The Carpenter's Daughter Who Quilts

Category: Quilty Love

WIP Wednesday: Puppy Stars

Hi, I thought I would share a quick post on what I am working on this week. I am creating the back for my Positively Puppy Stars (Sea Stars) pattern test quilt for Meadow Mist Designs.

I am using the leftover scraps of the puppy print fabrics and solids from the front of the quilt. I am playing with the Modernized Disappearing 9 Patch quilt tutorial by Kristy Daum at St. Louis Folk Victorian. I sized mine down from 5 inch squares to 3.5 inches to use up what I had available. I have been wanting to try out this design for quite a while. I think I have multiple pins for this quilt pattern on my Quilting Inspiration Pinterest Board.

I have made a disappearing 9 patch before but this version totally changes how you make your 9 patches. It seemed weird at first sewing some of them together. It was easier to visualize once the 9 patches were cut into fourths.

These were some of the blocks I started out with.

Modernized Disappearing 9 Patch

This is all the blocks sewn together. It ended up being 26 inches square and I need approximately 66 inches square for my backing so I am looking at to fill in the back with bands of white and gray solid.

KATIE

Here is a quick pic of our new Australian Shepherd puppy, Katie. She is keeping me quite busy.

FYI: There is still time to enter for a chance to win a copy of Grande Scrappy Tiles, the newest pattern by Meadow Mist Designs. I will be drawing for the winner Saturday June 27th morning.

I will be a stop on the pattern launch blog hop for Sea Stars on Friday.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

June 25, 2015
Grande Scrappy Tiles Pattern Launch Blog Hop & Giveaway

Hi, I am sharing today my version of the Grande Scrappy Tiles pattern that I tested for Meadow Mist Designs. I am calling my version, The Cowboy Way. I made the twin size version. It is made in a cowboy south western theme for my daughter. Grande Scrappy Tiles is being released for sale today.

I had a lot of fun putting this quilt pattern together. It goes together so smoothly. No major seams to match up. A single block is 24 inches so you can have a large quilt in no time at all.

There is so much potential in one pattern. It allows you to showcase some of your larger favorite prints. I am thinking of making another version of this quilt in all different plaids from my stash (from when I made/sold primitive cloth dolls).

You can read more about my quilt The Cowboy Way here, here and here.

Grande Scrappy Tiles will be on sale for 2 weeks at $6 (until July 4th) and is available on etsy, craftsy, and payhip.

Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/237351750/

Craftsy: http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/quilting/home-decor/grande-scrappy-tiles/150805?rceId=1434592468528~b5qi55i4

Payhip: https://payhip.com/b/EwMm

Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs has graciously allowed me to have a giveway of one pdf pattern of Grande Scrappy Tiles to one of my followers.

To enter the pattern giveaway, tell me what is your favorite pet? Cat, Dog or another? Our family just got a new Australian Shepherd puppy this past weekend.

If you are a follower of my blog in some fashion, you can have an additional entry.

If you think you maybe a No-Reply Blogger, please leave an email where you can be reached.

This contest will be open for a week and the pattern winner will be drawn on June 27th.

Be sure to check out Cheryl’s blog for all the other lovely versions of Grande Scrappy Tiles.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

This contest has ended. Thank you!

June 19, 2015
Positively Puppy Stars: Flimsy Finish

Hi Everyone, I hope you are having a Happy Friday! I am finally finished with the quilt top I am calling Positively Puppy Stars, which is a pattern testing for Sea Stars by Meadow Mist Designs. Sea Star’s pattern is set to be released for purchase on June 19th and there will be a parade of the all the quilt testers’ versions of the quilt on the Meadow Mist Designs website. So be sure to check out my quilt and all the other lovelies on Cheryl’s web page on June 26th.

