4 X 7 -- Week 4 -- A Big Finish!!

The last day of February, 2015!!

I hope it's also the end of the brutal cold spell we've been enduring here in Northeast Ohio!

And the wrap-up of a productive month of stitching!!

 

I'm sure the extra cold weather has been a positive factor in the amount of stitching I've accomplished this month.  There were quite a few days I didn't budge out of the house.  And we've had lots of sunshine -- which is a positive impact of the fact that Lake Erie is completely frozen over. 

Hard to comprehend but it's the shallowest of the Great Lakes and so during a very cold spell, the ice grows quickly. 

 

This week I began to set together the "sunflower" blocks from Nathalie's "not a mystery" sew-along.

You can get to all her posts about the quilt HERE.  Nat's blog is in French so you'll have to learn how to translate it via Google or Bing, but several of my American students have been making it also and had no trouble following along.

 

  It's a charming block, cut with Marti Michell's new 2" Kite and Crown template set.  There are two more rows to add but I'm using the blocks as part of my piecing demos at the Farmpark Quilt Show Vendors Weekend today and tomorrow.  I've started to search my stash for a border fabric, but might need to go shopping on this one!

The BIG finish for the week has been the quilting of my fun, fun, fun fruit and veggie Tessellated Windmill quilt top.  I spread it out on my double bed to get some pics -- Willie refused to move at first.  I used 7" blocks, set 8 by 10, and the quilt measures 55" by 70".

But he finally emerged for a closer look at the ants.

And it has his official seal of approval!! 

I think this is the 9th quilt I've made using this tool since Marti Michell introduced it a couple years ago.  If you can't find the tool locally, I usually have some in stock -- e-mail me at maryhueyquilts@hotmail.com

 Because it can be done in block sizes from 2" to 9" and is easy to cut, easy to piece, and I've found a simple quilting strategy that I use over and over with variations to the border, it's become one of my "go-to" quilts for gifts and donations. 

This one is not a donation or a gift! 

This one is for me. 

My fruit and veggie pile is so much fun to play with and this is the third big project I've made from it.  I was able to come up with enough names of fruits and veggies that I didn't repeat any as I worked my way around the border.  

Finishing this quilt also gives me another "gold star" on my 2015 UFO Challenge list over at http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/how-to-quilt/finishing/2015-ufo-challenge  So I'm two for two and looking forward to the "number" for March. 

 

Wahoo, wahoo, wahoo!!

Hope the momentum I have going carries me through March!!

A big THANKS and a hug to Sarah over at http://www.berrybarndesigns.com/ 

for the motivation of the 4 X 7 Sewing Challenge.

 

Hope you are able to stitch away your weekend!!

 

Mary Huey

www.maryhueyquilts.com

 

Nathalie's Sunflower Quilt!

Yesterday my friend, Nathalie in France, has started her New Year's "not a mystery" project for us!  I have been watching her make the sample which she has named the Sunflower and it's a charming quilt.  It uses Marti Michell's new 2" Kite and Crown Template Set.  I'm going to follow along and thought you might enjoy doing the same!

If you own my DVD Set-In Piecing Simplified or you've attended one of my Tumbling Blocks workshops, this quilt will be a good next step to practice chain-piecing through those y-seams.  If you haven't purchased the DVD yet or you haven't watched it yet, what a good way to begin your 2015 year of quilting -- by learning a new technique!

There is a Facebook group that you can join and several of the gals have started to share their fabric picks.  I'm going to use a 30's reproductions jelly roll (because I couldn't live without it, so now I have to use it) for the "crown" petals and a white-on-white print for the background.  The print for the center hexagon and the setting triangles hasn't presented itself yet but I have time.  The first step is a couple hours of cutting and you can find it HERE.  Don't be intimidated by the French!  If you have the Google toolbar, activate the "translate" button -- once Nathalie's post is downloaded, click translate and "ta-da", it's English. 

