Eat Your Veggies!

Dino-mite Kids' Quilt, 55" x 63"

featuring Eat Your Veggies fabrics by Sandy Gervais
for Riley Blake Designs. 

As the designer herself stated, who knew eating your veggies could be so fun!  

Colorful Friends! - RBD Project Tour

  Colorful Friends Kids' Panel Quilt

Riley Blake Designs has teamed up with Crayola® once again to offer a new licensed line of fabric!  Colorful Friends has the sweetest lineup of little zoo animals in these prints, complete with fresh-colored stripes.  

Haulin' Stash: RBD Licensed CAT® Buildin' Crew Fabrics!

Time to Haul Stash!

Kelli Fannin's "Haulin' Stash" quilt pattern, 78" x 80",

featuring CAT® Buildin' Crew fabrics - CATERPILLAR® - Licensed fabrics 

for Riley Blake Designs;
made by Debbie Proctor, quilted by Deonn Stott

Simply Happy Project Tour!

You know that feeling you get when you spy some fabric and it practically leaps off the shelf into your arms?  Yes, that's how it was with this sweet line of fabrics, Simply Happy, designed by Dodi Lee Poulson for Riley Blake Designs.  Especially that border print!  Love the combination of vivid colors and soft pastels. I'm so happy the folks at Riley Blake invited me to play!

Summer is usually a time for kids' summer camps, and for years I've volunteered as a 4-H leader for our county's Sewing Camp and Quilt Camp for kids ages 9 to about 14.  Moms or Grandmas come for those three afternoons too, sometimes learning right along with the kids!

Monday, Monday!

I've been playing with some fun fabric lately - the cutest little "laundry day" fabric designed by Jill Finley (Jillily Studio) for Penny Rose/Riley Blake Designs - Monday, Monday.  Love these colors and the little clothes hanging on the line.  Reminds me of when I was a little kid in the days before we had a dryer.

A Pack-Along Interactive Quilt

This little pack-along quilt was made for interactive play!

Kid-Tested, too!  It kept this sweet little three-year-old entertained, even before the binding was stitched down!

The flap is actually a pocket to store all the pieces.

Here's how to make a pocket/flap for a small pack-along quilt:

Tree Bird Blog Hop - my stop!

"Beautiful Birds" fabric designed by Tracy Lisotte for Elizabeth's Studios

When I learned about the darling fabric we'd be working with for this Blog Hop, I had to participate - I couldn't help it!

 >> Little Birdies Free Pincushion Tutorial & Pattern << #littlebirdiepincushion

You may have noticed that I have a thing for little birdies... I have a few spruce trees that surround our back deck, with little chickadees, blackbirds, an odd pigeon or magpie, well, a whole menagerie, sometimes.  And nothing says "Spring" like the sound of birdsong through my window.

I've also been thinking about "interactive" quilts - fun for me to make, fun for kids (3 and older) to play with and enjoy, and the prints in this line really lent themselves to what I had in mind.

Fused a few of the birds to Pellon Pel-Tex71F heavy-duty fusible stabilizer, then fussy-cut the shapes.

Laid out a few of the birdhouses with a tree panel to compose the quilt...  Looks like it's going to work!

Next, I pieced the top, then with batting in place, I marked where I wanted the little birds to sit in the branches with a Frixion pen.  I marked each spot with a pin, turned the batting over placing 1/2" metal washers in strategic places among the branches and birdhouses...

...Then I fused some lightweight interfacing to hold the washers in place.  At this stage, I laid it over the backing and did a little freemotion quilting on Ol' Betsy.  

On the front of the quilt, I outlined each washer with a Frixion iron-off pen, then tried to "respect" the markings as I quilted... (it's not a pretty picture if you miss one, trust me).

Added a few super-magnets with some heavy-duty E-6000 glue to the back of the birds, which seemed to do the trick.

Once I iron off the markings and put on a binding it will be ready for hours of interactive fun!  I'm thinking, family tree games, matching games, I-Spy games, countdowns, story-telling, etc.

