Hello and welcome to TGIFF!! I'm so glad you're here today, and I'm so happy to share a giant of a finish...a Queen-sized T-shirt quilt!
I've been really busy this season with craft shows and t-shirt quilts for Christmas, but I wanted to specifically share this one because it has a special element that was new to me.
If you look closely, you will see a 3x4 large block of designs in the center. This section started off as a t-shirt blanket that was created by my client. She asked if I could "work it in", so I used it as the center of the quilt, then designed the rest of the shirts around it.
I won't act like it was really easy, because, in fact, it was challenging to work with someone else's pieces alongside my own, especially with different sewing styles and abilities. However, I'm really pleased with the results, and so is she...so it's a win-win!
I finished it all off with meandering quilting with black thread to blend in with the all the dark shirts, black sashing, and backing fabric.
Quilting it on my little singer was definitely akin to wrestling an alligator!
Have you ever incorporated someone else's work into your own? I'd love to hear about it!
Now it's your turn to share! Add the link your post (not your blog home, please) below, link back here in your post, and be sure visit a few other links to share the love. <3
It's Day 11 of the 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hog!!! Have you all been enjoying yourselves? I sure hope so!
I've got a tutorial for you today for an easy, but eye-catching, runner for your table or as gift for your favorite person. <3
This runner is made to fit my 8ft table, measuring 96.5" x 16.5", but it could easily be shorted or made longer. The finished block size is 8", so take your desire length and divide it by 8, then multiply that number by 2 to see how many total blocks you need. :)
For my runner, I chose Return To Winters Lane by Kate & Birdie. It's a beautiful and simple line that we'll be able to use all winter, because it's not overly "Christmasy" Supplies
1 Jelly Roll (or 30 2.5" strips of various colors/prints)
1.5 yards for backing
batting (honestly, I used the leftover scraps from recent quilts)
Stitch ripper
Instructions
NOTE: I'm going to write out directions for those of you who aren't video folks, but I'm going to have a video below with so you can see the steps. Also, all seam allowances are 1/4". :)
1. Open up that jelly roll and delight in all the feels and smells of newly opened fabric...breathe deep, this is therapeutic after all. <3 Then, separate your strips into colorways (a pile for each color represented). This is so you can make sure you're getting a good mix in your blocks. Also, pick out six strips for your binding and set them aside.
2. Sew 4 strips together (make sure you mix up the colors!), then fold your strip set in half lengthwise (right sides together) and sew the those strips together to create a long tube. (Don't press any seams yet.) Make 6 tubes.
3. Move your tubes to the cutting table. Lay one tube out, nice and flat, and feel where the seam that's on the top lines up with the seam on the bottom (this is in the video if you can't picture that). Cut off the selvage to even up on side of the tube.
4. Now cut (16) 2.5" "rings" from your tube. You can repeat this process for all your tubes, but make sure you keep the rings from each tube together, making sure to not mix them up.
5. It's the fun part! Wait, I think these are all fun parts, but now's the time you get to break out your stitch ripper for good instead of evil. You're going to take 4 "rings" at a time to make a block. Decide which fabric on your ring you'd like to make the diagonal through the block and rotate the ring so that that fabric is at the top when you hold it up. We'll call this fabric "A" from now on. Rip the stitches out along the top seam of A, open your ring, and lay it front of you with A at the top.
6. For the next ring, put A at the top, but then rotate the ring down one time. A will now be at the bottom, facing you. Rip the stitches along the top seam again, and lay this ring beside the first so you can see that A is diagonal to the first strip.
7. For the 3rd ring, put A at the top and rotate twice, so now A is on the bottom but facing away from you. Rip those precious stitches out across the top again, open it up, and set it with the others. You should see the diagonal now continuing. If you accidentally rip the wrong seam, simply stitch it back up and try again. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have to do that. ;)
8. For the last ring of the block, put A at the top and rotate 3 times, so now it's at the top but facing away from you. Take those stitches out across the top, like you've done before and open it up.
9. Now it's time to press those seams! I press all the seams on each strip the same direction, but I alternate the direction of each strip so that they are going opposite directions. This lets them nest and gives us the pretty corners we all dream about at night. Or is that just me?
10. To complete your first block, just sew those 4 pretty strips together and press it open.
11. Repeat steps 5-10 to complete a total of 24 blocks (or however many you need if you're changing it up).
12. It's time to lay it out! The layout is 2 blocks by 12. Watch A on each block and rotate each block so the corners of A are lined up with the corners of the A fabrics beside it and above it. The goal is to create diamond shapes throughout the runner.
13. Once you're happy with the layout, it's time to piece them all together into one beautiful top!
Here's the video tutorial up until here:
Because life happens, I didn't video the runner top, but here it is! It required 3 pictures to get all 8 ft of it shown. Ha!
Now you can baste, quilt, and bind (with the 6 strips you put aside earlier) with your preferred methods!
To quilt, I did a continuous curves free-motion pattern. I just love it for patterns with lots of little squares. <3 I did a FB live on how I do continuous curves if you'd like to see it.
I'd love love love to see your runner if you use this pattern! You can share it with me on Instagram, using the hashtag #summerleequilts or by following and tagging me @summerleequilts. I'm also on Facebook, if you want to come hang out with me when I do my weekly livestreams!
Now, I hope you'll take a few minutes to go visit Kathy @ Kathy's Kwilts and More! I'm posting the schedule below so you can catch up on any posts you've missed. <3
Thank you so much for stopping by today and happy quilting!
Hello hello! I hope you're having a lovely summer. We've been spending a lot of time poolside.
Anywho, I have been busting at the seams with excitement to share my first quilt pattern with you! I've been holding onto this for several months now, and it's finally ready!
