Thursday, July 31, 2014

My Scrappy Cross Roads Block Tutorial!!!


I've had several requests to show my
 Scrappy Cross Roads Block
(Beelori1)
here on my blog as well…
so here we go!



This is a traditional block that I have sewn
 many many times 
before and showed to you here
so I guess it's time I did 
a tutorial on it here too!


I love it because it's the 
perfect scrap buster block for

It uses up 2 1/2" scrappy stash squares 
and a solid you may have leftover from a previous project:)
Each block finishes at 16" square.

It looks complicated to sew but when you use my easy corner
triangle method…
it becomes easy to stitch it up quickly and accurately.


This is the background fabric for my quilt.
I chose to use my favorite new solid at the moment…
"Sweet Mint" 
It's a Riley Blake solid:)
YaY!!!

For one of my Scrappy Cross Roads block
 you will need to cut 8- 4 1/2" squares
You can easily get 8 from
 one 4 1/2" x Width of Fabric strip…
so this means 1/8th yard of fabric = 1 block…
1 yard of fabric = 8 blocks and so forth:)



This is my 2 1/2" scrappy stash basket
 that I am cutting my squares from.

I have showed to you my method of creating
 and more importantly USING my scrappy stash several times.
But if you are new here or want to see it again…



For one of my Scrappy Cross Roads blocks…
You will need 48 - 2 1/2" squares

Obviously this is a great project for 
leftover 5" or 10" squares as well 
because they are easily sub-cut into 2 1/2" squares:)


Now that you are all cut…
Lets start sewing!
First choose 16 of your 48 - 2 1/2" squares 
 to sew Easy Corner Triangles onto
 two opposite corners of your solid squares.


Simply lay your 2 1/2" print squares onto
 one corner of your solid square…
line up the edges evenly and
 sew a STRAIGHT LINE from corner to corner.
Do not guess!
Guessing always ends up with a
 crooked line no matter how good you are:)
Either mark a line or use a seam guide like I do.

*EDIT*
 I now have a 
 seam guide to help you
 when doing this step.
and then 
to see how to use it:)



Chain or clothesline stitch 
to save time and thread:)



Give each square a quick press
 to set the stitches before trimming:)


Trim them up like this…
by cutting an approximate 1/4" seam allowance
past your stitching line.


Press towards the triangles:)


Don't you just LOVE
 Easy Corner Triangles?
Now you still have a 4 1/2" square
 that you started out with…
But you have 2 scrappy triangles on two corners.

YaY!!!


Now randomly pair up the remaining
 32 squares and stitch them together.


Press these seams open:)


Then pair them up again and stitch together
Eight 4-patch blocks.


Press these seams open as well:)


When you have all your little segments sewn together...


Lay them out on your design board
 the way that you want to sew them together.
Take it over to your sewing machine and sew!!!


I have shown you my design boards many times over the years…
Let me just say how important they are to me
during every step of making a quilt.
I use them when I cut my pieces…
layout my block…
 sew it and after pressing it.


I have a tutorial on how I make them and use them
 here on my blog…
(CLICK HERE and HERE)
or
I also have a youtube tutorial as well:)



I like to use these fork pins every now and then
(by CLOVER) when needed
to sew a difficult seam that just won't match up.
The beauty of a fork pin is that you can pin on each
side of the seam so that there is 
no slipping when it goes under the feed dogs.
(I sometimes remove mine just before they go under the needle or I just sew over them because they are thin enough)


Here is the back of my block…
seams pressed open
(Except the easy corner triangle seams)
I have been pressing my seams open for over 20 years
because I love how super flat my block ends up.
For those of you wondering…
no.
I have not ever had any problems with my seams coming open in a quilt.


And here you have a finished
Scrappy Cross Roads Block
YaY!
Wasn't that fun?


Here is what 2 blocks look like together.
This would make a great table runner 
and you could make it as long
 as you wanted by adding more blocks!

I'm making a 4 block quilt 
with mine and I'll show you
when it's finished:)
I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial by me…
and I want you to have fun with it!



*On another related note…
This is my Two by Four block.
It also finishes at 16" making it perfect to mix and match
with my Scrappy Cross Roads block
so that you can use them together in the same quilt
and they look great!
All you need to do is 
substitute the 4 patch segments 
by using a 4 1/2" square instead.
Easy Peasy!

I hope you have fun making my 
Scrappy Crossroads Block 
and my 
Two by Four Block

Like I always say:
Scrappiness is Happiness!
  
xx
Lori



Sunday, July 27, 2014

Saltwater Taffy Quilt Tutorial - Scrappy Happy Summer Sew Along!!! ...


Hello:)
I'm back!

Apparently I went on a 
little bloggy break from our 
 last week:)…I've been waiting until 
this quilt was quilted 
so that I could show it to you!

Meet my newest scrappy summer creation…
"Salt Water Taffy"
54" x 54"


I named it after saltwater taffy because
it's summer and salt water taffy is famous
 around here for being the favorite parade 
candy that's thrown out to the crowd:)
YaY for parades!

I also think all of the colors and the shape
 of the block looks like salt water taffy…
don't you?


