This one has a Christmas in July like theme and uses patterns out of Sherri Falls pattern book called Holiday Wishes. We were to choose a pattern of our liking and interpret it in our own way. My first choice was the Merry Gifts Quilt, but the lovely Nicole over at Modern Handcraft got to it first. She’s fast. So I went with my second choice which was the Norwegian Holiday Quilt. It was my second only because of all those tiny squares.

It was a bit intimidating.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish a whole quilt, so I decided to just make one block and call it an XL Mini Quilt.

I originally was going to go for a minimalist look for the mini, so it wasn’t tied to just one holiday, but after piecing it all together, I realized it kind of has a grungy Halloween look instead.

For the background I used a half yard of Moda’s Grunge in Onyx, and for the design I used a fat quarter of Lizzy House’s Metallic Yellow Constellations. Both were subtle but have a bit of texture too. So the look of solids, but with some depth.

The pattern and cutting guide tell you what to cut for the entire quilt, but I figured out what to cut just for one block and figured I’d share it in case anyone else wanted to make one too.

Each letter coordinates with a letter in the pattern. You can find the size of each block in the book.

The finished block ends up being .

I think the most difficult part of the pattern was I kept mixing up the background and design fabrics and ended up sewing this thing three, maybe four, times. Totally my fault. The pattern itself was written really well, and if I had more time on my hands, I’d totally sew the entire thing!

As you can see from my photo’s, I haven’t quilted this top yet. It’s purely because I just can’t decide how I want to. Do I want to go swirly with gold thread? Or straight lines with dark grey thread? Or do I want to do something different and use thin, almost invisible thread? Once I do decide, I’ll totally share it here with you!

Now, If you would like to see what everyone else in the Sew-A-Long made then just click away below. There is some really talented people showcased here.

Renee Lange
Heidi Staples
Lorrie Gartman
Kathryn Jones

This post was sponsored by the Fat Quarter shop, and I was compensated for my time.

For any new readers who would like to get updates on any of my new posts you can follow me on InstaGram, add me on Bloglovin or follow Art School Dropout on Facebook (Blog posts show up there an hour after they go live)

About two months ago I was contacted by the lovely people over at Andover Fabrics with an idea they had for a rainbow wall of mini quilts at QuiltCon this year. They would send me the fabric in a specific colorway and I would send them a mini quilt to hang in their booth during the event. I have been very sick, and haven’t had the energy to finish anything large, but I figured I could hand sew most of the mini so I said “yes!”

They sent me the gorgeous bundle of blue and white fabric shown above, which arrived right at the beginning of the blizzard we had. The majority of the fat quarters were either by Lizzy House or Alison Glass. The rest was from various other lines with Andover (I really should look in to them because they were all beautiful).

I decided to hand sew this mini using the technique called English Paper Piecing. I’ve talked about it loads on here before, but usually I just sew hexagons. I’ve been branching out in to other shapes lately and I’m just dying to show you all where it’s taken me. This piece of course being the first one. It took me about a week and a half to baste and piece, and then one day to matchstick quilt.

As you can see if this photo, I tried something new and did matchstick quilting (super close quilting) in various directions to kind of break up the design a bit. I also quilted to middle in a grid pattern to separate it from the rest of the design.

The finished piece ended up being 18″ across, and I am over the moon happy with how this piece turned out! I really can’t wait to mess with this idea a bit more. Would anyone be interested in a pattern? I number all the pieces and have a legend already to go, since that’s the way I work.

Added Bonus: Here’s a shot of my mini surrounded by all of the other pieces made for their booth!! (photo by @giucy_giuce on IG . One of the faces behind this project btw) How gorgeous are they?!? I feel so honored to be included in this group full of peers and friends. I really wish i could of been there to see it all in person, byt that just wasn’t in the cards this year. Next year however I WILL be there,no matter what!

Back in September I participated in a few mini quilt swaps. You guys know how much I love those! They were all super strict and themed, and I loved making each and every piece. Sometimes guidelines are just what I need.

