Bunny Rose & Co

Accucut Week 12 MotherLode Fabric Frenzy Block

For the last 5 years I have been part of a shop hop in what we call here in California..."The MotherLode". This relates to the gold rush that started around 1849. Hence the name of our shop hop "MotherLode Fabric Frenzy". This year it starts on Friday, September 10 until Sunday September 12. Each year we have a free block pattern we give everyone that comes into our shops and each shop has a different one. This year in honor of our grand prize.... A play day with Alex Anderson, we decided on stars. I'm honestly not sure of the name of my star block, but this is what it looks like.

I of course have Accuquilt dies all ready to cut the kits for my shoppers. So this is my project of the week. My block is 12" finished.  My die set was for a 10" block so I had to add a small border to make it 12".  If you have a 12" die you can still add on the border, your block will just be 13" finished. You'll be happy to know that it also is a GO die set. So everyone can do this one. Here are the dies used:

 The top one is quilt block E and the bottom is quilt block G. I used my 10" block set.

Now I learned the hard way that parallelograms have a right side and a left side. So, when you cut these your fabric has to all go the same way. To make my block, you need to put the right side of the fabric face down.

 This is the difference between face up and face down.

You can do a combination of both and you will have two different stars that look almost the same except the points will go either right or left. 

This is right side fabric face down.

And this is with right side fabric face up on the die. Not  much difference.. But looking at my directions it will mess you up if you cut them wrong.

  

To make this star you need 4 green parallelograms, 4 floral Parrallelograms, 4 pink triangles and 12 white trangles. You will also need enough strips of the white for the outside borders.

 
Here is a diagram on putting it together.

You will need 4 of these sections. Here is another layout to help you.

 
Some important tips. Iron your seams open. Be very careful to PRESS not iron your fabrics so as not to distort the sections. Measure your finished block and cut the remaining white strips to finish it at 12 1/2" x 12 1/2" . Here is a possible layout for a full quilt. These were done in EQ6. 

    

As you can see I put a colored frame around each block instead of the white. 

Here is another choice.

If you use EQ6 it is easy to come up with your own creative layout... give it a try!

Until next week.... get creative!  

Accuquilt Week 13 "Crazy Pumpkins"

I have been thinking about this project for months now. I had so much fun putting it together. I know you'll like it! I love love crazy patch blocks. It is a wonderful way for spastic minds like mine to wig out and just go! Of course I used my Accuquilt dies. However, I only had two sizes and wanted three. Did you know you can have custom dies made by Accuquilt? Accuquilt had 2 sizes of pumpkins so I called the custom department and told them I wanted one sized in between the two I already had. Stacey was so much help! You tell them what you want, and they send you a picture to approve and a price. You say ok, and in about 6 days you have your new die.

So, here is what I got. The small one is pumpkin die #4 large and the large one is on the Accucut site. It is the jumbo size. The smaller pumpkin is available in a Go die.

The two on the top are the ones Accuquilt/Accucut have in their catalog. The one on the bottom was the resized one to go in between. It was $60.00 plus tax and shipping. 

I wanted to do this with a crazy patch design. I decided to use a tear away to use as a guide. So I cut out a card stock pattern of each and traced it onto the tear away.

To be honest, the tear away was not the greatest idea. I should have used either a muslin or paper piecing paper. It was really hard to tear off the "tear away" I wasn't sure I wanted to actually tear it off, thinking it would give the pumpkin stability when I appliqued it on.. Seriously in mad scientist mode, I was not thinking straight. 

But I used it as a guide so I would make sure my crazy patch was the right size and I needed a placement guide for the green stem. 

If you are comfortable with doing crazy patch from your head, you start with a center piece like this. (I'll show you how to do it a different way later for you scaredy cats.)

 
Match up another piece to one edge.

Open it up and press. Pressing is very important all along the way. So keep a small ironing board and iron close by. I got tired of jumping up and down all the time.

Next piece goes on another edge.

 
Keep going until the whole pumpkin area is covered plus some extra. 

If you don't want long pieces of one fabric, you can sew a few together and then sew them along an edge.   

I first sewed a few pieces together a little off kilter and then trimmed up one side straight.

  I sewed a few pieces together to match up with the top stem using some green fabric.

  

After the whole piece of the pumpkin is covered, use the die to cut out the pumpkin shape. Make sure to match up the green with the stem on the die.

