Category Archives: Quilts

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Progress Report

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I am making some progress on the Ring Quilt.

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You can see the quilting better from the back

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It is going pretty fast

The Garden is growing…here are a few update pictures (click to enlarge)

I am working on flowers for a wedding today….I will post some pictures soon

Happy Spring

Tim

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Classes and Lectures

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Floral design classes will be starting up again soon so its time to advertize my classes.

here is the link to what I am offering so far

Today I am getting ready to do a Lecture/Trunk Show at the Thornapple River Rippers Quilt Guild

It always amazes me how much room 15 or 20 quilts take up! And how much they weigh!!

The quilts for the show come from these in the quilt gallery  Click here

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Happy quilting

Tim

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More on Big Stitch Quilting and a video

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I have been working on the Single Wedding ring quilt, and using big stitch quilting.

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As always Teddy is anxious to help.

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I made a short Video of how I do it ( I have been gardening so ignore how dirty my fingernails are :)   )

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Happy Quilting

Tim

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Ring Quilting

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I started some quilting on the Red Single Wedding Ring quilt top. (click here for the pattern  rings pattern )     ( pleas note that I made a mistake in the pattern …the center circle should be 10 inches in diameter….please make that adjustment)

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Since the vintage fabrics are so varied and many are very thick I can’t do very delicate quilting.  I decided to do big stitches on this one using blue thread (Aurifil 12 weight)

I am not being fussy about the quilting…..I feel like this is better suited to a less formal treatment.  I am not marking anything, just quilting.

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Swirls in the circle.

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and simple outlining in the setting pieces.

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The backing is simple muslin

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Since I think the fabrics are from the 60′s and 70′s I felt like the batting would have been poly…so that is what I am using.   It is a rather simple quilting design so this one should go relatively fast.   More pictures soon….and maybe a video of big stitches.

Yesterday I posted a song “Seeing Nelly Home”  Here is another version by Johnny Cash

Happy Quilting

Tim

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Something different every day

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Another beautiful spring day.  The warm weather sure makes things grow fast

Remember the weeping cherry tree?

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Here it is today

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the grape hyacinth under it are starting to bloom

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The yellow Species tulips are still looking good

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The bleeding heart is starting to bloom

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so it the smaller fern leaf bleeding heart

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Lots of growth on the roses

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The Service berry yesterday

Amelanchier x grandiflora 'Autumn Brilliance' getting ready to bloom

and Today

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And some more accumulated trimmings to go

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Yesterday I posted a picture of Teddy….it was a picture from a year ago….here he is yesterday

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He was looking pretty shaggy!   He had a visit to see Julie at the Elegant Pooch today…..here he is now sitting on the quilt I am working on

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Doesn’t he look distinguished….He also looks tired…his appointment made him miss his afternoon nap.

I found this great quilting song today

Happy Quilting/Gardening

Tim

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Suspension Bridge Pattern

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I drew up a pattern for the Suspension Bridge quilt I am working on.

Here is the PDF file ( suspension bridge )

Refer to the posts about it here  and  here

I have a hard time sticking with piecing for more than a few days at a time, It feels a lot like work.  So I am taking a break to get back to my real enjoyment, Hand Quilting.

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A few more warm days and the garden continues to grow.

Lots of work to do in the garden….weeds seem to grow no matter what

Happy Friday

Tim

Almost forgot….the real reason that people read is to see Teddy :)

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Half Square Triangle Units…fast and easy

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I have been working on the sashing for the Suspension Bridge quilt.

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It takes a lot of half square triangle units  (24 for each section).  There are lots of ways that I have seen to make these units. The most common seems to be to stack 2 squares together, draw a diagonal line in the center, sew 1/4″ from either side of the line.

3 x 3 half square triangle

Then cut down the line, then press them open and then cut off the dog ears.  This requires a lot of time.  First you have to cut all the squares, then mark them then sew 2 seams on each group, then press each unit individually and then trim them.

I decided to do it differently.

This is the unit I am making.

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Here is How I did it.  First I cut strips of fabric , sewed them together and pressed.

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For this project the strips are 2″.  I cut 8 green and 8 white  and sewed together (15 seams) and pressed the seams to the dark fabric.

Next I drew a 45 degree line through the center and then marked each unit off of that line (if you are very careful about your measuring and cutting you could skip the making and just cut with the rotary cutter and a ruler.

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I hope you can see the lines I marked, here is another picture

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Now just line up the ruler on the marked line and cut them apart.

I got 90 units from those 15 seams and one pressing.  once they are cut apart they are done, they do not need any more pressing and they don’t need trimming, all the dog ears are cut off when you cut them apart.

