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Bonnie and Camille Quilt Bee

Shine on Sampler-Month 11

Written by Brenda

It’s our last month of making blocks for our sampler!  We are going to take a deep dive into the Summer Block.  The use of multiple colors on this block make my heart happy.  And, as usual, I will make use of my AccuQuilt cutter on this one.  

The hourglass block that we need for the points on this block uses the #4 die so if you layer your fabrics, you can get all of these cut with one pass through your accuquilt cutter.  Two layers of green, one white and one blue and you are done!

Match up and sew your pairs together.  The fact that the dog ears, or points of your triangles, are trimmed off makes it easier to match them up and helps with your accuracy.  After sewing two triangles into pairs and then sew the pairs together.  Yes, I am still pressing my seams open!  The checkerboard center goes together rapidly and just like that, this block is done.  The others will go quickly as well and then we we will be off to the finish!

Beginnings!  With each ending there is a new beginning and sometimes, beginning isn't always pretty or even easy. Beginning to clean the sewing studio isn't easy nor is it much fun.  It was a long and busy winter with the Moving Sale at Pine Needles, the actual Moving of the Shop and then the setting up of the Shop and opening the doors to all of you. Things came and went from the studio but not much tidying happened between the projects. I will admit to the stash and dash method of studio tidying but it is now time to tackle the pile.

There are many new beginnings in my home and with my family. Each spring we start some seeds ( and I mean start some seeds) and hope something grows. This year the focus was peppers and Zinnias, a few tomatoes, cabbage and basil. A weird mix of plants to be sure. The Zinnias are happy and nearly 300 were transplanted today and they will be beautiful this summer. The peppers, basil and cabbage will be at least another week before they get transplanted. 

The sewing studio has been mostly tidied and a new project has emerged. I fell in love with Minick and Simpson's Rosalyn line of fabric and I just could not wait to open the package and play with the fabric.  The best part about starting a new project is to page through the possible patterns and to decide on how to best feature your fabric. I chose the pattern called Monterrey Medallions by Atkinson Designs.  I have admired this pattern for quite awhile and it has been such a treat to delve in and to manipulate the fabric to fit the design.  There has been quite a bit of math and calculation for me to try to morph one large fat quarter pack into a queen size quilt. There is plenty of fabric for the smaller size but I really want to make a new quilt for my bed.  For me, this is the exciting part of quilting, the planning, the playing and the beginning.

Speaking of math and new beginnings. I live in a household of men whose catch phrase is "if you do the math."  I never really thought I would use math :)Beginnings! Featured here is the math building at University of Wisconsin, Madison Campus. My youngest is finishing his freshman year at Madison and yesterday was the first time he actually set foot on campus. He graduated high school last year and this milestone was marked in a very quiet way. He has been a virtual student all year and he is studying math and computer science. I loved the geometric (quilt design) on this building.  He took an abundance of AP classes in high school and will be starting well into his sophomore year when he moves to Madison in the fall. Beginnings!

My husband also transitioned to a new job and a new company. This meant a few more transitions in our home and resetting our space to best suit this new job and this new work environment. Personally, I think spring is the perfect time to shuffle the furniture, deep clean and maybe even paint. ( I haven't gotten that crazy yet).

Finally, new beginnings for me at Pine Needles Quilt & Sew.A new office and so close to the daily comings and goings of all of you and I love it. I love looking out at all the activity. I love being able to join in when necessary. I love the space to organize events and classes and retreats. I love being a part of Pine Needles Quilt & Sew. Beginnings!Beginnings! A new classroom and the possibilities are boundless. This spring we will continue with our virtual offerings but when the kids are back to school we will be back in the classroom and I am looking forward to beginning new things with you!  There will be mastery classes for Babylock and Bernina, Sergers and longarms along with National guest educators, Kimberbell embroidery club and AccuQuilt Club, beginning sewing classes, free motion quilting classes and sew much more. Beginnings!

In the meanwhile, be sure to tune each Wednesday to the Marcia and Joy show on Wednesdays at 1:00 for the happenings at the shop along with the best jokes ever and subscribe to our weekly email to have front row seats to the fun things to come!

Here is to new beginnings! Joy

Bonnie and Camille Quilt Bee

Shine on Sampler-Month 10

Written by Brenda

Let’s take a deep dive into the Sparkling Star Block for this month.  I’ve collected some charts and guides from AccuQuilt over the years and pulled them out to help me figure out the dies to use for this block. The big triangle is obvious after you look at the finished size of the unit, but I just wasn’t sure about the three little triangles.

And here is the photo that filled in the missing piece for me.  One #3 triangle die and five of triangle die #5 so cutting went very fast after I had this information.

