Brown Bag Mystery Quilt

I enjoyed piecing the Brown Bag Mystery Quilt so much that I pulled another version from my collection. I picked up these winter prints a few months ago without a plan. This was a great way to use them. I played with fabric placements a little and I think I used one less print than the original. Once I find some borders it will be perfect. 

If it wasn't a basic square, I cut the pieces using my Accuquilt Go cutter. If it was a square, I used my Creative Grids Stripology XL Ruler to cut.

My favorite tools and supplies (affiliate links):

Creative Grids 6.5" x 24.5" Rectangle Fiskars Rotary Cutter

Creative Grids 4.5" x 12.5" Rectangle Quilting Ruler

Fiskars Rotary Cutter replacement blades
Fiskars Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat
BLACK+DECKER Classic Steam Iron
Fiskars 8-inch scissors

Juki TL-2010Q

Grabbit Magnetic Pin Cushion

Dritz Craft Pins, 1-3/4-Inch (250-Count)

Electric Quilt

Project box: IRIS 12" x 12" Portable Plastic Storage Cases with Built-in Handle, Clear (storage)

Letter Openers

Fiskars Rotating Cutting Mat 14 inch x 14 inch

Creative Grids Stripology XL Ruler

Utility Quilts

In 2002 I made this quilt for my husband. It was made with fabrics from one of the big box stores. The calicos were fat quarters of blue fabric. The background was a solid black, and the backing was bleached muslin. This is what I call a utility quilt. A quilt that was made to be used. A quilt to use until it can't be used any longer.  

This quilt has been in use for twenty years. It was starting to show its age and had a few tears, mostly in the muslin backing at the top edge. That loss of structure resulted in tearing of the top. 

I decided the best way to get this quilt back to work was to cut off the bits that had worn. I cut 12 inches off the top of this quilt. 

I ripped back the binding along the edges so I could join it to new binding. 

I pulled a blue print from my stash and cut enough strips to make new binding. I did question why I had cut 3" wide strips for that binding but it doesn't really matter. 

I patched a solitary hole in one of the stars using a scrap of blue fabric. 

Then the repaired quilt was put back onto the bed and will likely live a good life keeping humans and dogs warm for at least another ten years. 

Part of why I wanted to tell this story is to show that you should never feel shame at buying the fabric you can afford and using it to make things. If you take good care of the quilt, it will last many years. If you have to make your quilts out of old sheets and scraps cut from shirts, that's fine, too. I also wanted to show how a quilt can be repaired and continue its life. Just because something has a few rips doesn't mean you have to throw it away. Mending is easy. Giving my partner back his mended quilt is priceless. 

Tools and supplies (affiliate links):

Creative Grids 6.5" x 24.5" Rectangle Fiskars Rotary Cutter

Creative Grids 4.5" x 12.5" Rectangle Quilting Ruler

Fiskars Rotary Cutter replacement blades
Fiskars Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat
BLACK+DECKER Classic Steam Iron
Fiskars 8-inch scissors

Juki TL-2010Q

Grabbit Magnetic Pin Cushion

Dritz Craft Pins, 1-3/4-Inch (250-Count)

Electric Quilt

Machine Embroidery Snap Tabs

This weekend I had a terrible time managing to crank out a sock. Those of you who are here for all the other crazy projects I guess this is good news. For me, it was cranking five socks to have one suitable sock. I did manage to kitchener some of the toes on socks from last week, so I was productive. 

I decided to take a break from socks to stitch up a snap tab for a friend. 

The design is from String Theory Fabric Art. They have so many amazing and geeky designs.

I know a Star Wars person, or two, and this is the perfect small gift. If you are a machine embroiderer and want to check out String Theory, the Facebook page is a great place to start.

I also stitched this sweet design because I am what some people call a Browncoat. So many great projects and so little time.

