Patchwork & Quilting – Page 9

Introducing Quilt-Along Series #2 | HST Sampler Quilt!

Happy Day! The time has finally come to introduce to you my next Quilt-Along-With-Me series on my YouTube channel! Yay!

This time around we’ll be doing a HST* Sampler Quilt!

The quilt will be made up of nine 12″ blocks that all feature HSTs in their design. Most of the blocks are quite simple to piece together with only a small handful that may challenge you! So if you’re a lover of HSTs, a hater of HSTs who wants to learn to love them or simply have issues piecing HSTs, then this is the perfect project for you to follow along with!

The blocks we’ll be making are (in order of release): Formal Garden, Morning Star, Contrary Wife, Friendship Star, Shoo-Fly, Mill Wheel, Churn Dash, Open Window (a new variation) and the Windblown Square.

In each block tutorial I’ll let you know all of the measurements and cutting info like I usually do, along with what fabrics I’m using for that block. An information sheet will also be available for you to print off and follow along with at home! (These will be available to download from my blog.)

For this series, I’ll be using a range of fabrics from RJR Fabrics and Cotton+Steel. The main collection is one called The Sultan’s Garden designed by Mary McGuire and soon as I saw it, I knew it was perfect for this series!

The fabrics I’ve chosen are from the Apricot/Turquoise edition of the collection (there’s also a Berry edition featuring beautiful shades of purples and pinks!).

Here’s a list of each of the fabrics I’ll be using, along with it’s name and where it’ll feature in this Sampler Quilt.

FABRIC NAME: Tulips. This fabric will used in two of the blocks.

FABRIC NAME: Melisa. This fabric will be used in one of the blocks.

FABRIC NAME: Minaret. This fabric will be used in one of the blocks.

FABRIC NAME: Mosaic. This fabric will be used in one of the blocks.

FABRIC NAME: Leila. This fabric will used in two of the blocks.

FABRIC NAME: Blossom. This fabric will be used in three of the blocks.

FABRIC NAME: Stripe. This fabric will be used as the binding for the quilt.

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To accompany these prints, I’ve also mixed in two matching XOXO Basics fabrics from Cotton+Steel.

FABRIC NAME: Pink Cheeks. This fabric will be used in three of the blocks.

FABRIC NAME: Dandelion. This fabric will be used in one of the blocks.

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To balance out the prints, I’m also using two Cotton Supreme Solids from RJR Fabrics.

FABRIC NAME: Elephantastic Pink (on the left). This fabric will used in two of the blocks.

FABRIC NAME: Blue Skies (on the right). This fabric will be used as the background fabric in all nine blocks as well as for the sashing and borders. (NB: This fabric doesn’t photograph well: in real life it doesn’t look this grey and boring!)

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Now in regards to how much fabric you’ll need will all depend on if you’re going to use as many fabrics as I am. If you are, I would recommend in getting no more than a half metre or half yard cut of fabric for each print you’ll be using in your blocks. You possibly could get away with using Fat Quarters, but if you make a mistake with a certain block, you may come up short and I don’t want that to happen to you! For the background fabric, you’ll need at least two metres (2 yards) and no more than 1 metre (1 yard) of fabric for the binding. Once the quilt top has been completed, I’ll share how much backing and batting you’ll need to finish it off!

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Now luckily for me, a wonderful Australian wholesale supplier and fabric distributer know as Dayview Textiles very kindly sourced and supplied these beautiful fabrics to me which I am very grateful for! If you’re in Australia and are keen on using the same fabrics as me, pop over to their website to find the nearest quilt store to you that they distribute fabrics to!

If you’re not in Aussie-Land, here are a few places you can purchase these fabrics online… (OH MY GOSH! Fabric.com has everything!)

Fabric.com – The Sultan’s Garden

Fabric.com – XOXO Basics

Fabric.com – Cotton Supreme Solids

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I’m so excited about this little series finally starting and I can’t wait to see all of your lovely blocks and potentially beautiful quilts over the next coming weeks!

The video tutorial for block #1 will be out on Wednesday, with block #2 out on Friday!

See you then!

Happy Sewing, Friends!

P.S If there’s any vital information you think I’ve missed, comment below and I’ll add it in!

