

Hello Everyone!

Why is it so absolutely difficult to find a solid gray fabric? Not just any gray but a true grayscale gray...all of the gray's are sooo blue. Which means they end up looking purple. I even ended up ordering yards of gray fabric online only to be disappointed once it arrived. Grrr.

After working on the pattern I wanted to use for the block this month for the past few weeks I thought I was going to have to totally change directions at the last minute because I couldn't find the background fabric I wanted. All that said, on Saturday I finally found a background fabric that is going to have to work and decided it would be okay with my original pattern after all.

Okay, so here it is...

When I have seen similar designs to this all I can think of is a plus sign but patterns like this one are also often labeled a modern cross. I have a number of sample pictures I am including below and hope everyone can make it all the way through this post.

Sample full quilt illustration:



Sample individual block illustrations:

Individual block pattern:

Sample sewn blocks and a peek at the fabric (that I promise will be in the mail to you tomorrow):


(sorry, the second one is a horrible picture and if I get a chance to take another one in the daytime I will be sure to replace this one on the blog)

Info on how to make the blocks:

The larger of the two blocks above is sort of my intended base unit size (of 2" square) and finished is about 16" square (16.5" with the seam allowances). But as I made up my sample I started thinking that it may be interesting to have a variation in the size blocks that are created (hence the smaller version based on a 1" square). The key will be to decide on the unit you want to use and then cut your strips/squares accordingly.

I will be sending a stack of fabric to each of you, way more than you will actually need to make your one or two blocks. The cream and gray geometric line fabric (about 1/4 yd) is for the base color or the background and then there is an assortment of red, blue, yellow and cream fabrics (some of them are strangely shaped) to use for the +'s. Just send back what you don't use.

My assembly recommendation is to decide what your individual finished square size should be (1", 1.5", 2", 2.5"), map out where you want your colored +'s, and cut squares and strips as appropriate including seam allowance. Sew each row and then the rows together.

For example, in the larger of the two sample blocks I assembled my base unit was a 2" square. My first row consisted of a strip of the base fabric that was 2.5" high (an extra .5" for .25" seam allowance) and 8.5" long, a 2.5" square of the red fabric, and a 2.5" x 6.5" strip of the base gray. You could assemble the whole thing as squares if you want to, but I generally prefer to minimize the number of seams I have to sew in a project. The block pattern posted above is 8 units by 8 units but I am totally okay if you wanted to add an additional row or two to any side to continue the pattern.

Feel free to use as many or as few of the colored fabrics as you want, my only request is that you don't have any unfinished +'s hanging off the sides. I suppose if someone wanted to throw in a "-" without the top and bottom squares I would be okay with that.

I hope this pattern doesn't feel to restrictive after just finishing Maryanne's super free-form "make it up as you go along" blocks from last month! Thank you everyone for helping me make this quilt.

Happy sewing!