An update on thread weights and seam allowance

Thanks to all of you who took time to comment and contact me regarding thread weights and piecing! It seems that quilters have many ways of making their own piecing successful. I heard so many ideas and suggestions, I just had to post again and share some of them with everyone.

Anne Walker pointed out that she uses a straight stitch plate when piecing.

This type of sewing machine plate is exclusively for sewing straight lines.

This plate could be used for straight stitch or zig zag, due to the rectangular shaped opening for the needle.

Anne had an excellent point about moving the needle position. When using a straight stitch plate, the needle must make it’s descent into a small hole. Therefore one must be very cautious about moving the needle position. If the needle were moved to much, it would impact with the needle plate, causing the needle to break and potentially injure you. As you can see from the second picture of a needle plate, it has a wider opening, to allow the needle to move right or left when stitching a zig zag, or other decorative stitch. So if you need to adjust your needle position quite a bit, you would be wise to stick with the second type of needle plate.

Now that you have the low down on needle plate safety, I want to share an idea for using 40 wt thread for piecing. One quilter mention that she prefers to use 40 wt as it is a very sturdy thread. If you find that 40 wt is the thread you love and have the most of in your stash, then try adjusting your needle position to allow more room for the thicker thread within the seam allowance. Sew out some sample seams, press them open and measure the fabric to make sure the thread doesn’t steal valuable space within the seam. Adjust your needle and gauge your presser foot accordingly to come out with an accurate 1/4 inch each and every time you are using a different weight thread for piecing. Make a note of the adjustments you need to make for all your favorite threads. This is a handy trick for quilters that like to match their thread color to the fabric they are piecing. After all, who’s only got one kind of thread in their stash? Not me!

Also remember that accurate pressing helps your measurements stay on track. If you haven’t pressed the fold in the fabric entirely open, then you will certainly see a shortage in your measurements.

Have you seen today’s prompt on Quilter’s Daily? How do you plan to celebrate National Quilting Day? This Saturday, my friend Christine and her family will be joining us for a BBQ! Although as I peek out the window, I’m hoping the snow that’s falling will quickly melt before Saturday! If not, we’ll just have to find another way to grill those steaks! I’m fairly certain I’ll get some stitching time in, as I have two quilts with deadlines on my agenda. One is pretty easy, the other… not so much! LOL But a challenge is always a good thing. I hope you enjoy your National Quilting Day, whether you are stitching or shopping, either sounds like great fun to me!

QuiltersDaily Blog-Along

Don’t forget to Blog Along with us! It’s a lot of fun, and it will get you a chance at winning $200 in long arm quilting services! What a prize!!

Quilty Hugs,
Bradie

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My Oldest Work In Progress

Today’s Quilters Daily Post is about your oldest Work In Progress Quilt. Julie shared hers first, and I really had to look hard for mine! It was really buried!! My oldest WIP has got to be this bargello kit. I’ve had it since Christmas of 2007. So far I’ve put in about two hours per year. If I keep it up, in 15 years, I’ll have a gorgeous new quilt!

These are the remaining strips to be put together. See that swatch page? Really glad I made that!

20 fabrics make up this beautiful queen size quilt. (Just pretend it's nicely pressed OK?) The kit contained 17 meters of fabric! That's a lot of seams people!

This is the pattern for these fabrics. My kit is not so floral, but a lot more asian fabrics.

I am really hoping to get this one finished really soon! I’m hoping Matt will quilt his awesome feathers all over it, and we’ve talked about it a few times but still no decision. I guess we’ll see when it’s all finished.

Speaking of Matty and quilting, did you know that Matt is giving away TWO long arm quilting gift certificates? and that each one is worth $200?! WOW!! You have two ways to enter:
1)Visit Manquilter to find out what you have to do.
2) Visit QuiltersDaily and Blog Along with us! That’s it. That’s all! Sew Easy!

QuiltersDaily Blog-Along

How To Blog Along

Pick a daily topic from Quilters Daily.
Blog your response to the topic.
Put the Quilters Daily button on your blog and link back to Quilters Daily.
Go back to QD and leave a comment with your blog URL.
Do it NOW!! You could win BIG!

Oh! and Kate Spain is giving away some pretties over on her blog too. Tell her Bradie sent you. (Just kidding, I’m trying to feel important. :P)

PS! Julie is having a giveaway too! More Moda baby!

Tutorial Tuesday – Piecing Flying Geese Units

After trying three different ways of making Flying Geese units, I have concluded that this is my absolute favorite. The advantages to this method of piecing flying geese are:
-making four flying geese units at once.
-no waste of fabric.
-it’s very accurate.
I must tell you that I did not discover this method piecing flying geese. I was first introduced to this method while making my Moda Greenpiece quilt last year. I have been so excited ever since, I seriously can not shut up about it!

To make four flying geese units as shown in this tutorial, you will need:
one square for background fabric measuring 7 1/4 inches,
and four squares for geese fabric measuring 3 7/8 inches.
You will also need a ruler handy, pins, and a marking pencil.

Small squares to be made into Flying Geese Units. These pictured are 3 7/8 inches.

Begin by laying out the small squares 2 at a time.

Lay a ruler diagonally on the square and mark with a pencil from corner to corner.

This fabric is the background for the flying geese units. Pictured is a 7 1/4 inch square.

Place one small square in one corner of the large square lining up the raw edges.

Place a second small square in the opposite corner lining up the pencil lines and the raw edges.

Place a pin at each corner, and one in the center to hold all the patches in place.

A better close up view of the pins holding fabrics in place.

Use the pencil line as your quarter inch guide and stitch on the left side of the marked lines. Turn patch around and sew on the other side of the pencil line as well.

