I Love it When You Can Make a Set

I would have to admit that I am a sucker for a set. If something I see matches something I already have, I have a very hard time leaving it at the store (garage sale, flea market, wherever). I have more fun putting together sets than just buying everything all at once. (Feels too much like a kit--all the fun is already done!)

It looks like I didn't detail it here on the blog, but I had a red star block that I took out of my Bright Stars on Black quilt (based on the Pecking Order quilt). (I replaced it with a lighter pink block to flow better with the rest of the quilt.)

Feeling bad that this red block wasn't going to make it onto the quilt, I decided I would make a pillow out of it. I don't generally decorate with pillows, but how could I resist making one from this one (favourite) block!

In November I finished quilting the front of the pillow cover:

I layered the block with some scrap batting (literally scrap as I sewed two pieces together) and backed it with more of this black fabric (which will never end!)

I sewed the center with embroidery floss (two strands) the same as the blocks on the quilt:

And then with the machine, I went around the outside, "bouncing" from point to point.

You can see I marked it with chalk and still have to wash that off!

I avoided doing the back of the pillow for a while because I knew it was going to get involved. I was definitely going to use the same black (again, I have a supply for two lifetimes), but the pieces were all smaller than I really needed--too narrow to cover half of the pillow and too short too.

So I thought of a plan to cover the back with three partially overlapping panels. This also would avoid using a zipper, which I didn't have and didn't want to buy.

After patching in an extra piece of fabric to make four strips the right length, I hemmed one long edge on two of the pieces. The other two pieces, I put back to back and sewed them together along both long edges.

 I then pressed the seams to lock the stitches, and then pressed the seam allowances open:

Then I could turn this tube inside out.

Pressing the seams open before turning, makes it really easy to make a nice crisp edge:

Then I top stitched along both long edges for reinforcement.

After all that, I had three strips of fabric,

The outside ones (top and bottom) are one layer and hemmed on the long inside edge, and the center one is double sided and top stitched along both long edges.

Now I could layer them onto my pillow front. First the centre one goes on (more or less in the center):

Then the two other pieces go on, matching the edges of the pillow front and overlapping with the center piece. The good side facing down, of course.

Then I sewed all around the pillow. Yes, all around. I did not have to leave a 6 inch opening for turning. :)

Apparently Husqvarna is stridently metric because there are no inches marked on my machine. Since I had planned for a 1/2 inch seam allowance, I lined up the edge of the fabric with the edge of my walking foot and then moved the needle to the left until it was 1/2 inch from the edge.

You can see I'm now pinning from the "wrong" way too. A new habit I'm trying. Putting them in from right to left makes it easy to remove them both because I'm right handed and can do it with my right hand and because the pin head hangs over the edge of the fabric and is easy to grab. But since you're not supposed to run over your pins, this means you have to remove the pin before you get there. And usually the fabric is only too happy to move once the pin is gone. Not good.

I just watched a tutorial where the host pins as above and keeps the pins far enough to the left that just the tip goes under the pressure foot (not the needle). You can keep your pins in and nothing has a chance to move before you stitch it down.

I know many of you sew over your pins and have done so for years without any trouble. I used to too. But I have had my needle break because it came down on a pin. More than once actually. And that is when you run into risk of the needle shard flying around and landing somewhere--hopefully not your eye. So although the risk of it happening is small, the risk of it being bad if it does happen is high enough that I avoid it. (Hitting a pin can also throw off your machine's timing and that's no fun to fix either.)

I tried something new at the corners. I like to reinforce them and haven't found a good way to do it. This time I sewed one stitched past the corner, back stitched two stitches, then went forward one stitch and rotated the fabric for the next seam.

Then I did the same thing: stitched once forward, went back two stitches, and then continued the rest of the seam. I don't know if it will make any difference, but I wanted to try it.

I did trim my corners...not too close to the stitching.

And then like the good garment sewer I was taught to be, I graded the seam allowances to reduce bulk.

In this case, I trimmed the seam allowance from the pillow back. I'm not sure how much difference it made in this case since the front consists of two layers of fabric and the batting, but oh well, it didn't make it worse!

Then the easy time of turning it inside out through the slits in the pillow back.

 SO much easier than trying to do it through a six inch gap!!

Next it was time to stuff it with the pillow. I pushed it under the centre and one side,

and then squished it under the other side.

