String Heart Tutorial

A while back I mentioned that I was going to write up some instructions about how to do the string heart blocks - given that I made this decision about halfway through making them, I don't have any instructions for the very first part of the process - making the string pieces. But I think everyone can probably work that out - it's just some rectangles stitched together to make another rectangle...

Anyway. For the heart blocks, first you want to work out what size you want your finished blocks to be. I chose to make 8" blocks (8.5" unfinished), so for each block I needed two rectangles, 8" (8.5") x 4" (4.5") - you can obviously make your blocks any size you choose.

I decided to build my string blocks quite straight - so that all the stripes of the strips were parallel - but that's not required - if you want to make your blocks with wonkier strings, or diagonal strings, or vertical strings, go for it. The block which I saw on Sophie's blog which inspired me originally was done in a more liberated style and looks fabulous, so I'm sure whatever choice you make, it will work.

Once you have your basic rectangles, you are ready to start turning them into hearts.



For each heart half, you will need one square of background fabric the width of your rectangle, or narrower. If you use a square the same width, the bottom of your heart will meet in a sharp point - I decided I didn't want a sharp point, so I used a 4" square on my 4.5" wide strip. You will also need two squares of fabric half the width of your strip, or narrower. If you use ones which are exactly half the width, the top of your heart will be pointy. In this instance, I have used 2" squares.



First step is to line up your larger squares with the bottoms of your rectangles, and stitch across the diagonal. For each heart, you will need to sew one square on from top left to bottom right and one from top right to bottom left. If you are using squares which are narrower than your rectangles, be sure to line them up correctly, like I've done here.



If you want to, you can sew a parallel line to the one across the diagonal, so you can cut away the waste triangle and use the resulting half square triangle unit for another project. But you don't have to, that's up to you.



Here's what the units look like once I've cut away the waste triangle units...



...and pressed them.



Now you are ready to add the top squares to make the top of the heart - looks like I missed a photo in the process, but it's the same as before - line a square up with each top corner and stitch across the diagonal. This time, you are doing both corners, so it doesn't matter which you do first, as long as you stich across the diagonal which goes across the corner. Here they are are trimmed and pressed




Then, repeat on the other side - line up a square, stitch across the diagonal,



Then press open. If you are more thrifty or more crazy than I am, you can do the same thing here that I did with the bottom and turn the waste pieces into more useful scraps, but I'm not that serious about my scraps!



Here's the two halves, with all the background pieces sewn on now.



All that remains is to stitch the two pieces together to make a heart - hey presto!

Old books and pages

Lately I've been doing a lot of ATCs, etc with book pages as backgrounds or partial backgrounds - something which I love doing. I have a number of old books in English, a couple in Latin and one or two in German which I can use for this purpose, but would love some books or book pages in other languages - older books are great, but frankly, newer ones are ok, too, so if you happen to have something tattered you were going to throw away, please let me know, and perhaps I can take it off your hands (happy to pay postage).

Skinny Challenge

Nope, I'm not on a diet (not yet, anyway - probably soon!) - this is a piece for a challenge that BQL (British Quilting List) is doing this year - several times through the year there will be a challenge in a specific size and those wishing to take part can make a piece, which will then be available for swapping in a similar way to the way my ALQS works. The first challenge, due at the end of February, was for a piece 12x18", so I decided to try out something like a small piece I saw on Julie's blog recently.

This uses some (but not much) of my collection of Lonni Rossi fabrics, which I love, but never seem to find enough chances to use (they are quite large prints, in many cases).



I think it's come out well. If no one puts it on their "want" list, I shall be more than happy to keep it at home!

The Art Quilt Collection

Apparently, one of the advantages of writing a long-time, somewhat prolific quilting (and/or other arts) blog is being given the opportunity to review the occasional product or book - I've seen this happen on other blogs, and looked on enviously, but haven't had the chance to take part in such a golden opportunity myself. Until now, that is - and it was well worth the wait as it was indeed a golden opportunity being asked if I'd like to review Sixth & Spring's new book: The Art Quilt Collection (Designs and Inspiration from Around the World).