P.P.S I also uploaded this video to my YouTube channel introducing the series if you’re interested in watching it!

*HST = Half-Square Triangles

A Block Review // FPP Jack-O-Lantern

The other day, while wasting time on Facebook, I came across a link that was shared to this awesome little FPP Jack-O-Lantern pattern by Sonja Callaghan from the blog Artisania. And with Halloween coming up very soon, I just knew that I had to print it off and give it a go!

Firstly, I printed off the pattern at a scale of 90% so that I was sure the pattern would fit comfortably on a A4 piece of paper. Then I sat down for a bit, trying to figure out the best way to make it as I’ve never attempted a FPP pattern this intricate before!

Once confident of how to start and what steps I had to do to be successful at the end, I picked out some fun autumnal RJR Supreme Cotton Solids and jumped straight into making!

Here are a few tips that I think might help you when making the block yourself…

No. 1 – The block is divided into six sections labelled A to D. So you need to carefully cut the paper pattern into the sections before you can start any sort of piecing! (See Photo #2) I also cut an extra 1/4″ seam allowance around the outside line of the pattern so that I wouldn’t get caught out not having enough fabric to cover each section. (See Photo #1)

Cutting a 1/4" seam allowance out from the edges of the paper pattern. — Photo #1

No. 2 – Another prep step before starting: Using a Clover Serrated Tracing Wheel and a ruler I perforated all of the lines in each section that I’ll be sewing on top of. (See Photo #3) Doing this simply helps to ensure that the paper will rip away smoothly from the back once the block is finished.

No. 3 – I found it really helpful to initial each numbered section of the colour that was to be used so that I wouldn’t get confused!

W=White, O=Orange, B=Black and G=Green.

No. 4 – I was really relaxed with sizes of fabric I cut for each section. I found, that because a majority of the numbered sections were quite small, I was able to use quite a lot of fabric pieces from my little scrap pile I was creating from the other sections I had finished piecing. And due to that, the block came together really quite quickly!

No. 5 – As you piece each section together, make sure to leave enough fabric over the edges so that you can trim the block down with a 1/4″ seam allowance around each side. For this pattern to come together perfectly at the end, you need to cut a 1/4″ out from each edge on all six sections (excluding the edges you cut around before on the outside of the pattern)…Hopefully Photo #4 will help you understand a little better…

No. 6 – Once you’ve come to the part where you’re ready to piece each section back together, I found doing it in this order the easiest…

Sew section A to section B, then section C to the other side of B. Remove the paper from the back and press the seams either to one side or flat open. Then sew section D to section E and then section F to the other side of E. Again, carefully remove the paper from the back and press the seams in the same way as before. From here, piece the two sections together to finish the block.

TIPS: When piecing each section together make sure to line up the seams around the outside of the pumpkin and around his mouth to achieve clean crisp lines. It may take a little bit to get these parts aligned and sitting perfect but trust me, it’ll be worth it in the end!

Finished block size: 7.5″x9.5″ (19cmx24cm)

So to sum it all up, despite a few mistakes on my part resulting in the seam ripper to make an appearance more than once, this was a really fun FPP pattern to piece together! Believe it not, I did learn a few new things and expanded my knowledge on the way I should tackle these types of tricky pattern designs! I also felt like a slight rebel making this little guy as Halloween isn’t widely celebrated in Australia as it’s seen as more of an ‘American’ tradition. But I like Halloween – it appeals to the crafty and creative side to me! Hence why I loved this making little guy!

If you like the look of this guy and would love to make him yourself but don’t know a thing about Foundation Paper Piecing (FPP), then check out this tutorial I made a little while ago taking you through the steps of how to do it!

Of course, if you have any questions about this block or are stuck on any step, please don’t hesitate to ask! I’m always here to help!

Best of luck to all of you who are going to print this little guy off and give him a go! Don’t forget to share your photos with me!

Happy Paper Piecing, Friends!!

TUTORIAL // FPP Friendship Circle Block!

GET THE PATTERN: FriendshipCircleBlockTemplate_3and3quarters

Hi all!

Although my Post-A-Day Challenge for September fizzled away too near to the end of the month, I’ve re-kindled the friendship between me and blog and we’re ready to present to you another awesome Quilt Block Tutorial! Yay!

