Project Organization

Today we are having a snow day in middle Tennessee which means everything is closed and my whole family is home! Luckily I made it out to the post office this morning to ship some quilts before the rain turned to snow.

Earlier in the week I mentioned that I had gotten my UFO's organized. Hopefully this will keep me motivated to work on my unfinished projects. Let me show you what I did and maybe it will help you too.

A few years ago I found these awesome printables made by Taryn of "from Pixels to Patchwork" and pinned them to one of my Pinterest boards. If you are anything like me you pin lots of fun ideas and never get to any of them! Taryn has made these organizational sheets available in both PDF and word formats, and they are FREE! Thank you Taryn!

As I was trying to figure out how to get organized I vaguely remembered pinning these sheets and was able to track them down amidst my 4,000+ pins (like I will ever have time for that!) Thankfully Taryn still has the available on her blog and yes they are still free.

I downloaded the Word version and was able to add my projects to the list and it looks nice and neat. Taryn also has individual project sheets so you can add more details about your project and break down the steps needed to get the project done. The file was so easy to use and you can even import a picture of your project. I wish I ha a color printer because these project sheets look so cute in color.

Finally I put my lists and project sheets into this cute binder I found at Walmart today. It has a gold foil peacock feather on the spine and it is in aqua ombre. Perfect for cute quilt projects!

I would love to know how you keep your projects organized.
~ Norma
blog.petitdesignco.com

2016, yeah!

I'm so excited for 2016. I feel refreshed after a long break from blogging. I feel like I took a break from sewing/quilting as well.While I did a lot of longarm quilting, it seems like 90% of my sewing and quilting from last year was all for clients. (I updated my longarm site so you can see all the pretty quilts I worked on.) I made a few small projects here and there but I didn't really get to finish any big projects for myself. Life in general was also busy with school (both mine and the kids), family stuff, an church stuff.

So far this year, yes all 20 days of it, I feel like I have accomplished quite a bit. First I got organized by making a list and project sheet for most of my UFO's. I say "most" because after I was done organizing I started remembering and finding other UFO's! I'll share my organizing methods with you later in the week. I also completed a few steps on some UFO's so that feels super rewarding.

My quilt guild is helping me stay on track with my UFO's by doing a fun challenge. Before our January meeting we were to make a list of 11 UFO's we wanted to work on in 2016. After compiling our list we were to number our projects 1-11. At each monthly meeting a random number will be drawn and that is the UFO that you work on for the month, until our next monthly meeting. How fun is that?! There are prizes involved too!

I decided to break down my UFO list as follows:
1. Piece the 2 side borders for the Blue Waltz quilt
2. Quilt and bind Millenium Star quilt
3. Make 12 blocks for Metro Rings quilt
4. Make 4 large blocks for Blue Waltz quilt
5. Make borders for Mod Flower & piece top together
6. Make 12 blocks for Metro Rings quilt
7. Piece together the Castles in Spain quilt top
8. Make 5 large blocks for Blue Waltz quilt
9. Make 12 blocks for Metro Rings quilt
10. Piece the top & bottom border for Blue Waltz quilt
11. Make 12 blocks for Metro Rings quilt

I basically have 5 projects I decided to work on. Rather than list 11 different projects and feel overwhelmed, I choose 5 large projects and broke them up into manageable sections.
My five projects are:
1. Blue Waltz quilt
2. Milleniumm Star
3. Mod Flower
4. Castles in Spain
5. Metro Rings

The very first thing I had to do was to clear my design wall. My "Castles in Spain" blocks weretaking up the whole design wall. Rather than just stuff the blocks in a box until #7 is drawn at quilt guild, I decided to go ahead and piece them all together into the center section of the quilt top. (I am making a queen size version of this pattern.)

~ Norma
blog.petitdesignco.com

A Guild Home

It's been a little over two years since I was able to go to a quilt guild meeting. Things have finally aligned and I have joined my local quilt guild. I now have a guild to call home and I'm looking forward to getting to know all the other ladies.

 I had been wanting to check it out but was unable to do so because they meet on a weekday during the day. Now that my youngest is going to a Mother's Day Out program I get to have a little fun time.

During last week's meeting we were able to participate in a class that was taught by Wanda of Old South Fabrics. We made a good start on the "Favorite Things" pattern from the "Holly Jolly" by Sheri Falls. Isn't Wanda's sample adorable? I think she may still have a few kits available if you are interested (just send her an email through her site.)

