Sunday, June 28, 2015

Summer Sampler Quilt Along - Block 4 Giveaway



Friends,
The Old Maid's Ramble Block's giveaway is a box of thread by Aurifil for week 4 of the Summer Day & Night Quilt Sampler.

  

Check out this link for the free instructions to construct the Old Maid's Ramble Block.
 
 

The Prize
A huge thank you to Alex at Aurifil for allowing me to giveaway this wonderful box of thread. The box consists of 12 LARGE spools. It is cotton 12 wt. Valued at approximately $110.


 

 How to Enter 
To be in the draw, please leave a comment on this blog post or the Old Maid's Ramble's post, or like me on my facebook page. Then, email me through my Contact Me on the right sideboard of my blog. The drawing is open all week, starting now and concluding July 5, 2015, at noon. The winner will be announced July 5th, when the 5th block is released.
 


 
Winner
The winner of Week 3's Corn and Beans Block is Linda. Congratulations! Thanks to all who entered.
 
 
Enjoy,
Sandra

Summer Sampler Quilt Along - Block 4

  
Hello Friends,
 
Welcome to the fourth week of the Summer Sampler Quilt Along. This week the block is called Old Maid's Ramble. It finishes at 16" x 16".



Refer to the Summer Day & Night Quilt Sampler in the menu above for a summary of our progress.






Here we go. The block.

 



Cut Block 4
Light Gray:
§  Cut 4 squares 5 1/4” x 5 1/4”, the cut diagonally twice to make 16 quarter square triangles (2 are extras). (A)
§  Cut 1 square 6 1/2” x 6 1/2”, then cut diagonally once to make 2 half square triangles. (B)


Dark Gray:
§  Cut 4 squares 5 1/4” x 5 1/4”, the cut diagonally twice to make 16 quarter square triangles (2 are extras). (C)
§  Cut 1 square 6 1/2” x 6 1/2”, then cut diagonally once to make 2 half square triangles. (D)


Navy – Cut 3 squares 5 1/4” x 5 1/4”, the cut diagonally twice to make 12 quarter square triangles (2 are extras). (E)


Pink – Cut 3 squares 5 1/4” x 5 1/4”, the cut diagonally twice to make 12 quarter square triangles (2 are extras). (F)


Assemble Block 4
1.      Stitch together a blush (F) and gray (A) triangles.  Make 10.
 




2.      Stitch together a navy (E) and gray (A) triangles. Make 10.




3.      Referring to the diagram, use 5 half-square units from Step 1, 2 small gray triangles (F), and 1 large gray triangle (B) to stitch together. Stitch the units in the direction as shown.



4.      Referring to the diagram, use 5 half-square units from Step 2, 2 small gray triangles (F), and 1 large gray triangle (B) to stitch together. Stitch the units in the direction as shown.



5.      Complete the block by stitching together the units from Step 3 and 4.


6.      Congrats! You're 4th block is complete. 5 more to go.




Here's mine in RJR's Cotton Supreme Solids and some assembly tips.

 
 
The next 4 images are based on Step 3 above.

 




  
I hope you enjoyed the block. I'd love to see what you've come up with. Share with me through Instagram/Facebook/Pinterest.
 
Click here for your chance to win a thread box by Aurifil and the winner of Block 3.

Enjoy,
Sandra 

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Summer Sampler Quilt Along - Block 3 Giveaway



Friends,

The Corn and Beans Block's giveaway is the Orbit Fat Quarter Bundle by RJR's Cotton Supreme Solids for week 3 of the Summer Day & Night Quilt Sampler.

 
 




Check out this link for the free instructions to construct the Corn and Beans Block.


The Prize
A huge thank you to RJR for allowing me to giveaway a fat quarter bundle of their Cotton Supreme Solids. The bundle consists of 9 fat quarters.


 
How to Enter 
To be in the draw, please leave a comment on this blog post or the Corn and Beans Block post, or like me on my facebook page. Then, email me through my Contact Me on the right sideboard of my blog. The drawing is open all week, starting now and concluding June 28th at noon. The winner will be announced June 29th, when the 4th block is released.


Winner
The winner of Week 2 is Gloria. Congratulations! Thanks to all who entered.
Sandra

Summer Sampler Quilt Along - Block 3

 
Hello Friends,
 
Welcome to the third week of the Summer Sampler Quilt Along. This week the block is called Corn and Beans. It finishes at 16" x 16".



Refer to the Summer Day & Night Quilt Sampler in the menu above for a summary of our progress.






Here we go. The block.

