Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Tumblers! ... Cuz Why Not?!?

So I have a friend that is obsessed with Missouri Star Daily Deal, you can get obsessed too!   Just click HERE .....Daily!  

One day - the deal was a mini charm pack (2.5" precuts) with a Mini Tumbler Template.   She bought it....she had no idea why.  LOL   She's a relatively new quilter.  I told her she needed to cut them and sew them together!  It would help her practice perfect quarter inch seams, and lining up units to match points.  Then I impulsively said "I'll do it with you!".  So in true Sabrina form...I was handed the template to "do mine" within a few days..  HAHA.  I picked up a little mini charm pack from "The Quilter's Daughter" quilt shop in Perry, NY.  (not sure why, because I have a kabillion in my stash....)  Anywho, last night....I did my tumblers.

Tumbler Template on 2.5" Squares

Trim, Trim, Trim
And....More trimming...

42 total in a pack, found the layout...
Sewing the seams on my Vintage Singer 99
This little tumbler unit was a good size to take your time and make sure the seams are pressed opposite at every intersection for PERFECT nesting!

Nesting seams and pinning
Absolutely perfect intersections!

Just keep sewing...just keep sewing...
And..... Done! 
All sewed together!!
Now...   What on earth do I do with it? 

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Monday, February 15, 2016

Whatcha Workin On?? (Halloween Frenzy!)

I've been a busy girl lately!   Making progress on multiple projects!   Most recently, I've committed to doing free motion Quilting on my Vintage Singer 201.   It took a bit to find the right, needle\thread\speed combination for perfect stitches, but I think I got it!   I spent the entire weekend on a Quilt retreat focused on getting comfortable doing it.    Here's the border quilting on my Scrappy Jewel Box quilt!

FMQ on my Vintage Singer 201-2
I've also made UNBELIEVABLE progress on my Halloween Frenzy  (grin).  Here was the first post on this project!  Click HERE.

February 2015 retreat
Current State February 2016
Doesn't it look like complete Halloween Chaos???   I LOVE it!  Yes - there are TWO complete quilt tops there. Why?  Because I'm going to baste them together for a completely reversible quilt!  

This quilt has TEN years of collecting Halloween fabrics in it.  I think I started cutting into my stash for it in 2013. There are 153 different fabrics and the Big Triangles in each block are NOT duplicated.  

Here's what I came up with to put it all together. Each strip of fabrics was worked up on phone book paper (can be easily torn off later) to keep the shape before the borders went on the block.   The strip-piecing is done with NO rules.  Diagonal, wonky, straight, whatever.   Just get em in there.  Then all these flappy long strips of fabrics were trimmed to 4.5" wide.    1.5" CONSISTENT fabric border added on each side.   Then - using a 12.5" square ruler, I measured a 4" width on the diagonal and marked it with full-adhesive post it's, so it would be SUPER easy to line up and slice off the tops!

Customized Square up ruler
Then I slice one side off the long way (all the way through), and the other short flap afterwards. 

Cutting off the tops
Why so precise you ask?   One long, one short?   Because THOSE pieces are getting used in this quilt too!   NO WAY am I wasting any of this precious collection!   Finally we add the nice big triangles to the sides to complete the blocks.    I had already precut a 10 inch square from EVERY Halloween fabric I have.  Sliced on the diagonal so that that bias edge is on the INSIDE of the block, I pinned one to each side, sewed em on and squared up the block!


Now let's get back to what I did with those leftover triangles we lopped off the tops.  I had a small set and a larger set leftover.

You end up with two sets of triangles!  
Using my EASY ANGLE RULER with the bigger triangles, I trimmed them up to the 3 1/2" line.   I put a little blue tape on the bottom of the ruler so I didn't get myself turned around or line it up on the wrong line.

Once those are nice and trimmed, it was easier to put them together and run them through the machine to make 3 1/2" squares!  I spread them out to make sure I didn't sew two of the same inner fabrics together.
SOOO scrappy!
Then I sewed the squares into manageable strips.  These strips became my INNER border!

SO fun!
Next up!   The BIG border!   Wonky Piano keys!   I cut more phone book paper to 7 1/2" wide, and glued the ends together to get 25" Strips. 


Trimmed up those sides to match the phone book paper, Trimmed the length down to 24 1/2" and added them to my inner border strips.    3 sets of these on each side of the quilt!

Back side view so you can see how they went together!
Now let's get back to the smaller set of triangles that were left over.    Those, I decided, were too cute to toss out too.   So using my little 2 1/2" x 6" Hummingbird Highway ruler, I cut them into 1 1/2" (2-patches)
Smaller triangle scrap
I could get 1 1/2" 2-patches!!
And THEN, I made itty bitty 4-patches!!    
So I made 4-patches!!
Those sweet little patches are likely going to end up in the corners once all these borders are on!  I know the quilt looks like sheer MADNESS...but I will never forget how much fun I had petting EVERY single Halloween fabric I owned and getting every single one into one quilt!

Halloween FRENZY
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