Look What I Made! (Monday?)

So, I been thinkin'... I do most of my sewing and quilting on the weekend. That's just the way it works for me. I have a full time job during the week with a very, very, very long commute. If I get 4 hours of sewing on Saturday or Sunday, yay! So, again, I been thinkin'... WIP Wednesdays or Linky parties on Fridays just really don't work for me :( I share on them, but I have to make the post on Sunday night and wait a few days or more to share... and I have to remember to link up at a later date! I am ready to share after the weekend! There aren't many Monday linky parties, so I was thinking I should do a Monday party! What do you think? I'm thinking it will force me to post at least once a week and I will have fun sharing :)

Well, anyway, this is what I made this weekend:

I'm still working on my Craftsy Block of the Month. This is the first block for August. I'm way behind. The fabrics are Michael Miller (at least some are). They came from leftover scraps from my friend Mel up in Massachusetts. She doesn't quilt, but she is crafty!

I also wanted to give a shout out to Missy, Lily, Sandy, and Mary. I had my very first ever sewing class/event. I drove up to North New Jersey to the store that sold me the long arm quilter. It was show and tell and a small class type of thing. I had a great time! It meets every two months and I can't wait for the next one :)

Let me know what you think about the Monday share party thing. I am thinking it should incorporate some giveaway thing too!

Until next time,

Mike.

BOMs Away!!! & Link a Finish Friday!

Well, it's been a couple a weeks but I finished a few more of the Block of the Months. Maybe eventually I will be making the blocks during the month in which they were intended to be made :)

The theme for the Craftsy Block of the Month in July was Dresdens, so here you go:

 First time I've ever made a Dresden plate. Left is traditional, right is modern version.

 Me appliqueing with a zigzag stitch for the first time. Good thing you can't see the closeup. It's pretty bad.

Let me know if you have any suggestions for zigzag stitch on applique.

Chain piecing the Dresdens and thought it looked cool! I won the EZ Dresden tool from Barbie and the Quilting Mill awhile back. It really saves you time and is EZ to use :) especially with my rotating cutting mat!

And now on to the Quilt Story Block of the Month for which the theme was simply "rounded."

So I said, let's just make another Dresden plate!!! It's round, why not? Then on the right, you can see I got little play happy with the EZ Drezden ruler and just started randomly sewing them together. For the applique on that one, I did a really tight zigzag so it looks shiny (and uses lots of thread). It was a raw edge, so I wanted it covered. No one ever really taught me the best way to applique, so I will take tips or tricks. I have been using my 505 spray to stabilize. I noticed though that the tighter the stitch it seems to kind of "shrink" your block, like it is slightly puckering up the background fabric as you stitch. Is there a way to avoid that? I suppose I would have made the purple background a bit bigger had I known, then squared off the block to 12.5" Now I will have to remember on that block to do less than 1/4 inch on the seam when I sew the blocks together. Oh well.

I also wanted to mention that the purple thread on the applique I won from Craft Nurse Quilt as part of Kelie's giveaway package.

I am linking up at Link a Finish Friday at Richard and Tanya Quilts.

Happy Friday everyone!

Until next time,

Mike.

I dropped a few more BOMs this week & Quilt Show

Well, I've been working on a super secret project this past couple of weeks, but I have also finished a couple of more BOMs of which I can share with you.

Lower left is the Octagon from Craftsy (June 2 of 2). Upper left is the one I posted about last time, the Greek Cross (June 1 of 2). Upper right and lower right are Quilt Story (June 2 versions). They were supposed to be anything with Flying Geese. I made one more traditional and the other a little crazy. I realized once I finished that I could not get them to come out to a 12.5 inch block, so I added borders and then squared off the blocks :)

Next month (July!!!...I know. Don't say anything!) it will be Dresden blocks and Rounded blocks. I think rounded doesn't necessarily mean it will have curves, as long as it appears rounded, sort of like the Octagon block above.

Hope you enjoy! I am linking up at Richard and Tanya's Link a Finish Friday.

I also wanted to mention that I will be in Philadelphia, PA next Saturday to visit the Quilt Show!!! Anyone else going? Would love to meet up and say Hi :)

Until next time,

Mike.

The BOM is back!!!

