The Madrona Challenge

I am a member of the IQG (Indianapolis Quilt Guild) and I joined them in a Modrona Road challenge. We were given some FQs of Madrona and told to make something from them. I loved these prints and was excited about using them. I thumbed through some books and found something I had to use. I opened up my Share Workshop for Quilters and there was the dream garden diamonds quilt. 

Isn't it pretty?? 

Here is the fabric I started with.  

I love how the burnt gold makes the colors POP and I got the cornflower blue (color as truck and barn) to use as the background. The piecing was outrageous. Final count was 314 squares and 142 rectangles!!

The plan for all of this was to take it home over the holidays to Ohio so that I had something to work on. 

Plan definitely worked and I was able to get the top completely done before we left!!

Good thing I have a tall husband! I had a ton of triangles left over so I sewed a few together and made a pillow top. 

And now a few words about the pattern and book. The book is very straight-forward and gives 60+ blocks focusing on different shapes. There are also a bunch of projects to go with the blocks. Not just quilts but table runners, a clock, and a body pillow. 

The pattern is only 2 pages long and has pictures for the steps. Very easy to follow, especially if you have worked with HSTs before. Would be a good project for an experienced beginner to try out. 

And now back to the quilt. 

I had all these neat ideas about quilting it. Then I realized that it was due at the end of January and I didn't want to do too much. I ended up stitching in the ditch around the squares and the diamond-like shape. I used a golden thread so that it showed up on the blue background. It came out awesome!!

I wash it and it is all comfy and warm!! I used 80/20 batting for it. 

I didn't actually have a pattern for the pillow so I just threw it together as I went. I used a 16-inch pillow form. I knew I wanted cording on it so I made some from the cornflower and used the envelope style for the background. I love it and might have to make a matching one!

Even if I don't get picked for this challenge, I love what I made and all the fabrics and colors I used!!

Have a great week and stay dry!!

~KIM

Feet, Feet, and more feet.....

So there is a dual reason behind this post. 
#1. Make people out there aware of the different types of feet out there and their uses
#2. Make me look at the feet I have so that I use them!

I was given my machine and all these feet and other accessories and I don't really know what I have. Just the other day I realized that I had a 1/4 inch foot and wasn't using it!! Don't even ask how I did my piecing!! 
Most of these feet can be used with other machines and not just Vikings. There are also one or two that I have bought that were a generic brand from Amazon but lists what machines it will work on. This saved me a few $$.
Here we go!!

This is a transparent foot...very clever in the naming! It is used for satin stitches and decorate stitch work where you want to be able to see exactly what and where you are sewing. 

This is a presser foot. It is what I have made almost everything with (except zippers) over the past 2 years. It is for use with heavier fabrics. The width is just over a 1/4 of an inch. 

This is an edging foot. It is for edging!! This is for finishing the edge of a item so that it doesn't fray or an edge that might curl. It has a teeny tiny wire (where the red fuzz is stuck) to help prevent the edge from curling.

 This is a edge/joining foot. It has a guide down the middle to help join 2 fabrics. Or, something I loathe right now, stitching in the ditch. This is when you stitch/quilt in the joint between where 2 fabrics are connected. The guide helps you stay in place.

This is an open toe foot. It is very open in the front in order to keep an eye on applique, satin, and decorative stitches. 

This is a piping foot. It can be used to put piping on an item or to make your own piping. I have used this once but I think that the piping I was using was too thick and it kept shifting. The foot has a groove in the bottom of it to keep it in line.

This is my NEW best friend. It is the quilter's 1/4 inch piecing foot. It will give a perfect 1/4 inch seam if the fabric is aligned on the edge. It also has marks for 1/4 inch and 1/8 inch for when you have to turn corners. 

This is the one that I bought. It is an open toe stippling foot. Raise the feet doggies on your machine and you can use this to sew in whatever direction you want to, especially stippling. A must have for anyone that quilts at home!!

This is a dual feed foot. Also called a walking foot. It is good for quilting straight lines over thick layers. It also comes with guides so that you are assured of sewing in a straight line. I have used it but I don't always quilt in a straight line so it is only a sometime thing. 

This is a free motion guide foot. Very similar to stipple foot. It has guide lines on it to help keep your sewing lined up. Feed doggies up again!

