Designing Fabrics Using a Tutorial in the new book "Print, Make, Wear"

I really enjoyed the flowers in my perennial bed this year.  I took photos of them from time to time, along with some photos of flowers I saw while walking my dogs in the neighborhood.

Looking for books with information about creating surface designs for fabric, I found Print, Make, Wear: Creative Projects for Digital Textile Design, by Melanie Bowles and The People's Print. This is a great book for a novice fabric designer.  It takes you step by step through the process of designing specific projects.  (While this book was published in 2015, it is already out of date with the current version of Adobe's Photoshop CC. However it wasn't too hard figuring out how to use the book's instructions with the updated version of Photoshop).

The first chapter, "Paintbrush Floral", is one of my favorites.  I used the instructions in this chapter to create "My Flower Garden" in Photoshop CC. I used my flower photos to draw components of each of the flowers.  With some digital magic, they became the basis for my floral fabric designs.

Here are the two pink versions, one with small flowers, and one with larger flowers.  Can you match the flowers in my designs with the flower photos above?

"My Flower Garden" fabric, printed by Spoonflower.com.  Can you match the flowers in my designs with the flower photos above?

The smaller flowers would look great on a toddler's dress.  The larger print is perfect for a quilt backing. 

Since I got these samples, I've designed another floral design featuring Queen Anne's Lace flowers.  I'll post that when I get the printed fabric from Spoonflower.com. 

1990 Silk Screened Quilt Blocks Finally Quilted

I've been really working on decluttering my house this year. Cleaning out drawers with craft supplies, I recently found a stack of rabbits which I had silk screened in 1990.  I printed the rabbit design on my Valentine cards that year.  But I thought the rabbit was really cute so I also silk screened a stack of quilt blocks.  So there they were, 25 years later, still waiting to be made into a quilt. 

The Proper Bostonian Quilters Guild had a UFO (Un-Finished Objects) Summer Challenge this year.  That was the perfect incentive to make these blocks into a mini quilt!  It measures 17.5 x 22 inches, a lovely size for a doll quilt.   The quilt is machine pieced and bound, but all the quilting was all done by hand.

The fabric on the back is a tiny apple design.  

I'm so happy I found my stack of rabbit blocks and finally put them to good use!

Dancing Circles Sample Swatches Baby Quilt

Spoonflower.com makes 8 x 8 inch test prints when you submit a new design. I had a stack of these blocks by the time I was happy with my recently completed Dancing Circles designs. 

I cut them up into 4 x 4 inch squares and picked coordinating colors from my stash of Kona® Cotton solids to make this fun baby quilt!  The circles dance and I think the quilt does too!

Precision Piecing Tips

I taught a Beyond Beginner Quilting class at JP Knit & Stitch last week. This class focussed on accurate piecing. 

I sew up demonstration blocks and/or quilts to use in my classes.  So last week I sat down to sew some demo components for this precision piecing class.  I cut out the yellow 2 1/2 inch squares from yardage.  I had some commercially cut left over jelly roll strips (2 1/2 inch x width of fabric strips) on the table next to my cutting board.  One of them was a perfect shade of blue for my project!  So I cut my 2 1/2 inch blue blocks from the the strip.  Don't you love it when you can find a short cut?

Except that's not how it turned out. 

When I started to sew my 4 patch blocks, I noticed that the blue squares didn't match up with the yellow ones very well, as you can see on the patch below on the left.  I put a blue block under my ruler. The width of the commercially cut strip was between 1/16 and 1/8 inch too narrow which you can see on the bottom edge of the blue square. 

Did that really matter?  Yes.  Note the 2 blocks at the top of the post.  The block on left was sewn from pieces from the inaccurately cut strip.  The block on the right was sewn from new pieces which I cut from yardage.  While you could probably stretch the fabric a bit to make the block on the left work better, it will never be as good as the bock with accurately cut pieces. 

I inadvertently created not only "How to" blocks for my students but also a set of problem patches!

