Caught in a Spiderweb

Coming Together

Stictching Sections

Raw Edges

Exact Edges

Falling Into Line

Back to the Beginning

I've been fooling around with the wacky web quilt ruler template and paper pieces from Missouri Star Quilt Company (they have the best online tutorials!) so I can make a spiderweb quilt, hurrah! It's taken a couple of months for me to finish of sixteen of these suckers. Really it took only two afternoons, separated by a couple of months, to be more specific.

I wanted to go for dark edges grading into a bright sunny center but I wasn't sure how this was going to go until I trimmed out 16 triangle blocks and put them together...and I love it! Enough that I think I've motivated myself to make three more sections like this so I can make a throw.  Stay tuned. At the rate I'm going I'll be done next February, but that's just fine.

XO Terez

Half Square Triangle: Fussy Cut DIY Template

Fussy Half-Square Triangle

This morning I popped out of bed with an idea of a quilt I wanted to cut up. It was 6:30. I had today off. Why the rush? Most of the fabrics I wanted to use were pre washed, but three important pieces were not. And I don't have laundry in my building. And it was 16 degrees outside.


Too the bathtub I went!

To the Tub

I tossed in half-yards of some Lizzy House, Amy Butler and Sandy Gervais. Woolite. Warmish water (to help with the pre-shrink).

No dryer? No problem! The radiators were on and toasty warm. A fan helped circulate the air. About 90 minutes later, I was in business.

Dryer Dilemma: Solved!

I was ready to cut. And cut. And cut.

Peach and Pink Palette

When I got to the Sandi Henderson Meadowsweet, I knew I wanted to be verrrry careful. For this quilt I've challenged myself to tackle the half square triangle block. For most sewers, it's pretty basic. I'm intimidated by the bias sewing and a bunch of other jazz.  And I want to control exactly what appears on the triangle when the seams are sewn and pressed. Because you lose a half inch of the square, diagonally down the middle, when you sew it up, it's not as easy as imagining the square folded in half to get what you want.

"I need a custom ruler," I think to myself.

Well of course, I'll just make one!

Do It Yourself

First I traced out a 5 inch square on some template plastic. Then I drew dotted lines down the diagonal center, both directions. I wanted to know what part of the image would be lost by the center seam, to I drew a line 1/4 of an inch from the center line on either side.

Seam Allowances

I then drew a 1/4 inch boarder around the whole square--so I know exactly what fabric will be lost in the other seams.  I traced out my template with water soluble fabric marker like this:

Tracing the Square

See how the solid red diagonal line goes through the center of the flower? That's what I wanted. The top left triangle, when matched with a solid, will press open and look like a sun rising. That does mean the bottom right triangle will look different when pressed open, but that's ok. I'll save it for another project.

Bordering Brilliant!

So now my half yard of "vintage paisley" looks like Swiss cheese--if Swiss cheese was orderly and had sharp cube shaped bubbles. But it worked! Stay tuned.

XO Terez

Disappearing 9 Patch

Disappearing 9 Patch Draft

This year I was certain I would make Christmas gifts for most folks on my list. It seemed like a good idea in September, but not such a good idea on December 23 when I was sewing the wrong-side-to-the-right-side of some complicated items. I had to walk away, fly home, and finish the little guys on my parents' Pfaff at the last minute:

Pin Cushion Cut-astrophe

They are darling pin cushion caddies from Anna Maria Horner's Seams To Me book. In the end I was able to save them, and give them, but for now perhaps should stick to straight lines and two dimensions. You'll notice on the lower right of the photo above a half-finished pin cushion that I was making for my sister-in-law, Michele. I loved the red-white-blue combo and started playing around with some fabric I had left at my parents' house combined with pin cushion scraps. I started sewing random 16-1/2 inch 9 patch blocks and came up with this:

9 Patch-Patch

I knew all along while sewing these delights that I was going to put them under the knife, like this:

Split Patch

I also knew I'd be doing this:

Cut Into Corners

Which let me do this:

After walking away from it, and packing it up, and hauling it back to Boston, I still love it. I need to add some more darks and I have a few more patterns and solid to blend, but I'm off to a good start. I'll keep you posted.

XO! TEREZ

Cotton Constellation

Cotton Constellation

My little quilt galaxy is complete!

This weekend I completed the final two "test blocks" of the Texas Star template and pinned them to my shades in the back room for a colorful constellation. A few things I learned:

Allowances

The seam allowance contraption was incredibly helpful at keeping the seams to 1/4". Training wheels, I suppose, but well worth it.

Get to the Point

Sewing on the bias is tricky. Much easier if the fabric is starched and precisely pinned. I also learned you can burn starch, and in turn, burn the fabric. Following the written instructions are important; someone took the time to write and illustrate them for a reason. On the last two blocks (the green and blue and blue and yellow two, on the left) my seams were much straighter and the blocks went together a lot easier when I followed the pressing, pinning and sewing directions.
 

Reality

I am a messcat. This isn't news, but I had barely finished trimming, pinning, sewing and installing before my work table was a complete mess. My next two projects are scattered about, waiting impatiently for me to get on with it.

Three Wishes

The experiment was a delight! Now I'm ready for the real thing, with some favorite fabric pieces. Stay tuned!

XO Terez

Golden Afternoon

Golden Afternoon Selvege

The Chez Terez studio's state of affairs has been in a sad state indeed.  My workroom, lucky enough to contain four Northwest facing windows, is flooded with full-sun from June to September and it's simply to hot to work in there. Instead it has become a repository for every craft supply I've bought or scavenged and after a terrible attempt to move large pieces of furniture by myself yesterday, it looked like this:

Buried Treasure

I was in the middle of moving that metal drawer of paper crafts and I was too lazy to move the Scrabble dice game to safety, and well, you can see how successful that was.

