Thursday, March 19, 2015

Borders! A Life of Plenty Quilt ready to quilt!

(Click on the photo, to see the entire quilt!)

Good morning! I completed the borders, and have a free foundation piecing template for the corner blocks on my website for you!

For the inner border, I cut four strips 1 1/2" wide x the width of the fabric, from a navy blue check brushed homespun fabric. I sewed the sides on first, pressed toward the strips and trimmed the excess off. Then I sewed the top and bottom strips on, and pressed and trimmed.

For the outer border strips, I cut from two different brushed homespuns, two 5 1/2" strips x the width of the fabric. I sewed the sides on first, pressed toward the strips and trimmed the excess off. Next I measured the distance between the seams of the two side border strips at the top and the bottom, added 1/2" to the measurements, and cut the top and bottom strips to those measurements, hopefully the measurements are the same! Mine were off 1/8", so I decided not to worry about that. Sew the corner blocks to the ends of each strip, press toward the strips, and then sew top and bottom borders onto the quilt, matching up the seams.

Now, to make that backing and get to quilting! I hope you will share your finished quilt photos with me! Since the front has so much going on, I can't decide if I'll piece my back or buy a large piece for the back.....maybe I'll decide today. What will you do?

Oh! For the paper piecing, to make it easy, I cut four navy prints 3" square for the centers. That way I had a uniform seam allowance on all four sides, which made it easier to line up the next four triangles around it. For the first row of triangles, I cut two 4" squares of a gold stripe, and cut them in half diagonally, per block. This way, I could align the long edge of these triangles up with the edge of the center square, flip it all over and sew on the line, knowing it would fit perfectly once pressed back. The second row of triangles were made by cutting two 4" squares of a red plaid, and cutting them in half diagonally, per block. To help line up, I laid the fabric down so the edge I was sewing would touch the point of the previous seam, and then just move it above the seam by 1/4". This way, there is plenty room to press back after sewing the seam. It worked out nicely this way, and there was minimal waste!

I hope you enjoy making the borders, and I left you lots of room, in case you want to use some of the block templates to put applique in your borders! I think that would look so pretty! Please share if you do this, I would love to see!

Have a wonderful day!

Jeni

 

Monday, March 16, 2015

The winner of the wool!

Good morning! Well, I know, it's almost afternoon, but I do have a winner drawn! Drum roll please...............

Karin E. Of All Country!!! Karin, if you will email me your address, I will send you some lovely wools to play with! My email is woolenwillowdesigns@gmail.com! Congratulations!!

I've been debating over the Life of Plenty borders this past week and weekend, and have sewn on the first border! It's a skinny one, and I'll decide on the outer border hopefully by the end of today, and post a picture in the next couple days with instruction!

A little shot of some of my wool stash, wishing to be made into something yummy!

Have a great day!

Jeni

 

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Put this quilt together!! And a drawing!

Yesterday, I spent a little time assembling the "A Life of Plenty" quilt together, and took a few photos as I went along! It forced me to finish stitching down some leaves on a few of the blocks, so that was good! I now have it up on the design wall, and will be figuring out what to do with the borders! It's a busy quilt, so I may make it very simple!

Here are the pictures, and you can see I've put sections of blocks together, and it's pretty simple!

Enjoy!

 

This is the top half.....click picture to see full image here, and below!

The bottom half

Sewn into quarters

Sewn into halves

 

Ta Da!

I'll try to get the borders figured and put on in the next couple of days, and post again!

 

How will you be quilting your quilt??? Be a follower, answer with your comment, and I'll draw a name from the comments for a pretty bundle of hand dyed wool! I'll draw the winner Monday morning!

Have a great day!

Jeni

 

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Free sew along, last Block!!!!! (19)

I hope you are all staying warm if you live where it is Winter! We got about 10-12" of snow during the evening last night until this afternoon. I think it's beautiful, and I don't really have to go out in it except to go out to my sewing room. I did some shoveling though, and threw snowballs at Chester! He loves the snow! I wish I had taken a picture of him having fun, but I couldn't take them while playing! Maybe when the hubby comes home.

This is looking out my sewing room/office window! Pretty!

I didn't realize I was looking through the screen! Haha!

 

Since I was busy preparing for the Spring time Blog Hop, I procrastinated on the last block of the sew along. But here it is! I hope you know how to paper piece! If not, we will be making a video for our Primitive Quilts and Projects YouTube channel very soon! If you wanna make it RIGHT NOW, there is a wonderful paper piecing tutorial at Fons and Porters website! It's not a tough one, but you will want to give yourself bigger pieces of fabric than you think, just to make sure it covers! The foundation pattern will be downloadable from my website, any time now...just sent it to the web lady!

This block finishes at 4" x 6" once sewn into your quilt! Make sure when you trim the sections while paper piecing, that you leave 1/4" seam allowance past the dark solid drawn line! I'm thinking a bunch of these would make an awful cute quilt! I designed the block with EQ-7, just so you know!

Next week sometime, I'll start posting how to sew it all together! Then........the borders!

Thanks so much for following along, and keep warm!

Jeni

 

 

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Day 4 of the Spring Blog Hop!!

Thanks for hopping over to see me today on day 4 of the Spring Blog Hop! Since I didn't get my questions answered for Stacy in time, I'll tell you a little about myself!

I love to quilt, rug hook, and work with wool, along with dying wool! I also like to cross stitch, make jewelry, and play with rubber stamps! Those are my crafty hobbies. I also love to cook, bake, and play in the flowers around my home, and around the building we own that holds the Primitive Quilts and Projects offices, and The Painted Cupboard shop! And I can't forget my Golden retriever Chester......I love to take him for walks when it's not freezing outside! So you can just imagine the cabin fever here at my house! Poor guy!

What do I collect? Anything old and sewing related! I also have a bunny, and sheep collection! I love red ware pottery, and ironstone....especially ironstone platters! I love putting my veggies and home made ranch dressing on them!

What's coming up? I have a book coming out in the Fall through Martingale Publishing Company, and the best thing coming up is my daughter Kristen is having a baby in June! It will be a girl, and my first grandchild! I'm so excited!

So, I bet you are waiting on the yummy recipe! This came from Stacys stash of recipes she has been waiting to try! She shared it with me, and my husband Glen and Son Kris will tell you that it is YUMMY!!! Chester liked how it smelled too!

And here is your free Pattern! This is a little bunny penny mat!

 

 

 

I used two different pieces of neutral wool for the background, stitched together with a running stitch. Then I used the template to cut out the oval shape. Next I placed all the applique pieces on, and stitched them down. You may use your favorite method. I like to whipstitch my pieces with matching wool thread. Then I layer the whole piece onto a piece of thick army blanket, and whipstitched it down. Next....trim away the excess army blacker to about 1" from the stitched piece. I just eyeball it as I cut! Then with sharp scissors, make little cuts about every 1/4" around the piece to mimic grass! Does anyone know what grass looks like? Sure haven't seen any for a while! Haha!

 

Now, if you all remember, I don't have much technical ability, so if this doesn't click and download to print, I will have it fixed by this afternoon, when my website lady helps me! I think I sent it to her too late last night! If it will print, my finished mat is about 8" x 9" before the backing piece is added!

http://www.woolenwillowdesigns.com/images/springbloghopbunnypennyrug.pdf

I hope you enjoy this little spring project! Now, hop along over to Ali Strebel Designs tomorrow, and see what wonderful things she has cooked up!

Have a wonderful day!

Jeni