The English Geek

It's Hip to be Square, Baby: A Simple Quilt Tutorial

I think I've established already my love for making baby quilts for friends, family, neighbors, and/or coworkers. Making a baby quilt for a new baby is the best of about 1,237 worlds: I get to pick out and coordinate colors and patterns! I get to work with flannel! I get to feel involved with a new baby! (I'm not going to have to get up in the middle of the night with said new baby!) I get to let someone I love know that I love them and am so happy for their new arrival!

But sometimes, no matter how much I love making time-consuming quilts, sometimes I need to make something quick and simple. Not, of course, out of lack of love for the baby who will be wrapped in said quick-and-simple quilt. But just for lack of time.

(Dare I confess that I have twice made a quilt like this on the day of the baby shower? And once even brought it to the shower still warm from the dryer? Sometimes procrastination gets the best of me.)

Today I'm sharing a tutorial for a quick and simple baby quilt that has just enough detail to make it feel not quite so quick. I think of it as my Hip to be Square quilt (and then I curse myself for getting that stupid Huey Lewis and the News song stuck in my head). Here's what it looks like all finished:

And an alternate, less visually appealling shot (quilts are hard to photograph well I've decided!)

And folded (there is something in me that loves a folded baby quilt)

And an attempt at a detail shot of the quilting, this one of the back:


I made this for Kaleb's teacher, who just adopted a baby. Kaleb picked out all the fabric, which I thought was sweet (although I confess: I tried my hardest to dissuade him from the red quilt back, but alas, he would not be dissuaded). From starting the quilt to throwing it in the washer it took me two hours and 15 minutes to complete; that also included hunting down my iron which "someone" had moved, cleaning my machine, and finding my box of new needles to replace the one that was on there, which was so dull from sewing chipboard onto a scrapbook layout that it was useless. In other words: it's really a fast quilt!

To make your own Hip to be Square quilt you need:

• 1 1-1/4 yard square of flannel for the quilt TOP (a chance to indulge yourself in whatever sweet baby print appeals to you)
• 1 1-1/4 yard square of flannel for the quilt BATTING (this should be a color flannel in a color that both adds contrast and also goes with the pattern or print of the quilt top; white or cream are almost always good choices for the batting, but don't be afraid to use a color, either!)
• 1 1-1/4 yard square of flannel for the quilt BACK (this can either be a solid or a print that goes with, somehow, the quilt top)
• thread that matches both the front and the back (meaning: you might need two colors of thread)
• a marking pen or pencil
• a tape measure or quilting ruler
• a sewing machine with a regular (NOT 1/4") foot or a walking foot (walking foot is best)

Once you've brought your happy new purchase home from the fabric store, follow these steps to make your own Hip to be Square quilt:

