Over the Kitchen Counter: Angie's Place for Cooking and Crafts

Up to 50% OFF SUPPLIES AT CRAFTSY!

You know how much I love a good SUPPLY SALE and Craftsy is having a great one with up to 50% off. I love the brands they carry (like Moda fabrics and Aurifil thread) so I always find something good to spend my money on. I'm in the market for backing fabric and I still want the Jelly Roll ruler so I'll have to check what's available - stuff always sells out fast! You can click HERE to go right to the sale.

Here's the info I found in my inbox...

(ad) This weekend you can find top kits and supplies for your craft at BIG savings on Craftsy. Explore fresh picks from your favorite brands and designers, and enjoy exceptional prices. But don't wait –– just like spring, this offer won't last long. Deal ends Sunday.

I completed my Vintage quilt top and now need that backing fabric. I decided to add the extra Granny Squares onto the back for a little added oomph. I also finished up block #49 of the Farmer's Wife quilt, Katherine. This one turned out really well! I have the next two printed and ready to go for the weekend.

New FW Blocks, New Pins, Vintage Blocks Complete

Here is the latest pair of completed Farmer's Wife blocks, Old Maid and Susannah. I'm finding it challenging to be true to the colour scheme of the blocks using my Bonnie & Camille scraps because I have so few coordinating solids. I may have to bite the bullet and order some Moda fabrics to go along with the prints I'm using. Boo hoo, have to go shopping! I did manage to squeeze out these two though!

I have paper pieced that last several blocks and it's becoming a little more intuitive. I'm not sure I'd say if I prefer this method but I am yielding consistently well-sized finished blocks. I'm sure it will be more tedious a process when the blocks become more intricate. Apparently there are some with 60 cuts of fabric! Yikes! I can't believe I've finished 9 blocks so far (and one on the table half done) and I'm really enjoying the project. Some of the ladies have packed it in and quit, feeling too pressured to finish all 99. Maybe because I started late I feel no need to keep up with the group and the release of new blocks. I will work at my own pace and use the group for inspiration and help if I get stuck. I knew going in this wasn't going to be over in a few months so I will work away as time and my desire permit. I kind of like having something I can do here and there, and in almost an opposite mood of the ones who gave up, this project is perfect to pull out and put away after only one or two blocks. It feels good to know I will always have something to work on! My process is slow anyway. I start by seeing which pattern is next in line. I print the templates and check the blogs for inspiration on how the others completed their blocks. I decide on a method and then choose my fabrics, which is probably the most time consuming part of the whole thing! If I have time I will prepare a cut list for paper piecing or cut out the shapes. That night I will read the Farmer's Wife letters that go with the blocks. The next day, I set to making them up, ticking them off my list, and filing them away in the binder.

All the blocks for my Vintage quilt are now complete and I've arranged how they will be set. I swapped out the various blocks about 10 times before arriving at this setting. It was a tough one because of the strong reds and the limited number of blocks to move. I'm happy with it now and these Granny Squares were some of my favourite blocks to piece. I originally cut more red prints than I needed and I think I will make a wall hanging with the remainder. A pillow would be great too but I can barely see my bed with all the pillows I've made. I added letters to my numbered new pins and they are perfect now for marking my blocks and rows. They were a super purchase and I love them!

I've been reading the machine quilting book each night too and I'll review it soon. No secret, I think it's great!

Goodies to Share

I love the vendor's mall at a quilt show and I take the opportunity to splurge and treat myself to all the goodies I've been wanting, without paying shipping! Here are the latest notions and treats I picked up. I'll go into more detail after I read them/use them/create with them and share my thoughts and reviews in later posts.

I have been waiting for the book The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting Long-Arm and Sit-Down to be released for quite some time but I decided to wait after I saw a copy in a booth because it was over $40! However, I ended up going back for it at the last minute because it was the only copy and I'm going to have time to read it this weekend. It's a significant book with so much great information that will be very applicable to my situation. I really haven't read too much about sit-down quilting so I'm looking forward to some great tips and designs. (Once I was home I saw that the book is on sale at Connecting Threads and even with dollar exchange and shipping, it would have saved me about $15. Well, I guess my impatience cost me a few bucks but then again, no waiting! ;)

Retro Clean is a product used for laundering vintage textiles. I have been gearing up to do some quilting on my mother's linen tablecloth (à la Kelly Cline; you can see her in action HERE) and this product gently removes the stains and yellowing one often finds on older fabrics. After regular washing you simply soak the item in a solution of Retro Clean for up to 48 hours then wash and rinse again. You can find a tutorial and more information HERE. I can't wait to see how the table cloth turns out!