Positively Puppy Stars Quilt Flimsy

I have blogged over the past few weeks on the troubles that I had with my Half Square Triangle making process. I tried the technique where you trimmed them to final size while still folded in half and then pressed open. I thought I was cutting the proper size with the ruler I was using. It ended up not the case and I had to trim all my pieces down a 1/4 of an inch or completely remake another set of 192 HSTs. I ended up with a quilt top that is 56 inches square versus the planned 60 inches square. It is quite painful to lose all that work, but in the end I still have what I think is a beautiful quilt top. The recipient is going to be 3 years old so she will not care one way or another.

Positively Puppy Stars

This is a closer photo. I still have to learn some things on the new camera (Samsung WB380F). Hopefully when I am finished, we will have a sunny day to take photos. I am fairly happy with how my points matched up. It was harder than I thought it was going to be to spread out 8 different colors in combinations of 3 around the quilt in a random fashion.

For Pieced Backing of Puppy Stars

This is what I have for scraps from cutting the top out. The orange print fat quarter at bottom of photo was the one print of the fat quarter set I chose to not put in quilt top design. The puppy prints are 3.5 inches by 7 inches and 3.5 in. by 21 inches. The solids are 4 inches by 13.5 inches. I am thinking of cutting all down to the 3.5 inches and make up some floating plus blocks set in a white background and finish off the back of quilt with a gray solid. Maybe set the pieced plus block section off center in the back for more interest.

I have pattern tested 3 designs for Meadow Mist Designs in the last couple months. I working on getting my Cowboy Way quilt top which is a pattern test of Grande Scrappy Tiles done in time for the pattern release of June 19th. Since Sea Stars pattern is not releasing til June 26th, I should be able to be finished with this mine in time for that date. Plus Plus has all ready been released and I am still deciding how I want to quilt my version. I am really pushing to get more of my tops quilted and bound before starting another big project.

I will be linking up this flimsy finish with Crazy Mom Quilts, Richard and Tanya, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?, TGIFF and Crafting Comment Karma over at Prairie Sewn Studios.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. We are having a family gathering to honor a foreign exchange student friend of my husband’s family who stayed here for school around 30 years ago. She and her family have been here numerous times over the years. My family is hoping that we will be adding a new member to our family this week, an Australian Shepherd puppy. Fingers crossed that all works out.

Until next time. Happy Sewing,

Shelley

June 12, 2015
Puppy Stars (Sea Stars Pattern Test Update)

Hi, I am sharing an update on my pattern testing of Sea Stars by Meadow Mist Designs (my quilt version called Puppy Stars at the moment).

I love, love the design of this quilt pattern. But I have had some user errors/difficulties and it has taken me way longer to get this top finished than it should have. It was the squaring up of all my half square triangles. I tried the technique of trimming before final pressing and I thought my blocks were the correct size but they were just shy of a 1/4 inch too small. I had to rework and resize my half square triangles. I am back on track this week and have 8 of my 16 blocks completed.

Puppy Stars

I am hoping to get my last 8 blocks laid out and sewn up this weekend. I thought by having 8 different solids to place around my blocks that it would be easy to get a good mix. I think the pattern was to be more random in the placement of the hsts around the plus block than what I may have them, but I think it still works out nicely this way. I am just trying to not place a cluster of the same color combinations all in one area.

I am glad to see my piles of half square triangles getting smaller. When I start sewing and creating the massive amounts of hsts for the baby WoW-E quilt that is the companion to this quilt, I will be sticking with the press open and then square up technique.

I did not get a Fresh Sewing post made for the first of June. I did not make much progress on May’s projects other than getting the flimsy made for Mod Gears and it’s backing. My plan for June is to get this Sea Stars test quilt completed, and get my other two test quilts (Grande Scrappy Tiles and Plus Plus) quilted as well. All these patterns will be coming available later in the month. I think the blog hop over at Meadow Mist Designs is June 17th or close by so I have my work cut out for me. It does not take that long to baste the quilts. It’s deciding how to quilt them that takes the longest for me sometimes.

