When doing hand-quilting or applique…rub a dryer sheet over your thread! It will make it slide through that fabric like a breeze and keep it from knotting up on you:)
(pic courtesy cleaningallstars.com)
For added fun check out the ThriftyNinja for over 50 uses for dryer sheets!
Keep it Sassy♥
For more quilting tips for the sassy quilter check out my Quilting Tips tab.
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Guilty! I have been wanting one of these forever! And If you are like me…you just do not have a wall big enough(or empty enough) to dedicate as a design wall. I have seen some options for hanging something on the closet doors or frames that stand in the middle of the room, but those are either too flimsy or take up too much space. I wanted something free standing(but slim), light, easy to move around, and that I could mount on the wall if I decided too. I read once you could use some sort of foam board to make one, but that is about all I remembered! So I headed off to Home Depot and Joann’s and made it happen!
This tutorial will show you how to make your own Design Wall for about $25 or less!!!
→One sheet of foam insulation board. I bought this at Home Depot for $12. It measures 4′ x 8′ x 1/2″.
The foam insulation board actually consists of a 1/2″ piece of foam with a paper layer on both sides. The back side of this board is a metallic paper. These foam boards can look different or even be just foam. Doesn’t really matter because we are covering it up any way.
→A vinyl Design Wall by Fons & Porter or If you want to save even more you can use the back side of any vinyl tablecloth(no grid lines- no big deal).
I bought this at Joann’s for $25 then used their 50% off coupon so it was only $12.50. They have a 50% or 40% coupon every week.
→Binder clips, about 12 will do. I didn’t price these, but they are very inexpensive and I figure most of us have some laying around anyway.
1. Center and stretch the pre-packaged design wall or vinyl tablecloth onto the foam board. Smooth out any wrinkles to make as flat as possible. Leave excess foam board all at one end.
Tip: If your vinyl design wall or tablecloth is wrinkled…do not iron it! Just stretch it out and let it relax naturally. You can see on my board that I have a few “bubbles” in my wall. I got a little too happy with the iron trying to steam out the wrinkles. These spots are not a problem, but best if avoided all together!
2. Lay foam board flat on the floor and using your longest ruler(6 x 24 here) line it up with the end of the design wall where you want to remove the excess foam board.Here you need to decide how much board you want to leave at the bottom.
Things that may affect where you trim your board:
•how you are going to use your design wall– horizontally or vertically.
I am using mine vertically and didn’t want the design area touching the floor. If horizontal, you may want a small area left on each end for mounting or none at all.
•will your design wall be movable– fixed to a wall or movable from room to room.
I want mine to be able to move to where ever I am sewing at- kitchen, sewing room or I can break it down and take it to a guild meeting.
•your height– I am short so I left only 2″ at the bottom.
3. Using your rotary cutter, gently press the blade through the top layer of paper on the foam board and work your way across the board.
Be careful not to go through to the other side here!!!
4. Gently snap the foam board, leaving the paper backing still intact.
5. Using a pair of scissors or an x-acto knife/box cutter to slice through the paper backing.
You can save that small piece for another project or make a mini design wall using leftover batting or flannel to cover it.
Here is mine in action.
I have to say I am head over heels in love with it! It is so light and portable. I can just bring it in the living room with me while I am sewing at the kitchen table and easily take it back to my sewing room when I’m done:) Because it is so light it should be no problem to attach it to a wall if you like. Some simple hooks or Command strips will do the trick if your real classy and don’t want to put any nail holes in the wall:)
No need for a giant empty wall to get your design on!
Sassy indeed♥
Links:
I am finally done with all 16 blocks for The Virtual Quilting Bee over at Diary of a Quilter!
Here are the last four I wrapped up this weekend:
Block 13- Designed by Brooke Johnson@PitterPutterStitch. Lots of pieces, but mainly flying geese and HST’s.
Block 14- Designed by Emily Herrick@CrazyOldLadies. Super easy and love the simple design.
Block 15- Designed by Lynne Goldsworthy@Lily’sQuilts. Paper pieced and tricky! Pretty block, but the geometry of it all was killing me.
Block 16-Designed by Cindy Weins@LiveAColorfulLife. Not hard, but took most of my time picking the fabrics. Really liked this one!
All that’s left is to get the top together with the sashing and setting blocks, which I am doing in the aqua dots of this line. I still have tons of Happy Go Lucky fabric left over from the FQ bundle, so I hope to make another quilt from these. I was really surprised how far the bundle went.
Now for what you really want to know…
Jessica @juceyj03@gmail.com!
