traceyjay quilts

Friday, September 10, 2010

Chubby Stars quilt along -- Step 3 -- the little star points

This week --

Making star points.

This is quite possibly the most boring step (in my opinion) of the quilt-along (part of why I wanted to give you some gratification of seeing blocks come together last week)

They're in the flickr pool if you're interested. :)

Now that you've figured out a good size for your star points, we're going to make a whole lot more.

In case you've forgotten, Directions for how to do those star points are in this post.

Put those contrast star points on top of 2 1/2" squares, and sew diagonal to diagonal. It doesn't matter which corner they're in if you're doing squares, because you can always rotate them in to place.

______________________________

The math:

To figure out how many star points you need to make, multiply the number of chain blocks from this chart by eight. (So I need to make 400 again)

Chubby Star Quilt Along Information

Throw
Twin
Queen/Full
King
Cal King

Dimensions
70” x 78”
62” x 86”
86” x 94”
102” square
98” x 108”

Block layout
7 x 8
6 x 9
9 x 10
11 x 11
9 x 11

Snowball blocks
28
27
45
60
49

Chain blocks
28
27
45
61
50

If you decide to work ahead, don't get yourself in a little bit of a predicament (like a certain Melissa might have done -- by the way, she had a really cute little quilt in the bake shop this week if you haven't seen it)

Here's the deal:

You've seen this picture many times already, but have you noticed that some of the side and corner blocks are different?

I planned to use these first nine blocks on the top left corner of my massive quilt, so I intentionally used background squares without points in those blocks...we don't want any errant star points floating around after all.

Please plan accordingly for your quilt size.

Here's a diagram to see block layout (this one is twin), so you get what I'm talking about.

Also, looking at Karen's EQ Chubby Stars quilts can help you see for sure.

I don't plan to put together my chain blocks this week (I think 400 star points will be enough), but I do plan to match them in to pairs so they're ready to join my four-patches, rather than left just as the points (like this).

If you want to work ahead though -- please take note of your border chain blocks...and leave a top and side undone for the four corners, and a side (doesn't matter which one because these blocks are symmetrical) for the side border blocks. You'll use most or all of the extra points you made when you finish your quilt (so save those extra star points somewhere safe -- I plan to finish all my chubby stars).

If you have questions, ask them here or in the flickr group. :)

(Come back later for a post on what I got distracted by this week.) :)

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

surfer circle around... done.

(Process Pledgy post)

I got the fabrics here.

And wanted to have it done before I left here.

But I didn't.

I did however, get it done before the end of August,

and its recipient now has it all to himself.

_______________________________

I cannot lie... this thing felt a bit beastly before I got it done and mailed.

I started with this pile of fabric (all half-yard cuts).

The theme was Hawaiian, scrappy, and with those little surfing monkeys.

We decided to use Julie's Circle Around design, and the quilt was to be twin-sized.

I sized the blocks up to 13 1/2" (with 9" circles I think), and a 5 x 7 layout. While stitching, I had a little trouble with some of the blocks shifting on me --> I found using a glue stick to baste them before sewing worked the best.

If you look at that pile of fabric, you'll see relatively very few solids, and a majority of colors that are lighter in value.

Why I didn't think it through ahead of time, I don't know, but the Circle Around design relies on a lot of contrast. Not only did I not buy any extra white, but the white didn't contrast well with those light turquoises. I really spent a lot of time trying to coordinate the interplay of value, and solids with prints.

In the end I improvised and came up with this.

It did look scrappy, but then I wasn't sure if it felt too incongruent... and at this point, I was feeling a little bit panicky actually. "What if his mama doesn't like it?" This is a sick to the stomach feeling when you're making something for someone else. I kept telling myself that she had liked the fabrics, and she had liked the design idea, and she had liked one of my progress pics... so I pressed on.

And then there was the back.

You saw the fabric above. All half-yards... most of which had a 13.5" x WOF strip cut out of them so I could make my top.

Fortunately I had the fore-sight to pull a couple out of the pile ahead of time for the back, but this was a twin-sized quilt, and so I had to get quite scrappy.

The original plan had been to make his name big so that when you folded the top of the bed down, it showed up (slightly brilliant, I thought). But it just wasn't working for me when I saw what I had left. So I went with plan B for the name.

I thought personalizing the little surfboard I threw in there would be cute.