I wanted the stems to go in opposite directions on some of the pumpkins so some I cut with right sides down and some with right sides up. Here is one pumpkin all done.

And here is my little pumpkin family.

Now how to put them together. I decided on a dark blue batik background to set the orange off.

I decided it needed something. So got out my oak leaf die and got to work again.

Here is the die.

Maple leaf #2 large. There is a GO die that would work great. This one was from the Accucut site.

You could use any leaf dies you want really!

I sewed some fabrics together kind of catty wampus and cut with the die cutter.

 
I layed every thing out and here is what I got. I added a few more with just the red fabric.

 
I'll tear off the tear away... it was a totally bummer. Then iron a fusible interfacing on instead. Iron every thing down and finish it up with some borders.  I'll show you the finished project in a week or two.

Ok, I promised to show you scaredy cats how to do crazy patch in a bit more orderly way. If you have EQ6 you can go to the block library and check out foundation piecing blocks. Look for simple crazy patch patterns and print out onto paper piecing paper. C & T Publishing has 3 great choices as these will work great through your printer.  You can print them out in any size you want. Just set up the block size to be a little larger then the die. Another choice is any crazy patch book that has foundation patterns you can print from the book. You can also find lots of book choices at C&T Publishing to teach you all about crazy quilting. Just a little note... if you click on my C&T links and make a purchase. I get a little commission from them. Just make sure you click my link to get there. Every little bit helps..

Hope this helps get the creative juices flowing!

See you next week! 

Finishing the Fan Quilt

Thanks for coming back! Today we make the fan quilt.

Supplies:

Fans: 8 Fat Quarters (if only using 2 fabrics you need 1 yard of each fabric)

Background squares: 2 fabrics 1 3/8 each. Cut into 18  9" squares. ( you could also use the 9" die)

Center oval: 1/2 yard

Fusible interfacing like Wonder Under for the ovals. Note: you can use this for the fans too. However, You will have to die cut them out first. Ironing the seams open with wonder under... quilting fail!

Clear nylon thread for applique.

Ok, lets get started!

First you need to cut 18 fans from each fat quarter. The best way is to fold the FQ length wise to make a 9" strip. Cut a fan from a scrap of fabric to gage your folds. Lay the scrap fan on the bottom edge and fold like an accordion to cut 8 fans. You will have a little left at the bottom. Like this:

   
Cut out the fans, then cut one more with the little bit left. This gives you 10 fans. Now going the other way laying the fan long wise, cut 8 more. Like this: 
  
 Repeat with all 8 fat quarters. Lay out the fans on the background blocks until you like what you see.

 
Put all the fans in sets of 2. The two being each set on a block. Sew them together and iron open the seams.

 

Pay close attention when you sew them together that the seam is on the correct side. I sewed every other one backwards and had to seam-rip them out. Why I messed that up.. I don't know. So pay attention. Ok, lay out your sets on a 9" square like this:

You will need to put a pin in both fans to keep them from flopping around. You could also fuse them onto wonder under. You will need a teflon pressing cloth to keep every thing from getting messy. You will also have to trim the wonder under around the edges of the fan. But it will help to hold down the edges for sewing later. You can also use a basting glue. You could also look at how I appliqued them down and do that now too if you wanted. I just did it all at once...more below on that.

Putting all the squares back into place, sew two squares together. Making sure to match the scallops from the fans on the inside.

 
Repeat with the other 2 blocks. Iron the seams open. I didn't on my first seam and regretted it later. Then sew the two block sections together. It should look like this:

Lay the blocks out on the floor or a large table and sew them together. Removing pins you don't need as you go along.

Now I did this wrong as I sewed this quilt. After I put all the blocks together, I sewed on my border to hold down the outside fans. They were floppy and I thought this would make it so I could remove all the pins. But when I got to the  red ovals, I realized I should have put the ovals on first, then the border. So..... at this point, iron your fusible interfacing to the fabric for the ovals. Cut 19 round ovals. 4 of them cut in half long wise and 2 of them cut in half across the middle. Fold the short ones like this and cut off the outside folds. You should have a pie shape. You need 4 for the 4 corners.  

    
Peel off the paper backing and iron on just the ovals for the outside pieces. To center the ovals, fold the long ones in half and match up with a center seam. The pie shaped ones, you just line up with the corners.

       

Ok NOW sew on the outside border. Sorry my colors aren't very good. But you get the picture.