The first of the mini quilt swaps due that month was one where you were only to use Heather Ross fabric. My partner just happened to be one of the other Sewing Party quilting contributors and friend, Christopher (the Tattooed Quilter). This made it way more fun!!

I knew he liked triangles and flying geese, so I designed a quilt that featured numerous sized flying geese and allowed to do some fussy cutting.

I had to get a bunch of fabric printed off Spoonflower using Heather Ross’ print book because I only had pink and yellow prints and I needed more blues. Using the book allowed me to scale some of the designs to fit the triangles perfect. Others I left be just because I don’t believe everything should be perfect and center ALL the time.

I may have gone a little photo crazy with this one! I just couldn’t stop taking photos.

I always like to add a few little extra’s here and there when I send my mini’s off. I prefer handmade little somethings over store bought ones just because that’s who I am.

This time I went a whole extra step and designed Christopher an embroidered zipper pouch using his logo as the centerpiece! I believe this is my favorite extra to date!

I also took a few photos of this because I was just so excited about it!

The package has since arrived (like two months ago) and it seemed like the recipient was just as excited about it, which made it all worth it!!

Click on over to their blog to see more!

Pin It]]> http://artschooldropout.net/blog/pretty-in-pink-mini-quilt-for-sizzix/feed/ 0 http://artschooldropout.net/blog/alison-glass-mini-quilt-swap-the-pieces-i-made/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=alison-glass-mini-quilt-swap-the-pieces-i-made http://artschooldropout.net/blog/alison-glass-mini-quilt-swap-the-pieces-i-made/#comments Wed, 24 Jun 2015 04:35:18 +0000 jesseesuem http://artschooldropout.net/blog/?p=3855 Continue reading →]]> I don’t know what I was thinking when I signed up for so many swaps all due at once!! Am I crazy? Probably…

However, I couldn’t say no to this one! It was a themed mini quilt swap where you were to use mostly Alison Glass fabric. Of course I couldn’t say no, I have a lot of her fabric on hand. Easy Peasy.

The mini itself was mostly hand sewn using custom hexagon pieces I designed. There are several sizes and even though this layout wasn’t my original plan, it still came out really neat. I used fabric from numerous Alison Glass lines along with black chambray for the binding and backing (don’t worry, I’m almost out of that stuff, so you wont see it AS much soon). I also tried out some hand quilting details around the hexagon edges. It’s not perfect, but I am getting more comfortable with the process.

For extra goodies I went mostly handmade this time. I made two zipper pouches that matched the mini quilt using leftover fabric and, you guessed it, more black chambray.

I also stitched up a little fabric hexagon bowl. It’s my new favorite thing to make and I plan on adding it to every swap I do from now on. Fabric bowls are useful! Where else will you put your spare change? or bobbins? or rings? or anything else tiny you like to move around? I wish I had taken a better photo of it though!! I guess I’ll just have to wait to share a photo of the next bowl, for the next swap, which is due this week…

As with all the other swaps I do, this was a lot of fun! I love love making stuff for others, and it’s even more fun when the surprise aspect is added.

Oh and I’ll share the package I received later this week!

Well, I’m working on a second studio right now and there are a few very blank walls that need filling, fast! That’s where this project comes in…

I wanted a few bright colored pieces that didn’t take much time to make. Half square triangles would be perfect because they wouldn’t compete with any swap pieces I received. In reality they normally take a little while to make and there is usually a lot of trimming involved.

Then the light bulb went off over my head! I had just received a new sizzix die that was HST’s (what we will call half square triangles from here on out). I pulled it out and measured the cutting area and realized it was almost exactly 5″ square, which meant it was perfect for Charm Packs! I had a bunch of new charm packs that I brought back from Quilt Market. PERFECT!

For the above quilt I used a bunch of scraps, 5″ charm squares leftover from a swap I had finished a few weeks back and the Half Square triangle 4.5″ finished square Sizzix die.

