Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Creative Borders and Binding Challenge with Island Batik

Happy Halloween (I know, it's a little late, but better late than never!)  Isn't this package of strips perfect for today?  Follow along with this post to see what I did with them!  The Line is Pumpkin Patch, and you will love it!

This month the challenge that Island Batik gave all of us Ambassadors was to make a quilt with creative borders and/or bindings!  Oh, the ideas that I had.  I really wanted to do a series on a medallion quilt similar to this one that I made last year -

But my time has been so limited this month that I never even got started!  With a week left for the challenge, I decided to fall back on the strips to make a fast quilt with a creative border.

I started with a pattern I designed several years ago.  The original pattern only uses 21 strips out of a package and has a plain border.  I got to thinking, why not use the rest of the strips to make a nice Piano Key border?  And so I got started on it.
I got the center pieced, measured and did some math, then started sewing the rest of the strips together and adding them as borders.

I love it!
It really adds a great touch to this quilt, and I am working on rewriting the pattern to make it include this fun pieced border.  As a bonus, it uses up all the strips in the pack, so no leftovers!

I tend to make plain borders, so it was really fun to do something different and I think it adds a lot to the quilt.

Can't wait to quilt this.  I'll be using the peachy colored fabric for the binding as well...and maybe be a little creative with that as well!  Thank you Island batik for the fun fabric, and the great challenge!

What's your favorite creative border?

Monday, October 30, 2017

Quilter's Recipe Box, Star Flower Block, Variation of Split Half Square Triangle

Today's block not only uses a Split half square triangle, but it also uses a variation of the four path block.  I call this block Star Flower:

For this block I started with the following cuts:

Two 3 7/8 squares large star points (cut in half diagonally).  One 4 1/4 inch square for small star points (cut in half diagonally both ways).  One 3 1/2 square for center.  Four 2 inch squares green accent.  From Background cut four 2 inch squares, four 2 x 31/2 inch rectangles, and one 4 1/2 inch square (cut in half both ways diagonally).

Sew the quarter square triangle units together in pairs.  Sew all four of them facing the same direction as shown:
Sew the large half square triangles to these to complete your split half square triangle units.

Sew the two inch squares together into pairs, then pair them with the 2 x 3 1/2 inch rectangles and sew to complete the corner units and lay out as so:
I didn't like how dark the center looked, so I changed it out for bright yellow and was much happier with the look of it!

Sew together, press and admire your block!

Next week I'll have a new unit and block for you to make.  I hope you are enjoying this as much as I am - I can't wait to put my quilt top together- it's going to be so pretty.  Thanks for following along!


Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Drifting Leaves PDF Quilt Pattern for Fall!

This is my favorite month of the year, I love the changing of seasons, and the beautiful colors of fall.  To celebrate I designed a free pattern for my Etsy shop - Drifting Leaves.  I always wonder how many people actually take time to make these blocks - so I was really excited to see what one of my fellow Quiltsy team members on Etsy made with my block!

Donna of Lawson Creations did a beautiful job of making a fun table topper with the block pattern.  I was delighted that she gave me credit as well - it's always nice to be acknowledged.  She has lots of fun and affordable quilts in her shop - make sure you check it out!

Click picture to go to this pattern on Etsy
I think designing block and quilt patterns is one of my favorite quilting activities.  This particular block is definitely one I want to make into a quit.  I think it will be fun to use lots of fall colors for the leaves and use the same red fabrics in each block to make a scrappy quilt.  Hopefully I can find time to work on some blocks before the fall inspiration fades for the year!

Do you like making seasonal quilts, too? 

Monday, October 23, 2017

Quilter's Recipe Box Unit 10 - Alternate block 2 - Criss Cross

I'm baaack!  Wow, it was kind of nice to have a week off!  It gave me a little time to catch up and work ahead on my blocks, so I am actually ready for the end of the year.  I don't know about you, but it's a lot easier for me to start projects than it is to finish - and this is a big project to finish!  This is block 39 and there are 9 blocks left to finish out the year.  This unit is a challenging one to design with, but I came up with this block that I named Criss Cross.  I seem to be really liking arrow themed blocks this year!

This block features our Split Half Square triangle unit plus a regular quarter square triangle and nine patch units.


