Feathered Star

Weekend Sewing

12 Comments / Embroidery, Feathered Star, Marsha McCloskey, sewing / By

I have been doing a lot of weekend sewing lately.  Quick and simple projects that offer me some instant gratification – I love instant gratification! Most of these pictures have already been up on my Facebook page, but I thought I would share a little more about the projects I have been working on and not blogging about. There are way more than this, but these are finished and photographed!

One of my wonderful blogging friends, Eileen, and I had a conversation about hand embroidery back in June and she oh so generously offered to send me a little starter kit to learn some of the basic stitches.  When I opened it I was blown away. There was a hoop, 2 patterns, 2 pieces of muslin with tons of stitches done to show me, 2 needles, a needle threader, and TONS of thread (both perle cotton and floss).  I was so excited but as you all know in July my hands took a turn for the worse.  Well this month I finally decided to throw caution to the wind and I gave the hand embroidery a try and I am now officially ADDICTED!

This is my first project and I have to tell you I was so tickled when I finished it. I don’t know why but it was a BIG deal to me, probably because I really thought I wouldn’t be able to do this. I have a lot more embroidery stuff to share with you and even the find of the year, but that will all have to wait for a future post!

Another project I worked on was for my hands to bring myself a little relief. I made myself a booboo bag. I know I’m kind of old for one, but ice packs make me really uncomfortable so I thought a flannel covering with a flax seed filled muslin bag might feel a little better on my wrists.  I love it because I can throw it in the freezer and it just feels so good on my aching hands and wrists.

I decided to go with the super cute and kid friendly fabric in the hopes that if Anne needs to use it she will be enamored with the bunnies (she loves bunnies) and will be willing to have it on her booboo.

The last project I am going to share with you is Anne’s new art apron! I followed the wonderful Smock Monster Pattern by Rebecca Ruth Designs. It was super easy and came together beautifully. The cool thing is that when I went to my LQS, Ruby Street Quiltworks in Tumwater, WA to find the ric rac I needed, the person who helped me color match…was Rebecca herself!  She works at Ruby Street. She is just the sweetest lady ever. Check out Anne modeling the 5T size.

Now you  may be asking yourself…”where is the monster exactly?” Well I did option E of the pattern which is just a basic pocket. I was working with laminate – a first for me – and I wanted simple and doable.  Anne loved the apron so much she wore it for about 4 hours straight and only took it off when I told her it was time to take a bath!

So I told you that last week was a rough one. We had to deal with some ongoing health issues for Anne and that is never easy. Hard to explain to a 2 year old that the tests are painful and uncomfortable but absolutely necessary for her well being. She doesn’t care about those things, she only cares that someone is hurting her (and I don’t blame her one bit!). Well on Thursday we got to meet one of my wonderful blogging friends and bee mates in person, the wonderful CeLynn from The Sunflower Patch.  It was so cool to put a face with a name!  We went fabric shopping and in the middle I got a phone call from the doctor  and CeLynn was awesome enough to go with us to the lab to pick up stuff for Anne’s testing.

Then on Sunday I realized that the Pacific West Quilt Show going on in Tacoma, WA- a 45 minute drive later and Anne & I were surrounded by some amazing eye candy!  The coolest part, aside from buying a ton of thread from Superior Threads, was meeting Marsha McCloskey – author and designer of the Feathered Star books and ruler that I blogged about back in May! I bought 2 more of her rulers AND she gave me a copy of one of her books! How cool is she!!! Here is a picture of the 2 of us in front of one of her stunning quilts:

And so long as I kept the snacks at the ready…Anne seemed to have a good time too!

Ok, you’ve heard enough from me for one day. Tomorrow I will have a post up about a fun blog hop I will be participating in next month, so be sure to check in.  Also, if you haven’t already I am have a fun giveaway up as part of the Quilting Gallery Blog Hop, so make sure you go enter, there are 6 Amy Butler Fat Quarters up for grabs and a great book too!

New Library Bag

12 Comments / Contemporary Cloth, Feathered Star, Hand Quilting, Purse/Pouch / By

Last month Anne and I went to our local library, for Olympia WA natives, that would be Tumwater Library.  My goal was to introduce her to the library and get myself a library card (yeah, we’ve lived here for a year and I still hadn’t done that). The cool part of our visit was that even though Anne is only 2, she was able to get a card too!  I’m not sure who thought that was cooler, me or her. Which brings me to my next project….

I finally decided that I needed to do something with my Feather Stars and I hand quilted one of them. I put the finished picture out on Twitter and asked my friends for ideas of what to do with them and my friend Debbe from Pieces To Love suggested making a book bag for our library trips. Hello GENIUS! A bag was born!

