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Showing posts from July, 2014

The Continuation of the Pixelating Quilt.

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I've cut all my squares now.  I need quite a few. I needed 133 blues, 45 gray/blues, 111 light yellows/tan, 78 yellows, 111 golds, 174 light browns, and 183 dark browns.  As stated in a previous email, there is a great program that figures this out for you, so I was so happy for this.  You take what it produces, put it as a background picture in excel so you can calculate how many squares you need of each colour.  See this link for an explanation and the name of the link.  It's really not that hard to do, but it does take some time.  You can also edit your picture to change some of it so it's clearer in your mind. On a note, for me, cutting one strip of material at 2.5 inches equalled 18 squares.  So I will use that measurement to figure out how much material I'll need.  To be safe (better to have more material then less), use 16.   Section 1 Once done, I use very light weight interfacing, and following my excel sheet which works like a map, I now place t

July's 2014 NewFO Challenges - table runner.

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This blog posting was done in two parts - I started the blog posting on the 18th, showing the start of this quilt.  I purchased a bag of pre-cut material for $7.25 at the quilting show in Abbottsford a couple of months ago.  The cuts for lengthwise of the material, and perfect for making thangles, so I purchased the pre-made thangles and want to make something with the material, be creative.... Here's the package and what it included, pinks with flowers, light straight pink, pink and green polka dotted on white, and straight white.  So, as you can see from the pre-cuts, it's perfect for thangles. Here's the first one, a double star, looking at making three stars, with the polka dot material around each one, then smaller ones maybe if I have the extra material.  I'm only using what material is in the package.  The white will be the backing.  I'll probably get 2 large stars from the material and one small one.  Which is fine.    Will continue to post about

Learning to make a Pixelated Quilt.

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I've been taking a free Crafty class on Pixelating your quilt.  Great course, taught me a lot, and you did need to do a lot of math.  But when reading some of the comments on the side of the course I made two great discoveries. I found that the Victoria and Albert has a patchwork pattern maker that is absolutely perfect!!!  You do need an account to download your patchwork, but the simplicity of this program is fantastic. You upload a picture that you think will work, you choose what type of square you will use for selection (square, portrait, etc), then the machine runs the program, and you can fine tune it to say if you want to do only 15 colours, more colours, and if you want to do HTS (half triangle squares like the example above).  Below is one that I made. You can choose the size you want the squares. So here is the the one I am trying to do.  The original picture: This is the picture of the sunflower after going into the Victoria and Albert web site.

Vice Versa going on...

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Got another one done, this one is Vice Versa BOM The green background material. Finally done, took  days of putting it off.

OK I cheated..... went ahead.

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Wanted to paper piece.  I wanted to practise it.  So when I found out that October's Crafty Block of the month 2012 was paper piecing I did one right away.  It was one that I saw on Amy Gibson's site previously (sorry I don't know the address).  I liked it there, and I wanted to do one.  So it's done.  I'm still not great with paper piecing, I waste too much fabric, but with more fabric then needed, I make sure that I cover the area that needs covering.  So that's the purpose.   See for yourself.  Love the colours.  It's on my quilted table top.

Crafty works.... Doing more then the months.....

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I love these Dresden's from Crafty Blocks of the Month 2012 by Amy  Gibson .  It's been really fun.  I have up to August all done, and looking at working ahead a bit.  I have a picture of the Dresdens. My favourite Both are easy to do i'm very serious about making a large quilt with both of these, a sort of modern version.  Notice that I machine button stitched around both. All the blocks so far..... With the borders, this quilt is going to be quite large, 2 per month, until October.  I already have August done (top right two squares), so that leaves September (Drunkards), and October (paper piecing).  I must admit I started the paper piecing, or at least one of them.  Will include that in another entry. As for the Drunkards, looking at doing it differently then the instructions on the video (Crafty Videos are sooooo helpful), trying something new and will take tons of pictures for a tutorial (my first one) if it works out. Have a great day.

Debbie Mumm's Quilt coming along....

