Grey Cup One Block Wonder

   Is it winter or spring? Typical weather for the Grey Cup, Canadian Football League - CFL - super bowl Sunday. Spent the day finishing the center of a 3 year old Christmas One Block Wonder. The worst part was piecing each row then deciding that cubes needed to be added and what colour. p.s. Make sure you read the instructions first, i.e. press seams open. Much easier to sew the rows together.

   Another Moda quilt along block done. Only 6 more to go.😄

Who's interested in a block on the barn quilt?

   Snow. Melt. Snow. Melt. I'm having a difficult time checking out the mouse places. It's driving me upstairs downstairs and all round the house. Look out mom here I come. She tells me I should use the treadmill. Puh! Me!? That's for dogs.

Painted Meadows

   Even though this is our Saturday, it certainly feels like Monday. Did any of you get the extra hour of sleep? Not me. I'm waking up an hour earlier. 😴

   This Painted Meadows fabric grouping by Robin Pickens is in stock, now. 

  The second set of Diamond blocks are ready to go out next week. Those of you participating should have received the updated link for the background cutting instruction video. Remember to sign up for the Diamond program.

The PHD's are accumulating. Cut but not sewn. I ran out of fabric and had to get more.

Block Bonanza Setting Seams

   Way back when, many gals in the Calgary area participated in-house, the four years we ran the programs. Many more gals participated via mail. Because it was so much fun back then, we are starting a new Block Bonanza in the fall. 

Today I spent part of the afternoon cutting out the background fabric for testing the upcoming Block Bonanza quilt, Diamond. Here is a teaser. Can't think of a better use of the long arm take up bars. Can you?

Be sure to sign up for Quiltnasium's newsletter to hear for the upcoming registration.

   One of the things that will be important in piecing the Diamond quilt is setting the seam. This is an old tailor’s trick, to make the seams lay completely flat. Even though tailors would be using wool or wool blend fabrics, the actual technique is the same and the result is just as effective.

In quilting, we lay the seam on the ironing board with the side up that the fabric is being pressed to. Most quilters press the seam with steam. (I do because it helps the fabric do as I want it to do.) Then fold the fabric over and steam press again. Warning: when using steam be careful not to stretch the fabric. 

Now, what I've learned is to press the seam on both sides thus causing the thread to embed into the material which give you a much crisper finish. Then open the fabric over the seam and slightly finger press the seam. Then steam press the seam. If you allow the block to cool then that keeps the fabric and seam as it should be because you are not disturbing the fabric. Remember cotton is easily influenced to move.

Enjoy your week!

      I'm so excited, mom is letting me tell you all that we celebrated our first year anniversary together last weekend. She has helped me get back in shape of being a cat. Now, I tear around the yard and up and down the stairs. I jump up on the bed without a footstool. I'm bring mom all the presents she needs. Best of all, I got a new scratching post. MEEOWW! We both love each other very much and think that life couldn't be grander!

Dream Bathroom Humour

   Why do the simplest quilts take the longest time to piece together? Dream quilt is finally done. Instructions and fabric available Thursday. 

   
I've uploaded a short video on piecing some of the strip set for the checkerboard border on Quiltnasium's facebook page under videos.
   
  Yea, Stampede is done. Herding is done. Dream is done. At the Stampede my favourite thing to visit the barns where the draft horses are. It was a bathroom humour day that day.

Just ask little kids

Leaders and Enders

Two weekends, Two awesome quilt shows.
Am loving textured backgrounds and the large dots with the giraffes. 

Kathryn and I happened to see each other at this scrappy quilt made of 2" log cabin blocks. We were talking about how long that it would take to make. I mentioned that this would make a great leader and ender quilt. A What? A Leader and Ender. 

Normally I use a Thread Dog. What? A thread dog. It is a piece of fabric that is a 1.5" to 2" wide piece of scrap fabric folded in half. The length can be any size. Instead of having threads at the beginning of your chain piecing or any piecing, you stitch across the width of the thread dog. This helps prevent the threads from balling up at the beginning of the stitching as well as the fabric getting caught in the feed dogs. When you are finished the stitching, cut the thread dog off from the beginning, leader, and stitch across it, ender, then cut the pieced pieces off.  

So, instead of using the Thread Dog you can stitch together pieces for another quilt that are small, mindless and tedious to make, ie 4-patch units, tumbler blocks, flying geese, even these little log cabins. I have 160 small flying geese to make and this is the perfect way to get them done by using them as leaders and enders.

Here I am using the flying geese for leaders and enders. As I press the chain piecing I also press the flying geese. Even when sewing the rows together in goes a flying goose as a leader and ender.

This is a great technique if you are not in a hurry to make the second quilt. Before you know it you will have all the pieces together and a second quilt completed.