Field Trips in Fiber - Adventures in quilting, hand dyed fabric and fiber art.

Making the tree skirt

I shared this project with you Sunday but thought I'd add some information about how I turned this mandala into a tree skirt. I wish I had a photo of it under the tree but, I'm sorry, I'm way too lazy to set up a tree in October! I'll show it in December once the tree is set up for the holiday.

First, let's talk about the quilting. I used Superior Metallic threads because I hope that the thread will shimmer under the lights of the tree. It works great in my DSM and on the longarm. Sometimes I add a line of Sewer's Aid to the spool of thread. Sewer's Aid is a silicome lubricant and it works great. It doesn't stain fabric or gunk up the machine. I use it any time I have a thread that's giving me a hard time.

I started by stitching "straight" line along the tie lines if the mandala. I didn't do much up near the center because part of that will get cut out and the rest will not be visible!

For the quilting I wanted something simple so I did that loopy motif in the pargest diamond and the medium diamond. Then I quilted a poinsettia motif in between.

On the outer edge I did a loop (like dangling tree lights) in the light green using metallic thread and dark green polyester thread in a neander in the dark green. I don't want that area to show.

Next I trimmed the dark green connecting the star points. This will make it an octagon shape. Then I found the side with the worst quilting and that's where I cut the slit. I cut out the center jsut big enough for my tree pole. You can see that I did some quilting there but it was primarily to hold it all together and stabilize it for cutting.

Next is the boring part, the binding and ties. I"m not going to tell you how to make binding, you know that already! For the binding around the center circle, make bias binding. The rest can be straight. For the ties you can may your own or use cord or yarn. I made mine about 14" long. I cut fabric 1" wide and pressed using my bias binding maker which folds the 2 edges to the center. Fold that together so that the raw edges are folded inside the strip. Topstitch it close to the edge and you have a 1/4" wide tie. I cut them to 14", tied a knot in one end to prefent fraying and added a drop of Fray Check to the raw edge.

Stitch the binding to the circle first. Stretch the bias as you sew it. It will cup like this but that will make it easier to press into shape.

Fold the binding to the back and steam press it to shape. To finish it I topstitch from the right side and then I cut off the excess flus with the edge.

Finally I pinned the ties in place and added the binding in the same way that I bind a quilt. If I had not spent so much time thinking aobut the quilting I could have easily made this in a day.

If you want to make one for yourself I have created a kit that includes the mandala and 3/4 yard of Pine fabric for the binding. You can fid the kit and all of the other fabrics in the palette are here.

 

Blogger's Block of the Month, it's my turn!

I was delighted when Jackie (Canton Village Quiltworks) invited me to be one of the designers for her Blogger's Block of the Month program. It's not to late for you to join in too because it's only the second month! You can find the first block here.

I'm happy to present the second block:

Now, let's make it. The block finishes to 8.5" square (8" in your quilt)

Just to give you a different construction method, we are going to construction this one without cutting half square triangles. There's more waste with this method but it's a good method to know and the cutting is very simple.

You need 5 fabrics although D and E could be made with the same fabric.

Cut:

A - 12 - 2 1/2" squares for the background 

B - 4 - 2 1/2" x 4. 1/2" rectangles 

C - 4 - 2 1/2" squares

D - 2 - 2 1/2" squares

E - 2 - 2 1/2" squares

Step 1 - Make 4:

1. Match A and C right sides together and draw a pencil line diagonally through the middle of the square

2. Stitch on the pencil line and then trim one side to 1/4" seal allowance

3. Press the seam. I pressed all seams open for this block. Press to your own preferences.

Step 2 - Make 4:

1. Position square A right sides together on the right edge of B and draw a diagonal line through the middle of A. The orientation of the piece and the line is important so make sure yours looks exactly like the photo.

2. Stitch on the pencil line and then trim one side to 1/4" seal allowance

3. Press the seam.

Step 3 - Make 2 with D and 2 with E:

1. Again, orientation is important here. Place D or E right sides together on the rectangle. Make absolutely sure that the pieces are aligned exactly like they are in the photo. Draw a line diaginally through the middle of the square. The line is drawn from the lower left corner to the upper right corner of the square.

2. Stitch on the pencil line and then trim one side to 1/4" seal allowance

3. Press the seam.

Step 4 - Make 4:

1. Position the half-square triangle block from Step 1 right sides together with A. Make sure the diagonal seam is aligned exactly like the photo and sew a 1/4" seam on the right side.

