Busy by Default

You can always tell how busy my husband is by the amount of sewing I get done.  I've gotten way too much done these last couple of weeks, because my poor hubby has been working some seriously ugly hours in the Emergency Room.  The kiddos and I have really been missing Daddy, but on the upside - my wide open evenings have turned into some serious progress.

1- I put together my first tutorial this week for the Album Four-Patch (here).  I turned this block into a mini quilt with a couple of borders:

2- I've made some serious progress on my 2 Skill Builder quilt tops.  I finished the top to the first one:

I'm a good way into the sashing process for the second quilt top.  It's currently residing under my piano in hopes that it'll be slightly out of the way of my Little Tornadoes until I can get it done.  You can tell by Little Man's fire hat that nothing is ever completely out of the way, but so far so good.








3- I'm up to date on my Blogger BOMs now as well.  Here are the first 6 blocks:

Other Projects:
Christmas Blocks - no progress
Halloween Wall Hanging - on some serious ice

Stats for the Week:
New projects - 0 (I haven't started the diaper bag yet)
Completed projects - 1
WIP- 5

My husband is actually going to be home this weekend - I'm counting down the days - so, I won't be getting as much done this week, but that's ok by me.  :)  Oh, and Happy Leap Year, everyone!

Check out what everyone is up to this week over at Freshly Pieced.

Dressed Up Blocks

I spent most of my weekend adding things to the blocks I've made.  I added borders to my Album 4-Patch to make a mini quilt:

I also added sashing and made a quilt top that consists of half of my Skill Builder blocks.  I forgot how time consuming sashing can be, but it was well worth it (in my opinion). 

















I also got Blogger's BOM for February done:

I'm happy that all three projects are so different from each other.  It keeps me from getting bored with any particular color and/or design.  

I'm linking up to BOMs Away.  Go take a look at all of the other lovely blocks being made.  Happy Monday!

Album 4-Patch Tutorial

I went for rather bold fabrics, but it has a lot of great possibilities.  I was thinking this could also be a great scrappy block as well.    It is 16" (16 1/2" unfinished).

You'll see in the diagram that you can play quite a bit with dark, medium and light fabrics:

 For simplification I'm just going to label the fabrics as Polka Dots, Red & Zebra.  I hope that doesn't confuse anyone. This is what you will need:

Polka Dots (light):  [6] - 2 7/8" Squares  &  [4] - 2 1/2" Squares
Red (dark): [20] - 2 7/8" Squares  &  [20] - 2 1/2" Squares
Zebra (medium): [14] - 2 7/8" Squares

We're going to take care of the triangles first.  I know there are a bunch of methods out there, but this is the way I prefer to do it.  You're going to draw a diagonal line through ALL of the polka dot & zebra prints that are 2 7/8"  on the wrong side of the fabric.

 I used a regular pen because it's not going to be part of the quilt (I know some people don't like doing that.  Just use what works for you, so that you can easily see the line).

Match up all of your zebra & red blocks that are 2 7/8" with the right sides facing each other.  Sew a scant 1/4" to the left of the line.  Make sure you're hugging that line.

 Keep piecing the blocks together making a chain.  Continue by layering the 2 7/8" polka dot squares with the last of the 2 7/8" red squares- right sides facing each other. 

All of your 2 7/8" blocks should now be used.  Cut the thread, turn the squares around, and sew a 1/4" from the line on the other side of all of them.











Once all of them have been sewn on both sides, cut the blocks apart and cut on your line down the diagonal of each of the blocks.

 

 Iron the triangles open pressing the seam to the darker fabric. 

Next you're going to cut the little doggie ears off of each square.  You can see the "ears" on the left side and cut off on the right. 

Trim the squares to make sure they are all 2 1/2" square.




Because this is such a large block we're going to think of it as the center X and then the border around it, so we're going to lay out the center first.  Grab all your polka dot fabric and here we go...

Piece it together working across each row & then once the horizontal rows are done piece the four rows together.







I wanted to show you how I chose to iron my seams for the row.  You'll notice the seams aren't all the same.  I ironed based on how the fabric was naturally laying and what would make them lay the flattest. 