I was able to complete my row of presents which was the only thing I was able to get cut out before the class. I decided to just use the fabrics I have on hand rather than buying more fabric. I son't have a lot of Christmas fabrics so mine is based on the cute Riley Blake print that has been in  my stash for a while called "Colorful Christmas." 

Yesterday I was able to complete the row of mugs. The cutting of fabrics is a little tedious but I am enjoying working on one element at a time.

What have you been working on lately?
~ Norma

blog.petitdesignco.com

Frustration

I was able to get a few blocks made for the Christmas quilt I started the other day. There were a few steps that were rather confusing. I ruined two arcs and will have to remake a few others. I will write a post soon to clarify a few steps that I think could be modified to yield better results.

There wasn't enough fabric left over from the jelly roll to make more arcs. I had to order another one but that is fine by me because I actually wanted to make a queen size quilt. I should have plenty of fabric for that now.

~ Norma

blog.petitdesignco.com

Christmas Project

I'm working on a Christmas theme project, but only because it was the only Jelly Roll that was currently in my stash.

It is a "Joy" jelly roll by Kate Spain. I actually won it on her blog a year ago. I recently purchased the "Quick Curve Ruler" from Connecting Threads (best price after shipping while on sale.) The pattern calls for a jelly roll so I thought this would be perfect to try it out with and end up with a nice Christmas quilt. The pattern I'm making is "Metro Rings" by Jenny of "Sew Kind of Wonderful." It is a nice take on the classic Double Wedding Ring quilt.

I got a good start while I was waiting for my ruler by piecing the strips together. However once I had everything pressed and ready to cut, I realized the ruler was broken!

I quickly called customer service and they were awesome, they are sending me out a new one right away to replace the broken one. I have ordered from Connecting Threads for years, this is the first time I have had an issue with an order. Their awesome customer service is going to assure I keep coming back! I like their polyester long arm thread. I wish it came in a billion colors.

Have you made any of Jenny's patterns, or have one on your bucket list?

~ Norma

blog.petitdesignco.com

Gingham Binding

Is there anything cuter than gingham binding? Except maybe bias gingham binding!

I made this binding for the quilt I quilted up a few days ago. You can see a peek of the lovely fabric I used for the backing. It is a fabric I bought on a whim years ago because I thought it was adorable and vintage looking. I don't remember where I bought it and there was no information on the selvages.

It took me longer to make the bias binding than it did to apply it to the quilt. I love adding my binding by machine. The method I use can be found here.

What's your favorite method for applying binding?

~Norma
blog.petitdesignco.com

Carpenter’s Star Quilt

Carpenter’s Star

Letters

Invisible Machine Appliqué Part 1

DIY Side Clamps

This morning I decided to make an improvement to my HQ16 to help me get better results for applying tension to the sides of a quilt. This could easily be adapted to other long arm machines or even domestic machines on a frame.
Two of these spring clamps came with my machine and frame:

I have a few issues with using these for side tensioning:
1) they are pretty hard to open
2) they are about 1” wide at the orange tip (not wide enough to provide even tension)
3) the machine only came with 2 (one per side) so no matter how you set it up you will get uneven tension
4) the Velcro tails provide no “give.” It made it pretty difficult to not over tension the sides of the quilt.

Piecing Curves

There are lots of different ways to do the same thing when it comes to quilting. I'm going to show you how I pieced the curved blocks for the drunkard’s path quilt top in my previous post. Many of you mentioned in the comments that you had a special foot to help with curves. I have a Curve Master foot too, I just couldn’t find it. I know I tucked it away somewhere safe when we moved. I’m pretty sure I’ll find it someday when I open a random container. I need to practice more with that foot but like I said I couldn’t find it. So I started piecing these blocks the traditional way:
1. Fold your pieces in half and finger press the center (just the edge where the pieces will meet, no need to press down the whole length.)

2. You could also mark it with a pen, this will be in the seam allowance so it won’t show in the finished block

3. Place the two pieces right sides together and pin. Start by placing a pin in the center first. Then pin the outer edges. Don’t worry about the wonky-ness of the fabrics, just focus on pinning those edges nice and straight and making sure the ends meet all the way at the edge.

4. Now gently stretch and pin the fabrics between pins 1 and 2 making sure that the background fabric (white) comes up to the edge of the main fabric (pink.) repeat for the section between pins 1 and 3. Once you are done pinning you can take the block to your machine and start stitching. Stitch slowly and pull out the pins as you get to them.