The Art Quilt Collection is a beautifully presented book, which strives to visit a wide variety of art quilts from many different artists around the world, in many different types and styles, from the largely realistic to the highly abstract, stopping anywhere and everywhere in between. If you have never been sure you liked art quilts because they were too "out there", this book will have something for you; if you like those art quilts which are based on the traditional, but with a contemporary or modern edge, this book will have something for you; if you are a fan of the weird and wonderful - those pieces verging on the "but is it really a quilt" edge of art quilting - this book will have something for you. Hang on, a minute, you're thinking - that's pretty much everyone- yes, it is.

[This book would also make an excellent weapon against all those people who, when you mention you're a quilter, say things like "oh, you mean you make those blanket things with leftover dressmaking fabrics" and "what's the point of cutting fabric apart only to stitch it back together again?" or - god forbid - "but is sewing really an artform?".]

Laid out basically one quilt & artist to a page (except where a technique is described), the book presents a short artist statement with a description of the materials and techniques used in making the featured quilt. A good sized full-colour photo of the quilt (or quilted object) is accompanied by a smaller detail photo. A handful of pieces come with the added bonus of a tutorial for using some of the methods themselves, including pleating, using colour photographs on fabric, fusing small scraps to make a new fabric, and so on. That said, The Art Quilt Collection is first and foremost a book for looking rather than doing - and looking again, and again - and then probably again and again.

This is a sumptious book, full of things to admire and be inspired by and would make an excellent quilter's gift, or treat to yourself. Definitely a keeper.

The Art Quilt Collection: Designs & Inspiration from Around the World
Foreword by Linda Seward
October 2010, Sixth & Spring Books
see sample pages on Sixth & Spring's website

Batik scraps

Today I went with a friend to the annual fabric sale and quilt show at Farnham Maltings, so there wasn't much sewing - a few minutes spent attaching a piece of binding to be sewn down later this week was all. But I did see an idea on the scraphappy blog which I wanted to pinch - I think this particular block would look great in reds and white, and may make some when it comes to that month in the scrap challenge, but I also thought it would look good in batiks, with the inner square being black instead of white (see above!) -don't you agree?

So I decided to dig out my batik scrap basket - yes, I confess to having had a separate basket (smaller than the main one) for batik scraps. It was fairly full, so I knew I'd be able to cut plenty of 2.5" squares from the scraps to get the squares needed for the blocks. And of course, there are lots of other small bits of batik which are too large to be called scraps, which I could cut into if needed, in the main stash.



Here's the batik basket - pretty full, including a plastic baggie of joined pieces left over from some block making some time back. I decided that really I didn't need a separate batik scrap basket, and it should be incorporated into the main basket, and the strips and larger pieces into the main strips and larger pieces places. So, the state of the scrap basket isn't so good (see sidebar), but I did add this lovely pile of strips to my strip stash:



and cut all these 2.5" squares for the Boxed In blocks - which will be a good start, at least.



and look!



That's got to be worth something, right?

More scrappiness

Finished up all the hearts I had prepared from last weekend today, and even remembered to take some photos as I went along so I can do a mini-tutorial sometime soon on how to do them, if you should so wish.

Someone last week suggested that the offcut triangle squares looked like good churn dash starters - I've taken that idea and run (not quite in a straight line) with it - and made some shoo-fly blocks with them. Ten heart blocks yeilds five shoo-flies, but there will be more hearts in other colours, so more shoo-flies later this year. And the amazing thing is, I don't think I added anything to the scrap basket at all... Oh wait, I'm wrong - one cream square which I cut the wrong size...



I also did some quilting - a few ATCs with some threadplay, and then I quilted a couple of small pieces for upcoming challenges and swaps - yes, I'm being vague, you'll see them in time, I promise.