Here are some of my tips for accurate piecing:

• Press and starch your fabric prior to cutting. This is particularly important if you will have seams on the bias of the fabric.  I like Niagara Spray Starch.  Amazon sells it in environmentally friendly non-aerosol spray bottles which usually can't be found in local stores. 
• Make sure to cut the fabric on the grain.  Fold the piece of yardage in half and holding the selvage edges together at the top.  The fabric should hang down smoothly.  If it doesn't scoot one edge of the selvage along the other edge until it does.  Then lay the fabric, folded in half across the width, on the cutting mat and cut a straight line across top edge. Now you are ready to cut!
• Cut your fabric with a sharp rotary blade!  Replace it when it no longer runs smoothly.
• Anchor the ruler with your hand flat on the ruler and always cut away from your body.
• Sew a consistent quarter inch seam.  It's fine to use a 1/4 inch sewing machine foot but make sure it really does sew a true 1/4 inch seam.  If you have a big project, setting up a fence on your machine will help keep your seams consistent.  (Photo and more information about setting up a fence shown half way down my post in the link).
• Set you seam by pressing with a hot iron. Then press you seams either to one side or press them open.  Either way is fine.
• Stop and get up when you get tried or hungry.  Quilting is supposed to be fun!!

Here are the blocks made by the students in the class this past weekend. They were both still quite new to quilting.  They did great work!

More Adventures in Fabric Design

At the moment I'm fascinated with the process of designing patterns which can be printed on fabrics.  I spent a lot of my time in September doing on-line classes trying to learn the basics of  Adobe's IllustratorCC.  It's a program on Adobe's CreativeCloud.  The first month can be a free trial so I was working hard to see what I could accomplish in those 30 days.

I started out by drawing a complex design and using IllustratorCC to trace it.  The program did a great job of tracing but I didn't have the skills needed to color it.  This is not a program you can just jump into casually.  So I went back to the start to learn how to do use the program step-by-step. Watching videos on-line is awesome, but it's important to actually practice using the tools in the program as you learn about them.

After a few days I decided to try creating a basic design that was well within my skill set.  I use a medium Wacom Intuos Pen Tablet, but my "Dancing Circles" designs are simple enough to be done with a mouse.  You can see my first attempt in the printed proofs I got from Spoonflower.com which are shown above.  This design is based on circles inside circles created using the Ellipse tool.  The linear variation was done using a straight line and the Snap To feature with a Grid visible on the Art Board. 

I liked my designs, but on the proofs I discovered my pen had apparently touched my tablet several times, leaving tiny black dots on each of the circle designs. I find errors on the prints that I just don't see when I'm looking at my computer screen.  Clearly there is a good reason Spoonflower won't allow the sale of a design until a proof has been printed and approved by the designer!

So I went back to Illustrator and deleted all the accidental dots.  Then I went back to Spoonflower and used PicMonkey, a program available through Spoonflower.com to apply several different colors in the background and to change the size of my circles on some of the designs. Then I ordered another set of proofs. Here is that proof sheet.

Second Set of Proofs of "Dancing Circles" printed by Spoonflower.com

The tiny black dots are gone!  But this time I found faint halos around the circles with the darkest backgrounds. That didn't occur on the first proofs.  I'm not sure what happened.  But I'm happy with the white background, the light grey background and the light lavender background, which all look great, so those are my finished designs. 

I did learn how to do a lot more things in IllustratorCC by the end of my 30 day trial. I'll make more designs using Illustrator at some point.  At the moment I'm working on a project that just uses Adobe PhotoshopCC. And I have a quilt idea to use the 8x8 inch "Dancing Circle" proofs.

The Dancing Circles designs are available now in my shop at Spoonflower.com.  Even if you aren't planning to make a purchase, stop by and click the Like Heart if you really like a particular fabric!

Tucker Heirloom Block--Replicating the quilting

Those of you following my blog know that I have been working on a replica of a block from an old family quilt.  I finished the block during the summer.

Recently I sat down with the walking foot on my sewing machine and attempted to replicated the curved quilting on heirloom quilt from our family.  The heirloom quilt has semi-circular stitching, spaced 1/2 inch apart. The quilt design on the pieced block looks like series of rounded hills similar to a child's drawing.  I hypothesize that the quilter used a bowl or a plate to mark the starting half circle for the quilting.

I looked around my house and decided to use a salad plate.  I traced the margin of the plate with tailor's chalk.  I found that the quilting lines only worked if I marked no more than half a circle.  Using 3/4 of a circle just didn't work.  I used the maker's mark on the bottom of the plate to determine where to stop and start marking the semi-circle. I used the plate's mark to draw an invisible line with my eye,  bisecting the plate.   That worked very well. 