I love how the AccuQuilt dies cut off the “dog ears!”  I remember trimming them directly over a garbage can and it seemed that only about 50% would actually land IN the trash.  Most had a tendency to fly far beyond!  Those snub nosed corners also help to line up the triangles.

Isn’t that a beautiful thing!  I did, again, press my seams open on this block.  When piecing this unit to the white #3 triangle, I kept this unit on top so I could see the tip of the white triangle to make sure I didn’t accidentally sew over it.

It makes for a beautiful subunit and a fantastic block.  Hope you have as much fun with this as I did!

Bonnie and Camille Quilt Bee

Shine on Sampler-Month 9

Written by Brenda

It’s a week of fast and easy sewing to make our blocks.  Both blocks are primarily constructed of squares and the instructions use strip piecing to make the subunits.  I’m a big fan of strip piecing.  It is fast and efficient and tends to be an accurate way to piece your blocks.  I especially like how the strips in these blocks are cut a little longer than you need to let you square up the end before you start cutting your units.

Now one thing that you will notice throughout this book is that whenever the print with the white squares and flowers is featured in a block, it is absolutely centered in the photographs.  It makes sense and if I were making this for a book, I’d probably try to do the same thing.  For some of my first blocks, I did try to get them centered and that was fine.

Now, if you are following the directions and cutting your units from strips, centering those squares will be a lot more difficult.  When fabric is printed, it isn’t always printed straight on the grain.  Another factor to consider is that even woven fabric can have some stretch to it and the process of folding and then wrapping it on the bolt board can cause the line of a print to go off at an angle.  In the photo above, you can see how the flowers in squares on the green fabric are fairly straight but that changes after the fold line.  

Things like directional prints and lines in fabrics may have bothered me in the past, but I don’t tend to worry about them now.  As you are making your quilts, you are so close to every element and you will notice every tiny little thing that most people will never see when they look at your whole quilt.

To get each one of those flowers centered, you will have to fussy cut each one of the squares with the flowers and cut them as squares rather than using the strip piecing.  It takes a little bit more time, but it’s not hard to do.  Truth be told, there was a time in my life when I would have done just that.  Honestly, right now, something like that just isn’t important to me.  But I want to make sure you know that if it is something that will bother you every time you look at the quilt, please take the time to fussy cut.  You are probably the kind of person that is going to make sure that all of the rainbows are going the same directions and that’s okay.  You do you!  Happy sewing!

Bonnie and Camille Quilt Bee

Shine on Sampler-Month 8

Written by Brenda

Measure twice, cut once.  How many times have we heard and said it?  With these blocks, I want to remind you of it once again.  We are going to look closely at the Home Again block.  The piecing of the block isn’t altogether too complicated, but without the accuracy we have been working on and lots of measuring along the way, you could run into problems.

First of all, double check all of the pieces as you do your initial cutting.  I found that I had made an error when I put together the chimneys and the roof.  I thought that the ruler I had used to measure the roof was 12 ½”, but when I put these two sections next to each other, I could tell that something was wrong.  It was a half an inch short! Thankfully, it didn’t take too much time to recut the roof and corner sections.

The corner sections were added easily and without marking by using an angle tool.  The version that we carry in the store is called Clearly Perfect Angles.  By using the tool to sew from corner to corner, you can sew accurately and efficiently.  If I can’t use AccuQuilt to cut, this is my next favorite way to sew those angles. Stack the square onto the rectangle, make sure the needle will start at the corner and have the other corner follow the center line on the tool to make this section of the block.

This pattern does a beautiful job of sharing the measurements of the sections as you go along which is extremely helpful.  When I measured my row with the three windows, I found that it was a bit long.  No matter how accurate you are, it is challenging to make a section with 6 seams match a single piece cut to size.  In order to fix that problem, I sewed a couple of those seams again with a slightly greater seam allowance and measured again.  It was close, so I sewed two more with a greater seam allowance and I got it to measure the correct size.  Here you can see the second seams that I sewed.  I could have taken the first seam out with a seam ripper, but I chose to press those seams to the side.  It’s all good!

How do you hold your long seams together when you stitch them together?  Rather than using pins, I like to use Wonder Clips.  They come in lots of different sizes.  My favorites are the Mini Wonder Clips.  They hold your pieces together without the shifting that can occur when you use pins.  On seams this size, I use one in the middle and one at the end, then away I sew, slowly and carefully.

The other blocks are pretty straightforward.  Use the angle tool and you’ll be well on your way to getting this month’s blocks sewn accurately and quickly!