 Easy peasy!

Here's an overexposed shot so you can see what the back looks like:

And here's the completed pillow.

It is pretty well camouflaged sitting on the quilt itself, so I think I'm going to have to accent a chair in the room.

Bright Stars on Black Quilt Finished!

I mentioned I'd been working on the quilting of the Bright Stars on Black quilt but had to put it away while entertaining company. When I was ready for my living room to be taken over by my sewing machine and paraphernalia again, I brought it out and continued the job.

The first thing I did was figure out where my bright strips were going to go for the binding flange and then pieced the pieces together. I didn't have enough length or variety to match the colours of the inside stars, but I followed the general flow from one colour to the next as best I could.

I hand stitched the flange on all four sides to baste it in place and sewed the binding to the back instead of the front. That was so I could fold it over to the front,

 and use some more "big stitch" sewing to finish the binding.

I used two strands of floss (as I did in the center) and changed the colour to match the thread colour used for the stars in the border.

You can see the floss on the binding stitching
change from orange on the left to green on the right.

Although I did mitre the corners of the binding like usual, I simply overlapped the ends of the flange:

I like the colour it gives on the perimeter of the quilt, but the flange is rather sloppy, as you can see here,

 and here:

I think I could have pulled the flange tighter when I applied it (and that's what I'll try next time). Since this is put together already, I am considering sewing the flange down. It would be about the same amount of sewing as sewing a binding down. Or I could let go of perfection expectations and just enjoy a little "texture" on the quilt!

Before I sewed the binding on, I tucked in a hanging sleeve. The top is sewn in with the binding and the bottom is sewn by hand to the back of the quilt.

The sleeve doesn't run all the way to the edge of the
quilt. You leave a little room for the hanging hardware.

The sleeve was sewn from strips of the backing that were cut off the sides of the quilt. I had never thought of that before, but I'll keep it in mind. You often cut off about 4" when you trim a quilt and a hanging sleeve is usually made from an 8" strip. So sewing two of them together would usually work. (In case you're wondering why the hanging sleeve looks so loose, it's done on purpose to leave room for the hanging bar.)

Here is the quilt on a bed:

 The center part covers the width of the bed, and the border hangs over the edge nicely.

I didn't specifically plan for that it's not too surprising. By that I mean, if the centre had worked out to be much larger, I wouldn't have added a border. If it was much smaller, I would have added two borders. Although I didn't make it "for" my bed, I did want it to be a bigger quilt (without becoming a king size!)

I've shown the quilting I did in the center, but I don't think I've shown the borders. I did some dot-to-dot quilting between the border stars. (The straight lines below.)

I was going to echo the angle in the outer part of the border to get triangle shapes or maybe a zig zag, but when I drew it out (in chalk directly on the quilt) it just didn't work because I didn't put an equal amount of space between the stars. Then I thought of just going straight down the border adding simplified "line stars" wherever it seemed best. I liked it.

So I decided to add the same kind of stars between the centre stars. The first one I did had three "scattered" stars, not lining them up.

Then I realized it would be easier to just imitate the border stars and do the three of them on a continuous line:

That save me a few starts and stops.

At the sides where there was a little more space to fill up, I made a "T" at one end and added some stars there too.

In the areas where there was even more space, I again filled it in with scattered stars before realizing that three lines of stars would fill the space just as well. (Again, with many fewer starts and stops!)

Here is the entire quilt:

And the back:

The coloured floss is more visible to the eye than on camera, but I think you can get the idea.

Project Summary
This was a fun quilt to make. I started it in 2017 after two things happened. I saw the Pecking Order quilt tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Company and my first thought was that it would look great with bright fabric on a black background. Then soon after, I got a lot of black fabric! (A lot!) The fabric didn't have the best feel to it, but it was sold as quilt backing so I decided it was good enough quality to use. It was all in small chunks (about 11x17) with a few very long strips (which were great for the borders and binding!)

Since all the center blocks units are the same (the stars are created with the arrangements of the units), I pulled out some scraps and made units to my hearts content. I thought I had kept track, but when I finally got to putting the top together, I had enough for two tops!! This gave me plenty to chose from to make stars from units with similar colours. And once I had the stars together, I laid them out to figure out the arrangement. I really like the ombre rainbow effect, but I didn't go into the project planning it.

