Matching points and Y-seams: Assembling my picnic quilt

So sorry for the wait!  What's with this summer cold-thing going around, sheesh.
Anywho, here's some of the steps I took to make assembling my quilt easier:

This quilt was full of many firsts for me, as I mentioned in my Perfect Picnic post, and I'm very happy to share with you what I learned.

 

I made my star points scrappy for this quilt, in the future I probably will not undertake such a challenge as it is so much easier to make strips of the colors and cut them out from there, here's a really good video from Kaye's Quilts on youtube, she explains in the introduction:  Easy Double Wedding Ring

 

 

However, the way I chose to make this one was scrappy, and so I laid the pieces out in pattern pleasing to my eye, then stacked all the rows the same, starting from the outermost point and going to the right, stacking one on top of the other.  As you can see in the picture above, I made sure to take a picture of my layout when I got it where I liked in so that when I dropped a pile of pieces, and I numbered the points, then numbered my stacks to correspond to the points in the picture.

 

 

I made sure to keep them numbered as I sewed them together point by point, I was really paranoid that I would get them mixed up.

 

So my trick for getting matching points on my star is pretty easy to do, and I only wish I'd done it before I'd had to take out one of the seams about 8 times, HOWEVER, it is now engrained in me that this is the best way to do it (sorry, started complaining there, naughty naughty :P )

 

1. Make a mark 1/4 inch from the edge of the fabric (not diagonally along the seam!) on both pieces that you are sewing together, I actually went to each intersecting seam and drew my lines with my disappearing ink pen from Joann Fabrics.

2. Next take a pin and place it exactly through both pieces where the drawn line intersects with the seam, and keep it pointing straight through.

 

3.  LEAVING THE FIRST PIN STRAIGHT UP AND DOWN add two pins that cross each other and hold the fabric in place where the first pin was marking them, then you may remove that pin.  The pictures below show how my points turned out by using this method.



I know the bottom blue looks off point, I just hadn't ironed it flat yet, not entirely sure why I went ahead and took this picture...

 

See, that's better!  By the way, I was ironing my seams all down, and ended up re-ironing them when I attached the points together, so if you have to do so it's no big deal.

 

I followed the same matching procedure to sew the points together, and sewed point 1 to 2, 3 to 4, etc, then the 1-2 points to the 3-4 points and 5-6 to 7-8 to form the half stars.  I sewed the seams from the blues to the reds in the very center, I'm not sure if that's part of why my piece turned out perfectly flat, but it may be one reason.

This is one of the few times I ever sew a seam open, but I did so at the seam between points 2 & 3 and points 6 & 7 to help reduce the bulk at the very center.  Then I very carefully lined up the center reds of the two halves, and actually sewed from the center out on these seams, overlapping my stitches about an inch across the center.  Still used the pins to match the points on here as well.

 

You can see how nice and flat it turned out.  I actually was not aware that it could end up domed in the center, but apparently it can.  I'm guessing that as long as you keep your seams accurate (preferably 1/4 inch) and take your time then you should end up with a flat star.  I found out yesterday while talking to the lady at Highland Quilts in Athena, OR that if you do get a dome in the center, you can take a very hot steam iron and set the iron on the fabric, and the heat/water will shrink your cotton enough to make it lay flat!  She did also say it's a slow process, not to rush it, it will also distort your fabric if you are pushing it around a lot.

So when it comes to the corners and setting triangles let me give you my favorite lesson I learned from when I made my mom's quilt for Christmas:  make them at least 1" larger than you think the measurement should be!  On my mom's quilt I went with the exact calculated measurement (and only so much fabric to work with) and ended up having to stretch it into place and force it to work, which is not conducive to a relaxing quilting experience.  On this piece I added the extra inch, having convinced myself it would be okay to lose some extra fabric, and I was so glad I did.  Strangely I didn't trim that much extra off!  I had plenty of space to cut along and still leave the 1/4 inch allowance for sewing on my inner border, which was something I'd missed on my mom's quilt.

 

There are a lot of great tutorials for Y-seams (here is a great video: http://www.jinnybeyer.com/quilting-with-jinny/tips-lessons/detail.cfm?instanceId=71DAA699-0AFE-8A90-85D38BA999BD18D8), my biggest suggestion is be sure to mark your 1/4" from the corners and pin, just like with matching your points on the star.  Then start from the center and work your way to the outside edge.  Also, none of your stitches should overlap at that starting point, that will cause a pucker of fabric.

 

I hope you found some of my insights enlightening, please leave me a comment if you have any questions or if you have other tips, I always love to hear other tricks of the trade!

 

~Brandy

Cowboy boot

I was so inspired by Carla's cowboy boot doorstop from the Don't let the Door Stop You blog hop that I had to make one myself!  Plus, I work for the national office for college rodeo, so I'm suddenly inspired by a lot of cowboy themed items.  One of the ladies I work with had her birthday last week, and I thought she could use a little something pretty in her office.  I used the pattern/tutorial from Riley Blake's site and it was quite a bit larger than I was expecting!  My boot ended up almost a foot tall!  Learning experience: there's a reason copy machines give you the option to reduce/enlarge.

Here's my boot next to the cheese doorstop I made.