Salad plate and tailor's chalk used to mark semi-circles on my quilt block 

My quilting lines are 1/4 inch apart. In this single block, those close lines of stitching really do replicate the look and the tactile feel of the original twin size quilt. 

I found I did well quilting the first 2-3 rows and then my semi-circles started to disintegrate into more of an oval. I really enjoyed the rhythm of stitching these semi-circles. Done by hand, I think the quilting would be very calming. 

Here's a close-up of my forebear's quilting.  

My block is a pillow cover. This has been a fascinating project. I'm so glad I decided to do it! 

"Dogs at the Farmer's Market" Fabric Collection: Quick Projects

Here are a couple quick projects using the fabric I designed, "Dogs at the Farmers Market" available from Spoonflower.com.   I've listed fabric requirements and cutting directions but not sewing instructions.

Dogs at the Farmers Market Table Runner 14 x 35.5 inches

Fabric Supplies:

• 1 Fat Quarter Farmers Market Cherries
• 1 Fat Quarter Dogs at the Farmers Market
• 1/3 yard Width of Fabric  Kona® Cotton "Alegria" 405
• 1/2 yard x Width of Fabric fabric of your choice for back
• Scrap of quilt batting 14.5 x 36 "

Cutting Instructions:

Cherries at the Farmers Market

• Cut 2 rectangles 6.5 inches high x 14.5 inches wide
• Cut 1 rectangle 5 inches high x 5.75 inches wide

Dogs at the Farmers Market

• Fussy cut 2 rectangles 9.75 inches high x 14.5 inches wide

Kona® Alegria Solid Blue

• Cut 2 charms squares 5 inches x 5 inches
• Cut 3 binding strips the width you prefer 2 to 2.5 inches x width of fabric

Backing

• Cut 1 piece 15.5 inches high x width fabric of your choice

I assembled my table runner by the Quilt As You Go method, but it can be pieced any way you prefer.  If not using this method, piece the blocks, sandwich the table runner and quilt as desired.  Make a binding from the strips and sew it onto the table runner. Enjoy!

13.5 inch finished 9 Patch Block

Here is a 9 patch block using 5 x 5 inch squares.  This block finishes at 13.5 inches. 

Fabric Requirements

• 1 Fat Quarter  Paired Springers and Golden Retrievers
• 1 Fat Quarter   Farmers Market Cherries
• 1 5 x 5 inch Charm Square Kona® Cotton Alegria 405 or color of your choice

This could be one block in a quilt.  With a single Fat Quarter of the Paired Springers and Golden Retrievers you will be able make another block like this one using just Springer Spaniels or you could make 3 blocks mixing up the Springers and Golden Retrievers in each 9 patch blocks. 

I used my 9 Patch Block to make a pillow cover, using red ric-rac as a detail. Like the block, it finished at 13.5 inches, an odd size for a pre-made pillow form.  But a 14 inch pillow form with some stuffing removed works just fine!

13.5 inch Pillow Cover with Ric-Rac detail

Dogs at the Farmer's Market Fat Quarter Friendly Quilt

Here's my "Dogs at the Farmer's Market, Fat Quarter Friendly Quilt." 

Getting fabric I designed and printed at Spoonflower.com was a thrill.  Making a quilt using my very own "fabric collection" was just so much fun!  

This quilt is my original design.  I have included the traditional "Mississippi" star block, found in the Block Library of Electric Quilt 7, to help unify the fussy cut blocks.  I wanted to create a pattern that could make a quilt just using a single fat quarter (FQ) of the focus fabric.  I used all the fabrics in my "Dogs at the Farmer's Market Collection", but this quilt could be made with just 1 FQ of the focus fabric, 1 FQ of the Blueberries and Flowers and 1 FQ of the Cherries on Light Blue with the addition of solids and/or fabrics from your stash.

The solid color fabrics used in the quilt are all Kona® Cotton solids.  Here are the Kona® colors which coordinate well with the Dogs at the Farmers Market Collection.  

