New Quilt: Charming Chevrons - Designed by Christa Watson

I purchased a quilt kit from Christa Watson of ChristaQuilts.com.  I purchased the kit several months ago but I haven’t had the opportunity to put it together until now.  The quilt is so stunning that it was published on the front cover of "Quilty" Magazine, the November/December 2013 issue.

The kit includes two Charm Packs (42 in each) 5-inch squares of solids, two Charm Packs (42 in each) 5-inch squares of light background and 1/2 yard fabric for binding.  3 additional yards of backing and a 52" x 60" piece of batting are needed to complete the quilt that you will have to purchase yourself.




To make the quilt, the directions are as follows:

Place one dark solid and one background, RST (right sides together).  Mark from one corner to the other with any ruler and sew 1/4" on either side of the line or use a ruler that is similar to the "Quilters Magic Wand" from www.studio180design.net. 

"The Quilters Magic Wand" is 1/2" wide and has a line down the middle.  You place the line at two of the corners and use a pen or pencil to draw a line on each side of the ruler.  It is far easier for me to just sew on a line that is already marked.

The background squares were smaller than the dark squares so I just placed it as close as I could to the middle of the non-background square. 

Just make a cut between the sewing lines with your ruler on both corners. 

I opened both pieces and you will have two HST (half square triangles), iron them open, half pressed toward the light/background fabrics and the other half to the non-background fabrics. Each pair made will be ironed in the same direction.
 

I made a total of 84 HST's.  I like this method of making the HST because you have a larger square and you can trim them down to 4 1/2" squares easily and they will be close to accurate, as long you are accurate when you trim them.

This is the placement of the HST to make each chevron.









I sewed the tops together because I could butt the seams together.  I get a very accurate seam that meets almost perfectly at 1/4 inches.

The two bottom pieces go together just as easily. This is why half of the seams are ironed towards the background and the other half to the solid.

I ironed both seams open because there was quite a lot of bulk in the middles of the block where all four seams meet.

I sewed the top and bottom together and also ironed the seam open.  I know that it takes more time to do this but it is so worth the trouble when your block lays flat.



I will post more photographs of the chevrons as I sew more today.

Vintage Quilt Revival Block-Along

I have been reading a new quilt book called, "Vintage Quilt Revival" by Katie Clark Blakesley, Lee Heinrich and Faith Jones.  I read all three of their blogs:  BikeSwimQuilt.com (Blakesley), FreshlyPieced.com (Heinrich) and FreshLemonsQuilts.com (Jones). They are modern quilt makers and new authors.  I received my copy a couple of weeks ago.

This book takes twenty traditional quilt blocks and changes  them into modern looking blocks.  The use of color, size and contemporary settings of the blocks also add to the modern feel.  I enjoyed reading the book.

You can order the book from Amazon, Fat Quarter Shop and the Interweave store.





 
Lee Heinrich announced on her blog that one of her friends, Sukie will host the Vintage Quilt Revival Block-Along.  Her blog can be located at sukiedontyaknow.com.  Sukie will make two blocks each week starting January 21.  I signed up to receive her blog posts so I would not miss any part of the Block-Along.  I can't wait to start but I always have a difficult time deciding which fabrics to use.  I hope that you will join in because it really looks like it will be fun!


I just want to add that I am a traditional quilt maker.   I have quite a bit of 1800's fabric but I am trying to switch to modern quilt making because the colors intrigue me and the settings of the blocks on the quilts look so great!  This is a way for many of you who are looking for alternative quilting methods to try it and see if you like sewing modern quilts.  Thanks, Sukie for hosting the block-along!

"Little Lollies" Quilt Top is finished.

The quilt top is finally finished.  The holidays really made me fall behind so I am very happy to have finished the top.  I will bring the quilt, backing and batting to my quilter.  I am looking forward to seeing it quilted and ready to use.

Here is the quilt in progress:

 



Just the blocks assembled with the corner stones and sashing.

The inner border of the aqua and red to make it look scrappy.

A 3 1/2" white outer border added to frame the quilt.

More progress on the "Little Lollies"

I sewed most of yesterday while I was watching television.  I ended the night watching the New Year's Eve broadcast from NYC.  It looked so cold there and I just thought that I we were really lucky to be living in Sacramento; even though it was cold yesterday, it's not as cold as back east.

I used a mug that was 3 1/2" to make this circle.

Trimmed the fabric and cut into the seam allowance so it wouldn't pucker.

Pulled the fabric through the hole in the back.

Centered and pinned it.

In retrospect, I should've read some of the advice that I found on the internet regarding sewing of these circles.  I didn't look for it until now.  There are many videos that show how to accomplish this with nice, round curves.  Oh well.....