Thanks so much you guys for participating and sharing your quilt and fabric love with our sponsor Cotton Bliss!
Keep it Sassy♥
Links:
It’s triangle time people!!!
I am finally getting to my lovely stack of Simply Style by V and Co. that has been sitting on my sewing table for months! I have been dying to do a triangle quilt forever and ever and ever…okay maybe only a year, but it felt like forever:)
Actually the proper name is an Equilateral Triangle Quilt, not to be confused with the Isosceles Triangle Quilt. Now you got to go back to your math/geometry vault on this one. Equilateral triangles have equal sides and are called 60 degree triangles in the quilt world…well, in all the worlds actually. Isosceles triangles have to have two equal sides and are more like 45 degree triangles to quilters. Think short and stumpy(equilateral) and long and lean(isosceles). Here are some amazing examples of both:
Equilateral triangles byAmanda@MaterialGirlQuilts
Isosceles Triangle Quilt by Ashley@MommybyDayCrafterbyNight.
I would love to make both of these, but let’s tackle the Equilateral first and not get ahead of ourselves! Here is a little sample of the layout:
In honor of something new, I hope you will check out this new online quilt shop, Cotton Bliss!
Cotton Bliss is a new online fabric shop specializing in today’s designer quilting fabrics, notions and patterns. They have some great prices you guys and plan to add lots more as the shop grows!
Speaking of… If you don’t see what you want, let Stefanie know and chances are she can get it for you. Top-notch service with discount prices are their specialty!
Today’s giveaway is this lovely Simply Style charm pack!
I’m giving you three chances to win on this one:
♥Subscribe to the Cotton Bliss newsletter here and leave a comment on this post letting me know that you did so.
♥Like Cotton Bliss on Facebook here and leave a comment on this post letting me know you did so.
♥For a bonus entry>>> post a link on their Facebook wall here to your favorite product on their site here and leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite too.
I just ordered up some of this delicious Scrumptious by Bonnie and Camille!
Okay, not this whole box, but one of mine is probably in there:)
Hola pumpkin peoples!
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I managed to get my pumpkin table toppers finished and tried to do two different looks here, one a little more traditional and one modern.
I had a little fun and used a little FMQ to create the stems!
These are pretty quick and easy and are constructed using your basic snowball block design. I thought I would share my pattern with you guys in case you wanted to whip one up for the fall festivities.
Here is what you will need:
Background fabric– 1 Fat Quarter. Cut (16) 1.5″ squares and (5) 6″ squares
Binding fabric– 1 Fat Quarter or a 1/4 yd cut of chosen fabric. Cut (4) 22″ x 2.5″ strips from FQ or (2) WOF x 2.5″ strips.
Pumpkins– 4 Fat Quarters in assorted oranges, you will not need very much so you can just use any orange scraps you have too. Cut (4) 6″ squares.
Press your 1.5″ background squares in half to leave a crease diagonally across the square.
Pin these to each corner of your pumpkin square. Make sure they are right sides together.
Sew along the crease. No marking required! Just follow that creased line.
Trim off the corners to leave your 1/4″ seam. If your feeling sassy you can do 2 corners at a time:)
Press open your corners on your pumpkin.
To finish up the topper you will sew the pumpkins and background squares together in a basic 9-patch design. Press your seams toward the background squares.
Layer up your quilt sandwich and have some fun with your thread to quilt on some crazy stems however you like. If you are not feeling comfortable with that, you can always applique on some or hand-stitch them…oooh that would be cute! Once you are done, just trim up your quilt sandwich and bind. If you need help making your binding strips or actually binding the topper just click on the links for some extra help.
Oh, and by the way…don’t you just love these little pumpkins we made at my last guild meeting! Jennifer, one of my fellow Sassy Quilters, was generous enough to bring all the supplies and teach us how to whip these up in minute:) Thanks Jennifer!
Keep it Sassy♥
Links:
First of all let me say Thank You so much to everyone who helped me out and voted for my quilt over at 13 Spools in the Prism linky contest!!!
I won, yay! So excited. I really do love that quilt. I guess it was my first all solids quilt and my first paper pieced quilt, so it was a big milestone for me. I received a 75.00 gift certificate to FatQuarter Shop….hmmm. What to get??? I was just perusing and am liking these:
What do you think?
Got any awesome quilt plans for the weekend?
Well, I am going home tonight to work on a fall/pumpkin-y table runner for a silent auction…and by work on I mean start:) In all fairness I have made a pile of orange fabrics! I have a few ideas and I am hoping they come out as planned…trying to make my pumpkins sassy!
