Placemats oh sew easy!

I designed and made a set of four placements using the Moda Fig and Plum fabric line. It is for a class I am teaching at my local quilt shop later in November.

Here is how to make it:

Buy 3/8 of a yard of 4 coordinating fabrics and 1/4 yard of one or two contrasting solids for trim. Cut a 12 1/2” strip from each fabric.

Still folded, cut off the selvage. Then cut two 12.5” squares of each fabric. One square will form the center of the placemat and the other will be a napkin. Then cut two 3.5” x 12.5” chunks off of this same strip for the placemat sides. Open out the remaining strip and cut an 8” square. Mix and match all of these so each placemat is different but has parts of all four fabrics. How cool is this? :-)

1. Stitch a contrasting strip on two sides of the center square.
2. Layer and quilt the placemat. I crosshatched this one, but did some free motion quilting on some of the others. Use a very thin batting. I like Thermore.
3. Trim the placemat so remove excess batting and backing.
4. Cut a 12.5” square from another coordinating fabric and narrow hem the edges to make the napkin.
5. Cut an 8” square from another coordination fabric. Cut it on the diagonal. Cut a 1” strip of contrasting solid fabric (I used green from the same fabric line) and sew it to one long edge of the triangle you just cut. Stitch the other triangle to the other edge of the 1” strip. Fold down the center of the strip and press the triangles wrong sides together. Trim the 2 raw edges with a square.
6. Align the raw edges of the folded triangles with the lower left corner of the placemat. Baste with a long stitch 1/8th inch from the edge. Be sure it is flat and tight – no ripples.
7. Bind the placemat with 2 strips of 2.25” x WOF, the same color as the 1” strip in the napkin pocket. Stitch on the front, fold to the back. Stitch down by hand in the back, or stitch in the ditch from the front to secure the binding on the back.
8. Press and you are done!

I like to accordion-fold the napkin and tuck it in the pocket. Add your silverware and it makes a great holiday place setting.

I had to take them to the quilt shop as samples before I remembered to get pictures of the other three placemats. DUH! I’ll post more pictures later this week. Enjoy this free pattern with my compliments. Copyright 2009 by Morning Glory Designs. You may use it and share it. But just don’t sell it. Thanks!

And the Winner is. . . .

The winner of my pattern give-away for this month is. . . .

Peggy from Ontario, Canada!

You will receive a copy of my Charming Botanicals September pattern Morning Glory and Asters.

Congratulations. And Thanks to everyone who left a comment. I really appreciate hearing your comments about my patterns, and to show my thanks I will give away another pattern next month. Stay tuned for that freebie. I will tell you how to enter for that drawing when I post my next Midnight Posies BOM on October 1. I will give away my Charming Botanical October Cosmos pattern as the prize next month.

I have so many projects in the works that I don't know where to begin, but I am going to post some of the ideas I am tossing around so you can see what is going on in this whacky brain. Have a great day!

Down Home in Mountain Home with EQ6

I just spent a really great day as the guest of the Hill n Hollow Quilt Guild of Mountain Home, AR. I was invited to give a guild presentation on EQ6 at their guild meeting and do a workshop on EQ6 for 15 students! Whew, it was a jam packed day, but so fun to be among such talented quilters. I want to thank Mary Ann and Vicki, along with president Carol for making me feel welcome, and taking such good care of me during my visit.

Now, I have time for a nap and in the morning, on my 6 hour drive back to KS I plan to stop at LOTS of quilt shops! Whooo hooooo.

One of those shops is Thus & Sew on Hwy 5 in Mountain Home, AR. Joyce Havner, the owner was a delight and we shared quilt stories, patterns, and ideas for almost an hour. Her small but well stocked shop is a quilter's dream, and she does long-arm quilting in her "spare" time. If you are in the area I urge you to stop there and visit Joyce's unusual, fun little shop. She is also a rep for Handi Quilter and has an HQ16 machine and frame for sale for a real bargain, if anyone is shopping for one.

I stopped at 2 other great shops in Mountain Home: Sew Unique is a great shop with class room space and lots of fabric patterns. I picked up some wonderful local hand dyed fat quarters there. Remember Me is in an old house and is chock full of more bolts and patterns and books than you can shake a stick at. I never did get upstairs to her gifts and crafts! I got carried away in her sale patterns and books on the front porch! Both shops were terrific and the owners hospitable and helpful. I would recommend a stop at both of them if you are in town.

Hope you are having a quilty day!