Bonnie and Camille Quilt Bee

Shine on Sampler-Month 7

Written by Brenda

The four blocks for this section aren’t terribly complicated and use a great many half square triangles, often abbreviated to HST’s.  I love how this sampler gives us such a variety of blocks to make.  Different sizes and color combinations help keep things interesting, don’t you agree?

What I would really encourage you to do with your blocks is to check your accuracy.  Whether you are using traditional methods or AccuQuilt, it is important to make sure you are doing everything you can to make the perfect blocks. 

With the directions in the book, you are making your HST’s oversized and trimming them down which can be a very accurate method to use.  Are you using a small square ruler to trim your squares?  My favorite is the Creative Grids 6 ½” square.  I have seen people try to do their trimming with a large 6 x 24” ruler which is possible, but a bit awkward and can result in poorer accuracy or mistakes in trimming.

AccuQuilt users have fewer steps to take when making half square triangles since there is no need to trim your blocks, but more attention needs to be paid to your accuracy in your seam allowances.  After making your first block, measure it to make sure that it is absolutely accurate.

If your square is oversized, you can trim it down, but I would encourage you to make a minor adjustment in your seam allowance to achieve that more accurate unit which leads to an accurate block!

The Flutter block, the Friendship Star, and the Happy Day blocks use both HST’s and non pieced units to create the blocks.  If everything is accurate, these will come together so that your seams meet perfectly!

The Good Times block only uses HST’s and it uses a LOT of them!  Now we are going to talk a little bit about some math.  Let’s say you made your HST’s for the Good Times Block and it was close to being accurate.  Maybe you are only 1/32nd of an inch off which really doesn’t seem like much, only a few threads.  When you add that up across the 8 units of the block, now you end up with a block that is ¼” off from what it should be!  

You have heard me mention that I press my seams open.  I find that this helps with accuracy too.  When you press to one side, it creates more bulk and takes away a bit of the finished size of the unit.  Here is my Good Times block with all of the seams pressed open.  It lays flat and is very accurate!

I also appreciate having flat blocks when I do the machine quilting.  No big bumps to go over which can distort your quilt.

Enjoy sewing these units and use them to hone your skills in making precise and accurate blocks!

One of the highlights of 2020 for me was my daughter discovering Anne of Green Gables. I had worried that she was a little too young still, but she devoured the first book and begged for the second. She's now about to start Anne of Ingleside - I didn't get that far until high school!

We have completely isolated through the entirety of the pandemic as my youngest is a whip-smart, funny little 3-year-old with severe lung disease, so I think Avonlea made her feel safe and homey while also making it a bit romantic to be confined to our backyard. 

She saved up chore money, allowance and birthday money for much of the year to buy a new doll this fall, and instead of choosing one with pink hair (an initial impulse) or that looked just like her, she decided to choose one that looked most like Anne Shirley.

She came in a hot pink nylon windbreaker and miniskirt, so it didn't do much to summon Edwardian Prince Edward Island, but she was christened Anne and immediately adored.

As a lifelong kindred spirit, I couldn't let this child have a miniskirt Anne for long, so I scoured Etsy for patterns and my stash for fabric - namely a pretty Moda lawn that I had enough for both doll and girl to have a dress.

There are not a lot of reasons I will willingly make pintucks and box pleats, but this little girl and her Anne doll are sure worth it. 

I was so grateful for my Bernina and its straight stitch plate when doing all of these little finicky details on tiny finicky doll pieces - not a once did I have to dig pieces out having been eaten by the stitch plate, which had been a big problem for me in pieces like this before.

Next up the girl-sized dress, but I couldn't help but share this sweet creation with you - I think it makes me feel safe and homey to be sewing for Anne, and it does feel a bit romantic to be creating something beautiful for a little girl who dreams of Prince Edward Island. 

I loved every little detail, but most of all the puffed sleeves. Kindred spirits will remember this was a BIG DEAL, and I couldn't help but put a little extra puff in the pattern. 

Next time I hope to show you both gals together in their matching dresses and aprons!  

Bonnie and Camille Quilt Bee

Shine on Sampler-Month 6

Written by Brenda

The Evening Star Blocks for this month are a fast and easy sew.  After going through the details of how to convert this to AccuQuilt, this should be a breeze to see.  I will often cut my squares with my ruler, but if you want to cut them all on AccuQuilt, you will cut the following for each block-

1-#1

4-#2

4-#4

8-#5

Speedy cutting and we are ready to sew!  

The points for the stars line up beautifully and notice how I press those seams open to reduce the bulk.  

After sewing the first seam, the second lines up beautifully as well.  I usually start sewing at the bulky point and then go to the corner.  Sew slowly as your machine feeds the bulk through your machine.  

Repeat this process for all of your blocks and you will have them done in no time.  Fast and accurate with no bulky seams with everything pressed open!  