Thanks for the various comments about my thoughts on my blog - I have decided that for the time being, I will keep the two separate - I think if I were starting again, I would just make one blog and that would be that, but they've been separate for so long it seems weird to join them. (The family blog is older than Alex!) Also, I am trying to write more often in both places (especially here), so I don't want to get TOO many posts. The family blog doesn't get updated nearly as often, it's true, but that's partly because I don't take as many photos now that the kids are older, and partly because this year I've been doing the 365 project, so some of the photos I take around the house, etc go there instead.

I decided I would link the two a bit, though, so I have put a feed from my family blog in the sidebar on this blog for anyone who wants to see what we're up to. I couldn't make it put a photo and a couple of lines of text, but at least you can see when it's been updated, if you are interested in that aspect of my life.

I also gave this blog a title (though not URL) change (I did think about changing the URL, but it seemed like too much hard work - actually changing the title is simple, if you can think of a new one not taken, but all the associated palaver...) and revamped it for the season. And you can expect to see a bit more of other stuff besides just sewing (though I will keep it art & craft related, mostly) here in future. I think that will hold me for the time being!

More stitched (or partly stitched) ATCs

Although I've not been showing all the ATCs I am making - many are collage - a few which use stitch, I thought were more appropriate to share. These were both for a swap where the recipients of the cards chose the theme. The first was the TV show Carnivale - I used a transparency over a fortune telling playing card and stitched around the edge, but also FMQed the focus tree.

The other card's theme was Fat Cat, so I've gone back to one of my favourite (at this precise moment in time) techniques - FM stitching in a shape on an organza layer, then using the little soldering iron to remove the unwanted bits. I've also given him a funky variegated bow tie.

The other cards for the swap were paper collage...



I can't decide what I want to do about my blog - at the moment I have a family blog and a quilting blog - the problem is, I don't update the family one very often, and I do other art besides fibre art and quilting, so if I want to share that, where's appropriate. I wonder if the solution is a single, combined blog (quilty people can skip over posts about my kids if they want to) - but then, perhaps it would be too much stuff on a single blog, and there's such a huge archive (which I use a lot to search old projects) on the quilting blog. I dunno - will probably do nothing.

More loveliness in the post

As I mentioned before, I've received a lot of lovely things in the post lately - and that's not even counting ATCs for swaps and private trades. Here's another of them - a beautiful scarf knit from Noro yarn - this is from Joyce (no blog), who has been in some swaps with me and reads my blog - I've sent her a few cross-stitch patterns I've finished with, and this was by way of a thank you. What a lovely thank you! My girls and I will probably all use it as we all like it. As does Alex, though perhaps when he realises how much pink is actually in it, he won't want to wear it in public...

Seven Sisters

Another thing that was in the package from Sophie which contained my mini quilt was this great Seven Sisters block. This is totally not the sort of thing I'd make for myself (not patient enough!) so I can really appreciate it. I don't know what I'm going to do with it, though - it's not that big (the diamonds are tiny - another reason I'd never be able to do one for myself!), so it would probably make a very nice start to a mini quilt of some description...

Lost and Found...

Among the nice things I've had in the post this week (there are a number of them - more to be shown at some point!) was this lovely mini quilt, from Sophie. Quite a long time ago, Sophie was in one of my little quilt swaps (perhaps the first one) and was due to make a quilt for me, but then life got in the way - and during her big move from Michigan to Texas, the quilt got lost - she thought for good. Luckily, it came to light again while she was looking for something different she thought had been lost in her more recent move (within Texas) - and she finished it off and sent it along... Isn't it great? The little houses are 3" blocks, and they sit in a very dark blue background - I originally thought it was black, but it's not.

Anyway, I'm delighted she found it - partly because of course it's incredibly annoying to lose things - but mainly because I love it!

