The First Five

The Splendid Sampler

Here are my first five finished blocks.  They are far from perfect, but they are good enough.

It is not too late to start.  Go to http://www.thesplendidsampler.com

As I have been looking at all the posted blocks on the Splendid Sampler's Facebook page, it's giving me more ideas... I may make a few more of these 5 because I like the ideas I see.  Check out the postings... then pick some fabrics and sew, sew, sew.

Passing It Along

I've posted pictures of my grandson sewing in previous posts.  (See February 21, 2015)
Last night he came home with me from his Friday Night Lights (where he made 3 of his team's 4 touchdowns!) and today we started his very first quilt.

Go Spartans!

This morning, right after hot chocolate
on the balcony, we got started.

(BTY, he is wrapped in my very first quilt.
It is a lap quilt and he is almost too
big for it to cover him.

I already had a plastic shoe box full of 5" squares, so we started with that.  (My Aunt said "keep all your scraps."  I do.  And, when I want to putter around in the sewing room, but I don't really want to sew, I cut up the scraps into blocks and sort them by size in plastic shoe boxes. (See my post from March 14, 2015))








Next step, set up his little sewing area with two TV trays and Miss Ellie (my 1951 Featherweight.)














We made two-patches...teaching him to chain piece.

The internet came in handy here.  He could not get a picture in his head of what I meant by "chain piecing."

So, we did a YouTube search for "chain piecing."
He got it.

Then we made four patches.
I will admit, I did the pressing and pinning of the four patches.

That gave me an opportunity to inspect his quarter inch seams.  We ripped out a few.

I think ripping out seams discouraged him a bit, he asked me if I'd ever ripped any... I said "Heavens!  Why do you think I have a GOLDEN ripper!?"  (brass)













I used this handy seam guide on Miss Ellie to help with his quarter-inch seams.
Worked like a charm because the guiding edge is nice and BIG.

 Here are his first two rows.

  

Then he decided we should move on to something else for today.

Mommy and brother are coming over to swim.  (Yes, it is February....but it is warm enough in So.Cal to swim. Go Figure!)


I will keep you posted on his progress....I hate to say it but this could be his first UFO!

The End....Of The Beginning

It's the end of a long week, but a good weekend... And the beginning of a new week... full of promise.

Had the Babes over night last night and spent all day today with them... what a great part of my weekend!

Sunny, Sunday afternoon on a boat ride at a local park!  They are my true loves!

But I did have all day yesterday to sew before they arrived.

Made Block 2 of the Splendid Sampler... I hate the finished product!

BUT, even though I hate how the block turned out... I LOVED the process of getting there because I learned a couple of things.  This blog post is a "how to" with a couple new techniques.  I hope you like it.

First, Block 2 of the Splendid Sampler was a bunch of teeny, tiny squares to sew together (as you can see.)  MY HSTs (Half Square Triangles) are always "wonky" (especially teeny ones) so I was not looking forward to this block.  But, when I visited my Auntie in Spokane, Washington a couple of weeks ago (see blog post of February 8) she gave me some goodies from her sewing room.  One goodie was a package of THANGLES.  I decided to try them out with this block.

I LOVE THEM!  I want to go buy every size they have!  My HSTs were PERFECT!!!!!  You MUST try them!!


OK, you must be asking... If  I LOVE these THANGLE things so much... Why do I HATE the block?  Because I used the wrong size Thangle for the size of the HST block I needed.  I had to cut the finished HST down so much it lost ... something.  It lost the points.  It looked good in my head, it just didn't work like I thought it would.

So, don't blame the Thangle, blame the person behind the idea-that-didn't-work.







 Try this...
 Follow the directions and sew Thangles to your fabric.  Cut apart.  Honestly... I am NOT lying!
This is before the HST is trimmed!  Isn't it a thing of beauty!? Only one little ear to trim away.

This is the back side of my block (before tearing away the Thangles paper) LOVE it!  I did adjust my thread stitch length as I would with foundation paper piecing.