1. Iron the fabric. I confess: I HATE this step. The iron and I are not friends. But ironing is absolutely necessary. Try to get the main creases out. Don't put your iron away yet!
2. Make the quilt sandwich*. Spread the quilt BACK on a smooth surface with the right side of the fabric facing down; smooth out any wrinkles. Spread the batting piece on top of the quilt back, smoothing the wrinkles out again. Now spread the quilt TOP right on top of the batting piece, again smoothing out the wrinkles. When you smooth wrinkles, work from the middle out. Make sure none of the pieces have any puckers.
3. Square it up. This is the trickiest part for me because I don't own a cutting mat or ruler that is 45" long. And because I am challenged in the cutting-of-straight-lines department. This is one reason I love working with flannel: it's forgiving. And because you're going to be ragging the edge, if your quilt isn't perfectly square it won't be obvious. OK then, to square it up: fold the quilt sandwich in half. Align the folded edge with a straight line on your cutting mat, then trim the short edge; repeat for the other short edge. Unfold, smooth, and fold in half the other direction; trim each short edge.
4. Iron again. This is an important ironing because it's your last chance to get out any potential puckers. Work from the middle of the quilt outward.
5. Frame square A. I start with a 4" template. (Please note: in this case, my "template" is a 4" square cut from a drawing my son made of a catapult. In other words, it's just a square scrap of paper.) Using your tape measure and/or quilting ruler, center this square so it's as close to the middle of your quilt as you can manage. Pin the square right in the middle.
   (this quilt really is square. I just can't get far enough away from the entire thing to show its squareness in a photograph.)
6. Quilt the first square of square A. Line up the left edge of your machine's foot against the paper square. Now, quilt an entire square around the paper square, using that left edge of your foot as a guide.
   When you get to the corner, leave your needle in the down position (so that it's poked into your fabric). Lift the foot and pivot the fabric 1/4 turn. Put the foot back down, then start sewing again. When you meet back up at the spot where you started, take a couple of back stitches to secure the thread, but don't cut the thread! Remove the paper template if its presence is making you crazy.
7. Quilt the second square of square A. (This will eventually make sense I promise!)  Raise your needle and lift up the foot. Scoot the quilt forward and back a little bit so that the (still-attached) threads aren't too tight. Now, position the quilt so that the left edge of the foot is lined up with the row of stitching you just completed. Using the first square as a guide, sew the second square.
   (This is called echo quilting.)
8. Quilt the third square of square A. Repeat exactly what you did in step 7, except this time you'll be sewing a third square using the second square as a guide.
    When you are finished, trim all of the threads—you'll have three on the front and three on the back to cut. Take the quilt out from the machine and spread it out on the floor or table, smoothing any wrinkles from the middle out.
9. Frame square B. For this step, you'll be making a second, larger square that you'll alsoecho quilt. Find something square that is 12"-15". (A 12x12 piece of cardstock will work perfectly!) I'm using the 15" square cutting ruler I happen to own just because I happen to own it. Again, using your ruler and/or measuring tape, center the square in the middle of your quilt. If you're using paper, pin it down. If you're using a cutting ruler or a piece of thick cardboard or something else you can't pin, use a marking pen or pencil to outline the square.
   Here I used a marking pencil and the line is pretty light. That's why I usually use a marking pen, but mine had wandered off. If you marked your square, make sure to also smooth and pin before moving on. (If you used paper you've already, obviously, pinned!)
10. Quilt square B. Do the same thing you did for steps 6-8, except when you quilt the first square of square B, stitch along the line you drew in step nine or right next to the edge of the paper.
11. Frame square C.This is the largest square you'll echo quilt. Use whatever you used to frame square B, except instead of centering it on your quilt, you're going to put one corner of the template in the quilt's center. Mark the top and left lines, then flip the template down to the bottom left quadrant.
     Mark the left and bottom line; repeat until you've drawn a square. I found my marking pen (it was with my scrapbooking markers instead of my sewing supplies! ooops!), which makes a much clearer line that the marking pencil, so I used it here.
12. Quilt square C. Do exactly what you did in step 10, except (obviously!) use the large square as the first guideline.
13. Bind the edge. Smooth your quilt out on the floor or table one more time. You might have to trim the edge a little bit, especially if the quilt back is smaller than the quilt front. Pin. Take the (almost finished!) quilt back to your machine and quilt along the outermost edge using a 5/8" seam allowance.
14. Snip the edge. This is how you create the ragged edge. Use a pair of sharp fabric scissors with a short blade if you have one. (I use these for snipping the edges of all my rag quilts.) Cut a fringe all the way around the edge of the quilt, making sure to not actually cut into the row of stitching. I cut my strips about 1/4" wide, but they don't have to be exact.
15. Rag the quilt. (Make sure to remove any last pins before this step! Just take my word for it, a pin or two in your washing machine is so totally not good for your washing machine's tubes. Long story...) Once the four edges are snipped, toss the quilt into the washing machine. I don't usually run an entire wash cycle, just a rinse and spin; the purpose is to get the quilt wet and to rinse out the markings. Very Important Note #1!!!!! If your quilt has any red fabric, use a Shout color catcher. Trust me...even really expensive red flannels will bleed. The color catcher does a great job at catching the extra red dye so it can't redeposit itself somewhere you don't want it to. Then put it in the dryer. Very Important Note #2!!!!! Since the dryer is sort-of shredding the edges of your quilt, a long of thready bits are going to work their way into your lint screen. Along with a lot of lint because, well, it's flannel. There are urban legends of dryers catching fire from drying rag quilts, and while this has never happened to me or to anyone I know or to anyone anyone I know knows, to prevent your own possible urban-legend dryer fire, clean your lint screen two or three times while the quilt is drying. Very Important Note #3!!!!! Most moms of new babies are going to wash this quilt again before they let their baby use it, but I still don't use any fabric softeners. I do use a dryer sheet, but the kind without any fragrance. Just in case!

That's it! Once it's dry shake off the loose bits of ragged edges, fold it, and toss it in a gift bag, and voila: the fastest baby quilt that's still totally cute is now the gift you're giving to that totally cute new baby.

Make sure to link me up if you make one of these!

*My husband heard me use the term "quilt sandwich" once and has teased me about it ever since. Husbandly teasing aside, however, it is a real quilting term. It just means all of the quilt's layers...sandwiched together!

The {finished!} Halloween Quilt

My mom has a theory about holiday quilts: she thinks they don’t have to be perfect because they’re just out for a month or two. Since she’s not especially in love with Halloween, this goes double for Halloween quilts—costumes, too, for that matter. I’ve interpreted her theory in a different way: by "not perfect" I’ve meant "not finished." I have two Halloween quilts in various stages of incompletion.

One is the first quilt I ever pieced. The entire top is finished and has been waiting to be quilted for five years now. I don’t know what to do with it—I hate how it turned out and so spending the time to quilt it seems pointless. But I also don’t want to throw it away. So it sits in the bottom of the box of Halloween decorations and makes me feel guilty every year.

The other one I love. The fabric has these six great witches (witches are my favorite Halloween theme), so I set each one into a big frame, and then freeform quilted around them. The quilting is finished, but I had the great idea of sewing the binding on with a scallop stitch. I got about 1/4 the way through this process, which requires a double needle, when my double needle broke. Every September for the past two years I’ve thought to myself "go! Go right now! Order a new double needle. Order five or six or ten so you’re never in this predicament again!" And then I go back outside.

But! This October, I did something I have never done before: I finished a Halloween quilt. Don’t believe me? See for yourself:

(Kudos go to Kendell for helping me figure out a way to hang the quilt from the fence. The opposite of kudos to me for not waiting until there wasn't a shadow to take this picture.)

Perhaps I managed this because it’s really a simple quilt. I started with the panel and then added strips, frame-style, until it was huge. Then, aside from the panel (which is full of free-form quilting), I quilted in squares. This is a really simple process, sort of the opposite of quilting in the ditch. You start with the right edge of your sewing foot against the seam of the piecing. You use this seam as your guideline. Once you’ve outlined the inside of the seam, you do the same thing for the outside. Here's a close-up of what I mean:

I like the pattern of four long lines it made on the back:

I’m sure there’s a name for this style of quilting, but I don’t know it. I do know it’s what all the cool quilters are doing!

