Blogger's Block of the Month (Peach Patch Quilts)

Hey y'all! It's been like.. forever since I've blogged. I know, I seriously suck. If someone could give me some Mac lessons... I am sincerely inept at Mac blogging. Photos don't move right and... it's just ugly.

BUT! I agreed to do the block of the month tutorial with Dhia over at Peach Patch Quilts, so this hurdle of mac-ineptitude must be overcome!

So, here's the list of all the other block of the month tutorials. 
There have been quite a few, all 9.5" blocks. You can make one, or all, make yourself a sampler quilt, send a few blocks to Margaret's Hope Chest.. whatever! The tutorials are for your use.

For my block tutorial, I chose to modernize an old favorite, the bear paw quilt block. A traditional bear paw has four smaller blocks, and I'll show you how to do that as well, but this tutorial is for a singular paw - I'm calling it the Lucky Bear Paw quilt block. (Did anyone else have lucky rabbit's feet as a kid?)

For this block, you'll need four squares of fabric. One focal fabric cut at 6.5" square, one coordinating print cut at 5.5" square for the "claws", a background solid cut at 5.5" square, and a background square cut at 3.5".

 From here, you'll pick up your background square and print square measuring at 5.5" square each, and place them right sides together.
Sew around all four sides, leaving NO OPENINGS. (Yes, for real)
Bring this little enclosed sandwich to your cutting table and slice it across both diagonals, in an X shape, as shown.

Open your four new Half-Square Triangle Units. Marvel for a minute, then press them. I like starch, it keeps things nice and square!

Grab your 6.5" square, your 3.5" background square, and your four new HST units and lay out on your table as shown:

Ooooh!!!

Now, sew those top three squares together to form one row, and sew the two HST units on the side together. You'll be left with this:

Lookin' like a block, folks!

Stitch your little side unit of the 2 HSTs to your 6.5" square:

And then stitch that top "row" to your newly created almost-a-block unit

WHOA! yes, it's totally seriously that simple. 

This block can be laid out and used several ways. All in one direction, to emulate a walking bear's path in the snow? Sure!

Oh, or perhaps four together, to create somewhat of a sunburst?

Or you can go with the traditional layout and add some sashing between the blocks for this layout:

Whatever you decide to do, let us know! Post your finished blocks in the Peach Patch Quilts Blogger's Block of the Month Flickr Group!

And now that I've conquered this mac-ineptitude, maybe I shall post a bit more. I've only made like 20 quilts since I saw y'all last!

Claiming the Blog on Bloglovin'

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Silly Google, don't they know how much traffic they're turning away? Oh well, writing this post up real quick to claim our blog. Eventually I'll figure out how to add it to the sidebar. 

I'm back from AZ, came back with a raging toothache and I think an infection because of said tooth to boot. Spent about 4 days out for the count, between being in pain, visiting the dentist, and being spaced out on pain pills. Finally decided yesterday that I was going to stop taking the hard stuff and stick with motrin for the pain. Still have more dentist visits in the future to fix the problem, but at least I can function right now. 

I'll write up more about my trip and what I've been doing since I'm no longer feeling like a space cadet soon, still trying to get my behind and head wired together here. 

Thanks for sticking around, hope you find your way around this whole Google mess!

Last Minute Details

I'll be heading out in the wee hours of the morning on Thursday, out to AZ to attend my Grandpa's memorial service. I haven't been back to AZ in about 9 years and am very excited to see all of my family! I really wish the circumstances were different but it will still be great to see everybody. This is the first time in about 5 years that all of my siblings will be in one place, I can't wait to see them all!

I'm wrapping up last minute stuff here before I go and leave the husband with all of the kids for the weekend. You know, the laundry, the grocery shopping, all those goodies.

I'm also wrapping up some things for my business. That's right, I said business. Friends, Julie Pickles Designs is no longer just a group of words on a pattern cover. Things just got real around here.

Turns out, I should have had these before I started selling patterns. I had no clue! So, here they are and now I can safely sell patterns and go to craft shows. I'm officially official!