Just a little word of caution- make sure you line up your rows carefully.  I got lazy and didn't pin the rows, and then I ended up having to pick out a row and start over, because they didn't line up right.  :)








And here's the center:

 Next we're going to lay out the border around the center:








Piece the top, bottom and sides the same way you did the center working across horizontally, and then sewing the rows together.  Here are a couple of pictures showing the progression of piecing:

Sew the sides to the center first and then sew on the top and bottom:






And you have your Album Four Patch!  I plan on adding some borders and making a mini quilt, but I think an entire scrappy quilt of these would look amazing.  I may just have to make one.  Sigh- add it to the list.

 

Nurture Shock - In Review

Have you read Nurture Shock by PO Bronson & Ashley Merryman?  My book club chose this book to read this month and I loved it.  I thought this book was so informative, and maybe it's just the scientific/educationally-oriented part of me, but I loved that it was all based on research.  Each chapter debunks a commonly held misconception of children - about their learning, intelligence, behavior, etc. 

>>>

Here are a few of the chapters that I found particularly fascinating:

• The Inverse Power of Praise: Sure, he's special.  But new research suggests if you tell him that, you'll ruin him.  It's a neurobiological fact.
• The Lost Hour: Around the world, children get an hour less sleep than they did 30 years ago.  The cost: IQ points, emotional well-being, ADHD, and obesity.
• Why White Parents Don't Talk About Race: Does teaching children about race and skin color make them better off or worse?
• Why Kids Lie: We may treasure honesty, but the research is clear.  Most classic strategies to promote truthfulness just encourage kids to be better liars.
• The Search For Intelligent Life In Kindergarten: Millions of kids are competing for seats in gifted programs and private schools.  Admissions officers say it's an art: new science says they're wrong, 73% of the time.

Intrigued?  So was I.   These are just a few of the topics, but I thought every chapter was so interesting.  I kept telling Joel all of these cools things I was reading about.  So much so that he probably feels like he's the one that read it.  This made me think about some of my behaviors as a parent and an educator.  I'm still in the pondering phase, but my eyes have definitely been opened to quite a few things.

If you have anything to do with children I think you would love this book- just be prepared to learn a lot.  I was surprised by some of the research findings- most of which are relatively new.  I will be interested to see if any changes are made in the educational system as a lot of these concepts become more widely discussed.

Scatter Brained WIP

I started out the week very focused - I needed to get the baby boy quilt done - he's coming in less than two weeks.  I spent my Friday Night Sew-In working on it and then finished it over the weekend.  It makes me smile looking at it.  (full post here)

 So- that part is good, but after I finished the quilt I got so excited about all these new ideas running around in my head that I went a little over board.  I think I was over congratulating myself for the finish.

First, I bought all the stuff I needed to make a diaper bag.  I've never made a bag before - it's always been on my bucket list, so even though I'm nervous I really want to try to make it.  I went pretty plain on the fabric, so that my hubbie wouldn't feel like he was carrying around a huge froo froo bag.  Your welcome, sweetheart.  :) 

 So I got the stuff, but then I was all sad that Skill Builder's been postponed and I thought now would be a good time to put together a quilt top or two from the 25 blocks I already have.  I have 2 different quilt top ideas floating around in my head, and I really think I want to do them both. 

But then, I saw all these amazing ideas for the Modern Mini Challenge being posted this past week and I couldn't help myself- I had to join in on the fun.  I've never made a mini quilt before - I don't even know what I'm going to do with it, but I wanted to do it anyway.  In order to justify my participation I made 3 rules for myself: 1- it has to be a block/pattern I've never done, 2- it has to be completely from my stash of fabric, and 3- I have to practice some Free Motion Quilting with it.

The lighting isn't the greatest for the picture, but this is what I have done so far: It's all cut out and ready to be sewn together.

And just because I'm feeling extra crazy this week I've decided to put together a tutorial on this block: the Album Four Patch (16" finished).  I'm hoping to have it posted by the end of the weekend.  I'm going to add a border or two for the actual mini-quilt, but I thought it would be a fun block to make for the center of the mini quilt.