I'm pleased with how the back of this quilt turned out, too:

(Have I said before that I love pieced backings?) (Those little white blobs are ghosts.) Although, that extra strip at the bottom was really a mistake. When I finished quilting I realized that even though I had a good four inches of extra fabric on the top, the bottom edge of the backing was too short. This reflects my impatience with the quilt-sandwich process. I didn’t get it sandwiched straight. So, I straightened up the edge and added the little strip. It’s OK.

But! I’d like to point out the binding, just because it is not, despite how it seems, cut on the bias.

I hate and abhor cutting bias strips on the bias. You end up with 2,857 seams. It makes me crazy. But I love the diagonal-strip look it gives. Enter this fabric, which might just be the perfect Halloween-quilt binding ever  because the stripes are printed diagonally. Brilliant! I would thank the manufacturer except I already threw away the selvage so I don’t know who makes it. Another thing I like about the binding is it’s a little bit wider on the front than I usually do. I cut the strips to 2 ½" instead of the usual 2 1/4", and then I sewed it to the back using a scant 3/8" seam. This made for a little bit of extra fabric to fold up to the top—and, somehow, made all the corners turn out perfectly. (Corners didn’t use to give me trouble, but somehow since the great Hot Pad Sewing Caper of Christmas 2010, I cannot seem to get them square anymore. Or, only half turn out square.)

At any rate. This quilt is based on a pattern called "Russian Shawl," from Jane Brocket's book The Gentle Art of Quiltmaking. Her quilt is assembled as a giant log cabin; I assembled mine as a giant frame square: start with the middle square/rectangle; add the top and bottom strips and then the left and right strips and just keep building. I don't think it matters which way you go! If you wanted to make something similar, here are the measurements: 

• Fabric A (the middle piece): Mine is a panel about 15" x 18". If you don’t want to use a panel, you could start with an 18"x18" square. Use a fabric with a big, bold print for the middle!
• Fabric B (the narrow strip around A and E): ½ yard
• Fabric C (the first wide strip): ½ yard
• Fabric D (the narrow strip around C and F): 3/4 yard
• Fabric E (the second wide strip): 24"
• Fabric F (the third wide strip): 28"
• Fabric G (the fourth wide strip): 1 yard
• Fabric H (the binding): 3/4 yard

(You will have bits and pieces left over; use them to piece the backing.)

The narrow strips are 2" (cut, not finished) and the wide strips are 5 ½" (cut, not finished).

Happy {Halloween} quilting!

 

Freeform Quilting Notes to Self (a sneak peek)

What? You are also wondering why nothing is getting done around here? Why we desperately need groceries and everyone's wearing mismatched socks? Well, I’ll tell you, it’s all my job’s fault. ‘Cause one day a couple of weeks ago, I was pulling some books to put on the nonfiction "crafts and hobbies" display, and I found a quilting book  I couldn’t resist thumbing through before I set it out, and within its lovely pages I discovered a quilt pattern I had to make right that very moment. The quilt called for big prints and there was a big Halloween print already calling my name. So I wrote down the measurements and I went to the fabric shop that very night and then I let the fabric age for a little while, as I am wont to do, but after the marathon I decided to work my quilting muscles instead of my running muscles, and my quilt is very well nearly almost done.

Except for the actual quilting part.

I’m only freeform quilting the center panel, since I’m really pretty bad at freeform quilting. If you look closely at my stitches you’ll notice they go something like this:
... ............ ....... – ----- --./ .'....- --- - --    -------------- -..~~

(They are really supposed to look like this - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

except for in a beautiful swirly pattern.) Probably I am bad at freeform quilting because: A. I’m bad at it so I don’t do it very often, and B. I need much more practice but I don’t want to spend my fabrics on practice and C. My machine is really not equipped for it; I mean, I have the darning foot and all, but the throat is so small there is just no place for all that quilt to go.

And this is a BIG quilt.

But, for your pleasure and my future (and similarly doomed-to-be-embarrassing) attempts at freeform quilting, some Notes to Self on the topic:

1. Feed dogs DOWN. Feed dogs DOWN. Feed dogs DOWN!!!
2. Stitch length is zero.
3. Before you start stitching, you have to bring the bottom thread up to the top. You do this by holding the top thread, dropping the needle down through the fabric, and then pulling the needle back up, still holding the thread. Pull up and a little loop will come up through the fabric—this is the bottom thread. Here’s the trick though: you have to cut the bottom thread from the last place you stopped quilting or you can just never ever stop pulling it. At least, not until you’ve pulled the entire contents of the bobbin out through the top.
4. Fast speed on the sewing peddle, slow movements of the fabric. Try not to rush.
5. Your wrists are bound to hurt. Be strong!!! Push through the pain!!!
6. Try not to stop and start—go for as long as you can. If you have to start, don’t forget to readjust the quilt’s bulk. Otherwise when you start again, the quilt will shift and you’ll have an inch-long stitch to deal with.

Until this quilt is finished (which hopefully is soon)...a little peek:

Tips for Using Minky

Last December, I saw a quilt made entirely of minky at one of the fabric stores near me. Pieced front, solid back, and  the binding: all crafted with minky, which is a luscious, lovely, soft, silky, and maddening  fabric. It was gorgeous but not something I’d ever  attempt.

