Updates and Such!

Hey y'all! Well, it's been quite awhile since I've been seen around these parts, but I did want to jump on in with a couple of updates.

I am still sewing and quilting of course, but find little time to write and share photos beyond sporadic Instagram posting. I've been teaching a little bit too, including a super fun seasonal Foundation Paper Piecing workshop at Needlework here in Hamilton last month.

One major thing I have to share (if you've been following the news I'm sure you already know some of the ins-and-outs) is the demise of my Craftsy shop. Not to go into too many of the nitty-gritty details, but basically, Craftsy decided to shut down the shops of many independent designers (including some very well-know people in the quilt industry); even those whose shops weren't shut down are being told which patterns they are and are not allowed to sell (for serious).

I was told by Craftsy staff that some designers would be invited back to the platform later in the year, but I think they've really burned some bridges here (I know designers who weren't culled but who are leaving anyway because of this). I've been with Craftsy since the very beginning and have the personal emails from when they first launched where they asked me to help them promote the site. We were in talks for me to do classes for them, but I didn't feel ready at the time. They actively promoted my patterns in blog posts, newsletters, on FB, etc. And then this. It doesn't feel good.

Designers were only given a week's notice that this was happening, and that week fell over the holidays (my shop was shut down on Dec 28th). Suffice it to say, that left little to no time to research new options for hosting my free patterns and templates. All pay patterns were already in my Etsy shop, so that's good to go but a few sets of free templates and cross stitch patterns were only on Craftsy. Those templates will, unfortunately, remain unavailable until I can find another good hosting medium. I'll let you know when they have a new home!

And last but not least so that this post isn't completely devoid of pictures, and to give an older tutorial a little bit of love, let's take a look back at the Pieced Center String Blocks tutorial!

I posted this tutorial 8.5 years ago and it is still one of the most popular posts on the entire site. On occasion, people still send me pictures of quilts using this tutorial (or the sister coaster tutorial). So in honour of Moda hosting a "String Quilt Along" (follow #modastringquilt on IG), I thought I'd remind everyone about this little beauty!

8-9 years ago, string quilt were all the rage in the quilting community, so this was just my little take and adaptation of a more traditional style. It's so fun to see that strings quilts are, once again, having a little mini resurgence!

Anyhoo, I best sign off now, and no promises, but I will do my very utmost to not let another year and a half go by without posting!

A Tale of Two String Blocks...

So as y'all know I started a new job last week - hold up, for those of you who might be a little new around these parts (welcome guys!) I graduated with my Masters of Information in June and had been working part-time at one of my University's libraries but finally landed a full time gig as a Media Librarian at the CBC, woot! Okay, so I started last Tuesday and wanted to pretty up my desk a bit; I thought bringing a giant quilt and displaying it on the wall might be a bit much for some of my co-workers (although I did talk about my quilt designs and being President of the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild in my interview) so I decided on making myself a pretty new coaster instead. It was late and I was a little tired after my first day and thought to myself  "Hey! You have some extra completed string blocks sitting around from that tutorial that you wrote, why don't you use one of those to start?"... so I did.

Sorry that the picture isn't the greatest - I forgot to take a picture of the coaster when it was finished and ended up taking this one at work...with my iPod...under nasty fluorescent lighting. I basically used this coaster tutorial that I wrote but stuck with the dimensions I used for the original block tutorial.

Anywho, so after making the coaster I thought that since I had all the blocks out anyways I should lay out the quilt I had in mind so that I could decide on block placement...you guys have to know where this is going, right? I WAS ONE BLOCK SHORT!! Oh ya, totally nailed that one! I knew I had made at least one or two extra blocks and was wracking my brain trying to figure out what happened and then I remembered this...

That's right, a few months ago I used one of the extra blocks to make ANOTHER coaster as part of a swap (and of course didn't actually it on the blog either), oy!

So now I am a block short for my quilt - luckily they don't take that long to make and my "string bag" is full of cut strips already. Oh wait, have I never mentioned the string bag to you guys?! I started the string bag when I first started making these blocks; I use one of the totes (the tote on top here to be specific) that I was given at Quilt Market year before last and have it filled with strips of fabric ranging from 1"-2.5" in width that I slice off of scraps, fat quarters, and yardage at random when I buy/use them.

Anywho, so yes, that is what I have to do - make another block! I don't actually have any plans for the quilt when it is finished as everyone I know is having boys right now and the blocks are very, very pink. Actually I'm thinking that I'll put it in the shop and save the money (if it sells) to go towards next year's Sewing Summit. Unfortunately I couldn't go this year since I was lacking the funds - spending my birthday in SLC with everyone would have been so, so fun too!

Oh, by the way, do you guys remember my Colour Block Cross quilt? It's this one...

Since I've had a few requests for a pattern or tutorial I was thinking about doing a quilt along for it here on the blog. What do you think? Is that something anyone would be interested in? Let me know and if there's enough interest I'll do it!

Tutorial: Pieced Centre String Block Coasters!

