Category: Hobbies

Ruby’s Treasures Blog Hop!

On By alwaysquiltsIn blog hop, Hobbies, Uncategorized67 Comments
Day 3 is my turn to jump into the hop. Each day of the hop Inspired by Fabric will be giving away a FQ bundle, so be sure to go and sign up to follow their blog, either by email or blog reader, and then come back and leave a comment on my blog. I will give away an e-book of my book “Sew, Slice, Spin and Sash” from all the comments.
Ruby Short McKim wrote only one book, 101 Patchwork Patterns and all the patterns are free to download at http://www.101patchworkpatterns.com/
 
It was hard to choose from all the patterns, but I finally chose to make the Dutchmans Puzzle block.

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It’s made using 8 flying geese (FG) units and my favorite way to make FG is doing the no waste method.

Let’s get started.

From blue print cut 1-    7 1/4″   x  7 1/4″ square

From the pink and blue print cut 1-    7 1/4″  x  7 1/4″ square

From the background cut 8-  3 7/8″  x    3 7/8″ squares

(oops, I marked the BG squares before taking the picture)

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On the background squares, using a mechanical pencil, mark either a diagonal line from corner to corner, or do the double line, like what is shown below.  If you make the single line, sew 1/4″ on both sides of the line.034

Place two of the background squares onto each of the large squares.
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Sew just to the side of the marked line.
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After sewing all 4 lines, cut apart between the sewn lines.
 

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 Press away from the large triangle.
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Take the remaining background squares and place on the large triangles.
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Sew on the drawn lines, cut apart.
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Press away from the large triangle.
You now have four FQ units of each color.
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At this point, I like to trim off those little pieces sticking out.
You now have everything ready to sew your block together. Using a dark and a light goose, make 4 blocks with the dark goose on the bottom. Press toward the top goose.048
Sew 2 blocks together. Make 2 sets. Press toward the blue goose in the upper right hand square in the picture below.
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Now sew the two sets together, and your block is done!
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When pressing the final seam, make the little twist in the center, so that your seams will lay nice and flat.
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Here’s the other colorway I chose.062
Don’t forget to leave a comment to get in on the drawing.
Have fun hopping!!!Next stop is Pat Speth!
Theresa
—-Blog Hop schedule and blogs—-

Friday 11/4: Barb Eikmeier @Barb’s Favorites

Monday 11/7: Donna Lynn Thomas @DonnaLynnThomasQuilter

Tuesday 11/8:Theresa Ward @AlwaysQuilts

Wednesday 11/9: Pat Speth @NickelQuilts

Thursday 11/10: Reeze Hanson @MorningGloryDesigns

Friday 11/11: Kelly Ashton @KellyQuilter

And here’s the link to Inspired by Fabric, our blog host

Crown Royal quilt

On By alwaysquiltsIn Hobbies, quilts, Uncategorized1 Comment

I finished sewing the crown royal quilt top. Yea! The quilt top measures 110″x 110″. It outgrew my design wall so I had to wait for a good weather day and lay it outside to get a picture of the whole top.

My son wanted it to be a king size quilt so I needed a quick easy block. Making a simple 12″ 9 patch block with 4 patch blocks in the corners, then a 3.5″ sashing and cornerstones did the trick! Next step is to get it quilted and bound. 👍🏻

Have you made a crown royal quilt? Or collecting bags to make one?

Theresa

Glue basting video

On By alwaysquiltsIn Hobbies, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Back in May I had the opportunity to attend spring quit market in Salt Lake City. I was a bit overwhelmed but had a blast!! While I was there in the Martingale booth giving a demo, they video taped the technique and it’s now available to see how easy it is.

For the demo I had to make small strips strips but just imagine that sashing strip being 50+inches long. Glue all your sashings and then chain sew all of them at one time. Fast!

Have you tried gluing instead of pinning?

Theresa

Design wall 10/17/16 string blocks

On By alwaysquiltsIn Blogroll, Hobbies, quilts, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I decided a while back to use some Kaffe fabrics for a string quilt. The quilt I made had some leftover blocks so I played around with them and decided on this layout. I added sashings and cornerstones, now it’s time for borders.


I’m planning to use more of the orange fabric for a small border then use another Kaffe print for the outside border.

That’s what’s on my wall today. To see more walls check out www.patchworktimes.com

Theresa

I’m a gluer….😀

On By alwaysquiltsIn Hobbies, quilts, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I know some people are against using glue in the construction of thier quilts, but I am “not” one of those people. I love how easy it is to glue the pieces together and then just sit down at the sewing machine and sew.  I’ve been working on the crown royal blocks, which has really gone together quick! I like doing things that are quick, that way I can get more things done.

I thought I would share a bit of the glueing process with you today. I had all the blocks made and there is a sashing strip that goes in between each block. I sewed a sashing strip onto the right side of each block (the first block has a sashing on both sides).  Here’s where using the glue really speeds up the process.

