INKLINGO's COTSG MYSTERY, Plus A Nifty Little Notion

A very fun Mystery is going on right now. .. the COTSG: The Case Of The Secret Garden. We are up to Clue#4 in the Mystery. Clue#5 will post this coming Monday. Already the blocks are coming together. Some of the design elements that Linda Franz of Inklingo put into this Mystery are beginning to reveal themselves. Fun! Below are pics of some of my progress so far:

'dark' spokes of wheel

'light' spokes of wheel

Sewing on the end piece - can you see the stitching lines and matching cross hairs printed on the back of the little piece being sewn? Makes for a perfect fit every single time!

Recently I tried a new version of an Ott Light I found on sale at Joann's Fabrics. It is a tiny portable light. It gives off a remarkable amount of light for its small size. When I am sewing at night, I place the light on its side inside the harp of my machine and it floods light directly on the needle area. These ol' eyes can use a lot of light. I have no affiliation, I just like this product.

Tiny OTT Light [u/left side of this pic]... gives off a lot of light! And fits in one's sewing case. Tiny and powerful; nice combo. No affiliation, just like the product.

Pocket-sized OTT Light

Until next time. . . I will be helping out with the Quilter's Run at ARETOY Quilt Shop in Oceanside, California. If you are in the area, please stop in and say hello! Sew, that's it for me... what are YOU up to this weekend???

Quilty Hugs,

TINY HSTs: Trim Technique with BlocLoc Ruler

First, please let me explain why I have been MIA for six days. It has been my birthday week with lots of celebrations and doings. . . now we return you to our regularly scheduled blogging. . . lol

Ruler on pink fabric so you can see it better

Have you tried the relatively new BlocLoc rulers? They are really amazing. Love the accuracy! A short demo vid to watch is HERE.  Sew tonight I was making little 1.5 inch HST and thought I'd share a few photos with you:

Align 'frosted' grove on diagonal seam - trim first two sides

Rotate ruler, slide down to desired size - final trim of last two sides

better with print center... or...

is it better with the Pink center???

Last Wednesday morning as I took a quick leap into the front yard to grab my newspaper -- I was still in my jammies -- up pulled the FedEx truck with a box. The most delightful little Orchid planted in a pink polka-dot latte cup was inside! Surprise. So fun. You know who you are... and thank you again very much!

Until next time. . . I will be printing shapes on fabric with Inklingo and working on the COTSG Mystery. What are YOU up to?

Check out what others are doing: linking to Connie at Free Motion by the River.

Quilty Hugs,

GIFTS FROM AFAR. . . + A new "notion"

Isn't this sweet? A darling MugRug all the way from The Nederland. Thank you, Marianna. It is the perfect size to fit beside my laptop. I just love it! Thank you so much.

DJ MugRug by Marianna

And. . . Marianna's Mother made me this gorgeous card! WOW! Thank you. I love it... it is beautiful!

Hand made card by Marianna's Mother

A new "notion":  Have you heard about the great new tool for frog stitching? I first heard about it via Quiltville and Bonnie Hunter. It's actually a personal grooming aide - let me say I would never let this thing near my face!, but makes a fabulous un-sewer. It will undo tiny stitches in PPing in a wink. But be careful as it is very very sharp!

Eyebrow Razor: makes a super un-sewer for tiny PPing stitches!

Until next time, I hope projects are getting done and everyone is having fun during this Joyful Season.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah. . . what ever you celebrate, please share your Joy with others!

Quilty Hugs,

PERFECT 9 PATCH - any size, NO math!

Mini Product Review:  The CutRite Nine Patch Ruler by QuiltersParadise, Escondido, CA, is totally amazing! Take ANY square, any size, doesn't have to be divisible by 3, and NO math involved! Interested? Read on...

CutRite Nine Patch Ruler, by Quilters Paradise, Escondido, CA

I took two lop-sided charm squares and trued them up to 4 5/8 inches square. Laid the CT9P Ruler on the square, made two dots, sewed, cut and voila! Perfect. After Christmas I'll write a tute on this amazing ruler and how it works.  It is simple, fast and accurate... what else does this quilter want? Nothing! lol. BTW, I have no affliation with this company - just love their product. Oh, and they are very nice people, too!

This little gem-of-a-ruler has been languishing in my 'extra' ruler drawer for months... years? I am Happy Dancing! Love this thang. My two odd-ball squares made into two perfect 9patches. Below are two 9 patches sewn together which will be the background for some applique - small style... very very small! lol.

Two 9Patches sewn together to create a 'field' for some applique

Until next time. . . How about YOU?  Have you recently 'discovered' something wonderful in your sewing space... what is it?  Meanwhile, you can recognize me as the crazy woman still sewing her brains out!

