Favorite color

How much are you influenced by your favorite color ?

I love green color. Whenever I see something green, I want to bring it home just because it is green. So, I have a lot of green clothes, shoes and bags, I receive green presents from family and friends...

If I am in a fabric shop and I can choose from tons of colors, I always pick up first some green fabrics.

Are you so obsessed like me by your favorite color?

Fun with stripes- Quilting Tutorial

Probably many of us like using strip piecing in our quilts.
But how about using striped fabrics ? Instead of piecing strips use some striped fabrics...

Lately I have played a little more with such fabrics and I love them. And I love even more what I can make with them.

The fabric I used for this tutorial is a heavy cotton canvas from Ikea. My recent obsession is making bags (you can see my collection ) and this is a nice fabric for bags.


I always prewash these fabrics because they shrink.
Pre-wash your fabrics with much care to not distort the stripes. Don't use steam for pressing.
If you use quilting fabric and usually pre-wash them do that with the same care.

So, what can we do with these fabrics ? Let's see...

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Cut a square then cut it on both diagonals

From two squares we can make two blocks like these

Using 2 green squares and 2 red squares

from half of the triangles we can make these 2 blocks

or these ones


and using the other half ( see the placement of the white stripes on these triangles)

we can make one of these three blocks ( hard to choose just one ! )

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The next two methods apply for fabrics with stripes of the same width.

From a long strip cut rectangles;
the width of a rectangle = the width of a strip +0.5" (for seam allowances) ;
offset the rectangles and sew them together.

Place the ruler 0.25" away from the points and cut

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Using more than two stripes

I forgot to add seam allowances and the diamonds are not perfect...

The method described above is called Seminole patchwork.
Many variations can be created by changing the number of the strips (stripes), the angles of the cuts and the way the pieces are sewn together.

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Making octagons

I used a triangle ruler ( Kaleidoscope ruler from Quilt in a day) to cut the triangles.

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Cut two squares and cut them on the opposite diagonals.
Set aside the inner triangles and piece them to make squares.
Repeat with the outer triangles.

These quarter blocks can be arranged in this way:

I used this method for this quilt

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Making fans
I use a 15 degree fan ruler

If we don't close the circle, we can make a beautiful tree skirt.
(cut a larger circle in the center if needed)
Quilt and bind around the edges.

I will make a bag :)

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But how about beautiful quilting fabrics like this one ?

How to cut these quarter triangles using a rectangle ruler.
May I say that I am a fan of Creative Grids rulers ?

Align the 45 degree marking line of the ruler with the edge of the fabric and cut.

Rotate the ruler, align the other 45 degree marking with the edge of the fabric;
keep the already cut edge of the triangle parallel with a marking line of the ruler.

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Making hexagons -
using 60 degree triangles with three equal sides

Use the rectangle ruler in a similar manner as we used above.
This time align the edge of the fabric with the 60 degree marking of the ruler.

These 60 degree triangles can be also cut using this triangle ruler.

I will combine all the pieces I sewn for this tutorial with some solid colors and the original stripe fabrics and I will use the new pieces for making some new bags.

I hope this tutorial is helpful for some of you.

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Would you like to try something new ?  

 Retro Fun bags

Pockets with Love - fabric origami

Building Fun quilt

 Nina's Garden quilt

The winner...

of the November Giveaway is ...

Colleen

http://colleensquiltblog.blogspot.com/

Congratulations, Colleen. You won this shadow trapunto mini quilt.

Thank you all for taking the time to enter this giveaway and for sending me so nice messages.
A special thanks to all of you who blogged about it or added my badge to your blogs. I appreciate this effort.

You all will have another chance in the December giveaway. Very soon...

Gifts to warm...

my hands...

and my feet...

They warm my heart, too, because were made for my birthday by my friend Teodora !
Thank you, Teodora !

She also sent me this Amy Butler book (in German ).

Pepe is happy, too !

Teodora's birthday was just a few days after mine, you can see my present for her.

November Quilt Giveaway

This giveaway is closed now. Thank you all for participating !
I will choose a winner in a few hours.

This quilt is ready to go to one lucky reader of my blog !

Made with my shadow trapunto technique, initially I wanted to include it in my collection of Christmas designs but I changed my mind.

The top layer is organza and underneath there is the white poinsettia made of batting.

I quilted the background with an olive trilobal polyester thread.I love its high sheen. Topstitch needles are my favorite needles for quilting.

The quilt measures 14.75" x 14.75" (38 x 38 cm)
and it might be yours !

If you want to win it:

1. Leave a comment at the end of this post until November 23rd 2009.

Get more chances to win this quilt
Additional entries -each entry needs its own comment!

2. Write about this giveaway on your blog . Leave the link to your blog in your comment so I can visit your blog, too.

3. Add this badge on the sidebar of your blog (it will remind you and your friends to come back for the next giveaways ). If the badge is already on your blog, please leave a separate comment telling me that.

<a href="http://cadouri-din-inima.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3535/4022764777_87c048905b_o.jpg" /></a>

Here is how you can do this in Blogspot:
Layout / Page Elements / Add a Gadget / Html Java Script / than add the above code
or - just add the picture to your sidebar and link to my blog.

I hope you like this little quilt !
Thank you all who will participate in this giveaway. Good Luck !

The second UFO

My intention was to make this quilt for Alexa's sixth anniversary, but it did not came out the way I wanted... Too much green for a little girl that loves pink:(
I don't like it... I have to order new fabrics for my stash and make another quilt for her.

Now I have 30 blocks

and no desire to piece them together !

Edited to add:

Thank you all for the great suggestions !

Unfortunately, I don't have anymore white or pink fabrics, this is the reason I used so much green.
When I will be in a good mood I will probably make a baby quilt using the pink and light green blocks.