Tagged: tutorial

Jun 04

EZ Dresden Challenge Tutorial

Twitt

Welcome to yet another wonderful stop on the EZ Dresden Challenge blog hop!

 

The Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild has paired up with Simplicity to celebrate Darlene Zimmerman’s 20th anniversary with EZ Quilting by hosting and sponsoring the EZ Dresden Challenge.   To see more details about this challenge, and to see the list of prizes, be sure the visit the EZ Dresden Challenge page of the SLMQG Blog.  They will be donated by these awesome sponsors!

 

 

My name is Tanya, and I am going to show you a fun way to use the EZ Dresden Ruler for this paper pieced quilt.

 

I’ve seen this quilt design, or some variation of it, floating around blog land, and I LOVE IT.  But, I am not a big fan of using up a lot of paper printing off templates. I have been trying to figure out how to make this quilt without having to use up a lot of fresh paper, and then Darlene Zimmerman’s EZ Dresden Ruler fell into my lap.  This was my ticket to making my own template using scrap paper.

After making many paper pieced quilts with scrap paper, I have found that some printer or photocopy ink melts under the heat of the iron.  Also, hot irons and scrap paper with crayon don’t mix.  Or rather, they do mix, in a bad way.   And, while I do find that newspapers and phone books provide plenty of paper and are easy to rip, I’ve had problems with the paper being too weak, and the ink rubbing off onto my fingers and fabric.  Recently, though, I have found a source of scrap paper that I love to use.  Do you receive the Money Mailer envelopes in your mailbox with a ton of advertisements (5.5 inches by 8.5 inches), and just toss them?  Well, let me show you what you can do with them.

Preparing your template squares:

First, throw out the small advertisements and glossy advertisements.  Then, cut your 5.5 x 8.5 inch advertisements into 5.5 x 5.5 inch squares.  If you don’t have the mailers, then regular 8.5 x 11 inch paper can give you two squares, 12 x 12 inch paper can give you four squares.

 

For a baby quilt (40 inches x 50 inches), you will want 80 template squares

For a twin quilt (70 inches x 90 inches) you will want 252 template squares.

Preparing your EZ Dresden Ruler:

  Grab a strip of tape as long or longer than your dresden ruler.

Draw a straight line from end to end.  This line does not need to be in the center of your tape.

 

Place your dresden ruler on your cutting mat and find the center.  Place your tape line on top of the center line.

Here is your ruler with a midline.

 

Drawing your Template:

Place your ruler above the template squares, making sure the bottom of the ruler rests on the bottom corner, and the midline goes from corner to opposite corner.

 

Draw on either side of the EZ Dresden ruler.  You now how your template drawn.  These lines are not the lines you will use to sew.  Rather, they are fabric placement lines.

 

Preparing your fabric:

Cutting the wedges are pretty easy.  Cut strips of fabric 8 inches tall and at least 3.5 inches wide.  Then, using the dresden wedge, cut along either side of ruler.  If you use really long strips of fabric, you can just flip your dresden ruler and cut your next wedge going the opposite direction.

I will be using Kona Snow for my background fabric.  For every template square you plan on using, cut out one 4.5 x 6.5 inch rectangle.  I made 80 squares, so I will need to prepare 80 rectangles of background fabric.

Since this is a solid with no marked front side or back side, I can cut these rectangles into triangles all in the same direction.  If you are planning on using a patterned fabric for the background, plan on cutting half of your rectangles into triangles with the cut going from top right to bottom left, and the other half with the cut going from top left to bottom right.  See image below.

Constructing your blocks:

Grab a handy glue stick, and glue the dresden wedge on each template square within the fabric placement lines.

Place one of the background triangles, right sides together, on to one edge of the wedge.  Before you sew, make sure the long side (hypotenuse) is the one aligned with the side of wedge, the thicker side of the triangle is up by the fat end of the wedge, and the smaller angle of the triangle is down by the skinny edge of the wedge.

