Congratulations Mom

I'm sorry for the long silence. Why have I been so quiet? I've been working like crazy to get my Mom's (Anne) quilt machine quilted on my sewing machine so that she could bind it and show it at our Guild meeting. As usual Mom went and got her hair done so she was looking very nice for the meeting. The president announced that we were having a birthday celebration for a long time member and the oldest member of the Guild, Mom! There was a huge cake and she had help from Barbara and Klara when it came time to blow out the candles. Mom was very surprised that the executive had gone to the trouble to get her not one but two cakes!

The president went on to say that the executive had decided to recognize Mom's long membership by granting her an honourary membership. Was she surprised? You bet she was! It was such a special night for her and I can't say how grateful I am to the Guild executive for honouring her in this way. She is still on cloud 9!

After the main part of the meeting we had sew and share and that was Mom's chance to show off her newly completed A Little Bit of Africa. Unfortunately you can't see the quilting but you can see the finished quilt.

The members were very interested in her quilt and there was a lovely round of applause for her work! Way to go Mummsie!

Want to see another of Mom's quilts? We had friends visiting at the end of the week so we pulled out Mom's quilts and had a little trunk show. I managed to snap a few pictures. She made this quilt more than ten years ago and she reckons that there are more than 14,000 hexagons in it. It is huge but it is beautiful! It is entirely hand pieced and hand quilted.

Amidst all the excitement and entertaining I managed to finish two more Road 66 hexagon rosettes. I love the floral print in the middle. It is called Sophia Pearce from the Winterthur Collection. I stumbled across it at a local warehouse type store and bought all they had with was a few yards. There are some wonderful flowers in the print that will be perfect for broderie perse and fussy cut hexagons.

The pink ombre fabric was sent to me by a cyber friend in California. I had seen a picture of the Mount Mellick quilt she is working on and I commented on the fabric. Next thing I knew she sent me a chunk of it in the mail! In return I sent her a chunk of my Sophia Pearce fabric!

Tonight I am doing a trunk show on English Paper Piecing for the Rouge Valley Quilt Guild. Time for me to finish packing up the quilts and sort out my speaking notes!

Once again I apologize for the silence. One final reason for the silence is that I have been sketching and pulling fabrics for my next quilt along. It will of course involve English paper piecing, some traditional piecing and a little bit of applique. I think it will be a fun and hopefully educational quilt. Stay tuned for more details!

Until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H

Coil Baskets and hexagon blocks

My friend Gail showed me some coil baskets she made and they were STUNNING! I asked her to teach us how she made them and yesterday she did just that! Her starting point was the book It's A Wrap by Susan Breier but Gail modified the method to suit her methods and materials.

She also brought a finished basket so we could get an idea about what we were working towards. Isn't it beautiful? I can visualize it filled with Autumnal goodies like pine cones and acorns or maybe balls of wool!

This is one of Gail's baskets in progress. She has made them in all kinds of colours but admits she is partial to a combination of red, hot pink and fuschia.

This is the base of the basket. I was not convinced that the cording could be stitched on a domestic sewing machine but there was no problem at all however be warned - the zigzag stitch uses a lot of thread!

Once you are happy with the size of the base it is turned on its edge and you continue to stitch the wrapped cord. This picture doesn't show it well but the sides are starting to come up! It is just one continual process and I expect that if your materials were at hand and prepared that a nice big basket could be completed in a couple of hours!

My Mom was able to make a little basket in no time flat! She was thrilled with the results and you can see why!  Gail shared her fabrics with her because Mom really liked them! These baskets are very solid and sturdy. I now want to make one of my own and so it is on my "to do" list. Why is it that my "to do" list seems to be getting longer and longer?

This is why my "to do" list is getting longer! Jinx has been with us for a month and he is a going concern. He is cute but he is one very busy little guy and nothing is safe whether it is my fingers flying across the keyboard or the Dritz Petite Press. He was quite annoyed with it this morning because it was turned on and hot, hot, hot!

Gail liked my Good Golly Miss Mollie quilt so she is making her own version of this hexagon quilt. I gave her some tips on basting her hexagons and stitching them together. She brought along what she has made so far.