I came up with this fun little tutorial as a way to use blocks made from my earlier tutorial (Pieced Centre String Quilt Blocks) in a small and colourful project! It was mentioned to me by a few people that they were going to try making blocks based on my tutorial, and I thought it would be great to share a project that didn't require you to make enough blocks for a whole quilt (which is what I'm doing right now and let me tell you - it is time consuming)!

Enter the Pieced Centre String Block Coaster!

Are you ready to get started? Woohoo!

Okay, so to start: in order to make the coaster top (i.e. the string block) you will need to follow my earlier tutorial but with a few modifications. Here are the modifications - you will start with a 5" square paper piece (instead of 6.5"), the pieces for the centre strip will have a width of 1.5" (instead of 2") and your finished centre strip will end up measuring about 7.5" (instead of 9.5"). Are you still with me? Everything else stays the same, but the modifications mean that you won't end up with a trivet sized coaster, teehee!

This is what the block should look like. Be sure to give it a nice press (iron) before you continue so that it lies as flat as possible.

Cut a piece of fabric for that back of the coaster  that is 5" square, and a piece of batting for the middle that is 4 3/8" square.

Place your string block and backing fabric right sides together and sew a 1/4" seam around three edges.

Clip your corners, turn right side out and press.

Insert your batting in the middle either above or below the seams so that it lies flat. Press again.

Turn the open edges in 1/4" and press. Starting along that edge, topstitch 1/8" from edge all the way around. Continue quilting as desired. I did another line of stitching all the way around 1/4" from the first line, and then stitched in the ditch along both sides of the pieced centre string.

Back side:

(Sorry about the slight wonkiness in the 1/8" topstiching - my machine was just not into it today).

So what do ya think? I hope you guys like it and that it will inspire your to try out my earlier tutorial without the dread of a full sized quilt hanging over you, teehee! And again, I'd love to see pictures if you make something using any of my tutorials!

Tutorial: Pieced Center String Quilt Block

I came up with this little idea earlier in the week when I was designing some new blocks. I had been thinking about some different ways to use precuts and got to thinking about string blocks - string blocks have been very popular for the last little bit (you can see some beautiful examples here, here, and here) and I thought that precuts (namely honey bun strips) would make them even easier. However, this thinking led to even more thinking about what I could do to make some string blocks that were a little different and this is what I came up with...

Enter the Pieced Center String Quilt Block! When making string blocks, many people choose to use a solid colour middle strip or to use the same middle strip fabric for a group of four blocks so that when arranged in a diamond pattern (such as with the two above) the center strips create a distinct diamond pattern and grouping.

I think that this pieced center strip creates a very nice visual and so decided to write a little tutorial for everyone, I hope you like it!

When making these blocks I used a paper piecing method and started with paper that I had cut to 6.5" square (this will yield 6" finished blocks when sewn together). I used regular white printer paper, but you could also use transfer paper, old phone book pages, or any other thin paper.

The fabrics I used came mostly from my scrap bin and are cut into varying widths, however the fabrics for the pieced center strip all measure 2" across but are varying heights.

Sew your small fabric pieces together with right sides facing along the 2" side using 1/4" seam.

For these 6.5" blocks you will need to sew your pieces all together so that the center strip ends up measuring about 9.5". Press all seams open for this center strip - it will help it to lay flatter against your paper square.

Flip the strip over so that the back side is up. Using a regular glue stick dab a little bit of glue (not too much or you'll have problems later) along the length of the strip.

Flip the strip back over and press it down along the diagonal of your paper square; I just eyeballed the placement of my strip, but if you're a bit of a perfectionist you can measure the placement. You now have your pieced center strip in place!

Make sure that your next strip is long enough to cover the white space right next to the pieced center strip (but it can be whatever width you'd like) and lay it, right side down, directly on top of the pieced center strip so that the edges line up.

Make sure that you shorten your stitch length so that the back paper will tear off easily in the end (I usually sew at 2.5 so I went down to 2, but I'm sure 1.5 would work well also). Sew your new strip to the pieced center strip along the edge with a 1/4" seam.

Using a dry iron press the new strip open and into place. Repeat with your next strip, lining it up along the edge of the strip you've just sewn.

Repeat (sew, iron, sew, iron, haha!) until you've got your paper square covered. It'll look like a mess but we'll fix that!

Flip you block over so that the paper square is facing up.

Using your paper square as a guide, line your ruler up along the edge and use your rotary cutter to cut the excess fabric off all four sides.

Now you're ready to remove the paper from the back! Since you shortened your stitch length, the paper will be perforated on the back and should tear off pretty easily (this is why you don't want to over glue the pieced center strip - so that you can tear it off). Just fold along the stitch line and tear!

Once all of the paper has been torn off, flip over and admire your lovely block!

I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial and remember that if you need to, you can make any of the pictures larger by clicking on them! Let me know what you think and if you make anything using this tutorial send me a picture - I'd love to see!

If you like these blocks, you might want to check out my Pieced Center String Block Coasters tutorial, which uses the same method but on a smaller scale (and includes all the coaster finishing instructions too)!