There is a lot of debate in the quilt world about whether to press with or without steam.  I fall firmly in the steam camp and I have a dream ironing system that I use to do it.  The Laura Star Lift Plus lets you control the steam with the touch of a button.  It is a tank system that holds a lot of water and it creates a dry steam so you don’t have to worry about burning your fingers.  Best part about my iron, it’s pink!  Contact us at Pine Needles if you have any questions about the Laurastar system or if you want to order your own!

For this post, I thought it would be nice to take you through the process of using Accuquilt to make your blocks.  While this process doesn’t work for every block, I find that many of the block units and lots of entire blocks can be cut this way which does much to increase both your accuracy and efficiency.  Anytime you see a half square triangle, if it works with one of your dies, I encourage you to cut it with Accuquilt.  If you don’t yet have an Accuquilt system, what are you waiting for???

We are going to work with the Eight Pointed Star Block from this month’s blocks.  When you first start converting patterns to be cut with Accuquilt, it might be helpful to draw out your block on graph paper.  Because the pattern that we are using is copyrighted, I will share the process without sharing the actual size of the blocks and units.  This photo shows the block and I have also calculated how many of each unit will be needed.

While it’s pretty easy to figure out which dies to use for the squares, the triangles get a little more complicated.  In the next photo, notice that the sections highlighted show two flying geese blocks.

If we stack those two units together, they are the same size as the number one block.  Using the chart in the Accuquilt catalog, you can find the number 1 die in the correct finished size.  Then all that you need to do is use the number 4 and 5 dies from the same Qube.

When using your AccuQuilt dies, you will notice that the cutting blade is not squared up with the die.  This is so that the cutting will happen at an angle making it more accurate.  In order to help line fabric up on the die, I used a permanent marker to draw lines around the edges on all of my dies.

Then it was a matter of running 4 dies through my cutter and I had everything I needed to make one of the blocks!

AccuQuilt gives you perfectly cut pieces that makes sewing fast and accurate.  My Bernina 590 has dual feed which also helps with accuracy by helping to feed the top layer through the machine, preventing stretching on those bias edged triangles.

Other tips to help with accuracy, I love my wool pressing mat and my LauraStar Lift.  They help as I press my seams open, eliminating the big bumps you get when you press to one side.  I hope that these tips will help you to become a more accurate sewist with fantastic results!

Bonnie and Camile Quilt Bee

Shine on Sampler-Month 4

Written by Brenda

This was one of the faster sections of the quilt!  Only one kind of block to make and very easy piecing made this a rapid sew.  The book gives absolutely fabulous directions for this block so get them made right away and we can move on to the trimming which is the only part that is a little tricky.

It is incredibly helpful, at this point, to have a 6 ½” ruler and my favorite brand is Creative Grids.  We sell them at Pine Needles and if you’ve never tried one, I highly recommend you purchase one.  After that, you will want to replace all of your rulers with Creative Grids!  

Another item I recommend is a rotating cutting mat.  We have a great one at the shop that also has an ironing surface.  How cool is that??  Here is a link to purchase it or have a closer look if you are interested.

Rotating Cutting Mat/Ironing Surface

Remember the fold lines that you used to add the last pieces to your block?  We are going to line those up with the corners of the 6 ½” ruler. Then I usually trim the right side (I’m right handed) and the top of the block.  I spin the block 180 degrees and do the same to square up the block.

Do you see how each corner of the ruler is sitting at a fold line?  Trim and turn and it will be perfect!  Happy sewing!

    This is my absolute favorite time of the year. The time of year we slow down for family, spend time, when we can with loved ones, and reflect on what we are truly thankful for. I love the joy and cheer in the air, the happyness in people's voices, the decorations around the house, (all around the house)and of course the sound of sewing machine humming away making special gifts for loved ones. It all has a magical feeling.

    It's a running joke around my house that I have to wait til after Halloween to start decorating, but truth be told, I would decorate as soon as I absolutely could, if they wouldn't protest! It brings pure joy and delight to my heart, I have so many pieces that have been given to me over the years by special people that when I hang them makes think of them and smile.

This is one my mom made 20+ years ago and my kids over the years have loved to fill it up and count the days down each year to Christmas. 

This hung in my grandmother's house for years, now mine, 

From the coffee tables to the couches they are all dressed up and ready for the holidays! All unique and all special! 

Every year I seem to find another fun project to add to my collection to make my home alittle more festive and fun! From hats on the chairs to 

Trees on the treasure stands, even though the holidays are coming to a close, I have already started to create and plan for what I can add next year! 

One things for sure, I know I will never run out of things to make, but I may run out places to put it!