You will need to cut twenty 1 1/2 inch squares and two 3 7/8 squares (cut in half diagonally) from your background fabric.  From color one and color two, cut eight 1 1/2 squares and two 4 1/4 inch squares (cut in half diagonally both ways and set aside two of the eight triangles)

Make four sets quarter square triangle pairs from color one and color two quarter square triangle units.  Make sure to sew two of them with color one on top and two with color two on top.

Sew a background half square triangle to each of these, and lay out as the corners of your block.  Notice the color orientation.  Red faces red, blue faces blue!

Sew a quarter square triangle unit for the center of the block.

Then sew four nine patch (two from each color) and add to the sides of the block.  Make sure you have your colors aligned correctly!

Sew together and you have your finished block.

If you are new, make sure to check out the complete list of blocks on my Quilter's Recipe Box tab at the top of the page - there are also links to download all 10 recipe cards! 

Happy Quilting!



Saturday, October 21, 2017

Rainy Days are Quilting Days!

I'm glad we spent the last weekend up north instead of this weekend!  The weather today is very wet and chilly - perfect for staying indoors and quilting up a storm - or maybe doing some fun reading.  I was excited to win a $100.00 gift certificate from C&T publishing as part of the Christmas Caroling Row Along, and I just received my package:

I had a blast going through their online catalog trying to decide what to pick!  I started out by looking for Angela Walter's books - I have Free Motion Quilting and Shape by Shape Collection 2, but never got a copy of the first Shape by Shape book, so that was first on my list.  Then I was tempted to pick up Free Motion Meandering, but instead I got her Free Motion Quilting Workbook, thinking that would be nice to have to play with design ideas in the evenings when I'm not in my sewing room.

After that I checked out Bonnie Hunter books, can you believe that I don't own any?  I picked up Addicted to Scraps, because...scraps!  I have lots of those that need to used! 

After that I browsed around looking for something fun and inspiring and I found The Little Spark!  This one has been on my Amazon wish list for a while, so I was super excited to see it.  By this point, I just needed one more little thing to fill out my cart and found this interesting Trim-A-Tip tool so decided to give it a try.

My package just arrived on Thursday, so I am looking forward to going through my goodies this weekend and being inspired.  I don't purchase many books anymore because I've been quilting for so long that I have a very full library, so this is quite a treat for me!  I did notice that there are quite a few e-books available as well, so I will probably be purchasing some of those in the future - it's a great option and requires far less storage space, plus they are a bit less expensive.  Though I do have to say, I totally love print books and enjoy flipping through the pages as I relax in my chair - total bliss!

Here are a few pictures from last weekend, we had so much fun seeing our grand-kids and hanging out with their parents :)

Can you see Mount Hood in the distance?  Hard to capture it with a photo, but it was gorgeous!

You can see it peaking from behind the trees a bit here.  The day started out very cool and foggy, but once the sun came out it was perfect!  Layer by layer my outerwear came off until I just needed a light sweater in the warm sun!

One more shot of Mount Hood as we traveled north into Washington!  While we were there we had several lovely views of Mount Rainier, but I never got a picture of that one.  We enjoyed a sunny Sunday afternoon at a local pumpkin patch, but I guess I never took any picture there, either :(

Another foggy morning that turned into a beautiful day!  After dropping Emelia off at school on Monday we went out for breakfast, then spent an hour at Goodwill.  I found some good books for fall reading, a beautiful coral sweater, a new jigsaw puzzle and a pretty white tray for my sewing room.  I don't usually find that many goodies, I'm pretty picky when thrift shopping, so it was very fun to walk out with a nice pile of goodies.

Tuesday we got home mid-afternoon, and I got busy with laundry and planning out my week.  I got started on the next baby clothes quilt, this one is going to be stars:

I plan on having this ready for quilting next weekend so it can go out at the end of the month.  Lots of fun stripes in this one, it will be so cute!

