Row by Row 2016 Home Sweet Home

I finished my first row for the 2016 Row by Row Home Sweet Home.  This row is from Cotton Patch Quilt Shop in Sarasota, Florida.  This shop has really nice employees and everything you need to make beautiful quilts. I really like that this row has both piecing and applique.  So far, I have only seen three rows that I like!

Kimberbell Mug Rugs In The Hoop Machine Embroidery

This is one of the first machine embroidery projects that I made in the hoop with my Janome Memory Craft 15000 sewing machine.  This mug rug comes from  Kimberbell's CD called Seasonal Mug Rugs.  (I photographed the mug rug on a piece of polka dot fabric, the actual mug rug is the purple and orange parts).  I think if you have experience with in the hoop projects and machine embroidery, you shouldn't have any trouble following the directions on this CD.  I had no experience...and could not have done this without my friend's help. 

 



Row By Row Experience 2015 2016 Quilting Fun

The Row By Row Experience 2016 theme will be "Home Sweet Home".  And there is a new website called Row By Row Studio, go there and sign up for emails to stay updated.   I can't wait to see what all the quilt stores come up with.  Instantly I think about decorating appliqued houses and paper pieced houses.  But I hope to see homes of whatever is local to the area and state.  Looking forward to the Row By Row Experience 2016.

The Row by Row Experience 2015 was so much fun, but I will admit I am a little tired of applique and hope this year the quilt stores do more pieced quilt rows and rows that can go either horizontal or vertical (like the sailboats, each one is individual and can go either way).  I will be a little more picky about what kits I purchase, and probably just get the patterns and buy the fabric I want for each kit.  I changed out so many pieces of fabric after paying up to $23 for each kit.  I even changed the patterns on several kits...I am a perfectionist and don't like when things aren't symmetrical LOL.  I redrew the mermaid's arms and the shape of her fin.  And I also redrew the VW bus pattern...it was crooked and changed the sailboats (the fabric in the kit was so boring) don't you just love the sweet rick rack and the pretty colors match the rest of the quilt.

I had very little experience with machine applique but my new sewing machine made it very easy to do.  I got to use my Janome Memory Craft 15000 and was very happy with how it sews applique.  I also had my first experience with Steam a Seam 2 and LOVE it.  Even though it added a lot of expense to the project, it was worth it.

As you can see by the following photos, I still have a lot to do on this Row by Row Experience 2015 to turn it into a wall hanging but I will finish it by next year.  I also designed a row for myself  with some of my favorite "water" things for my own quilt and plan to design one for 2016 too. 

Strip Quilt as You Go Idea Stitch and Flip

When my mom passed away, I knew that I wanted to make quilts from her clothes for my siblings, but had no idea how emotional it would be to cut her clothes into pieces.  But once I had the first quilt done, I knew I was doing the right thing.  They are just small, lap size throws but I love them.  I haven't quilted in years, so I tried to keep the pattern simple and used the quilt as you go method.

I only used her cotton fabric clothes.  I started by cutting all the seams, collars and cuffs off, but I saved them for a future project.  I pressed the cloth pieces once they were trimmed. I have an AccuCut GrandMark die cutting machine which also uses AccuQuilt Studio dies so it was easy to cut the fabric into 2 1/2" strips using the strip cutter die, 500 strips actually!  I estimated it would take 125 strips per quilt which I think is pretty close.  Some strips were short and some were long depending on if they were cut from shirts or pants.  I kept the strips from each garment together and placed them side by side on my counter. That made it easy to just pick up a strip and sew it to the next piece and not repeat pieces too closely together. Once I had 125 strips stitched end to end I started sewing the quilt. 

I will attempt to tell you how I made this quilt, but I am not a professional pattern maker/writer but maybe you will get the idea and run with it.  Feel free to ask questions and I will attempt to answer them.  I have seen the general idea of the this quilt called many things, Quilt as You Go,  Flip and Stitch, and using the backing for the binding.  I just combined all three ideas.

I trimmed the selvages off the muslin backing making it 43"x60".  I cut the batting 40"x57" so it would be 1 1/2" smaller all the way around the muslin backing so once the strips are stitched, the muslin can be folded up and used for the binding.  I marked the 1 1/2" area around the perimeter of the backing so I wouldn't stitch in that space or let the batting slip into that area.

I placed the batting on top of the muslin backing and hand basted, the two together being careful to keep the batting inside the marked area away from the 1 1/2" marked edges of muslin that is going to be folded up for the binding.  I am pretty sure this is not traditional quilting, but it worked and was easy.  And I wouldn't attempt this without doing the hand basting as the batting will shift and you won't end up with your 1 1/2" muslin perimeter to use for the binding.

Then for the quilt as you go, I started with the first strips 6 inches below the right upper corner angled down to 6 inches above the lower left corner, sort of dividing the quilt in half to make it easier to go through the throat of my Janome 15000 (which has a huge throat area and could have handled the entire quilt).  But I did half the quilt one way then flipped it and sewed the other half.  Make sure to mark the angle you want.

Lay two strips right sides facing and stitch on one edge from one side of the sandwich backing and batting to the lower side following the angle.  Press stitch line to set, then press the strip open.  Then lay the next strip on top of the last strip and stitch, press stitches to set and then press open.  Repeat until finished. Once you have stitched all the pieces to the bottom edge, go back to the first strip and lay your fabric on that strip and start sewing the other side. Repeat until finished.

To make the binding, just turn it under, press, pin and machine stitch.

Quilt as you go is fun, easy and fast! 

Foundation Paper Piecing Kit

For this project, I scanned the original pattern, saved it to my computer and then printed it on this foundation paper to use while making the paper pieced quilt piece.  This foundation paper worked perfect!  It was easy to fold, stitched perfectly and then tore away with ease.  I used the technique that 3 and 3 Quarters suggested in her video of perforating the paper with a tracing wheel before starting. 

 

Make sure you watch the videos from my previous post before starting foundation quilt paper piecing. 

 

Videos 1 & Video 2

 

See the little red tracing wheel, for going over all the lines before starting.  A computer mouse pad is a little softer than the self healing cutting mat so I will try that next time. 

  

Do you see how the fabric goes on the side without the pattern?  Watch the videos in my previous post so this makes sense.

 This is it all pieced together.  I left the right strip longer until I decided where I wanted the leaves to go so I could move them up and down until they were just right.

This is me ripping the foundation paper off.

I hand basted the batting to the quilted top.  I wanted a whimsical look, nothing straight.

 
 

And what the quilting stitches looked like before I removed the basting stitch.

I still haven't finished this project.  I want to put this on a canvas for the wall instead of making a pillow from it.  Will post photos after I finish.

 

Foundation / Paper Piecing With Fabric For Quilt Squares

My sweet quilting friend shared a quilted pillow kit with me that used a technique I had never heard of called foundation paper piecing for quilting.  After looking through the instructions and at the pattern, I quickly realized I was lost.  The instructions assume you know how to foundation paper piece a quilt block, which I did not.  So I went to YouTube and searched for videos that would show how to do this fun looking technique.  Most of the videos still didn't make sense to me until I came upon this one.  She made sense to me and I started to sort of get the hang of it.

Foundation / Paper Piecing with fabric for quilt squares on YouTube.

Then I found this video and between what I watched in the first video and now this one, I was really starting to understand how to foundation paper piece quilts.  I put together tips from both videos and was able to figure out a technique that suited me perfectly.

Foundation / Paper Piecing with fabric for quilt squares on YouTube by 3and3quarters