Hallowe'en 1904 . . .

All Done!

I think that simple black and orange strip border is the perfect touch.

This is Lifetime Quilt Number 96.

The pattern is Hallowe'en 1904 by Blackbird Designs.

I purchased the fabric as a kit at the Buggy Barn and added a few of  my own pieces. ( Buggy Barn has since sold out of the kits)

I used the Buggy Barn method to piece the stars

This quilt has approximately 1,501 pieces.
It's big and beautiful, this quilt finished at 90" x 90".

I love how this quilt turned out, I loved piecing every block, and I'm thrilled to discover I'm a capable machine appliquér.  That "C"/Moon block was a little scary but I'm happy we all agree the owl block was an improvement.  This is a very good beginner appliqué  project.  The pieces are large and easy to work with. The pattern instructions assume you are not a beginner so keep that in mind.  I think this project would look great in brown and orange too, for more of a fall feel instead of Halloween feel.  You've got 11 months to collect fabric before you start piecing your top next October, don't you want your own Hallowe'en 1904?

Sewing along with Nicole at Sister's Choice made this an extra fun project for me.  I think Nicole is almost done with her version too.  Be sure to check it out.  So Nicole, what's next, I'm always up for a sew-along with you.

What's a Halloween without Garfield Cooper?  

Trick or Treat!

Read more

Hallowe'en 1904 Update . . .

Before I get to Hallowe'en 1904, yesterday I left Cindy's quilt out of the parade, after Cindy let me know her quilt was no where to be found, I added it to the post.  But for you folks who stop by everyday, and missed Cindy's quilt, here it is again, I think it deserves double billing! (Cindy I'm so sorry!!!)

Cindy's adorable, summery quilt  just got home from the quilter.

Here's what Cindy had to say about her Spools, "This quilt represented a lot of firsts for me.  It was the first time I used a Thimble Blossoms pattern and the first time I purchased a pdf pattern.  It was also the first time I used a coordinated line of fabric (Pam Kitty Morning), the first time I purchased fabric that wasn't on sale, and the first time I ordered from Shabby Fabrics.  Most importantly, this was the first time I started and finished a project so quickly (just over a week)."

Great job all around Cindy!

Also, I've heard my Star quilt that was beautifully quilted by Judi Madsen is at the Machine Quilters Expo in Portland Oregon with a ribbon on it! If you're attending that show would you please take a picture for me?  THANKS! (Life Time Quilt #62)

The Hallowe'en 1904 blocks are all done!

For this block I went with 3 different black and 3 different background fabrics for the hsts. 

Someone asked about the pin on the left hand side of all my blocks.  That pin identifies where each block goes in the layout.  This is block 15.  I identify each block because I've not pieced them in order, and after going to the trouble to select a specific combination of fabric for a specific block, I want to make sure that block ends up right where it's supposed to.

I also got all the hsts on my remaining blocks.  The hsts are scrappy for these blocks, scrappy black and scrappy background.

Do you like that moon and star block any better with the border added?  I'm still on the fence.

My pumpkin blocks are my favorite blocks!

So now I just need to make up my mind about that one block, whose popularity is fading each time I blog about it,  connect all the blocks and add a border.  It's looking good for a finish next week.

Spools-Along Sew-Along winners.  Annette and Cathy each won 2 charm packs for participating in the sew-along.  Thanks again to everyone who participated by sewing along or following along.

Read more

Hallowe'en 1904 Update . . . . .

So here's my latest progress on Hallowe'en 1904 by Blackbird Designs.

For the hsts on this block I went with the same orange fabric and same background fabric for all the pieces.

For the hsts on this block I went  scrappy oranges and background fabrics. 

For this block I went with the same black and background fabric for the top and bottom and and for the sides the same black and background fabric, but fabric different from the top and bottom.

This is my favorite block so far, the pattern called for all orange hsts but I added a few blacks ones, for a combination of two different oranges, one black, and three different background fabrics.

