Tag: diy

Little Rascals Quilt Part 3 – Stencil Quilting

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This week I finished quilting the brown sashing on this adorable Li’l Rascals baby quilt. You can learn how I free-motion quilted the blocks in last week’s blog post.

Li'l Rascals Baby QuiltFirst, I selected a cute Scottie Dog quilt stencil. I lucked out because each dog motif was about the size of one of my charm squares, so I didn’t have to adjust the size of the design. I love collecting all sizes and styles of quilting stencils. I probably have over 100!

Scottie Dog StencilSewline Marking Pencil

To mark the design, I used a Sewline mechanical pencil with white ceramic leads. It made a nice clear line to follow.

The lines came off easily with a Sewline eraser stick after quilting. The left picture below shows 2 marked and quilted motifs. The right picture is after I erased the right motif. You can clearly see the quilting, but not the lines!

Sewline Fabric EraserRight Motif Erased After Quilting

After I quilted the dogs with a matching brown thread, I decided I wanted to see them a little better, so I quilted them again, going over my previous lines, but this time with metallic thread. (To avoid problems using specialty threads I use titanium-coated top-stitch needles from Superior Threads.)

The design still wasn’t quite finished, so I added another line of quilting, echoing the shape of the dogs. Then I was happy with the quilting. Echo Quilting with Metallic ThreadNext time I think I would try a much darker or lighter thread so that I can see the design even better. I’ve been quilting for so many years with matching thread to hide my mistakes. But now that I’m getting better with my free motion quilting I want my stitches to show!

Next week, I will finish this quilt by showing how to block it and bind it.

If you’d like to make a similar quilt like mine, it requires just one charm pack and 1 yard of coordinating fabric for sashing.

Bungle Jungle Modern Quilt – Week 1

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Before I’ve even finished my current project, the Little Rascals baby quilt, I’ve already started on my next charm pack design! I was inspired by Leah Day’s modern quilt on her free-motion quilting blog.  However,  I’m making mine a little more uniform and less wonky.

I started with one charm pack of Bungle Jungle – a set of 42 precut squares that measure Bungle Jungle with Solid White5 inches. That means the finished size of each square is4 1/2″. I wanted to surround the squares with lots of open space for quilting, so I grabbed 2 yards of  of Kona Cotton Solids in white.

I cut  fifteen 4″ wide strips of white and sub-cut them into 42 pieces that measure 4″ x 5″ for the short side of the blocks and and 42 pieces of 4″ x 8 1/2″ for the long side of the blocks.

I stacked the pieces up next to my sewing machine in order so they were all ready to sew. Some of the prints are directional, but I won’t worry about that as I sew this quilt together. That will add to the “charm!”

Stacked and Ready to Sew

Bungle Jungle Block

To help with quilting later, I pressed all of the seams open. This helps reduce bulk and prevents shadowing of the seams. I will sew a total of 42 blocks, one for every charm square.

This week I will work on arranging the blocks into a pleasing setting. I’m loving it already!

Bungle Jungle Blocks LayoutThe Modern Quilt aesthetic really appeals to me with lots of negative space and clean lines. One of the hallmarks of this design style is to use lots of solid fabric and crisp, clear colors.

If you’d like to follow along, grab 1 charm pack of your choice and 2 yards of background fabric, then sew a total of 42 blocks like those shown above. (I’ve only finished 12 blocks so far.) I’ll continue to blog about this project until it’s done, including quilting and binding.

Lil Rascals Charm Pack Quilt Part 2 – Machine Quilting

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Last Thursday I posted instructions on how Lil Rascals Charm Pack Quiltto make this cute Li’l Rascals quilt top from just one charm pack and a yard of coordinating fabric.

If you are following along, feel free to post comments or ask questions about the project and I’ll do my best to answer!

This week I am working on machine quilting the 9 patch blocks with a free-motion wavy plaid design. Next Thursday, I’ll blog about marking and quilting the borders and sashing with a stencil.

I was really excited about doing something different with this quilt. I have stippled myself silly over the last 4-5 years and I’m ready to move on to new textures and designs.

Wavy Plaid PracticeI was inspired by Leah Day’s Loose Weave quilting from her  Daisy to Paisley book of free motion fillers. I stitched out a practice sample on scrap fabric, then set to work on my quilt.

The long wiggly lines were easy to quilt without marking. My design is called “Wavy Plaid.”

First, I quilted long slightly wavy lines down the length of each 9-patch block. I used a thin polyester thread that seemed to blend in with most of the fabrics. I wanted the texture to show, not the thread! I quilted 4 sets of double rows per block and kept them sort of even.

Vertical Lines Quilting

Next, I quilted the same type of wavy lines going across the width of the blocks. I did have to rotate my quilt so that I was quilting either up or down the quilt the entire time. When I tried to quilt from side to side, my thread kept breaking.

Wavy Plaid Quilting I love the freedom this design gave me. Nothing had to be perfect and the quilting added lots of gorgeous texture!

Echo LinesTo create the double lines, I quilted an echo outline with my free-motion foot, using the edge as my guide.

I dropped the feed dogs on my machine, used a Supreme Slider underneath the quilt to help it slide around smoothly, and stitched while wearing Machingers Quilting Gloves. The right tools make all the difference!

By the way, in case in case you need it, here are links to my mini-tutorials on pin basting, and sewing a pieced backing.

Loopy Quilting

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I made this cute pink and brown baby quilt a few years ago and wanted to share the loopy quilting I did in the border triangles surrounding the blocks. My inspiration was taken from the loopy pink and brown fabric in the blocks.

Pink & Brown Baby QuiltThis quilt was super fast to make. It’s a simple rail fence set on point.

The blocks are made from 2 1/2 inch strips. I  sewed 9 coordinating pink and brown strips Loopy Quiltingtogether (3 strips each of 3 different colors) and cut them into 6 inch finished sized blocks (6 1/2″ unfinished).

I made a total of 18 blocks with cream colored setting triangles. I added a 2 inch inner border and 5 inch outer border.  It finished around 41″ x 50″ – a great crib sized quilt.

Here’s a closeup of the loopy quilting – a great way to finish a quilt in a hurry!

I made the top before the Jelly Roll craze but it would be fun to make a scrappy version using pre-cut strips, too.