Our Favorite Finishes from 2020

 2020 is nearly over and it sure has been one for the history books. With the year nearly at its end one of my favorite things to do is look back at the things I have made over the year, things I haven't finished and projects that I would like to do. So tonight I will share with you Esther, Carrie and my own favorite projects and what we hope to finish off yet this year. 

Esther was busy and when I asked for her 3 favorites she sent me 8. So here are her favorites from 2020. 

Esther hopes to finish off her Labor of Love Sampler Quilt yet this year and maybe start working on her sample quilt for our Virtual Retreat at the end of January. However her Sewing Room is also getting a remodel so she isn't sure how much sewing she will be able to do while that is happening. 

Carrie sent me these 3 photos when I asked her for her favorites. 

I am with my mom and I cannot pick just 3 favorites, so here are several of the ones that I love that I made in the last year. 

I have a couple that I hope to finish yet this year, but we are remodelling our basement at the moment and I have to pack up my sewing room  because drywall is the next step and I do not want drywall dust all over my fabrics and notions. So we will see how much I get done. I would love to finish off my Woodland Wonderland Quilt

Do you have any favorites from this year, are you sewing frantically to finish something for Christmas or before the end of the year?

This is the last blog post for 2020 as I am taking the rest of the year off and spending a lot of quality time with my family. Both my husband and I have been really busy with work so we are looking forward to a couple quiet and relaxing weeks spent with each other and our boys. 

Merry Christmas from all of us at Chicken Feed Quilts and we wish you a Happy New Year. 

Kayla

Woodland Wonderland: Month 6

We are now on Month 6 of our Woodland Wonderland Quilt. This month is fun with lots of different blocks. We get to make more trees, stars, the hedgehog, and a branch for owl to perch on, and we get to assemble another row!

For the Snow Tree Blocks I went back and looked at the ones we made in Chapter 3 and made sure I chose different greens than I had already used, for the rest they go together the same as in Chapter 3 so nothing new. 

Same with the Sawtooth Star block we need to make. One thing here, my book has a typo and it says use Chapter 3 to make another block, but we actually made them in Chapter 1 so flip back to the first chapter for all the instructions. I actually made 2 this time, as I had two from earlier with the same center, and I decided I would rather have all 4 be different. 

Than we get to assemble the Snow Tree Blocks and the Sawtooth Stars into one row, I love putting rows together, it feels like I am accomplishing something and getting near the end!

The Twinkle Star block is fun, and was a different construction than I normally use for this type of block so that was neat. It came together really nicely, just follow the diagram to assemble the block in the right order, starting with A in the center. 

The Hedgehog is next! I love this block so much. It is so cute and though it has lots of pieces goes together really nicely. Just be sure to keep each piece straight by labelling or neat piles as you don't want to put them into the block wrong. Also when putting k and p onto f the diagram shows them with space in between, I did not have this space, but when I sewed it into the block there was a space because of the seam allowance. So my final piece looks the same just not the initial diagram. 

One more thing to make yet this month, the branch for our Owl, this is quick to make and adds a special touch to the owl, making it even cuter.

Next month we have a lot of work ahead of us with blocks to make, filler rows to piece and the final assembly!

Have fun sewing up your month 6 blocks!

Kayla

Midnight Clear Block of the Month: Block 1

Today is the first day of the Midnight Clear Block of the Month, so Carrie is here to share her block 1's, and her tips and tricks for making them easier. 

For this week we are making 2 block 1's. When I first opened my book to block 1 I was a bit intimidated by the look of the block, but the pattern is broken down really well. and you just have to make 3 components and then piece them together as a 9 patch. 

First for color placement. I followed the color placement exactly as they have it in the pattern. I just think that this gave the block a really cool effect, you could easily switch them up if you wanted to though. 

