Variation on Double Take Quilt-Along

This weekend at the Austin Modern Quilt Guild Retreat held at the Wimberley Quilt Ranch, I finished piecing a variation on the Double Take Quilt -Along. Instead of using dark squares (Block B) throughout the top, I replaced every other row with dark stripes.

To modify the instructions for this:
1) Use 1 yd of dark fabric rather than 2/3 yd.
2) After making the long strips for Block B, simply cut the pieced strips into 6.5" pieces, until you get a total of 36 dark stripe blocks.
3) Cut 25 3.5" pieces in order to finish Block B and continue with the instructions for finishing Block B.
4) When assembling the quilt, simply follow the layout in the image shown.

Twisted Sister

I am in love, L.O.V.E., love with this quilt pattern.  It's so quick and easy, but looks complex.  I was introduced to this pattern by my AMQG quilt comrade, Heather.  She showed me how to make it at last months AMQG sew-day at Valli and Kim.  You can buy a template to make this pattern, or just make one of your own out of cardboard.  Actually, I think Valli and Kim sells the plastic template....I, however, did not notice this until after I had finished with the top!

At first, I was very confused by how this would work, so I took a picture at each step:

You just sew all the squares together, then use the twisted template to re-cut the squares, then simply re-assemble.  So quick and easy!  I was able to get it done in an entire weekend.  My only complaint is that there was a lot of wasted fabric, but i think I will be able to use it on the back somehow.

I'm so in love with this pattern that I'm already planning my next one.  This time I'll used a more structured layout and only four fabrics.  I found the coolest space invaders and pac man fabric at Fabric.com.  They have a May coupon code (DOD511) that's good for a 15% discount.

     

Tokyo Subway Top Complete

The Tokyo Subway quilt top is finally complete! I started to work on this quilt at the inaugural AMQG quilt retreat, shortly before leaving for a month long trip to Japan, where I would be working the majority of the time in Tokyo. I thought it would be a fitting reminder of the time that I spent there. Little did I know, it would be a trip I would never forget! One day before I was scheduled to leave, the fifth largest earthquake in recorded history occurred just 200 miles north of where I was living. Prior to that week I had never been in an earthquake in my life. By the end of the week I had been in four earthquakes (all greater than 6.0, including the 9.0) and several dozen aftershocks. I was extremely lucky to be far enough away from the epicenter that the Tsunami did not impact where I was. The devastating images that came out of the area north of us were unfathomable. My heart goes out to all those whose lives were impacted by the quake and subsequent tsunami and nuclear disaster.

This past weekend we held the 2nd AMQG quilt retreat at the Wimberley Quilt Ranch and I was able to finally finish piecing the top. With the exception of two fabrics (I'll never tell which ones!), I used fabric that was from my stash. My fabric addiction, ok hoarding, finally paid off!

Two things that I did on this quilt I will likely never do again. The first is that I did not chain piece. While I felt it was appropriate for this particular top, because it would have been impossible to keep all the blocks straight had I chain pieced, when you don't chain piece, the start point for every seam is not locked as tightly as when you do. This lead to several spots where I had to redo the seams because they were coming apart. (I'll try and post an example image of this later.)

Second, I pressed the seams open. While the modern art movement has embraced pressing the seams open, I do not like it. First of all, it is cumbersome to do. Secondly, it made matching the seams difficult. Thirdly (is that a word?), when you insert the pins to match the seams, you have to put the pin heads on the outside of the fabric (see image to the left). This makes it difficult to sew over the seams with your quarter inch foot. It also caused me to break many, many needles. Normally, when I pin, I put the pin head on the fabric side, and make sure the tip of the pin is just about 1/4 inch from the edge. This way, when you sew over the pins, you are barely sewing over the tip of the pin, which can move out of the way if need be. When you put the pin heads outside the fabric the pin seems less free to move around. Next time I will stick to pressing seams to one side.

Checkout some more pics here.

Now, onto quilting it....

Equal Rights

While my mom was in town last Christmas, we decided to do a quilt shop hop - my first shop hop ever! Myself, my mom, my sister, a friend of my mom's as well as her daughter all piled in a car and drove all over Central Texas.  While many of the shops were closed for the holidays, we were able to find plenty of fabrics at the stores that were open to empty our pocket books!  First stop was the Quilt Haus in New Braunfels, where I picked up a bundle of fat quarters from the Henry Glass's Summertime collection.   I had no idea what to do with it, but knew I was in love.  Miles down the road and hours later, while at the Honey Bee Quilt Store in North Austin, I picked up a pattern for Swirly Girl's Equal Rights quilt, and a match made in heaven was born!  After searching far and wide for the template for this pattern, which I finally had to order on-line, I got started on the top and didn't stop until it was done.  I had originally decided to save this top to piece at the AMQG inaugural retreat in February.  I thought I would cut out the pieces ahead of time and then work on the layout and sewing during the retreat.  But before I knew it, I had pieced the entire top...weeks before the retreat!  I still have yet to quilt it.  Any suggestions?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Bueller?

AMQG BOM - Block 6

I put off doing this block for so long because I was dreading circles.  The only circles I've ever pieced were appli-pieced rather than the traditional way of sewing wrong sides together.  I did ok with this technique from 'This and That', however, I must say, it's really bothering me that the finished product is not a true circle because of the 1/4" seam when attaching the quarter pieces together!

Well, amazingly, I'm caught up on all the Block-of-the-Month blocks.  Can't wait to see what's next!

