Home Again, Home Again, Diddly Cough, Cough, Cough

So I went to Quilt Fest at Pigeon Forge....

It was a wonderful, wonderful quilt show.  There were antique quilts there that all featured the color orange.  That in itself was interesting due to the variances in dyes.  Some have proven to be more steadfast that others over time.  Some of the oranges were fading to brown while others held on to their vibrancy pretty well.  I know when I was beginning to quilt way back in the dark ages (before rotary cutters), yellows and oranges could be used in a quilt, but not too much of either color.  Just enough for a pop or two of bright.  Then about five years ago it seemed that quilt designers threw that caution to the wind and suddenly lots of orange or yellow in a quilt was perfectly fine.

It was kind of nice to know that somewhere our quilting foremothers were smirking because they obviously were doing the very same thing back in the 1800's. 

The vendors were varied.  There seemed to be as many local quilt shops there as nationally known ones.  Martelli has its own long arm out now.  I got to play on it for a little while.  It's an impressive system.  I shopped at the Red Button Quilt Company's booth and fell in love with all their little quilts and buttons and wools. 

All of that was lovely.  But the classes were what really rocked.  I took a class on Friday with Cindy Williams called Setting Solutions.  That was a 3-hour lecture class.  Cindy was hilarious and made learning the math in quilting fun.  I plan to reference her book Setting Solutions in the future.  I wish I could have taken her borders class.   

Saturday Shelle and I had an all-day class with Sue Nickels on Machine Applique.  I have several of her books and she's kind of in the Who's Who with AQS and has quilts in the National Quilt Museum.  So to say I felt just a little intimidated going into this situation was putting it lightly.  I knew I was going to learn a lot (and I did), but I didn't know if she was going to be overwhelming or not.

She's absolutely the sweetest person ever.  She came around to each of us and helped us get our stitch length correct.  The pre-class prep work she had done for each of us was so wonderful.  Plus she brought some of her amazing quilts with her, including her "Baby Beatles" quilt.  She and her sister made this ohsowonderful quilt that has everyone of the Beatles recordings represented on it.  The quilt hung in Paducah a couple of years ago when I was there and Sue was there to talk about it.  The "Baby Beatles" was a smaller version. 

Anyway, Sue's machine applique work is total perfection.  I can only aspire....

Those four days passed far too quickly and now I am back home with all my purchases...and a terrible cold/sinus infection. 

I have coughed up everything but a lung and my tennis shoes.

I felt so bad yesterday, that I forgot to put on mascara before I went to work.  I have not not  worn mascara since I was 14. 

So needless to say for this week, no pretty pictures, no quilting information.  But, for your viewing enjoyment, I will post this...

It's Shelle and I in our Quilting Tiaras.  They have flashing lights and feathers.  What more could a girl want?

Mitered Corners and Pigs

Better buckle up, folks.  This is going to be a long blog.  I'm making it longer than normal for a couple of reasons.  First, I did get a lot of stuff done this week.  And some of that involves mitered corners.  The second reason is that next week, there's not going to be a blog.  I will be with Shelle at Quilt Fest in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.  I've never been before, and am really looking forward to it - especially Saturday when I will be in a class with Sue Nickels learning more about machine applique.

I promise to take pictures and tell you alllllll about it.

So let's jump right into the Blazing Star.  We finished that up last week.   Now we have to put on the mitered border.

Let me just be really honest right here.  At one time, mitered corners were right up there with set-in seams and paper-piecing on my least favorite quilty things.  Judy Niemeyer got me over my paper-piecing paranoia.  This book got me over my mitering mania:

 I do not get paid one red cent for anything I promote on my blog, and anything I do recommend I either have read it or used it and found it extremely beneficial.  Let me just say that if you do not have this book in your quilting library, go get it now.  Jill has the clearest directions and illustrations for borders, mitering corners, binding, backing....it's just one of the most helpful books I have ever had.  A dear friend in my Saturday quilting bee gave it to me for Christmas one year.  I used that copy so much I literally wore it out and had to buy another one. 

