~ sketch and calculate ~ 
~machine pieceing ~
~ center panel tree ~ 
~ freehand machine quilting ~
~ straight grain quarter inch binding ~ 
~ label and hanging sleeve on back ~ 
~ quilt getting raffled tonight ~ 
So few things that I've been making lately can be put up on this blog. Christmas presents are in full swing but since my family occasionally read this blog it's not safe to post photos of their Christmas gifts until after Christmas.
Harking back to traditions in early Gaelic Christianity, Celtic interlace represented the way in which all life is woven together. The interlace patterns represented in this design symbolize the idea that the afterlife (heaven) and this present world (earth) intersect creating a pattern that, at least for now, only God the Creator sees the whole of.
Another use of religious symbolism is seen in the repetition of the four isolated background squares in each corner. This design feature suggests a relationship to the idea of the “foursquare gospel” (meaning a good foundation for one's faith), terminology borrowed from the Biblical book of Revelations. To make the quilt shown in this post I used a dark purple reproduction fabric from P&B for the background, with a Michael Miller Asian print and one of Northcott's Quilt for A Cure(TM) fabrics as the bands. Machine quilted in a random free-motion swirliness. 
The combination of these fabrics, I think, is visually striking but also speaks to diversity -- reminding me that there are many different people with many different backgrounds, talents, and gifts who come together to make up the beauty of the body of believers.
It had to be flannel. They all want flannel....with puffed sleeves...
"It would probably be better if you just made it and gave it to me. I don't think I should help." had said the six, now seven year old, while the little one snuggled into my shoulder and said "yeht."
Birthday presents done.
From the back it's hard to tell. Here's a hint.
That's right. It's BLUE HOO.
Future owls are planned, among them: Bally Hoo, You Hoo, Wa Hoo, Hoo Cares, and You Know Hoo. 
You have just spotted a bolt of fabric you know you will love forever and always. How much should you get? The standard number that gets kicked around quilting circles is three yards. But when that dearly beloved print is retailing at $9 a yard, and you don’t have a project in mind, and you are working with a budget, three yards becomes impossible to justify, especially in today's economy. And I say this as a self confessed over-buying, fabric-hoarding, stash builder. 
And I had some gold metallic thread hanging about from a quilting project, so I popped the hopping foot on the machine and free-motion doodled a Christmas tree and the words "Merry Christmas" on one side of the stocking. I did that before sewing the two sides together.
Some upholstery rope-trim piping and satin-backed polyester crepe (also of bridesmaid vintage) finished off the top and faced the stocking with a silky/shiny lining.
And a little bit of red pearl cotton to form the loop to hang it up... and there's the finished stocking. 
Happy Shopping for Pink Quilt Fabric Saturday.
That fabric across the top has a great colour combo, with sage/olive green stems and mustard gold flowers framed in creamy tan, against a rich blue ground. As you can see, I've pulled out several greens and a gold to match, and added a blue and green "eyeball" stripe, a blue and gold on tan print and a fun blue and green on tan print that reminds me of peapods (on the far right).
From my box (er, boxes) of leftover fabrics I pulled out a collection of autumn colors. Quite a few of these pieces are the remains of fat quarters used in other projects; but I did mix in a couple half yard pieces that have been languishing in my stash (they had come home to use in other quilts and were rejected). The roll on the right side of the picture are bias strips -- I experimented with a bias-cut apron pattern, it didn't quite turn out right but the mistakes cut up into strips that will be perfect for binding.
Do you know which ones are which? See if you can match these block names to the block sketches. In random order they are:
I'm going to use the template method to fussy cut the 3.5 inch squares.
If you haven't got clear vinyl for templates, I have used vellum paper successfully for small projects. The main point is to be able to see through your shape, it's so much easier to get the right part of the fabric that way. Notice how I've marked the quarter inch seam allowance, and marked the center of the square? When I lay the template over the fabric that will ensure that I get my medallion motif centered every time.
Like that. (In case you couldn't see the inked cutting lines where I traced around the template, I've highlighted the corners on the photo.) I could have picked a different fabric and not worried about a fussy cut... actually, I probably didn't really need to fussy cut this fabric, I just thought it might be fun.
Fabric:
A) Stripe -- one and a third (1.33) yards*
B) Accent #1 -- quarter (.25) yard*
C) Main Block -- two thirds (.667) yard
D) Contrast Block -- half (.5) yard
E) Accent #2 (could be the same as D) -- quarter (.25) yard (or scrap)
We will cut our pieces for the whole project.
A) Cut eight (8) pieces 3.5 inches by 15.5 inches and twenty-four (24) pieces 3.5 inches by 9.5 inches. This is your stripe, you can cut across the stripe or lengthways (I'll demonstrate in a sec.)
B) Cut twenty (20) 3.5 inch squares. (This could be fussy cut -- I demonstrate that in another post.)
C) Cut five (5) 9.5 inch squares
C) Cut four (4) 3.5 inch
D) Cut four (4) 9.5 inch squares.