As you can see you end up using a lot of pins to keep everything in place. It also takes a bit of time to get each block pinned up. You can only pin a handful of blocks before you run out of pins. I can’t even tell you the number of times I got poked when I reached for the next block. After doing this for a couple of blocks I thought that there might be an easier way. I HATE pinning. One or two pins is not that pad, but 7 pins per block is a bit much!
So I came up with a slightly different way of doing this that only requires 3 pins per block. You will need pins and a pair of bent tip tweezers for this method (mine came with the curve master foot but you can get them at a medical supply store, or on amazon)
1. Proceed through step 3 as outlined above.

2. I went ahead and pinned a whole stack of blocks until I ran out of pins.

3. Then I went to my machine. Just get the needle 1-2 stitches into the block to get started. Stop with the needle down to hold the block in place and remove the first pin.

4. Place your thumb at the middle pin and use your thumb to lightly pull the fabric away from the needle. You just need to pull until the fabric is taught and no longer buckled along the edges.

5. Now take your tweezers  1-2” above your pin and pull the background fabric (white) until it lines up with the main fabric (blue.) (While keeping your thumb in place. It’s hard to take pictures one handed!)

6. Use your index finger to hold the fabrics in place.

7. Repeat steps 5 & 6 a little closer to the needle. Use your middle finger to hold the fabric in place. You really don’t need a lot of pressure to hold the fabric in place. Do what is comfortable for your hand. Your hands shouldn’t be cramping up at all, if they are you’re trying to hard! Relax :)

8. If you need to (sometimes I did and others I didn’t) use your tweezers to pull that last little bit of fabric, in front of the presser foot, over into place as you start sewing. 

9.  Now you just move your fingers out of the way as you sew. Sew all the way to the middle pin, remove the pin and repeat steps 4-8 for the other half of the block.

This may seem like a lot of steps but it really does go pretty quick. It’s just a lot of steps to explain it. There is no stopping to remove pins every 10 stitches! Once I got the hang of it, it really only took 3-5 seconds to get my fingers in place. It was taking me at least 30-60 seconds to pin an entire block the traditional way. Not to mention all the pin pricks I was getting. One thing that I have found in quilting is that not everything works for everyone, but it doesn’t hurt to try it out. The blocks I was piecing where large 6.5” blocks with a gentle curve. I’m not sure how well this method will work for tighter, smaller curves. Let me know how it works out for you.
~ Norma

Needlework

I’m making excellent progress on the little project I mentioned earlier this week. I should be able to show it by this weekend. It’s coming together fairly quickly even with distractions like baby, Pinterest, Facebook, cooking, cleaning and baseball. In other words life in general. I think that’s why I like small projects. You feel like you accomplish so much even if you only get to work on it for 15 minutes in a day.

This project includes some hand embroidery work. My mom taught me to embroider (and cross stitch) when I was in my tweens. I love it but don’t often have the patience to do a whole embroidery project. In the time it would take me to complete a small 8x10 piece I could have a whole quilt finished. I’m all about results, the more bang for your buck the better!

Do you like to embroider by hand?
Do you like to combine quilts with a little hand embroidery or does the thought make you put the quilt pattern back on the shelf?
One more question. Do you hoop or not when you hand embroider?

I think I’m more comfortable without a hoop unless I’m doing a lot of satin stitching.

~ Norma

It's about ... time

I finally decided to quilt this top that has been sitting around for the last, oh, 4.5 years! This was the very first quilt top that I decided to tackle way back at the beginning of my quilting career. Back when I was too naive to know I knew nothing about quilting! I knew absolutely nothing about bias, seam allowance, sewing a consistent 1/4" seam, pressing, or even cutting. Back when all I had was a $50 Kenmore sewing machine that would take off at the slightest tap of the pedal.





Well it sat in a "completed sate" for a while because I didn't feel confident enough to quilt it myself. Then it sat some more because I soon realized all of the many mistakes that this quilt top showcased. A couple of months ago I pulled it out and repaired it. Yes, I had to make repairs! There were some seams that in places had no seam allowance. Talk about embarrassing! This quilt top is of course completely wonky and not square because most of pieces have some bias involved. Oh, and I have no idea what I was thinking with the piping on this quilt. I won't even point out that I didn't even know how to attach piping properly.

While I would love to just trash this top, I can't. This is my husband's quilt. When he was 19 he served a two year church mission to Nagoya Japan. The fabrics in this quilt are from the Japanese futon sheets he used while on his mission. I know that he will love it with all of it's wonderful imperfections.

Ok, back to quilting. Hopefully all f the imperfections won't drive me bonkers while I'm quilting.  Luckily all of us quilters know that it will all quilt out right? :) ha!

