Saturday 20 May 2017

Medallion Quilt Month 5

The block this month is the Broken Dishes Block. The Broken Dishes block is one of the oldest known traditional quilt blocks. I've wondered at the name. Doing a bit of research, I discovered that broken dishes were a traditional grave site decoration used by African American slaves.

Broken Dishes Block
This is a 12 1/2'' unfinished or 12'' finished block.

 All seams allowances are 1/4''

Cutting:

Dark fabric:  A  4-  2 1/2 '' x 2 1/2''
                      B   1- 4 1/2'' x 4 1/2''
Medium fabric: C   4- 3'' x 3''
                          D   2- 5 1/2'' x 5 1/2''
Background Fabric: E  4- 3'' x 3''
                                 F  4- 2 1/2'' x 4 1/2''
                                 G  2- 4 1/4'' x 4 1/4''

Step 1:

1. On the back of both piece E draw a diagonal line from corner to corner. See  1a.
2. Place the square on top of piece C. Sew a 1/4'' seam on both sides of the line. See 1b.
3. Cut on drawn line. See  1c.
4. Press HST's open to dark side.
5. Trim the HST's to 2 1/2'' x 2 1/2''
6. Make 8.

daigram 1
Step 2

1. Cut both G's in half diagonally. See diagram 2a.
2. Finger press a vertical and horizontal fold in piece B.
3. Place piece G right sides together on piece B matching point of G to crease line on B.
4. Sew using a 1/4'' seam.
5. Open the seam and finger press. Do not use your iron or you will loose the crease lines.
6. Repeat with the other 3 sides of B. This is piece BG.
7. Press and trim to 61/4'' x 6 1/4''. Line up 45 degree line of  ruler along the seam between G and B leaving a 1/4'' seam at points. See diagram 2c.

diagram 2

Step 3

1. Cut both D's in half diagonally. See diagram 3a..
2. Finger press a vertical and horizontal fold in piece BG from step 2.
3. Place piece D right sides together on piece B matching point of D to crease line on B. As per diagram 3b.
4. Sew using a 1/4'' seam.
5. Open the seam and finger press. Do not use your iron or you will loose the crease lines.
6. Repeat with the other 3 sides of B.
7 Press and trim to 8 1/2'' x 8 1/2''. 

diagram 3


Step 4

1. Sew units together to make rows. 
2. Sew rows together. 
3. Press in direction of arrows.

diagram 4

I would love to see any of the blocks you have made, you can post to Instagram using  #stitchinathomemedallion2017 

Wednesday 17 May 2017

A MIni for a Friend

Sometimes I just feel like creating, and that is exactly what I did with this piece. As soon as I took this picture I knew I wanted to do something with it.

inspiration photo from my flower beds the flowers are hyacinths

The background I used is a piece of Northcott fabric, perfect for the earth. I used my favourite applique method 'Crafted Applique'. I rough cut the pieces I needed then touched them up with Inktense pencils, NeoColor Crayons and Sharpies. 

the bottom piece is the stone on the right of the finished piece, the top piece is the stone on the left before any  work on them


the leaves on the stone on the left before colouring
I gathered the equipment I was going to use to colour the stones, leaves and flower petals.

these are some of the items I used to re-touch the stones and leaves


after colouring the applique pieces

You can see where I added the yellow to the leaves. I wish I would have taken more pictures as I went along but I was so absorbed in creating I never even thought about my camera. The stones now look more like what I think they should look like. Remember art is in the eye of the beholder and at this point I was the beholder or wanna be artist.

the finished piece
To make the sandwich I laid the top face up then the backing face down on top of the front( right sides together) then the batting. I stitched around all four sides leaving a section open so I could turn the piece right side out. I pressed from the top rolling the edges to the back, then slip stitched the opening closed. The FMQing was then done.

This piece was mailed to Sandra for her new home. 

This lovely came home with me, more on her latter.





Linking up

Monday 8 May 2017

Scraps plus a Finish

I'm still playing trying to use as many of my strings as I can. Up first is my finish for the Hands2Help  quilt, you can read more about it here. I went with wavy line quilting kinda. You would think that someone who can do free motion quilting would be able to make wavy lines. Seems like an easy enough thing to do, but getting the lines to flow and wave took a lot more effort than I thought.


back shows the kinda sorta wavy line quilting
I pieced the back as I didn't quite have enough of the fabric I choose for the backing.

scrappy flange binding
Keeping with the scrap theme I used leftover flange bindings. I keep all my leftover bindings in a plastic container that was overflowing.

ready for a child to snuggle in, this quilt is going to Ronald MacDonald house

They were a lot of strings left even after making the string quilt. Now what to do with them? I grabbed a few 1 1/2'' odds and ends and sewed them together in pairs. Trimmed them to 5 1/2'' just because they were the shortest size pieces. I then added a 1 1/2'' by 5 1/2'' white piece between two strip sets. The blocks are 5 1/2'' square. I threw some of them up on my design wall. 

one possible layout

Then I moved on to the bits and pieces of the 2 1/2'' strips and cut them into 2 1/2'' squares. I am making these into 16 patch blocks using them as leader and enders. 

16 patch blocks

There you have my scrap story. Are my strings all gone. NO!!! I don't believe they will ever be all gone but they are more manageable now.