February For Michelle

My contribution to your quilt is complete. The fabrics were fun to work with. I have just caught up today on all the blocks that were made and they all look great.

I used a matching purple 100% cotton Masterpiece Thread that I thought matched the purple in the flowers of the center fabric.

I will be sending the scraps back with the block on Monday. Thanks this was a lot of fun.

Parisville and a favorite tool

I made Michelle's block last night.  I used one of my favorite notions/tools, Fork Pins!

I call them fork pins, but I think the commercial name for them is U-pins.  They come in this little blue box, and are used to pin seams, to keep your seam lines or points lined up as you sew your seam.  You can safely sew over them, because they are even finer than glass head straight pins.  

You place the pin through the seam allowances on both ides of your seam....

Sew your seam without removing the pin (you can remove it just before you sew over that area, if you really can't make yourself sew over a pin), and voila!  Perfectly matched seams:

Loving Tula Pink's Parisville line, gorgeous colors and prints (even though the center medallion fabric kind of freaks me out--it appears to be a woman's head being devoured by a lion...), and what fun to incorporate some of our fancy stitches!

MARCH BLOCK for VICTORIA

 CHRISTMAS FLOWERS!

Hi ladies! I nearly forgot I had March!! 

I am putting this up early so I don't forget , and will get 

the fabrics in the mail next week.  I've already started making a 

2011 Xmas quilt for myself,

and figured it would be a fun block for you to try as well...

BLOCK TEMPLATE SIZE
6" x 5" rectangle
6"is the base, 5" is the height
Mark off from 6" to 3" from both sides to make your template triangle.
then with a  pen draw your sewing lines 2" to point from both sides

It's EASY, there is a trick.
You DO NOT HAVE TO MATCH YOUR POINTS! You will be trimming of a 1/2" off the point and leaving a circle OPENING under the darker red applique circle. again, there are NO POINTS
to match, and is pretty much the same block as Michelle's.

Here's the what to do.

I am sending you the triangle papers for piecing...

 I will send you the SOLID RED pieces, 

if you could please dig through your stash or scraps to cut

ALL different greens if possible - 

9- 2.5" X 6" GREEN rectangles.... 

Bright greens, no novelty prints unless they are Christmas-y

USING a SMALL stitch length, and a 1/4" seam allowance,

(about a 2 stitch length is good, so the paper tears off easily later)

 paper piece,

3 - red green red

and 

3- green red green

trim up your triangles of excess fabrics...

then trim the point off the triangle, 
so that your block is 4.25" high

We won't be needing that bulk, 

and you don't have to worry 

about your points matching!  woohoo!

(FYI: this will leave you with a whole in the middle...

I will need that later...)

Sew them together using a 1/4 seam, alternating colors....

so it goes red green red green all the way around....
There will be an OPENING in the center... because you cut off that 1/2"...
that's what we want here...
you will then,

Machine applique enclosed circle, 

with either a blanket stitch or zigzag, 

in red if possible.

PLEASE Don't trim out the extra fabric behind the circle... I will stuff it...later.

;-)

Thanks Ladies!

Send me any questions you have... 

I will get the red in the mail this week...

Michelle, Your block is in the mail Tuesday... fun!

Here You Go!

Michelle, I had loads of fun making this block using these Parisville fabrics. It was my first real live time to eyeball the fabrics which I have admired many times online. I may have to add a few of them to my stash now....you've tempted me so much.

 I dusted off the fancy stitch button on my dear sewing machine to applique the center of the block.

 I hope that you like the sweet little leaves that I chose to make using violet thread. 

The postman will be delivering your lovely soon!

Piecefully,

Carla

Michelle's Parisville block

Here is Michelle's February block. Very fun to do! She has inspired me to actually cut into my Parisville fat quarters. :-)

I added a featherstitch on the edge which I thought was fancy enough for the occasion.

Michelle's February block

Love it. Like, really love it. I was fairly annoyed at all the hype that surrounded the release of this fabric, but I kinda get it now. Really great block, Michelle! I just had to make this today....

I made this into a tutorial on my blog with pics. Michelle, you get all the glory with this lovely lady!

Cheerful Blocks

It's hard to believe how little time I have for sewing these days, with my homework load from three classes.

It was wonderful to get some time on Saturday night to work on Michele's blocks. I managed to make one block big enough for the 14.5-inch request and a second almost-big-enough block.

It was so refreshing to work with these cheerful prints when the winter doldrums have started to creep in.

These soft fabrics and charming designs made me long for garden season. Hope you like what I made to contribute to your quilt, Michele!

Terri