Happy Father's Day

 

Soup to Nuts Quilting

 

From Design to Binding

Soup to nuts quilting is going from design conception through every step until the completion of a quilt. Some people enjoy certain aspects of quilting, such as piecing, and others enjoy the entire process. I like to think of working through all of the aspects as "Soup to Nuts" or From-Design-to-Binding-quilting. This post will briefly illustrate the steps I took to complete the above quilt which I designed and started sewing over a year ago. The quilt is about 93 x 102 inches. The blocks finish at 6 inches.

Picture of my design idea drawn in EQ8

My Process

1. Doodle ideas on notebook or graph paper
2. Draw the idea in EQ8
3. Tweak for sizes and colorways in Electric Quilt
4. Decide if rotary cutting or foundation paper piecing or diecutting or a combination
5. Print the quilt design and fabric requirements. Also print paper piecing patterns to sew upon
6. Pull fabrics from stash, purchase new fabric (Yippee!), or a combination of the two
7. If, after sewing a test block, modifications are necessary, make them and proceed
8. Cut, sew, and assemble quilt top - this involves pressing and squaring things up as you go
9. Trim the quilt top
10. Quilt with batting and backing
11. Bind quilt. Typically, I use 2 1/4" wide strips. I will cut these on the bias if the quilt is not rectangular. Usually, I cut across the width of fabric to make binding.

Quilt designed in Electric Quilt 8

Here is a quick video that shows some of these steps:

Please let me know if you have any questions about my process. Thank you for visiting.

Beverly

Spring Update - Cards, Gifts, Rag Quilts

This is just a quick Spring update with a few pictures of the cards, gifts, and rag quilts I have made since March. 

Mask made for a 2-year-old grandchild

My sweet little granddaughter needed a mask to fly on an airplane from Seattle to Phoenix in May. Winnie the Pooh has about the same size face as she does. Since she wasn't here to model it, I had to use Winnie.

 

MJ's Messenger Bag Pattern by Annie

If you are looking to make a bag for yourself or as a gift. I highly recommend the patterns by Annie Unrein. She has thorough directions with good videos to show some of the steps to assembling them. I have made several of her bags and every one of them has been well received by the recipient.

Double Oven Mitt, Hot Pads, and Card

Kitchen linens are fun to make. Usually people are happy to get new ones to replace their stained or worn out hot pads, etc. My niece is a Chemist and I thought she might enjoy these fabrics for a new set of hotpads and oven mitts. I really like the one on the right because it hangs over the oven door handle and is great for removing casseroles from the oven.

Copic Colored Baby Shower Card

The stamped images on this card are from a retired Close to My Heart set. I love how easy it is to color these open images with Copics.

Fleece and Flannel Baby Rag Quilt

The two rag quilts are made with flannel. The top one also has a fleece back. The purple one is made with different Shannon Fabrics - Minky, Cuddle, Dimples and hand-dyed flannel. Both quilts were cut with Accuquilt steel dies. (If you click on the link, it doesn't cost you anything extra but I may receive a small commission if you make a purchase from their site.)

Queen and Co shaker card

My dear granddaughter needed a quilt for daycare. I thought she might enjoy a rag quilt to play with as she avoided sleep during naptime on her little cot.

Minky and Flannel Toddler Size Rag Quilt

The Cuddle fabrics are so warm and soft. It is messy to work with but feels so lovely that it is worth the extra vacuuming and lint collection! I usually throw the fabric in the dryer when it enters the house. After cutting it, with either a rotary cutter or an Accuquilt die, I shake it out over a rug and then run it through the dryer again to collect the lint. My vacuum is the kind that collects the dirt in a container that gets dumped out. This is much better than quickly filling vacuum cleaner bags! It is necessary to vacuum frequently!

Shannon Cuddle Fabrics for Rag Quilt

Minky and Flannel

It seems that there is never enough time to make all of the things that are rattling around in my head, but at least this is a start. And these things all found good homes.

Thank you for visiting!

Beverly

Sometimes I just want to sew!

I just want to sew something!

There are times when I just want to sit at my sewing machine and mindlessly run the fabric under the presser foot. I do not want to have to think too hard about what I am making. Nor do I want to pay attention to a technique that is more challenging than a straight stitch on a straight seam! This does not happen frequently, but when it does I like to use up scraps of fabric and make "new" fabric by sewing small pieces together. And then, of course, I usually cut them up again to make a quilt or maybe even potholders.

Sewing a one-block quilt

Alternatively, I will use a simple quilt block and repeat it to make a quilt.  Oftentimes, I make them out of scraps. And almost always I use the fabric from my stash. This quilt is an example of the same simple block repeated with different colors, to make it a bit more interesting. It was a very quick and easy quilt because I used a steel die from Accuquilt to cut the Tumblers and then quilted it with an allover quilt pattern that I purchased from Urban Elementz. The binding was made from a new fabric but the rest have been around for a (long) while.

Quilted with Apex 2 Design from Urban Elementz

If this quilt looks familiar, that is because it is the second one I made using a rainbow colorway. I posted about the original (here) and another, scrappy one using the same die last summer. Those two were made for charity. The one above, my teen-aged daughter claimed. 

More fun ways to 'just sew'

Making a fabric collage - of sorts

This past February, the Portland Modern Quilt Guild hosted Tricia Royal. I was fortunate enough to get a spot in her virtual class and learned new ways of using up small pieces of fabric. She introduced me to another way to just sew without too much pre-planning. I loved the class and was very inspired by her work. We made two small pieces. I combined them because I loved the busyness of one of them and the open, negative space of the other.

Quilted shapes

The photo below shows the two pieces, one on top of the other, prior to me quilting them together.

Layered pieces

Thank you for stopping by today. It has been a long break for me, from blogging. I was not ready to share what has been keeping me busy. Partly because this has been a time of introspection and re-grouping for me. I have a few more projects that I have worked on over the past few months, which I will post soon. Sending you all lots of love and light.

Beverly