 
(this gigantic expanse of minky —60" x 85"— is going to become a quilt back today!)

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a dedicated fan of minky. I used it first way back in 2005, when it wasn’t quite as easy to find in the fabric store. I’ve used it as the backing (or part, at least) of several quilts and made a couple of quilts with a mix of cotton or flannel and minky. It’s a completely me sort of fabric, especially the one that has an embossed paisley pattern. Luscious, lovely, soft, silky, and paisley? Sign me up!
 
(A close up of the paisley detail, with lots of contrast so you can see the pattern)

But, it’s incredibly hard to work with, especially for a quilter like me, who tends to be just a little left of perfect. Try as I might, my cotton pieced quilts are rarely exactly square. Throw in some stretch, and some curling, and yeah: every time I use minky I swear it’s my last time.

Until I make another quilt.

I especially like it for backing quilts. It quilts up beautifully—you’d think the pattern would get all ugly, but it just sort of swallows the stitches, creating an alternating pattern-within-a-pattern effect. It washes well. And, well: it’s just so soft. It’s irresistible.

If you find yourself under the sway of minky, too, here are a couple of things I’ve learned about working with it—all discovered while sewing! (Which means these are real-life tips)

1. Perhaps most important: always use a 1/2" or 5/8" seam. The first pieced blanket I made with minky, a nine patch with minky as the center squares and flannel everywhere else, I pieced with 1/4" seams. Big mistake. Every time I wash it, another minky-meets-flannel seam pulls open. This is one of Kaleb’s favorite baby quilts and I’ve repaired it more times than I can tell. It’s not very pretty anymore! (He still loves it.) Especially if you’re working with different fabrics, this is essential. But minky-on-minky requires wider seams, too.

2. Prepare yourself for the stretch. Minky stretches widthwise, but not lengthwise. This is occasionally frustrating. (Read: always frustrating.) With a minky quilt back, this might lead to the dreading puckers! Avoid these by alternating the direction you quilt in—quilt a lengthwise row, then a widthwise, then back the other way. (I don’t do freeform quilting so I have no minky + freeform advice.)

3. One of the least stressful ways to make a minky backing is to frame it with a cotton or flannel. You’d have one big square of minky in the middle, surrounded by that other fabric. Having the less stretchy fabric on the outside edge makes the quilting go much easier and the chance for puckers smaller.

4. If you piece the back, use spray adhesive to hold the minky seams open flat. Or baste them open.(Ironing won’t do anything other than muck up your minky. Not that I know this from personal experience or anything.)

5. Watch the nap—make sure it flows the same way. Or, make it flow different ways on purpose, but remember: minky nap matters. Especially if your little ones are wont to pet their blankies!

6. If the minky goes all the way to the edge of your quilt (front orback), serge or zig zag stitch the entire edge of the quilt before you add the binding. I know lots of people who do this regardless, but I tend to skip this step—unless I’m working with minky. The extra row of stitches does wonders for making your binding lie straight.

7. If you’re piecing with a combination of fabrics, put the minky on the bottom, but no matter what, use your walking foot if you have one.

8. Prepare yourself: this is messy stuff. It will get everywhere. Your spouse will be annoyed. Your vacuum and your needle plate will quickly get clogged with fluff. The only way to combat this is to just get the damn quilt finished! Also, it’s expensive. When I first found the paisley stuff, it was $20 a yard. TWENTY BUCKS!?! It’s gone down a little bit. I still will only buy it with a coupon or at a sale.

9. There are various opinions on whether to use batting or not with minky. I’ve used high loft, low loft, and no batting with minky. My favorite is low loft for ease of use, although the high loft + minky combo is so cloudlike it’s worth the extra frustration. I didn’t like the no batting look because the minky is sort of sheer (I was using the pale pink one) and you can see the pieced back of the front through the quilt back. Plus, it doesn’t bother me that the quilts are heavy. They feel warmer that way. This topic is all opinion—you’ll have to try the options to see which one you like best.

10. Be flexible! I think this of every quilt I make, but you have to be especially anti-perfection to work happily with minky. Or a better quilter than I am. The fluffy nature of the stuff sort of covers up some of the off-square quality. If you want perfectly exact squares, this probably isn’t your fabric. Triangles might be impossible! The fact is, though, that the resulting quilt is so cuddle-able, the slightly off-square quality won’t matter to the person who loves it!

Happy quilting!

Baby Quilt no17

(I actually have no clue how many baby quilts I've made. Seventeen just sounds like a good number.)

A few years back, I made a quilt top for a friend who has three boys. She was about to embark on her fourth pregnancy, so I made a girly, floral, feminine quilt top in order to contribute some female perspective to her project. Turns out my sewing project had absolutely nothing to do with her conception, as she had another boy. (Now she has five boys, whom she of course loves, and I very happily made her a boyish, argyle, rugged quilt instead.)

See, sometimes my quilting projects don't linger in neglect because of my general lameness but because life intervenes in unexpected ways.

Still, I've had this quilt top for quite a long time, waiting for just the right baby. My sister-in-law, Melissa, is having just the baby to go with my quilt, a girl, next month. I'm unaccountably excited for this baby to be born, perhaps because I always thought that my Haley, as a baby, looked a lot like Melissa did, as a baby. Or because I have conquered my own baby desires as much as they can ever possibly be conquered, and so now have returned to a time in my life when I can again enjoy other people's babies without post-baby-holding weeping. Whatever the case, I wanted to bring something special to the baby shower on Saturday. So I pulled out the quilt top.

