Premium Star AKA Bear Paw ~ Block 30 ~ Quilt Along

Today’s block is a doozey. I recommend setting aside a good block of time to make this one. And take your time. Starch all your fabrics before begining will help you out as well as precise trimming as you go. This block is doable. The templates are wrong. DO NOT GO BY THE PRINT OFF TEMPLATE MEASUREMENTS. Use the templates as a guide for layout. Additionally, I advise to watch the video to see the pressing instruction. I have not included it in this blog post.

premium-starDownload

If you are interested in catching up, it is not too late, all the blocks can be found here.

Cutting Instructions:

• Background fabric
  • Cut 1 1/8 inch strips
    • These will be sub cut 24 times with the paired dark purple fabric and the easy angle ruler.
    • Subcut also making qty four 1 1/8 inch squares
• Pink Fabric (sashing)
  • Cut 1 1/2 inch strip
    • Sub cut 4 into 3 inch cuts
• Dark Purple fabric
  • Cut one square 1 1/2 inches
  • Cut 1 1/8 inch strips to be paired (as called out above) for cutting 24 cuts using the easy angle ruler
• Medium Purple fabric
  • Cut 4 squares at 2 1/2 inches (these will get trimmed down during assembly as we are cutting large instead of cutting at a 1/64th measurement). Please refer to video for this step.

Make all 24 of your half square triangles. It is very important to have accuracy with these pieces. Trim these down to 1 1/8 inch square. This is basically the foundation of the block and we do not want to lose any of the 24 points.

Sew 2 sets of three HSTs. On one set add the small square just as above. You are now ready to sew the row of three HSTs to the over large piece of medium purple. It is probably a good idea to watch the video on this. Because this medium purple square is over sized you will trim down each side keeping true to the row of three HSTs. You will repeat that step for the row of 3 HSTs that is sewn to the square. Nest your seams, trim as required. Your square should measure 3 inches. If it does not you will need to alter your pink pieces for your sashing. This step will make 4 sets of each unit above.

Make 4 Bear Paw blocks, using the same steps above.

You are now ready to join to your pink sashing. You will make two of these subunits

Add the remaining pink sashing pieces as well as the center purple square.

Join the sashing strip to the bear paw sections nesting seams and aligning raw edges.

Your block should measure 6 1/2 inches. Hopefully if you trim, you will not lose any points.

If I did not make any sense with my instruction, it is much clearer what to do on the video. I had to reverse engineer this as I went to make sure no one would be cutting at the 1/64 mark.

If there is something that I have failed to communicate, please reach out and ask. Thank you for reading my blog!

Flower Basket ~ Block 29 ~ Quilt Along

Another classic easy block!

The templates are not necessary but a good reference, so I am including them for all you pattern downloaders.

flower-basketDownload

For all the blocks previous, if you want to catch up or make a whole quilt using one block, peruse that data link found here.

This block is constructed from a bunch of scrappy 2 inch strips. From Piece A you will need 6 varieties of color for the floral portion of the block as well as 8 pieces cut the same size from the background fabric, using your easy angle. Additionally you will need to cut two rectangles from background that measure 2 by 3 1/2. And lastly from background you will need to cut a triangle from a 3 7/8 strip.

From the basket brown pieces you will need to cut a triangle from a 3 7/8 inch strip using the easy angle, and from a different or same brown cut a 2 inch strip and subcut using the easy angle ruler.

Please refer to the video for tutorial goodness, all of the cutting instruction is gone over on the video.

Here is my block

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog!

Right and Left ~ Block 28 ~ Quilt Along

Today’s scrappy block is the Right and Left block. It is like an economy block with HSTs turned on the corners. It is an easy sew.

You do not need the templates as the directions in the video give cutting instructions, but for grins, here are the templates for you if you so chose.

right-and-leftDownload

Here is the link to all the blocks so far.

And here is how my block turned out!

Here is the tutorial video if you need it.

Half LeMoyne Star ~ Block 27

Do not let this block fool you into thinking it is too hard, it is not. This time around the EQ8 software created magnificent templates which enhance accuracy. But, disclaimer, this also has Y seams! For those of you who have tackled Y seams and did not like them, I will only say, practice makes perfect. All of us quilters avoid the things we do not like. Your skill set will suffer from this mentality. It is only as hard as your mind makes it. Divide and Conquer, you got this. And lets be frankly honest, this is a scrappy quilt along. If this block does not turn out to your satisfaction, most of these seams are less than two inches, just rip them out. Or leave them in! Practice of this block I found my second block almost perfect compared to my first block full of errors. We all have plenty of scraps to redo this block many times if we want perfection, we can strive for it. And lets face it, if the block turns out very imperfect, we still conquered our quilting fears and over come those with perhaps a future pot holder.

And by all means if you are joining in now, it is not to late. The blocks are all available on the blog post, click here for the list of links. These will remain free forever.

half-lemoyne-starDownload

The success of this block is all in the templates. Piece C is the holy grail of success for this.

For all the tips and tricks of making this block how you want to make it, please watch the video in it’s entirety for all the details.