The top part of the back I think is my favorite part of the whole quilt.

Jay took Steiger up to his dad's for an entire day, and this quilt back took me that entire day.

To quilt, I did horizontal wavy lines... you know, oceany. :) Even with my needle in the down stop position, the weight of the quilt would occasionally pull on the stitching a bit (though I had a table to rest the bulk of it on next to me), but you definitely wouldn't notice it on a horse riding by.

This is the biggest quilt I've done start to finish by myself, and it pushed the limits of my little Janome.

Once I got this all quilted, washed, and photographed, I felt happy to send it on its way. Once I got word back from Will's mama that she liked it, I felt even happier...and maybe even a tinge of pride.

I used the proceeds from this quilt, plus a Visa Gift card I had, to buy 24 yards of batting while it was on sale at JoAnn's this weekend.

To summarize:

What I liked about this quilt:

- the squares with lots of contrast (the navy and white, or the bold blue and light blue, etc.)

- the top of the back (I loved that part for some reason)

- the little surfboard in the ocean scene

- no tucks in the quilting!!! (though I did catch the raw edge of a couple of the circles on the front)

- I didn't photograph it well, but I really liked the binding

- being able to go buy my batting (you know there's a problem when you're excited about batting, right?)

- seeing the pictures of its happy little owner (probably my favorite part)

What I didn't like:

- feeling nervous while I was trying to make it work -- incorporating the vision of someone else in to your own interpretation is challenging

- the amount of time it took...partly due to me being nervous and uncertain as to how to proceed

- getting it through my machine for quilting

- my lack of planning regarding my choice of which solids to purchase (I ended up pulling quite a few from my own stash)

- feeling unsure of some of the fabric combos and their interplay with value and print

From now on, I'm sticking to baby quilts. :)

Monday, September 6, 2010

Go! play... with a little round pillow tutorial

This weekend, I cleared off my sewing desk, and pulled out my accuquilt GO! (sent to me by the arrangements of the lovely Carolyn).

Just to play.

Here's what I made.

And here's a mini tutorial for you.

Materials:
Go! Round Flower Appliqué die with 5" x 10" cutting mat
Some Heat 'n Bond lite
4 1/2" (ish) scrap squares

Use the video from this page if you're not sure how to apply Fusible webbing to the back of your squares.

And while you're there, you can check out anything else Go! related you might be curious about.

1. Get your pieces ready.

2. Line them up on the die, over the flower part. (I didn't mark my die, but a lot of people find that handy)

3. Wheel those pieces through. (I did two or three at a time)

4. If you like, use the scraps to make some more little pieces from the die (like the circles or leaf) -- you won't use them in this project.

Very little waste.

5. Cut those little petals apart (there are six/flower)

6. Get a base piece of fabric (I think mine was very close to 13" square) Fold said piece of fabric in to quarters, so that you can easily find the center.

7. Use a compass or some kind of guide to draw a circle in the center. (I used an artichoke steamer--we had artichokes for dinner last night after this)

8. Arrange your petals around this line --> peel off the paper --> iron and stitch them in place.

9. Repeat until you get to the center.

10. So pretty!

You can do what you like with this at this point -- make it a quilt block, make it a Mug Rug, or make it a pillow.

11. Layer and Quilt. Cut a piece large enough for the back and sew that on too -- but make sure you leave a space for stuffing later.

12. Add some binding most of the way and stuff it. But be warned that stuffing and finishing binding isn't super easy, and might have involved a visit with Mr. Seam Ripper.

But it turned out all right in the end. :)

_________________________________________________

I played a little more with the die that comes with the machine, and cut some 4 1/2" squares, which became some HSTs (half-square triangles).

Friday, September 3, 2010

Chubby Stars quilt along -- Step 2 -- matching points

Before I have you cut and create several hundred little star points, we're going to make a few of them, so that any and all necessary adjustments to size or seam allowance can be made.

In order to get the star points to match up, you have to have rather consistent sizing.

For me -- I cut my star point pieces at 2 3/16" (a scant 2 1/4"), and that works out perfectly. When I used 2 1/8" for my star points, there were tiny gaps in between the star point pieces on the snowball blocks, and the pieces on the framed points.

This week, you're going to be checking your intersections basically, by making a few of the snowball blocks, and a few of the X blocks, and piecing them together... kind of like what I did here.