Like I said above, this die is the perfect size for charm packs, I mean 100% perfect, there is hardly any leftover fabric! You do have to position it very carefully because of this though. Always test a piece too because some manufacturers have small charm squares, while others have large ones. It’s all about preference on their part I guess.

I found that I could cut layers at a time with this die and still get a clean cut. I ran it all through just like I normally do, using the sizzix sandwich. The sandwich goes like this: Cutting Pad, Die (face up) fabric and then another Cutting Pad on top.

After cranking the fabric through, I ended up with the scene above! Two half square triangle pieces, with dog eared corners already cut, and hardly any waste. Those two little strips of fabric there on the right is all that was left over.

This step only took me about 5 minutes to accomplish and I ended up with enough pieces to make a scrappy looking top.

I very quickly laid them on my cutting board to come up with the best layout. There were actually a lot of options. It all depends on how you rotate the triangles. I timed myself making this THREE times and each time I assembled the triangles a bit different! I’ll share the other two in the next two weeks, they each deserve their own blog post because they came out awesome.

After I was happy with the layout I took a photo with my phone so I didn’t forget what went where. I paired together each squares worth of HST’s, right sides together and made a little pile. I rotated each set so I didn’t get them mixed up when sewing.

To make this go even faster, I used my 1/4″ piecing foot on my machine so there was no guessing involved. The foot has a little metal bar on the right side that helps guide the fabric along in a nice straight line while keeping the seam a perfect 1/4″. I love it! It’s available for any machine out there and runs about $6-$28 depending on your machine. Mine pictured is a Viking brand and was about $25, but I did just buy my little sister one on Amazon for her Singer that was $6. There was hardly any difference in quality.

When piecing things like these HST’s, I like to do them all at once using a technique called chain piecing. It’s where you just keep feeding the pieces through the machine without cutting the thread in between. You just wait until you are done and snip the threads in between each piece.

This step was probably another 2-3 minutes, but I’m one of those reckless fast sewers, so lets go with 6 minutes.

After snipping all of the threads, I use my fingernail and press open all the seams. You don’t need to do you HST’s this way, I just like an open seam and my quilting style keeps them secure when washing and such. If you are a minimalist or paranoid quilter, make sure to press the seams to one side to strengthen them.

This step took me all of 2 minutes.

Then from here I just pieced all of the squares together, pressing the large seams in between each set.

This step took me about 15 mins total.

Which brings us to 28 mins, which I rounded up to 30 mins. I’m impressed by that time! I doubt I could have accomplished that without using my Sizzix Fabi and the Half Square triangle die. Oh and bonus points: I had my daughter sitting next to me asking loads of questions the entire time!

After you have the top finished, the time it takes to complete the entire thing all depends on you. Do you hand sew your binding on? Do you quilt fast? Or will the quilting be intricate? Do you hand quilt? Are you making this into a pillow? (because it can totally be a pillow)

I machine sewed a little bit of my quilt top, and then tried out hand sewing for the rest just to see if I liked it. I’m still not sure how I feel about it, we’ll touch on that another day.

The finished piece ended up being 16″ square and I bound it in a black chambray. I would love to say that it is hanging on the wall in my new studio, but sadly I can not. CT told me she loved it and that it would be the perfect doll quilt. So now it is living in her room, keeping her doll warm. Good thing I made two more!!

Supplies Used for the Top Only:

• 16 / 5″ Charm Squares or more if you want more variety. I used all Alison Glass fabric.
• Sizzix Fabi Cutting Machine (or an equivalent machine)
• Sizzix Bigz Die – Half-Square Triangles, 4 1/2″ Assembled Square

Oh and I just ordered a bunch of extra charm packs because I plan on timing how long it would take to make a lap size quilt using this same system! Keep an eye out for the results.

It only took me a few days to finish the “mountain”, but after that I was stumped on what to do next. So I taped it to my workroom wall and figured I’d finish it when I had an idea.

