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Tu-Na Quilts: An Hour to Spare

With just an hour to spare, I finished sewing Ann’s block. Hooray, I am all caught up with my bee blocks for the year. At least for an hour.

 

tunaquilts 3a

The pattern for this block can be found here. 

 

I finished Sharon’s block earlier today. Both will be mailed tomorrow because the post office is closed for the day.

tunaquilts 5a

The yellow is bright. The print has yellow not green in it so it looks better than the photo. Sharon’s pattern link can be found here.

What I Learned Today:

  1. Being caught up is a very nice feeling. Maybe that will be incentive enough to finish the next one before the end of the month. 
  2. I really liked the scrappy log one. I cut more pieces than I needed. I guess I’ll be adding this one to my “must make” list, too.

    tunaquilts 4a

    I have lots of leftover scraps of scraps, now. It must be a sign.

Question: Ham and eggs or Bacon and eggs? For me, scrambled eggs with cubes of ham, onions, and peppers. Yum!

If you enjoyed this post and would like to read more about my journey or follow me, please visit my blog, Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats. Thanks for stopping by.

Karen, Tu-Na Quilts

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I Spy Block Tutorial {Teenage Version}

March is my month to be queen for Bee Inspired.  I have chosen an easy peasy block using just two fabrics.  This rectangle block is used by permission from a fellow Greenville MQG member, Didi at DidiQuilts.com.

I’m calling it a Teenage I Spy block.

Finished size 8 x 12, (unfinished 8 1/2″ x 12 1/2″)

I spy block

My local traditional guild is making charity quilts for girls of all ages up to teenage who are living at a home for children.  The plan is to give each girl a quilt which they can then take with them when they are old enough to leave.  I want to make a larger lap quilt for a teenager.

Fabrics – Block Center   

For the block center anything goes.  Feel free to use novelty prints,  low volume prints, or anything that inspires you.

Fabrics – Framing Fabric

For the frames or borders please use solids in the following colors:

Pink, Purple, Blue, Aqua, and Gray – Feel free to use lights, mediums and darks in any shades or tones.

My only prerequisite is that I would like for the fabrics to be prewashed.  Prewashing is easy if you follow my tutorial for prewashing a small amount of fabric.

Cutting the Fabric

From the novelty fabric used for the center of the block, cut:

(1) rectangle 4 1/2″ x 8 1/2″

From the framing fabric, cut:

(4) rectangles 2 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ 

I spy parts

Piecing

Sew (1) framing rectangle to each of the long sides of the central rectangle.  Press seams towards the framing fabric.

Tip:  When sewing the framing rectangles onto the central rectangle, sew with the framing rectangles on the bottom.  That way, if the central rectangle was cut on the lengthwise grain, the framing rectangles will has less opportunity to stretch as you are piecing.

I spy sides

Sew the remaining (2) rectangles to the top and bottom of the block and press the seams, again, toward the framing fabric.  And, tada, you are done!  Here are some I Spy blocks I have made.

I spy blocks 2.jpg

Feel free to make a many as you like, because I will need 42 blocks which will make a lap quilt in a 6 x 7 block layout measuring 56″ x 72″.  I’m looking forward to seeing what you make.

 

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I’m the Queen of March!

Not sure how I feel about that. March here is often cold, windy, rainy, muddy, and sometimes there are even tornadoes.

March SkyAs the Queen of March, I suppose I should feel bad that the weather for my month isn’t that great. Somehow though I don’t seem to care because besides a variety of weather, March includes the Spring Equinox, the Oscars, Palm Sunday and most of Easter weekend, and among other things Peanut Butter Lover’s Day, If Pets Had Thumbs Day, Popcorn Lover’s Day, Ear Muffs Day, National Proofreaders Day, Open an Umbrella Indoors Day, Girl Scouts Day, Something on a Stick Day, International Day of Happiness and World Water Day.

Isn’t that a great month to be Queen? Well, that’s not all!

