summer sewing with Jump Start!

Now that I have slowed down my pace (or turned into a slow blogger), I am starting to enjoy sewing once again.

At the beginning of the year, I loaded myself down with countless Sew & Quilt Alongs and got a little overwhelmed. After realizing I had a little bit more free time (without commitment) I joined up in a new and short summer series for EQ7 called Jump Start! It is a great program for helping you feel more confident using the computer program that you probably bought when it first came out and forgot you even had it. ;-) Although I have designed a few quilts with EQ, I thought it would be fun to join in the fun. I enjoy seeing what everyone else is creating!

The SAL is organized and presented by Jenny who is very competent. She has a video for each lesson telling you straight up what to do. Jenny is also a great cheerleader! ;-)

Our last lesson was to change a few lines around of the Twin Star block to create a new variation. Then we were to print out foundation pieces for a nine inch block. I thought this was a very great lesson for those of us who want to know more about paper piecing templates. If you what to be an accurate piecer....paper piecing can help you. Since this block could be a little tricky with the bias triangles, I think this method is the better choice for piecing. However, I don't like to waste my precious fabric, especially this yummy line from Marcus Brothers called Next Wave by Studio 37. So, I would advise you to cut four inch squares to make HST as templates for sewing. Only the fabric in the center square will be about five inches; four inch squares will accommodate the rest.

I am really looking forward to the next tutorial to see if Jenny will mix it up again. (Good thing I didn't sew ahead!!) I also hope she has a lesson on an interesting border, maybe even sashing??

If you would like to know more about EQ7 and how the program works, you can check it out or just join in the fun. I am sure it is not too late!

Jump Start! a new SAL

Lately, I have been struggling about sewing and my motivation as well as the lack of time. I came across this fun and very short little SAL from EQ7 called Jump Start! It explains how to start up EQ7, design quilts, find blocks and print them out. It does not tell you how to sew your blocks together, unfortunately. This you just have to find out for yourself. It is not too late to hook up and join in the fun!

I acquired this yummy yellow and gray fabric last year and was just waiting for that perfect project to come along. And here it is. I will be making four blocks (I think), and this was the first one. I followed the rules and made the block just as it was illustrated from the program. You can change around the fabrics and make some really striking blocks, but I wanted to follow the rules this time. I like how it turned out with the gray in the middle and then radiates outward with different fabrics.

I just noticed something about this block. Normally, I am all into the color white (or snow rather) in my quilts these days. There is no white in this block!! I think that is why I am liking it soo much! I am not much for the color gray, but the yellow really sparkles here and puts a little sunshine out on the cloudy day.I am anxious to make the other blocks. This is going to turn out to be a very striking and modern table topper, or purse front or wall hanging.

Enjoy your weekend! I will try to get in a little more sewing time this weekend. We'll see what I can whip up.