Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Tutorial on TWIRLING SEAMS

Good morning everyone!!!!    So exciting to hear from people who read the blog.

And what exciting stuff do I have to talk about today????   Well how about twirling those seam allowances?

First - let me just update you on a couple of things.................


My binding/border/backing project for last week. Had to go with that blue binding - NO more of that floral fabric left. 

Remember my January project for 12 for (20) 12. I was teaching a class the other day and flipping through a book and found that project - can you guess what year the book was??????

Yep - that would be 2003. I guess this qualifies as a UFO. Still haven't had a chance to quilt it, but I see there are a LOT of "free" days in March. 

Blocks from Farmer's Wife

The last two blocks of Farmer's Wife homework for Feburary

Twenty one blocks from Farmer's Wife  - only 90 to go. 



And now the twirling seams demo.......................


Here are the HST (or any other block component) laid out and ready to sew. One other note of interest - normally we press the HSTs to the dark. In this case - I pressed some to the light - where I would have TWO seams going in the same direction. - look at the two HST in the bottom right corner. If both the seams are pressed to the dark - I have more bulk at the intersection so I look at the block (laid out like above) and decide which ones need to be pressed in the opposite direction

Then I sew them together in FOUR patches (that would be FOUR 4-patches). Here they are laid out on the ironing board ready for pressing. NOTE that I kept them together as four patches. The arrows are pointing to the thread that connects the pairs. And note that EACH four patch is laid out in the SAME configuration. The left most pair of the 4 patch is pointing up and the right most pair is pointing down. You can reverse this direction, but you MUST BE CONSISTENT throughout your project. All to the left or all to the right. The minute you switch one of them, the twirling thing WILL NOT work. Now to press - just flip the pair open and press - this positioning already has the seam allowances going in the right direction

Here are the pressed pairs - the arrows indicate which direction the seam allowances are pressed.   Do you see what happened from one photo to the next??????   NOTE - the pairs are STILL ATTACHED - DO NOT cut them apart. If you do - it just means there is MORE likelihood that they will get turned around when you sew them into the four patches. 

Here the four patches are laid out in the block configuration (the arrow is pointing to the thread that still attaches the two pairs) (yes - the others are attached as well - I just drew ONE arrow)

Sew each of the pairs together (along the side where they are attached in case you get mixed up and turned the block around from picking it up to getting it to the sewing machine) - and now we are going to twirl the seam. Look at the wrong side of each pair. See this little piece of vertical seam ABOVE the horizontal line

Take your seam ripper and RELEASE the stitches. DO NOT cut that thread - just release it on BOTH sides of the seam

Then split that seam in the center and notice how the four seams will go in a clockwise or counter clockwise direction (the direction depends on whether you flipped the left most pair up or down).

Here are the FOUR four patches. And NOTE - if the centers do not match - I don't care. I aim for accuracy, but I don't aim for perfection. Life is too short to be worried about silly little details like that. If someone is going to zero in on those imperfections, then they need to get a LIFE. But I want my work to be neat and tidy and more or less accurate - I just don't stress over whether it is off by 1/8" or 1/16". If the piece is going to a competition - you bet - I will redo and redo until it is perfect, but for a quilt like this - what is the point???????????????   

The back side of the previous picture - note that the seams of ALL four of the four patches are going in a clockwise direction and so when the four patches get sewn together - the seams will nest into each other at ALL four intersections

Then sew the four patches together to get two HALVES - and note that you can continue to twirl the seams on those two seams. Notice in the center - those seams will NEXT perfectly to each other. 

Lastly sew the two halves together and YES - you can twirl all three of those intersections


You can ONLY twirl the seams if you sew in FOURS and TWIRL as you go. If you sew in rows or want to twirl once you have finished the block - it WILL NOT work.


Hope that clears up that mystery. Let me know if there are any questions.



Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1



Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday, February 27, 2012

The Letter E

I read Shelley's blog from The Quilt Patch the other day and I laughed so hard. Do you want to know why????  

Read her blog first and then come back here........................

I collect the letter "E"


The little purple one we picked up in Amsterdam (you can get them online)

Two more e's 

As you can tell - this one has been around for a while - a tad faded

Another E

I first saw these paper mache E's in Paris. The second largest one. I thought long and hard about it because I would have to carry it with me for the rest of the vacation and it would not fit in my suitcase. I bit the bullet - carried it back to our hotel on my bike (just like the locals would). The rest of the Es I bought in the US. I have BIG intentions to decoupage these guys. 

And more Es that I have had for a while. 
Yes - mine are not as cool as Shelley's, but they will be cool once they are decorated.

But no time for that at the moment - I am still fooling around with Photoshop and digital scrapbooking.
Here is the latest in my creations. Once I got it together late last night, I realized that it isn't balanced so I am going to redo it later today. And look at those black lines - NOT even. A learning experience and I am having FUN doing it. While I know how to do most of what I have done so far, I am NOT doing it efficiently and end up clicking buttons, then reclicking buttons and messing around TRYING to make it do what I want. So I will play with some of these simple designs until I get that stuff down pat - then move onto more complicated stuff. I'm EXCITED!!!!!!

While I have been working on all these monthly blocks - I am getting behind in my exchanges. This weekend was time to do the switch to the next person and I seem to have ended up with lots of them at my house so people can pick them up. Mine even came back to me and I have wanted to get a photo of this for a long time. (Mary conveniently left my stuff on top so I could get the photos without seeing the rest of the blocks) I don't think I posted it on the blog. Anyway - can you read what it says?????


I embroidered my blog site in keyboard shaped letters (yes I know it is crooked - but I left lots of room to compensate for that. When I cut it - it will look straight!!!!!

close up - how cool is that. 
 And back to the letter E - here is my other block as well (no I DID NOT peek at what people had done for me - I have more control than that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

How many E words do you know that would describe yourself??????   This one fits me perfectly (I think!!!!)

And that is it for today.


Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11


Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Dear Jane February reveal

Will this be the last post of the day???  I know for most of you - it will look like the first one since they go in reverse order, but I have been blogging ALL DAY.

In case you are not familiar with Dear Jane - here is the original in all it's glory

And here is the homework from January - there were FIVE blocks to complete.

As I took the pictures and I apologize for a few of them. I was a bit fast on a couple of them and they are a tad blurry. Next time - I will hesitate for a moment before I take the picture. Also even though I wrote down the names as I took the pictures, somehow some are not right. Let me know which one is yours and I will fix that.

Anna B

Joy S

Anne G- that's a WOW factor

Anne SP

Bernice P

Beth T 

Bonnie C

Cathy P

Christie M

Mary M

Dede C

Elaine K

Evelyn (cool use of striped fabric)

Jo

Corinne V

Katheleen C

Kathy M

Linda D

Linda P (YES - she is doing THREE quilts)

Marion C

Judy T

Ronda G

Pauline F

Marilyn B
Vivenda VT

Sharon B

Suzie N
Anita G


Sacha


Jeanette (WOW - another bright one)

Takako I



Let's see - yes I got very confused - there are SIX pictures missing. There are THIRTY FIVE people in the class which we split in two. THREE people did NOT send me pictures of their blocks - and the other three - well I think I forgot to take pictures of the blocks. I am going to check my camera again in case I some how missed them.


Here are my blocks again - yes there is still one missing and now I have to find the fabric that I was going to use for it. Marian was rooting around in her box of fabric and I fear it may be lost. I must go back and rejig everything to make sure  I pick up the right colours. 

Speaking of planning - have a look at this which belongs to  - oh shoot - there were so many people and I was grabbing things and photographing them, my brain didn't have time to associate what with whom!!!!

Anyway - they took a snippet of fabric and glued it to the chart so when I call a specific letter - they can grab the appropriate fabric. Pretty cool.

Fabric layout for Dear Jane

Judy did the same thing, but just used coloured pens. So when a BLUE block comes up - she will go to the blue fabrics and pick one. Great idea - I might have to steal some of these ideas for mine!!!!!!


I will get the missing pictures up as soon as they come in. In the meantime, I think I had better get something else done with my day. It is now 4:30 PM. Yep - blogged the entire day away.

OK - so I made up attendance charts and sorted out the bags from yesterday - verified the homework and sent out the homework e-mails.


The NEW attendance sheet on the left and the OLD messy one on the right. 


Got to go



Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!