I was excited to find the Foxglove Cottage straw needles I had on my list. These are favourites of Joanna Figueroa (you can watch a video of all her favourite notions HERE). I'm always looking for great hand needles to make the binding process easy and more enjoyable. Both Joanna and Kimberly Jolly say these glide through the fabric! The pack of Size 11 needles in the cute tube were less than $5 bucks.

This container of pins was just what I've been looking for. They are similar to regular flat-head flower quilting pins but they are numbered. What a super way to keep track of my blocks as I piece them and rows as they get joined. No more post-it notes wasted! The whole container was $15 and there are plenty of pins numbered from 1-10. The packaging suggests you can also use a permanent marker to add letters or more numbers as well. The vendor said there was another set coming out with more numbers and/or letters (can't remember exactly).

When I got my last order from Missouri Star Quilt Company they added in a Mini Wacky Web template. (You can see the quilt Jenny Doan makes with it HERE.) It was great to receive the free template but there are special foundation papers that need to be used in conjunction with the shape. I didn't know about those and thus, didn't order any and figured I wouldn't be able to use the Wacky Web. I was very surprised to find the papers at one booth and pleased I didn't need to wait until my next M*QC order. I think it's a cool quilt pattern and I might try a smaller version one day. At least now I have the tools ready to go when I am.

My final purchase was the number 6 Moda Frivols tin I've had on my wish list. I have only had one tin so far because they are just soooo expensive here. While I love the concept and products, up to $65 is a lot for basically 42- 7x7" squares of fabric. I only bought the first one because it was on clearance. I don't think the product has taken off here in Canada. That being said, I really loved the Strawberry Fields Revisited Fig Tree & Co. fabric line (again, Joanna Figueroa!) and when I saw that the quilt pattern include was that of a Churn Dash block, I had to have it. That style of quilt has also been on my one-day-to-do list so this was a perfect combination for me! I haven't even opened the tin yet because that is the best part - finding out what little bonus frivol is included and delighting in the luscious prints in the squares of fabric! Yes, this one was a naughty indulgence but I was brave and tried to negotiate the price and she ended up throwing in the M*QC papers I shared above. That made it a little less painful to pay so much for that tin!

I had a great day at the show and was completely wowed by the gorgeous quilts I saw. I always feel inspired (and somewhat inadequate!) when I see the work other quilters are doing. It amazes me how creative and talented people are! 

Start Foundation Paper Piecing & CRAFTSY Class Sale!

My 5th block, Caroline

The Farmer's Wife 1930 blocks are hard. They are small and fussy; there are weird Y seams and odd shapes and points. I know I am going to have to paper piece some of them and that makes me sweat. I have actually done a tiny bit of paper piecing with the Downton Abbey Double Wedding Ring quilt. It required an arc of fabric and is not quite as complicated as these 1930s multiple-shape blocks.

Knowing I'd have to really learn what to do, I went back to my Craftsy classes. Start Foundation Paper Piecing is taught by Elizabeth Dackson. She is an excellent instructor and very thorough. I have already pre-ordered her paper piecing book which will be released next month. "The Quilter's Paper-Piecing Workbook" will be a great tool to supplement what I've already learned and offer some more practice projects. I watched the whole class again last night and it made me feel SOOOO much more confident about using the technique. She has several patterns provided with the lessons and a couple are very similar in concept to the next ones I have to do for the Farmer's Wife. I'm now totally excited to try them out!

As I wrote before, Carol Doak's Mastering Foundation Paper Piecing is another excellent class and I re-watched key lessons in that one too. I've adopted her methods for using the Add a 1/4 ruler, organizing fabric (and the meat tray!), trimming, and I bought several packages of her foundation paper. It is wonderful to print the templates on the paper without any smudging and it tears away from the fabric so easily. By combining what I've learned from both classes I hope I can conquer my fear of using this technique when I need to.

I wanted to let you know that Craftsy put hundreds of their top classes on sale at 50% off. The sale ends Saturday so use the links above (or to the right of this post) to get to the sale if you want to check them out. The paper piecing ones have definitely helped me!

Progress...and Meat Trays

Here are the blocks I've finished for the Vintage Quilt. Now that I've got a rhythm going, it's a fun and simple sewing task. One thing I love that really helps in the process is...a meat tray! The styrofoam trays used in the grocery store meat department are ideal for organizing and transporting fabric units as well as ground beef. The fabric clings to the surface and I can go back and forth from the cutting table to machine to pressing station without my piecing getting out of sequence. The idea came from the Carol Doak's Mastering Foundation Paper Piecing Craftsy class. Those lessons are full of great tips and tricks for paper piecing that I'm definitely going to revisit and use when I get to that part in the Farmer's Wife quilt. Anyway, the meat tray is a super tool to use for any quilting project and I'm finding it so helpful.

