Mystery Monday

This week's Mystery Monday is from the class I took last weekend at Quilt in the Pines retreat.  Carol Anne was right, up until the very last "clue," I thought this quilt would be a diagonal set.  The blue fabrics made me think of Payette Lake at sunset:

So I've named Quilt #29 for 2012 "Mystery by the Lake."

 

The best part about taking classes at Granny's Attic retreat is, Lori cuts all the fabric for your project!  All you do is sit down and sew -- I love that!  The dark blue fabric is "Cape Cod" by Paintbrush Studio.  I forgot to ask what the light blue is, and since I didn't do the cutting, I don't have a selvedge to look at.

 

 The fabric has little oriental fans in blue and a goldy-green color My Little Sailor calls Somebody Isn't Drinking Enough Water.

My quilt holder said, "Come take a photo from the reverse side, it looks like stained glass."  It does, doesn't it?

One last photo from my weekend in Salt Lake City.  As a special treat, the HMQS hosts organized a trip to a rehearsal of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Hearing the 350+ voices in the perfect acoustics of the Tabernacle is a thrill, whether you're musical or not.

 
Tomorrow's Tuesday Tutorial is Susie's Magic Binding -- come back and learn how to do an elegant binding with piping, all by machine!

From the desk of your

Sunday is for Scraps -- and Granny Squares

 But first, a photo from quilt camp.  This is Payette Lake in Idaho, where I went to Camp Alice Pittenger for many years as a Girl Scout, and where I now attend Quilt Retreat with Granny's Attic:

I've managed to resist the Granny Square block from Blue Elephant Stitches, until today.  I wanted to make a red, white and blue candle mat, and remembered this tutorial by Jolene. So I opened my 2 1/2" squares scrap drawer and pulled out some red and blue squares:

(Why, yes, that is only a small portion of my 2 1/2" squares.)

I laid out the red and blue squares and added some white squares to get this block: 

Rather than use a straight sashing, I decided to add triangles to the four sides and get a square mat.  Adhering to the "right tool for the job" policy, I pulled out my Omnigrid 98L ruler.  Since my granny square block is 9" raw-edge to raw-edge, I placed the 98L ruler on a regular ruler and found I needed to cut the setting strips 5" wide.  Then it's easy to line up the "9" on the 98L ruler with the edge of the 5" strip:

 

And cut four setting triangles:

 

When sewing triangles to a straight edge, don't try to "eyeball" the lineup.  They won't come out even. (Ask me.  I know.)  Fold the setting triangle in half and finger-press a crease in the center.  Do the same for the block.

Now pin the setting triangles to the opposite sides of the block and sew:

It's easier to sew with this side up, so you can see where the seams on the squares meet:

See?  Nice, sharp points!

And here is the finished block:

Placemats and hot pads are a good way to use up scrap batting.  With the increased price of cotton, I save every scrap nowadays!  If the scrap isn't big enough for the whole block, sew two pieces together.  First, place one piece slightly over the second and cut a curvy line through both pieces:

Like this:

Then place one piece slightly overlapping the other and sew together with a three-step zigzag stitch, set to the widest stitch width.

Now we're ready to quilt the placemat.  I love sulky KK2000 Temporary Spray Adhesive for basting, it's much easier than pinning:

I quilted with my new Superior Threads King Tut in color #919, "Freedom" at 1/4" from the seams of the colored squares:

Tune in Tuesday for a tutorial on Susie's Magic Binding and the finished mat.  

 

Today it is holding my blue candle, lit in honor of the sailors on the USS George Washington who are preparing to depart for their summer patrol of the Western Pacific.

²³ They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
²⁴ These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.

Psalm 107:23-31

King James Version (KJV)

From the desk of your

Saturday Stash: A Road Trip and What I Learned

Last weekend I went on another road trip.  Thursday and Friday I attended the Home Machine Quilting Show in Salt Lake City.  I learned as much from visiting with the vendors as I did in the class I took from Dustin Farrell.  Watching the demos of all the new long-arm rulers and templates made me eager to get home to Meggie.

I took the "long way" to Salt Lake, via Colorado's Western Slope.  It really only takes about an hour longer, but somehow it seems  like it takes forever!  Worth the extra time, though:  not only did I get to have lunch with my cousin, I got to visit a wonderful quilt shop in Grand Junction.