For cutting. Anytime there is an 1/8th measurement I round up, and trim later. That is what I did here as well. I cut 3" instead of 2 7/8"s so that after I piece the half square triangles I have more room to square them up. For the rest of the pieces I cut as the pattern said and then labeled them with my Alphabitties to keep them straight. 

Now for making the half square triangles. I don't know about you, but whenever I mark a line down the center I have a tendency to sew on the line instead of on either side. With my Creative Grids Marking Tool I can easily draw 1/4" on either side of the center and then sew on the line. If you haven't already noticed I am a fan of tools, so to square my half square triangles, I used my Creative Grids 4-in-1 Half Square Triangle Trim Tool. All markings on this tool are in finished sizes, so I put the 2" line on my seam and squared them up. Then you simply make the 4-patch Units. 

For the Pinwheel unit I followed the same steps as above to create my Half Square Triangles and then again simply assembled my 4 Patch Units.

The next unit is a Square in a Square block. To make these I put my red square down, then placed my white square and my black square in opposite corners. I used my Folded Corner Clipper to help me make these flip and stitch corners and this worked really well for me. Do this again with the other white square and green square. 

 

Now all that is left is assembling your units into blocks and you are finished. 

Have fun sewing up your blocks, I will be back with block 2 on September 3rd. 

Blog Takeover: Esther

Hello, Kayla has the night off from writing the blog, well almost off, she needs to edit all my mistakes.

What have you been doing during Covid-19 and all the social distancing rules?  I understand the need for the social distancing but am really being to dislike the question ‘is that proper social distancing’.

I know many of you have been busy sewing masks for yourselves, family, friends, medical professionals, others at your work, etc. I’m sure I missed lots. And others are busy with scrub bags and caps for medical professionals. Right now 1/2 the battle is finding elastic, interfacing or twill tape, I thought when this started we had a great selection of these items but many sold out very quickly.

That being said I did something a bit different.
Table toppers!It started when I thought of a very sweet older couple who love visiting, getting out and that came to a very fast halt and they are ‘Stuck at home’. I decided to make them a  table topper to add some spring to their home. One table turned into 27, I had so much fun making all of these toppers and used many great patterns. I would love to make more but decided to get these delivered to doorsteps first.

This morning I stopped over at my local garden center  Coaldale Nurseries and found they had some beautiful bedding plants in bloom so I plan on adding a plant to every topper I deliver.

What are your pans for this week? It looks like spring has arrived and I wrote this from the comfort of my deck....how I love warm weather and sunshine
      
Esther veurink

SABC Retreat

On Tuesday Carrie and I spent the afternoon packing up Esther's vehicle with totes full of Fat Quarter Bundles, Layer Cakes, Jelly Rolls, Charm Packs, Kits, notions of all sorts, some GO Products and Creative Grids Rulers. That evening I spent some time putting together blocks in various stages of completion to show how certain rulers worked. All of this was to attend a retreat the next day to set up a little shop and do a demonstration on rulers. 

Wednesday morning we grabbed a couple last minute things, a latte from the Chrysalis Café and hit the road at about 9, shortly before 10 we arrived at our destination, the Southern Alberta Bible Camp. T
here we were warmly greeted by the group of ladies who had gathered to sew together for the week with no interruptions. 

Carrie and I unloaded the car and quickly set up all our goods on a few tables. This was when we noticed we were missing a very important tote... the one with all the rulers had been left at the shop, along with a special order from one of the ladies that was at the retreat!

I jumped into the demo anyways and told the ladies they would have to some visit me at the shop where we did in fact have some.

The first ruler I showed was the Strippy Star, this ruler makes amazing floating star blocks quickly and easily. The quilt shown here is one I made using the ruler, and it shows off the various sizes of stars the rulers can make, it is also one of my all time favourite quilts.

I also showed the Log Cabin Rulers, these are trim tools, and so only the first squ
are has to be exact after that you trim each round to get nice equal "logs" all the way through the block without being overly fussy. I made this mini heart quilt by using the 4" ruler and making 4 blocks, laying out my pinks to get the heart shape in the center. There are rulers in the 4", 6", 8" and 12" finished sizes to choose from as well as the 4", 6", and 8" in Curvy Log cabin as well. 