Tools and supplies (affiliate links):
Fiskars Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat
Fiskars 4-inch Curved Craft Scissors
Fiskars 8-inch scissors
Magna-Glide bobbins (absolutely the best for my embroidery machine)
KAM snaps
Pellon Stitch-N-Tear
3/4 Inch Swivel Trigger Snap Hooks

Carpenter's Star

This Carpenter's Star quilt was a great stash busting project.

I put this under Sew My Stash 2018 because Other than the backing fabric, I didn't buy anything to finish this project.

I pulled out all the quilting books (links at the bottom of the post) to try to figure out what to do with the quilting.

In the end it didn't end up being fancy quilting, but I think it is effective. Swirls are my favorite!

This is the back of the quilt so you can see the details of the quilting on the center star.

I finished the binding by machine (you can find my instructions on how I machine-finish binding in the side bar and on this page) because it is just so much faster. It is also getting warmer here in Maryland and I have no intention of sitting under a quilt for 4-6 hours to hand-finish binding.

Labeled, quilted, and bound.

Quilting books I have in my library and use as a reference (affiliate links to Amazon):
Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Walters
Free-Motion Quilting Idea Book by Amanda Murphy
Shape by Shape Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Walters
Shape by Shape, Collection 2: Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Walters
Free-Motion Meandering: A Beginners Guide to Machine Quilting by Angela Walters

I also love to look through Quilted Textures from A to Zen by Bethanne Nemesh. Bethanne has so many great designs that really get my my creativity moving. Her work is absolutely beautiful and recommend you check out her work.

Sew My Stash: Carpenter's Star

I've been meaning to use more of my fabric collection. Yet I find myself buying more fabric. I decided to pull together some fabrics and make a top completely from my collection. Once I got to pulling fabrics the plan changed slightly. These are not the colors I started with.

These aren't the first fabrics I pulled, but they worked so well I had to use them. I wasn't sure there was enough in this stack to make a big quilt. I got to cutting anyway. I figured I would just pull more from the shelves if needed.

I used Electric Quilt 8 to figure out how big my blocks needed to be to make a large quilt. This one was planned at 78" by 78". Not quite a queen, I guess. If you want to know how to make one similar, there is a simple tutorial available from Texas Quilt Machines. That version uses 6" squares and mine used 9" squares, but the technique is the same. Quilter's Cache also has a small version called Carpenter's Wheel.

I laid out the colors for a 1/4 of the design. I liked how the colors played together, so this is the layout I went with.

Then, I constructed four, giant (36" by 36"), identical blocks. For this design, I have found that this method helps me avoid getting something in the wrong place. Seam two blocks together, then join the two halves like one giant four-patch.

Then I had the center of the quilt.

Then I added the border. My borders measure 3" wide making the quilt 78" by 78" before quilting.

Scrappy binding is always the best!

I picked up the backing for this quilt without the top in hand, so we'll see if it matches well enough to do the trick. The quilt has gone into the pile for the 2018 version of the Get It Done UFO Challenge hosted by Spring Water Designs. They help me focus on at least one project a month. I did a great job keeping up in 2017. I managed to finish 10 out of 12 of those projects. Keep an eye out for my full list for 2018.

Cutting tools: Wrights 3-Inch to 10-1/2-Inch Easy Angle II, Creative Grids 6.5" x 24.5" Rectangle Quilting Ruler, and Deb Tucker's Tucker Trimmer III to square up my half-square triangle units. 

Azure Stars

This morning, before I went to the monthly meeting of Annapolis Quilts for Kids, I managed to get a little piecing done.

I pieced some stars together for stars for bingo.  These, along with others from the guild, will be sewn up into a quilt.  I found I had very little white Kona cotton for the background.  I used every bit I had, which was about 1/4 yard of fabric.  I have since put Kona in white on my shopping list.  There goes my fabric diet.

I pieced  as many half-square-triangle blocks as I could with the white I had, the green from guild and a couple blues I pulled from my stash.

I managed to sneak in this one with the 9-patch center.  Of course, that means I ended up with three more 9-patch blocks, but I'm not complaining. 

Finished size:  12" x 12"