TRIMMING STRINGS FOR ACCURACY... Paper & Ruler!

The phone book pages were cut precisely at 7 inches square. But after sewing, the block shrunk... just slightly and not evenly... maybe because I was sewing on the diagonal? Don't know, but I changed how I trimmed the blocks:

With paper side up:
* First cut - Use a square ruler and cut along first two paper edges.
* Second cut: Use lines on Ruler for final two cuts.
Yippee... perfect squares! See the second photo below... there's a tiny smidge of fabric sticking out beyond the paper! If I had cut all four sides at the paper's edge, the blocks would be too small and not square.

First cut: at paper's edge

 This is a great use of a Phone Book that otherwise would have been thrown into the recycle bin! If they are gonna throw it on my porch FREE... then I am free to use it however I want! lol

2nd cut: used markings on Ruler!

EDIT: Good idea to recheck the block's size after removing paper and carefully pressing. Thank you, Sheila, for the great tip!

Today is friendship group so I better get packing and ready. Will take some FP, fabric and prep for applique on a DJ block. No carrying of a sewing machine for me today... had a flu shot at doc's yesterday and my left arm feels like it is full of lead!

Thank you for popping in to visit!

Quilty Hugs,

STRINGING THE CRUMBIES... Just A Stringer At Heart

Something was missing with my crumb blocks. Couldn't put my finger on it. Then I thought STRINGS! Yes. That would work. Make string blocks, cut on diagonal, and add the resulting triangles to the crumb blocks. Me likey! What do you think... you likey, too?

Strings+Crumbs = Interesting Square in a Square

The details: Crumb blocks are 9 inches square. String blocks are 7 inches square and cut on diagonal. This makes an interesting square-in-a-square and I like it.

Last week at ARETOY Quilt Shop, Rosemary helped me find the perfect fabric that looked great with my crumb squares. Friends are wonderful! I wondered how many yards to get; how much would I need? Hard question to answer when many design decisions were yet to be made. Answer? Buy the whole bolt! lol

Isn't it wonderful how strings go so well together? No rhyme or reason... just stitch them on and they play nice! Love it. They look so straggly, then trimmed up they look good... put in a quilt block and they look grand! Guess I'm just a stringer at heart.

Strings trimmed

Cut diagonally; add to crumb blocks

That's all for now... I'm headed back to my machine to sew a little more. What are you up to?

Thank you so much for popping in to visit! If you enjoy reading my posts and seeing the pictures, please leave a comment -- I would love to hear what you have to say. Thank you.

Linking to: Connie at Freemotion by the River

Quilty Hugs,

POINTS, POINTS, POINTS...it's all about the prep! DJ TR8 Brigadoon

My DJ triangle for this week's BOW is TR8 Brigadoon.

Lately my points haven't been as nice and pointy as I would like. Then lightening struck last weekend and I changed how I do the prep. The first steps are the same... it's the final one that made the BIG improvement and I have a block to prove it! lol.
* Make FP template & cut out [smooth edges with emery board if necessary... go lightly here!]
* Iron FP to WS of fabric
* Cut out around template adding 3/16 - 1/4 " seam allowance by eye
* Press s.a. over template all around... a smidge of starch is really helpful here! I use spray starch or spray sizing that I spray into the cap and dap on with a small brush.

Diamond on left prepped NEW way; the one on right, the old way

The NEW part:
* Points... carefully fold just the 'ear' of the point back over on itself... please see pic below ... you might have to nip off a few threads. Carefully add one drop of Roxanne's Glue Base-It and press in place. Voila! Perfect point and ready to applique. Remove the FP either before or after appliqueing... both work equally well. I prefer to remove it and then sew.

Left point prepped & right one is not... yet

This looks acceptable to me and is ready to be sewn down

Sewing the point... NO ends to fight or tuck under! Love it.
[don't mind the needle 'parked' off to the side... I needed both hands to take picture.]

Previously I had always needle-turned the final edges of the points which sometimes looked great and other times a bit wonky! See the upper diamond on the triangle below? Now that's one wonky point! Yuck... but I'm not doing it over.

Wonky/wobbly point on top little diamond.. the others are ok

Sewing, quilting, knitting, tatting, crocheting... all of it... it's all about the journey for me. I try to get better as I go; I try to do the best I can today with the skill set that I currently possess. Maybe next week I will be able to do it better but for right now "my best is good enough"!

