Cozy Calico

Mom and I recently discovered the blog Posie Gets Cozy. (How have we missed her all these years?!?) We are so in love with her blog, her charming bungalow, cute as can be daughter and lovely quilts! Hours have been spent ohhing and ahhing. And before we knew it, inspiration was swirling around. So two weekends ago, the fabric was sorted, the sewing machine cleaned and threaded, the iron heated and a quilt was made.

Inspired by Alicia's calico comforter, we used an Ikea comforter instead of the usual cotton batting, tuffy floss ties instead of quilting stitches and simple 4.5" squares. From the fabric stash we pulled out all the reds, orange, blue, green, and browns (to match the living room) we could find.

Can you believe we had all these fabrics in the stash? Some had a copyright of 2000 stamped on the salvage...... It was so good to finally use them up!

The top went together fairly quickly. I was a little sad not to get it all finished by Sunday evening(couldn't wait to see how it would turn out!), but by Tuesday evening all the layers were sewn together and safety pinned. Though there are still tufts to be tied as we ran out of black embroidery floss.

 We are so happy with our new calico comforter, it has already become favorite. Kerri especially loves cuddling up in it. I love how nicely the colors go with the living room, even though to me it looks slightly reminiscent of the 1970s.

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Hexagon Quilt Update #3

 I just finished off 40 hexagon flowers! I don't know how many months ago it was I posted that I wanted to finish this batch up before starting on the new fabric.

 Last night I sat down and cut out a bunch more hexagons. Hopefully I will stay motivated! It is the perfect spring quilt, the colors are so cheerful!

 It has been so nice to have a little time to sew and I am so looking forward to getting my sewing room organized. I keep working at it little by little. Of course, that doesn't mean I can't sew in there right now, it just means it is harder to find things!

Previous Hexagon Quilt Posts:

 Granny, how does your garden grow?

 Fall Hexagon Quilt Update

 Saturday Adventures

 Quilt Update

 English Paper Piecing

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Ticker Tape Quilt

 I decided to take a small break from knitting and have been sewing. Quilting to be more precise!

This quilt is based on the Ticker Tape Quilt from Sunday Morning Quilts by Amanda Jean Nyberg and Cheryl Arkison. Fabric is Odds and Ends by Cosmo Cricket, a fabric line by Moda. Finished size 45" x 60". (Just in case someone needs all the gritty details!)

This quilt came to be because of a Christmas gift. I gift of a quilting book for my sister and fabric for myself! I just loved these little squares! They all came pre-cut with cute little pinked edges. After drooling over my sisters new quilting book I was inspired to quilt!

 

I love the mix of floral, polka dots, stripes and prints. As hard as I tried some of the squares managed to wiggle around a bit......

Traditionally, this kind of quilt is made by putting together the top, batting and backing, then the squares are sewn on through all layers, thus quilting the quilt at the same time. I decided to sew the squares to the top layer first, then layer together with batting and backing and quilt like a normal quilt.

Some of the squares are sewn on multiple times, some just once and then quilted. I played around with a random look.

Polka dots for the backing using fabric from the same line.

It only took me a year to finish this one. Sometimes I am not the greatest at getting quilts finished! I so enjoyed making it though, it was a bit of a lifeline last year when life was so chaotic.

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Granny How Does Your Garden Grow?

It has been a long time since I looked at my Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt. But the other day I realized it has been about a year since I started it and I thought it was time to get back at it!

As you can see, since the last update I have made a bit of progress, not much though. Here is a list of the previous posts about the quilt. First post, second post, third post, fourth post

The little bag was a birthday present to myself. It is my on-the-go project bag!

I still have not started on the fabric I bought last summer for the quilt and have a lot of scraps to use up still. Right now I am working on sewing the last batch of scraps I rounded up into flowers and then I will start on the new fabric! As I don't want all the new fabric to end up in the outside edges, I will wait until I have all the flowers sewn up and then sew them together.

As you can see, I was getting distracted from my Flower Garden quilt! When we had our "Sewing Camp" a couple of weeks ago I finished up this quilt top. My version of a "Ticker Tape" quilt from Sunday Morning Quilts. (The quilt is on the back cover of the book.)