Speaking of patterns, remember me mentioning having THREE in the works? They are all out for testing! My testers have had them for a couple of weeks now. I have been hard at work on the cover models too. I think I have everything wrapped up that I need before I go. By the time I get back and finish mine they should be finishing up testing. The goal for release is the end of this month!

I decided a needed a new bag for the trip too.

Yes, I know, it's been mere months since I made the last one. Have I mentioned how much I love bags? 

This time I've chosen the Emmaline Bag to make. 

The bag has a lot of pleats so I thought I'd leave out the thicker interfacings. But then this happened.

Um, yeah, that won't do.

So I thought I'd add fleece to the lining instead, but even the lining has pleats. And I added a zipper pocket, so I had to figure that out too.

A little bit of brain power (which I seem to be running low on these days) and I had an answer.

I laid a big square piece of fleece over the lining with the pocket attached, and then felt for the zipper and drew a rectangle on the fleece over where the zipper was laying. I made it a bit bigger to allow for the fabric of the pocket too. (and I really wish I had taken a picture of these before I fused it)

I cut that rectangle out and fed the pocket through it, then laid the fleece on top of the lining piece. I fused it in a few places and then used the lining piece as a pattern to cut the excess fleece away. 

Here is the lining with the fleece attached and the pocket sticking out of it. (That pocket is not as large as it looks by the way). 

If you look at the bottom, you can see where I cut a pieces of the fleece out for the pleats. I didn't do that for the last bag and it wasn't as fun to make the pleats with all of that bulk!

So far, so good!

Those rectangle rings are pretty heavy, it definitely needed that extra support. We'll see how well it does once I get the false bottom put in and add the straps. The false bottom made a HUGE difference in the support of the weekender, I'm hoping for the same for this. I'll report back when it's done!

And in case you are ever wondering what my children are doing when I sew...I took the above pictures while sitting in my sewing chair.

Here's Moose

And Bug, sitting on my leg

They definitely keep things interesting!

A Lovely Year of Finishes-March Goal Setting

Alright Castle Peeps wedge quilt, this is your month!

I promise this will be the last time you see this same old picture of this quilt top because it will be DONE by the end of this month (I'm actually hoping for more like the end of this week!!)

That's it for this month. I have a TON of other stuff going on behind the scenes here. I'll share some more on that when I get a small moment to breathe. It's all exciting stuff though!

Have Bag, Will Travel

She's done! Well, sort of.

I finally got the lining all sewn in, but I made a small boo boo. Remember the part where I said I wasn't following the directions exactly?

Yeah, I didn't see the part where I was supposed to tack the seams of the lining to the seams of the outer shell before I stitched the lining in. See how they're not tucked into the corners?

I may possibly go back in later and fix it, but it's the lining so I'm not too concerned with it's imperfections.

I used the quilt as you go method for mine too of course.

I've been wanting to make this bag for a couple of years now, but the thought of the cost of all of that interfacing, not to mention actually having to sew it all together, really scared me.

Once I saw it done this way I was gung ho about getting it done in time for my weekend retreat next month.

I did make the straps longer like so many others and it's a perfect fit over my shoulder. I think I cut them at 54" long and 5" wide. 

I used duck cloth for the interfacing, batting, and both Melody Miller and Echino prints for the outer to make sure it had plenty of strength.

For some reason I had a bit of trouble figuring out the zipper. Plus, I didn't stitch as close to the zipper as the instructions called for because I wanted to be able to see more of that beautiful coral color. 

It ended up making my bag bow a little bit in some weird places though :(

I have lots of fun little surprises in the pockets.

Laura Gunn in the main pocket

Tula in the side pockets (you didn't really think I would make a bag and not include some Tula in it somewhere, did you?)

And some Laurie Wisbrun in the inner pocket.

I say it's not technically done because it needs a false bottom. It's done enough to use though so I'm considering it a finish. I'm pondering the false bottom for a bit because I want something sturdy, but I don't think I want the feet or anything like that. I wanted it in the beginning, but I hardly ever travel and it just won't get so much use as to justify doing all that to it. I think I'll have the hubs cut me a piece of acrylic instead, strictly for structure and support. 