Here in the U.S. quilting is celebrated on National Quilting Day, which is March 17th. Not to be outdone, Worldwide Quilting Day is also March 17th, and of course so is St. Patrick’s Day! I’m Irish, so this year I’ll be streaming my Irish music, indulging in corn beef, drinking green beer, and of course quilting my heart out on March 17th! <grin>

St Patricks Day 2016 2All in all, I’m glad to be the Queen of March!

Here in Bee Inspired, being Queen means I get to choose a block for my bee mates to make for me. Last year, my bee mates made me an Irish Eyes block (my design).

Irish Eyes block 4

After making a few more blocks, I sewed them together  with a plan of adding borders like this.My quilt idea 3

Recently though, I got the notion to do something else in the borders. Something more Irish. Something like this.

My quilt idea 7So. Back to being Queen. It seems fitting (especially since it’s March) that I ask my bee mates to help me finish the quilt we started together by making me Shamrock blocks for my border. The blocks finish at 4″ (4-1/2″ unfinished) so I’m hopeful that some of you will make more than one block. Of course that’s optional, but it sure would be appreciated as I need to make 34 of them!

Sharock Block 3To make 1 block, you’ll need:

  • (3) green 2-1/2″ squares
  • (1) green 3/4″ x 4″ rectangle
  • (1) white 2-3/4″ square, cut once diagonally
  • (9) white 1-1/4″ squares

Start by drawing a diagonal line on the back of all those white 1-1/4″ squares. Place one square, right sides together (RST), in the corner of one green 2-1/2″ square. Sew on the line, press it back towards the corner, then trim the seam allowance to 1/4″.

Step 1Repeat this on two other corners as shown.

Step 2Step 3

Next, center one white 2-3/4″ triangle on the green 3/4″ x 4″ rectangle, RST. Sew and press. I pressed towards the triangle.

Step 4Step 5Lay the other white triangle on top as shown, RST. Be sure to center the triangle as shown. Sew and press again, then trim the unit to 2-1/2″.

Step 6Step 7Step 8Sew the block together in rows then sew the rows together.

Step 9Step 10Step 11Here’s how I pressed the back. You can press it however you think best. I trimmed the block to 4-1/2″.

Step 12You can use any green for the shamrock, but please use the same green throughout the block. I’d like to use white on white fabric for the background. Here’s my sample block.

Sharock Block 2And here’s the quilt top as it looks right now, so you can see the variety of greens and whites used in it.

Irish Eyes top 1Thanks everyone for letting me be Queen! I can’t wait to see your blocks.

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February Bee Block for Ann

Well, just under the wire I got Ann’s bee block done.

Anns block done 1This block was easy to do. In fact, I had so much fun I added three strips to Ann’s block instead of just two.

Anns block done 7The only part that’s tricky about this block is matching up both sides of a strip when it crosses another strip. I simply marked the seam allowances on the back side of the first strip to help me pin the second part of the strip I was adding and sewed, and that was enough.

Anns block 7Anns block 7BNow to get my post done for March. I’m up as Hive Queen! <grin>

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Tu-Na Quilts: A Cookbook Shelf for Emily
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Tu-Na Quilts: A Cookbook Shelf for Emily

Emily, your block is finally finished! I hope you can use this shelf of cookbooks for your quilt. 

tunaquilts 3a

These food novelty prints traveled back from ND with me after the holidays in January.

Emily’s a librarian and a mom and a wife and a quilter who blogs at The Darling Dogwood.  She asked for this block in December. Yes, I realize it’s February. Artwork just can’t be rushed.

tunaquilts 5a

I’ve made several leaning books before but this one had to lean the opposite way than all the others I made. I got it right the second time.

When Emily asked for a shelf of books, I knew right away what I wanted to do. Yes, it became involved and grew and grew. You know that’s how it is with cookbooks; one just can’t have too many.

tunaquilts 5aa

I had to add a strip of this wonderful fabric because everything is better with butter!