You get to decide how many you want to make for your first mock-up; I did a nine-patch, but you don't need to do that many.

Each snowball block requires:

one - 8 1/2" square (focal fabric) and
four - 2 7/8" squares (contrast for the star points)

Each X block requires:

Eight of your four-patch units
eight - 2 1/2" squares (background fabric -- white/neutral)
eight - (scant) 2 1/4" squares (contrast star points)

_____________________________________________

First -- Make some snowball blocks

Cut 8 1/2" piece of fabric

Cut four 2 7/8" pieces of contrast fabric for corner star points

Sew from diagonal corner to corner

Trim 1/4" from sewn line

And you have a pretty snowball block

______________________________________________

For the Chain/X blocks

Snag eight of your little four-patch units (they should measure 2 1/2" square)

Cut eight 2 1/2" squares of your background fabric

Cut eight 2 3/16" squares (scant 2 1/4") of your star points.

Put a small square on the larger background square.

Sew diagonal corner to corner on the smaller star-point square (doesn't matter which side -- you can always rotate the point in place)

Trim 1/4" from sewn line (I chain-pieced and trimmed them all at once)

Press half towards the light, and half towards the dark

This picture shows how your X blocks pieces are arranged with the star points and four-patch units

_____________________________

This week's assignment:

Make at least 2 chain blocks and 2 snowball blocks, and sew them together -- you are checking for matches.

If they match up; you know your seam allowances and measurements are good. If they don't (if they're wide -- you need to cut a little smaller; if there's a space, you need to cut a little more generously).

___________________________

In other chubby stars news --

While visiting flickrland the other night, I squealed a little bit when I saw that Heather Bailey herself (!!!!) liked my progress so far! (She even approved of my star point color choice -- which was VERY reassuring -- I adore her color combos) I doubt these designers know how happy it makes us quilters when they like what we're doing with their art. But like it we do. :)

It got even better though.

I got an email from Karen asking to play with my chubby stars blocks on her EQ 7 (I do so want one of those for Christmas...too bad very few of my real-life people...aka Mom or husband... read this).

First she came up with these...

I think this was my favorite of her virtual quilts.

image from Karen's blog

THEN -- Karen added in the chain blocks, and digitalized my quilt for the quilt-along!

Thank you Karen!

Even though she gave me extra work by coming up with the idea of finishing the chain as a border, I love these. :)

So I've got even more than 400 four-patch blocks to go. This is the current state of my four-patches (some still in two patch strips; others waiting for ironing)

the thing about swaps...

...they're addicting...
...they challenge you... and
...they're pretty fun. :)

I sent my Doll Quilt Swap quilt, and Jennifer has received it. :)

This magazine supplied the inspiration and templates, and I think I've said it before, but this piece was such a testament to how my skills have grown... it's like I think in quarter-inches now, and can anticipate where the points will intersect.

See? ;)

The inspiration for this quilt was my partner's preferences. She said she loved neon, stars, squared up quilts, and "chartreuse, magenta, and gray" in particular.

The backgrounds are Kona Ash and Kona Coal; there are some Kona solids mixed with a little Plume and Flora and Fauna.

She says she liked it. I sure hope so.

I named it "80's rock star"

_________________

Interested in signing up for a swap? The "Modern Swappers" is currently open for sign ups now.
If you browse around their flickr pool (linked above), you'll see their last round produced some pretty cool stuff.

Disclaimers: You need to be an active flickr member (if you're not yet -- it's free, and will get your ready for the next swap that comes up!), AND you need to not be a flake, AND you need to be conscientious of your partner's preferences. :)

___________________

I'll be back later today or tomorrow morning for the next step of the Chubby Stars Quilt Along. :)

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

People, we have a button.

Thanks to Elizabeth, we now have a button.
Buttons are great. Especially for us sewing types. ;)

You can get it from my sidebar or here in these boxes.

Medium:

Small:

http://traceyjayquilts.blogspot.com/search/label/chubby%20stars">http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4095/4909106958_d8a30ba767_t.jpg" />

Thank you again!

(I even googled how to make a button, but I couldn't figure it out... one day I will need to learn this)
(I have no idea why the spaces on here are so large)

Why I need a design wall

A couple nights ago, I was working on a layout with my new Lily & Will charm pack I won.

I tried this one

And this one