I finished this one just in time too. My Grandpa's memorial service is in a couple of weeks in Phoenix. I'll be spending a long weekend attending that and I'm not a huge fan of checked luggage. It's the absolute perfect size to both hold everything I need, and to use for a carry-on. I'm excited to test it out!

This is my finish for February for the 2013 Lovely Year of Finishes. 

Little by Little, I'm Getting There!

Do you ever feel like you just suck at life? Like no matter what you do, no matter how great of a day you are having, you just feel miserable overall? I don't know if it's because I've been unproductive on the crafting front or if it's because myself and my two toddlers are sick or a combination of the two (or something else for that matter) but something deep down inside of me just doesn't feel right.

I seem to be carrying on as normal, but there is this feeling in the pit of my stomach that I just can't shake. It's a feeling of dread like something is going to come crashing down on me at any second. Too many balls in the air maybe? I don't know. 

I finally started getting my act together and made some progress on my weekender last night. Here it is, ready to have the lining hand sewn in. I'm pretty sure I'm not doing things 100% according to the pattern, but whatever I am doing is working so I'm flowing with it.

I did make some changes, like everybody else who has made this bag has, I will share those when I finish it up.

I have had a pretty exciting week, starting with the arrival of this bad boy.

My husband and I discussed other ways that I can help contribute to our income. I've been pretty adamant that I want to continue to be a stay at home mom even when these two little ones start school. Plus, our trusty van, that I have been driving for 10 years now, decided not to be so trusty anymore. So now we have a new van payment. That goal to do a craft show is going to have to become a reality, x100. We're supposed to be getting a flea market this Spring, my hope is to be able to set up a table there and start getting customers from that. 

I have been practicing with it, this is the first thing I stitched up...

...which I promptly turned into a pouch.

It has a couple of mistakes and for that I will treasure it. It definitely helped me learn a few of the functions that the machine has!

This also came in this past week.

Know what that means? Those patterns I have been promising are going to be a reality very soon!! I have three in the works my friends, THREE. And one of them uses the Mod Pop templates which means if you have purchased those, you will have another option to use them. Whoo hoo!! 

Also, I am miserably behind on emails. My inbox is in quite a sad state right now, so bear with me while I work on replying to all of your wonderful comments. I do value each and every one that you leave for me, they definitely bring a smile to my face when I read them :)

A Lovely Year of Finishes-February

Linking up at the last minute like always!

For February I'm going to make it a goal to finish this bad boy up.

All I need is lining!! I put the shell together well before Christmas, it was the break I needed from all of the Christmas sewing I was forcing myself to do. But I had to put it down to get back to work on those deadlines so it's still just a shell. Nothing on my shelves is screaming at me so I'm going to try to find something at my sit and sew tomorrow night that will work.

I'm planning my annual sewing retreat where I go visit my friend Karen and spend a weekend being silly, we do that in March of each year. I'd like to have it done so I can use it for that weekend, wish me luck!

My Prince Has Come

First off, I want to thank each and every one of you for the kind words and outpouring of love and support about my Grandpa. I am working on responding to everybody individually because it means so much to me that you took the time to stop and write such sweet comments. It really does, so thank you from the bottom of my heart <3

Before I started working so hot and heavy on his quilt, I managed to squeeze in a finish, the one goal I had for January, my Prince Charming quilt.

This one was a bit difficult for me. I had the silly idea to leave it in the funky shape it ended up in when I set the blocks on point, as opposed to adding some triangles and filling it in. I liked the shape, but binding those inside corners was a challenge!

Photographing it wasn't so easy either. It kept wanting to fold away from me as I was taking the picture

As you can see, my little helper is only so tall!

I carried the gradated pattern from the front onto the back. You can see the quilting really well here, it was about every inch or so, whatever the width of my even feed foot is.

I used leftover scraps to bind, also following the gradation. I reversed the colors though, indigo on coral...

...and coral on indigo.

This was a fun, although tedious at times, quilt to make and I love how colorful it is.

I can't decide how to use such an oddly shaped quilt though! I think I might put it along the back of my couch when I finally get a new set (soon!!)

I'm linking this up to A Lovely Year of Finishes (down to the wire on this one!)

and

Finish it Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts. 

This is also one of my 2013 Finish Along goals!