Quilting

Barn project-block #3

May 29, 2014 by Sue Leave a Comment

We did the third block about three weeks ago and I forgot to post!

This is the Peas and Carrots block for our barn project. It came out so cute! We used the same green fabric because it was so perfect and then went with our own stash bright orange fabrics. Once again, the small little triangles made the block bulky with all those seams, but it sure is darling and got us in the mood to grow some vegetables.

We returned to more all-over prints for the red barns and were both much more happy with the result. We were uber careful with pressing but no matter how straight our barns are, adding that white sashing makes us lean. Hmmm. Photos are not as forgiving as the human eye and when it’s all together, maybe nobody will notice??

Team ShaRee

Team Sue

Sue Peas and Carrots

Barn Project-block #2

May 2, 2014 by Sue Leave a Comment

Today I am unveiling the second barn in our barn project. This block “painted” on the side of the barn is a Postage Stamp block. Before the Internet, farmers living in rural areas relied heavily on the postal system and their trusty mail carrier. So a postage stamp block is a tribute to those rural mail deliveries.

Our blocks are different in that mine uses 36 different small squares, and ShaRee didn’t go as crazy mixing it up, but used good design principles by having some repetition in her squares. This time we decided to build the same barn, and when we cut the fabric we were so excited about how cute the stripes were going to look. But during the sewing we got less and less enamored with it. First off, it was hard to keep them straight, and then we decided the overtly architectural look we had been going for with the stripe didn’t really work. Live and learn. We have thus decided to discard another stripe we were planning to use in the future and go with overall prints. We think they will set off the block better and not distract the eye from the block.

We also worked harder on our darn 1/4″ seams and both of us ended with the same size block this time! Too bad they’re still 1/4″ smaller all around than they’re supposed to be. Gah! We have decided that the white sashing around each block is going to make up the difference. We cut the sashing a little wider and at the end we will trim all the blocks to be the same size and hope the white sashing creates an optical illusion of sameness in width. 🙂

So here we go with the photos:

Team ShaRee

Team Sue

Our Barn project

April 19, 2014 by Sue 1 Comment

Lest you think Scott and I are building a barn in our backyard, let me disabuse you of that notion right away. Instead, my quilting friend and I are “building” fabric barns. Eight of them to be exact, plus four barns with silos to be put in a quilt that will hang somewhere in our respective homes. But that’s down the road. For now, we have built barn number one.

The idea is to create a barn with a quilt block “painted” on the side like many families have done throughout the Midwest and upper Midwest. We got the instructions from Lori Holt of A Bee in my Bonnet, who posted it as the “Quilty Barn Along”. She took down the instructions in December but we had decided to start the quilt this year, so I copied all the tutorials and instructions down from her blog before they disappeared. We began with a trip to our local quilt store for the white background fabric and a few red fat quarters for the barns, but the rest of the quilt is meant to be a “stash buster”, where we use fabric pieces we already own. This has also been a goal of ours-to make some stash quilts, although she has more of a stash than I do, so her stash is going to get busted more than mine.

Our first block is the “Chicken Foot” block. Every farm should have chickens and these are scattering in every direction. The quilt block is a 6″ square on the side of the barn and those triangles were small, especially since it was my first time making half-square triangles. The whole block is a 16″ block, so the quilt is going to be large.

Lessons learned: my seams are a scant 1/4″ so my block ended up too large and her seams are a generous 1/4″ so her block ended up too small. We need to adjust our 1/4″ measurement because a small variation makes a big difference, especially in the 6″ block. Some of my barn pieces ended up a little crooked as I tried to adjust the size. So…….the next one will be better, but overall, we are pretty darn pleased with ourselves.

Team Sue

Team ShaRee

ShaRee Chicken Foot

Wild Thing Quilt

April 7, 2014 by Sue Leave a Comment

Finally, another quilt finish! I hate to admit this, but I actually finished the hand-quilting in late fall and it was just waiting for me to sew on the label to call it a finish. So I did that this weekend and it’s officially done and hanging on my landing stairs to celebrate spring!

Wild Thing front

I used leftover fabric to piece the back. I see lots of online examples of free-piecing the backs and decided to try it. I like how it turned out. It gives some variety rather than just a full backing of one fabric.

I took a class at my local quilt store on quilting basics 2 years ago and this was the quilt we started for that class. I learned a lot of great tips and this was a fun pattern, plus my first time using pre-cuts, as this was done with Moda Charm Packs. And I really love this line of fabrics-they are so bright and pretty!

Size: 60″ x 68″

Fabric: City Weekend, from the Oliver + S fabric collection, produced by Moda

Tall Tales Quilt

December 30, 2013 by Sue Leave a Comment

I started piecing this quilt in 2008 in my neighborhood quilt group, which has long since disbanded, but is where I learned to quilt. I got it all sewed together a year or two later and started hand-quilting. I was three-quarters done when I decided I didn’t like the pattern I was doing and ripped it all out. Then I started over with the quilting. It takes me a while to do the hand-quilting, so this has been hanging around. I got the binding sewn on in October and then worked slowly at hand-sewing the binding. A bout of bronchitis in the middle of December allowed me to finally finish this quilt. I like it so much that I have decided to keep it as a lap quilt for myself and have been enjoying snuggling underneath it while watching movies.

IMG_3102 cropped

Tall Tales Lap Quilt

Size: 61-1/4″ x 74-1/2″