Weekend Progress a little late!

Well I had hoped to post this blog earlier in the week, however, with an anniversary and finding out that both of my girls had pink eye (in both eyes) and my little one also had ear infections (did you know that babies get ear infections with pink eye?) this post will finally be completed on Wednesday...

I had a productive weekend, YAY!! Here is what I accomplished...

My first month of Michael Miller's Clubhouse quilt by Swirly Girl Designs.

I also started on my blockapollooza quilt along blocks...

For this quilt along I am stash busting and using Charm by Amy Butler, and various Kona solids. It is real bright, and so far I am liking it, I am a bit behind, but I know I can catch up, the blocks go together fairly easy.

We will see, hopefully your home is "sick bug" free, and that you get some sewing done too :-) I hope to get some down the end of this week as well.

My First Tutorial

When I gave my wonderful tidbit to KarrieLynn a few weeks ago on her Freckled Whimsy's blog, I have had several people email me and ask that I give some visuals to help describe my method. Being a visual learner I should have thought about that before, but alas, I will sum it up to a blond moment, and I didn't have any. I had intended to take some pics for several weeks, since then the wonderful winter illnesses have hit my house, and all of us have been a bit under the weather. Finally, I am happy to say we are on the road to being healthy and I was able to capture some shots for all of you.

My grandmother taught me this technique years ago and I still use it today.  By following these steps, you can reduce the amount that your blocks will stretch or distort when you need to draw diagonal lines or press bias seams. 

First, Find an old, but clean piece of cardboard. mine was originally a piece used inside a shirt when you wanted to pant on the shirt, and I cut it down for this purpose.  Take two pieces of fine sandpaper and tape them down onto your board.  This makes a great surface to transfer markings to fabric. The sandpaper holds the fabric without distorting it when you draw on it.  

Lay your fabric on the sandpaper, and place your ruler on top.

Take your pencil and starting from the center of the block, Draw outwards towards the corner.  Lift your Pencil and start from the center again, and draw the second half of your line to the opposite corner. 

When you remove the ruler you have a perfect line corner to corner and your corners will not be distorted from the line being drawn. Notice that the line is darker in the center. I have a tendency to overlap my line when I start from the center and work outwards.

i use the same center principal when I am ironing a seam on the bias of my fabric (like in flying geese and HST).

Use the corner of the iron to start pressing from the center.

.Use the iron to work the seam outward from the center, on larger blocks, I will press from the center to one corner, and then again from the center to the opposite corner. 

Pressing from the center helps to keep the block square, and causes very little stretching on the bias seem. You just gotta love that! :-)

So does that make sense? I hope this helps you out. If you need more details let me know and I will gladly help. I hope that you all will have a beautiful weekend! We are enjoying some wonderful 70 degree weather!

A Quilt in Less than a Month

I joined Rachel's postage stamp quilt along at PSIQuilt back in January. I could not believe we would be making a small bed size quilt in a month however, I finished up very early this morning...I won't tell you just how early, but I am definitely working on very little sleep today! But here she is...

Isn't she pretty?!?

And a look close up too...

I decided to use Farmer's Market by Sandi Henderson for Michael Miller Fabrics for this quilt. I love all the bright cheery colors against the white. I know I love the brights, but they just make me smile. I had originally bought most of these fabrics in a kit. I loved the quilt, but changed my mind and picked another color scheme for that quilt. 

I decided for this quilt along (and pretty much all quilt alongs I join this year) to bust open my fabric stash and between the kit I had purchased and my stash, I had 24 of the fabrics from the line...not too bad. I did have to cut them into 2.5" strips, but I used a tool called the Shape Cut by June Taylor, and I have to say it is my new favorite friend. Much cheaper than buying Jelly rolls of solid colors. And from there the piecing went fairly easy.  

The best part of this quilt is that I finished the top in less than a month :-) I used 6 yards of fabric from my stash, and my darling 3 year old helped me with this quilt. She decided it was fun to layout the fabrics and help mommy iron the blocks, as well as layout my blocks in their rows. So although there maybe the same fabrics side by side, but that is what she wanted, and I loved her helping me quilt! :-)

Well I hope that you all have a blessed weekend, sorry for the long post.. I had a lot to say! :-) 

Postage Stamp Quilt Along Update

I was able to finish cutting all my strips tonight. Here they are looking all pretty...

and of course I couldn't just leave them alone, here are 4 of the blocks.


Now only 44 more blocks to make, and then I have to stitch them all together. Normally, that would not be that bad, except all my gals (mad love to my girls) and their families are descending on my house this weekend for an awesome get together! I need to get working on this quilt, and my house...hmmm the choices! :-)

Happy Sewing and Quilting!

Weekend Progress :-)

Birdie Stitches Block 1
Originally uploaded by lovesewspecial

It feels really great to say that on my birthday weekend I was able to accomplish so much as far as sewing and housechores, however, don't tell my brother that I did not count my weightwatchers points, nor did I care about what I ate...tomorrows weigh in should be real interesting.

As far as sewing goes, I completed my block for the littlemissshabby,com birdie stitches BOM. This is my first time ever doing embroidery, and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. I can not wait for the new block to come out around the first of February! Here is the closeup!
I also was able to due some catch-up sewing my postage stamp quilt along at psiquilt.

I am really enjoying the color layouts, and I have begun to cut these down to little itty bitty strips. I did discover a new tool for this project. It is the shape cut ruler by June Taylor. When it comes to cutting strips and sections it does the trick very fast.  I am not sure how I ever made it with out this ruler, and the best part is that I was able to score it at Half price, so I paid only $11.50 for it! smiling about that! Hopefully, I can complete this in time to be eligible for the drawing on Feb. 1 with this new tool and a little luck!  I will definitely keep my fingers crossed and pray that I have no ill children this week.

I hope that you all have had an enjoyable weekend, and that you got a bit of sewing progress done as well.  I will be in touch with more progress soon!

Would you love to win some fabric?

My blog friend Karrielynn over at Freckled Whimsy is giving away some wonderful pre-cut goodies (Fandango and Verna!) to all her friends because it is her blogaversary! Yes I made that term up, but it is very fitting. I am truly hoping that I win, since it is my birthday weekend, maybe luck will be on my side!

As for my weeks activities, I have been working on my Birdie Stitches Block of the Month and my postage stamp quilt along. I am pleased with my progress on both projects. I need to get started on my Michael Miller clubhouse quilt, the next meeting is fast approaching. 

I hope to have some new pictures this weekend. If you want to join either of these quiltalongs click on the links to take you there. Hope you have a having a great WARM weekend...it is cold here in Richmond, I am secretly wishing for more snow, they are calling for some possibly on Tuesday. Have a great rest of the weekend and I will get pics up for you soon!

Birdie Stitches Choices

Birdie Stitches Choices
Originally uploaded by lovesewspecial

I finally decided on the fabrics for my Birdie Stitches Block of the Month by Littlemissshabby.com I almost have the first block completed, I will definitely post pics as soon as I am finished. This is my first time embroidering, and I am really enjoying it. I cannot wait for the next block to be posted.