Quilting Class: Part 1

My first class was Monday. I have to tell you, it was soooo good. I learned so much. We talked about thread and needles for a long time. I had no idea about the differences, especially pertaining to needles. Basically quilting, denim, and embroidery needles are all good. Universal needles have a barbed point. And I had didn't know you shouldn't switch threads mid quilt because a thicker thread could make your blocks just a tiny bit smaller. 

We did work on some straight line quilting, too. Monday we will learn to free motion quilt, which is why I took the class. 

In other news I finished the top to my "Into the Blue" quilt. I used a skinny white border and then a four inch green border. The combination really brightens the quilt up and makes the green pop! 

Sneak Peek

I finally finished sewing all the blocks together on my "into the blue" quilt. I figured out how to sew the rows without having to get up every time to lay it out and pin the next blocks on. I don't quite know how to explain it but after I laid everything out I put them in column piles and marked them A, B, C, etc. I did lay out A&B but the just worked from my piles and matched the new block. 

Anyways, the quilt measures roughly 58"x66" without borders. I'm not sure what I'll do for borders. Maybe a skinny white border and a wide navy border. Suggestions? 

Quilt Love, 

Kelsie

Expanding My Mind...

I'm so excited! I just signed up for a machine quilting class at my local quilt store, Quilters Dream (www.quilters-dream.ca)! It's 4 nights of 3 hours. I know how to do basic machine quilting but would like to be able to do more, especially since I don't have an extra $10-$12 grand laying around for a long arm and frame. Someday, sigh! I called Mr. Stars Hollow and told him it could be my bday present! Funny that one night of class is actually ON my bday. 

Speaking of birthdays and Mr. Stars Hollow, today is his. We will be the same age for a month and then I resume my cougar status 😜. I threw him a surprise party last night and he was totally surprised! I made mango-pineapple salsa from the Frugal Girls, and found a recipe for restaurant style salsa too. Both were delish! We normally have bible study at our house on Tuesday so I had our friends in on it and a coworker distracted him at work til late. I think the 4 year old was the most excited though. Birthdays are epic at that age! 

Hoping to see later....

New Project: Into the Blue

So I started another quilt. I have had some fabrics in my stash for like 3 years and haven't had the "perfect" project for them. So I decided to go for it. 

Aren't they pretty together? 

I decided to do another disappearing nine patch block. I want to see what it looks like in dark colours and big blocks. I chose to do 6" blocks to make a 17.5" block, which I will then cut into four 8.75" blocks. I cut 6" strips and sewed them navy-blue/green-navy and blue/green-green-blue/green. Then subcut them into 6" strips and sewed those into nine patches. 

Sorry the lighting isn't very good. I think it's funny that the top two navy blocks and bottom two have the exact same pattern. Funny! 

I'm experimenting with ironing my seams flat. I usually do towards the dark side but thought I'd switch it up this time. I figured since the blocks will be going every which way it might be a good idea. 

Best, 

Kelsie

Wedding well wishes quilt

My brother married the most wonderful girl last summer! It was a wonderful trip. I was a bridesmaid, Luke was a groomsman, and Jackson was the cutest ring bear you ever saw! He even growled when he reached the front. My grandpa got remarried when I was about 6 or 7 and my brother the groom was the ring bearer. My grandpa told him he needed to practice his bear growl, so we told Jackson the same thing. Haha! 

Anyways, I wanted to make the happy couple a wedding quilt and thought it would be cool to have the guests sign quilt squares. It worked out nicely because we had the wedding in CA where they live now, and a reception in my hometown in MT. A wide range of guests all signed well wishes. I figured since their anniversary was coming up maybe I should start working on it. In my defence, I had a baby recently. And I'm kind of particular when I quilt. I always mull everything around in my head until I have the perfect plan. Then I sketch it out, do some math, lay out fabrics, and get to it. I had trouble deciding how I wanted to design this one. I've changed my mind like a hundred times. I finally decided to just frame the squares in strips of reproduction fabrics. But my math wasn't quite right so after I got two sides done I took the second side off because I realized I didn't have enough fabric. Now the plan is to do a scrappy look. 