I like to use leftovers from the front on the back, so that is where the flying geese (the triangles) come from. The rest of the back is pieced from the never ending black fabric. Like I said, it doesn't have the best feel, but I just couldn't justify using other fabric when I had all this black fabric to use up. I pieced two 7x14 pieces together to end up with a 14x14 square. (All finished measurements, in case you're wondering how that worked.) Then I sewed the squares together, alternating the seam from horizontal to vertical so that two seams never met.

I didn't keep careful track, but I am quite sure that I did not buy any new fabric for this quilt. It helps when you get a boatload of black to work with and the rest of the pieces can use small scraps. But I did approach the quilt with an attitude of using what I had and seeing what I could make of it.

Size: 91" square
Started: September 2017
Finished: August 2019
Batting: wool
Pattern: centre based on the Pecking Order quilt by Missouri Star Quilt Company. I designed the rest, including borders.

County Fair Quilt Block: Grandma's Scrap Quilt

It's almost time for my local county fair again. As it approaches, I start to think about what I'm going to exhibit this year.

And the one project I do each year specifically and only for the fair is the quilt block for their raffle quilt. Each year they pick a theme and sell kits of fabric. The block is due the next year.

Last year the theme was "Grandma's Scrap Quilt". The kits have a square of background fabric and four smaller pieces of print fabric. All of the prints were 1930s repro designs.

None of the kits were the same. They had a lot of different prints in the same style and put a selection of four in each kit. While I was working the Home Arts table first night of the fair, I looked at all of them and picked the combo that I liked best.

I didn't want two prints of the same colour family and wanted to have some contrast (light and dark). Most of the prints registered as "medium" but I tried to find the best combo. You can see what I ended up with on the left.

Although I hadn't started any work on the block, I had been thinking about it. The first thing I think of when I hear Grandma's Scrap Quilt is a Grandma's Flower Garden -- flowers made of a ring of hexagons. I thought about doing one single flower or doing a mini version with more flowers on the square. (I've been influenced the 1/4" hexies and 1/2" Lucy Boston pieces I've seen online.)

But I couldn't seem to get fired up about it. I had a hard time picturing how I was going to use four colours in a flower with five petals. When I looked at the project with more purpose recently (being closer to the deadline), I thought of an eight pointed star. Turns out I had one already drafted in Word. I added the squares around the outside and once it was printed and cut, I got this:

The paper pieces should be a clue that I was going to do this with English paper piecing, and not traditional piecing. I decided where the colours should go, glued the fabric to the paper pieces

and got to stitching.

In a couple days, I had the center shape sewn together.

I was going to applique the shape onto the background fabric. But which way to orient it? Like above or below?

I went with option one. To center it on the background, I created creases at the half way mark in both directions.

And then lined up the points with the crease lines:

I pinned it in a couple places to hold it but put in pins from the back to hold it while I stitched. That way my thread wouldn't catch on the safety pins.

I stitchey-stitched all the way around with the ladder stitch.

Now you could call it done here:

with the background fabric behind the whole piece but it does make it thicker. And in this case, I had to pull out those papers still! So I cut out the background about 1/2" from the stitching.

Then I pulled out the papers. To remove them, I run something under the edge of the fabric to loosen the glue and then insert it into the hole to pop them out.

Here we go--all done:

At this point I soaked it in a bowl of sudsy water to wash out the glue. I swished it a bit, but didn't agitate too much. Then I had a job of pressing all the seams in place again. After trimming the background to a 1/4" seam (and cutting all the fraying threads), I had this:

The centre of an eight pointed star is the trouble spot. Two of the worst things that can happen is that the points don't meet there and that it is a big thick pile of seam allowances. To avoid a big bump of fabric, you spin the seams in the centre. My block doesn't look super crisp because the edges frayed from the glue and washing, but it is relatively flat. (As flat as it could be.)

I starched the block from the front and the back and it is looking super crisp.

The last thing I did was cut the background to size, centering the applique and remembering to cut at 12.5" (not 12" like last year). All in all, a relatively smooth process this year.

I think this is a super pretty block that falls exactly in the theme. I used only the fabrics they provided and didn't play tricks by using the backs of fabrics. If this one doesn't win, I will never think about winning again. I will continue to make blocks because it's fun, but will stop wondering if it will place.