Hopfaldera

Red and white

Have you seen the Grandmother's Choice block of the week Quilt Along? It is a project by Barbara Brackman is which she weekly provides a quilt block tutorial and gives information about the struggle for the right for women to vote. Every Saturday morning (in the USA, so for me it is the afternoon) there is a new post with an interesting story and a block tutorial.

Sometimes the blocks are quite easy to make, but some are a big challenge. Luckily there is also a Flickr group in which people show off their  blocks, and this group is proving to be very motivating and supportive! People leave lots of very sweet comments on my photos, and when I see that a particularly hard block has already been made by several stitchers, it gives me the confidence to at least try, and persevere to get it done. 

In The Netherlands we vote by coloring a little circle with a red pencil. That's why I have decided to make all these blocks (there will be 49) in red and white, with the red varying from pink to rusty brown. When you look at the image of the red pencil, you can also understand some of my fabric choices (I mean the Aneela Hoey circles in squares fabric). Another private little assignment for myself is that I am going to photograph and upload these blocks only using my iPhone and Instagram. That makes it nice and quick, a no PC project. 

This project inspired me to find out a bit more about women's right to vote in my own country: In The Netherlands women received the passive right to vote (the right to be elected) in 1917, in 1919 they were allowed to actively vote, and in 1922 the first elections were held when women actually were sent a ballot and voted. That is only 90 years ago!! A very important person in the fight for all kinds of women's rights was Aletta Jacobs. She was the first girl to attend higher education. In 1878 she became the first female doctor and later she introduced contraceptives in The Netherlands. She was a peace activist and also chairwoman of the Dutch society for the right to vote for women. Here is a link to more information about Aletta Jacobs.

There is still time to join the project! Nine blocks down, forty to go...

Learning to quilt

I thought I would dedicate a post to all the wonderful information on patchwork and quilting on the internet that has helped me to learn what I know about it. So if you want to learn how to construct quilt blocks and make quilts this post could be a place to start.

I learned how to make a quilt from start to finish (all the basic principles, including how to add the batting and backing, and how to bind a quilt) from the Ollalieberry Ice Cream Quilt pattern by Alicia Paulson of Posie Gets Cozy. When you are a total beginner and you want to make a really fun quilt, I highly recommend this pattern. I learned tricks like assembly line sewing from this pattern and everything is explained step by step, with photos and all. 

The Ollalieberry Ice Cream Quilt I made for Damaris

I started making individual quilt blocks following the tutorials on the Modify Tradition blog. The blocks are classic (traditional) but executed in modern fabrics, and everything is explained in detail. If you are a total beginner, I recommend you start with the nine-patch block and work your way from the oldest to the newest post on the blog. I still remember how I was sweating when I made that first nine-patch, because I wanted everything to line up perfectly. As you know practice makes perfect, so I guess perfection (or almost) came later. I did enjoy all those tutorials, and use them often for bees and such.

A ton of information and practice can be found in quilt alongs too. The first quilt along that I joined (and actually finished too) was the Pinwheel Sampler Quilt Along (scroll down to the second header on this page) by Rachel of PS I quilt. All there is to know about half square triangles is there, and Rachel explains it all very well. 

The pinwheel sampler I made for Emil in the basting stage

There are so many quilt alongs all the time. You can find them on Flickr, via google, blogs (once you get into this, you'll know) Just join in and you'll find information and a community to share your experiences. Flickr has many groups to share photos of what you make and even exchange actual work, like in quilting bees. This group is the place to start if you want to find a bee.

After you tackle blocks from those tutorials above you are ready to explore the massive amount of block patterns all over the internet. A great place to find them is Quilt Block Galore on Quilter's Cache. Not all of them are explained in detail (most are), but by now you will have the knowledge to make blocks just by looking at them. A lot of the information is free of charge, wonderful! But sometimes it is not a bad idea to pay some money to get more in depth knowledge, for instance from books, patterns, and online classes (like the Curves Class by Rachel of Stitched in Color, I learned some great skills there).

My most recent bee block (a Hawaiian surfboard for Tamiko) that I couldn't have made without my Curves Class skills

If you follow these steps and get as excited about quilting as I did, you will start to follow your own path and who knows what you'll make, and do, and design! Have fun!!!

I'm still learning, as everybody is; you never know enough (and certainly not me). A new, and very interesting, quilt along has started. The Value-Added Quilt Along with lots of information about the value (relative lightness/darkness) of color in quilts. Again traditional (and even technical) principles applied to modern quilting. I'm excited to see where that information will lead me.

A look at the fabrics of Chicipee in black and white to learn more about the value of these fabrics

No precious fabric was wasted while making this quilt block

You know how when you cut fabric for a quilt block from a larger piece from your stash you very often cut it a little bit too big, then you iron it, and then you cut your piece to the exact measurements you need. Or when you're foundation paper piecing you cut a generous piece of fabric that will definitely cover the bit in your pattern that it should cover and then later you trim the excess away. When you do these things (I do, it's very handy, you don't run the risk of accidentally cutting your fabric too small), you end up with waste. Very pretty, but useless waste.

Usually I find that no problem, it's just the way it goes. Sometimes you want to do things differently though. For instance when you only buy fat eighths of the Chicopee fabric line (like I did, to save a bit of money) or when you would like to start cutting into your Liberty Lifestyle fabric and don't want to waste a thread.

My pile of Chicopee fat 8ths

My Liberty Lifestyle fabrics, too pretty to waste

For that situation I came up with instructions and measurements for a little quilt block that is usually made by foundation paper piecing. These measurements give you no waste, except for possibly a little fluff that you cut off at the end to square up the block if you need to. You end up with a 6 1/2" block (6" finished) that doesn't have any fabric running on the bias.

This is what you need to do. First iron your fabric. If you have only fat eighths it is not such a task, otherwise drag your yardage to the ironing board and iron the corner that you're going to cut from. For the center cut a 3.5"square. For the triangles around the center cut a 4 1/4" square and cut it on both diagonals to create four triangles. Sew these triangles to the center square using a 1/4" seam allowance. For the outer triangles cut two 4" squares and cut each diagonally once to end up with four triangles in total. Sew these triangles to your block, again with a 1/4" seam allowance. Check if you need to square this up to 6 1/2 ". Done!

This way you only use a little bit of fabric to end up with something lovely! Hope I helped someone getting over the fear of cutting into those precious fabrics (fyi, my Liberty Lifestyle is still untouched...)

Fresh Sewing Day

 

Today I am linking up to Lynne's blog feature Fresh Sewing Day. Lynne taught me how to make a Union Jack pillow at the Fat Quarterly retreat in London, and look at her beautiful Jack Attack quilt that she finished last month. My Union Jack pillow is still not finished (almost, almost), but I have made other things last month. Here they are:

 

Five blocks for the Grandmother's Choice block of the week quilt along, four bee blocks, a Chicopee pillow cover in the making, and a basket totebag.

I'm also linking up to the Small Blog Meet (can't get that button to work though...). I would love to have a few new visitors here, so WELCOME if you came through that link, or otherwise. I am Muriël from The Netherlands and I love to quilt and sew. I'm part of some online bees: Bee Europa, Sew Buzzy, Cocorico, do.Good Stitches. I share a lot of my work on Flickr, and also here on my blog. Over here it's easier to give a bit more background than in the descriptions of photos on Flickr, and also to show a few more shots of the same object. You're more than welcome to visit again!