I've also made all the other star blocks except one.  The remaining blocks are going to be scrappy hsts so I need to make a bunch of them before I can move on.

A few folks commented last week that they didn't like that moon and star block, and I have to agree, it's not really one of my favorites either, but I'm leaving it in for now to see if I warm up to it.  Nicole isn't using that block in her version, she's going with all pumpkins.

I'm still enjoying this project and it seems to be going super fast!

Read more

There's Always A Morning After . . . .

Every now and then, when I post a picture of what I'm working on, someone always comments on my neat sewing table and room.  I don't stop and clean up before taking pictures, I just like a neat work area and usually keep it that.  That's why I thought you would enjoy these pictures.  This is what my sewing room looked like after two full days of appliquéing my Hallowe'en 1904 blocks.

Is there a neat way to machine appliqué? 

Between cutting bits and pieces of this fabric and that fabric for the blocks and appliqué pieces, using that Steam a Seam paper, and trying to make bias strips, my sewing room looked like it had been hit by a tornado!

It took an hour, but I started my day getting everything folded, put up and thrown away.  No more applqiue for this project so no more mess.

Aaaah, back to my neat and orderly way of life.

The rest of my house didn't look as bad as my sewing room, but I did have some general catching up to do there too, and errands to run, so after cleaning my sewing room I only had time to get the hsts on my cat block.

But a finished block is a finished block.

It's hard to tell from this picture but I went with three different black prints and three different background fabrics.

As many of you noticed my blog got a facelift yesterday.  My 3 year blogiversary was in August and my 500th post is a little over a week away, good reasons to freshen things up.  I'm planning a special post and giveaway to celebrate my new look and 500th post, be looking out for it.  Somehow my blog list got lost in the update, I'm working with my designer to get it restored, stay tuned! 

Read more

Applique is all done . . .

So, day one of my machine appliqué work for Hallowe'en 1904 involved piecing the blocks and appliquéing the pumpkins, moon, and stars.  That just left the stems and leaves for day two, how hard could that be?

Here's a nice close-up shot of a pumpkin from the pattern cover.  The leaves were easy, see that cute little curlycue of a stem, that wasn't!

I cut my fabric on the bias so I would have some give and made it the size called for in the directions.  I could not get my strip to curl and lay flat no matter how hard I tried, and I tried hard, for a long time.

Then it occurred to me that I could just draw and appliqué the stems, like the leaves were drawn and appliquéd.  So that's what I did.

And here's how it turned out.

Three little pumpkins sitting on my design wall, all done!

Nicole got clever with her pumpkins and made them her own.  I thought I would add a little something different to my project too, so I made this cat block to go with my pumpkin blocks and moon block.

I got the cat pattern from the Treats No Tricks book by Lynette Jensen.

So I'm all done with the appliqué phase of this project, and it only took me two days, start to finish.

Two FULL days, but I had the time and enjoyed every minute of it.  I'll try machine appliqué again, sooner as opposed to later.

Now it's back to piecing those star blocks.  I'm off on my one full block a day schedule, I hope to get back to that today.

Read more

A good start but not a finished block . .

For a change of pace I decided to work on the appliqué blocks for my current project Hallowe'en 1904 by Blackbird Designs. After seeing Nicole's cute pumpkins I was anxious to make my own.  I can't remember the last time I did any machine appliqué and wasn't really looking forward to it, but I'm off to a surprisingly good start.

By the time I got the blocks pieced, and got out my Steam A Seam 2, my Sulky stabilizer, my machine manual, my appliqué foot for my machine, my magic markers and special thread, I figured I might as well work on all the appliqué blocks at once, and not one at a time.

This is what I accomplished in one day and I'm very happy with my results so far.  One of the things that's making this so easy is this wide and clear applique foot.  The edge of the fabric just slides next to the right inside of that foot, making it easy to get the stitches right where they need to be.