~ Norma

I'd love to hear all about the perfectness of your first quilt top!

and in case you are wondering the pattern is Spinky's from Quilter's Cache

Quilts for Kids Update

While working on my "Quilts for Kids" quilt I had a little mishap. I was finished with the quilting and had just squared up the quilt. I moved on to cutting and piecing the binding. I picked a lovely golden yellow which tied in to the color from the dog's collar. I was zipping along cutting my strips for the binding when I felt a change in my rotary cutter. I immediately cringed, unsure of what damage I had caused.

That's the problem with "zipping" while you're cutting, you get into trouble! Luckily it was only the label and not the quilt or some other project that usually litters my main work/cutting desk. I set it aside while I continued on with the binding, the whole time trying to decide whether to salvage the label or not.

Ha ha! Light bulb moment! I remembered a specialty stitch on my trusty Kenmore.

#43 and #44 are specialty patchwork stitches. They are meant to work like this: take 2 pieces of fabric and fold under a small seam allowance on the sides you want to join, then but them up next to each other and sew using #43 or #44. Well I didn't have any room on that small label to fold under a seam allowance along the cut edge so I treated the cut edges with fray check. Once dry I butted them up next to each other and sewed them together.

This is what it looks like on the back of the label. The stitch resembles little bird foot prints. The cut seam is right along the middle of the stitching. It wasn't perfect but it worked!

I really need to keep my work area cleaner to avoid something like this again! Have you ever accidentally cut through something?

Norma

Plugging Away

My UFO (Un-Finished Object) List {over there on the left hand side bar} has really been keeping me on task. I don't know if you've heard the saying " a goal not written is only a wish" or "a goal without a plan is only a wish" but it's definitely true. That little {or not so little} list is helping me to stay focused on my goal of finishing up my UFOs. I don't  know if you've noticed that I've slowly been crossing things off since that little list made it's appearance on June 1st.

Yesterday I finished piecing the quilt top for my Quilt for Kids quilt. This is a very cool organization that has partnered with Downy to provide quilts for children in need. You can donate a quilt or you can request a quilt kit from them. It's pretty straightforward and within a few days you will have the quilt kit with all the necessary fabric {pre-cut even!} for the top and the back sent to you. You provide the labor to piece it, and quilt it, as well as the batting.

Isn't it cute! I hope to get it on the frame tonight so I can very quickly quilt it tomorrow after church. I think this quilt is going to make some kid very happy! I feel rotten though because I've taken longer then the allowed 4-6 weeks {I can't even remember when I got the kit.} I guess I'll have to make up for it by sending an extra quilt!

Norma

What I did on My Summer Vacation: Airplane Hexies

Remember when we were in grade school and we had to write the obligatory "What I did on my summer vacation..." essays? Well we never went anywhere exciting or cool growing up so I always struggled to write a full page on staying home and playing with my siblings all day long. Sure we kept ourselves occupied with roller skating {yeah I said roller skating, old skool baby!} catching spiders {don't ask, but maybe that's why I'm not afraid of creepy crawlies and furry rodents} and making obstacle courses in the living room, but those things didn't sound as cool on paper as Susy Q's trip to Disneyland.

So I thought I would share a bit of my summer vacation with you. It will be a few posts here and there and if you are not interested go ahead and skip them! Hopefully I'm not making you feel like I'm the "Susy Q" of the class and that your vacation wasn't cool enough to share.

I'll go ahead and share the very best part of my vacation first because it happened way before the vacation started. The best part of my summer vacation was that it was paid for in cash! No credit cards were harmed in the taking of said vacation. I've shared with you in previous posts how we have used Dave Ramsey's advice to get our finances in order. So this little vacation was our we're debt free gift to ourselves and a little break before tackling the task of setting up our 6 month emergency fund {which we've already started to work on full force since being back and already have 1 month saved up!}

We were able to go back west for a glorious week and a half of sunny weather, fresh air, mountain views {sorry but those aren't mountains in Alabama} and peace and quiet. It was nice to unplug from the computers, the phones, the tv, and to just take each day in stride and do whatever struck our fancy. We split our time between California (Oakland and Sacramento) and Nevada (Dayton and Tahoe area.)

My very wonderful husband sat with the kids during each flight to give me a break, although I think he did it to have more room for himself. I got to sit next to the chubby chick and the tween who didn't know about personal space!

Anyway the first flight wasn't so bad because I had an aisle seat and the middle seat was empty. I was able to spread out and work on some hexies to pass the time. I found it amusing that we got those 100 calorie packs of chocolate chip crackers {I refuse to call them cookies, because cookies they aren't!} shaped like hexagons! I couldn't resist taking a picture of some yummy hexagons {yes I find the crackers yummy too.}

I'll go ahead and answer those questions that I know will come. Yes, I got scissors on board an airplane (twice!) Yes, you can bring scissors as long as the blade is less than 4" long and they are blunt (it's posted right on the signs at the security check point so I'm not making it up.) No, I didn't get frisked, stopped or questioned, and didn't even got a curios look from the agents. Yes, I brought needles, 2 to be exact. No, I did not bring pins. The fabric is Patisserie by Fig Tree Quilts and I have no idea what I'm going to do with the hexagons but it sure helped to kill time. Oh and my fabric hexies are 2.5" from tip to tip (I think.)

Norma

Starglass

OK so I have to admit that this whole business of naming quilts and blocks is harder than it seems! I tried out a few names for this new design, most of which were pretty lame and along the lines of "star block" and "easier than it looks star block."

Well this design is easier than it looks because it is made up of all half square triangles (HST.) I love how easily half square triangles can be made up and the many possibilities of quilt layouts from such a simple block. I came up with this layout because it was my turn at my LQG(local quilt guild) to demonstrate the block of the month. I wanted to pick something super easy so that everyone could make it. I also wanted it to be a block would be interesting as a quilt. So after I showed the ladies how to properly make a block (see awesome tutorial here and here) I showed them 4 of the 12 layouts I had come up with using EQ6.

Well the Starglass layout was a favorite among those attending and the ladies wanted copies of it, which I didn't have with me, so I told them I would post it here. Welcome Lick Skillet Quilt Guild members! Now this layout can be made into a block by using small HST or into a nice baby quilt by using 5" charm squares. 5" charm squares would yield a quilt measuring 33"x33" to which you could (I would) add borders to.

Enjoy!

Norma

MTQB June

These are my June blocks for the Modern Tradition Quilt Bee (MTQB.) You can find the very easy tutorial for the Starflower Block on the Modify Tradition website.

These blocks were made for Noah and Lilah who just happens to have the cutest Etsy store chock full of delightful goodies! So go take a peek!

I've been productive

I was so excited to post today, actually I could have posted sooner but Little Sister got sick this week. She's been running a fever for the last 2 days. Hopefully we have seen the worst of it. Yesterday evening her fever hit 103.5F! Of course I panicked and called the Dr. I got the after hours answering service and the Dr called me back within 5 minutes, which was great (I've had other Dr's that would take forever to call back.) Basically she told me not to worry, toddlers apparently tend to run fevers a lot higher than adults (up to 104-105) and still be ok. That seems a little high to me but I was reassured nonetheless. She gave me some instructions on alternating Tylenol and Motrin. After a nice bath my daughter went to bed with a much lower fever. I was relieved! Today she has woken up a little warm but in a much better mood than she was in yesterday.

This morning one of our toilets started bubbling! Yikes I have no idea what that means! All I know is we have a septic tank and I don't want any problems! My husband thinks we just have a clogged vent. Or maybe something to do with all the rain we've gotten, he thinks the lines might just be water logged (for lack of a better description.)

So anyway I've been thinking all week long about what to post and believe me, I came up with plenty of ideas. I better save some for future posts or I might run out of things to post!

First an update on my DQS6 quilt. I need to get an updated picture because the one below is a bit old.
The good news: I have finished all the quilting around my shapes and now need to do the background quilting. The bad news: Somehow, (I have no idea how) I got a mystery stain on my quilt top! It's like a black grease stain. One minute I'm quilting away and the next thing I know... wham a stain on my quilt! I was so mad when I saw it, but try as I might I could not locate the culprit of said stain. It pretty much hindered my progress as I tried to figure out a way to deal with the stain. The solution: Luckily my little crafty brain has come up with the perfect solution. I won't post my solution until I get a current picture (so you can see the problem) so stay tuned and you too may be able to one day save a quilt!

The other thing that has kept me busy this week is that I have been painting the trim in my kitchen! We actually never did it when we moved in about 1 year ago. Lately it's really been bugging me. Especially the laundry room door. It was disgusting, and no amount of wiping and cleaning it made a difference.

Before: Super dingy

After: Bright and cheery

Well I had a nice little tutorial all made up with tips on door painting... apparently it didn't save! Pooh! I could have sworn it saved, I'll have to search my hard drive for it. It's not that hard to repaint your trim or doors and it makes a world of a difference! So check back later in the week!

One more thing! Check back later in the week for a great quilting tip and my first giveaway!!!