Garden Sampler: Month 3 - Basil Block

 

We are already into March! That is crazy, February flew by way too fast! With it being March, it is time to pull out our samplers again. This month for the garden sampler we are making the Basil Block. This one I found nice and simple, and easy to put together which was good for me, as I looked at my week and realized I had some busy evenings and days.

For this month I made no adjustments to any cutting instructions.

This month had a lot of stitch and flip corners, so I was very thankful for my Folded Corner Clipper. Instead of having to draw the diagonal line on all of the 32 squares, I got to cut the excess off before stitching, giving me the proper 1/4" seam allowance right away, and then i could follow the line on my Diagonal Seam Tape to ensure I came out with proper points in the end. 

Using my Folded Corner Clipper

Sewing my 1/4" following the Seam Tape

Components

Once your components are finished it is a few more quick seams and you have your block complete. I needed to double check a few times to make sure I had all the corners pointing the right way to give my block the proper look in the end. 

I love the look of this block when it is finished. 

Garden Sampler: Month 2 - Fennel Block

 It is time to pull out your block of the month kits again. I used to really dislike Block of the Month projects. I usually like projects where I can get it all done, it doesn't take too much time, I can sit down and see the whole project finished fairly quick. 

As I've been working on my last two block of the months I've learned to really like them. It is fun to pull out a totally different project once a month, have some continuation through the year, and slowly watch the blocks grow into something amazing and unique. And it is nice to just make one block which may challenge your skills, and only have to do one block so it is not so daunting. Have you ever participated in a Block of the Month program? What did you think? If you haven't and are interested look into the ones we have running through our shop here. 

This month for the Garden Sampler we are making the Fennel Block.

As I read through the pattern for this block, I noticed I needed to make 4 flying geese that were all the same, for this I immediately reached for my Creative Grids Ultimate Flying Geese Trim Tool and saw that the size I needed to make was included in my ruler. I made the necessary adjustments to my cutting, which is why the pile with the B Alphabettie looks funny with the 2 different sized squares. 

I then used the heart method to make my 4 flying geese. This method is really fast, and really fun. It is a quick, easy way to make 4 perfect flying geese. By using this method I know they will come out to the right size, and that I will have 1/4in seam, so I will not lose the point on my geese. 

For the petals I again used my Folded Corner Clipper for the stitch and flip blocks. you guys are gonna start to realize that I grab this ruler for just about everything. 

After this the assembly is fairly simple, it is all just strips and squares once the components are made.

I love how this block turned out. I am so happy with the yellow background that I chose, it is so happy and cheerful.  

Fennel Block

Are you sewing along? How is it going? 

Garden Sampler: Month One - Mint Block

 It seems crazy that we are already a week into January of 2021! With the beginning of a new year comes the start of new block of the month projects, and I am excited to make the Garden Sampler Quilt with you all. 

Since we are going to be working on this block of the month for quite some time, i reduced my stitch length to a 2.0 instead of a 2.5 to help my blocks keep their size better as this quilt is supposed to take us all year. 

As we begin this block of the month, I am cutting off a little piece of the selvage that coordinates to the fabric it is supposed to replace and gluing this sample into my book as pictured below. 

Let's begin block 1. I cut all my pieces and labeled with Alphabitties just to help me keep all my pieces straight, as some are very similar in size. 

I noticed that they ask us to cut all the pieces for the center 25 patch individually. For this I cut a strip of background, and my blues, and strip pieced these components rather than piecing all these little squares individually. 

 

For the stitch and flip corners I used my Creative Grids Folded Corner Clipper instead of drawing the line, then sewing on the line and trimming. Using this tool eliminates the step where you draw the line. With this tool you cut 1/4" from where you'd like to sew, then use this as your seam guide. 

My Components

This block is pieced in a 9 patch fashion.

 

My Mint Block

Midnight Clear BOM Borders

 This is the last week of our sew along. All we have to do is put the borders on, or if you are like me and wanted to wait, assemble the quilt center and put the borders on. 

 For assembling the quilt center I laid out my blocks how I wanted them to be, then you place a sashing section between each block. Make sure you watch which way those “ribbons” point in the sashing row, so they all go the same way and give the ribbon effect. 