Okay, I had a few moments the other day so I decided to try to catch up on my BOMs. I've been busy with the Hexy quilt and the Buzz Lightyear quilt but now that they have been given to my loved ones, it's time for some "me" sewing. Technically this is a work in progress and a block "finish" so I will be linking up at WIP Wednesdays at Freshly Pieced and Richard & Tanya's Link a Finish Friday.

Here is the block:

This is one of the June (I know, it's almost September) blocks for the Craftsy Block of the Month. It's called a Greek Cross. The cross was supposed to be all the same fabric, but I have been using only scraps and I thought these scraps would work even if they are not the same color. While doing it, I also learned about the ever popular "scant" 1/4 inch seam. It basically means that you sew the seams just a little bit under the 1/4 inch mark to make up for the area taken up by the stitch itself. It helps to keep highly pieced blocks from shrinking in size the more you sew pieces together. It worked nicely. There is another June block called the Octagon, which looks easy, but I have not got to that one yet. I am also doing the Quilt Story BOM, for which I am still on June as well :(

I also wanted to mention some of my useful tools that I used:

This is the first time I've used a rotating cutting mat. Wow, it's quite handy! I don't have to move the ruler or my body anymore!!! Great for half square triangles and trimming down blocks with a square. Also, my bloc-loc is always dandy! It makes perfect HSTs because it grabs the folded seam and lines up all the edges to trim them down to perfect squares (and gets rid of the dog ears). I love it! Also, I used the draw the line method for making HSTs so you can see my water soluble blue marker in the picture too. This method really saves you time.

I also wanted to mention that I am doing the Shades of Grey charm swap (from my last post) and I finally got all the fabric squares cut out and ready to mail off:

I found myself trying really hard to be exact. These will be used by others, so I could not just settle for close enough like I normally would.

Again, I am linking up at WIP Wednesdays at Freshly Pieced, and Link a Finish Fridays at Richard & Tanya Quilts.


Also, if you got this far and feel like commenting, I am currently looking for quilting ideas for quilting a quilt made entirely of hexagons. :) Right now, I am thinking of going with straight lines corner to corner, or maybe some sort design to make them pop, like just outside the ditch. Thoughts?

Until next time,
Mike.

I work hard for no money, dun-dun, dun-dun...

Well, I know it's been awhile since I've blogged about what I am up to, so here goes. And, as a coincidence it's WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced, and tomorrow is Link it up Thursday at These Peas Taste Funny, so I will link up at both.

First off, I finally finished my May block of the months for Quilt Story and for Craftsy:

I know, it's July. I'm behind. The top 2 are the hourglass blocks for Quilt Story and the bottom two are the Wonky Log Cabins for Craftsy. The hourglasses are so much like HSTs that I don't know if I care to distinguish them. Easy to make though. The Craftsy blocks were fun! No rules just cutting and sewing without any measurments. Loved it! Great Scrapbuster!

My mom, brother and sister-in-law were visiting from Kansas. I talked my Mom and Sis-in-law into making a block. I think I will try to talk other members of my family into doing so when they visit so that I can make a family quilt out of them.

 I'm still in hexie land, although I finished all the hexagon flowers and I have sewn them all on the the background fabric.

 I was spraying them on the back with my trusty 505 spray and then using a free motion stitch to straight stitch them on around the edge. At first I was just placing them on, but I realized it was getting wonky and bubbly, so the spray really made a difference. I was also using Isachord gold colored thread and it was not looking right. It was loose and there were loops on the back in places. I tried everything: new needle, different size needle, different thread/same thread in the boobin, tension, speed, cleaning out the bobbin. Nothing worked. Finally, I tried standing up the thread spool. I usually leave it down using Gutermann on a regular spool because the thread tension gets to be too much when standing up, but this Isachord was a large spool (green plastic) and when I stood it up, it worked perfectly! Note to self next time I am having issues.

 Hexies all sewn on...

I back piece, and this is one of the many backing fabrics I am using. I just loved it so much I had to take a picture. I got it at Joann's. They had a great 4th of July sale where not only were the fabrics etc. on sale, but they had a coupon for an additional 15% off the whole order! I stocked up :)

I also got a little something-something fat quarter bundles for my next giveaway. I will do it when I reach 200 followers (hint, hint follow me on the right through Google Friend Connect if you don't already).  I also started a facebook page ("like" my page by clicking on the Facebook button top right or the hyperlink I just put in). The only "like" I have right now is my own :(

I am linking up at Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesdays and Link it Up Thursdays at These Peas Taste Funny.





Until next time,

Mike.

