Baby Brit Quilt Along, week #1

Welcome to my first quilt along!

We will be using the "Victory Garden" pattern, but only making 6 Union Jack blocks, so our quilt will be called "Baby Brit".

These are the six fabrics I have chosen for my blocks, including the white with red polka dot fabric for the sashing, see previous introduction post to the quilt along.

The first thing you should do before cutting fabric, is to read all of the instructions first, just like you do when you follow a recipe.

Under the heading cutting, it tells you exactly how many strips to cut out of each fabric.

  I cut each of my six fabrics first.  They were all cut into width of fabric (WOF) strips.  

It always helps to have a cold drink of pomegranate lemonade to give you energy!

Don't forget to save your selvages if they are cute or colorful, you can use them in a selvage project sometime. 
 Usually cut mine l  l/2" from the selvage edge, leaving some of the print on the selvage.

By cutting all my strips first, I was able to audition them together and see which ones I liked best together.

As I stated before, I don't really think it's fair to the pattern designer to give you the measurements, so I hope you bought the pattern :)
If you haven't bought the pattern yet, maybe you will when you see how easily this block goes together and how cute it looks !

According to the directions, I sewed the skinniest strip to the widest strip.

Now sew a medium strip to the skinny strip.

Sew on two more strips to make the piece symmetrical.

On the back, pressed the seams flat.  I like the look of the striped strip standing out so I pressed the seams towards the stripes.

The red striped strip is so skinny, it barely looks like there is a seam, when they are pressed.

Lay the template (included in the pattern), on the "five strip" as shown and trim for a total of four rectangles.  Be very careful to line up the corners of the rectangle with the center of the cross fabric.

BE SURE TO FLIP THE TEMPLATE AFTER CUTTING TWO RECTANGLES SO YOUR STRIPES WILL GO IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.

Match up your four rectangles.

Next pull the two strips that match the red striped skinny strip.

Sub cut one of the strips into four pieces.

Lay the pieces to each of the rectangles on their inner horizontal edge to  the create the inner stripe as shown.

Sew and press the seam toward the striped fabric.

Pull the strip that matches the cross fabric (light blue polka dot). 

Sub cut ONE piece for the horizontal cross piece and set aside.

Cut the remaining strip in half.  Sew each half to the remaining portion of the striped strip as shown.

Press the seams toward the striped fabric.

Sub cut this trio of strips into two vertical cross pieces.

Your leftover strip will be put in your scrap basket.

Lay out all rectangle pieces as shown.

Sew together top rectangles to top vertical cross piece.

Next, sew top and bottom strips to horizontal cross piece to complete flag block.  

This is how the block should look on the back.

All of the seams are pressed toward the skinny red striped fabric.

The block is finished!

Isn't it beautiful?  I am really pleased with the finished block.

When you have finished your block, upload it to the Baby Brit

flickr account.

Our quilt along will continue next Monday, August 13.

Travel Pillow Tutorial

My friend Donna asked me if I would write a tutorial on my

 travel pillow .  It's really simple but when I make something, I find it so much easier to visualize if I can look at photos.

My son said that his pillow is his favorite thing that he brought with him on his two year church mission to Brazil.  I made a note of that.....lol, and decided to sew him another pillowcase so that he can rotate them.  This time I went to the fabric store and chose some "masculine" fabric.  This is what I chose....

The printed fabric is called "how to press a shirt".  Very appropriate, since my son wears a white shirt every day of the week.  When Sean was 15 years old, he earned his Boy Scout Eagle award.  His grandfather flew in from Florida for the occasion.  His grandfather is retired Air Force and very strict about creases in the sleeves of his pressed shirts.  I had shown Sean how to press a dress shirt before, but it wasn't his forte.  Sean came downstairs with a perfectly pressed shirt, and even creases in the sleeves!!!  We were all impressed, including Sean's grandfather.  Later my father in law asked me where the iron and ironing board was.  I showed him and we noticed a paper on the ironing board.  We picked it up and it said, "Google:  How to press a shirt".  We laughed and laughed, so this fabric has a lot of meaning!  Ha ha!!!


The pillow form that I buy at JoAnn's measures 12" X 16".  I cut two pieces of fabric, 17.5" X 13.5" each. 

I get such a thrill out of choosing fabric, that I choose a different print for the front and a different one for the back.  If you want to use the same print for the front and the back, you still need to cut out two pieces.  

I also cut out 2 pieces 4" X 14", for the edging on the pillow.

Here are my cut pieces.

Place the two pillowcase pieces right sides together and sew along three sides, the two long ones and one short side, using a 1/4" seam.

Finish the edges with a zig zag stitch to encase the raw edges.

Turn the pillowcase right side out and press.

Now take the two smaller edging pieces, and fold them longways, right sides together.  Lay them against the short end of the pillowcase.  I did that, and saw that I needed to sew the short ends of the edging with a l/2 seam allowance.  

Turn the edging right side out and press.

Pin the edging to the pillow case, matching the finished seam of the edging to the side seam of the pillowcase.

Pin the same edging piece to the other side seam and then finish pinning the rest of the edging piece to the pillowcase, right sides together (there isn't a wrong side of the edging).  I usually pin when I sew, it leaves less chance of having to rip out stitches!  My seam ripper and I have a love/hate relationship....

See how the edging pieces meet perfectly at the side seam?  The other side seam looks exactly the same.  The two flaps give a little more "masculine" look.  

Sew the two edging pieces to the entire pillowcase, using a l/4" seam allowance.  Then zigzag, encasing the raw edges of the seam.

Press the finished seam toward the pillowcase and staystitch.  Staystitch means to sew a seam close to the seam, so that the seam won't "roll up" and will stay pressed towards the pillowcase.

This is what the seam looks like on the inside.  Since the seam has been staystitched, it will never roll up, but always stay pointing towards the pillowcase.

Here is the "how to press a shirt" fabric close up, isn't it cute?

This is the front of the pillowcase.

This is the back, a nice argyle print.

I made one for my husband, as a birthday gift. (it's Sunday :)

If you would like to add a ruffle to your pillowcase instead of the plain edging, the measurement is one and a half times the width.  Instead of cutting your edging 14" long, I would cut it 44" long. You only need one piece instead of two.  If I don't have a piece long enough in the print I want for the ruffle, I often piece the fabric, joining different pieces together.  The seams never show.  

When I sew a ruffle onto my pillowcase, I use one piece and only have one flap instead of two.

There are two flaps on the edging of the masculine pillowcase.

That completes my travel pillow tutorial.  If you make one, I would love to see some pictures!

Jim Shore

A few months ago, my husband and I were strolling down the streets of historic Folsom, California.  I noticed in the window of a storefront, that award winning artist Jim Shore was going to be at  Dorothea's on Sutter Street on July 28.  I wrote it in my calendar, and my sweet husband took me there on Saturday for Jim Shore's signing.  Are you familiar with Jim Shore's work?  He incorporates quilt designs into his work.  He is famous for patriotic, holiday and Disney pieces.  I chose a really pretty angel, called "I Welcome Thee".

I loved the rich colors and I have a lot of reds in my home.

The pineapple has long been recognized as a colonial symbol of hospitality and today remains a hallmark of warm and gracious entertaining.

I think her face is very soft and detailed.

Look at those gorgeous quilt blocks!

Jim was so personable!  I told him that I loved how he incorporated quilt blocks into his art.

He said, "My grandmother was a quilter.  She specialized in crazy quilts, and used to show me how she did the different embroidery stitches.  That made an impression on me and to this day when I create a piece and incorporate the quilt designs, I think of her."

I am now a huge fan of Jim Shore's artwork :)