Criss Cross Table Runner

Ahhh, I finally finished something!  My sewing room has been a cluttered mess because I have been cutting I-Spy fabrics for the last week.  But we'll get to that in a minute.  First, let's talk about this table runner.  

My cute helper, who's hair is always sticking up, wanted his picture taken.  I meandered the outside border with a small stipple.  The inside area got a large cross hatch following the lines of the squares.

Pattern is just 2.5 inch strips cut to 4.5 inches to make a block and then set them on point.  I was trying to get the quilt to fit the top of this table that has seen better days.  Now I just need to get my oldest to sand and restain it for me. 

While I was in the process of making the table runner, I bought and received about 30 yards of i-spy fabric.  I already had at least 40 yards in my closet so I set to work cutting them up and making quilt kits for the Quilt  Ministry.

We plan to make quilts with 120 blocks (or 80 blocks with a 1 inch black sashing).  These are cut 5 x 5.  It seemed to take forever, but we made over 22 kits.  I even saved 2.5 inch strips if there were some leftover to make a couple quilts from those.

I do have some leftover squares for sale if you are interested in purchasing them.  I have several of each set size and postage is included.  If you buy a set there will be no duplicates, but if you buy 2 sets there will be.  I am also including 3 or 4 extras for you.  The pictures are very close to what you will get, if not exactly.  There might be a couple of squares that are different.  If you are interested just leave me a comment or email me.

20 - $6

30 - $8

40 - $10

Linking with Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation

Pulling Threads from Under Your Finished Quilt

Remember this picture from yesterday?

Malinda left me a comment telling me about the Clover Soft Touch Tread Pic.  You can get one from Amazon for less than $5.  It looks like a really tiny crochet hook.  I found my smallest crochet hook and gave it a try.

I had to do 2 different spots to get all the thread out from underneath the quilting.  I inserted the hook in the sashing (yes, right in the middle where that hook is sitting) and pulled out the blue thread.  I cut it and moved over to the next section and did it again.  This time I gave the thread a good tug and it pulled away from the block and came out.

I know you are supposed to hide it under the batting or move it, but I couldn't.  The thread was way too long.  I am so excited that you can't see the holes in this closeup photo!   Just for size reference the white sashing is 1.5 inches.

I think the Clover pic is smaller than my hook and definitely worth getting.  You can even find them at Joann's for $9.50.  Just wanted to share that wonderful tip.  Thanks Malinda!

Bottled Rainbows

My 4 year old asked me to make her a quilt...again! I give her all my scraps that are smaller than 2.5 inches and ones that are too short for a strings quilt.  So I thought she had enough little pieces to make a bottled rainbow quilt.  What looks like a large pile of scraps can not be enough! 

 We sorted them all by color. Then I went through them and put them into shades and removed the duplicates.  There wasn't much left!  So I made my blocks 10 x 10 with the inside being only 6 inches.  Surely there would be enough for that.  

Here are a couple of the blocks. (These pictures are after washing.)  I didn't have enough of a couple of the colors and had to get into my scrap stash.   I even didn't have enough blue in my scraps to make a block so I cut some from my regular stash.  And I thought I had a lot of scraps!  Apparently, I have a lot of the same stuff.  Need to work on that.

To fix this problem, I used a single fabric 2 times in each block spreading it out. You can see I duplicated 3 of the red fabrics.

I used clear monopoly thread to quilt this so I didn't get white thread on a dark color like you see in this picture below:  (this is an older quilt I have hanging on my wall)  You can read this post for some tips using this type of thread.

Here you can see below that it isn't that big a deal to quilt on both sides of the ditch when you use clear thread.  You should know that I really dislike stitching in the ditch - mainly because I can't quilt straight even with a ruler!  It really isn't noticeable when looking at the quilt (unless you zoom in with your camera!).

 

I stitched around both sides of the color on the blocks, leaving the centers untouched.  Oh that's right I didn't do quilt-as-you-go like everyone else.  I used a glue stick to glue the small pieces where they should go, then zig zagged them down, one block at a time.  Like applique without using interfacing.  

And just so you know I am never ever perfect...I always forget to trim threads when I am using a white sashing.  By the time I saw this I did not want to unload and trim!  My 4 year old won't see it until she's much older and by then, I'll just make her another quilt!

I was going to quilt some spirals in the color part of each block, but after all the ditch work and the straight  lines in the sashing I didn't feel like it any more.  Less is more - right?  The back has a fun rainbow of solids because I couldn't get one on the front.

  There is one happy 4 year old running around my house these days!

How to Add Drop Down Menus to Your Blog!

Here is a link to a video tutorial on how to add drop down menus to your blog.  It was relatively easy. I actually did it myself!  I have been wanting to add this for a long time, but it has been super intimidating.  And I was afraid of losing all my information.  Some of my pages are still in progress, but it only took a few hours this morning to get it done.

Ro is easy to understand and very likeable.  You should go check it out. She has more free videos on other aspects of your blog too.

Spring Quilt

Here is another one of my not so favorite fabrics.  Are you getting tired of them yet?  In person, this fabric is rather dull.  But I perked it up with some happy spring colors!

The pattern for the block can be found here.

The green sashing and yellow cornerstones give it even more of spring feel.   

I feel like I've got the hang of using "not so favorite" fabric.  I have 4 more pieces in the closet.  2 of them seem to be more challenging than the others.  I left them on the shelf!  My next challenge is to use the other 2 in more modern quilts.

Still following the rule of using all the remaining fabric on the back.

Have a great sewing weekend!

Linking with Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Country Roads

I am still working through that fabric in my stash that I don't really care for.  This blue fabric is one of those!  And just like the one from last month, I am surprised that I really like this quilt!  

This pattern was modified from the Quilter's Cache pattern called Country Roads.  I just took the inside 12 blocks and added a border.  The blocks finish at 12 inches and the sashing finishes at 2.

This is a great pattern if you only have 3 fabrics.

I used the rest of the fabric to make the back and gave it a quick meander to finish the quilt.

If I had my choice I would have used the blue fabric for the binding, but I didn't have enough.  It looked totally different before I added this black binding to it.  But is is growing on me. 

Did you notice the extra foot down there?  :)

linking with Freemotion by the River and