Aneela's quilt

It's done!  Thank you so much to everyone who contributed blocks.  I still can't believe my spur of the moment idea turned into a quilt!!!!!

And as you can see a couple of cushions for Aneela's daughters.  There are so many blocks left over, I really am in awe of everyone's generosity.  They will all be stitched up into quilts for our local hospitals, who do their best to give all patients in oncology and all the premies a quilt to make their stay a little happier.

I really feel with this I just had an idea, but that my fellow quilters actually did the heavy lifting, so thank you so much to:

Nadra in Germany -  Brandy in SC - Alexandra in Germany - Rebecca in Australia - Meg in OH - Yvette in OH - Susan in CA - Mary Ann in CA - Eileen in CA - Greg in NY - Kim in VA - Melissa in KS - Lizzie in Sweden - Debbie in AL - Tammy in PA - Suzanne in NSW - Amy in AUS - Adrianne in NZ - Celine in UK - Marika in QC - Georgia in NSW - Lani in WA - Katy in ON - Pam in BC - Hannah in UK - Marily in MO - Nicola in the UK - Anita in AB - Kathy in CA - Petra in VA - Agnieszua in Poland - Trisch in NE - Susanne in CO - Jaime in OR - Jennifer in AUS - Stephanie in CO - Renata in Brazil - Svetlana in IL - Joanne in UK - Libby in LA - Jenny in AUS - Sylvia in AUS - Kerry in ME - Rachel in NZ - Fitri in MO - Patti in SK - Leanne in Aus - Carolyn in FL - Sigrun in Norway - Lara in NZ - Heather in BC - Angela in TX - Nicolette in the Netherlands - Patricia in CO - Monica in CA - Pam in CA - Stephanie in ID - Natalie in CA - Cindy in WA - Stephanie in OH - Jeni in WI - Charise in WA - Lauren in NC - Daniela in NJ - Sarah in TX - Lee in the USA - Alyce in Japan - Karen in Aus - Gwen in TX - Kimberlee in IL - Lisa in NY - Ortiz in AZ - Jackie in FL - Sarah in CO - Catherine  in Aus - Julia in Germany - Judy in Aus - Taryn in TX - Lisa in OR - Suzanne in PA- Marci in LA - Mary in MN - Kylie in AUS - K Lee in ID - Jenny in TN - Lisa in MN - Donna in ON - Francine in ON - Kerry in UK - Farah in Malaysia - Kristie in CA - Mary in MN - Charity in MN - Muriel in the Netherlands - Grace in NZ - Debbie in WA - Krista in BC - Jessica in NJ - Pam in WA- Diane in CA - Lorena in Aus - Silvana in Brazil - Jeannie in FL - Amy in MA - Mariana in Spain - Carol in Scotland - Caroline in OR - Emma in UK - Gabrielle in CA - Tracy in UK - Patricia in Germany - Jenea in CA - Courtney in USA - Lotje in the Netherlands

I do have some more envelopes without names or with only initials.  If you sent blocks and are missing from the list, please let me know!

much love
Chelsea

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a big thank you

First off, thank you so much to everyone who has been helping out making blocks for Aneela's quilt!  You guys rock!!!!!  Keep spreading the word and I'll keep trying to get back to everyone who's helping out (sorry, got to sleep and work so responses aren't always instantaneous!)

When I first put out a call for blocks I'd also mentioned that I was looking for stores that could possibly donate fabric.  Well, the quilting community is amazing so I also wanted to say a big thank you to Janice at the Fabric Stash who is sending some backing fabric my way.

I have a little business of my own and have always worked for small independent companies so I know that margins are tight and every sale is the difference between.. well you know, we've all been there, right?  I always try to give the best, friendliest, most responsive service I can, and to me with online shopping that's going to win me over every time.  What can be more amazing than reaching out and offering fabric for a project that I hope is really close to all of us.  So please, if you're going to do a little fabric shopping this weekend, show the Fabric Stash some love!  Not only is Janice helping out with this quilt for Aneela, she's also got a discount code going right now for her fabric (hoeyfan20 valid through June 21).  And her shipping rates to Canada are really good (I may have tested that!)

*** big edit: Janice has extended her Aneela Hoey sale until the 21st.  Let's clean her out y'all!!

xox
Chelsea

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a quilt for Aneela

On Wednesday Aneela Hoey posted on instagram that she was going in to surgery for breast cancer.  She hadn't been on social media for a while and this was the heartbreaking answer to why she wasn't around much.  I feel like the fabric designers we love give so much to the quilting community, why not take the time to give a little back to Aneela and her family now.  And so, the #quiltforaneela.