And then I remembered the other reason I hadn't finished making it into a quilt: I didn't know how to quilt it. Here is a fact: my sewing machine is not fancy. It's your basic, straightforward model. In theory I canfreeform quilt with it. In reality, there just is not enough throat space to freeform quilt anything bigger than a table runner. So I quilt in straight lines only. They're all I can accomplish.

But I didn't know how to quilt this quilt.

 
(the finished version...did not photograph just the top.)

So I put it away and forgot about it. Forgot about it except for my extreme fondness for it. I should blog about how much I love Mary Engelbreit's stuff, but really: I love Mary Engelbreit's stuff. When she started making fabric? Well, let's say my joy was expressible only by the use of my credit card. The fabrics in this quilt came from her Baskets of Flowers line. I love it so much I would like to conceive my own girl just so I could make a quilt for her. (Unfortunately "to make a quilt for" is not a good reason to create a child. Right? Right?) And when Melissa texted me her baby's gender, well, I knew: it was time.

Then I procrastinated.

Why rush? I already had the quilt top made. It'd only take a few hours to quilt it, right? Well, not really. Really, I finished this quilt one hour and 15 minutes before the shower started. It was still warm from the dryer when I wrapped it. But! I love how it turned out. I decided to simply quilt around the squares. Once it was finished, I wished I had quilted it differently. If I had done long lines that ran along the edges of each square but then through the white border, I would have created a different pattern of small, white, quilted squares at the corner of each of the colored squares. But that's OK. When I make this pattern again, I'll quilt it that way.

I backed it with the pink paisley-patterned Minkee, which is just about the most feminine, girly, gorgeous fabric imaginable. And! I lucked out, because somewhere between finishing the quilt top years ago and pulling it out on Friday evening, I misplaced the fabric I'd saved to bind it with. The fabric store where I originally bought the fabric, though, had just enough left (in the remnant bin, even!) for the binding.

I love, love love how it turned out. Almost, I'd imagine, as much as I will love the baby whom the quilt will one day wrap. I can't wait till she finally arrives!

on Table Runners

I have a couple of friends who want to start quilting but are afraid to. They've got everything they need---the cutting mats and rulers, the fabric and thread, the sewing machine, the pattern. But they haven't started yet because the first cut into that beloved fabric is hard. It's hard and scary. You don't want to mess up; you hope your vision matches the finished item. Plus, fabric is expensive!

I so get this. When I made my first real quilt (and by "real" I mean: I cut fabric into pieces and sewed them back together, as opposed to using a quilt panel; don't let the word "real" convince you that I have a thing against panels, because I don't and one day I will blog about it to prove it), my mother helped me through almost every step. It was the rag quilt I made for Haley when she moved bedrooms, almost six years ago. I probably drove my mother crazy, calling her with questions. The finished quilt isn't exactly what I wanted and is far from perfect. But she still loves and uses it, and it's kept her warm and comfortable for one third of her life. I think that's a success, despite its mistakes.

Still, I think it's better to start your quilting career with something smaller and less emotionally invested. Enter the table runner! It's the perfect thing to make for your first quilting experience. Take the one I made in January:

 
(And, yes: I still, six weeks later, have my snow men out on my pretty spot. There is ONE little Valentine decoration in my kitchen, but as I am a self-proclaimed anti-Valentine that's really all there ever will be. Snowmen can stay until March.)

The day I sewed it, I also

1. managed to make it through the day despite a killer headache
2. made playdough fish with Kaleb
3. drove Haley to school and checked her in (she's usually really good at being ready to go on time, but that morning, not so much)
4. helped Kaleb with his homework
5. "organized" every. single. fridge alphabet magnet we own (Kaleb's newest obsession)
6. showered, blew my hair dry, and managed general bodily cleanliness
7. finished up a medical procedure which I may or may not blog about one day
8. processed 13 pictures in Photoshop (PS tends to either create or exacerbate my headaches)
9. washed three loads of laundry
10. hung up one of those loads (the black one—so nothing would shrink)
11. folded two loads of laundry (although not the ones I washed that day)
12. picked up Kaleb's cousin and took them both to school
13. went to work
14. picked up the carpool
15. visited my friends at Costco (I swear I am there so often that they have all become my closest confidants)
16. cooked dinner
17. made my bed
18. picked up my black Dr. Marten boot, which had been at the shoe-repair place for six weeks
19. mailed a package
20. forgot to mail a different package
21. shopped online
22. read to Kaleb
23. talked to Becky about Ragnar, library cards, and other stuff
24. helped Jake study for the spelling bee
25. admired Haley's new shirt
26. read some of my book
27. wrote a blog post
28. wrote in my WED notebook

My point is that you can totally fit making a table runner into your life. The table runner is one of the easiest sewing projects in the history of sewing projects. I think they are the perfect project for your first quilting experience because A---they come together really quickly; B---they're generally seasonal so if you hate what you make you won't have to see it for another 10 or 11 months; C---they let you make every single quilting decision you ever need to make (fabric, pattern, thread, batting, quilting, binding); D---they don't take a whole bunch of fabric so if you really, really hate it, you can just throw it away without feeling like you've wasted $4,427 worth of material; E---they can be practice pieces, since you're not giving them to anyone and so the fear of "I'm embarrassed to give this to you because it is awful" disappears; F---since they come together so quickly, you don't have to have your sewing machine out for very long, nor the accompanying quilting mess, thus avoiding the "when are you going to clean up this fabric mess" arguments with your significant other (not that *I* have ever had one of those!); and G---they are cute and satisfying and fun and bring a little bit of color to any spot that needs its.