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With my husband's order to stay home and take it easy, "sew if you want" - boy what hardship ;)  My flu was not as bad today, all that sleep yesterday seemed to have helped, and a day of just taking it easy, and doing a bit of sewing, has also helped it along. I did some cutting, to catch up on a couple of quilt blocks that need to be done.  There's Debbie Mumm's Stars of Honour  - a free block of the month every two months.  Each block of the month you need to make four or six of them.  Here they are: Another project I worked on was the spike block from the Block Lotto site.  I want to join in the fun this month, I missed the last one completely because of all the striking going on at the end of the school year.  But this time, I'm bound and determine to join  :).  I need to make 14 blocks for the queen size quilt this month, and here are 9. Two for the Block Lottery These seven for me.  Need to make 14 in total. The basic colou

Quick post because of the flu....

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Couldn't stop yawning at all on Saturday, and kept on turning hot and cold.  I napped around 3:00 for an hour but woke up and was still tired.  We went over to the fringe festival, but was still yawned all the way through it.  Got to see Bruce Cockburn in concert but still, was tired so I left.. So today my husband ordered me to stay home, and behave, no doing nothing.  But I can't just sit and watch TV so I worked every hard to complete one of my applique quilt blocks.  This is #12 of the Prairie Flower Quilt, I skipped #11 because 12 was harder.  So here it is, all done.  The flowers are different purples in wool, and two colours of green for the leaves.  I have a callus on my finger  :) Notice all the stitching... around the circles then around each petal.   I used tons of thread on this one.  One to go...  then the corners of the quilt. I'm going to hand quilt this baby....

Another two small quilts done..

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Here's another quilt I finished yesterday..  This one has a funny story behind it.  I made the blocks in February, when I was doing the Block Lotto.  I made enough for the queen quilt, and more.  I had three extra blocks so I decided to make this table runner.  The quilt top is about 4 feet by 1 foot.  I was free style quilting it to be prepared for the major quilting project for the "Year of Finishes" project.  This was one of the projects for that month.  I used another layer of muslin with a circle drawn on it, and placed it to the top material.  I sewed around the circle, then cut out the circle, and turned the muslin inside out, so that there was a hole in the top fabric. I then placed the circle material under the top material (face up) and it shows up as a circle.  I then sewed close to the circle edge, and that made the circle.  To get the two different colours on the one circle, I cut the circles I made in half and sewed the circles to the orange strip and vo

Need to catch up.

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I've been away on vacation for about 10 days, a wirral wind trip, with my husband and I doing something every day, sometimes two things.  We've been to 4 baseball games, three different days on the beach, and to disneyland 2 days.  It's been a very tiring trip, but fun.  We  drove there and back taking two days for the trip.  On the way back we stayed overnight at a cabin in the mountains, and just sat outside having a drink, while the sunset.  It' was lovely.  Here are some pictures... Tea Cup Ride at Disney Huntington Beach Sunset Shasta Mountain California But now that I'm back I need to catch up with my BOMs and more.  I didn't buy any material when I was out, but I have so much now that it's overflowing my closet.  Also as going away gifts from my school I got more material from friends.  More to do now.  So I'm trying to just use what material I have, thus the Aurifil quilt that's only in flower patterns with a white backgrou

Why am I obsessed with BOMs?

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About BOMs There are those you pay for online - Skill Builder BOM at Pile of Fabrics (it cost - I think - $24).... There are those that are free that later become payable (See to the left the Garden one - it's fantastic and very challenging) and Doodle .... And then there are many that are free - At Grandpa's Pond or SuperMarios no cost.   There are those that last all year (see Vice Versa - pay one but well worth it and many of the others), and those that end 6 months into it (Material Girl, and Down the Rabbit Hole - you can see my entries on them in the Tag section to the left). I can't seem to stop joining all the free ones.  Want to be part of all, so I spend half my time doing blocks, and nothing completed.  But as I stated above, I have finished two BOMs (see labels on Material Girls and Down the Rabbit Hole - both are free and the last one is on Crafty - my favorite site). Aurifill's BOMs also have patterns attached to the block so you can comple