So you may’ve already guessed what the block in question is by the title of this post, the title of the template pattern and the thumbnail of the video below…

But despite all of that, the block we’re learning how to make today is the Foundation Paper Pieced Friendship Circle Block! (Whew, what a mouth full!)

Everything you’ll need to know on how to piece this little beauty together is in the video below and trust me when I say that this block is easier to make than it looks!

FINAL BLOCK SIZE:
13&1/4″x13&1/4″ approx. (33.5cmx33.5cm)

FABRIC INFO:
You can easily make this block using Fat Eighths, Fat Quarters as well as those little scraps that tend to float around your sewing room! Be as creative or as safe as you like when it comes to choosing the fabrics that you think would look best in this block!

CUTTING INFO:
Cut these amounts for each section in the template. (These amounts are to make one full block.)
A1 & B1: x8 2.5″x2.5″ square
A2 & B2: x8 4.5″x4″ rectangle
A3 & B3: x8 4″x5.5″ rectangle
A4 & B4: x8 2″x6″ rectangle
A5 & B5: x8 3.5″x3.5″ square

TOOLS & NOTIONS:
Brother Innovis 200QE sewing machine
Brother 1/4″ sewing foot
Gutermann polyester thread
OLFA Cutting Mat
Fiskars Rotary Blade (28mm)
Sew Easy Rulers
Bostick Glue Stick
Triumph Craft Scissors
Birch Non-Melt Flower Head Quilting Pins
Clover Serrated Tracing Wheel http://goo.gl/kS3aoi
Clover Finger Presser http://goo.gl/IOXilY
Spray Starch
Philips Azur Iron

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If you’re keen-as-beans to make this block, let me know how you go and don’t forget to share your finished blocks with me either on my Facebook page, Instagram and Twitter (@3and3quarters) or through email: 3and3quarters@gmail.com. I would love to see how you interpret this block! And if you have any questions, don’t feel shy to ask – I’m always happy to help! 🙂

I hope all have the most terrific weekend!

Happy Sewing, Friends!

September 25th: Favourites & Finishes!

Oh man, I knew it would happen! Our Internet conveniently died yesterday, ruining my good run of publishing a new blog post everyday during September! I did try to attempt to get onto WordPress yesterday, but all I was met with was a blank screen and that annoying little circle of lines that goes round and round when you’re waiting for something to refresh or load! Oh well, it is what it is!

So now that we have our Internet back in all it’s beautiful high-speed glory, I can share with you today what I was going to share with you yesterday!

My Notting Hill House Mini is finished!! Yay! (Well, no. A slight lie there. I still need to attach a rod pocket so that I can hang it up. But other than that, it really is finished!)

Oh, I swoon! It’s just so lovely! I can’t believe I was so unsure about the fabrics I picked – but they all work so well with each other! Hooray!

I was planning on quilting it in a grid-like pattern, similar to the original but on the day I quilted it I was more in the mood to stick with my classic straight-line quilting style than to branch out of my comfort zone! I’m really am so happy with how it worked out though. Super modern. Super chic. Super darling!

And today I caught myself gushing even more about this Mini in my September Favourites video! It’s been a while since I shared my monthly favourites on my blog! I hope you enjoy watching it!

Here’s a list of the things I chatted about in the video…

My September Favourites
Florence + The Machine Album, ‘How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful’ (2015)
Petal Pincushions / TUTORIAL
Notting Hill House Mini Quilt by Nadra Ridgeway
HER WEBSITE
THE PATTERN
‘Be Brave. Be Bold.’ Book from Kikki.K
Revlon Highlighting Palette in 020 Rose Glow
Photography / CAMERA: Canon EOS 600D DSLR

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I hope you all have a wonderful weekend wherever you are in the world and use the time to sew til your hearts content!

Happy Sewing, friends!

September 23rd: TUTORIAL // The Mountain Block!

It’s been a while in the making, but here it is: The Mountain Block tutorial!

FABRIC
Wildwood by Elizabeth Olwen for Cloud9 Fabric, in Wild Flower.
Prima 100% Cotton Homespun, in White.

MEASUREMENT & CUTTING
From the white solid fabric cut:
x1: 8.5″ square

From the print fabric cut:
x1: 8.5″ square

FINAL UNIT SIZE

6.5″x8″/17cmx21cm (approx.)

