WIP Wednesday and BOM Rehab

This week was somewhat of a transitional week -- the boys just finished the last of their summer camps, and we are now getting ready to go back to school (finally, phew). So, given all that, plus work and visits from out-of-town family, this was all I was able to complete. It's the eighth block from the Mystery Designer BOM 2011.  Yes, that's right, I'm still that far behind.  I'm linking to these two awesome blogs today!

The major breakthrough with this block was I finally discovered spray starch. It's a wonderful. I don't know why I didn't do it before, except that it gets my iron all gummy after a while.

WIP Wednesday and Giant Churndash Tutorial (Part 2)

I don't think I've ever done this before, but I already have my binding prepped!  For not just one, but two quilts!  Are worlds colliding yet?

Vintage Modern binding for Giant Churdash

Basic Gray binding for Scrappy Hunter's Stars

That said, here are the rest of the instructions for the Giant Churndash blocks.  Click on this link to view the original post.

CUTTING INSTRUCTIONS - SOLID FABRIC
You will need approximately 3 yards of a contrasting solid -- for this quilt I used Kona in white.

Cut (7) strips 8.5" x WOF; keeping the strip in two layers, subcut as follows:
a. (2) strips - 8.5"; 8.5"; 4.5" - you should end up with (8) 8.5" square and (4) 8.5" x 4.5" rectangle;
b. (1) strip - 8.5"; 4.5", 4.5" - You should end up with (2) 8.5" square and (4) 8.5" x 4.5" rectangle
c. (4) strips - 4.5" rectangles - cut a total of 28 rectangles - there should be some left over fabric

Cut (5) strips 9" x WOF - subcut each strip into 9" squares for a total of 18 squares.

Make the half square triangles (HST)



Using one 9" square of the solid, draw a diagonal line through the center. Layer with one 9" print square like so.

  Using a 1/4" seam, sew a line on either side of the center line just drawn. Iron to set the stitch lines, and then cut along the drawn line. Fold out and press. You should end up with two squares that look like this. Now, trim down to 8 1/2" -- I like to make my HSTs oversized so I can trim them down to the exact size.  BUT, if you are an HST pro, if you start with 8 7/8" blocks, you should end up with an 8.5" square when your triangles are complete -- without any trimming!  Repeat with another solid 9" square and the 9" square of the same print.

Put all your various pieces together like so, sewing one row at a time.  Once all the blocks were complete, I used a 3 x3 setting  to end up with a 72" x 72" top with no borders. Last, but not least, I finished the seventh block of the Mystery Designer's BOM from 2011. I am WAY behind on this.  Of course, I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday hosted by Freshly Pieced!

Giant Churndash Quilt - A Tutorial (Part 1)

Just before we left for vacation in July, I started these giant churn dash blocks.  Here are the goals I accomplished with this one: I wanted (1) to do a churn dash quilt; (2) a quick, easy project; and (3) a large block to showcase some pretty prints (Vintage Modern by Bonnie & Camille).

Each block measures 24 inches -- awesome!  When you put three together, that's automatically a 72-inch quilt.  The best part?  You only need 9 fat quarters of various prints, and there is very little waste of those fat quarters with the cutting lay-out.



I thought it would be fun to share how easily these blocks came together.  I put together some initial notes -- I will post the actual sewing tomorrow, but I thought I'd start with the supply list and cutting instructions for the fat quarters.

SUPPLY LIST:

Blocks:
9 fat quarters of coordinating prints - blocks
3 yards solid - blocks

Backing  - 2 1/4 yards
Binding - 1/2 yard


Finished Quilt 72" x 72"
Finished Block 24 x 24

CUTTING INSTRUCTIONS:

From each print fat quarter, cut according to this diagram:

Fat Quarter (20" x 18") - cut carefully, as you can see there's very little wasted fabric!

Last, I'm linking up to:

Chevron Love

After a month traveling around Germany, I came back to these lovelies:



These are just three of the many fabulous colors available from Riley Blake's much sought after chevrons.  You can find them here.

 I'm off to iron some binding and will post a couple of completed quilt tops that I've been working on!