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ready to sew them together

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and then add to the quilt.

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This quilt will have 31 of these sashing pieces, and each of those has 24 triangle units so I need to make 744 units.  It seems like less of a big deal this way.

Teddy has been watching…and wondering why I keep putting this on the floor in “his” space.

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In other developments I have a Robins nest in the yard again this year.  She decided that the front porch would be a good spot and gets mad every time someone goes out there….I think the mail man is more afraid of the Robin than he is of the dog!

Happy Quilting

Tim

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Spring Flowers and Making Sashing

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It is a beautiful Spring day in Lansing Michigan.  I had to go outside and take a few pictures of the garden.

the weeping Cherry is beautiful!…I wish its flowers lasted longer.

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The yard smells great because the hyacinth are blooming

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Daffodils are still looking good

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Trillium.

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Species Tulips will be blooming soon

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Allium are growing fast

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Peony sprouting

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Bleeding heart taking off

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I have so much yard work to get done!  But I have been obsessed with this Suspension Bridge Quilt I have been working on.

I have three of these blocks finished.

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and if you remember this is the layout I am going to use

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So I wanted to make up some of the sashing.  My first thought was to make the sashing with the same size spikes as in the arches of the blocks.  That was not the right thing to do.  It was just too wide (and in the sample I made I sewed half of the pieces in backward)

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So back to the drawing board (I don’t always get it right on the first try).  I think a good part of the fun is in figuring out how I want to do it.  I decided to go with square pieces….so using the same method, I sewed strips of fabric together.

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and cut out the squares (2″) with the diagonal of the square along the seam line.

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12 squares will make 1/2 of the sashing.

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It helps me to line them up in the right direction before sewing together.

Next I added the center strip.  I cut that at 3″ wide.

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and then I join the sashing pieces between the blocks.

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I will make 12 blocks. And I will need 20 corner stones and 31 sashing pieces and that will give ma a quilt about  74″ x 97.

Here are a few more pictures of the blocks and sashing (click to enlarge)

Each block will be different fabrics and the sashing will all be the same to tie it all together.

I have a lot more to do in this!   I will draw up a pattern and post that soon

Happy Quilting and Happy Spring!

Tim

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Suspension Bridge piecing

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As promised here is how I am piecing the suspension bridge blocks.

Before I describe how I am doing it I need to explain why.  I hate paper piecing…..I just hate it! I know that it has become very popular, and I know that it is a very accurate way to piece, but I still hate it.  It is just no fun at all for me…printing patterns, folding and pressing, trimming and pressing, and folding …….working from the back….having paper to remove…..I guess I am way to lazy to go through all the trouble, and I can live with the imperfections to keep it fun.  Having said all that here is the process.

Start by cutting 2 colors of fabric into strips, for the size of my blocks the strips are cut 2.5″

Sew them together and press the seams to the dark fabric

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here is the template I use to mark the pieces

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here they are marked to cut…I need to cut 28 of them for one block

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cut them out

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sew them together in groups of 7

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press them  and group your pieces together

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sew the arcs to the corners…lots of pins helps

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pin carefully so they come out even…I stat by placing a pin in the center and then the 2 ends and then work out from the center to the ends….

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sew the 4 corners and press.

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Next sew the center square to the center pieces….in this case the center square is 6 1/4″

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Next sew the corners to the center…just like before lots of pins helps

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So there it is finished, easy sewing and I didn’t drive myself crazy, and did NOT need to paper piece.  It still needs a good pressing…next time I will do a post about how I will do the sashing….it will be something like this

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I might make those cornerstones into stars

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Happy Quilting

Tim

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Suspension Bridge variation

I can’t seem to get away from piecing curves….this time all on the machine.   I had a big pile of fat quarters in reproduction 30′s  and I have been thinking for a while that I need to decide what to do with them

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I have been really drawn to any of the patterns that have curves.  The suspension Bridge pattern is what I decided on

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as always the pattern looks different when the blocks are joined together

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and another option is to add sashing

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This one really appeals to me….it might just be the one I need to do….but it might look too much like this one I recently finished?

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I will give it some thought but for now here is the first block

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it is a bog block….18″ so I wont have to make a ton of them…and you can see that I need to get a little better at machine sewing so I don’t have puckers and cut off points, but honestly they don’t bother me that much.  Remember this is supposed to be fun!  If I try to be too perfect all the fun is taken out of it.

I am doing a variation on the pattern…the points are not equilateral triangles like the original suspension bridge …but they are a lot easier to make!  There is a trick to it and I will post about that next time.

Happy Quilting

Tim