Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Roundup for Quilter's Recipe Box half square Triangle blocks

Sorry I am a day late with this, life is busy here these days!

I didn't have a lot of takers on my offer to feature your finished blocks, but here is one from my friend Delaine!  Looks like she is making a Christmas quilt, and it looks great:


Next Monday we'll be learning a new unit - and I can't wait to see what we can make with it!  Here are all four blocks that I featured this month.  They all use Half-Square Triangles and plain blocks:

I hope you are coming along in your ability to make an accurate triangle.  You'll be using this skill all year as we progress through making the blocks.  Lots and lots of traditional blocks are built on using them, so they will appear often!

The fabrics for my weekly blocks are Dotalicious by Island Batik.  The background is also an Island Batik, but I don't think it is available any longer.  It's a neat cloud print.  I hope I have enough for all of my blocks, but if not, I'll come up with a plan.  I'm already thinking about how I can make it work!

See you next month with a new block unit!

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Quilts for Tennessee - Quiltsy Cares

I've been working on this quilt in fits and starts all month, but needed to get myself in gear and finish it up so I can mail it on Monday!  The Quiltsy team decided that we wanted to send some comfort quilts to the victims of the fires in Tennessee - we have a member that lives nearby that was willing to coordinate delivering these to a local church to distribute.  Thanks so much, Jennifer!

I decided to use a package of charm squares, strips and a bit of yardage that featured some happy yellows and oranges with browns.  It took me a while to figure out my plan of action to use these fabrics.  I decided to make disappearing nine-patch blocks and use the strips for a piano key border.

After I finished the center I decided that it really needed a plain muslin border to frame the center and set the final border apart.  Plus it added a bit more size to the quilt!  This block is a great way to use random scrappy fabrics.

I had a lot of choices for thread color!  In the end I decided on the orange thread, just for the fun of it.

I love the way a simple meander adds a soft, touchable texture!
And that bit of yardage?  I couldn't bear to cut it up, so used it on the back, framed with more muslin. I think this will be a cheerful quilt for someone.  I hope it brings the recipient comfort and makes them smile.

Linking up with Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework for "Oh Scrap!"  Come join the fun!


Quilting is more fun than Housework

Friday, January 27, 2017

Celestial Quilt Finish

I've been wanting to blog about the finish of this quilt, but I forgot to take a picture of it before I took it to Threads That Bind to go on display!  It got hung up this week in the front of the shop and looks awesome there.
I ended up quilting it in swirls because they always look great on a quilt, and how else can you quilt through all those beautiful pictures?

A photo posted by Pamela Boatright (@pamelaquilts) on

I'm still writing up the directions for this one.  It was super simple - 2 1/2 inch strips to frame the pictures, then add two borders.  I made the back out of stash fabrics.  and was able to use up several good size chunks of blue fabric.  Of course I forgot to get a picture of that as well!

This is my first shop sample for the year, I have another one in the works, plus we got in some gorgeous fabric on Wednesday that is calling me - I love getting to play with pretty fabric.

Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or not Friday!

Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts

Monday, January 23, 2017

Anvil Block - Fun with Asymetrical Blocks

This week's alternate block for Quilter's Recipe Box is the Anvil block.  This block uses the same units once more, but this time I've chosen to just use one color and the background.

Just like the last three blocks, sew the four half square triangle units.  If you are cutting accurately and sewing accurately all you will need to do is trim the dog ears and your units should measure correctly
Arrange them as I have shown - notice that this block has a definite diagonal alignment going on.  I'll show you some fun ways you can make the most of this later!

Sew the rows together, then the colums - press your seams away from the triangle blocks.
Oops, I noticed I had a little wobble in one of my seam lines!
Easy to fix and I didn't even bother with a seam ripper.  Just resewed the seam so it was nice and straight.
Now, what kind of a quilt can you make using this block?  Here are a few lay-outs from EQ7
This one has a nice look to it.  Lots of room for some fun quilting!
This one has a nice zig zag look to it.
This one looks like exploding twin stars!
And here is a single star exploding - this one is my favorite.