Here's the beginning of the blocks. I'm completely in love with this fabric! It's Moda's playtime line with 1930's reproduction prints. I bought a Chloe's Closet jelly roll. 

And here's a cute baby! 

Quick Tablerunner

So we have these friends who have become family. (Framily?) They are so good to us and watch the boys all the time and cook for us and basically are like surrogate parents/grandparents. And like our biological parents, they can afford to buy themselves what they need/want. So giving gifts is HARD. I wanted to do something for Easter because I know the boys were getting baskets so I decided to just whip up a table runner. Procrastination last-minute sewing is my specialty! I decided to try a disappearing nine-patch because I've pinned some and like the look of it. I went with yellow because it's the colour of the dining room. 

So I had yellow squares on the corners, black in the centre, and white in between. Then just cut it into quarters and voilà! The hardest part was figuring out the layout. 

I am terrible at doing the quilt sandwich effectively. I always end up with puckers. Don't judge! I just did some free hand vertical quilting. The recipient loves it. And this is the back: 

Fun, right? We always have coffee together so I thought it was appropriate. All the fabric was from my stash. :) 

Next up: the "marriage" quilt for my brother and his wife. Since, you know, their one year anniversary is coming up. But in my defence I had a baby in January. 

Happy Birthday Red!

I Jackson was invited to a special 3rd birthday party for his friend. I happened to know her mom was buying her a crib for her dolls so I decided to whip up a doll quilt for her. I picked some heart blocks they were already cut out and just needed stitching on. I used a blanket stitch on my machine. 

Jackson had decided pink was important and if you know me at all you know this wasn't a problem. I just did an easy four patch and border. I also chose to turn it inside out instead of doing a binding. I did some stitch in the ditch quilting and voila! 

He was excited to give it to her. I'm pretty sure he opened the gift himself. Pretty fun for the first birthday party he went to! 

Lounge Pants

So a very special little boy in our house loves his "fuzzy pants." Basically fleece lounge/pj pants. (Seriously, who wouldn't? He comes by it honestly.) For Christmas I thought it would be nice to make him a pair or two. I found several tutorials on Pintrest that I was really excited for but they basically said take a pair of pants that fits and make a new pattern from them. So I did! 

Freezer paper works great! I was really excited for an afternoon to myself - just me, a cup of cocoa, You've Got Mail, and my sewing machine. I found just enough gray flannel to make one pair, then since I didn't have enough "boy" fleece, I cut up an old snuggie. This was brilliant, I must say. I was able to utilize the sleeves so that I eliminated sewing a hem on the pants. Shazam! I was going to make  the hubs a matching pair but ran out of steam. Here is a pic of the original pants I made the pattern from with the gray flannel pair. I thought I took a pic of both finished pairs but apparently not. 

A little boy was very happy!! 

Finishing the top

I finally got the purple baby quilt top done! I ironed the rows in different directions (first row towards the right, second towards the left, 3rd towards the right...) so that I could nest the seams and it would lay flatter. When I first started sewing I couldn't figure out why my tension was all screwy and kept rethreading my machine until I finally saw that my "helper" had turned the tension dial way down. Duh!! I adjusted it and all was well. After I finished sewing my rows together I iron those seams and here is the finished product. I'm thinking no border and white binding. Normally I piece my binding with different fabrics from the quilt but I will stick with one color to tie it all together. Next step: quilting! 

All Boy

This is the quilt I made for my son. I used as many "boy" fabrics that I could find. I used dinosaurs, sharks, trucks, aliens, footballs, knights, dogs, animals, etc. I also used some bananas and oranges fabric that he picked out, and some shamrocks (Irish heritage), and some blue and yellow football helmets ( MSU Bobcats) and some orange polka dots. The pattern is called "Yellow Brick Road." I found it at Glacier Quilts in Kalispell, MT but I've also seen it online. 