Cross-stitch update

Once the Christmas things were put away, I dug out my current (ok, one of my current) cross-stitches - this nice spring samper - and decided to work on that. I've had a couple of evenings of telly watching lately, so quite a bit of progress has been made on it since the last time I showed it (below). A while back, I was being very strict with myself and making sure I worked on some cross-stitch if watching telly (rather than getting the laptop out) so I tended to get more accomplished. These days, I'm making a lot of ATCs while watching, which is fine - it's creative time - but it does eat into that cross-stitching slot. Obviously, the solution is to add a couple more hours into my evening sometime between 10ish (kids mostly in bed) and 12ish (when I reluctantly head up to bed)...

Strippy & scrappy

I have a box of strips and strings, as I may have mentioned before. Today's project was to do something with it - and lo and behold, several ideas were found in the course of blog-reading and surfing last night. Scraphappy had several ideas (which I may yet take up) and Sophie had a great string pieced heart - I decided to modify that, working with blue strips as this is blue month, and here's what I came up with:



some blue strip pieced rectangles, which I then added white corners to to make



hearts. I've done 3 and have done enough strip blocks for 10 heart blocks. I think I will either alternate the blocks with a different block or with another colour of string pieced heart - haven't made my mind up yet on that count.



I also have these (and will have more) - the offcut HST units from the bottom of the hearts - these are about 3.5" squares, so they will be large enough to be useful for something. Someday.

This also gave me the chance to sort out the box of strings - a few were decided to be too skinny and went in the bin, and a good handful were too short and relabelled "scraps" rather than "strips" (which means, into the scrap basket) - consquently, the scrap basket is a little fuller than yesterday... Ah well, better organised is good!

Scrappy blocks - framed

Today I decided that I would do something with some of the little scrappy blocks I'd made so many of - I have plans (nebulous plans!) for a variety of different kinds of uses for them. I think they are a bit busy when set right up against one another, so I decided that I would frame them in solid(ish) fabrics to define them better and flesh out a larger quilt top from a handful of small blocks.

I also used this chance to begin to straighten out one of my baskets of hand-dyed fabrics. I have two - one is for fabrics that are multicoloured or use various techniques which make the fabric not (essentially) a single colour - stamping, overdyeing, sunprinting with lots of resists, shibori, ice-dyes, parfaits, complex cloths. The other is for the ones which are more or less one colour (many handdyes have a lot of variety in the depth of cover of colous - it's one of the things I like about them).

Anyway. I do have quite a few pieces of hand-dyes - I used to dye quite a bit myself, though not so much any more. And there are lots of smallish scraps - maybe 10" square or thereabouts - which can be hard to use as they aren't really enough to do a lot of things with (when I was making my canal houses recently I did use a number of large scraps as well, which was nice). So I began to sort the basket out a bit - larger pieces (Fat 1/8 and up) could be ironed and folded back into the basket (it's a large, rectangular basket) and smaller scraps could go in a neat pile for use in small projects or as ATC backs, while the medium scraps were cut into 2.5" strips and used to frame 20 of the 4" scrappy blocks.

I think it's worked fairly well!



I also worked on something else, a piece for the BQL Skinny Challenge, which I'll show later, perhaps tomorrow, which means there are now quite a few more small scraps in my scrap basket (check out "state of the scrap basket", in my sidebar, if interested). I also remembered that I have two (much smaller) baskets of other small scraps - a basket of hand-dyed scraps and a basket of batik scraps. I guess they need to go on the list for being used up in some way! And my bin of strips is getting very full - I'm hope my scraps guru offers some project ideas for strips (other than a standard strippy scrap block) this year - otherwise I'll have to come up with something myself and that's a lot like hard work!

Stitched Trees

I make a lot of ATCs - mostly in the evenings, while watching telly. I don't generally tend to show these on my blog, though perhaps I should as sometimes, there are large gaps where nothing is shown at all (you may have noticed, if you are a regularly reader, that I am trying to change that for 2011, mainly by breaking up all that I do into small chunks and posting one thing each day instead of lots at once and then nothing for ages). However, when I make some which are actually stitched or otherwise fibre, I do try to show them. These are simply stitched trees, in variegated thread, on a hand-dyed fabric background. I really must learn to stitch something besides trees...