AMQG BOM - Block 4 & 5

Block 4: January - Scrappy Hedgerow Block

Block 5: February - Double Four Patch

Here are all the finished blocks so far:

For more info on the BOM - click here!

AMQG BOM - Block 3

Block 3 - December - Modern Plaid

Ok, so I didn't really do this in December either.  Actually, I decided I was going to save the remaining blocks of the month for my trip to Japan.  Since I couldn't take my sewing machine with me, though it would have fit nicely in the over-hear compartment, I decided I would try hand piecing for the very first time.  Yikes!  What a disaster.  Not only did I HATE hand piecing, but one thing failed to occur to me:  If you hand piece rows together only to cut the rows into smaller pieces, the rows will fall apart because hand piecing is not as secure as machine piecing.

Check-out below for what I mean.  I pieced rows of white and green together.  Then I needed to rotary cut the entire thing into strips.  After cutting into strips, the white and green did not stay stitched together because the stitching with hand piecing is much too loose.  Lesson learned.  I don't know why that did not occur to me in the first place!

So hand piecing in Tokyo was a bust!  When I got back, I re-sewed the block with my sewing machine. Much better!

For more info on the Block-of-the-Month, click here!

Japan - Fabric Town

Before heading to Japan, some friends in AMQG mentioned a place in Tokyo called 'Fabric Town'.  Located just outside the Nippori train station on the Yamanote line are several blocks lined with fabric shops.  They had more kinds of fabric than I ever imagined - quilting fabric, patterned knit, velvet & vinyl, not to mention the countless notions.  It was fabric heaven.

I managed to make two trips there during my month-long stay in Tokyo, which was difficult given that most of the shops in Fabric Town are only open Mon-Sat 10am-6pm and I was working Mon-Sat 9am-9pm.  Luckily, I had a week off from work during my stay in Japan, which included two Saturdays!  I dragged my poor husband there both times, the second time with the lure of lunch at a noodle shop nearby where they made fresh noodles right in front of you.  

The main store for quilt fabric was Tomato, which was 6 stories tall, each story being a different type of fabric.  The quilting fabric was on the 6th floor and has an overwhelming selection of fat quarters.  Not to mention an incredible amount of notions  - purse handles & straps, zippers, templates, etc.  Pure heaven.  I bought a bunch of zippers and some quilting fabric.  Much of the quilting fabric was actually not made in Japan, so I didn't go too crazy here.

Tomato.  From Left: Solid Knits, Pattern Knit, Fat Quarters, Purse Handles

One of the other floors had an amazing selection of knits.  I've recently become obsessed with making knit sleeves to keep me warm in the office, so I was particularly interested in this floor.  I managed to learn the symbols for cotton, polyester, and rayon thanks to google translate on my iPhone.  I didn't end up buying any knit, however, because much of the 100% cotton that I was interested in was $35 per yard...a little too rich for simple office sleeves!  

After leaving Tomato, I scored a ton of Japanese quilting fabric at the store across the street called Tsukiyasu Honten.  The folks working here were SO friendly.  On my second trip I was actually able to complete the entire transaction in Japanese after learning a few more fabric related words!  Tsukiyasu Honten was definitely my favorite shop that I visited and the main reason that I wanted to make the second trip back to Nippori.

Austin Modern Quilt Guild Winter Retreat

Had a fantastic time at the very first AMQG retreat this weekend at the Wimberly Quilt Ranch.   I spent the whole weekend working on my Tokyo Subway Quilt, a design for a Quilt-A-Long that Elizabeth Hartman did on her Oh, Frannson! Blog.  I chose this quilt for a couple reasons.  First, I will be going to Tokyo in February for a business trip for a few weeks.  I thought it would be a great way to commemorate the trip!  Second, I decided it would be a great way to use a bunch of stash fabric.  All but one fabric I've used in this quilt so far is from my stash!

This will be the first quilt I've made where I pressed the seams open.  I've been hearing that this is the latest trend so I thought I would give it a try.  This top was the perfect candidate because it has a lot of small white squares in it.  Had I pressed the seams to one side, it would have been difficult to keep track of which way each should go.

I have to say, after pressing the seams open, I really do prefer to iron my seams to one side.  It is quicker and also makes it easier to line up the seams when sewing rows together.  But, there IS much less bulk, which will be nice once I'm ready to quilt!

Checkout some pictures from the rest of the gals at the retreat on our Facebook page.  And if you are interested in doing a small retreat somewhere in the hill country, I would HIGHLY recommend the Wimberly Quilt Ranch.  While you're down that way you can also checkout the new quilt store, Valli & Kim, in Dripping Springs.

AMQG BOM - Block 2

Block 2:  November - Disappearing 9 patch

Ok, I didn't really do this in November.  But I got it done, so give me some slack!

This is my new favorite block.  I could make these all day.  You just make a 9-patch, then cut it in quarters and re-arrange.  Fantastic!

For more info on the quilt-a-long, click here.

AMQG Block of the Month

I am participating in my very first Block-of-the-Month.  Very exciting!  I picked some fabrics that I've had in my stash for a while - you know, the ones that you like to look at every once in a while but don't dare use because they are just too pretty.  Yes, I've decided to start cutting them up.  They will be in a better place, shortly!

Block 1: October - Friendship Star

I've made Friendship Stars before, so this time I decided I was going to do an inside out Friendship Star - I used white fabric, which would typically be used as the background fabric, for the star fabric instead.

For more info on the quilt-a-long, click here.