I wanted there to be some fun whimsy to the bag so for the back and lining of the bag I used some lovely Yuwa fabrics from Contemporary Cloth – after all this is a bag Anne and I will use together and there need to be some little girl touches for her.

I think my favorite touch is the lined inside zipper pocket. A first for me!  I followed a fabulous tutorial from my friend Beth at Plum & June. I changed the measurements slightly to fit the needs of my bag, and I can’t tell you how happy I am with how it turned out. It is the perfect pocket for Anne to keep her library card.

Pretty happy with out it turned out. Today we will be going to the library, we have to, our books are due tomorrow!  Have a happy hump day everyone!

Feathered Star Tutorial – Part 2

10 Comments / block tutorials, Fat Quarter Shop, Feathered Star, tutorial / By

Welcome back for part 2 of the Feathered Star Tutorial – this will be assembly.  I have done an all picture tutorial for you – I am a visual learner and for a technique like this I think it will be really helpful. If you are looking for part one (cutting) – go here.

NOTE: ¼” seams are of vital importance for this block.  Check that you are using an accurate seam allowance BEFORE you start piecing this block. ALSO! Be sure that you do not stretch the triangles when sewing them.

We will start with putting together the HSTs that you made yesterday following the 2 wonderful tutorials I linked to: I recommend chain piecing your pairs together for speed.

 

The star points are assembled in pairs. Here is the layout before for each pair, you will make 4 sets.

Starting with the right side point, you will assemble the diamond section first:

Assemble the left section the same way, except you will need to reverse the pieces

Next assemble the right side center section:

Add left side of center section:

Make sure that you stop sewing at where the sections meet (1/4” from end)

Add inside triangles:

Add diamond sections:

Add top triangle, start with the left side:

Next sew right side:

Make center “peekaboo diamond”:

Assemble the border for the center section:

You have now assembled all of the sections – you are ready to layout your block – it is a basic 9 patch now! Sew it up and you are done!!!

 

 

The first time I assembled this block it took me 3 days, but keep in mind that I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t have a tutorial for the block that I designed, I just went with it.  I have now made 3 of these and the third one took me 2 nap times to assemble (that’s about 4 hours total) – 1 nap time to cut, 1 nap time to sew. I measure all my sewing time in nap times 🙂

Good luck and if you make one of these from my tutorial I would love to see it and if you have any questions, please let me know! And don’t forget to enter the Fat Quarter Shop giveaway for a Layer Cake of Quilt Blocks – which is what I am using to make my feathered stars!

I’m linking up to SewHappyGeek Manic Monday and Quilting by the River Tuesday Linky Party.

Feathered Star Tutorial – Part 1

13 Comments / block tutorials, Fat Quarter Shop, Feathered Star, Marsha McCloskey, tutorial / By

Let’s start out with a little disclaimer…this block looks intimidating and scary, but once you break it into small sections, it really isn’t that hard. Especially if you use the bias strip piecing method for the HSTs – I am sending you to 2 fabulous tutorials.

I am going to show this tutorial in 2 parts, cutting with links for the HSTs and then assembling on Tuesday. I think that will be a good break, as cutting takes me a good while.

Finished block size – 15.5”x15.5”

You will need:

2 Squares: 10×10” of focus fabrics
Scraps from 4 different fabrics
Peekaboo fabric for center – 4.5″ square
White Background fabric
Sewing Machine
10×10 inch quilting ruler
Quilting Ruler with 45⁰ lines on it
Nice to have but not necessary: 45⁰ Ruler by EZ Quilting or Marsha McCloskey Feathered Star Ruler

Cutting White Fabrics: Everything is pictured with the Feathered Star Ruler – but you can easily cut these with the 10” ruler listed above.

Using Larger 10×10 ruler to cut next one:

Simple Squares

Using 45⁰ Ruler – cut diamond shapes – 8 total

Using standard quilting ruler marked with 45⁰ markings:

Cutting for center square:

Half Square Triangles (HSTs):

I used the Bias Strip Piecing method to assemble my HSTs. I learned this method from 2 fabulous tutorials. One by Erin at One Piece at a Time and the other by Molly at It’s Molly’s Place (you will need to scroll down a bit to get to the triangles).

For this block you will need 32 HSTs measuring 1.5”. You will use the two 10”x10” squares for this – the part that is confusing from both tutorials is how wide to cut your strips – follow their method for cutting and sewing and cut your strips 2” wide.

Come back tomorrow and I will show you how to put it all together! And don’t forget to enter the Fat Quarter Shop giveaway for a Layer Cake of Quilt Blocks – which is what I am using to make my feathered stars!

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