Fast forward to last week when, well, I had an idea! I thought about teaching myself Free Motion Quilting, and doing some fancy little moves here and there to mimic the fragmented design in the negative space to the right. I bought a new foot for my machine and I tested out my idea on some scrap fabric.

Let’s just say it didn’t look like I wanted it to. I had taught myself the technique correctly, but the technique didn’t give me the results I wanted. However the frustration over this helped me come up with the idea of hand quilting dashed lines instead. I ran to the craft store and picked up some DMC Pearl Cotton Variegated Thread in Size 5 to test this out. After quickly quilting some 45 degree lines across the entire piece, I sat down on my couch after CT went to bed, turned on a movie, and started stitching.

It came out exactly as I hoped on the front, even if the back looks horribly ridiculous, and I’m now hooked! I want to add little hand quilted details on every mini quilt I make.

I’m also really excited about the fact that I made a mini quilt that I GET TO KEEP! It’s going right on the wall outside my workroom along with the “J” mini from the last Schnitzel and Boo swap I took part in.

This whole process is making me second guess not trying out the larger version too. So maybe you’ll see that in a year or so?

This last one was a Studio Ghibli themed craft swap. So it wasn’t just quilts, it was any type of craft. Well, almost any. The partner you are assigned does have a preference. I’m lucky mine likes mini quilts. If you are unfamiliar with anything Ghibli, then I recommend reading up on it a bit. Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation film studio that has some of the best animated films out there (in my personal opinion, and apparently many others too). They created such films as Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Ponyo, Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky, etc etc. I 100% recommend you go and watch every single film they’ve made, if you havent already.

Anyway, for this swap I focused mainly on the film My Neighbor Totoro. My partner listed it as one they loved, and it fit best with their favorite fabrics and colors. Even though this should have been an easy make for me, I struggled. I couldn’t pin down just one idea. I had TOO MANY IDEAS! I put off working on the quilt until I made up my mind. In the meantime I made a little soot sprite brooch that you can read about a few posts back. So I wasn’t slacking completely.

I went out of town twice late Feb and early March, and then came home to the entire family being sick. So there was no time for any making for three whole weeks. Once everything got back to normal I went into panic mode and quickly picked out one of the designs I had come up with. It was a simple applique design of leaves around a hole that Totoro could peek out of.

To accomplish this look, I drew all the leaves by hand in a 5″ square. I then scanned in the doodle and enlarged it to 18″ square in illustrator. I also did a quick outline of Totoro and divided up all the pieces I’d need. I did this early in the morning before CT woke up, so instead of using my Silhouette CAMEO like usual, I decided to iron on the double sided fusible interfacing, print out templates, trace everything and cut out all the fabric by hand quietly. I miss doing that sometimes (not TOO often though).

The first part I pieced together was Totoro since that’s basically the bottom layer. I used a Corelle plate and traced a circle on the black and white fabric as my circle guide. I then did a reverse applique to get that perfect circle cut out (detailed instructions will have to wait until a later date) I made another circle 1/2″ bigger and attached my totoro applique to that. I then glue basted the two pieces together just so I could get a feel for the whole thing.

I pretty much just eyeballed the placement of the leaves, using my original sketch as a guide. I ironed them on in quadrants. Once they were all secured I attempted to hand embroider around all the edges. Lets just say it was the worst idea Ive had in a long time!! After a bunch of cussing and pulling out thread, I decided to do a machine blanket stitch around each piece using a dark mustard thread. Even though it was faster than by hand, it still took me a few hours to finish (broken up in two days of course).

Once all of the applique work was finished, I quilted it up using invisible thread on the front and the same mustard thread on the back. I did 45 degree angled stitches on each corner, so it overlapped on the middle sides. I then did a simple straight line stitch in the circle and then around the applique to permanently secure it. Can I just say how much I’m loving invisible thread for these projects? In certain light you can hardly see any stitches at all!! It’s awesome.

To finish the piece off I bound it in some black chambray and hand painted the eyes, whiskers and mouth (using fabric safe paint of course).