After you have this done, we have to sew the first border on. For sewing borders I like to measure the sides of my quilt center and then cut my borders to size. Once they are cut I pin the centre’s and then again at one point between the end and the center on both sides. This helps me not stretch my borders or my top when attaching these. 

 

Once these are attached we need to make our corner squares, for these I used my Folded Corner Clipper again rather than drawing the line across. 

 

See how the points nicely line up and nest when attaching the corner square the the top and bottom borders. 

  

All that is left is to attach the final border. 

Here is my completed top. 

I chose a green Shannon Cuddle for the back of my quilt. Hopefully I can get it quilted and bound next week. Watch for the photo of it complete to be posted. 

Thanks for sewing along with me. I had so much fun working on this. I am already planning my next one, so watch out for that. 

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Midnight Clear BOM Block 6

 Wow! I realize this is a really late post. I had a busy day and time got away from me, and as I was getting ready to go to bed I realized I never wrote the blog! Today consisted of fixing a longarm, pricing new products, a mail run, and then off to my brother and sister-in-laws for dinner, which quickly turned into the rest of the evening. 

It is time for our last block set of our Midnight Clear BOM. Block 6! Crazy too think we are that far already, and that close to Christmas! 

Block 6 was a fun one. There are quite a few flip and stitch corners, and a few half square triangles. 

For my half square triangles I adjusted my cutting sizes and rounded up again. I would rather cut too big and have room to square than cut those pesky 1/8”. Sew on either side of the drawn line and then I squared my half square triangles using my 4-in-1 half square triangle trim tool.  

Then for all the stitch and flips I used my Folded Corner Clipper. I love this tool so much, and it is one that I always have with me when quilting, and always pull out. Mine had been getting a lot of use lately, it seems I’ve chosen a few projects that have a lot of those stitch and flips in there. 

I love how all these blocks are composed of very similar parts and come out looking so different. And how a stitch and flip can look so unique from one block to the next, and same with a HST.

Here are my block 6’s. 

Are your ready to construct sashing in two weeks? 

Have a great weekend. Hopefully the next time it’s my turn to write the blog I won’t forget and suddenly remember at bed time 🤣

Carrie will be back November 12 with the sashing rows. And she is gonna remember earlier. 

Midnight Clear BOM Block 5

 It is time for Midnight Clear Block 5. 

I'm finally starting to feel like we are getting close to the right season to be working on Christmas projects. Do you find it easier to sew Christmas projects when there is snow on the ground, or does it not really matter to you? 

Let's start with cutting. I cut all the pieces the same, except for the squares we are using to make half square triangles, I sized those up to the nearest inch again, in order to have some room to trim my squares again.

My Pieces

For my Half Square Triangles I used my 4-in-1 Trim Tool to square my blocks up, after sewing on either side of the diagonal line marked down the center. 

For the angles on both my red rectangles and my green squares I used my Folded Corner Clipper. Simply line up a white background square on the corner, place the ruler on top, using all the correct guidelines down the middle, up the sides and on the top, then cut and bring to your sewing machine.

I love how I can stack to cut these, and it just saves a couple steps, time, and makes me be confident I will get points and that they will all line up in the end. 

The Components. 

Once you have all your components made, we simply piece the blocks in the same 9 patch manner as the rest. 

My Block 5's

These blocks are so fun! We only have one more set of blocks after this. We are getting so close to seeing these tops finished. I'm excited to see if you have been keeping up or falling behind. Will your quilt be finished for Christmas? That is my goal. 

Carrie will be back with Block 6 on Oct. 29. 

Midnight Clear BOM Block 4

 We are already at block 4 of our Midnight Clear BOM. If you have been following along and staying caught up this means you should have half of your blocks finished now. 

I love the look of all our blocks so far. I think everytime I finish one I say "Ooh this is definitely my favourite block of this quilt. I love block 4. 