The pattern from the Holly Hill Quilt Shoppe suggests that five of the nine blocks have the aqua center and the remaining four have white centers.  I decided that I wanted a little more color and tried the red.  The picture of the red is to the left.  It just seemed too overpowering compared to the aqua so I abandoned that idea.  I finished most of the blocks with the aqua when it occurred to me that I could make the red center smaller and so I tried it.

I did like it better but I had already sewn the aqua centers on six of the nine blocks.  It did not seem worth the time to remove some of the aqua centers so I decided to make only one block with the smaller center.

This will be the block placement for my "Little Lollies" quilt.  I just have to add the sashing and corner stones, scrappy inner border, white-on-white outer border and I will be done with the top.  I purchased backing fabric when I visited my local quilt shop, the Fabric Garden.  

I love, love, love this line of fabric, "Bobbins and Bits" by Pat Sloan for Moda.  This picture does not do it justice.  I took a couple of pictures of it but I can't get the aqua color right.  You can find a picture of it online.  It is called "Aegeon Blue Berry Scrolls."  





I will try to finish this quilt today but we have been invited to a friend's home to celebrate the New Year.  I hope that I can at least do the sashing and corner stones when we return home. 

Little Lollies Update

This past Sunday I was able to finish all nine of the "Little Lollies."  They were fun and very quick.  Believe me, I was so surprised how fast I could put them together.  
 
My next decision that I had to make was how I was going to affix the "Little Lollies" to the white-on-white background.  There were three recommendations on the pattern:  top-stitching, machine applique or hand applique.  If I wanted to finish this quilt quickly, I will have to fore-go the last option, hand applique.  I went to my local quilt shop, Fabric Garden and the owner, Jill suggested that I top-stitch them.  It was fast and easy.  I have finished five of the nine and looking forward to finishing them this morning.

I stitched around the hole in the center of the "Little Lollie" first.  Any color will do so I used white on this one.  

I have one of those sewing machines that automatically cut the ends of the threads when you are done stitching so I used red thread on the edges of the red part of the blade and aqua thread on the edges of the aqua.

After I finish top-stitching the 'Little Lollies" down to the background, I will tackle the center of the blocks.  I will let you know how that works out.

Fig Tree and Company - Lollipops and Little Lollies

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a quilt kit, "Winter Lollipops" online from the Holly Hill Quilt Shoppe.  I have never tried a "Dresden Plate" quilt but I have always been intrigued by the pattern.  It arrived last week and I have been looking at the pattern and the fabrics and I had to try it!

The kit included the pattern, "Lollipops" 
(pattern by Fig Tree and Co.), a color copy of the quilt that was made at the Holly Hill Quilt Shoppe, an explanation of the requirements for their quilt versus the pattern from Fig Tree, 21 fat quarters of aqua and red Moda fabrics, white background fabric and white with aqua dot fabric for the sashing.

I like Joanna's patterns because they are well written and easy to follow.  There are some pattern designers that are not so easy to follow.  Once I realize who they are, I do not buy any more patterns from them.  Only you can figure that out by purchasing them and making the quilt.




This pattern has two versions of the quilt:  Carnival Lollipops (larger blades, 10 inches long) and the Little Lollies (5 1/2 inch blades).  The pattern in the kit is the Little Lollies version and has three rows of three Lollipops versus the one in the pattern that has four rows of three Lollipops.

Each Little Lollies has eight blades.  Each blade has one aqua and one red so that requires sixteen fabrics for one Little Lollie.  I had to make 72 blades total.

The method to make each blade always seemed difficult to me.  I read Joanna's directions on how to make them. It just seemed too easy to be true.  I was so surprised at how easy it really was.  The only difficult part of this was trying to make them look "perfect" and getting those points to be "pointy."  I finally decided after trying to get the first five blades to look perfect, I would let it go and try once to get it look perfect and go to the next blade.

This is the first "Little Lollie" that I have made.  I can't wait until I make the remaining eight done.  I will have to attach it to the background fabric using one of three methods suggested in the pattern:  top-stitching, machine applique or hand applique.  I can tell you with much certainty that I will not hand applique them to the background. 

I hope the remaining 'Little Lollies" will be as easy.  I will publish the results in the next few weeks.

Celebrating Christmas and finishing Hampton Ridge - Month 3

Yesterday was a wonderful day for our family.  All of my children are home and we went to my husband's brother's home in the Bay Area.  All of their children were in attendance, my mother-in-law, their aunt and we had an additional guest, my nephew's girlfriend.  It was fun and we even played a game, Cards Against Humanity after dessert.

Grandma and her grandchildren.

I finished the four blocks of Hampton Ridge of Month 3, this afternoon.  As I have complained about the two previous months, they are 7" finished blocks and small for my old hands but I keep on sewing them.  I will have a great quilt in nine months.

Blocks 9 through 12 - Hampton Ridge