On My Feet Again

Thank you so much for the well wishes on getting better.  It has been a rough two days, being sick is no fn.  But I think I have turned the corner and am ready to get back on my feet again.   I am hoping, after some general tidying (when mom is sick, the house shows it :) to spend some time focusing on that lovely bundle of Hubba Hubba I showed the other day.

I have a rough sketch of what I want to do with it, and yes, I do mean rough.  First off, I need to do some math to get all of the measurements to work and then . . .  hopefully, I can get to some cutting before the end of the day.

With any luck, I will be sharing a full plan and maybe even a start tomorrow ;)

Star Light Star Bright Quilt-A-Long - Building Block Corners

**  NOTE  - This post is part of a series of posts for the Star Light Star Bright Quilt-A-Long.  If you would like to join (and have a chance to win one of 4 of the $75.00 Gift Certificate grand prizes sponsored by The Intrepid Thread and Fat Quarter Shop ) you can find a list of the post links here :)  Here is the schedule

Jan 15 - Intro, Fabric Requirements, and Prizes Announcement

Jan 29 - Cutting

 Feb 5 - Flying Geese

Feb12 - Half Square Triangles

Feb 19 - Building Block Centers

Feb 26 - Building Block Sides

Mar 5 - Building Block Corners

Mar 12 - Piecing Top and Grand Prize Linky

April 2- Star Light Star Bright Parade and Grand Prize Winners

Before we get to this weeks assignment, we need to pick a winner for the Star Centers Assignment.  It is so fun to get to see these blocks starting to take shape!!!  The winner who will receive 4 charm packs of their choice from Green Fairy Quilts is . . 

#37 - madebymyself!!!! - Congrats :)

  

Alright, a new month and a new assignment.  (which is a little late being posted, sorry, that Nyquil didn't want to wear off :)  So, lets get to it!!!   If you are just finding this QAL, it's never to late to join in the fun :)  You don't have to sign up or anything, just start following along with the weekly assignments ;)

THIS WEEKS ASSIGNMENT - BUILDING THE BLOCK CORNERS

Yippee, I am so excited.  This week marks the completion all of the units for the block.  You will get to see your blocks really coming together!

Alright, to start grab what is left of your  HST's pile for your first (or only) block.  You should have 8 HST's now.  For today's assignment you will need all 8 HST's that are left.  To that you will be adding some of your remaining squares.  Those are the ones that are the same size as your HST's :)  Add 4 background squares and 2 of each of your 2 Star fabric squares.  So if you look at your HST's, the Star Fabrics for each block will be the two prints that are different in the two sets of HST's :)

You will be making 4 corners per block, 2 corners of each of the 2 Star prints.  So for each corner you will need to layout 2 HST' of the same Star Print, 1 matching Star Print square, and one background square as shown below.    You can sew these together in rows, or columns, but I prefer rows so that is that is how I will be showing it, but if you like doing it a different way go right ahead :)

Quick Note before we start sewing - Just like the units before this one,  each time I sew a seam I lay my pieces back out into the layout above.  And like before as well,   I highly recommend chain piecing your 4 corners, and to that end you can also assembly line piece all 4 corners for all of your blocks as well.  Like always, just remember to layout the pieces on top of one another so that you are only ever looking at one corner unit on top, and it has layers of corners beneath it.  And always clip your threads and stack your pieces back up in the same order.

Okay, lets get to sewing.  Place the right hand  pieces onto the left hand pieces with right sides together and aligning raw edges.  Pin if you are worried about the pieces slipping.  Sew a 1/4" seam along the edges.

Clip your threads and then press the seams towards the squares and away from the HST's . This will allow you to nest them in the next step.

So you now have 2 rows that will look something like this ;)

Now we are going to sew those rows together.  Place the top row onto the bottom row with right sides together.  Align the center seams and pin them in place.  Sew a 1/4" seam along the pinned edge.

Press the seam open to avoid bulk.

And your Corner is complete!!   If you are doing multiple blocks and were assembly line piecing, enjoy all your corner units.

If you were doing one side at a time, just repeat the process so you have a total of 4 Corner Units, 2 per each Star Print fabric, per however many blocks you have in your project :)

And that's it!!    And now you can enter to win the weekly prize :)

The Weekly Prize is sponsored by Happy Quilting as it is the last week before the Great Big Grand Prize Linky!!!    It is getting so close to seeing these all come together, I am so excited!!!

This weeks prize is 3 Happy Quilting Patterns.  The winner can choose their  favorites :)

 

    

So what do you have to do for a chance to win these patterns?  Simple . . . Just link up your Block Corners :)  You can link to a blog post or a flickr picture, or whatever.  Just make sure to link up by next Wednesday morning as I will be announcing a winner in next weeks post :)

If you don't get your Corners done by next week you can still link it up :) (just not in time for the prize :) The linky will remain open until the end of the Quilt-A-Long.  So if your out of town, or just had a busy week, no worries!!!  Just link up when you can :)

And don't forget to add your Block Corners to the Happy Quilting Quilt-A-Long Flickr group!!!  I can't wait to see them all :)  Yippee Skippee!!!

So let's get sewing!!  Oh, and if you have questions, don't hesitate to email me at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com.  Have a Happy Quilting Day!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Going Back to Bed

Well I tried to fight it.  I tried to tell myself all day yesterday that I wasn't getting sick.  Sadly, it didn't work. So instead of going down to my sewing room to play with these lovelies (British Invasion by Riley Blake and Hubba Hubba by Me and My Sister for Moda)  that will be showing up in upcoming projects I think I will just go back to bed.

Here is hoping it is just a 24 hour thing :)  It better be, because I need to be up bright and early for the next installment in the Star Light Star Bright Quilt-A-Long.  See ya then :)

New Pillows and Giant Spiral Video Tutorial!!

I am so excited to share my finish today because it has been on the "To Do" list for some time!!  At the beginning of the year, I put Petal Pop on my bed to lighten things up a bit for the winter :)   And it has been driving me nuts for 2 months that there were no matching decorative pillows to go with it.  And lucky for me, Amy started a Pillow Collective project that was the perfect motivation for me to get this project done.  Yippee Skippee for 2 new Giant Spiral Pillows!!!

They look so awesome at the top of the bed!!  I just love popping in there now just to check out the "finished" look.  So fun!!!

I wanted to keep these fairly simple so they didn't take away from the beautiful bedspread so I decided to just do some basic envelope style pillow cases.  I whole cloth quilted the giant spiral on each pillow top and then added the backing envelope enclosure.  I love how clean and sleek they look.

For the quilting, I used a 12 weight Aurifil thread. (even though I called it 30 weight in the video, don't know where that came from ;)   I love the heavier look and the slight sheen it has.  Perfect for the decorative look I was going for.  And I just about used the whole spool on these 2 pillows :)

Oh, and another bonus to making these pillows, it also crossed something else off my list.  Several of you have been asking for a Giant Spiral quilting tutorial recently and well . . . 

Here it is!!!!  I hope you find it helpful for all of your Giant Spiral quilting projects ;)

**A Little Note - I was having a terrible time saying walking foot in this video.  I kept referring to it as a presser foot and even as a free motion foot there at the end.  So please, just disregard my inability to call the foot by its correct name.  I still get a little nervous when I record these and sometimes the words get a little jumbled up :)

I am so excited with how these turned out and so very happy to have a master bed that once again has some beautiful decorative pillows.  I think I will just go pop back to my room and check them out again :)

Have a Happy Quilting Weekend!!!

Linking these to Amanda's, Sarah's, Amy's, and Fort Worth Fabric Studio's :)  Wow, thats a lot of links, take a second to check them out.  They are awesome!!!

Trim Triminey, Trim Triminey, Trim Trim Trimroo

I spent a good portion of yesterday trimming.  I tell you what, it takes a while, and is quite monotonous, but there is nothing like a pile of perfect HST's.  They just make piecing a breeze :)  And then you get the bonus of the super happy trim pile.  Someone wrote a while back that they keep their trim in jars as decor in their sewing room.  What a fun idea.  I think I need to be on the look out for some cute glass containers :)    I can't show the project these HST's will go in for a bit but anyone want to venture a guess as to what line I was using in my HST's??  Well make it fun and the first per to guess it right will get a pattern of their choice :)  EDIT - First Comment and it was right, Congrats Cindy, it is Daydream by Kate Spain ;)

Oh and I had to share this fun little shot from my trimming session.  Josie was in my sewing room playing behind me while I trimmed away.  I thought she was playing with her toys but upon turning around I found that she would rather play with my thread cones.  Snap Shot time!! (and please forgive the horrible flash on the floor, once I took one shot she wasn't willing to not look at the camera ;)   I asked her what she was making and she said a train.  I tried to join in the train building but she was rather particular about what color order the cones were in and preferred me to just watch.  So stinking cute!!!

Thanks for popping in today and have a Happy Quilting Day!!