Tuesday 21 July 2020

DISAPPEARING ACT



Disappearing Nine Patch 




Disappearing Nine Patch Tutorial


These blocks work really well if there is a contrast in the colours and fabrics you choose, ideally you want to have light, medium and dark fabrics. It's ok if you don't though as it's perfect for scrap busting.


Cutting:


Square size can vary depending on the size of block and/or finished quilt you want - as long as all squares are the same size it doesn't matter. For the purpose of this tutorial, I used a couple of charm packs so my squares are 5 inches.

Cut 9 squares, each 5" x 5"

  • (1) dark
  • (4) medium
  • (4) light







    Arrange the squares into three rows with three squares in each. Place the dark square in the block's centre position. Place the your feature fabric squares (medium) or those you wish to highlight in the block's four corners. Fill in the gaps with the remaining squares (light).


Assembly:


1. Sew the squares together using a quarter inch seam, I press my seams to the dark side, but you can do whatever you prefer, I also like to nest my seams so they lay flatter and line up perfectly.







2. If you are using 5" squares your block should measure 14" square when once the rows have been sewn together. You're then going to cut this in half vertically, so you have 2 units each measuring 7" x 14"


                                 





3. Cut each unit in half horizontally, so you have 4 units each measuring 7" square and then the fun begins.









Putting the block together:


1. There are a variety of different ways these blocks can go together, have fun and experiment to find a layout you like and then sew the rows together.










2. This is the one I went with, the feature fabrics will stand out more due to the borders around them, which is what I was after for this particular block.




Repeat to make as many blocks as you need for your quilt. I intend to have 4 rows of 4 so will need 16 blocks, this will give me a finished quilt of 54" square.

Friday 10 July 2020

SO I DID A THING.......

I bought a Longarm machine

Often, when you least expect it, life throws you a curve ball. Something you weren't expecting happens and you don't really know what to do, this happened to me at the beginning of the year when I was forced out of a job I loved because of poor leadership and lack of support, but as the saying goes when one door closes another one opens!

I have longingly looked at longarm quilting machines for quite sometime, but they are big so where would I put it and they are expensive so it isn't a decision to make lightly. At the end of February my wonderful husband and I took a trip to view a few and try them out - I was already sold to be honest but it never hurts to carry out more research.

Then the dreaded Corona happen shortly after so things took a little longer than I had hoped but in the middle of May this happened...






She is absolutely amazing, even better than I was expecting, slightly daunting and so much to learn but equally exciting. I spent a few days practicing and was really pleased with my first attempts at free motion quilting on a longarm machine.











It wasn't long before I couldn't resist stitching out edge to edge designs using Pro-Stitcher, the results were really satisfying.










With new found confidence I loaded my first full quilt on to Maggie (that's what we've called her) and stitched out an all over clover design, I absolutely loved it and the overall result is great.




 I haven't looked back since and have quilted several more quilts - I am definitely addicted! 










I'm so excited about this adventure and where it is going to take me, if you need me you know where I'll be - in The She Shed practicing and playing with my longarm.


Happy Quilting
Kerry x