** NOTE - This post is part of a series of posts for the Tetris Quilt-A-Long. If you would like to join (and have a chance to win one of the grand prizes sponsored by The Intrepid Thread) you can find a list of the post links here :)
Need detailed instructions on "how to play"?? See this post :)
It's Week 2 of the Tetris Quilt-A-Long!!!! I am so excited to see how many people joined in with week 1.
And so how about a winner of the Week 1 giveaway who gets the beautiful Birds and the Bees Design Roll. And Mr Random Generator says the winner is . . .#43 - Deb - Congrats :)
If your new, great were so glad to have you!!! So let's get to week 2!!
First, Print off your grid!!
Now, color in your Tetris Pieces
Now you just fill in your grid with your pieces. There were a lot of people who mentioned they wanted to continue their blocks from last week into this week. For example, my Orange square that cut off last week would continue into the bottom of this weeks grid :) That's totally fine. You can do whatever makes you happy.
This is my grid for the week 2. And for fun, if you really want to get tricky, you can even have extra pieces go off to the right :) I will add the extra purple square (where the circle is) into week 5. You can make it however makes you happy, stick to just 1 blocks a week, or let pieces float over to over weeks :)
Now lay your fabric out to match your grid. (Yes, 2 of my yellows are right side down, but no worries, I fixed it before I pieced it :)
And now just sew your squares into rows and then your rows into your Week 2 Block!!! (For detailed instructions on sewing a grid/patch block together see this post :)
And now your second block is complete!!! And now you can enter to win the weekly prize :)
So what do you have to do for a chance to win this beautiful Jelly Roll?? Simple . . . Just link up your Week 2 block at the end of this post :) You can link to a blog post or a flickr picture, or whatever. Just make sure to link up by next Tuesday morning as I will be announcing a winner at the beginning of next weeks post :)
If you don't get your block 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 Week 2 Block to the Happy Quilting Quilt-A-Long Flickr group!!! (There will be some giveaways there too, I'm just saying :) I am so excited to see everyone's Week 2 block!!!
So what are you waiting for . . . Get your Tetris sewing on!!!
I was so excited when Elizabeth from Don't Call Me Betsy asked me to participate in her Christmas in July Hop. I mean, who doesn't love Christmas?? This blog hop is full of Christmas Home Decor and Homemade Christmas gifts :) And getting a jump start on the holiday's is always a good idea!!
I debated for a while what to put together . . . and then my mom got some new couches and was discussing how she would move them around to make room for the tree. (Yup, that is a first concern with new furniture in the house I grew up in :) As she was making plans she mentioned how great it would look to have a simple Christmas throw to go on the back of her couch. Wham!!! Idea :) You know, something that is just right for curling up with a few little ones while you read Christmas stories and drink hot chocolate. And so Ribbons came about . . . The perfect Christmas throw that can be whipped together super fast for you or for a loved one :)
So what are you going to need to make your own Ribbons throw. Simple. Your favorite Christmas Jelly Roll (I used Kate Spain's Joy) and (4) 1/2 yard cuts of coordinating solids.
We'll start with a little bit of cutting. Press the 1/2 yard solid pieces and then lay them on top of each other on your mat. (Yes, I cut all 4 of mine at the same time, just make sure you have a sharp blade.) Cut (7) 2 1/2" x WOF strips and trim the selvages from the top. (makes 28 strips total because stacked up) Set (2) of each of the solid strips aside for binding. Then cut 1/2" up from the fold on the 5 remaining sets of strips to create a total of (40) 2 1/2" x 21" strips.
Now open your jelly roll, and with the strips folded, trim the selvage edge from all 40 strips.
And you are already on to sewing!!! You will be sewing strips together end to end alternating from print to solid. But rather than doing a straight edge, Ribbons is sewn on an angle. This is just like making a binding strip. (A really long binding strip) Place your first 2 pieces with right sides together on a 90 degree angle. Draw a diagonal line across the top strips that meets at the corner of the bottom strip. Pin on either side on the line. Sew a seam directly on top of the line.
Now, this is where it is easy to make a mistake. The solids make it hard to tell if you are on the right side or wrong side. So a trick - if you lay your strip flat and then bend it to create a L shape the end of your strip will be right side up :) So, now you are going to add another print strip using the same method as before. Then add a solid, then print, ect. until you have sewn all of 40 of your jelly roll strips and all 40 of your solid strips into one very long strip!!!