This is how your patch will look once both seams have been stitched out.

Place a ruler on the pencil line and cut the patch in half.

This is what your patches will look like once you have cut in half.

Press seams towards the darker fabric.

With one of units you've created, place another small square in the corner lining up the raw edges. Make sure the pencil line runs through the midle of the two peaks. Pin in place.

Sew down both sides of the pencil line, like you did in the previous step.

Line up the ruler with the pencil mark and cut the half unit into quarters.

Press seams towards the darker fabric, and trim the little doggie ears that hang off the edges.

This recipe yields four flying geese units. These are now ready for piecing into any quilting project. Each unit will measure 6.5 by 3.5 inches.

Give this a try the next time you are making a star block. I’d love to hear what you think.

QuiltersDaily Blog-Along

Have tutorials of your own to share? Visit us over at Quilters Daily to share your quilting tutorials with other quilters. Have you discovered other tutorials on the web? Feel free to stop by and share those as well!

Quilty Hugs,
Bradie

PS. Subscribe to A Quilty Kind of Girl today so you will never ever miss a single Tutorial Tuesday. 🙂

A Quilty Kind of WIP

This is my messy studio table with piles of the red and white quilt.

WIP – WORK IN PROGRESS

This is your little peek at my red and white quilt. I planned the design for this one a while ago, but got busy with several other things. Now I am determined to get it finished ASAP! I nearly stayed up last night to finish, but decided it was better to start fresh today rather than make stupid mistakes. I have three rows left to put together, then attaching the nine rows. This is a big accomplishment for me, because I NEVER do scrappy type quilts. Seriously, I pick a line of fabric and I make a quilt. So all these fat quarters came from a fabric exchange I did over at Quilting Friends a couple of years ago. I really wanted to put them all together in one project so I kept them together and waited for inspiration. Finally…. it arrived!

Now that I’m nearly finished this quilt, I am planning to use the pattern again and make another one of Rural Jardin. I think I may need a French General intervention cause it’s getting a little obsessive. I can hardly wait for the Christmas line to come out!

In other really exciting news, Julie Herman has joined us as a blogger over at Quilter’s Daily. If you stalk follow Julie like I do, then you know how talented and fun she is. I am totally thrilled to have her working on the site with us. Make sure you get on over there, and tell her how much you love her latest quilt. WIP is Julie’s creation and she will be sharing her Work in Progress with us each Wednesday, motivating the rest of us to share our WIPs too. So open up your dusty ol’ blog, grab the camera and take some pics of YOUR WIP and blog it BABY!

Quilty Hugs,

Bradie

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How I became a Quilter – Quilters Daily Blog Along

It really is all my Mother’s fault. I know that every daughter blames her mother for something, but in this situation it really, really is the truth. Every holiday, she would come over to our house, bearing gifts of beautiful quilts. It started with quilts for the two oldest girls. Next was a denim quilt for our oldest son. The she dropped the bomb. An all green quilt just for me. She knew it was my favorite color. Now you need to know, that before quilting, I had never, ever sewn. Well there was the odd pathetic little Barbie ‘dress’ that fell apart in seconds, and perhaps the odd button that was just a little too high for the hole, but truthfully, that was all.

So when my Mom started talking about retreat, I’m certain she had an ulterior motive. She knows that I have an addictive personality, she should have known better than get me started on a fabric stash. It wasn’t long until I was at a Quilt Guild meeting and registering for a weekend away from my husband and 6 kids. (This story dates back a couple of years you see.) I met some new friends, found some inspiration in beautiful quilts, and borrowed a couple of library books. I went home and browsed for projects and found one that I liked. The next day, I headed for the closest fabric store and quickly left as I found the prices nearly took my breath away. I noticed there was a sale coming up so I decided to wait.

I went back on sale day and purchased all the goodies I needed for my first project. I fully intended to simply cut my fabrics then sew up a storm at retreat. Except that I couldn’t stop at just cutting. Before I knew it, I was matching up the fabrics, marking, and suddenly sewing. I made a few mistakes, I learned what frogging was, and I whipped right through that first quilt. I was so proud of myself! Then I realized… now I could shop for another project. Had to shop for another project. Retreat was still a week away, and now I had nothing to make! The best thing about that first quilt is that it became a birthday gift for our daughter. She outgrew it after a while, and now it makes a nice size quilt for the baby. It will always be special to me, and I sure hope she doesn’t think she is taking it when she moves out.

So as much as I blame my Mommy for getting me hooked on quilting, I also have to Thank my Mom. Quilting has brought me so much creative joy, and has also been the foundation for many, many new friendships.

Quilting for Charity – Blog Along

As I sit here writing this post, I try to recall all of the different charity quilts I have been involved with. The first that comes to mind is Daniel’s quilt, a beautiful black, white and yellow quilt made to raise money for a young man with cancer. Matty and I fell in love with this quilt and have vowed to another someday.

Another quilt we made was for a Breast Cancer Charity Auction in Sherwood Park. This jelly roll was a gift from Lissa Alexander of Moda fabrics, so it seemed fitting to use it as gift for charity. This quilt was fun to make, and I’m sure I’ll use the pattern again.

I am also just finishing the binding on another, plus I have two more in the works. I think it is very important for quilters to make time for charities. Quilts are very comforting, and to me, are a symbol of love. I hope that you, dear quilter will make time for charity quilts ( if you don’t already) and remember, they don’t have to be fancy. They don’t have to show stoppers. But they do have to be made, and just think of the scraps you can use up!

Please visit Quilters Daily to read other blog posts about charity Quilts.