LIFT OFF

I've been working on my fusible applique tut, but meanwhile want to share with you our adventure from last Thursday. We ventured of to the Space Coast for what is expected to be NASA's final launch of Space Shuttle Discovery.

Yes, the best view is on TV. Yes, you have to fight traffic, find a parking place, arrive early, and all that to see it in person. And you might arrive, only to have the mission delayed or scrubbed. But in person you can actually hear and feel the enormous power of the shuttle lifting off! The vibration of the air. It is really quite something.

It was a beautiful beach day, and the shore was peppered with lift-off 'tail-gaters', high with expectation, enjoying the sunshine and fresh air. This time we are north of Cocoa Beach and south of Kennedy.

That's Kennedy Space Center in the background, jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean. Those are NASA buildings and such.

Finally time for the main event -- lift-off! Up, up..................

and higher.............

and through the clouds!

What a wonderful history-making day. We are so fortunate to have been part of it.

STARTING A NEW PROJECT

Today I'm starting a wall hanging for my daughter. She selected the pattern, a Pat Sloan applique. The finished quilt will hang on a quilt hanger that my oldest son made for her the one year we drew names and required home-made gifts for Christmas. She was one of the lucky ones, receiving a lovely hand-made quilt rack. Don't ask me why we no longer require home-made, LOL!

Since I took the Process Pledge (see the left of my blog) I decided to make a tutorial of how I do fusible applique. It's probably a combination of many ways. I've just selected and kept what works for me through the years. I'm no expert. Just offering what works for me, and isn't it nice we have choices???

These are the fabrics I'll be selecting from. Except for that bright green. I'm not sure how she jumped into this picture--shameless show off! The center fabric is the focus, and will be the flower pot and the wide border. The other colors I drew from that. My friend Carol found the focus and helped me pick the others. She said that if DD doesn't like the end result, she'll take it, LOL!



First things first. Today I'm tracing the patterns onto Lite Steam-a-Seam2. It's my favorite fusible. You can put the appliques in place and sick them down, but still pick them up and move them if you decide you want/need to (almost like moving a sticky note). It's the lightest version, and doesn't gum your needle. My pattern is symmetrical, so there's no need to reverse them. But if you want your pattern to face the same way as pictured, generally you need to reverse them for fusible applique (like if you want the bird facing as shown and not the opposite, etc.).



I cut them out about 1/4" outside the drawn line. It doesn't have to be exact or anything. Just cut. Then I'm removing most of the interior. The centers don't need to be fused, and even though I'm using a light stabilizer, the fabric will be less stiff with the center gone. This too is cut at about 1/4" inside the line, but not exact, and where the pieces are tiny, I just leave it.



Stay tuned for the next steps.

CRISS-CROSS COASTERS ANOTHER WAY

As promised, here are the directions for making the Criss-Cross Coasters another way -- with triangles. Again, I used a Moda charm pack. This time it's Hoopla. I was looking for something bright and springy, with lots of contrast.

It takes 6 charms to make one coaster, so a charm pack makes 6 coasters with 6 charms left over.

Decide which charms you want for focus -- the triangles. Put them into 6 sets of 4, with lots of contrast within each set.

You will need 2 charms to form the base of your coaster. Place these wrong sides together. Lay it on your work surface for your base. The one toward the table will hardly be seen, if at all, and the one facing up will end up being the back of your coaster.

Fold your charm squares in half, wrong sides together, point-to-point, forming a right triangle. I pressed mine to keep that fold nice.

Lay your first folded triangle on the stack keeping the raw edges together, and the fold to the center.

Place the right angle of the your second triangle on the next corner. Always keep the folded edge, the hypotenuse, toward the center, and the raw edges even on the outside of the square base.

Lay the third triangle like so......

Lay your fourth triangle down in the same manner, but as you do...........

flip half of the first triangle over the fourth one.

This is what your stacked set should look like at this point.

Stitch all around, pivoting at the corners.

Trim the corners to reduce bulk.

Stick your thumb in the center to turn it right side out.

And voila! Your finished coaster. Easy - peasey!

Have fun making these!

BLIND QUILTER

WOW! That's all I can say about this amazing woman. She is blind, and she is a quilter. She has an amazing spirit. This is a

YouTube

well worth watching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lfaSmDxVZQ
Whatever point you are at in your life today, this will inspire you.

HEARTS DESIRE LAUNCHES TODAY

One of my favorite designers, Esther Aliu, is launching a new BOM today. The blocks are free for one month. She has a Yahoo Group for members working on her BOMs that you can access here. She also posts regularly on her blog, which you will find in my 'blogs I follow' list, scroll down on the left.

Esther's patterns are wonderful. You may be familiar with her Cherry Thieves, Red Delicous, 12 Days of Christmas, or other of her works.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE!

AND THE WINNER IS.....................................

Three gals emailed me with the correct answer: Boutique, by Chez Moi, for Moda. I numbered them in order received. 1. Carmela, 2. Tiffany, 3. Angela.

The random number generator is ready to play.

The winner is #1.

What? #1 never wins anything, yet I've seen it happen twice in the past week. Carmela, your prize will go out today. Thanks to everyone for playing along.

AND THE PRIZE WILL BE.............

 

Aha. Finally got to the LQS and picked up the prize for my little contest. The prize will be 1/2 yard of this yummy fabric, as well as this nifty sewing kit.

