Quilted Placemats

Buona festa della donna! (Happy International Women's Day!) 

 

 

 

 I just finished six quilted placemats for my sister. When she saw the ones I made for myself last summer, she asked for a set. Here are three of my six. We've used them almost every day since July, they've been washed a bunch of times, and still look great. They are improv pieced from scraps, which I find extremely entertaining. The straight parallel quilting lines hold everything together nicely.

 

 Here is Anita's set. She loves neutrals. I was able to use some of the fabrics that were left over from the lap quilt I made for her a few years ago.

When she saw on Instagram that I had started working on them, she was surprised they made it to the top of the queue, but the project perfectly fits #sewthescrapoutofMarch. 

 

Here's my set up. Cutting mat, spray bottle and starch far left, then wool pressing mat and travel iron.

I do all my piecing on my antique Featherweight. The bin of scraps is handy, as is a 16 oz tumbler of water. Stay hydrated, my friends!

I killed my Bernina 153 last week. I have neglected her for so long that she seized up on me! Keep your machines hydrated (oiled) too! She'll be dropped off at the spa later this week. In the meantime, I'm using the used Bernina 200 that I picked up for Julia. I don't love it, but the automatic thread cutter was very helpful! No one can take the place of my 153 except maybe a 770. ; )

  It took me a minute to find them, but I did remember to include my labels. The binding is completely machine-stitched for durability.

 I don't know if you want to see each one, but here they are. I added some cute prints for her grandchildren in the first two.
 

 

Quilted Placemats for Anita

14" X 18"

Started 3/4/2021

Completed 3/7/2021

Intriguing Interleaves

What a fun workshop this was! Mel Beach taught Intriguing Interleaves to Ninigret Quilters via Zoom in February. It is a quilt-as-you-go method, which means when the piecing is done, so is the quilting! How satisfying to have a completed project so soon after taking a class, and not another UFO for the pile!

 

Mel is an outstanding teacher who utilizes all the technology at her disposal to maximize student engagement in the virtual environment. She's the best we've seen since we started Zooming in April 2020.

I'm not going to get into the process here, but here are a couple of process pics. Above, you can see the six fabrics I started with. One strip set was blue-purple-orange and the other was green-yellow-raspberry. I used a mirrored sine wave to cut my curves. Below, you can see the interleaves starting to form. You can take a look at Lorrie Cranor's tutorial.

 The binding went on after the second class session. I added corner pockets for hanging so I can hang it any which way. The label is handwritten on the bottom corner. I had just enough of that gorgeous lotus print for the back.

For now, it's hanging in my hallway gallery.

 

I thought the mottled sunlight was pretty this morning. 

 

My daughter's dog needs to test out every quilt, no matter how small. He refuses to look at a camera!

This is my favorite shot!

 Intriguing Interleaves

by Tina Craig

16" X 17"

Started 2/13/2021

Completed 2/27/2021

Workshop with Mel Beach and Ninigret Quilters

 

Celtic Shamrocks

 I made a table runner and I'm blogging about it within 24 hours!

  After a successful Celtic applique workshop with Scarlett Rose in January with Ninigret Quilters, I went all in on Celtic! There's a big, beautiful Valentine wall hanging that is on hiatus. I wanted to practice quilting on something less important, so I started this shamrock piece.

 

I drafted this design in EQ8 by tracing some stock Celtic drawings I found online. The block finishes at 7.5", which was pretty small for those inside loops, even with 1/4" bias. Playing with plaid was fun!

 

 

After some very basic quilting (straight lines and tight echo around the applique), I thought I might be done. Well, that wouldn't meet my goal of practicing, so I stitched on.

Before and After

 

I dove head first into free-form feathers! I used to tell myself that I stink at feathers. I wasn't getting any better with that attitude and no practice! I used Lisa H Calle's ProEcho 11 ruler to form the veins. I watched a bunch of videos on how to form the feathers. Then I drew a bunch on a dry erase board until I felt like I had the shapes and motions down. Then I started stitching. I'm thrilled with the results!

 

 

I stitches the side triangles first, then filled in around the applique. I quilted the snot out of it!

 

Check it out! I don't stink at feathers after all!