Next Monday I'll have some show and tell blocks - send me an email at pamelaquilts@gmail with a picture of your blocks that you have made, I'd love to show them off!

I forgot to remind you about the New Beginnings Blog posts for last week, so here is the list for last week and this week - make sure you visit and let my fellow Island Batik Ambassadors know how much you love their projects!

Monday, January 16 – Glowing Embers
Purrfect Spots Designs
Tuesday, January 17 – Lake Life
Freemotion by the River
Wednesday, January 18 – River’s Edge
Ark Angel Creations
Jennifer Sewing
Friday, January 20 – Blushing Blooms
Desert Bloom Quilting
Monday, January 23 – Gone Fishin’
Maria Michaels Designs
Wednesday, January 25 – Surf and Sand
The Patchwork Pearl
Beaquilter
Thursday, January 26 – Twilight Blush
KISSed Quilts
Friday, January 27 – Happy Harvest
For Quilts Sake

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Project Quilting 2017 - Challenge 2

I almost decided to skip out on this week's challenge because of all the beautiful quilts I've seen on the facebook page!  I was really feeling like I'd never be able to come up with anything as lovely and creative as the quilts I've seen.  I decided that the point isn't coming up with a quilt that is "better" or more creative, it is taking the challenge and making it your own and interpreting the theme in your own way.

I decided it would be fun to come up with a mini quilt.  I googled North Carolina Lily, Lily Quilt, Mini Lily Quilt, etc. and didn't find anything inspiring.  So I opened up EQ7 and found a block called Lily Wreath that was perfect!
With all those pieces, I didn't want to shrink it too far down, so I decided that 8 inches would be small enough to make it challenging, yet still do-able.

I was able to print up rotary cutting instructions for most of the pieces, and also printed the templates so I could cut out the center pieces.

I started out by sewing all the diamonds into pairs and added the background pieces for the corners.
Then I made the center square and sewed the lily sections to the center.  The last step was adding the rectangles for the sides.  I ran into a bit of a problem there as they were a bit too small!  I recut them a bit bigger and it worked.  I'll have to try this block again someday and figure out what the problem was.  In the end, my block came out fine and after quilting made a darling mini quilt!
It measures 8 1/2 inches square, including binding.  For the quilting I did some petals in the lilies, curved echoing in the green and elongated triangles in the center.  For the background I did tiny swirls.  The fabrics are leftovers from my Island Batik collection.  I had some 10 inch squares that were perfect for this little project, I even used one for the back!

Those little diamonds are only 3/4 of an inch across!  Lots of little seams and y-corners in this quilt, but it was a fun challenge for me and will make a cute mini for my wall.

Lily Wreath was made by me in my sewing room in Coos Bay on a rainy Saturday.  A good way to spend my afternoon!

Charming Hearts Wall Hanging, I love using Charm Packs

This weeks sewing was pretty much limited to working on some alterations, but I did manage to squeeze in one quilting project.  I used one of my remaining Kiss, Kiss charm packs to make this Charming Hearts wall hanging

While I was sewing on the binding I thought I would (finally) try making a video of how I machine sew the binding.  It took a few tries, but I finally got something I was fairly happy with and posted it on Instagram.  It helped that I didn't show myself or talk!  It feels kind of odd to put yourself out there like that, but I am making baby steps in this area.  Anyway, here is the video!



Anyway, I really want to get more quilting in this week, so I suppose it is time to get out my planner and attempt to schedule more time in my days for that.

I got some great news this week - I will be staying on as an Island Batik Ambassador for 2017!  I'm looking forward to the arrival of a new box of fabric soon, along with some new challenges.  I have two quilts that will be in their Spring Summer Catalog along with my patterns!  Woohoo!  I can't wait to show those to you.  I am working on submissions to a couple of different magazines as well.  I really enjoy designing, so am excited to commit to that and work on getting my head full of ideas out and actually see them becoming lovely quilts.

Let me know what you think of my video - maybe next time I will get brave and talk!

Monday, January 16, 2017

Happy Monday - I have a winner, and a new half square triangle quilt block!