Here, on one of my favorite quilting blogs, is an awesome tutorial for a super-easy table runner that's also adorable. And, just to illustrate how really easy a table runner is, here are the steps I took to make mine:

1. Buy one yard each of two fabrics. Take them home and iron them.
2. Cut three 6" by width of fabric (WoF) strips from each fabric.
3. From two of the 6" strips, cut 4 6" squares (two from each fabric)
4. Alternating fabrics, sew 4 of the 6"x WoF strips together.
5. Iron open the seams (or iron them closed if you're so inclined).
6. From the four sewn-together strips, cut eight 6" strips, giving you 8 strips of four squares each.
7. Sew two of these together three times, giving you 3 strips of 8 squares each.
8. Grab those lonely 6x6 squares from step #3. Making sure to alternate fabrics, sew one onto the end of each strip from step 7, resulting in three strips that are 9 squares long. (You'll have on 6x6 square left. You can do whatever you want with this!)
9. Again paying attention to the alternating fabrics, sew the three strips together.
10. Use the remaining fabrics to piece together the back.
11. Quilt and bind as you wish.

OK, I know this tutorial would be much more fun (and useful) if I had thought to take pictures of all the steps. Alas, I did not. But still: simple! fun! colorful! doable in just one normal day!

The table runner: it's the perfect sewing project I tell you!

Chances Are (A Quilt Question)

Chances are, if you are a friend, neighbor or relative who has had a baby, I have made a baby quilt for you. This might come as a surprise to some of you friends, neighbors, and/or relatives who've had babies, since not everyone has actually receivedsaid baby quilts. Sometimes the quilts get made only in my head, which is full of good intentions. Sometimes they are "made" in the sense that I buy the fabric for them. (Such as Kayci's twoyoungest daughters and Lindsay's youngest son.) Occasionally they get partly made, which is the case with Britt's daughter, who is closing in on two years old. I made the quilt top but then couldn't figure out how to quilt it, so I put it away until inspiration struck. Which it still hasn't. Every once in awhile, I'll actually finish the quilt, put it in a cute gift bag, and then manage to not take the gift over until it's far too late. It would be weird to show up with a baby quilt for an eight-month old, wouldn't it?

But!

Sometimes I manage to conceptualize, shop for, sew, quilt, bind andgive the baby quilts I make. I even keep baby-quilt-laundering supplies (a package of fragrance-free dryer sheets and a bottle of Dreft which I never  sniff just to be reminded of how baby laundry smells) on hand for my successes. I think I'm most successful when I keep the project simple. And as I have four new babies coming up soon (my sister-in-law Melissa's and then one each for my nieces Lindsay, Brittany, and Jacqui) I'm going to be doing a bit of simple sewing. So yesterday I sat down and figured out the dimensions and yardage for a simple rag baby quilt. And then I executed:

 

Here you have attempt #1 at a simple, made-in-a-few-hours baby quilt. It's not exactly what I intended, because that jungle-animal print came in a strip pattern already, so it messed up my measurements. (When I make another one with my original dimensions, I'll write up a tutorial, just so I can remember exactly how to do it.) I made this one for a friend at work, whose baby shower is today. It didn't turn out just like I had hoped—it's wider than it is long—but I still think it's cute.

Whenever I am making a baby quilt, even a quick one, I'll have a moment when I'm besieged with doubt. Is this a dumb gift? Will it be sturdy or embarrassingly fragile? Are the colors and patterns OK? Would the mom rather receive something practical, like clothes or diapers or bottles? I'm not sure. Part of the give-a-quilt motivation is simply that I enjoy making them, so in that sense I'm not even doing it for them.

So, that's my question to you. If you've received a baby quilt as a gift (from me or someone else), was it a good gift? Or would a practical something be better?

Disappearing Nine Patch Tutorial

Hey! It's November, which means I can pull out this quilt:

 
That is my Thanksgiving quilt, which I pieced two years ago, and finally bound about three days before Thanksgiving last year, so this is the first year I really get to use it all November long. This quilt happened because one day I was rambling through Joann and I came across the Debbie Mumm fabric aisle and fell in love with a Thanksgiving print:

  
There was only a bit left in the store (and I think it is supposed to be used as a tablecloth), but I was lucky enough to find a bunch of the companion pieces —six, in fact! They are unabashedly Thanksgiving-esque: steaming apple pies, and those glorious turkeys, corn cobs and cornucopias. Plus, the prints with words: one with "turkey" repeated, the other with words like "blessings" and "family time" and "gathering in gratitude" on tags. Still, I think this project would have stayed in the perpetual bin of one-day-I'll-work-on-this if I hadn't also stumbled across the orange fabric I used for the small squares and the binding.
I cannot adequately express my affection for that orange fabric.