Here is another picture of the outside edge. Yes, I didn't have my outside ovals down yet. This is where I messed up. Don't do what I did!

Please Santa, can I have a new camera so my colors come out bright and clear!!

 Now you need to sew down the fan tips. I used a clear nylon thread because I really didn't want to see this part. I'll send it off to my quilting goddess later and she will make it pretty. I started to just sew a straight stitch using my regular sewing foot and because my fan tips weren't glued down, things got a little messy. So back to the fabric glue. You could also cut fusible interfacing with just the tip of the fan with the die cutter and put it just under the ends of the fans and iron them down. Then I used my darning foot, lowered the feed dogs and free hand stitched the fan tips town. It was so much easier and with clear thread, you can't see anything messy.This is a great way for beginning free motion quilters to get a little experience. Clear thread is very forgiving. Remember to use regular thread in the bobbin.

 
Iron down the rest of the ovals to the fan centers and sew around them the same way.

And you are done! Send it off to your long arm quilting goddess. Mine is Dee Small and she does a wonderful job. She has done quilting for Alex Anderson and wins ribbons at our local quilt show every year. I'll show you the finished quilt when she gets it done.

 I hope you liked it. See you soon!

Bunny

PS.. ok it is 2am and I can't sleep. I finally got the quilt back from the goddess... here is a picture for ya. Taken with my iphone and the colors aren't too bad if I say so myself.

Accuquilt week 8 The Fan Quilt

Ok, I hope you enjoyed the last project. This week is a larger quilt project. I'm realizing I cannot finish a quilt in a week. So, today you get to see the basic block idea and then come back tomorrow and I'll show you how to put it all together..Yeah I know it is a sneeky way to get you back here again... But I promise next week will be a smaller project and I'll show all of it.

OK, here we go for this week. This is a quilt that is the perfect size for picnics or the beach. I use mine similar to this for going to outdoor concerts.

The dies I used are: Crescent Border Spacer die #2 and the layered Ovals. I used the largest one for this quilt.

The Crescent Border Spacer die set comes with two dies:

You can layer the plain one over the scalloped one.. I just used one for this quilt.

So here it is:

Here it is with a different fabric pattern:

 

I have been looking at the crescent border die for so long wondering if this would work... I hope you like it. Come back tomorrow and I'll show you how to sew it into a quilt the easy way!   
 

Finishing up the block of the week project

Ok, so you have made all 4 blocks right? No... well I'm working on some kits, so stay tuned.

But as I promised, today is to show you a new way to sew all this together and quilt as you go. Here is the finished top.

 

First, some basic instructions:

1. All seams are 1/2" and you will need a walking foot.

2. What ever you do on the front, you do on the back. I'll call it "top" and "back" for reference. WOF means width of fabric (from salvage to salvage).

3. Batting will always (except for the last border) be cut 1 inch shorter than your fabric.

Ok, lets get started. Here is the fabric I used. Sorry about the dull colors, I"m still camera challenged. 
The two green fabrics are for the back and the blue, black and purple are for the top.

 Fabric needed:

Back fabric for blocks: four 9" x 9" blocks , batting: four 8" x 8" blocks

Sashing: Top and back fabric, 1/2 yard each,  batting, scraps at least 1 1/2"  wide and up to 24" long. You will need 2 @ 8" long, 3 @ around 19" long, 2 @ 22" long and 2@ 24" long. You will probably trim these later,but longer is better. Cut Sashing into four 2 1/2" wide strips wof from both top and back fabric.

Inner border: top and back fabric, 1/3 yard each cut into four strips 2 1/2"  wide, wof.  Batting, scraps 1 1/2" wide and up to 30" long, you will need 4 strips.

Flange: 1/4 yard, cut into 4 11/2" strips.

Outer border: Top and Back fabric: 1/2 yard, cut 4 strips 4" wide and wof. Batting, Scraps four strips  3 1/2" wide and 32" long. Binding: 1/4 yard, 4 strips 2 1/4" wide x width of fabric.

Layer your back fabric 9" square with a 8" batting square.

Then lay your quilt block on top. At this point you need to secure it however you want. I use basting spray. Then sew around your applique pieces with what ever stitch you like. I used a blind hem stitch with clear thread. This is your quilting as you are sewing through all 3 layers. Do this with all 4 blocks. FWI, as I said in the first post about this, I used a fabric glue for my applique pieces, not doing that again. It didn't hold down the fabric very well and I missed a few places. I would suggest using a fusible web. Use which ever is your favorite.