Kona® color and number                    Color best with:

• Periwinkle 1285  (medium blue)          entire collection
• Surf 32  (light royal)                            entire collection
• Alegria 405 (peacock blue)                cherries on darker blue, less good with collection 
• Cayenne 355  (deep red)                    entire collection
• Cinnamon 1075  (reddish brown)       Springer Spaniel and Terrier
• Amber 1479 (deep gold)                     Springer Spaniel and Terrier     
• Cappuccino 406  (brown)                   Springer Spaniel and Terrier
• Creamsicle  185  (peach)                     Golden Retriever, Coneflowers but looks with everything
• Primrose 274 (pink)                             coneflowers
• Lime 1192  (medium green)                  entire collection
• Palm 31  (deep green)                          entire collection
• Sunflower 353 (bright deep yellow)    entire collection
• Silver 1333  (light grey)                         entire collection, Pointer
• Graphite 295 (medium grey)                entire collection, Pointer and Big Black Dog

I used 1 yard of the focus fabric on the back (not the full WOF) with a strip of Creamsicle Kona® cotton and another of my Coneflower design.  Because dogs on the front of the quilt are all fussy-cut, I wanted to show the entire scene at the Farmer's Market on the back!

"Dogs at the Farmer's Market FQ Friendly Quilt" Back

I haven't written instructions for this quilt pattern but if you would like to make one for yourself, leave me a comment and I will write up the pattern.

If you would like to purchase any of these fabrics, you may do so at Dogs At the Farmers Market, Spoonflower.com.  If you click on the "Collection" in the Right hand bar, another window will open with large swatches of all the fabrics.  Spoonflower offers a wide variety of base fabrics to choose from. I printed on Kona® since I was that fabric I used for my solid colors. 

In my next post I'll show some quick and fun projects.  I will include the cutting directions for those projects.

Adventures in Designing Fabric printed at Spoonflower.com

One of my primary activities in August was trying my hand at designing fabrics. 

Earlier this year I was completely mesmerized watching the How to Design Fabric Work-Along on CreativeBug.com.  This comprehensive work-along features Lizzy House, Heather Ross and Denyse Schmidt.  Each of these well know designers of modern fabrics shares their skill and some of the techniques they use to create fabric lines.  It is totally amazing. 

Lizzy House shows step by step how to create repeats in a design by hand using a linoleum block. Heather Ross does the same in Adobe's Photoshop and Denyse Schmidt uses Adobe's Illustrator.  

Even if you never plan to do any surface designing yourself, most quilters will be fascinated just watching Chapter 5 of the Work-along. In this chapter, the 3 designers talk about how they create  a commercial fabric line. It is really interesting. 

So after watching this fabric design work-along a couple times I decided I had to try it myself!  Spoonflower.com makes printing your own designs totally doable. It is possible to order as little as an 8" swatch or a fat quarter, or multiple yards of fabric.  And they have so many types of fabrics they can print--from Kona® cotton to canvas and knits.  

To try to understand how to create a workable repeat in the fabric I drew out a design and followed along with Lizzie House's directions for creating repeats by hand. I learned a lot but since I wasn't going to hand print fabric I decided to try Photoshop. 

The cut cards used to explore creating repeats by hand

Adobe's Photoshop is a fairly intuitive program. It has a lot of elements which are similar to drawing on by hand. I spent several days watching an intro course on Lynda.com.  I was quite overwhelmed on that first day watching the training videos.  But by day three I was able to start using the program to create and manipulate scanned designs. Thanks to the segment by Heather Ross on making repeats I was able to do my own repeats.  It wasn't easy at first, but with each new design I began to understand how to create artwork than easily could be placed into repeats.  And I learned how to work in Layers in Photoshop to correct problems in the JPEGs of my artwork that Spoonflower. com uses to print the fabric. 

In all, between the designing and getting printed swatches to check for color and problems with the repeats, it took me most of August to create a small line of 5 fabrics which I call "Dogs at the Farmer's Market."  But I had so much fun and learned so much!  And it is such a thrill when the printed fabric arrives from Spoonflower.com! 

For those of you interested in trying to design your own fabrics, on September 1, 2015, Spoonflower.com released The Spoonflower Handbook which is a guidebook to designing and printing surface designs. It's a great resource. I wish it had been available when I started working with my designs.

At the top of this post is a photo of the "mother print" which is the focus fabric of my "Dogs a the Farmer's Market" fabric collection.  And here are the coordinating prints which go with it.

Cherries on a medium blue, cherries on light blue, Blueberries, Sugar Snap peas, Cone Flowers

In my next post Thursday this week,  I'll show you a baby size quilt that can be fussy cut using just 1 single fat quarter of each print in this collection and pieced with coordinating Kona® Cotton Solids.