I have also finished 4 of the Farmer's Wife blocks. So far, so good! The sew-along begins with easy blocks that are simply rotary cut. I am pleased with the Marti Michell templates and they are making the process very easy. The 4th block, Betty, has more seams and was certainly a little more challenging but I think it's actually my favourite so far. I'm a bit hesitant with the more complicated blocks to come, but one step at a time.

The completed blocks will be stored for a long time so I've adopted a binder and page protector method of keeping them organized. The paperwork for each block is slipped into the pocket and the block slides on top - nice and organized and the fabric stays flat and pressed. It will be rewarding to see the binder fill up and so easy to set out the quilt when the 99 (?) blocks are done. I needed a binder and remembered my daughter was finished with one of hers and it turned out to be ideal. It's a zippered version from Old Navy (which will keep the dust out) and has a mesh pouch in the front, perfect for housing the acrylic templates, and a pocket in the back for the general cutting instructions and tips. I also printed out a photo of the finished quilt and am circling the blocks I have already finished. Each night I print off the templates for the block(s) of the next day and then read the Farmer's Wife letter which inspired the pattern. They are short and inspirational and great bedtime reading. I am loving this project more and more!

 

Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt

I know I have a lot of projects on the go already but I am super excited to add this one to the list: Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt. It is quite the 'thing' and there are so many quilters participating in a SEW-ALONG hosted by Angie of Gnome Angel. I started by ordering the book (that I just received) which comes with a CD of templates and instructions, etc. and the 99 blocks inspired by letters written by (you guessed it) Farmer's wives of the 30s. I haven't had time yet to start reading but I cannot wait to get started on the blocks.

I will be piecing my blocks on a Featherweight, which some of the ladies in the group are doing. It might be a little slower and more challenging but I think it's the perfect project for the machine. It's not a quilt that will be rushed through and the fabric pieces are quite tiny. The blocks finish at 6" and some are very intricate. The shapes can be drawn and cut by hand, using a rotary cutter and ruler or using acrylic templates in some instances. I decided to purchase one of about 5 sets by Marti Michell (Set A) which can be used on some of the blocks. I'm trying them out to see if it's a worthwhile purchase before I invest in any more but I'm confident it will make the cutting much easier - especially with the triangles in the set I bought.

Some blocks will be paper pieced and I'm a little hesitant about that. I have not done much of that technique but I do love the precise results and it's a good method to use on the Featherweight. I will let you know when I get to those how it compares to the traditional piecing results.

My plan is to use the leftover Bonnie & Camille fabrics I have in my stash. I have so many of their lines but have diminished the large pieces in quite a few quilts. The prints are too precious to ignore and I want to make sure to use every last scrap. I think it will be a beautiful, slow, challenge.

Are any of you doing this quilt? I'd love you to share your tips and progress with me!

Vintage Quilt

I'd thought I got away from fussy pinning with Camille Roskelley's Vintage quilt pattern from her delightful book, Simply Retro. Now that I've completed two blocks successfully I can see I still have to pin! While the general piecing is simple enough, joining the rows of this jumbo Granny Square quilt requires a little bit of care. I've never encountered stitching together rows that were of unequal length. I wasn't sure whether to start the sewing in the middle of the row where the larger row meets the smaller, or start right at the beginning of the longer row. I did find one YouTube video that was very helpful because the block is similar. It was also awesome to help me in squaring up the block - something that stumped me when I got to it.

This pattern is a much easier way for me to get the look of these blocks versus the ones I made from the Frivols tin pattern. That one required sewing triangles and I didn't enjoy it at all! Here, the block is pieced with squares and rectangles and then trimmed to create the side triangles. I love the way they look! I'm doing these one at a time since they are so large measuring 20-1/4" square. I've got the fabric cut already and now that I know what I'm doing, they are coming together pretty quickly with great results. I have 9 left to do. The original quilt in Camille's book is red and grey, constructed from fat quarters. I think the look is crisp and lovely but I ended up using various red and aqua FQs instead. I pulled from all my stash of Bonnie & Camille Moda prints so there's a representation of many of their lines. 

I'm sewing my Vintage quilt on a Bernina just like Camille likes to do. I'm having so much fun and enjoying the process. I know that I have a much more challenging project coming up (more about that later) so I'm letting this one be easy!