I have joined the 2015 New Bloggers Blog Hop this month. There is a nice group of close to 70 “newish” bloggers who have been blogging for less than 2 years. We get help from 4 bloggers (Quilting Jetgirl, Late Night Quilter, Meadow Mist Designs, and Childlike Fascination) from last year’s New Bloggers group. We will be working with each other and critiquing each other blogs and learning ways to make possible improvements to it. It is a great way to make new quilting friends and mentors.

This week I will be starting to participate in the Midnight Mystery Quiltalong over at Meadow Mist Designs. I am deciding on what colors to use and will be digging and pulling fabrics from my stash for this project. It goes from June 2015 to March 2016. Quite a few of the gals from the New Bloggers group are also participating in the mystery quiltalong so that should add the fun to it and it is another way to get to know each other.

I will be linking up my post with Crazy Mom’s Quilts, Can I get a Whoop Whoop? and Prairie Sewn Studios Crafty Comment Karma linky party.

Thanks for stopping by and hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

June 5, 2015
Mod Gears Update

Hi, I thought I would give a quick update on my progress with my Mod Gears quilt top.

I have added borders that were not called for in the pattern to add size and interest as I rounded the corners.

I cut 4 inch white strips for my borders and then used a dinner plate to round the corners.

I am going to use the orange fabric as my bias binding. I have not used a bias binding in ages and I certainly have not hand sewn a binding in as many ages. I won the Scraptastic Tuesday’s monthly drawing and have a shipment of 100 Wonder Clips coming in the mail from Massdrop as my prize. They should arrive in time to help with attaching my binding.

This is my striped backing for the quilt. I used all the fabrics from the front except the orange for binding. I appliqued the little boy’s name, Eli John on the back as well. I chose to use a smaller lowercase letter this time around. I remembered seeing a baby quilt online with the name Eli or Elliot on it that was done in the lowercase and it turned out pretty cute.

I use Lite Steam-A-Seam 2 for my appliques. It stays soft and flexible and with it’s two glue layers you can temporarily finger press your pieces down and remove them and move around before you do your final pressing. I just straight stitched close to the edge of the letters.

I am still deciding on how I want to quilt this top. A possible organic wavy serpentine stitch or follow around each churn dash and plus with a 1/4 inch inside borders of blocks??? Either way I hope to get started doing some quilting yet today.

I am linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced, Let’s Bee Social , Needle and Thread Thursday and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

May 28, 2015
Mod Gears Baby Flimsy

Hi, I am sharing today my completed Mod Gears quilt top. It is made from the Mod Gears by Elizabeth Dackson, Don’t Call Me Betsy quilt pattern. It is made for a friend’s new grandson. Both parents ride Harley motorcycles, so I thought the theme and color of the quilt was quite fitting.

It finished at 56 inches square. I am thinking of adding a white border of say 4 inches all around and then rounding the corners. I have seen a quilt on a Pinterest that gave me that idea. I would then need to make a bias binding. I have quite a bit of the orange and red left that can go towards binding and as part of the back design.

I am wanting to applique the baby’s name Eli John to the back as well. I am thinking in a lowercase letters to add interest.

I had no trouble creating these half square triangles. I am still trimming up the batch for the Sea Stars quilt.

I am still learning how to use my new camera. It was pretty slick transferring photos from the camera to the computer by wifi sending them direct to my email accounts. It was great not having to fight with usb cords as this camera only came with a 12 inch cord.

I will be linking up my quilt top finish with Needle and Thread Thursday and Finish It Friday at Crazy Mom’s Quilts.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

May 21, 2015
Blogger’s Quilt Festival: Scrappy Dr. Seuss

Hi, It’s time for the biannual Blogger’s Quilt Festival over at Amy’s Creative Side. Quilters can enter two of their quilts into the various categories.

I am entering a second quilt into the Small quilt section. It is my Scrappy Dr. Seuss quilt. It is made from 22 different Dr. Seuss prints and I used Susan Pfau of Sweet Jane’s Picnic In the Park pattern but I sized the blocks down to use my 2 inch scrap strips.