 
 

Cut Block 3
Light Gray:
§  Cut 3 squares 6 1/4” x 6 1/4”, then cut diagonally once to make 6 half square triangles. (A)
§  Cut 10 squares 3 1/2” x 3 1/2”, then cut diagonally once to make 20 half square triangles. (B)

Green:
§  Cut 1 square 6 1/4” x 6 1/4”, then cut diagonally once to make 2 half square triangles. (C)
§  Cut 4 squares 3 1/2” x 3 1/2”, then cut diagonally once to make 8 half square triangles. (D)

Navy:
§  Cut 2 squares 3 1/2” x 3 1/2”, then cut diagonally once to make 4 half square triangles. (E)
§  Cut 1 square 6 5/8” x 6 5/8”, then cut diagonally twice to make 4 quarter square triangles. (F)

 

Assemble Block 3

1.      Start by stitching together the Hour-glass unit. Use 2 green triangles (C) and 2 gray triangles (A).



 
2.      Stitch together 2 gray triangles (B) to each side of the navy triangle (E). Make 4.

 


3.      Join the 4 units made in Step 2 to each side of the Hour-glass unit.
 
 
 

4.      Join 4 navy triangles (F) to each side of the unit made in Step 3.


 
 

5.      Stitch together 2 green triangles (D) in between 3 gray triangles (B). Make 4.





6.      Stitch together 1 gray triangle (A) to the unit made in Step 5. Make 4.

 

7.      Join the 4 units made in Step 6 to the unit made in Step 4 to complete the block.


 




Here's mine in RJR's Cotton Supreme Solids and some assembly tips.


 
 

Referring to Step 1, I chose to pinwheel my Hour-Glass unit. This eliminates seam bulk at the center of the unit. Refer to this tutorial for how to pinwheel seams.




The next series of pictures show you how I pieced the units of Step 2 together. Note the placement of the units and how it creates dog ears.





Here's my Step 3 unit.



And Step 4...



Step 5... (The same placement as in Step 3.)



Step 6...



I hope you enjoyed the Corn and Bean block. I'd love to see what you've come up with. Share with me through Instagram/Facebook/Pinterest.
 
Click here for your chance to win a free Fat Quarter Bundle by RJR Cotton Supreme Solids and the winner of Block 2.

Enjoy,
Sandra 

How to Pinwheel Seams

 
 
Hello Friends,

Today, I'll talk about the direction to press your seam allowance in your blocks. This will come in handy when constructing the Summer Sampler.
 
A quick intro on my quilting mechanics. I'll share how I assemble quilt tops. I hope you can take a thing or two away. So here we go...
 
First off, I don't starch or steam my blocks. (O no, I said it.) I don't, just never have, don't think I need too and it seems like extra stuff to do when I'm juggling my time as a mom and wife. Let me clarify, I don't steam my quilt until the entire top is constructed and has been pressed. Then I hit it with steam to really make sure my top is nice and flat. I do quilt my own quilts and spray baste.
 
I believe that steam, even if you press, can still distort your units. I work with a lot of bias and just don't want to take the chance. I'm all about efficiency in my mechanics. I believe that we can all be precise quilters. For example, there's no need to enlarge our cut pieces, just so we can add more steps to trim them down and worse, waste away beautiful fabric. To me, it's like throwing away money, because as quilters, we all know that quilting isn't a cheap hobby. Call this my quilting style or whatever, but this is what you can expect from my patterns.
 
What do I do instead of steaming, well, I finger press. I finger press until the entire block is assembled, then I press with my Oliso iron.
 
So why all this intro... Because it's important to understand a quilter's process and why they do the things that they do. For example, if you prewash all your fabric, then your process will be completely different than mine.

I'm very thorough and thoughtful of where to press seams. I want to make sure all my seams lock. I don't open seams. It's just not my style. I believe that when you open your seams, then you are leaving room for your quilt to pull apart as it wears. Plus, as quilters we work with a quarter inch seam allowance. That just doesn't seem like enough for me to open my seams.
 
I press my seams to one side. However, when you're working with many seams, there are times where all the seams create a large bulk. For example, the center of the Lemoyne Star Block. Large bulk can warp your points and make machine quilting difficult. Eek. We don't want that either.
 
 


I prefer to pinwheel my seams. I love it and I wish more quilters talked about it. I call it pinwheel, but others may call it circular or 4-patch.

 
(In my patterns, you'll see this box which explains how to pinwheel your seams.)
 
As I explain how to pinwheel your seams, I'll use this Hour-Glass unit in the center of the block. The rest of the instructions are from week 3 of the Summer Sampler.
 
 

 

Referring to the digital diagram below as part A (left), B (middle), and C (right). After part A is constructed we now have part B, where you see a circle with arrows in it. This symbol represents the moment to pinwheel the seam after stitching.



At this moment, we pull a stitch or two from the intersecting stitch of part A when stitching part B.
 
 




Then, finger press the seam from part B. Sometimes you'll have to wiggle out the center of the unit a bit, but that's expected. Notice how all the seams route in one direction, similar to a pinwheel effect.
 
 


There you have it. A pressed pinwheel seam. You'll start to notice as you put your quilts together, that there's many more opportunities to pinwheel your seam direction to ensure locked seams during assembly.

Till next time,
Sandra

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