BOM - a - gons!

OMG!!! I finally started working on the Craftsy Block of the Month for April. It's very time consuming. The topic is English paper piecing. It took me probably a total of 3 hours to make one block! I'm not unhappy that I learned a new technique and I thought that never in a million years would I be making hexagons. I especially never thought that I would be hand sewing anything! But, OMG, it would take me forever to make a quilt made of these blocks! I guess I always thought that a BOM was all about quick and easy projects that you could do "as you go" and in the end you would have an entire quilt that seemed it took you so little time to make. Not the case with this block! I'm happy with the turnout, but in this BOM there are 2 blocks a month. And, the second one is very similar in technique, so I know it will take me awhile. Anyway, here are the pics (first one is the finished block):

I am glad that I have now finally appliqued something. I decided not to do the hand applique. I just did a straight stitch "sew on" and to stabilize I used my trusty basting spray "505." Whew! What a project! It's pretty, but with my limited sewing time, I could never do such projects that take so long. I would have so many less "Friday finishes." :( I think for the second block I will take the "hexies" with me on the train to work so I can do it then. I only need the squares, templates, scissors and a needle/thread. That sounds like fun actually (besides all the weird looks I will get being male and in business casual).

I've decided to work on my HST (half square triangles for those that are new) for the Quilt Story BOM. I think this will not take me as long :)

Anyway, until next time,

Mike.

BOM, BOM, BOM, BOM, BOM... BOM BA DOOBY...

So, I didn't get selected for the Modern Mini Challenge, but it does appear that the finalists were quite talented. Either that, or they had a lot more time on their hands than I did. I think maybe we need a challenge/contest that would give beginners or those that don't have 5 hours a day to spend on piecing and quilting a chance :) Anyway, I BOM'd again today. Here are the photos:

 The Craftsy March block (1 of 2).

 Moral Support.

 All six of the blocks so far.

 Another Block of the Month at Quilt Story I am doing that I just started.

Hope you all enjoy the photos and progress! I find them very "peace" ful.

I'm linking up at Work In Progress (WIP) Wednesdays at Freshly Pieced and Create and Share at Trendy Treehouse:

Until next time, 

Mike.

I BOM'd today :)

The Craftsy BOM is sooooooo beginner. It's perfect for me. And, I'm learning a TON about piecing. That's why I was so excited about March 1st coming up. (Here are January and February). Well anyway, I finished the first block for March (there are 2 blocks every month):

It's called a String Block and you use what's called Foundation Piecing to do it.

The following pics are of my progress:

I was very impressed with it. It's very different. The one strange thing I noticed is how thick the fabric layers/block become as you go along. My only concern is that when I quilt it I will break a needle because of all the layers (especially with the seams). But I think the end result was absolutely beautiful.

Until next time, I love comments, +1's, followers and shares on Facebook or email :)

Mike.

I be BOM'n...

I've been doing the free tutorial at Craftsy for the Block of the Month. I just finished February. There are 2 blocks every month (20 total) and they are designed to teach you new piecing techniques. January was an Asterisk and a Wonky Pound Sign.  February was a Chunky Chevron and a Balkan Puzzle (Windblown Star). The cool thing about February was it focused on half square triangles and 2 different ways to make them. I was very impressed. My second finished quilt was made with half square triangles, but I sewed them together individually and did not realize there were other techniques that could be easier and save you time. 

The first technique (used on the Balkan Puzzle) was to add 2 inches to the size of the finished square and then sew the two fabrics together all along the outside of the square (all four edges at once) then you cut it on both diagonals. You end up with 4 squares from one, already sewn together after you cut it.

The second technique (which I like the best) was to add one inch to the finished square (even though you only need 7/8 inches added) then draw a line on the diagonal of one of the fabric square backs and sew the 2 fabrics together a 1/4 inch on each side of the line, then cut along the line. You end up with 2 finished squares, but what I really liked about it is that you have to square it down to the finished size which makes them come out as perfectly finished squares. Sometimes when making the half square triangles the old fashioned way, they come out wonky. This makes them perfectly shaped!

Anyway, here are the photos:

I used fabric that I had in my scrap pile for most of the stuff, but some of it was fat quarters that I had picked up over time. I hope you enjoyed! I am looking forward to March. It's called Foundation Piecing, but that is all they information they give you. I have no idea what that is, and I'm not going to Google it :)

Until next time!

Mike.