Second: Cut from both back and top sashing fabric 2 strips 2 1/2" wide and 9" long. Cut from batting scraps 2 strips 1 1/2" wide and 8" long. Lay the back fabric right side down, then batting then top sashing fabric.

 Mark your quilting pattern and using your walking foot, quilt the two pieces. An important note: Your seams will be 1/2" wide. So I marked 1/2" from the edges before marking my quilting pattern so I wouldn't sew past it when I sewed everything together.

This is what they look like from the back after I quilted it.

 
Sew this to two of your quilted 9" blocks to connect them. Match up the right sides of the sashing and block sewing a 1/2" seam allowance and seams will go to the back of the quilt. Repeat with the other 2 blocks and sashing piece.

Measure your two sections and cut your next 3 strips 2 1/2" wide per your lengh measurement from both top and back fabrics. Cut batting strips 1 1/2" wide and 1 " shorter than your fabric lengths.

Quilt your sashing strips and sew onto the quilt block sections. Seams go to the back. Repeat this step with the remainding 2 sashing strips.  This is what your quilt should look like from the back.

 Kind of funky huh.... Anyway, measuring your quilt as you go, repeat steps with your inner border fabric. Strips from both top and back are 2" wide and measure for length. Cut batting strips 1" wide and 1" shorter then fabric strips. I didn't quilt these because they were so narrow. I did sew a basting line on each end to hold them together as I sewed.

Ok, now cut 4 strips from your flange fabric, 1 1/2" wide and measure two sides of your quilt for length. Fold the strips right sides out and iron. Cut 4 strips from each of your outer border fabrics, 4" wide. Measure 2 sides of your quilt for length. Cut 2 batting strips same length minus 1" and 3 1/2" wide. Layer your batting on the back fabric with one edge matching.

This is so when you sew your binding on, you will have 3 layers to sew through. It is hard to hand sew binding with only 2 layers of fabric.

Lay the top border fabric next and then on the side where the batting does NOT match, add the flange.

Pin your flange down and sew a 1/8 seam to keep it in place.  Sew two of your outer borders on. Measure for the last two borders and repeat this step. You are almost done! 

Cut 4 strips of binding fabric, and bind your quilt like usual.

This is what the back should look like now. 

Next you want to cut all those seams like a typical rag quilt. I use these Fiskars craft snips.

 
Start anywhere you want and clip your seams open on each side. Like this:

Sorry for the raggy looking nails. I'm not a high maintence girl and certainly not in the public eye much. Then clip your seams about 1/4" to 1/8" inch apart. Make sure you don't cut through your sewing seams.

Ok, Ok, it looks like I cut past a seam here. It is the basting seam I sewed the flange down with. See the black thread.. that is my actual seam. Do this with all the seams on the back of your quilt.

Then I spray the dickens out of the seams with water and throw it into the dryer with some other wet clothes and let the seams fray.    

Here is the finished project from the back.

And here it is from the front.

Now a little note here. I usually would not use this method with a small wall hanging like this. I would do it with a large quilt. But I wanted to show you the technique. I will probably use this again later for a larger project. I hope you enjoyed this. Next week, we work on a larger quilt using only 2 dies.

See you later!  
 

 

Making Lemonade from Lemons

Today was the last sesson of my Bali Bag class. I found that sometimes these bags take on a life of their own. Such was the case with Harriet's "bag". It came out a little different. We aren't quite sure what happened. But we had fun trying to figure it out.

It kind of got bigger at the top and just didn't look like a "bag" or purse. So we decided to improvise and loved what came out of it. What do you think?

 We simply folded down the edges and got a wonderful basket. Harriet decided it would make a great knitting basket. She just had to put the "shop kitty" in the picture. Yes it's fake. 

The moral of the story, sometimes the things we make decide what they want to be and we just have to go along with it. And it's ok!

Happy creating!
  

Accuquilt week 6

Ok, here is the 4th block in our block of the week patterns. I hope you have liked everything so far. Everyone is loving the quilt in the shop so even though my iphone isn't the best camera, the real thing looks great. I have been asked by several customers to make kits, So I'll see what I can do. If you don't have an Accuquilt and are interested, I will try to put a few on Etsy when we are all finished.