I also did a little demonstration on the Cats Cradle Ruler, which makes the block shown here, quick and easy, 3 rectangles, 2 squares and a few seams gets you two quick blocks in a variety of sizes.

Carrie and I also did a quick show and tell of our latest quilts, which we had kits available for. 

Than the ladies were free to shop, which they did enthusiastically! When everyone was shopped out we packed up our things (a significant amount less than we started with).

We stayed for lunch with the retreat gals, and than headed home. 

Thank you again to the gals for inviting us out, we are excited for next years event already. We absolutely love coming our to retreats, guild meetings and shows to share about rulers, new products, or teach a new technique. 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, here we will be celebrating my sons 5th Birthday. 

Kayla

Finishing older projects

2020 has arrived, and with it I am sure many of you have made some resolutions. The most common ones I usually hear from quilters is that they would like to finish a number of old projects before starting anything new or making it a goal to use up some of the stash before buying new fabric. While these are great plans it easy to get stuck in a rut and avoid any quilting with set in stone plans like this, so I have a few tips to hopefully help you keep your goals but have fun doing it.
Carrie's plan for the year is to pick just one older unfinished project each month and finish it. When it is finished she can move onto whatever new quilts or bags she has found. This is a great way to finish up 12 older projects in one year without getting bogged down and overwhelmed.
Tam
my was telling me today that she plans to finish 10 projects before she starts anything new. This is a good way to clear out space and make room for some new fresh fabric and kits. And the motivation of starting a new project will keep her on her track to finish them.
I have a few different go to methods when I feel the need to bust the stash or finish old projects.
The first method is to take a week and only work on projects that are more than 1 year old. I pull out one work on it until it is finished or the week is up, I have finished multiple in the span of a week because sometimes they just need something simple like a binding sew on, borders cut and added or the blocks are all pieced they just need to be sewn together. At the end of the week I go back to my new current projects.
Another method that works really well for me is to buy a new fabric collection or kit that I absolutely fell in love, put it in my sewing space in my line of vision, and tell myself I cannot open it until I finish 3 other projects. I used this method multiple times last year and it worked really well.
The final method deals with stash busting. I like to either run a quilt along through my blog, or find one that is about to start on Social Media and use just scraps for the quilt. This goes a long ways to using up some older fabric. My aunt follows along with many of my quilt alongs, and almost always makes 2 quilts, one from her scraps, that she uses as her practice block and another from a new collection of fabric that she loved. This way she busts through old scraps but gets to use new fabric at the same time.
If you thrive on lists and crossing things off as you finish them, write down which projects you have on the go, what each needs to be completed and an order that you would like them done in, than start quil
ting and crossing things off.
I hope one of these methods will help you this year. As with all resolutions, it is best to start small and manageable than to go cold turkey. It is really important to choose numbers and set goals for yourself that will work for you and are achievable, and also to have rewards for work well done.
And if a project is really not working for you, maybe the colors are really not your style, the pattern is hard to understand or the techniques used are a little to intense, do not be afraid to call it quits. Maybe use the fabric for something else, donate the project to someone who would like it or even throw it in the trash, which to be honest sometimes feels like a weight lifted off the shoulders.
I have a few more little quilt alongs planned for the year to bust some more scraps and hope to share some organizing tips with you yet this month.
Also even though life is busy, I find that blogging once a week is not enough to share everything I want to share, so I will be going back to twice a week posts, cut switching to Monday and Thursday instead of my usual Tuesdays.
 I want to share more tips, tools and techniques with you, do some tutorials, start a few new series, show off new fabrics and share more of what we are working on behind the scenes at Chicken Feed Quilts. So I
Have a great week, and check back Thursday.
Kayla