I finished up this puzzle so I could start a new one - I find that I am sleeping a bit better by not being on my laptop or phone so much in the evenings.  Trying to stick to books and puzzles more, so am trying to find a better time in my day for writing patterns and blogging.
And Scamper had to go to the vet for shots and a check up.  He has a lot bare patches on his rear and belly.  We haven't found any fleas on him, but the vet says it's pretty classic flea allergy reaction.  So I am vacuuming and washing his blankets as well as ours.  Hopefully we can get this under control without having to give him a cortisone shot - seems like many people in this area are seeing this in their cats this fall.  We did have a very nice summer, I suppose the fleas like the warmer weather as well!  We are trying a new flea medication to see how that goes - we actually haven't had to use any for over a year, so hopefully this will be under control soon.

That's it for my week in a nut shell - it's good to be home with no travel plans in the near future.  I love visiting family, but truly feel there is no place like home.  I love my normal routine, and I have missed my fun sewing time as well as blogging regularly over the last couple of months and am happy to settle in for the rest of fall and enjoy doing my favorite things again.   I'll be working on the rest of the year's Quilter's Recipe blocks over the weekend and planning out some more fun projects for next year. 

Enjoy your weekend, too!


Monday, October 16, 2017

Bye Week - Quilters Recipe Box

Since there are 5 mondays this month and we are away for the weekend, I am taking this week as a bye week for the Quilters Recipe Box - I will be back next week with our third block for the month.

Friday, October 13, 2017

Finished or Not Fiday - Finished is good!

A couple finishes on the blog for me today - one is the finish of the Christmas Caroling Row Along!  Congratulations to Barbara and Kat!  Marian sent you an email with details, so make sure you answer her in the next couple days so that you can get your light!

I also finished this quilt:

This is a custom quilt made from baby clothes.  My client does a great job of separating the outfits out into wonderful color palettes - and this gray and mint green color theme seems to be pretty popular right now!

I was thinking about doing the machine quilting with a medium gray, but then I realized that the big cone of neutral that Aurifil sent me in my Artisan pack was the perfect color!

How nice not to have to worry about running out of thread!  (6952 yards on this cone - that's a lot of piecing and quilting!)
I did a nice large meander over it, being careful to leave the pockets unquilted so he can hide treasures in them!



So many cute little appliques and fun little boy prints.  I mailed this out on Tuesday and it arrived Thursday.  My client was so happy - she said: "Thanks Pamela Boatright, you didn’t tell my the quilt came with feelings."  That's one of the best things about making a special quilt for someone!

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

Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts

Monday, October 09, 2017

Quilter's Recipe Box, Twisted Star alternate for Split Half Square Triangle

Happy Monday!  I'm running a little behind today, but I made it!  Today's block is another way of using the Split Half Square Triangle unit - the block is Twisted Star.

This one is quick and easy to make, so if you struggled a little making the Card Trick block, don't worry, this one will be a piece of cake for you.

I used 3 colors and a background fabric for this block.  Color 1 - cut a 3 1/2 inch square.  Color 2 - cut two 3 7/8 inch squares, then cut those in half for half square triangle units.  Color 3 - cut one 4 1/4 inch square, then cut in half diagonally both ways for quarter square triangle units.  Background - cut one 4 1/4 inch square, then cut in half diagonally both ways for quarter square triangle units; cut four 3 1/2 inch squares.

Start by sewing your Color 3 and Background quarter square triangle units together.  Place them right sides together with the 90 degree corner at the bottom and the Color 3 triangle on the top.  Sew from the point toward the corner.  (If your machine wants to pull the point down into the throat plate you can flip the triangles and sew from the corner to the point with the background piece on the top)

Press to the darker color and trim the dog ears off.  Sew these units to the Color 2 half square triangle units to complete your split half square triangles.
Pretty!  And they match my ironing board cover :)  Trim those dog ears off now!

Arrange not like this!  See my error?  I corrected that as I sewed my rows together, but didn't notice when I took the picture!

And the finished block - easy, right?

Don't forget, today is the last day to download my I Saw Three Ships row for Christmas Caroling Row Along, as well as the last day to enter to win two LED sewing machine lights!  Click the picture below to go to the blog post where you can do those two things!