This is the pile of fabrics I started with.

I did my best to use every last bit of the fabrics. I pieced a border together and also took the last small pieces to make a Chinese Coins type layout on the back.

Since this entire quilt was an experiment of sorts from trying out a new pattern to using what fabrics I had, I decided to try a new to me type of quilting. I did a boxy stitch with my walking foot. It took alot of manuevering but it was worth it in the end.

This is a sample. I did use a variegated thread on top of quilt.

And the finished quilt top and backing.

When washed and dried, the dense stitching made a wonderful crinkly texture. I plan to try another version of this quilting on the three baby quilts I am currently working on.

I had to have some fun with this quilt so I shared a silly photo of my quilt posed on Mr. Bird, my metal bird art that my husband welded for me from various garden tool and tractor parts.

If you would like to read more about the process of making this quilt, I blogged here and here.

Thanks for taking the time to check out my quilt entry into the small quilts at the Blogger’s Quilt Festival. Please go check out all the lovely quilts over at Amy’s. Nominations start tomorrow.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

May 21, 2015
Blogger’s Quilt Festival Spring 2015: Eagle’s Crossing

Hi, Welcome to the Spring 2015 edition of the Blogger’s Quilt Festival. It’s a biannual event hosted by Amy over at Amy’s Creative Side. Quilters can enter up to two of their quilts at a time in two different categories. It is an awesome way to view some beautiful quilts. It is great to be able to see and learn how other quilters get their inspiration for their work.

I am entering my Eagle’s Crossing quilt into the Large quilt category. I made this quilt using a super sized version of the original Adding Up Nicely quilt pattern by Meadow Mist Designs. This patriotic quilt was a gift for our Uncle Max who is a Viet Nam Veteran.

I really loved how the mustard grunge type fabric print worked with the bald eagle print fabric.

I chose to quilt with a mustard gold thread on the mustard fabric and white thread on the white fabric. I followed inside the blocks throughout the quilt.

I have made three different versions of this quilt pattern. The original pattern used charm squares and we enlarged the design to make these blocks finish at 9 inches. This was helpful when you have a focus fabric you do not want to cut up into small pieces.

I chose to use a wonderful patriotic eagle fabric for the backing. I try to make all my quilt backs as interesting as possible.

You can read more about the making of this Eagle’s Crossing quilt on my blog posts here and here.

The Blogger’s Quilt Festival runs from May 15th to the 29th. Voting starts on the 22nd. There will be a Viewer’s Choice award in each category. Please go over and vote for your favorites.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

May 20, 2015
Friday Projects Update

Hi, I hope everyone has had a good week. I thought I would share a Friday Projects Update.

I have been slowly but surely working away on my half square triangles for my Sea Stars quilt pattern testing. I should put the emphasis on slowly. The sewing part is no problem, it is getting them all pressed and squared up that is so time-consuming.

(The pile of trimmings make pretty confetti. See my pretty new rotary cutter. Zebra striped. )

I have tried a couple different techniques for squaring up the half square triangles. One is to press open first and then square up on all four sides, if needed. Then I tried where you trim before pressing open and it trims off the little ears in one swoop. I am not going to say yet, which one was better for me.

Has anyone tried this specialty ruler for creating Half Square Triangles? It’s by June Tailor and there is a video online how to use it. I bought it with a 40% off coupon at JoAnn’s. I have been using the 4 1/2 inch square ruler with pink Post-It tabs taped to where I need to cut my HSTs. I used the full size on the Mod Gears quilt blocks, and will move it smaller and smaller to make the sizes need for Sea Stars and WoW-E quilt blocks.

I always like to have a non quilting sewing project to work on for some down time. I have been wanting a new purse to carry and I like the cross body styles of bags as they cause less stress on my shoulders.