2. Make sure your piece looks like this when opened and press the seam.

Step 5 - Make 4:

Using the pieces from Steps 3 and 4 sew then together as shown in the photo. There's only one point to match on this step where the 2 diagonal seams meet on the right side. If you don't get them perfect don't sweat it! If you want to get perfectly matched points you might find this method helpful to you.

Step 6:

Arrange the 4 blocks so that the D & E pieces are diagonally opposite. Sew them together like you would any other 4-patch. Again, the matching points tutorial may help you with this step. But unmatched points are not a problem on this block.

Here are my blocks. Since the blocks are only 8" when finished in the quilt, I decided to do 2 of each design. The new ones are on the right. You can see that I did one with D & E as different fabrics and one with them using the same fabric. I like it both ways. You can also make this block by totally eliminating D & E for a 3rd look and simpler construction. When you block is done be sure to share it in the Flickr group.

 

 

 

Design Wall Monday

I finally had a very productive weekend! I didn't stay off the internet but I did a pretty good job of staying away from it for a few hours at a time. I spent most of Saturday getting the Geranium table runner and tree skirt done.  Chris went to the UVA game Saturday so that left me with many hours of quilting time to get all of that done. At half time UVA was ahead by 7 points. At the same time in Blacksburg Virginia Tech was behind by 1. For some reason he got the great idea to call an harass me about that. 

Silly man. At the end UVA lost by 7 and Virginia Tech won by 16 which is kind of the norm here in Virginia in recent years.

He didn't say a word when he came home! Apparently one of the guys at the game kept showing Chris his iPod with the Virginia Tech score updates. 

:) That made me happy :)

Yesterday, of course, was NFL day which meant I needed to work on TV projects. I pulled out my flower applique blocks and figure out where I was going with them. I decided that I would have 12 blocks in the end so I needed to prep 5 more blocks.

These are made with Go! Cutter shapes cut from Ricky Tims Poly Stable Stuff and the fabric is glued in place. It takes a while to prep the pieces but the applique is easy peasy.

It took 2 games to get all of the pieces glued but now I am set for a long time. The 6 blocks on the top are done. As I work on the other 6 I will refine the applique positions. They are all pinned in place for the time being just to hold everything together. 

I have the rest of the solid fabrics set aside to use whenever I decide on a setting. 

There's no rush. This will take ages to finish!

The other project that I worked on this past week was the tumbler quilt.

I used to be really good at math but I got an "F" in planning this project. I only have 3 more rows to add and it's clear that I didn't cut enough pieces! I'll finish adding the rest if ther rows and then will start cutting more tunblers. At least I like how it's looking!

Tomorrow is the second installment of the Blogger's BOM that is being sponsored by Canton Quilt Works. Tomorrow is my turn so you will see the block here first!  It's not too late to start, this is only the second month. You can find the first block at A Quilting Life.

This week is also the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side. Post your quilt Friday and link at Amy's and then enjoy the show. There will be hundreds of quilts on display and loads of great prizes.

I hope you had a productive weekend too. Check out what everyone else is doing over at Patchwork Times.

 

Geranium Fabric Palette Projects

This week I do not have any EQ projects. That's because I actually have some real live completed projects! This is why I decided to have new palettes only every other month. Now I finally get some time to make some projects for myself.

If you are interested in ordering any of the Geranium fabrics you can check them out here.

First up I have a tree skirt. This is the primary reason that I designed the mandala. I've had the same tree skirt for at least 20 years and it's time for a new one. The bonus is that I didn't have to piece anything. I only had to quilt and bind it.

I am really pleased with the end result. This one will go under my tree of blown glass ornaments. I quilted it in metallic thread so that it will sparkle under the lights. We have very few boxes under our tree so the skirt actually shows.

Later this week I will have a post describing how I quilted it and showing how I finished it.

Next up is the finished table runner that I started a couple of weeks ago.

If I ever get the pile of fabric samples off the dining room table, this will look very nice next to the tree. (Our dining room and living room are the same room. It also can serve as an extra guest bedroom!) I used this tutorial for the pattern.

The quilting is simple. I did some free motion flowers in the pale walnut blocks and flowers and vines in the border. On the border I quilted with green thread in the red/pink areas and red thread in the green.

I've discovered that when your free-motion stitching is not very good it is improved considerably but stitching over it multiple times! It's a good way to hide the bobbles.

I have one more project that I want to do with this palette and I'm going to try my best to get it done this week. We'll see how that goes because I also have several appointments this week to eat up my time.

 

Journal Quilt

The journal quilt is very simple this week. I wanted to do something with some of the fabrics that I created in the shibori class. These pieces are from 2 fabrics. The more I look at it the better I like it.