Set your sewing machine to a stitch length to about 1.5.  The smaller the stitch length, the easier the paper will be to tear away.  Sew 1/4 inch away from the edge of the fabric.

With the first background triangle flipped out of the way, align the next background triangle on top of the other side of the wedge, right sides of the fabric together.  Sew 1/4 inch away from fabric edge.

Now, press the triangles to either side.

Trim the edges, using the paper template as your guide.  Now, your block should be 5.5 inches square.

Your blocks are complete!  Arrange them as you want, and sew them into rows.  I personally like to sew my squares into rows first, and then remove the paper.  However, you can remove the paper first and then sew the squares into rows.  Press the seams however you want them (I pressed mine open) and then sew the rows together.  Press with the iron again, and you are done!  You have a crisp looking paper pieced quilt, and you only used paper that was on its way to the garbage anyway!

Here is the finished quilt.

I quilted my quilt with a free motion loopy design, and then I bound it with Kona Raffia.  But, in honor of the challenge itself, I had to add one more thing to this quilt.

It needed a traditional dresden plate for the back.  Hand applique and all.

*Edited to add*

I have since made two more quilts using this tutorial.  You can see them here and here.

Would you like to win a free ruler to begin your own Dresden Quilt?  Leave me a comment on this post telling me your summer vacation quilting plans.  I’m in the process of making orange peel templates in hopes to make my first hand appliqued quilt.  I’d love to hear what  you are up to this summer.  Comments will be open until Friday, June 8 MST, and then I will announce a winner on Friday, June 9th.  Good luck everyone!  Remember to link up your final projects in September on the SLMQG.com blog.  I can’t wait to see them!

Be sure to visit other blogs during the EZ Dresden Ruler Blog Hop.

June 1
Salt Lake MQG: Kick Off www.slmqg.com/

June 2
Lee: freshlypieced.blogspot.com/

June 3
Kati www.fromthebluechair.com/

June 4
Victoria: bumblebeansinc.blogspot.com/
Tanya: www.squaresandtriangles.com

June 5
Val: howaboutpinkplease.blogspot.com/
Leigh: leedledeedlequilts.blogspot.com/

June 6
Amy: amyscreativeside.com/
Elisa www.stitchoutsidetheditch.com/

June 7
Katie: www.swimbikequilt.com/
Emily: emsscrapbag.blogspot.com/

June 8
Melissa: happyquiltingmelissa.blogspot.com/
Brooke: pitterputterstitch.blogspot.com/

June 9
Nicole: mamalovequilts.blogspot.com/
Amy sukie.mt-wudan.com/

June 10
Elizabeth: www.dontcallmebetsy.com/
Colleen: www.thebusybean.com/

June 11
Faith: www.freshlemonsquilts.com/
Deonn: quiltscapesquilting.blogspot.com/

June 12
Angela: angelaflicker.com/
Barbie: thequiltingmill.blogspot.com

June 13
Amy: www.diaryofaquilter.com/

June 14
Jessica: sewcraftyjess.blogspot.com/

June 15
Salt Lake MQG: Wrap-up www.slmqg.com/

 

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comments

Posted in baby quilt, tutorial

Nov 17

Scrappy Staircase Quilt (77)

Twitt

steps quilt scrappy

I am really really liking working with scraps.  I had a bunch of strings that were no more than 2.25 inches wide, which wasn’t wide enough to add to my “scrap vomit” quilt, so I put them all in one large grocery bag and waited.  I knew I wanted to make a string quilt of sorts, and debated between spider web quilt and string-X quilts.  Neither won, but I still plan on making one of each in the future.

I had an idea a while back to use money mailers as the foundation for paper piecing string blocks.   After I look through them and pull out the ones that I’ll use, I save the others.  They measure 5.5 inches by 8.5 inches.  And, with a little bit of inspiration here and here (different varieties of stair quilts), this is how this quilt began.

 

I am going to show with pictures how to assemble these blocks.  Feel free to scroll down to the end to see more pictures of the finished quilt :) .