For those of you who come here and download the templates and who are sewing along, thank you! You are the wind beneath my wings!

And here is my rendition of the pattern.

Pleased as all be how this turned out!

And thank you for reading my blog!

2Fer Block, Star Variant and Sawtooth 5

Today’s block post will contain two patterns, the Sawtooth and the Star Variant. As a whole these blocks look complicated. But when you break them down into sub sections they are really not that hard.

If you are curious of how to make any of the blocks so far in the quilt above, visit this link for all the above. As I write the patterns and post the videos, they are posted all in one location for ease later for anyone who wants to join no matter how much time has lapsed.

star-variationDownload

sawtooth-5Download

When making either block, please pre-measure your printables to make sure they printed to the correct scale. If the dimensions I give in the video below are not what your printables measure, please reprint and scale your paper to print correctly.

Here are mine. And let me add, I am very proud of the green one! My points for once had complete alignment (the planets must have all aligned for the making of this block hahahaha).

I recommend jotting down notes while watching the video all the way through for cutting instruction. Very good instruction on aligning all those funny angles and how and where to align your fabric pieces.

Here is the video:

Please reach out and have me clarify anything that I may have forgot or you think I got wrong. I hope that has not happened, but nonetheless I will gladly edit/fix what I failed to mention.

And thank you for reading my blog!

Road to California ~ Block 24

Greetings, I aim to get many blocks done while I am off for the rest of the month of December. We are currently over a 1/3 of the way done with this quilt. Today there is no templates! However, you will need to whip out your easy angle ruler.

You will need to cut the following:

• Orange
  • 1 1/2 inch squares
    • cut 10
• Pink
  • 1 1/2 inch squares
    • Cut 10
• White and yellow
  • 2 1/2 inch strip of each
    • subcut using the easy angle ruler
    • cut 4 pairs

The video below shows me building this block. Basically I am making the sub-components, which then assembles into a 9 patch. This block turned out pretty, and makes me want to do a whole quilt full of scrappy ones.

If you are interested in seeing/downloaded all the previous blocks make sure to check out that post here, it is all free.

Here is my block!

And thanks for stopping in and reading my blog!

Pinwheel Variation ~ Block 23 ~ QAL

Hello everyone, we are back at it for another block. This block is a simple 9 patch with an alteration to 4 of the patches. 

There are downloadable templates this week. As iterated in the video below, please verify the square in the template pdf, prints out as a 2 1/2 inch square. If it does not, adjust your printer settings to get that to measure correctly. As also noted in the video, you can use your tri-recs ruler for piece C.

pinwheel-variation-templatesDownload

Here is my block.

I recommend watching the whole video before starting this block to make sure everything is communicated before hand.

Reach out with any questions you may have and I will be delighted to help you. And thank you for reading my blog!

4 Patch ~ Block 22 ~ QAL And other project shares

Boy Howdy, I found an easy block LOL! this block might take you 10 minutes. And sorry, this was simple enough that I opted not to make a video. 

You will need two 3 1/2 inch squares of light blue and two 3 1/2 inch squares of dark blue. 

Sew a light blue and dark blue together twice. Then pair those together just like above. I pressed to the dark side, and then spun the seam at the joining of the 4 patch.

Make sure to visit the blog post for all the blocks in case you have missed any, you can find them all here.

And I am trying to make good on my goals for the year and have finished a project! I do not know why this lingered. Do you remember when MSQC came out with Daisy and Grace templates for the hexagons? I snatched that template system right up and started plugging away. In my mind I was going to hand stitch all of them because I though machine sewing them was fiddly. Hand stitching is relaxing but does not produce content fast enough for the blog or youtube channels, so it got ditched into one of my working bins. On the goal musings for 2024, I put that project on the list to get done within the next year (it did not make the list for 2023). I opted first that I was going to make it into a wall hanging. But enough time marinated on this one and I needed hot pads for my stove. So guess what, now I have three. That project bin has been emptied and the finish was about an hour (makes me wonder why I procrastinate like I did?). Voila, two hot pads hand quilted, but machine zig-zagged together. One is unquilted. I am finding that hot pads as well as potholders will last years, but they really get dinge-y. Laundering them does not help. I guess I am just a messy cook. Out with the old and in with the new.

This project was the perfect size to work in between blocks for the quilt along.

And, the following quilts/projects below are slated to be given away this week. I have them all bagged up and ready to go to their new homes.

I have moved quilts out of circulation and replaced those with ones I have made in the last two years but never used.

Quilts in circulation now are:

The scrappy ones are my favorite, and I never tire of them. 

I am so looking forward to being off between Christmas and New Years. I find that as I age, I am like a balloon in the mornings. I am full and robust waiting for the trails and tribulations of life, and then at some point, someone unties my balloon knot, and pppppppppllllllppppppppppppp lets all my wind out. Makes it hard to focus on stuff when you are pooped. I hope I get all the little details caught up with finish goodness. In the mean time, I will continue forth with the quilt along. Thanks for stopping by and ready my blog!