I also want to say welcome to all those who may have just subscribed to my newsletter!  Make sure you check out the link at the top of the page to download all the Quilter's Recipe Box patterns - I hope you enjoy this block of the month series.  If you've been following along, can you take a minute and let me know if there is something you would be interested in learning for next year?  I'm thinking of doing a Monthly Mini Monday - is that something you would enjoy?  The plan would be to do one step a week and at the end of the month have a cute mini quilt finished.  I love mini quilts and would enjoy sharing some tips and ideas for them.  If you have any other ideas, please let me know as well - I'd love to hear your opinions!

Have a great day!

Monday, October 02, 2017

Welcome to the Ninth Day of the Christmas Caroling Row Along!

I'm excited to finally get to show my row off for the Christmas Caroling Row along!  This wonderful event is being hosted by Marian, and she has worked so hard to put it all together - so many talented bloggers and generous sponsors all brought together and organized through her hard work.  Thank you, Marian (Seams to be Sew).  My second thank you goes to Northcott Fabric, who generously provided us with fabric for our rows!   We were given the opportunity to choose from their new holiday lines, and it was so fun to get a sneak peak at them, and hard to choose!

Are you ready for my Row?  For my song I chose the lighthearted tune "I Saw Three Ships"  This is an old song, probably English in origin and has been sung for a long time, and recorded by many artists. One of my favorite versions is by Glen Campbell.  I love it because it is a happy song, and to me, Christmas is a wonderful time to share joy and just be happy!

Here is the row I designed:

I wanted to make my row fairly simple, and had fun designing it!  It was quite the challenge to draw those ships, but I found a simple way of altering the size, so I actually only had to draw it out once!

I was super excited to try it out in my fabric!  I chose to use a selection from this cute line:

Click the picture and see the gorgeous fabrics, the panel is a stunning digital print!  The color numbers I chose were:  90210-10, 9020-53, 9020-78 and 21-69842 
I thought the blue with snowflakes would make a wonderful wintery sea, and it did!
I have a tip to share with you if you are doing white applique on a colored background.  Use a double layer of fabric sandwiched with fusible web, then a final layer of fusible on the bottom - it makes the appliques really stand out!  

I was worried that it might be hard to stitch through so I made a little sample to try out and it was no problem at all!



I love how quilting around the edges of the sails made them look like are filled with air and moving the ships along!

Notice that I left the masts out?  I felt like the pieces were just too small to applique.  I thought that those could be added with embroidery if anyone wanted to do that.  I might think about it later, but for now I've left them out.  They are included in the pattern if you would like to use them!


Oh another fun tip - notice the sand in the cove?  What fabric do you suppose I used for that?  It's actually the reverse side of the gold fabric that is the top part of the ships!  Like we say at the quilt shop - you pay for both sides, why not use them?

Since I really wanted to quilt my row for the hop I decided to finish it with simple borders and complete it as a small quilt.  There have been so many lovely rows on this Row Along that I would like to do eventually, but for now, I am happy to have my row be a complete project on its own.  
I pulled the red from my stash, and used the rest of the gold and green for the border and binding.

I'm very happy with how my row turned out and I hope you enjoy it!  My pattern is now available on Payhip for $4.00:




The following giveaways are already completed and no longer accepting entries:

Now...are you ready for the giveaways?  There are three you can enter to win - the first one is only on my blog and there will be two winners!

This giveaway is from Inspired LED, and it is for 2 Sewing Machine Light Kits!  I've seen these and would love to have one for my machine (which is like the one shown in the picture below!)  Look at how much light it gives you - I could sure use one of these with the dark days of winter approaching all too soon.  For this giveaway you will have to pay for the shipping, that shouldn't be too much in the US, but for overseas it will run a bit more.  The value of this prize is $30.00 each for a total of $60.00.


Thanks to Inspired LED for sponsoring this giveaway!  It ends October 10, so be sure to enter by leaving me a blog comment!


This giveaway is a shared giveaway, which will be on all the blogs for today's posts.  You will have the opportunity to win one of five 50% discount coupon for a 12 x 18 cutting mat.  These are fabulous mats, and well worth their cost - and at half off, it's an even better deal!  I have a large one and a small revolving one, and this would be perfect for my collection!  This has a value of $34.99.

Thank you Calibre Arts for sponsoring the Christmas Caroling Row Along!


