Tag Archives: baby quilt

Safari Quilt: Part 2

Once I realized that the original design wouldn’t work, I tried a new design. This design used two blocks, a log cabin block with the focus print as a 5 inch patch in the middle and a connector block using a 4 inch patch of the print in the middle. When these went together, it seemed the yellow background fabric overwhelmed the print too. Here’s a picture after trying several different backgrounds and realizing that it was the design/layout, not the fabric that was a problem.

 

So, back to the drawing board. It seemed the connector blocks were not “connecting”, so that was the first plan of attack. One way to add an extra connector is to add sashing the same color as the background and use a cornerstone that connects the connector block. That is what I did in EQ7, and it works! Can’t tell you how happy I am now.

This is a very traditional style quilt, but with the machine embroidery in the blocks, it’s going to be very nice when finished.

 
 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed your visit. Come again soon.

Marjorie

 

Chisel Die – More Options

Yesterday, I gave you some options for the Chisel Die. I started playing around in Electric Quilt and came up with some more options. The individual block will be shown first, and then the quilt layout from EQ7. Some of these are just positive/negative changes rather than completely different blocks. Play around with this and see what you can create.

Chisel Friendship Star 1 Block

Chisel Friendship Star 1 Quilt

Chisel Friendship Star 2 Block

Chisel Friendship Star 2 quilt

Chisel Whirligig Block, Chisel Pinwheel 2 Block

Chisel Whirligig Quilt

Chisel Pinwheel 2 Quilt

Chisel Pinwheel 1 Block and Chisel Stretched Star Blocks

Chisel Pinwheel 1 Quilt

Chisel Stretched Star Quilt

 
 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed your visit. Come again soon.

Marjorie

 

Quick and Easy Quilt using the Rick Rack Die

First, I’ll get down to giveaway business. The question was asked whether one could enter every day for more chances. I set this up very simply, so will have one entry per person per comment(s)  for the week.  Multiple entrants wrote twice, once to enter and once about the newsletter, so I think this is the fairest way to deal with that as it was not specified in the original instructions. If you have more questions, let me know and I will answer as soon as possible.

Now to the business of quilting. One of the reasons for getting the Rick Rack die was an idea that has been in the back of my mind for a long time. A very long time ago, I saw a quilt that had a single border of two inch strips pieced down the left side (like Chinese coins) and beautiful applique flowers on the right, separated by a strip of wide rick rack. That quilt inspired my first endeavor with the Rick Rack die.

I have had the fabric for my great nephew’s quilt for more than a year but have not gotten it made. The plan was to cut each of the animals out of the panel fabric and make blocks. But when I looked at the fabric and started to measure the circles around the animals, I realized that they are all different sizes and there is not enough fabric between to adjust for that. Thus the plan had to be changed. In the end, it was a much easier quilt top to make.

This is it – a panel, wide borders top and bottom, and a striped wide border on the left with Rick Rack separating the striped border from the rest of the quilt. It’s not as pretty as the applique quilt that I saw, but I think a toddler will like this quite well.

Quilt top made from Wild Animal Panel

The Rick Rack strip was cut from a 2 1/2 inch strip of fabric with fusible web attached to the back before being cut. The rick rack was fused over the seam and then stitched on the machine using an applique stitch and Aurifil 50 wt cotton thread.

Close-up of stitching on rick rack

 
 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed your visit. Come again soon.

Marjorie

 

Ta Da! Sunbonnet Sue Makes an Appearance

August was busy around here with visitors and a couple of day trips of our own. And, in the meantime, my embroidery machine and I were working on my new Sunbonnet Sue designs. I haven’t finished all of the thread charts and other documentation, but have posted them in my store as “coming soon” and hope to have them ready for sale by the weekend.

Here are some preview pictures of three of the designs. The set also includes Sunbonnets with applique stitch, raw edge applique with a zigzag stitch, and others. I have also designed a nice little quilt with these Sunbonnets and will have instructions for it included with the set.  I’ll tell you more about the quilt tomorrow.

SBS #1

 

SBS #2

 

SBS #3

 
 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed your visit. Come again soon.

Marjorie

 

Rail Fence Quilt Instructions

Recently someone asked for instructions for a rail fence quilt. This is a great quilt for both beginners and long time quilters; and it’s one of my favorites. Sherry Gray just finished a beautiful purple one to be given as a comfort quilt,  and we were so inspired that we got together and wrote these instructions. Just click on the Free Stuff link above and scroll down to the Rail Fence Quilt Instructions link. Please enjoy them and share.

The instructions I have written have directions for cutting with the Accuquilt GO cutter as well as rotary cutting instructions.

Rail fence blocks have many variations. They may have three or four ‘rails’ and the rails may be the same size or different sizes. Here are some examples that I created in EQ7.

Rail Fence Block with Even Strips

 

 

Rail Fence Block with Uneven Strips

 

 

Rail Fence Block with Four Strips

 
 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed your visit. Come again soon.

Marjorie

 

Machine Embroidery Using Die Cut Applique

I’ve been having so much fun doing machine embroidery using die cut appliques. It makes the dies so much more usable because you can get a project up and going in no time at all. I have digitized a lot of the Accuquilt dies, but the ones I’ve been playing with this week are the Critters die, the Fun Flower die,  and the Holiday Medley die.

Using die cuts is the best way I have found to do machine embroidery applique. I have tried stitching the fabric down and cutting around it as well as cutting the applique shape by hand. Neither way has been satisfactory to me. Die cuts are the cat’s pajamas!