Starting with the first block, I glued the blocks together one by one, making sure they were in the correct order. After glueing the first 2 blocks together, I would fold up the block on top and then with rights sides together, glue the next block on and repeat that process until all blocks were glued together.



I then picked up the stack and moved  to the sewing machine.

Keeping the blocks stacked, I started sewing.


When I reached the end of the first block, I chain pieced to the next block.

I continued to keep them stacked while chain piecing the blocks.

When I finished the last block, all I had to do was clip the threads between the blocks…….

Tadah! Row is complete. No blocks accedentally turned, no pins to fuss with or get poked by. Only took a few minutes to have all the blocks sewn into rows.

That’s it for now. Next step will be to glue the sashings onto each row and then take my pile of rows to the sewing machine and chain piece them. Yep, I like using glue!😳

Theresa

Design wall 10/3/16 Crown Royal blocks

On By alwaysquiltsIn Blogroll, Hobbies, quilts, Uncategorized1 Comment

I’m slowly making progress on the blocks. I sew a little on them when I get time. I have 24 sewn and I need 36 blocks for the quilt, so I’m more than halfway done with making the blocks. I have the sashings and cornerstones all cut and ready to go, so hopefully I can get the blocks finished soon and move on to assembling the quilt top. 😀


It’s going to outgrow my design wall soon. But for today, that’s my wall. To see more walls check out http://www.patchworktimes.com

Theresa

Design wall 9/19/16 Crown Royal block

On By alwaysquiltsIn Blogroll, Hobbies, quilts, Uncategorized1 Comment

Another Monday is here, so I’ll just check in quickly with an update on the Crown Royal blocks. I got everything cut (thanks to my Accuguilt cutter!) I decided to go with a simple block that can be sewn together pretty quick. I need to make 36 blocks for the quilt. I started sewing a few of the 4 patch units together last night so I could lay out a block to see how it will look. 

Pretty simple block to make. I think it’s going to look great once I add the sashings and cornerstones.

That’s it for today. Need to get the long arms fired up. To see more walls check out www.patchworktimes.com

Theresa

Design wall 9/13/16 Crown royal squares….the beginning…..

On By alwaysquiltsIn Blogroll, Hobbies, quilts, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I planned on getting some machine quilting done today between bus routes, but when thunderstorms move in plans get changed.😩 I keep both LongArm machines unplugged when there’s lightning going on.  Anyway, since I couldn’t get any quilting done, I decided to start ironing the Crown royal bags that I’ve cut apart. I ironed 49 bags, but decided to only use 36.

After I finished  ironing all the pieces, it was still storming, so I started cutting them into squares and strips to make 4patch blocks.

Next step will be to cut the other fabric I’m using but that will have to wait for another time. The storms have finally left and now it’s time for me to leave on the school bus.

Anyway, that’s it for my design wall this week. Joining in with http://www.patchworktimes.com

Hope the storms are gone for today.

Theresa

Design wall 8/29/16 Uneven bars, Kaffe HST’s & apple pies

On By alwaysquiltsIn Blogroll, Hobbies, quilts, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I got the borders added onto the Uneven bars quilt top. Since I pulled the solid fabric strips for the quilt from a couple packages of precuts, I didn’t have yardage of any one solid color. I debated over what to do and then decided to pull more precut strips of the pinks and use them for the inside border. You’ll notice they are light on the top and then get darker towards the bottom.

It’s now ready to be quilted. It will have to wait for now as I have several customer quilts that need edge to edge designs on them. I did get these all quilted last week.  One small custom and the others edge to edge.


My design wall has these blocks on it today. I’m working on a new string quilt design using Kaffe fabrics. These are leftover blocks that I’ll make into a second quilt. 
We’ve been enjoying apple pies this last week too! I’ve made 9 so far. We’re enjoying our 2nd pie, I took one over to my sons house & I put 6 in the freezer.

I was playing around with an app on my phone and put the 2 Uneven bars quilts that I’ve made, side by side in the picture. 

They look so different! Hard to believe it’s the same pattern! If you use one of the patterns from my book #Sew,Slice,SpinandSash, I’d love to see it! 😀

Guess that’s it for me today. Hoping for another productive week! To see what others are working on, visit http://www.patchworktimes.com

Theresa

Design wall 8/22/16 apples & progress on Uneven bars quilt top

On By alwaysquiltsIn Blogroll, Hobbies, quilts, Uncategorized2 Comments

With school starting back up last week, I didn’t have as much time to sew as I would’ve liked. Between the Olympics, the school bus and canning tomatoes, I had a pretty full week. I was hoping to get a break from the kitchen but my husband came home from his dad’s with a basket of apples yesterday.😳 now it’s apple pie time…….

I make the pies up and freeze them, then over the winter when I need a pie I just take it from the freezer and bake it. That part is nice! But it means spending more time in the kitchen this week. Ugh!

I did get most of the Uneven bars quilt top made. All I have left is to add the borders. It looks so different from the one made with black sashings. Looking forward to seeing it with the borders.


That’s it for now. Check out more walls at http://www.patchworktimes.com

Theresa