Now how do I quilt my small quilts?

 Before I start this post, I want you to know that I'm not an experienced machine quilter.  I enjoy it and love to do it on smaller quilts. Remember, this is just how I do it.  Anything that's too big goes off to a long arm machine quilter. 

 This quilt is Social Climber, the latest one that our Simple Whatnots Club did.  

In a lot of the quilts that I've quilted, I let the piecing of the blocks be my guide.  When I quilted Social Climber (above), I just did straight lines on the nine patches.  The squares in the nine patches are 1'" so straight lines seem to work best for me.  That is an easy way to do nine patches or anything with squares where you can mark a straight line (the longer, the better) and just sew across the quilt.  

This quilt from the Simple Whatnots club is Box of Chocolates.  I used a chalk marker that you can find on Amazon to mark the lines.   The straight sewing is pretty easy with just squares.  

This is the small Strawberry Table Mat that I did the tutorial for in this blog post.    You can see that I did a swoopy thing in each block.  I did that because I think it's harder to quilt straight lines when you've got half square triangles in a quilt.  

So here is how I quilted the Strawberry mat and the basket blocks in Social Climber.  (Thanks to my husband for drawing the graphic.)  If  you start at number 1 and follow the numbers, you will eventually end up at the top right hand corner and will finish quilting across the top and end up back at number 1.   This is what I call the Swoopy Design.  

The quilt below is Star Drift.  That's the first quilt I did from the Simple Whatnots club.  I did some swooping and straight lines on this one.  

This table runner, Out for A Spin,  is our project for next month.  

Here's what I really like to quilt.  If you Google Angela Walters Paisley and watch her video or any of her quilting videos, she really makes you feel like you can do it.  I go to the dollar store and get a sketch pad for $1.  Well, I guess it's $1.25 now, and I get a marker.  Then I watch her video and  try and draw what I've seen in the video on the sketch pad.  I start in the corner of the page and draw what  I've seen and try and work my way across the page filling it with the design and then try and get the whole page covered.  Like I said before:  I'm not good, but I really enjoy it.  

Our Simple Whatnots leader, Nancy, draws up a design each month for a charity block so if we want to make a few to donate to her, we can.  Then she makes them into tops and quilts them to donate to different charities.   I have some  a lot of Lori Holt fabric so I used some to make the rail fence blocks.  

This month's charity block is a half log cabin.  Here's what I've made so far.  

I've been doing some embroidery,  and of course I'm always gluing hexagons.  I don't really have much else to show right now.  Doing the little quilts and making the charity blocks is keeping me busy for the most part.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  

I hope you're finding time to stitch today!!

Where has July gone?

Hello Everyone    I didn't mean to stay away this long.  Things are fine; I've just been busy.  

I didn't take one photo of our July 4th get together or the food or the cupcakes I baked and our grandsons decorated, so I'll show you some of the decorations I still have out.  

I made this wreath a couple of years ago from one of the Stitching with the Housewives videos.  

 

I made up the pattern for this afghan.  I can crochet granny squares without a pattern.  I just pick up a hook and some yarn and do it without thinking.  

I had leftover yarn so I made this square.  

The quilt and pillow are more of my designs.  

This little flag is from the Little Quilts book from years ago.  

I have more cross stitch to finish into pillows.  These are from last year.  

 

This pillow is a diagonal crochet pillow cover I kind of made up.  It's not perfect in the back, but the front is OK.   The quilt is Turkey Tracks a pattern by Bonnie Hunter.

This is one of my patterns for sale in my Etsy shop.  

Patriotic cross stitch.  

My daughter made the Stars and Stripes diamond painting for me.  

This pillow cover is just 2" squares hand quilted with big stitch quilting.  

I've worked a little bit on the Tea and Cake quilt by Judy Newman.  I don't now what it is about that blue round, but I had to lay it out on the table and fit the pieces in like a jigsaw puzzle.  I don't know if it's the shape or what.,  I think it might be that there is really no  rhyme or reason as to how it goes together (or at least that's how it seemed to me).  I've got this much sewn together so I picked it up and have wandered off and am working on something else.  

We didn't see too much smoke here from the Canadian fires, but it was pretty hazy for a couple of days,  I don't know if that's what accounts for the beautiful sunsets we've been having or not.   Here is just one of them.  

 

I'll try not to stay so long next time.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  

I hope you're finding some time to stitch today.

 

Did somebody say squirrel??? More projects

Hello everyone and thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you're keeping cool during this heat wave that is covering much of the country.  

Awhile back, I just went on a trip to Back Door quilts, my local LQS,  to pick up something for a project I was working on.  Now I can't remember what it was because someone said squirrel, and off I went after it.

This is Star Drift, one of the little quilts in the Kim Diehl Simple Whatnots Club.  