This is one of the projects that I made with my leftover
fabric that was trimmed off the Easy Corner Triangles
on my 24" Summer Skies block:)


If you remember I showed you a super simple way
 to make half square triangles from the trimmings.
I ended up with 72 of them with 2 colors
like the ones pictured above on the left.
I set those aside for later…
 I'll show you the other project that
 I made with them next week:)


For this quilt I used the 144 half square triangles 
that are one half background and one half color.
I decided to take advantage of the fact that
there were sets of 4 or 8 in the exact same fabrics
and come up with a block using 4 matching 
half square triangles.

I sewed all 144 together like this…
and pressed the seams open
so that I could place each block any which way 
as I was playing with them and not have to 
worry about which way I had already pressed:)
I ended up with 36 blocks that measure 
6 1/2" UNFINISHED


I played with this setting first.
I call this block my
 "Salt Water Star"
and I love it!!!
 But since I had just finished my
 Summer Skies quilt with big star blocks…
I saved this for later...


And simply sewed the blocks together
all going the same direction…
and my Saltwater Taffy quilt was born!
I sewed 6 rows of six blocks…or in other words…
a 6x6 setting:)

I laid it out on some fabric on the edge 
 to see if I wanted
 to finish it off with just a binding…
I liked the way it looked
but doing it this way my quilt would only finish at 
36" square and I wanted it a little bigger.


So I added an orange inner border
 and a green outer border!
Cutting for borders…
From background; (1/2 yard total needed)
Cut 2 - 1 1/2" x 36 1/2"
Cut 2 - 1 1/2" x 38 1/2"
Sew these on first then add the orange border; (1/4 yard)
Cut 2 - 1 1/2" x 38 1/2" 
Cut 2 - 1 1/2" x 40 1/2"
Now add more borders of the background;
Cut 2 - 1 1/2" x 40 1/2"
Cut 2 - 1 1/2" x 42 1/2"
Now for the green; (1 3/4 yards lengthwise )
Cut 2 - 6 1/2" x 42 1/2"
Cut 2 - 6 1/2" x 54 1/2"


You will have enough border fabric 
to cut binding strips
but I wanted to use mine for
 another project so I used the same fabric for binding
that I used for the backing:)
Either way…
you will need 226" of prepared binding
which you can get from 1/2 yard of fabric:)


I love how my Salt Water quilt turned out…
it's a great size for the back of a chair…
a lap quilt...
a baby quilt…
a wallhanging…
or a table topper:)

Have fun with your
 half square triangles…
I can't wait to see them on the 
Scrappy Happy Summer


Remember that all info
as well as a link to 
each and every post
from this sew along 
can be found on the home page
See you there:)
xx
Lori

Saturday, July 19, 2014

My Scrappy Crossroads Block…My Instagram Tutorial and Sew Along!!!...


This is my Scrappy Crossroads block…
it looks complicated but it's not!


Today…
 I had a quilty kind of day on 
doing a tutorial on my block
for a sew along 
especially for Instagram.

YaY!!!


It's the perfect block to use up your
leftover 2 1/2" scrappy squares:)


I used a solid in mint 
for my background 
and I love love love
 the way it turned out!


I have a very detailed 
step by step tutorial on
my Instagram feed …


And I tagged it with
 #scrappycrossroads 
so that you can 
easily find it and 
join in my
fun Instagram sew along!!!

Do you Instagram???
If not
you are missing out on so much 
quilty inspiration
from a lot of quilty people.

 to find me there:)

Have a quilty kind of day!
xx
Lori



Monday, July 14, 2014

Scrappy Happy Summer Sew Along - Summer Skies Quilt Top Finish! ...



Hello cute people!
I was able to finish up my 
Summer Skies quilt top 
and now it's ready 
for the quilting.

YaY!


for all of the info if 
you are just joining us:)


I asked Kassidy and Sterling 
to hold it up outside…
on chairs because its pretty big:)


My kids have been asked to
 hold up my quilts for pictures
since they were really young.


Sterling is a big tease 
and likes to bug me by 
NOT SMILING:(


So Kass and I always
 try to get him to.


I tell him that he can't 
put down the quilt until he smiles.
(or bribe him with Cafe Rio)


I decided to use
 4" finished sashings instead of 3"…
so I used a total of 
5 1/4 yards background:)

Here are the cutting instructions;
Cut 12 - 4 1/2" x 24 1/2" 
and sew in-between
 each block in the 3 rows.

Cut 4 - 4 1/2" x 88 1/2" strips 
and sew them
in-between the rows and
on the top and bottom 
of the quilt.

I'm not sure what fabric 
I'll be binding it in yet…
but I do know that I will need
362" of prepared binding 
which equals = 3/4 yard


On my next 
Scrappy Happy Summer post…
I'll show you the blocks 
I am making with
the half square triangles 
that I made 
from the ECT trimmings!


Thanks to those of you 
who have added your photos to the 
Please feel free to post ANY 
pictures from the sew along 
of whatever stages you are in.
Even your fabric choices…
 or even cutting...
I'd also love to see
 your design boards!

xx
Lori



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