Meet - Around the Neighborhood!
I created this design specifically to show off your favorite fabrics. With the white sashing, each fabric gets to shine as in a gallery of pictures.
It uses 14 fat quarters and a little yardage to make a 67.5" x 78.5" quilt.
While you can quilt it however you like, I chose to do an allover swirl design to balance against all the straight lines and angles.
The fabrics I used are from the Recollection and Woodland bundles from Art Gallery Fabrics. They coordinated so well..I just love them. I'm really starting to become an Art Gallery fan.
Yesterday, I revealed the pattern on my FB livestream called Loose Threads Thursday, so if you're interested in hearing more of the story behind the quilt and seeing it in another colorway...here's the video.
Here's another full picture of Around the Neighborhood. ^_^
Have you ever sewed your quilt rows together to find that your vertical sashing didn't line up and it looked rather wonky? Well, today I'm showing you what I do to get nicely aligned sashing.
Hello everyone! I cannot wait to show you my finish for this week! It's big. It's beautiful. It's...white!
This is a large queen sized, Irish chain. The story behind it is that my customer painted and redecorated her bedroom and just couldn't find the right bedding. She and her husband loved their previous quilt that was a pink and white Irish chain, so we decided to recreate that quilt with their current bedroom colors.
I was able to use paint chips to find the right tone of aqua. <3
While the previous quilt had some simple straight line quilting, I felt I needed to add my own touch...and since free-motion quilting big quilts on my old Singer is like my favorite thing, I really took some time and planned the quilting on this one.
I started with continuous curves (a new favorite of mine!) for the aqua squares and clam shells for the large white squares.
I added wishbones for the small, inner, white border. Then finished off with large feathers on the middle border and paisley on the outside. I did a "How to FMQ Paisley with a domestic machine" tutorial with this border on my Youtube series Pro-Tip Tuesdays.
Since the binding was the same color as the outer border and backing, I used my sewing machine to bind the quilt, instead of hand-stitching. I did a quick tutorial on how I do binding on the machine as well.
Thanks so much for stopping by today! Have a great day and happy quilting!
Hello and happy Friday! I have another t-shirt quilt finish to share today. This was a quick "hey, can you squeeze this in before the end of the month" quilt.
I'm really glad I took it on, because it was the absolute smoothest t-shirt quilt I've done. For example, it usually takes me at least 2 days (read sewing sessions) to be able to cut the shirts, measure designs, and graph the quilt. For this one, however, I was able to cut the shirts, measure, graph, AND cut and sew the first column in one day! I was pretty stoked.
I also was able to pull the sashing from my stash, which was a great blessing. I knew I wanted to use gray, but when I pulled this hashed, tone-on-tone fabric...and I had exactly the amount I needed...I was so excited. <3 I love the added look of texture.
I kept with a meandering quilting pattern, and I picked up some adorable black and while polka dot fabric for the binding. I love the fabric, because it reminds me of strings of pearls.
Thanks so much for stopping by today! Happy quilting!
Last week on Pro-Tip Tuesday, I shared how you can easily square up your quilt blocks without needing a special ruler for each quilt block size you make. This week, I'm taking it a little further and showing you the rulers I actually use, after buying all the different sizes.
Here's where you can find each of the rulers I talk about:
This week, I'm hoping to help you not make a mistake I made when I was a new quilter. See, I had this idea that I needed a special ruler for every size block I made, so I could square them up. I was wrong! It was silly of me, and I wasted a lot of money on rulers that sit in a drawer now.
Here's what I do now to square up by blocks...
Thanks for stopping by today! If you'd like to connect with me outside of the blog (for my FB Livestreams or to see daily stuff on Instagram), here's where I am...
Hello and welcome to TGIFF! I always love when my turn to host comes around, so I can connect with all of you. <3
I have a fun quilt finish to share with you today. I started and completed this top at the beginning of the year, but then I got busy with custom orders and didn't get a chance to pick it back up until last week. I just love how it came out.
It's been years since I've done any strip-piecing, so this was really fun to make. In fact, I bought another jelly roll to make a version with pink in it!
I recently completed Angela Walters Free-Motion Quilting Challenge, and I really wanted to try the continuous curves pattern over an entire quilt. With all the little squares on this, I knew it was the perfect fit.
My curves are FAR from perfect, but the nature of the design makes it soooo forgiving. You just don't see all the mistakes in the overall pattern.
I think the back is just as pretty as the front, even though I only used an off-white solid.
Of course, I had to take just a couple more "artistic" photos!
Here are all the posts about this quilt if you want to see some of the process:
Now it's your turn! I can't wait to see all the pretty things you've finished! Link up to your finished project below, then please link back here and put the TGIFF button in your post or on your blog! Be sure to share the love, by visiting the other links and leaving comments. Everyone loves getting comments. <3
Hooray for Tuesday and another edition of Pro-Tip Tuesday!
If you're like I was when I was a new quilter, I couldn't get seams to line up for anything. In fact, for my first few projects...I didn't even know that was a goal!
So, for this Pro-Tip Tuesday, I'm sharing a super easy way to get your seams to line up. Enjoy!
Hello hello! Hooray for Friday! Not only is Friday my favorite blogging day, but we have favorite friends coming over tonight for game night, so it's even more special.
So, today...I finally get to show you the finish T-shirt quilt! Check it out!
I had some artistic license, so I did some special quilting. First, I used wishbones for all the sashing, then I gave each of the larger shirts different designs...keeping some of the quilting with the style of the shirt design. Here are some of my favorites. <3
It was really, really fun to quilt this! I finished it off with a red tone-on-tone binding and sent it off to its new home.
If you missed any of the previous posts on this quilt, here are the links so you can catch up. <3
