North State River Run Shop Hop

I really wanted to go on this quilt shop hop last year, but my daughter's little boy was born the night before.  

He was eight weeks early, so I flew to Utah the next morning and helped her by looking after her then two year old little girl.

Rebecca's little boy Benjamin just turned one year old.

I went to five quilt shops this afternoon.

Look at this!  A quilt of Audrey Hepburn!

I think it's gorgeous!

Apparently, you can make a quilt from a photograph.

Isn't this quilt beautiful?

I love the ominous sky with the lightning bolts!

I'm not interested in making one of these quilts myself, but they are works of art!

This quilt shop was in Auburn, and their theme was

 "Breakfast at Tiffany's".

I loved their theme decor!

Cute little cupcakes!

I went to a really sweet quilt shop in Grass Valley.
They had so many bolts of fabric, that half of them were stacked up on the floor.

I've never been to that town before, it was old fashioned.
 I want to go back with my husband and look around a little.

I saw another quilt that was designed from a photograph.

As you can see, it was sewn with patchwork squares.

Tomorrow I'm going to finish up the quilt shop hop.

I'll have more photos for you :)

The Quilty Barn Along!

This "quilty barn along" journey has been so much fun and I even made a new friend, Joanna :)

I really like this quilt.

Like all the other quilts, it was loads of fun choosing the fabric.

I made four barns that weren't red, they were patterned after one in Quebec, and three in Prince Edward Island.

I have no idea what I'm going to do with this quilt....ha ha!!!

I loved making it and was able to use up some of my stash.

Here it is!  TaDa!!!

Thanks for following along, I loved reading your comments :)

The Quilty Barn Along, sashing

Here are my blocks, all laid out the way I think they look the best.

Four of my blocks aren't red, I patterned them after ones I saw in Quebec and Prince Edward Island.

 I wanted to wait until I finished all the blocks before I sashed them.

I rummaged through my scrap basket and found these strips of fabric for the sashing.  

One of the reasons I love scraps is because they bring back memories of previous quilts and projects I've sewn.

I can see a baby's cradle I made for my grand daughter for Christmas, a baby quilt I made for my grandson 7 years ago, an apron I made for my friend at Christmas, fabric for some baby pants I made for another grand daughter, a doll dress I made, a travel pillow, and so on and so on.

Does it make you nostalgic when you use your scraps?

On Friday, I'll show you my finished quilt top :)

The Quilty Barn Along, Flying Geese and Furrows

I really liked sewing this block. 

Lori has a really interesting and different way of making a flying geese block.

Here tutorial is here.

Here's the block all sewn together.

The block's 6", which makes the flying geese really small!

I love the finished barn block!

Do you notice the birds in the window?

This is the last of 12 barns.

On Wednesday, I'll show you the scrappy sashing.

Patchwork Please! paper piecing tutorial

I bought Ayumi Takahashi's book, Patchwork Please!

It has all sorts of cute projects in it.

I saw Lori Holt's sweet little Triangle Patchwork Box Pouches and decided to make some myself. 

I've only sewn a couple of blocks that have been paper pieced, so I don't have tons of experience.

This is the book, I think it's great!

This is a photo of the triangle patchwork box pouches.

I made a row of the triangles and realized that I forgot to add the seam allowances!!!  Aaaagh!!! 
 I decided to share a tutorial with you :)

Here are all my squares paired up, enough to make two rows of triangles.  When paper piecing, always cut your fabric pieces quite a bit larger than required.

I traced two rows of templates on freezer paper, and added seam allowances this time!

The pencil lines weren't dark enough, so I outlined the stitching lines with a fine black marker.

I put the template on my light box.

If you don't have a light box, you can use a window or the TV on a fuzzy station!

I put the first two triangle pieces right sides together, and laid them over the first diagonal stitching line, making sure to overlap over the stitching line by l/4" for the seam allowance.

Adjust your stitch length to be a little smaller than normal so the stitches will perforate the freezer paper.

Stitch the fabric to the paper, leaving a l/4" seam allowance.

Take the template with the fabric sewn onto it, to the ironing board.

Press the top piece of fabric away from the first piece.

Place the next piece of fabric onto the existing ones, on the light box.

Overlap it over the stitching line, by l/4" for the seam allowance.

Stitch.

Trim off the excess fabric, leaving the seam allowance.

Press the fabric away from the sewn triangles.

Lay the fourth piece of fabric over the sewn ones, right sides together on the light box.

Overlap l/4" over the stitching line for the seam allowance.

Stitch.

Press the fabric away from the stitched ones.

Trim the seam allowance to l/4".

Press the fabric away from the sewn ones.

Sew the next piece of fabric over the existing ones, matching up the stitching lines on the light box.

Trim off the seam allowances.

Press the fabric away from the sewn ones.

Again, sew another piece of fabric to the already sewn ones, matching the stitching line on the light box.

Trim the seam and press away from the sewn fabric pieces.

Sew another piece of fabric onto the template, matching the stitching lines on the light box.

Sorry for the blurry photo.....

Press the fabric away from the sewn fabrics.

Trim the seam allowances.

Sew the last piece onto the template, leaving a seam allowance that overlaps the stitching line.

Press the fabric away from the sewn ones.

I think I sewed on the stitching lines pretty well, considering the template was always on the bottom of the fabrics I was sewing.

I used the light box to get the placement.

Now it's time to trim the fabric from the template.

The fabric's trimmed and even with the template.
Pull the paper from the sewn triangles.

Now my triangles have seam allowances!

The photos were repetitive but I hope I was able to teach you how to paper piece triangles.

Let me know if you have any questions :) 

RBD Mystery Block of the Month - August

August's Riley Blake Design mystery block of the month is a Dresden block.

I have always wanted to make one of these blocks and it is so easy!

I really want to make a quilt with dresdens.

There are 20 different petals in this block, it was fun choosing all the different shades and prints of pink.

I don't really know why I'm making this quilt in pink, (maybe it's because I have 7 grand daughters) but I do need to sash in a different color to subdue all the pink!

Here is a link to my Pinterest Board where you can find the tutorial for August's Dresden block.

Here's a close up of all the different prints.

My fabric stash has definately grown in the past 5 years!

September will be the last of nine blocks and then I'll be able to assemble all nine blocks into a quilt :)

The Quilty Barn Along, Bitty Scrap Around Block

I love sewing these barn blocks!

I dug through my scrap box and found 1 l/2" strips to make this "bitty scrap around" block.

I really need to organize my scraps!

This is what my design wall looks like :)

Quilty barns and barns with silos, all waiting to be sewn into a scrappy quilt.