I’ve been working on a new quilt, using LOTS of half square triangles, for the past few weekends. If you aren’t familiar with half square triangles, they are used in a ton of different quilt patterns but aren’t always as easy as they seem. Personally, I have a love/hate relationship with half square triangles. I absolutely love the way they look in quilts. I love the contrast between lights and darks. There are no curves involved in half square triangles. (I will avoid curves at all cost.) The only problem is that they can sometimes turn out wonky. You need to be sure you use a perfect 1/4″ seem, make your cuts carefully, and then be sure to press carefully. If you iron, it can pull the fabric in different directions. I’ve actually been using a tailor’s clapper, lately, after pressing. That’s a tool that really seems to help. More on that in another post.

I’m not going to lie, there is a lot of trimming when it comes to half square triangles. Every single square needs to be trimmed to be sure it’s squared up. There are little dog ears that also need to be cut off. So, anything that makes this job easier, is awesome.

I bought the Clearly Perfect Slotted Trimmers. So far, I’m loving that each little triangle is perfect.

This is the work in progress on my half square triangle quilt. It also shows my portable design wall. I don’t really know what my portable design wall is, but I bought it at Lowe’s and it’s basically a piece of styrofoam with a shiny silver topping. I pinned a piece of batting to it and then I can stick my half square triangles on it to see if I like the layout. Truth be told… on rainy days, my husband plays ball with the dog, up and down this hallway. If I want the half square triangles to stick, I have to pin them or just pick up the whole board and move it onto the dining room table. That’s the beauty of having a styrofoam design wall… it’s very light weight.

By the way, this super cute fabric is called Meander. It’s from Moda Fabrics. Look at those perfect half square triangles! The points even match up! Guys, this might be a first for me.

Happy quilting!

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One of my most recent projects is called Farm Girl Vintage.  I has blocks filled with everything I love. There are traditional blocks mixed with canning jars, mixing bowls, red barns, and fall leaves.  Quilters always say that their favorite quilt is the one they are currently working on, but this time I really think it’s true.

Farm Girl Vintage Quilt

I bought the book several months ago after seeing some adorable blocks on Instagram.

Farm Girl Vintage Book

Then I started collecting vintage fabrics.  Specialty quilt shops are my favorite places to go for quilting fabric.  When I first started sewing, I couldn’t understand why anyone would pay the price at a quilt store, rather than the local Jo-Ann.  I finally get it.  The quality of the material is so much better and the fabric lines are coordinated to go together.  It’s a no-fail way to select fabric you know will go together.

Vintage fabrics

Today I finished my pumpkin block.

Pumpkin Block

Last week I whipped out a maple leaf block.

Maple Leaf Block

The Baking Day block was the reason I bought the book in the first place.  I fell in love with this adorable block and knew I had to make the quilt.

Baking Day Block

One by one, the blocks are getting done.  It’s going to be a big project and take a lot of time to complete.  I’ve never tried a Sampler Quilt before, so it will be an artistic adventure.

Churn Dash Block

It’s hard to decide which block I like the best!

If you are interested in the book, you can find it at local quilt shops or on Amazon (although it’s not available in Prime).  I’d say this is a more advanced quilt, but if you can follow directions and sew a straight line, you can do it!

Canning Season Block

Happy Sewing.

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I think I may even take these quilts to the beach with us, and snap a few pictures.  How can you resist taking pictures of projects made with Salt Air, when you’re at the beach.  (Ok, that just shows how incredibly dorky I am.)

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 When I got the urge to start this quilt, the fabric had been sitting on my sewing table for quite a while and I really had no plans for it, so a quilt seemed like a good choice.  I wanted something simple and mindless.  I wasn’t in the mood to think too hard about measurements and fabric placement.  I just wanted to sew.  I came up with a VERY simple quilt top, which I figured I’d try free motion quilting on.  I wasn’t too excited about the free motion quilting part of that idea, so when I finished, the quilt tops sat there for about half of the year.  Finally, I decided it was time to get these quilts out of the craft room and into the family room.  While I was at it, I took pictures of the quilt binding process.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn to bind a quilt, here’s the step by step tutorial.  If you really don’t care, please don’t waste your time reading this, because it’s very picture heavy.

I use 2 1/2 inch strips when I make quilt bindings.  I use a cutting mat, rotary cutter, and quilting ruler to make sure my strips are perfect.

