Archive for February, 2011

Welcome Blockapaloozas! We are over half way now and entering the home stretch! Not to worry though if you are not on schedule or if you haven’t even started. Take your time and enjoy it!

I am very excited to be representing the Fat Quarterly team for this quiltalong! Moda’s Sunkissed is such a great fabric line and I just love flying geese so I leapt at the chance of designing a block using the 2.

If you are using Sunkissed you will need:

5 1/2″ x 13 1/2″ of the grey solid (Sunkissed Misty Grey 5448 15)
4 1/2? x 10? of the grey check print (Sunkissed Misty Grey 5447 15)
5 172? x 13 1/2″ of the swirly grey print (Sunkissed Misty Grey 5441 15)
6? x 12? of the grey flowers print (Sunkissed Misty Grey 5444 25)
10 1/2? x 12? of the pink text print (Sunkissed Pink Sorbet 5440 14)

Cutting Instructions:

From the grey solid, cut:
2 squares 3?
8 squares 2 1/2?

From the grey check print, cut:
4 rectangles 2 1/2? x 4 1/2?

From the grey swirly print, cut:
8 squares 2 1/2?
2 squares 3?

From the pink text print, cut:
4 rectangles 2 1/2? x 4 1/2?
8 squares 3?

From the grey flowers print, cut:
8 squares 3?

How to Make Half Square Triangles

Place 2 squares right sides together and draw a line down the diagonal on the wrong side. Sew 1/4? away from the line on both sides of the line.

Cut along the diagonal line, open and press. Trim to 2 1/2?.

Make the HSTs for your Block

1. Make 12 half square triangles from the grey flower and pink text print by pairing 6 of the 3? pink text squares with 6 of the grey flower 3? squares.

2. Make 4 half square triangles from the pink text print and the grey swirly print by pairing the 2 remaining 3? pink text print squares with the 2 grey swirly 3? squares.

3. Make 4 half square triangles from the grey solid and the grey flowers by pairing the 2 remaining 3? grey flower squares with the 2 grey solid 3? squares.

How to make Flying Geese

Draw a line down the diagonals on the wrong side of each of 2 1/2? squares.
Line up 1 square with the edge of the 2 1/2? x 4 1/2? rectangle with right sides facing. Make sure the diagonal line runs from the top middle of the rectangle to the bottom outside corner. Sew along the diagonal. Trim away excess to leave a 1/4? seam allowance. Open and press.

Line up the second 2 1/2? square with the other side of the rectangle with the diagonal line running from the top middle of the rectangle to the bottom outside edge. Sew along the diagonal, trim away excess to leave a 1/4? seam allowance and open and press.

Make the Flying Geese for the Block

1. Make 4 flying geese using the 4 pink text print 2 1/2? x 4 1/2? rectangles and the 8 grey swirly print 2 1/2? squares.

2. Make 4 flying geese using the 4 grey check 2 1/2? x 4 1/2? rectangles and the 8 grey solid 2 1/2? squares.

Putting it All Together

1. Arrange the grey swirly print and pink text print half square triangles in a pinwheel shape and sew together.

2. Sew each of the grey check print flying geese to the top of a pink text print flying geese to make 4 flying geese units.

3. Arrange 3 grey flower print/pink text print half square triangles and 1 grey flower print/grey solid half square triangle into a 4 patch as shown. Sew together and repeat so you have 4 such units.

4. Arrange these units into rows as shown and sew together.

5. Sew the rows together as shown.

Now you have block #11! Hooray! I can’t wait to see everybody’s blocks in the Flickr group.

You can download the pdf version of this block here.

Next up is Block #12 by Jennifer Davis which can be found on her blog Sugar Stitches. See you all there!

take care

Tacha

Love fabric? Love competition? Well, in the spirit of March Madness, we’re excited to announce MODERN MADNESS — a fun new interactive activity for all of our readers for the month of March.

Our version of the Big Dance will pit all of your favorite modern fabric lines against one another in a fierce competition to determine the winner — the #1 current (or recent) fabric line as determined by the readers of Fat Quarterly.

