finally a finish?

A good week has passed since I posted last. I've been busy!! We had a couple of holidays the last few weeks. We actually have three long weekends in May...my oh my, how do we ever get anything done with so many holidays?? ;-) I hope to post the whole week what I have been up to. Today I am sharing my advanced sampler with you.

My quilt top and backing are now finally at the Quilt-Oase. I wanted to get this finished up last year, and it was on my last year's To-Do List. Do you remember? It was the very first one on the list!!

I finished up my last block and laid out my sashing. I was showing my blocks and sashing to other quilters, and they were steering me in a direction I didn't want to go. I understand that my XL sashing and borders take away from the sampler blocks, but that is exactly what I was going for.I wanted the blocks to become a complete design on its own collectively as if they were printed on another piece of fabric. I am proud of myself for standing my ground, by the way!

I made my backing panel...and boy with this a monster; it measures about 95 x 115 inches! Fortunately, I had enough fabric in my stash to make it. I bought this gorgeous pink and orange fabric at a very quaint fabric/quilt shop somewhere in North Carolina on a trip three years ago that matching quite well with Kate Spain's Fandango. It was at a killer price and bought five or six yards of it. (I am not going to calculate the amount, seriously I could be wrong...it could be seven). It was almost enough for the entire backing too! I made some quick large pluses to add some extra backing surface. I could have left the size as is for home quilting, but I want this one to be long arm quilted, since it it huge and will be time consuming! I went the extra mile to add ten inches to the height and width to accommodate the long arm machine. To do this, I first pieced the backing and then carefully slice it twice, once horizontally and once vertically where I eventually placed the white plus.

 

I even matched up the print in the backing when I sewed the WOFs together. I first sewed them using a 1/2" then realized I should have sewn using 1/4" to allow the pattern to repeat. I frogged it (ripped the seam) and sewed it again ;-)

So I bet you are a little curious to see how this is supposed to look in the end. This was my original design layout. It changed just a little, but the idea is still there! I reduced my border width by five inches each side to make better use of the white fabric. I used strips 11 inches unfinished for each side; therefore, I could get four strips from my fabric. You can see more pictures in my flickr album.

What did I learn this week? When you run into a problem, don't stress about it. Allow it to become a challenge and solve it with enthusiasm. Your new idea will be brilliant!

Thank you for dropping by! Time for me to go grab another cup of coffee and move on to another project. And no more samplers...well, I still have to finish up my patchwork group sampler, but that's it!!! How do you feel about samplers? Do you like to make them?

mariner's compass - what a challenge!

Well, it has been two weeks since my last post. Time has flown by, and I have hardly gotten any sewing done, so it seems. I think I managed to post a couple of sneak peeks of my last block from the Advanced Sampler on Instagram, but that was it! The kids had two weeks off for Easter vacation, and I took two weeks right along with them! You only live once! We enjoyed sleeping in late, staying up, playing outside (when it wasn't raining) and just enjoying the free time.

Let me tell you what I was working on in my free minutes of stolen sewing time. I decided to add this stunning 12" Notched Mariner's Compass to my Advanced Sampler quilt. I originally wanted to make it paper or foundation pieced, but wanted to give myself a challenge and work with templates. I printed out the necessary templates from EQ7 and traced over them onto a clear plastic sheet. I didn't really think about the added seam allowance of a self-made template in the beginning. You see, when you trace around the original template, you add just a little bit to the shape. When you cut out the template, you add again, just a little bit. And then when you trace the template onto your fabric, you add, yet again, a little bit. In the end, this added 1/2 to a 12" block! I didn't realize this until all four quarters of the block were made. Each corner block should have measured 6.5" instead of 6.75". I thought I could shrink the block down by soaking in water for an hour and throwing it in the dryer. Absolutely didn't work. It was the same size in the end 13 inches!

Time to come up with Plan B! I could reduce the size (height) of the notches (outer ring) by either cutting them back and piecing a quarter circle around them meaning I would have to separate the four quarter of the compass again OR reverse applique a 12" circle around the notched compass. I decided to go with the second. And, yet again....another skill builder. I have only used this method one other time on another mariner's compass.

I traced a quarter of a 12" circle onto a 14" white square of fabric with my awesome Frixion pen making sure my square was perfectly folded in half twice. This way, you only need to trace a 6" quarter circle. It is faster and saves paper!! Then I cut a whole about 3/8 in front of the circle line.  I notched the circle making sure NOT to cut into the line. I got out my normal glue stick and glued the white notched fabric down making sure they touched the outer ring. I measured it out with my ruler to really make sure I had a 12" notched mariner's compass and adjusted as needed. After it all was glued and pinned, I sewed around the white outer edge to secure or applique in place. Voila!

My block is now the right size! I reduced the total size from 13" to 12 1/2" inches by reducing the outer ring size by 1/2" and I used reverse appliqué - building more skills in the process. I actually think it is better to use this technique of applique rather than piecing four squares to the four segments, because you can "trick" the circle to really be round.

I am almost finished with all 12 blocks for my sampler. It has been in the works now for three+ years and am ready to finish it up. Would you like to see what it will look like in the end? Stay tuned. ;-)

What did I learn this week? Be careful when you use self-made templates and trim up your blocks before proceeding to the next step! What is your experience with templates? We would like to hear from you.