FINAL BLOCK SIZE

15.5″x12&6/8″ / 40cmx32.5cm (approx.)

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As I mention in the tutorial, you have free reign on how big or small you want to make your mountain block! In no way must you stick with the measurements I’ve provided – you can be as adventurous and as creative as you like when piecing it together! The only thing you need to remember is to cut your HST in the opposite direction to achieve that wonderfully awesome mirrored effect in the block!

Here are a few great examples I found on Pinterest of the mountain block (also known as the Delectable Mountain/s block) being used to create such effective and beautiful modern quilts!

The quilt by Quilts by Emily

The quilt by Quilternity’s Place

The quilt by Wendy Meyen

The quilt by Old Red Barn Co.

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Let me know if you’re excited to give this block a go! It’s perfect for intermediate beginners and would be great to use to get some of those scrap fabric piles down to a better height!

Happy Sewing, Friends!

September 20th: A Family Day!

Happy Sunday!

Today was spent celebrating the lives of my nephew Xavier and niece Amelia at their Christening Day! The ceremony was lovely, very hands on and inclusive with their older brothers, godparents and grandparents.

Both kiddies were dressed beautifully, with Xavier sporting a darling suit vest and collared shirt and Amelia wearing a darling white dress with purple flowers and shiny white Mary-Janes! Oh so cute!

Here are a few of my favourite photos from the day…

The joys of photographing little people! One's blowing a raspberry and the other is looking at anything but the camera! — The joys of photographing little people! One’s blowing a raspberry and the other is looking at anything but the camera!

My eldest brother Kevin and his beautiful family!

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So on the to-do list this week in my sewing room is:

Get the Mountain Block tutorial finalised and uploaded for you to enjoy!

Finish my Notting Hill House Mini Quilt so that I can hang it on the wall and swoon all over it!

Re-think the ‘Wildwood’ Quilt…

The initial idea I had in my head to make with those gorgeous Cloud9 fabrics I keep going on about, hasn’t been sitting right with me all week. I’ve sort of got half way through piecing together the quilt top and realised I’m just really not feeling it…

Hmm...Perhaps I need to re-jig the layout to get the excitement back for this quilt...? — Hmm…Perhaps I need to re-jig the layout to get the excitement back for this quilt…?

What I’ve done so far just doesn’t excite me, resulting in me losing interest and motivation to get it finished. Boo! So, I’m gonna have a bit of a re-think about, scrap the idea I’ve already begun and start a fresh! Last night I came up with the idea of perhaps re-visiting the Spinning Stars pattern by Anna Maria Horner or even trying out that Octo pattern by Zen Chic I bought the other week from FQS! Hmm, it’s definitely back to the drawing board with this quilt and fabrics. I’m determined to get a beautiful quilt out of them one way or another!

I’ll be sure to keep you updated!

Enjoy the week ahead friends!

September 19th: I Heart Sydney!

Last night, as you may know, I took a trip into the city to see Anything Goes at the Sydney Opera House!

The show, one I’d never seen before, was fantastic! The music was wonderfully jazzy and melodic, the story line funny and engaging and the dance numbers were absolutely first class! It was really great and a perfect birthday treat from my parents!

And of course, while I was in the heart of my beautiful city, I captured some photos for you of the Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the sparking harbour surrounding them!

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Today has been a busy editing day, getting the Mountain Block tutorial polished and all shiny ready to upload for you in the next few days! I am sorry that it is a little later than usual, the past few days have thrown my schedule all out of whack!

I hope you’re all having a splendid weekend and are pursuing all of your quilty plans and dreams!

Happy Sewing!

September 18th: Show Time!

First and foremost, a big huge humongous THANK YOU to everyone for sending me your lovely birthday wishes yesterday! You’re all such wonderful friends! My day was perfect!

Tonight, another birthday treat is coming my way! My folks and I are off to the city to see Anything Goes at the Sydney Opera House! Yay! I’ve never seen this show before so hopefully I’ll like it! But I love all of that Broadway singing, dancing and shiz so I’m bound to love it either way!

I’ll do my utmost best to capture some beautiful shots of the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge for you while I’m there! I love my city so much so any chance to share and show her off, I’ll take with both hands! 😀

Apologies for the short post today! I’ll be sure to tell you all about the show and what we got up to in the city tomorrow!