 Mom found these little pre-cut pieces for me from Moda. They are just the cutest things in the world!! I knew right away what I wanted to do with them.

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Fall Hexagon Quilt Update

 I had planned on posting an update of my hexagon quilt a month or so ago, but unfortunately I haven't done much since the last update. Other projects have gotten in the way, so many things to finish! As you probably know  from my previous posts Saturday Adventures and Quilt Update, I was planning on finishing this quilt at summer end. That plan has been revised. I want to use those new fabrics and since I haven't done that yet, I will just keep on quilting!!

Isn't winter the perfect quilting weather? Hopefully, that will encourage me to get busy!



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Saturday Adventures

 Yes, we had a little adventure today. Mom and I decided to go to Trader Joe's. We don't have one locally, but there is one about an hour away. Or so we thought. Since we were going in the general direction, I also persuaded Mom we should stop at a small fabric store. I didn't have very specific directions but knew it was around an intersection of two main roads. We found it with out too much difficulty and had to turn around only once.

 

 After we browsed around and I found a few fabrics for my Hexagon quilt, we were on our way once more. Don't you think they will go nicely?

 What should of taken 30-40 minuets to get to our next stop, took an hour and a half! Yes indeed, we made quite a few little detours, turned around three times and finally resorted to calling my sister at home for directions. It all boiled down to this: I accidentally punched in the wrong address when I printed out the directions and we were on the wrong side of town!! We were a very hungry pair by the time we got to our destination. On the way home we decided to try a different route, Not sure why?? And of course we got off to a wrong start and had to turn around and then were not sure which road we wanted to take back......

We finally made it back home, but I think we ended up zig zagging around the entire county! Six hours and a gazillon miles, all for a bit of fabric and a few groceries!! But it was worth it.

For an apron, don't you think? Which one........that is the question!

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Quilt Update!

Just a few quick photos to show you how the hexagon quilt is going. I have started sewing some of the blocks together. Very exciting!

 It is a little wrinkly from being in my sewing bag, I guess I should have ironed it before picture time.

15 blocks down, half a zillion to go!

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English Paper Piecing

 Until a few weeks ago, I wasn't sure what paper piecing was. I had read about it somewhere....sometime.... and hadn't paid too much attention. Until I came across a post by Camille at Simplify. This was first time I had seen pictures of the process and it clicked!! Now that I knew what it was all about, I had to try too!
The paper piecing method has been around a long time. There is evidence of it from the early 1800s. It sounds a bit strange at first and the first question that comes up is, what happens to the paper? As you will see below, it is used like a template and does not stay in the finished quilt. The paper helps the hexagons to turn out perfect, with perfect corners. If you have quilted before you will know that is one of the hardest parts of sewing the pieces together. The other reason paper piecing is special is the only way to do is sew it by hand. I know it sounds a bit crazy at first, but it also makes for a very portable project. You would be surprised how fast it goes!
I decided to make Grandmother's Flower Garden, it was popular in the 1920s and 30s and I could use up a bunch of retro scraps!

 Take your fabric hexagon and a paper hexagon. Notice that the paper is 1/4 inch smaller on all sides, this is the seam allowance. More on making the paper templates.

 Stitch around the edges using a large basting stitch or straight stitch. These are just temporary stitches, so the color of thread  and size of stitch doesn't matter.

 Once you are all the way around, cut the thread. I like to start with a knot, but there isn't a need to knot it at the end. It also makes it easier to pull out.

All finished, now just eight more to go!

 Starting with your center piece (yellow) sew a hexagon on each side. I used a mattress stitch but whip stitch would also work.

 All sides are sewn. Now I just need to sew the seams in between.

 Once a block is complete. It is time to remove the paper. Pull out the basting stitches all the way around the block.

And the paper comes free!

Now you are ready to sew another block. And by all means, recycle your paper templates!

I am not sure how big a quilt I am going to make. I thought at first I would just make a small decorative one, just to try out paper piecing. But it is too fun! I will make a bunch and see how many I have at the end of the summer, maybe a lap or twin bed size?

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