Quilty Hugs,

CORNER TIME... DJ TLC & A Great Notion

Yesterday and today was very productive. I worked on the Top Left Corner kite for my Dear Jane quilt. Here she is all completed:

DJ Kite: TLC Sadie Rose - completed Fri, 11/16/2012

There are several ways to complete this block, but I decided to mostly just piece it. I made FP templates by printing the block from the DJ software onto a sheet of FP; cut apart. Press the FP templates onto b/g fabric. Cut 10 squares of focus fabric for the octogons. Lay octogons out into their grid shape 3x3 and piece the edges that touch.

Applique-piecing using LadderStitch - not EPP. No whip stitches!

Press under the remaining edges of octogons and lay on center b/g square.

Piecing the center area of DJ-TLC

 Sew b/g pieces together [catching all the outside edges of the octogons in this seam allowance]. I left the FP on while machine stitching... worked great.

Stitching next to edge of FP template - adding the 'side-wings' to TLC

Applique the pressed-under edges of the octogons to the b/g; and, applique the top octogon onto the topmost point piece. Done. I really enjoyed making this block. It is not hard to do, but is a bit time consuming.

Back of TLC showing construction - FP templates left on to stabilize edges during sewing.

A great notion: My wonderful friend Jill encouraged me to try the "Prep-Tool."  What a fabulous tool it is! Now that I've tried it, I love it! If it hadn't been for Jill, I never would have. Aren't friends great? Thank you, Jill!

PrepTool - perfect scant 1/4" s.a. & corner "nipper"

Notice: Spammers have been working overtime lately. Bummer. It is no longer possible to leave an annonymous comment on this blog. I am so sorry - hopefully this will only be temporary. All "registered and OpenID" commenters will publish. It is so easy to get a FREE Google ID... I hope people will, as comment-love is wonderful to receive. It's one of the ways we interact and share with each other.  The only other choice is to put the "word thingy" back on... I don't want to do that, as I find it difficult and I hear many of you do too. Thank you for understanding.

Until next time. . . I will be spending the day playing with SnowPeople parts. What are YOU going to do?

Quilty Hugs,

SUPER RULER... Precise Trimming & DJ Triangle LS-9

Yesterday at Friendship Group I had the opportunity to try a BlocLoc Ruler. I LOVE this ruler! I used it to trim up a stack of tiny 1.25" waste HST blocks. Wow, no slipping, sliding, or "ruler-rocking" over the seam allowance. The square ruler size I used is 6 inches, which could have been a problem with another ruler, but this larger one still worked very well. A huge thanks to my friend Jill, who taught me how to use this nifty ruler.  I have no affiliation with BlocLoc, I am just a very happy camper and plan to purchase a few of these rulers.

BlocLoc ruler and 1.25" trimmed HST blocks

Please look closely at the bottom of the pic above and you will see a 1/4" area running horizontally that is not clear like the rest of the ruler. This narrow "trough" is where the seam allowance sits which is what keeps the ruler flat against the block to be trimmed. Nothing moves! It's great.

DJ Triangle: LS-9, completed 11Nov'12

Until next time, it's back to working on DJ Triangles for me. I finished one yesterday: LS-9, an easy one, just simple applique.  But I need at least one more DJ block to meet my personal commitment for the DJRetreatYahoo group BOW.  What are YOU working on???

Quilty Hugs,

SIZZIX HAS ARRIVED!

Recently I ordered a Sizzix Die Cutting machine from Amazon and it is here already! Wow - fast. I'm feeling dumb this morning, though, because I forgot to order some dies! lol. Perhaps some are available at my local Joann's. Guess where I'm going today?

Sizzix... fresh out of the box!

And... I need one more thing: Ebony Love's new book, "The Big Little Book of Fabric Die Cutting"! Can't wait to read it and learn about die cutting from the expert. Ebony has a wonderful blog and also shares many 'how 2' vids on YouTube.

Linking to Connie's  Free Motion by the River

Until next time. . . I'm off to buy a die or two, then work on some DJ blocks  -- what are YOU doing today?

Quilty Hugs,

GIVE-A-WAY & A Nifty Corner Technique

Today I'd like to share with you one of the ways I snowball a square: I use my B-60 C-Thru Ruler b/c it is thin and a drawn line is more accurate. I lay the ruler exactly point-2-point diagonally across the smaller square and draw a line with a .005 Micron Pen. The tip of this pen is very fine but "off sets" the line by a tiny smidge. This smidge is important.  Now just stitch "right ON the line" you drew and your corner will be perfect... NO fudging is needed.  I use this technique when accuracy is really important, otherwise I give the little square a casual finger press and sew next to the pressed line.

