I'm Back

It's been awhile but I hope to get back on a more regular schedule with my posts.  While I was gone, I was featured as a guest blogger on The Quilting Gallery.  Check it out if you want to find out more about this challenge.

I've been back from the AQS quilt show in Lancaster Pennsylvania for a week already and am happy to say my husband survived his first quilt show!  I don't know where the time goes. It's not that I haven't been busy, my Twisted Nickel quilt is now quilted and bound.  This picture doesn't do justice to the fantastic quilting done by my long arm quilter, Linda of L&R Designs, so I've included two close-ups of the quilting design.

I have been working on another version of this quilt and on what to do with the leftover scraps from this project.  I hope to show you what I come up with next week.

I also sewed binding on a quilt on our drive to Pennsylvania.  It was one of my UFO's.  I think I started it maybe 3 years ago.  I know it's been quilted since before Christmas of 2009!  But, it's done now and hanging on the wall hiding an ugly electrical box and cable outlets.  If it looks a little crooked, it might be because it's stapled to the wall!  I don't want to take time to make a sleeve and it probably won't be a wall quilt after we move anyway. The squares are stacked and sewn so the raw edges can fray.  It's a very easy quilt and uses alot of fabric. 

And, last but not least, I have been writing patterns for the quilts of this challenge and working on a web site for them.  The site is up at http://www.doublenickelquilts.com/ and will eventually have all of the patterns for sale as downloads.

And, oh yeah, did I mention I work full-time?

Twisted Nickel quilt

The block in this quilt is a variation of a traditional block called Washington's Puzzle. There are a few different ways to make this block.  You can cut nine individual pieces for each block and sew them together or you can paper piece the block. I chose to make nine patch blocks and then made angled cuts to form a new square.  A consequence of this construction method is leftover pieces from trimming the blocks and bias edges on the outside edges of the block.  Don't see a way to get around having bias edges somewhere.  I hope to design a way to use the leftover pieces in another quilt.  Do you see the secondary pattern of flowers that developed by rotating the blocks?  There's an idea floating around in my head about making the flowers more predominate in another quilt. 

This quilt has not been quilted yet.  Life beyond quilting has been very busy.  My husband bowled in the State bowling tournament this weekend and our house is finally on the market with my sewing area being neat and tidy but almost unusable.  I have to get so much stuff out and put it back every time I sew.  What a pain!

On another note, we were fortunate to have my husband's oldest daughter and her two youngest children stay with us for a few days.  They are moving from Illinois to Denver Colorado and were heading into bad weather so stopped and stayed with us until today.  It was good to see them since they will live much farther away now. 

There won't be a post next week because my husband and I are off to the AQS quilt show in Lancaster Pennsylvania.  We are very excited for the trip because two of his daughters live about an hour from Lancaster so we plan to spend time with them and six of our grandchildren.  I'm ready for a break from this challenge and hope to come back refreshed and ready to sew.  I have a lot of catching up to do to keep on track to make 55 quilts in a year.

Fluttering Around

Finally done!!  Here's the butterfly quilt that I gave you a sneak peek of last time.

As you can see, this quilt has way more pieces than any of the quilts I have previously posted.  I used 5 inch squares and some smaller scraps to make the 99 butterfly blocks and 44 blocks in the border. It's a great way to use a bunch of scraps.  The time it took to complete it put me even more off track of my goal of 55 quilts in in my 55th year.  I am 8 quilts behind already!  I call this quilt Fluttering Around for two reasons-the block looks like butterflies to me and it describes me right now.  Since I have started this challenge, it seems like I have been busier than ever.  One major thing that has been happening lately is that we are getting our house ready to sell.  We put in new carpet this week and that meant moving 4 bedrooms and 1 living room of furniture and then putting it all back.  Very exhausting.  A new master bath floor goes in tomorrow morning and then maybe we will have some semblance of normal for awhile.  However, having our house on the market means I can't take over half of it with my quilting.  I have to get really organized and put everything away so that the house shows well.  That is going to be very hard.

Though I think this block looks like butterflies, it is my interpretation of the Beggar's Block.  The Beggar's Block is a nine patch block the has a solid square in the center.  My block has a butterfly in the center.
It took a lot of trial and error to figure out how I really wanted to construct this quilt. The good news is that I came up with a much easier way to make it as I was going through the design process.  I first starting making the blocks using paper piecing and then decided to eliminate that whole process.  I made the borders as long strips (which I hate to do) but figured out how to not do that in the future.  I also came up with a super simple way to miter the corners.  I call it a fake miter.  If somebody else has figured this out, I certainly haven't seen it.  Here's a quick tutorial-



The border is made up of these blocks.  I needed 2 blocks for each corner-1 for the top border and 1 for the side border, for example. 

 

I placed the 2 blocks right side together, drew a line from corner to corner and sewed on the line.
I then cut 1/4" from the sewn line to get my seam.  I pressed it open and voila, a mitered corner.

The quilting on this quilt is a custom design by Linda of L&R Designs.  I think it's the perfect design to emphasize the butterfly block.  The variegated thread is a perfect choice too.