This is a zipper foot. It is used when attaching zippers. The edge is able to pressed in on the zipper or piping in order to get as close as possible.

Well I hope that this wasn't too boring!
Stay tuned next time for a book/pattern review along with the quilt I made for a challenge.
Take care, stay warm, and let me know what your favorite sewing foot is!!

Things to stay busy this winter

Here are some things going on in the blogging world so help us all stay busy this Winter....and year.

The first is a paper piecing block of the month. I love paper piecing and if you haven't tried it out, then you really should!!

Then there is this one over at Lucy & Norman. This is the perfect one to use up a bunch of your scraps or even that Jelly Roll you have been hoarding for a little while. 

If you have ever wanted to try a herringbone pattern, try this one. Even a chance to win a prize at the end of it. This is also a good one to use Jelly Rolls!

I will probably be trying all of these out, just to see how they work out. 

Let me know if you find any other sew a longs that look like fun!!

~Kim

Christmas Gifts

Now that all the Christmas's are over I can share some of the projects that I made for gifts!

Sara posted this tutorial and I had to make some of these for my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and grandma-in-law (is that what my mother-in-laws mom is??). 

There is another one somewhere but I can't find the other picture! The fabric is all Amy Butler scraps from different projects I had. My sis-in-law love her a good 'tache so I had to applique some on hers!

After seeing the similar blanket that I made for myself, my mother-in-law hinted that she would like one so I got some fabrics I knew she would love and made her one! I love the apple cores!

I had to make my mom a blanket since her dog has taken over hers!

I would have like to quilt it more but time ran short and I had to make due with what I have.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday season!!

~Kim

I made a Dress......

So let me start this off my saying that I am not anything like Sara when it comes to dresses. This is to say that if someone gave me fabric and said "make a whole new wardrobe in one night" I would probably wear togas for awhile!! I just don't know how she does it. When I hear about the Sis Boom Rebecca shift, I thought I might give it a try. So here's my story!!

The fabric: I had this fabric from earlier in the summer when I would be teaching in TX and have my own classroom. The fabric was meant to be used for curtains!! I thought I would use this because I already had it and I had enough of it. I also used some leftover sky blue I had for the belt and neckline and I ended up using it for bias on the bottom because it was kind of short. Here it is before the back was done!

I thought that the directions were really clear and even though there were a TON of pages, it was easy to figure out what pages I needed to print and use. I definitely took advantage of the Frankenpatterning. My measurements spanned 4 dress sizes. The pattern said to add pleats to make things line up right. So I originally made the pleats in the front....big mistake! made a nice ledge. So I took them out and added them to the back (there is already one). This put said shelf in the back.....big surprise! Here is the shelf

So what I ended up doing is figuring out how much shorter I had to make the bottom of the top so that it would be the same length as the belt. It was 2 inches too long so I needed to take in an inch on each side. Instead of adding another pleat, I just made the original pleats bigger. I added an inch more to each one like this...

The middle 2 marks are where the original pleat was supposed to be and I went a half inch farther out on each side (which equals an inch) and did the pleat that way. It worked out soo much better. I did the bottom the same way. See, no more shelf!!

Ignore the bulge in back as I was slightly twisted when this was taken! (I promise!!)

The other thing I did different was installing the zipper. The whole glue stick thing just made a mess for me. I understand why the author put it in there, especially for someone with no zipper experience, but I did fine just lining it up on my own. 

My goal was to have a dress what came just above the knee but the dress ended up shorter than that so instead of hemming it, I made some bias and used that on the bottom. I would definitely recommend making it longer in the first place. It is always easier to make it shorter later! 

After making the first one, I decided to try it again with some jersey fabric I had. I made it the same way but with a jersey needle. (and I made the bottom longer!)

Don't you just love the shiny metallic of the fabric!!??

The nice thing about the jersey is that the edges are easier to finish.I just tucked them under and zig-zag sewed them. 

One other problem I had with both dresses was the arm hole. Majorly too big! I pinched them in to where I wanted them to be and sewed until they gradually met the original seam line. I meant to take pictures of this but forgot until it was too late.....sorry Sara!!

All in all, I think this is a great beginner project and I would love to try some other patterns like this to see what I can do. Now I think that I will go back to  quilting my blankets that are for Christmas gifts. If I am lucky, I will have them done by New Years! Thanks for hosting this Sara and best of luck to everyone sewing this and any other dress pattern out there!!