What I did on Summer Vacation

As many of you know, I cut back on my blog posts during August so I could take some time off. 
I did have time off from the blog but I had so much fun making a variety of creative side trips that it wasn't exactly the vacation I'd planned!  But I had the best time:  I wouldn't change anything!

Let me fill you in on some of my adventures.

I spent a lot of time on the Spoonflower.com website in August.  More about that next time.  I  found some great fabric designers on their site.  The pillow cover above was made using Hootenannit's fabric design "Chase!"  The beagle is totally foxed by the fox!  It's such a fun design.  The designer asked me to send a photo of my completed project, which I did.  She posted my pillow cover photos in her shop. How cool is that? If you would  like to purchase this fabric, just click on the link above. 

I also spent a lot of time doing Work-Alongs on Creativebug.com. There are a number of DYI craft websites that offer on-line classes.  I have to say, Creativebug.com is my favorite!   Their Work-Alongs are amazing. They offer a free 2 week trial period so you can check it out. Then it's $4.95 a month if you wish to join.  For each month you are a member, you may permanently keep one class in your Creativebug.com library. 

I've been trying to design clothes for my Waldorf dolls but I'm not a pattern designer.  So I decided to take the "Master Pattern Drafting" class taught by Cal Patch.  So much fun.  Cal teaches you how to measure yourself so you can draw your a pattern which exactly fits your own body. And no, you don't need another person to help with the tape measure!  Cal is fun and easy going and she's very skilled professional pattern designer.  I got myself measured up and created a "master" pattern for a dress/tunic.  Then I made a muslin (a quick trial of the pattern) of the tunic length to see if it fit.  It did--like a glove. But I sewed my muslin out of muslin (I had a lot in my stash) which has zero "give". It fit so snugly I nearly couldn't get it off!  I'm still chuckling about that!  I like my clothes loose.  I clearly need to add a bit more "ease" to my measurements than Cal suggested, or I need to sew with stretchy knits.  Here are photos of my dress pattern and the muslin see-if-it-fits test tunic. (No, it's not supposed to be cute or finished)!

Week 3 of the Master Pattern Work-along focuses on making a skirt from your master pattern.  I've watched the video but haven't made the skirt yet.  But I expect this will work well.  Plus, her design has a zipper so I definitely will be able to take it off!  

Does this relate to making doll clothes? Yes, absolutely.  The doll can be measured the same way as a person and Cal Patch's directions can be used to make a master pattern for a doll's dress.  I haven't had time to do that yet, but now I know I can!

This post is already getting long and I've barely scratched the surface.  And in fact "Surface" is a good word.  I spent the majority of my August learning to create surface designs by drawing, painting, using Adobe's Photoshop and trying (though not yet succeeding) to use Adobe's Illustrator.  

I had such a great time learning new skills in August that I'm not ready to stop.  So for now, I'm going to continue to post to the blog about once a week.  I will bring you along on my creative adventures!  Next time: Learning to Design Fabrics for printing at Spoonflower.com.

Sky Scarf: Summer in Boston

It is September and Labor Day weekend in the US starts tomorrow!  Fall is officially here on the calendar. 

Here's my Sky Scarf so far, showing the weather in Boston, MA this summer.  Lots of days with blue skies and puffy white clouds and a handful days with stunning deep blue cloudless skies!

The first red line is the 4th of July Fireworks and the second is a spectacular sunset. 

I'm really enjoying the project.  If you want to join the fun and Knit the Sky click the link to get started!  I highly recommend it..it's a lot of fun!

Family Heirloom Quilt: Replica of the Goose Tracks Variation Block

You know that line, that you need to "walk a mile" in someone else's shoes?  In this case, one block will do!  Quilt block that is!!

Whew.  This block was a challenge and compared to the woman who made the original quilt,  I had it easy...a rotary cutting pattern I created in EQ7 (Electric Quilt7 software), the rotary cutter and mat and fabulous acrylic quilting rulers!

This one block took me about 4 hours to make.  There are 5 Y seams in each of the Goose Tracks corner blocks and the diamond pieces are just 1 1/4 inches wide.  Tricky piecing with tiny pieces!