Solo Stretching

Mid-clean spree, I decided to put the extra leaf in my work table. Alone. I re-enacted it in the photo above to give you the full experience.

After four hours, the place was back in business. Tonight every craft item is sorted and with its proper neighbors. Stamps with stamp pads, fabric sorted and folded, beads and pliers stacked neatly, printmaking inks stored properly, rulers hung on the wall. It is a thing of beauty.

I started working on a star quilt:

Start of Star Quilt

I still don't have a proper design wall. I found a piece of white felt, some clothespins and a spare curtain rod and rigged this up:

Star Quilt Test

Which worked great until I knocked into it while rooting around in the closet:

Star Quilt Fail

That only strengthened my resolve. What good is one star quilt when I could be making three at the same time? But forget the design wall, I'm back to basics: a freshly made bed will do just as well to test the layout:

Star Quilt Redo

Stay tuned. I should have a spectacular constellation to show and tell next week.

XO TEREZ

Anna Maria Horner Out of Print Jackpot

Out of Print Anna Maria Horner Jackpot!

Before I left for the great Cape Escape with Angela-Girl, I did something I'd been putting off:
Cataloged all of my fabric.

Making a List, Checking It Twice

After two years of collecting I now know that there are two lines that are my favorites (and why, oh why didn't I know this when they were in print and easier to come by?). Anyone who's been to my home or read this blog for a while can guess what they are: Anna Maria Horner's Garden Party and Good Folks.

Garden Party and Good Folks Rainbow Pre-Cape

I cataloged all of my fabric...not just those two lines, but also my AMH Little Folks Voile, Folksy Flannels, Sandi Henderson's Meadowsweet, Sandy Gervais, scraps, etc., etc. Gave me a hand cramp and made me realize with all the time I spend at a computer keyboard, my handwriting is really going downhill. I filled my red Moleskin with chicken scratches and notations in preparation of my much anticipated visit to Tumbleweed Quilts in West Barsnstable on Cape Cod!

Poor Angela-Girl isn't a fabric gal, so she relaxed in the air-conditioned rental car with the latest New Yorker while I oohed and ahhed inside the adorable (and huge) shop.

The staff was incredibly helpful, and when they told me they didn't have too much Anna Maria Horner, mostly older bits and some in the clearance room, I could hardly contain my glee! Filed in with the other Freespirit designers and stacked in the back clearance area, I found my own personal jack pot:

AMH Festival in Tangerine, Fortune in Chocolate,
Table Cloth in Brown, Mingling in Rose,
Dance Floor in Burgundy

The Table Cloth and Mingling were on clearance, $5 a yard, so I had to buy four of each, of course. And when I found the Festival in Tangerine, I could have cried: I have been coveting that print for months and have been unable to find it anywhere--Etsy, eBay, etc. I snagged what was left on the bolt: just over four yards. I'm thinking of trying my hand at garment sewing--I think the pattern would make a cute summer sun dress or skirt.

Another item crossed off my list: starting a stash of Kona Cotton Solids:

Kona Cottons: Grass Green, Kiwi, Jade Green, Emerald,
Eggplant, Rich Red, Bright Pink, Pomegranate, Orange,
Corn Yellow

I did jot down the colors as they were cut but I'm not entirely sure which is which so please don't count on my caption above to make any certain purchases. I had a sample of scraps from my AMH collection that I used to figure out which colors I wanted to start with. I've been looking on the web for recommendations on Kona Cottons to pick up to use as blenders for Garden Party  and Good Folks and haven't seen any lists, so here's mine for any who are interested:

~*Grass Green
~*Kiwi
~*Jade Green
~*Emerald
~*Eggplant
~*Rich Red
~*Bright Pink
~*Pomegranate
~*Orange
~*Corn Yellow

I'm learning the power of solids and neutral blenders--I have some Fat Quarters coming in next week from the Michael Miller Ta Dot line~I'll keep you posted on how that works. I'm off to the cutting table and the Lady Singer...more to come!

XO Terez

Go Big or Go Home Dresden Plate

Dresden Blades

Ever since I started fiddling around with fabric I've wanted to make a Dresden Plate quilt but it was always in the "someday" column of my wish list...until today.

Dresden plates are made up of 20 individual "blades" that form a flower around a circle center. Most folks make them small enough to applique on to a 12 or 15 inch quilt block and then sew a quilt of many blocks, many plates. I am not most people.

I found a terrific template for the beginning quilter at a tiny shop in Wakefield, Mass. I've seen small wedges you can purchase to make the standard size block, but I wanted something spectacular, and I found it, in this Trace'N Create Quilt template from Clover:

Trace 'n Create Quilt Dresden Wedge

Yahoo! This thing is game changing, even magical. Simply pick out the size of Dresden plate you want to make, trace out the easy pattern on to fabric, rotary cut, pin, sew and go! Sizes range from 12" blocks to 40" blocks! Start to finish this 40 inch wonder took about 6 hours. That includes cutting a lot of other fabric for pending niece and nephew quilts and ripping apart the Singer 301 five times due to feed dogs/bobbin case/throat plate issues--so I could probably do it again in three. But I prevailed, and now have this to show for it:

Go Big or Go Home Dresden Plate

You can see my BlackBerry in the lower right corner--I tossed that on the full-sized bed to show the scale. Now I just need to pick out a center and figure out what in the heck I am going to applique this to! I'm thinking either white canvas or flannel to make a nice opaque window treatment for my kitchen, or heading to Marshall's to find a twin-sized simple white cotton quilt or throw and then applique right on it.

I'll keep you posted.

Until then, try strawberries, They are just coming into season and taste amazing right now:

Summer Supper

Also, here's a hint of what's to come:

Tangerine Dream

XO Terez