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Archives for May 2017

May 26, 2017 by rhagstrom

Free Pattern Friday, May 26

Free Pattern Friday, May 26

I’m not too worried about technological singularity being an issue in the future – it’s already in existence for me!  This week’s isosceles triangle quilt pattern continues to give me fits!

Last week, I had planned on using a pattern that was based on an isosceles triangle but couldn’t figure out how to make EQ7 dance to my tune. This week I did figure things out but have been stumped by the export image. Normally it works beautifully, but this time there is a missing triangle! I’ve started from scratch, put other colors in… all to no avail. So just put your thumb over the missing triangle and keep reading!

The original pattern features fabric by Malka Dubrawsky. Have you seen her fabric before? It’s very taste specific, so I’m not sure if the original pattern and fabric would speak to a lot of people.

As always, changing the fabric a little makes a big difference in the quilt. In addition to the original placement, I also mocked up a random placement as well as one based on hexagons.

My favorite option is the random placement. I reused the same Art Gallery Fabric from last week – Joyful Fusion. I do love the pinks, blues, and greens together.

But back to Malka Dubrawsky, my favorite product of hers is a book called “Color Your Cloth: A Quilter’s Guide to Dyeing and Patterning Fabric”. I haven’t had a chance to read through the entire book, but I plan on trying out a couple of projects over the summer (using the kids as “assistants”) to see how that works. I have a bunch of RIT dyes and really look forward to experimenting to see how it all works. RIT dyes are not as fancy as some dying products but you also don’t need to worry about respiration and mixing, so there are some compensating factors.

Enjoy the pattern!

A Stitch In Color

Becky

May 19, 2017 by rhagstrom

Free Pattern Friday – Sugar Town

Free Pattern Friday – Sugar Town

It’s fortunate that I don’t feel the need to alter ALL of the free patterns that I see online! I have been working on an isosceles triangle/hexagon pattern but my EQ7 skills aren’t up to the challenge yet. Art Gallery Fabrics has the perfect solution for my dilemma – lots of fabrics that I love!

Have you ever sewn with Art Gallery Fabrics products? I have to admit that I have not, although I hear nice things about the drape and softness. And I know that I like many of the fresh designers that are part of that team. The trouble for me is getting it at my LQS – Montgomery Quilt Company is interested in stocking these fabrics but hasn’t been able to get in touch with a rep.

Of course, no Free Pattern Friday would be complete without me wanting to make some sort of adjustment. The photo above is exactly the quilt that can be found in the attachment. I would rather have seen some stronger colors instead of the double light fabrics that are around the white-centered squares.

What about the great colonial blue with chalk flowers?

Or this denim – type fabric?

Something to make the quilt a little more bold. I enjoy low volume fabrics in their proper place, but I think that when they are paired with electric pink that they need a little judicious restraint.

Ok, I know what you really want – check out the pattern link below.

Sugar Town Pattern, AGF

Thanks for reading!

Becky

 

 

 

 

May 18, 2017 by rhagstrom

Green Zone Quilt

Green Zone Quilt

This week I finished up a patriotic quilt that I made to donate to a veteran who is the recipient of Green Zone Housing’s first container home. Green Zone Housing is a great non-profit organization that is located here in Montgomery (http://www.greenzonehousing.com). The project is designed to create a community of veterans who need a hand up in order to combat suicide and unemployment. Will Franks is the first recipient and is contributing sweat equity to get his container built. It’s a great project that brings a lot of people from our community together.

I knew that I wanted to make a patriotic-theme quilt, but I didn’t know how much time I had to get it done. Thus, I was fortunate that my friend Joyce donated the blocks, which were part of an old bee block exchange. I didn’t have enough blocks to make a whole queen sized quilt so I sketched out an idea and ran with it! Since I didn’t include a lot of measurements in the sketching phase, I had to run to the quilt shop several times (and also got 8″ WOF delivered on a Sunday – thank you, Amy!!) in order to finish the quilt.

