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Scrappy Irish Chain Baby Quilt

Posted on April 3, 2016March 31, 2016by Tisha

Making an Irish Chain quilt has been on my to make list for some time. This spring our friends are having baby, so a gender neutral quilt is in order for them. While they are not finding out the gender of the baby, Rob and I came up with a theme. They live in Buffalo and love the Sabres and Bills. I’m sparing this child having something branded with these teams and setting it up for heartache. Ha!

The teams are the inspiration for colors on this quilt:

gold/yellow
black
gray
red
navy
white

My scrap bins had lots of great options to get started on this quilt. Pulling from a various sizes I decided 2″ squares would be the best.

It was a good start, but not enough for a baby quilt. I had pulled more fabrics and scraps to take with me to the IMQG Winter Retreat in case more blocks were needed. Turns out, I needed to make many more blocks, ~12. The finished nine patch block with two inch squares comes out to five inches square. It’s my normal size to work with, but the math wasn’t making sense until I laid out what I had made.

Luckily, some other guild members brought their scraps and were generous enough to share. I found some great fabrics to use within my colors and keep this quilt scrappy. Since I was running low on Kona White, I opted to use white on white fabrics or white as my background blocks.

Tip: When piecing blocks that have small pieces, have starch nearby to help keep seams flat. Starching my blocks as I pressed was a lifesaver as I pieced the quilt top once I got home from the retreat.

Overall I’m happy with the look of this quilt. Can’t wait to fully piece the top and see this come together.

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Finished Scrappy Ohio Stars

Posted on March 16, 2016March 16, 2016by Tisha

It’s been a hectic few weeks around the Nagel household. Birthdays, work events, and some secret sewing that I can share on Friday. This Friday, March 18th. I’m beyond excited and hope you enjoy what I’m sharing.

The Scrappy Ohio Stars quilt has been done for three weeks and I haven’t really had time to sit down and write about it. It’s enjoying it’s new home and being put to use.

This quilt has become one of my favorites. The secondary pattern the Ohio Star creates looks like a Buffalo Check. Thanks Katie for that mention, now I can’t un-see it. It’s not a bad thing, just my eyes are drawn to that now. So many fabrics from past projects and Rachael’s too. Notice all the polka dots? That is a Rachael signature pattern.

After finishing this quilt I had about a fat eighth of Kona White left in my stash. I dug deep to find some white scraps that could work. The binding is super old and one of the first modern fabrics I bought in 2010ish. For quilting I kept it simple with straight lines, typical me. To be honest I traded this quilt with a friend for a keg of craft beer. I wanted to finish quickly at the sewing retreat and move on the next project. Plus, it went to a guy, he’s probably not going to notice the quilting.

Rachael and I did a quick photo shoot of the two finished quilts together. Not advisable on a windy afternoon as the quilts almost flew off into the ravine. Luckily, Rachael is a quilt wrangler and the quilts were saved.

Wonder what our next scrappy quilt swap will be?

Scrappy Ohio Stars Part 2

Scrappy Ohio Stars Part 1

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I Have a Scrap Problem

Posted on March 1, 2016by Tisha

My scraps are out of control and feel overwhelming. A few nights ago I sat down with my big black trash bag full of scraps and started sorting through what I had. There are a number of baby quilts I have coming up and I wanted to start with scraps and build my fabric choices from there.

What ended up happening turned into a two hour process and left me exhausted. Well, maybe the boxing class that night didn’t help with the exhaustion. Either way I have come to the conclusion, I just have too many scraps.

As I sorted here’s what I found for some upcoming projects:

Enough Kona White and other scraps to make a gender neutral baby quilt. Can’t reveal too many details just yet.
A cloth grocery bag stuffed full of solids. Possibly a string quilt in the works?
Lots of pale pinks for some baby girl quilts.
Almost a full jelly roll of Hello Luscious that had been cut up and stashed away. Another baby girl quilt option for me.

There is some stuff that I’m just not sure about or what I want to do with. Maybe the next time I want to sit and sort, I can pull those out. If I haven’t used them by then, they are outta here.

In an effort to be transparent, this trash bag is in addition to me already cut stuff in tubs. Plus, the bag I have set aside for strips and selvage for another scrappy wreath. Oh and my recent Scrappy Ohio Stars caused me to start another bag of scraps.

Let’s look at this differently. Does a chef keep every scrap of food? Sounds funny to say, but the comparison is there. A chef is creating a dish from ingredients in the pantry, fridge, or freezer (like a stash). In preparing the dish, there are small scraps from peels, cutting, and trimming. When the dish is finished, it’s plated and served. If the person doesn’t eat all the dish they can take it to go. It has a shelf life though of a few days. This happens over hours and days instead of days or months that a quilter can experience. Maybe I need an expiration date on scraps? Keep a separate bag for each month’s scraps. Go through after 30 days and if I don’t use, discard? Sounds harsh and makes me nervous just thinking about a finite deadline for my fabric.