Hope your weekend was great, mine was crazy busy!  I was in charge of the Chili Feed that the Women's Ministry Team put on this weekend, but that wasn't too bad.  We made three big pots of Chili, lots of cornbread and had a great time serving our wonderful church members.  We made some more money to put toward the retreat this spring and had a great time mingling with the people and encouraging them.  This happened on Sunday Morning.

Since we were all prepared and ready to go, Saturday afternoon was going to be fun sewing and I had a lovely project all ready to work on.
Unfortunately I didn't get time to work on it because after I made lunch I decided to clean out my refrigerator.  I had a container of noodles that needed to go, but when I put them down the disposal the drain clogged.  That's not a big deal, I usually seal the drainboard side of the sink and run the disposal which creates enough pressure to force the clog through.  This time there was an odd noise, but I kept running the water.  Then I looked down and there was water (and little noodle bits) flowing out from under the sink!  YIKES!! That was a big deal!

When I opened the doors the mess was so terrible I wanted to cry.  Water and noodle bits all over, even stuck to the bottom of the sink, the back wall, and everything under the sink.  You know - paper bags, a grocery tote, my husbands old lunch box, roll of paper towels, vases....I guess it was time to clean out under there, but not like this.  At first it looked like the ring holding the drain to the underside of the sink had just come loose.  Then, when I went to tighten it I realized it had broken in half.  So off to the plumbing store to get a new one.

(I am Mrs. Fixit in my house - I enjoy doing it!  DH would if I wanted him to, but I like knowing how to deal with these things and tend to just take charge, in case you are wondering...)

The nice guy at Perry's Electric hooked me up with a nice new plastic pipe to replace my broken metal one and made sure I had the appropriate washers.  Once I got home it was a simple matter of cutting the new piece to the correct length, putting the washers in the correct spots and screwing everything together.  No fancy plumbing tools necessary for this job!  Luckily the washers came in packs of two because once I hooked everything up I found a leak in another join as well.  Plus a piece of wood in the u-joint under the sink which probably has been causing my back-ups.  The worse part was cleaning up all the noodle bits and drying it out.

Yesterday I laid some nice contact paper down and replaced all the things that I wanted to keep under the sink, added some things to my donation box, and threw out some junk!  Now it looks nice and neat under there so I am happy.

So, I am ready for a new day today!  Hopefully lots of sewing will happen.  I did get this week's alternate quilt block done for the Quilter's Recipe Box!  This week we are going to use the same units again:  Four colored half square triangles, four background half square triangles, 1 colored square and 4 background squares.

Sew the four half square triangles into squares and this time we'll place them so that the colored half is on the outside of the corner:
Now you have an O block!  I hope you are getting along with your half square triangles!  Are they coming out to the correct size?  Keep working on accurate cutting and piecing - it will pay off as you go.  You'll be able to piece more quickly and confidently once you have those skills down pat.




  Have you been keeping up with the New Beginnings Blog Hop?  Here are the last couple of posts:
Friday, January 13 – Fresh Catch
Bejeweled Quilts by Barb
Monday, January 16 – Glowing Embers
Purrfect Spots Designs
My giveaway ended yesterday and the winner is Patricia!  I have e-mailed her for her address so I can send out those pieces to her right away.  

My pattern is available on Etsy or through my Payhip store.
  Buy Now

I hope your weekend wasn't quite as exciting as mine was.  Let's all have a good week of quilting, I'm ready!

Friday, January 13, 2017

Finished or Not Friday - some of both!

I definitely had a pretty productive week in the sewing room!  I finished this quilt for my Project Quilting entry:

After that I finished up this quilt for the New Beginnings Blog Hop:


After that I did some alterations and started working on this shop sample.  I have the top done, so am going through my stash for some fabric to put together for a backing.  


And I have to decide how to quilt it and with what thread.  After this is done, I will be concentrating on a custom quilt featuring vintage embroidered blocks!  Should be fun - can't wait to show you that one.  

Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts
Linking up with Myra for Finished or Not Friday - make sure you stop by and join in the fun!


Wednesday, January 11, 2017

What's on Your Bucket List?