Since it was a swap, and all, I also added a few goodies in the package! A beautiful card I picked up at Disney World that would make a great framed print, the Soot Sprite brooch I made, some japanese sweets and a pile of Lizzy House fabric scraps (some from the new and yet to be released line).

I really loved working on this piece, and it really made me realize I LOVE making themed quilts. LOVE IT! If I sign up for anymore swaps (in addition to the other two im working on), they are going to be themed, period.

Whew, I think thats it! Everything was sent out two days ago, and it doesn’t look like my partner has received it yet. I’ll let you know what he/she thinks once they receive it. I also haven’t received my package yet, so expect another post talking all about that!!!!

My partner, who was also named Jessica, received her package this past weekend and by the comments she left on my instagram account, it seemed like she LOVED it! It was completely out of my comfort zone since her favorite fabrics and colors are not something I normally buy. I didn’t mind that though, since it forced me to step out my comfort zone. How else am I to grow creatively if I just keep making the same thing over and over again?

I had the flu and then pneumonia during the time I was supposed to be working on this, so I decided to go the hand sewn route as much as I could so I could rest AND work at the same time.

I went with a simple hexagon cluster using 2″ hexies (that means one side is 2″) and hand stitched them all together. The fabric I used was the line Miss Kate by my partner’s favorite designer Bonnie and Camille (for Moda Fabrics). Then I went through my fabric stash and picked out all the white and light beige neutrals I could find to piece together the background. I could have just used a fat quarter, but I thought it needed more texture than that.

I used an invisible thread to applique the hexagon cluster to the background and then straight line stitched the entire thing with beige thread.

It’s funny to say, but my absolute favorite part of this project was the binding. I loved how a random scrap piece I threw in just happened to end up right at the corner! A happy little accident.

As with every swap I do, I added in a few little handmade extras. This time I included all of the leftover scraps from the Miss Kate fabric, plus some coordinating pieces. Then I made a marine grade vinyl pouch with a cute little hexagon flower appliqued on. Lastly I added some handmade quilt inspired jewelry and accessories.

It all went over very well, and as Ive said before these swaps just make me want to sign up for a whole bunch more!

Luckily I’m not too crazy and I’ve only signed up for three due in the next four months. I have some trips coming up, plus projects for Silhouette (and some other companies), and a few other obligations. So I knew my limit. Keep an eye out here if your interested in seeing what I make!!!

If you are unsure of what I’m talking about then let me explain. I signed up for this swap back in November i believe, possibly October. I filled out a form with all my information (name, address, email, social networking names, etc) and a list of what I like, dislike, allergies and more. Then Kristi goes through everyones applications and tries to match them with someone who has sort of similar taste. I then get sent a email with my secret partners name and all of her information from the form. The partner I receive is not the one who will be making a quilt for me, that way its all secret like. Then you have two-three months to stalk your partner and make them something you think they will love! It’s a lot of fun, in my opinion.

If you like the idea of this too, let me know. I can post a list of interesting swaps on the blog here every so often!

Anyway…

The quilt I made hasn’t been delivered yet. I had to wait until last minute to send it due to the flu, pneumonia (again) and icy roads. I’ll share photos after its been received though!

However I received my package from Jess P., of Sew Jess Handmade a few days ago (she was so on the ball) She was super awesome and sent me TWO mini quilts!! how sweet is that? TWO! She used my list of likes and dislikes to design these two pieces (hint: I really really dislike the color red!). Jess also made CT an adorable little zipper pouch, which she grabbed and ran off with. CT looks forward to these swap packages as much as I do these days.

Jess also included a nice pile of scraps that included some prints that I’ve been looking for, a mini charm pack of black and white fabric and matching post it note pads.

As always I am blown away by the work that goes into the pieces I receive. Every quilt swap I do makes me want to do several more! It’s been great meeting new quilters, networking with other swap members, and it helps me step outside my comfort zone (which you will see when I post the mini I made!!)

Thank you again Jess!!!!