So here are the ugly stats: 

Projects:
Skill Builder: working on 2 quilt tops simultaneously
Blogger BOM- next one comes out this week
Christmas Blocks - no progress
Halloween Wall Hanging - on some serious ice

Stats for the Week:
New projects - 1 (I'm not counting the diaper bag until I actually cut the fabric- for some reason that makes me feel better)
Completed projects - 1
WIP- 6

Check out what everyone is up to this week over at Freshly Pieced.  Maybe they were more successful at focusing than I was this week.

Multipurpose Quilt

I'm so excited about this finish: it took a while to make but I'm mostly pleased because it served so many purposes for my "gaining skills":  It is part of my Scrap Attack Quilt Along - I used a ton of scraps "making" the inside windows on the front and back, and I barely made a dent in my scraps, so I think I have more scrappy quilts in my future.

 This was also my test subject for the Free Motion Quilting Project.  I am seriously so relieved and pleased that my stippling went so well.

 Here's the back...  (I was so excited it was such a beautiful day outside, so I could actually get some good pictures of the quilt)

 The green thread really pops on the blue fabric - it's a fun corner of the quilt.

I also tried Amy's little tutorial for getting perfect corners on the binding.  Mine weren't perfect, but definitely better than usual, so I'm happy I tried her way of doing it.

My friend is having her little boy the beginning of March, so I finished the quilt just in time.  This is her third - they already have a boy and a girl, and I think sometimes when you already have "everything" it's nice to do something a little special just for that baby.

Sew-In Success

I loved my 1st Friday Sew-in, and my husband was working a night shift in the Emergency room last night, so it was a no brainer for me to participate again this month, and I had a HUGE break through in my sewing last night.  Don't you love when you actually see improvement?!  Free Motion Quilting has always stressed me out, because of a couple of major flops.  After a long period of avoidance, I've finally gotten to the point where I really don't want it to hold me back anymore, so when I saw a Free Motion Quilt Along - it called to me.  It actually made me excited to try.  They're already 6 weeks into it, but that's alright.

First I practiced the wiggle patterns to remind myself how to do it... (Week #1)

Then I stipled in rows in the center of the quilt... (Week #2)

 As you can clearly see on the back- I had some thread tension issues, but I fixed it for the next section I did...

It's funny that Scale is Week #3, because I noticed that my stippling got bigger the farther I got along in it, so I'm definitely going to have to work on that, but I'm thrilled with my first attempt at stippling...
I needed to stitch in the inner border (Week #6), and I am seriously so proud of myself for actually doing it! 

 You can see it on the back really well.

I decided to go all in and finally buy the quilting gloves.  I totally had one of those "I feel silly" moments - when I first put them on I was thinking, "what's the big deal with gloves?  I don't think they make that much of a difference."  Then I looked down and realized I had put them on so that the grips were facing up - oops.  I had a good, little giggle and then got stippling (with the gloves the right way - tee hee).  It is really funny though, because as soon as I started thinking "Oh ya- I got this" - that's when I started making mistakes...

Oops- I overlapped a couple of loops.

Despite the couple of mistakes I'm thrilled with the overall product.  I was grinning ear to ear when I finished top stitching last night (that's definitely a first).  When I turned off the light in the room I noticed that it made the quilting stand out a bit...

The other thing I quickly did last night was figure out which Skill Builder Blocks I want to use for the first quilt front.  I have 25 blocks and 13 of them have the black background, so I chose 12 of those 13 to put together.  This week I'll finish up the baby quilt and start adding sashing to these blocks.  It's gonna be a fun quilting week.

Squeaking By

We were out of town this weekend, so I just barely squeezed in the One Thing, One Week Challenge.  My goal was to piece together the back of the baby boy quilt.  I got it done right before packing to leave, so it was a close one, but it's done.  This quilt is part of my Scrap Attack, so I wanted to use some scraps on the back as well...

 It'll be a little further in the corner once the quilt is layered and bound.  I like how it turned out except for the one row of stars that didn't go together as well as I would have liked - I was trying to match them up and it didn't quite work.

For those of you visiting from the link up - here's the full quilt top.  The scrappy square is based on the front section of windows: