Snappy Bag and GO

This is the fourth project in my Accuquilt Die Challenge.  I am using the 2" square die and the Funky Flower Die to make my Snappy bag.

I wanted to make a black and white bag so I gathered all my black and white scraps and placed them on the die rolled them through and very quickly ended up with all these nice little 2" squares.

 I arranged them in the order I wanted and sewed them together into little rows.  Then I sewed the rows together to make my bag front and back.

I pressed the rows on one piece going up and  the rows on the other piece going down so the seams would butt together when I assembled my bag.

Next I got out my Funky Flower die and fabric.

I ironed a piece of Lite Steam-A-Seam2 to the back of my fabric and ran it through the cutter to get these cute little flower shapes.  I placed them on the front of my bag ironed them down and stitched around the edges.

The next step was to stabilize the bag so I ironed a piece of fusible interfacing to the back of both pieces.

 I wanted to have a little black trim on the front of my bag so I sewed a piece of black fabric to the top of the bag

and since this is the casing the metal tape is going through I reinforced it with some batting.  I also trimmed the batting out of the seam allowance to eliminate some thickness.Next I cut two pieces of lining fabric the same size as the bag front and back and sewed them to the black fabric

  

I  made a simple pocket and sewed it to the lining before sewing the bag together.  I also made little loops for my strap to go through but failed to take pictures.

I wanted the bottom of my bag to be curved so I used my masking tape roll to draw a curve stitching    line on both corners---- put the bag right sides together and sewed  around the edges leaving an opening in the bottom of the lining to turn the bag through.

 I cut my metal tape the width of the bag top curved the ends and covered them with clear duct tape.
Then I  folded the top of the bag down  to cover the tape and have enough to stitch down.

I cut a piece of black fabric for the strap 4 times the width of the finished strap.  Pressed it in half  opened it and pressed each side to the center and stitched down both sides. Put the strap through the loops and tied an overhand knot.

Check out the tutorial for the
Snappy Bag on my blog for a little more direction.
This is not a pattern and you should use your own sizes and materials for your bag if you make one.

Accuquilt 4x4 Diamond New Idea

I just realized you can make these great blocks from the Accuquilt 4x4 Diamond die. 

Now all I need is more time to make enough of them for a quilt.

We have A winner

Thanks so much everyone for taking the time to vote for Jenifer.  She has move on to the next step which I am happy to say does not involve voting.

The winner of this Giveaway is Catskill Quilter.

This is the first time I have tried to use this Number Generator and I don't know why the number keeps changing to 100 because I entered the number 52.
Happy Stitching,
Nancy

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:12Powered by RANDOM.ORG

It's A Giveaway!

The owner of Lily'nWren, Jenifer, my daughter is trying to win her dream job so she can work from home and won't have to leave my Granddaughter.
So, I am having this giveaway to try and help her get votes.

She needs more votes to be in the top 20 in order to move on to the next step.


 If you Go here and click on VOTE-----Then leave a comment on my blog saying you voted
You will be entered for a chance to win These great patterns and fabric.


You can vote from each computer, phone, etc that you use and each vote will be an additional entry into this giveaway, just leave a comment every time you vote!
A winner will be randomly drawn from the comments....If you post as Anonymous, please leave your email address in case you  are the winner.

Voting will now close on Monday April 25 at 11:59:59 PST

 and the winners will be posted here Tuesday.

Happy Stitching,
Nancy

Beyond the Cherry Trees Block 12, 14 & 17

I had been putting off doing block 12 because of the little fingers not much of a seam to turn under and I am still not convinced the seams will hold.

I enjoyed stitching Block 14 it was a little easier to do.

















Block 17 was very quick to stitch....... Sometime you need something easy to relax again.

 I believe the ladies that designed this quilt all those many years ago must have been very accomplished at  appliqué.

Accuquilt Triangles in a Square and Half Square Triangles

My third quilt in the die challenge is made from the Accuquilt Triangle in a Square and Half Square Triangles dies.

First I cut all the pieces for the triangle in a square block.  I ran into some difficulty with this block not coming out to the right size but quickly found out I was not sewing it together correctly. The little nubbed corners are not stitching guide lines.   Once that was corrected everything went smoothly.

Here are all the little pieces that go into making up each block.  Each one should be 3 1/2 inches square.

These are the two blocks in the quilt.  Either block would make a lovely quilt. 

But when combined they make a spectacular one.

I wanted to make this quilt a little larger but part of the challenge is to use only fabrics from my stash so I was limited in the size. 

Happy stitching, Nancy

LollyPop Trees Center

I finally finished the center of my Lollypop Trees quilt.  The picture is not very good but this quilt is hugh and I just don''t have a space large enough to photograph it.

I am only about half way finished because there is a lot of applique' in the borders but the more I do on this quilt the more I like it.
Happy quilting,
Nancy

Accuquilt and the 4 x4 Diamond Die

 I decided in order to justify the purchase of my Accuquilt GO I would make a quilt from each of the dies I have purchased using the pattern that came with the die.   I have already made an Applecore quilt so for my second quilt I chose the 4x4 diamond die. I bought this die thinking I would use it to make one of Kaffe Fassett quilts from his book Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts but that's another story.