I am looking at Noodlehead’s Trail Tote or Swoon’s Ramona Mini Hipster bag. They both are free patterns that you can download. The Trail Tote closes with a magnet, and Ramona closes with a recessed zipper. I really am more comfortable using a zippered purse. So I am thinking of applying the recessed zipper technique to the Trail Tote???

I love this text and postage stamp canvas print. It has ridges or ripples in it. It is a remnant left of the fabric my Mom made a purse out of. It was the purse she carried up until the day she passed away in June 2013.

This is a very intricate machine embroidery of the Eiffel Tower that my Mom made as a sample. It is on a piece of white cotton that measures 6 by 11 inches, and the embroidery is 2 by 5 inches. I have had this set aside for something special and thought I could use it on an inside pocket of a purse so I would have a daily reminder of my Mom with me.

I have also come across another free pattern for an awesome tote bag that I would like to make. It is the Day At the Beach Bag with Rope Handles at Sew 4 Home website.

These are two gorgeous quality canvas fabrics that were some of the last fabrics I knew my Mom purchased. She had purchased them online. My Mom loved to make all kinds of bags and purses. And she loved France and everything French. It was her dream to travel to France. I took three years of French classes in high school many moons ago. It has not been used much after marrying into a German speaking family. lol

I have numerous bag making supplies. I have some painters canvas tarp material left over from other projects that can be used for the plain top portions of the Day at the Beach bags. I all ready have grommets and roping in the supplies as well, so it is a sign that I need to make these bags.

Hope all the Moms had a wonderful Mother’s Day. I had a great day with my husband and kids. My kids went all together with my husband and got me a new camera for Mother’s Day. I have not had a chance to truly play with it yet this week. It’s Wi-Fi enabled so it is supposed to upload my photos to my email or possibly Facebook accounts.

It is a Samsung WB380F camera. It has white simulated leather finish, so it should be interesting to keep it clean??

I hope to make some more progress sewing up all the blocks and pieces to make Sea Stars and Mod Gears quilt tops this weekend. I have not touched WoW-E yet, other than cut out all the pieces and bag them up in a ziploc. I am redressing which way I want to make my HSTs since the little ones in WoW-E finish at 1.5 inches (you want them accurate on the first try.)

I will be linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts.

Have a great weekend.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

May 15, 2015
HST Progress (2 out of 3 quilts)

Hi, I thought I would give a quick update on the progress I have made on working on my 3 kid size quilts that have the half square triangle palooza going on with their creation. I have sample blocks created for two of three quilts (Sea Stars and Mod Gears). I have all the HSTs made for Mod Gears and Sea Stars is still in production.

I am making HSTs in 8 bright colors for the Sea Stars quilt which is being pattern tested for Meadow Mist Designs.

I have 4 different focus prints that I will be making the plus blocks from and I plan on mixing up the 8 potential HST colors amongst the prints to get a good mix for each block.

I have all the HSTs made for Mod Gears, but only have 4 out of 16 blocks sewn up. I did not make any additional progress on this quilt top this week yet.

It has been a very somber week at our house as we had to make the decision on Monday to have our beloved Australian Shepherd Mattie to sleep. She was 15 years old and had cancer. I have had numerous dogs in my lifetime but this is the first one that I had to experience this with. It is not a good feeling and we know our 10 year old Black Lab, Abbey is noticing that Mattie is missing. Mattie was my husband’s dog and he has taken this extremely hard. We will leave it up to him to say when he is ready to get another dog. We got Mattie three weeks after our first dog, Freddie passed away.

On a happier note, I would like to remind everyone that I am participating in Sew Mama Sew’s Giveaway Day this week. The contest is open til Sunday May 1oth evening, and the winner will be drawn by the morning of May 12th.

I am giving away three charm packs of fabric and the winner’s choice of 3 of Meadow Mist Design’s patterns (pdfs).

Thank you all for stopping by and I hope all the Moms out there have a great Mother’s Day weekend.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

May 8, 2015