The block was a clever HST-type of construction. There are two ways to go with this – you could make everything into squares or HSTs and put those together in a 4×4 grid (so a combination of 16 HSTs and squares). In this case, the block was constructed by putting squares onto rectangles and making sewing across the diagonal on the square piece (this is how Elizabeth Hartman constructs her hedgehog pattern). By this method, you only need 8 pieces. I’ve done it both ways, and I like the accuracy of trimming down my HSTs. I truly struggle to do this with the rectangle/square pairing.

Joyce had also given me several fabrics that I was able to pair with a navy blue Kona to piece the back together.

Basting is my great nemesis. I always have had trouble getting the backing fabric taut – whether on the floor or stretched on the table. Joyce gave me a hand quilting contraption and my husband was able to mount it onto one of the walls in my sewing room. It’s up high near the ceiling, so I need to stand on a step stool to get the layers attached to the muslin (I use straight pins). Stretching is a small price to pay for easy basting! It’s definitely not how the original equipment was designed to work, but I was happy that I was able to modify it to suit my space and needs.

This is the biggest quilt that I’ve made, so I was nervous about using my new contraption for the first time. It wasn’t perfect, because the quilt was too wide, but I was able to fake it and everything worked out. Since then, I have basted several tops that have been languishing and hope to get a lot of quilting done this summer!

I ended up quilting the quilt in clear poly thread. It was my first large scale quilting project with the stuff and the results were a bit mixed. I had a few tension issues because the thread wouldn’t stay on the spool and kept getting tangled up in various parts of my machine. However, I did like not having to worry about choosing between a light or dark thread or changing thread colors every time I went between red & white.

For the binding, I used some Cookie Exchange fabric that echoed fabric that I used in the quilt top. For the first time, I finished with perle cotton. It wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought to work with. In fact, it was pretty much the same as using regular thread. I always have a tough time threading the needles with perle cotton, so that was a small complication, and I also had to adjust how many times I wrapped the needle when I was making a knot at the end of a piece. Once was enough, and I still had to struggle a bit to pull the knot under!

Thanks for reading!

Becky

May 12, 2017 by rhagstrom

Free Pattern Friday, May 12

Free Pattern Friday, May 12

Today’s FPF is using one of my favorite designers, Brigitte Heitland. Can you believe that she only started her Zen Chic brand in 2010? I love the colors that she has used in some of her older fabric lines, particularly For You. I mean, where else do you find dark gray, pink, orange and blue?

The original pattern fabrics don’t do much for me. I also feel that the colors are close enough in tone that it is difficult to pick up some of the light/dark nuances in the pattern.

I hope you like the new version!

 

And if you’re interested in the pattern, click below:

1862 Battle Hymn Pattern

May 5, 2017 by rhagstrom

One Charm Plus Free Pattern Friday

One Charm Plus Free Pattern Friday

Welcome to the first Free Pattern Friday!

Have you ever noticed that some new patterns remind you of quilts that you’ve seen before? Or maybe you haven’t. Whether I like the fabric that is used in a quilt/pattern has a lot to do with whether I like or even remember seeing it.

I’ve decided to take some free patterns and run them through EQ7 to update the colors and make them beautiful in my eyes, and hopefully yours too. So don’t freak out when you download the pattern and it doesn’t look like the photo that you liked!

Charm Pack Quilt made with Bonnie and Camille fabrics

Meet the 1 Charm Plus Quilt. This quilt can be made with a charm pack and a few bits of yardage. I love how easy and quick it is. I did deviate somewhat from the actual pattern, but that’s fairly typical for me. I have a hard time following the rules!

1 Charm Plus Download

Enjoy this easy, free pattern!

Becky

 

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Happy Friday! I know – shocking that I remembered and am posting a FPF… things have been crazy and I have definitely not been getting everything done that is on my to-do list.  Today is no different, but blogging is a must-do activity this morning! The pattern this week is an old Robert Kaufmann one, […]

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