E) Cut eight (8) 3.5 inch squares. (could be same fabric as D)
Now, for the stripes:
You can cut the stripes sideways, like so:
Or you can cut the stripes longwise, which I will demonstrate in a Michael Miller yellow stripe, because that's what I have step by step photos in.
You will have some "waste" but I have another project that we can use leftovers for, so save them.
Make your first lengthwise cut.
Your second cut will trim the extra, making the piece 3.5 inches wide. 
If you have selected a stripe wider than 3.5 inches or with a repeat that is several inches apart, you will have more waste and will need extra yardage to use the stripe lengthwise.
You can also mix your cuts.... I am cutting my strawberries across the stripe for the 9.5 inch pieces and with the stripe for my 15.5 inch pieces. 
Something to keep in mind with wider or more varied striped fabrics:
Isolating the strawberry stripe for those eight 15.5 inch pieces meant getting extra fabric. There are only five strawberry stripes across the width which means I needed 1.75 yards (I bought 2) in order to get the pieces I wanted in the directions I wanted them. There's alot left over but like I said, I've already got a project in mind for the future that will use leftover stripes. Actually, I think the leftovers project is even more fun that the original... But I'm getting ahead of myself let's finish this project first. On to Step Three.
We're going to take this project really slowly.
Step One is picking your fabric.
Select your Stripe. You saw that one coming right? Now, on the selvage edge of the fabric will be a row of colored dots with numbers in them. Looks like the printer used 16 different colors when printing my strawberry stripe.
These dots will help you match your fabrics, they isolate the colors so you can better see what, exactly, the colors are in the first place. We'll need a "light" I'll be using a Kona cotton (not pictured) that matches the color number 4.
Now I'm just pulling fabrics out of my stash for this next part, but you could just as easily stand in the fabric shop and sort through all their fabrics instead. I want to emphasise the color of the strawberries. You may have purple sea monsters or orange race cars you want to match, the principle is the same no matter the color. Find the fabrics that say "Strawberry" (or "sea monster" or "race car") to you.
Here's my pink/berry stash spectrum:
Not all of those are going to work with my stripe fabric, and for this project you only need a couple. Here are four from my stash that will work with my stripe:
Numbers 5, 7, and 11 of the color dots are the same tones as these four fabrics. The "honey comb" print is a definite, and then I need two more... not three more, but I'm still deciding. So we'll talk yardage next time. 
Tonal prints, I think, work better with this project but they don't have to be all the same color. If your purple sea monster swims in aqua algae with a yellow fish, feel free to select purples, aquas, and yellows. I'll illustrate other steps of this SQS project using other "colorways" as this tutorial progresses so you can visualize your options -- but today it's all about PINKS.
Other pink postings can be found through Beverly at How Sweet the Sound.
Congratulations to Dana, from the Stone Rabbit. She won my giveaway.
Now go to the sewing machine. Remember we're using quarter inch seam allowances.Put the right sides of the fabric together and sew a dark strip to a light strip (along the 45 inch length). Do that three times. Don't freak out if the strips are different lengths -- textile manufacturers don't seem to always agree on how wide 45 inches really is.
As you sew you can use a method called chain stitching. It's a sort of assembly line method. When you're doing several seams/units that are the same don't worry about stopping after each one, just sew one right after another. That's called chain stitching you can snip the threads between them when you're done sewing. I find it cuts down a lot on the amount of wasted threads.
Now press your seams. (We will be pressing our seams towards the dark side for this block).
Back to the sewing machine. You should have three identical sewn strip units and two light un-sewn strips and one dark un-sewn strip left.
Sew a dark strip to the light side of the first sewn unit.
Then a light strip to the dark side of the second sewn unit.
And the light strip to the dark side of the third sewn unit.
And press. Go towards the dark side -- and that isn't really meant to be a Star Wars reference although it certainly sounds like it could be one.
Next, our measurement was Two and a Half (2.5) inches, so cut at 2.5 inches so that you have three 2.5 inch squares already sewn together. Don't you love it?
Cut all the strips down like that. (And stack them in three fun this is what the block will look like stacks, or not, your call there.) You should have twice as many of the light-dark-lights as you do of the dark-light-darks.
Take one row of light-dark-light squares, and one row of dark-light-dark squares and pin them together at the corners of the center square. You'll notice that the seams butt up against each other going opposite ways, this will cut down on bulk and also helps lock the seam in place for crisp corners.
We're still using quarter inch seam allowances. Sew. And Press. This time you can press the seam anyway you want -- I'm pressing mine open for less bulk but you don't have to.
Now, to the other side of the dark-light-dark row sew another row of light-dark-light the same way. Pin, seam, press. You finished a block! (Don't forget to press it flat.)
Our 2.5 inch measurement makes a (six) 6 inch finished block -- it's 6.5 inches right now because it still has quarter inch seam allowance around the outer edges. Six inch blocks means you need to do a bunch of them to make a quilt. You'll need 42 six inch blocks (seven rows by six rows) to make a baby quilt that's 36 inches by 42 inches.
