Colorful!

As I was looking through my stash the other day for fabric for a small project, I realized that even though I have tons of fabric and supplies, I really don’t have a good supply of just solid color fabrics.

Joann’s was having a sale last week-end on quilter’s solids, so I picked up 13 half yard cuts in a variety of colors plus black.

This gave me a good variety to build on, and it also gave me motivation to build my stash even more!

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Since it is October and Halloween projects are on my “To Do” List, I picked up some Halloween prints as well as a couple of other prints that have a similar color palate, but are not necessarily Halloween.

I have a few project ideas in mind for these.

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During the week, I was at one of the WalMart stores that have a Fabric section fully stocked with a nice variety of bolts and pre-cuts. I collected 11 colors of fat quarters in a mildly mottled print.

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And this morning, I went to Joann’s with a very specific list. I stuck to the list and got everything on it.

Starting today, Symphony Broadcloth is on sale for 50% off so I got a few more solids for my stash.

I also picked up some fat quarters which are on sale for 99cents each.

Plus, they had their Jerzee T-Shirts on sale for 4 for $10. I grabbed 2 each of 4 different colors.

I saved even more by using my 10% discount card.

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I also got some embroidery done last week end.

A few of my sewing buddies and I are attending the Stitching Sisters 2 day event here in the Phoenix area next week end, October 14-15.

Well, you just can’t go to an embroidery conference without wearing something embroidered. So far I have 1 shirt embroidered and ready to wear.

My friend Carole put the design together.  On my computer, it is kind of hard to read what the shirt says, so here it is:

“My Sewing Machine is Smarter than your Honor Student”

I thought it was a cute phrase and I will definitely wear this shirt a lot!

I still have one more shirt to embroider before we go.

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I also digitized and embroidered a small project for Daisey, our sweet little dog.

I have a squeekers to put inside to make these more interesting for her.

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Well, now that I have you up to date on what I have been up to, I hope to be busy using up some of my new stash this week end.

I

Twisting the Weekend Away

While out Quilt Shop Hopping with my sewing buddies last week-end, I picked up a couple of cool templates. One of them is the Lil Twister by                                

country-schoolhouse.com.

Here is my first attempt at using it.

The first step is to sew 5″ squares together in your choice of color combinations and number of squares. I decided to start with 4 shades of blue, 4 across by 4 down. Once the 5″ squares are stitched together, a border is added. I used a 3.5″ black border.

The “Lil Twister” Template is then placed so that the black lines on the template line up exactly with the seam lines, starting at the top left seam intersection.  A rotary cutter is used to cut around the template, trying not to cut too far beyond the template so that the “waste” can also be used for a later project.

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Since the border fabric is black and the lines on the template are black, it is hard to see the, but if you look very closely, you will see that they line up perfectly.

Start cutting at the top left corner and work your way across the top row before starting the second row at the far left again, just like reading.  It is easier to keep things in order if you leave the cut pieces near where they were cut from.  Just be sure that you don’t cut into them while cutting the other blocks.

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My original block configuration was 4×4 plus the border, but after the cuts were finished, I ended up with 5×5 because the borders added another half row on each end.

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This is what the original piece looks like once the cuts are removed.

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There is some waste, but smaller squares can be trimmed and used in another project if you did not cut too far into them.

This is what was left over.

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Side by side comparison of the original size versus the cut size, before stitching together.

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The blocks are laid out in the proper order for sewing together.

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The rows are stitched together first. It is important to be sure the blocks are stitched in the exact order that they are laid out. Be especially careful if some of the colors are very similar.

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Oops, I should have read that previous line before I sewed the rows together. I accidentally flipped the 4^th row and did not realize it until all of the squares were stitched and I was NOT going to take them apart to re-stitch.

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All blocks are stitched, quilted and the binding is done.

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I wanted to see how a 4 patch of just 2 colors before adding the border would turn out, so this is my 2^nd attempt with the Lil Twister tool. I should have used a lighter purple for better contrast against the black. I may use this block as part of a tote bag.

The end result is pretty fascinating and overall it is an easy project. I will most likely use this tool for more small projects such as a table runner, etc.