Using glue stick, glue first strip to paper. Be sure the fabric covers across the entire width of paper. It should be at least 5.5 inches long.

 

Add a strip on top of the original, aligning the right sides together. Sew 1/4 inch from right edge of fabric, sewing through paper and fabric.

 

Press strips open at seams with iron. This image shows my original strip with additional strips on both sides.

 

Continue adding strips to either side. Use iron to press fabric open.

Continue adding strips to either side. Use iron to press fabric open.

 

Here is the block once it is covered completely with fabric.

Here is the block once it is covered completely with fabric.

 

A view of the rough block from the back

A view of the rough block from the back

 

Using a rotary blade and ruler, cut along the edge of paper to remove excess fabric.

 

Remove excess fabric from all sides.

 

Completed block. Using this block, you can add to it to make a variety of different quilt designs.

 

I added a 3.5 inch by 8.5 inch white strip of fabric to the block. Make sure to sew with fabric down instead of paper down, or the feed dogs will slip under the fabric.

 

Here is the final block.

 

Using 99 of these blocks, I made this staircase pattern with 11 rows of 9 blocks.  Here was my layout.

staircase quilt

I used a typical free motion meandering to quilt it all together.  Here are some close ups.

steps quilt

I used a fun house fabric I found from Ikea for the backing.  I’ll be honest, every time I see this fabric, I want to grab some markers and color in those houses.

I have donated this quilt to our local PTA to be auctioned.  It measures 68 inches by 84 inches (71 x 87 before washing).

So that is it!  Thanks for coming!

steps quilt

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Posted in current quilt, finished quilt, tutorial, twin quilt

Jan 26

Butterfly quilt complete! (50)

Twitt

I kind of had an idea of what I wanted to do for the back of my butterfly quilt.  BUTTERFLIES OF COURSE!  But, I’m not too into applique and since the front was done in a improvisational fashion, I thought it would be cool to do similar butterflies in the back.

Quilting is always the hardest part for me.  Not the actual quilting, but deciding which quilt pattern to use.  I love how the overall patterns unify the quilt and seem to make the quilt look more like a picture rather than separate pieces put together.  I was very close to doing concentric squares in this quilt, but I wanted to make this quilt seem lighter, and concentric squares seems very rigid.  So, I chose curly loops.

I also had a hard time choosing a binding.  I could have chosen white, maize, plum, or green.  I chose the plum, even though there isn’t really any plum colors in the quilt.  I thought it was a perfect frame and wasn’t too “matchy matchy.”

I love how the front and back look together!

This quilt measured 45.5 in x 45.5 inches before washing, but ended up being 43.5 x 43,5 inches after washing.

Want to know how I made the butterflies for the back?

For each butterfly, you need two squares of background fabric (I’m using two white 5×5 inch squares) and four pieces of scrap fabric (best if larger than 2×2)

Place two scraps of similar color over opposite corners.  Tilt them at an angle so that the resulting white triangle has one side (the bottom edges of the square on point) longer than the other.  This will be your bottom wings.  Sew along the scrap fabric leaving a 1/4 inch seam.

Turn your square over and make sure your colored fabric covers the entire white triangle.

(That one was close!)

Press seams.  I pressed mine open, but you can also press it away from the white.

Remove the white triangle, leaving a 1/4 inch seam.

Turn the squares right side up and place the scraps for the top wings over the corners, right sides together.  This time, the fabric will be sewn with the top edges of the square on point.

Sew.  Press open.

Cut off excess fabric, leaving 1/4 inch.

Square up your fabric.

Turn your square over and prepare for the fun part.

Place the other white square directly over your butterfly block, right sides together.  Sew together on two sides, opposite sides.

Cut in half from corner to corner, making sure not to cut through the colored fabric.

Open and press seams open

Rearrange triangles so that the four corners come together.

Sew and press seams.

And there it is…your butterfly!

And if you have more time and scraps….

You can make more and more and more!  These resulting squares are 6.5 x 6.5 inches.  You can change the size of your background fabric to meet your needs.  From here, you can fussy cut and make these butterflies go any direction!