UPDATE:  See how I finished this little quilt and turned it into a Pack-Along HERE.

~~~~

Here's another idea for this sweet fabric:  I needed a little sample for a class on binding curves and scallops at a local guild meeting.  So I woke up that morning, programmed little Mo with a design I liked...

...then pushed the button and quilted a couple of pretty placemats for the demo.  Darling!

UPDATE:  See how to bind scalloped edges with this SCALLOP-EDGE BINDING tutorial.

Big THANKS to Madame Samm @ Sew We Quilt/Sew We Stitch, for organizing this hop, and to Lana at It Seams to be Sew for scheduling and cheering us all along the way!  

Be sure to stop by my other blog sisters for more fun ways to use this adorable fabric!  

The Raspberry Rabbits

More Stars In Comanche

Stitchin By The Lake

Quilting Through Rose Colored-Trifocals

Quiltscapes  << Thanks for visiting!

5 Tips for a Terrific T-Shirt Quilt!

Dick's Marathon T-Shirts

Have you made a T-Shirt quilt?  Have you been saving all those T-shirts to make one someday?  I've got a few piles saved up...  I think it's a terrific way to save memories!

Collect a bunch of t-shirts, 12 or more.  Cut off the sleeves, neck binding, then slit the sides.  Rough-cut around the logo with plenty of space to cut out a nice size square or rectangle, as wide as the distance between arm holes will allow.

And here are some tips...

1)  Back blocks with lightweight fusible interfacing to stabilize stretch in the T-shirt material.
     I like to use a lightweight fusible interfacing such as Pellon 911FF or SF101.  Follow manufacturer's
     instructions to adhere stabilizer  to the wrong side of t-shirt squres; med-hot iron, count to 7 in each 

     spot).

2)  Cut out blocks using a consistent measurement.
     Remember to include 1/4" seam allowance on all sides.  If you have smaller blocks, add strips of 

     additional fabric or combine several small blocks to make one large block, (OR see tip #4).

3)  Try sashing to frame the blocks.
     This will help to stabilize the blocks, and provide a pleasing framework

Sashing between blocks

Sashing with corner posts

4)  Use smaller motifs as a border. 

     Use extra strips of the leftovers to fill in border or other blocks.

5)  Quilt the quilt.  Use batting.
     If tying, use a strong yarn or crochet thread, and anchor at the corners and middle of each block.
     If machine-quilting, use an overall pattern.

     PROBLEM:  Rubberized logos and motifs don't allow darning foot to glide over well while quilting without sticking to the logo or stretching the fabric.
     SOLUTION:  Use tissue paper to quilt over rubberized areas.  Then just pull off the tissue paper, perforated by the stitches.  Use a dry washcloth to rub out any stray bits.

Bind the quilt and give to your loved one to enjoy!  BINDING TUTORIAL

Natalie's Wedding Quilt

Have you made a T-Shirt quilt?  Share your tips here!  How about a Memory Quilt with pictures printed on fabric? Maybe that's next...

4-H Summer Quilt Camp!

Each summer, I get to teach 4-H Quilt Camp in our county.  Held four consecutive afternoons, Moms are invited to come and it's definitely a team effort!   We teach these kids (ages 9 to 14) how to take perfectly good fabric, cut it up, then sew it back together again, with super fun results!

BRICKS & CHECKERBOARDS

This year, there were 6 kids and their Moms or big sisters who would help to pin and press.  The kids had a choice of three different quilts to make:   (Some of my pictures were deleted, but maybe you can get the idea...)

BRICKS

Cut 10 @ 8-1/2" x 4-1/2" rectangles from 9 different prints, 1/4 yard each.  

Lay out and arrange blocks.

Have Mom help, then take a picture to help you remember the layout. 

Stitch 7 bricks together end to end to make 6 rows.

Stitch 8 bricks together end to end; make 4 rows.

Stitch 3 rows together to make a set.  Use 2 rows of 7 bricks and 1 row of 8 in the center.
Scoot to alternate the middle row (like bricks) and trim off the excess.
 Make 4 sections.  

Karissa stitches her sections

Cut 5 @ 8-1/2" x width of fabric strips (1-1/4 yards) for sashing. Join short ends together.
Measure the width of all the sets, and cut three sashing strips to that measurement, about 56".
 Stitch an 8-1/2" x 56" strip of coordinating fabric between each row

to grow the quilt to a nice twin-size quilt, 56" x 72".

Shelby's 1st quilt!  BRICKS: envelope finish, tied with rainbow yarn.

Using a walking foot

Mom helps...

Straight Line quilting!

Kaimbry's BRICKS:  A good start to a great finish!

JELLY ROLL RACE

Stitch 42 @ 2-1/2" x 42" strips of fabric together, end to end, using a diagonal seam. 

Cut that in half and stitch together (just keep sewing, just keep sewing...);  

 If you lay it out in the hallway, it will reach to the end of the building.

 

Cut that in half and stitch back together.

REPEAT the process as many times as needed until you get a decent-size, cool-looking quilt!

Lizzy's JELLY ROLL RACE, 52" x 64" quilt top, ready to send to the longarm quilter!

CHECKERBOARD

Cut 12 sets each of 3-1/2" x width of fabric light and dark strips (1-1/2 yards each light and dark, or 1/2 yard cuts of six different coordinating prints).  Stitch together into sets of 3 strips, alternating Light-Dark-Light for half, and Dark-Light-Dark for the other half.  Always press toward the dark.  Cut into 3-1/2" sections; PIN to nestle (kiss) the seam allowances (have Mom help), then chain-piece to sew those back together until you have a checkerboard with 3 x 21 squares.

Make 4 sections (just keep sewing, just keep sewing...)

Cut 5 @ 5-1/2" strips x width of coordinating fabric and join short ends together (7/8 yard).

Measure the length of each section, and cut 3 strips to that measurement;

Stitch 5-1/2" strips between the checkerboards for the perfect size lap quilt.

CHECKERBOARD lap quilt top 51" x 63"  

Since Lizzy's Jelly Roll quilt went so fast, she shopped in her Momma's stash to make a checkerboard too!

Lizzy's CHECKERBOARD -  60" x 72"

LOVE, love quilt camp!  I am continually impressed with what kids can create - well, any new quilter, for that matter.  They're pretty much fearless.  The kids had a blast, Moms also learned some great tricks.  Now it's nearly time for the County Fair!  These quilts will look great on display - Blue-ribbon winners, every one!