crazy'boutquilts

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Stitch Me Up!~ Friday

Today is my day in the Stitch Me Up Blog Hop and I am so excited to be here!

If you are new to my blog~ welcome! And if you are a follower~ thank you so much for coming back!! :-)

Before I show you my project, I would like to thank Jane @ Jane's Fabrics and Quilts for being the hostess behind this swap. She did a fantastic job!

And also, Thank you Mdm Samm for thinking up these fun hops, finding sponsors to delight us and designers to entertain us. For this hop Mdm Samm found 3 embroidery designers who generously shared their talents and designs with us.

Debbie at Busy as Can Be

Cyndi @ Stitch, Stitch, Stitch

And Madame Samm herself drew up some designs for us!

We also have a wonderful sponsor in Colonial Needle. ~ thank you!

I chose to embroider one of Madame Samm's designs. When I saw this cute little girl, I immediately thought of 30's fabrics. So I set out stitching and sewing, sewing and quilting. :-)

I loved dressing her up a bit. And now~

I've got a doll quilt~ all ready for the holidays. :-)

If you are one of my followers, you will see my big reveal! This was how I used the giant ric-rac I made in previous posts~ to bind my little quilt. :-) It is 3-D on the front and back.

I used a peach colored thread for her face and legs, and I'm afraid it doesn't photograph very well. :-/ She is all there! :-)

Please be sure to visit the other bloggers who are hopping with me today!

Keri@That Other Blog

Heather@That Other Blog

Love it Sew it
Pig Tales and Quilts

Have a happy Friday!

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

It is time for the Stitch Me Up Blog Hop!

Lots of fun is in the works!

But first, a big thank you to Jane at Jane's Fabrics and Quilts for being the hostess of this fun swap. You will find the entire list of blogs hopping along at Jane's blog too.

Also many thanks to

Colonial Needle , our hop sponsor.

And thank you to our designers, Debbie, Cyndi, and Mdm Samm.

Ok~ time for some fun~~~

WEDNESDAY March 20th

Karen@That Other Blog

Susan @That Other Blog

Sowing Stitches

Life in the Scrapatch

Cherry Blossom Quilting Studio

New Girl News

Sunshine Quilting

Patchouli Moon Studio

Lovin' Life at the End of the Dirt Road

Selina Quilts

THURSDAY March 21st

Janice@ That Other Blog

Angela@ That Other Blog

piece peace

Stitchin’ By The Lake

The Distracted Domestic

Sheila's Quilt World

UK City Crafter

FRIDAY March 22nd

Keri@That Other Blog

Heather@That Other Blog

MONDAY MARCH 25th

Beverly @That Other Blog

Betty@That Other Blog

Stitches to Sprinkles

Stitch Duchess' Crazy and Sane Quilting World

Bejeweled Quilts by Barb

Little Pieces of My Life

Creating My Comforts

THURSDAY MARCH 28th

Happy hopping!!! :-)

Monday, March 18, 2013

Fabric Ric-Rac

Thank you for all your wonderful comments about my fabric ric-rac. Someone asked what I was going to do with it~ there are a lot of things I can think to do with it~ towels, purses, quilts, clothing, etc. But I can't show you yet what I did with it. I will later this week. ;-)

It really wasn't that difficult to make. Maybe a little time consuming, but even that wasn't so bad. I would be thrilled if I could find really big ric-rac ready made, but until then, I'll make do... and it is a bonus that it coordinates with my project. ;-)

I started by folding paper and cutting it. Just like making those paper dolls I'm sure we all did when we were younger. (I actually made a quilt for DD when she was small with fabric paper dolls around the border. I have no idea what happened to it! :-o I'll have to look)

I fiddled with the paper and tried a few different 'looks' before I settled on one that looked like this~~ bottom paper...

Then I traced it onto template plastic. I tried to figure out where my quarter inch spot would be~ but the dots I made on the template were not accurate; I sewed deeper. Then I flipped my paper template and lined up the center of a curve with the above 'point part' so it looked like rounded ric-rac. I left about 1.25 inches between them~ if I lay my ruler on my template~ the row of points on top has a space of 1.25 inches between the row of points on the bottom~ does that make sense? I think next time, I will try 1.5 inches.