I have a problem and this has to stop. Watching Nurse Jackie on Netflix has helped me realize I have a scrap addiction. It’s hard to part with fabric that is so much a part of your life. Keeping those small scraps for an upcoming project is starting to sound insane. How many small projects have a I really made in the last year? Not many. The struggle is that I love to recycle as much as I can. Many quilters/sewists struggle with this affliction. There has to be a better way.

What do you consider too small of a scrap? What do you do with small scraps? When do you decide to just walk away? Comment below and let’s talk about this real struggle.

Scrappy Ohio Stars Quilt Part 2

Posted on February 24, 2016February 29, 2016by Tisha

Take that scraps! You still require a large black trash bag, but at least some of you are gone. No seriously, this quilt didn’t put a dent in my scrap stash. It did however use almost all of Kona White up. More on scraps and my fabric stash later.

If you have been thinking of making an Ohio Star block, you should. I may make this with another background and a full line of fabric.

Rachael and I were able to swap blocks this weekend. It’s interesting to see how well her scraps blend in with mine. She loves polka dots. “Everything in my stash is polka dots,” Rachael noted.

While it was a gorgeous weekend outside and we were able to play outside as a family, we were still home quite a bit. I was able to get a layout together of the blocks and get everything ready to sew this weekend at our retreat.

In my excitement over these blocks, I couldn’t wait until this weekend’s retreat to sew them together. I turned on Netflix (currently watching Nurse Jackie) and got the top pieced.

Thanks to everyone that commented on my Instagram post about the backing selection. Number two was my favorite until we decided who this quilt was going to. Rob and I are giving it to a friend that has wanted a quilt. He’s a single guy so a flowery vintage sheet probably isn’t the best choice for him. I put the sheet back for another project and grabbed a soft gray sheet I had to use as the backing.

Not sure if I will quilt this before the retreat or not. I should say no and focus on packing, but something tells me I won’t wait. Do you have any suggestions on how to quilt it?

Scrappy Ohio Stars Blocks

Linking up with OH Scrap!

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Dancing Quarter Square Triangle Quilt

Posted on February 18, 2016February 18, 2016by Tisha

When I get requests for custom quilts I try to do something a little different with the layout and design. This recent finish is no exception. As I mentioned in my first post, the mom is a dancer. I wanted something that had movement and some negative space. I wanted the quarter square triangles to move.

My original thought was blocks tumbling into each other across the quilt. As I began to layout the quilt, it ended up looking a bit more like a sideways pyramid. I left it alone for a couple of days and then decided to add in some blocks dropping into the pyramid from across the quilt. Think an hourglass filling up.

Piecing this took some time. Yes, I could have cut strips of the gray to put into the quilt, but I probably would have botched that. Not much yardage left on the bolt of this color and I wanted to make sure I had enough to finish. Lots of starch was used to keep the seams laying flat.

For quilting I wanted to replicate a dancer moving across a stage. I started with semi cicles around the border and went from there. Arch here to here moving across the quilt. My mother in law put purple thread in my stocking this year…it was perfect for this quilt. Overall I tried to keep the arches random and spread out.

The end result is a little different than I anticipated. Overall the look is there and the movement I envisioned.

The binding is a solid Kona purple I found in my giant trash bag full of scraps. For the back I used the remaining scraps of Heirloom that I picked up in a destash. Lots of piecing to make this work.

Still some scraps left over and some other precut triangles. I predict another baby quilt using these fabrics. As for the pattern, I want to try it on a large scale quilt. I ran out of quarter square triangles and it created a size limit.

The baby has received it’s new quilt and I was sent a picture of her snuggling on it. Love seeing my quilts in action.

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Quarter Square Triangles Quilt Part 1

Posted on January 8, 2016by Tisha

How are you adjusting to writing 2016 on stuff? I’m still not quite used to it yet. My time is changing a bit as I’m going back into the office more. There is a role I really want and being visible will only help. Combine that with my focus on getting healthier and exercise and my sewing time is pretty limited. However, if I just work a bit each day, this project will get done. Hoping this weekend affords me a few hours to just sew and quilt this baby quilt.

My brother in law requested a baby girl quilt and gave me a quick description of the parents. Mom is a professional dancer and dad likes the Patriots and Red Sox. Patriots and Red Sox fabric is not allowed in my house; we are a Yankees and Colts/Giants household. I wanted to focus on a traditional pattern and add my own to twist to it for the design.

In my stash I found some scraps from Katie of Swim Bike Quilt that I purchased a couple of years ago. These Joel Dewberry Heirloom prints had to join my stash the minute I saw her post these. Some of the work is already done since the triangles are already cut in half. Pretty sure you will see the other isosceles triangles in an upcoming project.

From my stash I pulled a light and dark gray option to pair with the prints. Lots of great feedback on Instagram about which to choose. After a couple of days of heavy contemplation the light gray is where my eye went every time.

The triangles were cut from a 4.5″ square so I grabbed the rotary cutter and got to work on the light gray fabric. In just a few minutes I had enough half square triangles to start sewing. Maybe tonight I can sew them all up and get them pressed. My design idea to create quarter square triangles or hourglass blocks moving throughout the quilt, like they are dancing. The full layout won’t come to me until I have everything sewn and ready to go.

Money Spent on Project so far for fabric: $0.00

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