That's all for now. I hope you enjoyed reading how I prep my points for applique. Thank you so much for dropping by.

Linking to: Kathy at Slow Stitching Sunday.

Quilty Hugs,

DESIGN WALL: How To Make A Portable Design Wall

Something useful from almost nothing... that really appeals to me. I no longer have  a big sewing room; a design wall is needed; what to do?

Solution: Get a stick, board, long dowel, etc.; staple, nail, or duct tape some flannel to the stick and voila! You have a design space.

As you can see in the pic above, this gizmo rolls up nicely. I store mine behind a bedroom door. When I need to use it, it unrolls and lays across the two open doors of the large armoire in my living room. Anything will work... you can even throw part of it over the rod in the bathroom... the one holding your shower curtain! Any place you can find. Think outside the box and have fun.

Because my flannel has been sprayed with 505 a time or two over the years, anything I set on it will hold just fine. Even with the living room fan on high these blocks stay on the flannel! I've been known to hang my portable DW up outside on the patio... blocks do not blow off and it's cooler outside! This also works very well to spray-baste smaller quilts -- you are only limited by the size of your flannel piece.

Don't have time to finish your design process? No problem: just roll it all up with the blocks and so forth still on the flannel. They will be ready for you when you next have time to play with them.

I hope you like this idea and will give it a try. By the way, I've been known to carry mine to classes and retreats. It's super!

Thanks for stopping by to visit. Let's all go sew up something today! I'm working on turning bins of scraps n strips into blocks... what are YOU working on?

LINKING to Connie at Free Motion by the River

Quilty Hugs,

CORNER TIME... DJ TLC & A Great Notion

Yesterday and today was very productive. I worked on the Top Left Corner kite for my Dear Jane quilt. Here she is all completed:

DJ Kite: TLC Sadie Rose - completed Fri, 11/16/2012

There are several ways to complete this block, but I decided to mostly just piece it. I made FP templates by printing the block from the DJ software onto a sheet of FP; cut apart. Press the FP templates onto b/g fabric. Cut 10 squares of focus fabric for the octogons. Lay octogons out into their grid shape 3x3 and piece the edges that touch.

Applique-piecing using LadderStitch - not EPP. No whip stitches!

Press under the remaining edges of octogons and lay on center b/g square.

Piecing the center area of DJ-TLC

 Sew b/g pieces together [catching all the outside edges of the octogons in this seam allowance]. I left the FP on while machine stitching... worked great.

Stitching next to edge of FP template - adding the 'side-wings' to TLC

Applique the pressed-under edges of the octogons to the b/g; and, applique the top octogon onto the topmost point piece. Done. I really enjoyed making this block. It is not hard to do, but is a bit time consuming.

Back of TLC showing construction - FP templates left on to stabilize edges during sewing.

A great notion: My wonderful friend Jill encouraged me to try the "Prep-Tool."  What a fabulous tool it is! Now that I've tried it, I love it! If it hadn't been for Jill, I never would have. Aren't friends great? Thank you, Jill!

PrepTool - perfect scant 1/4" s.a. & corner "nipper"

Notice: Spammers have been working overtime lately. Bummer. It is no longer possible to leave an annonymous comment on this blog. I am so sorry - hopefully this will only be temporary. All "registered and OpenID" commenters will publish. It is so easy to get a FREE Google ID... I hope people will, as comment-love is wonderful to receive. It's one of the ways we interact and share with each other.  The only other choice is to put the "word thingy" back on... I don't want to do that, as I find it difficult and I hear many of you do too. Thank you for understanding.

Until next time. . . I will be spending the day playing with SnowPeople parts. What are YOU going to do?

Quilty Hugs,

DARLING FINGER SIZE PINCUSHION - vid on how to make it

The vid below was  just released by Linda Franz of Inklingo fame. This is the cutest little pincushion you ever did see. Take a look.

In about ONE minute you will see how to make the little finger pincushion, and it's fun to watch! Gotta love that Monkey!!

That's all for this Sunday. I hope you are having a lovely weekend. Thank you for stopping by to visit.

Quilty hugs,

*Note: photo and vid used with permission by Linda Franz