Some of the fabrics are from my stash and of course have a story behind them. The animal fabric in the bottom two corners is from a quilt my brother Mark made at 4-H quilt camp. I was 14, so he would have been 9. The shark and shamrock fabrics were from some placemats I made him for Christmas. His nickname is Shark and he was born on St. Pats Day. The green sheep is from my stash. I used to have sheep in 4-H so I have a small collection of sheep fabric. Orange polka dots because my hubby's favorite color is orange. He also picked out the football fabric. 

Jackson loves his quilt. Even the way he says "kwiylt" is cute. I couldn't even take a picture of it without him. 

I guess I did manage one;) I used dinosaurs for the border, a pieced binding, and the back is pieced flannel. It's a mix of dark blue and a polar snow globe print. 

I'm really pleased with how this turned out. I wanted it just full of lots of boy fabric and kind of random. I hope it's one he'll use for many years to come. 

Putting together a quilt top (Montana style!)

I learned a long time ago that there is a quick and easy way to sew all your blocks together. 

1) layout all your blocks

2) assign each column a number (1, 2, 3...) and each row a letter (A, B, C...) 

3) Turn the blocks in column 2 over onto column 1 so that the right side edge is where they would be joined. Pin A2 to A1, B2 to B1, etc. 

4) tricky part: put A blocks on top of B blocks on top of C blocks, etc. in order of your rows. 

5) take to your sewing machine and sew the A blocks down the right side. WITHOUT CUTTING THE THREAD, feed in the B blocks after A, then C, etc so that all the blocks are in a long seam in order along the seam between column 1 & 2. 

6) lay the long string of blocks back next to your quilt top and turn over the blocks in column 3 over onto the already stitched blocks, pinning each one. 

Be careful when you do column 3 because inevitably it will get twisted and you will end up clipping one connecting string. 

Once you have them all sewn into rows that are connected along the column seams you can press your seams. If you press one row one way and the next the opposite way it will make your life easier when sewing rows. Pin each row to the next, making sure to match up your seams when you sew. 

I used to belong to a quilting ministry at our old old old church and the other ladies didn't know this method. They would sew one block on at a time, clip threads, iron, and it took forever! I can whip out a top in a few hours using this method. 

Thanks to my old sewing teacher Sarah for teaching me this. Hopefully you all understood! ;)

HST baby quilt

I found this really neat way of sewing half square triangles at That Girl That Quilt blog. (Link below) brilliant, right? Why have I never seen this before??? I thought it was the perfect pattern for a baby quilt for my hubby's friend and his wife's new baby girl. http://www.thatgirlthatquilt.com/2011/03/have-stitchin-weekend.html?m=1

So here we go: 

You put two squares together right sides together and see a quarter inch seam the whole way around (even corners) and then cut along the diagonal. I used 10" squares, which made 6.5 inch squares. I needed three additional blocks so I cut 7" squares and then cut them on the diagonal and sewed two together on the diagonal. This have me my 21 purple/white blocks, 21 purple/green, and 21 green/white. 

You can kind of see my chicken scratch layout and calculations. I'm a visual person. I have to see it before I can do it. I'm sure it makes zero sense to you but it's perfectly clear to me ;). 

It is very important to square up your blocks! I used a 12.5" quilters square ruler. Even though I used my 1/4" foot, some of my blocks were almost 1/2" big and some were just barely the right size. Agh! 

Next up: layout! .....

A quick stitch

I recently decided that Jackson needed some new pillowcases. He has a toddler bed, which doesn't come with pillowcases, and he has been using two of my old ones I made. One is pink with ducks and the other is green with sheep. Somehow he got ahold of a pair of scissors and the edges are cut on the sheep pillow. I decided he needed some boy pillowcases. I found some leftover fabric from his all boy quilt and whipped up a pair of pillowcases.