Here’s how it will work:

• We’ve already randomly created the brackets containing the top 64 fabric lines in the quilting world (in our humble opinion. Sorry in advance for any unintentional omissions, though we think it’s pretty comprehensive.) Print the brackets out to play along!
• Throughout the month of March, we’ll be posting the different rounds and regions of competition. Once posted, a survey will go live for you to vote for your favorites.
• Once the voting for each round is closed, we’ll update the brackets and get ready for the next round of competition.

From 64 contenders, only one will emerge as the winner. Lots of great debate, conversation, and celebration will ensue.

Here’s the schedule:

Round 1

• Region 1: March 2nd
• Region 2: March 6th
• Region 3: March 9th
• Region 4: March 11th

Round 2

• Region 1: March 14th
• Region 2: March 18th
• Region 3: March 20th
• Region 4: March 24th

Regionals

• Part 1: March 27th
• Part 2: March 29th

Quarterfinals – April 1st

Semifinals – April 3rd

Championship – April 7th

And college basketball fans know the best part about March Madness: predicting all of the winners before the competition starts, and keeping track of how many points you earn by being correct!

We encourage you to print the brackets before we begin on March 2nd and fill it out. We’ll give tips on how to keep score throughout the competition, and we may even create a leader board to see how you’re stacking up against other readers.

Sound like fun? Ready to play? Download your brackets here.

To tie in with the release of our ‘Solids’ Issue of Fat Quarterly, we chatted to fiber artist and photographer Robin Ferrier of Simply Robin. Robin uses solids in her quilts in a way that will stop you in your tracks and say ‘Wow!’

Welcome Robin




FQ: Tell us a little about yourself and your artistic background?

RF: My name is Robin Ferrier; I live on Maui with my husband, three children and an assortment of animals. I come from a family that sews; my mother was a seamstress, my grandmother made quilts, and my aunts each sew as well. I learned to use a sewing machine when I was young, but it was not until college that I made my first quilt. I was longing to be connected to the women of my family and I wrote my aunt and asked her how to make a quilt. She said cut up a bunch of squares out of various fabrics, cut those into triangles and then rearrange the triangles into a pleasing pattern. After that quilt I was hooked! My artistic background consists of majoring in fine arts in college until the realities of living the life of an artist were revealed to me. I course-corrected and became a nurse, which was a good decision at the time. Now, I cannot help but feel blessed to be able to pursue my artistic passions without the stress of having to earn a living with it.

FQ:How would you describe your work?

RF:Currently, my work consists of two different styles. In my ?elements? series, I use my own hand-dyed fabrics to create original non-representational patterned compositions. These quilts are often saturated with color, which I suspect is a result from living in Hawaii where the sun is bright all year long and intense colors are a part of my everyday. I am working to tone things down and am introducing more neutrals into my work. My other style involves working with brightly colored commercial fabrics and large fields of white. I?m making a series of couture baby quilts that depict simple scenes and playful imagery. It?s a light-hearted diversion from my usual work. In both series I throw away the ruler and prefer instead the beauty of a hand-cut line.

FQ: Where does your passion to create come from?

RF: I?ve always known I have a propensity to create. It?s something I consider part of my personality. My father was a DIY kind of guy and my mother made things when we had very little. It was that early exposure to making things by hand that made me want to do things like that for myself. I?d like to think I take it a step further by having an intense desire to bring something new to the world of quilts. I don?t think I?ve actually done that yet, but I?m working on it!

FQ: Can you describe your design process with an example, from the seed of an idea to a completed project?

RF: Typically I start with an image in mind or an idea I?d like to expand upon further. With my elements series, I?ve generally moved from simple shapes to those that are more complex. I often make a bunch of fabric first by either sewing pieces together into assorted blocks, or larger pieces together to make panels, which can be cut into. At this stage I focus primarily on making the fabric. The composition of the quilt usually reveals itself to me when I have a pile of fabric to work with and feel ready to move on. With the baby quilts, I usually have a scene in mind and go from there. I?ll make a bunch of houses or stars and assemble them after I have a pile to work with. I strive to introduce something new with each quilt and am constantly pushing myself to up my game.