These are my four butterfly blocks... before I had to trim them down.  They are a thing of beauty!  I so enjoyed it up to this point.  But, the blocks are too big for the pattern,  Don't try this at home, the result isn't satisfying.  So while I know I LOVE Thangles and I will most definitely continue to use them, they did not work for this particular block.

OK, on to lesson two:  Sewing all those little 1.5" squares together...what a pain in the rump.
Then I had an idea.  What if I used a small piece of Pelon Shape Flex and fused the 1.5" squares and THEN sewed them.  Worked like a charm!!!

First I cut the Shape Flex into 3" squares, the size of the four 1.5" squares.  Positioned the teeny, tiny pieces of fabric on the Shape Flex and pressed with an iron.  Then went to the sewing machine.

I sewed one way, cut open the seam, pressed.  Then sewed the other way and cut open the seam, pressed.  After it was trimmed, it was perfect!  I got the idea from a product called Small Scrap Grid as used in the book Scrap Therapy.

Bottom line is:  In some ways I feel like my sewing time this week-end was a big bust... in other ways I feel like I learned a lot and accomplished a lot.

Oh, one other thing... I decided to re-do both Block 1 and Block 2 (and Block 3 was released today) and to focus on specific colors...it was just too time consuming trying to pick fabrics from my "library."  Visited the fabric store after taking The Babes home...  I'm going to go with greens and grays...

 Tomorrow is another day, stay tuned.

Love Is In The Air

Today is Valentine Day AND it is the first day of the Splendid Sampler Quilt-A-Long. So, it would be appropriate that the first block would feature a heart.

Day 1 - Heart's-A-Flutter

If you are interested... Sign up at this link... I think it will be really fun.  AND if you are on Facebook (isn't everyone?) join their Facebook page.  Follow this link.  People have been posting pictures of their firsst block... very inspiring...

Moving Along.....

Baby Quilt for new Great Nephew,
expected any day now

     Well, I finished my niece's baby quilt. 
     It did turn out quite cute, if I do say so myself.

     Now what do I do? 
     Ever have that feeling.... like there is NOTHING
     to do even though you have stacks of UFOs in
     your sewing room?













 I came across this on FB this morning, posted by the Orange County Modern Quilt Guild....

Have you ever participated in a "quilt a-long?"  I did one last year...you've read about it, the Project of Doom.  And, no one was more surprised than me when I actually finished the quilt in time to gave it as a Christmas gift!

So here is another.  If you are game, follow this link....

 The Splendid Sampler

The Morning After....

... after the big game....

So, how many of you are still celebrating and how many of you are crying in your beer?
Or, how many of us just plain don't care?

I'm visiting my Auntie and Uncle in Spokane, WA.  My Aunt is my "dealer" in all things quilt (you've seen her mentioned in this blog in the past.)  We have been having a perfectly lovely time getting caught up, looking at quilting stuff in her room, collaborating on quilt designs, etc.  It's just what I needed.

Aunt Nyla's Sewing Room...right off the kitchen...
where the coffee, chocolate and wine live!

My Auntie is working on designing a quilt around some blocks she won in a raffle at her quilt guild meeting "some time ago."





 She's thinking some Sun Bonnet Sue blocks "here and there" as setting blocks.



















I'm finishing up a baby quilt for my niece.
I sort-of cheated on this one as it started as a panel (which I must admit has been thumb-tacked to my second bathroom wall for 3 years...the bathroom the grandsons use when they visit...)  But in my defense, it did turn out pretty cute.

 And, of course, we had to trot off to a local fabric store where there was a 30% off Super-Bowl-Sunday sale happening (picking up a friend, Susan, along the way).  Regal Fabric and Gifts.  For those of you living in the Spokane area, you should visit this great shop!

The Three Quilting Amigas - Off to the Shop

So, Congratulations to the Broncos and Congratulations to us, too, for surviving game day in our favorite way.