Ok, today we are using 5 dies. Here they are:

Petal Play, Flowers and Leaves #2, Funky Flower #3 (Go Die Available), Squirrel (Accucut site), and Funky Flower #1 

And here is what I did:

Very simple but they look great together. I used Picasa 3 (available free via Google) as a way to store and manipulate all my picutures and they have this cool application called Collage. Here is a collage of all 4 blocks with the fabric used.

Not too shabby if I say so myself. I used a black Kona Cotton to lay the blocks on when I took the photos. I like it so much I'm going to use it for sashing.

So, all four blocks are done. I'm working on the finished project. Come back tomorrow and see it all done. A little suprise is in store. I'm doing it as a quilt as I go project. I do it a little different from most and I think you will like it. So come back tomorrow to learn how I finished this all off.   

Want a quick way to go back and see all the Accuquilt posts so far? Look on the right side of my blog and look for "categories". Then click on 52 weeks of Accuquilt. It will start at the beginning of just Accuquilt posts.

And thanks for being here! I'm having so much fun!

Accuquilt week 5

 It is time for the third block in our block of the week. One thing I love about using these dies is I get to be really stingy with my fabric. I can use the littlest piece of fabric. Something like this:

I hate to waste anything. It is amazing how much you can squeeze out of the left over scraps.

It has to be a pretty small piece to get into the kitty bed bag. Oh! You don't know about the kitty beds? I actually stole this idea from someone else and then couldn't find them to give them credit. So..... forgive me big time if it is you. If you know who started this, tell me and I will let the world know it was their idea. I either use an old pillow case or make one from "special" fabric I know I'll never use... "special" meaning OMG why did I buy this... you have some. I know you do. Anyway, I either line a trash can with it or put it on the back of a chair, and throw all my teeny, tiny scraps in it. When it is full, I sew it up and Wah La... a kitty or doggy bed. It is washable and nice and soft. Don't have kitties or doggies? Give them to your local humane society for the adoptees. Here is a picture of my current one. I have it on the back of a chair. It is almost full and my stray kitties that live behind my shop will be thrilled to get a new bed.

Ok, I get so off track... did I tell you about my ADD!! Oh yeah it runs in my family big time. 

Ok, here are the dies for this week:

Petal Play -sunflower again.. my fav, top right: Flower-Petal, Center, Stem and bottom right is Flowers/Leaves #2

  
 And here is the block.

I used the leaves on "flowers and leaves #2 for the flower petals, stems and little circles. The larger blue circle on the big flower is from flower/petal, center,stem. the green leaves are of course from petal play. 

Only one more to go! See you next week.  
 

 

A Eureka Quilt

A customer of mine, Judy Huckabay just brought in her mom's quilt to show me. She had made this Eureka quilt from a kit I sold her using the fabrics in the pattern picture. She loved it so much she wanted to make another using different fabrics. Of course she needed my professional help.... We had so much fun choosing fabrics and her daughter just brought in the finished product. I had to show everyone. The quilter is Betty Miller of Sacramento, California. Betty you did a wonderful job! This is her version of the Eureka quilt.

 

 Sorry the colors are not great as my camera is not the best..  This was a big quilt so it was hard to photograph in my shop. So you only get to see the center.

 Thanks Betty for sharing!

Accuquilt week 4

Ok, I'm back. I have a confession. I have already made all 4 blocks. I had to make sure they looked good together. I even used a program called Picasa by Google and made a really cool collage of the blocks with the fabric in the back ground. Nothing like a little teasing huh. Well on week 4 you will get to see them all together. Not sure if a quilt will actually be made.. but you will have a really good idea how they look. I'm kind of excited. But you only get to see them one at a time. So there!

Ok, here are the dies used this week.

 

See, some you remember these from last week? I told you so. Anyway, from left to right: On top, Flowers and Leaves #3, Petal Play-Sunflowers, botton left is Funky Flower #3 which is also a GO die, and the bunny is Rabbit #4 Sm. I don't know if it is on the Accuquilt site but he measures a little tiny bit past 3 inches wide. So check. Otherwise you can find him on the Accucut site.

Ok, here is the block for this week......

Yes, I know, my Iphone still sucks as a camera. But it is only a matter of money. As you can see, I used the flower, leaves and stem from Flowers and Leaves and some leaves from Petal Play-sunflower. The flower centers are the small flower on Funky Flowers #3 and well, the little bunny. I put "her" in because of my name. Yes, it actually is Bunny.

Until next week...