Friday Night Progress

Since this week was the Friday Night Sew In, I thought it would be a good evening to curl up with my favorite new TV show "The Big Bang Theory" and work on my UFO for the month and my mystery quilt.  I got the top put together for my January UFO.

I decided on the thin red border using the fabric I already had and a thicker outer blue border.  In the photo I think it looks a little harsh, but in person I'm liking it.  I don't have any leftover batting pieces big enough for it, so I'll have to pick up some yardage before it gets any further.

I also got to work a bit on the mystery quilt I've been working on for the last few weeks.  There's still two steps left, but I got far enough to lay out a few blocks.  Here's what they will look like in the end.

I can't wait to get it finished.  I think this one is really fun and am already having more success than my last mystery quilt which is still sitting in a box, untouched for the last year.  Hopefully by next week I'll have the entire top put together on this one.

Overall a very productive and fun night!  And to think I almost decided not to quilt tonight.  What was I thinking?

How to cut tumbler blocks and 30/60/90 triangles the easy way

Somebody recently asked how to cut tumbler blocks and since I've done this quite a bit, I thought I would post a quick tutorial on how to quickly cut these quickly and easily.  I've never posted a tutorial on my blog before, so hopefully it makes sense.

Tumbler blocks are essentially a square block with two 60 degree angles and two 120 degree angles instead of four 90 degree angles.

The basic unit looks like this.  The four sides of your blocks are all equal length.  The height of your block is equal to your side length times 0.8660.  This is useful when mass cutting blocks as I will demonstrate below.

Enough with the math!  Let's cut!

I want to cut blocks with 3" sides.  I can strip cut these with a ruler using a 60 degree line.  First I cut strips.  To get the strip size I take

3 x 0.8660 = 2.598

Using my handy conversion chart, I select the number closest to my result.  In this case the closest measurement is 2 and 5/8 inches.

(I prefer not to measure down to the 16th of an inch, but the choice is yours).

Taking my fabric I cut a 2 5/8 inch strip. 

Using a ruler with a 60 degree line, I line it up on my fabric strip and begin cutting.  I like to mark just above my 60 degree line with painters' tape to ensure that I  am using the correct line as I cut.

(If working on a large project, you can stack several strips to cut at the same time.)

Make the first cut on the left side of the fabric, as your starting point.

Move your ruler over 2 5/8 inches** and make your second cut.

**NOTE that this measurement is equal to your strip width and you will need to adjust if using different sized strips.

Keep cutting until you have cut the entire strip.

The result will be blocks that can be sewn into tumbler blocks like this.

This method is also very useful if wanting to sew offset triangles to a square of a certain size.

I have a 4" inch square that I want to sew 60 degree triangles to to get something resembling this.

My squares are four inches so:

4 x 0.8660 = 3.464 or 3 1/2 inches

I cut a strip 3.5 inches wide. 

Marking the 30 degree line on my ruler I line up the diagonal line on the straight end of my strip.  The bottom edge should be half an inch wide regardless of the size of the finished triangle.  This is your seam allowance.  On my ruler this approximately lines up with the 11" straight line.

After cutting the first triangle, flip the ruler over from top to bottom and left to right. 

The ruler will now be inverted.

The top will now need to reflect the half inch seam allowance.  Cut along the straight edge.

Continue to cut in this manner down the entire strip.

When finished you will have a block that looks something like this. 

(Because of the small amount of rounding, I always square up my blocks when using this method before moving on.)

 Have fun!

January UFO Challenge

I found it!  My UFO project for January surfaced when I was going through a box of paperwork from the living room.  Random, but there they were.  I have no idea how they ended up there, but that's the downside of moving.  I'm sure I'll be finding random misplaced things for months.

Here's my project for January.  These blocks were part of a buck-a-block class I signed up for last year.  I think I got so busy that I never even picked up the last three months of blocks.  I had six completed, and three more to go.  So after I found them I pumped the last three out in quick secession.

Here's what they all look like put together.

I'm trying to decide what to do for a border.  These are the three options I have come up with.  A red border with either this red, or a 1930's red floral print, a thin red border with a wider blue outer border or just a blue border.

My goal for this month is to get the entire project quilted and binding on.  My little niece turns 2 next month and is just getting into playing with dolls.  I figured this would make a nice doll blanket for her birthday.

I also signed up for another Mystery Quilt class starting tomorrow.  I didn't even get close to finishing my last one, but i figured getting out of the house to go quilt a little right now would be a nice relief, so I signed up.

Here are the fabrics I'm going to use.  I hope it turns out looking the way I picture it in my head.  I haven't had the best of luck with that recently. 

What's black and white and red all over?

Now if you were like me in middle school the answer to this joke usually ended up with a four-legged African equine taking a swim in one of your kitchen appliances. 

That however is all I can think of when looking at one of my latest projects.  Back on the shop-hop I went on in July I ordered up the Lil-twister tool and since several of you have posted projects you have or are planning to do with this I will share my what not to do list.

My LQS was selling charm packs of black and white fabrics which I thought would be a lot of fun to try out.  To add a little dimension I decided to throw in a few red blocks and a red border.

Here is what it looked like with the squares all laid out.

What I learned is that while this layout works for a regular square nine-patch, the twist it tools needs a bit more contrast to work right. 

Here it is completed.

My "zebra in a blender" table topper. 

(Having a hard time putting in on the table without laughing and cringing at the same time).

Hope y'alls turn out better and I have picked up a new charm pack to try this out with again sometime soon.

This is what you get for trying to bend the rules...

Okay, so usually I am a stickler for rules.  I'm beginning to think that there is a good reason for that.  See this stack?

This is every UFO on my list except #6.  (Number 6 happens to be the number drawn for January).

If you read my last post, I cheated just a bit and peaked ahead to see which number January would be so that I could pick an easy project for the month.

My 30's buck-a-blocks are gone.  They have mysteriously disappeared!  That's what I get for peaking ahead right?  Hopefully with some more hunting and the last box to unpack they will reappear!

The reward of unpacking...finding all the UFO's

Unpacking my quilting stuff sure has given me the opportunity to go through all my drawers of UFOs and fabric.  It's been fun and a bit surprising to find things I had completely forgotten about. 

Since Judy at Patchwork Times is sponsoring a UFO Challenge, I thought it would be a good opportunity to take inventory and join in. 

Here's my list of UFOs that I hope to finish in 2011. 

1. Snowman Placemats-Finish off the set of six.
2. Blue and Yellow Mystery Quilt Top
3. Pink and Brown Quilt Top
4. Twist it table topper-Not started, but should go fast.
5. Black, White and Red Quilt Top
6. 30's Buck-a-blocks
7. Americana Table Topper
8. Birdies Layer Cake Top
9. Black and bold blocks
10. Heart Table Topper
11. Squared Charms Quilt Top
12. Paper-pieced Table Runner

I am ashamed to say that I thought I didn't really have very many UFOs and that I mostly finished what I started. This was a very sad reality when I got to 12 and still had more to add to the list. I guess that makes me a true quilter, right?


Since I'm on confessions, I have to admit that I did cheat a little this month by peaking at what number January was and picking an easy project.  I feel this is justified given that my sewing room is still partially in boxes from the move and I didn't want to set myself up for failure from the start.

Some of these are rather large undertakings, but it will be nice to have some accountability to finish a few projects this year.  Now to get started on the challenge!