Looking at the old quilt I'd noted that some of the blocks weren't all true squares. Now I know why!  I really struggled with mine too!  My block finished up OK in the end, but I'm not showing the back!!  It would be so much fun to sit down with my unknown quilting ancestor over a cup of tea for a chat about the difficulties in making these quilt blocks!   

Here's my block next to the matching block in her quilt. 

My replica block left, original heirloom block right

When I took the quilt outdoors to take these photographs I noted some print on the heirloom quilt. I had searched it for a name but haven't found a signature.  I don't think this print is a signature since it looks like commercial lettering. I'm guessing it is print from a flour sack used to make the quilt.  Whatever it is, it was fun to find it!

I loved making a replica of the single block in this quilt which contained a full compliment of blue pieces.  But I've decided not to make a make a whole quilt using this pattern.  The remaining blocks are all white, tan and cheddar and don't have the visual interest of this block. One block is enough.

If at some point, if I do decide to make a full replica quilt, I might try using English Paper Piecing to make the diamonds in the corner squares.  I think it would be a lot easier and the piecing would be more precise.  

I doubt I'll do that, but I might consider making a large, single block quilt.  This is a lovely design and I think it would make a great single block quilt.  And...the pieces would be large enough to handle! 

Family Heirloom Quilt: Goose Tracks Variation

I "found" this quilt buried somewhere in the linen closet when I was teenager and asked if I could use it on my bed. My mom had little interest in it so off to my room it went.  I did learn that it had come from my father's family. Sadly, I have no idea who made it. I've searched but have never found a signature. I wish I knew who she was--she stitched this quilt entirely by hand with amazingly tiny stitches.  It's a beautifully crafted quilt. 

It's been heavily worn and is threadbare now.  The fabrics have faded so it's hard to tell what they looked like originally. My best guess is that the majority of the quilt is muslin with tan, cheddar and a tiny bit of blue fabric.  There is one block with blue pieces throughout (above) and one other block with a single blue piece. Clearly, it's all the blue fabric the quilter had on hand!

The single block with one blue piece

Most of the blocks are cheddar and what looks like a light tan.  The binding is this same tan color fabric.

Cheddar and tan block

The quilt is 67 x76 inches.  The blocks are (mostly) 9.5 x 9.5 inches square but some of them aren't true--see the block at top.  The pieced blocks are comprised of nine patches.  The center square in the nine patch has a variation of a Double Monkey Wrench block. The four corner blocks are the corners units of a Goose Tracks block. Typically, there is a small square block in the center of a Goose Tracks block but this quilter has substituted a pieced center patch, creating a very visually interesting block.

The pieced blocks alternate with a plain block with a circular feather quilting pattern.  On each side of the quilt is a 4 inch plain border.  There is no border at the top or bottom of the quilt. 

Circular Feather Quilting in the alternating negative space blocks

This quilt is now too fragile to use. But--I have the cheddar color fabric I picked up last year and a fat quarter of Koffman's Kona® Cotton "Periwinkle" which is a very similar blue.  So I think I will try to make a lap size reproduction of the quilt using Kona fabrics. 

So, off my Electric Quilt 7 program to draft rotary patterns for these blocks!  This quilt presents a few challenges, but it will be fun!  Stay posted for my progress on this quilt!

Dolls: New dress for new Waldorf Dolls

The 14.5 inch Waldorf style dolls I made recently are a quirky size. They dolls come in all sizes from about 9 inches to 18 inches.  My doll is just a bit shorter and leaner than the typical 15 Waldorf doll.  

So, having drafted a pattern of my own for the doll, I had to draft a pattern for her clothes. I'm better at drawing patterns for dolls than drafting dress patterns!   I cut out a trial pattern and made a test dress.  It was a bit wide in the shoulders so I cut back the yoke a bit. The dress fit was much better after the alteration!

The front detail is a 1/4 inch wide ribbon, stitched onto the yoke after I attached the front skirt panel. Ric Rac would or cotton lace would be cute too.

The back is open. It will have hook and loop strips closures. When I took these photos, I hadn't sewn them on yet. 

I have a idea about how to make the same dress with a fancier sleeve.  Hmmm.  

EQ7: Seasons Row-A-Long

I just saw EQ7's blog today announcing this Row-A-Long starting on September 1, 2015.  The host, Marian Pena, states you don't need to have EQ7 (Electric Quilt 7) to participate in the Row-A-Long. But if you do have the software, there will be tutorials included for EQ7.  When EQ7 sponsors a project like this, I know it will be a great learning experience.  

