my 1st Friday Finishes for 2014

 Here is my 1st Friday Finishes for 2014

I decided to join the QUILTING group on Face book for their monthly BOM - a Paper Pieced Postcard, rug-mug & wall quilt.  Each month we will be given a Paper piecing pattern to use to make all 3 - I completed my Pieced Postcard Block #1 and am working on my mug rug. Since I love paper piecing I do think I will Enjoy these projects.  

I have finished my Pieced Postcard Block #2 and have made it into a mug rug. it just needs binding and it will be complete. 

Pieced and Quilted PostCard Block #2

a close up of the crazy quilting I did on this block

This is the Rug Mug made using Pieced & Quilted Postcard Block #2

My Paper Pieced Pineapple Block

My Finished Paper Pieced Pineapple Block with border added
 

Today I would love to share with you how I choose to make my pineapple block for my Piano runner.  When planning my piano runner I 1st chose the log cabin block for my main blocks - a no brainer.  I love the versatility of that block and the colors I chose were very muted but I felt I needed a POP of color.  I  pondered over which type of block to use to accomplish this and the Pineapple block came to mind.  I had made one about a year ago when my quilting group was learning about the different blocks. I couldn't find my notes and was not sure how to make one - so I googled "how to make a pineapple block" and looked at all the options.  Wow a lot of choices and many tutorials.  Here is how I did mine.

 The pattern I liked was by Kathleen Brown After finding a 6" block design that I liked I printed it out several times.  I choose my colors from my fat quarters and cut 1" strips from my light and dark fabric.  Then I measured the middle section and cut out my center to match (always adding 1/4" seam allowance all around.  I used my glue stick to adhere it to the unprinted side face up.  Placed my #2 fabric face down the ctr fabric and pinned it, flipped it over and sewed on the line.  I used a short stitch ( that makes it esier to take off the paper when finished.  I repeated for the other three positions then I flipped it to the fabric side and I finger pressed open # 1 fabric using a cool tool from Clover.

I measured each succeeding line, adding 1/2"  for seam allowance (1/4"each side), cutting 4 of each length for the following row.  Before pinning them down I trimed off excess fabric



the pattern from Kathleen Brown
 

My inspiration for the New Year.

Winter Fun

 

 

Log Cabin mini quilt pins,  I'm off to my studio to make more of these little cuties - my aim is to fill a basket of these little log cabin blocks from my scraps. 

My Mini-Quilt is finished

The finished quilt front - note the quilting in the ditch with the stars

I finished my quilt and renamed it "Christmas Star/Autumn Pumpkins"  It is 14" x14" square.  I enjoyed making this little quilt and sharing it with all of you.  After I finished paper-piecing my middle star within a star with fabrics from my stash, (the smaller star was hand pieced), I took a look at my stash to determine what I could use for my double borders and I just loved the black & gold print for the smaller border and then used a beautiful green mistletoe for the larger border.  I did make both borders a little larger than the pattern called for and I love the way it turned out.  I then decided to machine quilt it using clear thread in both the bobbin and the upper thread, (since the print was so busy I did not want to distract from it).  I did stitch in the ditch for my center star and then used my machine embroidery stitch for the squiggly lines in my outer border.





note the surface stitching on the pumpkin block, the quilting that was
 done on the front shines thru on the back side of this quilt



Choosing the backing for my piece was a little harder - mmmm - What would it look like if I used autumn colors on the back?  I had some leftover blocks from a project I did last year, I could add a small border and then applique it onto the back...So my reversible quilt was born.  I chose a multicolor striped fabric, (leftover from some Christmas projects), to use on the back.  I did some surface quilting on my pumpkins with some small stippling in the background & outlining the pumpkins to give some texture and help them stand out.  Then I applied the block by using the same squiggly lines around the border after carefully lining up the patch to match the small border on the "Christmas Star" side.  You can see the quilting that I did on the front much better on the Autumn side.  I do think it turned out well and would love your comments.  right now it is hanging out on my livingroom sofa table and does look quite handsome there. 


 



 Surface Quilting: This is where I quilted on the surface with the batting underneath and then applied the block to the background surface.  This way I could quilt the pumpkins without interfering with the quilting done on the front of the quilt.