Five by Three ~ Block 21 ~ Quilt Along

This block is simple and sweet, a rail fence. No template download this week, but, if you do not have time to sew it right away I did create a downloadable with cutting instructions. The program named it this, I would have called this 4 by 9, but what do I know, hehe.

hourglass sampler-2Download

And sorry the downloadable file got named something else. (Shakes fist at technology)

Here is a minute video demonstrating the block build. Press this block as you wish. Ensure that when you sew the inch strips together you end up with a 1 1/2 inch strip. No scant seam allowance on this one.

If you need to download all the blocks, you can go here for all the links

If you are here to see my goals and performance for this upcoming year as well as progress of the current year, please read my post goal musings 2024

And I also need to mention my favorite post of the month ScrappHappy. Clicking these links will show support to me, and let me know the content I am creating is worthy of your time. And thank you for reading my blog!

Goals Musing for 2024

#2024quiltingplanningparty

Hello quilting friends! This year has sped by extremely fast! Before the year ends, I want to revisit my 2023 goals and how I faired making a list and sticking to it.

I am counting the quilts/projects that I have finished this past year, and it has been a bumper crop of cotton!

I am now realizing I did not take finish photos of much of what I finished, grrrrr. All of the projects above are completed and bound. I thought my number was like 13, but it is actually 17. The two small wall hangings, baby quilt and tote would bring that back down to 13. I have so many quilts, that hurrying along and making more seems silly.

With that being said, I am probably going to slow down further and not really rush all these finishes.

So lets dig into the UFO/WIPs pile.

• Current Quilt along, slow and steady wins that race.
• Cathedral Window Charm quilt
• Barbie quilt (was stalled waiting for fabric, fabric purchase in hand)
  • Old Projects
    • MSQC quilt as you go hexis
    • La Passacaglia
    • Fanciful Flight
    • Embroidery and Stars

My bind pile is small, thank goodness, and one of those is just a wall hanging.

So last year I committed to a fabric diet that lasted almost 6 months. I did fall off the wagon and buy some backings that I have already used in that 6 months, but I did not go the whole year without making fabric purchases. I did learn something from this and that is, do NOT buy what you like. Do NOT buy when it is on sale. ONLY buy when it will get you to the finish line on a project. If fabric goes out, I do not have to rush out and put more in!

Last December I committed to getting rid of some of my quilts to charity. I have yet to do that. I still have till Dec 31st. I do have something in mind which will purge some. I will let you know what I do, to keep this blog honest LOL.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

I also said a goal for 2023 was to get a Bob Ross panel mounted to a canvas and hang it on the wall like it was a painting. I have purchased a couple of canvases only to learn that the panel size is odd. So this is now a goal for 2024.

I said last year that for 2023 I would not let social media influence me. That worked for the most part. I did start the cathedral windows quilt because of the new technique which simplified the make. I also wanted to make a two color quilt for a sew along on youtube, but refrained. I did make a bucket list of quilts as a board on my pinterest account. And I really liked doing this because once it is out of site, it is out of mind. I would have to phsyically look and see what I pinned there. I cannot remember. That technique is working, so I will stick with that plan.

Goals for 2024

• Bind the 3 quilts that are quilted (embroidery vase completed Dec 29 at 8:40 PM)(scrap quilt binding installed, 24 inches left of hand sewing the binding!)
• Finish current quilt along (times 2 quilts)
• Finish Cathedral Window Charmed
• Finish Fanciful Flight
• Finish Embroidery and Stars (because of the fabric diet this was on the back burner)
• Work on La Passacaglia
• Finish MSQC Quilt as you go hexis (completed dec 20th 2023)
• Make a quilt from all of my saved triangle trimmings
• Scrap Strings quilt, QAYG on the longarm
• Finish the batiks Cake and Ice Cream quilt
• Start a Dear Jane quilt
• Quilt the Jelly Roll Race green quilt
• Move the longarm to the house (the garage is just not working for me, THAT has slowed me down so much. That is going to require a great purge in this small house. I think this may just be a dream and not a goal. Reality bites)

My list is long. There is a quilt top, the cake and ice cream one that I do not have a backing for. I have not even looked if I have something suitable. I would much rather purge and use what I have.

The quilt along is taking a huge succubus of my time. I do not want to stray from that. If it takes me another 30 weeks to get that done, so be it. It is not like I will not have cold closets and dressers. They are all full of quilts and fabric LOL.

As far as organization, what I set up a few years back is working really well. I keep yardage in an old dresser. The fat quarter bundles and really large pieces of fabric go into the tote. The scraps go into their respective colorway ziploc baggie. Everything is very accessible and easy to get at without making a huge mess when I look for something. All of my projects are in their own bin. I do have a bin that I need to empty (because I finished the quilt but never sorted the fabric to go back into the scrap bin). My scraps and strings are also baggied up and ready to use without making a tangled mess of all the fabrics. This is the part of the hobby that requires no change. That goal from a few years back has saved me oodles of time and effort. Glad I changed, it was for the better.

Last years list really helped me out, so I am doing this again for 2024, linking up with Yvonne, @QuiltingJetgirl with her planning party! 

Have fun creating in your future. And thanks for reading my blog!