 

Once the strips are cut, it’s time to join them together.  I place two pieces (right sides together) and sew from corner to corner.  I overlapped a little on the ends of each piece because I knew I’d cut that part off.  You can draw a line to follow if you’d like, but I just eyeball it.

Cut off the extra fabric.

When you open in up, it looks like this.  Press the seams to one side and then keep adding more strips in the same way.

Next, you need to iron your fabric.  In the past I would fold my fabric, wrong sides together, finger press it down, and then iron it.  It’s not hard and it’s not too time consuming, but then I spotted this cool contraption on a quilting show on PBS. (There I go again, admitting that I spend my spare time watching sewing shows on public television. Nerd alert!)  This is a binding maker from Singer.  It is so cool! It folds, presses, and spits out perfect quilt binding in about 2 minutes. 

It comes out of the machine perfectly pressed.  That little piece on the end is the iron. It has a little roller in it so everything is automatic.  If you sew, you know how cool this is!  It even makes piping, although I haven’t tried that yet.  Ok, so if you don’t have this cool machine, just fold the fabric in half and iron.  That’s the way I have made it for the past 15 years and it works just fine. 

Just one more picture of my fun new toy doing its thing.

Ok, maybe just one more.  See how it fold the fabric for you before going into the iron.  You can get that tip in other sizes too.  It’s “sew” much fun!

When you’re done pressing, you’ll have a pile of quilt binding.  Get ready to sew.

The first thing I do is trim my starting edge at an angle.

Then I open it up and fold it back.

When you close the fabric back up, it gives you a clean edge.

To start binding my quilts, I usually don’t start at a corner.  I just pick somewhere in the middle, at the bottom, and line my binding fabric up.  You’ll notice that I have the raw edge of my quilt lined up with the raw edge of my binding fabric. The over hanging fabric is my quilt batting, and you can’t see it but the backing fabric is there too.

Line the presser foot up along the edge of the fabric, backtack a few stitches and then start sewing a straight line.

 

When you get just about to the end, maybe a quarter of an inch away, backstitch about an inch.

Pull the binding fabric back on top of itself, so it folds into a 45 degree angle.

Then, fold it back on top of itself, lining the edge up with the next side you need to sew.

I know that’s kind of tricky.  Let’s try that one more time.  I’m close to the edge.

Backstitch an inch.

Fold.

Fold and line up with the new side.

Then, you can lift your presser foot, turn your quilt, and get ready to sew the next side.

 

When you get to the end, turn the fabric under again, like you did at the beginning.  That gives it a nice clean edge.

Finish sewing the binding down. 

Hey, look at that!  Someone got a pretty new cutting mat!  I really needed a new cutting mat and found this one in red.  I’ve never seen a red cutting mat before, but I’m loving it!

I use my ruler and rotary cutter to remove the extra batting and backing fabric.  I line the quilt ruler up along the edge of the binding fabric and cut.  This still leaves that 1/4 inch seam allowance.  Don’t cut that off, because it’s what makes the binding fluffly.

When you’re done trimming, the quilt will look like this.

Flip the quilt to the back side, roll the fabric around the edge and pin.  I really hate pinning, so I only do it when I really have to.  The first couple of times you bind a quilt, you’ll want to pin.  After that, just hold it with your fingers and go for it.

When you are sewing the binding down, you want to get REALLY close to the edge.  See how my needle is right next to the edge of the binding fabric.  I want to go right along that edge.  It takes some practice.

 

When you get to a corner, you’ll need to fold the fabric.

It makes a nice mitered corner. When you get to the point, put the needle down into the fabric, and turn the quilt so you can keep sewing.

Keep going all the way around the quilt.

Here’s my finished quilt.  I can’t say I’m in love with it.  I love the fabrics, but I’m a little bored with the finished product.  

I did get to try my hand at machine quilting.  I made the swirly patterns in the big squares, which is something I’ve never done before.

I made two of these quilts and put them over the chairs in my family room.  They add a little color and I’m happy about that.  If you’re working on a quilt of your own, I’d love to see it.  You can email me a picture at homeiswheremystorybegins@gmail.com.

Happy quilting!

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Well, those vintage sheets sat in my cupboard for quite a long time.  I didn’t really know what I was going to do with them and it was a ton of fabric.  I was a bit overwhelmed.  Then, one day, I decided that doing something (anything) was better than nothing, so I started cutting them up.  (More on that later.  I definitely learned a few things about how to tackle the cutting phase.)  I decided to cut the sheets in fat quarters and then use the fabric to make a little quilt.