I added a mixer as my shelf extra. Sitting amongst the “cookbooks” it actually looks like a new mini version. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could actually own a mini KitchenAid that’s just the right size to whip up some cream for two people or even four. I don’t know about you but I need to whip at least a pint in my real KitchenAid so that the beater is effective or else it ends up just whipping up air.

Tu-Na Helper called this mixer a digital version since it was missing the lever but I think some things just have to be left to the imagination.

tunaquilts 4a

I trimmed this cute little mixer block down to 7 3/4″ x 8 1/2″ and set it on top of some “cookbooks.” After all, if you owned a mini KitchenAid, wouldn’t you store it on your cookbook shelf?

In the end, this block measured 13″ X 29″. Yes, it’s longer than she asked for in her tutorial here but on our Facebook page she said it could go longer if we wanted. And well, there’s no stopping Tu-Na from adding more books to the shelf, especially a cookbook shelf!

tunaquilts 6a

I just had to add some more books to the other side of the mixer for balance. I couldn’t resist adding the strip of selvage for a label on the cooky book. That selvage came from the fabric with the stick of butter. 

Tu-Na Helper thought I should add more labels to the books but I thought you could do that if you wanted to. His suggestion is The World of Pickles. I think I would have put Everything’s Better with Bacon, Betty’s Pies, and The Joy of Ice Cream. If I knew how to operate the embroidery alphabet on my new machine, I’d do it but that lesson comes next week. Since this block is so late I thought I shouldn’t wait another minute. I’ll get it in tomorrow’s mail and it’ll be on it’s way to you.

What I Learned Today:

  1. This mixer block was fun but putzy. You can find the free pattern here and the pattern for leaning the books here.
  2. I might have to sew up a mixer block for myself. But I sure don’t need another project right now. I just confessed that I suffer from MPD and DSD on my blog here. This block is just one of those blocks one has to make at least once but I’m not going to say I’ll never make another one. 

Question: Do you use cookbooks or are you prone to searching the internet for a recipe? I do both but I have a huge collection of cookbooks. I used to read them as books.

If you enjoyed this post and would like to read more about my journey or follow me, please visit my blog, Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats. Thank s for stopping by.

Karen, Tu-Na Quilts

Linking to:

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilt

Show Off Saturday at Sew Can She

February 2018 Bee Block
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February 2018 Bee Block

This year I really wanted to design my own block, but I really had a hard time landing on a plan.  I’ve seen this technique for making scrappy strips online and have always liked it, so I decided to go with that.

I wrote up a tutorial for making the scrappy strips and the blocks on my blog here.

The tutorial shows how to make the scrappy strips on a base of a 2″ muslin strip.  I used muslin rather than paper or receipt tape because I didn’t want to remove all the paper.

This is my scrappy strip before trimming:

strip before trim

and after trimming:

strip post trim

And these are the blocks I made:

both blocks

For my block, I would like:

  • A 12.5″ block with an all white background
  • The use of at least 2 scrappy strips per block.  How you arrange the strips on the block is up to you.  To have 2 strips on a 12.5″ block you’ll need about 30″ of scrappy strips – might be best to just do a full yard.
  • For the scrappy strips, I’d like the scraps to be as brightly colored as possible.  Batiks are fine.

I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with!  Good luck!

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Quatrefoil Block

Sharon from Yellow Cat Quilt Designs chose the Quatrefoil Block as the January 2018 bee block.  She requested colors in pinks, turquoise, blue, green, yellow and coral  with a white background as she would be making a Project Linus charity quilt.

Jan Quatrefoil block

The white background is Moda Bella Solid and I used prints by Cotton and Steel and Tula Pink.  Don’t you think they play well together?

Jan Quatrefoil block detailMaking the Quatrefoil block was a first for me and came together nicely.  If you would like to make your own Quartrefoil block, a link to the free pdf pattern is in this blog post by Jennie at Clover & Violet.

Now to make a bookshelf block for Emily and I’ll be all caught up for a brief moment!