Another option you can consider is that you can use Elmer’s school glue stick (the purple stuff) on the base fabric just inside the die line and fit the appliqué shape onto that and then press that with the mini-iron.

Here’s the quilt top that is almost finished:

Closeup of Critters and Flowers

 

Notice that for most of the appliqué that I do, I only use one color thread – that makes it easy to stitch – but it’s a way of showing off and enhancing the appliqué shape and the fabric.

And here’s a closeup:

Butterfly

 

 

Fun Flower

 

 

And a pic-tutorial showing how I did these – it’s so easy and fun.

Notice that I ventured into Christmas!

Stitch the Die Line onto the Base Block

 

Fit the die cut applique onto the die lines

 

Fuse appliqué shape into place using small iron

 

And a completed Christmas Tree

 

Holly Leaves

 

And here’s the Christmas quilt I’m going to make with the holiday medley die:

EQ Christmas Quilt using Holiday Medley Die

 
 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed your visit. Come again soon.

Marjorie

 

Borders for Tilted Quilt Blocks Cut With the Strip Die

Have you used the Serendipity tool in Electric Quilt 7? It’s a lot of fun. I tried the tilted quilt block tool. With the serendipity tool, the corner of the block comes all the way to the edge of the tilt. I wanted the tilt to have some width at both ends of the triangle, so I used the tool twice and it worked perfectly.

I had gotten inspiration from a table runner that I saw on Facebook. I realized that the tilted blocks would be perfect for the screen printed animals that I have had for almost a year now. Haven’t I always said each quilt comes into being in its own time? Recently, I have really liked quilts with soft or bright colors and white sashing and white backgrounds – it just looks so clean and neat and happy. So here’s the project I worked on last week (besides quilting a couple of quilts).

The blocks are screen prints from Jody Cedzidlo at Flytrap Studios. She makes great t-shirts with her art and was generous to print fabric for me.

Tilted Blocks with Screen Print Animals

 

Tilted Block

 

Cutting Instructions for Block Borders

 
 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed your visit. Come again soon.

Marjorie

 

Let’s talk fusibles

This conversation came up yesterday with Judy Danz, and I thought you would all like to be in on it too. Judy mentioned that in many of her classes she uses glue stick to baste the pieces in place before stitching rather than fusible. I have done that when I am using a satin stitch on the applique. And it works beautifully and leaves the applique nice and soft in the end. It also does not gum up the needle as I thought it might. And you don’t even have to get up from the embroidery machine. I was able to find a piece of cardboard that was firm enough and thin enough to place under my hoop while at the machine, so I barely had to slip the hoop off the clamp to add the glue.

However, on the applique stitch, I have been using fusible just because I was thinking the stitches might fray a bit if I didn’t. The stitches that I am using to digitize are so close together that they probably won’t fray no matter what – so I’m going to try this experiment, wash it a few times and I’ll let you know how it comes out.

I use almost all the different types of fusible depending on what is available at any given time. But I’ll tell you what works for me and then you can make your own decisions. My top favorites are Mistyfuse and Stitch Witchery. Thirty years ago I made baby quilts for my children and those baby quilts are still in use today with the grandchildren and are just as nice as ever. They were fused with Stitch Witchery because that was the only fusible available at the time. Mistyfuse has come along and it is a bit lighter than Stitch Witchery, and I can find it a little more readily. These fusibles do not come on paper, so I have to lay them between two pieces of parchment, press, and then peel one piece off or lay them on the back side of the fabric and layer parchment on top. They leave the fabric nice and soft and fuse nicely.

Paper backed fusibles that I have used include Wonder Under and Steam a Seam. I love Wonder Under and like Steam A Seam Lite. The regular Steam A Seam is too heavy for appliqué, in my opinion; although I do use it when making boxes and things like that.

And that’s my two cents on fusibles.

***********************************

Here’s Judy’s turtle

 

My Purple Turtle stitched by Judy Danz

Judy stitched up the turtle on her Bernina and it looks great. The center circle was a little long and we talked about the variabilities that occur with different fabrics and different fusibles and the dies. This is just the nature of the beast, and we talked about how accurate the fit must be between the appliqué stitch and the dies in order to work with machine embroidery. This does make me rethink my digitizing so I can add some stitches to account for that factor. But–the machine embroidery is so much fun that I am going to try to keep manipulating the fabric with complete abandon and will stick pin the edges and fuse them first and deal with the middle last.  I’m sure that will land me in trouble sooner or later. . .I’ll let you know :)

  
 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed your visit. Come again soon.

Marjorie

 

One Fell Swoop Quilts: one step piecing and quilting

I am following a blog with instructions for all in one piecing and quilting. This is Terri Watson’s Threadtales blog. I had seen some basic instructions before, but these instructions are much more detailed, and Terri gives more options for piecing and quilting. Her instructions are for longarm quilting, but it would be very easy to adapt them to your domestic sewing machine.

The first lesson was on strip piecing, and I am looking forward to her future instructions too for pieced strips. Each lesson comes out the first day of the month. She has some great inspiration for quilting and piecing and has a wonderful blog to follow. Drop in and see what she’s doing.

My next step is to see if I can not only piece and quilt in one step, but cut all the pieces on my Accuquilt GO cutter. Will let you know. 
 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed your visit. Come again soon.

Marjorie