I also got my FQ bundle of Acacia from I don’t do dishes! Ah, so lovely…but I must wait. I need to finish quilting my chevron first! Here are some pics.
Isn’t that raccoon adorable!
Love the more geometric prints.
Is this raccoon making you feel uncomfortable???
And believe it or not I just realized with my bonus points on my credit card I can spend them for double the amount if I shop on Amazon! No problem. I snagged this Basics set of Aurifil thread. I won a spool in a contest a while back and really loved it, so I am a new convert and need to bulk up my thread stash:)
These spools are not cheap but I have to say they last a long time, a lot more on there!
Oh, and before I go…here is a new fabric shop I came across over on Happy Quilting’s blog:
10% off with the code: GOBLISS. Give ’em a try! The prices look very reasonable:)
Feel free to visit on FB here, and give them a like!
Keep it Sassy♥
Links:
This weekend was just jam packed with fall quilt fun!
I went to a Quilt Harvest(doesn’t that just sound fun!), had a sew day with friends, went to the state fair to check out my entries and finished up my Chevron quilt top! Whew, I am tired just thinking about it all.
Let’s start with the Quilt Harvest! It was held at Millstone Quilts, a local quilt shop in Mechanicsville, VA. They had a great display of antique quilts outside in the perfect fall weather, free brunswick stew and apple cider, a huge storewide discount inside the shop, free goodies when you checked out and an entry for a doorprize….which I won!!!! I have to go back to pick it up and will definitely share some pics. I don’t even know what all is in it yet! Here are some of the antique quilts:
These quilts were from the 1800’s-early 1900’s. Notice how “modern” some of these look:)
Next we made it to the State Fair to check out the winners(night pics so not the greatest). I got an Honorable Mention on my Star Surround:) and a 3rd place on my Christmas table topper. Nothing on the Prism, but there were some pretty amazing quilts there. I won’t ramble on and on about how I feel about some of the quilts chosen, but this one had no ribbon and it was mind blowing.
Can you imagine all these tiny blocks and this is still square?
These house blocks are about 3″square and each one is pieced and the window is fussy cut!!! The quilt was huge! They were definitely wronged! No ribbon at all! I don’t care if you like this style of quilt or not, the workmanship was amazing. There, I’m done, lol. Here are some others and Best of Show.
Best of Show, hand quilted. You can never out do amazing hand quilters at a show. That’s another thing…long arm doesn’t have a category, I hate when I see a computerized design(or someone who uses panels) beat someone who did their own, sorry doing it again. Everyone has their own opinion I guess, just my two cents.
Here is my Chevron quilt top, Tangerine Tango! I followed Kelly@MyQuiltInfatuation’s tutorial here and whipped it up pretty quick. Instead of using a different fabric for each row I just alternated teal and oranges for a scrappy look. Not only do I love the look, I also used up a bundle of Fandango fabrics that were getting pretty dusty on the shelf!
Whoa! Now that was a lot of pics! Thanks for hanging in there, if you made it this far:)
Oh and before I forget! I would love any votes I can get for my Prism quilt here:
http://www.13spools.com/2013/09/prism-along-linky.html
To vote just click on the heart in the corner of my quilt pic, thanks guys!!!
Keep it Sassy♥
Links:
If you know me it is no surprise that I love Missouri Star Quilt Co.!
I am a sucker for their Daily Deal(like needing an intervention style), love the quilt forum they run on their site and the easy and FREE quilt tutorials Jenny Doan does on You Tube. They have a flat rate shipping of 5.00/free over 100.oo and are known for their large assortment of pre-cuts. Pretty much the tutorials are all about being easy and using those pre-cuts. This makes them great for beginning quilters.
Now, Missouri is just a little too far from VA so I figured I would not be making it there for a visit any time soon, but lucked out and Jenny came to me. She visited a local quilt shop and did some fun demonstrations and a trunk show of her quilts. Jenny and her husband, Ron, were super nice and fun to talk with. He is pretty tall so he was an excellent quilt holder-upper:) They are opening what sounds like a cool quilt retreat center next week…..hmmm, perhaps a nice getaway!
I also learned lots of other tips for what you can make with pre-cuts.
Layer Cake= 2 3/4yard of fabric and one will make a twin size quilt.
Jelly Roll= 2 3/4 yard of fabric and will make a twin size quilt.
Charm Pack= 3/4 yard of fabric and will make a baby quilt. Two will make a full crib size, three a throw, and four a twin.
So, If you haven’t checked out this sassy quilt co. before…Do it!