Quilters' Corner sports an excellent collection of batiks, along with plenty of reproduction fabrics and quite a few "modern" fabrics.  I will definitely return in August when Colorado Quilt Council meets in Grand Junction.

Here is the first day's stash:

 

That yellow in the upper corner is one of Moda's new Bella Solids, Citrine.

I bought this embroidered block from a company that specializes in patriotic fabrics and images.  The husband of one of my nieces serves on the USS Nebraska submarine.  This might not be the right class of sub, but it's the only submarine fabric I've found:

One  vendor was demonstrating this cool tool to make loading your quilts on the long-arm easier.  Instead of pinning the quilt, quilt back, and batting to the leaders, you slide these tubes into a channel on the leaders and snap the quilt onto the plastic tube.  Can't wait to try these -- loading the quilt onto the machine is my least-favorite part of long-arming!

Here is some red-white-and-blue half-yard pieces I got to make a Quilt of Valor quilt using the "Take 5" method:

I snuck out of the conference Thursday afternoon to visit my favorite Salt Lake area shop, Quilter's Haven in Bountiful.  Quilter's Haven is the one of the only shops I've ever found that carries a good selection of Anthropology fabric.  Plus they were having a Mother's Day sale, 20% off everything!

It's important to have a good stash of Schnibbles and charm packs, just in case one of these is selected for the next "Another Year of Schnibbles" pattern!

Today's post is only the Salt Lake City portion of my Road Trip.  And what I learned?

Keep the receipts with the purchases, so when you blog about your road trip, you'll know where stuff was purchased!



From the desk of your

Tuesday Tutorial: Inside Corners

Remember this from "Sunday is for Scraps?"

And this?

They became this:

It's the A la Mode Placemat Table Topper -- placemats and table topper in one.  The designer is Kathy Heaverlo of Birch Bay Washington.  I found Kathy's clever item on Craftsy.com by searching for "placemats" and "charm squares."  It takes only 45 charm squares plus some fabric for backing, binding and borders.

Although I've been quilting for nearly 40 years, I never had to miter an inside corner before I made this project.  Turns out, it's not so hard -- like most things -- once you know how.

Here's a tutorial for mitering inside corners.

1.  First, trim the batting and backing even with the quilt top.

2.  Next, top stitch inside the quarter inch seam line.

3.  Then trim only the batting and backing at an angle to the corner.

4.  Nip the corner to within 1/8 inch of the top stitching.

5.  On the straight side of the quilt, attach the binding as you normally would. When you approach the corner, pull the quilt that extends to the right-hand side down toward yourself so the seam is straight and parallel to the raw edge of the binding.

6.  Fold the extra fabric up and to your left so it doesn't make a tuck in the seam.

7.  When it's sewn, the seam will look like this.  Now you can trim the seam allowance through all layers at an angle to the corner.

8.  By pulling the two sides toward each other, a miter will naturally form in the binding.  You may have to "urge" it with your fingernail to fold neatly.

Because this is a placemat and will probably be washed often, I machine-stitched the binding from the right side using Superior Threads' Mono Poly as the top thread and regular cotton in the bobbin.

You can see in this photo that practice will make the corners neater.

But Chutney approves!

From the desk of your

Another Mystery Monday

 I got behind on my Mystery BOM while I was traveling.  And I'll miss the next step -- while traveling!

Here is the step I missed last month.  Mary, you were right -- that weird piecing resulted in Flying Geese.  I trimmed mine up using Eleanor Burns' Small Flying Geese Ruler.

This strange piece uses Diagonal Corners in two colors.  These must be sashing: 

But it's a Mystery!

Have you ever tried to bind a quilt that has both "inside" and "outside" corners?  Tune in tomorrow for Tuesday's Tutorial on binding difficulties.


From the desk of your

Sunday is for Scraps (and hostess gifts!)

On my trip to Idaho, I'll be visiting one of my nieces.  I realized this morning, I don't have a hostess gift for her!

Lucky for me, I have a huge collection of 5" squares, and a new pattern for a combination table-topper/placemats.

The design is based on the "disappearing 9-patch", aka "split 9-patch."  A disappearing 9-patch starts with -- surprise! -- a simple 9-patch block:

Next, slice the block through the center both horizontally and vertically.  Then turn each of the resulting four pieces one-quarter turn and reassemble the block:

I'll show you the assembly of the table-topper for Works in Progress Wednesday. 






From the desk of your