E-book winner and scissors

The winner of the E-Book is:

and yes….I do love quilting.  :)  I emailed you! 

I had to make an emergency run to buy fabric scissors after my last ones met my 5 year old and some wire (which is why I buy cheap scissors!).   Aqua scissors are much more fun anyways. 

Foxy

 

Can you tell I live in the woods?   Tall trees + a foggy dark week = bad pictures!

 

I started this little baby quilt after seeing this super cute quilt.   It is the Scout pattern…minus the solid strips in between.  I made the Crib size version, minus 1 block on each column.  I think it ended up being about 36" x 42" ??  Give or take a few inches.  ;)

 

 

The back is one of my favorite fabrics at the moment…the color is a perfect teal.

 

The Quilter’s Dream booth was across the isle from me at quilt market and left me with some samples.  This batting is fabulous.  I’m anxious to try the polyester version…I’ve heard great things about it.

 

 

It crinkled a lot in the wash.   It’s soft and thin enough to use as a wrap-around blanket to give a new baby.

 

 

Fabrics are Les Amis by Patty Sloniger for Michael Miller Fabrics bought here.  I also added some solids… Bella Snow, Pistachio, and Breeze.

Win an EBook! Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe

Today Martingale is doing a big giveaway of E-Books of this great book.    They are giving 19 E-Book copies, so each designer is giving away one book.   You can see the BEAUTIFUL quilts and read about them at Martingale’s website. 

Just leave me a comment to be entered in this giveaway, the giveaway will close on January 29th.   Checkout Martingale’s site for links to all the designers and 18 more chances to win!

I’m hoping to get this one quilted and washed today…it’s pretty cute!

Giveaway Closed

Quilt Shop Day

January 24th is Local Quilt Shop Day…so I’m joining with some great people this weekend to share my favorite local shops, in hopes that you’ll get out this week and visit yours!

I’m lucky to have some great quilt shops nearby. I was hoping to get to a shop this weekend and take pictures…but since taking my 3 kids into quilt shop is not my idea of fun… I’m going to save my visit(s)for Quilt Shop Day.

Some great shops I frequent include:

Quilted Straight, Material Girls Quilts Shop, Esthers Fabrics, and Heirloom Quilts

You can learn all about Quilt Shop Day on this website.  See the blogs and shops that are participating, as well as do your own Quilt Shop Day post and link it up!  Happy shopping! 

Strip and Flip Quilt

I’ve been meaning to finish this little quilt for too long…it took me all of 2 hours to get it finished, after 7 long months of thinking about finishing it! 

I quilted this one with a large-ish meandering/stippling pattern…I wanted to do some fancy straight line but I went with my old stand-by in the end.  It works well for boy-ish quilts.  The backing is this beautiful green print.

The tutorial for this quilt can be found here.

My husband bought this chair for me at Goodwill for $10 after Christmas.  It’s nice and simple looking, and is now in my front yard getting coats of taupe-ish spray paint.   :)

My friend Auntie Pami is giving away a copy of Modern Quilts for the Blogging Universe…go here!

Machine Binding Tutorial

There are lots and lots of binding tutorials.  Lots.  So I’m going to skim over binding basics fairly quickly in order to share with you how I machine bind my quilts to look almost hand sewn.

I do all my quilts this way, so by now I’ve become fairly quick at it.  I still love a hand-stitched binding, but I’m more confident that my machine bound quilts can withstand lots of washings and use from my family.  I always machine bind baby quilts…because we all know that baby quilts get washed all.the.time.

First you’ll need to square up the edges of your quilt.  I lay my cutting mat on the floor or table and straighten up my edges with my rotary cutter and ruler.  I cut my binding strips 2.5" x the width of the fabric and trim off the selvages.  To figure out how many strips you’ll need, add up the length in inches of all four sides of your quilt + 20 inches.  Then divide that number by 42" (the width of fabric).  

Lay your fabric strips right sides together as shown, sew a diagonal seam from corner to corner, trim the corner, and repeat until all of the binding strips are sewn together into one long strip.  Then press that whole long strip in half, wrong sides together.

Sew the binding onto the quilt FRONT first. 

Pin the binding to a side of the quilt, matching the raw edges and leaving about a 10" tail.  Start sewing under the pin using a 1/4" seam allowance.   Use a walking foot.

Keep sewing until you reach a corner, and stop stitching and backstitch 1/4" before the corner/next side of the quilt…it’s important to get that 1/4" of unsewn space at the end!  Lift the binding strip up as shown making  a diagonal fold, then pull the binding strip back down creating a fold at the top, pin.   Start sewing down the next side at the top using a 1/4" seam allowance.

When you get back to where you started, stop sewing about 10" from where you started, leaving a unsewn tail. Fold the bindings to meet in the middle of the unsewn space, press with an iron or finger press…enough to make a crease.  Open the strips, and match the crease marks and pin the strips right sides together.  Sew down the crease marks, trim (make sure it’s sewn correctly before you trim!), and press the seam.  Place the strip back on the quilt and finish sewing the binding on. 

You can also sew these together with a mitered edge…I don’t bother because this method is so quick for me now.  It looks complicated and its really hard to explain/take photos of…but once you try it you’ll get it.

This is what your quilt will look like now:

Now turn the quilt over and we’re going to stitch the binding down onto the BACK of the quilt.

Choose a place to start, and fold the binding strip over until it’s PAST the 1/4" seam line that you made sewing the binding onto the front and pin.  This part is important…if you don’t pull the binding edge past that seam line…you’ll get stitches in your binding on the front.  

(the other seam line in the photo is the stay-stitching after I’m done quilting…ignore it)

Sew right along the edge of the binding on the back…you are trying to sew to the left of the seam line always.  If you pull that binding past the seam line and sew right long the fold of the binding strip…you should be fine.

Keep sewing until you reach a corner, stop 6" before the corner, fold the bottom edge up, then the side edge over creating a nice mitered corner and pin.  Sew to the corner, leave your needle down and turn to sew down the other side. 

Keep on sewing until you’re back at the start and you’re done!  If you did it right (it takes some practice!) the binding will look like this on the front/back.  

See no stitches in the front binding? All you can see is a nice straight line of stitches in the quilt, and it blends in nicely with the quilting.

If you don’t stay to the left of the seam line when your sewing the binding down on the back, this is what happens…you’ll get some stitches in your binding. 

It’s a very easy and fast method to sewing bindings, and it looks way better than sewing the binding down on the front of the quilt with a visible seam line in the binding. 

Doesn’t that binding look nice on the quilt front??  Hopefully it’ll work for you as well as it has for me!

Lemon Lime Hourglass

The last time I made this quilt it was for my own pink bundle…man that went by fast!

I used this tutorial, and this fabric bundle.

I love this quilt because it is modern but classic, and perfectly gender neutral in these colors.  The backing is a Marmalade pinwheel print…it looks so great with the front.

The binding is Bella Solids in Aqua. 

I have this quilt for sale here….or I have a few quilt kits for sale here they sold out fast!  I’ll let you know if I get more.

I’m craving these bright colors after taking all of my Christmas décor down…my house looks bare! 

And for all of you on a New Year’s diet:

Muahahahahahaha. (that’s my evil laugh)