Mug rugs

As I was deciding how to design my mug rugs for a mug rug swap that I am participating in, I decided that I should use blocks from quilts that are in the works.  So here's a sneak peek.  This first mug rug uses the main block from the quilt that will be posted next week.  I can hardly wait for you to see that quilt.  It's one of my favorites! 

As I was about to start on mug rug #2 (we have to swap 2), I received my mug rugs from my swap partner (below).  Aren't they creative? 

She even made them completely reversible with designs on both sides.  I hadn't really thought that far ahead but decided to make my second one with designs on both sides also. 

I used raw edge applique on both the flower and the butterfly designs.  The raw edges will fray a little with use and washing and give it a little more character.  That's large rickrack in the center of the butterfly, in case you were wondering.  Can you tell I was dreaming about spring when I made these?

What's a mug rug you ask?  It's a place to put your mug and your snack.  For the swap, we made them 6"X10".  Kind of a double size coaster.  These are a great little project to use up some scraps.  Great gift idea too.  Oh yeah, I did use 5" squares for the the pieced butterfly block as well as the flower and butterfly appliques.

Ziggity Zag quilt

For my birthday this year, a quilting friend gave me a June Tailor Perfect Half and Quarter Square Triangles Ruler.  I decided to try it out on a stack of black and white print nickel squares(5") that I had sitting around and Ziggity Zag was born.  This little gadget helps you make very accurate half square and quarter square triangles.  It's a slotted ruler that you use with your rotary cutter.  Here's a video that shows you how to use it. 



I started this quilt by creating the border and thinking that I would use some arrangement of half square triangles in the center but when I found this fat quarter in my stash, I decided to use it instead.  I thought it would make a nice wall hanging to go with the quilt shown on the right that I made a few years ago.  Many of the scraps from the first quilt are used in the wall hanging and I even had enough leftover binding from the first quilt to use on the smaller one!

This would be a good pattern to use if you have a fabric that you just don't want to cut up.  Just use it in the center! I used a fat quarter but you could really use any size fabric and adjust your border accordingly.

The zigzag effect is easy to achieve.  Here's a short tutorial-

For one block, you will need:

2 black 5" squares and 2 white 5" squares

Using one white square and one black square, make 2 half square triangles by your preferred method. Repeat for the other set of squares.  You will have 4 blocks that measure 4 1/2" each.  Arrange them as shown below and sew.

 

The quilting used on this quilt was a custom design by Linda of L&R Designs.  Here's a close-up-

In the center, the quilting goes out from the center of the flowers and imitates the lines of the flower.  A feather design was used in the border.

Next week, I'll show you what I am doing for the Mug Rug Swap I am participating in.

Nickel I Spy #2

Here's my Nickel I Spy #2 quilt.  Two down, about 10 to go.  I say about 10 to go because if it takes me long enough, some of our grandkids will be too old for an I Spy quilt.  This version is a little trickier to make if you don't have a large assortment of I Spy fabrics to choose from.  Each diagonal row is a certain color so you need to have the right amount of 5" charm squares for each row.  Another option would be to alternate light and dark rows of fabric instead of making each row a different color if you don't have enough different colors of I Spy fabrics.  I will probably have to do the same thing myself for one of my grandkids. 
Also, don't be afraid to mix in some other fabrics.  I used a couple of flannel I Spy fabric squares in this quilt.  Children like to feel the different textures of fabrics.

Even though I have been referring to diagonal rows, I did not construct this quilt in rows.  I used the same 9-patch construction that I have used in previous blog posts of my quilts.  There are nine 9-patch blocks in this quilt.  That's 81 nickels (5" squares).  It finishes at about 41"X41" which I think is a good size for a young child to drag around.


Nickel I Spy #2

I decided I wanted an allover quilting design for this quilt.  Linda of L&R Designs used a pantograph quilting pattern called  "Bubbles" and a variegated thread.  I love the way it turned out!  Here's a close-up-

For the back of the quilt, I used a fabric that I had purchased online to use in my I Spy quilts.  When I received the fabric, I realized that the motifs were too big for nickel squares.  That's one of the problems of ordering online. The next problem was that I had only ordered a yard and the quilt was 41"!  Sooo, I pieced the backing.  Here's what it looks like-

I was lucky enough to have two fabrics that I feel work well together.  So the backing has plenty of things for kids to spy with their little eye and I used up some of my fabric stash instead of buying more.  Well, at least I didn't buy any more for this quilt.

Nickel I Spy #1

I call this quilt Nickel I Spy #1 because I need to make a bunch of them.  My husband and I have 20 grandchildren between the two of us. More than half of them are young enough to get an I Spy quilt and I don't want them all to be the same pattern.  So we'll see how many I can come up with.  That will be a challenge within this challenge.  I guess that answers the question about whether or not I'm crazy!



Nickel I Spy #1

There are only 9 blocks in this quilt.  I used the same basic 9 patch block that I used in my Nickel Row quilt but changed it a little for the corner blocks.  It measures about 41" X 41" and uses 81 5" squares.