So, don't forget to enter. You just need to email me with the name of the fabric line I used to make my criss-cross coasters, to be entered in my drawing which will be held tomorrow, Monday. It's a charm pack from a current fabric line, and so far I have 3 correct responses, so the odds of winning are really high. Hope you'll play along.

CRISS CROSS COASTER TUTORIAL

As promised here's my tutorial for making criss-cross coasters. You will need one charm pack to make a set of 6 and have 6 left over to make whatever you choose.

Divide your charms into sets of 6 with good contrast in each set. It takes 6 charms to make one coaster and you want that contrast so your criss-cross shows.

Place two charms wrong sides together. Lay them on your work surface to form the base of your coaster. Note that the one facing up will end up being the back of your coaster, and the other one will barely be seen, if at all.

Fold the other 4 charms wrong sides together. These will be referred to as fc's -- folded charms.

Lay your first folded charm (fc) on the base, keeping the raw edges together and the fold will be at the center of the base.

Lay your 2nd fc on as shown. Always keep the folded edge to the center and the raw edges together at the outside.

Continue with the 3rd fc in the same manner.

Likewise lay the 4th fc on the stack.

Flip up the first fc to cover half of the 4th fc.

This is what your stack should look like. The base is there, but can't be seen.

Stitch through all layers all around the outside edge with a 1/4" seam, pivoting at the corners.

This is how it should look after sewing all layers together with that one seam.

Trim the corners to reduce bulk.

Stick your thumb in the center and....

Turn it right side out, and voila! You have it!



Here's a link to another version made from 4.5" squares and using batting in the bottom layer. There are 6 layers of fabric anyway, so I don't think the batting is needed, but it's nice to have options, isn't it? And if you find my directions clear as mud, these are pretty clear and pretty much the same thing. Just smaller and with batting.

There's another way to fold your charms to get another look with these. I'll post that soon.

Remember, I have a contest going. Can you recognize the fabric line my charm pack was from? It's a current line. I just bought it last Sat. If you know, drop me an email at nana.quilts@gmail.com with your guess, and I'll enter the correct answers into a random generator next Mon. to select a winner of a small but nice prize.

CRISS-CROSS COASTERS

Phew! Just in the nick of time (6 hours left in January), I have an OPAM finish! I realized today that it was the last of the month, so I took out this project. I've been wanting to making these for a couple years, since I first saw them floating around on the net. I don't think it's a published pattern, but I will put a tutorial on my blog in a few days for how to make them, as well as a link to another variation. Hint, they are NOT made from 4-patches, and there is only ONE seam.

I used a charm pack to make these coasters. Can you guess which fabric line it's from? Following Angela's lead, I've decided to run a little blog contest. If you think you know the name of the fabric, please leave a comment (well you are always welcome to do that anyway) that you'll be emailing me with your guess (nana.quilts@gmail.com). Don't post it in your comment for all to se! I will place all correct guesses into a random generator on Monday. The winner winner will receive.......???????????? Well, I'm not sure what yet. It will be something nice, but not huge, LOL!

So come on and play with me, please.

MEETING A FRIEND

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet up with one of my on-line friends, Althea, at a quilt shop in Dunedin, FL. We are co-moderators on the yahoo Friendship Swap group. It was so fun to finally see each other in the flesh. It was as if we'd known each other all along! And what a fun venue -- Rainbow's End quilt shop!

It is so special when you finanlly come face-to-face with gals you've known for years on-line.

2011 OPAM

One Project A Month (OPAM) is up and running for 2011. I participated in 2009 but not last year. I missed the challenge of finishing something, anything, no matter how big or small each month.

I'll be posting this link and a list of my finishes on my side bar.

IN THE TREES

 

 

Today I'll be working on this patio of our tree house. Really it's a tree house that I'm staying in with friends. The basket has all my stitching stuff for my tiny spool blocks. Later we'll be going to tea, and still later, to the hot tub. Not a bad day!

HELP FOR FLOOD VICTIMS

The Gum Tree Designers have put together a way that quilters and other crafters can help those who've lost everything in the recent floods in Australia. Click here for more info. We all know how stitching mends the soul in troubling times.

THREE KINGS DAY

Today, 12 days after Christmas, is the Feast of The Three Kings. In honor of this day, Penny, of How to Quilt, has posted a quilt-as-you-go tutorial using the Three Kings Block. How appropriate is that???? You too, just like the kings, can travel, and still take your quilting project with you with this method. Click here for more info on this.

CIVIL WAR QUILTS

2011 is the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War.

Quilt historian Barbara Brackman is starting a new and exciting BOW commerating this event. She even has started a blog just for this project. Each week she will be posting a free block pattern as well as a CW story to go along with it.

What an interesting project! Did I say new project???

NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

Speaking of New Year's resolutions, I ran across this button on Ann Ida's blog today. Last year her button said, "I'll make what I love............and finish what I start!" That's nice, but I do like her resolve this year. As one with four major projects going (Dear Jane, Sylvia's Bridal Sampler, Women of the Bible, and Vintage Valentine), as well as numerous smaller projects, I can really see the wisdom in this. I don't want my kids to inherit a bunch of started projects that they have no idea what to do with!

Anne Ida isn't talking about the small projects that pop up. The occasional inspirational small project you want to try. The charity quilt. The birthday gift. It's the big stuff here. Feel free to pop over to her blog to get the button, should you choose to join us.