Marking diagonal line to snowball a square

 

After stitching, press seam flat to set the stitches and fold over to create the perfect corner - both grainlines will remain true. Trim excess 1/4" away from stitching line.  But, unless I am in a big hurry, I usually stitch a second time 1/2" away from the first line to create tiny HSTs to throw into my Crumb Box.

This technique produces a square corner

Now it's back to the machine to snowball a few more squares for a placemat project.

A new Give-A-Way is happening over at the Quilting Lodge blog. Go have a look see and check out the great quilt Vickie just quilted on her LA. Good luck, everyone!

 Vickie asked what our favorite notion is and although I have more than just one, a current fave is absolutely hands-down the Clover Needle Threader. It makes easy work out of threading a size11 needle and sure helps these old eyes.  What's your fave notion???

Needle Threader by Clover - great notion!

Until next time. . . what are YOU working on today???

Quilty Hugs,

SHOPPING - Two Good Experiences

Too often we are quick to relate a bad shopping experience, but lax in reporting a good one. Well I just had TWO really good shopping experiences - one online & the other a follow-up to an inquiry made to a vendor at the San Diego Quilt Show.

Fabric from: Vicki at the Quilting Lodge

 First : Vicki at Quilting Lodge. She offered some special sales on her blog last Friday and I ordered a few. They arrived in TODAY's mail! Now that's fast shipping. Vicki said she would ship them out right away and she sure did! Thank you, Vicki.

Marti Michele Templates & books from: Cherie & Rod, Quilts In The Attic.

Vendor at the recent San Diego Quilt Show: Cherie & Rod from Quilts In The Attic. They were pretty sure they still had what I was asking about, but didn't have access to it during the show. Rod offered to look for it and mail it to me after the show closed. They sure did! Thank you so much, Cherie & Rod, for excellent customer service - fast, too!

I will definitely shop from both of these businesses in the future!  Really NICE people!! Have you found some extra special businesses that go the extra mile and that you are happy with? It would be nice to see some listed in the Comments... we could all benefit, eh?

Until next time. . . I have some more binding to sew on [I love to bind!]. What are you up to today?

Quilty Hugs,

NOTION TIME... love these thin thin pins!

As promised, this is a short post about my new favorite PINs.  I discovered these at the Quilter's Cottage in Fallbrook, California. They are very very thin and very sharp. Their size is 0.4 mm. I tried to get a close-up of the packaging so it would be readable. They are a bit pricey, but worth it IMHO. The tiny glass-heads make them iron-friendly, too:

That's all for now.  Until next time. . .
Quilty Hugs,

BOBBIN-BUDDIES. . . Easy and Quick To Make

Bobbin-Buddies are quick and easy to make. They can be fairly pricey to buy in the notions department, but inexpensive to make.


Here's what ya need and all easy to find at the hardware store or a big-box store like Home Depot, Lowe's, etc:

* 3/4inch by 1/2 inch clear plastic tubing [this is the outside/inside measurements of tubing]. Find this tubing in the plumbing department. You might also find some where aquarium supplies are sold,
* Xacto knife or something to cut rings/slices with.


Using an Xacto knife cut off 1/4 inch "rings" from the tubing. Cut through one side of the ring so a bobbin can be inserted. That's it! These are so handy. Below is a closeup of the kind/size of plastic tubing I bought:



I used Resolve to remove the black manufacturing marks from the tubing, or you could just cut around it... but I was being "thrifty". *g*



The Xacto knife was a bit difficult for me to handle so I tried a carpet knife [orange in upper left corner of picture] and finally a pair of scissors. Bigger scissors would have been better. I took about ten feet of tubing to my Tuesday Friendship Group meeting and we all made some. Great fun!

Hope you are having a lovely weekend and have some time to stitch. I just made a pincushion this afternoon [which I will share next time]. Right now it's off to the grocery store and then back to cleaning and organzing the sewing room. It will get finished one of these days!

Until then. . . Quilty Hugs,

PS: I did NOT invent this idea. There are several versions of this around the Net. This is just the way I make mine.

Tuesday's Friendship Gathering... Rosemary's JT2

Hello... just a quick post to say "hi" and share a couple of pictures of Rosemary's progress with her Just Takes 2 blocks. She is using all blue and white and the embroidery is dark blue. Really pretty. And, check out the nifty roller-tool that Jill uses to press as she goes when she is hand-piecing. It's fun and it works! Sorry I have been MIA so much the last couple of weeks, but I am trying to get my sewing room rearranged and set up properly --- well, ok, I'll take semi-oranized. Next time I hope to share where I am in the process. Thank you for stopping by. Until next time, I hope you all have fun stitching! Quilty Hugs,