My Daughter's First Quilt!

Our youngest daughter (youngest by 1 minute :)) unexpectedly came home for a week.  God received another Angel this past Sunday when he took my Mother-In-Law home.  Our daughter and grandchildren came home to be with us and while we are extremely saddened to have lost someone we love so dearly our spirits were lifted by the presence of our daughter, her 2 year old son and 6 month old daughter!

We had a full day today at home and we were productive!  My daughter made her very first quilt!!  One advantage of having a Long Arm in the house was I could take it into my long arm room and now it's all quilted!  All I've got left to do is bind it and then it will be going home with them on Christmas day.

It was one of those quick and easy Jelly Roll Quilts!  These are fantastic quilts when you need one fast and it's also a great quilt for new quilters because it helps then get the hang of quilting a 1/4" seam and how to sew a straight line!

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I quilted it with Ducks and cattails!

While the kids took a nap we got busy making Christmas cookies and after dinner the remainder of our grandchildren joined us to frost cookies!

I hope all of you are having a wonderful holiday season!

Merry Christmas!
Margaret

Downton Abbey Block #4 - Castle Garden

Time to start sewing!

I like to lay everything out that I’m sewing so that I can make certain I’m sewing it together correctly.

First step was to sew the triangles on each side of the square.  Once they are sewn square up your triangle using the corner of the square as your guide to give you a ¼” seam allowance at the point. 

Next attach your triangle to create a 6 ½” square.  Set these aside.

Next we are going to make 4 flying geese units.

I start by laying my next block sections out.

Attach the outer triangles trimming each section as you go giving a ¼” beyond your intersecting points.

                             

Once those are attached attach your next triangle.

Don’t forget to clip the ‘rabbit ears’ and trim your blocks.

Square this up again by using the your ‘points’ to create your ¼”.  In the above photo I used where the black met the cream background fabric and the straight lines on my ruler.

I also used the points on my triangles as a second reference mark when squaring up each step.

Attach your next triangle

Attaching more triangles!

This squares up to 6 ½” x 12 ½”.

Next step is to make your center block.  Again I start by laying it out.

Make your flying geese first and then sew your center row.

The flying geese were 3 ½” x 6 ½”, once attached to the center block they were 12 ½” x 6 ½”.

I forgot to take pictures of the top & bottom rows!  Those rows square up to 3 ½” x 12 ½”.

Sew your three rows together.

Your finished block is 24 ½” and you are only making one!!!

Check out Miss Marker’s Quilts at:

www.missmarkersquilts.blogspot.com

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Happy Quilting!!

New Project Almost Done!

That's right, another project is almost done!  This project is really special.... want to know why?  First off because it's pink (I do love pink) but the absolute best part of this project is I get to offer it as a FREE pattern for everyone on January 1, 2014!

While everyone else has busy with the Holidays I've been busy sewing!  I took a quick snap shot of the quilt before I pressed it to share it with you!  Pink, purple, blue & gray they are so very pretty together!  Can you see the little bunny rabbits?  

The top is completed, next step is borders!

Borders - that's a subject very close to my heart and to my Long Arm!  I have always been amazed that patterns rarely give good instruction on the proper way of attaching borders so that your quilt is stabilized and framed.  I've had some requests to show the proper way to attach borders to a quilt.  I figure this is the perfect quilt to use to demonstrate borders AND it will give you another sneak peak at it!  So be watching for my Borders You Tube Video coming up before January 1st!

Happy Quilting!!

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Downton Abbey Block #3 - Mary

Block # 3 Mary

Good news!  This is a nice and easy block and it finishes big, 18 ½”!

Cutting instructions:

               A – HST 6:            cut 7 1/8” strip

Sub cut into 4 -  7 1/8” squares

Then sub cut those in half diagonally

               B – QST 6:            Cut 7 ½” strip

                                             Sub cut into 2 - 7 ½” squares

                                             Then sub cut those in half diagonally both directions

               C – SQ 6:              Cut 6 ½” strip

                                             Sub cut into 6 ½” squares

Time to sew!

I didn’t follow the directions (sorry)!  I started from the center and worked my way out on the block.  I was trying to make certain I kept my points.

I like to take and press the pieces in half and make a crease where the two pieces of fabric are going to be joined.  This makes the two pieces of fabric kind of snuggle up against each other and it helps me in centering my pieces!  J

I’ve creased the two pieces & snuggled them together, pinned them and now I’ll sew them. 

Once I had sewn these on I pressed the seams out and then continued sewing the other sides on.  (Yes, I made both blocks at the same time!)

At this point the block squared up to 8 5/8”.  If yours squares up a little larger or a little smaller that’s okay.  What matters with this block is we want to try to keep our points.

Now do those steps all over again with the next row of material, this time you’ll square up to right about the 12” mark.

I carefully laid all of my triangles out for these next pieces because I knew I would have an issue if the lines on the outside pieces weren’t going in the same direction. 

Sew your triangles together!  Careful though, you are working with a lot of bias seams!!  Don't stretch! :)

Squaring up at this point wasn’t complete squaring up but I got it as square as I could.  What I was trying to accomplish was to make certain that I had a quarter of an inch from the point of the triangle to the end for my seam allowance. 

Next you are going to attach this piece to your block.

I match my two points up and pinned on both side to keep my points together.  When pinning I starting at the center and worked my way out.  Sew opposite sides first, press seams open then sew the other sides.

Square up again, using your points as your reference to cut.

Add your final triangles!  Trim & you are done!  This block is to finish at 18 ½”.  One of mine finished at 18 ¼”, I’ve stuck a pin in the center of that block so when I go to put the quilt together I know that I’ve got to be careful to take this into consideration when sewing with it again.

If you aren't already a part of the Downton Abbey Mystery Quilt Along please feel free to email me at missmarker@rochester.rr.com and I would be happy to add you to the mailing!!

If you have any questions or suggestions PLEASE feel free to either post a response or contact me!  

Happy Quilting Everyone!

Attaching a Quilt to the Long Arm!

I've been busy over here getting quilts done for people for Christmas presents so I don't have a lot that I can share with you, we don't want to spoil surprises!

The next quilt in line happen to be a non-Christmas present quilt so I quickly did up a video showing how I go about attaching a quilt to the long arm!  The video is a little long but if you stick around to the end you will get to see it all quilted!

Thanks for watching!!!

Happy Quilting!
Margaret

Shhh.... This is someone's Christmas Present!

Brenda sent me pictures of a quilt I quilted for her and I am busting a the seams to share them with you!!!  Brenda and her husband have a cat that is deaf, the cat loves to lay on Brenda's quilts and loves to snuggle up to Brenda's sewing machine when Brenda is sewing!  Here's a picture of Alice helping Brenda out!

Alice is beautiful!!!

The recipient of this quilt is a University of Wisconsin graduate!

I have a soft spot for binding done with stripped fabrics!

The border design is Alexis, the red striped border is quilted with a Lacing design and the edge to edge inner design is also Alexis, all quilting designs by Anne Bright.  The thread used is King Tut Cherry Red.

Happy Quilting Everyone!!

Margaret