*** Now, if you want to save some time, as Ribbons is a quick Christmas project, you can make this a completely pin-less project!!!! Instead of drawing your diagonal line and pinning, just line your pieces up with right sides together on the 90 degree angle, and then draw a dot where the pieces meet up at the end. Now holding the pieces together, sew at an angle towards the dot. The first few might be a little tricky, but trust me, you get plenty of practice with this quilt, you will have it down in no time!!
Remember to keep your L shape so that you have right sides together. When you get really good, you can not even bother with the dot. I just put my fingernail there and sew towards it :) If your using this method, again, just keep adding strips alternating prints and solids until you get all 40 solids and all 40 prints sewn into one strip.
Now, go ahead and trim away the excess at each of the seams about a 1/4" from the sewn line. It doesn't have to be perfect, just approximate :)
Press each of the seams in one direction.
*** If you end up with some major twisting while trying to press, rather than try to move it all the way down your massive strip, just unpick a seam, get the twist out, and then sew the seam back up again. This seems a little like a waste of time but trust me, it is way faster than trying to move the twist down the strip.
Now the fun part begins. Take your super long strip and line the first strip up with the last strip (Or the top with the bottom). You don't have to bother lining up the entire strip, you can do that as you sew.
Place the 2 ends of the strips with right sides together and begin sewing a 1/4" seam along the edge. Continue to line up the raw edges as you continue to sew the 1/4" seam.
Continue sewing until you get to the bottom of the strips. Mine had a little twist in it but no worries. Just pull it tight and clip the end to make your one strip into 2. Then finish sewing the 1/4" seam to the end of the strip.
Press your seam to one side. You don't have to press, but I find it makes it easier to line things up. You can trim your end if needs be to line the pieces up.
Now, it is just repeating the process. Take the end of your 2 strip piece and line it up with the top of your 2 strip piece. Once again, sew a 1/4" seam aligning up the raw edges as you go.
Continue this way until you get to the end of your strip. And once again, clip the bottom of the strip to create 2 strips and then finish sewing the 1/4" seam to the end of the strips. Press.
Now just repeat this process, turning your now sets of 4 into sets of 8, and then your sets of 8 into sets of 16. When you sew the set of 16 together and trim at the bottom you are done!!
Open it up and check it out!!! A super fun, super fast, Ribbons Christmas Throw!!
So now it is time
to turn that finished quilt top into a finished Quilt ;) Time to
Baste It, Quilt It, and Bind It!!! Which is a whole lot in one
little sentence. If you are new to quilting, you can see my Finishing Your Quilt Series of video tutorials that will walk you through Basting,
Quilting, and Binding step by step ;) Use your remaining solid strips to bind the quilt. And Wha La!!! A beautiful Ribbons Christmas Throw measuring appx. 60" x 70" perfect for snuggling up with under the Christmas Tree!!
I hope you have
enjoyed this tutorial and if you make your own Ribbons Quilt I would love to see
it!! You can email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com,
post it to social media with #happyquiltingwithmc or or add it to
my flickr group here ;) I can't wait to see your Ribbons Quilts!!!
The quilting on this Ribbons throw is my version of Holly and Ivy with loops.
I thought it might be fun to include a little video tutorial of how you can do your own Holly and Ivy quilting on your home machine. It is a little tricky to start but you catch on quick. Remember, like all things free motion quilting . . . Practice makes Perfect :) Hope you enjoy :)
Thanks for popping in today and sharing this Christmas in July quilt with me ;)
Got a Christmas quilt that needs to be finished up. Consider quilting some Holly and Ivy on it. Enjoy this video tutorial going over the basics of creating a Holly and Ivy with connecting loops free motion quilting pattern :) And remember, like all things free motion . . . Practice makes perfect :) Happy Quilting!!
My husband and I use this motto quite often. However, yesterday, I didn't follow it. And now I find myself Flickr-less. Agghh!!! Just what I needed in the middle of a quilt-a-long.
So here's the story . . .
I was helping my MIL upload her Tetris block into Flickr yesterday. When we went to log in we found that she wasn't sure of her loggin info. We played around a bit and got it all fixed up. She wrote down her log in info and we were good to go.
Fast Forward 30 minutes. I get home and realize, I haven't logged out of flickr in over 3 years. I have no idea what my log-in is. I have realized this in the past as I can't log-in anywhere but my own computer. So I figure it is time to probally do something about it.
I open up flickr and go to click on Help at the top of the screen. And in Movie Like fashion, my daughter jostles my arm for attention right as I am clicking which drags the mouse on to LOG OUT, instead of help.