FQ: You work with solids a lot. Is this a favourite subject matter for you? How do you select solid colour combinations? Can you share a word or two on dyeing fabric?

RF: Yes! I love working with solids! I started working with them after I became frustrated with commercial fabrics. At that time, because I knew so many of the prints, I found myself focusing more on the fabric rather than the overall design. Commercial prints often date a quilt and I wanted my work to be more timeless than that. Also, because of my sensitivity to color, I found that many of the commercial prints seem to have a narrow range of value. It was hard for me to find fabrics that were either extremely light or extremely dark, so I began dyeing my own fabric and have pretty much solved those problems. As for how I select my colors, sometimes I start with a limited palate, sometimes I don?t. I tend to prefer quilts in which the colors all relate to each other in one way or another; sometimes are in the same color family, sometimes they are in a gradation from one color to the next, and sometimes they are a gradation across the color wheel. Having a large variety of colors to choose from helps, and dyeing my own fabric affords me that freedom.

FQ: Do you have a favourite piece that you have made that holds a special spot in your heart?

RF: Of course they are all special, but I?d have to admit my ?Shibori Sun?s? quilt is still one of my favorites. At first glance, it?s a simple quilt made entirely of circles, but when you look closer you can see that those circles were dyed and over-dyed using the shibori clamp technique in which I sandwiched fabric between two mason jar tops and secured it all together with string. The metal lids that I used were not perfectly flat, so what resulted were inconsistencies in the shapes of the circle, and the string created lines projecting from the circles, much like rays from the sun. It was the first quilt I made entirely from my own hand-dyed fabric, the first one in which I incorporated different sized blocks into one quilt, and the first quilt of mine that was accepted into a local juried art show. After making and exhibiting it I really started to look at myself as an artist.

FQ: Your blog is so full of inspiration and we love how you describe your processes and share insights, tutorials, introduce us to artists who inspire you and so much more. What is the best part about blogging for you?

RF: I?ve been blogging for almost six years now? hard to believe? and over the years my blog has morphed from a running commentary on my family life, to that of a more focused art blog. I almost quit for good several years ago, but then realized it benefits me immensely. The blog keeps me focused. I have a personal goal of blogging each weekday; so everyday I know at least some of my time is spent thinking about art. The blog keeps me connected. I have made many friends through blogging and feel like I have a host of like-minded companions sharing this journey with me. The blog keeps me current. I try to not repeat myself and am constantly working to create fresh new work. Finally, the blog is a way to give back. I do know I?ve inspired people with my blog, and sometimes someone will take the time to tell me how I?ve touched them in a special way. I?ve had many kind and gentle people guide and inspire me over my years of making quilts and I feel blessed to be able to do this for other people.

I?d also like to add here that I?ve set my blog up with WordPress and a special template that showcases my photography. I have a fondness for taking pictures and have invested in good equipment. Being a photographer helps me to develop my eye and it also offers a satisfying diversion from the non-representational work I do with fabric.

FQ: What?s next in the creative world of Simply Robin?

RF: I?m currently working on a ?slow cloth? in which I?m trying an assortment of surface design techniques as well as stitching. I?ve never quilted a whole quilt by hand, so this may just be my first. I also have a couple of couture baby quilts swimming around in my head and of course more ideas for simply solid quilts. This summer I want to play with over-dyeing as a means to create interesting cloth. Of course I have too little time to do all of this but perhaps that isn?t a bad thing after all!

Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us today Robin.

You can catch up with Robin on her blog or visit her flickr photostream – truly inspiring.

Were you inspired by our Amazing Orange mosaic earlier this week? Well, today we are lucky enough to have Lee from Freshly Pieced join us as a guest blogger, and she’s bringing a fun & bright project idea for you all (featuring orange, of course).

Have you visited Lee’s site yet? She is an amazing quilter, a mother of two, and a graphic designer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She blogs at http://freshlypieced.blogspot.com

Please join us in welcoming Lee to the Fat Quarterly blog today.