There are prizes folks!!  

Here's the link to the EQ7 Behind the Mouse blog post.  And here's a link to host Marian Pena's post about the Seasons Row-A-Long on her blog, Seams to be Sewn.

Looks like a lot of fun!  Any one want to sew along?

My Two New Waldorf Style Girl Dolls

Here are two Waldorf type dolls I made recently.  I drew my own pattern for these dolls.  They are 14.5 inches tall and a bit on the lean side, but by no means skinny!

Their cute tights are a pattern from The Etsy Shop reggiesdolls.  They make me smile.  Neither of the knit fabrics I used for the tights had any lycra so the tights are a wee bit baggy. Just like tights get on real toddlers!

I made these two dolls for a charity event benefitting the Children's Hospital, Boston, which will be held next year. They will be for sale April 2016.  I'll repost in the Spring when I have the details.

August! Time for a Vacation?

It's August, the best month of Boston's summer, in my opinion.  It starts July hot but by the end of the month there's a hint that the cooler days of September are on their way.  I love those last 2 weeks of August when the temperature and humidity typically drop. 

Because I've always worked in the medical world, having a long summer vacation has never been an option. With only 8 weeks of summer here, and everyone wanting warm weather time off, sharing the wealth was the expectation--and the rule!

This year, no longer subject to the rules of nursing, I'm going to try ratchet down my level of productivity--both quilting and blogging--and enjoy August.    

I've been posting on Mondays and Thursdays each week, but this month, posting on my blog will be on the whim. For my faithful subscribers and readers, don't be alarmed when if you don't get those regular 5 PM notices from MailChimp!  The silence is all good!

I expect I will post occasionally during the month.  It may be craft related, or perhaps you'll see a bit of the dogs from time to time!  

I hope you have had some summer time to rest and relax, or have some coming up soon!  Enjoy!

Knitting: My Sky Scarf

Have you heard about Leafcutter Designs' Sky Scarf conceptual knitting project?  The concept, and the knitting, on this project are straightforward.  Each day you look at the sky and pick 2 colors from your small collection of yarn that best represent the sky you see that day.  Then you knit 2 rows using those colors.  In twelve months you have a nice scarf AND a weather report for the year!

This sounded like too much fun to miss. Leafcutter Designs has a lovely kit with yarns which you may purchase at the link above. I picked out my yarns at JP Knit & Stitch, my local quilt/yarn shop. I decided to add a bit more color so I chose a couple of balls of yarn to use on days with stunning sunsets. 

It's really interesting.  I'm purposely looking at the sky everyday now, really appreciating UP and feeling more connected to God's creation.  

The most difficult part of knitting this scarf is picking the colors for the day.  On the days when it rains all day or the sky is bluest of blues, it's easy.  But you know that adage about Boston weather:  "If you don't like the weather here, wait a minute"?   It is so true!!  I'll think I know what my yarns for the day will be and then an hour later the sky is completely different!  It can be a real challenge!

The little bit of knitting every evening is really nice, a quieting calm space in each day. 

Here's my first month of knitting:  June 27 to July 28, 2015.  

Weather report: July 2015 in Boston, Massachusetts

The first row with red is July 4th.  The red and white rows symbolize the fireworks over Boston's Esplanade.  I didn't see them, not even on television. In an effort to keep my noise-sensitive English Springer Spaniel calm and quiet, I was watching a show about the British monarchy with a narrator who has a very calming voice!  (The show, and a lot of training for the past year, really helped Tipper a lot)!

The brighter rows up near the needles are a recent sunset.  In July I had expected a lot of deep blue rows.  But it turns out we have a lot of blue days with clouds.  So, lots of bright blue and light blue and white.

My yarn is a mix of fibers. It's from Denmark. I can't read the label but I think it is wool and cotton. I love the colors and it has a nice feel knitted up.

If you want to see other folk's Sky Scarf projects, check out #skyscarf on Instagram.  And join the party if you knit!

Pillow Cover with Envelope back and Binding Edge

My sofa has been in need of a new look.  I made a pillow cover as a project for Proper Bostonian Quilters and a couple Quilt-As-You-Go Blocks for a Boston Modern Quilt Guild charity quilt. I realized that a Quilting As You Go Block would make a lovely pillow cover but you could just as well use an orphan block or piece a block by a different method to make a pillow cover this way.  