Agghh!!! I start frantically try to fix the problem. I go through all my old files and find that I did write down my Yahoo ID forever ago. So I use the same info to log in and Wha, Wha, Wha . . . . It is not my current flickr account. I guess when I changed my view name it changed something about the log in. So I am currently logged into an account with no photo stream and no groups.
I shoot off a few emails to flickr begging them to help me . . . And that is where I am at this point. Just waiting for an email from Flickr that will hopefully say something to the effect of here is your ID, and your password, Moron!!!
So ya, it has been a week of stress related to the good old Quilting On-Line Community. No Camera and now No Flickr.
So if I don't respond to your wonderful Tetris Quilt-A-Long pictures, please know it isn't because I don't care. I just can't at the moment. I will continue to try and get the problem fixed asap so I can get back on track with responding to all of your amazing photo's!!
And since every post needs a picture . . . Yes, I feel a little like this
A little while back I did a post about "A Tale of 3 Irons", which shared my dramatized version of my irons breaking down. At the end of the post I wrote the following:
But we will have to wait and see, Irons and me seem to have very fickle friendships :) If #3 and I don't get along very well I might have to consider looking for a replacement in the Royal Family of Irons. I hear Oliso is quite the Family name of Pressing!
We'll the story picks back up today. Iron #3 was rather disappointing. (Shocker, I know.) And it was time to try out Oliso. I learned more about their quilter's iron (the TG1600) and it sounded amazing!!. So I decided to give it a whirl!!!! And may I say . . . I LOVE IT!!! (Sorry to shout, but I really love it that much!)
So, let me tell you a little about my experience with the Oliso TG1600
The iron has 2 scorchguards. (I like to think of them as feet.) You can rest the iron on them like so. It's not touching the fabric so you don't have to worry about it leaving marks.
Now, when you are ready to iron, simply hold the handle and the schorchguards lift allowing you to press.
As soon as you are done, simply let go of the handle and the schorchguards lower automatically lifting the iron and preventing burning or scorching of your fabric.
Yup, you never have to lift your iron up. I can't tell you what a relief this is to my wrist!!!! And, it saves so much time!! I didn't think lifting your iron up and down would use up any measurable amount of time but I really noticed the difference, especially when doing a large pile of pressing. And every bit of time saved pressing is more time for piecing!!!
Another great feature of the Oliso TG1600 is the power (heat and steam) behind this iron. In the past, pressing meant running the iron over the piece several times or standing there with the iron for several seconds. With the Oliso TG1600 it is just a quick zip over the fabric. The heat and auto steam set the seam instantly and with one pass!! Yes, it truly is One Pass Pressing!! (Oh yes, more sewing time there, also)
And, I don't have to iron the right side. This really blew me away. I always flip over my piecing to press the opposite side just to really get a nice crisp seam. But every time I turned over a piece to press the front I found the seam already perfectly crisp. Another huge time saver!!!!
Another favorite thing about the Oliso TG1600 is the detailer tip. Now I am sure this would be great for clothing, but let's get real, when was the last time I ever ironed clothing. And this is a quilter's iron, and I tell you it is fabulous for pressing seams open!!! I get so frustrated pressing seams open when I have to practically finger press the entire seam in order to get it to stay open long enough to get my iron in it. The detailer tip combined with the heat and steam from the TG1600 make finger pressing a thing of the past. Just start at the end of your seam and let the iron do the work. No fingers necessary. Ahhh!!! Love it!!!
The tank on the Oliso TG1600 is a side filling tank. I loved not having to fill my iron at the sink. I could just refil it at the ironing board and continue on. No time wasted.
The Oliso TG1600 also has an anti-drip system that prevents spitting and leaking while the iron is hot. Love it!! Seriously, this is what my old irons have done to my 1 year old ironing board cover. So sad. Now that I know I won't be having any leaking issues I think I best be making a new Ironing Board Cover.
And the last 2 things show how much they had quilters in mind during the design phase. First, A 12" cord with 360 degrees pivot. And if you spin around your ironing board as much as I do you will totally appreciate that. And second, a 30 minute auto off timer!!! Finally!!!!! Doesn't it just drive you nuts when you have been sewing 3 seams and you go back to your iron to find it has shut off!!! No such thing with the TG1600. It waits for you to be ready. (But, it still has auto shut off if it is knocked over, good safety feature!)
I gave it a major first test run pressing this entire pile of piecing.
Into this pile in under 2 hours!!!
So, to sum it up . . . I really, really, really love my Oliso TG1600 and I will never be pressing with anything else!!
So that is what I have been up to this week?? How about you!! Link on up :)
