Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Patchwork Hearts Quilt Along Part 3: Triangle Units

Hey everyone! Thank you all for patiently waiting for the next step in our quilt along.
Are you ready to start using that sewing machine?

Take 14 of your 5" squares, and all of your 2.5" squares, and draw a line across the back from one corner to the other corner diagonally.

Pair up your squares you drew your lines on with squares of your neutral fabric placing right sides together.
You are going to sew directly on the line you drew. Cut roughly 1/4" away from your stitch line and iron to the dark side.
With your 2.5" squares, place two in the corners of your neutral squares.

Sew on the lines you drew and trim.

One everything is sewn and ironed you should have blocks that look something like this:

And that is it for this week! Pretty easy this week. 
As always, please don't hesitate to ask any questions!
See you all next week!

Monday, June 8, 2015

Patchwork Hearts Quilt Along Part 2: Cutting

Welcome to part 2 everyone! I hope you all had fun selecting your fabrics for this quilt! Fabric shopping (even in your own stash!) is half the fun.
So, you had three options for fabrics:
1.) Two charm packs
2.) Four different half yard cuts
3.) 5" square scraps

If you went with option 1:

Most of your cutting is done! Take 7 of your squares and cut them into quarters, giving you (28) 2.5" squares. You can now skip down to cutting your hearts fabric.

If you went with option 2:

For each half yard cut, you will be cutting THREE 5" strips. We call this 5" by WOF (width of fabric). Lay your fabric down on your cutting mat (or on a hard, flat surface if you are using scissors). Measure 5 inches and use your yard stick to guide your rotary cutter to cut the strip.


After you have your 12 5" strips, cut each of these down to 5" squares. You should get 8 squares per strip. You need a total of 72 squares. You will have leftover squares, Set those aside for another project.


Cut (7) of your 5" squares into quarters giving you (28) 2.5" squares.


Organize and label your fabrics A,B,C, and D.

If you chose option 3:
Make sure you have (72) 5" squares. Take 7 of your squares and cut them into quarters giving you (28) 2.5" squares.


With the fabric you chose for your hearts:

Cut (4) 5" by WOF strips. From these, cut (28) 5" squares.


And that's all the cutting! If you have any problems or questions you can comment here or jump over to the Facebook group and ask. 

Next week we start sewing! Until then, have a marvelous week everyone!


Monday, June 1, 2015

Patchwork Hearts Quilt Along Part 1: Welcome to the Quilt Along!

Hey everyone and welcome to the Patchwork Hearts Quilt Along! This is going to be fun!
So let's start off with a schedule. I skipped the week of 4th of July because I know that's a week that's always busy at my house. I thought it would help everyone to just skip that week.

June 1: Welcome!
June 8: Cutting
June 15: Half square triangle units
June 22: Piecing rows 
June 29: Assembling the quilt top
July 13: Quilting
July 20: Binding
August 1: Prize drawing!

Wait, what does that say? There's a prize drawing? Yes, there is! At the end of the quilt along there will be a post to link up your finished quilt. "Finished" does not necessarily mean quilted and bound, but it must be a finished top. So what will you win? I am giving away a Nomad by Moda charm pack and a notions basket filled with goodies.

Nomad is a gorgeous line: 

As promised, I have started a Facebook group so we can have fun all week! Please feel free to ask questions as they come up. There are some very experienced quilters in the group, as well as very new quilters. There is no question too small. If you have a questions about something, chances are, someone else probably had the same question at some point. Quilting is about community. 

So let's get on to the Quilt Along!

This quilt finishes at roughly 36x45. It is the perfect size for a baby.

This is all straight line sewing. Even the triangle pieces are pretty simple!

What you need:

Fabric:

You can do this in 3 ways: 1.) 2 charm packs plus 3/4 yard neutral fabric (for the hearts)
2.) 1/2 yard of FOUR different fabrics plus 3/4 neutral fabric
3.) Use up those scraps! You will need a total of 72 5" squares. Make this super scrappy if you have the scraps available. Plus 3/4 yard neutral

Thread:

You will need to use a good quality thread. I suggest Aurifil, but there are many other great brands as well. 

Scissors

Next week we will be cutting our fabric. You can do the cutting with scissors, but I highly suggest investing in a self healing cutting mat, rotary cutter, and a yard stick. You can get the cutting done in half the time and have beautiful straight cuts.