Happy Friday, Friends!

September 17th: Birthday Celebrations!

Today was my 28th birthday! 🙂

I spent the day rugged up at home (my favourite place) joyfully playing with my youngest nephew and niece! We sung songs, played with balloons, ate doughnuts and built Duplo towers!

Amelia: 'Auntie, what is that big thing you're shoving in my face?' (I took the picture using my big DSLR camera!) — Amelia: ‘Auntie, what is that big thing you’re shoving in my face?’ *(I took the picture using my big DSLR camera!)*

Oh, those big brown eyes and pouty lips!! Too cute!

Xavier singing his ABC's! — Xavier singing his ABC’s!

More of my family came over this evening where we had our traditional party tea, with homemade chocolate cake, lollies, Chocolate Crackles* and yummy fresh fruit!

And because I work from home (which means that technically I’m my own boss) I gave myself the day off! I do feel slightly bad that I did, as it means that Friday’s tutorial has now been pushed back a day or two! Sorry! But today’s little breather from everything has really helped clear my head and get a few things back into perspective!

Although, I do have one very exciting thing to tell you about! Last night I finalised everything for my next Quilt-Along Series!!! Yay! It’ll be a HST Sampler, made up of nine different blocks, all at different levels of difficulty and layout. This time around I’ll be using a beautiful fabric collection from RJR Fabrics that has some of the most loveliest colours and patterns that I’ve seen in quite a while! As soon as I saw it, I knew it was the perfect one to use for the quilt! I’ll announce what the range is and the whole story behind it once I receive it! Eek!! (Although, some of you might be able to figure it out with some of the clues in the picture below!)

Here’s a sneak peak of the blocks we’ll doing…

I guess this also gives a little insight into how I design and work out all the maths for my quilts! I must always draw them out and colour them in to be able to get a true understanding and visualisation of the block/quilt I want to make! At the moment, I don’t have a date for when this will begin, but know that it’ll be very soon! (Like ‘weeks’ soon!)

I hope your day was as lovely as mine!

*PS. Curious to know what Chocolate Crackles are?? Here’s the recipe if you would like to try them! Every Aussie kid has been brought up eating these, especially at birthday parties, cake stalls, picnics and as special treats!

Chocolate Crackles

Ingredients:

4 cups of Rice Bubbles

1 cup of desiccated coconut

1 cup of icing sugar (powdered sugar)

250g of Copha (a type of vegetable fat made from coconut oil)

3 tablespoons of cocoa

To make:

First, slowly melt the Copha in a saucepan over a low heat.

Meanwhile, mix together the rice bubbles, icing sugar, coconut and cocoa in a large bowl.

Carefully pour the melted Copha into the rice bubble mixture and stir until well combined.

Spoon the mixture into a cupcake tray filled with paper cases and place in the fridge until set.

Enjoy!

Makes 24+

Store in an air-tight container in the fridge.

September 16th: Beautiful Wisteria!

Just a short little post today!

This afternoon I went out into the beautiful Spring sunshine and took some lovely photos of the blooming Wisteria trailing along our side fence! It has bloomed so insanely quick! It seems like only yesterday it looked like dead twisty branches trying to eat our fence!

Wisteria vines/bushes would have to be one of my favourite garden flowers ever! The scent, the colour, the delicate little blossoms, the bright green leaves along with it’s dramatically soft vertical hang! Oh, so pretty! What made it all look so romantic today was the brilliant blue sky that quietly hung in the background! All of these delightful Spring colours coming together simply made my heart so so happy!

After our lovely day visiting the Mt Tomah Botanical Gardens last week, I’ve totally fallen in love with taking photographs of flowers and nature, showcasing their beauty, colour, structure and uniqueness at the moment! Today I was also quite lucky to capture a few bees doing their loyal duties to their Queen and Hive! The flowers were almost swarming with them which made me feel very uneasy, as I have a slight fear of bees! (I’ll explain the dramatic and ever-so-scaring story another time!)

I hope you enjoy these photos just as much I do!

Happy Wednesday, Friends!

PS. How beautiful would these colours be in a quilt!!? Especially that last one! So gorgeous!

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Chocolate Crackles

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