I went through my stash (because thats another part of this challenge to use only my stash fabric) and found all of the yellows and oranges I could.  I stacked them and cut 4 1/2 by 11 inch pieces.

I placed  them on the Accuquilt die and cut diamonds. I can't believe how fast the cutting goes using the GO.
I cut the leftover corners into 2" squares to use later.

This quilt has 2" strips between all of the diamonds so I got out my 2" strip die.  Just look how quickly I cut the strips and they are perfectly straight.

The first step is to sew a strip to the end of each diamond.

Then you sew the diamonds into rows. When I laid them all out on my design wall I found I needed 94 diamonds the pattern called for 88 must have been a misprint. 

Another problem I ran into was when I sewed the strips between the rows to assemble the quilt.  I started sewing the long strip to the bottom of the row but it works better if you sew it to the top of the row.

When pinning the rows together you need to match the strips on the bottom of the diamonds to get the correct design.

I think this is a pretty cute quilt even made from scraps and leftovers. It just needs some pretty borders to finish it off.                                                                                                

Borders Added and Quilted.

Get GOing

I thought I would put my applique' aside for a while and get going with my AccuQuilt GO.

One of the reasons I bought a GO cutter was because I have always wanted to make a tumbler quilt but didn't want to do all that cutting with little templets or rulers.
The GO makes the cutting GO so fast...... I just wish the sewing went as fast.  I am going to use the leader ender method of sewing for this quilt if I am patient enough.
AccuQuilt has so many great dies for the GO and there are so many quilts I would like to do.

I am also making the Rose of Sharon quilt this is my first block ready to stitch.  Oops! I did sneak in a little applique' after all.
 AccuQuilt has a Rose of Sharon die  and I need to get it because I really hated cutting all those little pieces with scissors..this quilt has a lot of little pieces.


I am a member of the group "Bloggers that love their AccuQuilt"  and would like to let you know that  AccuQuilt is having a Design a Barn Quilt contest just click the flashing button on my blog to enter and win a GO of your own.
Happy Stitching,
Nancy

Beyond The Cherry Trees

I know you all must think all I do is applique and for the most part you are  right.

This is my block three.  Those dreaded fingers.  I was really surprised  it didn't fall apart when I washed it.  

This is one I am not at all happy with -  putting it aside while I worked on others was not a good idea because now it doesn't seem to fit in. I changed my yellows and this one seems way too dark.  Heaven forbid I should have to do it over.

If anyone has any suggestions as to how I could make it fit better please speak up.  I would really appreciate it.

Block eight was a fun block and not too challenging just lots of  little leaves.

I didn't do the bird in the center on block nine but I did add an extra leaf.  Most of these blocks don't look at all balanced to me.

 Block ten was another fairly simple block just more leaves.   I just put one stem to each cherry. The pattern has several stems to each cherry but they were embroidered.

 I like block eleven I  made the basket purple instead of green like in the directions.  I think my quilt has enough green with all those green leaves and stems  and this is my quilt so I feel it is alright to change what I don't like about the pattern.

These are my blocks so far.....not a great picture but you can get the idea.  I  have laid them out like the original so I could see where I needed certain colors.  Don't want another block three fiasco.

I would really like to catch up so I can  concentrate on just one block a month but the blocks I have let are a little challenging.  I have finished the vines on the grape block in the center but not all those bazillion circles and I see more fingers in blocks 12 and 13.

I have other projects I need to do this week so I won't be moving as fast on this one.

Happy stitching.

Nancy

Beyond the Cherry Trees Block Seven

I finished block seven of my Cherry Trees quilt last week.  If I seem to be in a rush it's because I started late and am a little behind.  Sometime it's good to be behind because you can see what everyone else has done and it helps you make fabric decisions.  You also get good tips on ways to applique'  your block.
If you would like to see this quilt in action check out the blog
Beyond the Cherry Trees.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful day...the day is beautiful here in Georgia.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone and welcome to all my new Followers.  I hope you find something to interest you here.  I look forward to all your comments.  I started blogging as a way of keeping a quilting journal and was surprised when I started getting followers and comments.  I have met so many wonderful people and learned so much by blogging and by reading other blogs.  The Quilting  community is full of  caring and sharing people.

From My Kitchen Window

This was the view from my kitchen window this morning.  The weather has warmed a bit and they are out looking for a snack. Just look at those faces.
If you click on the photos in my blog they will enlarge for a better view.

I have the applique Fever

Two More Lollypop's completed..... Just a couple more and I can put the center together.

Three Beyond the Cherry Tree's blocks completed....Just 19 more  (LOL!) on this one..

I think I need to take a break and do a little vacuuming around here.

Two More Lollypop's

I finally got back to working on my Lollypop Trees after the holidays.  I think this is the easiest applique'  I have ever done.  All the pieces are large and have gentle curves and large points.  Great quilt for  someone new to applique'. 
I have four of the large blocks left to do and then all the small one's.  This has been a fun quilt.


I also am working on the Beyond the Cherry Trees quilt and am finding it much more difficult after being spoiled by this one.  The pieces are much smaller and it takes a lot more time.