Piece of Cake 2 Quilt and Being a Pinner

I finished the majority of the Piece of Cake 2 quilt top, one of the beautiful designs from the Playful Piecing Techniques with Camille Roskelley Craftsy class. I ran out of aqua background fabric for the borders so I ordered more and will have to put the project on hold until it arrives. Camille suggests adding a surprise fabric into a quilt in order to make it your own so I pulled some darker prints from the Miss Kate collection and sprinkled those in the blocks. I like how it turned out and love the way the blocks move up and down through the top.

One thing I have definitely realized is that I am a pinner. I know there are many quilters who fly by the seat of their pants and sew without pinning first. I just find that I achieve more accurate results if I pre-pin and then I can stitch as fast as I want without making constant adjustments at the machine. I missed pinning a couple seams on my first row of this quilt and what a difference it made. The shift of fabric is slight but it still bugs me that the intersection is not as clean as when I do use the pins. I really had this confirmed when I pieced the Wheels quilt and saw the importance of pinning. I figure you need to control the fabric, either before or at the machine, so I'd rather spend a little time in the prep stage and go to town on the sewing part.

Next up for me is working on a fabric planner cover, cutting the pieces from the Batik stripped yardage I made, and getting started on a red and white quilt called Vintage. It's another Camille pattern from her book and I think it will be stunning. She really needs to film another Craftsy class because Ms. Roskelley is my absolute favourite and I'm running out of her projects!

 

Cinnamon Roll Pound Cake

We had a split decision on this dessert, Cinnamon Roll Pound Cake from the Today Show. I was hooked by the name of the recipe since I love cinnamon buns and pound cake and was excited to bake it despite the obvious calories from the butter, eggs, and sugar. It looked and smelled great but the preparation didn't start off on such a good note when I got distracted and dumped my already sifted dry ingredients back into the flour bag! Then when the cake was done it stuck like the dickens to my bundt pan because of the melted butter/sugar cinnamon swirl stickiness. I patched it all up with the cream cheese icing so at least it looked good.

While the cake was decent enough I didn't think the results were worth the diet indulgence. The cinnamon flavour is subtle at best and the texture of the cake is heavy and dense. Sure, it's a pound cake but I've had other versions with preferable crumb (such as Elvis Presley's Favorite Pound Cake which is kind of the gold standard in my book!).

However, Hubby totally loved this cake and pretty much ate the entire thing himself. He raved about it and appreciated every bite! You can get the recipe from the Today Show link above but I'd suggest making both Elvis' pound cake and a batch of my Cinnamon Buns! instead...

 

Wheels Quilt Top Done

All that fancy pinning paid off and the Wheels quilt top is done! Once the fussy piecing was finished and the blocks were set it was just a matter of adding the sashing and borders. The sashing still required some care with regards to the points but I turned my work with the seams facing up so I could (try to) hit the 'x' where the stitching intersects. If you can stay a hair inside that landmark you won't cut off your points and you won't miss the point! I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Some people really dislike the part of the process where they add the borders. I actually don't mind it at all, especially when there is a second border and no flipped seams to worry about or points to match. I love when I go to measure for the length of my borders and the result matches perfectly with the suggested length in the pattern. I then know I'm on the right track and my piecing has been accurate. I used a wonderful Bernina 1031 for this quilt and the 1/4" has been perfect. The stitches are great and I've loved every minute of sewing on it. Can I say it just be my new favourite machine? I guess I say that for all of them! Like children, you love them all the same but focus on the one you are hanging out with at the moment. :)

I have already made the dark brown binding for this quilt (won't that look great set against the outer orange border?) and I have the fabric for the backing, I just need to prepare it. I think I'm going to have to put this aside for the rest of the weekend and get to some scrapbooking. My extra supplies/album pages arrived and I want to get out my Cricut for some embellishment fun. I'm also maintaining a Planner now so I'm devoting an hour on Sundays to decorate the pages for the week ahead. I hadn't realized that Planner work was a whole 'thing' now and there can be way more to do than writing down your appointments and to-do list! My daughter has a planner too and we are going to have some planning dates together over the summer. I guess I will have to schedule that in somewhere...

If you like the look of the Wheels block/quilt, don't forget it's included in the awesome Simple Fresh Quilts Craftsy class. This is the second pattern I've used and finished and I still have one more (all planned out and shopped for!) to go. I really love Joanna's style and her fabric is gorgeous; she is a good instructor and her directions are easy to follow.