My idea was to make Aneela a quilt using this brilliant tutorial from Megan at Canoe Ridge Creations.  It's free and fast, perfect, right?  If you'd like to make an x or an o or both, that would be awesome.  Two things, though.  Please make the body of the x or o in Aneela's fabric (all one print or scrappy).  And please make the background white (no specific white, some of my blocks are kona snow, some Michael Miller white).

If you'd like to join in but don't have enough fabric for the four 5" squares called for in the original block pattern (my Aneela Hoey fabric normally gets used up right away!), I've come up with an idea.  Mini blocks!  These half size blocks finish up at 4½" (5" with seam allowances) and are super cute.

For the mini blocks you'll need:

4 squares of Aneela's prints cut at 2 3/4" x 2 3/4"
8 squares of white fabric cut at 1½" x 1½"

Draw a diagonal line connecting two corners on each of the white squares.

Sew two white squares onto each print square along the marked line.

Trim off the extra fabric then press the the triangles out.

Now you just have to decide if you want an X...

Or an O!  And stitch the sub units together with a ¼" seam allowance.


Now, what if your pieces are even smaller, or you're working with jellyroll strips?  Don't worry, there is a solution!

For this method I just took photos of the sub units, so you'll need to multiply everything by 4.

For one sub unit you'll need a rectangle of print 2¼" x 4" and one square 2½"x 2½".  Cut the square in half on the diagonal.

Centre the triangles on the print strip and stitch down using a ¼" seam allowance.

Press the triangles out.

Now fold the blue rectangle in half along its length, finger pressing to get a crease.

Use the creased centre line as a guide to trim the sub unit down along 2 sides.  If you have a square ruler it should have a diagonal line that you can run along the pressed line.  We'll be trimming these units to 2 3/4" so make sure you don't cut off too much!

Flip your piece around and trim the other 2 sides to get a nice 2 3/4" x 2 3/4" square.  Now make another 3 and decide if you want an x or o.

Thank you so much to anyone who wants to send blocks!!!


My goal with this is to have a quilt to Aneela as soon as possible, so I'm hoping blocks can be on their way to me by July 1st.  I'm not sure what the response will be like, you never know how big things can get when we all rally!  So my plan is to make up to a 90" x 90" (100 original size blocks or 400 minis, or a mix) for Aneela.  If I get less blocks, the quilt will be smaller.  If I get more I will use the blocks to make quilts for our local oncology patients.  I'll update as blocks arrive!

Speaking of arriving... once you have blocks ready to send, leave a comment here or contact me on instagram (chelseafr) and I'll send you my address.

hugs,
Chelsea

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paper piecing and stuff

Oh, man!  Do I even blog anymore?  It's been a while, right?  So, what's been going on... I started a new job (part time at a quilt shop!)... went away for a long weekend... because it was my birthday! (yesterday. I'm officially old)... broke a toe... had to stop 2 quilts in the cutting stage while I waited for more fabric... and tried some paper piecing.

my crazy messy design wall

I've done paper piecing before, but never really loved it.  I love the detail you can achieve, though.  So when Kristy at Quiet Play was looking for pattern testers for her new paper piecing patterns I jumped at the chance.  Trying new things keeps the brain from turning to mush, right?

if only real pots stayed this clean

I'm pretty impressed!  Despite my best intentions to get going on this as soon as the pattern hit my inbox, I just kept putting it off.  Until today, that is.  A few hours at the machine later and I have a cute mini quilt for my sewing room.  And it wasn't all that painful.  I had to unpick a bit, but I remembered a tip I'd read to baste iffy pieces first before commiting to sewing them with those teeny stitches, so it wasn't as bad as it could be.

blocks "stored" on the floor

Not as bad as the tidying job I really should be tackling.  One scrap vomit, one scrappy trip, an x+, bee blocks, paper piecing, and not fully unpacking from retreat equals one horrible mess.  At least the cats like it.

beat that babe,
c

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xing and +ing

The x+ block has made a huge resurgence lately, and like the scrappy trip along, I'm jumping on that bandwagon, too.  These are a lot slower going than the scrappy trip, so I won't be posting a finished top anytime soon.  But I'm loving playing around with fabric combinations, spending the time to get every one just right.


Coincidentally our February blocks for happiness at do good stitches are also x+ blocks.  Bigger and in a more controlled colour scheme, but still as awesome.

But back to the blocks for my project.  After all, it's all about me, me, me!  These are really challenging me to make interesting fabric choices and to carefully consider scale and value.

Recently Rachel over at Stitched in Color wrote about building a fabric stash and the addition of helpful fabrics.  I loved reading her thoughts on this because it's something I've been thinking about a lot lately, too.  When I got back in to quilting a few years ago my stash was mostly multicoloured, look at me fabrics.  The star prints of the collection.  And nothing played well together.  I've been slowly building my stash of helpers, but it's hard when they cost just as much as those glamazons.

