Sparkle

The sun is sparkling today and Sparkle No. 1 quilt is done.  Sparkle No. 2 quilt is pinned and ready for quilting.

Let me back up.  Last November I joined a charity sewing group on Flickr called Do.Good.Stitches.  There are many sub-groups within the larger group and I joined the Faith group.  There are ten ladies who sew blocks every month while one person organizes, collects & assembles that month’s blocks. Our charity that we are donating quilts to is Restore Innocence, an organization that rescues girls from human trafficking.  This is a tragic issue that is finally getting more exposure & help through organizations like Restore Innocence.

January was my month to organize and assemble.  These are the blocks that I asked everyone to make.  We used the Sparkle tutorial to make the blocks.  And with each of us making 2 blocks I had enough to make two quilts. This is the first one. The second one is pinned and ready for quilting.  I was inspired by Amanda’s honeycomb quilting but used a slightly different stitch.  It’s stitch number 19 on my Janome 7700.  It’s more curvy than zig zaggy.  I love the ripply effect after washing!   I’m definitely going to use this stitch again for more quilting. I just love it.  The finished size of the quilt is approximately 60″ x 69″.

Links to the Sparkle tutorial:
Cutting
Sewing
Flickr group

I’m linking up to Amanda’s Finish It Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts

My Sewing Table

The furnace guys are coming tomorrow to clean our heating ducts.  The construction dust seems to be perpetual and we can’t seem to get the house clean. Friends suggested getting the heating ducts cleaned so we are.

Since I had to pick up my sewing room a bit for the furnace guys to able to access the vents I figured I might as well tell you about my sewing table while the room is not a complete mess.  I get asked fairly frequently what is my sewing table and where did I get it.

After much thought & deliberation about what I wanted in a sewing table, my primary goal was to have something sturdy.  I had been sewing on an old banquet table (and this was the old heavy metal legs kind, not the newer plastic legs kind) I really wanted a table where I could drop my machine into the table and when I wanted to sew at top speed it wouldn’t bounce all over the place.  The banquet table was originally brown and I eventually painted the surface of the table top white.  While it was heavy to lift and haul anywhere it would still bounce a fair amount when I floored the pedal on my machine.

This isn’t the most attractive table but it is by far the most sturdy one I have ever seen!  It is from Sew Perfect Tables.  I did run across Sarah’s blog some time ago where she painted the base a very cool lime green.  I may have to do that one day. But it is very low on my list of things I want to do around the house.

I ordered it off their web site. It’s not as expensive as those cabinets with all the cool little fold up storage tricks.   But it is more expensive and much more sturdy than your standard JoAnn’s or Target or Walmart cabinet.

There are heavy bolts on each side of the drop-down shelf for the sewing machine so that you can customize the height to any machine.  There are also heavy bolts on the legs to adjust the height of the actual table as well.

I also ordered the extension table which attaches to the back of the sewing machine table.  The hinges that connect the extension to the table don’t seem strong enough to handle the weight of the extension. It is heavy!  In retrospect, I wish I would  have done what Sarah did and bought an extra base and attached it to the extension.  I think it would make the extension feel more sturdy. I may do something like that in the future if I ever get to graduate to a bigger sewing room.  My room right now is TINY and I am constantly rearranging and putting the extension up & down.

The one piece of customizing that I did do was to have an insert made at a local store (Tap Plastics) that fits around the sewing machine. The one that can be ordered from Sew Perfect Tables is clear plastic and leaves a very large space to the right of the sewing machine that felt like wasted space as well as a hole where pin cushions, scissors and all sorts of things could fall into.  So I had a custom insert made out of white plastic and positioned it so that the machine is all the way to the right of the dropped shelf and no hole is left for things to fall into.  I don’t have a picture to show you of the insert before. You can see my custom insert above in the first picture.  I like that it is white because the clear seems to give me a terrible glare when I am strip piecing blocks. Plus, I can’t see all the dust that collects underneath the sewing machine!

UPDATE:  I finally found the photo (above) of the original insert that I ordered with the table that shows the big gap between the sewing machine & the table.   I returned this insert since it was not going to work well for me.

Let me know if there are any other questions you have about the table and I’ll edit this post to answer them.

After the furnace guys leaves…  I’m back to the sewing machine to finish a couple of charity quilts.  And a messy room again!

 

Susan’s Sampler

I just have to share this quilt with you.  Susan, who is blogless, made this amazing sampler! I met Susan at Quilt Market a few years ago and she is awesome! I love her creativity, her enthusiasm, her energy, her kindness….  She teaches quilting classes at her local quilt shop, works one day a week in a needlework shop, and quilts up a storm.  She is the one who made TWO, not one but two, Medallion Quilts a few years ago.