Tula Pink Pattern Reviews

Hi everyone! I am so glad that Sara asked me to test a quilt pattern for her. I had so much fun doing it. I am Kim from Kim's Krafts. I have been following Sara during the past year and then some and love all that she does. I actually did 2 patterns, one has already been done but I wanted to show you my version too!

The first one I did was the Grand Salon from the book Quilts from the House of Tula Pink! If you don't have this book you must get it! It is amazing and super informative. 

As you can tell from the pictures in the book, this quilt is a make-your-wall- look-pretty quilt and not so much a get-cuddly quilt. It really does look like a wall with pictures hanging on it. The first thing I had to decide was what fabric to use. I had just recently moved to Indianapolis so this was the perfect excuse to go visit Crimson Tate. I had heard soo much about it and fell in love instantly!! I looked around a million times and kept being pulled to some Amy Butler prints. I finally decide on prints from 2 different lines of hers that all went together, along with my favorite color of blue for the background and some brown stripes for the frames. She even had ribbon to match the fabric!!

This is a bag from the shop with a pic of the too cute Heather on it!!

I love how the brown lines aren't perfectly straight!

The only thing I couldn't find to buy was the buttons. I ended up making my own. It was super easy thanks to the kits I found to make them. And I just used scraps from the fabrics I was already using.

I made the buttons in 2 different sizes for variety.

The pattern calls for 1/4 yd of 8 prints for the pictures. I got a half yard of each because I knew they would be fussy cut and I wanted to make sure I could get good pictures from them. How much you need of your fabric depends on the size of your picture that you want to use. I did have some background fabric left over which is fine with me as I will use it to bind. I also had quite a bit of the strips left over from the frames. I might have mis-cut but maybe one shouldn't cut all of them at one time. 

The biggest tip I have when cutting these pieces is STAY ORGANIZED. You will have different sizes of the background and frame pieces and it is very easy to get them mixed up. I clipped the like ones together and the put a note on them so I knew what was what.

Once the cutting was done, it was smooth sailing! Straight stitches with rectangles. This would be a good beginner project as there wasn't a lot that could be messed up. Her diagrams are great and simple to follow. It went together really well and I like the fact that there aren't a lot of seams to line up. It is very forgiving if you happen to have some not-so-straight lines!

I machine stitched the ribbon down with coordinating thread and it was pretty easy. It says not to put the buttons on until after it is quilted but I pinned mine on so that you can see the finished product!

I love how it looks and how the blue pops!!

In the book she has it quilted to look like a wooden wall which I love. 

I am undecided as to how to finish it, but I did get this AB fabric from her Midwest Mod collection on sale so I will definitely be using this for the back with the blue for the binding!

Let me know if you have any questions and hope you like it!!

The 2nd pattern I did was Space Dust. When I heard that this was paper piercing, I HAD to have it. I got hooked on paper piercing during Sara's New York Beauty quilt along. Once again I couldn't decide on the fabric and I was cruising out there on Etsy and fell in love with some (you guessed it!) Amy Butler polka dots.

The pattern called for 22 1/4 yds of fabric and as you can see I used 5. I got a yard of 4 of them and 1.5 yd of the cherry one to cover the rest. I had a little of each left (might have had to re-cut some triangles a couple times). For the background I found some awesome black with shiny silver sprayed across it. I only got 2 yards of the background as I didn't want the full sized quilt but wanted more of a wall hanging. (Thanks for the idea Sara!!) I had enough left to cut the binding for it too!

The week that I did this was the week of premieres on TV so I sewed during the day and cut and de-papered at night. It worked out pretty good for me. 

I already knew how to piece this together but Tula gives an awesome step by step guide and if you have have never done this before please practice with scraps before you dig into the real thing! As for color placement, I can't just be random- I am one of those plan it out people. I printed a blank copy of the pattern, got my sons crayons, and colored away. It took a few different designs to figure out what I wanted and what wouldn't make me go craaazy!

This was the final picture decided on. I think it came together well!

I had this hanging up during my son's birthday party and everyone loved it.

No clue as to how to quilt it! Nothing I can do to it will compare to how Tula had hers sewn....

But maybe one day I will come up with something that will give it a little bit of justice!!

Thanks again Sara for putting this all together and good luck to everyone out there getting their Tula on!!