–

Hi there, I’m Lee from Freshly Pieced. I’m so excited to be guest blogging for Fat Quarterly today. I’ve got a fun project for all of you who are trying to beat the winter blahs (I know I am). So how about a pillow with a cheerful, wonky sun? It whips up quickly and easily with a wedge ruler?no paper-piecing or curved piecing required!

Sunshine Pillow: Trying to beat the winter blahs? How about a pillow with a cheerful, wonky little sun? It whips up quickly and easily with a wedge ruler?no paper-piecing required!

You will need:
- a 30-degree wedge ruler, such as the Fat Cats ruler by Darlene Zimmerman
- bright-colored scraps for sun rays and center
- approx. 1/2 yard of light blue solid for background
- approx. 1/8 yard of orange print for border
- 1/2 yard for pillow back
- 18″ pillow form

1. From your bright scraps, cut 12 strips, about 2″ x 6″. No need to be exact?wonkiness is good here! These will be the rays of your sun, so cut them a little wider on top, narrower on the bottom. From your solid blue background fabric, cut 14 strips, 3″ x 6″.

2. Sew the strips together into one long piece, alternating between the light blue solid and the bright scrappy strips. Start and end with a light blue strip. Be sure to alternate the direction of the rays as you sew, so the narrow end is on top, then on the bottom, then on the top, and so on (see photo above). But don’t worry about the order of your rays, or whether the finished piece is straight?none of that will matter in the next step!

3. Using your wedge ruler, cut 12 wedges from your pieced strips. To cut your first wedge, center the ruler over one of the rays, with the narrow end of the ruler over the narrow end of the ray, as shown. Again, no need to be exact. To cut the next strip, turn the ruler 180 degrees and center it over the next scrappy ray. When all of your wedges are cut, trim six of the wedges to 4.5″ long, and the other six wedges to 5″ long.

4. From your light blue solid, cut a strip 5″ by about 36″. From that strip, cut 6 more wedge pieces. These wedges will start at the 4″ mark on the ruler and extend to the 9″ mark (see photo).

5. Sew these wedge pieces onto the 4.5″ ray pieces, end to end, to create a complete wedge that is 9″ long.

6. Cut another strip from your light blue solid, this time 4.5″ by about 36″. From that strip, cut another 6 wedge pieces, just as you did in step 4? except that this time, the wedges will start at the 4.5″ mark on the ruler, extending to the 9″ mark. Sew these wedge pieces onto the 5″ ray pieces, end to end, just as you did in step 5. You will now have a total of 12 wedges that are 9″ long.

5. Sew your wedges together into a circle measuring a little more than 20″ across. I sewed the wedges together in groups of three, creating quarter-circles, then sewed the quarters together. Press your seams out.

6. Trim your pieced circle to a 14.5″ square. To do this, fold the circle in half and press, then fold in half again and press. Use these press marks as center points as you square up. You will cut off quite a bit of excess at the sides, but very little at the corners of the square.

7. Cut a 4″ circle from your remaining scraps, and applique it on for the sun’s center. There are many ways you could applique your center?I used the method described in this tutorial (http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=6713) by Elizabeth Hartman on Sew Mama Sew.

8. Cut four 2.5″ strips at least 18″ long from your orange border print. Sew a strip onto each side of your sun block.

9. You now have a completed pillow top. I hand-quilted mine using white Perle cotton. I used this tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew (http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2009/10/tutorial-scrap-buster-fall-pillow.html) to make a simple envelope closure for the back of the pillow.

That’s it?enjoy it until the real sun comes out again!

Today we are lucky enough to have the Lee from Freshly Pieced! Lee is a mother of two and a graphic designer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She blogs at http://freshlypieced.blogspot.com

“Hi there, I’m Lee from Freshly Pieced. I’m so excited to be guest blogging for Fat Quarterly today?thank you, Kate, for asking me to be a part of this. I’ve got a fun project today for all of you who are trying to beat the winter blahs (I know I am). So how about a pillow with a cheerful, wonky sun? It whips up quickly and easily with a wedge ruler – no paper-piecing or curved piecing required!