Off to the longarmer

Two quilts handed off to my friendly local longarmer recently - the first is this collection of Oriental Fans, from a swap a while ago. We'll not say how long ago, but the top was finished before the longarmer took a two year break from her business to live in India...



And the second is this top, a result of my participation in the Around the World Quilt Bee, which finished last summer. I added a couple of borders, both to pad out the size and to help tie in the orange which appears strongly in one block. I'm very pleased with it - round robins are notoriously difficult both in terms of timing (which luckily, wasn't something I had to deal with, as I wasn't the hostess) and matching and I think this top has come out of it very well. A million thanks again to Summer Sadie for organising it all.

Xmas tree skirt

Well, here's the finished tree skirt. It's still in my house because the friends it was intended as a Christmas present for have had to keep rescheduling our get-together - by the time we manage it, I doubt their Christmas stuff will still be up - oh well!

Cross-stitch nemesis

Someone asked for an update on the Christmas nemesis - the top picture shows where it was after last holiday season, and the bottom, a few days ago (I'm done stitching it for the season).



Not a lot of progress has been made, frankly, mainly because I had flu in December and even when I began to feel better, this was too intricate for my brain to handle - I probably lost 3 weeks of stitching time on this project that way - and when you only work on something for 5 or 6 weeks a year, well, that's a lot. Excuses, excuses! Anyway, perhaps next year will see more progress. I really should get the red angel's face done, as it's slightly disturbing that she's all blank...

Last productive day...

Tomorrow is back to work, so today was my last chance to spend a large chunk of the day sewing - so I did! I did lots of stuff, including a few things I won't show today - I'll save them for later in the week when I've not even been in the room...

One thing I did was do the January round of the Oh My Stars Block of the Month from Planet Patchwork - I actually looked yesterday morning to see if the round 3 instructions were up yet, and at the point I looked, they weren't. But they were there today, so I've done this piece to add to my Christmassy star sampler.

I also put together the snowball and nine-patch blocks from yesterday. Don't they make a nice little baby quilt? I'm pleased with the top and will put it away either until someone has a baby or until I decide to make it into a charity top. Not sure which it will be yet.




And just in case you wondered, here's what the scrap basket looks like at the end of the day today:



Still pretty empty, but as you can see, scraps are accumulating. I think I'm going to add a photo slot in my sidebar - "State of the Scrapbasket"...

State of the Scrap Basket

It's not empty. But that's it - these have both come from another scrap-busting project I worked on today - the crumb scrap blocks are done - I ended up with 120 or so of the 4.5" blocks in the end. Not sure quite what I will do with them yet, but something.

This year, I am planning to follow along with the soscrappy blog and try to do some more scrap reduction - the basket may be emtpy, but there is still that box of strips, plus the small basket of larger pieces I showed the other day, plus a number of little drawers of squares ranging from 3" to 5" in size.

She is doing her scrap reduction in monthly colour themes, January being blue. One idea she proposed yesterday was to make nine patch blocks from 2" blue squares, and alternate them with 5" snowball blocks (blue corners on a white background). The 2" blue squares weren't a problem (I don't save 2" squares separately, but I do save 4" squares...)

However, I haven't got a lot of white squares in my 5" scrap collection, and while I could have simply cut some WOW into 5" squares, I decided to have a quick look elsewhere in stash and see if there was something else which would serve. And I found this - I think someone gave it to me, as I can't imagine buying it - it's not really my taste, but more than that, it's a bit thicker and obviously a little older than most modern quilting fabrics. Probably not vintage, though. I thought this would make excellent snowball backgrounds, and of course, it has the advantage of being used for a project when it might otherwise just sit in stash.





I was able to cut 24, 5" squares from the floral print. Perfect - I would make 24 nine patch blocks to go with, and alternate them.

And several hours later:



Tomorrow, perhaps I will sew the two stacks together!