Instead of matching the thread to the fabric I decided to use black thread for all the pieces.  I'm going with black in the background fabric so I thought the black thread was a good match and I just like the look of blocks appliquéd in black.

The pattern comes with a pattern for the stars, but since I was using different stars for my pieced blocks I thought the pattern appliqué stars for my pumpkins would have a different look, that no one would notice but me, but you know how I am.

So I traced one of my pieced blocks onto my Steam A Seam paper, 

and used that pattern for my appliqué stars.

Besides being surprised at how nicely it all looks and is coming together, I'm also surprised at how looooong it takes to machine appliqué!  I'm hoping I'll finish up the appliqué blocks tomorrow.

Read more

One More Block . . .

I'm doing pretty good with my goal of starting and finishing one Hallowe'en 1904 block per day.

Here's my fourth block.

For this block I went with 4 different pieces of fabric for the stars and their backgrounds.  For the outer half square triangles I went with the same fabric for all four sides with the same background fabric.

Here's a peek at my design wall.

So far so good!

The first time I tried to square up my center star block I was a bit stumped.  The star blocks finish at 5 1/4".  That's sort of an odd size and nearly impossible to get directly in the middle of my star block, since there are no straight lines to line up with and finding the center was a bit of a puzzle.  To solve my dilemma I cut a piece of freezer paper the exact size of the finished block.  Using the top star point as my guide, I then put the square of freezer paper over the star, making sure all the star points are inside the square. 

I then press the wax paper in place and square up the block, cutting 1/4" bigger than the paper.

It works perfectly, as you can see from the stars in my blocks above.

Nicole at Sister's Choice is working on this project also and it is just hilarious to see our different takes on how to make this quilt.  I hope you're following Nicole's progress and are enjoying watching her progress as much as I am.  As a matter of fact, her applique pumpkins are so cute I think I may have to work on mine tomorrow!  I sure hope I can get one whole block done in a day!

Read more

No BOM Rehab . . .

I just couldn't talk myself into stealing time away from 1904 to make a Memories of Provence block for Sinta's BOM Rehab!  I usually enjoy a change of pace during the week, but this week I'm still in that all consuming "new project love" phase, I'm sure it will pass and I'll be in that "I don't think I like this anymore" phase very soon and will get back to MoP.  My poor quilts, my emotions run hot hot hot to luke warm to cold to back to hot.  I almost always end on the love side of things so it all works out, it's just getting there that's sometimes hard on both of us.

But I'm still in love and here is why.  So far I'm sticking with my plan to make one entire block at a time so I can pick out all the colors to get the absolute best possible combination.  I'm making the blocks with the black stars first, I have no explanation for doing it this way, I just looked at the pattern and thought I would start with the black stars, maybe because there were fewer of them.

So here's my second block.

And

here's my third block!

Here they are all together.

See why I'm still in love!

Nicole is making 1904 too.  We both started with the same kit but have added and taken away a few of the pieces of fabric and have different approaches to the quilt assembly.  I can hardly wait to see how they both look when we're done.

Read more

Hallowe'en 1904 . . .

So, when I was in Washington visiting the Buggy Barn,  Nicole and I saw this kit for the Blackbird Designs pattern, Hallowe'en 1904.  

We both jumped up and down and squealed like schoolgirls, or maybe it was just me, but there was definitely nothing but smiles and joy all around.  That quilt was on both our To Do Lists, we both had already bought the pattern, but up until that day had not been able to put together the fabric we needed to make that quilt.  Now all we needed to do was get home, free up some time, and get to sewing.  Talk about perfect timing, who wants to work on this quilt anytime of the year besides October!

All the stars in the Blackbird Designs pattern, all 52 stars, are appliquéd . The quilt on display at the Buggy Barn had pieced stars, stars pieced using the Buggy Barn Crazy Way.

Here's what Buggy Barn Crazy Way stars look like.