Need the templates -- I have them in stock -- they are $14 plus shipping -- go here to my on-line shop and order them today or if you live nearby, e-mail me and make arrangements to stop by.

If I get the first step cut this afternoon, I can mark them this evening during the return of Downton Abbey!!

UPDATE:  1/5/2015 -- Following is a translation of the supplies and fabrics needed to make Nathalie's quilt which is a lap robe size
        Tools needed include Marti Michell's 2" Kite and Crown Set, Set G, and the Small 60 degree Ruler
        Fabrics needed include 12 fat quarters or a jelly roll for the "crown" petals
                                              1 1/4 yards background fabric
                                              1/2 yard for first border
                                              1 yard for second border
                If you use a jelly roll, you can make a "pieced" center hexagon using the prints in the jelly roll or pull another 1/2 of fabric for a center hexagon.

Here is link to some photos of Nathalie's first top of the quilt.

Mary Huey
www.maryhueyquilts.com

A HEXAGON TABLEMAT FINISH and a tutorial!!

I'm making a few of these tablemats for Christmas gifts this year.  My friend, Carol is crazy about chickens and I have an embarrassing quantity of chicken fabric! 

I've been cutting and piecing them as demonstrations during my fall vending appearances using Marti Michell's templates and the chain-piecing technique for y-seam piecing in my DVD workshop, Set-In Piecing Simplified.  

I love the zig-zag edge but knew I would not enjoy working that hard to bind it!  So I started to think about using Marti's no-bind finish technique that she shares in the instructional leaflet that comes with her fusible tape products.   Nathalie Delarge (my friend in France) has a video showing how to do it and even though it's in French (and my grasp of that language is embarrassingly poor), it helped me "see" the process and enhanced Marti's instructions.

So I decided to give it a try - after all, it couldn't be any more time consuming than a binding?!

The tape can be used to "baste" batting leftovers together and that was how I started.

Here are two "leftovers" -- I overlapped the edges about 1".

Then I centered a rotary ruler on the overlap and cut across.  You can also cut it freehand with your cutter. 

This makes matching edges on the batting that can be butted together more easily. 

Remove and discard the trimmings. 

Now lay a length of the fusible tape in place and apply with an iron following the instructions that come with in the package with the tape. 

Then center the tablemat on the batting.

Trim the batting with scissors following the edges of the tablemat.

Remove the tablemat and trim the batting so it will be smaller than the pieced top. 

This was the part I didn't get quite right the first time.

I trimmed off a bit over 1/4" and I should have trimmed off between 3/8" and 1/2". 

 The pin in the photo above is my reminder of where I started. 

Here are all trimmings!  It took about 30 minutes to get the batting pieced and trimmed.

Now when I center the batting on the wrong side of the pieced top, the edges of the top are exposed. 

Marti has both 1" and 2" wide tape.  I used the 1" for this project.   I cut 2" segments of the tape.

Then I put the tape segments on each edge of the zig-zags with the edge just inside the edge of the fabric and lapping onto the batting.    Time to fuse those in place! 

Finally, I centered the pieced top with the batting right sides together on the backing (more chickens).   So the layers are -- backing right side up, then pieced top right side down, and finally the batting.

One of the advantages of this approach is that it's easy to follow the zig-zag edge of the pieced top!  I made the backing in two pieces (you can read my tutorial about doing that HERE), so I could stitch all the way around the piece with no worries about trying to finish the edges once the piece is turned right side out. 

All that remains to do is trim the extra backing away, trim the outside corners to reduce bulk and clip the backing fabric at the inside corners.   Since the batting isn't caught in this seam, the corners are easy to manage.  And the fusible tape keeps the batting from pulling away from the edges!!  Genius!!

  Here's the finished mat!!  I kept the quilting simple working with a complementary cotton thread and my walking foot.  I outlined each round by echo quilting 1/4" from seams.   TA-DA!!! Finished!