I've also been really studying the fabric choices of quilters I admire and trying to dissect what makes their work so dynamic to me.  This has meant really looking at what I'm buying and why.  I still love those bold florals, but I realize I don't love them so much in quilts.  What I do love are text, 30s, and quirky Japanese prints.  Fuchsia and acid green.  A little bit of clash.  I really need to print out a picture of my ideal bundle, block, or stash, and tape it to the computer.  No more impulse shopping, everything will fit the plan. Yeah right!

happy sewing,
c

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something new sampler: scrap attack!

Welcome to my stop on the something new sampler blog hop!  I've got a bit of a problem when it comes to quilting - scraps.  They're everywhere, bins here, bags, there.  Because I want my hobby to be as low footprint as it can (hard when we're talking shipping, dyes and non-organic fabrics) I don't throw out any scraps.  The teeny tiny ones are slowly stuffing a dog bed.  Today's project tackles some of the slightly bigger ones.

You can use this technique with any of your scraps.  Go monochrome, build a rainbow, choose a colour scheme.  I decided to go the monochrome route since a few recent projects has left my bins overflowing with aqua scraps.

Once you've chosen your scraps, just start sewing them together!  Channel those improv skills, don't worry about perfect ¼" seams.  We're building new, more useable yardage (ok, maybe fat quarter-age) out of otherwise difficult to use scraps. Don't worry about seams matching up or edges being even.  We can cut around that!  I don't normally press my seam open but I found it essential with this technique.  Anything that makes our new scrap base fabric flatter is awesome!  I can't use steam in my iron because of a really high iron concentration in our well water (hello rust spots), but if you can, steam will be your friend.

We're going to be cutting four pieces 3"x7½".  You might want to think about this while building your new fabric.  If your scraps are really small it might be easier to sew together only enough pieces for one 3"x7½" segment at a time.  If they're larger you can sew a much larger piece of scrap base and cut them all at once.  I sort of combined the two.  I sewed enough scraps together to cut the first three pieces then figured out where I had to add on in order to cut the fourth.

Now we need some sashing.  Since the large pieces are so scrappy I decided to go with a solid for my sashing, one I just happened to have in my scrap bin.  You'll need to cut four pieces 1½"x7½".

Sew one sashing piece to each scrap base segment, then sew all the sashing + scrap base segments together.  Done!  Now I know that a rectangular block (in this case 7"x14" finished) isn't the norm, but the scrap base technique can be used with so many other blocks.  My advice is to keep the scale larger and the piecing simple.

Don't forget to stop at the other blogs on the hop:

Jan 14th

Amy @ thecutelifesmiles.blogspot.com | Bargello piecing

Jan 21st

Heidi @ buttonsandbutterflies.com | folding 

Chelsea @ pinsandbobbins.blogspot.co.uk | a scraptastic technique

Jan 28th

Jess @ theelvengarden.blogspot.com.au | sashiko

Lindsay @ lindsaysews.com | reverse applique

Feb 4th

M-R @ quiltmatters.blogspot.com | trapunto

Heidi @ fabricmutt.blogspot.com | cathedral windows

Feb 11th

Alyssa @ pileofabric.com | pinless curves

Becky @ myfabricobsession.blogspot.com | machine applique

And stop by the cute life on Fridays for tips and tutorials on how to set these rectangular blocks! Posts will be up on the following dates:
Jan 18, Jan 25, Feb 1, Feb 8, Feb 15

Be sure to join the flickr group to keep up with the hop, the chatter, and some inspirational photos.

Amy has arranged some amazing prizes, so don't forget to link up on her blog if you've create anything using our tutorials!

xox,
c

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scrap tripping

I actually finished this Tuesday, and somehow now it's Friday, and again I'm behind.  Again.

But I guess I'm also kind of ahead of the game since this is going to be a gift for friends we're visiting in Toronto in April.  Watch me start quilting it the night before we leave!!

the perspective is really weird on this.  the quilt is 6' across, the dog a lot less than that

I love that this quilt along was so spontaneous, so no pressure.  I love that it finally made me click with instagram (I'm chelseafr).  I wish it had put more of a dent in my un-loveds.  Maybe a scrap vomit is in my future?

Not that I'm saying any of these fabrics are particularly ugly.  (Not that Amy Butler or Lizzy House et al are reading this and will get offended).  I'm just kind of over them.  At least they can be used unlike lipsticks I'm bored of.  Why did I ever think frost was a good finish?

And because I love it so much, here's a sneaky peek of a quilt I'm quilting for Katie.  So much yummy grey to fill with quilting!

happy friday,
c

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