Sunshine Pillow: Trying to beat the winter blahs? How about a pillow with a cheerful, wonky little sun? It whips up quickly and easily with a wedge ruler?no paper-piecing required!

You will need:
- a 30-degree wedge ruler, such as the Fat Cats ruler by Darlene Zimmerman
- bright-colored scraps for sun rays and center
- approx. 1/2 yard of light blue solid for background
- approx. 1/8 yard of orange print for border
- 1/2 yard for pillow back
- 18″ pillow form

1. From your bright scraps,
cut 12 strips
, about 2″ x 6″. No need to be exact?wonkiness is good here! These will be the rays of your sun, so cut them a little wider on top, narrower on the bottom. From your solid blue background fabric, cut 14 strips, 3″ x 6″.

2. Sew the strips together into one long piece, alternating between the light blue solid and the bright scrappy strips. Start and end with a light blue strip. Be sure to alternate the direction of the rays as you sew, so the narrow end is on top, then on the bottom, then on the top, and so on (see photo above). But don’t worry about the order of your rays, or whether the finished piece is straight, none of that will matter in the next step!

3. Using your wedge ruler, cut 12 wedges from your pieced strips. To cut your first wedge, center the ruler over one of the rays, with the narrow end of the ruler over the narrow end of the ray, as shown. Again, no need to be exact. To cut the next strip, turn the ruler 180 degrees and center it over the next scrappy ray. When all of your wedges are cut, trim six of the wedges to 4.5″ long, and the other six wedges to 5″ long.




4. From your light blue solid, cut a strip 5″ by about 36″. From that strip, cut 6 more wedge pieces.
These wedges will start at the 4″ mark on the ruler and extend to the 9″ mark (see photo).




5. Sew these wedge pieces onto the 4.5″ ray pieces, end to end, to create a complete wedge that is 9″ long.





6. Cut another strip from your light blue solid, this time 4.5″ by about 36″. From that strip, cut another 6 wedge pieces, just as you did in step 4 – except that this time, the wedges will start at the 4.5″ mark on the ruler, extending to the 9″ mark. Sew these wedge pieces onto the 5″ ray pieces, end to end, just as you did in step 5. You will now have a total of 12 wedges that are 9″ long.

7. Sew your wedges together into a circle measuring a little more than 20″ across. I sewed the wedges together in groups of three, creating quarter-circles, then sewed the quarters together. Press your seams out.

8. Trim your pieced circle to a 14.5″ square. To do this, fold the circle in half and press, then fold in half again and press. Use these press marks as center points as you square up. You will cut off quite a bit of excess at the sides, but very little at the corners of the square.

9. Cut a 4″ circle from your remaining scraps, and applique it on for the sun’s center. There are many ways you could applique your center – I used the method described in this tutorial (http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=6713) by Elizabeth Hartman on Sew Mama Sew.

10. Cut four 2.5″ strips at least 18″ long from your orange border print. Sew a strip onto each side of your sun block.

9. You now have a completed pillow top. I hand-quilted mine using white Perle cotton. I used this tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew (http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2009/10/tutorial-scrap-buster-fall-pillow.html) to make a simple envelope closure for the back of the pillow.

That’s it – enjoy it until the real sun comes out again!”

This was my first time curating the themed inspiration mosaic, and let me tell you — it was tough! The Fat Quarterly Community & Inspiration Flickr group is chock full of wonderful photos. You should swing by for a visit if you haven’t already, bookmark it, and add your favorite photos for the current theme!

Saffron Craig has dropped by today to tell us a little about her latest range ‘Beetle Bugs‘, this one is so cute, you’re gonna love it we’re sure!

Thanks so much Saffron for introducing us to Beetle Bugs & sharing the inspiration behind this fun design.

Beetle Bugs is available to purchase online from Saffron’s Web Store , so scurry along there

Big thanks to Cara and her big heart for giving us another opportunity to help others in need. Won’t you accept the challenge?

Happy Monday, and Happy Valentine’s Day to all of our readers!