Midnight Posies Block 8 & Pattern Give Away!

September crept up on me with all the business of getting ready for school. In my day job as a college professor I sometimes become so engrossed in the problems of the day that I forget my great stress reliever is the simple act of sitting at my sewing machine with a new block to stitch. So with that in mind, here is block 8 of the Midnight Posies Block of the Month Quilt.

This block is very different from the others in this series -- so far. This Daffodil Block is a giant Half Square Triangle! Well, one half of it is, and the other half is a pieced triangle made up of smaller pieced traingles. Ok, that sounds difficult, but it is made in rows and is very easy to do.

Anyway, we are almost ready to begin the last row of blocks, and each of these combine a series of techniques we have learned in the preceding blocks to make some really stunning flowers that are – as always in my patterns – easier to make than they appear.

I would love to have your feedback on my directions. As I am preparing to publish this pattern, it would be great to know what you think about the directions for these blocks. Was it easy to follow? Could I have explained techniques more clearly? Would additional pictures help? Was there more directions than you needed? Post a comment and I will draw a winner from among the comments to receive my September Morning Glory and Asters Table Runner Pattern –Free!

Thanks for leaving a comment and for doing this Block of the Month. I will pull a name at random from among those leaving comments on Sept 15 for the pattern winner.

Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler

I am working on a “shop sample” of the Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini, inspired by the Elm Creek Quilts novels. The quilt at right is the one pictured in her book. The shop I teach at – Quilting Bits and Pieces in Eudora, KS – is doing the entire quilt, all 140 blocks, as a block of the month. Well, more like 5 blocks a month. They are doing it in 2 color ways. I am doing the “True Blue” color way, the fabric line by Benartex designed by Eleanor Burns. The other color way is Hoffman Christmas fabrics. I am not sure which I like better, but they have both been extremely popular at the shop.

Here are the first 5 blocks. I added a couple of pinks to the mix, as well as adding some additional medium greens and dark blues.

I am doing all the appliqué blocks using fusible web and will edge stitch when I quilt. They are just too darn small! The medium blue sashing fabric is not from the True Blue line, and is just a dab darker than one from the line. I am using pimatex antique white for the backgrounds.

I have redrawn each block in EQ6 so that I can calculate both rotary cutting and foundation piecing measurements. I am writing additional instructions to go with each block to help out those who are not as experienced putting together some of these blocks. You would have to buy the book to do the kits, but some of the instructions are very brief. I am keeping a notebook with my drawings and notes so I remember what I changed! :-)

Several blocks I have redesigned or changed the construction method from the directions in the book. I always try to simplify if I can, or come up with a better way to be accurate.

These are 6” blocks and they are kitting them at the shop, so I have to be very accurate in my fabric calculations. I am a bit generous, because I don’t want anyone to run out of fabric in their kit.

Here are the second set of blocks.

The Lemoyne star block was redesigned to be paper-pieced in the Carol Doak technique. She divided 8-pointed stars into 8 triangles by making seams in the corners and centers. It adds seams but is way more accurate and has no “Y” seams.

The second block down – the one with the green squares and yellow star – was rotary cut. But the measurements were given to the nearest eighth of an inch, but accurate piecing required measurements at sixteen of an inch. I remade that one twice to get it right. Didn’t quite reach the points when I added the sashing, and cut off the points on the Chinese coins block (2nd to last).

The most difficult block so far is the third one down, the spinning star with the pink center. Yipes, it was a booger! You start with a partial seam then sew on triangle segments which are very tricky to accurately align. Won’t be making THAT block again any time soon!

Here is a close-up of each block:

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Month 3 is in the album above. I redesigned the grandmother’s flower garden block in month 3. The book only had a center and six petals, so I decreased the size of the hexagons and added a third row around the yellow. The hexagons are 5/8” and really came out cute in the block. I English paper pieced the hexagons and put the block together by hand. I glued it to the background fabric with Roxanne Glue Baste and blanket stitched by machine around the block once I pulled out the cardboard templates. Then I cut out the back of the white background to decrease the bulk.

I just finished month 4. I don’t have the blocks made yet but here are the blocks and fabric selections.

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This has been a fun project so far, lets see if I am still saying that when I get to block # 139. . . .?!?!