I used a polyester batt in this quilt so that I did not have to quilt it very much.  I didn't want a lot of quilting that would take away from the objects in the fabrics.  Linda of L&R Designs used a wavy quilting design to outline the rows.  Did you know that a wavy line is stronger than a straight line of stitching?  Straight lines can pop their stitches more easily.  Here's a close-up of the quilting design-

The backing fabric I used ties in with the I Spy theme also.  It looks like writing on a chalk board and there are things that kids can spy with their little eye.  I wonder who will get this one!





Nickel Row quilt

Here is the fourth quilt pattern of my Double Nickel Quilt Challenge.  I call it Nickel Row.  I used scraps of the same Kaffe Fassett fabrics that I used in my Nickel In A Box quilt from my last post.  This quilt goes together very quickly and without long rows of strips to sew.  Can you figure it out?  It's made up of nine patch blocks!  The placement of light and dark fabrics creates the look of rows without having to construct rows.  It's great for using fabric left from another project or for using some of those charm packs you've been collecting. 

A variegated thread was the perfect choice for the quilting.  It works well with the many colors and patterns of the fabric.  Linda of L&R Designs used a large meander quilting design that does not compete with the busy print fabrics.

Here is a quick tutorial on how to construct the block used in this quilt-

For each block you need-
 3-5" squares of light fabric 
 6-5" squares of dark fabric 



Sew 3 squares of light fabric together.  Sew 2 sets of 3 squares of dark fabric together.

Sew your 3 strips together alternating dark and light strips and your block is complete.  

Nickel In A Box quilt

Here's the third quilt pattern of my Double Nickel Quilt Challenge.  I call it Nickel In A Box and is offered as another FREE pattrn.  Contrast is the main design element in this quilt.  You need contrast between the center of the block and it's outer border and you need contrast between the blocks to get this graphic look to work.  I have contrasted the colors of the fabrics as well as the scale of the patterns in the fabrics though simply contrasting the colors of the fabrics can be enough.   

This quilt uses a variation of the same block pattern as the quilt shown in the first and second posts. These three quilts are a good example of how color placement within a block can totally change the look of a quilt.  See comparison below.

Nickel In A Box

                    

                  Bright Shiny Nickels 

Just A Nickel

 Nickel In A Box 

The first 2 quilts do not have any added sashing or borders as it appears they do.  They are constructed using the same block as the third quilt.  All three are super fast and easy. They are a great way to use scraps or pre-cut charm packs.

This quilt is small enough that I quilted it myself on my home sewing machine.  I stitched horizontally and vertically following the outline of the block and then stitched in both directions again lining up with the center of the block to create a nine patch grid.  Here's a close-up-

I made the binding for this quilt out of coordinating scraps also.  I used scraps that were the full width of fabric long and just pieced them end to end until the strip was long enough. Here's a closeup-
                                 
                                                     


Here is a quick tutorial on how to construct the block used in this quilt-

For each block you need-
 1-5" square of fabric for center
 2-5" squares of contrasting border fabric 
 2-5"x14" strips of contrasting border fabric (or use 3-5" squares sewn together for each strip)




Sew contrasting fabric squares to each side of the center square and press your seams away from the center square.

Sew your 3 strips together and your block is complete.  Press seams to outer strips.

This quilt is a variation of my FREE quilt pattern posted HERE. 

Just A Nickel

Here is the second quilt pattern of my Double Nickel Quilt Challenge.  This quilt uses the same block patterns as the quilt shown in the first post.  However, the blocks are rearranged to create the look of borders and sashing.  No trying to get a border to fit in this one!

This quilt was made by Linda of L&R Designs from my pattern called Just A Nickel.  She calls her version Leftover Blues because she used leftover blue squares from another project. Instead of using a solid white fabric for the background she used scraps of white on white fabrics.  I love the effect of the scrappy background. 

For the quilting design, she stitched the length of the quilt and spaced the quilting lines at random widths as you can see in this photo of the back of the quilt. Notice how the back is pieced with even more leftover squares!  Can you see the blue squares shadowing through to the back?  Keep this in mind if you are using a white backing fabric if you don't like the look. 

For more quilting design ideas, visit Linda's web site lrdesignsquilting


Here is a quick tutorial on how to construct the main block used in this quilt-

For each block you need-
 2-5" squares of assorted fabrics
 1-5" square of background fabric 
 2-5"x14" strips of background fabric (or use 3-5" squares sewn together for each strip)



Sew print squares to each side of the background square and press your seams to the print squares.

Sew your 3 strips together and your block is complete.  Press seams to center strip.

Two more variations of this block are needed to construct the quilt as shown.  This quilt is a variation of my FREE quilt pattern posted HERE.  You need to rearrange the blocks to get this look or you can get a free download of the pattern simply by posting a comment on this post by 1/5/11 and sending me your e-mail address so I can send you the pattern.  You can contact me at candace@fabricstashclub.com