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Posted in baby quilt, current quilt, finished quilt, tutorial

Dec 03

Baby Quilt made with Jelly Rolls-Baby Chain Mail Tutorial.

Twitt

I’m making a quilt for my mom.  It is going to be a big project.

This is what the piles of pieces look like:

Sewing will begin tomorrow.  So much sewing.  So much ironing.  So much pinning.

After all of that cutting, I had to decompress by making a baby quilt quilt top.

baby jelly roll quilt tutorial

Same main idea.  This quilt will be a little different than the king sized one I’m making, though, because I have decided to make this baby quilt using a jelly roll.

fabric for jelly roll baby girl quilt

A Jelly Roll is a group 20 of fabric strips 2.5 inches wide and approximately 42 inches long, usually with 10 different coordinating fabrics.  USUALLY.   I actually used a little more than a jelly roll.  I needed 22 strips of fabric, so I cut two 2.5 inch strips of 11 fabrics from selvedge to selvedge.  If you have a jelly roll, you may also need to add two 2.5 inch strips of another coordinating or complimentary fabric.  I also needed a yard and a half of background solid fabric.  I chose white.  From this white fabric, I cut (from selvedge to selvedge) a 2.5 inch strip, two 4.5 inch strips, and six 6.5 inch strips.

I needed to make four basic blocks.

I needed thirty-six “edge” blocks (4.5 x 6.5 inch background fabric, three 2.5 x 2.5 squares of jelly roll fabric)

I needed nine 6.5 inch x 6.5 inch background (white) fabric

I needed sixteen nine-square blocks with background (white) square in the middle (each square 2.5 x 2.5)

I needed twenty L shape blocks (4.5 x 4.5 background square, and five 2.5 x 2.5 jelly roll squares)

Each of these blocks, after sewn to completion, should be 6.5 x .6.5 inches squared.

You could cut your jelly rolls into 2.5 x 2.5 inch pieces first, and then begin piecing them together.  I chose to go the easy way and strip pieced my jelly rolls.  I chose three strips of fabric and sewed them together, and then after ironing, I cut these into 2.5 inch strips, resulting in these 2.5 x 6.5 inch strips.

While sewing the jelly roll strips together, I tried to make sure that if I put one fabric on the center of a trio, that I put the same fabric on the outside of a trio, that way when I had to match blocks side by side, I was less likely to have matching fabrics next to each other.  I also strip pieced the white 2.5 x 2.5 inch strip with two jelly roll strips to make the nine-patch blocks.  You’ll notice that each 2.5 x 2.5 white square has a pink/brown stripe square opposite a pink jacks square.  That was my center trio.

To make the L shape blocks, I strip pieced a duo of fabrics.  You’ll notice almost every L shape piece has a green striped fabric next to a pink polka dot print.  That was my duo (2.5 x 4.5).  Add that to a 4.5 x 4.5 square and a trio, and you have an L shape block.

The white 4.5 inch sashes were further cut into 4.5 x 4.5 blocks.  My two 4.5 sashes only made 14 blocks, so I used the extra 6.5 sashes to make another two 4.5 x 4.5 blocks.

The white 6.5 inch sashes were further cut into nine 6.5 x 6.5 blocks, and thirty six 6.5 x 4.5 inch strips.

After all of the sewing, I arranged them on the floor, making sure to avoid putting matching fabrics side by side, and to make sure that the colors were evenly distributed.

Then I pieced all of the blocks together.

baby girl jelly roll quilt design

The resulting quilt top is 54.5 x 54.5 inches.

I could see this pattern working well for a boy quilt, with maybe a darker background fabrics, and more reds and oranges and blues and greens…

I could also see using this pattern for a fun twin quilt.  You’d need a lot more jelly rolls :)

I’m still debating how I should quilt the back….

Oh, and my inspiration for these quilts?

Looks like TV is good for something (and thank goodness for DVR and phone cameras!).

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Posted in baby quilt, current quilt, tutorial