 
 I love a flange binding! This runner was not particularly square or flat when I started quilting. It got a little better, but still isn't perfect. Done is better than perfect! I know I can make a perfect binding when I need to.

 

This piece will be a nice decoration for March and a great lecture/teaching piece. Suzanne at the sew-op has already requested that I start teaching Celtic applique in the shop! I'll be sure to let you know when I emerge from my bubble.

 "Celtic Shamrocks"

by Tina Craig 

14" X 43"

started 2/24/2021

completed 3/4/2021

Hand appliqued, machine pieced.

Quilted on Bernina 153 with walking foot, ruler work and free motion.

Safari Tango

 My last finished quilt of 2020 is called Safari Tango. It might be the first true double-sided quilt I've ever made. The front was started in an online (Zoom) workshop with Diane Harris, The Stash Bandit, hosted by Ninigret Quilters. She calls her pattern Twofer Tango because you could get two quilts from your effort. The half square triangle units are bonus blocks from the creation of the main X-blocks. I chose to add mine around the border instead of harboring yet another UFO!

 

 

The back of the quilt was one of those long-simmering UFOs. Started in a class with Thomas Knauer in 2015, also hosted by Ninigret Quilters, it is a code quilt with the word SAFARI spelled out in Braille and repeated in a loop.

 

Both sides of the quilt used fabric that was purchased by Julia and me in Tanzania in 2014. The background print on the front was a big chunk of fabric from Joann's that came to me from someone else's stash. It is a grass-like print which was perfect since Julia's research project that semester in Tanzania dealt with grasses in the Ngorongoro Crater.

Quilting is all fun and games until you stitch onto a glove. I might have had better luck if I had remembered to drop the feed dogs!

Safari Tango

60" X 86"

Safari started in 2015 

Tango started 10/17/2020

Completed 12/30/2020

Live EPP Class on Zoom!

Have some fabric scraps, needle and thread? Join me for a Live EPP Ornament class next Wednesday! I'll be doing live demos, providing step-by-step instruction and answering your questions throughout the 2 hour class. Beginners are welcome, even if you didn't already know that EPP stands for English Paper Piecing.

 

 

You will need to print the templates onto a sheet of cover stock before class starts, so please plan accordingly. (I've heard that not everyone has a printer and a supply of card stock at home.)

 

You do not need to have your own Zoom account to participate.

 

 

Send me an email (tinastitches@gmail.com) to let me know you are interested and I'll send you a PayPal invoice for $15. After I receive your payment, I'll email you the supply list, template file and the link to the Zoom meeting.

These ornaments make great gifts! Choose some fabric that suits the recipient. The purple one was for my BFF and the blue flamingos was for my son's girlfriend.

 

Live EPP Ornament Class on Zoom

Wednesday,  December 2, 2020

7-9 pm Eastern (same as New York City)

$15

Class size is limited to 15 students

Instructor: Tina Craig 

Email Tina to register: tinastitches@gmail.com

Hope to see you soon!

Facing EPP Quilt with EPP

Let's say you've pieced together a top using English Paper Piecing and you have all these angular shapes around the edges. How will you finish those edges? You could certainly trim them and use a straight binding. Or you could create a facing with more EPP shapes! Here's how...

1. Press your top well, especially around the edges. Remove all of the papers.

2. Quilt as desired. Don't stitch into the seam allowances around the outside edges.

 

3. Trim away the batting and backing a little bit smaller than the finished edge.

 

 

4. Create a ring of EPP shapes that mirrors the quilt top. That's your facing.

 

5. Place the facing right sides together with the quilt top.

 

 

6. Whipstitch all the way around the outside edges.

 

 

 

 7. Remove the papers from the facing.

 

 

 

8. Pull the quilt top through the hole in the middle of the facing and flip the facing to the back side. Carefully poke out the corners and smooth the batting and backing into the corners and along the edges.

 

 

9. Stitch down the inside edges of the facing to the back of the quilt.

 

10. Done!

I used this method to finish my "Our Lady" quilt. I had purchased a panel with four images of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Inspired by Brigitte Giblin's work, I framed each of the images with fussy cut EPP roses. I didn't want to chop off the edges, so I used an EPP facing.

For other options for finishing EPP, please refer to Geta's post.