Welcome to the final week of the 2018 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop. Over the past two months, we’ve been working making our blogs better and talking quilty things. Please visit our awesome hosts to see who else is introducing themselves this week and to enter to win some great prizes (giveaway details are at the end of this post). Our hosts are Sandra from mmm! quilts (and my hive leader), Beth from Cooking Up Quilts, Jennifer from Dizzy Quilter, and Tish from Tish n Wonderland.
My Favorite Paper Piecing Tutorials
I love the look of blocks that are paper pieced, sometimes called foundation paper piecing. While there are a lot of things I can wrap my mind around, paper piecing just isn’t one of those things. It’s like crown molding: everything is backwards and upside down. This is the reason you’ll never see a paper piecing tutorial from me!
Paper piecing is like crown molding: everything's backward & upside down. These pros are the best I've found at it. https://fortheloveofthread.com/?p=485 Click To TweetBut paper piecing is too awesome for me to ignore it completely. So, I turned to my favorite paper piecers and bloggers to give you a round up of the best tutorials out there. Here’s what I found…
Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts
I consider Alyce to be a Queen of paper piecing. Her patterns and tutorials are so straight forward, and she gives really good tips on how to be better at the technique. The one time I wasn’t clear on something and left her a comment with a question, and she answered me right away. Not bad for me being in the US and her being in Australia! Read More…
Clementine Quilt Along: Block 4
Month four of the Clementine Quilt Along from the Fat Quarter Shop was released this week! This month’s block is called Coconut Cross, and it is just as cute as the first three blocks. This quilt along benefits the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and the free block patterns are published on the Fat Quarter Shop blog on the 25th of each month. They only suggest you make a $5 donation to St. Jude’s for each pattern you download. Here’s my version of the block:
Without my Twenty Stash-Teen goal, I might not have been so willing to cut into my Tula Pink stash. I’m loving how these Tula fabrics make these blocks sing!
The Biggest Mistake Quilters Make
Do you ever get in a rut and think, “I just don’t want to make a __________ quilt again. What else is there?”
I think if you lined up all my quilts from first to most recent, you would be able to tell when I got to that point. First there was the flowery, cutesy phase that honestly makes me want to puke now. Then bright colors on black backgrounds, muted colors throughout, rainbow quilts, bright colors on white backgrounds, geometric prints, literally using all the colors, and solids (where I am right now). And then there was the phase where I learned needle-turn appliqué and didn’t piece any quilts for almost a year.
Oh, and we can’t forget my grayscale phase. I’ll never forget the looks I got in an appliqué class when I started creating gray stems for my flowers. I’m pretty sure I heard one classmate ask another if I was color blind!
Beautiful Botanicals: That one time I combined my grayscale phase with my hand appliqué phase.
My Finished Santa Fe Pillow
Two months ago, the Fat Quarter Shop posted a tutorial for the Santa Fe pillow. As someone who is completely changing up the design of my living room, this was a very timely tutorial!
My finished Santa Fe pillow.
How to Use a Rotary Cutter for Quilting
Last month, I compared the features of three different rotary cutters and shared my opinions on them. I hope you’ve been able to try some out for yourself and have your cutting mat and rulers ready to go. It’s time to learn how to use your rotary cutter.
Supplies Recap
The full list of supplies is in last month’s post, but as a reminder you need:
My second cutting mat in nearly 20 years of quilting. Treat your supplies right, and the “expensive” options suddenly become cheaper in the long run.
Summer Sampler 2018 Just Announced
When I got the message from Lee at Freshly Pieced yesterday announcing the 2018 Summer Sampler, I have to admit I thought it was a mistake. Maybe one of those things where your email service gets a glitch and sends out a message from last year. I personally just finished last year’s sampler and haven’t had time to take any proper pictures of it. Here it is before I quilted it:
Fire & Water: My 2017 Summer Sampler
Clementine Quilt Along: Block 3
Month three of the Clementine Quilt Along from the Fat Quarter Shop was released yesterday! This month’s block is called Peaches & Plenty, and it is just adorable. This quilt along benefits the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and the free block patterns are published on the Fat Quarter Shop blog on the 25th of each month. They only suggest you make a $5 donation to St. Jude’s for each pattern you download. Here’s my version of the block:
Block 3: Peaches & Plenty block
Hexy MF Redo Quilt
My very first post on this blog was a list of things I wish I had learned earlier in my quilting journey. One of those was following trends just to be a part of something. The Hexy MF quilt along was that project for me. I was excited about learning English paper piecing, and I’ve had a long love of hexagons that predates all those shows on HGTV using hexy tiles on floors and in back splashes.
But the more I got into this project, the more I knew I absolutely hated what the quilt was supposed to look like when it was done. So I put my flowers away for a really long time. I didn’t want to quit, but I knew I couldn’t keep going without another plan. I let the project simmer in my brain until I came up with the idea for the finished quilt.
My final quilt, titled Hexy MF Redo.
Monthly Report: February 2018
You know the saying “the days are long, but the years are short”? I don’t feel like that’s true at all! I think about it being March already and start to feel like 2018 is almost over. Maybe that’s just me. Who knows?! But I did get a lot done this month. You can read about last month too.
Know what I didn’t do? Take pictures of the two quilts I finished this month. We’ve had nothing but rain and cloudy days here, and it’s been horrible for photography. Even my indoor pictures need a little sunshine outside to brighten up the room. So this month’s finishes are showing pictures in progress.
This Month’s Projects
My Milky Way sampler quilt top.
Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts hosted the Milky Way sampler quilt along last year. Every block was paper pieced, and I really struggle with this technique. I figured having a dedicated project would improve my skills and my confidence. I was right. This is one of the projects I haven’t been able to photograph yet. I echo quilted around the stars, and I can’t wait to get some good pictures of it soon! Read More…