I'm so pleased with it that I've organized a cutting and layout guide for you Michell template lovers which is available in my Etsy Shop.  You can use it with any of Marti Michell's large hexagon tools (Set G, Set H, or the Multi-sized Hexagon Ruler) and my teaching guide, SET-IN PIECING SIMPLIFIED, also available on Etsy.  The larger size hexagons will give you an easy project to test out the chain piecing technique!

And of course, if you have questions, I'm just an e-mail away (maryhueyquilts@hotmail.com) or friend me on Facebook (Mary Brower Huey) and we can use their "messaging" feature to chat!!

Linking up over at Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday because it's so much fun to see what other quilters are doing!!

Happy Piecing!!

Mary Huey

www.maryhueyquilts.com

Remote Trouble Shooting!!

A week ago, I introduced you to Nathalie.  We met on Facebook through Marti Michell.  We both teach with and sell Marti's line of rotary cutting tools.  Nathalie is outside of Paris, France and I'm outside of Cleveland, Ohio.  When I mentioned my DVD workshop about chain piecing through set-in seams, she ordered it immediately.  Once she received it, she tried it out by piecing a tumbling block quilt using Marti's Stripper Template set.  In less than two weeks, she had a finished top.

While she was learning to apply the technique, there were questions of course.  And so began daily chats with her via Facebook messaging.  I received her questions while she was sitting at her machine and was able to respond with photos to clarify things for her.  She pieces in the afternoon which means I'm up and moving around, so most of our communication is almost instant.  That's so exciting.  It's been easy to help her and I encourage those of you who've purchased the DVD to "friend" me on Facebook at Mary Brower Huey.  That will give you easy access to me when you encounter questions. 

So lets look at a couple of questions from Nathalie and others about this technique. 

One comment left by a quilter on Nat's post was "how do you decide" referring to choosing fabrics for the quilt.  My version is very scrappy and choosing fabrics might seem overwhelming.  But this quilt started in my box of leftover 2 1/2" strips -- they were pulled from it so there was no need to pull a big assortment in the beginning.  Then by focusing on one tumbling block unit at a time, I made combinations of three diamonds that looked pretty and had the light/medium/dark value contrast. 

Once all the "blocks" were finished, I pick three off the top of the pile, organize them into a larger unit, and stitch them together.  Now if I don't like the way two fabrics look next to each other, I change them, but VALUE is the primary factor in choosing fabrics for this quilt.

Nathalie's first tumbling block quilt (it won't be her last) has a more controlled color scheme of blue and brown. 

 You can see it here -- http://www.lesouvragesdenat.com/  Her choices were light beiges, blues, and browns -- a simpler strategy that give a very clean contrast and works well for quilters as they build the confidence to go the "all scrappy" route.  I didn't start making quilts that were all scrappy, I evolved into that style.

Once Nathalie had her tumbling blocks together, she began to assemble them into the two units I suggest in the DVD. 

The Y's went together easily for her, but the reverse layout challenged her and she wasn't happy with the intersection of the six diamonds in the center.  I pulled out my teaching samples and did a little stitching myself to be sure I understood what might be giving her a problem.  Soon, I was able to get a close-up photo that clarified things for her and off she went!!  (Sorry the picture isn't larger, but it's from my phone and the larger I made it, the blurry it got in the blog.)

I'm thrilled that we have had such an easy time communicating.  Fortunately for me she speaks English because my French is non-existent (typical American).

Questions are valuable to me.  They help me understand how to present ideas and concepts better in the future.  As I travel farther from home to teach, I have learned that quilters have a lot in common but they also have differences, too.  So if I assume everyone will understand everything I teach and write, I am bound to have problems.  Not everyone takes the same approach to a task .  So I'm grateful for the questions since it helps me become a better teacher.

So if you already own my DVD and something has puzzled you about my demonstrations on it, please contact me and let me clarify it for you.  It will help both of us!!

Mary Huey