 

The lady I made the boot for gave me this shirt (her husband tore a 4 inch rip right in the belly of it) and I thought it fitting to use in the boot-making.


Here's something great I learned: when you're turning corners inside out, use pinking shears to help ease the fabric into the correct shape.  Here's what it looks like when you don't:

 

And here's what happens when you pink the fabric:



 

Isn't that amazing?  By the way, this is one of those parts I altered for my personal taste, this book has a 4 inch space down from the top to hold pens, so I stiffened up the fabric and gave it a lining.

 

I am proud of how the trimming turned out, I just zig zag stitched over the top of it with Aurifil #2021 (white) and it blended nicely and held the trim in place well, especially considering the abuse I put that piece thru turning in inside out and such.

 

This was before I filled the boot with the crushed walnut shells, and hand stitched the "base" of the pen holder, which was a piece of the black fabric cut a little larger than the opening.

 

 

And this is it!  Sitting outside in the freezing rain, woohoo!

 

My co-worker thought it was a kick in the pants, especially when she realized I'd used her husbands shirt, and immediately loaded highlighters and pens into it.  I suggested we look for a plastic container we could cut down and set inside to provide a bit more support, if I make it again I will put my "base" another inch lower so the sides of the boot will hold the pens up.

 

Thank you for visiting!  I need to have a food post here soon, Pampered Chef just started their new catalog which means new recipes, yay!  Oh, better get some dishes washed then, :)

 

~Brandy

Diaper Bag with lots of pictures!

So my neighbor reminded me a couple weeks ago that she was due to have her baby soon, and when I asked how they were set for supplies, she replied they have next to nothing.  So!  Being the adventurous and giving type, I said "well I will make you a diaper bag if you like" (having never even looked at a bag pattern) and of course she said sure.  So I searched and searched, and liked this tutorial at the Moda Bakeshop the best:

Baby On The Go Diaper Bag « modafabrics (wordpress.com)

It's well written, has lots of pictures, and a lot of positive response in the comments section.  And uses 20 strips from a jelly roll, which I happened to have available!  There are a couple little steps not explained perfectly, but it's pretty easy to figure out.  On my next bag I'll be sure to take pictures of those steps, I thought I did on this one but apparently not!  :)

Sewing row by row by row, I used The Painted Garden by Dena Designs for Free Spirit Fabrics.

 

I laid out my strips light-dark-light so that when you set the bag down it's on a darker fabric.

 

All the pieces; I realized afterwards, I could piece some 9in and 6in blocks for the pockets, hmm...

 

This turned out to be one of my favorite revelations, the transformation of quilted fabric into STURDY fabric!  It's too funny, I think my favorite part of this bag is the pocket edges hahaha

 

But look at how clean they turned out!

 

I laid out my little pockets dark on light and vice-versa aiming for some contrast.  My husband said he still couldn't see them :D

 

Ah, the HANDLE, and this thing is sturdy too let me tell you, it is going NOWHERE.  I broke only one needle, and only because I was a goof and used a 70/10 or something silly like that as an experiment.  DO NOT USE THAT SIZE NEEDLE, use a jeans needle, obviously... reason being at the time of sewing on this handle you are sewing thru 6 layers of quilt.  Not including seams, and there will be seams that will try to snag your needle and shoot pieces of steel into your eye.  By the way, next time I plan on altering the type of fabric I use and hopefully that will help a bit with the toughness.

 

 

And who can leave a pattern alone?  I came to the conclusion that interior pockets would be handy, at the very least something to hold a bottle or two.

 

So I found instructions from like, 6 different sites, and pieced together the easiest way I could think of to make this bad boy

 

You'll love this, that black topped bottle right there?  That's my salt grinder!

 

Gathering in the bottoms, this was a first for me.  Actually, almost everything I did on this bag was a first, what am I thinking?

 

Ok, I've made straps before, that part was the easiest for me, and since I didn't have charm squares like she suggests in the tutorial, I used some of the other jelly roll strips.  It came out wide enough for my taste.

 

I don't know how I'd bind the seams, so I just sewed them nice and tight, and I am pretty sure it will work out just fine.  This green is home décor fabric from Joann Fabrics.

 

So neat that it holds itself up, even inside out.

 

Alright, the zipper is on, sweet...

 

Getting ready for turning it inside out

 

Oh fluff!  Well that won't work, I think she will want to access those pockets immediately upon opening, darnit.  Ok, take the zipper back off...

 

There we go, all better!

 

A bright and happy bag which will hopefully last them many moons!  Now to add a changing pad and a pacifier clip, and the baby shower is this Saturday, eek!

 

I am super proud of this bag, so much so that I carried it all over town to show, well, everyone who even glanced at it!  I definitely need to make a little label for it so my friend will know what to tell people who ask, and who knows?  Maybe someone will make a request for one!  I already have fabric for one for myself, it's a great size for a project carrier and I really like the fact that it closes and will keep things IN.  I crochet and cross-stitch on occasion, since it's a portable craft, and many of my projects are fairly large, so this will work great. 

 

By the way, please feel free to leave me a comment if you have any questions, I am more than happy to share how the process went for me and how I solved little issues along the way.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

~Brandy