Now if I can only find someone to get me over my set-in seams psychosis, all will be well in my quilting world. 

At Piece With Time simply tells you to miter the corners using your favorite method.  The following is how I did mine and the directions came from Borders: The Basics and Beyond.

First cut four strips at least 12 inches longer than your center square.  That is probably a little too long, but it's better to have to cut fabric off than wish you had made the strips longer.  Press the strips in half to find the center and put a pin in the crease.

Next, take the Blazing Star square and measure 1/4-inch down and across from each corner of the square.  Mark this with a dot.

Center the pin in the strip to the center of your block (this should be easy to find) and pin the strip to the square.  Lots of quilters don't like to use pins or take the time to pin in place.  I'm not one of those quilters.  I have often found a well placed pin has saved me from having to rip out seams. 

Take the block to your sewing machine and begin sewing where you've marked one of those dots.  Be sure to back stitch before beginning your seam.

Continue sewing until you come to the dot at the end of this side and back stitch again.  Cut your thread.

Do all four sides of the Blazing Star this way.  When you're finished, it will look like this:

Now take it to the ironing board.  We'll concentrate on one corner at a time.

Fold back one of the strips so that it lays on top of the other one, like this:

Press this folded piece really well.  Use steam, because you want a sharp crease you can see easily.  Fold your Blazing Star block in half at this corner so that the strips lie on top of each other and pin the strips in place along the crease.

Take this back to your sewing machine an sew along the crease.  When opened up to the right side, you should have a beautifully mitered corner with no puckers. 

Trim the extra fabric off  the wrong side of the block and press the seam open.

Do the other three sides and you should have a beautiful center square surrounded by a beautiful mitered border that didn't give you a migraine.

Now to add the appliqued setting triangles that you've worked so hard on for months and months...

It's a little bit scary when you think about cutting these things apart.  However, it must be done and the measurements given in At Piece With Time are very, very accurate.  But if you feel the least bit antsy about it, give yourself about a quarter inch more around the sides than the book instructs.

Whew.

Aren't you glad that's over with?  And it wasn't that hard -- not really.

Now on to the pig portion of this blog. 

I would like to update you on my library book quilt, Charlotte's Web.  I finished it yesterday and handed it over to Karen last night at guild meeting.  I was very, very pleased with it.

I had so much fun making this little quilt!  I used two decorative stitches on my Janome 7700 to make Charlotte's body and head.  And I did minimal quilting on it, just around Wilber and his friends and around the title of the book.  It is pretty much one piece of fabric and batting, so it didn't need a whole lot.  Plus it's a small wall hanging -- not a whole lot to hold together.  

This is the back.  I could resist using some left over Halloween fabric.  And the label has a tiny black and white picture out of the book.

I hope our guild does this again next year.  I got the biggest kick out of making this little quilt!

Take care of yourself next week.  I promise I will take lots of pictures in Pigeon Forge!

Love and Stitches,

Sherri

Harvest Bouquet and the Blazing Star

We're in the home stretch now....

I have finally finished appliqueing the setting triangles for the Blazing Star.  They consisted of lots of tiny pieces and doing most of the applique items four times, but they're finally done!

Not  bad if I do say so myself. 

As you begin construction on the Blazing Star, remember that this quilt block must come out 16 1/2-inches unfinished.  This is pretty basic construction.   Start with a pinwheel and be careful about the way you press your seams so that they nest and the points meet.

Note that the center seam is pressed open.  This reduces bulk so when you quilt it you won't be so difficult to needle it (whether you hand quilt or machine quilt).  Then there is a series of setting triangles that go around the pinwheel.

Then add on the sides and top and bottom and it's complete.

Next I need to add the mitered border around the Blazing Star, then the Harvest Bouquet setting triangles and start putting the rest of the quilt together. 

Because of the error in the setting triangles on page 72, I may have to purchase new fabric for those.  Maybe.  I'm going to try my best to use it because it ties everything together so nicely.  If I do have to use some other material, I will tuck the other away and use it for something else. 

Have fun putting the Blazing Star together.  It's simple piecing and should go together quickly.

Love and Stitches,

Sherri