She made a little mistake on the first round of brick coloured hexagons (she forgot the hexagon at the top and bottom of the diamond) but I love the look of this block ! It's just a little different and I think it will add a little interest to her quilt!

We had a lovely day chatting, sewing and eating! Now it's time for me to get back to testing Missie's Gardens of a King pattern! Until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H

Making the templates for Lazy Punk and another 81 quilt (but it isn't a giant monstrosity)

Have you drafted your Lazy Punk pattern? Lazy Punk is my simplified version of Jen Kingwell's Steam Punk quilt. My version involves no piecing and no precision cutting! The "wedges" are appliqued to a background; the block is equally suited to hand or machine applique.

Pattern for Lazy Punk block

Once you have drafted your pattern according to yesterday's post the next step is to create homemade tools to make the block construction fast and easy. You will need a scrap of clear plastic, some lightweight cardboard (a cereal box or tissue box works just fine), a permanent marker (for marking on the clear plastic) and sharp scissors or a rotary cutter and mat. For the hub cap (circle) in the centre of the block I will use a small piece of heat resistant Mylar but you could use freezer paper if you prefer. We'll deal with the hub cap in an upcoming post.

I like to make my own tools. My two favourites are clear templates and window templates that I use for making beautiful hexagons. You can read about them here. I will use similar templates for my Lazy Punk quilt.

For this project we will need four templates namely:

• clear template
• window template (cardboard)
• lower wedge with seam allowance (cardboard)
• arc without seam allowance (cardboard)

The first template we will make is the clear template. The clear template will be used to make all of the other templates, to line up the arc and the inner wedge and to prepare the entire wedge with arc for applique. To make the template place your clear plastic over one of the wedges in the block that we drafted and trace around the wedge and the inner edge of the arc with a permanent marker. There is no seam allowance except for at the point of the wedge where I've added a generous seam allowance (at least 3/8"). I don't need to trace right to the point of the wedge because that area will be covered with the hub cap.

Once you have traced the template cut it out. Your clear template should look like this.

Clear template with seam allowance at inner point

Now we will make a window template. Take a piece of cardboard and trace around the clear template. Make small registration marks at the inner curve of the arc  and at the inner edge of the wedge as in the following photograph. For this window template we do not want any seam allowance so the one that was added to the clear template will not be used.

 



Shift the clear template down lining up the registration marks for the inner edge of the arc and draw the inner arc. You can draw the line at the narrow part of the wedge freehand.

Your cardboard will look like this.

Cut out the lower portion of the wedge but not the arc. This is the window template.

Window template

I use the window template for identifying interesting parts of my fabric for fussy cutting. I will demonstrate this when we get to cutting the fabric. If you do not plan on fussy cutting then you needn't bother making a window template but it is such an inexpensive tool that I encourage you to make at least one fussy cut block!

To make the lower wedge with seam allowances, on another piece of cardboard trace around the clear template.

Add a generous seam allowance of about 3/8" all around the lower wedge as indicated by the pink dashed line. Just eyeball it - no need for a ruler! Cut out the template on the pink dash and label it "wedge with seam allowance".

Lower wedge with seam allowances

The last template is the arc without seam allowance. Once again you will trace around the top portion of your clear template on cardboard. Make the registration marks for the inner edge of the arc.

Slide down the clear template lining it up with the registration marks and draw the inner edge of the arc.

Cut out the arc and label it "arc - no seam allowance".

 So there you have it - the tools you will need to make a Lazy Punk block.

Tomorrow I'll show you how to cut the fabric quickly and easily and then just as quickly prepare the fabrics for applique! You won't have to worry about precise seam allowances or the grain! For tomorrow you will need a glue stick (make sure it is fabric safe glue), your favourite marking tools and sharp scissors. And of course beautiful fabrics! And I'll show you my first finished block!

Hilda of the blog Every Stitch is a terrific quilter with a very wonderful sense of colour. She told me she had made a quilt like my 81 (the giant monstrosity) but that hers was smaller. I asked if she had blogged about it and she very kindly sent me the link. I encourage you to visit her blog and take a look at her basket and hexagon quilt. You can see it here.

I leave you with a picture of one of the baskets in "81 The Giant Monstrosity".

Until I post again, happy template making!