Slice-N-Diced!

Go from this.... 

...to this, real quick:

Take a charm pack or any ol' bundle of 5" squares and sew them into 9-patch blocks.

Then cut the 9-patch block in half lengthwise:

and crosswise: 

Now rotate the small cut squares one turn to left from the center:

Sew the four small blocks back together into a larger block and walla:

Sew your larger blocks together  (don't forget to nest those seams!) and you are done.

Just a little spin to my baby quilt WIP. This is ready to quilt...maybe a Friday Finish??

Hope your sewing week is going well.

With Smiles,

Val:)

Tuesday Archives #27: FMQ & Funniest Quilt Made!

Welcome to the linky party that let's you rejuvenate your old quilting/sewing posts! 

(Check over in my right margin for the list of  upcoming September themes)

This week is all about skimming through those archives and finding quilts 
that showcase your Free Motion Quilting  & your Funniest Quilt made! Heck, feel free to make a new post about this one if ya want!  

FREE MOTION QUILTING: 

I am always to very inspired by the FMQ work of  Hilary Florence. Everytime I stop by her blog I'm amazed! If you've never stopped by Hilary's blog and are learning to FMQ...give it a peek. She just makes me want to "play"with FMQ more!

FUNNIEST QUILT YOU'VE EVER MADE! 

I don't really have a funny quilt, but I did have so much fun making this Tulip Quilt for my mom's guest bedroom a few years back (pre-blogging). It's all the memories made while making this quilt that makes it so fun! For example, I found a wine fabric and my mom and I knew it had to be made into a tulip!  (It's on the lower right corner of the quilt facing ya! LOL!!) She even found a dog fabric and added it into the bundle. This pattern is from Kim Schaefer's Flower Festival Book.This is my version of her Tulip Lap quilt. (Hey...go big or go home...mine's a queen size...that's 56 tulips!)

 What also makes this a "fun" quilt is all the memories of  my correspondences with my mom who lives in Arizona. We'd get on the phone and I'd make her measure and remeasure. I'd mail her sketches and request "exact" measurements. I'd ask question like: "are you going to use pillow shams or do you want the quilt to cover the pillows?" One winter I was even able to fly down to Arizona and spent a long "girl" weekend with her. We had fun laying all the tulips I had made out on her bed and were able to confirm our measurements and plan our final size:

 I remember having so much fun making my little applique tulips and constantly picking out new fabrics for the flowers. I was always on the hunt for varieties of green and cream/tan toned fabrics. I am grateful I decided to machine sew these.

Nesting Seams Tutorial

I sent my oldest daughter home last weekend with a stack of 4 inch squares I've been collecting to make an I-Spy quilt for our little guy. Her husband works 12 hour shifts, thus I took the opportunity to "replant the quilting seed"  as she's already successfully made one charm pack quilt: 

The day after she got home, she texted me this picture of her "new sewing area" and even used my idea of pinning a flannel backed tablecloth to the wall as a make shift design wall. I was impressed she already had two rows sewn and  I only needed to remind her about "nesting the rows" when she sews them together.

So this tutorial is especially for you girl. Here ya go:

Nesting Seams Tutorial

First, lay your rows on the ironing board right side down and in the order you want them:

Next, you press (not iron) the seams in opposite directions:

You continue alternating the direction you press the seams.

When you go to stitch your rows together, the seams will "nest" flat like this:

And your squares will easily line up: 

As you can see, I'm working on my ALYofF 30's Baby Quilt today and am probably among the few women who gets to spend the day without football! LOL

With Smiles,

Val:)

ALYofF September Goal/Baby Quilt

Time to get back to sewing and for my September ALYofF goal I cut these five inch squares from an abundance of 30's repro prints I had and plan to make a baby quilt for my teaching partner. (His wife is due in December...baby shower next month)

 I look forward to relaxing as I chain piece these together,then use a slice-n-dice pattern to add a little spin to the finish. And notice those cute little elephants and bunnies in the prints...wouldn't it be cute to add a larger, applique version of one of those to the quilt? Atleast, that's what I'm thinking right now. I'm off to share and see what everyone else is up to this month at ALYofF and hopefully get in a little sewing myself today.

Happy Saturday everyone!

With Smiles,

Val:)

I'm a Pets on Quilts Winner!

Yep! My number came up and I feel so darn lucky to have been one of the winners

 of the random draw at Pets on Quilts at Lily Pad Quilting. 

I opened my happy mail to this adorable package:

Inside I discovered all these goodies from Michelle at The Raspberry Rabbit:

I mean seriously, she included a raspberry Ghirardelli Chocolate! (She's my new BFF!!) And look at those adorable rabbit scissors. They went right into my applique kit. 

Her book has easy to follow patterns with wonderful pattern templates:

(I'm thinking of "playing" with this pattern and making a mug rug this weekend.)

To say the least, I'm a new GFC follower of Michelle's and grateful to have won her wonderful prize! Thanks again Michelle.

With smiles,

Val:)