Now go take an hour or two or four and shop for fabric! Show us your fabrics in the Facebook group! We all love drooling over pretty fabric and it gives other people inspiration too!

Until next week, lovely people!




Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Quilt A Long Coming Soon!

I've been tossing the idea around recently to host a quilt a long. I have lots of friends that have asked me to teach them to quilt. Some of them don't live anywhere near close enough to do this in person. Never fear, because the internet is an amazing thing!
I will take you step by step through the process of making your very own quilt. From choosing fabrics to pulling the finished product out of the dryer I will be here to guide you!
I will break down the steps so everyone can go very slowly if the need to. It will take 2 months to go through them all. Plenty of time no matter what your skill level is!
Speaking of skill level, it doesn't matter if you've been sewing 1 week, 1 year, or your entire life, I want you to enjoy this process. There will be beginners and there will be experts. Your journey through the quilt a long is what matters!
I'll be starting a Facebook group as well so that anyone participating can share pictures, post questions, get help, say hi, whatever. Community is what makes the world of quilting so amazing. I have never felt such generosity, warmth, and love of other creative minds until I started quilting.
I will give all of the links to groups, my email, more details (including the giveaway prize for those that participate and finish!), and the first step: choosing fabrics on June 1st. I hope you can join us for this fun event.


Saturday, January 17, 2015

My Little Artist (i.e. Mama Brag Post!)

Charlie (4.5) loves art. He will sit for hours if you give him unlimited access to printer paper and crayons and markers! His drawing are getting pretty good, if I do say so myself. I'm going to start doing some structured art projects with him that I think he will really enjoy.
On one of our hike's this summer I gave Charlie an older digital camera and told him he could take pictures on our hike. He was so excited!
At first we got this gem.
Then some very pretty shots straight up

Then he started taking pictures of his sister. This is my favorite one:
And some others:





Today, at his cousins birthday party he was watching everyone. When I asked him what was wrong he said, "I wish I had my camera so I could take some pictures too" I smiled and told him I actually had his camera in the car. That got a very excited "let's go get it!" Here's some he got:

He told Camber to say "cheese!" and this was her response:

He said he wanted a picture of me and my mom

I hope that he will continue to take his camera on outings! I think photography is something that we will work on too.
I love my little budding artist!!!

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Welcome 2015!

The end of 2014 left our family recovering from illness and loss.
The little one contracted pertussis in November. Luckily we conquered it quickly and she is finally back to normal. The whole family then ended up with the flu and I am the last to get over it. With any luck I'll be back to 100% by this weekend.
We also lost a family friend to the horrible event of suicide. That's another post, for another day, on another blog. For this blog however, I will add that I finished a quilt top last night that I am very happy I was able to create. After the memorial service I went to our friend's house and collected t-shirts of his to make a quilt for his mom. I hope to get it finished and shipped out this weekend.


 Isn't my assistant just the cutest?!
A few days after he passed I went to his house and got his beloved cat, Cheyenne. She now lives with us. She is about 13 years old and somewhere between 16-18 pounds. She is NOT a fan of the children but she has never seen a kid before. She's a night owl like me so she comes and cuddles with me late at night when it's quiet. I'm enjoying having her here.

I am participating in the Project of Doom Quilt Along this year hosted by Fandom in Stitches! This is a 30 week project that will result in a beautiful Harry Potter inspired bookcase quilt.
We'll be getting back into the swing of school next week. Charlie has been begging to "do school" so hopefully everyone is feeling healthy enough to jump back in. Be looking for new homeschool posts next week!
I hope 2015 will be an amazing year full of joy, peace, and learning!

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Our School Room

This post is very overdue! Its been a busy busy week. I wanted to get the school room pictures up on Sunday but had a lot of last minute things to do.
Our learning space is shared with our dining room. While not ideal, it seems to work so far.
So here's a little tour of our space!
It's actually nice to have the dining table as a work space for me. Plus, it makes doing larger art projects so much easier! 



This is Camber's area with her tot bins and trays. Plus my paper supply shelf that makes me happy. I love an organized shelf.

Our morning circle time wall. The bulletin board will change as our themes change.

I try to keep the clutter to a minimum but this surface gets cluttered quickly. im in love with my elements poster though!

The kids desks that are gorgeously vintage. I'm way too paranoid about falls after Camber's concussion to let her sit in hers yet! Charlie switches between them throughout the day for now. 

I really do love our learning space! 

I will post all about our first week this weekend!