I had a bit of whale fabric from the back of my "Bjorn & Bjorn" Viking quilt, a couple of fussy cut Vikings left over from that quilt, and lots of batting scraps so this pillow cover is a total scrap bag project!  Here's how I made my pillow cover.

Notes:

1. This post isn't a Quilt-As-You-Go tutorial.  If you would like more information about the Quilt-As-You-Go technique, the new book, Quilt-As-You-Go Made Modern by Jera Brandvig is a great resource.  Jera has a chapter in the book on making pillow shams using a different final assembly method.
2. If you don't know how to bind a quilt, here's a great binding tutorial from Connecting Threads. 

Making a Pillow Cover with an Envelope Back and Binding Edge:

1. From left over quilt batting, I cut a piece of batting 1 inch larger on all sides than the pillow form. I used a 14" purchased pillow form so I cut a 15 x 15 inch piece of batting. 

        2.  I cut a piece of scrap fabric the same size as the batting.  This fabric is inside the pillow, never to be seen. It would be a great way to use up a bit of ugly fabric!

        3.  A Quilting As You Go Block is built a bit like a Log Cabin block. Each new piece attached has to match the length of the previous piece. I sewed each new section on using a 1/4 inch seam with a walking foot and pressed each piece away from the previous section.

    5.  Because each new bit of fabric is sewn onto the block through the batting and backing, the completed block already quilted on the back side.   I added some straight stitches and some serpentine quilting to the front side of my block to make it more interesting and to give it some extra texture.  Here are photos of the back, the block prior to doing any quilting on the front of the block and the front of the block with added quilting.

    6.  Once it was quilted, I trimmed the block. It ended up a tad smaller than 15 x 15 inches.  That's fine because I cut the batting 1 inch larger than the pillow form.  Because the pillow cover has a binding my block had to be at least 14 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches which it was.

    7.  Next I made the envelope back for the pillow cover.  I cut 2 pieces of fabric the same width as the Quilting As You Go block and  3/4 of the height of my finished block.  For my pillow cover, the back pieces are 15 inches wide and 12 inches high.

    8.  On each of the 2 back pieces I hemmed the width of one horizontal side.  I turned the edge under 1/4 inch and pressed. Then I turned the pressed edge under 1 inch and pressed again.  Finally I sewed the edge down, stitching 1/8 inch from the edge of the fold.

    9. To attached the envelope back I put quilted block right side facing DOWN. With RIGHT side up, I put the lower half of the envelop back on top of the quilted block. Then I put the upper half of the back on top of the lower half. It over-laps the lower half by several inches. The back pieces need to be adjusted so they exactly cover the pieced block.  I pinned all the pieces in place so they wouldn't shift.

   10.  Then I tacked down the over-lapping sections of the 2 envelope pieces sewing a very scant 1/4 inch along the edge of the block so that this basting line would hidden inside the binding. 

   11.  With so many layers of fabric using a binding is a perfect way to finish this pillow cover.  I made a scrappy binding out of left over bits of bindings from other projects. I sewed on my binding entirely by machine, but any binding application method will work.

Completed Pillow Cover without the pillow form

    12.  A photo of the finished quilt is at the top of the post.  Here's the back of the pillow cover. 

My sofa has a great new look!  I think this is absolutely (maybe!) the last post with the Vikings!

Vintage Quilt Revival Sampler is Done!

After a year and a half, my Vintage Quilt Revival quilt is...DONE!  As I mentioned in my last post I made the blocks working along with other folks in the Vintage Quilt Revival Block Along.  All the block patterns came from the great book, Vintage Quilt Revival. 

The beautiful floral and bird fabrics are from the Andover Fabrics line Modern Victorian.  This fabric line was designed by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr. These amazing designs really make this quilt sparkle! 

I posted the details of several blocks in my last post. Here are 3 more. 

I never thought I'd make a sampler quilt.  I like to figure out how to piece a block and then rapidly make up a quilt. This was an entirely different process!  It helped to be sewing a block a week with a group of other people. Here's a link to the Vintage Quilt Block Along Flickr Group. Check out the quilts and blocks made by others in this Block Along!

Thanks Sukie for running a great Block Along!  I love my quilt!