I found my pattern at allpeoplequilt.com as part of the one million pillowcases project. This particular pillowcase is brown with dogs and then a white with dinosaurs as the edge. The second pillowcase was a bit different. I had some leftover fabric from the back of a quilt. It was very wide but had a seam in the middle. Definitely not fitting the 41"x26". It was more like 30" high by 100" wide. Roughly. So I cut it to 26" tall x 82" and just did a hem on the end. The inside seam was already sewn from where I pieced the backing of the quilt.

This picture shows the red godzilla pillowcase and the boy quilt pillowcase. Fun for a quick stitch up!

Kelsie's Reusable Coffee Cozys

Tired of either not getting a cardboard coffee cozy with your drink or feeling wasteful when you throw it out? Get a reusable fabric coffee cozy for only $6. Email me at starshollowstitching (at) gmail (dot) com.

These are the one-sided color coffee cozys. The star fabric is Christmas fabric but only when you look closely. These are reversible coffee cozys. They have buttons on both sides so that you can use either.

Sweet & Sassy: Pink with white flowes on one side, black and white calligraphy on the other.

A rose by any other name...Cream with mini roses, blue with bigger rose buds

Wilderness: Moose, bear, etc. on one side, brown on the other.

Light my fire: BLack with orange, red and yellow streaks, orange on the other side.

I love the 80s!: Vintage 80s fabric on one side, plain black on the other.

I'd rather be fishing....Fish on one side, black on the other.

Some Like it Hot: Red on one side, Yellow on the other.

Team Spirit: Blueish/Purplish on one side, bright yellow on the other.

Halloween Scene: Orange with black spiderwebs & spiders, Ghoulish scene on the other

I'd rather be texting, Lol: purple flannel with cell phones and texting abbreviations.

Table Runner

I needed a great gift for a Bridal Shower for a dear friend and therefore secluded myself in my sewing room. I came up with this table runner, modified from a pattern in the magazine All People Quilt.

I made a few table runners. This one for the bridal shower, with a christmas fabric on the back so that it is reversible, and then another one for a birthday gift for my mother-in-law (which I can't find the picture for). I used a fusible batting that you can iron the fabric onto, which I liked. It makes it a little bit smoother and you don't have to pin!

Giveaway on CluckCluckSew!

Lots of blogs do fabric giveaways. I promise someday I'll do one too!

Here's a link: cluck cluck sew

Its a fun blog to watch!

Fun Website!

Check out sew4home.com. They have lots of fun projects to make for you and your home. Alli, you'll especially like the fun retro apron.

No Sewing Lately

There has been a lack of sewing recently in Stars Hollow, but not for lack of want. The sewing machine is buried. My in-laws were here and thus the sewing room went back to being a guest room and hasn't quite recovered. Plus, in the hubbub of moving it has also become a storage room for boxes! So now its really buried. However, my mind is racing. Ive been designing quilts lately. I get out my trusty box of colored pencils and color my heart out. I'm hoping to create patterns to sell in an etsy shop. Anyone interested in being a pattern tester? email me keggensperger@gmail.com. That might light a fire under my rear.

Sewing Space

Here is my sewing space. Its a small cabinet...











That opens into this:

I love it! There's places to put my thread and ribbon and whatnot so I can find it, there's shelves to put WIP's and scraps and books and patterns, and there's a place to store my machine when I'm not using it. Brilliant! The best part - - It was a gift from Mr. Stars Hollow.

Favorite things: Sewing Caddy

Last summer before we moved to Virginia, my church quilt group gave me a gift certificate to a local store. I found this and immediately knew I HAD to have it. I will say, it was a great buy. I love it. Its so handy and keeps things soo organized. I have all my rulers and cutting utensils and various sewing related odds and ends all together and easily available. Plus, it makes clean up a breeze, and I'm not always rooting around for stuff. Brilliant! The best part is that it has a lazy susan type swivel mechanism on the bottom for turning.