Keep it Sassy♥
Links:
So I have finally finished up all the blocks for a Memory Quilt I am working on(another persons memories, not mine). These blocks have definitely been a trial for me. Lots of different fabrics…fleece, denim, cotton, lycra! And with necklines and legs some needs some serious piecing to get into block formation. I had to teach those baby clothes a lesson, haha. They do look pretty cute though:) I hope the mom is going to be happy with them.
These little cherries are just too cute!
Tricky little arm…
My next project is a Chevron quilt! This one has been on my to do list forever. I am using a tutorial by Kelly@MyQuiltInfatuation. Thanks Kelly for doing all the calculating for me:) I am sticking to my “use my stash” promise and have cracked into a big ol’ bundle of Fandango that I just had to have and now am not even sure I like any more…I waited a too long, tragic! I am using it anyway. I’m sure the love will return, it is fabric and I do love the teal/orange combo. So far I have all my squares cut out and will get to making the HST’s tonight.
On a super exciting note…a local quilt shop(Sew Refreshing) is having Jenny Doan from Missouri Star Quilt Co. come and speak/demo! I have got my ticket and can’t wait to meet her. Will share pics for sure:)
Keep it Sassy♥
Links:
Tada! Prism is all finished up and photographed. I titled this one Poseidon’s Prism…okay I am not that original, I used a Poseidon FQ Bundle by Robert Kaufman and the pattern name is Prism:) I did this quilt as part of a quilt along over at 13 Spools. The pattern is by Faith@FreshLemonQuilts. It is paper pieced and was super fun and easy to do.
I went with the twin size, so it is 70 x 85. I haven’t made one this big in a while so I had to get my quilt arms back in shape. It’s amazing how much heavier the big ones are when you are pushing and pulling them through your machine. I quilted this one on my domestic machine. All straight lines so I used an even-feed foot(walking foot). I quilted it SITD(stitch-in-the-ditch) style. I think it would look fabulous with a lot of fancy quilting in these prisms, but I was a little crunched for time and to be honest I like that it feels nice and soft.
I had some fun playing around with the photos so here they are:
Since this quilt is for an entry in my State Fair I had to make a hanging sleeve so they can display it. Here is a little tutorial to show you how I did it:)
Measure across the top of your quilt, minus two inches. Now cut a strip of fabric that width by 14″ long. This is for a sleeve that will finish 6″(required length for this Fair). You can adjust the length to accommodate your own needs. For example, a smaller wall hanging may only have a thin rod to hang on so a 3″ sleeve would be fine. Take your finished size and double it, then add 2″ and you got it.
On the short ends of the strip (14″ends), Press approximately a 1/4″ fold toward the wrong side of fabric.
Do it one more time to get a finished edge on the inside. This also makes sewing a straight line easier.
Sew along the inner edge.
With the wrong side up, fold the strip in half and press.
See the crease running along the center here.
With the crease as your guide, fold the lower and upper halves to meet in the middle along the crease. Now, press/steam these outer edges firmly to leave another set of creases.
Fold the sleeve right sides together and sew your 1/4″ seam along the raw edges. With your sleeve still inside out at this point, finger press open the seam. Finger press here so that you do not disturb the creases we already made. They are our guides for mounting the sleeve to the quilt.
Turn the sleeve right sides out and you should have a D-shaped sleeve. The two strong creases are the top and bottom edge of the sleeve. One side of the sleeve is shorter and will lie flat against the back of the quilt. The other side forms the rounded D-shape and is a little longer to allow room for the rod that the quilt will hang on. You need this extra space so the quilt is not distorted when it hangs.
Now center and pin the top edge of the sleeve across the top of your quilt, about 1/2″ below the binding.
Next, pin the bottom edge of the sleeve along the crease, keeping the bottom of the sleeve flat. There should be a tent/teepee area in the center. Do not stretch it out flat, remember we need this extra space.**After pinning, I like to do a test hang on a broom handle or rod to make sure everything hangs straight, so nothing has to be ripped later.**
Last, but not least….whip stitch along the creases and the sides to attach the sleeve to the quilt. The stitches should be about 1/4″ apart, making sure to take a bite into the batting, but not through to the other side of your quilt! The above pic is a demo with white thread just so you can see it, using a matching thread is always best.
That’s it! Pretty simple actually. P.S. If you don’t plan on hanging the quilt permanently…don’t stitch as tightly and you can remove/save it and use it on another quilt later.
Here is my other fair entry…in case you haven’t heard me talk about it 100 times!
Wish me luck♥
Links:
