Bungle Jungle Charm Quilt Week 4 – Ditch Quilting

July 18, 2012March 19, 20131 Comment

I didn’t make a ton of progress on my Bungle Jungle modern quilt this week, mostly because I was packing up to go on our family vacation and getting all my ducks in a row ahead of time.

(They are quacking nicely now!)

But, I did get all of my stitch in the ditch quilting done so I’m ready for the best part, the free motion quilting next week!

I think my plan will be to quilt a different motif in each charm square, to practice a bunch of free-motion quilting designs.

I want to add tons more quilting. By pressing the seams open, stitching in the ditch in between the charm squares was a breeze. It created a grid over the surface of the quilt which you can see on the back side of the quilt. Click for closeups.

I used an acrylic ruler and a blue washout pen to mark straight lines where needed to complete the grid.

The quilt is now anchored so I can remove the rest of my basting pins and it’s ready for more quilting!

Be sure to join me tomorrow as I launch my new tutorial series: Do It Yourself Quilts!

Favorite Tools #2 – Shout Color Catchers

July 17, 2012March 19, 20133 Comments

On my last soapbox, I blogged about how much I advocate pre-washing fabrics for quilts.

To make this job easier, I love using Shout Color Catchers. You can get them pretty inexpensively at Target or Wal-Mart and they work wonders with quilt fabrics.

They are rectangular sheets of material that almost look like dryer sheets. You put them in with the fabric during the wash cycle. The extra color that comes off in the water adheres to the sheets, not other fabrics. I’ll use at least 2 per load when washing a bundle of fabric, and will throw in more if I’m washing a large quilt.

After discovering problems with some of my personal stash fabrics running, I used several sheets when washing my sister-in-law’s wedding quilt I recently finished (only 2 years late). I had sewn the blocks so long ago, I couldn’t remember if they had been pre-washed or not. I used 4 color catchers with the quilt and it came out fine. I breathed a huge sigh of relief!

I used this red batik fabric in a small wholecloth quilt I recently made. I wanted to make sure it didn’t run so I washed it twice – with one color catcher each time.

The first color catcher sheet came out orange after the first wash; by the second wash, the excess color was mostly gone so I knew it was now safe to use this fabric!

I’m still experimenting with pre-washing, using color catchers in every load of cut yardage, and throwing a sheet in with quilts made from fabric that I can’t pre-wash like Moda Precuts.

During my previous post about pre-washing I got a really good comment about using Retayne, a dye fixative, with unwashed precuts. I forgot I even had some! So that will be my next experiment I think…..

Sew and Tell – Scraps Galore!

July 13, 2012July 13, 2012Leave a comment

Jill F. from Iowa shares her fun and scrappy geometric quilt with us this week:

Jill made this beauty by collecting assorted fat quarters and 1/2 yard cuts she got from me, plus scraps from her stash. The strips are all 2 1/2 inches wide so it could be assembled from a jelly roll, too!

Here are some quilt vital statistics you may be interested in: the pattern is called Hugs and Kisses by Julie Herman for Jaybird Quilts, and the wonderful brown that pulls all of the scraps together is Moda Bella Solid in Hershey brown.

Jill used her Lazy Angle Ruler from Lazy Girl Designs to cut the wedges of assembled strips. Hey, I have that ruler but haven’t made anything from it yet; I guess I’ll give it a try!

Jill made this quilt to go in her four-year old son’s room and is using extra blocks for a coordinating quilt for his little brother. It’s always amazing how many blocks you can get when you start pulling scraps from your stash – they seem to multiply!

She did a great job of making the quilt seam super scrappy, yet pulled-together.

Way to go Jill! How did you know my favorite colors are brown and green? That’s probably what attracted me to your quilt!

Of course I had to include a closeup picture of the gorgeous quilting, done by a friend of Jill’s that’s just getting started with her long-arm business. If this quilt is any indication, Jill’s friend is on the right track!

Share Your Project

If you would like to share a project you’ve made with at least one piece of fabric purchased from me, please email christa@christaquilts.com with your high quality photos and what makes your project interesting or special to you. If you are selected as my show and tell star of the week, you’ll get a $5 gift certificate as my way of saying thanks!

Bungle Jungle Week 3 – Layer Cake Back Art and Basting

July 12, 2012March 19, 20137 Comments

This week I marked and basted my Bungle Jungle charm pack quilt. I will start quilting it next week. You can read about last week’s progress here.

When I finished marking the top, I couldn’t decide on the backing. Then it hit me – why not use a Bungle Jungle layer cake and make back art for my modern quilt?

(The back is probably even more modern than the front since I threw the blocks together totally randomly!)

Each layer cake square is precut to 10 inches, so when you sew them together into 7 rows of 6 blocks each, the finished size is 57″ x 66.5″. My quilt top measures approximately 52″ x 60″ so that was perfect! It took me less than 2 hours to stitch all the backing squares together, including pinning and pressing the seams open.

Using a stencil, I drew little hands in the white spaces randomly over the surface of the quilt. This is going to be cute!

I marked all the hands before basting, using an inexpensive water soluble blue pen. I’m going to join the hands with loopy quilting so I can quilt them continuously.

I still haven’t decided what I’m going to quilt in the charm squares, so I left those unmarked for now. Any ideas??

Finally, I basted the quilt using about 150 Pinmoors. This is the 3rd quilt I’ve basted using Pinmoors and I’ve decided they are awesome! It’s a little spendy to buy enough of them for a big quilt, but they are totally worth it. It made basting a breeze and they are super easy to take out when quilting. I don’t even worry about pinning over my marked lines. The rule of thumb is to baste about a hand-width apart. That was easy for this quilt!

I’ve been following quilting blogs like The Free-Motion Quilting Project, WIP Wednesdays, Moda’s Bakeshop and the 2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge for quite some time. I have so thoroughly enjoyed these projects that I have now been inspired to start my own sew along called Do-It-Yourself-Quilts!

I want to share step-by-step tutorials on how easy and fun it is to make your own quilts completely, including piecing and quilting. Then you can truly say you made it yourself!

Be sure to follow my blog for the official announcement about that on Thursday, July 19th, along with a sneak peak of my first project and a supply list if you’d like to join in!

Christa’s Soapbox – Pressing Your Seams Open

July 7, 2012July 3, 2012Leave a comment

In two words: do it!

The idea of pressing seams always to one side is pretty old school. It comes from when seams were hand pieced; the double seam pressed to one side gave strength. Also, when hand quilting, it was easier to stitch in the ditch if the bulk of the seams was out of the way.

However, with so much modern quilting going on, using lots of solids and white background space, there’s more of a need to press seams open to prevent shadowing.

Moreover, it’s much easier to machine quilt if all of the seams are pressed open.

When I first began doing free motion quilting, I took a class from a teacher that recommended planning all of your quilting ahead of time so you would know which way to press your seams. (For machine quilting stitch-in-the-ditch, it was conventional wisdom to always quilt in the low side of the ditch.) My first thought was, what a pain!

I want the freedom to be able to quilt how I want when I want without being limited by piecing decisions. I also like how much flatter the quilt lies when all of the seams are pressed open. So yes, you have my permission to press ’em open as much as you want!

By the way, the quilt seams shown in this post are from my Bungle Jungle modern quilt I’m currently working on. You can read this week’s earlier post about making this quilt here.

Sew and Tell – The Very Hungry Caterpillar Quilt

July 6, 2012July 10, 20121 Comment

This week, Anita A. from Florida shares her adorable Hungry Caterpillar Quilt with us. Isn’t it great? She made it for her first grandchild and it’s only her second quilt!

I love how she mixed in lots of novelty prints and picture book fabrics! Some of them she got from me including Dr. Seuss and Peanuts fabrics. The Hungry Caterpillar fabric is from Andover. Hmm, I better see if I can get that one!

Anita said she found the pattern called “Stars through the Window” on About.com.

She likes the mix of large and small fussy cuts and she tweaked the design a bit, plus added additional borders.

It looks like such an easy and fun quilt to make with fussy cut 3 1/2″ smaller squares for the square blocks and 6 1/2″ squares for the snowball blocks.

I absolutely love the pieced quilt backing she made with solid green fabric surrounding a length of Berenstain Bears fabric.

Anita included a lot of green fabric so that the quilt would be perfect for either a little boy or girl. Her daughter’s favorite color is spring green and she wants to be surprised when her baby is born.

I think Anita’s daughter will be pleased both with her new baby and with the adorable quilt.

Nice job, Anita!

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Bungle Jungle Charm Pack Quilt – Week 2

July 3, 2012March 19, 20134 Comments

I finished my version of a modern quilt top this week:

Using one Bungle Jungle charm pack and 2 1/2 yards of White Solid , I whipped this puppy up in just a few days! I started working on this quilt last week.

I started off by making a total of 42 blocks since there are 42 charms in a pack.

I arranged them on my design wall randomly, turning each block in a different position.

While I like this arrangement, I didn’t love it, so I tried laying out all the blocks in the same orientation. I liked that better.

It must be my OCD kicking in!

Next, it was a simple feat to sew the blocks into pairs and then join the pairs into rows to complete the top.

Each row had 6 blocks (or 3 pairs), and I sewed a total of 7 rows. I pressed all of my seams open so it will be easier to quilt and fabric won’t shadow through the white.

Once I finished sewing all the blocks together, I realized I needed to add a strip of white to the left of the quilt top and one across the bottom to balance the design.

This would create a continuous border of white all around the quilt with plenty of negative space for creative quilting.

Instead of cutting one long strip for each border, I cut 13 rectangles, 4″ x 8″ each and made 2 pieced borders. The left border required 7 rectangles and the bottom row needed 6 plus a 4 inch square for the corner.

I’m pleased with the quilt top and will start machine quilting it next week. It will finish around 52″ x 61″ which will make a nice sized baby-throw.

I have a few ideas that I’m going to think about over the next several days before I begin quilting. I really want to incorporate this hand stencil in the white areas:

I’m thinking I might randomly quilt the hands in the white areas, joining them together with loopy stippling designs. I’d like to quilt something fun in the charm squares too, like perhaps a different shape in each block. If you’ve got any suggestions, please send them my way!

Sew and Tell – Big Stars Quilt

June 29, 2012March 19, 20132 Comments

Ellie W from Oklahoma made this beautiful star quilt. She is definitely my sew and tell “Star” of the week! I love the brown paisley Michael Miller print that ties it all together.

Ellie loved the pattern and teal tonal fabric so much she made a total of 3 bed sized quilts! She sewed them with different fabric placements to show off the teal Gingko Tonals fabric which she got from me.

At right is one of the other quilt tops she’s working on with the teal fabric in the sashing. I love how the brown pieces on this quilt form a square. That would be a perfect spot for some really jazzy quilting!

Ellie made 16 blocks, set 4×4 for a queen sized quilt. For a king sized quilt she made 25 blocks, set 5×5 plus an added border. Hey, I could whip up 16-25 blocks in a few days…

Ellie says she loves to make herself one big bed quilt every once in awhile, and she likes to give the others away as gifts so she can get started on the next one!

Here’s a general idea of how to make one of these big block beauties:

Start with a 6 1/2″ center square for your star. For the star points, cut four 6 1/2″ squares of the fabric that will show as sashing (the paisley fabric in the picture at left). Sew two 3 1/2″ squares of the cream star fabric onto one side of the paisley for the points. Line these squares up in the corners “snowball-style” and trim off the ends. Then add four 6 1/2″ squares of the teal fabric to complete one 18 1/2″ block.

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Little Rascals Quilt Part 3 – Stencil Quilting

June 28, 2012February 16, 20151 Comment

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.

First, 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!

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!

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. Next 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

June 27, 2012March 19, 20136 Comments

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 5 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!”

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!

The 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.