Bonnie knows best!!!

You know how it is…..you have done one task in the same way for years and years and years, and someone tells you another way to do it. Your first thought is “nah…that wont work” and so you continue on in your old way. Well, let me tell you my story……

I hate making Half-square triangles, and I have tried EVERY WAY possible. I started out by cutting the squares 7/8” larger than the finished size, cutting thru the diagonal and then trying to sew the triangles together with a correct 1/4 inch seam. The points would jam under the needle, my seam allowance would vary and it NEVER worked!!!!

Then, I started placing two (7/8” larger) squares together, drawing the diagonal line and then sewing 1/4 inch on each side of the line. I would cut them in half, press and behold….they were NEVER the right size.

SO, I joined the ranks of people who would cut the squares too big, sew on the diagonals, cut, press and THEN use a ruler to square-up the patches to the correct size. This process provided for perfect size squares, but it was very time intensive.

Enough history….. move onto current events…..in the last couple of weeks, I have just wanted to sew. It didn’t matter what I was working on, but I just needed to feel the fabric, see the stitches and use my rotary cutter!!! So, I turned to Bonnie Hunter’s website and selected one of her scrap quilt patterns to work on. This is Nine Patch Split…..

Since my plan is to make it much bigger, the first thing that I needed were 500+ half-square triangles. Well, I almost stopped right there!!!! But in Bonnie’s instructions, she told how to use the “Easy Angle II” ruler to make 1/2 square triangles .

Since I had the ruler already, I decided to give it a try…..just to prove to myself that it wouldn’t work!!!!!

These are the steps that you use….

Cut strips of fabric that are the finished block size plus 1/2 inch. Place them face sides together.

Use the Easy Angle to cut one triangle “thingy”……

Then flip the ruler to the other side and cut another…….

Sew the shapes together with a 1/4 inch seam allowance

and….VOILA…..perfect sized 1/2 square triangles (you just have to clip that one point)!!!!!!

I also found that if I was chain piecing and started sewing with the pointed end of the triangle and ended on the cut off point it was easier to start the next triangle.

So, in a very short time I made hundreds of half square triangles!!!!!

THEN, I read in her instructions about keeping the “chains” together until after they were pressed. Again, I thought…..”no, no, no”. But once again the practical side of my brain said “why don’t you give it a try” and once again, BONNIE WAS RIGHT!!!!!

If you place the chains on your ironing board, they line up beautifully for pressing and I found that it was WAY faster and easier to do.

(note here that it is NOT easy to iron with your left hand and take a photo with your right)

So here I say THANK YOU BONNIE for making my life easier and for providing such wonderful hints and instructions!!!!!

A little bit of sewing

Yesterday, I had a few minutes in the studio and was able to finish the backing for the “Rosebrock Garden Cuttings” quilt. (see this post).

As I originally said, I was trying to use as many of the leftovers from the previous quilt and wanted to continue that idea on the back. I was able to use a bunch of the pieces, but finally decided that it was looking too cluttered so I took a few pieces off and just finished it!!!

Here is the back….layered, basted and ready for quilting!!!

Oh…by the way, the train is back on the design wall so hopefully there will be more posts about this in the next few weeks!!!!

Charity Work

Yesterday, I delivered a quilt to my Charity Bee that will be donated to the local Relay for Life event. They will raffle it off to raise money for the American Cancer Society.

Our guild (Cotton Patch Quilters) has made about 10 of these quilts over the last 5 years and they have raised a fairly large amount of money each year. The guild members are given instructions as to color and size of the blocks (mostly 4 patches and 1/2 square triangle blocks). When we receive them, the charity group trims them down to the actual size needed and one of us takes all of the blocks home and pieces the top. That was my job this time!!!

The proportions on this quilt ended up a bit whacky so we used some of the leftover 1/2 square triangles and pieced a border for the sides of the quilt.

One of our members (Ellen) will quilt it on her long arm machine and another member (Nancy) will put the binding on.

We are pleased with the final product and are already planning the next one to be made!!!!

Keeping Amber Warm

This year it was a rush to finish a queen size quilt to be given to my Son’s girlfriend….Amber. It was VERY exciting that they announced their engagement just a few hours before she opened the gift!!!!

Here she is opening the bag…..can you see her behind all of the paper???

Her first words were….”OHH it’s teal!!”

Here is the finished quilt……

I had intended to do a lot of fancy quilting on this, but ran out of time and ended up just quilting it with lots of straight lines (using the walking foot). In the end, I kind of like this simplicity!!

If you remember several months ago, I posted about the backing to this quilt. I originally tried using 10 inch squares of miscellaneous fabrics, but it really looked BAD!!! So, I decided to dig thru scraps and other fabrics and re-make the back. One of my friends saw this side first and thought that it was the actual quilt…..it is kind of fun!!!

The binding used scrap strips that I had cut earlier this year, so I managed to make the entire quilt WITHOUT having to buy any fabrics!!!!!

It was fun to think about Amber while I was making this quilt and I am thrilled that she was excited to receive it!!

Scrap Fun

I am in need of a quilt for an upcoming gift (more about that in later posts) and was trying to figure out what to do. I knew that it needed to be a small wall quilt so I started looking thru my Miniature Quilts magazines….starting with Issue number 2. MANY issues later, I came upon a strip pieced quilt that caught my eye and proceeded to start planning it in my head.

The first ideas was to use the strips that I had been cutting from my scraps, but realized that the smallest of those (1-1/2 inches) was still too big. SO, I moved up a drawer and pulled out the bits that were “too small to use”….ie narrower than 1-1/2 inches. They were perfect for piecing this quilt!!

I drew one of the block sections on Golden Threads paper and then put 30+ additional squares under the drawn one. I then sewed around the design using a threadless machine and achieved all of my paper patterns in one fell swoop.

I started with all of my scraps in the drawer, but ended up throwing them onto the floor so that I could get to them easier.

As I started paper piecing these blocks, I found two things that helped the process go easier. The first was to leave my machine in “Needle-Up” mode. By doing this, I didn’t have to move the needle up after every seam when I was wanting to pull the sewn piece to the back and start sewing on the next one.

The second was to select and cut ALL of the pieces for a certain seam at the same time rather than reaching down into the pile and cutting them individually.

After piecing the paper blocks, I removed the paper and put them together into the quilt top.

My original idea was to put a solid color fabric in the small border, but decided that it lost the sparkle that the rest of the quilt had, so I used a handful of 1-1/2 strips and created the stripe.

It was a fun quilt to make and I am truly happy with the results.

Now it is off to the home opener for the University of Georgia football team.

GOOOOOOOO DAWGS!!!! Sic-Em!!!! WOOF WOOF WOOF!!!!