We are going to start with cutting our pieces. For my half square triangles I wanted a little bit more square up room, and I really do not like to cut 1/8's so I decided to round that measurement up to 3", these are cut from our background and our red fabric. For the rest I just cut the sizes exactly as are on the pattern. As I was cutting I realized we have had some extra fabric from all our blocks so far, as far as I can see this isn't used anywhere in our quilt, but I am saving all my extras just in case, and I might just make some pillows or a Christmas table runner for one of my sisters from my left overs. 

To make our half square triangles we draw a diagonal line across the back of our background square, line it right side up with our red square and sew a scant 1/4" on either side of the line. Then cut apart on our drawn line, and I used my 4-in-1 Half Square Triangle Tool to square up again. Since we need them to be 2 1/2" squares I used my 2" finished line on my trim tool. 

Set these aside for now. 

 

Now we need to do a lot of flip and stitch corners. It is very important to pay attention to the direction of your angle in these components of the blocks. I used my Folded Corner Clipper for these, but drawing the line across the diagonal and sewing on the line works well for these too.

Components

Now assemble these blocks as a nine-patch type block. 

Block 4

How are your blocks coming? Are you keeping up or are you just picking up your kits and stacking them up? I will be back on October 15 with Block 5. 

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. 

Follow Your Heart: Circle Pines

It is time again for another block in our Follow Your Heart Quilt Along. This week we are making Circle Pines, which can be found on page 19 and 20 of your Book.
I loved making this block! It looks like a bunch of work at first glance but mine came together so quickly.
I followed all the cutting instructions, but used one background fabric instead of multiple in my block. Carrie used a different background for each of the four "tree" units and than 2 more for the borders.
I highly advise the Folded Corner Clipper from Creative Grids for this block. It makes those stitch and flip blocks go really quickly, and in Step B the ruler markings line up with the bottom rectangle so you know you are cutting in the right place.
Last time I asked in the Facebook Group if anyone wanted to move to 2 blocks per blog post or if we should stick to one. The answer was split pretty much down the middle, so I thought that if a block was fairly simple and quick I would combine it with another quick and simple one.
Next time we will be doing some applique and as there is only one other applique block, I am thinking we will be making both of them at once.
Tomorrow and Wednesday we have the Accuquilt Events at our shop, and we are also meeting with Rob our Moda Rep this week. Thursday evening I hope to share some photos of new fabric that has come in, and maybe a sneak peek of what we will have ordered from Rob. 
Stay warm, maybe sit under a quilt to do some binding or wrap yourself up in one and watch a good movie.
Kayla

Creative Grids: Folded Corner Clipper

About a month ago I posted the first in a series of Creative Grids Rulers. The first was all about the Stripology Ruler and you can read about it here if you missed it. Tonight I want to share another of my favorites with you, the Folded Corner Clipper. 

This ruler was designed by Susan Nelson for Creative Grids, like all the others by this company it is has the no slip grips on the back, easy to see markings, and made from material that is easy to see through. 

The Folded Corner Clipper eliminates the need to draw pencil lines for all those stitch and flip blocks.

The ruler has markings on it that align with your square, there is also a diagonal line that will run from corner to corner on your square, 1/4" away from this line is the edge of the ruler.

You simply place the top square on your fabrics right sides together line up the edges of the square with the ruler, ensure the diagonal runs through the corners and trim. Than you take the set to your machine and sew and than press as per usual. No more drawing lines, sewing on the line, than trimming and pressing. Just trim, sew, press. I love being able to skip the pencil lines step, and the ruler makes for a really nice accurate stitch and flip block. You can stack several layers together and trim 3 sets at once to speed up things a little more.

I have used the ruler so many times already, and I originally thought it would be rather pointless, I was already not drawing lines, I just used a regular ruler to trim, but this ruler has three points to line up so it extremely accurate. 

It works great for any time you are supposed to draw lines, flying geese, half square triangles, snowball blocks, you name it. 

And because the angle is 45 degrees you can use it to cut your binding and mitered corners, and trim half square triangles before pressing. 

There is a video here if you would like to see it in action.

Have you tried the ruler yet, or does it interest you?

Also be sure to come check out the shop again soon, Carrie, Taylor and I spent the day moving furniture and fabrics and it looks fresh and bright again. 

Kayla