I've been enjoying reading all the comments on my blog hop post.  I've found some new additions to my own quilting bucket list, and it's really interesting seeing what other quilters have on their list of quilts to do someday.

So far the number one quilt is New York Beauty.  I've never made an entire quilt by myself in this pattern, but I did do blocks for one of my Quilt Guild raffle quilts.  Here are the arcs -

And the completed blocks -
I wish I could find a picture of the completed quilt, it was lovely!  I've participated in making the yearly raffle quilt for the guild and it's always fun.  This was one of my favorites.  I used a single block on the back of a self portrait quilt I made back when I first started blogging.
You can read the rest of the post HERE if you like.

Make sure you keep hopping along with the New Beginnings blog hop!  The Island Batik Ambassadors have made some great projects to share with you.

Wednesday, January 11 – Drizzle
Webster Quilt
Thursday, January 12 – Fifi and Fido + Happy Hounds
Mary Mack Made Mine
Quilting Affection

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Island Batik New Beginnings Blog Hop

Today is my day for the New Beginnings blog hop for Island Batik and the featured collection today is Dotalicious!  It's a big collection featuring lots of different colors and patterns of dots!  Who doesn't love a good polka dot?  I know I sure do!  You can check them all out here.

The theme for our hop is New Beginnings - perfect for the month of January!  I love the beginning of a new year and I always have lots of things I want to change and do differently.  One of the things I wanted to do this year is to start making some of those quilt patterns that I admire.  You know, the bucket list quilts that one never seems to get around to?  With a beautiful stack of 18 colorful Dotalicious fabrics in front of me, the Ocean Waves pattern sprang to mind, so I started thinking about how I wanted to make this quilt.

Even though batiks are not really embraced by a lot of modern quiltmakers, I think they really work great, so decided to make my blocks bold and graphic.
As you can see, this whole block is made from just half square triangles!

I wanted to make a wallhanging size piece, so 12 blocks was just right for my purpose.
They looked mighty pretty on my design wall while I was arranging and rearranging them.
I didn't have a specific plan for the quilting when I started, but the dots got me to thinking if I could quilt it in a way that looked like more dots!  I pulled some thread to match and started free motion quilting spirals.  My Juki has lots of room for moving the quilt through the arm, so I was surprised at how fast it went!  
And here is the finished quilt - what a lovely bright spot above my fireplace.  Usually I hang a wintry blue and white quilt here during January, but I am excited to have a New Beginning with a bright and bold quilt gracing my wall for the month!  It makes me smile to see it there, this fun quilt definitely makes up for the gray skies outside.

I enjoyed making this quilt so much that I thought I would like to share it as a pattern.  I have it available for sale on Etsy as well as in my Payhip shop!  


I also have a few extra pieces for blocks that I cut out and didn't use.  If you would like to have these, enter my giveaway below.  There are enough pieces for 6 blocks, and I'll be sure to send the winner a free pattern as well.  This giveaway will end in a week, so make sure you enter soon, and share it with your friends as well.


Last but not least, Island batik is giving away TWO bundles of batik fabric!  Make sure you enter this one as well.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Make sure you keep up on the posts for the hop - today there are four!

Monday, January 9 – Coastal Mist
Stone Cottage Quilts
Tuesday, January 10 – Dotalicious
DelLillians
Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting
PamelaQuilts (Me!)
Inchworm Fabrics
Wednesday, January 11 – Drizzle
Webster Quilt
Thursday, January 12 – Fifi and Fido + Happy Hounds
Mary Mack Made Mine
Quilting Affection
Friday, January 13 – Fresh Catch
Bejeweled Quilts by Barb
Monday, January 16 – Glowing Embers
Purrfect Spots Designs
Tuesday, January 17 – Lake Life
Freemotion by the River
Wednesday, January 18 – River’s Edge
Ark Angel Creations
Jennifer Sewing
Friday, January 20 – Blushing Blooms
Desert Bloom Quilting
Monday, January 23 – Gone Fishin’
Maria Michaels Designs
Wednesday, January 25 – Surf and Sand
The Patchwork Pearl
Beaquilter
Thursday, January 26 – Twilight Blush
KISSed Quilts
Friday, January 27 – Happy Harvest
For Quilts Sake
Monday, January 30 – Jolly Holly
Connie Kauffman
Tuesday, January 31 – Frost
MooseStash Quilting
Wednesday, February 1 – Merry and Bright
Patchwork Breeze
Sally’s Quilting Corner