What do you think?  Not bad for a bunch of old sheets!  I used a combination of 5 inch squares from sheets and 5 inch plain white fabric squares. I wanted to make a small quilt because I think it’s a good example of a simple quilt that even a beginner could do.  I did my own quilting on this one. I’ve always enjoyed taking my quilts to my quilt lady to finish up for me.  I know how to do my own quilting, but it’s my least favorite part of the whole process.  I figured if I made a quilt that was small enough, I could tackle quilting it myself.  Surprisingly, I didn’t hate the process and I didn’t even hate the finished product.  (Usually, when I try to do it on my own, I end up cringing every time I look at it.)  This time, I think it turned out ok!  I think the quilting pattern adds to the overall look too.

My daughter’s eyes lit up when she saw the finished quilt.  I think she almost had a bit of panic when she asked who this was for, probably afraid I was going to give it away.  I told her I was going to use it as a sample, but that she could have it when I was done taking pictures of it.  In her very calm voice she sighed and said, “I really love that one.”

So, friends, I have several of these vintage sheet fat quarter bundles all packaged up. I have also written up the pattern for this quilt with super-easy instructions.  This is a great beginner quilt.  The vintage sheet bundles are available for purchase.  Feel free to email me and I can hook you up.  (homeiswheremystorybegins@gmail.com)  The bundles will be selling for $12 per pack of 7 fat quarters. For those of you who are unfamiliar with fat quarters, it is an 18″x22″ rectangle.

I’m kind of in love with vintage sheets now.

Happy quilting!

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The Baking Day block was the one that caught my eye on Instagram and I just couldn’t resist! Throw in a vintage rolling pin and sifter, and it makes a pretty cute photo too (except for the lack of daylight, making an exceptionally dark photo).

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http://www.camilleroskelley.typepad.com/

Camille is also a fabric designer for Moda and a Craftsy instructor.  Maybe that’s how she gets all of those fat quarter bundles and jelly rolls!

http://www.camilleroskelley.typepad.com/

I’ve been inspired by Camille’s patterns and photos of quilts she has made.  My biggest take-away has been to use more solids in my background. I think it gives quilts a modern look, but keeps the light and bright feel.  I’ve been using solid white, solid cream, or solid tan lately on my quilts and I’m loving the way they are turning out.  The Swoon quilt, below, will be one of my next quilts.  Camille teaches this one in her Craftsy class.  I’m hoping to get started over Christmas break.

In one of Camille’s books, she mentioned that the actual quilting part is her favorite step in making a quilt.  Well, that’s always been my least favorite step, so she’s inspired me to give in another try.  I’ll let you know how it goes.  I hope it turns out half as beautiful as the quilting on Swoon!

http://www.camilleroskelley.typepad.com/

Allison Harris is the author of the Cluck, Cluck, Sew blog, and she also has a new book out.  The title of her book is Growing Up Modern.  Again, it’s taken a bit of getting used to, but I like referring to the quilts that Allison and Camille do, as modern.  Allison’s quilts have the same light and bright feel that Camille’s do.  I love her use of white solids for the background fabrics.

I really enjoy it when the authors of blogs share a bit about their personal lives.  It helps me get to know them as people, rather than just getting to know their art/craft/project.  A while back, Allison’s family got a bunny and she’s been sharing photos.  Being a bunny owner myself,  I suddenly liked her even more.  (I can’t even begin to tell you how experiences raising animals enrich a child’s life!)

http://www.cluckclucksew.com/

I just want to scoop them up and snuggle them!

Allison designs patterns, writes books, quilts, and snuggles bunnies and her own kids in her spare time.  Here’s a great example of a modern quilt, using the latest fabrics.  Doesn’t this look like something you’d love to curl up under while watching a movie? I love her use of color.  It’s still light and bright, put it’s not pastel.  The white background really helps accentuate the colors in the hashtags.

http://www.cluckclucksew.com/

The picture, below, might just illustrate why she could be my BFF.  Take a look at this organization!  Ahh.  I hear angels singing.

http://www.cluckclucksew.com/

I’m off to go organize my fabric stash or pile some little squares of fabric!

Happy quilting!

(Pictures in this post were used with permission from the blog authors.)

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