This all started off quite innocently.    That day when I went into Back Door Quilts to get whatever it was that I went after, Rose was working there that day.  She heads up the group Knotty Girls that meets on the second Tuesday afternoon of the month.  The group is for hand stitching only so you can cross stitch, embroider or stitch hexagons which is what I did.  

Stars for the Star Drift quilt

I'd been a member before, and Rose reminded me that there was a meeting coming up soon.  When I got to the Knotty Girls group that month, Rose was away for a family emergency, and my friend, Nancy was leading the group.  I've known Nancy for over 20 years, so I pulled up a chair to stitch and visit.  It turns out that Nancy is leading the Simple Whatnots Club every month that meets right before Knotty Girls.  So I signed up for both Simple Whatnots and Knotty Girls, and that's just how easy it is to follow a squirrel.  Or as my Mom used to say,, "What happened?   Did you follow a wagon off?"

Alternate blocks for the Star Drift quilt

I did some machine quilting on the quilt (first photo).   I'm not great at it, but as the Dear Jane motto says, "Finished is better than perfect."

This is an optional stitch along.  I guess it's kind of a mystery quilt.  This is Installment 1.  I haven't done the second part yet.  That might not happen until later on in the month.  

 

True Love Stitch Along Installment 1

This is the National Parks panel that I bought while on vacation a couple of years ago.  I bought it in the mountains in Tennessee just outside of Gatlinburg.  I finally put the border on and took it to Back Door to be long arm quilted.

This is the flange binding that I put on the quilt.  I can't believe I don't have a tutorial for that on my blog.  I gifted this quilt to my brother-in-law (my husband's younger brother) who has hiked all of these 63 National Parks at least once.  He was thrilled and plans to hang the quilt in a place he sees it every day.  

I've got more to share, but I'll save it for another post.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  

I hope you're finding some time to stitch today.  

Strawberry Mini Quilt Tutorial

In my post here, I showed you my strawberry decorations.   I have red quilts as you can see on the back of my couch in the photo below, but I didn't have even a small quilt with strawberries until now.  

I like to have these little quilts just to add a pop of color here and there.  I also like to use them for holiday entertaining to put under a warm dish or plate.  

Here's my tutorial:  

My mini quilt finishes at approximately 14 1/2".  For the size shown above, cut 12 squares measuring 5 inches.  You can use either charm squares or cut your own.  I wanted to use my strawberry fabric so I cut a mix of light and dark fabrics mostly from my stash.

Using a pencil or Friction pen, draw lines on half of the squares as shown:  horizontal and vertical and diagonally in both directions.  I draw my lines on the lighter fabrics when I can because it's easier to see the lines.

Now sew 1/4" ONLY on both sides of the diagonal lines.  

After sewing, cut on ALL lines.  Each pair of squares yields 8 half square triangles.   If you've done the math, to make the size little quilt in this tutorial you will need to make 1 more half square triangle out of scraps.    

Press toward the darker fabric.  These half square triangles will measure 2" and finish at 1 1/2".  

I sort mine into piles so I can put the rows together so that I don't end up with 2 of the same block at the end.  

Sew the half square triangles into rows.  Then sew the rows together.  

My border is cut at 2".  And here's the finished quilt.  I sewed the binding down by hand because I like to sit out on the porch when the weather is nice and do some handwork.  

                                     

I have at least one of these little quilts for each holiday.  Here's Christmas.  

                                        


St. Patrick's and Valentines.  

                                        

I use this one for winter and into spring. 

                                                 

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial.  If you decide to make one of these mini quilts, I'd love to see a photo.  

As always,

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  

I hope you're finding some time to stitch today.

It's Strawberry Time

I pulled my strawberry decorations out a few days ago.  I haven't cross stitched in maybe over a year, but I still enjoy getting out my stitching to decorate for the seasons.  

Most of my cross stitching with strawberries is from Stitching with the Housewives.  

The wooden backers came from Chantelle's 141 Design Company.  I attended a retreat in Michigan put on by Chantelle a few years ago and bought some of these backers then.  Some I've ordered from her website.  

The Year in the Hoop cross stitches are from Small Town Needleworks.  You can find their patterns on Etsy.  The summer jam pillow is a free pattern from Priimrose Cottage (I think),

The Bunnies Berries is from Stitched with Whitney on Etsy.  

 This is another barn backer from Chantelle.  Painting these backers was a lot of fun.  

I don't have even a small quilty item to show with strawberries.  I might have to remedy that soon.  

Sometime I'll have to show you the things I have cross stitched but not yet finished into something I can use.  There aren't enough hours in the day, and right now I am doing a lot of quilting.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  

I hope you're finding some time to stitch today.