"A Star is Born" mini Quilt






A Star is Born mini quilt








I used a small stich on my machine for paper piecing. 







The center was paper pieced by hand
& the outer star was machine pieced



Today I finished the top on my mini quilt and then quilted it.  I do like the way it turned out, a little busy but ok. I was not sure I would get this far today, only need to apply the binding then I am done. I hand pieced the center star then used my sewing machine to piece the outer larger star.  I almost forgot to decrease my stitch length as I did the stitching for the larger star.  I did have fun going thru my stash and deciding what I would use for the inner and outer borders.   The ones I choose were at the bottom of my stash - Since bothe borders are very busy I decided to just quilt in the ditch for the center stars and small border then I used my machine stitch to quilt a squigly line on the larger border using clear thread.   this did give the quilt some dimension but did not add to the busyness of the fabriic itself.   

Update on The Mini-Quilt

Using templates to do the center square

Hand sewing my cut fabrics together

Pressing with the "Hera" marker

A close up

the finished ctr square

I have decided to Hand Sew my Mini Quilt so I could sit in my comfy easy chair, watch "Gold Rush" and a few other favorite shows and work on my piecing.  1st I looked thru my scrap bag for fabric scraps I wanted to use & prepared the scraps by using "Mary Ellen's" Best Press clear starch alternative to give them some stiffness. (I always use a square of muslin under them to catch the spray & protect my Ironing board).  After pressing the fabrics  I measured paper piecing templates given in my pattern & made templates out of "Dritz" No-melt Mylar template plastic. I cut my pieces and began hand stitching the center together. I pressed open the seams using my "Hera" marker , a handy tool I discovered to help give me a sharp "finger" pressing without having to go back and forth to use my iron.

 

 

 Products I used to help me with this project.

Finish Up Friday came to soon!

Wow this week went fast.  last week I was able to finish some of my projects but did not get them on my site in time and this week went so fast.  It started out a little slow, I think I was bummed out because my back is still painful even tho I got a Steroid Injection on the 26th, I was hoping for some relief in order to give my R shoulder a little more healing time before needing Surgery on my back.  (it's been 9 1/2 weeks now since surgery and my arm is getting so much stronger.  Then Tuesday I had an appointment with the Pulmonologist and got some news I did not want to hear...A new diagnosis of Arthritic Lung due to my Rhuemetoid Arthritis.  Oh! well at least she will be following me on this and that's a good thing but it did leave me bummed out a bit.

 I have not been able to be sitting at my sewing machine much this week so I started a small Mini Quilt project that I can do with paper piecing by hand sitting in my more comfortable living room chair. (see my previous post).  I will be posting updates in regard to my new project so keep an eye out. 

Project - a small quilt.

 

 

Last summer a friend gave me a whole box of old quilting magazines she had gathered from her mother's home.  I was thrilled to recieve these magazines.  I would take a handful from the box and place them at my bedside where I could read thru them at bedtime and during the night when I awoke.  I love to read thru old quilting magazines, the patterns are so lovley and they are so inspiring.  I came across one magazine called "Small Quilts" -spring/summer 2004 edition and came across one pattern that I just fell in love with.  "A Star is Born", was originally an orphan block quilted by reader Deborah Hersko from Spokane Wa..  She had sent in her paper pieced block to a recent orphan block challange.  Sr Editor Jean Ann Wright took the block and added lovley borders to the block which resulted in this sweet 12" mini quilt.  I took a look at the pattern and thought of the bag of scraps my friend Elaine had given to me...(I love to collect scraps from my friends.)  There were some pretty christmasy scraps in there I could use.  I copied the templates and choose the fabrics.  This was the my 1st time working with such small pieces.  I liked the results but I found that the pieces did not lay flat so I used some spray starch and gave it a light press with a dry Iron. This did result in a nice flat piece as shown in the 1st picture above. 

 

I found using the small templates and the fabric rather difficult so I decided to Spray starch my fabrics before cutting them with a dry Iron.  I am also thinking of making a template using this piece of mylar I had to see if I could be more presise in my piecing.  I will let you how well this works for me