Sunday, January 08, 2017

Quilter's Recipe Box Alternate block One

Happy Monday!  I hope you enjoyed the first block of my Quilter's Recipe Box block of the month - Friendship Star.  As promised I am back with an alternative block using the same units.  This is another great traditional block - Shoo Fly.  You need the same exact units - four colored triangles, four background triangles, one center square in another color, and four background squares.
Sew your half square triangle units together, but this time, we'll use them on the corners of the block instead of the sides:
Sew together, and press the seams toward the center to reduce bulk at the points around the edge of the block.  Shouldn't take you long to make this one!
This block dates to around 1850 and is often seen in sampler quilts.  It has an alternate name - Hole in the Barn Door.

Today the New Beginnings blog hop starts!  Make sure you visit all the Island Batik Ambassadors for fun projects featuring the new fall and winter lines that are now in your quilt shops.  You especially want to check out the first post for the big giveaway there you can win one of two batik bundles!

Friday, January 6 – Hop Introduction!
Island Batik 
Monday, January 9 – Coastal Mist
Stone Cottage Quilts
Wednesday, January 11 – Drizzle
Webster Quilt
Thursday, January 12 – Fifi and Fido + Happy Hounds
Mary Mack Made Mine
Quilting Affection
Friday, January 13 – Fresh Catch
Bejeweled Quilts by Barb
Monday, January 16 – Glowing Embers
Purrfect Spots Designs
Tuesday, January 17 – Lake Life
Freemotion by the River
Wednesday, January 18 – River’s Edge
Ark Angle Creations
Jennifer Sewing
Friday, January 20 – Blushing Blooms
Desert Bloom Quilting
Monday, January 23 – Gone Fishin’
Maria Michaels Designs
Wednesday, January 25 – Surf and Sand
The Patchwork Pearl
Beaquilter
Thursday, January 26 – Twilight Blush
KISSed Quilts
Friday, January 27 – Happy Harvest
For Quilts Sake
Monday, January 30 – Jolly Holly
Connie Kauffman
Tuesday, January 31 – Frost
MooseStash Quilting
Wednesday, February 1 – Merry and Bright
Patchwork Breeze
Sally’s Quilting Corner

I'll be back on Tuesday with my hop post - I've got a great project with a pattern, and a giveaway of my own.

Saturday, January 07, 2017

Eight is Great - Project Quilting Challenge

It's always fun to participate in the Project Quilting challenges - the hardest part of the challenge for me is not to bite off more than I can chew!  This time I told myself to think small, so decided to make a one block quilt.  Off I went to EQ7 for inspiration and found a block called Eight Hands Around that I liked.  It is basically a star in a star.  I didn't get my block started by yesterday, when I spent the day at the Karla Alexander class.  After the class I thought it would be fun to use the special Curves for Squares ruler to make my block, so hunted down a small pack of charm squares to try out the 5 inch size squares on the ruler.
My block ended up using 8 different fabrics!  Four darks and four lights.  The smaller blocks are a bit trickier to piece, but go along pretty quickly.  I didn't have to trim them up at all - I thought my block might be a bit wonky, but it came out pretty darn square in the end!  I decided to skip making it bigger by adding the larger star around it and just did some borders.
Since the charm pack was from last year's Row by Row Experience collection by Northcott, I decided to use some of the border fabric that I had as well.  I love the fabric, but it's time to use it instead of hoarding it, if you know what I mean!
I mitered the corners for a nice finish and quilted it in a medium blue thread with a meander stitch.  The binding is a pretty green.
The finished quilt is 25 x 25 and will make a fun table topper!  I love the way the curved triangles make a simple block look extra fancy.  And the way the houses surround the center.  I live here in Coos Bay, Oregon - no more snow today on the coast, it's back to rain for us!  Making this cheery quilt was sure a fun way to spend a rainy day :)