Then I took my fabric and cut off 3.5 inch selvage to selvage strips. (the width of my template plus a little more) I needed more than one, so I sewed a few together just like you would sew binding together on the diagonal. When I had the length I wanted, I did it again, but cut off about 12 inches from the beginning so my diagonals would not be in the same spots. I put my fabric strips right sides together and traced my template on one side. I used pins. ;-)

Then I sewed my seam 1/4 inch or less from my traced lines. On the inside points I took a few small stitches like a 'U' instead of pivoting on the points. Trim it all up so you have a little less than a quarter inch seam allowance~ more like a fat eighth. ;-) And cut very carefully into the middle of the 'U' all the way to your stitching. Then I slit the back thru the center. :-) The whole length~ and turned all my tops right side out.
Since I was planning to stitch it down, the slit doesn't matter. If I was worried about it, I could always put a strip of Steam-a-Seam tape down the length when everything was turned and pressed. Or you could turn the whole thing from an edge, like a tube. But the slit worked for me. ;-)

The next time I make some, I am going to make my 'points' a little more rounded, the 'U' was a bit of a bugger to turn. And I will leave 1.5 inches between the top points and bottom. I'm thinking some fabric ric-rac that is 4 inches wide would be really cool on a bag. :-)
If you try to make your own ric-rac, please come back and let me know how it worked for you! I would love to see your project. :-)

Until next time~
Happy stitching!

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Happy Quilting Day!

Are you taking advantage of the day and enjoying it in a quilty way? :-)

I am making fabric ric-rac. I could not find ric-rac big enough for what I wanted to do...
so decided to make my own. :-) It's working! LOL

I hope you are having a wonderful day!
Until next time~
Happy Quilting!!

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Birthday Blocks

My birthday is in the fall, but last year a group of friends decided to do birthday blocks for each other. Our one 'rule' was that you could send your blocks anytime~ by the person's birthday, before, after, etc I received some of my blocks when I was gone to the retreat in September. Others have come in the mail. I chose the block Four Square 2 from Quilters Cache, and 'autumn' as my theme.

We decided to carry on and do the same thing this year. Some of the gals chose Christmas-themed blocks, some autumns, etc. It is a little fun sewing every month. I forgot to take photo's of the two I most recently mailed. But I did recieved 2 in the mail. So this is my 'group' of blocks so far~

This is going to be 'my' quilt. Hopefully I will be able to put it together in December. ;-)

I am working on a few other projects, but can't show them to you... yet. So until next time~
Happy Quilting!

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Making HST's~

Do you have a favorite way to make half square triangles? Does it make a difference if you only need a few, or you need a lot?

If I have bunches to make, I love my Triangulations program. It is easy, fast, and no trimming up when the sewing is finished. ;-) But if I only have a few to make, I usually draw a line and sew on either side. Today I needed to make some using charm squares. When I cut my white to coordinate with them, I discovered my charms weren't very uniform. So I decided to sew around the outside of them and cut on the diagonals. Granted~ you do end up with bias around all the edges, but if you've pressed and used a little starch they are manageable.

I'm working on a little something I can't show you for a few more weeks. I saved part of the trimming until I had the HST's sewn into blocks, handling the HST's a little as possible. It is working out very well. I have no idea who first thought of this method~ I've known about it for years, but just didn't really like it so much. Having charm squares changed that. ;-)

Hope you are having a little fun behind your sewing machine today too!
Until next time~
Happy stitching!

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Oops~ Forgot one!

LOL I am doing one more BOM this year. The Kansas City Star BOM that is in the newspaper. Don't know how I could have forgotten it in the last post! :-o

This is the January and February blocks. I am using up small stash pieces of my reds and white on white's for it. :-) You can get a glimpse of the quilt in the newspaper page~ it will have a feathered star in the center~ I can't wait to do that block! ;-)

Hope you are finding sewing time!