fall shirts… for me!

Posted on October 18, 2011

I didn’t really make myself much of a summer wardrobe this year, but I’ve made up for it by making a few shirts to wear this fall!

I have wanted the Wiksten Tova shirt pattern  for a long time now. Periodically I read a post about it, or I see one on Flickr, and it rekindles my lust for the pattern. I hadn’t bought it thus far, mainly because I wouldn’t typically spend this much money for a pattern (oh, and the fact that it’s often all sold out doesn’t help either!). After a couple years of this, I decided to bite the bullet and buy one after Jenny added some to her shop.

And I’m quite glad I did, since it’s a wonderful pattern!  I’m so pleased with patterns that are well written and which turn out as pictured, and I really love it when they fit, without having to make any adjustments. This is one of those patterns.

I made my first out of one of Jay McCarroll Habitat prints, then made a second out of this lovely Nani Iro fabric. I extended the length of the sleeves on this one, so it’d be a bit better for winter.

And then I made a third out of this great Liberty fabric. I told you about Isabel, right? She’s an extremely generous blog reader who sent me some Liberty fabrics. Several pieces were quite large, so I took the opportunity to use one for this shirt. I love the paisley print – the color is great for fall, don’t you think? Again, thanks so much Isabel!!

And here’s one more shirt – though I didn’t have to make this one! My wonderfully sweet friend Phiona made up this lovely Schoolhouse Tunic out of one of my favorite AMH Loulouthi prints.

I love the look of this one, and I totally love that it was made for me – thanks Phiona!

Next up? I’m thinking about maybe trying either or both of these in the dress version. I just ordered some wool fabric which might be just the thing…

 

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liberty wonky cross blocks

Posted on October 14, 2011

I’ve been hoarding little pieces of Liberty fabrics since I started sewing. I’ve purchased lots of small pieces (most recently from Jo at the Organic Stitch Co.) I’ve also been gifted some gorgeous pieces from Kate, Katy, and from a generous blog reader, Isabel. Thank you, thank you!!

It seems no pattern is ever good enough for my pretty Liberty fabrics, so there they sit, boxed in a closet. Sad.

Yesterday I decided to just start using them, starting off with these mini wonky cross blocks, totally inspired by this cute little pincushion made by the lovely Nova.

Nova’s little cross blocks are super teeny tiny and perfect. I’m not that good at working with such tiny pieces, so I opted to make mine a bit larger. I’m going for 3 1/2″ squares, which still appear little and cute. Of course, it’ll take quite a few to make a decent sized quilt! Luckily they’re quick and fun to make.

I love how it only takes a tiny bit of the Liberty prints to make a big impact! I would love to make a large quilt out of these blocks, but I know myself, and I’m quite certain I’d grow tired of it long before I had made enough blocks. It looks like this one is destined to be baby sized…

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Anyone in the Burlington, VT area (or visiting our state during this lovely Fall season)? Be sure to stop by Nido on Monday afternoon. Kelly Wilkinson of Make Grow Gather will be there from 5-7 to sign copies of her new book, Weekend Handmade. Nido will also be celebrating their 2 year anniversary, complete with fun snacks and 20% off storewide from 4-7pm. Maybe I’ll see you there?

Posted in Posts about Quilts, Quilt Blocks | Tagged , , , , , , | 21 Comments

scrappy triangles – a quilt block tutorial

Posted on October 12, 2011

Ok, finally! Look what I have for you… a quick little tutorial on how to construct the scrappy triangle blocks I used in my Nautical quilt.

A few things before we start… this tutorial will show you my method for making a scrappy triangle block. I’m not providing fabric requirements, or instructions for fully completing this quilt, because well, I just don’t have time! and because I think there are many great tutorials already out there for finishing quilts. If you have questions about the block, leave them in the comments and I’ll answer them there. Feel free to use and share this tutorial, but please remember to give credit!

Block size: 6 1/2″ x 9″.

So, to start, you’ll want to make yourself a template for an isosceles triangle. You could really select any lengths you want, but here I’m going with a triangle that measures 6″ on the short side and 9″ on the two equal sides. (I marked lines on the left side to show the 6″ short side, then marked a vertical line 8.5″ away from the left side and a horizontal line at the halfway point of the short side. Use the point where those lines cross as the point of your triangle.)

Once you have your template cut out, you can start sewing together your scraps. I sewed most of mine together the following way because I think it results in less waste.

I find that 5-6 strips seem to work best for this size of triangle. You could use more if you wanted, but you should make sure that your first and last strips are wide enough so that you don’t lose the fabric in your seam allowance. Lay out your strips, overlapping them a bit to account for the seam allowance, to make a basic triangular shape.

Lay your template on top to make sure the scrap area is large enough.

Sew your strips together using a 1/4″ seam allowance and iron. I iron my seams open, but feel free to use your preferred method! Trim, using your template as a guide.

Cut a piece of your background fabric that measures approximately 6″ x 12″.

Align the long side of the background fabric with one of the long sides of the triangle. You’ll want to align it so that there is about 1.5″ of background fabric on either end of the long side of the triangle.

Sew along that edge and press. It’ll look something like this.

Align the short edge of the triangle with one of the vertical lines on your cutting mat and then make a horizontal cut through your background fabric approximately 1.25″ above the top of the short edge, as shown above (this doesn’t need to be exact, as we’ll be trimming it down later on).

You’ll have something that looks like this.

Take the background piece you just cut off and flip it around like so.

Flip it up so the right sides are together and sew along this long edge, again leaving about 1.5″ of the background fabric on either end of the triangle.

Trim off any excess beyond the seam

Press this seam. You’ll have something that looks like this.

Trim the top and bottom sides so the height measures 6.5″. I aim for about 1/2″ of background fabric above and below the short edge of the scrappy triangle. Trim the sides so the block measures 9″ in length.

And ta da! One scrappy triangle block! Make a whole bunch more, arrange them how you’d like, and sew them together into a lovely quilt top! As always, if you make any, I’d love to see them, so be sure to add them to the FITF Flickr group!

Posted in Posts about Quilts, Tutorials | Tagged , , , , , | 78 Comments