 The pattern I used for it is called the Disappearing Nine Patch, and is one of my favorites because it looks complicated but is really fairly easy. Here's how to do it:

1. Assemble a bunch of nine-patch blocks. A nine patch is a single block made of, you guessed it, nine smaller squares, arranged in a 3x3 grid. Traditionally, the nine patch is pretty scrappy—nine different fabrics with a similar color but wildly different patterns, coordinated by the color similarity. You can make your nine patches that way, or you can take a more patterned approach. For mine, I was very careful: I wanted the outside corners to be dark (the Thanksgiving prints), the alternating squares light (creams), and the center that fabulous orange. I'll explain why in step #8. For my quilt, I made 16 nine-patch squares, built of 9 6" squares. Your measurements and block counts can be whatever you wish! For ease of explanation, though, I'm going to use my block number in these instructions: 16.

2. To assemble the nine patch squares:

• Cut your squares. (I like working in 6" increments because my favorite cutting ruler is 6" wide)
• As you cut, pile the squares together grouped in colors. (So, when I was done cutting, I had a stack of 64 (16x4)Thanksgiving print squares, a stack of 64 creams, and a stack of 16 oranges.)
• Now, sit down at your sewing maching. Chain piece the squares together with the following counts for each of the 16 squares in the quilt: 3 dark + light, 1 light + center. (Chain piecing: when you are finished sewing the first two squares together, don't lift up the presser foot on your sewing machine. Instead, just slide the next two squares under the foot and keep sewing. When you're finished, your squares will still be joined together by little lengths of thread, but you'll have saved a ton of starting-and-stopping time.)
• Snip the extra thread between the chain-pieced squares, then iron. I'll spare you the great seam-ironing argument by simply stating: I iron my seams open. I just like it better that way.
• Reassemble your piles: you should have a large pile of 48 dark + light rectangles (A), a smaller pile 16 of light + center rectangles (B), and the same amount of lone, not-yet-sewed-to-anything dark squares (C). Chain piece one A to one B, making sure the light square from A is on top of the center square of B. Do this until your pile of Bs is gone and you have that many 4 patch squares made.
• Chain piece an A to the 4 patch squares, making sure to put the dark piece on the top row (which would be the A row from the above step.) Now you've got  16 3x2 patch rectangles.
• Chain piece the remaining 16 As to those lone squares (the 16 Cs), putting the dark next to the light. Now you also have 16 3x1 patch rectangles.
• Iron again.
• Chain piece one 3x2 to one 3x1, putting the dark squares in the outer corners. Voila! 16 nine-patch squares!
• Back to the ironing board with you!
• Please note: If you wanted less randomness, you could also strip piece the nine patches. This would save a ton of time, but as I wanted my squares to be as random as possible, I didn't strip piece. In fact, I made sure that every every square is unique, and that none of the fabrics, except for the orange, repeat in any individual square.

3.  Square up your nine patches. I think even if you're really, really good at keeping your seam exactly 1/4", you'll still have to square up the nine patches. Or maybe not, but if you're anything like me, your nine patch "squares" won't be exactly square. In theory, they should be 17"x17", but I did have to square them up. This means I cut down all of my nine patches so that all the edges were square and straight, and in reality they are 16.75x16.75 instead. Can I be honest? I HATED this step.

4.  Now we're going to make the "disappearing" part of your nine patch squares. Cut each square in half, right through the middle, left to right.
 

5. Next, cut it in half again, top to bottom.

6.  This is important: as you cut each 9 patch into quarters, pile them together in the original formation. In other words, keep the centers together, like this:
 

7. Here is the step that makes the nine patch disappear: turn two of the smaller squares. (The entire pile!) I turned the top left and the bottom right squares:
 

8. Now you have a pile of 64 4.25"x 4.25 squares. Sew them back together, paying attention to scrappiness (or not.) Now you see why I was careful with the pattern of my 9 patches: I wanted the orange square to be the small repeating one, to draw attention to it.

9. Once all your squares are sewn back together, iron them.

10. Lay your squares out on the floor, on a table, or a design wall if you have one (I don't, and thus this ugly photo taken at an odd angle in my front room).
 

Play with the order and arrangement until you're happy, then sew the squares together into rows.

11. Sew the rows together into a big square.

12. Now, if you want, you can add a border. I don't always add borders, but I had a ton of the cream-colored fabrics left, so I decided to use it up. I cut 3" strips in random lengths and sewed them together to make a sort of scrappy border. If you add a border, do this:

• Add the first two borders to the top and bottom of the quilt. Measure the center of the quilt to get a rough idea of how long to cut the borders, but make them a titch longer. Sew on the borders.
• Cut off the extra length.
• Now, measure the height of the quilt (including the two borders you've just added.) Add a titch to this, then cut your borders to that measurement.
• Trim off the extra.

13. Quilt! (That is an entire blog post in itself. I paid someone else to quilt this for me, because I know all too well the limitations of my sewing machine. It couldn't ever manage the pretty swirled quilting I wanted.)

14. Bind the quilt.
 

You can read my thoughts on binding (scroll down to the fifth paragraph after the photo), but for complete and easy-to-understand binding tutorials, try this one or this one or even this one. Actually, if you've never bound a quilt before, I would read all three! One tip: I've always done straight-grain binding, rather than cutting on the bias. Mostly this is because the one time I tried to cut bias binding strips, I ruined an entire yard of fabric. Sigh.