Last, but not least, Northcott not only provided the bloggers with fabric, but they are also giving you the chance to win some!  You will get 8 fat quarters from their Christmas collections (value of $20.00)  This giveaway ends on October 9





Here are the rest of the Bloggers for today!  Make sure you visit their blogs, download the free rows and enter their giveaways as well!

MaryMack’s Blog
Kathys Kwilts and More
Pamela Quilts
Duck Creek Mountain Quilting
Heleen Pinkster



Thank you for making this a great Row Along!  We couldn't do it without you!  If you've enjoyed the free rows and giveaways, we hope that you will feel generous and give back as well.  We are encouraging you to go and make a donation to your favorite charity.  There is so much tragedy and sadness these days, lets all try to make a difference and help those who need it.

Finally - a little housekeeping - Marion has provided us all with a set of rules and guidelines for the giveaways!  Please read, and thanks so much for your participation.   And a big thank you to all the sponsors for making this such a fun event!


Rules and Guidelines For Giveaways

Please take the time to read it.

Giveaways offered by sponsors are assigned to the various bloggers for their featured day.

There are no prior announcements on who is doing which sponsor except to the sponsor themselves.

You'll have to visit the blog or the featured blog to enter the giveaways.

Not all giveaways can be entered at Seams To Be Sew.

I will start announcing winners on September 12, 2017, and finish announcing winners on October 12, 2017.

In most cases, the blog where you won at also will announce their winners.

You must give a valid email address when you enter the giveaways, any email returned to me, loses the ability to win automatically.

With the exception of Show and Tell Day, all giveaways run for approximately one week.

You are given 3 days to answer the email, if you do not answer within 3 days a new winner will be drawn. Check those spam/junk mail folders, you may miss that winning email if you don't do so because there are no exceptions to this rule.

If you are notified that you are a winner, in most cases, you will need to provide your name, address, city, state, zip code, country, telephone number, and email address.

In some cases, you will be asked to comment on the blog to enter the giveaway... do the right thing and thank them for the time it took to create the pattern, thank them for the pattern and...

Thank the sponsor by buying their products for the giveaways. This helps them continue to offer great prizes for these types of events. You can also comment on their social media pages. Even if you don't win, letting them know you love their products is a huge incentive and they really do love hearing from you.

No purchase whatsoever is necessary.

You must be 18+ in order to win a gift.

You are responsible for claiming and paying any tax owed on the value of any gift that you win. Prizes valued at $500.00 should be claimed.

All winners are chosen at random.

All winners will be announced on the blogs via the Rafflecopter entry form and/or post by the blogger at the site where they won and here at Seams To Be Sew. All winners must allow for their first name and first initial of their last name to be announced on this blog.

Odds of Winning a prize are based on a total number of rafflecopter entries during each week and in total for all giveaways.

This giveaway is void where prohibited by law.

Participating bloggers may enter any of the giveaways.

The word giveaways in the rules and guidelines are also known as sweepstakes.

Most of the giveaways are international shipping this year

in some cases, you will be asked to pay for shipping your giveaways.

I am not rich and I do not ask sponsors for money, they provide prizes only.

If they shipped the prize to me, you will be asked to pay for shipping.

All giveaways will be shipped that are in my home within 48 hours of my having heard from you.

An invoice will be sent to you via Paypal, and shipping will take place via Paypal, so your Paypal email will be needed to send the invoice. You will receive a tracking number except for overseas shipments. All shipping will either be first class which averages out at 2.77 to 4.00 up to 13 ounces. Paypal fees are added to that amount to cover that fee. All fabric bundles from Michael Miller, Hoffman, and Moda will be shipped via Priority Mail to protect the fabric itself.

Please note, every effort is made to protect the prizes. They go into a plastic bin when I receive them, and it is covered by an air tight cover. I have a dog in my home and I have a smoker in my home, so I do everything possible to protect the prizes.

Most companies are very good about getting prizes off to customers quickly also, but some companies are overseas, so please allow all sponsors a 2-week time period before you report to me that you still haven't received your prize. When the company is overseas, it can take 6 weeks to 90 days for an item to also arrive.

Whether or not you read the above, the rules for giveaways are in place to protect everyone. I do not want to hear you didn't read them, they will be posted on my blog daily during each featured day. There is no excuse for not reading them.