Seminole Patchwork Sampler

I have been working on this Seminole Patchwork Sampler recently, and today I taught a class on how to do Seminole Piecing at my local quilt shop.  Two wonderful students, Jane and Linda, participated in the class and we had a wonderful time learning the cutting and piecing techniques for these fabulous bright strips. The bands were made by members of a recent small group who each made a band from a pattern designed by Barbara Siedlecki and hosted on the Quilter Community.  Each quilter made one of the 7 bands.  In exchange, I made a block of their choice for each of the 7 group members.  I put the bands together this spring and finally got the binding on it today.  The tiny piping was made with the Piping Hot Binding ruler by Susan Cleveland, which is wonderful in getting that tiny little piping to go perfectly between the border and the binding!

OK, as you can probably tell, the binding is on but I am still sewing it down. . . Alas, I am kinda slow with binding. 

Here are the strips we worked on today in class:

We ran out of time  before we got to make our fourth band.  But we did cover all the basic techniques in the first three bands. It was a great class and I want to thank Linda and Jane for making it so fun and Quilting Bits and Pieces Quilt Shop in Eudora, KS for hosting it.

Guild Presentation in Topeka

On August 11, 2009 I will be doing a presentation on EQ6 at the Topeka Capitol Quilters Guild. I am so looking forward to this presentation as I will have the chance to meet some friends I swapped with some years ago. I always love talking about EQ6 also, and all the incredible designs tools it offers to quilters. If you are in the Topeka, KS are on Tuesday night at 7 pm, stop by and say hi!

Midnight Posies Block 7 now available

Wow, it is nearly August and I can hardly believe how quickly each month slips away. But its time to release Block #7 for my free BOM Midnight Posies. This block starts the 3rd row of the quilt and steps up the difficulty of the blocks just a little by adding some additional techniques.

The Carnation Block adds some bold red and gold to the quilt and introduces “Quick Corners” and “Flying Geese”. Both techniques are super easy and accurate. If you want to keep the carnation all red, choose a 3rd shade of dark red for center instead of the gold. It will really look like a carnation then. Or you might want a pink carnation and choose more pink or magenta colors for your carnation. Whatever you choose it will be gorgeous.

This simple block is essentially a nine-patch, and goes together very fast. Watch your color placement! As in all my blocks, it is the color placement and contrast which makes these blocks look more complicated than they actually are.

You can download the PDF pattern for this block here . I hope you enjoy this next block in the series. And as always, I would love to see your pictures!!!!

Back From Texas Retreat

I spent a wonderful weekend at the Cabin Quilter’s Retreat in Houston last weekend. What a wonderful place! Great new friends, great old friends (well, not THAT old) and wonderful eats, conversation and quilting. If you can still get a date, the retreats at the Cabin Quilter’s Retreat are first class. I worked on a set of swap blocks while I was there and put them up on the design wall behind me. It was fun the see the pattern emerge as I added more and more blocks to the wall.

One Afternoon the neighborhood Peacocks stopped by for a minute to munch on Four O’Clock seeds by the front door. This lovely lady posed for me as she was cooling off in the shade. I kept hoping I would see a flamingo but this is as close as it got to a tropical bird!

Now I am off to Ohio to visit with my dad for 2 weeks and get some serious work done on my next pattern. Thanks for coming along for a visit.

Beach Birdies Quilt

UPDATE: Kits are available for this quilt at Quilting Bits & Pieces in Eudora, KS. There are only a few left, so you probably better call them if you want one!

I finished the quilt top for the Beach Birdies panels and fabric (by Moda) and delivered it to the quilt shop yesterday. After a few glitches with the borders I finally got it all together. I used a narrow inner border with green and black to echo the dropped shadows and then added a Finney Flap and a 6” large border with Kaffe fabric.

I took this pic with my phone since I didn’t have my camera with me at the shop last night. I’ll post a better picture next week when I can get back to the shop with my camera.

What is a Finney Flap you ask? It is a little 1/4” flange, like piping only without the cording inside, between the inner and outer borders. You can see it better in this close-up.

It will be a while before I quilt it since it will hang in the shop for a while. I just love the Christmas Flamingos. I only had a few of the fabrics from this line to work with so I added a few of my own fabrics from my stash. I love using black pimatex. It is thin but has a high thread count. Much nicer than Kona black in my opinion. Here are the 4 fabrics I had from the Fabric line in addition to the panel.

I am patterning the design now and will have it available for sale next week. If you would like the pattern It will be available for download (email) for $5.00 or a print version (snail mail) for $8.00. I will only offer the pattern as long as the fabric is available. Let me know if you are interested.

I am working on a tote bag next and will post a pic as soon as I get that done. This has been so fun! Have a great Holiday Weekend.