15. Enjoy! And if you make one, you should show me your results!

Randomalities, October Style

RANT: The Sunchips debacle is really, really bugging me. See, they've been putting Sunchips into these biodegradable bags. Compostable, even. I don't buy a lot of chips in general, but I do sometimes get a bag of Sunchips. They're healthier than regular chips and they make me think of childhood trips to Lake Powell. The eco-friendly bag made me like them even more! Now, though, they are going back to regular bags because people have complained about the bags being too loud. Oh. My. Hell. Seriously? I think this is a reflection of why our environment is irreparable. Not because we can't repair it, but because we don't want to make any concessions. If an eco-friendly product isn't just as normal as a non-eco-friendly one, we don't want it. Let's continue adding to landfills because the alternative is a loud bag!?! Granted: the bag is loud. But who cares? When are you required to eat chips quietly? It's not like eating chips is a quiet activity anyway.

REALIZATION:7:30 p.m. is too late, now, to start a run. I am right in the middle of training for a half marathon, but have had a horrible headache for the past three days. Plus, I suddenly have this weird calf issue, which is probably a post for another day. Suffice it to say, I hadn't put on my running shoes since Friday and I NEEEEEDED to get in five miles yesterday. So I decided to run home after work. I didn't realize, though, just how dark it is at 7:30. Plus, the route I'd made for myself (because I only live about a mile away from the library, but I needed five miles) included a stretch of very busy road that doesn't have street lights. SO not a good choice! The two-mile mark of my run found me going very slowlyas I tried to navigate that lightless stretch of road. I twisted my ankle just a bit by stumbling on a rock, and nearly got run over, and barely made it through with my life intact. No more dark runs for this chick, unless I find a sweat proof headlamp!

READING: I had every intention to read some scary-ish books this month. I've got Lord Byron's Novel and More than You Knowchecked out. What I forgot to take into consideration is that October is when the long list for the Beehive Awards comes out, so I'm reading lots of teen novels instead. Some good, some ehhhhhh. What are you reading?

RESTARTING: My October goal to not eat any sugar until Halloween. I made it till Monday (a whole three & a half days), when, upon arriving home, I was unable to resist the lure of hot chocolate on the first cold-ish, rainy autumn day we've had. Since I'd fallen off the wagon, I decided to make a caramel apple cake, which I then snacked on all day yesterday. I'm letting myself have one more piece today and then, tomorrow, I'm back on the wagon.

REVEALING: Here's a sneak peak of the two quilts I've been working on:

They are going much faster than I expected. I have a couple of baby quilts I need to make, and one other gift-type quilt. Oh, and, I am now on the hunt for some boyish red flannel as Jake needs a new quilt too, and he wants flannel to replace the old one I finally, literally, threw away it was so worn out. He'd been sleeping with this quilt I made back when I was engaged...nearly twenty years ago. The batting is all torn inside and it smells weird, but he loved it. You'd think the fact that it was pink & floral would dissuade him but it was so comfy he didn't care. (He does, by the way, have non-pink bedding, but he doesn't love his comforter like he loved that flannel quilt.)

a quilting Thing-That-Bugs:

Since Sunday, I've been working on cutting the pieces for two different quilts. In fact, right now, my kitchen table looks like this:

One quilt started last fall, intending to give it to a certain kid with a November birthday, but then all the heart stuff happened and I had no time for quilting. My mother-in-law saved the day by giving Nathan, you guessed it: a quilt for his birthday. (I didn't know she was making him a quilt, so really, the heart thing interrupting my quilt was perfect, because I wouldn't have wanted to steal her limelight. The quilt she made him is awesome!)

The other quilt is for Kaleb, who has scary dreams that cause him to sneak into my bed—almost every night. I wake up and he's been sleeping snuggled up close to me, with his head in the exact spot on my arm where a nerve must run, because it's always my painfully-asleep hand and forearm that alert me to his presence. I carry him back to his bed, a difficult feat considering my sleeping arm and the fact that he weighs almost 50 pounds.

I'm really, really tired.

So I am making him the Magic Dinosaur Quilt. I'm using this Michael Miller fabric, which Kaleb spotted at the fabric store. (Luckily, we were shopping just a few days after the store got this fabric; they tend to cut up all the really awesome fabrics into kits, leaving a quarter yard for some lucky customer to get her hands on. This bugs me but it's not The Thing That Bugs from my title.) I am hoping a little wonky psychology will get him to stop dreaming, because since I bought the fabric (in June; don't judge) I've been telling him that the dinosaurs will scare away the bad dreams.

Now that the kids are in school, I can work on some projects, and these two quilts are the first on the list. (Nathan's birthday is, after all, in November!) Which brings me to all that cutting, and the Thing That Bugs: incompetent cutting by fabric-store employees.

I've been shopping for these fabrics for a long time. Over a year in Nathan's quilt's case. So I can't take the fabric back and demand a re-cut. I can only work with what I've got. And what I've got is a lot of nearly-a-quarter yards. Even though I was very specific, each time I bought a new piece: I need nine inches. Please, please, can you cut it straight? Or, even better, cut it generously and give me a piece that's 9.25" wide. That little extra bit gives me just enough to straighten and still be left with nine inches. You know, the nine inches I paid for. 

It is simply maddening to need nine inches of fabric (and to have paid for nine inches!) only to realize, once I've straightened everything out, that I have 8.75. Sure...it's close to 9. But "close" doesn't really work in quilting. It has to be nine. Of course, I can work around it by cutting in a different way, but it's much less efficient and leaves me with fewer squares and more unusable (for this project) scraps. And, sure: I suppose I could have been buying third yards instead, but I don't think I should have to. I think the fabric store employees should simply be more careful when they are cutting my yardage. Don't you?