She made this before we started the Random Sampler and I thought you would be inspired by her fabulous quilt.  She says that there is every size of block from 3 inches to 12 inches.  Her goal was to make as few fillers as possible.   She used the 501 Quilt Blocks book, Quilter’s Cache and any other source that had blocks in the sizes that she needed.  Oh, and she used a bowl in her kitchen to make the scallop border.  The quilt center measured 72″ x 90″ before the border was added.

Thank you Susan, for sharing your totally cool quilt with us!!

Random Sampler QAL – Wagon Wheel

Thank you for all the well wishes on the last couple of posts. I hope that this will be the end of the health issues for awhile!  I’m sorry this month’s block is so late.  Between the kitchen construction and being sick it has been a one-task-a-day kind of month.

After looking at the blocks that we have made so far it felt like we needed something a little different. I hope you don’t mind a little foundation paper piecing. It’s not my favorite method of construction. But it gives the best results with blocks that have pieces with unusual shapes.

I decided to make this block finish at 8 inches.  8 1/2″ with seam allowances.  If I were going to make a whole quilt of these I would probably make the block bigger and use a different construction method.  I only made one block today. But I do want to make a few more for the finished quilt.  One of these days I need to have a block sewing party and make a few more things to go along with these planned blocks for the quilt-along.

A couple of tips for foundation paper piecing…

1) Reduce the stitch length on your sewing machine.  This will make it easier to tear the paper away from the fabric.

2) And if you enjoy this process, it might be wise to invest in a package of foundation paper piecing paper.  There are several different brands.  The advantage of this paper is that it tears easier than regular copy paper.

3) Or… if you prefer the freezer paper method, you may use that.

I hope you enjoy this block!

1.  Select 8 medium prints for the center. Mine are green… 8 dark prints for the contrasting band.  Mine are pinks and reds… and a light for the background.  Mine is a grey dot.

Download and print out 2 copies of the Wagon Wheel PAPER PIECING PATTERN for each block that you want to make.

Be sure to print the “actual size” and not the “fit to paper” size.  There are four units on one page and you will need eight units to make a complete block.

2.  Fold a crease at each the the sewing lines.  Be sure to follow the numbers starting with 1 and ending with 3.  Each triangle unit alternates which end you will start with.  This is so that the seams will end up pointing in opposite directions and they should nest nicely when putting the units together.

Start with the unit labeled A and line up the straight edge of your fabric with the edge that is folded over next to section 1.  Pin it in place.  And trim 1/4″ away from the fold line.

Be sure that your scrap piece of fabric will cover the entire section.  This is often where things go awry for me. I try to skimp & save too much on the fabric and then there is an edge that is to short.

3. Select your next piece of fabric for section 2 and line it up with the straight edge of section 1. Pin it in place.

4. Take the unit to your sewing machine and sew on the marked seam line. Be sure to sew entirely through the dotted cutting line on one edge to the dotted cutting line on the other edge.

5. Press the fabric open.

6. Fold over the unit on the stitching line for the next section and trim the excess fabric leaving 1/4″ seam allowance from the folded edge.

7. Select the fabric for section 3 and line it up with the cut edge of section 2 and pin it in place.   Sew it down in the marked solid line and press it open.

8. Trim the excess around each edge of the unit to complete 1/8 of the entire block.

9. Repeat the above steps with unit B.

Pair up a unit A & unit B to make 1/4 of the block.  Pair up unit C & unit D to make another section of the block. Repeat units A-D again to make the second half of the block.

10. Sew two units together and press to one side.

11. When all four units are ready to go, tear off the paper on the back side of each unit. Be careful on the edges to make sure that you are not pulling out your stitches as well.  Sew together the two sections in each row and then the rows together to complete the block.

12. Press all the seams going in the same direction.  You can loosen a couple of the stitches on each side of the center point to make the seams fan around the center and reduce some of the bulk.

Be sure to share your progress in the Flickr group. And as always, if you have questions or suggestions please let me know!  Also, if you have any block suggestions let me know and I might be able to work it in.  I’m just picking what ever interests me at the moment.

Wall of blocks

Just as my virus is being beaten into submission & I’m feeling better, I pull a muscle in my back.  I am useless!

Left = Random Sampler blocks  (New one coming soon.  I think it is going to be foundation paper pieced.)
Right = Do Good Stitches blocks (charity bee on Flickr)