This is their pattern Barn Raising, which is in the book Gone Crazy.

To make the stars you stack several layers of fabric, face up, then just using 8 swipes, you cut the pieces, shuffle the pieces, and sew them all back together.  If you look real close at the stars in the quilt above you'll notice they are scrappy, made by shuffling up those pieces.   The gals at the Buggy Barn have used this technique to make several different sorts of blocks, like birds, hearts, and different stars.

I immediately decided I wanted to make my stars like the Buggy Barn.  My machine appliqué skills are not that great,  I figured I would limit my lack of appliqué skills to the pumpkins.

So the first thing I needed to do was to teach myself how to make the stars using the Buggy Barn Crazy method.  Looking at the pattern provided in the book, Gone Crazy, I thought I needed to shrink it down to get the size I needed for the 1904 pattern.  That's why I made that itsy bitsy star in the center of the picture below.  That was my first attempt, it turned out great, other than the size.  I didn't account for how much the star would shrink once pieced and trimmed.

So I made a few more to understand the process and get a feel for the size I wanted.  ( I also double checked the size of the corner triangles and the finished size of the block, that's that square in a square block.  When it comes to math, I don't trust anybody!)

They were fun and easy to make, something different, and had a good look that went with the pattern, which filled me with relief, no applique stars for me.

One thing that I came to understand while practicing my stars, the crazy method works best when you're using all the parts.  What I mean is if I have two pieces of material, one red and one cream, using their method I will have the pieces for a red star on a cream background and a cream star on a red background.  Well I didn't need cream stars, I needed black and orange stars.  So instead of stacking and slicing each block, I figured I would save fabric by making templates of each piece that was sliced.

So here's what the star looks like all sliced up.  I just took the paper pattern and glued it to hard template plastic.

Then I cut them out and labeled them.

By piecing the stars in this fashion I will save fabric and be able to cut my pieces from strips.

Here are my first two stars using the templates.

So I determined that I needed 3 1/2" strips for the stars and 4 1/2" strips for the star backgrounds.  For the rest of the pattern I also needed strips for the hsts and for the outer border.

So I cut all my strips at once, they are hanging and ready to go.

If you look real close you can see how I have each group labeled, so I don't get confused.

So once I had everything figured out and cut out, the only thing left to do was sew!

This is my first block.  I've decided to not chain piece all the pieces for each section, then assemble all the blocks at once.  I've waited so long to make this quilt I want to enjoy every block and pick out each combination of fabric for each block.  My goal is to make one complete block a day.  

For the first block I went with 2 different blacks for the stars with two different backgrounds, and you can't tell from the picture but the outer border has a design.  The top and right side hsts are the same black and background fabric and the bottom and left side are made using the same fabric, but different from the other hsts, if that makes sense.  I intend to play around with the hsts on all the blocks, using different fabrics, designs, and patterns.   I think the blocks in the pattern are all scrappy.  You know me, I've got to plan and control my scrappy.

Nicole has decided to appliqué  her stars and has a good start on them, check out her progress here. 

jmniffer won the ruler/template/tool of her choice, leaving this comment,

" I've enjoyed your tool reviews; you covered many I wondered about,several I've never heard of and the two I do own. Next on my list is the fit to be Geese rulers...Christmas is coming and I'm starting a list! Tnks for the chance at your giveaway."

Congratulations!

The Omni-grid rulers combined,  6 1/2" square, 12 1/2" square and all the other assorted sizes were the most popular.  The most popular individual ruler was the Fit to be Geese, it wasn't even close.  I've got a new list of rulers that are some folks favorite that I've never even heard of!  Sounds like another Tools Tuesday post will be in my future!  Thanks to all who stopped by to tell me how much they enjoyed the series, I have to admit, I'll miss doing those posts too.

Enjoy your weekend, if all goes well I should have a few more 1904 blocks done by Monday.

Read more